DOOM: The Dark Ages Weapon Upgrade Trees & Token Farming Route

I reset my campaign progress twice to test different upgrade orders. Some upgrades make the game significantly easier. Some are traps that sound good on paper but add almost nothing in practice. Here is the optimal order for every resource.

Sentinel Crystals: The Priority Order

Sentinel Crystals upgrade your base stats. You get exactly 24 crystals across a full campaign playthrough (including all secret encounters and Slayer Gates). You cannot max everything. You have to choose.

Priority 1: Ammo Capacity (max first). Ammo is the most limiting resource in DOOM: TDA. Weapons have tiny ammo pools by default. The Super Shotgun holds 12 shells. The Heavy Cannon holds 120 bullets, which is about 4 seconds of continuous fire. Maxing ammo capacity triples your effective combat uptime before you need to chainsaw for resupply. This is the single most impactful upgrade in the game.

Priority 2: Health (up to level 4). Base health is 100. Each crystal adds 25 HP. At level 4 (200 HP), you survive two Baron melee hits on Nightmare instead of one. The difference between getting one-shot and two-shot is the difference between learning a fight and dying to bad luck. Stop at level 4 — the 5th and 6th health upgrades cost two crystals each and the marginal survival benefit drops off.

Priority 3: Armor (up to level 3). Armor reduces damage by a percentage per pip. At level 3, you have 50% damage reduction with full armor. Pairs with the Armor For Blood rune — as long as you are killing, you have armor, and as long as you have armor, you take half damage. Levels 4-6 give diminishing returns (each adds only 5% more reduction).

Priority 4: Speed (dead last). The speed upgrade increases base movement speed. It sounds good. It is not. DOOM: TDA is about arena combat, not running through hallways. Your dash and meathook are your mobility, not your walk speed. Do not spend crystals on speed until everything else is maxed.

Praetor Suit Tokens: The Traps And The Must-Haves

Praetor Suit Tokens unlock perks in the suit tree. You get 18 tokens total. Here is what to take and what to skip.

Must-have perks:

• Quick Dash (cooldown reduction on dash): Faster dash means more invincibility frames. Take immediately.

• Grenade Regen (grenades regenerate over time): Infinite grenades. Turns grenades from a limited resource into part of your combat rotation.

• Ice Bomb Duration (longer freeze): Frozen enemies take 3x damage from all sources. Longer freeze means more damage. Essential for burst damage against heavies.

• Glory Kill Speed (faster GK animations): Saves about 0.5 seconds per Glory Kill. Over a full campaign this adds up to minutes of invulnerability time you would have spent stuck in animations.

Trap perks (skip these):

• Barrel Damage (barrels explode for more damage): When was the last time you deliberately shot a barrel? The barrels in DOOM: TDA are sparse and rarely positioned usefully. Skip.

• Hazard Protection (reduced environmental damage): Environmental hazards exist in maybe three arenas in the entire game. Skip.

• Codex XP Boost (more XP from codex entries): XP from codex entries is negligible. Skip.

Weapon Upgrade Trees: The Optimal Path Per Weapon

Every weapon has a tree with about 8 nodes. You get enough Weapon Upgrade Points to max about 4 weapons fully. Choose wisely.

Super Shotgun (max first): The best weapon in the game. Upgrade path: Full Choke (tighter spread) → Quick Load (faster reload) → Double Trouble (two shots before reload). The meat hook upgrade is fun but the combat upgrades are more impactful. Max the Super Shotgun before touching anything else.

Heavy Cannon (max second): Your workhorse weapon. Upgrade path: Precision Bolt (scope for weak point sniping) → Micro Missiles (secondary fire that melts heavies) → Extended Mag. The scope turns the Heavy Cannon into a sniper rifle that one-shots Imp headshots and two-shots Soldier headshots.

Ballista (max third): Anti-air and anti-heavy specialist. Upgrade path: Arbalest (charged shot that sticks to enemies and explodes) → Blade Damage (the blade itself does more contact damage) → Destroyer Blade (wide horizontal slash). The Arbalest charged shot kills Cacodemons in one hit and staggers Barons.

Rocket Launcher (max fourth or skip): Situational. Upgrade path: Lock-On Burst (three rockets at one target) → Remote Detonation (airburst rockets for crowd control). The Rocket Launcher is powerful but ammo-hungry. If you do not use it much, skip upgrades and put points into the Plasma Rifle instead.

Plasma Rifle (alternative fourth): Shield strip specialist. Upgrade path: Heat Blast (overcharged shot that strips shields) → Microwave Beam (continuous beam that locks enemies in place). The Heat Blast instantly removes shield from Shield Soldiers and Doom Hunters. Against the Doom Hunter boss fights, a maxed Plasma Rifle trivializes the fight.

Chaingun (skip): The Chaingun is fun but ammo-inefficient compared to the Heavy Cannon. Its upgrades focus on fire rate which makes the ammo problem worse. Save your upgrade points.

Token Farming Route (Chapter Select Exploit)

The fastest farming route uses Mission Select on Mission 6: The Siege of Taras Nabad.

1. Start the mission. Play until you reach the first arena with the Slayer Gate key. Collect the key.

2. The Slayer Gate in this mission awards 3 Weapon Upgrade Points, 1 Sentinel Crystal, and 1 Praetor Suit Token.

3. Complete the Slayer Gate arena (about 4 minutes of combat).

4. After exiting the Slayer Gate, quit to main menu. The game auto-saves after Slayer Gates. Select "Mission Select" and restart Mission 6.

5. Your upgrades persist. The Slayer Gate rewards are re-earned every time. You can farm infinite upgrade points this way.

I did this loop about 6 times after my first playthrough and maxed every weapon before starting Nightmare difficulty. It takes about 7 minutes per loop. Fully worth it.

Sentinel Crystal Locations (The Easy-To-Miss Ones)

Most crystals are unmissable — they sit in the middle of corridors. The easy-to-miss ones:

Mission 3 (Doom Hunter Base): After the first arena, there is a vent on the left wall that is barely visible. Inside is a secret encounter that awards one crystal.

Mission 5 (Cultist Lair): After the sewer section, look up. There is a grapple point on the ceiling leading to a hidden platform with a crystal.

Mission 8 (Necropolis): The Slayer Gate key is hidden behind a breakable wall in the third arena. The breakable wall has no visual indicator — you have to punch it to check. The Slayer Gate itself awards two crystals.

Upgrade Priority Cheat Sheet

First 8 Sentinel Crystals: Ammo Capacity to max.

Next 4: Health to 4.

Next 3: Armor to 3.

Remaining 9: Whatever you want, probably more armor.

Praetor Suit first 6 tokens: Quick Dash, Grenade Regen, Ice Bomb Duration.

Next 3: Glory Kill Speed, Dash Distance, Frag Grenade Damage.

Weapon Upgrade Points first 8 points: Super Shotgun to max.

Next 8: Heavy Cannon to max.

Next 8: Ballista to max.

Anything left: Plasma Rifle or Rocket Launcher.