Update 3 for DOOM: The Dark Ages introduces Ripatorium 2.0, offering additional Encounter Presets, deeper customization options, additional jukebox tracks and the ability to share your custom encounters on a per-round basis via Passcode sharing.  

This update also includes Campaign quality-of-life updates such as the Brink of Death feature now selectable between Normal and Hard settings via the Difficulty tab, plus player-requested updates including bindable inputs for your active Melee Weapon and Shield Rune. 

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*. 

• 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 (highlighted in the image below) that allows you to share your custom Ripatorium round and all its settings with other players 

  

*Please note Ripatorium Passcode sharing is in Beta 

• 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? (Highlighted in the image below) 

• 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) 

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 

• 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 

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 

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 

• 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 

• 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  

If you're still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team[help.bethesda.net]. 

Update 2.2 includes general bug fixes and combat encounter adjustments for all platforms. It also introduces new handheld optimizations and quality of life updates including DOOM: The Dark Ages now being Steam Deck Verified.

• On first launch, the game will autodetect the optimal settings for handheld devices. Handheld First Launch Auto Detection is specific to handhelds. Players may further customize the settings based on personal preferences

• Settings are now stored per device so players may customize their play experience on a per device basis

• General performance improvements specific to handhelds

• Added advanced optimization settings specifically for handhelds

• Optimized SFX and VFX specifically for handhelds (Changes do not affect Consoles or PC)

• Handheld benchmark mode

Performance depends on selected power mode and whether the device is attached to a dedicated power source. Values detailed here assume the device is using the highest power setting in the OS 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. Personal results may vary with newer drivers and user selected power settings on a per device basis

• Added QOL input improvements when handhelds are docked to a stand

• Added controller detection on handhelds for wireless and wired external controllers

• Fixed an issue with Sentinel civilians‘ heads being out of place in Hebeth, Siege – Part 1, and Sentinel Command Station

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

Final Battle

• Visuals for area denial when Prince Ahzrak blood pillars expire now render correctly

• Fixed a rare crash when using the BFC during the beginning of each phase of the enhanced Prince Ahzrak boss fight

• Fixed an issue where death and damage stats were not being registered properly in the case of multiple damage instances on the same frame as an entity death

  • This change also addressed a bug where the Accelerator mastery challenge wasn’t being incremented properly

• Cycler Plasma Gun will no longer glow white on firing with Berserker Power in Harbor of Souls and Resurrection

• Shield now accounts for melee stagger and correctly recovers from being staggered out of a melee strike while attempting to block/parry. Prevents a shield lockout and prevents a case where the shield would pop up into the block state briefly well after the input was released

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 will no longer get 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

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

• Fixed an issue where the Shield Saw grinding SFX could stop playing if the player opened the Dossier while the shield is in a power node and then returns to gameplay

• Fixed an issue where second codex does not register progress if mission select was entered before completion or collected via mission select

• Resolved an issue with the tutorial in the Ripatorium menu always appearing when entering the menu regardless of whether or not the Player had already played the mode

• Fixed a bug where opening the Dossier the frame after breaking a metal lock or using any switch could cause the trigger to fail and block progression

• Addressed a potential crash when Alt-Tabbing away and returning to the game when the game is at a load screen

• Corrected an issue where picking up a toy could cause the shield or equipped weapon visual effects to appear during the animation

• Stray purple lines will no longer appear when overloading a Cacodemon using the Cycler

• Addresses a bug where the first-person gore overlay flickered around screen edges during AI execute actions when resolution scaling was active

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

• (*AT) 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

• (*AT) Adjusted the Brink of Death system on all difficulties to be more in line with launch day values  

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.

If you're still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team here[help.bethesda.net]

Check out the details of what went live in Update 2.1[slayersclub.bethesda.net] and Update 2.1 Hotfix[slayersclub.bethesda.net]

• 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

• 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 

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

• 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

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 

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

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

• 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

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

If you're still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team here[help.bethesda.net]

Read all the above in additional languages on Slayers Club here[slayersclub.bethesda.net].

Today's minor update for DOOM: The Dark Ages addresses the following:

• Fix for 1-frame jitter that can be caused by resolution scaling

• Fix for VRS (Variable Rate Shading) setting not changing when applying defaults

If you're still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team here[help.bethesda.net]

This update adds the Ripatorium, an endless arena mode that lets players set up their own combat encounters within 3 unique arenas using a simple menu interface. Also included are two new DOOM Slayer skins (see below for unlock criteria), a loopable demo for Benchmark Mode on PC and a slew of other improvements and bug fixes

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 

• 

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

Limited-Time Free QuakeCon 2025 DOOM Slayer skin* 

Earnable Perfection 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

** Complete an encounter in each Ripatorium arena (3 total)

• 

• 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

• 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  

• 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

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

• 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 

• 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

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 

• 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 

• 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 

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

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

• Hebeth: optimized some shadows for potential issue with wide FOV 

• Minor lighting adjustments to Ancestral Forge and Reckoning to improve readability in combat spaces

• 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

✅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

• 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 

• 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

• http://bethesda.net/: The 20-character password limit no longer blocks players from linking their https://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

• 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

• If you're still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team here[help.bethesda.net]

June 2025 PC Update Hotfix is now available. We've updated the required driver messaging in the launcher to match Nvidia + AMD's latest recommended driver.

Nvidia example below:
ICYMI check out the full June 2025 PC Update Release Notes here

This June 2025 PC Update is exclusive to the PC versions of the game. It adds Path Tracing support with Ray Reconstruction for select NVIDIA GPUs. Also included in this update is a brand-new Benchmark Mode that lets PC gamers measure their system’s performance on a variety of settings. Additionally, this update resolves some known issues present in the previous version of the game. 

Path Tracing is officially supported on the range of NVIDIA GPUs, video settings and system requirements noted in the table below. Path Tracing, when combined with DLSS Ray Reconstruction adds accurate light bounce modeling, bringing new detail into view on material surfaces and reflections at a level previously not possible in a DOOM game. 

Required drivers: NVIDIA 576.75 or higher[www.nvidia.com]

To enable Path Tracing, go to the Video Settings menu, and scroll down to the Path Tracing section and set Path Tracing to On. To enable Ray Reconstruction, select it as the Denoiser in the Path Tracing section of the Video Settings menu. Make sure to apply your settings changes before returning to gameplay. 

While users on other supported GPU models are free to attempt to run the game with Path Tracing enabled at lower settings, 60 FPS, correct visuals and game stability are not assured when doing so. 

Click here[www.nvidia.com] for more information from NVIDIA regarding Path Tracing and the Ray Reconstruction in DOOM: The Dark Ages

Benchmark mode creates a consistent, nearly deterministic path through a section of select DOOM: The Dark Ages levels to that players can see how their systems perform under a variety of video settings. Using this mode players can see how far they can push their system performance. 

To access Benchmark Mode, go to the Extras section of the Main Menu and select Benchmark Mode.  From here, you can select and run any of the following Benchmark Levels: 
While running a Benchmark Level, graphs show FPS, total frame time, GPU and CPU frame time. Use the controls listed at the bottom of the screen to toggle graph metrics between FPS and milliseconds, and to toggle graph visibility on/off

Resolved an issue in which Alt + Tabbing the game during cutscenes while using FSR Frame Generation on certain NVIDIA GPUS would cause the game to freeze

Issue: Some elements may not appear correctly in the Harbor of Souls “barge crash” cutscene when running the game in Path Tracing mode in certain hardware and settings configurations

Resolution: We are investigating potential fixes for a future update

Issue: Users with Path Tracing enabled can observe graphical artifacts on tentacle enemies attached to walls

Resolution: We are investigating potential fixes for a future update

Update 1 Hotfix is now available on all platforms and resolves degraded visuals appearing as increased graininess and/or blurriness in some video settings configurations. Shoutout to our community for helping identify the issue so we could quickly address it!

Note: Thanks for your patience while we continue to investigate why some PlayStation 5 users have been unable to unlock the Berserker Achievement/Trophy upon obtaining the necessary upgrades

ICYMI check out the full Update 1 Release Notes here[slayersclub.bethesda.net]

Update 1 is the first major patch for DOOM: The Dark Ages which brings general game balance refinements, improves the audio mix and fixes the bugs noted below

• 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[slayersclub.bethesda.net] that have been removed from that article and committed to the game in Update 1). These are denoted below as: (*PT) for "Previous Tunable"

• (*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

• ㄴPlayers 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 combat experience has been updated to allow players to move more swiftly through the experience

• ㄴMost enemies faced when on the Dragon will now only fire Hell Surge projectiles, allowing for more opportunities to empower the Autocannon

• ㄴThe Empowered state for the Dragon’s Autocannon now lasts longer

• ㄴ(*PT) Empowered shots from the Dragon’s Autocannon after a perfect dodge will go through projectile shields

• Courtyard Encounter

• ㄴAdditional Imps added Two Imp Stalkers added

• Beach Encounter

• ㄴAdded Imps and additional Pinky Rider to fight

• ㄴMusic state adjustments

• Gore Deck Encounter (Leader Intro)

• ㄴAdded maintains for Pinky Rider Leader support

• Tomb Arena Encounter

• ㄴNightmare Imp added

• ㄴStone Imp wave added

• Exterior Burning Tree Encounter

• ㄴHell Knight maintain added

• ㄴLost Souls Added

• ㄴStone Imps added

• Vagary Into

• ㄴAdded Mancubus maintain

• Tutorial

• ㄴReduced number of Hell Tanks on pillar to 3

• ㄴHell Tank 1 shoots only Up/Down Hourglass projectile variant

• ㄴHell Tank 2 shoots only Left/Right Hourglass projectile variant

• ㄴHell Tank 3 shoots only Up/Down Hourglass projectile variant

• General

• ㄴDoubled the length of time the Empowered shot is active

• City Sandbox

• ㄴRemoved Titan Sentry immediately after Hell Carrier exit

• Final Arena

• ㄴMancubus maintain added for Vagary

• ㄴChaingunner Soldiers added

• Vagary Encounters

• ㄴAdded 2 Hell Knights and small Imp maintain for Trenches Vagary

• ㄴAdded 2 Hell Knights and small Imp maintain to River Shore Vagary encounter

• ㄴAdded Imp Stalker and small Imp maintain in Canyon Vagary Encounter

• Hangar Final Encounter

• ㄴAI spawn placement adjustments

• ㄴPickup placement adjustments

• ㄴAdded small Hell Knight maintain

• ㄴAdded Nightmare Imp

• ㄴAdded Arachnatron support for Battle Knight

• Dragon Flight to Maykr Ship

• ㄴMusic adjustment from ambient to light music state

• 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 

• 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

• 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 

• 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

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

• 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

• 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 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

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

For the latest Active Tunables click here[slayersclub.bethesda.net]

If you're still experiencing issues, please holler at our amazing Customer Service team here[help.bethesda.net]