Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (2025)

General Information

Walkthrough Formatting

There are three separate campaigns as mentioned on the overview page. Doom 3, Resurrection of Evil, and The Lost Mission. Doom 3 - since it is much longer - has four pages dedicated to it. The first three pages are for guiding you through the game itself, providing you with everything needed to get all the achievements, including combat tips for your Nightmare run. The fourth page gives general tips on Nightmare and the 10-hour speed run. The individual pages for Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission are basically the same. All three are formatted in the same way. Each game is broken down room-by-room. This may seem like overkill but there were numerous times I got lost throughout playing this game and the layout of the game can be strange. Just listing what rooms the collectibles are in aren't always enough. It will also track collectibles and cumulative miscellaneous achievements as you go as well so you will know roughly when they will pop. I will also point out opportune moments for the other miscellaneous achievements that might require some specific conditions like getting two enemies to fight or killing two Imps in one shot. You will also notice in each room's description there are spoilers. These are combat tips to help guide you through each room. There are many ways to get through the Nightmare campaigns but I used a very slow and conservative approach. You can probably use ammo more often than I suggest, but the way I described each area is how I got through all three campaigns very comfortably. One other thing to note is some rooms can just be completely ignored by running straight through them. I will note when that can be done and how. The final page is the multiplayer page. Most of it can be done with 2 people but for one achievement you will need 3.

Saving

This game is a bit of a mixed bag with saving. It does have an auto-save feature but it will usually only save twice per mission; once in the beginning and once somewhere around the middle. The other consequence here is that you cannot rely on autosaves if you wish to jump around different campaigns. There can only be one autosave at any time and the save menu does not distinguish between games. So if you are relying on an autosave and start up another campaign it will get rewritten. Furthermore, manual saves will be mixed together. If you make a save in Doom 3 and then make a save in The Lost Mission, they will both be there. There is also a limited amount of save slots - so if you like to keep as many saves as possible after some time you will need to start overwriting old ones. For your playthroughs on Recruit I recommend saving roughly every time you get a collectible so that if you die you do not have to worry about picking them back up when you load a save. For Nightmare, I recommend you should save at every opportunity possible. Just a note though, be careful about where you save - and make sure to keep more than one save. Sometimes when saving the screen will go black when it loads, but the game will be active. If you saved near an enemy it will be able to kill you. It does not always happen, but it can.

Controls

  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (1) - Shoot
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (2) - Flashlight. This can be used for a limited time and then it will run out. It will take a few seconds to recharge.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (3) - Soul Cube/Artifact. You don't get the Soul Cube until the end of the game or if you are on your Nightmare run. In The Lost Mission you will only have the Soul Cube during the Nightmare run. The Artifact you will have from the beginning during Resurrection of Evil which replaces the Soul Cube.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (4) - Takes out your fists. Mostly useless but it's there.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (5)/Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (6) - Cycles through the weapons.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (7) - Jump.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (8) - Reload
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (9) - Action button. Use this to interact with computers.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (10) - Nothing.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (11) - Opens up PDA.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (12) - Pause.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (13) - Sprint. Usually you can just hold it in and then you can run for a limited time. For some reason when you are in the sections in Hell you can sprint as much as you want.
  • Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (14) - Crouch.

Collectibles

Doom 3

Doom 3 has three types of collectibles. Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), Video Discs, and Storage Lockers. There are achievements linked to finding all of them. They are described in detail but below within the spoiler tag is a list of all of them in case you would like to track them and check them off as you go. Each type of collectible is ordered in chronological order. Save after each collectible so that if you miss one you will only need to load back to the one you missed.

*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***

Resurrection of Evil/The Lost Mission

Both of these do not require storage lockers or video disks. They do require the PDAs though. In the walkthrough I have detailed both the PDAs and the storage lockers but since only the PDAs are required I will provide a checklist here.

Resurrection of Evil:

*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***

The Lost Mission:

*** Spoiler - click to reveal ***

Enemies

Cacodemon

These things are basically just floating balls of evil. They only have one ranged attack. They will shoot out balls of energy at you. These attacks are very slow so as long as you keep your distance they will not pose much of a threat. Consequently Shotguns aren't usually the best choice for these things unless you can take one by surprise. The best strategy is usually the Machine Gun or the Chaingun at longer and medium ranges, and the Plasma Gun is good for medium-range too if you need to kill them fast.

Cherub

Cherubs are very small enemies which are human babies with bug wings. They only have a melee attack and show up groups. Their attacks are very fast and hard to dodge. They can be killed in one or two Shotgun shots but the best way to take them out is at a distance with your Pistol or Machine Gun or some other automatic weapon.

Imps

These are tall and skinny demons and the most common enemy. They will throw fireballs at you from a distance and use their melee attack at close range. They will also sometimes get on all fours and leap at you, which can give out a fair amount of damage. It is very often this leap attack that will be waiting for you behind doors and corners. I will always make a note of this when it is about to happen throughout the walkthrough. The nice thing about the Imps is that they always throw their fireballs with the right hand (left if you are looking at them). This may sound like a very minor and useless detail, but you can use this to your advantage. I will explicitly mention when this is an option most times, but what you can do is get an Imp's attention and then hide on the left side of a doorway. This will cause it to walk through the door where you can kill it with a Shotgun. This can be done on the right side of a door or corner too, but it is more likely to throw a fireball at you before you can get a good shot. 1-2 Shotgun blasts will kill an Imp depending on the angle and how close you are. The Machine Gun, Chainsaw, or any other automatic weapon is good at killing them. The Plasma Gun is great but you may want to save the ammo. Many times throughout the campaigns you will be able to see Imps spawn in. The room may grow dark, but you will definitely see orange lightning pop up on a spot in a room. If you see this happening what you can do is run up to the spawning with the Shotgun and shoot as soon as the orange lightning goes away. If done correctly this will instantly kill it.

Lost Souls

These are the weakest enemy in the game but they can still be quite annoying especially on Nightmare. They are flaming skulls that fly around. They are very weak when it comes to health, but what they lack in health they make up for in speed. When you face these guys you will want to just keep moving. Thankfully only two Pistol shots will take them down. If you need to take them out quickly the Machine Gun, Chaingun, or Plasma Gun also work depending on the situation. You will also want to keep moving - do not stay in one place.

Maggots

These are another common type of enemy. They crawl on all fours and also run fast - faster than you. They have about as much as health as the Imp. They are grey with two red heads. Their only attack is a close-range claw attack and they are very aggressive. Your best bet with these guys is honestly just the Shotgun. With proper aim they will die in one shot. The general strategy is to let them come to you and shoot them when they get close or sprint up to them and blast them. The hiding-behind-doors strategy works but it isn't altogether necessary.

Pinky

Probably one of the more well-known demons in the Doom franchise. In this game they take the form of sort of a cybernetic hellhound. The front being of flesh and the back being robotic. You can run backward and keep your distance from them easy enough (provided there is room to do so). They just have a standard melee attack to worry about, but they do quite a bit of damage if they land. The strategy for these guys is to run backward and shoot them with some sort of automatic weapon. You could also get in close and use the Shotgun but this can be risky at times.

Tick

Ticks are little spider-like enemies. There is another similar enemy called Trites but they are essentially the same. These enemies are extremely weak, as they only take two Pistol shots to kill. One well-placed Shotgun shot will kill them but this is not usually necessary unless you are in a rush for some reason. They have two attacks; one is a leap attack similar to what the Imp does, except this attack is much shorter in range. There is an easy-to-see animation when they go to do this. They also have a normal melee attack. The only real issue with these enemies is that they pretty much always spawn in groups. Probably around 3 or 4 on average, but you will also rarely see one on its own. A few times there will be a massive group of around 7 or more. In these cases the Pistol is still fine but if it is in close quarters the Machine Gun or any automatic weapon will do the trick.

Wraiths

Small bat-like creatures. These guys are very similar to Maggots in their behavior, but they have a twist. They can teleport short distances. They do not pull trickery like teleporting from in front of you to behind you. They typically only use this to get closer to you. While this may seem like they may get annoying because of this, it actually gives you a huge advantage. This teleport ability is the same exact animation as the spawning animation. So there is a short instance where they will not move and are vulnerable to attack. Most of the time when they do this little trick, pull out the Shotgun and kill them as they spawn. It should also be noted that they can be killed during the initial teleport animation, even if they don't appear to be there. For the most part as long as you see the lightning teleport aura around them, they are vulnerable. They are harder to kill on the defense in comparison to the Maggot since they are smaller and more agile. If they don't teleport your best bet is to use the bait and shoot behind a door or just charge them. They have only one close-range physical attack like Maggot. Luckily their attack has more wind up to it so if you see the animation you should have time to react by shooting the Shotgun or sprinting backward to dodge it.

Zombies

The name is self-explanatory. Undead humans. These are the first enemies you come across. There are many variations of them. Their health seems to slightly vary, but the only really notable type of zombies are the Fat Zombies who have almost double the health. Zombies also do not do very much damage and are among the few enemies that will not one-hit you when playing on the Nightmare difficulty. They are best taken out with the Shotgun or the Chainsaw. If you are strapped for ammo the Pistol also works fine but it may not kill them fast enough if there are a larger number of them or other enemies to deal with.

Weapons

Fists

You will pretty much never use them unless you are in desperation mode. However there is one achievement tied to this, for killing 20 enemies. Now, people claim you can shoot an enemy some number of times and then finish them off with your fists, but in my experience this did not work. So to be safe, while you are going for this, just kill all the enemies with only your fists. There is a very good place to grind this out later that I mention. This can also be done in any of the campaigns.

Unarmed Badass

Kill 20 enemies with the fists/melee hands in DOOM 3

Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (15)

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Chainsaw

Like the Fists, this has an achievement tied to it. Likewise, for 20 kills. You won't have much of a problem getting this. The Chainsaw is unbelievably overpowered. It can take out pretty much any enemy except Hell Knights and Vagaries as they spawn. I don't always explicitly say to use it in my combat tips throughout the Nightmare campaign, but keep in mind it is usually an option once you find it. I didn't explicitly mention for a lot of spots because even though it kills enemies quickly it will leave you vulnerable to attack.

Ripped!

Use the chainsaw to kill 20 enemies in DOOM 3

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Pistol

This thing isn't very powerful at all. It will take almost an entire clip to take out even some of the weaker enemies like Imps and Wraiths. However, it is very good for the small enemies like Ticks. I will usually recommend using the pistol on these things to conserve ammo for your other weapons. Two shots to a Tick will instantly kill it, so with good aim you can take out 4 of them with one clip.

Machine Gun

This thing is very reliable. It does moderate damage, it has a quick reload, and ammo for it is very common. It is very good for taking out enemies from a distance while also conserving ammo for the stronger weapons.

Shotgun

The Shotgun is your bread and butter of this game. It's very powerful at close range, especially for an early game weapon. The ammo capacity is so large it's almost asinine, not to mention ammo for it is fairly common. With correct aiming it can take out Imps and Wraiths in a single shot and even stronger enemies like the Cacodemon out in two. For any close encounters, this will absolutely be your go-to.

Chaingun

This is much like your standard Machine Gun, but it shoots faster. It's pretty much interchangeable. However I tend to save it for areas where there are more enemies since the ammo is harder to come by than the Machine Guns. If you have played Doom (2016) or Doom Eternal you are probably used to this weapon taking up the same ammo reserve as the Machine Gun. Well, in this game all weapon reserves are completely separate, so no need to worry about that.

Plasma Gun

This weapon is great. You will want to use this for a lot of the late-game enemies when the Soul Cube (more on that later) is not available for use. It does a lot of damage and has a fair amount of room in its reserve. The ammo isn't as common as the Machine Gun or the Shotgun, but it is still common. The even nicer thing about this weapon is that while it is normally found much later in the game, we can find this thing relatively early on. It will turn the first major boss fight on Nightmare from a total pain to a snooze fest. It can take early game enemies like Imps and Wraiths out very quickly and even take out stronger enemies like the Hell Knight in just one clip. It's one disadvantage is it isn't very good at range for the enemies that like to move around. The bullets are extremely slow compared to the other weapons in this game. It can still be used at range, and there will be times when I recommend to do so. Sometimes the trade-off in power for accuracy is absolutely worth it, but most of the time it won't be.

Rocket Launcher

No surprises here. It is your typical Rocket Launcher from most video games. It holds 5 rockets before you have to reload, and thankfully the reload time isn't too bad. I recommend saving this for very specific sections (which I will mention) or when you are in a tight spot and are having trouble despite my combat suggestions. It does a large amount of damage; it can take out early enemies like Imps in one shot, some of the more annoying enemies like Chaingun soldiers and Revenants in two, and can even take out Hell Knights with 5-7 direct hits.

Grenades

This is what really shows this game is a bit of a dated shooter. Your grenades aren't a preset button, but they are a weapon you have to cycle through and equip in order to use. Despite this they are incredibly useful, especially on Expert. They will take a bit to get used to because they tend to bounce once thrown. Even if you aim it slightly at the ground it will usually bounce all the way to the other side of a room. The even nicer thing though is if it hits an enemy it instantly explodes. These are very good for enemies like Chaingun Soldiers and Revenants that you want to avoid facing head-on due to the amount of damage they can deal. So you can use these and throw them from the safety of corners by bouncing them off walls. They do a great deal of damage and have a fairly large splash damage radius.

BFG9000

Anybody who knows anything about Doom is most likely familiar with this gun. It is the most powerful gun in the game. This time around it has an interesting mechanic in that you can tap Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (25) to shoot it, but you can also hold it down to charge it up so it can use up to 4 BFG cells. The tap function is good for killing weaker enemies and the hold function is good for stronger enemies. Don't shoot it too close though because it does have a really large splash damage radius. It can be found pretty early on. I recommend saving the ammo on this thing, you are going to want it for the last level along with the final boss.

Soul Cube

This is one of the most interesting weapons I've seen in a while. With the exception of bosses, it can kill anything in one hit. What is even nicer is that on Nightmare you are given this weapon from the beginning. It even auto-locks onto enemies (though those enemies have to know of your presence, for whatever reason if you try to sneak up on an enemy with it, it will just miss them completely). What makes this even better is it will recharge your health when it kills something. There is one catch with this weapon though. After it is fired, whether it kills or not, it has to recharge. You must recharge it by killing 5 enemies. Throughout the walkthrough, at least as far as Nightmare is concerned, I recommend when to use it and on what to use it. It may be tempting to use it as often as possible or when you need health, but not having it at certain areas in the game will make your life so much harder than it has to be. There is also an achievement attached to this weapon for killing 20 enemies. You will most likely get this by the end of your Recruit playthrough, but if you do not you will absolutely get it by the time you are done with Nightmare.

Soulfood

Use the Soul Cube to defeat 20 enemies in DOOM 3

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Resurrection of Evil

Weapons

Grabber

Resurrection Of Evil will also introduce to you some new weapons for you to experiment with. One of them is the Grabber. It is a weapon that can be used to grab items and particles and then launch them at distant or out-of-reach areas. With this in mind this weapon can also be used to access areas you couldn't reach before or use it to defeat enemies and save ammunition.

There is one achievement tied to it:

Play Catch

Kill 20 enemies with projectiles launched from the Grabber in RoE

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For this achievement, you will need to use the Grabber and grab particles or items thrown by an enemy and then launch it back at them, earning you a kill. This has to be done 20 times in total for the achievement to pop and it's across all of your playthroughs, so you do not have to do this in one sitting. A suggestion for getting this achievement is to wait for an Imp to throw a flame-ball at you and then grab it and throw it at them to kill it (just like it does in the cutscene). Through the walkthrough of this campaign I will show specifically how to knock this out, right in the first few levels, however, you can do this at any time in this campaign. The Grabber can also instantly kill any small enemies, so Forgotten Ones, Ticks, and Cherubs.

Artifact

This is sort of this campaign's replacement for the Soul Cube. Instead of instant kills you get to slow down time (the game calls this Hell Time). It is this game's take on the "bullet time" feature that some other shooters have used over the years. It can hold up to three charges. The way to recharge it is finding a (human) dead body and holding the Artifact up to it. Note that this does not include zombie dead bodies after killing them, even though they are "human" bodies. There is one achievement tied to this:

Too Slow, Fool!

Kill 5 enemies at once while in Hell Time in RoE

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You basically need to use the Artifact and then kill 5 enemies before Hell Time runs out. I will specifically mention several spots to do this achievement.

Double Barrel Shotgun

This is this games version of the Super Shotgun from the old Doom games. For whatever reason this weapon is only in the add-on campaigns and not the original Doom 3 campaign. It's a shame because this weapon will probably be your go-to weapon in these two campaigns. This is the only weapon that shares an ammo reserve with another weapon in this game (in this case the Shotgun). It does twice the damage so it can take many enemies out in 1 or 2 shots. It's one disadvantage is that it's reloading time isn't great and you have to reload after every shot. So if there are a lot of enemies in a room and you would like to use the Shotgun, you will want to use the Standard Shotgun instead.

Enemies

Forgotten Ones

These are basically just the Lost Souls from the Doom 3 campaign. They will replace Lost Souls in both Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission. The nice thing about these two other campaigns is that the Grabber can instantly kill them.

Vulgar

These things are pretty much like the aliens from the horror movie Alien. The only difference is they shoot out an energy ball as a ranged attack. The Grabber is really great for these things, but the same tactics that work against Imps will work against Vulgars, so while they look new, there isn't much to them that will throw you off except maybe the fact that they will be found crawling on walls and ceilings more often than Imps.

Bruiser

These are very large demons with what looks like screens on their chest. Most of the time I recommend you just run past them or use the Grabber on them. If you can hit them in the chest with their own rockets, they will go down in 1-2 hits. They're basically like a Mancubus but taller.

3. Doom 31. Walkthrough overview

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Guide for DOOM 3: BFG Edition (2025)
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