Top Prioritized Enhancements for Sentinel Shrines in Doom: The Dark Ages' Early Stages
Rewritten Article:
Peep this guide for the top upgrades in Doom: The Dark Ages that'll make your early game a walk in the park. Don't forget, these purchases from the Sentinel Shrine are crucial for improved weapon functionality and overall efficiency:
- Combat Shotgun: Incendiary
The Combat Shotgun is your main pal in this doom-filled world. With Incendiary, score enough hits on enemies, and they'll catch on fire, dropping armor shards. Slay demons like imps, soldiers, and zombies to collect these shards, and even stronger demons will continue to burn, providing a small but essential amount of armor health.
Many clashes will feature continuous waves of fodder demons, allowing you to take a breather from the big baddies and farm shards for health. Protip: You can also farm a bunch of armor with the Incendiary upgrade between encounter areas. Your Slayer thank you, in his own, gruff way.
- Shield: Retaliation
Parry enemy attacks in Doom: The Dark Ages to dish out some serious hurt. With the Retaliation upgrade, parrying adds extra punch to your shield bash. Every parry sends a mighty shockwave, knocking back larger demons and squashing nearby fodder enemies.
Besides the enhanced knockback, Retaliation also causes nearby demons to be stuck in a longer, heavier stagger. Trust me, pal, it's a real lifesaver in the heat of battle, especially on tougher difficulties.
- Combat Shotgun: Smelt
The Combat Shotgun smoke and mirrors itself with the Smelt upgrade. It enhances the amount of armor shards enemies drop when afflicted with burn, making it an essential upgrade when tackling beefier demons like Hell Knights, Mancubi, and even Revenants later on.
Plus, if you can isolate a tougher demon from its pack, you can use the Combat Shotgun to top up on armor, even against the strongest enemies. Just watch your back while you're at it.
- Impaler: Stalwart and Salvage
The Impaler is fantastic for dealing with bosses, but its biggest con is ammo economy. Stalwart makes up for that issue by refunding Impaler ammo every time you parry a Hell Surge attack. With Stalwart in play, you'll have a limitless supply of ammo for situations best suited to the Impaler.
Salvage, on the other hand, recovers ammo when you get ammo back from Stalwart. combined, these upgrades ensure you always have an enhanced shot ready when you need to takeout a tough enemy.
- Cycler: Shock and Amplify
The Cycler is the Swiss Army knife of weapons. Its lacklustre damage, fire rate, and range to start are easily rectified with Shock and Amplify upgrades. Shock causes enemies to be shocked when enough damage is dealt, taking extra punishment from all attacks. They'll also spread lightning to nearby enemies when killed. Amplify, on the other hand, further increases the Cycler's damage against Shocked enemies.
With these upgrades, the Cycler can handle most encounters up to the late game, and even post-game it's good for crowd control or health top-ups for you.
- Super Shotgun: Speed Loader
The Super Shotgun is already a beast, but the Speed Loader upgrade ensures it stays that way—by vastly boosting the weapon's reload speed. Fast reloads mean quicker, more efficient obliteration of enemies in tight spaces. This speed boost is especially handy during high-pressure encounters where hordes of greater demons are charged at you all at once, and clearing them becomes a matter of survival.
- Flail: Ignite
I reckon the Flail is the best melee weapon in this game, able to handle single and multi-target situations. With Ignite inside the Flail, it locks in second-source armor shards from burning enemies. Don't count on it being your primary source of armor, though. Its lower damage means it won't take down the tougher demons, so use it wisely.
- Shield: Steadfast
The Steadfast upgrade shortens the time shield takes to recover from breaking and being damaged. If you're close to missing a parry only to break your shield, the shortened recovery time will be a lifesaver. To say it's saved me more times than I can count would be an understatement.
- Combat Shotgun: Flare-Up
Flare-Up for the Combat Shotgun can be grabbed early, as its effect becomes increasingly valuable as you progress through the game. The only catch: Fodder demons (zombies and soldiers) drop armor shards instantly when killed. You don't even need to apply burn first.
With Flare-Up, you'll find yourself virtually swimming in shards during intense battles—even just a few points of armor collected along the way can mean the difference between life and death. Plus, it's useful for exploration for the same reason Incendiary is: free armor top-ups from the masses of fodder demons that spawn between arenas.
- Embarking on the intense battles in Doom: The Dark Ages, the Combat Shotgun's Flare-Up upgrade provides a steady supply of armor shards, crucial for survival, especially during frenetic encounters.
- Incorporating gadgets into your lifestyle, the Cycler's Shock and Amplify upgrades turn this versatile weapon into a powerful crowd controller or health utility, excelling in encounters up to the late game.
- For tech-savvy players, the Super Shotgun's Speed Loader upgrade ensures lightning-fast reloads, an essential tool for obliterating greater demons in tight spaces, particularly during high-pressure encounters.
- When fighting the game's formidable bosses, the Impaler's Stalwart and Salvage upgrades offer a limitless Impaler ammo supply and swift recovery of ammo, ensuring you're always prepared for tough encounters.
- Smartphone users might appreciate the Flail's Ignite upgrade; it capitalizes on the masses of fodder demons that spawn between arenas, offering armor top-ups as you explore, similar to the Combat Shotgun's Incendiary upgrade.
