Doom: The Dark Ages Releases Update 1 Patch Notes (2025)

By Matthew Schomer

Published Jun 5, 2025

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9.2/10

DOOM: The Dark Ages

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Doom: The Dark Ages Releases Update 1 Patch Notes (3)

Summary

Update 1 for Doom: The Dark Ages focuses on improving gameplay based on player feedback.
Changes include adjustments to dragon-related battles and Atlan combat systems.
Bug fixes also address various issues related to gameplay, visuals, audio, and achievements.

Doom: The Dark Ages has released its first full update since launch, making adjustments to the Doomslayer's dragon, Atlan, and more. While there have already been two hotfixes for Doom: The Dark Ages, mostly centered around bug fixes, id Software is utilizing the feedback it has been taking in from players to tailor the game to their needs.

A prequel to the original 1993 Doom, Doom: The Dark Ages launched on May 15, placing the Doomslayer in defense of a technologically advanced medieval-style kingdom. Despite some near-release controversy over the physical edition's massive download requirements, the game has performed quite well among fans, with Doom: The Dark Ages breaking records for id Software as the biggest launch in the developer's history, sporting a player base of 3 million within a week of its launch.

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Now, with a full three weeks since the game's release, the development team is poised to address some of the game's earliest gameplay issues. A big part of this adjustment update has been aimed at Doom: The Dark Ages' dragon, with changes aimed at speeding up the action of dragon-related combat by buffing its autocannon skills. Empowering the autocannon should be easier, as enemies will now only fire Hell Surge projectiles at the beast, and the empowered effect will last for a longer duration. Additionally, firing an empowered autocannon shot after performing a perfect dodge will allow the blast to penetrate enemies' projectile shields.

The dragon isn't the only combat system that's getting some big changes. Atlans, the game's massive, melee-focused mech suits, are being simultaneously buffed and nerfed, as two previously tunable features have now been fully incorporated into gameplay. After a late-May hotfix made Doom: The Dark Ages harder, players will now have to struggle a little more to keep up their health while piloting an Atlan, as health drops will disappear more quickly. This will be balanced out by an Atlan combat system adjustment that makes it easier to perform repeated finishers, which the developers hope will expand the combo system and enable more strategic tactics.

Aside from those changes, the remainder of the update notes are dedicated to bug fixes for improving gameplay, visuals, audio, and more. There has been a lot of praise for Doom: The Dark Ages' graphics, and one bug fix should improve them further, eliminating blurry visuals that some players had been experiencing. Other problems that have been fixed include voiced dialogue cutting out at the end of cutscenes, music pausing unexpectedly between levels or dropping out during cutscenes, and subtitles appearing at the wrong time across different language tracks.

Doom: The Dark Ages Update 1 Patch Notes

Improvements and Adjustments

Adjusted audio mix so music and sound effects are more balanced at Default levels (For best results we recommend you reset audio settings to Default)
Reduced the amount of time health drops remain active during Atlan missions
Sprint VFX are now disabled for auto-sprint

General gameplay balance refinements (some of these were previously Active Tunables that have been removed from that article and committed to the game in Update 1). These are denoted below as: (*PT) for "Previous Tunable"

Atlan

(*PT) Reduced how long health drops linger in the world when in the Atlan
(*PT) Updated the Atlan combo system so that after using a Finisher, the player can still use the previous one
ㄴPlayers were paying too much to use a Finisher, which led to holding on for the most powerful attacks and then cashing out. This creates a more dynamic combat experience that rewards building up multiple Finishers for extended combos and more strategic decision-making

Dragon

Dragon combat experience has been updated to allow players to move more swiftly through the experience
ㄴMost enemies faced when on the Dragon will now only fire Hell Surge projectiles, allowing for more opportunities to empower the Autocannon
ㄴThe Empowered state for the Dragon’s Autocannon now lasts longer
ㄴ(*PT) Empowered shots from the Dragon’s Autocannon after a perfect dodge will go through projectile shields

Bug Fixes

Achievements

Resolved an issue in which some users could not unlock the Berserker Achievement/Trophy upon obtaining the necessary upgrades. This should resolve retroactively for affected users

Audio

Fixed an issue with music potentially pausing when transitioning between levels
Addressed an issue in which VO was getting cut off during ending cinematic for The Holy City of Aratum

Ultra-Nightmare

Difficulty Settings - adjusted the modified (M*) tag to persist after reverting to Default Settings in Ultra-Nightmare
Fixed an issue in which the Death Marker did not display the correct enemy name when killed by an armored Leader or Enforcer
Addressed the Death Marker so it no longer displays "???" when the player is killed by the ground spike AoE attack from any Cyberdemon variant
Updated the Death Marker so the Mancubus (who fires acid hazards) name now displays correctly

Cinematics

Fixed an issue in which the sound effects were not consistently playing during the interstitial sequences in The Old One boss fight
Fixed an issue with music potentially dropping out during cinematics
Addressed issues with subtitle timings for multiple languages

Crashes

Fixed rare crash after destroying the gore portal in Siege - Part 1

Gameplay

Resolved an issue in which the Shredder could lose functionality after performing an execute move
Addressed a bug where the Shield Saw could lose functionality after being caught, then melee attacking a dazed enemy
Fixed an issue with upgrade functionality not working when re-equipping a shield rune after maxing out the upgrades

Menus

Fixed an issue in which some players were unable to select and enter The Holy City of Aratum via the level select menu
The Battle Knight codex is now obtainable and will appear in the Codex menu
Addressed issues in which the Chapter Selection text and the Command Bar UI element would flicker
Fixed an issue encountered by some players where Campaign map completion was reset to 25% after the previous update
Resolved an issue in which players could skip to future levels by highlighting them in the Level Selection menu
The Arachnotron Codex page now appears consistently within the Dossier
Addressed an issue in which the "Field Of View" menu slider could lose functionality after cutscenes or Shield bashing through a wall
Resolved issues in which opening/closing the Dossier and reloading Checkpoints could cause the Shredder Barbed upgrade to unequip itself and the Pincushion and Ricochet upgrades would be equipped simultaneously
Menus – the (M*) marker is now present on Campaign Save Files that have been modified