If you’re a long-time Doom fan who’s replayed Doom Eternal half a dozen times and binged every trailer for the upcoming Doom the Dark Ages, you’ve almost certainly asked one question more than any other: does Doom the Dark Ages take place before Doom Eternal? The modern Doom reboot timeline is notoriously full of dimension jumps, time dilation, and retcons that make casual lore fans scratch their heads, so it’s totally fair to be confused about where the new medieval-set entry fits. I’ve spent years digging through hidden lore logs, developer interviews, and community theory posts to piece together the full Doom canon, so I’m breaking down the timeline placement, lore connections, and what this means for gameplay in this guide.
Does Doom The Dark Ages Take Place Before Doom Eternal? The Short Answer
The short, official answer is yes, Doom the Dark Ages is definitively set hundreds of years before the events of Doom Eternal. id Software explicitly confirmed the timeline placement during their 2024 summer showcase, noting that the game picks up directly after the ending of Doom Eternal’s The Ancient Gods Part 2 DLC. For context, that DLC ends with the Slayer stripped of most of his divine power and sent to a mortal dimension that lines up with 14th century Earth, right as hell launches a full-scale invasion of the planet.
Doom Eternal, by comparison, is set in 2163, when hell has already overrun 60% of modern Earth and the Slayer is called out of his multi-century slumber to push back the invasion. That puts a roughly 700-year gap between the core events of the two games, though there are a few caveats tied to hell’s wonky time rules that we’ll cover later. You don’t have to be a lore obsessive to spot the connections either, even the earliest gameplay trailers have clear visual cues that tie the two games together.
Key Lore Connections Between Dark Ages and Doom Eternal
If you’ve spent hours scouring Doom Eternal’s hidden lore logs, you’ll already be familiar with the passing mentions of a medieval hell invasion that tie directly to the question of does Doom the Dark Ages take place before Doom Eternal. The ARC team’s archival notes, which you can find scattered across Eternal’s Earth-based levels, make reference to ancient stone carvings of a “hell walker” fighting demons across medieval Europe, which is exactly the story Dark Ages is telling.
There are three concrete Easter eggs confirmed in promotional material so far that explicitly link the two games:
- The broken Crucible blade shown in Dark Ages promotional material, which is the same weapon the Slayer wields in the final act of Doom Eternal to defeat the Khan Maykr
- Carvings of the Slayer fighting hell priests in medieval stone, which are referenced in archival ARC logs found in Doom Eternal’s Earth levels
- The weakened state of the Slayer at the start of Dark Ages, which aligns with the end of The Ancient Gods Part 2 where he loses access to most of his divine power
I also spotted a tiny detail in the 10-minute gameplay demo that confirms it’s the exact same Slayer from Eternal: he still has the thin scar across his left eyebrow that’s visible in all of Eternal’s cutscenes. The mark of the Slayer that appears on the armor of medieval human allies in the demo is also the same symbol used by the ARC team in Doom Eternal to mark safe zones and supply caches, showing that the legend of the Slayer persisted for hundreds of years between the two games.
Common Timeline Misconceptions Debunked
One of the most common questions I see posted in Doom community groups right now, aside from does Doom the Dark Ages take place before Doom Eternal, is whether the game will retcon existing lore from Eternal. A lot of fans worry that the medieval setting will erase the events of the reboot trilogy, but id has repeatedly stated that Dark Ages is a canonical prequel that fills in gaps, not rewrites existing story beats.
Another common misconception is that Dark Ages is set in an alternate timeline separate from the reboot games. That’s not the case, though time travel and dimension hopping are core to the modern Doom lore, so you will see some moments that feel disconnected from linear Earth time. Hell operates on its own timeline, so events that feel like they take a few days for the Slayer could span hundreds of years in mortal time, and vice versa. That’s why the Slayer doesn’t age between Dark Ages and Doom Eternal, despite the 700-year gap between the two settings.
So if you’re planning a franchise playthrough ahead of Dark Ages’ launch, you have two options: play by release order (Doom 2016, Doom Eternal, The Ancient Gods DLC 1 & 2, then Dark Ages) or chronological story order (Dark Ages first, then Doom 2016, then Eternal and its DLC). I usually recommend release order for first-time players, since you’ll catch more Easter eggs that way, but chronological order works great for repeat playthroughs.
What This Timeline Placement Means For Dark Ages Gameplay
Knowing the answer to does Doom the Dark Ages take place before Doom Eternal also clears up a lot of questions fans had about the gameplay footage we’ve seen so far. Since the game is set in the 14th century, the Slayer doesn’t have access to all the over-the-top futuristic weapons you unlock in Eternal, at least not at the start of the game. Most of your weapons will be medieval-themed with hellish twists, like the rune-imbued battle axe and crossbow we saw in the demo, instead of plasma rifles and BFGs right out of the gate.
The demon roster is also adjusted for the medieval setting. You won’t see the high-tech possessed soldiers or Maykr drones that show up in Eternal’s Earth levels, since those are tied to the 22nd century hell invasion. Instead, you’ll face corrupted medieval knights, demonically altered farm animals, and classic Doom enemies like Imps and Cacodemons that fit the older setting. The signature glory kill system from Eternal is still intact, but the animations are adjusted to fit the medieval weapons, so you’ll see a lot more axe and blade kills instead of fist and gun takedowns.
Progression will also tie directly to the events of Eternal. Over the course of Dark Ages, the Slayer will slowly regain his powers, forge new weapons, and build the legend that eventually leads to him being sealed in the sarcophagus that the UAC finds at the start of Doom 2016. You’ll even unlock a few skills that carry over lore-wise to Eternal, like the double jump and dash abilities that become core to movement in the later game.
At the end of the day, if you were still asking does Doom the Dark Ages take place before Doom Eternal, the answer is a clear yes, with dozens of confirmed lore and gameplay ties that connect the two entries for long-time fans. You don’t have to be a deep lore nerd to enjoy Dark Ages, since the story stands completely on its own for new players, but anyone who’s spent hours exploring Eternal’s hidden nooks will catch a ton of fun callbacks and Easter eggs. I’m already replaying Eternal to spot every little reference to the medieval invasion that I missed on my first playthrough, and I can’t wait to see how id ties the two games together even more when Dark Ages launches.
