Doom: The Dark Ages' latest update is making its Ripatorium horde mode even more customizable and the Doom Slayer even more powerful, with the ability to swap between melee weapons and Shield Runes on the fly.The Ripatorium was introduced in August as a time-based horde mode that gave players the ability to customize enemy encounters. In Doom: The Dark Ages Update 3, the Ripatorium is now a round-based arena where players can fully customize how each round will play out.Players can choose to have up to five rounds of enemy encounters, with up to 10 waves of enemies each. Other changes are relatively minor, like tweaks to line of sight in arenas and icons now appearing over the heads of the last few remaining enemies in a round. The addition of a passcode system for Ripatorium will make it so players can easily share their demonic arenas with others. Developer Id Software said it will be looking to curate some of the best custom encounters in order to make community-made Ripatorium presets.Update 3 is mostly about the Ripatorium, but there are new options are coming to Doom: The Dark Ages' overall gameplay as well, including the ability to swap between Shield Runes and melee weapons in combat. This gives players even more deadly tools at their disposal, as certain runes and melee weapons may excel in some situations but not others. Now, instead of having to go into multiple menus to change them, players can do it on the fly.The ability to adjust the game's "Brink of Death" state is also new, with players now able to choose between Normal and Hard. On Hard, surviving at low health will be more challenging, as the game won't provide as many resources to help players stabilize. In the campaign, various combat encounters have been adjusted, as have the attacks of certain bosses and enemies like the Cacodemon.In GameSpot's Doom: The Dark Ages review, reviewer Alessandro Barbosa said Id's latest proves there is still plenty of fertile ground for Doom to cover, and that its melee combat "harmonizes beautifully" with the franchise's traditional FPS combat. Doom: The Dark Ages is nominated for best action game and innovation in accessibility at The Game Awards 2025.