DOOM: The Dark Ages Just Got a Customizable Horde Mode and a Huge Campaign Rebalance — Here’s Why I’m Excited to Dive Back In

During QuakeCon 2025 — the annual celebration focused on all things from Bethesda Softworks and id Software — game director Hugo Martin shared some big news for DOOM fans, revealing that the second major update for DOOM: The Dark Ages is live now.

This update brings an entirely new Horde-style mode to the game for free. Titled the Ripatorium, players can customize each aspect of the mode, from the stage and the music to the number and types of enemies that appear.

You can check out an overview trailer for the mode below:

DOOM: The Dark Ages | Update 2 (4K) | Now Available - YouTube

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By the time you're reading this, the update will be live, so go ahead and check to make sure your game is updated properly so you can dive in.

There are two new Slayer skins to earn as well. The first is a QuakeCon-themed skin, which you'll get simply for playing the game sometime before September 1. The second, dubbed "Perfection," is earned by completing a Ripatorium encounter on each of the three maps.

Outside of the Ripatorium, there are also numerous balance changes and bug fixes, with the former designed to address player feedback around parts of the game that have felt too easy, especially on higher difficulties.

The (fairly long) patch notes can be found below, but some high-level changes include being able to adjust how many Life Sigils you can carry, as well as a new slider that adjusts the slowdown speed whenever you perform a parry or melee attack.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Update 2

• Difficulty Settings
  • Added a new difficulty slider for Max Life Sigils that allows players to set a Life Sigil capacity for their campaign run 
  • Added a new difficulty slider for Atlan Perfect Dodge Window 
    • Allows players to adjust how long the Perfect Dodge window is active when Dashing as the Atlan
• Life Sigil 
  • Updated the timing of the Life Sigil activation flow to smooth out the experience 
  • Added a line to the Life Sigil activation screen that tells the player which enemy type delivered the killing blow 
  • Added new sounds for when the player receives a killing blow to activate a Life Sigil, as well as a new sound when a Life Sigil is activated  
• Additional Game Settings
  • Added new gameplay slider for Parry & Melee Slow Motion 
    • Allows player to adjust the duration of the slow-motion feedback that occurs on a successful Shield parry or Melee strike when playing as the Slayer
  • Added a new Game Setting for “Weapon Class Switch Style” 
    • Standard [maintains current weapon swap behavior]
    • Pressing a Weapon Class input in rapid succession will now always switch to the currently equipped weapon within a given Class
    • Double Tap [NEW]
  • Pressing a Weapon Class input twice in quick succession at the beginning of a weapon switch will now automatically equip the other weapon in that class if available
• Audio 
  • Global pass on combat music to ensure system is being triggered correctly for each encounter 
• Gameplay 
  • Added ability to interrupt weapon bring-up and Shield Charge recovery animations sooner to perform a block or parry 
  • Loading tip for melee being used to refill ammo will now appear more frequently 
• Weapons 
  • Increased speed of Weapon Swap animations 
• Rail Spike Impaler
  • Balance adjustments including:
  • Reduced Impaler damage vs. Hellknight and Vagary demons 
  • Reduced Impaler damage vs. armored demons 
  • Put further emphasis on Impaler headshots by increasing headshot damage, and reducing non-headshot damage vs. various demons 
  • Shield Throws that deflect off of larger demons no longer drop Impaler ammo when the Stalwart upgrade is equipped 
  • Reduced the amount of Mace charge received from headshots with the Lobotomy upgrade 
• Plasma Rifle Class 
  • Lowered base ammo on Plasma Rifle Cycler 
  • Adjusted value of ammo capacity increase earned through Demonic Essence upgrades 
  • Lowered maximum ammo capacity of Plasma Rifle Cycler 
• Super Shotgun 
  • Reduced Super Shotgun damage vs. Hellknight, Mancubus, Pinky Rider, Cosmic Baron 
  • Reduced Super Shotgun damage vs. armored demons 
  • Player can now interrupt the Super Shotgun reload to perform executions 
• Chainshot 
  • Lowered starting ammo capacity 
• Dreadmace
  • Executions performed with the Dreadmace equipped now drop the same amount of ammo as executions performed with other melee weapons. The amount of ammo dropped as a result of other Mace attacks has not changed 
  • Reduced Dreadmace AOE damage, increased Dreadmace direct-hit damage to compensate for AOE damage reduction 
  • Parrying a Hell Surge attack drops less Dreadmace charge 
  • Drops triggered as a result of Impaler headshots with the Lobotomy upgrade equipped drop less Dreadmace charge  
• Gauntlet 
  • Lowered the amount of charge received via Duelist upgrade 
• Shield Saw 
  • Removed the slight cooldown on Shield Throw after catching it from a previous throw action
  • Refined Shield Saw parry detection
•  Atlan 
  • Stomp
    • Adjusted Stomp behavior to apply an electrical stun and shock state to enemies
    • VFX and audio adjustments to accompany this change
    • When attacking shocked enemies, the Atlan will punch faster
    • Updated the tutorials to cover the new behavior
  • Encounters
    • Updated Atlan encounters to account for new Stomp behavior 
• Dragon  
  • Extended empowered shot time 
  • Updated Anti-Dragon AI's projectile attacks in the tutorial section to include line attacks and remove the hourglass projectile 
  • Improved tutorial messaging for assault mode dash directions 
  • Added new HUD elements to indicate when the player should initiate assault mode and dodge actions 
  • Shortened the delay time for AI firing projectiles after lock-on 
  • Players will now skip straight to the Holy City of Aratum if tutorials are turned off 
• Enemy AI
  • Made the Kreed Maykr fight more challenging 
  • Extended the range on Prince Ahzrak's spear 
  • The Old One’s Aerial Slam damage radius now covers the entire arena 
    • FX and SFX have been added 
  • Increased the AOE of the waveblast from the Komodo’s Graviton arm attack 
  • Completed a pass on AI logic events to ensure they are stopping correctly when AI pain reactions are triggered 
  • The Pinky bite attack has been updated with new animations, FX and audio to help the attack read better 
  • HP buffs have been added to the Cacodemon, Mancubus, and Armored Mancubus. 
  • Addressed the Chaingunner Soldier’s target acquisition, fire rate, and overall player responsiveness 
  • Pinky Rider leader now fires shield projectiles at the start of the flame wall attack instead of basic fire projectiles 
  • Increased Mancubus Flamethrower damage 
  • Increased Mancubus Fireball speed and size 
• Levels 
  • Hebeth
    • A checkpoint now appears after reaching where the Accelerator would be picked up when playing the level through Mission Select 
  • Sentinel Barracks
    • A checkpoint now appears after reaching where the Pulverizer would be picked up
  • Reckoning
    • Added a checkpoint after the intro sync animation for the Prince Ahzrak and Witch fight
• Combat Encounter Updates
  • Sentinel Barracks
    • Tomb Arena
      • Reduced number of spawns in the Stone Imp wave
    • Vagary Champion Encounter
      • Reduced the Mancubus maintain from 2 to 1
  • Holy City of Aratum
    • Secret Gore Nest Encounter
      • Replaced a Nightmare Imp Stalker with a Chaingunner
      • Added Mancubus maintain for Pinky Rider Leader support
      • Added Imp maintain for Pinky Rider Leader support
  • Siege - Part 1
    • Southside Gore Nest      
      • Full encounter rework
  • Abyssal Forest
    • Overgrowth Mid Encounter    
      • Added 2 mortar Mancubus
    • Overgrowth Tree    
      • Added Hellknight
    • Ruins arena
      • Added 2 Hellknights
    • Canyon Fight
      • Added additional fodder along path
      • Added armored Mancubus with phalanx
    • Agaddon Boss Fight
      • Added 2 Mancubus
      • Added Imps
  • Ancestral Forge
    • Mines switch encounter
      • Added Chaingunner reinforcement
      • Added 2 Mancubus
    • Ancestral Final: all 3 switches to activate
      • Added Nightmare Imp Stalkers
      • Added Arachnotron
      • Added Imps
    • Final fight
      • Added Arachnotron on morale shield break
      • Added Hellknight on morale shield break
  • The Forsaken Plains
    • Left Tower Combat
      • Added Arachnotron maintain after morale shield break
    • Right Tower Combat
      • Added Arachnotron and Battleknight after morale shield break
  • Hellbreaker
    • Castle Interior Ambush
      • Added Nightmare Imp Stalker spawn and Revenant maintain
  • Sentinel Command Station
    • Maintenance Hallway Encounter
      • Added Imp Stalker maintain
    • Tank Hangar
      • Added Arachnotron maintain for leader support
      • Added Mancubus maintain for leader support
    • Final Atrium Encounter
      • Added Mancubus maintain for Cyberdemon support
      • Added Arachnotron maintain for Cyberdemon support
  • From Beyond
    • Machine Space Encounter
      • Added mortar Mancubus maintain
      • Reduced soldiers
    • Summit Encounter
      • Added Revenant maintain
  • Spire of Nerathul
    • Komodo Boss Fight
      • Added Arachnotrons
    • Cliffside Extra Life
      • Added Cacodemon and Battleknights
    • Gore Nest
      • Removed Whiplash and added Pinky Rider, Nightmare Imp Stalker, and Revenant before morale break, and Whiplashes after morale break
    • Hanging Ship Path, Stasis Emitter
      • Added Arachnotrons
    • Cathedral Path Stasis Emitter
      • Added Arachnotrons
    • Mountaintop Wraith Steel
      • Added Battleknights
    • Pre-BFC Gauntlet
      • Added Whiplash
  • City of Ry’uul
    • Undercity Tunnel Arena
      • Added Imp Stalker support for Vagary
      • Added Arachnotron support for Agaddon leader
    • Floating Island Gore Nest
      • Added barriers around floating arena while in combat
      • Adjusted timing of some enemy spawns
  • The Kar’thul Marshes
    • Northside Monolith Arena
      • Added Mancubus maintain after morale shield break
    • Southside Monolith Arena
      • Increased area in which enemies can engage the player
  • Temple of Lomarith
    • Shipyard Arena
      • Added Arachnotron on maintain around Vagary
      • Added a change roll command if you ignore the first Arachnotron and Revenant
      • Added force charge once the morale shield is broken
  • Belly of the Beast
    • Belly Formation Encounter
      • Removed Revenant
        • Added a maintain group with Mancubus and Armored Arachnotron around Vagary
    • Temple Return Encounter
      • Added Armored Arachnotron around Agaddon Hunter
  • Harbor of Souls
    • Courtyard Encounter
      • Added Revenant maintain to Vagary wave
    • Leader Komodo Encounter
      • Added Arachnotron maintain to Leader Komodo wave
    • Barge Deck Encounter
      • Added Mancubus to the Komodo wave
      • Added two Mancubus and two Lost Souls on morale shield break
      • Added Arachnotron maintain for Pinky Rider Leader support
  • Resurrection
    • Farm Leader Encounter
      • Added Whiplash to enforcer group
      • Added an Armored Arachnotron maintain around Cyberdemon
      • Change morale break spawns from 2 Whiplashes to Acolyte and Arachnotron
      • Maintain an Armored Arachnotron after shield break
    • Graveyard Leader Encounter
      • Added Cyberdemon to the front portion of the encounter
      • Changed the Pinky Rider to an enforcer and enforced heavies in that pod
      • Added Battleknight near the Pinky Rider Enforcer
      • Added Chaingunner near Arachnotron
      • Spawn Mancubus once the leader spawns in
      • Spawn Arachnotron around half leader health
    • Village Leader Encounter
      • Maintain Mancubus around leader Acolyte
    • Cave Gore Nest Encounter
      • Full encounter rework
    • Outside Gore Nest Encounter
      • Added Cacodemon maintain after first superheavy death
    • Blue Key artillery Berserk Encounter
      • Added Armored Pinky Rider, Armored Arachnotron, Mancubus, and 2 Whiplashes
  • Final Battle
    • All Encounters
      • Added 1 – 2 additional Titans per area
  • Reckoning
    • Final morale fight
      • Added Battleknight maintain after morale shield break
    • Boss Vagary rematch
      • Added Mancubus spawns
      • Added Armored Arachnotron maintain
• Lighting
  • Hebeth: optimized some shadows for potential issue with wide FOV 
  • Minor lighting adjustments to Ancestral Forge and Reckoning to improve readability in combat spaces

DOOM: The Dark Ages Update 2 Bug Fixes

• Crashes
  • Fixed a rare crash in Harbor of Souls when approaching the Fortress Gate near the Armored Mancubus on PC 
  • Fixed a crash when attempting to load Pandemonium save data from Update 1
  • Fixed a crash during the Spire of Nerathul water drain cinematic 
  • Resolved a rare crash on the map loading screen when transitioning to Spire of Nerathul
• Gameplay
  • Checkpoints
    • Players who die or reload a checkpoint after receiving a Demonic Essence upgrade no longer need to kill the leader again to receive the upgrade. This change also fixes the map completion being stuck at 99% for some players 
    • Addressed an issue with reloading the checkpoint or dying during the Armored Titan arena that caused new demons to spawn and progression to be blocked 
  • Traversal
    • Jump Pads: Several jump pads now correctly trigger the launching SFX and launch the player
  • Visual
    • Fixed a bug where small variations of the camera’s FOV (e.g. 90 to 91 or 92) could cause some grass instances to be culled incorrectly and disappear.  This made the ground look like it was flickering when firing weapons in certain locations
  • PlayStation 5
    • Fixed a rare crash on PlayStation 5 while in combat in the final demonic portal Slayer arena
  • Milestones
    • Fixed an issue that could cause the Berserker Milestone to complete early
  • Enemy AI
    • Made an adjustment to AI melee attacks to prevent damage from going around the player's shield
    • Lowered the idle time for the Battleknight between spawning and attacking
    • Battle Knight: Fixed a bug where axe swings wouldn’t consistently collide with the player when other AI were nearby
    • Agaddon Hunter now plays death animations and does not go straight into ragdoll
    • Cacodemon shield now visually appears without any invulnerability window
    • Fixed an issue with the Komodo, where it could still take damage from a parry AOE when surrounded by the leader shield
    • Mancubus: The Mancubus and Armored Mancubus now correctly stop firing projectiles from a severed right arm
    • Armored Mancubus: Parried projectile no longer hovers in air if the AI dies mid-flight
    • The Old One: The Mace no longer disappears during attacks after using Atlan Siege Breaker
    • Fixed an issue where Hell Carrier projectiles hitting the Dragon might not cause pain reaction SFX if the target lock was delayed
    • Addressed a bug where the Whiplash was not immediately stunned by the embedded Shield Saw attack after slithering
    • Enforcer Buff VFX now correctly display on Cosmic Barons and Imps
  • All Weapons
    • Resolved a rare issue where the player could get control locked after fully upgrading a weapon
  • Shield Saw
    • Shield Charge impact no longer triggers a Glory Kill on nearby dazed enemies
    • Shield Throw is no longer briefly inhibited after swapping to certain weapons and immediately firing that weapon
    • Fixed a bug that allowed for multiple parries in instances where it was unintended
  • Super Shotgun
    • Fixed a bug where the Super Shotgun reload would prevent Shield Throw
  • Accelerator
    • Overload impact VFX of the projectiles is now red instead of blue
    • Pulse firing the weapon no longer allows the player to charge the weapon for half the ammo cost
  • Gauntlet
    • Addressed an issue where Encore upgrade was affecting standard charges of the Gauntlet, increasing its refill rate beyond what is intended
  • Mace
    • Fixed an issue where the Mace would no longer cause Heavy Falters after purchasing certain upgrades
  • Atlan
    • Fixed an issue where the Atlan was invincible when dodging left
    • Fixed an issue where the Atlan’s Perfect Dodge window was extending beyond the Dodge action
• Levels
  • Hebeth
    • The Zombie fodder AI is no longer placed inside the wall behind the plasma accelerator weapon pickup
  • The Holy City of Aratum
    • Fixed a rare bug where the tanks on the assault mode tutorial tower would split in half and fire at the player
    • The Slayer can no longer become stuck in scaffold wreckage collision near the Cycler pickup arena on the undercity landing zone
  • Siege – Part 2
    • The Titan no longer disappears after restarting the checkpoint
    • The player can no longer respawn behind the demonic barrier by jumping into fade volume near the beginning of the bridge to the elevator room
    • The Revenant near the turret courtyard no longer becomes idle when pathing through the doorway
  • Abyssal Forest
    • The user can no longer become trapped between rocks and fall out of the world
  • Hellbreaker
    • Fixed a bug where the Crushinator Mission Challenge was counting Hell Tanks towards its completion
  • From Beyond
    • The checkpoint in the machine space now functions correctly and no longer places the player at the pre-summit checkpoint
  • Spire of Nerathul
    • The Slayer can now traverse on water in multiple places in sunken path secret area
    • The wall scrambles in the BFC temple area are now reflected on the Automap
    • The Imp no longer spawns stuck against the wall in the sunken path secret area
  • The Kar’Thul Marshes
    • The minor arena north of the Sentinel shrine will now correctly complete on the Automap
  • Temple of Lomarith
    • The Automap now includes the leader encounter Icon in shipwreck arena
    • The player can no longer hit the metal target node from the ground floor to bypass the Cosmic Eye water tunnel in shipwreck arena
  • Resurrection
    • The cave hazards on the path to the Kreed Maykr ship now move correctly after checkpoint reload
    • Added a delay before the Kreed Maykr can use a laser attack after being interrupted by a falter or daze
  • Reckoning
    • The Cosmic Baron in the berserk pickup room encounter before Prince Ahzrak fight can now fit through arched doorways
    • The Witch now has the daze ring after being dazed
• Engine 
  • VRS/VRCS has been implemented for PC, matching the functionality already present on consoles 
  • Corrected an issue in which there was visible banding on water surfaces in some cases 
• Cinematics 
  • Village of Khalim: The intro text no longer appears in gameplay briefly if the Player skips the cinematic
  • Barrier Core: Skipping the power core interactive no longer results in vessel door and light/smoke VFX remaining in the game
  • The Holy City of Aratum: The explosion SFX during the transition between cinematics is no longer cut off with tutorials turned off
  • Fixed an issue where press hold to skip cinematic is happening before you see the prompt to press hold to skip
  • Siege - Part 1:  Holding down the space bar on the wall climb at the end of the level will no longer cause the player to accidentally skip the cinematic
•  UI
  • Bethesda.net: The 20-character password limit no longer blocks players from linking their Bethesda.net account
  • The Holy City of Aratum: The active Dragon dodge tutorial window no longer overlaps the passive Dragon assault mode tutorial window
  • Adjusting the "Empowered Attacks" modifier now correctly applies the [*M] tag to a save file
  • Benchmark Mode: updated The Abyssal Forest screenshot
  • Accelerator: Overload: Both charge bars no longer rubber band and drop to lower charge amounts before returning to normal
  • Settings - Parry & Melee Slow Motion: Removed the extra impulse being applied to a corpse's ragdoll after executing a demon when this setting is turned off
•  Audio
  • Grenade Launcher: The Grenade Launcher explosion SFX no longer sounds distorted when firing multiple times in succession
  • Atlan low health audio no longer plays while around 350 health
  • Updated Stone Imp immolation sound effects

Even more ways to enjoy one of the best games of the year

I had an absolute blast with DOOM: The Dark Ages when I first played it and reviewed it, so seeing it improve even further through these updates is awesome. I'll be sure to hop in and play a bit to earn those new skins soon.

Outside of that, it's also great to see the return of Heretic and Hexen announced at QuakeCon. I'm excited to dive into this latest remaster soon.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is currently available on Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC (Battle.net, Steam, Xbox PC), and PlayStation 5. It's also included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass.

DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition
Buy now: $90 at CDKeys (Steam)

DOOM: The Dark Ages is a blast, proving that developer id Software can still reinvent the wheel when needed. New combat mechanics, weapons, and more shake up the established formula in fun ways across this blockbuster prequel to DOOM (2016). The Premium Edition includes the art book and soundtrack, which is quite good!

👉See Premium Upgrade at: CDKeys (Xbox)
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