The best Doom The Dark Ages upgrades for your weapons and shield offer substantial improvements in power and function. However, you’ll only be able to buy these upgrades if you go out of your way to find plenty of Gold, Rubies, and Wraithstones, throughout Doom The Dark Ages. And even then you need to find a Sentinel Shrine to spend them. Things get more complicated when you add in the fact that some weapons have dual perks that you can switch between, meaning some weapons have multiple configurations.
With that in mind, it’s good to know exactly which weapons you should focus on upgrading and which upgrades are broadly the best. To help you, I’ve laid out some advice on the best upgrades in Doom The Dark Ages that I found to be most useful, covering the upgrades you should be buying at Sentinel Shrines as soon as possible and the best weapon upgrade configurations.
The best upgrades in Doom The Dark Ages
As mentioned, unlocking Doom The Dark Ages upgrades for your guns, melee weapons, shield, and shield runes relies on you finding the necessary resources (Gold, Rubies, and Wraithstones) to meet the upgrade cost. You also need to find a Sentinel Shrine shop in the level you’re currently playing to actually buy the upgrades for your gear.
Conveniently, the game contains more than enough of these resources, so you will eventually be able to unlock every upgrade in the game. Although, if you’re trying to keep the Doom The Dark Ages length to a minimum and aren’t exploring much, you’ll want to spend your gold on what will help the most.
Here are the best upgrades you should unlock as soon as possible ordered based on when you unlock all Doom The Dark Ages weapons over the course of the game:
- All shield upgrades: Since the shield is a constant throughout the whole game, I highly recommend fully upgrading it as early as possible. The Retaliation and Extended Edge upgrades are very useful, but working towards Blade Master, the final upgrade, should be a priority.
- Combat Shotgun Incendiary upgrade: Allows you to apply Burn to demons which causes them to drop armor pickups, giving you a reliable way of getting armor. The next two upgrades help with this even more but I’ve explained the best configuration for the Combat Shotgun further down.
- Shredder Pincushion upgrade: The Shredder isn’t amazing, but this upgrade allows it to create a shrapnel explosion that can clear out demon clusters and is useful in the early game.
- All Super Shotgun upgrades: We reckon it’s the best weapon in Doom The Dark Ages, so it’s absolutely worth prioritizing the three Super Shotgun upgrades when spending your upgrade resources.
- All Flail upgrades: The Flail is a nice improvement over the Power Gauntlet and it has some great upgrades that make it excellent for generating armor for yourself and breaking enemy armor. Get Conditioning and Ignite as soon as you can!
- Eldritch Blessing Chainshot upgrade: Bypassing the charge time for the Chainshot with this upgrade is a massive help, letting you instantly sucker-punch an enemy right after a parry and potentially leaving you with enough time to charge up a follow-up shot. All the Chainshot upgrades are big improvements, but this one should be a priority as soon as you find the weapon.
If a particular upgrade isn’t listed above, that doesn’t mean you should avoid it – these are just the most useful upgrades. Every upgrade is helpful and it’s absolutely worth spending your Gold on any upgrades you can to improve the Doom Slayer as much as possible.
As I said, if you explore thoroughly and collect as much gold as you can (that’s one of our top Doom The Dark Ages tips!) you will be able to afford every upgrade in the game, so don’t sweat about having to save for the best. Although, there are several weapons that require you to make a choice when it comes to upgrades.
Doom The Dark Ages best weapon upgrade combinations
Where is the Dark Ages in the Doom Timeline?
Find out everything you need to know about the Doom The Dark Ages setting and lore before you play here!
The game doesn’t make this clear until you’ve spent your gold but for weapons that feature two upgrades in the same row, buying one of them actually unlocks both upgrades and you just have to choose which one to use. You can also freely switch between the upgrades via the weapons dossier menu if you fancy trying something else.
However, some upgrades are certainly better than others and the right combination of upgrades can make a big difference. Here are the best upgrades and combinations for each weapon in Doom The Dark Ages:
Best Doom The Dark Ages Combat Shotgun upgrades
- Smelt vs Blast:
- Smelt: This upgrade increases the number of armor pickups created when you use the Combat Shotgun to apply Burn to a demon. It essentially lets you have a near-constant supply of armor. Blast is also very good, especially in the early levels, but I found the armor-generation of Smelt to be a lifesaver later in the game.
- Tune Up vs Flare-Up:
- Flare-Up: For the next pair of upgrades, Flare-Up is the best choice, making fodder enemies extremely easy to kill and reliable for armor. Ignore Tune Up as it just isn’t worth it.
Best Doom The Dark Ages Shredder upgrade
- Pincushion vs Ricochet:
- Pincushion: Out of Pincushion and Ricochet, Pincushion feels the best. It lets you unleash some explosive power rather than rely on weak individual spikes to do the work for you and doesn’t leave you without your shield. Pincushion also benefits more from the Barbed upgrade.
Best Doom The Dark Ages Impaler upgrade
- Salvage vs Chronospike:
- Salvage: Both Impaler upgrades increase the weapon’s damage, but the empowerment provided by Salvage is better than Chronospike, dealing hefty impact and area-of-effect damage. However, Chronospike is still good and recommended if you like the time-slow effect for helping you aim.
Best Doom The Dark Ages Accelerator upgrades
- Stabilizer vs Modulator:
- Modulator: A faster fire rate equals faster damage-per-second so this feels like a no-brainer. Don’t bother with Stabilizer.
- Heatblast vs Mega Cell:
- Heatblast: Charging up the Accelerator to activate the Heatblast can be tricky but it’s powerful enough that I think it’s worthwhile, helping you clear groups of enemies or severely weaken larger demons. Mega Cell is a solid upgrade too but I think the Cycler is the weapon for you if you prefer a constant stream of punchy plasma fire.
Best Doom The Dark Ages Ravager upgrade
- Ignition vs Slow Burn:
- Ignition: Getting to the Ravager’s maximum fire rate faster means better damage-per-second and removing the movement penalty is a big help for this weapon. Slow Burn has too many downsides for it to be worthwhile.
Best Doom The Dark Ages Rocket Launcher upgrade
- Cooked vs Blood Sacrifice:
- Cooked: This upgrade is the safer of the two, providing you with a reliable way of buffing the Rocket Launcher through parries. Blood Sacrifice is also good but requires much more caution since self-damage is increased.
It’s a small amount of gold but getting the Doom The Dark Ages fire door in Hebeth open might be enough to afford one of these upgrades if you haven’t already solved this puzzle. Additionally, destroying all the various Doom The Dark Ages Wolf Statues will help you get some higher tier upgrade materials for those final steps, as will locating the extra-challenging Doom The Dark Ages Spire of Nerathul Wraithstones!
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