Skill level
From Doom Wiki
Skill level determines the overall difficulty of a game: for instance, how many weapons and powerups are encountered, how much ammo various items give, and monster populations and behavior. There are five settings.
Contents |
[edit] Doom skill levels
| Level | Name | Class1 | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | I'm Too Young To Die | easy | 2 × ammo2, player(s) take half normal damage |
| 2 | Hey, Not Too Rough | easy | |
| 3 | Hurt Me Plenty | medium | |
| 4 | Ultra-Violence | hard | |
| 5 | Nightmare! | hard | 2 × ammo, respawning3 & fast4 monsters, no cheats5 (in vanilla Doom) |
- Skill levels of the same class have the same number and same types of monsters and items. The difference mainly amounts to larger and tougher comportments of monsters on the harder skill levels, but not always; for example, in E3M6: Mt. Erebus the blue key is located in different places depending on the skill level.
- Ammo pickups give twice as much ammunition as they do on other skill levels.
- Killed monsters (apart from the ones spawned by the spawn shooter) respawn at their original starting point where possible. This happens after a randomized time delay (roughly 8 seconds to 5 minutes). Respawned monsters are instantly aroused and advance on the player. The respawn modifier can be used with any skill level using the -respawn command line parameter. See also (0,0) respawning bug.
- All monsters are fast monsters which move faster and attack more aggressively, additionally targetting the player immediately on sight. See also IDCLEV idiosyncrasies.
- All cheat codes except idclev and iddt are disabled.
[edit] Heretic skill levels
| Level | Name | Class | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Thou needeth a wet-nurse | easy | 50% more ammo, player(s) take half damage, number of monsters decreased, number of items and powerups increased. |
| 2 | Yellowbellies-r-us | easy | Number of powerups and items increased, number of monsters decreased. |
| 3 | Bringest them oneth | medium | |
| 4 | Thou art a smite-meister | hard | Number of monsters increased, number of items and powerups decreased. |
| 5 | Black plague possesses thee | hard | 50% more ammo, number of monsters increased, number of items and powerups decreased, 3 × monster move and attack speed, 3 × enemy projectile speed, cheats disabled. |
[edit] Hexen skill levels
| Level | Name (Fighter) | Name (Cleric) | Name (Mage) | Class | Modifers |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Squire | Altar Boy | Apprentice | easy | Damage is lessened |
| 2 | Knight | Acolyte | Enchanter | easy | |
| 3 | Warrior | Priest | Sorceror | medium | |
| 4 | Berserker | Cardinal | Warlock | hard | |
| 5 | Titan | Pope | Archimage | hard | Cheats are disabled and all monsters move faster and attack more often. |
[edit] Strife skill levels
| Level | Name | Class | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Training | easy | 2 × ammo, player(s) take half normal damage |
| 2 | Rookie | easy | |
| 3 | Veteran | medium | |
| 4 | Elite | hard | |
| 5 | Bloodbath | hard | fast monsters, no cheats |
[edit] Doom 3 skill levels
| Level | Name | Class | Damage1 | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Recruit | easy | 75% | |
| 2 | Marine | medium | 90% | |
| 3 | Veteran | hard | 170% | |
| 4 | Nightmare | hard | 350% | The player's health steadily drains until it's 25 or below. Starts with the Soul Cube in Doom 3, or all Artifact powers in RoE. Must be unlocked by first completing the game on any other skill level. |
- The amount of damage the player receives.
[edit] Doom 64 skill levels
| Level | Name | Class | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Be Gentle! | easy | |
| 2 | Bring it on! | medium | |
| 3 | I own Doom! | hard | |
| 4 | Watch me die! | hardest |
[edit] Notes
In addition to the five Doom standard skill levels, in vanilla Doom a skill level of 0 can also be specified, from the command line only. Doing this empties maps of all things apart from the player starts. This does not work in many source ports. It also renders many levels unbeatable without the aid of cheat codes.
The "I'm Too Young To Die" skill level was re-named "I am a wimp" for some console ports.
In the Doom alphas, "I'm too Young to Die" was called "I Just Want to Kill", hence the name M_JKILL for the graphic for skill 1.
Early versions of Doom did not support Nightmare mode. The initial mail-order releases were version 1.1 and only included the first four skill levels. Version 1.2 added Nightmare mode support; most shareware versions of Doom distributed were version 1.2 and so included Nightmare mode. Nightmare was added as a joke, in response to comments that the game was too easy.[citation needed] After selecting Nightmare from the main menu, the player is asked "Are you sure? This skill level isn't even remotely fair." The player must confirm that he wants to play on Nightmare mode, a step which is unique to this skill level.
The name of the fourth skill level, "Ultra-Violence", comes from a phrase in Anthony Burgess's 1962 novel A Clockwork Orange, via Stanley Kubrick's 1971 film version [1].
Some skilled players have created new challenges by defining custom rules, such as pacifist (not hurting monsters) and Tyson (fists, pistol, and chainsaw only).
