Welcome to Freedoom, a complete game that is free and open source software. Freedoom is made available under the modified BSD license, meaning that anyone is free to share it, modify it and reuse parts of it.
For more details, see the reusing section.
Installing Freedoom
Freedoom is distributed as two files named freedoom1.wad and
freedoom2.wad which contain the artwork, levels, music and
sound effects that make up the game. To be played it needs to be paired
with a source port. Fans of the original Doom games have created a number
of these; the Doom Wiki’s
source ports page has a comprehensive list. The following are some good default suggestions:
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GZDoom is a modern source port that includes various features such as a hardware renderer.
-
Crispy Doom is a more minimalist source port that retains an “old school” feel.
Setup depends on the source port you use, and it’s best to refer to the instructions for that source port. Generally though, you can try one of the following:
-
Place the Freedoom
.wadfiles into the same folder as the source port before launching it. They may be automatically detected. -
If launching from the command line, try eg.
my-favorite-port -iwad freedoom1.wad.
Freedoom is split into Freedoom: Phase 1 (freedoom1.wad)
and
Freedoom: Phase 2 (freedoom2.wad). Phase 1 is split into four separate episodes of eight levels each, while Phase 2 is a single, 30 level campaign. This gives 62 levels to play through,
and there are also secret levels — if you can discover
how to reach them.
Using the Freedoom Menus
Freedoom’s menus are fairly self-explanatory but here are some brief instructions. The main menu can be brought up at any time by pressing the Esc key on your keyboard.
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Start a new game, abandoning the current game (if you’re already playing). |
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Options |
Brings up the options menu. The appearance of this menu and the available options depend upon the source port you’re using. |
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Load a saved game. |
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Save your current game, so that you can continue playing later. |
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Read This! |
Brings up a help screen showing a description of the items you’ll encounter in the game. |
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Quit Game |
Finish playing and return to the operating system. |
Starting a new game
To start a new game, press Esc to bring up the main menu, and choose New Game.
When starting a new game, you may be prompted to choose which episode to start playing.
If you’re new to the game, start with Outpost Outbreak, the first episode (and easiest). Once you finish one episode, you can move on to the next. If you’re bored with the episode you’re playing or stuck, you can always try playing a different episode instead. There’s no requirement to play episodes in order.
After choosing a episode, you need to pick a skill level. Skill level affects several factors in the game, most importantly the number of monsters you’ll encounter.
|
1 |
Please Don’t Kill Me! |
The easiest skill level. This is effectively the same as Will This Hurt?, except that damage is halved. |
|
2 |
Will This Hurt? |
Easy skill level, a good choice if you’re finding Bring on the Pain too challenging. |
|
3 |
Bring on the Pain. |
The default skill level. |
|
4 |
Extreme Carnage. |
A more challenging skill level, suited more for experienced players and people in search of a challenge. |
|
5 |
MAYHEM! |
Not Recommended. This is equivalent to Extreme Carnage except that monster attacks are up to twice as fast, and killed monsters come back to life after around 40 seconds. |
Loading and saving the game
It is a good idea to save the game regularly — for example, at the start of each new level. You may also want to save the game after completing a challenging section of a level so that you do not have to repeat it again if you die.
To save the game, press Esc to bring up the menu, select Save Game and choose a slot to save in. Type a description for the save game and press Enter. Some source ports have a limited number of slots, in which case you will have to overwrite an existing saved game once there are no more slots available. For the same reason it’s a good idea to write a good description for your saved game. Include the level number and something descriptive of where you’ve reached; for example, “C1M3 - Blue Key Door.”
The Load Game menu usually looks largely identical to the Save Game menu. To restore your saved game, simply select Load Game from the main menu and choose your saved game.
If you find yourself saving the game often, you may want to use the Quicksave feature. Press F6 during play to quicksave. The Save Game menu appears as usual; choosing a slot makes that your quicksave slot. Pressing F6 again in the future will overwrite your quicksave slot with just a couple of keystrokes. If you die you can also restore your quicksave slot by pressing F9.
Quitting the game
When you’re finished playing Freedoom, press Esc to bring up the main menu and select Quit Game to exit. You may want to select Save Game first to save your progress so that you can return to where you left off next time you play.
Keyboard shortcuts
The following are some useful keyboard shortcuts that can save time accessing common menu functions.
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Esc |
Bring up the main menu. |
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F1 |
Help |
Bring up the help screen that shows information about the in-game items. |
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F2 |
Bring up the Save Game menu. |
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F3 |
Bring up the Load Game menu. |
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F4 |
Volume |
Bring up a menu to control volume levels. |
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F6 |
Save the game to your quicksave slot, which saves time if you’re repeatedly saving your progress while you play. |
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F7 |
End Game |
End the current game and return to the title screen. |
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F8 |
Messages |
Toggles between showing or hiding the on-screen messages shown when you collect an item. |
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F9 |
Load the game from your quicksave slot. |
|
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F10 |
Quit Game |
Quit the game and return to the operating system. |
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F11 |
Brightness |
Toggle the on-screen brightness level. |
How to Play
Freedoom is a real-time first-person shooter (FPS). You’ll be exploring a series of levels, in each one trying to find the way to the exit. An assortment of monsters will try to stop you, and you’ll need to use weapons to defend yourself. Portions of the levels may be inaccessible until you find a particular key, or find a switch to open a locked door. This gives a puzzle element to the game in addition to the action.
By default, the keyboard cursor keys will move forward and backward, and turn left and right. The Control key fires the current weapon, and the spacebar will open doors and activate switches. All source ports allow you to rebind these keys to a setup that you find more comfortable. You’ll also want to look into using the strafe (sidestep) and run keys to better control over your movement.
If you haven’t played Freedoom before, take a few minutes when you start the game to get familiar with the controls, and reconfigure controls as you find makes it more comfortable to play. Practice moving around and firing the weapon. You may encounter some low-level monsters, but those encountered in the first level do not present much of a challenge and they’re a good opportunity to practice taking shots at.
Within the game you’ll encounter various collectible items and power-ups. These will typically give you more ammunition for your weapons, more health or more armor. You can also find new weapons and some rarer power-ups which give you special abilities. Picking something up is a simple matter of walking over it — an on-screen message and a brief flash of the screen indicate that you’ve done so successfully. If you don’t pick it up, it’s likely you don’t need it right now (for example, you can’t pick up a health pack when you already have 100% health).
The Status Bar
At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see the status bar, which is divided into the following sections:
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Ammo |
Number of units of ammunition remaining for the current weapon. |
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Health |
If this reaches zero, you’re dead! See the health section for power-ups you can find to replenish your health. |
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Arms |
Which weapons you’ve found so far. Check out the weapons section for more information. |
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Freedoomguy |
A quick visual indication of how your health is. |
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Armor |
The more armor you have, the less your health will suffer if you’re injured. See the armor section for more information. |
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Ammo counts |
How much you’re carrying of each of the four types of ammunition, along with the maximum of each you can carry. |
Freedoom’s Weapons
You start the game with only a handgun, 50 bullets and your fists to fall back on once they run out. You’ll want to find yourself some better weaponry as soon as possible.
| Weapon | Key | Description | Ammo | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Fist |
1 |
If you have no ammunition, you can always fall back on punching the monsters with your bare hands. |
None |
|
|
Angle Grinder |
1 |
Designed for cutting through metal, the angle grinder also works well as a melee weapon for cutting through flesh. |
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None |
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Handgun |
2 |
Your starter weapon. A few shots will take down low-level monsters but it’s best to upgrade before taking on any tougher opponents. |
Bullets |
|
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Pump-action Shotgun |
3 |
The main “workhorse” weapon; fires seven pellets in a tight cluster and is effective over both short and long ranges against low- and medium-level monsters. |
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Shells |
|
Double-barrelled Shotgun |
3 |
Twice as powerful as the pump-action shotgun but less effective at long ranges; good at short range against crowds of enemies. |
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Shells |
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Minigun |
4 |
Conceptually like a faster version of the basic handgun, but eats ammo much more quickly. |
|
Bullets |
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Missile Launcher |
5 |
Fires exploding missiles which are effective against higher-level monsters. Be careful not to get caught in the blast! |
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Missiles |
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Polaric Energy Cannon |
6 |
Produces a continuous stream of polaric energy projectiles which are very effective against higher-level monsters. |
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Energy |
|
SKAG 1337 |
7 |
Experimental weapon that launches a energy ball that does a huge amount of damage, plus also damages other enemies in the vicinity. Slow to fire, but incredibly powerful. |
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Energy |
Pressing the numbered key on the keyboard switches to the given weapon (if it has been picked up!). Apart from the melee weapons, each weapon consumes a certain type of ammo, and you should be careful to look out for more ammo as you’re exploring.
| Ammo type | Small | Large |
|---|---|---|
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Bullets |
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Shells |
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Missiles |
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Energy |
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Backpack |
- |
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The backpack item is a special item that contains several of every ammo type and doubles the maximum amount of ammo you can carry.
Health
You die if your health reaches 0%. You’ll find health bonuses around the levels which can restore you back to 100% health; 1% health bonuses can take you over 100% and up to 200% health.
| 1% | 10% | 25% | 100% |
|---|---|---|---|
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Armor
You start with 0% armor and can increase this up to 200% by collecting bonuses.
| 1% | 100% | 200% |
|---|---|---|
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Normal armor absorbs one third of damage you receive. For example, suppose you’re hit by a missile that reduces your health from 100% to 50%. If you’re hit by the same missile while wearing 100% armor, your health will reduce to only 66%, but you’ll lose 16% armor.
The heavy armor vest has slightly different behavior: in addition to being worth 200% armor, it also absorbs half of all damage. For this reason, it’s a very good idea to get your hands on a heavy armor vest if you can locate one.
Special Items
You may also encounter any one of these special items while exploring:
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Keys |
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Allow you to open certain locked doors and activate locked switches. Usually essential to be able to progress, although they sometimes allow access to secret areas. |
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Night Vision Goggles |
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Allow you to see in the dark for a limited time. |
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Ultra-Overdrive Sphere |
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Maxes you out to 200% health and armor. |
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Tactical Survey Map |
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Unlocks all areas of the map, including some secret areas that may not be immediately visible. |
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Hazard Suit |
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Protects you from the harmful radiation of damaging floors, for a limited time. |
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Strength Power-Up |
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Increases your health back to 100% and enhances your fists to 10x their normal damage, until the end of level. |
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Stealth Sphere |
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Makes you almost invisible for a limited time. |
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Invulnerability Sphere |
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Makes you immune to all damage for a limited time. |
Enemies
The levels are filled with monsters who have no other goal apart from stopping you from completing your mission. Here’s a selection of some of these monsters who you can expect to encounter.
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Zombie |
These undead creatures are armed with a pistol and intent on your destruction. Drops a clip of bullets when killed. |
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Shotgun Zombie |
These guys traded their pistol for a shotgun and pack far more of a punch. Drops a shotgun when killed. |
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Minigun Zombie |
As soon as you’re in sight of one of these, he’ll lock on with his minigun and keep on firing until you’re dead. It’s best to take cover quickly or take him out. Drops a minigun when killed. |
|
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Serpentipede |
Serpent footsoldiers of the alien invasion. Let them get close and they’ll tear you to shreds; at a distance they’ll instead rain down fireballs. |
|
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Flesh Worm |
Tough and fast-moving, these worms attack at close range and take several shotgun blasts to take down. It’s best to keep back. |
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Stealth Worm |
These flesh worm variants have been given stealth abilities which make them practically invisible. |
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Hatchling |
Floating alien larvae which charge from a distance. |
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Matribite |
The mother of the Hatchlings will ensure you always have more of her babies to deal with. |
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Trilobite |
These flying orb-like creatures spit fireballs and bite if you get too close. |
|
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Pain Bringer |
100% muscle, these guys take at least three rocket blasts to take down, and while you’re trying they’ll shower you with energy projectiles. |
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Pain Lord |
If the Pain Bringer wasn’t tough enough, this one will take five rocket blasts. |
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Dark Soldier |
Fast moving, tough, and fires heat-seeking missiles. Do not get into a boxing match with one of these guys. |
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Necromancer |
If he’s not setting you on fire, he’s undoing all your hard work by bringing his friends back from the dead. |
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Combat Slug |
These genetically-engineered super-slugs have been fitted with long distance flame throwers, practically making them into living, slithering tanks. |
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Technospider |
These spider creatures have been equipped with polaric energy cannons, making them a deadly challenge. |
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Large Technospider |
This tank on legs is equipped with a rapid-fire minigun and will take a lot of effort to bring down. |
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Assault Tripod |
The ultimate blend of military technology and genetic engineering, these three-legged creatures are fast-moving, heavily armored and equipped with a missile launcher that you’ll want to avoid. |
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Using the map
When exploring Freedoom’s levels, it is sometimes possible to get lost, especially if the level is particularly large or complex. Fortunately, the map is available to help you find your way. Press the Tab key during play to bring up the map.
Your current position and orientation are shown by a white arrow. Areas of the map are usually color coded as follows:
|
Red |
Walls (or possibly secret doors) |
|
Yellow |
Changes in ceiling height, including doors. |
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Brown |
Changes in floor height (eg. steps) |
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Grey |
Undiscovered areas (not normally shown, but may be revealed if the Tactical Survey Map item is discovered). |
While using the map, the game continues as normal, so it is wise to find a safe place before activating it, to avoid being ambushed by monsters. Normal controls continue to work as usual, but the following additional keys are available:
|
Tab |
Toggle Map |
|
- |
Zoom out |
|
+ |
Zoom in |
|
0 |
Maximum zoom out |
|
F |
Toggle whether the map follows the player. When disabled, the cursor keys can be used to pan the view of the map around independent of your current position. |
|
G |
Toggle map grid |
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M |
Add a map bookmark at the current location. |
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C |
Clear all bookmarks. |
Environmental Hazards
If the monsters weren’t enough, the environment itself poses hazards which can hurt or even kill you!
|
Barrels |
These exploding barrels litter many of the levels. Several shots with a pistol are usually enough to make them detonate, damaging anything in their immediate vicinity. Make sure when engaged in combat to never stand too close, or a stray shot from an enemy may cause one to explode in your face! Be aware too of the potential for chain reactions when several barrels are clustered together. |
|
|
Damaging Floors |
Red-hot lava and radioactive sludge are just two of the types of damaging floor you can encounter in Freedoom’s levels. If walking over it is necessary, try to find yourself a hazard suit, but be aware that it will only protect you for a limited time. |
|
|
Crushing Ceilings |
Many of the levels have been rigged with traps and this is just one of them. These moving ceilings are often placed above tempting-looking items. Be very careful not to get caught beneath one, or it will quickly crush you into a paste! |
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Tactical tips
If you’re struggling with the difficulty of the game, one option is to change to an easier skill level. Alternatively, you can try some of these tactical suggestions:
-
Firstly, put some time into setting up your controls. Most players find that a mouse and keyboard combination is the most effective, where the mouse is used to turn while the keyboard is used to move around. In particular, make sure that you have set up strafe (sidestep) keys. Many of the enemies in the game launch projectiles which must be dodged. Sidestepping these projectiles is an important skill to learn. You’ll know you’ve mastered this skill when you can easily circle around an enemy and dodge its projectiles while simultaneously keeping your weapon trained on it.
-
Play with headphones. The game’s stereo separation can give helpful audio cues about the positions of enemies and alert you to incoming projectiles. Headphones give you a more precise way to pick up on these cues.
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Take cover! Monsters only attack when you’re in their line of sight. You’ll want to find walls, pillars and other forms of cover you can hide behind while your weapon reloads. This advice is particularly important when facing certain monsters which can “lock on” to you (minigun zombie; necromancer); hiding from these is a crucial skill.
-
Many of the levels are littered with exploding barrels. While these can pose a danger to you, they’re equally dangerous to your opponents. A single, well-timed shotgun blast aimed at a barrel can take down several enemies at once. One barrel explosion can trigger another, so it can sometimes set off a chain reaction that takes down a whole crowd — but be careful that doesn’t include you!
-
If a monster gets injured by another monster, it’ll retaliate against the one that injured it (this is called monster in-fighting). If faced with a crowd of enemies, an effective strategy can be to stand in just the right place so that those at the back shoot those at the front. Do it right and they’ll spend more time fighting each other than fighting you, and the survivors will be significantly weakened. Be aware though, that a monster cannot be injured by a projectile launched by another of the same species.
-
Sometimes you’ll face crowds of monsters, which can be overwhelming and also drain your ammo supplies. Learn to master crowd control. The primary instinct of all monsters is to move towards you. Circle around the crowd continually — this encourages them to cluster in a single spot that’s easier for you to target. It also encourages monster in-fighting; if done effectively, they’ll spend their energy killing each other and you’ll save on ammunition.
-
If you encounter a horde of flesh worms or stealth worms, The angle grinder is a great weapon to use both to conserve ammo and avoid taking damage. Worms can’t attack while being sawed, and if you back into any corner that is roughly as wide as or narrower than a right angle, they can only come at you one at a time. The angle grinder also works well on trilobites: they can’t attack while taking damage from it.
Playing with fan-made WADs and mods
One of the nicest features of Freedoom is its compatibility with the catalog of thousands of fan-made levels made for the classic Doom games. With some exceptions, most popular mods and levels for Doom and Doom II can also be played with Freedoom. The largest repository of Doom mods is the idgames archive, and a browsing interface for the archive can be found on Doomworld.
Playing a .wad file is usually fairly simple. For mods designed
for the original Doom, use Freedoom: Phase 1 (freedoom1.wad);
for others designed for Doom 2 or Final Doom, use Freedoom:
Phase 2 (freedoom2.wad). If you’re using the command line,
use the -file parameter when you start the game. For example,
to load the file scythe.wad:
my-favorite-port -iwad freedoom2.wad -file scythe.wad
If you’re not using the command line, you can try dragging and dropping
the
.wad file onto the source port icon in your file manager — several
source ports support this.
Suggestions
Over more than two decades, literally thousands of Doom levels have been made, and there are so many that it may seem difficult to know where to start. The following are some suggestions for where to look for the best content:
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Doomworld’s Top 100 WADs Of All Time was written in 2003 and aimed to list the best works from the first 10 years of fan-made mods. It’s still a great list of classic mods.
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The Cacowards are Doomworld’s annual award ceremony that recognizes the best releases from the Doom community over the past year. This is a great way to find out about more recent developments, including some of the more unusual mods that people are releasing.
-
The Doom Wiki’s List of notable WADs contains a rather extensive list of fan-made WADs. The Doom Wiki includes extensive information about such mods including screenshots, maps and per-level statistics, so it’s a useful entrypoint to discover interesting mods.
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Doomworld’s interface to the idgames archive includes the ability to list the top levels based on five star rankings by visitors to the site.
Cheats
If you’re finding the game too difficult, you can always try playing at an easier skill level. However, if that’s not enough, or if you just want to have fun feeling like an unstoppable killing machine, there are a number of cheats that you can turn to:
|
IDDQD |
God mode. Makes you invulnerable to all damage. |
|
IDFA |
Gives all weapons and ammo. |
|
IDKFA |
All weapons, ammo and keys. |
|
IDCLIP |
Turn on noclip mode, which lets you walk through walls. |
|
IDDT |
Reveals full map; type twice to reveal all enemies and items. |
|
IDCLEVxy |
Warp to CxMy (Phase 1) or MAPxy (Phase 2). |
|
IDMUSxy |
Change music to that of CxMy (Phase 1) or MAPxy (Phase 2). |
|
IDCHOPPERS |
Gives the angle grinder weapon. |
|
IDBEHOLDV |
Gives the invulnerability sphere powerup. |
|
IDBEHOLDS |
Gives the strength powerup. |
|
IDBEHOLDI |
Gives the stealth sphere powerup. |
|
IDBEHOLDR |
Gives the hazard suit powerup. |
|
IDBEHOLDM |
Gives the tactical survey map. |
|
IDBEHOLDL |
Gives the night vision goggles. |
Contributing to Freedoom
Freedoom is a free content project contributed to by many users around the world. It is available as both free in cost (free as in free beer) and in modification and redistribution rights (free as in free speech) to end users, provided that the original software license is included and/or viewable by users of modified or redistributed versions.
If you’d like to contribute to the Freedoom project, please check out the project’s page, discussion forum, and discord chat.
Reusing portions of Freedoom
Since Freedoom is free, some other projects have used Freedoom’s assets. We think this is a great use of the project and should be encouraged. If you use portions of Freedoom in your project, please let us know by filing an issue or pull request on Freedoom’s website project page