DOOM 3: BFG Edition

Let me first start off by listing what nightmare difficulty entails, that the other difficulties don't.

The main differences are:
1. As usually through story progression you would obtain the soul cube after the boss fight in hell, on nightmare you start off with the soul cube and it can be used every five kills.

2. Whenever your health is above 25 it slowly deteriorates by increments of five every five seconds until your health is back down to 25 again. So for example, if you use the soul cube and you gain say 50 health, 50 seconds later, regardless of if you took damage or not, you will be back at 25 health.

3. There are no health packs in the campaign, the only ways of gaining health is through the soul cube or health stations, but take warning that spamming the health stations the second you see them is not going to benefit you for more than 75 seconds, rather, you should save the health stations for if your health goes below 25 and you need to heal.

4. Compared to recruit and marine in which enemies only do 75 and 90 percent damage with their attacks, on nightmare enemies do 350 percent damage rendering almost every attack fatal. It is a good idea to save often and in places where you are safe. Always make sure there isn't an enemy creeping up behind you as you save, it may result in a "stuck" save where you die upon loading due to your inability to react quick enough to the enemy attack and forcing you to lose any progress you have made since the last autosave.

Now for some general tips:
1. One of the tips that the developers give you is to try and induce enemy in-fighting to save ammo. Do not do this, it is never worth it to try and waste time with enemy in-fighting, because it is rare and doesn't save enough ammo for the hassle it caused you.

2. Explore the whole environment and open all lockers, they are essential. Ammo should be no problem if you fully explore everything and use your ammo wisely. Even if you find four grenades and it causes an imp to come out, the gained grenades can offset the small amount of bullets wasted in the aftermath. If you explore enough, despite losing your weapons 2 times (once when entering hell, and then again when leaving it), you should still have near full ammo for most of your weapons by the end of the game.

Here is a visual walkthrough of the game. It should outline what to expect in most areas and help you open the lockers in the game.

https://portforward.com/games/walkthroughs/Doom-3/Intro.htm

3. Never save with less than 25 health and try to keep your armor at 125. With full armor you can survive some enemy attacks. Also, use your soul cube wisely, not only saving them for bosses but also things like hell knights and archviles as well.

**Complete Enemy Breakdown With Tactics (Alot of reading below, you may want to stop here)**

Zombie: These guys come in all different shapes and sizes, they are former UAC personnel gone bad. There attack consists of bludgeoning you to death and they walk sluggishly. They are very easy to kill by using the shotgun but any weapon would do.

Imp: The imp is humanoid in shape, has grey skin with bony scales on its arms and 10 or 12 small eyes. Their attacks consists of throwing fireballs at you and waiting in ambush around corners, jumping at you and then clawing you. Their attacks are easy to dodge by strafing/moving back and forth almost in a zig-zag. The shotgun can one hit kill imps, but you have to be very close to them to do so. The best time to take advantage of this is to stand near the imps spawn point, indicated by whispering and an orange electrical cloud, and point blank them when they appear as they do not attack as soon as they spawn. This method actually works for almost any small enemy that spawns by such means. Another good way to take them out is to trigger the imps and then hide behind a corner and as soon as they come around, blast em.

Lost souls: Lost souls are head-sized flying demons consisting of a human face mounted on a flying rocket engine contraption. When they appear they are usually numerous and they are very elusive. Their attack is to fly straight at the player and bite you with their sharp teeth. On nightmare, they can kill in one bite so they are not to be messed around with, I do not recommend the pistol for killing them, although it is effective, it is easy to miss. Use the assault rifle as the lost bullets will be nothing compared to your saved frustration.

Demon: The demon is large in size, has no visible eyes, its horns point straight forward, it walks on all fours in a canine style, and it has cybernetic rear legs. Its attack consists of walking up to you and biting you multiple times, shaking your screen and dealing considerable damage. The shotgun is the best way to take them out, taking about 2-3 well place shots but rockets and the chaingun can do the job as well.

Cacodemon: Cacodemons are floating demons who have multiple green eyes, as well as some longer, thin tentacles hanging from the bottom of its body. Its brain is clearly visible on the top of its forehead and they are usually encountered in places with high ceilings or open areas. Their attack consists of shooting an energy ball at you that travels linearly and can be destroyed upon shooting it. Cacodemons, usually, progressively get closer to you making 2 good shotgun hits sufficient in killing them, but for those ones further away, I recommend the chaingun or assault rifle.

Revenant: Revenants are tall skeleton-like demons armed with a pair of shoulder-mounted missile launchers that fire relatively slow-moving homing missiles. Although in my playthrough I found using grenades to be efficient in taking them out as it only takes 2, It has been pointed out to me in the comments that the plasma gun works really well in taking them out as well. The plasma shots have a wide radius that blow up the rockets and it kills the revenant considerably fast.

Commando Zombie: Commando Zombies are human marines transformed into brutal super warriors by the demonically possessed Dr. Betruger. They still maintain fragments of their human language as they can be heard growling the words "You!" and "Die!" Their attack consists of running straight at you at 50 percent more speed than the players max speed, meaning it is impossible to run away from them, and whipping you with their tentacle arm. They like to hide around corners and through doorways. They can easily be taken out by one good shotgun blast. An interesting way I found is when they are running at you, run at them as well and right when they are about to try to whip you, crouch and chainsaw their knees, they should miss the tentacle hit 90 percent of the time and you shouldn't have to use any ammo.

Z-Sector: Z-secs wear black uniforms and armor excluding the pistol guard, and can be identified from quite far away by the sounds of their radio communication. They can carry pistols, shields, shotguns or assault rifles and are pretty dangerous enemies on nightmare considering the accuracy or their shots. There are a variety of ways to take them out including grenades, for when they come at you while you have no cover, hiding around a corner and blasting them with the shotgun when they come around or by hiding behind a wall and shooting them with the assault rifle when they go into cover.

Chaingun Zombie: They are very similar in appearance to the commando zombie except they carry around chainguns and relentlessly spray it until they are hurt, or they have to reload, in which they then run away to seek cover. As they are tougher than Z-Sectors but just as accurate, they are no force to be reckoned with. Either throw 2 grenades at them to take them out or shoot 2 rockets, that is the only way to make sure you take them out quickly without taking significant damage.

Mancubus: Mancubi are very large, fat demons with a fireball launcher for each arm. They fire their launchers one at a time but very rapidly. Their projectiles can be easily avoided by strafing in one direction or zig-zagging. The only two weapons i recommend is the rocket launcher which takes about 4 shots or the chaingun which take almost a whole clip. As Mancubus do not appear very often, the wasted ammo should not hurt you too much.

Hell Knight: Hell Knights are huge, very muscular and heavy. An in-game examination of its spine indicates it has a massive skeleton. It has no visible nose. Its ears resemble deformed human ears, fused to the sides of its head, which makes them look almost like holes. Its obscure eyes are very small and black, located on the sides of the head just above the mouth. It is easily the largest non-boss enemy in the game. They attack by throwing green plasma balls at you that have insane splash damage, make sure you are nowhere near the ball when it hits the ground. Once again the only recommendations I make is the rocket launcher taking about 5-6 rockets or the chaingun once again taking almost a whole clip. The soul cube is also effective.

Archviles: Archviles are large, off-white coloured humanoid demons, standing a head taller than a normal human even in its standard semi-crouched pose. Its elongated arms are both terminated in bloody tumor-like bloated hands with huge, inward-retracted claws. Their first priority is to spawn demons into the battlefield, which it can do infinitely as long as it is alive. After spawning in creatures, they shoot a linear and very fast moving trail of fire at you that deals massive damage. They are top priority and must be killed first. Using the rockets (2-3) or the soul cube should do the trick. Strangely, about 50 percent of the total amount of archviles in the game can be chainsawed with no health lost, due to their tendency to not attack as soon as they spawn, rather they spawn in reinforcements first and attack second.

Wraiths: Wraiths are limited to melee attacks with their falx-like arms, and run forward to attack the player. They possess the ability to teleport, disappearing for a few seconds before reappearing several feet ahead of their previous position. The best way to take them out is to get one good shotgun shot on them. Since they have a tendency to stand still when they are reappearing this should be kind of easy.

Maggot: Maggots have two heads and two long black tongues (one for each head). Their back is hunched and consists of two large, tumor-like bloody stumps with retracting barbed bones protruding from them. They run extremely fast after you and try to bite you. They pose no serious threat as they are very weak and die from any weapon you may choose to shoot at them, but they can be annoying as sometimes when they get to close, you can miss a shot due to their crouched stance.

Trites and Cherubs: Trites resemble spiders and when they get close, they launch themselves at you. Cherubs are baby like demons, with fly wings and sharp claws and upon getting close, they launch themselves at you as well. Both enemies always appear with others close behind and can be very frustrating on nightmare because of the fact that they can one hit kill you. I would suggest using the assault rifle on them as it is quick and effective.

Vagary (Boss): The Vagary has the lower half of a giant spider and the upper half of a woman with what looks to be a mancubus fetus in her hind end. She attacks by using telekinesis of some sort to throw items in the room at you, but can also attack by melee. On nightmare, she is not as hard because the soul cube deals massive damage to her, taking only about 30 chaingun bullets to kill her after the soul cube has sucked most of her life out. I would suggest using the soul cube right away as the gained health will offset any that you might lose while draining her remaining health with the chaingun

Guardian (Boss): This crocodilian-like demon stands more than 15 feet tall, just a little over 2.5 times taller than a human soldier. It guards the Soul Cube and the player must defeat it to obtain the Cube. The Guardian is blind so it uses things called seekers to tell it where its enemies are and then it attacks by spraying fireballs in every direction that deal considerable damage. The first thing the player needs to do is kill the seekers. Which are flying in the air spotting you for the Guardian. Once the seekers are dead, most likely by rockets as you will lose all ammo after this boss fight is over, the boss will stand still and summon more, shooting fireballs in the same circular fashion but also more rapidly. Avoid the fireballs and shoot the blue portal in which he is summoning the new guardians from and eventually he will fall. I am not sure if the soul cube helps against this boss, but it doesnt hurt to throw it at him whenever you can for gained health.

Saboath: The Sabaoth is actually Sergeant Kelly after his demonic transformation. Its lower half has been transformed into a tank-like vehicle, while the upper portion is a twisted body attached to heavy machinery armed with a very sharp claw and a shoulder-mounted BFG. Sabaoth is rather large, being slightly taller than a Hell Knight and significantly wider. His claw does 40 points of damage per strike, and his stolen BFG-9000 deals a massive 200 points. The BFG charges he shoots at you can be destroyed by shooting them and it is recommended that you do such. Alternatively though, if you throw the soul cube at him when he is just coming out of the garage to fight you and then shoot about 4-5 rockets at him, that should be enough to kill him without giving him much of a chance to actually shoot you. I do not recommend any other method as if you do not do this method you will most likely die anyway.

Cyberdemon: It stands roughly 20 feet tall, more than 3 times as tall as a human soldier. Like its original counterpart, the Cyberdemon attacks by firing a salvo of 3 consecutive rockets from its arm-mounted rocket launcher. Unlike the original version, it now has a melee attack as well: the monster can stomp on the player, killing them instantly. It takes 4 hits from the soul cube to take down the Cyberdemon. He actually doesn't pose that much of a threat if you run around the structure as he is slow and there are a lot of obstacles to block his rockets from hitting you. Make sure to stay far away from him though. Your main priority shouldn't even be the Cyberdemon, it should be getting the five kills necessary to charge the soul cube. Once it is charged, quickly target the cyberdemon with the cube and then start running and getting kills again. I actually found the cyberdemon to be the easiest boss in the game as it really only tests your ability to get 20 kills on low ranking enemies while running in a circle.

If there is anything else you think that i should add to this guide or any questions at all, please leave a comment, I would be glad to answer anything you might need to ask.

This tutorial is something I made to help others, I originally created this to helps fans in the best way I could. I can't say this enough but REMEMBER TO SAVE OFTEN, MAKE SEVERAL SAVES. (The reason for the caps is so to make sure people understand how important it is to save for this achievement)

(Quick note: In previous difficulties you would have to gain the soul cube by the campaign plot but in the nightmare mode you will gain the ability to use soul cube throughout the nightmare difficulty before you find the soul cube)

-You will need the codes if you want to survive Doom 3 on nightmare so I'll attach the link here before I continue with the guide:
http://members.iinet.net.au/~tmorrow/doom3/codes.html
Which will help you unlock:


First save up ammo whenever possible. Use your soul cube often but when it comes to the later times like when the commando's turn up, use the soul cube only on enemy's that are more threatening like the Arch-vile. Also save a lot, try to make sure you always save with at least 25% health. Also save your grenades for the marines since they will down your health pretty fast, it's a great way to get some kills when you are in tight situations, I also use machine guns against them at long range to avoid them taking your health down fast while keeping distance since being a good shot or not may lead you to get over-run by demons, zombies, etc from multiply directions. It only takes one mistake that could lead you to being one hit killed by zombie in the back by a random zombie so try not to take too many risks.

Another tip I have learned is when there are Satan spawns (should be a familiar sound you should hear) happening in area's rush those spawns with a shotgun, should be able to get instant kill on creatures like imps that are about to spawn or the same can be done with the maggot when teleporting but BEWARE you may not be able to do this as easily on a Hell's Knight hell spawn. Also remember to try to kill the arch-vile as soon as possible since 'It can revive any past demons you had previously killed'. Just remember the later spawn's will spawn stuff like Archville's, Hell's Knight so keep your distance. REMEMBER Arch-vile is a must kill first or it will keep re-spawning EVERYTHING you already previously killed.

Also another thing you should always do is remember to save up your soul cube for boss fights or you may struggle.

The first one was Vagary but I like to call her the Spider-queen personally but the best technique I learned was to run to the opposite side of the room, which means avoiding the flying things that are thrown at you, (Be warned you may die a lot like I did), I used the chain gun to help take her down since I made the mistake of using soul cube too early before the fight.

The 2nd boss is Guardian of Hell, If you have the soul cube I believe this could be an instant kill but could be wrong, if not use then use rockets on the drones since they will tell him where you are so take them out, the guardian will try to make more so this is your chance to take him out as quick as possible or at least try to. If you only damage him then just save, keep trying till he is dead, hopefully the soul cube will charge up with the kill's from the seekers.

The 3rd boss should be Sabaoth also known as Sarge. The best tip is to use the pillars as cover but do not stay in one place too long since they will get electrified, well he has the BFG firing at you so your best tip is use the soul cube saved up, firing the several rockets. (Died a few times myself)

Before fighting the last boss you need to be aware that there are two mini boss's (2 Spider-queens), you need to use a soul cube as soon as they come down since that is the only time you will have to do damage without them trying to attack back. I cannot stress how important that is because that will only damage them, there should be a box at the side to climb up to avoid the smaller spiders since there will be lots of those in the fight, that will instant kill you if you have 25% health or at least take a big chunk out, spam your BFG frequently since the big spiders will try throwing stuff at you and that can also instant kill you.

The last boss is the Cyber-demon, just try to think of it as the Cyber-demon from the previous difficulties. Just remember to circle the area's, use the Chain gun on everything but the Cyber-demon, do not take too many risks and keep an eye out for demons coming from the center or any spawn sounds and keep doing this till your soul cube is charged. If you hit the Cyber-demon once with the soul cube then just save if you're worried that you can't do it all in one go, the rest should be a little easier after that. Also remember to keep your distance from the Cyber-demon or it will kill you instantly by standing on you.

Also if there is anything else you think I could add then let me know since this was just off the top of my head.


If you save often, do not take damage in the earlier levels you might be able to get this too because when playing nightmare you want to avoid being hit as much as possible: (Plus it's helpful to learn to manage health in future levels since every little bit of health is helpful and because the players health will gradually go down at 5hp per time slowly until 25hp)




Finally if you got any of other problems then let me know, I will try to adapt the solution to help improve it as best as I can. Some people do not seem to 'LISTEN'..........If you have a problem with the solution please say why, I will try to adapt.

Also I found a video that might help if anyone's interested, which I found on a nightmare run: