Doom: The Dark Ages version history

This article is a listing of updates to Doom: The Dark Ages and a summary of the changes made to the game in each version. As well as game updates, id Software is able to make small changes to existing game data that do not require an update to be downloaded - these are known as "Tunables" and mainly involve changing player and demon damage values.

Early access hotfixes

Two small updates were released prior to the game's full release. A small update was released on May 13, 2025 to add new startup messaging for NVIDIA graphics card users. A further update on May 14, 2025 updated the startup messaging, and fixed most instances of crashing at launch for some users.

May 22 hotfix

A hotfix was released on May 22, 2025 addressing multiple crash issues around map starts, loading late campaign saves, and charging or throwing the shield saw.

Update 1

Update 1 was the first major update to Doom: The Dark Ages, released simultaneously on all platforms on June 5, 2025.

Improvements and Adjustments - All Platforms

• Adjusted audio mix so music and sound effects are more balanced at default levels (for best results we recommend you reset audio settings to default).
• Reduced the amount of time health drops remain active during Atlan missions.
• Sprint VFX are now disabled for auto-sprint.

General gameplay balance refinements (some of these were previously Active Tunables that have been removed from that article and committed to the game in Update 1). These are denoted below as: (*PT) for "Previous Tunable".

Atlan

• (*PT) Reduced how long health drops linger in the world when in the Atlan.
• (*PT) Updated the Atlan combo system so that after using a finisher, the player can still use the previous one.
  • Players were paying too much to use a finisher, which led to holding on for the most powerful attacks and then cashing out. This creates a more dynamic combat experience that rewards building up multiple finishers for extended combos and more strategic decision-making.

Dragon

• Dragon combat experience has been updated to allow players to move more swiftly through the experience
  • Most enemies faced when on the dragon will now only fire Hell surge projectiles, allowing for more opportunities to empower the autocannon.
  • The empowered state for the dragon’s autocannon now lasts longer.
  • (*PT) Empowered shots from the dragon’s autocannon after a perfect dodge will go through projectile shields.

Bug Fixes - All Platforms

Achievements

• Resolved an issue in which some users could not unlock the Berserker achievement/trophy upon obtaining the necessary upgrades. This should resolve retroactively for affected users.

Audio

• Fixed an issue with music potentially pausing when transitioning between levels.
• Addressed an issue in which VO was getting cut off during ending cinematic for The Holy City of Aratum.

Ultra-Nightmare

• Difficulty Settings - adjusted the modified (M*) tag to persist after reverting to default settings in Ultra-Nightmare.
• Fixed an issue in which the death marker did not display the correct enemy name when killed by an armored leader or enforcer
• Addressed the death marker so it no longer displays "???" when the player is killed by the ground spike AOE attack from any cyberdemon variant.
• Updated the death marker so the mancubus (who fires acid hazards) name now displays correctly.

Cinematics

• Fixed an issue in which the sound effects were not consistently playing during the interstitial sequences in The Old One boss fight.
• Fixed an issue with music potentially dropping out during cinematics.
• Addressed issues with subtitle timings for multiple languages.

Crashes

• Fixed rare crash after destroying the gore portal in Siege - Part 1.

Gameplay

• Resolved an issue in which the shredder could lose functionality after performing an execute move.
• Addressed a bug where the shield saw could lose functionality after being caught, then melee attacking a dazed enemy.
• Fixed an issue with upgrade functionality not working when re-equipping a shield rune after maxing out the upgrades.

Menus

• Fixed an issue in which some players were unable to select and enter The Holy City of Aratum via the level select menu.
• The battle knight codex is now obtainable and will appear in the Codex menu.
• Addressed issues in which the Chapter Selection text and the Command Bar UI element would flicker.
• Fixed an issue encountered by some players where campaign map completion was reset to 25% after the previous update.
• Resolved an issue in which players could skip to future levels by highlighting them in the Level Selection menu.
• The Arachnotron codex page now appears consistently within the Dossier.
• Addressed an issue in which the "Field Of View" menu slider could lose functionality after cutscenes or shield bashing through a wall.
• Resolved issues in which opening/closing the Dossier and reloading checkpoints could cause the shredder's Barbed upgrade to unequip itself and the Pincushion and Ricochet upgrades would be equipped simultaneously
• Menus – the (M*) marker is now present on campaign save files that have been modified.

Rendering

• Added an additional control to customize image contrast when using HDR to fix issues where the image appeared washed out for some users.

Update 1 Hotfix

A hotfix was released on June 12, 2025 to resolve degraded visuals appearing as increased graininess and/or blurriness in some video settings configurations.

June 2025

An update was released on June 18, 2025 to add support for path tracing, as well as a benchmark mode which allows players to test the game's performance through multiple levels, including Hebeth, Siege - Part 1, Abyssal Forest, Sentinel Command Station, Spire of Nerathul, City of Ry'uul, and Reckoning.

Update 2

Update 2 was released on August 7, 2025. It added the Ripatorium, an endless arena mode that lets players set up their own combat encounters within 3 unique arenas using a simple menu interface, as well as two new Slayer skins, a loopable demo for benchmark mode on PC, and a large number of bug fixes and balance changes.

New Content

• Ripatorium endless arena mode
• New combat enhancements for dragon, Atlan, and Slayer
• Full-campaign balance changes and refinements

The Ripatorium

• Includes a new Encounter Manager
• Select type and quantity of demons to spawn
• Set a time limit to challenge yourself or turn on Endless mode
• Use the enemy respawn counter to craft your experience
• Includes 3 arenas:
  • Arena 1 - City of Ry'uul
  • Arena 2 - Village of Khalim
  • Arena 3 - Harbor of Souls
• Lastly, a jukebox where you can select a DOOM: The Dark Ages music track for your custom encounter

Benchmark Mode

Added Demo Mode that lets you create a looping playlist sequence of benchmark mode flythroughs

New Cosmetic Customization

• Limited-Time Free QuakeCon 2025 DOOM Slayer skin
  • Requires linking the platform you play DOOM: The Dark Ages on to your Bethesda.net account and launching the game between August 7 and September 1, 2025. Please allow up to 48 hours for skin to appear in-game
• Earnable Perfection DOOM Slayer skin
  • Complete an encounter in each Ripatorium arena (3 total)

Game Updates and Improvements

Difficulty Settings

• Added a new difficulty slider for Max Life Sigils that allows players to set a Life Sigil capacity for their campaign run
• Added a new difficulty slider for Atlan Perfect Dodge Window
  • Allows players to adjust how long the Perfect Dodge window is active when Dashing as the Atlan

Life Sigil

• Updated the timing of the Life Sigil activation flow to smooth out the experience
• Added a line to the Life Sigil activation screen that tells the player which enemy type delivered the killing blow
• Added new sounds for when the player receives a killing blow to activate a Life Sigil, as well as a new sound when a Life Sigil is activated

Additional Game Settings

• Added new gameplay slider for Parry & Melee Slow Motion
  • Allows player to adjust the duration of the slow-motion feedback that occurs on a successful Shield parry or Melee strike when playing as the Slayer
• Added a new Game Setting for “Weapon Class Switch Style”
  • Standard (maintains current weapon swap behavior)
    • Pressing a Weapon Class input in rapid succession will now always switch to the currently equipped weapon within a given Class
  • Double Tap (NEW)
    • Pressing a Weapon Class input twice in quick succession at the beginning of a weapon switch will now automatically equip the other weapon in that class if available

Audio

Global pass on combat music to ensure system is being triggered correctly for each encounter

Gameplay

• Added ability to interrupt weapon bring-up and Shield Charge recovery animations sooner to perform a block or parry
• Loading tip for melee being used to refill ammo will now appear more frequently

Weapons

• Increased speed of Weapon Swap animations

Rail Spike Impaler

• Balance adjustments including:
  • Reduced Impaler damage vs. Hellknight and Vagary demons
  • Reduced Impaler damage vs. armored demons
  • Put further emphasis on Impaler headshots by increasing headshot damage, and reducing non-headshot damage vs. various demons
  • Shield Throws that deflect off of larger demons no longer drop Impaler ammo when the Stalwart upgrade is equipped
  • Reduced the amount of Mace charge received from headshots with the Lobotomy upgrade

Plasma Rifle Class

• Lowered base ammo on Plasma Rifle Cycler
• Adjusted value of ammo capacity increase earned through Demonic Essence upgrades
• Lowered maximum ammo capacity of Plasma Rifle Cycler

Super Shotgun

• Reduced Super Shotgun damage vs. Hellknight, Mancubus, Pinky Rider, Cosmic Baron
• Reduced Super Shotgun damage vs. armored demons
• Player can now interrupt the Super Shotgun reload to perform executions

Chainshot

Lowered starting ammo capacity

Dreadmace

• Executions performed with the Dreadmace equipped now drop the same amount of ammo as executions performed with other melee weapons. The amount of ammo dropped as a result of other Mace attacks has not changed
• Reduced Dreadmace AOE damage, increased Dreadmace direct-hit damage to compensate for AOE damage reduction
• Parrying a Hell Surge attack drops less Dreadmace charge
• Drops triggered as a result of Impaler headshots with the Lobotomy upgrade equipped drop less Dreadmace charge

Gauntlet

• Lowered the amount of charge received via Duelist upgrade

Shield Saw

• Removed the slight cooldown on Shield Throw after catching it from a previous throw action
• Refined Shield Saw parry detection

Atlan

Stomp

• Adjusted Stomp behavior to apply an electrical stun and shock state to enemies
  • VFX and audio adjustments to accompany this change
• When attacking shocked enemies, the Atlan will punch faster
• Updated the tutorials to cover the new behavior

Encounters

• Updated Atlan encounters to account for new Stomp behavior

Dragon

• Extended empowered shot time
• Updated Anti-Dragon AI's projectile attacks in the tutorial section to include line attacks and remove the hourglass projectile
• Improved tutorial messaging for assault mode dash directions
• Added new HUD elements to indicate when the player should initiate assault mode and dodge actions
• Shortened the delay time for AI firing projectiles after lock-on
• Players will now skip straight to the Holy City of Aratum if tutorials are turned off

Enemy AI

• Made the Kreed Maykr fight more challenging
• Extended the range on Prince Ahzrak's spear
• The Old One’s Aerial Slam damage radius now covers the entire arena
  • FX and SFX have been added
• Increased the AOE of the waveblast from the Komodo’s Graviton arm attack
• Completed a pass on AI logic events to ensure they are stopping correctly when AI pain reactions are triggered
• The Pinky bite attack has been updated with new animations, FX and audio to help the attack read better
• HP buffs have been added to the Cacodemon, Mancubus, and Armored Mancubus.
• Addressed the Chaingunner Soldier’s target acquisition, fire rate, and overall player responsiveness
• Pinky Rider leader now fires shield projectiles at the start of the flame wall attack instead of basic fire projectiles
• Increased Mancubus Flamethrower damage
• Increased Mancubus Fireball speed and size

Levels

Hebeth

• A checkpoint now appears after reaching where the Accelerator would be picked up when playing the level through Mission Select

Sentinel Barracks

• A checkpoint now appears after reaching where the Pulverizer would be picked up

Reckoning

Added a checkpoint after the intro sync animation for the Prince Ahzrak and Witch fight

Combat Encounter Updates

Sentinel Barracks

• Tomb Arena
  • Reduced number of spawns in the Stone Imp wave
• Vagary Champion Encounter
  • Reduced the Mancubus maintain from 2 to 1

Holy City of Aratum

• Secret Gore Nest Encounter
  • Replaced a Nightmare Imp Stalker with a Chaingunner
  • Added Mancubus maintain for Pinky Rider Leader support
  • Added Imp maintain for Pinky Rider Leader support

Siege - Part 1

• Southside Gore Nest
  • Full encounter rework

Abyssal Forest

• Overgrowth Mid Encounter
  • Added 2 mortar Mancubus
• Overgrowth Tree
  • Added Hellknight
• Ruins arena
  • Added 2 Hellknights
• Canyon Fight
  • Added additional fodder along path
  • Added armored Mancubus with phalanx
• Agaddon Boss Fight
  • Added 2 Mancubus
  • Added Imps

Ancestral Forge

• Mines switch encounter
  • Added Chaingunner reinforcement
  • Added 2 Mancubus
• Ancestral Final: all 3 switches to activate
  • Added Nightmare Imp Stalkers
  • Added Arachnotron
  • Added Imps
• Final fight
  • Added Arachnotron on morale shield break
  • Added Hellknight on morale shield break

The Forsaken Plains

• Left Tower Combat
  • Added Arachnotron maintain after morale shield break
• Right Tower Combat
  • Added Arachnotron and Battleknight after morale shield break

Hellbreaker

• Castle Interior Ambush
  • Added Nightmare Imp Stalker spawn and Revenant maintain

Sentinel Command Station

• Maintenance Hallway Encounter
  • Added Imp Stalker maintain
• Tank Hangar
  • Added Arachnotron maintain for leader support
  • Added Mancubus maintain for leader support
• Final Atrium Encounter
  • Added Mancubus maintain for Cyberdemon support
  • Added Arachnotron maintain for Cyberdemon support

From Beyond

• Machine Space Encounter
  • Added mortar Mancubus maintain
  • Reduced soldiers
• Summit Encounter
  • Added Revenant maintain

Spire of Nerathul

• Komodo Boss Fight
  • Added Arachnotrons
• Cliffside Extra Life
  • Added Cacodemon and Battleknights
• Gore Nest
  • Removed Whiplash and added Pinky Rider, Nightmare Imp Stalker, and Revenant before morale break, and Whiplashes after morale break
• Hanging Ship Path, Stasis Emitter
  • Added Arachnotrons
• Cathedral Path Stasis Emitter
  • Added Arachnotrons
• Mountaintop Wraith Steel
  • Added Battleknights
• Pre-BFC Gauntlet
  • Added Whiplash

City of Ry’uul

• Undercity Tunnel Arena
  • Added Imp Stalker support for Vagary
  • Added Arachnotron support for Agaddon leader
• Floating Island Gore Nest
  • Added barriers around floating arena while in combat
  • Adjusted timing of some enemy spawns

The Kar’thul Marshes

• Northside Monolith Arena
  • Added Mancubus maintain after morale shield break
• Southside Monolith Arena
  • Increased area in which enemies can engage the player

Temple of Lomarith

• Shipyard Arena
  • Added Arachnotron on maintain around Vagary
  • Added a change roll command if you ignore the first Arachnotron and Revenant
  • Added force charge once the morale shield is broken

Belly of the Beast

• Belly Formation Encounter
  • Removed Revenant
  • Added a maintain group with Mancubus and Armored Arachnotron around Vagary
• Temple Return Encounter
  • Added Armored Arachnotron around Agaddon Hunter

Harbor of Souls

• Courtyard Encounter
  • Added Revenant maintain to Vagary wave
• Leader Komodo Encounter
  • Added Arachnotron maintain to Leader Komodo wave
• Barge Deck Encounter
  • Added Mancubus to the Komodo wave
  • Added two Mancubus and two Lost Souls on morale shield break
  • Added Arachnotron maintain for Pinky Rider Leader support

Resurrection

• Farm Leader Encounter
  • Added Whiplash to enforcer group
  • Added an Armored Arachnotron maintain around Cyberdemon
  • Change morale break spawns from 2 Whiplashes to Acolyte and Arachnotron
  • Maintain an Armored Arachnotron after shield break
• Graveyard Leader Encounter
  • Added Cyberdemon to the front portion of the encounter
  • Changed the Pinky Rider to an enforcer and enforced heavies in that pod
  • Added Battleknight near the Pinky Rider Enforcer
  • Added Chaingunner near Arachnotron
  • Spawn Mancubus once the leader spawns in
  • Spawn Arachnotron around half leader health
• Village Leader Encounter
  • Maintain Mancubus around leader Acolyte
• Cave Gore Nest Encounter
  • Full encounter rework
• Outside Gore Nest Encounter
  • Added Cacodemon maintain after first superheavy death
• Blue Key artillery Berserk Encounter
  • Added Armored Pinky Rider, Armored Arachnotron, Mancubus, and 2 Whiplashes

Final Battle

• All Encounters
  • Added 1 – 2 additional Titans per area

Reckoning

• Final morale fight
  • Added Battleknight maintain after morale shield break
• Boss Vagary rematch
  • Added Mancubus spawns
  • Added Armored Arachnotron maintain

Lighting

• Hebeth: optimized some shadows for potential issue with wide FOV
• Minor lighting adjustments to Ancestral Forge and Reckoning to improve readability in combat spaces

Bug Fixes

Crashes

• Fixed a rare crash in Harbor of Souls when approaching the Fortress Gate near the Armored Mancubus on PC
• Fixed a crash when attempting to load Pandemonium save data from Update 1
• Fixed a crash during the Spire of Nerathul water drain cinematic
• Resolved a rare crash on the map loading screen when transitioning to Spire of Nerathul

Gameplay

Checkpoints

• Players who die or reload a checkpoint after receiving a Demonic Essence upgrade no longer need to kill the leader again to receive the upgrade. This change also fixes the map completion being stuck at 99% for some players
• Addressed an issue with reloading the checkpoint or dying during the Armored Titan arena that caused new demons to spawn and progression to be blocked

Traversal

• Jump Pads: Several jump pads now correctly trigger the launching SFX and launch the player

Visual

• Fixed a bug where small variations of the camera’s FOV (e.g. 90 to 91 or 92) could cause some grass instances to be culled incorrectly and disappear. This made the ground look like it was flickering when firing weapons in certain locations

PlayStation 5

• Fixed a rare crash on PlayStation 5 while in combat in the final demonic portal Slayer arena

Milestones

• Fixed an issue that could cause the Berserker Milestone to complete early

Enemy AI

• Made an adjustment to AI melee attacks to prevent damage from going around the player's shield
• Lowered the idle time for the Battleknight between spawning and attacking
• Battle Knight: Fixed a bug where axe swings wouldn’t consistently collide with the player when other AI were nearby
• Agaddon Hunter now plays death animations and does not go straight into ragdoll
• Cacodemon shield now visually appears without any invulnerability window
• Fixed an issue with the Komodo, where it could still take damage from a parry AOE when surrounded by the leader shield
• Mancubus: The Mancubus and Armored Mancubus now correctly stop firing projectiles from a severed right arm
• Armored Mancubus: Parried projectile no longer hovers in air if the AI dies mid-flight
• The Old One: The Mace no longer disappears during attacks after using Atlan Siege Breaker
• Fixed an issue where Hell Carrier projectiles hitting the Dragon might not cause pain reaction SFX if the target lock was delayed
• Addressed a bug where the Whiplash was not immediately stunned by the embedded Shield Saw attack after slithering
• Enforcer Buff VFX now correctly display on Cosmic Barons and Imps

Weapons

• Resolved a rare issue where the player could get control locked after fully upgrading a weapon

Shield Saw

• Shield Charge impact no longer triggers a Glory Kill on nearby dazed enemies
• Shield Throw is no longer briefly inhibited after swapping to certain weapons and immediately firing that weapon
• Fixed a bug that allowed for multiple parries in instances where it was unintended

Super Shotgun

• Fixed a bug where the Super Shotgun reload would prevent Shield Throw

Accelerator

• Overload impact VFX of the projectiles is now red instead of blue
• Pulse firing the weapon no longer allows the player to charge the weapon for half the ammo cost

Gauntlet

• Addressed an issue where Encore upgrade was affecting standard charges of the Gauntlet, increasing its refill rate beyond what is intended

Mace

• Fixed an issue where the Mace would no longer cause Heavy Falters after purchasing certain upgrades

Atlan

• Fixed an issue where the Atlan was invincible when dodging left
• Fixed an issue where the Atlan’s Perfect Dodge window was extending beyond the Dodge action

Levels

Hebeth

• The Zombie fodder AI is no longer placed inside the wall behind the plasma accelerator weapon pickup

The Holy City of Aratum

• Fixed a rare bug where the tanks on the assault mode tutorial tower would split in half and fire at the player
• The Slayer can no longer become stuck in scaffold wreckage collision near the Cycler pickup arena on the undercity landing zone

Siege – Part 2

• The Titan no longer disappears after restarting the checkpoint
• The player can no longer respawn behind the demonic barrier by jumping into fade volume near the beginning of the bridge to the elevator room
• The Revenant near the turret courtyard no longer becomes idle when pathing through the doorway

Abyssal Forest

• The user can no longer become trapped between rocks and fall out of the world

Hellbreaker

• Fixed a bug where the Crushinator Mission Challenge was counting Hell Tanks towards its completion

From Beyond

• The checkpoint in the machine space now functions correctly and no longer places the player at the pre-summit checkpoint

Spire of Nerathul

• The Slayer can now traverse on water in multiple places in sunken path secret area
• The wall scrambles in the BFC temple area are now reflected on the Automap
• The Imp no longer spawns stuck against the wall in the sunken path secret area

The Kar’Thul Marshes

• The minor arena north of the Sentinel shrine will now correctly complete on the Automap

Temple of Lomarith

• The Automap now includes the leader encounter Icon in shipwreck arena
• The player can no longer hit the metal target node from the ground floor to bypass the Cosmic Eye water tunnel in shipwreck arena

Resurrection

• The cave hazards on the path to the Kreed Maykr ship now move correctly after checkpoint reload
• Added a delay before the Kreed Maykr can use a laser attack after being interrupted by a falter or daze

Reckoning

• The Cosmic Baron in the berserk pickup room encounter before Prince Ahzrak fight can now fit through arched doorways
• The Witch now has the daze ring after being dazed

Engine

• VRS/VRCS has been implemented for PC, matching the functionality already present on consoles
• Corrected an issue in which there was visible banding on water surfaces in some cases

Cinematics

• Village of Khalim: The intro text no longer appears in gameplay briefly if the Player skips the cinematic
• Barrier Core: Skipping the power core interactive no longer results in vessel door and light/smoke VFX remaining in the game
• The Holy City of Aratum: The explosion SFX during the transition between cinematics is no longer cut off with tutorials turned off
• Fixed an issue where press hold to skip cinematic is happening before you see the prompt to press hold to skip
• Siege - Part 1: Holding down the space bar on the wall climb at the end of the level will no longer cause the player to accidentally skip the cinematic

UI

• Bethesda.net: The 20-character password limit no longer blocks players from linking their Bethesda.net account
• The Holy City of Aratum: The active Dragon dodge tutorial window no longer overlaps the passive Dragon assault mode tutorial window
• Adjusting the "Empowered Attacks" modifier now correctly applies the [*M] tag to a save file
• Benchmark Mode: updated The Abyssal Forest screenshot
• Accelerator: Overload: Both charge bars no longer rubber band and drop to lower charge amounts before returning to normal
• Settings - Parry & Melee Slow Motion: Removed the extra impulse being applied to a corpse's ragdoll after executing a demon when this setting is turned off

Audio

• Grenade Launcher: The Grenade Launcher explosion SFX no longer sounds distorted when firing multiple times in succession
• Atlan low health audio no longer plays while around 350 health
• Updated Stone Imp immolation sound effects

Update 2.1

Update 2.1 was released on all platforms on August 18, 2025 to address two issues:

• Fix for 1-frame jitter that can be caused by resolution scaling
• Fix for VRS (Variable Rate Shading) setting not changing when applying defaults

Update 2.1 Hotfix 1

Update 2.1 Hotfix 1 was released on all platforms on September 4, 2025.

The Ripatorium

Quality of Life Improvements

• Player’s selection of equipped guns, upgrades, melee weapon, and shield rune will now persist once adjusted
• Added ammo and health pickups to Ripatorium arenas

Bug Fixes

• Fixed the crash issue during combat with too many enemy AI present in the Ripatorium as well as in the campaign
• Fixed the issue with the base Vagary not dying when executed while dazed
• Fixed the issue where Champion Vagary had a chance to spawn when the base Vagary was selected
• Fixed an issue where swapping any Shield Rune after starting the arena would cause some of the upgrades to no longer work, including Steadfast, Harvester, Blade Master, and Retaliation
• The Steadfast Shield upgrade now functions when an unbroken shield is restoring health
• Fixed an issue where multiple upgrades where being applied at the same time for Accelerator and Shredder

Enemy AI

General gameplay balance refinements (some of these were previously Active Tunables that have been removed from that article and committed to the game in Update 2.1 Hotfix 1). These are denoted below as: (*PT) for "Previous Tunable"

• Fixed the issue where Imp, Soldier, Zombie, and Arachnotron’s swipe melee attacks dealt no damage if passing through other demons first
• Armored enemies will now falter when their armor is destroyed with Shotguns
• Fixed an issue where the Vagary did not falter after taking damage from the Dreadmace direct damage or AOE damage once certain upgrades had been purchased
• Fixed the issue where Pinky Rider Armor prevented falters from the Slayer’s landing impact
• Fixed the issue where Whiplash did not perform a falter from the Slayer’s landing impact
• Reverted the Cacodemon health buff applied in Update 2
• Reverted the Mancubus health and armor buffs applied in Update 2
• Reverted changes to Mancubus Flamethrower damage applied in Update 2
• Reverted changes to Mancubus Fireball speed and size applied in Update 2
• (*PT) Chaingunner increased cooldown between burst fire attacks & shortened duration of burst fire attacks

Gameplay

• Equipped Guns, upgrades, Melee weapon, and Shield Rune are now retained when reloading checkpoints during the campaign and when transitioning between missions
• Shield Charge AOE (Area of Effect) will now cause health to drop from killed enemies
• Fixed an issue where the Shield Saw could not be raised to perform a Block/Parry during the reload animation of the Super Shotgun
• Added the ability to interrupt the Super Shotgun reload animation to melee at the same frame we allow a Block/Parry
• Shortened the delay for the player to interrupt Rocket Launcher and Grenade Launcher firing animations to Shield Block/Parry or Melee
• Fixed an issue introduced in Update 2 that allowed players to potentially switch weapons earlier than intended after firing certain guns including Super Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Grenade Launcher
• Fixed the brief slowdown experienced after Parrying or using a Melee combo when 'Parry & Melee Slow Down' is set to 0
• Players will now be restored to a minimum of 75 health upon checkpoint reload if they hit the checkpoint with less health than that amount (this excludes Pandemonium and Ultra Nightmare which don't have checkpoint reloading)
• Corrected an issue where the low ammo notice appears well before the Cycler Plasma Rifle should be notifying for a low ammo state
• Fixed the issue where the player could briefly become locked out of swapping to the BFC while using the Chainshot
• Fixed an issue where upgrading all melee weapons could prevent the Melee Expert and Berserker achievements from completing

Weapon Balance

Rail Spike Impaler

Developer Clarification: Impaler headshot damage was not universally increased in Update 2. The approach we took generally favored decreasing Impaler body shot damage in instances where scoring all headshots did not result in a meaningful difference in the total number of shots required to daze or kill a demon. We did increase headshot scaling in a few instances (E.G. Cyberdemon and Whiplash) where reducing body shot damage would have resulted in a longer-than-desired time-to-kill

• Balance adjustments including:
  • Reduced Impaler damage vs. Cyberdemon
  • Reduced headshot scaling of empowered Impaler projectiles (via Salvage and Chronospike upgrades) vs. Whiplash
  • Reduced headshot scaling of non-empowered Impaler projectiles vs. Revenant

Super Shotgun

• Balance adjustments including:
  • Increased Super Shotgun damage vs. Hell Knight and Battle Knight
  • Increased Super Shotgun damage vs. Cosmic Baron
  • Reverted the damage adjustments against Mancubus and its armor applied in Update 2
  • Increased Super Shotgun damage vs. Pinky Rider and Armored Pinky Rider
  • Increased base Super Shotgun (without upgrades) damage vs. Vagary armor

Levels

Active Tunable gameplay refinements are denoted below as: (*AT) for "Active Tunable"

Combat Encounter Updates

Holy City of Aratum

• Final Encounter
  • Adjusted the Hell Knight respawn

Siege - Part 1 & Siege - Part 2

• • Increased time between maintain spawns in several encounters

Siege - Part 2

• Courtyard Section
  • (*AT) Fixed an issue where Titan gore collision would disrupt projectiles

Ancestral Forge

• Resolved issues where additional combat encounters could be triggered erroneously

• Final fight
  • Removed the Imp and Mancubus maintain support in the Agaddon Hunter intro
  • Expanded the Arachnotron maintain window

Spire of Nerathul

• Komodo Boss Fight
  • Removed the maintain support from the Komodo intro
• Hanging Ship Path
  • Fixed the Arachnotron maintain respawning with inconsistent timing at the end of the encounter
• Overlook Secret
  • Fixes the Battle Knight maintain occasionally spawning as another enemy AI

The Kar’Thul Marshes

• Morale fight
  • Set Nightmare Imp Stalker maintain to begin after both Imp Stalkers are dead, rather than just one

Resurrection

• Resolved issues where additional combat encounters could be triggered erroneously
• Added plasma ammo in front of both plasma gates on the Maykr ship
• The “Energy Shield” tutorial pop up does bypass the “Tutorials Off” setting

Final Battle

• Changed the enemy AI composition in the final Atlan encounter so there are fewer armored enemies

UI

• Resolved the issue where viewing Newsfeed body content for live tiles displayed a blank pop-up and caused multiple log errors
• Added the 'Energy Shield' popup tutorial to the Pause Menu's tutorial list
• The Energy Shield tutorial in Resurrection will now bypass the "Tutorials Off" setting

Engine

• Fixed a crash that occurred during Ripatorium Endless mode on Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5 when playing for longer than 8 hours continuously

Update 2.2

Update 2.2 was released on all platforms on October 15, 2025.

New Handheld PC Optimizations

Handheld Setting Autodetection

• On first launch using a handheld PC device, the game will autodetect the optimal settings. Players may further customize the settings based on personal preferences
• Settings are stored per device, allowing players to customize their experience per individual device

Handheld Performance

• Optimized general performance, VFX and SFX for handheld PC devices
• Added advanced optimization settings and Benchmark Mode specifically for handheld PC users
• Added quality-of-life input improvements when the device is docked, including external controller detection

Handheld Device Specifications

Note: Gameplay performance on handheld PCs may depend on device-specific settings and/or connection to a dock or other dedicated power source. Values detailed below assume the device is using the highest power setting available to the operating system and is not running from battery:

• Steam Deck : 720p @ ~30FPS
• Z1 Devices : 720p @ ~30FPS (such as ASUS ROG Ally)
• Z1E Devices : 1080p @ ~30FPS (such as ASUS ROG Ally X, Lenovo Legion Go)
• Z2A Devices : 720p @ ~30FPS (such as XBOX ROG Ally)
• Z2E Devices : 1080p @ ~60FPS (such as XBOX ROG Ally X)

Results are based on testing with pre-release drivers; results may vary per device, installed driver(s) and/or user-selected power settings

Bug Fixes & Improvements

Enemy AI

• Resolved a rare crash if the player used the Shield Throw on Plasma Shield Soldiers with the “Power Surge” Shield upgrade

Final Battle

• Visuals for area denial from Prince Ahzrak’s Blood Pillars expiring now render correctly.
• Fixed a rare crash when using the BFC during the beginning of each phase of the enhanced Prince Ahzrak boss fight

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where death and damage stats were not registering properly in cases of multiple damage instances occurring on the same frame as an entity death. (This change also addresses a bug where the Accelerator Mastery Challenge was not incrementing properly)
• Cycler Plasma Gun no longer glows white when fired with Berserker Power in Harbor of Souls and Resurrection
• Using the Shield now correctly recovers from staggering during a melee strike while attempting to block or parry. This prevents a Shield lockout or cases where the Shield would briefly pop into a blocking state after the input was released

Levels

Hebeth

• Fixed an issue where reloading checkpoints after the Gold and Sentinel Shrine tutorial could cause objectives to vanish until level restart or transition

Sentinel Barracks

• Mancubus no longer respawns during the Vagary Champion boss fight.
• Removed Hell Knight and Stalker Imp reinforcements from Mancubus Leader spawn wave in the burning tree fight

Siege – Part 1

• Hell Knights, Stalker Imps and Imps no longer respawn during the Vagary fights throughout the battlefield
• The wolf statue Ruby no longer gets stuck behind a red energy gate if it is not collected after breaking the wolf statues and reloading the south gore portal checkpoint

Siege – Part 2

• Fixed an issue where an errant Titan could appear in the courtyard when reloading the checkpoint

Ancestral Forge

• Arachnotron no longer respawns during Agaddon Hunter fight at the end of heart sandbox section
• Fixed a potential crash when loading a checkpoint after dying in the Agaddon Hunter fight in the Ancestral Courtyard

Spire of Nerathul

• Chaingun Arachnotron no longer respawns during final encounter of the cathedral stasis emitter section

Temple of Lomarith

• Arachnotron and Cacodemon no longer respawn during the shipwreck morale fight
• The melee pickups now appear correctly on the secret boat “Hell Knight rush” encounter

Resurrection

• The armored Arachnotron that spawns after the Acolyte dies no longer respawns during first morale fight

Reckoning

• Arachnotron no longer respawns during buffed Agaddon Hunter encounter

The Ripatorium

All Platforms

• Vagaries should now only spawn in open areas where they can move around

Xbox Only

• Fixed a crash to the Xbox home screen when changing profiles while suspended in an active Ripatorium match with full demon bar

Audio

• Fixed an issue where the Shield Saw grinding SFX could stop if the player opens the Dossier while the Shield is in a Power Node and then returns to gameplay

UI

• Fixed an issue with Codex entries not tracking progress properly after revisiting levels via Mission Select
• Resolved an issue with the Ripatorium tutorial pop-up intended for first visit of the game mode occurring on subsequent visits
• Fixed bug where opening the Dossier the frame after breaking a metal lock or using a switch could cause the trigger to fail and block progression
• Addressed a potential crash when Alt-Tabbing away and returning to the game during a load screen

VFX

• Corrected issue where picking up a toy collectible could trigger the Shield or an equipped weapon’s visual effects during the animation
• Addressed stray purple lines appearing when overloading a Cacodemon with the Cycler
• Addressed bug where first-person gore overlay flickers around screen edge during AI execute actions while resolution scaling is active

New Active Tunables

• Reduced damage of certain attacks from the Agaddon Hunter, Cosmic Baron, Hell Knight and Komodo to reduce the number of attacks that break the Shield in one hit on Nightmare Difficulty
• Adjusted the Brink of Death system on all difficulties to be more in line with the game at launch. This system protects the player from certain instances of lethal damage, creating the opportunity to fight back from a near-death state
  • Developer Note: The Dark Ages (and Eternal) was designed from the start to allow players the chance to fight their way back from a near death experience - this system is known as the Brink of Death. When your health is low, by design, you are at your most alert and engaged. We’ve re-tuned this system’s values to settings closer to launch, enhancing this aspect of the combat

Update 3

Update 3 was released on all platforms on November 18, 2025.

Ripatorium 2.0

We’ve added even more ways to customize the Ripatorium arena mode, including the ability to share and load presets from each round via our Passcode sharing. (Please note Ripatorium Passcode sharing is in Beta.)

• The Ripatorium is now round-based, with players customizing a selection of enemies they will face for up to five rounds
• Each Ripatorium round can have unique settings and up to 10 respawn waves
• In the Settings menu, we've added new options for Time Limit
• Each round also features a unique Passcode that allows you to share your custom Ripatorium round and all its settings with other players
• To play someone else's Ripatorium encounter, select the corresponding round and press the newly added "Enter New Passcode" input at the bottom of the screen
• There are also new Encounter Presets to choose from: Medium, Challenging and Sadistic
  • Note: You can enable these Encounter Presets in conjunction with any Difficulty Level
• What are the "Preset Incoming" Encounters? We're looking to collect the best custom encounters so that we can curate some community-made presets! Be sure to tag @doom on social with your unique round Passcodes for your best full encounter setups! In time, these will be added in-game via an Active Tunable update (without requiring a client update)
• The Jukebox now includes five additional tracks:
  • "Theomachy"
  • "Bloodspill"
  • "Divine Retribution"
  • "From the Ashes"
  • "Wither and Writhe"
• An icon now appears over the heads of the last few remaining enemies in a round
• Additional line-of-sight blockers have been added to all arenas
• End of Level Summary now shows two new tabs: Difficulty and Arena Setup
  • Difficulty: Includes settings used during the Ripatorium run
  • Arena Setup: Breaks down total demons killed with separate tabs counting each class of slain demon (Fodder, Heavy and Super Heavy)

Gameplay & Quality of Life

• Brink of Death is now an adjustable setting in the Difficulty tab
  • Normal provides the recommended support
  • Hard provides less support and makes surviving at low health more challenging

Input Bindings

• Players can now swap their active Shield Rune and Melee Weapon during gameplay
• Four new player-requested key bindings have been added to the Input tab:
  • Next Melee Weapon
  • Previous Melee Weapon
  • Next Shield Rune
  • Previous Shield Rune

Controller Vibration

• Adjusting the vibration intensity slider now correctly adjusts external controllers on Xbox when plugged into a PC
• Controller vibration now works correctly with the BFC equipped

Enemy AI Fixes

• Fixed a crash on PlayStation 5 Pro when initiating a Glory Strike on Heavy and Super Heavy-classed enemies after they're Dazed from the player using the Shredder
• The player no longer clips through the geometry of the wall when performing a Glory Strike against the Komodo
• Floating VFX will no longer appear over the Cacodemon’s corpse if it is killed while performing a wall attack
• The Vagary Champion’s summon VFX are now the correct size
• Fixed an issue with the Cacodemon’s shield continuing to block attacks briefly after it visually expires
• Added ambient audio to the Cacodemon’s idle animation

Combat Encounter Updates

Holy City of Aratum

• After the Vagary spawns in the final encounter, additional Mancubus spawns are now replaced with a group of Imps
• Removed Chaingunners from the final encounter

️ Siege Part 1

• The Hell Knight and Imp Stalker that spawn after breaking Morale in the Village Morale fight no longer respawn
• The Stone Imps and one of the Nightmare Imp Stalkers in the Swamp Morale fight have been removed

️ Siege Part 2

• The Hell Knights in the Tank Hangar that spawn after the Leader Battle Knight no longer respawn

Forsaken Plains

• Removed one of the Arachnotron spawns from both tower objectives

Hellbreaker

• Removed the additional Revenant spawn in the final encounter

Sentinel Command Station

• The Mancubus and Arachnotron that spawn after breaking the Pinky Rider Leader's armor in the tank hangar no longer respawn
• The Mancubus and Arachnotron that spawn in the final encounter no longer respawn

From Beyond

• The Mancubus that spawns after breaking Morale in the first arena fight no longer respawn
• The Revenant that spawns after breaking Morale in the second arena fight no longer respawn

️ Belly of the Beast

• Removed Battle Knight maintain status in first arena encounter
• Removed Mancubus and Arachnotron in Vagary fight

Harbor of Souls

• Removed Arachnotron ambush in Blue Key Komodo fight
• Removed additional Revenant spawn in the fight against the Vagary during the first visit to the temple
• Removed Arachnotron on barge

Reckoning

• Added Hell Knight and Imp Stalker ambush to secret Ruby room
• Added Mancubus ambush in Prince Ahzrak toy collectible secret
• Added surprise encounter to Wraithstone pickup
• Changed the Nightmare Imp Stalker to a normal Imp Stalker in the first encounter

Tweaks & Adjustments

Atlan

• Adjusted Brink of Death feature for all difficulties so players have a greater chance to fight back from a near-death situation
• Slightly increased the amount of health received from killing Titan enemies

Prince Ahzrak

• Reduced acceleration of projectiles spawned from the boss’ Super Dive Bomb attack
• Reduced base damage of boss’ Spear Throw so that it does not break the player’s Shield in a single shot when enemy damage slider value is 2.0x or lower.

The Old One

• Slightly increased health received by the player when performing a Glory Strike
• Reduced the damage scaling on the Gravity Well explosion across all damage slider values 1.0x and above.

Cacodemon

• Slightly reduced speed of Lightning Wall projectiles

Cosmic Baron

• Reduced damage of Guillotine Projectile attack so that the player's Shield doesn't break instantly on block
• Fixed a bug where additional damage was sometimes applied when hit by a Cosmic Baron's Guillotine Projectile

Combat Feedback

• Adjusted various weapons and enemies to activate gore with greater frequency and consistency across the player’s arsenal
• Adjusted enemy ragdoll behavior for various melee attacks and Shield Charge to further punctuate those actions in combat

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the Atlan’s Brink of Death activating despite the player Perfect Dodging an AOE attack
• The spark VFX for using the Shield block no longer appears when taking damage from environmental hazards or other damage that bypasses the Shield
• Fixed a bug with the Lore Nerd Milestone not completing correctly after finishing a 100% playthrough
• Fixed an issue with the Perfection Skin not unlocking if the player force quits during the third Ripatorium match
• Fixed a rare issue where the campaign's Pause and Dossier menus were replaced with Ripatorium menus, leading to save corruption and inaccessible menus
• Fixed a bug where debug text would appear after dying in the projectile parry tutorial area
• Interrupting the Combat Shotgun burst fire with Shield block no longer causes the player camera to slightly tilt until mantling or restarting the map
• Fixed an issue in the Ripatorium where both mods for the Shredder and Accelerator would be active at the same time if the player reloaded the encounter or died and restarted
• Hitting a Chaingunner with a pinned fodder demon will no longer instantly kill the demon
• Armored enemies will now falter correctly when their armor is destroyed by the Ravager and Pulverizer
• Fixed a bug where the first instance of damage the player takes after a checkpoint would not mitigate damage properly if hit from behind
• Killing a Vagary, Agaddon Hunter or Komodo in the Ripatorium no longer triggers their related Campaign milestones
• The Ripatorium now saves the Melee weapon the player equipped from the previous attempt. In addition, charges for that weapon are fully replenished if the player swaps Melee weapons before the first round of enemies spawn
• Addressed a bug with the firing SFX getting stuck in a loop if the player swapped from the Auto Turret Rune to another Shield Rune after it has already begun to fire in the Ripatorium

Known Issues

• Ripatorium Encounter Presets not resetting after selecting "Reset All Ripatorium Rounds to Default,” (e.g. the “Sadistic” preset remains at “Sadistic” rather than “Default)
• Quick Swap Rune and Quick Swap Melee not displaying correctly in the Ripatorium with accounts that have not progressed beyond the Campaign opening
• Default Time Limit displaying inconsistently when enabling Encounter Presets

External links

• DOOM: The Dark Ages | Active Tunables