Doom Eternal guide: What to unlock first and what to prioritize

Sticky Bombs count as grenades for the Cacodemons

In Doom Eternal, you’re often presented with choices on how to upgrade or advance your weapons or your Doom Slayer.

While everything is technically an enhancement, some are better for the early game than others.

The very first thing I recommend you get familiar with is the Sticky Bombs upgrade for the Combat Shotgun. While the Full Auto mod is effective enough (and available early on as you can acquire and swap both mods on the fly using the d-pad), Sticky Bombs are invaluable for taking out the Cacodemons.

Nearly every enemy in the game has a weakness, and for the Cacodemons, it’s chucking grenades into their mouths. While the standard tried and true FPS grenade is an option, you can also shoot a sticky bomb at them for the same effect. Once they’ve eaten the grenade, you can glory kill them roughly a second later.

Here are my suggestions for “first upgrades” for the rest of the main arsenal:

• Heavy Cannon: Precision Bolt (it’s easier to knock weak points off)

• Plasma Rifle: Heat Blast (a useful passive super blast that charges over time)

• Rocket Launcher: Lock-On Burst (very effective on quick-moving enemies)

• Ballista: Arbalest (think of it like a last-resort explosion option for heavies)

• Chaingun: Energy Shield (great for when enemies are laying down fire)

As for crystal upgrades, which enhance your health, armor and ammo maximums while granting you passive upgrades, I recommend pumping everything you can into ammo until you’re at least level three (out of four).

Ammo is a precious resource, and since chainsawing enemies grants you so much of it; you always want the maximum amount available so you don’t run out of everything in the midst of a heated fight where the chainsaw is down. The loot magnet passive is a good first upgrade to go for as it works automatically and has no learning curve.

When it comes to suit upgrades (the circular runic pattern, accessible from the pause menu), go for the most expensive upgrade on the right “frag grenade” tree first. A second grenade (5-cost upgrade) is very effective against nearly every enemy in the game. Then make your way into the bottom left “fundamentals” tree and grab everything you can there as it upgrades your speed: an imperative resource in a game as fast as Doom Eternal.

Runes are a little more subjective. You can only equip three at a time, and the clear-cut winner is the D&D referencing Saving Throw, which lets you come back to life once after a death (each respawn). For a second Rune I’d recommend Air Control, which does just what it says and helps during both combat and exploration. Blood Fueled is a great third option, since you’ll be performing glory kills often and will benefit from the speed boost granted by each one. Again, get a feel for your style of play and adjust accordingly.