Doom: The Dark Ages: Demonic Essence Locations & Interactive Tracking Guide

In Doom: The Dark Ages, Demonic Essences are the rarest and most important resources in your inventory. Unlike Gold or Rubies, which upgrade your gear, Essences are consumed at Sentinel Shrines to permanently increase your core stats: Health, Armor, and Ammo Capacity.

There are 32 Demonic Essences in total. To collect them, you must find out and complete Red Encounters—combat challenges found in secret arenas throughout the campaign.

Each essence is linked to a specific stat. To fully max out the Slayer, you must collect all of them:

• 11 Health Essences: Increases your maximum HP.
• 9 Armor Essences: Increases your maximum shield capacity.
• 12 Ammo Essences: Increases the amount of ammo you can carry for all 16 weapons.

Demonic Essences are not found sitting in chests. They are dropped by Mini-Bosses at the end of a Red Encounter.

• Find the Pillar: Look for a floating red stone pillar in a large arena.
• Activate the Trial: Touching the pillar locks you in the arena and spawns waves of demons.
• Defeat the Champion: The final wave features a mini-boss (such as an Armored Baron or a Maykr Inquisitor).
• Claim the Essence: Once the champion falls, the red pillar shatters, leaving the Essence behind.

Red Encounters do not appear on your map until you enter the room they are in. If you finish a chapter and are missing an Essence, check the "Exploration" tab in the mission summary.

It is also worth knowing that Red Encounters are significantly harder than standard story combat. If you are struggling, save your Wraithstone charges specifically for the mini-boss at the end of the trial.

As many Red Encounters are hidden in secret caves or require Slayer Keys to unlock, finding all 32 can become a tedious task. As such, all of them have been marked on our interactive Doom: The Dark Ages world maps and listed below.