A Slayer’s Guide to DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Shield Saw
Somehow, DOOM: The Dark Ages’ most versatile new weapon… isn’t what you’d initially recognize as a weapon at all. The latest entry in id Software’s legendarily bloodthirsty series brings a lot of new ideas to the wartable – a tech-medieval setting, a prequel story for the DOOM Slayer, and all-new mechanics in the form of mechs, dragons, and open zone sequences, to name a few – but perhaps the most impactful is its new mantra of “stand and fight”.
After the run and gun corridor antics of DOOM (2016) and the unexpectedly athletic take with DOOM Eternal, The Dark Ages riffs on the classic DOOM feeling of walking into a room, planting yourself in a prime position, and taking down all comers. And it’s all rooted in the Shield Saw, your disc-shaped ticket to destruction.
We’re not necessarily used to seeing the Slayer protecting himself, but the Shield Saw takes the old phrase, “the best offence is a good defence” and yanks it all the way to its logical conclusion. Far from being a way to hunker down and take pot shots, the Shield Saw is a multi-purpose means of taking down enemies efficiently while keeping your precious armor and hit points intact.
Here are the many ways you’ll be using it:
Blocking and Parrying
One of the very first things DOOM: The Dark Ages teaches you is how to block. Pull the left trigger and the Slayer raises his shield, soaking up projectiles with the minimum of fuss. Of course, a DOOM game simply will not allow you to cower, so be aware that, after a few hits, your block will be broken. Think of this less as a means to stand back, and more like a way to close the distance into more Shotgun-friendly range.
And how you block is critically important – you’ll soon learn about parrying. If you see a green-colored projectile, or an enemy wreathed in green energy before a melee attack, take this as a sign. A well-timed block on one of these attacks, just before it hits, will send projectiles bouncing back to sender, or breaking the stance of a close-quarters creature. Both are invaluable for thinning out weaker demons, or opening up stronger ones to uninterrupted punishment. Later in the game, you’ll also unlock Shield Runes, which add extra effects upon a successful parry – but we won’t spoil those here. You should really find out about them yourself.
If you’re finding the parry window a little too tough to hit (or not tough enough!) you can adjust the parry window in the options menu at any time. With a combination of blocks and parries, you can wade into a sea of enemies, safe in the knowledge that you won’t just clear a room, but do it without getting a nick in your armor.
Shield Charge
Sometimes, blocking just leaves you feeling a bit far from the action. The Shield Charge is the perfect tonic. When blocking, you’ll notice a target appearing on the enemy closest to your crosshairs – and pressing the right trigger will send you hurtling towards them at inhuman speed for a high damage attack.
At its most basic level, the Shield Charge is the perfect way to get up close unexpectedly, letting you use shorter-range weapons like the Shotgun or Accelerator to do massive damage quickly. But the Charge also comes with the added benefit of being an extremely effective room-clearer – hitting an enemy will also deal damage to all the enemies immediately around them. Pick a target in a crowd of cannon fodder, and you can effectively clear the entire group with a Charge in a single bloody pop.
Picking the right target is key – blindly charging at a fully mobile boss enemy is unlikely to help you too much, but certain enemies, like Stone Imps, are particularly weak to the Charge, setting off an explosion as you hit. You could also use it to target an enemy above you, effectively using it as a platforming tool to take up new ground. As you get to grips with the ability (and its short cooldown), you’ll find it to be as much an efficiency tool as it is a horrifyingly powerful weapon.
Shield Throw
Early in the game, you’ll add that titular Saw to your Shield, at which point you’ll unlock the Shield Throw. This unbelievably gratifying maneuver lets you press the left bumper to (literally) let rip. A shield throw will instantly bisect weaker enemies – even multiple enemies, if you line them up right – and will embed itself in stronger ones, giving you a stun window to work with.
Best of all, the Shield Throw is particularly effective against armor. Pretty soon, you’ll see demons toting shields, or bosses wrapped in bullet-resistant metal – but gunfire isn’t wholly useless here. Fire your weapons at them, and you’ll start heating that metal, and once you see it reach incandescent levels, a single Shield Throw will shatter it. Against enemies in armor, this will blow it off, opening them up to more attacks. Smaller enemies with shields, however, will simply… burst in spectacular fashion. If you see a line of enemies with shields, that one throw will destroy all of them, like they’re living bowling pins.
Puzzle Solving
Clearly not content with being a useful tool for attack and defence, your Shield Saw is also a way of making your way around The Dark Ages’ levels – including their many secrets. The Shield Charge can be used to destroy weak walls (look out for a circular symbol daubed on them), used to jump by embedding in specific environmental details and then recalling it to pull yourself up, or to destroy superheated locks with a quick Throw.
If you’re struggling to work out how to reach a secret area, the Shield is very often the key to making it in. There are more puzzly uses later in the game to discover, too – we’ll let you reach them yourself.
Upgrades
Clearly, the Shield Saw can do a lot out of the box – but there’s always more. Once you discover the game’s Sentinel Shrines – the home of The Dark Ages’ upgrade system – you’ll discover more options for adding to your arm-mounted tool’s abilities.
Aside from those afore-mentioned Shield Runes, the Shield has an upgrade tree that can increase damage, help clear more fodder enemies, or even cause it to bounce between enemies who carry energy-based shields. But look out for mentions of the Shield in other upgrade trees, too. The Shredder weapon, for instance, can unlock an ability that will ricochet shots out of an enemy with a Saw embedded in them. The Power Gauntlet melee weapon can also be upgraded to recharge itself with successful parries.
Choose your upgrades right and you can build an arsenal that doesn’t just include the Shield, but centers around using it.
DOOM: The Dark Ages arrives today for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox PC, Steam, Battle.net, PlayStation 5, and cloud. It’s available day one with Game Pass, and is an Xbox Play Anywhere title.
DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Edition
Bethesda Softworks
DOOM: The Dark Ages Premium Upgrade
Bethesda Softworks
DOOM: The Dark Ages Standard Edition
Bethesda Softworks
The post A Slayer’s Guide to DOOM: The Dark Ages’ Shield Saw appeared first on Xbox Wire.
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