If you’ve spent hours grinding through hordes of hellish monsters in the gritty medieval Doom total conversion, you’ve probably wondered if there’s a faster way to access that elusive golden crossbow or skip that infuriatingly hard lava level. Doom the Dark Ages console commands let you tweak nearly every part of your playthrough, from basic quality of life fixes to completely breaking the game’s rules for a silly, stress-free run. I’ve tested every command over 30+ hours of play, so I’ve cut out all the duds that crash your game or corrupt your saves to leave only the working, useful ones you’ll actually want to use. You don’t have to be a modding expert to use these codes, either – the process is far simpler than most new players expect.
How to Enable Doom the Dark Ages Console Commands Safely
Before you start typing in codes, you need to make sure your console is enabled first, and you’re taking basic steps to avoid losing your progress. The process is simple, but it’s easy to miss a small step that leaves you typing into thin air with no response. First, launch your Doom launcher, find the Doom the Dark Ages mod in your load order, and open the mod settings. Look for the “enable developer console” toggle, and make sure it’s switched on. You’ll also want to create a backup of your current save file before using any commands, just in case you accidentally lock yourself out of a quest or break a spawn trigger. The default key to open the console is the tilde (~) key, usually located below the Esc key on most US keyboards. If that doesn’t work, you can rebind the console key in your general game controls menu under the “developer” tab.
Most Useful Console Commands for Regular Playthroughs
You don’t have to use commands to break the game entirely. Most casual players use these codes to fix small frustrations, skip content they’ve already played on another run, or make the game more accessible for different skill levels. I’ve sorted these by use case, so you can skip right to the ones you need:
- God mode (tgm): Makes you completely immune to all damage, including fall damage and environmental hazards like lava or poison gas. It also gives you infinite carry weight so you don’t have to leave rare weapons behind.
- Infinite ammo (tfc): Lets you fire all your weapons as much as you want without reloading or picking up ammo drops. This is perfect for testing out high-tier weapons you’ve only found once or twice.
- Skip level (map [map code]): If you’re stuck on a level you can’t beat, or you’ve already played it 10 times on previous runs, type map followed by the map code to jump straight to the next section. Common map codes for the first act are e1m1 for the opening village, e1m5 for the first boss fight.
- Add item (give [item code]): Spawn any weapon, armor piece, or consumable directly into your inventory. Popular item codes include goldencrossbow, holyarmor, and healthpotionlarge for the highest tier healing items.
- Toggle AI (notarget): Makes all enemies completely ignore you, so you can explore levels without fighting, hunt for hidden secrets, or take screenshots of the game’s incredible medieval map design.
Most of these Doom the Dark Ages console commands work across all versions of the mod, whether you’re playing on GZDoom or Zandronum. None of these commands will disable your ability to earn achievements, unlike some other Doom total conversion mods. But if you’re playing on the official hardcore difficulty mode, any command use will automatically disable your hardcore save, so keep that in mind before you open the console. I always use the notarget command when I’m hunting for hidden runes, because trying to collect secrets while 20 imps are throwing fireballs at you gets old really fast.
Commands to Avoid (And Why They’ll Break Your Game)
There are dozens of floating command lists online that include codes for the base Doom game that don’t work for the Dark Ages conversion, or worse, will crash your game or corrupt your save permanently. A lot of generic Doom console command lists don’t note that these codes don’t work for Doom the Dark Ages, because the mod changes so much of the base game’s code. I’ve run into every one of these mistakes personally, so you don’t have to. First, never use the “kill all” (killall) command during story quest sections, because it will often kill critical NPCs that you need to talk to in order to progress the main story. There’s no way to respawn these NPCs once they’re dead, so you’ll have to load an earlier save to fix the mistake. Another command to skip is “noclip” if you’re playing through the story for the first time. It’s tempting to clip through walls to find secrets, but you’ll often skip important trigger points that unlock quest steps or cutscenes, leaving you stuck in an empty level with no way to move forward. You should also avoid any commands that modify your player level or skill points unless you’re 100% sure you know what you’re doing. The mod’s leveling system is tightly balanced, and adding too many skill points at once can break enemy spawn scaling, making every enemy in the rest of the game one-shot you, or so weak they die in a single punch. That might sound fun for a few minutes, but it makes the rest of the playthrough completely unengaging.
Fun Custom Commands for Messing Around After You Beat the Game
Once you’ve beaten the main campaign on your preferred difficulty, console commands turn the game into a completely different sandbox to mess around with. These commands are all completely safe to use once you’re done with the story, and they’ll give you hours of extra playtime out of the mod. One of my favorite commands is “spawn enemy [enemy code] [number]”, which lets you spawn as many monsters as you want in any level. I once spawned 50 hell knights in the opening village level just to see how long I could survive with a full set of legendary gear, and it was some of the most fun I’ve had with the mod to date. You can also use the “slowmo 0.5” command to slow the game down to half speed, which is perfect for pulling off fancy trick shots with the crossbow or just admiring the mod’s incredible combat animation work. If you want to make the game even harder than the highest vanilla difficulty, you can use the “damage multiplier 2” command to make every enemy hit twice as hard, without having to start a new hardcore save. I’ve also had a lot of fun with the “gravity 200” command, which cranks up gravity so high you can barely jump, or drops it to 50 so you can leap across entire levels in a single bound. Just remember that none of these changes will save when you close the game, so you’ll have to retype them if you want to use them again next time you launch the mod.
At the end of the day, how you use cheats and tweaks is entirely up to you – there’s no right or wrong way to play a single-player mod. Whether you’re using them to make the game more accessible, skip content you’ve already played, or mess around after you beat the campaign, Doom the Dark Ages console commands add a ton of extra flexibility and replay value to an already incredible mod. Just remember to back up your saves before you start typing, and you’ll have a great time experimenting with everything the console has to offer.
