DOOM: The Dark Ages All Secrets & Collectibles Guide — Armor Upgrades, Weapon Mods, Lore Items & Trophy Cleanup

There are 29 trophies on PlayStation and 28 achievements on Xbox, all earnable on any difficulty and none permanently missable except two tied to specific chapter choices. The rest you can clean up with chapter select after the credits. This guide covers the collectibles that actually matter: armor upgrades, weapon mods, hidden arenas with upgrade tokens, and the missable items you'll want to grab on your first run.

I found roughly 70% of the secrets on my blind playthrough by checking every blue torch and throwing my shield at every cracked wall. The other 30% required backtracking with chapter select, and a couple of them are genuinely obscure.

The Blue Torch System

Blue torches are the primary secret marker. They're always placed near something interactable. A cracked wall, a cliff edge with a distant anchor point, a seemingly empty alcove with a breakable floor. If you see a blue torch and there's nothing obviously secret nearby, look up. Several hidden areas are on ledges above the torch, reachable only by shield throw anchor points.

There are blue torches in every chapter except Chapter 1 (tutorial) and Chapter 22 (finale). Most chapters have between two and four. I recommend keeping a mental count as you play. If you've only found one torch secret in a chapter that feels like it should have more, you've probably missed something.

Cracked walls are the other universal secret tell. They look like regular walls with faint spiderweb cracks. Shield throw breaks them. Some reveal small rooms with armor shards. Others open into entire optional combat arenas. The arena secrets are always worth doing because they drop upgrade tokens. Chapter 3's cliffside arena I mentioned in the walkthrough gave me three tokens. Chapter 9's hidden basement arena gave me five.

Armor Upgrades

Armor upgrades are permanent increases to your maximum armor capacity. There are eight total across the campaign.

Chapter 2: Behind a cracked wall in the tunnel after the first Hell Razer encounter. Hard to miss, the wall is right next to the path.

Chapter 4: In the Mecha Dragon sequence, fly through a narrow canyon to the left of the main path. The upgrade is on a floating platform guarded by two Gargoyles.

Chapter 6: After the Shield Soldier ambush, backtrack through the door they came from. The upgrade is in a side room behind a blue torch.

Chapter 8: The split decision. Choose the right path for the armor core upgrade. If you chose the left path for the plasma rifle mod, you need a second playthrough or chapter select to grab this.

Chapter 10: Inside the Sentinel fortress, upper floor. Look for a balcony with a blue torch. Shield throw anchor point across the gap.

Chapter 14: After the Kreed Maykr fight, backtrack through the arena. A previously locked door is now open. Upgrade inside.

Chapter 17: Atlan mech section. Stomp through a specific building marked with Hell banners. The upgrade is in the rubble.

Chapter 20: Final Ahzrak arena, before triggering the boss fight. Check behind the pillars at the far end.

Five of these I found naturally. Chapters 4, 14, and 17 I missed and had to look up.

Weapon Mods

Weapon mods are alt-fire upgrades for ranged weapons. There are six total, two per ranged weapon.

Combat shotgun: Sticky Grenade (Chapter 3, behind blue torch in the siege tower area) and Full Auto Conversion (Chapter 11, hidden arena reward). The Full Auto mod turns the shotgun into a drum-fed automatic. It chews ammo but deletes anything at close range.

Plasma rifle: Heat Sink Overcharge (Chapter 5, on the main path, hard to miss) and Beam Focus (Chapter 8, left path split decision). Beam Focus turns the plasma rifle into a continuous beam that ramps damage over time. It's the best ranged weapon mod in the game for boss fights. If you chose the armor upgrade on Chapter 8's split, you missed this. I made that choice and regretted it.

Rocket launcher: Lock-On Burst (Chapter 15, Atlan mech level, in a side alcove) and Cluster Warhead (Chapter 18, hidden behind a blue torch in the Hell forge area).

Hidden Arenas Worth Finding

Not all hidden arenas are equal. Some drop one token and aren't worth the time. These ones drop three or more and include unique enemy compositions you won't see elsewhere.

Chapter 3 , Cliffside Arena (three tokens): Behind the broken siege tower, shield throw across the gap. Waves of Imps and Hell Razers.

Chapter 7 , Mech Burial Ground (four tokens): During the Atlan sequence, deviate from the objective marker and head toward the giant skeleton in the distance. An optional boss fight against a second Ravager. Harder than the main story Ravager fight.

Chapter 9 , Basement Arena (five tokens): In the Sentinel fortress, a cracked wall in the basement level reveals an arena with five waves of increasingly difficult enemies. This is the best token farm in the game. I cleared it in one attempt with the flail and gauntlet.

Chapter 16 , Maykr Crucible (three tokens, plus a lore item): After the Kreed Maykr fight, a previously sealed door in the Maykr temple opens. Inside is a lore item about the Tether's origin and a combat arena against Maykr constructs.

Chapter 19 , Hell Forge Arena (four tokens): Last hidden arena before the final boss. Waves of every enemy type in the game. Bring your best loadout. This arena is harder than the Ahzrak fight itself.

Missable Content

Two things are truly missable in a single playthrough, and both are in Chapter 8's split path. Choose the plasma rifle Beam Focus mod or the armor core upgrade. You cannot get both without chapter select or New Game Plus. Beyond that, everything else is obtainable through chapter select after the credits roll.

None of the 29 trophies or 28 achievements are difficulty-gated. You can earn all of them on the easiest settings with maxed parry windows and minimum enemy damage. The only trophy that requires any planning is the one for finding all collectibles, which needs two playthroughs or chapter select cleanup because of the Chapter 8 split.

Trophy and Achievement Quick Reference

Most trophies unlock naturally through campaign completion and exploration. The ones that might not: the parry trophy (100 parries, cumulative across all playthroughs), the shield throw trophy (kill 50 enemies with shield throws), the mech trophy (kill 100 enemies in Atlan mech sections), and the collectible trophy (all armor upgrades, weapon mods, and lore items).

The mech trophy is easy to miss if you rush through the Atlan sections. Chapter 7 and Chapter 15 are your primary opportunities. In Chapter 7, stomp around and kill everything you see before engaging the Ravager. In Chapter 15, do the same. The counter is cumulative, so even if you miss some, chapter select will get you there.

The lore items are the easiest to overlook. They're glowing tablets scattered around levels, not marked by blue torches. Most are on the main path but a few are tucked into corners. If you're going for the collectible trophy, use a guide for the lore items specifically. They're the only collectible type without a consistent environmental tell.