DOOM The Ages Update 2 Now Available, Brings The Ripatorium, Full Campaign Balance Changes; Read The Patch Notes
id Software has deployed DOOM The Dark Ages Update 2, which is a massive patch that introduces a key feature in the form of The Ripatorium, which is an endless arena mode allow players to customise their own combat encounters. Beyond that, there’s a new difficulty slider for Max Life Sigils and Atlan Perfect Dodge Window, plus full campaign balance changes and other quality-of-life improvements. You can read the full patch notes below.
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DOOM: The Dark Ages launched on May 15, 2025 for PS5, PC, and Xbox Series X/S. The game is a prequel to the 2016 series self-titled reboot, and chronicles the rise of the DOOM Slayer as he battles against the forces of Hell across a techno-flavoured medieval setting. You can have a gander at our full verdict here.
🛠Game Updates and Improvements
🎭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
🐞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
🛡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
[Source – DOOM The Dark Ages Patch Notes]
