DOOM The Dark Ages: How to Defeat the Vagary Champion (Boss Guide)

The Vagary Champion is the first main boss that you encounter in DOOM The Dark Ages, and this guide explains how you can defeat it.

If you have played DOOM titles before, you will know that bosses are usually not the most difficult enemies to beat. They have a fixed attack pattern, and once you figure that out, the fight becomes easy for the most part. The first “main boss” you will encounter in DOOM The Dark Ages is the Vagary Champion, an insectoid demon.

The Vagary Champion is easy to defeat, but you need to keep its attack patterns in mind. Knowing when to parry its throwable attacks is the key to beating it faster. In this boss guide, we will explain how you can defeat the Vagary Champion in DOOM The Dark Ages easily.

DOOM The Dark Ages Vagary Champion Boss Guide: Overview

As a boss enemy, the Vagary Champion wears Golden Armor in DOOM The Dark Ages. Its attacks will deal a fair amount of damage. You will encounter this boss during the final fight of Chapter 4 Sentinel Barracks. The Vagary Champion has access to both long range and short range attacks, and the fight takes over a large area. 

The ideal strategy is to keep a distance from this attack and reflect all green shots to stun the enemy. When the boss is stunned, deal maximum damage to eventually beat it. You should see a purple-colored bar under the boss’s health bar. This is the stun meter. Parrying or deflecting attacks builds up the stun meter, and the boss is momentarily immobile when it is stunned. The boss will eventually fall after this entire stun-damage cycle takes place a few times.

Vagary Champion’s Attacks in DOOM The Dark Ages

The Vagary Champion has the following attacks up its arsenal:

• Dash-melee Attack: The boss will dash and hit you with a melee attack that will be imbued with Hellfire burst. This will be green in color, and you will be able to parry it. In turn, this will increase the Stun Meter of the boss.
• Ranged Firing: The boss will fire a barrage of linear shots from the gun-like structures on his shoulder. You can block these attacks, but they cannot be parried.
• Poison Spit: The Vagary Champion will spit out yellow poison that will form a pool on the ground in a small AoE. The affected area will appear brownish-yellow, and fumes will arise from it. You will take damage if you pass through this, and your speed will also be momentarily decreased.
• Ranged Cannons 1: The boss will shoot cannonball-like ammunition in all directions, with a single cannonball in each direction. One of these will be infused with Hellfire and appear green in color. You can parry back at the boss.
• Ranged Cannons 2: This is similar to the previous attack, but there will be vertical rows of three cannonballs each fired in multiple directions. One of these rows will once again appear green in color. Once again, you can reflect back at the boss to increase its stun meter.

How To Defeat the Vagary Champion in DOOM The Dark Ages

To defeat the Vagary Champion, you need to keep parrying all Hellfire Burst (green-colored attacks) to stun the monster and then deal maximum damage while it is incapacitated. This is the basic ideology, but it is easier said than done. Here is the gameplay loop that you can use to defeat the Vagary Champion:

• Start the fight while using a ranged weapon like the Shredder.
• Use the Shield Bash to get up close to the monster. This will force it to use the melee Hellfire Burst attacks. Parry these to start building the stun meter.
• Keep parrying the melee attacks till your shield is on cooldown. At this time, immediately create some distance between you and the boss.
• If you have taken damage, skirt around the edges of the arena to pick up armor and health packs to heal yourself.
• When you are at a distance, the boss will swap to its ranged attacks. All of these are easy to dodge by simply jumping out of their way.
• Use a long-ranged weapon to deal chip damage while you wait for its Hellfire Burst imbued cannonball attacks.
• Take special care to not be hit by or step into the poison spit attack.
• Once the boss starts using the Ranged Cannons, parry all attacks with Hellfire Burst infusion to deflect them and further build the stun meter.
• When the boss is finally stunned, get up and close to the Vagary Champion and use a weapon that can deal massive amounts of damage to him.
• The boss will eventually get up, and you need to repeat this process all over again till the demon falls permanently.

Best Weapons and Skills to Defeat the Vagary Champion

Since this is an early-game boss, you will not likely have a lot of weapons or skills unlocked while defeating it. That said, you will need at least one long-ranged weapon and one short-ranged weapon to be the most effective against the Vagary Champion in DOOM The Dark Ages.

Here are the best weapons and the skills that you should have to defeat the Vagary Champion in DOOM The Dark Ages:

Long Ranged Weapon

• Weapon Name: Shredder
• Weapon Skills: Pincushion

The Shredder is the equivalent of an assault rifle and fires with incredible precision. You will be able to use it to deal a significant amount of chip damage even from a range, which will greatly reduce the time taken for the fight.

Short Ranged Weapon

• Weapon Name: Skullcrusher Pulverizer
• Weapon Skills: None, you will get this weapon during this mission’s early stages.

The Skullcrusher Pulverizer is one of the best close-ranged weapons in the entire game, and it can deal a significant amount of damage when you are up close to the boss. Ideally, when the boss is stunned, you should use this weapon and keep firing till either the boss is back on its feet or you run out of ammunition. The latter is a very unlikely scenario since you can find ammunition for this weapon scattered throughout the arena.

Following this boss encounter, the Vagary Champion will often appear as a mob boss in various scenarios in DOOM The Dark Ages. It will not have its golden armor, but you can employ the tactics mentioned above. Do note that the Vagary Champion appears as a golden-armored boss in the very last chapter of the game once again, though the fight will be considerably easier.

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