If you’ve ever spent three hours replaying a Doom level just to grab one missed collectible, you know how frustrating it is to leave an achievement list half-finished. I’ve been grinding DOOM franchise titles for over a decade, and I recently wrapped my first full playthrough of Doom The Dark Ages with 100% of the Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements list unlocked. It took me two full runs to catch all the missable objectives, so I put together this guide to save you the extra hours of backtracking. Most of the achievements are tied to core gameplay, but there are a handful of hidden ones that the game never hints at, even after you beat the final boss.
How to Track Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements Progress Mid-Playthrough
The in-game achievement tracker only shows you a small fraction of your progress, so you’ll want to use a third-party tracker for full visibility. The Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements list syncs automatically with your Steam, Xbox, or PlayStation account if you enable cross-platform tracking, so you won’t have to manually input each unlock as you go. You can also download offline checklists if you don’t want to connect your account to external services. Always check your progress after every main mission, not just at the end of a chapter, because many objectives are tied to single levels that you can’t revisit once you move to the next region. I missed the "Merciful Slayer" achievement on my first run because I killed a captive NPC without thinking, so I had to replay the entire third chapter to get it. Cumulative achievements like killing 500 enemies with the super shotgun will unlock naturally as you play, so you don’t need to grind those intentionally unless you’re rushing to 100% completion.
Missable Achievements You Need to Prioritize Early
Seven of the 42 total achievements are missable, and none of them are unlocked naturally if you just play through the game normally. None of these missable achievements are tied to difficulty settings, so you can grab them on easy mode if you’re just here to complete the list. All of these missable achievements are marked with a small hidden icon on the Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements page, so you can filter your list to only show the ones you haven’t unlocked yet. The three most commonly missed achievements are:
- Merciful Slayer: Spare all 8 captive monks spread across the first three chapters. You’ll hear their faint prayers before you enter their rooms, so keep your volume turned up to avoid missing their locations.
- Environmental Master: Kill 10 enemies using only the brimstone traps in the Citadel of Ash level. Don’t use any weapons during these kills, or the game won’t count them toward the achievement.
- Secret Historian: Interact with all 12 hidden runestones that detail the dark age backstory of the Doom Slayer. Half of these are tucked behind breakable walls that look like regular rock formations.
I recommend marking these off as you go, because you can’t go back to earlier chapters once you start the final act of the game. If you miss one, you’ll have to start an entirely new playthrough to grab it, which adds roughly 6 hours of extra playtime to your grind.
Optimized Playthrough Routes for Fast Achievement Unlocks
Most players do a blind first run for fun, then a second run for achievements, but you can grab 100% of unlocks in a single playthrough if you follow the right route. Prioritize side missions first before main missions, because side missions have hidden collectibles that tie to multiple achievements. You can also find user-created checklists on the Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements forums that break down every collectible location per level, so you don’t have to search every corner of each map. The optimal difficulty for a 100% run is "Hurt Me Plenty", because it’s challenging enough to unlock the difficulty-specific achievements without making the grind for kill-related achievements too tedious. I tried a Nightmare run first for the extra achievement, but I kept dying over and over to the same boss, so I switched to HMP first to get all the other achievements, then did a short Nightmare run only for the difficulty reward. You can use cheat codes for collectible achievements, but cheat codes disable difficulty-specific achievements, so make sure you turn them off if you’re going for the Nightmare or Ultra-Nightmare unlocks.
Common Mistakes That Block Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements Unlocks
Even if you follow a checklist perfectly, small mistakes can stop you from unlocking achievements you’ve already worked for. First, people forget that some achievements require you to complete objectives without taking any damage, so if you take a single hit, you have to restart the level right away, not after you finish it. Another mistake is selling unique weapons to the merchant, because some achievements require you to use specific weapons for kills, and once you sell them, you can’t get them back in the same playthrough. Never sell any of the starting melee weapons, even if you don’t use them, because three separate kill achievements are tied to the crucible dagger and the iron fist. Many players report that the Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements list is one of the more forgiving in the franchise, as long as you avoid these common mistakes. Some players use mods to make the game easier, but most mods disable achievement unlocks entirely, so if you’re running a modded playthrough, you won’t get any progress toward your list, even if the mod is just a visual one. If you’re unsure whether a mod will block your progress, check the Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements community threads for user reports of mod compatibility.
At the end of the day, unlocking the full Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements list doesn’t have to be a slog, as long as you plan ahead and keep an eye out for missable content. You don’t have to be a pro Doom player to get 100% completion, either—most of the achievements just require a little extra attention to detail, not super fast reflexes or perfect boss fights. If you get stuck on a specific achievement, take a break and come back to it later; I spent two hours stuck on the Environmental Master achievement before I realized I could lure enemies to the traps by making noise around corners, instead of trying to push them into the traps manually. If you get stuck on a specific unlock, the Doom The Dark Ages TrueAchievements community has hundreds of walkthrough clips that can help you figure out where you’re going wrong. Take your time, follow the tips in this guide, and you’ll have that full completion badge in no time.
