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Comprehensive guide on how to slay the slayer.
Battlemode: Demon Guide
Battlemode has plenty of guides dedicated to playing battlemode as a slayer, but very few focus on being a demon: this guide aims to remedy that. Feel free to comment if you think I forgot anything, so i can improve this guide!
Other DOOM Eternal Guides:
General Tips
Here we will talk about general rules that apply no matter what demon or skillset you use.
1: Use and abuse cover
The slayer has hitscan weapons, you do not. As such, cover is vital as a demon, way more than it is for the slayer. You should always seek cover the second you think the slayer has it’s attention turned towards you, and have a plan when you decide to go out.
2: Keep an eye on your ally
That one sounds evident, but it’s easy to forget: the other player is as valuable as you are, and as such you should keep tabs on him: if you see the Slayer trying to kill your demon buddy, you should be agressive as the slayer’s attention is away from you, allowing you free damage and the added bonus of possibly forcing the slayer to abandon his target. Use healing areas to help your demonic buddy if he is in a safe position and both of you are hurt, and damage areas to further force the slayer to stop harassing him.
Also, be mindful of loot block usage and try to avoid the double block as much as possible (for that one, using the mic is recommanded though) You’ll be surprised how many times I’ve seen the Slayer kick the bucket after a wild goose chase with a very low health demon, allowing another, as badly damaged demon free range to deal damage.
3: Don’t feel bad if you lost the first round
Demon players earn upgrades that are a LOT more powerful and game-changing than those of the Slayer. It’s rather common to get flattened on the first round against a good slayer, only to end up pulling off a win once upgrades kick in.
Summoned demons
Demon summons merit their own part. All playable demons have a range of summons, that don’t always behave exactly like in the campaign. As such i think each summon option needs to be mentioned.
Cacodemon: Really slow, and can be turned into a free health pack with a grenade, although the hitbox for the swallowing seems way smaller than in the campaign. Ideally, you want to place it in tight spaces to block the slayer, especially if it gets him in range of the cacodemon’s devastating chomp. in open spaces, he is little more than a distraction, so don’t hesitate to resummon one if you get a good occasion for it.
Prowler: a set and forget demon, not strong or large enough to warrant using it in tricky way, but extremely mobile and great at grabbing the slayer’s attention. Just make sure it’s always summoned and you should be fine.
Carcass: another set and forget demon, that i don’t really like that much: while it’s shields are great at annoying the Slayer, they can also block YOU. Be mindful of that, otherwise, just like the prowler, just let it do it’s own thing.
Arachnotron: yet another set and forget, it can get it’s turret destroyed like in the campaign. however, it’s large body makes it worth it to try and mess up with the slayer’s path by blocking tight spaces with it. Another use is as a way to find the slayer if you lost track of him: it’s the only ranged “set and forget” demon, that is also quite large and easy to spot. Always remember even if you don’t see the slayer’s outline, AI controlled demons always know where he is, and the arachnotron is the easiest to spot when it comes to knowing where he is hiding.
Hell knight: pretty agile, beefy and with no exploitable weak spots, it’s an overall reliable demon to pressure the slayer with or distract him as he tries to get long range shots at you. Ideally, you should summon him behind the slayer to blindside him.
Makyr drone: I honestly fail to fint it’s role. It’s ranged attack has no tracking nor spread, meaning a slayer that stays on the move is unlikely to ever be hit by it (although it hurts a lot if it ever does), and it’s too slow to really use it’s melee attack. Like in the campaign, it can be headshotted for an instant kill, that will resupply the slayer health and ammo. I would advise summonning it once, and watching if the slayer takes advantage of it or not: if you see headshots happen, do not summon it anymore for the rest of the match, or that will be one more way for the Slayer to resupply.
Shield soldiers: Don’t be fooled, these guys are powerhouses. their shotguns can take the slayer’s health to almost nothing in a flash, and since they don’t move, they are ideal summons to use as traps at the exit of portals or ont the top of jump pads. They can also be used to punish a slayer that’s chasing you from too close, and can quickly result in a dead slayer if he takes the bait.
Archvile
Probably the hardest demon to master, the Archvile is also the best support demon. Don’t expect big damage numbers to come from the Archvile, but do expect to ruin the Slayer’s life over and over. It is a slow, large demon that also doesn’t have a lot of health, but it’s teleport is a great burst of speed allowing you to also abuse elevation to make it harder for the Slayer to reach you.
Where the Archvile truely shines though is in area denial: it’s flame wall can completely block the Slayer into a trap, or create cover that doesn’t prevent demons from attacking or moving freely (in fact, i advise to lure the slayer in close range, punish him with a flame wall, and burn the ground if he tries to go around it while you go back through your wall to be safe once more). The best plays as an archvile will invariably be the situations where you cut off the Slayer’s escape, or straight up box him in a corner where he will not be able to escape area damage.
As far as the upgrade choices go, it depends on your chosen loadout: in both cases Boiling heat is a great pick, allowing the lake of fire to be more punishing and to boost all damage sources for a few precious seconds if the slayer so much as sets a toe in the flames. For the second upgrade, it depends: the summoner loadout benefits a lot from Buff Minions to turn the shield soldiers into true terrors, while I’d prefer tactician on the agile loadout to get more use out of the haste and noxious zone.
Overall though, don’t hesitate to be creative with the Archvile; once you get better at reading the Slayer’s behavious, you will also get better at constantly getting in his way.
Mancubus
That big fat boi is good at one and one thing: punishing the slayer if he EVER gets too close to him. It’s long range attack is pretty damaging, but is also a very slow projectile with a sluggish refire rate. As for the smoke bomb, it’s really useful to make the slayer unaware of his surroundings or to hide yourself (in which case you should stop shooting, as that would easily reveal your position) your goal during the game will be to figure out the movements of the slayer, and intercept him for heavy damage: don’t try to run after the slayer, even when under the effects of haste you will not catch him.
For upgrades, quick smoke is almost mandatory, giving you a much needed speed boost on a very short cooldown, and tactician is a great choice to allow you even more mobility in a demon that REALLY needs it.
As far as loadouts go, the support one is superior in my opinion: it gives you overall better demons to summon for general use, as well as a healing area that you will REALLY need, and can take advantage of more easily as the mancubus is harder to scare off his chosen position especially once smoke gets involved.
The tanker set has it’s merits though, as the macubus can be good at chasing the slayer out of an area, only to block his escape route with either the noxious zone or a cacodemon, with smoke making sure the slayer doesn’t realise what’s going on until it’s too late. It’s just that without the heal, the mancubus can really suffer the longer a match drags on.
Ovarall, if you are good at reading the actions of the Slayer and predict them well.. the Mancubus is a great choice.
Marauder
The terror from the campaign, back to collect the salt tax from Slayers. The Marauder is a weird demon, having little utility and hard to use burst damage (more on that later) combined with the lowest health possible, tied with the Revenant; but he compensates by having the smallest hitbox, and one of the best mobility out of all demons, combined with a VERY reliable primary and special attack.
With a marauder, you want to ALWAYS be throwing that axe at the slayer, to be constantly chipping away at his health. The wolf summon is good as a litteral guided missile, but also triggers a very powerful damage resistance during the summon and a second or 2 after the animation is complete: as such, it’s a great idea to use it when the slayer is shooting at you. The axe can act as a landmine of sort, allowing you to easily deal damage with it even if the slayer is out of sight or fully committed to dodging as it’s explosion is delayed if it hits the ground, something that is unique to the Marauder..
As for the shotgun.. it’s not as good as it is on paper, primarily because the slayer is such a small target and that most slayer will move around like crazy; for that one i suggest using the training dummies of the marauder tutorial as target practice to really see how close you need to be for all pellets to hit (hint: the crosshair needs to be entirely INSIDE the slayer, and even then a stray pellet can sometime be seen): as such, it’s mostly useful to punish a slayer that’s not paying attention to you even as you are in close range; but it’s not something you should rely on unless your ability to track the twitchiest of Slayers is god tier. Also worth noting is that it’s the only hitscan weapon available to demons, ans as such is a great tool to finish off a slayer that’s on his last health points and dodging like crazy to stay alive.
Both loadouts are useful, and upgrade choices for both are the same: bigger bar, and Bury the hatchet. the extra 500 health is a 25% health increase, which is nothing to scoff at in a demon that stil tries to get at a closer range, and bury the hatchet is a free haste tied to your most used attack; extremelly useful to dodge more shots, evade the slayer when waiting for your ally’s revive or on the contrary to keep hounding on the slayer. As long as you keep direct hits going, you will stay fast, and will be able to keep chipping at the slayer’s health, stay alive, or both. Worth noting is that you can trigger it by hitting the slayer even if he is invulnerable, making a chainsawing slayer a free speed buff.
In conclusion, keep chipping at the slayer’s health, shotgun him if the occasion presents itself, and keep mobile as the slayer would, and you can do no wrong as a marauder.
Pain Elemental
The second support demon, the meatball demon is great at overseeing the battlefield, keeping track of the slayer at all time while taking potshots at him and bombarding him with well-placed summons and noxious hazards. You should still abuse cover as with any other demon, but your shield gives you an option that pushes the slayer to stop staring at you. It’s auto attack does the same damage than the Marauder’s axe toss, but with a projectile that has no arc and refires faster, making him a good DPS demon if he can keep on peppering the Slayer. The soul shield will invariably be your most potent tool however, as the pain elemental is a pretty big target that often hangs where cover isn’t as common.
For upgrades, Fit Meatball is pretty much mandatory for the extra mobility it offers you. The other upgrade is pretty much up in the air, except bigger bar, that isn’t as much of a significant health increase than on the Marauder, revenant or even Archvile. Tactician has more value if you use the pressure loadout, and Buff minions mixes better with the summonner set.
And for the loadout choice, Pressure seems to be a better choice: the high ventage point offered by infinite flight makes it easy to place really nasty noxious hazards, but harder to properly use the healing zone if you want it for yourself, and the summonner set has to suffer the presence of the Makyr Drone.
Overall, the pain elemental is here to be a constant annoyance to the Slayer, but it’s also one of the overall easiest demons to kill due to it’s typically high position and very large hitbox.. so be careful!
Revenant
The revenant knows of one, and one job only: dealing damage. It’s auto attack is the most powerful of all demons as long as both rockets score a direct hit, and it’s air mobility is very good, especially mixed with a dash from time to time. As for rocket barrage, it deals terrifying damage, especially if direct hits are scored.. the price being that the revenant will die very quickly once good hits come his way.
It’s loadouts are both useful, althoug their purpose are almost opposite of eachother: the defensive set allows you to play the long game, better handling damage you receive and punishing the use of portals or tight corridors, while the offensive loadout is all about trying to kill the Slayer as fast as possible through haste and noxious zones. Overall, the defensive one is much safer to use.
For upgrades, you should mix and match these 3 choices depending on your needs: acrobat, bigger bar and unstable trigger. Both bigger bar and acrobat give you much needed increased survivability, one through mobility and the other through extra health the Slayer will need to power through no matter his aiming skill. As for unstable trigger, it allows you to deal even more damage, more often. Any combination of those 3 is good, although if you have no bloody idea, taking both unstable trigger and acrobat is pretty safe. Tactician can be an outlier with the defensive set though, to be protected more often and longer, and heal yourself and your buddy more.
But no matter what, never forget to keep at range, to comfortably drown the slayer in sweet, sweet explosive death.
Power Upgrades
Quite often against a good slayer, the first and maybe even second round will be lost. As such, power upgrades are very likely to come into play, and it’s crucial to choose the right one as they are, like normal upgrades, choices that are way more powerful than anything the slayer can pick.
First, the Baron of hell… is probably the most useless out of the bunch. Most slayers that get to power upgrades are good enough to just keep evading what is essentialy just a very big hell knight without it ever laying a finger on them.
Demonic onslaught is mainly useful for the Revenant and Mancubus: allows you to make the most of that impressive burst damage to melt the Slayer
Quick Acting is one of those hidden gems. more loot block means more possibility to completely starve the Slayer of his most important ressource, ammunition. A Slayer that can no longer use his shotgun and ballista is an easy prey that you can almost freely deal damage to, and quick acting helps with that a lot.
Instant ressurect is a great choice if you notice the slayer focuses on the other player, allowing you to instantly bring it back for another go… not much to say there. It’s just good, especially if the slayer went for your ally first because he is very good at staying alive throgh being evasive until a revive happens: it can make the slayer really waste a lot of effort, even if he gets some ressources back from the kill.
And lastly and probably the best of all… the team heal. it’s an instant boost of health to both you and your ally, allowing to turn the tables in a fight by denying a kill the slayer may need to stay alive. Ideally you will want to keep it until both you and your ally fully benefit from the heal: don’t use it if only you or your ally is hurt, and avoid using it if your ally is waiting to be revived unless you ABSOLUTELY need it to stay alive: better take the hits, and recover half your health bar and put your newly ressurrected friend to 75% of his health than heal only yourself and not have your ally benefit from it.
Conclusion
There, i hope all of this gave you ideas on how to better use our dear hellspawns. Don’t forget practice makes perfect, but this guide should at least give you an idea on how to use each tool to it’s best potential. Once again, don’t forget to comment if you notice something wrong or something I forgot, and see you all in hell!