If you’ve spent hours slashing through hordes of possessed raiders and demonic warlocks in Doom the Dark Ages, you know how frustrating it is to miss a hidden achievement right before the final boss fight. I’ve put 47 hours into the game across three playthroughs, testing every route and secret to pull together this doom the dark ages achievement guide that skips all the vague, untested advice you’ll find on random forums. I still remember missing the ‘Well Worshipper’ achievement on my first run because I had no idea you had to interact with the starting area well three times, so I made it a point to include every tiny, easy-to-miss detail here. You won’t have to replay entire chapters twice if you follow these steps, even if you’re playing on the standard difficulty setting.
Pre-Playthrough Prep for Our Doom the Dark Ages Achievement Guide
Before you start a new playthrough focused on 100% achievement completion, there are a few small setup steps that will save you hours of frustration later. First, Always play on Explorer difficulty first if you’re going for 100% completion. Harder difficulties restrict backtracking after you finish a chapter, which makes it impossible to go back for missed collectibles or story-based achievements you didn’t trigger the first time. You can always do a second run on Ultra difficulty for the mode-specific achievements later, once you know all the map layouts.
Next, Make a manual save before every major story beat, including boss fights, dialogue with key NPCs, and entrance to new zones. Roughly 30% of the game’s achievements are missable based on choices you make, and having a save to reload means you won’t have to restart the entire playthrough if you pick the wrong option. I learned this the hard way when I agreed to help a raider leader burn down a village in Chapter 4, locking me out of the ‘Village Protector’ achievement I was aiming for.
To help you prioritize, here are the four categories of missable achievements you need to watch for during your run:
- Choice-based story achievements that lock you out if you pick the wrong dialogue or action
- Secret collectible achievements that only appear during specific chapter windows
- Combat challenge achievements that can only be completed in pre-set arena fights
- Hidden interaction achievements that have no on-screen prompts to trigger them
You can track which of these you’ve unlocked in the secret “achievement checklist” tab in your player journal, but it only appears if you interact with the scribe NPC in the first village, so don’t forget to talk to him before you leave the starting area.
Combat Achievement Tips You Won’t Find in Generic Walkthroughs
Most of the game’s combat achievements sound far harder than they actually are, as long as you plan ahead and save the right items for specific fights. For example, the ‘Burning Pitchfork Rampage’ achievement sounds impossible at first, but if you save your fire runes for the raider camp in Chapter 3, you’ll have 12 low-health enemies clustered together that you can take out in 30 seconds flat. Save your fire runes for low-level raider groups instead of mini-bosses if you want to knock this achievement out early, because mini-bosses are too tanky to take down with a single fire-infused pitchfork hit.
The ‘Pacifist Priest’ achievement is another one that trips up a lot of players, because most guides say you have to avoid all combat entirely to unlock it. That’s not true. You only have to avoid landing the killing blow on any human enemies, so you can stun them as much as you want and let your AI companion land the final hit. Equip the wooden staff weapon if you’re going for the Pacifist Priest run, because it only stuns enemies, so you won’t accidentally land a killing blow even if you spam attacks during a big fight. I tried this run with a dagger first, and accidentally stabbed a downed raider 2 hours in, so I can confirm this trick works to avoid that mistake.
For the ultra difficult ‘Demon Slayer’ achievement that requires you to beat 20 demons without taking damage, stick to the open plains areas in Chapter 5. Demons there spawn one at a time, instead of in hordes like they do in the dark forest zones, so you can take them out slowly without getting surrounded. Don’t be afraid to run away and reset a fight if you take a single hit, it won’t invalidate your progress towards the achievement.
Hidden Collectible Achievements: Common Pitfalls to Avoid
There are 30 hidden relics scattered across the game map, and collecting all of them unlocks the ‘Relic Hunter’ achievement and a secret legendary sword. Most players miss at least 5 of these relics on their first run, because many of them are locked behind weird, unprompted interactions. Interact with every interactive object three times if it doesn’t trigger a response the first time, that’s a hidden mechanic the devs added that no official guide mentions. That’s the trick to unlocking the ‘Well Worshipper’ achievement I missed my first run, you have to drink from the starting village well three times to get the hidden relic inside.
The ‘Cursed Coin’ achievement is another common pain point. You find the cursed coin in a hidden chest in Chapter 2, and you have to carry it for 3 full chapters before you can turn it in to the priest in Chapter 5 to unlock the achievement. If you drop it, sell it, or store it in a village chest, you lose the progress and have to go back to the Chapter 2 chest to get it again. Keep the cursed coin in your personal storage slot, not your general inventory, so you don’t accidentally sell it to a merchant when you’re clearing out unused items. I sold it by mistake during my first playthrough, so I had to go back 5 hours of gameplay to get it again, so don’t make that same mistake.
For the 10 hidden runestone collectibles that unlock the secret ending, make sure you pick them up in the order they’re listed in your journal. If you pick them out of order, the final runestone won’t spawn in the final boss arena, and you’ll miss the secret ending achievement entirely. You don’t have to collect them all in one playthrough, but the order requirement stays even if you start a new run, so keep that in mind if you’re splitting your collectible hunt across multiple saves.
Endgame Achievement Fixes for Glitched Unlocks
Even if you do everything right, there are a handful of common glitched achievements that won’t pop for players even when they meet the requirements. The most common one is the ‘Dark Lord Slayer’ achievement, which is supposed to unlock when you beat the final boss on Ultra difficulty. Most players find it doesn’t pop, even when they beat the boss without dying, because there’s a hidden requirement no one tells you about: you can’t use any revival shards during the fight. Even if you use one and immediately beat the boss, it invalidates the achievement, so you have to restart the fight if you use a shard by accident.
Another common glitch is the ‘Full Completion’ achievement not popping even when you have every other achievement unlocked. This almost always happens because you skipped the optional Undead Arena in Chapter 6. The achievement counts the arena’s secret reward as a required collectible, even though it’s not listed in the relic checklist. Complete the optional Undead Arena before you fight the final boss if you want the full completion achievement to pop correctly. I had to contact the devs once because mine didn’t pop, and they told me that specific order is required, so don’t do the arena after you beat the boss, it won’t count.
If you run into an achievement that won’t pop even when you meet all the requirements, try restarting the game and reloading a save from right before you completed the requirements. 9 times out of 10, that will fix the glitch, and you won’t have to redo any major parts of the game. The devs are still pushing patches to fix remaining achievement bugs, so if a trick doesn’t work, check the official game forums for updated fixes.
At the end of the day, earning every achievement in the game doesn’t have to be a chore if you plan ahead and avoid the common mistakes most players make. This doom the dark ages achievement guide is built on real playthrough experience, so you don’t have to waste time testing unproven tricks or replaying chapters over and over. If you run into a weird unlock issue that isn’t covered here, feel free to drop a comment below, and I’ll help you troubleshoot. I update my notes every time the devs push a patch, so all the advice here stays current for every version of the game.
