Berserker

The first berserker in the game, found near the end of Communications Transfer: Maintenance and Transfer Station.

For the Doom RPG powerup, see Berserk#Doom RPG. For other versions of this item, see:

• Berserk
• Berserk (Doom 2016)
• Berserk (Doom Eternal)

The berserker power-up is a rare item in Doom 3 which makes the player invulnerable in single player games (to everything except for environmental effects) and enhances the damage of all weapons, granting multipliers to projectile damage, melee range, and to the damage of melee weapons. These damage bonuses go far beyond the increase granted by the classic berserk pack, enabling the player to kill even the toughest non-boss monsters with a single punch. However, the berserker only has an effect for a limited duration of 30 seconds.

The player's ranged weapons have their damage output tripled^{[citation needed]}, and melee weapons have their damage increased even more so, to the point where a Hell knight can be killed by a single punch. It also marginally increases the reach of the player's melee attacks. During the berserk period, enemy attacks will have no effect on the player, but they can still be killed by exploding barrels.

While the player will automatically change to the fists when the berserker is collected, it is possible to manually change to any other weapon that is currently possessed, and the power-up will affect all of them as described above. It is advisable to switch to the chainsaw - it is as lethal as the berserk fists, capable of killing a Hell knight with a single scratch, but deals damage continuously so the player can simply hold the trigger while approaching enemies.

Appearance statistics

The berserker appears only twice in the single player game, being found near the end of Communications Transfer, and one final time in Hell. It does not appear in Resurrection of Evil or the Lost Mission, except in multiplayer. When it is found in Comm Transfer the player will be faced with several zombies, but if the player is quick they can continue onward to face a chainsaw zombie and two cacodemons while the berserker is still in effect. In Hell, the player will be faced with a large number of imps and two Hell knights, all of which can be killed using the berserker's damage bonus if the player is quick enough, thereby not requiring any ammunition or risk taking any damage.

Notes

While the power-up is active, the player's vision is heavily blurred and distorted, combined with constant agonized screaming sounds. This strongly suggests that the berserker item is of demonic origin. Furthermore, the abilities granted by the Artifact are quite similar, which could suggest that they were created using similar magic or technology.