Although Doom The Dark Ages may feature hellish nightmares throughout the game, it actually comes with a very inclusive difficulty setting design, perfect for all types of players. The difficulty settings in Doom The Dark Ages allow players to fine-tune everything based on what they enjoy. However, too much tweaking can also ruin the experience, as Doom games are best played with a little challenge. If you are confused about which difficulty is perfect for you, I have got you covered. So with that, here is a complete guide on the best Doom The Dark Ages difficulty settings to use.
Doom The Dark Ages: All Difficulty Modes Explained
Doom The Dark Ages has six different base difficulty settings, which can be further tweaked with sliders. We will come to the difficulty tweaks later in the guide. First, let’s understand the base difficulty modes added in the game:
- Aspiring Slayer: Enemies can be parried by simply blocking attacks without the need to time them. The player also takes less damage from incoming attacks, critical resources are worth more, so upgrading is easier, and enemies are much less aggressive and attack less often.
- Hurt Me Plenty: A slightly tight parry window for enemy attacks, but still much more lenient than other difficulties. The player takes standard damage from the incoming attacks, the resources are at their default values, and enemies are moderately aggressive.
- Ultra-Violence: Much tighter parry window, enemies hit harder and are more aggressive.
- Nightmare: Same parry window as Ultra-Violence, but enemies hit extremely hard and are extremely aggressive.
- Pandemonium: Same parry window and level of challenge as the Nightmare, but with a slight twist that Life Sigils are now used to restart chapters instead of reviving the character right where they died.
- Ultra-Nightmare: Has the same parry widow and challenge as Nightmare and Pandemonium, but the campaign ends once the slayer dies and only saves the progress after completing every chapter.
Besides the base Difficulty modes in Doom The Dark Ages, the game also includes multiple difficulty sliders that can be further tweaked. There are sliders for: Parry Window, Damage to Player, Damage to Demons, Enemy Aggression, Game Speed, Daze Duration, Enemy Project Speed, and Resource Values.
On top of these sliders are two combat assistance options for the Slayer: Enhanced Targeting and Empowered Attacks. These diminish the player’s requirement for precision plays and make enemies much more susceptible to damage.
Best Difficulty Setting for Doom The Dark Ages
As there will never be one difficulty that suits every player in the game, I can only assess the difficulty that best suits you. First, the Hurt Me Plenty is arguably the best difficulty to experience the game for the first time, as it keeps everything in the default numbers as the game was intended to be played by the developers. However, even this setting can be pretty challenging for players completely new to the FPS genre.
For new players to the franchise who are looking for a more laid-back experience, I would suggest picking the Hurt Me Plenty option still but increasing the Parry window to the max. If you are bad at shooting, then enable the Enhanced Targeting option, and if you are still having trouble inside the game, slightly decrease the enemy aggression.
Now, for veteran Doom players, I would again suggest Hurt Me Plenty mode but with some tweaks, but add the following tweaks: increase game speed slightly based on taste, and increase both damage to demons and damage to players for a more exhilarating experience. You can also set the Resource Value as you wish, as resources are not part of the core mechanic in the game.
Finally, I would only suggest the Nightmare or above settings for players who have at least completed the campaign once and are looking for more challenge. Those who do end up picking this option should also increase the Resource Values and the Damage to Demons option proportional to the Damage to Player slider.
So these are the best difficulty settings in Doom The Dark Ages you should pick. So, which setting did you end up picking? Tell us in the comments below.
