Doom: The Dark Ages – All Weapon Mastery Challenges Guide (Gunpletionist Trophy)

Doom: The Dark Ages features 11 weapons with Mastery Challenges (all except the Crossbow). Completing every challenge unlocks the Gunpletionist trophy/achievement.

🔓 How to Unlock Mastery Challenges

To unlock a weapon’s Mastery Challenge:

1. Fully upgrade the weapon at green Sentinel Shrines (marked on your map).
2. These shrines appear on the main path and upgrades cost Gold, Rubies, and 1 Wraithstone for the final upgrade.
3. The last Wraithstone is found in Chapter 22: Reckoning, so you’ll unlock the final upgrades there.

📍 Tracking Challenges

• Open: Touchpad > Challenges > R2 (Mastery)
• Press X to pin the challenge.
• Progress will show on the left of your HUD.
• Bug note: If you can’t pin a new challenge, restart checkpoint twice to fix it.

🧠 Farming Tips

• Best spot: First combat encounter in Chapter 20: Resurrection.
• Features an immortal shielded miniboss and infinite fodder demons.
• Adjust difficulty in Settings → “Damage to Demons” (use 50% for tanky farming or 1000% for fast kills depending on challenge).

✅ Mastery Challenges

🧨 Weapon 1: Combat Shotgun – Barrel Buster

Hit demons with every pellet (×150).

• Set damage to 50%.
• Shoot point-blank into large demons to ensure all pellets hit.
• Use in red miniboss encounters (they can’t die unless melee’d, making them ideal).
• Equip “Tune-Up” upgrade to shoot faster.

🔫 Weapon 2: Super Shotgun – Super Barrel Stuffer

Hit demons with every pellet (×50).

• Same strategy as Combat Shotgun.

⚡ Weapon 3: Shredder – Burster

Deal secondary Pincushion or Ricochet damage (×100).

• Equip “Pincushion” or “Ricochet”.
• Set damage to 50%.
• Hit tanky demons, then throw your shield to trigger explosions.
• Ricochet mode works by embedding the shield in a demon and shooting it to bounce bullets.

🎯 Weapon 4: Impaler – Acupuncture

Refill melee charges with headshots (×100).

• Equip “Chronospike” to slow time.
• Deplete melee charges first with R3.
• Then, land headshots to refill them.
• Best done on slow fodder demons at close range.

🔥 Weapon 5: Accelerator – Redline

Deal Overload/Heatblast damage (×1000).

• Equip “Modulator” + “Mega Cell”.
• Set damage to 1000%.
• Fire until the weapon glows red (Overload) and keep shooting.
• First Chapter 20 encounter is perfect; the miniboss can’t die and spawns endless fodder.

⚡ Weapon 6: Cycler – Thermal Runaway

Deal Overload/Lightning Arc damage (×500).

• Set damage to 200%.
• Fire at large demons until they glow purple → kill to trigger lightning explosion.
• Then fire Overloaded shots (glowing red) at the shielded miniboss.
• Repeat as needed.

💥 Weapon 7: Pulverizer – Hunter

Deal Charged damage (×250).

• Set damage to 1000% to build charge faster.
• When the weapon glows yellow and movement speeds up, you’re in Charged mode.
• Use Chapter 20’s red combat encounter. Don’t kill the miniboss.

🔵 Weapon 8: Ravager – Gatherer

Collect ammo with “Supplier” equipped (×100).

• Equip “Ignition” upgrade.
• Shoot until the weapon glows blue (max fire rate), then hit demons to spawn ammo drops.
• Must pick up blue ammo orbs from near enemies.
• Works best on large health demons, especially in Chapter 20.

🌀 Weapon 9: Chainshot – Reverberation

Cause Cosmic Breach explosive damage (×100).

• Hold R2 to charge, then release to cause AoE explosion.
• Set damage to 50%.
• Hit tightly packed groups or big enemies surrounded by fodder.
• The Mancubus in Chapter 20 is ideal.

💣 Weapon 10: Grenade Launcher – Clusterfun

Cause Fragment/Cataclysm damage from cluster grenades (×100).

• Set damage to 50%.
• Every second grenade drops cluster bombs.
• Repeatedly hit the same large enemy (like Mancubus in Chapter 20).

🚀 Weapon 11: Rocket Launcher – Engorge

Heal from close-range splash damage during Cannibalism (×50).

• Parry green projectiles with L2 to trigger Cannibalism.
• Shoot the ground near an enemy at close range.
• Each self-splash hit while Cannibalism is active counts.
• Best farm: Chapter 20 shielded miniboss (frequently fires green projectiles).

🎯 Tip: Need resources?

For Gold, Rubies, and Wraithstones, refer to the full Doom: The Dark Ages Collectible Guide.

That’s every Weapon Mastery in Doom: The Dark Ages! Once you finish all 11, enjoy your well-earned Gunpletionist trophy.