Doom The Dark Ages 'Village of Khalim' mission walkthrough (Chapter 1)

Doom The Dark Ages’ tutorial/chapter 1, Village of Khalim, puts the Doom Slayer in the thick of the action. Summoned to aid the Sentinels as the village of Khalim begins to be overrun by the forces of Hell, the Doom Slayer, as always, doesn’t hold back. With his trusty shield and shotgun in hand, the forces of Hell don’t stand a chance against his power.

This first mission teaches you the movement techniques you need to know to survive, as well as other important facets of Bethesda’s latest FPS gorefest. It’s the perfect stage to get your feet wet on, even if that “wet” is the blood of demons that have exploded in the face of Doom Slayer’s shotgun. Here’s what you need to know about Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1: Village of Khalim.

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Primary objectives of Chapter 1 - Village of Khalim in Doom The Dark Ages

Cover the Escape!

• Get to the Village
• Clear the Village
• Find the Key
• Open the Gate
• Destroy the Demonic Portals
• Defend the Beach

While primarily a tutorial stage in Doom The Dark Ages, the Village of Khalim map does house a few secrets to find, which are, in their own way, a tutorial. You’re going to have to look for things that don’t look normal, or strange places to drop into, to find all the secrets in each map. Some of them are obvious, others are tricky. However, there’s no time to waste: the forces of Hell need to be put down.

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1) Get to the Village

After teleporting outside the village, you’ll immediately have to start shooting ghouls and minor demons. Doom The Dark Age will teach you how to do little things on the way to your first objective, like jumping, blocking, and the all-important Shield Charge.

You're going to get a lot of use out of the Shield Charge (Image via Bethesda)

Shield Charge, for example, will ask you to kill 15 demons with it before you can move on, so try to get them in large groups to smash them all at once. The enemies aren’t difficult yet, so just run and shoot your way to the next quest marker.

After you’ve slain the demons in this area, you’ll see a bit of wall nearby that has scorched/claw marks on it, as seen in the screenshot above. When you see these, jump to them, and you’ll climb up the path before you in Doom The Dark Ages. This is called Wall Scramble.

Head up the stairs nearby to learn how to Sprint Jump, which requires you to run forward and jump. This will be required, so you may as well get used to it. I turned Sprint on by default in the settings to make Sprint Jumping just a tiny bit easier.

Those yellow marks denote Scramble Walls (Image via Bethesda)

Defeat the demons on the path up ahead, grab any Shields/Health Kits you need at the gate in front of you, and Shield Charge through the green symbol. If you see that symbol, or a blue symbol of the same design, those are places you can smash through. The Blue symbols typically hide secrets.

Once inside, you’ll defeat a demon and learn about Executions, which is a fantastic way to get health and ammo back if you’re in need.

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2) Clear the Village

Step 2: Decimate the demonic population (Image via Bethesda)

Things pick up in Doom The Dark Ages, when you reach the village itself in Chapter 1. There are swarms of demons to kill, so get to it! Avoid or block the large incoming projectiles, and just unload your shotgun on the demons that get in the way in the first part of this map. Follow the path forward, and go inside the nearby building.

Follow the path inside, climb up the Scramble Wall, and drop down into the next courtyard, which, at first, is empty. However, this is where you unlock your first weapon: The Power Gauntlet. This is the first of your three melee weapons.

A brief tutorial will pop up, but the most important part is that melee attacks drop ammo for all of your weapons. It’s a fantastic way to get ammo back, and through various upgrades, can do so much more. You’ll do a brief tutorial with the Power Gauntlet to get back ammo, and then learn how to do the three-hit melee combo.

These Life Sigils can definitely come in handy - I didn't use any, but there's no shame in it (Image via Bethesda)

Next up is a building with demons, flames, and a Scramble Wall. However, to the left of the Scramble Wall is a blue symbol wall. Dive down into this to find the First Secret Area of Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1.

You’ll pick up some Shields here, and your first Life Sigil. If you should die, you can consume these to refill your health bar. If you run out of Life Sigils, you’ll start back at the previous checkpoint.

When you’re ready, head back inside, climb the wall, and head through the doorway. You’ll see a green-symbol wall, so, shield charge over the gap and smash through it. This introduces the Point of No Return symbol. When you see it, progressing too far will prevent you from going backwards. Make sure you’ve done everything before progressing.

As Kansas once said, this is the Point of No Return (Image via Bethesda)

When you’re ready, drop down, and you’ll see plenty of demons to kill. You’ll also see a door, blocked off by a Blue Key Sigil. You need that key to get through the door, so instead, focus on killing the demons in this courtyard in Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1. Nothing in this area should be a threat. After clearing the first group, another will burst through a wall at the start of this section.

Shoot and Shield Charge them down as well. You’ll fight a few waves of demons in here, and, should you start taking too much damage, you’ll get a warning pop-up. Like Doom Eternal and Doom 2016, if you are low on health, enemies will drop health, so start being aggressive to get back in the game safely.

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3) Find the Key

Finding keys isn’t always mandatory in Doom The Dark Ages, but in Chapter 1, you must find the Blue Key to progress. Consider it another tutorial. Follow the icon to progress, and drop down into an area filled with low-level demons. You can smash through these no problem. You’ll also see another Blue Key Sigil here, but you can’t do anything with it yet.

Smash through here, learn to parry, and move on (Image via Bethesda)

Head into the nearby room (broken wall) to pick up any ammo, health or shields that you might need, and then smash through the Green-symbol wall. After you land on the ground, and round the corner, you’ll learn about parrying attacks.

The default color is green in Doom The Dark Ages, but I changed it to blue to stand out more. These are Hell Surge projectiles. Parrying not only recharges your Melee strikes faster, but they can deal damage, and later in the game, do some truly incredible things. Parry the attack and climb the nearby Scramble Wall. In this next area, do the Parry Tutorial and get ready to move on again.

After the tutorial is done, go through the gate, and head into the next courtyard. There’s a large mounted demon here, who will shoot a pair of attacks you can parry. One is a between a series of orange blasts, and the second is from its lance, which comes pretty quick. Learn to parry these now, because they’re going to be common throughout Doom The Dark Ages.

These are two attacks you better get used to parrying (Image via Bethesda)

This will also teach you about Glory Strikes, which happen when you stun an enemy. Use it to knock the demon off his mount — but you still have to kill the mount itself. Later, these demonic mounts will have armor to break apart, but not yet. Watch out for it’s lunging bite attack, and shoot it with everything you have.

There’s a small Scramble Wall you can climb up, and you’ll see a series of priests chanting around a pile of corpses. If you see this scene later in the game, you’ve likely found a secret area. Grab the Blue Key, after killing the Priests, and leave this room.

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4) Open the Gate

Smash through the Green-symbol wall and land in the courtyard again, where the AutoMap tutorial will pop up. If you’ve explored somewhere, you can see all the valuable items nearby, so it’s a great way to find secrets. It makes them a bit easier to find in almost all cases. Some secrets have frustrating puzzles to solve, so keep that in mind.

Just head over here, and use the key for a free collectible (Image via Bethesda)

Unfortunately, the map doesn’t show Blue Key/Yellow Key/Red Key doors on it, so you have to remember where they were. As you can see in the screenshot above, we can backtrack to get a secret item/collectible before we move forward with the story.

The map also shows demonic leaders/enemy groups. Demonic Leaders will grant you extra Health, Ammo, or Shields, depending on what the rewards for that stage are. Always go out of your way for these.

For now, though, backtrack towards the doll item on the map in Doom The Dark Ages, by following your map. Open the Blue Key door you find, and collect your next reward, the Imp toy. When you’re ready, head through the other Blue Key door nearby to push forward to the next objective. A cutscene will play, and you’ll see a demonic portal and a Purple Key sigil in the background.

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5) Destroy the Demonic Portals

The first portal is incredibly easy to spot (Image via Bethesda)

This area is the first real test for the player in Doom The Dark Ages. A huge courtyard with lots of demons, and one of the Demonic Portals immediately to your right. Slaughter your way through the demons, and that will automatically close the first portal.

Before you move on, loot any items you need in this area. There’s an alcove near the start with Shields and Health. Then, walk down the left path, grabbing the shield items on the way. Then take the path that leads you north past the purple sigil. You’ll see a large glowing monolith here, and some demons to slay.

After the second portal, a treat awaits if you go exploring (Image via Bethesda)

Kill everything here to close the second Demonic Portal. Go forward to the area the portal was at, and to the right, you’ll see a Scramble Wall to climb, and then another one. At the top of this area, you’ll find the Doom Slayer Codex Entry. Pick this up, drop down into the main area, and head to the right to take a nearby jump pad.

You’ll see the Purple Key as you jump across, so make a note of that as you fly across in Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1. You’ll get your first main weapon here as well — The Shredder. Use it to pulverize the demons in this area of Doom The Dark Ages.

This one's pretty easy to get, even if it requires a little drop of faith (Image via Bethesda)

You can also drop down a path just north of the Shredder unlock to get a toy seen below. Look down and inch carefully off the cliff to drop onto the safe space. Climb up the Scramble Wall where you dropped down, and then look for the open door nearby.

Walk inside the nearby door, and the exits will lock off. You’ll have to fight a group of demons to get the red demonic seals to drop from the doorway to progress. The Shredder really comes in handy here. You can also pick up a Life Sigil before progressing, in this room. Going through the doorway will set you on a path to fight even more demons, so you can close the Third Demonic Portal.

If you drop down at this point, you can get a very handy secret unlock (Image via Bethesda)

There’s an odd Secret in this area of Doom The Dark Ages, and it may be hard to find. I had to backtrack before completing the mission to get it, because I just couldn’t figure it out. You’ll see a paintbrush icon on the map to the left of the Purple Key Door. Head into this area, and look out to where the cliff is. I’ve circled where to find it.

Gently walk off the cliff, and you can land on a bit of ground for a hidden cave in Doom The Dark Ages. Before you can claim this secret, you’ll have to fight some demons off, so clear them out and claim the Shotgun Weapon Skin. Take the jump pad after going into the connecting room, and that will open up the hidden area you couldn’t get into.

Go back to the Shredder unlock and take the doorway with ammo packs in the road, and then collect the shields and follow that route. This leads you up a path to the Fourth Demonic Portal. By now, you know what to do: kill anything that moves.

Don't forget to grab this item before you move on! (Image via Bethesda)

Before you move on to the next step of Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1, walk across the nearby bridge, and take the path to your right to pick up the Purple Key. You can see it in that first courtyard to unlock a Life Sigil.

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6) Defend the Beach

This is the last secret item of Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1 (Image via Bethesda)

When you’re ready, head through the checkpoint and down the path towards the beach in Doom The Dark Ages Chapter 1. You’ll be immediately set upon by demons everywhere, so it’s a great time to put the Shredder to use. After you wipe out all the demons, there’s a Secret to get before you move on.

On the map above, you can see a path that leads to a secret item. Instead of following the path to the end of the stage, climb the Scramble Wall you see along the path to your right. It will lead right to the Secret item, the Village of Khalim Codex Entry.

Drop down, follow the quest marker, and activate the massive gun you find there. You’ll need to use it to shred through waves of demons and defeat a Titan-class demon. Mow the regular demons down and use the Fire Bolt on cooldown. Repeat this for the giant demon, and you’ll defeat it in no time. With that, you’ve completed the first mission for Doom The Dark Ages, but there’s much more to come.

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