Tips and Tricks
From DoomRL Wiki
For general strategy on challenges, see challenge strategies.
Contents |
[edit] Commonly Missed Actions
[edit] Tactics
Key: Tab
Effect: Changes your tactics: cautious->running->tired(after some time, or after 'Tab' pressed once more).
Comments: Here are official bonuses that are given to you by running:
Dodge bonus +20% Move speed +30% Activation 0.1s Fire toHit -2 Fire defense +4 Melee damage /2 Melee defense +4
So, it's obvious: use 'running' for retreating from tough situations, or for approaching enemies (to melee them, or for better damage by shotgun). But after approaching enemy to melee him, change tactics to 'tired', because it seems that you suffer melee damage penalty while 'running'.
Remember that while 'running' the only penalty to ranged weapons is an accuracy penalty, which shotguns don't suffer from. As such, shotgun users should run while fighting tough enemies, even if they're not planning on moving around. It just gives you a few more lucky dodges, very handy when fighting enemies that normally don't miss like barons.
[edit] Unloading
Key: Capital U
Effect: Puts the ammo of weapons into your inventory. If standing on a weapon, that weapon. If not standing on a weapon, opens a menu of weapons in your inventory.
Comments: This tactic is very basic, but you will be at a large disadvantage if you do not know it, especially for more rare ammo, such as rockets and plasma. Equipped weapons do not show up in your list of weapons to unload. If your inventory caps out, all ammo you cannot hold stays in the weapon. It is important to note that the BFG 9000 holds 100 energy cells, while energy cells in a stack limit at 50 per stack, meaning that if you find a spare BFG, you should take it with you as opposed to unloading it!
[edit] AltReloading
Key: Capital R
Effect: Will reload both your pistols at once (With dualgunner), reload your combat shotgun entirely, reload a single shell in to the double shotgun or overcharge a plasma weapon.
Comments: Dual pistol reloading takes longer than a normal reload, but less time than 2 normal reloads. As such, if you only need a single pistol shot it would be faster to just reload one pistol and shoot one pistol.
Reloading a combat shotgun entirely is usually a bad idea, unless there's no even if you don't see any enemies nearby. The time it takes is much longer than a normal reload, and involves you standing still and taking hits for a couple of ingame seconds.
Reloading a single shell into a double shotgun is ammo efficient if the enemies nearby are very close to death, but your ammo problems shouldn't be THAT bad.
Only overcharge when you find a spare plasma rifle. Overcharged plasma rifles can be very usefull against Hell Knights, Barons of Hell and Arachnotrons. Note that only Hell Knights sure to die from this, Arachnotrons and Barons of Hell will probably get mortally wounded. Using it for a BFG 9000 may be fun to try, but remember there are only a few in the game.
[edit] AltFiring
Key: Capital F
Effect: Does an aimed shot with the pistol, fires a single shell from the double shotgun, chainfires with a chaingun or plasma rifle.
Comments: Aimed shots are great for people who didn't get eagle eye as their first trait (Shotgun game, perhaps?) and are having trouble hitting the former humans on level 1. It just takes a little bit longer, so the other former humans might get double turns when firing back.
Firing a single shell out of a double shotgun isn't really that useful at all, firing them both at once will do 50% more damage and take half the time. It's really only good for saving ammo, but shotgunners aren't exactly known for running out of ammo quickly.
Chainfiring will heavily increase your firepower after the 3rd consecutive turn, so use it against enemies that will take more than 3 turns to kill, like Barons.
[edit] Tricks
[edit] Barrels
Barrels are very useful in the right situation. If you see even one enemy standing near a barrel, shoot the barrel, not the enemy! It'll do major damage, cause knockback, and it can damage ALL enemies within the blast radius. Barrels can also be shoved by walking into them. They will move in the direction you move into them from. Using this tactic you can set up a barrel chain reaction "trap" that you can lure enemies into. Also, if you know there are enemies behind a wall, line up as many barrels along that wall as you can, shoot one, and you'll take out the entire wall and heavily damage all enemies behind it! If you know there are enemies in a small or narrow room, you can destroy the walls with a barrel to open the place up. This gives you more room to maneuver as well as room to fire the Rocket Launcher and BFG 9000 without worrying about hurting yourself. The downside to using barrels is that the explosion will destroy any items caught in the blast radius.
However, as of the latest version, there are now three types of barrels. The standard explosive ones, and two that cover the floor around it in acid/lava. When thinking about shooting one of the other types of barrels, be careful about destroying acid/lava barrels that might cover the way you need to go! While dousing the area around say, the stairs, with just acid might be bearable, having to wade through lava might result in otherwise-preventable damage to boots, use of medkits, or just a simple untimely death. And what's worse, the later levels tend to have far more of the Napalm Barrels (those being the lava-spewing kind)...
[edit] Multiple Weapons
Carrying around multiple weapons may not seem like a good idea, but it can be useful. While most weapons hold less ammo than a stack will, the BFG 9000 hold 100 cells as opposed to a stack of cells, which caps at 50. Also, in many cases, switching weapons takes less time than reloading them. This is especially true for all types of Shotgun and Rocket Launchers. If you have the extra space, it's not a bad idea to carry around a spare Rocket Launcher on lower stages, as you will often get rushed, and reloading takes a while. This time-saver can often be a life-saver. It's also not a bad idea to carry around multiple Shotguns or Combat Shotguns for the first few levels, and this tactic makes Hell's Arena a joke.
[edit] Playing Slots
Some levers make enemies appear. These enemies will stand around doing nothing for a certain amount of (your) turns, depending on how fast they are. This gives you an excellent opportunity to gain more experience, especially in the first couple of levels where the enemies will usually be former humans, sergeants, captains, imps, demons and lost souls. Having a chaingun or combat shotgun is usually sufficient to kill these enemies, and since a lot of the enemies spawned by levers will drop ammo when killed you do not need to worry about running out. Beware though that the deeper you go, the tougher the enemies spawned this way will get. you may want to leave the levers beyond level 10 alone, unless you feel like some excitement!
[edit] Scouting With The Shotgun
If you hit an enemy, it will make a distinct sound. You can use this to your advantage by shooting a shotgun type weapon in a direction you haven't explored yet. If there are any enemies in that direction there's a good chance they will get hit, as the shotgun's damage spread out. Listen to the sounds the enemies make, and you can switch to your favorite tactics/weapon combo to engage them before you even see them!
[edit] The Thermonuclear Bomb
The thermonuclear bomb does 6000 damage to everything on the level, more than enough to kill every enemy, destroy every wall and item and give you a silly "-5960/50" HP on your mortem. However, it can both be used as a last resort to get a partial win against the cyberdemon (Which will count as a win for badge collecting and challenge winning purposes) and a level skipper provided you have some sort of means to absorb 6000 damage.
[edit] Rhythm and Pattern in Enemy Attacks
Most enemies are either slower than you or faster than you, so try to work out their pattern. When fighting faster enemies, dodge when you think they'll get a double turn and fire only when they're going to fire back once. For slower enemies, dodge when they fire at you then give them a quick shot when they're reloading. Learning the cyberdemon's pattern like this will make him much less of a chore to defeat.
[edit] Corner Tricks
When firing around corners, enemies might not fire back because they can't see you despite you being able to see them. The most common corner trick is set up like this:
........ ......O. @####### .# .#
However, the enemy must be killed before it gets too close to you, or you can use a weapon that knocks the enemy back such as a shotgun or a rocket launcher (if the enemy is far enough where the rocket launcher wont destroy your cover)
Another thing to note is the enemy must be close to the wall. Firing at the cacodemon in this image will likely result in a counterattack:
........ ......O. ........ ........ ........ @####### .# .#
[edit] Doors
Doors are your friends. If the enemy can't see you it won't attack you, so while you're sneaking up to a room from the side you might want to close the door so you can slip past unnoticed. You can also slip out in a bad situation and close the door to give yourself some breathing room. Just remember that certain types of enemies (such as Former Humans) can simply open the door again.
Doors are your enemies. Lurking enemies love to get in the first shot and they'll likely do it either when you sidestep into a room or open a door. This is very dangerous with the tougher opponents and just plain annoying.
Doors are in the way. Got a door in your way? Close the door and shoot it. No more door. This is especially useful when dealing with lurking enemies waiting to get in the first shot. This is also especially annoying when someone else shoots your door away so you can't hide behind it, but that's life. Annoying. And of course, "breaching" a door with a shotgun of rapid-fire weapon might result in hitting the enemies behind it, giving them a nasty surprise.
However, some enemies can simply open doors, and can be quite prone to doing so...they may do so while actively pursuing you, or simply while roaming the level. While closing doors behind you as you explore a level may not stop these enemies, you can still see doors that you have passed...including whether they're open, allowing you to see that an enemy is wandering areas that you've already been through.
