DOOM: The Dark Ages Ultra-Nightmare FULL Run (No Custom Difficulty)

Hey y'all, I've been the HELL out of DOOM: The Dark Ages for a review, but loved it so much that I wanted to challenge myself, so I tried something I haven't done before - Ultra-Nightmare. The highest and hardest difficulty in the game, but with permadeath enabled. Die once and you have to start from the beginning. After 5 attempts, I finally did it and I want to give some tips to help you conquer nightmare/ultra-nightmare. I'll leave timestamps here for every chapter so you can go to whichever chapter you need help with or want to watch. No difficulty settings were touched and "AFK" times are included to ensure legitimacy. If enough people ask for a tips video, I will make a follow-up video. 00:00 - Difficulty Settings 00:11 - Village of Khalim 12:20 - Hebeth 29:15 - Barrier Core 36:20 - Sentinel Barracks 55:00 - The Holy City of Aratum 1:24:39 - Siege - Part 1 1:53:20 - Siege - Part 2 2:08:47 - Abyssal Forest 2:28:41 - Ancestral Forge 2:53:28 - The Forsaken Plains 3:18:15 - Hellbreaker 3:28:21 - Sentinel Command Station 3:47:10 - From Beyond 3:59:11 - Spire of Nerathul 4:36:10 - City of Ry'uul 4:57:12 - The Kur-Thul Marshes 5:08:28 - Temple of Lomarith 5:24:20 - Belly of the Beast 5:39:39 - Harbor of Souls 6:09:17 - Resurrection 6:30:39 - Final Battle 6:42:35 - Reckoning 1. Backtracking. After completing every arena and encounter, always check your health, armor and ammo. If you need to top any of these up, walkthrough either the same arena or go back more and collect what you need. The game has a point of no return system where you won't be able to go back once you go through, so don't leave those blue skulls or life sigils behind! I say life sigils because of their importance in UN, since you can't fully heal with the blue skull like you normally would on any difficulty. 2. Pre-planning. Plan your routes, prioritize your loadout and focus on key upgrades. This is VERY important, as you don't need to do everything the game wants you to, like grabbing collectibles and secrets. Trying to do everything not only puts you at risk of death, but also wastes valuable time that you could be spending trying to rinse through the level. For me, my preferred loadout was the cycler, ravager and SSG for guns, the auto-turret rune and the dreadmace so I would get the necessary currency needed (Rubies, Wraithstones and Gold) and once I obtain everything I need, I just play through the levels as normal. Keep in mind you'll have to buy some other things in the beginning to stick with until you find said items, like using the flail in place of the dreadmace or the pulverizer, which I opted to get the first upgrade for. Health, Ammo and Armor upgrades are essential too, most you'll get from playing, but others you'll have to find gore nests. A bonus tip is to prioritize your shield upgrades first to get quicker cooldowns and longer stun/falter duration. The sooner you get this, the better. 3. Memorizing. This will come with practice and time, but knowing which enemies spawn and where drops are is essential to quick thinking and success. Prior to this, I already finished the game two times... ;_; 4. USE YOUR SHIELD! This may seem obvious, but there's more to your shield than just blocking and parrying. You can shield charge into dazed enemies for quick finishers, you can throw your shield at shields to either wipe out groups or stun-lock big demons, and you can use it in-between "combos" or "cooldown periods," such as waiting for the SSG to reload. Your shield is your best friend. 5. RETREAT! You're going to have plenty of sticky scenarios like I did where you make one mistake and take tons of damage. Enemies hit like a truck here, but thankfully TDA has a "last stand" mechanic where if you're low on health, you can kill demons of any kind to help bring you back to speed. There's no cooldown on this, which is the best part, so if you're in trouble, do not panic. Run back with your shield up if possible, find some fodder demons, kill and reset. This game may favor aggression, but aggression isn't always the right answer. 6. Learn combos & counters. Sooner or later, you'll start to realise just how dangerous some of the enemies are in this game when untouched, so learning how to deal with them can make a difference between life and death. Example: For Cacodemons, after their lightning attack, I usually just throw my shield at them to avoid their laser attack and DPS them until they're dead. Most of your counters will just come from simple parries and falters, but when they throw multiple at you, you got to have these on standby. 7. DREADMACE. This thing SLAPS and is acquired in Chapter 15 (City of Ry'uul). If possible, save currency to upgrade this thing. It lets you hit enemies two times instead of one after a parry and DESTROYS the big boys, like your komodos, aggadon hunters and barons. They won't stand a chance. It's just great overall.