First DOOM Eternal Update Adds a Tough New Enemy

The first big update for DOOM Eternal is now out to add a number of different features. One of those is a new type of enemy called Empowered Demons, an enemy that’s killed another player in their campaign and then invades your game to take out its fueled-up aggression out on you instead. These new demons offer a more challenging experience with rewards to match by giving players tons of resources including health, ammo, and experience for events, but if you don’t want to get invaded by a super strong demon, you could always turn the feature off.

These Empowered Demons were referenced in the game’s tips and hints as players played through the campaign with references to them found in things like loading screens. They weren’t live in the game though, but that’s now changed with Update 1 out for all platforms.

Bethesda offered some insights into the Empowered Demons and what player s can expect from them as well as the circumstances required to make one of them spawn.

“Empowered Demons are now online!” Bethesda said. “When a player is killed in the single player campaign, the demon that felled them is beefed up and transported to another player’s game to fight again! Take out an Empowered Demon and you’ll not only be rewarded with tons of health and ammo, but also bonus XP to progress in-game events! Toggle Empowered Demons ON/OFF in the Game tab of the Main Menu Options.”

So players can’t really force an Empowered Demon to spawn into their own game, but they could force one to appear in someone else’s campaign if the player dies over and over in their campaign. It’s not known how frequently these Empowered Demons will spawn or whether the spawn triggers off of every death, so trying to grief other players with Empowered Demons is probably a waste of time given that you won’t even see the result.

Update 1 was released for all platforms on May 15th with Bethesda saying that it would take around 24 hours for players to start seeing Empowered Demons in their games. Once that timeframe has passed, expect to see some stronger demons in your game if you’re playing through for the first time or playing through the game again.