Strategies?

I hope this is the right place to ask this.

I just bought the Collector's Edition to pass by some time. I played the shareware in UV, and when I played the Second Level, I think it's a LOT harder. Maybe because it's been a while I've played the shareware version, maybe because I need to adjust to the new monsters, traps, and levels.

Whatever the case, I'll end up dying constantly, and having to play through the same level over and over, until I get to the end, barely with any ammo and any health, then trying to repeat the process for the next level.

So my biggest problem is: Ammo.

I've ran out of ammo constantly, especially after wasting them over Imps, Cacodemons, and Barons of Hell. Am I supposed to try to kill as little and try to conserve my ammo, or do I need to look for ammo first before I try to take on the horde of monsters?

And if you're running out of ammo or health, what should you do?

Any other strategies or tricks you guys know will be nice.

Akvod said:

or do I need to look for ammo first before I try to take on the horde of monsters?

Yeah, some levels might require you to run past the early enemies to find some ammo or more substantial firepower.

Akvod said:

And if you're running out of ammo or health, what should you do?

Any other strategies or tricks you guys know will be nice.

Invoke monster infighting and let them kill each other. Try looking for health and ammo while they're fighting.

If you have a chainsaw use that against cacos and demons, its pretty effective at killing them and saving ammo.

Barrels.

If you have read the BFG faq and knows how the bfg works exactly, you might as well know, that with a lot of luck, a bfg blast (With both the energy ball and the damagewave afterwards) could kill a spider mastermind in one hit.

Thanks for all the tips so far, I'm going to go back and try my luck again.

Part of playing doom is knowing what to kill and when. It's hard to resist killing everything as soon as you can, but it's better to wait until you really need them dead. I noticed this while watching a newbie play, they would kill things that were barely a threat (demons in a pit, imps on far away cliff, etc.).

This might seem like an obvious tactic to use, but you can save a lot of shotgun shells by aiming for more than one monster at a time. Learn the spread patterns of the two shotguns and aim them in such a way that you can at least injure as many monsters as possible (not necessarily killing them). Also, never underestimate the power of a point-blank super shotgun blast.

usually what i do, wait 'till they form a kind of line and light 'em up. usually one shell will take down two zombies, maybe three. anything else must be weakened for it to work.

I've never been so scared before. I'm in love with this game now! I just got to E2M8, where I heard that I'll face the Cyber Demon. I'm going to take a break (Or rather, I have to) now that I saved it. I was wondering if you guys have any tips on taking on this level and the cyberdemon.

Strafing is about all you need on this map. The map is so open that it's actually pretty difficult for an average player to get killed by a rocket. Dying from the splash damage is probably the biggest showstopper on this level. You might be strafing but not paying attention to where you're going and you might find yourself alongside one of those marble pillars, with a rocket detonating beside you.

Just remember that when the Cyberdemon fires, he will always fire 3 rockets at you, even if you are not in his view. So when you go to duck around the corner, be careful when you pop back out, as you could have a rocket headed straight for your face.

also, keep your distance from him so it'll be easier to dodge his rockets.

Hint: if you use the BFG, it only takes five direct shots to kill him. About 200 shots from the plasma rifle. although the plasma rifle has a faster fire rate, the BFG is probably your best choice

use walls to your advantage and try not to let your health get below 100 percent, same goes for armor. if it goes below that start thinking about getting more.

also, his footsteps are very unreliable for his distance and postion, as they do not change in volume, keep him in view as much as possible, he can and will sneak up on you and kill you out of your field of view.

I have a new question the BFG, what situations and monsters is right to use it on? How much ammo should I reserve for it?

It usually overpasses the PG damage wise. So use it against 3 cacos, a baron or a spiderdemon.

i would save it's ammo for bosses and large numbers of enemies; cacodemons, demons, knights, and other harder-to-kill monsters.

Da Spadger said:

If you have read the BFG faq and knows how the bfg works exactly, you might as well know, that with a lot of luck, a bfg blast (With both the energy ball and the damagewave afterwards) could kill a spider mastermind in one hit.

Fire it at as close range as possible to eliminate the luck factor. 1-shot kill every time. I always kill spiderdemons like this if I have the BFG. Efficient and not risky.

Unlike cyberdemons, which are completely different story. (You'll still need at least something like 3 shots against them, and it's not worth trying unless the cyber is shooting at other monsters)

No, that's only in Zdoom (and even then it isn't guaranteed - a little over 60% chance assuming you give it a full dose of traces IIRC). One-shot kills are very rare (but possible) with an engine that doesn't modify the behaviour in this respect.

I was dissappointed in the spidermastermind. I beat E3M8 in my first try. E2M8 took more than a few times, on my first try.
E4 was even worse. I didnt even get to kill the spider, infighting.

Oh, I only play in ZDoom. Maybe that's it. But I don't remember when it wouldn't have worked.
edit: Bah. It's probably just my memory, then. It's apparently not foolproof at all...

Heh, try not to get cornered by a cybie. Otherwise ouch time! For the Spider Mastermind, avoid wide open spaces with no cover.

Anyway, how does Zdoom modify the BFG behaviour? I never knew this before.

See this post and cph's article linked to from there.

Finally, I finished the original 3 episodes =)

Should I try Thy Flesh Consumed, or should I play Doom II?

They're both well worth playing - take your pick. In terms of difficulty, Thy Flesh Consumed is probably a little harder than Doom2 on average, so on that basis you might want to play Doom2 first, or else adjust the difficulty setting accordingly. E4M1 of Thy Flesh Consumed is a fairly tough start to an episode on UV.

Duck and cover!
I found that in GZdoom and the newest version of Zdoom, the enemies can't hit you if the ground you're standing on is the same height as the one they are standing on. :P

The new zDoom crouching lets you duck under fireballs. If they shot the fireball while your standing. I think it makes it way too easy.

Ah, that explains it. No wonder I felt the Mastermind was a little too easy to kill in Zdoom. That could also explain why I thought Doom95 was much harder back then.

Heh, in one of my recent attempts at AV27 UV speed I managed to kill the YSK spider in one shot.