If you’re a fan of gritty, fast-paced shooters that mash retro Doom chaos with medieval dark age aesthetics, you’ve probably heard of Doom The Dark Ages Xbox One. This total conversion mod completely overhauls the classic 2016 Doom gameplay, swapping hellish demons for undead knights, plague-ridden peasants, and dark sorcerers, all set across crumbling castles and plague-ridden villages. I’ve spent over 40 hours playing through every campaign mission and testing multiplayer lobbies on my Xbox One S, so I’ve put together all the tips, fixes, and hidden content you need to make your run as smooth as possible. You don’t need any fancy modding gear to get it running, either, as long as you have a compatible copy of the base Doom game and access to the Xbox mod store.
Getting Doom The Dark Ages Xbox One Running Without Glitches
First off, don’t make the mistake I did my first try: you need a physical or digital copy of the 2016 Doom base game, not Doom Eternal, to run the mod. The Dark Ages conversion is built explicitly for the 2016 iteration, and trying to load it on Eternal will just result in a crash on boot. I’ve tested this on both Xbox One S and Xbox One X, so I can break down the expected performance for each model. For Xbox One S users, you’ll want to turn off 4K upscaling in your console display settings before launching the mod, as the extra render load will cause consistent frame drops below 30 FPS during large enemy waves. For Xbox One X users, you can run the mod at 1440p with no frame drops as long as you don’t have any other background apps running, like Spotify or the Microsoft Edge browser.
If you follow all those steps, you’ll have Doom The Dark Ages Xbox One running smoothly in less than 10 minutes, no extra tools required. One common glitch people run into is missing audio for medieval weapon sound effects, like the crossbow or the greatsword. If that happens to you, just close the game, go to your mod management menu, disable The Dark Ages, restart your console, and re-enable the mod. That fixes the audio issue 9 times out of 10, no extra steps needed. You don’t need to redownload the entire mod, which saves you around 20 minutes of wait time.
Top Gameplay Tips for Beating Hard Difficulty
Unlike base Doom where you can run and gun through most encounters, Doom The Dark Ages Xbox One punishes reckless play, especially on Hard or Ultra Nightmare difficulty. The enemy hitboxes are a bit wider than base Doom enemies, and archers can take off 60% of your health with a single well-placed shot from across the map, so you can’t just charge straight into every room. Your most valuable asset early on is the iron crossbow, which you unlock 10 minutes into the first campaign mission. It has perfect accuracy even when you’re moving, and a fully charged shot will one-shot most basic enemy types, including undead peasants and low-level knights. Save your shotgun ammo for close-quarters encounters with large brute enemies, like the ogre raiders that show up halfway through the first act.
Glory kills work differently here too. Instead of just giving you a health boost, glory kills in The Dark Ages also give you a small amount of armor shards and black powder for your flintlock pistol. I used to skip glory kills when I was low on health to run away, but that just left me without enough armor for later encounters, so now I make a point to get at least one glory kill per enemy wave. If you see a glowing green rune on the ground, don’t skip it – these runes give you permanent stat boosts, like 10% extra crossbow damage or 15% faster movement speed, that carry over through the entire campaign. You can miss these permanently if you progress to the next mission without picking them up, so take a minute to explore every corner of each map before you leave.
That’s one of the biggest differences between base Doom and Doom The Dark Ages Xbox One – resource management matters a lot more than just raw speed. You can’t just spray and pray through encounters, because ammo is a lot scarcer than in the base game. I always make sure to loot every dead enemy and every chest I find, because even a handful of extra crossbow bolts can be the difference between beating a boss and having to restart the entire checkpoint.
Multiplayer Modes You Don’t Want to Miss
Most people only play the single player campaign, but the multiplayer modes are just as fun, and they’re completely free to access as long as you have the mod installed. There are three core multiplayer modes, plus rotating weekly event modes that change every seven days. The most popular mode is Siege, where one team defends a medieval castle and the other team tries to break through the gates and capture the throne room at the center. It’s a 6v6 mode, and matches usually last around 15 minutes, so it’s perfect for quick play sessions when you don’t have time for a full campaign mission.
If you’re new to multiplayer, stick to the support class first – you’ll spawn with extra healing items and a longbow that can mark enemies for your team, so you can contribute even if you’re not the best shot. You can unlock new classes, like the berserker or the sorcerer, after you win 10 multiplayer matches, and each has unique abilities that change how you play. For example, the sorcerer can summon undead minions to fight for your team, which is incredibly useful for holding down choke points in Siege mode.
Right now, crossplay is only enabled between Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S players, so you won’t run into PC players with mouse and keyboard. That levels the playing field a lot, so you don’t have to worry about being outmatched by players with more precise input methods. The only downside is that multiplayer lobbies are a bit quiet during weekday mornings, so you’ll have the easiest time finding matches between 7 PM and 11 PM local time on weekdays, or any time on weekends.
Best Hidden Unlocks to Track Down
The Dark Ages is packed with hidden unlockables that most players never find, even after multiple playthroughs. I only found half of them on my first run, and I had to look through community forum posts to track down the rest, so I’ve highlighted the best ones that are worth the extra effort. The first one is the holy greatsword, which you can unlock in the third campaign mission, right after you beat the first boss. To get it, you need to break the cracked stone wall to the left of the boss arena, walk down the hidden tunnel, and defeat the secret ghost knight mini-boss. The greatsword does massive damage, and a heavy swing can take out three or four enemies at once, making it perfect for crowded encounters.
Another great unlock is the medieval Doom slayer skin, which completely changes your character model to look like a 12th century knight, complete with chainmail armor and a helmet with a visor. To unlock it, you need to beat the entire campaign on Hard difficulty without using any cheat codes. It’s a bit of a grind, but the skin also comes with a unique voice line pack that replaces the base Doom slayer’s lines with more medieval-themed dialogue, so it’s worth the effort if you’re a fan of the mod’s aesthetic. You can also unlock a custom horde mode map that’s set in a crumbling monastery, by finding 10 hidden tapestries scattered across all the campaign missions. The horde mode map has unique enemy types that don’t show up anywhere else, including plague priests that can summon hordes of zombie rats to attack you.
There are also a handful of hidden cheat codes you can unlock for casual playthroughs, like infinite ammo or one-shot kills, but using them will disable achievement progress for your playthrough, so keep that in mind if you’re trying to collect all the mod’s custom Xbox achievements.
At the end of the day, Doom The Dark Ages Xbox One is one of the most fun total conversion mods available for the console, and it’s completely free if you already own a copy of the 2016 base Doom. It’s got enough new content to keep you occupied for 20+ hours, even if you’ve already beaten the base game multiple times. If you run into any issues that aren’t covered here, the official mod community Discord is a great place to ask for help, and players are usually happy to share tips for hidden unlocks or glitch fixes. Give it a try this weekend, you won’t regret it.
