Regardless of how strong the Doom Slayer is in Doom: The Dark Ages, going for the best upgrades in the game is your best strategy.
The upgrade system in Doom: The Dark Ages splits between attribute upgrades and equipment upgrades. For the former, you need to acquire Demonic Essence and they raise your Ammo capacity, Health, and Armor. On the other hand, the latter involves visiting Sentinel Shrines and spending resources to make your favorite pieces of equipment stronger.
In this guide, you find all the best upgrades in Doom: The Dark Ages for your weapons, shield, and melee weapons.
How to upgrade weapons in Doom: The Dark Ages
To upgrade your guns, shield, and melee weapons, you must visit a Sentinel Shrine. You can only find them during the chapters in specific locations, so you can’t upgrade your gear before starting a mission.
You need Gold, Rubies, and Wraithstones to upgrade your guns. Most of the initial upgrades cost only Gold, but eventually, you’ll need a couple of Rubies to unlock mid-tier passive abilities. Wraithstones are used to unlock the final upgrade of a gun.
Upgrades for the shield (and Shield Runes) and melee weapons only cost you Gold.
Since you can’t respec, consider what weapons you’d like to keep using before spending Gold or any of the other materials.
Best weapon upgrades in Doom: The Dark Ages
If you have all the materials, you can also opt to upgrade every weapon you have. There are, however, crucial upgrades to focus on and unlock as soon as possible.
For the Rocket Launcher, you want to have its Cannibalism and Bloodlust upgrades unlocked because they give you more sustain during fights. Along the same lines, you want the Combat Shotgun’s Incendiary upgrade, which applies Burn to enemies, making them drop Armor pickups.
You should unlock Cycler’s Shock upgrade. As implied by its name, this upgrade applies Shock to enemies, making them more vulnerable to damage received. The support this weapon offers is amazing and shouldn’t be overlooked.
Once you have unlocked all these upgrades, you are covered for most situations in the game. Everything that can increase the damage of your favorite weapon or make it more useful during combat should become the baseline to decide where to spend resources from this point on.
Best shield upgrades in Doom: The Dark Ages
Your shield is not only a tool to interact with the world of Doom: The Dark Ages. It is the most important piece of gear you have and the upgrades it has access to make all the difference when making your way through the final chapters of the game.
The best shield upgrades are the Auto Turret and Heaven Splitter Shield Runes. These runes are abilities which you unlock during the campaign and you can upgrade them with Gold.
The Auto Turret is the third Shield Rune you unlock and the idea behind it is quite simple. Whenever you parry a Hell Surge projectile (melee attacks do not trigger this ability) a machine gun is summoned to attack enemies.
Its third upgrade makes enemies drop Health orbs when hit by the rune’s effect. So, having this rune upgraded means that you have a second gun helping you to kill enemies and stay alive.
Now, Heaven Splitter is the last but most powerful Shield Rune you have access to. With this rune equipped, whenever you parry a Hell Surge projectile, enemies get stunned. Whether they are simple demons or large enemies like a Cyberdemon, they will stop acting for a few seconds, giving you the time you need to recover or kill them.
The fourth upgrade for this rune applies Shock when enemies are stunned, increasing the damage they take. Because you only get Heaven Splitter later in the game, by the time you have unlocked all its upgrades you will be close to the final chapter of Doom: The Dark Ages. Even so, investing all your Gold in upgrading Heaven Splitter is worth it.
Best melee upgrades in Doom: The Dark Ages
Melee weapons have a central role in your gameplay loop since you can recover ammo by hitting enemies with them. The decision on which one to run should be solely based on personal preference. Each of them has, however, upgrades you should unlock as soon as possible.
For the Power Gauntlet, you should go for the Duelist and the Jolt upgrades. With the former, whenever you parry a Hell Surge attack, it speeds up the regeneration rate of your melee charges. This will increase the times you can use melee attacks in a fight, preventing you from running out of bullets.
Jolt is a great upgrade for your Power Gauntlet since it applies the Shock debuff to enemies, who take more damage while under the effect of this status.
Now, if you’re actually running Flail as your melee weapon, be sure to save money and unlock its final upgrade, Engulf. This upgrade capitalizes on this weapon’s best feature, the capacity to scorch enemies, making them drop Armor orbs as well as ammo.
The last melee weapon you unlock in the game is the Dreadmace, a powerful one-hand mace. While all the upgrades for this weapon are good if you plan on using it as your melee weapon, you should unlock its first upgrade Reaper as soon as possible.
Because you have only one melee charge when using the Dreadmace, taking the most out of each swing is crucial to making it work. Reaper is an upgrade that makes demons killed by the Dreadmace drop more Health orbs.
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