The Dark Ages Update 3 Adds Ripatorium 2.0, More Presets, New Music, And Major Fixes

Bethesda and id Software have announced that DOOM: The Dark Ages has received its third major update, implementing Ripatorium 2.0, more Encounter Presets, more customization options, more jukebox tracks, and more.

You can view the quoted patch notes below:

We’ve added even more ways to customize the Ripatorium arena mode, including the ability to share and load presets from each round via our Passcode sharing*.

• The Ripatorium is now round-based, with players customizing a selection of enemies they will face for up to five rounds
• Each Ripatorium round can have unique settings and up to 10 respawn waves
• In the Settings menu, we’ve added new options for Time Limit
• Each round also features a unique Passcode (highlighted in the image below) that allows you to share your custom Ripatorium round and all its settings with other players

*Please note Ripatorium Passcode sharing is in Beta 

• To play someone else’s Ripatorium encounter, select the corresponding round and press the newly added “Enter New Passcode” input at the bottom of the screen

There are also new Encounter Presets to choose from: Medium, Challenging, and Sadistic

• Note: You can enable these Encounter Presets in conjunction with any Difficulty Level 

The Jukebox now includes five additional tracks:

• “Theomachy” 
• “Bloodspill” 
• “Divine Retribution” 
• From the Ashes” 
• “Wither and Writhe”  

• An icon now appears over the heads of the last few remaining enemies in a round

• Additional line-of-sight blockers have been added to all arenas

End of Level Summary now shows two new tabs: Difficulty and Arena Setup

• Difficulty: Includes settings used during the Ripatorium run

• Arena Setup: Breaks down total demons killed with separate tabs counting each class of slain demon (Fodder, Heavy and Super Heavy)

Brink of Death is now an adjustable setting in the Difficulty tab

• Normal provides the recommended support

• Hard provides less support and makes surviving at low health more challenging

Input Bindings

• Players can now swap their active Shield Rune and Melee Weapon during gameplay

Four new player-requested key bindings have been added to the Input tab:

Controller Vibration

• Adjusting the vibration intensity slider now correctly adjusts external controllers on Xbox when plugged into a PC

• Controller vibration now works correctly with the BFC equipped

• Fixed a crash on PlayStation 5 Pro when initiating a Glory Strike on Heavy and Super Heavy-classed enemies after they’re Dazed from the player using the Shredder

• The player no longer clips through the geometry of the wall when performing a Glory Strike against the Komodo

• Floating VFX will no longer appear over the Cacodemon’s corpse if it is killed while performing a wall attack

• The Vagary Champion’s summon VFX are now the correct size

• Fixed an issue with the Cacodemon’s shield continuing to block attacks briefly after it visually expires

• Added ambient audio to the Cacodemon’s idle animation

Holy City of Aratum  

• After the Vagary spawns in the final encounter, additional Mancubus spawns are now replaced with a group of Imps

• Removed Chaingunners from the final encounter

️Siege Part 1  

• The Hell Knight and Imp Stalker that spawn after breaking Morale in the Village Morale fight no longer respawn

• The Stone Imps and one of the Nightmare Imp Stalkers in the Swamp Morale fight have been removed

️Siege Part 2  

• The Hell Knights in the Tank Hangar that spawn after the Leader Battle Knight no longer respawn

Forsaken Plains  

• Removed one of the Arachnotron spawns from both tower objectives

Hellbreaker  

• Removed the additional Revenant spawn in the final encounter

Sentinel Command Station  

• The Mancubus and Arachnotron that spawn after breaking the Pinky Rider Leader’s armor in the tank hangar no longer respawn

• The Mancubus and Arachnotron that spawn in the final encounter no longer respawn

From Beyond  

• The Mancubus that spawns after breaking Morale in the first arena fight no longer respawn

• The Revenant that spawns after breaking Morale in the second arena fight no longer respawn

️Belly of the Beast  

• Removed Battle Knight maintain status in first arena encounter

• Removed Mancubus and Arachnotron in Vagary fight

Harbor of Souls  

• Removed Arachnotron ambush in Blue Key Komodo fight

• Removed additional Revenant spawn in the fight against the Vagary during the first visit to the temple

• Removed Arachnotron on barge

Reckoning  

• Added Hell Knight and Imp Stalker ambush to secret Ruby room

• Added Mancubus ambush in Prince Ahzrak toy collectible secret

• Added surprise encounter to Wraithstone pickup

• Changed the Nightmare Imp Stalker to a normal Imp Stalker in the first encounter

Atlan

• Adjusted Brink of Death feature for all difficulties so players have a greater chance to fight back from a near-death situation

• Slightly increased the amount of health received from killing Titan enemies

Prince Ahzrak

• Reduced acceleration of projectiles spawned from the boss’ Super Dive Bomb attack

• Reduced base damage of boss’ Spear Throw so that it does not break the player’s Shield in a single shot when enemy damage slider value is 2.0x or lower.

The Old One

• Slightly increased health received by the player when performing a Glory Strike

• Reduced the damage scaling on the Gravity Well explosion across all damage slider values 1.0x and above.

Cacodemon

• Slightly reduced speed of Lightning Wall projectiles

Cosmic Baron

• Reduced damage of Guillotine Projectile attack so that the player’s Shield doesn’t break instantly on block

• Fixed a bug where additional damage was sometimes applied when hit by a Cosmic Baron’s Guillotine Projectile

Combat Feedback

• Adjusted various weapons and enemies to activate gore with greater frequency and consistency across the player’s arsenal

• Adjusted enemy ragdoll behavior for various melee attacks and Shield Charge to further punctuate those actions in combat

• Fixed an issue with the Atlan’s Brink of Death activating despite the player Perfect Dodging an AOE attack

• The spark VFX for using the Shield block no longer appears when taking damage from environmental hazards or other damage that bypasses the Shield

• Fixed a bug with the Lore Nerd Milestone not completing correctly after finishing a 100% playthrough

• Fixed an issue with the Perfection Skin not unlocking if the player force quits during the third Ripatorium match

• Fixed a rare issue where the campaign’s Pause and Dossier menus were replaced with Ripatorium menus, leading to save corruption and inaccessible menus

• Fixed a bug where debug text would appear after dying in the projectile parry tutorial area

• Interrupting the Combat Shotgun burst fire with Shield block no longer causes the player camera to slightly tilt until mantling or restarting the map

• Fixed an issue in the Ripatorium where both mods for the Shredder and Accelerator would be active at the same time if the player reloaded the encounter or died and restarted

• Hitting a Chaingunner with a pinned fodder demon will no longer instantly kill the demon

• Armored enemies will now falter correctly when their armor is destroyed by the Ravager and Pulverizer

• Fixed a bug where the first instance of damage the player takes after a checkpoint would not mitigate damage properly if hit from behind

• Killing a Vagary, Agaddon Hunter or Komodo in the Ripatorium no longer triggers their related Campaign milestones

• The Ripatorium now saves the Melee weapon the player equipped from the previous attempt. In addition, , charges for that weapon are fully replenished if the player swaps Melee weapons before the first round of enemies spawn

• Addressed a bug with the firing SFX getting stuck in a loop if the player swapped from the Auto Turret Rune to another Shield Rune after it has already begun to fire in the Ripatorium

• Ripatorium Encounter Presets not resetting after selecting “Reset All Ripatorium Rounds to Default,” (e.g. the “Sadistic” preset remains at “Sadistic” rather than “Default)

• Quick Swap Rune and Quick Swap Melee not displaying correctly in the Ripatorium with accounts that have not progressed beyond the Campaign opening

• Default Time Limit displaying inconsistently when enabling Encounter Presets

About DOOM: The Dark Ages

DOOM: The Dark Ages is a prequel to Doom 2016 and DOOM Eternal, telling the origin story of the DOOM Slayer’s rage in a medieval war against Hell.

Players can anticipate destroying enemies with returning favorite weapons, such as the Super Shotgun, while utilizing new ones like the Shield Saw. Fans of the previous two entries have a treat here, with the gameplay progression evolving considerably.

Check out our review.

DOOM: The Dark Ages is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.