Looking for an overview of 2024's DOOM + DOOM II by Nightdive? Check out my recommendation here!
Doom newbies might find these tips useful and veteran DooM players might derive some amusement as I gain my footing and gradually shed my novice status.
For the love of Romero and McGee, learn to straferun!
Pay a visit to the Doom Wiki's entry on Straferunning, and don't let any of the technical terminology scare you. The gist is that in addition to walk and run, you actually have another tier of speed: strafe-run. The simplest way to perform a straferun is running forward and sideways (strafing) at the same time. In WASD terms your inputs would be WA or WD(assuming you have auto-run toggled on). This performs a straferun at what's called SR40 speed, while SR50 speed is attainable with some additional inputs, making it a little fiddlier. You can see a video demonstration by channel Classic Doom here. Straferuns are handy in Doom I and profoundly useful by the time you hit Doom II. Why?
- Get to places faster! You'll have more leeway for timed switches / doors, and backtracking goes much quicker.
- Make jumps easier! Doom I and II don't have a dedicated jump input but you'll still be expected to perform some platforming, Thy Flesh Consumed and Doom II's maps especially. Making jumps generally means running off a ledge and hoping you land where you want in front of/below you, and straferunning yet again gives you more leeway to make those jumps successfully.
I specifically call out Romero and McGee here because their maps tend to contain plenty of opportunities to straferun to cross gaps and nab secrets, but it's a useful technique to keep with you for your entire Doom journey. Straferunning will make your life easier in classic Doom and is downright required for many community-made WADs who will oftentimes assume that you know how to hit at least SR40 speed to make jumps without being told. Learn it, master it, love it.
Embrace the Automap!
You will get lost in some of Doom's levels, so get your mileage out of that automap. You can clear these maps without using the map at all, but for your first time, even an occasional peek at the map will help you get oriented and potentially spot unexplored areas that you've missed. Depending on the source port you're playing (if you even are using a source port) your automap might have additional handy features that you can use at your discretion, like highlighting door colors so you know where to go when you finally find that pesky blue key.
Don't worry about "missing out on the challenge" by using the map. Doom and especially Doom II will give you navigation challenges in spades whether you use the map or not. (Laughs in Doom II's city levels)
Consider Avoiding Pistol Start!
Pistol Start is how you initially spawn into a new chapter, or your current map after a death. Pistol (and fists) only, 50 bullets, 100 health, and 0 armor. Everything else is gone, including your weapon unlocks, alternative ammo, and status-changing effects like power-ups and megaarmor.
When playing through for the first time, make a save at the beginning of each map. This gives you the option to roll back to this point when you inevitably die without being slapped with a pistol start spawn. Doom maps were designed to be beatable on pistol start, but for your first time through? Maybe spare yourself while you get some more time to learn the level.
Use the Vertical Autoaim!
The word autoaim has special meaning in classic Doom. It is not aimbotting, where you fire arbitrarily and your shots magically land. In the Doom engine, which disallows manually aiming up or down, the game will automatically angle your shots up or down when there is a target (typically an enemy but sometimes barrels or other objects) appropriately in your sights.
This is an intended part of the game design and should be used, not avoided! Cacodemons floating above you? How about Lost Souls charging you from the air? Perhaps some Imps on a platform above you harassing you with projectiles? Shoot back! Doom's autoaim will take care of the angle, but you still have to aim: when targeting faraway or moving enemies, you can definitely miss your shots.
Exploit Infighting!
Infighting is another handy-to-know mechanic: if one enemy accidentally hits another (due to AOE, blocking, or simply bad luck), the victim will retaliate and actually fight its supposed ally. If that counterattack hits, that first enemy will likewise try to fight back. In this way, you can make two or more enemies all fight each other, saving you ammo and resources while keeping enemy aggro off of you. Infighting is an excellent tool to give yourself some breathing room while enemies are distracted with each other.
Handle Archviles!
The Archvile is one-of-a-kind. The tips here are simple:
- The flame that blocks your view doesn't damage you instantly, so don't panic.
- The Archvile can deal a lot of damage, but can only hurt you if it has line of sight. If you see the flame, break line of sight before you get hit.
- The Archvile resurrects other enemies, so prioritize it first in combat encounters.
This should hopefully turn the Archvile from an unfair-feeling enemy to a tricky but manageable foe.
Give Encounters the Old College Try!
Classic Doom's maps and encounters within are generally pretty tightly designed. When you find yourself facing unreasonable odds, consider using quicksaves to approach a certain room in different ways. Doom's combat is itself a puzzle, and you sometimes have to adjust your approach for the circumstances. Sometimes encounters can be avoided entirely because they're used as traps or punishments. Other times the map gives you a nearby Invulnerability power-up to turn a room of inevitable death into a room of inevitable death... for everyone else. Even if you're knowingly triggering a trap room for 100% kills, being switched to the right weapon and approaching from the right angle can make all the difference.
Give each challenge a fair shot before cheesing with the BFG, it'll be more rewarding that way. Unless cheesing with the BFG is in fact an intended solution (I see you, monster trap rooms filled with energy cell ammo)!
Hunt Secrets for Resources!
Map secrets aren't just for the completionist. They'll hide caches of health, armor, ammo, and even grant you certain weapons early. If you're struggling with a particularly difficult map and are getting beaten up, secrets might actually be worth hunting around for to give yourself that extra boost to clear the rest of the map and hit the next stage with some more boom in your arsenal.
Be Switch Savvy!
In Doom, anything can be a switch. The most common are buttons and panels, or doors that you hit the Use key to activate. But switches can be hidden in walls, decorative items or textures, or even be entirely invisible! You will rarely have to resort hugging walls and mashing Use but it's good to know that you can oftentimes interact with objects that you might not think are interactible. Sometimes walls are actually rising platforms, or certain switches only work from a given side, or a part of the level geometry that was previously static is now a giant button that will move when you press it.
There are other ways to activate linedefs (which is what Doom uses to trigger actions or events, among other things). So in addition to "switches" that you press Use to activate, keep an eye out for switches that activate when shot with a weapon, or invisible triggers that activate when you walk over them. If you randomly hear a door opening or closing, sometimes it's not just the door you came from... it might just be another hidden door that you triggered the invisible trigger for when you walked over its linedef. Sometimes, that's the key to getting unstuck in a map you're lost in.
I shake my fist angrily at Doom II M19 (The Citadel).
Have a Souls Mindset!
Doom is definitely not Dark Souls, but borrowing a little bit from the Soulslike mindset while playing can help.
- Incoming non-hitscan damage can usually be dodged or otherwise avoided.
- Most encounters or scenarios within a map are designed to be "fair" or at least solvable if you can find out the solutions the designer has given you.
- Mistakes can add up, as can successes, so sometimes it's worthwhile trying a map section, or even an entire map, over again if you know you can do a cleaner, better run that prepares you with more resources for the next stage.
- Most of the time, there's some odd or noticeable part of a level for a reason. Occasionally, though, it's just there to trip you up.
- Try, try, try again.
In Fact, Have a Doom Mindset!
Extending from the prior point--Doom has a way it does things. Some traits come from contemporary 90s games, other from id's own Wolfenstein 3D which came before, and others completely new. Some basic guidelines that can help make sense of these games and the numerous WADs from community:
- In general, consider each map a self-contained puzzle that contains smaller, interconnected challenges made up of combat, platforming, and pure puzzling. It often boils down to "what does the map designer want me to do" rather than "what does the game Doom want me to do".
- Pay attention to the map designer(s); they tend to have some favorites in their kit of tricks.
- Individual maps will generally have an internal sense of logic in terms of how switches, doors, or teleporters work. Across maps, that can and will change. Navigation and puzzle elements can function entirely differently between maps, even maps made by the same designer! Map elements and interactables are tools that the designer can sort of freely choose to utilize how they wish, sometimes conflicting with how they worked in the maps immediately prior or following. This is something you just get used to.
I believe having this mindset can make the difference between a good-natured groan or chuckle when you trigger yet another monster closet trap or wrong-teleporter and feeling frustrated and exasperated at the hoops that some maps make you jump through. Sometimes challenges feel silly, obscure, or absurd, and that's part of the fun!
Cheat When You Really Need It!
These games can be tough for a newcomer. I'll add to the chorus of voices saying that there's no shame in turning the difficulty down as needed, and then go even further. When you're hopelessly stuck and frustrated, look up a guide. There were certain keys that I absolutely needed external help in order to find. I recommend using cheats sparingly so you can get to grips with the game's challenge, but also... cheat when you need to. Accidentally forget to make a level-start save and die, losing your goodies? A quick resurrect in your source port's console or the old standby idfa when you spawn back in will get you sorted out. Completely intolerant of the sections with dark shadows or damaging floors? You can cheat to get the Light Amplification Visor or Radiation Shielding Suit and continue on as normal.
I want people to be able to experience Doom in as close to the original form as possible, but even more foundationally, I just want people to play Doom. And to have fun doing it! Don't let the game frustrate you too much. And if cheating feels unfair or dirty, there's always the option of going back for a cleaner, legit run afterwards as you gain more Doom mastery. Doom should be an awesome time, and I'd rather see someone having a cheat-filled blast than 15 minutes of legit play only to ragequit and never return.
That said, you are going to get the Untouchable achievement in DOOM + DOOM II totally legit, right?
Miscellaneous Tips
Teleporters
- You can telefrag enemies, even powerful ones. This is occasionally encouraged by the map designers.
- Regard teleporters with a healthy skepticism. Some are one-way. Some are useless. Some are traps. Some will have multiple destinations. Sometimes the teleporter you "emerge" from won't send you back the original way when you jump back into it. There's no real way to know until you (quicksave and) take the plunge.
Damage Floors
- Some maps require you to brave the damage floors. If floor damages you, it might not be a signal to "get out" but rather a suggestion to "get a move on" and find the path forward.
- Pits with damage floors will usually have a way to get back out of the pit. It might not be an obvious staircase or control panel; sometime's it's a recessed tunnel entrance or interacting with a pillar below a raised platform to turn it into an elevator. Resist the urge to panic when you fall into that pit of lava or radioactive slime, and try to find a way back up.
- Damage floors will inflict damage every 32 gametics/ticks, which is around 0.91 seconds. If you've ever been able to run across a damage floor very quickly without receiving damage, this is how. This means it is possible to exploit with save-scumming by resetting runs across damage floors by waiting for the opportune time.
- For the truly pro, you might like to know that floor damage is synced to the same global timer as weapon bob, dealing damage when the weapon is at the topmost part of its arc. (Source)
Weapons and Ammo
- The Pistol and Chaingun are both perfectly accurate on the first shot, then have deviating bullet spread as you hold down the button. For long-range engagements, you can fire in short bursts or single-shot to keep your shots on target.
- Mind your ammo! Pistol and Chaingun both use Bullet ammo (BULL). The Super Shotgun uses two shotgun shells (SHELL) per shot, as opposed to the normal Shotgun's one. The Plasma Gun and the BFG both use energy cell ammo (CELL).
- Fists and Chainsaw both inhabit the same weapon slot 1, as do the Super Shotgun and normal Shotgun on slot 3. If you have both weapons, you can toggle between them by pressing that weapon's slot number again. You'll sometimes want to do this to regain the Fist during Berserk or switch between Shotgun types depending on whether you need more damage or ammo economy.
- The Backpack doubles your maximum ammo capacity. This effect is permanent throughout the rest of your playthrough (so long as you don't die and lose all your inventory). It also grants you some ammo of each type. It is awesome.
Game Engine and Mechanics
- Classic Doom had neither vertical mouselook (freelook) nor jumping, which means all of its levels can be beaten without either of them. I'd caution away from using these features for your first run of Doom since these features actually do break and trivialize some of the game's challenges, but in deference to the header "Cheat When You Really Need It!", use these features or any other QoL your source port of choice will afford you as you like. Make the experience a fun one.
- The Berserk power-up will actually last until the end of the level (or death), so your Fist punches will be powered-up even after the screen effect wears off.
- The Cyberdemon and Spiderdemon can be damaged by rockets but are immune to AOE splash damage.
- Megaarmor (the blue armor) doesn't just overcharge your Armor to 200%, it also makes your armor block half of all incoming damage instead of just 1/3 of damage like the normal green armor. The Megaarmor's improved defense will last you until your armor is entirely depleted (not merely from 200% ~ 100%, but from 200% all the way down to 0%!). Beware that grabbing the normal green Armor (when it's able to be picked up, e.g. when your armor is from 99% to 0%) will overwrite your Megaarmor and give you the less-effective 1/3 damage reduction. There's no onscreen indication of what armor you're currently wearing, so be careful!
- Damage dealt and damage received are, to a certain extent, randomized. The exact formula and variance will vary depending on what engine or source port you're using, but there is indeed some RNG involved in how many points of damage you inflict or take. Because of this, make sure your mental "hits until death" counts have a little wiggle room on either side.
Final Tip: Enjoy Getting Immersed in Doom!
And I don't just mean in-game immersion. If you're at all enthusiastic about video game history or game design, Doom gives you plenty to explore and discover. One reason it's so easy to love Doom is the multitude of other players and creators in the community who are likewise passionate about Doom, its history, and legacy, to this day.
When I play Doom, it's more than just a video game. It's a chance to experience, for example, John Romero's map with Bobby Prince's music and John Carmack's technological wizardry under the hood. And not to diminish the incredible work that the entirety of the id team put in (and in some cases continue to put in) to everything Doom.
So yes, the classic Doom games are great video games. But they're also a fascinating story with an unarguable legacy and a truly dedicated community. And, I'd wager, the more of these you can take in together, the more holistic and enjoyable the experience will be.