Doom Eternal has brought many sandbox changes this time around. Ammo is more scarce, the chainsaw is more important than ever, and enemies bleed armor when lit aflame. It can be tough to wrap your head around all of the game’s additions, but no other Doom title is as fun to play as Doom Eternal.
With the inclusion of destructible demons and the larger focus on ammo management, the weapon sandbox has seen some radical changes compared to Doom 2016. Fan favorites like the BFG and Chaingun are still present, but mod changes and new demons to slay have shined a light on some of Doom’s less interesting weapons. Here is every weapon in Doom Eternal ranked from worst to best. This article contains Doom Eternal spoilers.
9 Rocket Launcher
It’s hard to describe any particular weapon in Doom Eternal as bad. Each weapon has a critical role in the sandbox. With that said, the Rocket Launcher is arguably in the weakest state it’s ever seen.
Lock-on missiles are fun to use but have limited usage. They can destroy the rather annoying Maurader enemies, but typical combat is so fast that it can be difficult to get a solid lock on a target in higher difficulties. The remote detonator fairs better, but its main use is to falter targets in a large area when upgraded. Raw damage output is not in the Rocket Launcher’s favor, reserving it for niche utility instead of the explosive killing machine it used to be.
8 Plasma Rifle
Energy weapons are useful for taking down energy shields in Doom Eternal, capable of turning shield-bearing enemies into mobile grenades.
Besides that niche, the Plasma Rifle is a solid workhorse weapon in Doom Eternal. It does more damage than the Heavy Cannon and can deal close-range blasts that compare with the Super Shotgun. In any other Doom title, this would have been one of the strongest guns in the game, but the switch to more forward-thinking gameplay makes this weapon’s minor niche the only thing going for it.
7 Ballista
The successor to Doom 2016’s Gauss Cannon, the Ballista fires high-energy bolts that can decimate weaker demons in a single shot.
More importantly, the Ballista can falter higher-rank demons with its powerful blasts. Against Tyrants or Mauraders, this gun is a fantastic choice. When you fight hordes of foes, its Destroyer Blade can come in handy, although its slow charge time makes it clunky to use. It might be a nerfed version of the last game’s Gauss Cannon, but the Ballista is still a fantastic choice when fighting powerful demons.
6 Chaingun
No other weapon in Doom, and arguably the FPS genre, can fire as many bullets as the Chaingun. If you have maximum ammo for this gun, it is a powerhouse of a weapon.
It’s a solid weapon with no mods, but the inclusion of attachments makes this weapon a joy to use. You can either equip the Chaingun with a weapon-mounted energy shield that absorbs damage or deploy four barrels simultaneously to quadruple your damage output. If you thought one barrel full of lead wasn’t enough, try destroying a horde of demons with the Mobile Turret attachment. If it wasn’t for Doom Eternal’s sparse ammo economy, this weapon would be much stronger.
5 Heavy Cannon
In Doom 2016, this was arguably the second worst weapon in the game, only behind the starting pistol. With Doom Eternal’s focus on destructible demons and strategic gameplay, the Heavy Cannon has seen new use.
Micro Missiles are still fun as ever to use, destroying hordes of weaker demons in an instant. It is the Scope attachment that has seen the largest upgrade, yet the attachment itself hasn’t been altered. Instead, the game itself has implemented demons with destructible limbs, allowing you to destroy cannons off of Mancubus enemies or the tail cannons of Arachnatrons. This single sandbox change turned the precise mod from trash to treasure.
4 BFG 9000
It wouldn’t be a proper Doom game if the BFG wasn’t in the game. Fortunately, the BFG 9000 has returned unscathed from its 2016 counterpart.
As always, this weapon charges a plasma orb that chains energy between targets before it makes contact with a solid object, releasing an exorbitant amount of damage to anyone remotely near the explosion. Its ammo is scarce, but no other weapon can wipe an entire screen of demons with one pull of the trigger. Only the Maurader can resist the raw damage this gun unleashes.
3 Combat Shotgun
If the first weapon a game gives you is a shotgun that can fire sticky bombs, you know you’re in for an adrenaline-fueled experience.
That is exactly what the Combat Shotgun does. By itself, this weapon is rather weak compared to most other weapons. With mods, that gets flipped on its head. Sticky Bombs can instantly destroy certain limbs and hordes of demons. If that isn’t enough, you can attach the Full Auto mod that grants shotgun shells on kill, letting you bypass Doom Eternal’s strict ammo economy. This gun is both versatile and destructive, but it needs both mods mastered before it shows its true colors.
2 Unmaykr
Doom 64 fans can rejoice that the Unmaykr is back, better than ever before. Requiring all six Slayer Gate challenges beaten, this gun rewards users with a fully-automatic rifle that puts nearly every other weapon to shame.
Sharing ammo with the BFG 9000, the Unmaykr fires high-velocity energy disks in a horizontal fan. It fires three projectiles per pull of the trigger and fires at a rapid rate. Tyrants and Archons die in a few shots of this gun, and it turns the final level into a complete joke. It might lack the BFG’s raw damage, but it can distribute its damage much easier than the BFG can. This is a fantastic callback to an underrated Doom game and a forgotten weapon.
1 Super Shotgun
No Doom title has included a bad Super Shotgun. The double-barreled destruction this gun provides is hard to match. It was the best gun in 2016, so how did id Software manage to up the ante?
Well, giving it a flaming chainhook is a start. This gun is both a high-damage shotgun and a movement tool. With the chainhook, players can quickly close the gap to blast enemies in the face, granting a nice sum of armor on a kill. Alternatively, you can also use the chainhook’s momentum to navigate across entire arenas in a couple of seconds. When used correctly, you can turn Doom Eternal’s frantic gunfights up a notch to give the Quake series a run for its money.
NEXT: 10 Of The Best DOOM (2016) Quotes To Get You Excited For DOOM Eternal
