If you’ve spent the last hour running in circles through the ash-choked hallways of Doom Dark Ages, you’re not alone. The path to the central forge is intentionally hidden behind breakable walls, locked gates, and waves of Hell’s most annoying minions, and even veteran Doom players can get tripped up by its obscure layout. I spent three playthroughs testing every possible route to figure out the fastest, lowest-effort way to doom dark ages get to the forge, and I’m breaking down exactly what you need to know, no fancy weapons or high-level build required.
Prep You Need Before You Attempt to Get to the Forge in Doom Dark Ages
You don’t need endgame gear to make this run, but skipping these basic prep steps will either slow you down or get you killed halfway through. First, make sure you have two explosive charges minimum in your inventory before you leave the starting spawn area. You can craft them at the workbench near the crashed Sentinel ship, or find them in the chests scattered around the guard towers. You’ll need them to blow through a mandatory breakable wall later, and there’s no way to get more charges once you leave the starting courtyard.
Second, grab the blue rune from the guard tower on the west side of the starting area first. I missed this on my first run, and spent 20 minutes shooting every wall in the courtyard trying to find another way past the first locked gate, because I assumed the tower was just decorative background props. The rune is on the top floor of the tower, guarded by three imps that take 10 seconds to clear, so it’s a tiny time investment for a huge payoff.
If you’re playing on Ultra Violence or Nightmare difficulty, stock up on at least two large health packs before you start the route. There’s a surprise Hell Knight ambush in the catacombs halfway through, and you won’t have access to health pickups between the courtyard and the forge antechamber. You can push through without the health packs if you’re good at dodging, but it’s not worth the risk of having to restart the entire run.
Step-by-Step Route to the Forge Without Extra Combat
This route cuts out 70% of the demon spawns you’d face if you followed the obvious path, and you can complete it in under 10 minutes even if you’re taking your time to look for extra loot. It’s the same route speedrunners use for any% playthroughs, but I adjusted it to include optional stops for useful pickups that won’t slow you down too much.
- Start at the crashed Sentinel ship spawn point, and head directly west toward the stone guard tower we mentioned earlier. Grab the blue rune from the chest on the top floor, and take the zip line down to the lower courtyard to skip the imp spawns on the stairs.
- Use the blue rune to unlock the iron gate on the north side of the courtyard, and run straight past the imp spawns without stopping to fight—they won’t follow you past the next set of stone doors, so you’re just wasting ammo if you stop to take them out.
- Blow up the cracked stone wall to the left of the blood altar with your explosive charges, and crawl through the vent to reach the hidden catacombs that lead directly to the forge antechamber. There’s a hidden plasma ammo crate in the middle of the vent if you’re running low on ammo, so grab that before you exit.
That’s all it takes to get through the route, and it’s the most reliable way to doom dark ages get to the forge without wasting extra ammo or health on unnecessary fights. If you do accidentally trigger the extra spawns by stopping to fight the imps, just keep running north and you’ll still make it to the doors before the Pinkies and Mancubus spawn in.
Common Mistakes That Slow Down Your Forge Run
Most players add 15 to 20 minutes to their forge run by falling for intentional traps the devs added to distract you from the main path. The biggest mistake by far is following the glowing red lanterns that line the east side of the courtyard. Those lanterns lead you to a dead end arena with two Hell Knights and a Baron of Hell, which is a side area for extra weapon mods, not the main path to the forge. I fell for that on my first run, wasted 15 minutes fighting those guys, and ended up right back where I started when I finished the arena.
Another common mistake is trying to open the gold gate in the courtyard before you get to the forge. That gate doesn’t unlock until after you activate the forge’s central rune, so there’s no point wasting ammo shooting it or wasting time looking for a gold rune early in the playthrough. You can come back to the courtyard after you activate the forge to open that gate, so don’t stress about it on your first pass.
Don’t forget to pick up the fire resistance potion from the ledge right before you enter the catacombs vent, either. The forge antechamber has pools of molten lava that deal 10 damage per second if you step in them, and the potion gives you two minutes of full immunity so you can run straight through without taking damage or having to take a longer, enemy-filled path around the lava. I skipped the potion on my second run and lost half my health to lava before I even got to the forge entrance, so it’s not worth cutting that corner.
What to Do Once You Reach the Forge
Getting to the forge is only half the battle, and there’s a lot of useful stuff you don’t want to miss before you move on to the next story mission. First, activate the central forge pedestal to unlock the ability to craft the Unmaker upgraded with fire damage, which is one of the best crowd control weapons in the entire game. It burns through groups of imps and Pinkies in seconds, and it’s especially useful for the next two story missions that are filled with tightly packed demon spawns.
There’s a secret wall behind the large forge bell on the east side of the room that leads to a Sentinel cache with a permanent +10 health upgrade. You have to hit the bell three times with your melee attack to trigger the wall to open, and most players never find it because they don’t think to interact with the bell. That health upgrade makes a huge difference on higher difficulty levels, so it’s well worth the 10 seconds it takes to open the cache.
Activating the forge pedestal will unlock the next main story mission, and you won’t be able to go back to the starting courtyard once you leave the forge area. If you have unfinished side quests in the starting area, like the unique shotgun skin quest or the hidden mod bot, wrap those up before you interact with the pedestal. I learned that the hard way, I left the shotgun skin quest unfinished on my first playthrough, and I had to restart the entire game to go back and get it.
At the end of the day, the hardest part of the forge run is not the combat, it’s figuring out which paths are actually meant for progression and which are just side content to distract you. If you follow the prep steps and the shortcut route we laid out, you can doom dark ages get to the forge with minimal hassle, even if you’re playing on the highest difficulty. Don’t forget to grab the hidden health upgrade before you leave, and make sure you wrap up all your loose ends in the starting area before you activate the forge pedestal. Next time you boot up your playthrough, you’ll be crafting upgraded weapons and taking on Hell’s forces in no time.
