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Doom Eternal guide: top 20 tips for demon slaying, how to kill Marauders

Beginners tips and tricks

Dave Irwin avatar
Guide by Dave Irwin Former Guides Writer
Published on
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Doom Eternal may have seen delays but it is a very, very good shooter. There are some key differences between this new Doom game and the one that came out in 2016, so I've listed my top tips for playing the game and even how to kill some of the tougher enemies.

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Doom Eternal guide

These top tips in this here Doom Eternal guide have been separated into three categories: how to survive just about any fire fight, how to find all those hidden goodies, and what you should be spending upgrade points on. We also have tips for killing Marauders.

We even have all of the secrets and hidden collectables in their own guides, listed by every level. So let's get on with it shall we? Those demons aren't going to get rid of themselves.

Contents

Combat tips - how to survive against the forces of hell

  • 1. If there is one thing you should do at all times, you should keep moving. Even if you're just shooting at an enemy from afar, you should at the very least be strafing from side to side so that the demons can't get a good lock onto you.
  • 2. Focus on larger enemies when you have full ammunition and reserve humanoid enemies for recovering health, ammunition, and armour. If you get rid of the smaller foes too early, you may find there's no way to recover health when you're at death's door.
  • 3. There are lots of ledges, pipes, and portals littered around most areas where enemies appear. They're not just for show. Use them as often as you can to dart around the area, getting the jump on demons where you can.
  • 4. If you need to recover armour safely, use the flame thrower to roast a staggered foe. Do this before either performing a glory kill to get both health and armour, or mincing them up with a slash of the chainsaw for ammo and armour.
  • 5. Know which alternative fire modes are best for dealing with certain enemies. For example, Cacodemons (the big eyeball things that float around) really hate swallowing grenades from Sticky Bombs. Getting rid of them first gives you some much needed breathing room to deal with the other big threats.
  • 6. Some enemies have weaknesses that can be exploited to reduce their firepower. Arachnotrons (the big brains with spider legs) can have their turret blown off with a sticky grenade or a well-placed bolt from the heavy cannon, while Revenants rocket launchers can be destroyed.
  • 7. Use secondary fire often, as they're usually much better than the primary fire for dealing with certain enemies. Hell Knights (the hulking jumping demons) tend to have a harder time against explosives like sticky grenades, micro missiles, and many others.
  • 8. Shoot any mines or red barrels near enemies. Their explosions will nearly always stagger them for a short time, interrupting their attack for a short time.
  • 9. For any enemy that uses plasma shielding, concentrated fire of the plasma gun will strip the shield.
  • 10. Are you finding levels too tough but don't want to resort to cheats or changing the difficulty? Use the Mission Select to complete old missions to get Extra Lives. These carry over to your main campaign progress.

Exploration tips - how to find secrets in levels

  • 11. Check the Automap often. Secrets will show up constantly as question marks and when they do, their access point is usually not too far away. Crumbling walls or certain symbols can be punched to reveal hidden areas.
  • 12. By looking at the Items Found list on the right side of the screen, you can see how many you still need to collect by looking at the number of question marks.
  • 13. Walk everywhere, even if it seems like a dead end. You may find that a secret item question mark will appear. Areas you have walked on will appear green in the Automap.
  • 14. Demonic Corruption is a handy indicator of how many encounters remain in the mission. The types of encounters are:
    • Red: Standard enemy encounter. Just kill all the enemies to win.
    • Purple:  Slayer Gate.  Harder encounters where extra lives and ammo aren't restored afterwards. You can retry these if you die.
    • Pink: Secret encounters. These are normally timed against fixed enemies and can be retried if you fail.
    • Yellow: Boss fights. Kill the boss to get all the Weapon Points.
  • 15. Don't forget about your grenades. If enemies bunch up, you can fire either a frag or ice grenade to deal with multiple threats at once.

Best early perks - recommendations for upgrades

  • 16. Spend your first seven Praetor Suit points on the Exploration perks. It'll help a lot with finding secrets in levels. Other perk types when purchased do things like upgrade your grenades, buff up resistances to environmental damage, and improve base skills like dashing or reloading.
  • 17. For maximum mobility, your first two Rune unlocks should be Chrono Strike and Air Control. Beginners should also consider Saving Throw for a chance to save themselves should they die. Those used to the speed of the previous Doom may wish to consider one of the others.
  • 18. After buying all of the upgrades for a secondary weapon slot with Weapon Points, replay older missions or go to the Demon Prison at the bottom of the Fortress of Doom hub area to unlock the mastery perk at your own pace.
  • 19. You can unlock more stuff in the Fortress of Doom by finding Sentinel Batteries. They are either found in missions, or by completing all three Mission Challenges for a particular mission.
  • 20. Unlocking two Sentinel Crystals (these upgrade health, armour, and ammo cap limits) on the same Sentinel Crystal route will give you a permanent perk. I recommend starting with Quickdraw Belch and Loot Magnet routes first as increasing the range at which resources are pulled in is vital for survival, and having more armour is always a good thing.

How to kill Marauders

These are by far the toughest enemies in the game. This is because they have a shield and are resistant to Super Weapon damage, that being the BFG 9000 and the like. The game says to shoot at it when its eyes glint a green colour as it swings with its axe. By far the most consistent strategy is to wait until he swings the axe, then fire two Super Shotgun blasts, then back off. Repeat this while dodging everything else to win the encounter. If there are any other enemies, deal with them first.

Keep a moderate distance away from the Marauder and shoot any orange wolves it generates with the Super Shotgun. If you're too close to the Marauder, it'll shoot its own Super Shotgun, while the axe beam slashes it fires if you're too far away are far easier to predict. If you need ammo, there's usually a zombie you can chop up with your chainsaw to get what you need. I recommend using the Super Shotgun's upgraded flame meat hook to burn them and get close, giving you some armour too.

Doom Eternal guide

Doom Eternal guide series

Those are our top Doom Eternal tips. They should give you all the advice you need so you can do that whole ripping and tearing thing that the helpful feller instructs the Doomguy to do before a shot is fired. Over the course of the next few days, there will be plenty of Doom Eternal guides coming your way, including the locations of all of the collectables in each mission, all of the weapon skill challenges in the game, boss fight strategies, and how to unlock all of the secrets.

Collectables - All of the collectables that can be found in each of the game's missions.

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