Doom Eternal: 10 Best Weapon Upgrades
Doom Eternal has gone out of its way to improve upon its prior iterations, and these are the best weapons upgrades in the latest installment.
Doom 2016 introduced a suite of new weapons and upgrades for players to earn while blasting the forces of Hell. Just like the last title, Doom Eternal has a wide range of weapon mods and upgrades for players to earn.
Fan favorites like the Combat Shotgun’s Sticky Bombs return as well as new additions like the Super Shotgun’s Meat Hook. No matter your playstyle, there is a weapon mod for you. With Doom Eternal’s focus on more strategic gameplay, using the right tool for the right job is more important than ever. Lock and load as we count down the best weapon upgrades you can apply to your favorite mods first in Doom Eternal. This article contains minor combat spoilers for Doom Eternal.
Updated May 6, 2023 by Amanda Hurych: Doom Eternal remains a thrilling, fast-paced shooter experience, requiring players to tackle a host of demons than can be gutted, dismembered, and bullet-ridden in a variety of ways. Your weapon mods help determine how you go about this glorious, gory killing, and as such, you want to make sure you’re upgrading them in the best way possible. You’re able to fully upgrade all your weapons over the course of the game, but we’ve updated this article to more fully highlight which upgrades are the best to start with!
10 Plasma Rifle: Microwave Beam – Faster Beam Charge
Using the power of microwaves, the Plasma Rifle can cook demons alive with the Microwave Beam attachment. It kills demons slowly, but the utility this mod provides is too good to pass up.
Every demon that is in the beam’s path will be faltered, unable to move as the beam slowly builds up a charge. When the charge fills, the demon explodes, damaging all nearby enemies.
That slow speed makes this weapon prohibitive until getting the Faster Beam Charge upgrade, taking down the channeling time by 66%. To defeat the Mutated Seraphim boss requires the use of this weapon, and that boss is likely to be impossible without the application of this upgrade, so get it early.
9 Ballista: Destroyer Blade – Charging Blast
While the Ballista is a nerfed version of the Gauss Cannon from Doom 2016, it is still a formidable weapon that deals great damage with each shot. In Doom Eternal, the Ballista can equip itself with the Destroyer Blade attachment, releasing a wide blade of energy after a long windup period. The blade itself deals incredible damage, instantly killing all but the toughest of demons with a single hit.
The learning curve for this weapon is steep because landing a perfect shot with so many moving targets is a tall order. But the Charging Blast upgrade solves this problem, stunning enemies after reaching a full charge. This creates a window for you to release the perfect shot that wipes out hordes of enemies at once.
8 Rocket Launcher: Remote Detonate – Concussive Blast
Unlike most games, the Rocket Launcher in Doom Eternal acts more like a utility weapon than a proper weapon of mass destruction. It still deals damage, but it is best used as a means of crowd control. With the Remote Detonate mod, the Rocket Launcher can detonate its payload before it hits an object, allowing you to damage a group of enemies with the rocket still in flight.
On tougher settings, the price of a stun simply can’t be beaten. The damage of the rocket launcher speaks for itself, but giving it the ability to create a stun with the Concussive Blast upgrade makes it a useful utility weapon when trouble closes in.
7 Ballista: Arbalest – Full Speed
The Destroyer Blade is fantastic at slaying hordes of demons clustered together, but it lacks long-range capabilities. The Arbalest mod more than makes up for that. This charged shot fires a bolt of energy that detonates after a short time. Not only is the damage fantastic, but it can also instantly kill Cacodemons and seriously harm Pain Elementals.
With such a devastating single shot, it’s a shame that charging it up creates a moment of vulnerability for the Slayer. Thankfully, the Full Speed upgrade takes care of this problem, giving a speed boost while charging up the shot and preventing enemies from getting off free shots. Players are hoping this is one of the changes that stay through to the sequel.
6 Heavy Cannon: Precision Bolt – Fast Loader
Aiming down sights in a game as frantic as Doom Eternal sounds like an awful idea. It was easily the worst weapon attachment in Doom 2016, so what changed? The attachment itself saw few changes, now capable of blowing up the enemy’s skull when mastered.
It gets even more powerful when acquiring the Fast Loader upgrade. This doesn’t seem powerful, giving a 20% boost to firing speed, but this gap makes it so players can get two headshots in on bosses while they are stunned instead of one. That’s double damage against the game’s most difficult enemies.
5 Combat Shotgun: Full Auto – Fast Feet
If Doom 2016 wasn’t metal enough, try using a fully automatic Combat Shotgun. This attachment is incredibly fun to use, but it also has some unique gameplay quirks no other attachment can offer.
Mainly, the Combat Shotgun’s Full Auto mod can bypass Doom Eternal’s strict ammo economy. When you slay a demon with this fire mode, you recover shotgun shells from their body. But the best upgrade to this mod happens when you don’t have to fire at all. Simply by equipping it, the Slayer’s movement speed increases by 20%. In a game where the battles rely so much on movement, this speed boost is invaluable.
4 Plasma Rifle: Heat Blast – Super Heated Rounds
Besides damaging shields, the Plasma Rifle is a subpar weapon in most scenarios when compared to the Chaingun, Super Shotgun, or Combat Shotgun.
That is until you obtain the Heat Blast mod. This mod grants the Plasma Rifle a pseudo-shotgun blast alternate fire. Keep the trigger held down and the gun will build up heat which you can expend in a damaging blast in front of you. With the Super Heated Rounds, this buildup time occurs faster, creating a delightful balance between the single target primary firing ability and this area-of-effect Heat Blast mod.
3 Chaingun: Mobile Turret – Rapid Deploy
Miniguns in most video games are powerful weapons, firing with limited ammo to deal absurd amounts of damage. Somehow, Doom Eternal found a way to make miniguns from other games seem boring in comparison and turned it into one of the game’s most powerful weapons.
In terms of raw damage per second, this mod is the best, but it takes so long to deploy that it’s often considered suicide to enter this mode. Thankfully, Rapid Deploy cuts this transformation time in half, making it the ideal weapon against bosses and bigger baddies when they get stunned.
2 Combat Shotgun: Sticky Bomb – Bigger Boom
No matter the situation, the Sticky Bomb mod for the Combat Shotgun has you covered. It looks like a worse Rocket Launcher at first glance, but looks can be deceiving. When upgraded, the Sticky Bomb is arguably better than the Rocket Launcher.
It has more ammo and speed and almost as much damage. The one drawback is the explosion radius, but getting the Bigger Boom upgrade increases the explosion size by a whopping 45%. The best Slayer skins will be a matter of some debate, but nobody can talk smack about this upgrade’s effectiveness.
1 Super Shotgun: Improvements – Quick Hook
The Super Shotgun’s Meat Hook doesn’t deal damage or stun targets. Instead, it gives the Doomslayer unprecedented levels of movement.
Chaining to a demon will launch the Doomslayer towards them, giving a perfect opportunity to blast the demon to pieces. Alternatively, you can use the hook as a slingshot, using the newfound momentum to fling yourself across the arena towards a more advantageous position. The Quick Hook Improvement cuts down on the time between being able to grapple, which is critical for higher difficulties when players need another method of mobility. This is especially helpful when taking down the Dark Lord.
Source: www.thegamer.com
