Mighty Doom brings the fast-paced gunplay of its classic shooter roots to the small-screen, and with it comes the series' vast armory of deadly toys. Players will need to know their weapons well, and know when to rely on each one, to free the world of corruption one demon at a time.
As an auto-shooter for mobile, Mighty Doom's gunplay does not demand the same level of moment-to-moment decision-making as its mainline counterparts, but that is not to say the player can sleepwalk through combat. The legions of enemies assailing the Mini Slayer and their varying degrees of aggressiveness and durability make threat prioritization as essential of a skill as in any Doom title, and the player's ability to effectively use the tools provided to them will be the biggest factor in keeping the Slayer alive.
Swapping Weapon Loadouts
While his full-sized counterpart may be famous for carrying an entire armory on his back, the Mini Slayer can only carry one weapon of each type at a time, and unlike other limited-capacity shooter heroes like Master Chief, he cannot swap his weapons with those of his fallen foes. Whatever the player brings into a mission will be what the Mini Slayer has to work with.
To compensate, the Mini Slayer is capable of gaining abilities during missions that modify the effectiveness and functionality of his weaponry. This allows the player a greater degree of flexibility on the ground, tailoring his upgrades to better leverage his strength or cover his weaknesses. Abilities do not persist between missions, and so the player should experiment with different combinations to find their ideal playstyle.
The Mini Slayer may equip one of each of these weapons:
- Primary weapons, which the Mini Slayer automatically fires at the nearest enemy. Primary weapons are the player's main crowd control option, and include automatic rifles and shotguns.
- Secondary weapons, which require a short cooldown after firing. Secondary weapons are best used to take a chunk out of bosses or deal with tight crowds, and include rocket launchers and the super shotgun.
- Ultimate weapons, which must be charged through bloodshed before using. Ultimate weapons offer the player brief safety from harm and can shred bosses, and include chainsaws and the BFG 9000.
- Equipment launchers, which automatically fire on set intervals against enemies in close range. Equipment launchers give the player coverage over elemental weaknesses that their main weapons can't exploit, and include frag grenades and the flame belch.
Each weapon has both a level and rarity that modify its stats. A weapon's level affects its base damage, and may be increased by spending equipment tokens and coins, both of which are automatically collected during missions. A weapon's rarity is determined at the time it is dropped, but may be increased by merging three weapons of the same type and rarity through the "fuse" option on the inventory screen. Weapons of higher rarities gain notably higher stats, and may grant added functionality.
Using Weapons Mid-Mission
Once the Mini-Slayer's loadout has been locked in for a mission, it's up to the player to use it most effectively. Their choice of how to approach enemies with their weapons, and pivot from their primary to their backups, will be the biggest factor in their success or failure.
As the player's main means of dealing damage, the player should focus on positioning themselves where their primary weapon functions best. The heavy assault cannon, for example, provides consistent damage at any range, allowing the player to hang back and whittle down enemies while focusing on dodging projectiles. The shotgun, by contrast, deals the most damage when all pellets connect, encouraging aggressive positioning and a focus on glory kills to restore lost health.
When it comes to secondary weapons, players should remember they are complements to the primary weapon, not automatic "I win" buttons that pop up every few seconds. A point-black shotgun blast may sometimes kill an enemy just as quickly as a missile could, but wouldn't come with the same ten-second commitment of losing the secondary weapon option. That rocket might have been better used taking out a blaster soldier across the room, where its volley of shots is much easier to dodge.
While firing a missile into a crowded room may sound like a good approach to an unfamiliar situation, some restraint is encouraged. Attempting to fire a secondary weapon while too close to a wall may cause the attack to immediately phase into the wall, putting the weapon on cooldown to no effect. To avoid this, try moving away from a room's spawn point before firing a secondary weapon, so the Mini Slayer has time to collect his bearings.
Ultimate attacks can deal devastating damage to a boss or group of enemies, but recharge at a glacial rate, sometimes taking more than the ten waves between bosses to charge. Ideally, an ultimate should let a player win a fight that would seriously deplete their health, or avoid an encounter that would put them at serious risk.
Perhaps the ideal usage for an ultimate is during a boss fight, when the player is positioned poorly or the boss is beginning an attack cycle that the player struggles to dodge. Activating an ultimate not only makes the Slayer invincible through its duration, but cancels a boss's attacking animation, giving the player more time to anticipate the coming attack. Even better, exiting an ultimate will often place the player far from the boss, giving the player a chance to find a better position while the boss restarts its attack cycle.
Equipment launchers are in many ways just a value-add for players, and because they fire automatically, players do not need to give them much mind during a mission. Their range is comparatively limited, so aggressive playstyles may allow launchers to deal more damage over a run, but this generally not a big enough factor in changing how a player should position themselves.
The most strategizing that may be done with equipment launchers is in the choice to upgrade them or not. If players are routinely encountering enemies weak to the launcher's damage type, they may find upgrading the launcher's damage or area of effect more worthwhile than a middling bonus to their other weapons or base stats.
Mighty Doom is available now on iOS and Android devices.