DOOM Eternal: Tips and Tricks to Make Ultra-Nightmare Easier

a guide to help people go from playing on nightmare to beating ultra nightmare.

Introduction:

I used to think that Ultra Nightmare was not for me, that only certain people could be so good at this game that they could take on a challenge like that, that it was too hard and unforgiving. But I was wrong. After a lot of time and effort, analysing what went wrong each run and adapting, I was not only able to beat the base game on UN, but also the DLCs and Master Levels. And I believe that anyone can do it with enough time and effort.

I didn’t learn how to do this without the help of others. Specifically, people who posted guides, walkthroughs, and other useful tips online. So I wanted to contribute by creating this guide, which is a collection of everything I learned while attempting UN. I'm not the best player ever but i still feel like i can share some things that could help others on their UN journey.

General tips

• keep moving

  The best way to survive is to get hit less often, and the best way to do that is to move more. Don't stay in the same place for too long, move around the entire arena in an almost continuous circle. This way, you always maintain a safe distance from the demons, since they’ll constantly have to chase you. But don’t just run in straight lines, jump around and strafe in alternating directions to avoid projectiles.
  
  Even in small corridors, you can't stay still. Jump around and use the limited space to its fullest.
  

• Use your equipment

  There are a lot of tools at your disposal. Remembering you have them, and actually using them, is a key part of getting better.
  
  

  • Chainsaw

    DON'T SAVE UP FUEL, only save up for 3 charges if you can find 2 extra canisters close to each other. otherwise just use it whenever you need to, even if you got 2 charges. its better to start each battle fully stocked then killing 1 heavy demon 3 rooms from now.
    its also important to chainsaw often during combat, don't wait until your fully empty. do it in between fighting heavy demons.
    
    

  • Flame Belch

    use it constantly even if you are full armor, it will create extra armor shards on the ground which can soften blows when you do get hit. and don't just look for the perfect opportunity with a bunch of fodder demons, its better to constantly use it on 1 or 2 demons then to barley use it each arena.
    
    

  • Ice Bomb

    its so powerful, you can just completely freeze the biggest threats in the arena and deal free damage if not just kill them. Or you can also restack your health if you have the upgrade. finding a small group of fodders freeze them, trow a grenade, burn them before it explodes and you are back in the fight.
    but you can only do this if you don't forget to use it.
    
    

  • Grenades

    its free damage you should be trowing them whenever there off cool down. and when you get the concussive upgrade its utility becomes even greater, you can falter demons to interrupt attacks, get close for bloodpuch or extend the stun duration of marauder.
    
    

  • Bloodpunch

    its underrated tbh, its a strong aoe attack that can give you some breathing room for when you get cornered. don't be afraid of using it. you can get it back by glory killing 2 zombies.
    you can also bloodpunch a heavy and glory kill them to get it back for a net 0 kill.

• falter

  faltering is a mechanic that when you learn how it works and how to properly exploit it, it can drastically improve your game play. if you don't know what it is, its basically making the demons loose their footing. interrupting any attack and needing to re-balance themselves before they can continue their assault. it makes bloodpunching demons like the cyber mancubus and doom hunter risk free and can be done in numerous ways. which includes but is not limited to. heat blast grenade(concussive blast upgrade). remote detonation. microwave beam.
  
  
  but you can also falter demons by just hitting them hard enough, if a hell knight is stampeding towards you. getting a clean hit with the balista will make them stumble. this however is not repeatable. after doing this to a demon they gain soft resistance to this kind of falter and wont be so easily done again. the 3 knight enemies(hell knight, dread knight, and baron) all can be faltered with the chain gun which uses the same mechanic as described above with the balista.
  
  
  

• don't underestimate the enemy

  just because you learned some fancy combo's and can delete a baron in seconds, doesn't mean they cant delete you. don't underestimate the amount of damage some attacks do, especially melee attacks. even small demons can pack a punch up close.
  
  

• weapon switching

  i'm assuming that if you are reading a guide about Ultra Nightmare that you know what weapon switching is, if not a short explanation is that switching to a gun skips reload animations.
  
  another thing that some people may not know is that you can hold LMB while switching and it will shoot the next gun as soon as it can. this can increase your weapon swap speed as you don't need to react to when the gun is on screen. it however does not work with weapon mods so precision bolt and sticky bombs do require you to time your shots.
  
  the best gun to weapon swap with is the heavy cannon, specifically with the precision bold. this not only has great ammo efficiency it also swaps insanely quickly into other guns, increasing your overall rate of fire. this is especially noticeable with the rocket launcher. switching between these 2 can be done insanely quickly.
  
  
  

• punch cancelling

  so switching weapons causes reload animation to be skipped, and for some reason this also applies to your fist.
  
  there is a bit more to it than just punching. you got to shoot your gun of choice, punch, and then during the animation switch back to the gun you were holding. or just hold LMB and spam punch and your weapon key. either works, the last one probably even faster.
  
  
  

• restacking

  your going to get hit in the face. and its going to hurt. best thing to do in that situation is to disengage and restack. run away from the demons that are currently pummelling you and find some fodder to icebomb/flamebelch/chainsaw.
  
  to safely get away from a dangerous situation you can use the shield from the chain gun, and if you are being body blocked bloodpuch should be able to clear the way enough for you to pass trough. after that use the meat hook or balista to put some distance between you and the demons. its also very important to use the hallways in between bigger arena's to restack. always enter a big fight with max resources if possible.
  
  And if you want to do something during a fight, don't tunnel vision on it. I have seen many clips of UN runs ending bc they try to glory kill 1 particular demon. get body blocked and instead of disengaging and restacking they keep trying to go for this 1 demon eventual dying. If your plan of attack is failing, take a step back. and rethink. don't keep trying to make it work.
  
  

• fps

  certain things in this game are affected by high fps, some projectiles move faster, some melee attacks reach farther and deal more hits, etc.
  
  so hearing this you may think that its harder on higher fps. and you would be correct.... or at least half correct. you see its not just the demons that got some faster attacks you do too. you can not only weapon switch faster your movement also gains a boost by making bunny hoping much easier and more effective. also side movement with the meathook is much faster(some times to fast).
  
  I personally prefer to play at 250fps. but this is after i beaten some UN runs. the first ever run i did was on 60fps. which the game is designed around. so its more of a preference, do you take the risk of dying quicker for the ability to kill quicker. or do you play it safe and just play the game on the speed it was intended. that choice is up to you.
  as far as i'm aware there is no way to lock fps in the game settings besides v sync. if you want to set the fps target your self then i recommend using rivatuner, its free and seems to do what its supposed to pretty well,

Useful mods and weapon tricks

• heat blast and microwave beam

  both the plasma rifle mods can be very useful, not because they deal significant damage but rather because they add a useful tool in your arsenal. the ability to falter demons on a whim.
  
  
  • the heat blast will always falter demons even with 1 bar and thus can be used to interrupt enemy attacks or create openings to safely get close and bloodpuch; which is especially useful for pinkies, cyber macubie and doom hunters.
    
    
    
  • similarly the microwave beam interrupts enemies by faltering them, but this falter is a lot shorter than the heat blast but can be activated at any time. i find this really useful to interrupt baron of hell slam attacks.
    
  
  

• meathook

  Meathooking a demon and killing them with the super shotgun gives you 30 armor. but you dont have to kill them with the super shotgun. in fact i think its better to not do that.
  
  killing a demon set on fire by the meathook in any other way than the ssg will give 20 armor. BUT here comes our trusty best friend the precision bolt. meathooking a demon and stitching to PB to kill them much more ammo efficient, allowing you to meathook and gain armor more often.
  
  it also gives you a bit more options with when to disengage the hook allowing to get the kill and armor without needing to get close to the target you hooked. giving you more freedom of movement.
  
  
  

• energy shield

  the shield on the chain gun will block most* incoming damage from all directions. if you use this correctly it can get you out of so many situations scratch free.
  this mod is such a good survivor tool, don't forget you have it it can save your run.
  
  
  • need to chainsaw/glory kill in the middle of a horde of demons, don't worry spam chain gun and RMB while the animation plays
    
    
  • are you low health and you failed some parkour and fell of the map, don't worry just use your shield.
    
    
  • got a pinky and no ways of staggering it, don't worry just pull out your shield.
  *it does not block the ground puddles created by cyber mancubie or dreadknights.
  
  

• lock on Burst

  on its own, the lock on burst is an incredibly powerful weapon mod dealing massive damage very quickly; capable of killing most heavy demons in 1 burst. but did you know that you can weapon swap into it, resulting in 2 burst being fired at a insanely fast rate.
  all you need to do is:
  
  
  • shoot the precision bolt (and keep holding LMB)
    
    
  • switch to the rocket launcher and wait a couple milliseconds for a rocket to be fired
    
    
  • as soon as a rocket is fired hold RMB to charge the LOB and let go of LMB
    
    
  • once charged you can press LMB which will result in the first burst being shot
    
    
  • then release RMB for the second burst to be shot
  
  this might take some time to get used to but once mastered can be a great tool to getting rid of barons and tyrants. and if you trow in a grenade in the middle it can even 1 cycle a marauder.
  
  here is a great vidoe of some one explaining it. they do use controller but the principle stays the same.
  
  
  and here is how to do it on a marauder.
  
  
  

• arbelist and destroyer blade

  on its own these 2 mods are realy good, one being able to take out caco's and pain elementals very quickly and the other being able to delete entire waves of demons when used in the right time and palce.
  
  but why shoot 1 projectile when you can shoot 2?
  
  may take some time before understanding what you need to do but is very easy to do once you get it.
  all you need to do is:
  
  
  • charge and shoot 1 of the mods(keep holding RMB)
    
    
  • open your weapon wheel and switch to a trigger mod*.(this does not work if your weapon mod switch is scrolling up or down)
    
    
  • then let the weapon wheel go and you should have shot a second projectile, if not then try doing it faster.
  *trigger mods are the mods you need to switch to in order for this to work, they are different depending if you shoot the arbalest or the destroyer blade. the mods listed below are the mods you need to switch to
  
  for the arbalest you need to use on of the following
  
  • Micro-Missiles
    
  • sticky bombs
    
  • microwave beam
    
  • lock on burst
    
  • turret mode
  
  for the destroyer blade you need to use on of the following
  
  • Precision bolt
    
  • full auto
    
  • heatblast
    
  • remote detonation
    
  • energy shield
  
  i personally like to change the weapon wheel to the image below, this makes it so that i can use the left and bottom for areblist and top and right for destroyer blade since i usually have the required mods equipped by default
  
  
  also here is some one else who is far better than me in this game explaining it.
  

Demons To look out for

it's very important to know and understand your enemies. this way you can best avoid their strongest attacks, and exploit their weaknesses. here is a list of the some attacks you should look out for and some tricks to take out some hard to kill demons.

• Shield Soldier

  unlike the normal soldiers they have a fully automatic shotgun which will kill you in 1 second(not joking i timed it). they should not be underestimate. take them out as soon as possible or just avoid being anywhere close to them.
  

• mancubus

  if you get to close they will do a aoe attack on the ground which deals a LOT of damage. so keep your distance, or use falters/stuns before getting close.
  

• Cacodemon

  don't underestimate their damage, there bite can end your run very quickly. and their burst fire if you get hit by multiple shots can also be devastating. feeding them a grenade is a reliable way to kill them, but don't get to focused on it. sometimes its just better to shoot them to death.
  

• Arachnotron

  you will encounter these from level 1 where you don't have any weapons and upgrades yet. a good way of dealing with them early game is by destroying the turret with a sticky bomb and then firing a full clip of micro missiles at them. this should put them into stagger state.
  
  but before you are able to get the micro missiles you will encounter 3 Arachnotrons.
  
  • the first you can chainsaw by using the fuel you start the game with.
    
    
  • The second you can chainsaw by picking up 2 fuel canistors, 1 in the arena you just killed the first Arachnotron, and 1 just after the church and just before you can see the second Arachnotron.
    
    
  • And the third one in the subway can just be skipped, you can go in the subway ignore the 2 soldiers on your left. then turn the corner falter the soldier in front of you so he doesn't shoot you (but don't kill him). and then turn the corner ignore the Arachnotron and kill the soldier in front. if you now just go downstairs the Arachnotron should start fighting the soldier you passed by earlier. or at least sometimes. either way if you pass by fast enough they wont be able to get you.
  
  

• Whiplash

  Lock on burst can be a good way to reliably deal with them, or if you are confident that you can hit them with pb + balista then they go down just as fast as a hellknight.
  

• Carcass

  don't underestimate their melee attacks, and take them out as fast as possible so that their shields don't mess you up. 1 charge of the mastered destroyer blade kills it, so does PB + balista or a point blank shot from the SSG.
  

• Prowler

  Point blank shot from the SSG one shots them, balista staggers them. If you see him teleport it is either bc they changed elevation or they are behind you, always look around after you see or hear them teleport.
  

• Cursed Prowler

  there only a couple times they appear in the game, its easy to memorise where they spawn and greed them with a balista shot to the face as soon as the appear.
  

• Stone imp

  chainsaw also works on them, when they do the spiny move you just have to dash to disable to lock on.
  

• Pinky

  never get close unless you falter them with something or use the shield. their charge does a LOT of damage and their melee attacks are fast and can add up quick, you can blood punch while holding the shield this is the safest way of dealing with them. you can also freeze them or falter them using (plasma burst grenade etc) and SSG their tail.
  

• Dread-Knight

  a lock on burst stagers them, other wise same as helknight they go down fast with pb+ balista but need a extra balista shot. the aoe attack when juming can go trough shield btw.
  

• Cyber-Manccubus

  falter/freeze + blood punch + SSG point blank kills it in a second, dont get close without faltering it same as the normal mancubus it has a aoe attack if you get close.
  
  the acid puddles go trough shield btw.
  

• Maykr-Drones

  you can keep them alive so you can use them to restack when needed, but that doesn't mean they cant hurt you.
  

• Spirits

  increase the health, movement speed and attack speed of the possed demon, it also makes them not being able to be faltered or frozen and their weak points cant be destroyed. don't hesitate to use BFG ammo to either clear the room of distractions. or use the unmayker to quickly kill the possessed demon.
  
  there also some spirits where before they spawn you can kill the demon they were going to posses and prevent them from spawning. or to take out their weak points which makes them much less of a threat when possessed.
  

• Baron Of Hell

  quick swap lock on burst is a great way of getting them to low health, only use BFG on them if you want to clear the arena so you can safely focus them, its not worth using the BFG to kill them since it most likely wont.
  

• Doom Hunter(normal enemy)

  the sled can be destroyed same as cyber mancubus, freeze/falter + bloodpunch + SSG. after that you can Lock on Burst to stagger it.
  

• tyrant

  like the in game tip says, best way to kill it is to just keep shooting until it dies. use all your weapon comb's you practised here and just send a bunch of bullets their way whilst avoiding their attacks.
  

• Archvile

  never let it summon, the summoned demons will be added on the already active wave and be buffed as long as the archvile is alive. always interrupt it by faltering or freezing it. if it is to far away and it tries to summoning don't hesitate to send a BFG shot their way, also a great way of killing them is to freeze + 2x Lock on burst.
  

• Marauder

  there a bunch of fancy ways of killing it but the old balista SSG is more then plenty to beat the base campaign on UN, if you do want to learn how to 1 cycle them I recommend the quick swap Lock on burst. just do it as normal but trow a grenade whilst switching to rocket launcher.
  
  shooting it shield will make him spawn the wolf, it sometimes also summons it if i ignore him for to long, not sure if this is bc some other demon shot its shield or if this is just a mechanic.
  
  to get it to "consistently" flash green eyes, stay far away from him and he should trow a projectile and then run up and melee you.
  

• Blood Maykrs

  they die very quickly, but so do you if you underestimate them. you should take them out as fast as possible, but don't tunnel vision on them. be sure the other demons don't surround you while you wait for the blood maykrs opening
  

• Bosses

  for all the bosses in the game I recommend practising them on a nightmare save file just before doing it on your UN run. and maybe equip saving trow just in case. except the doom hunters, you should be fine there.

also its very good to know how each arena functions.

how many waves are there?
where and what demons do these waves spawn?
what is the trigger to spawn the next wave?

if you can answer all these questions for the arenas you struggle the most with then they become so much easier. you can kill demons as they spawn dramatically cutting down the danger of that wave. you can deliberately not kill a particular demon as its death will spawn the next wave, allowing you to clear the room of remaining threats before adding more. if you struggle with this then i recommend watching a walktrough of some one doing the arena your about to head into. and then try and answer these questions.

Upgrades

• Base Game

  these are the order of upgrades i usually go for.
  

  • Crystals

    • I usually go for Loot magnet first it will make it so you don't have to worry about picking up armor or health shards and can move more freely around the arena. so after hell on earth i pick the armor one and during exultia right before the slayer gate i pick ammo. this will also replenish all my ammo giving me a good start for the slayer gate.
      
      
    • then in cultist base and doom hunter base i go for quickdraw belch.
      
      
    • and after that get all the health crystals.
      
      
    • the ammo crystals can be saved to fill up the BFG since they replenish ALL ammo. so get armor op untill you get bfg.

  • weapon points

    • I go for bigger boom in exultia. this can be gotten before teleporting to hell.
      
      
    • then I get fast reset on lock on burst as soon as i get it.
      
      
    • if you did the slayer gate you should have enough points to fully upgrade SSG as soon as you get it. which allows you to master it before the slayer gate if optimised well.
      
      after that its preference tbh. I usually fully upgrade rocket launcher, balista chaingun in that order and after that just what i feel like.

  • bateries

    open all the crystals first. if you got all batteries and crystals you can get max health + loot magnet and quickdraw belch during super gore nest.
    

  • runes

    • air control is in my opinion a must get as your first rune.
      
      
    • i get dazed and confused as my second rune most of the time. it gives me a bit more breathing room. Since you dont need to worry about demons getting back up for a good while.
      
      
    • equipment fiend is pretty good since you just have more uptime on items that can be used to restack resources. Also if you get a kill of the mastered meathook it lowers the cool down of flamebelch.
      
      
    • search and destroy and bloodfueled is really good in the restaurant arena with the bezerk power up in ARC complex. I get it just so i can use it there. but outside of that i don't use it much.
      
      
    • saving trow can be gotten for bosses or specific arenas you struggle with. but i don't recommend having it in your rune slot all the time since it doesn't do anything unless you die. it takes away a slot for a rune that could have prevented you from dying to begin with.

walktroughs

this part of the guide is still a work in progress. i will try and add some recording to this part where i play trough UN and explain how to beat each level and individual arenas. but i don't have access to my pc atm so i'll do that later. in the mean time you can watch this walktrough of the base campaign by devo. they explain a lot of tech whilst also giving tips per level and arena.

Quality Of Life

• comfirmation

  if you have to keep replaying the game, keep skipping the same cut scenes, keep confirming the same upgrades. then the time it takes to confirm this can be quite annoying. luckily there's a option to decrease this time to 0.1 seconds. just go in settings > UI > menu confirmation time.
  
  

• Skipping Pick Up Animations

  whenever you pick up a new upgrade or collectable you stand still and look at it for a second before the game lets you move again. this can be quite irritating when you are replay the game over and over again. you can skip this in a very easy way, just switch to a weapon right before picking something up. the game prioritises the weapon switch animation and thus wont play the pick up animation. this only works if you switch weapons before you pick something up.
  
  

• Alt f4

  If you ever get stuck, fall trough the map or get a bug that stops you from progressing; then you don't have to restart your run. if you force close the game it will give you the opportunity to load back the last checkpoint. you can also do this if you need to leave for something now and cant finish the level to safely exit.

mental

you don't need to play perfectly and complete every level without taking damage, its fine if you keep messing up weapon swaps or get yourself in bad situation sometimes, as long as you can get out alive and keep going you can win, and if not that's also fine you will fail you will die but I honestly believe that anyone who can beat nightmare can beat ultra nightmare as long as they keep trying and learn from there mistakes.

its easy to lose hope if you keep dying on the first couple levels but after doom hunter base its so much manageable since you have more health to keep you from dying and more weapons and upgrades to help you control the flow of combat better.

to beat UN you need to make as few mistakes as possible in order to beat it but sometimes those mistakes are in early levels, it happens even if you before got all the way to urdak and then after it you die in exultia, that's fine. if you honestly feel like you are playing worse than normal, take a break and come back later, give your mind some time to processes what you are doing, and come back to the game with a clear mindset.

Outro

If you got any more questions feel free to ask in the comments.
and if you got suggestions to add or change things those are always welcome.

that being said I wish you a great day and the best of luck with UN.

[GriN\]

You got me thinking about some stuff I'd been neglecting. Nice one, well written

[DEGUSTACE]

thx