DOOM 64 – Beginner’s Guide

Introduction

Hello and welcome to the unofficial manual of Doom 64! This guide will go over the basic information, tips, and unexplained things of the game.

Public Health Notice

Doom 64 does not offer adjustments or options for players who experience colourblindness, motion sickness, or epilepsy.
If you are in any way sensitive to flashing/strobing lights, do not play this game. I have never ever played a game with such painful flashing lights, and many of them are unavoidable.

Difficulty Options

Presenting the four difficulty options:
Be Gentle – Same enemy count as “Bring it On!” but with more item pickups and reduced enemy damage.
Bring It On – Full enemy damage, I consider this the “default” difficulty.
I Own Doom – Increased number of enemies from “Bring It On!”
Watch Me Die – Highest number of enemies, expect to see the highest-tier enemies sooner in the game. Barons of Hell aplenty!

Key Bindings

Doom 64 has an odd way of binding keys; the game won’t overwrite keybinds for you. To unbind a key, you must select it while it’s displayed and then press it to remove it.
Doom 64 is also compatible with gamepads; the rebinding process is the same.

List of default keybinds:

• W – Forward
• S – Back
• A – Strafe Left
• D – Strafe Right
• SPACEBAR – Run
• CAPS-LOCK – Auto-Run
• TAB – Auto-Map
• R – Map Zoom In
• Q – Map Zoom Out
• 1…9 – Weapons
• E – Use

Available Launch Commands

-skipmovies -fast skipmovies to skip the opening video sequence.
fast to speed up enemy movements and attacks. I Recommend this for those who find Doom 64 slow.

Levels

The main story is composed of 25 levels. 8 are set in UAC facilities, while the rest are in Hell.
The Lost Levels expansion is available after completing the main story and it contains 6 levels.

There are also three related secret levels in the main story that contain the Demon keys for the Unmaker. It’s not necessary to complete the secret levels on your first playthrough. Also, don’t worry about the numbering of the later maps, it has to do with the ordering of the secret levels but your progression is not affected by it.

Passwords & Saving

Originally, Doom 64 saved the game by using passwords. When completing a level, a password is generated that saves the state of your health, ammo, weapons, and progression.
However, you also have ten manual save slots and a quick-save slot.

To quicksave, press F6. To load the latest quicksave, press F9.
Doom 64 does not have autosaving.

Here’s a link to a list of passwords: https://doomwiki.org/wiki/List_of_Doom_64_passwords

Don’t Die

Upon death, the whole level restarts. All enemies and items are reset, and you lose all your collected ammo, weapons, and demon keys. Beware that some levels contain inescapable death traps.

Weapons

In total, there are ten weapons in Doom 64. Ordered by weakest to strongest:

• Fists: Weak. However, the berserk pickup will greatly increase the punching strength until the level ends, or until death.
  
• Chainsaw: Same damage as the fists but faster. It’s great against Demons and Spectres.
  
• Pistol: Accurate at long range. Useful for activating distant buttons.
  
• Shotgun: One-shot zombies and Imps with it.
  
• Super Shotgun: The most versatile gun in the game. Powerful and almost as fast as the regular shotgun.
  
• Chaingun: Useful against hordes of medium-low health enemies. However, It does deplete ammo quickly.
  
• Rocket Launcher: Risky in close encounters and not accurate at long range. It’s great against high-health enemies.
  
• Plasma Rifle: Stronger than the chaingun and shoots quick projectiles. It works well against crowded enemies.
  
• BFG 9000: Fires a large projectile and upon impact, will hurt nearby enemies. I mainly use this against the Cyberdemon.
  
• Unmaker: At the start, it’s similar to the Plasma Rifle, but it can be upgraded by collecting the secret Demon Keys. Once upgraded, it becomes an energetic eraser.
  

In terms of ammo sharing:

• Bullets: Pistol & Chaingun.
• Shells: Shotgun & Super Shotgun.
• Rockets: Rocket Launcher.
• Energy Cells: Plasma Rifle, BFG 9000, & Unmaker.
• Backpack: Doubles ammo capacity for all weapons.

Enemies

There are 14 enemies and one final boss in the game.

• Zombieman: Low health and comes equipped with the pistol or shotgun. In groups, they’re dangerous in tight spaces and from afar. Don’t let them linger around.
  
• Demon/Spectre: Medium-low health. Sprints in a zig-zag-straight pattern and only has one melee attack.
  
• Imp/Nightmare Imp: Medium-low health. Fires projectiles and has a melee attack.
  
• Hell Knight/Baron of Hell: Medium/high health. Basically a powered-up Imp.
  
• Lost Soul: Medium-low health. Very fast and can perform rapid melee attacks. Use fast weaponry on these killer foes.
  
• Cacodemon: Medium health. Essentially a levitating Imp. Dangerous in small spaces.
  
• Pain Elemental: High health. Spawns two lost souls repeatedly. High priority target because you will die if you ignore it.
  
• Mancubus: High health. Slow moving but hits hard with fast projectiles. This one will test your reaction and dodging speed.
  
• Arachnotron: High health. Slightly faster than the Mancubus and shoots rapid energy projectiles. Very dangerous in tight spaces or when you’re unaware of your environment.
  
• Cyberdemon: Extremely high health. Shoots three fast rockets that will easily kill you. However, it’s easy to run away or to hide from it, as it’s a slow walker.
  

Tip: Like other classic Doom games, you can have enemies hit each other and start an “infight” among themselves.

Features & “Fun” Levels

Map 01 features a highly obscure secret that will take you to the secret level Hectic. If you complete Hectic, then you’ll unlock the Features menu. It allows you to go to any level in the game and activate cheats. Using cheats will disable achievements, but choosing levels won’t affect that.
The Features menu is also not permanent, I somehow lost access to it.

The four fun levels are distinct, hard challenges for those who found the main game trivial. They’re only accessible through the Features menu or by passwords.

This is all about DOOM 64 – Beginner’s Guide; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!