Nekravol is perhaps the hardest chapter in Mighty Doom. It’s a serious skill and stat check, making everything that came before it feel like a cakewalk.
While there’s not really a way to provide a true Nekravol walkthrough because of Mighty Doom‘s RNG design, there are some tips I can share that might make getting through Chapter 5 easier. There are also suggested abilities and boss tips near the end of the article.
Why is Nekravol So Hard in Mighty Doom?
What makes Nekravol so hard is in how its stages are set up. In chapters 1-4, you enter a stage, fight demons, defeat them, and move to the next stage in the chapter. Stages are single-room sets with a single set of enemies. The Night Sentinel appears every few stages to give you either a combat boost or heal. Things are a bit different in Nekravol.
There are only 20 stages in Chapter 5, nearly half the number in other chapters, but you’ll face five waves of very difficult enemy combinations in a single Nekravol stage.
Waves spawn when you enter the center of the stage, and they can spawn on top of each other if you don’t kill enemies quickly enough. Survey rooms when you enter them before moving to the center to understand the trap and room layout.
Further, Nekravol bosses are some of the toughest yet. The thin silver lining is that the Night Sentinel appears after every stage save for bosses.
Like normal, you won’t get new abilities until the end of each stage when you get enough XP to level. However, because of the number of waves in each stage, you won’t have the chance to gain and stack as many abilities and buffs as you have in other areas. Effectively, you’re playing double the stages with half the upgrades.
Add RNG onto that, and beating Nekravol is almost down to sheer luck, skill, and a good bit of grinding.
Related: The Best Weapons in Mighty Doom, Ranked
Mighty Doom Nekravol Tips
Use a Controller
This is a good tip for all of Mighty Doom, but use a controller when playing Nekravol to make things easier. You can connect a DualShock 4, Xbox Controller, or a mobile gamepad like the Riot via Bluetooth.
Using a controller does a few things:
- Gives you much better control of the Mini Slayer
- Allows you to switch weapons easily
- Let’s you see the whole screen
Admittedly, Mighty Doom‘s touch controls are decent, but they aren’t good enough for the amount of control you need to move around the chaos that is Nekravol. Plus, having your thumb taking up much of the screen just makes a difficult chapter even harder.
Take Advantage of Glory Kills
Glory Kills are more important in Nekravol than maybe anywhere else in Mighty Doom to this point. No matter your playstyle or skill, you’ll get hit, and the Night Sentinel’s healing won’t be enough to keep you going.
Don’t put yourself at risk of losing more health than you’ll gain from a Glory Kill, but take advantage of them every time a demon staggers.
It’s worth noting that you get some invincibility frames during a Glory Kill, which can keep you from getting hit if timed right. Getting perks like Glory Kill Rage, which increases attack speed and damage after a GK, can be helpful. Explosive Glory Kill is another good one to get since it will also damage enemies near a GK, and Bloodthirst gives more HP per Glory Kill.
Further, if you can get the First Impressions ability, you’ll increase your chance of staggering enemies by a certain percentage based on the number of enemies currently alive in a stage. If using a weapon that has the Extended Stagger perk, that could be worth taking, as well.
Lastly, the Glorious Healing Mastery also increases the HP you get from Glory Kills, but getting it and leveling it up is completely random.
Use Ultimate Weapons Outside of Boss Fights
Until Nekravol, I almost never used my Ultimate Weapons on normal enemies, instead saving them to dispatch bosses more quickly. But in Chapter 5, the sheer number of powerful enemies outside of boss fights means two things:
- You’ll charge your Ultimate Weapons faster
- You’ll need to use your Ultimate Weapons to survive more often
Don’t be shy to use the BFG to make some space between you and Hellspawn or the Chainsaw to cut through enemies, interrupting their attacks. It’s worth noting that you gain invulnerability when using Ultimate Weapons, so wait until you’re overwhelmed to use them and create some space.
Grind More Levels and Recycle Gear
Mighty Doom is a mobile game, which means there’s a good amount of grinding and RNG built into the experience, even if you pony up real money for Gems and Coins.
Before you take on Nekravol, you’ll likely need to be north of Level 15 for your Mini Slayer and north of Level 10 for most of your weapons and gear. At those levels, I was able to consistently get about halfway through Nekravol but still had trouble beating it.
And to level, you’ll need resources like Gems, Coins, and upgrade materials. One of the best ways to get more upgrade materials and currency is to simply replay entire chapters. At this point in the game, you should be able to blast through early levels easily. Also, take advantage of Daily Events, too, some of which will get you in the mindset of playing Nekravol due to their set up.
You can also recycle gear to get resources. Recycling a weapon or piece of gear returns all of the Coins and upgrade materials you’ve put into it, resetting the item to Level 1. You can then upgrade another weapon or gear piece that might be more useful in Nekravol. Recycling works on all weapon and gear rarities except Uncommon.
Best Abilities to Have for Nekravol
Depending on the weapons and gear you have, as well as what you get from RNG, here are some perks and abilities to look out for while playing through Nekravol.
- Attack Speed Boost
- Bloodthirst
- Bounce
- Damage Boost
- Dodge Boost
- Extended Stagger
- Explosive Glory Kill
- Glory Kill Rage
- Incendiary
- Multishot
- Spreadshot (but not on shotguns)
- Twin Shot
Outside of pure RNG, your success is also determined by the gear you’re wearing and the Masteries you’ve gotten.
- Use gear that increases damage, as well as stagger and dodge chance.
- Use weapons/abilities with Ice elemental damage to slow enemies.
- Pray you get Masteries that improve weapon damage and Slayer healing.
Nekravol Boss Tips
There are four bosses to fight in Nekravol:
- Hell Razer (Level 5)
- Zombie (Level 10)
- Prowler (Level 15)
- Mancubus (Level 20)
Related: How to Beat All Bosses in Mighty Doom
How to Beat Hell Razer
Like the Hell Razer enemies you’ve already faced in Nekravol, the boss shoots a laser toward you before activating it to cause damage.
When the laser initially procs, it won’t cause damage — it’s tracking you. Stand still for about a second and wait for the laser to dim. As it does, move out of the way, and the shot will miss you.
Hell Razer will do this several times before pausing and either repeating the sequence or moving to its next attack. It’s possible Hell Razer will loop this attack pattern, which makes the boss fight much easier.
Hell Razer’s second attack is a web of lasers that create a random pattern. When the web appears, move slightly to create gaps in the laser design near you, then stop. As the lasers disappear, quickly move to where those gaps were (that you memorized) to avoid damage.
How to Beat Zombie
The Zombie boss moves slowly around the map and has two primary attacks:
- Acid Belch
- Swipe
Zombie will swipe in a wide arc if you get too close to it, dealing physical melee damage.
At regular intervals, Zombie will also perform Acid Belch, shooting 3 Acid Bombs across the stage. Where they’ll hit is marked on the ground by green circles. These leave acid pools on the map for a short duration.
Finally, Zombie spawns several other smaller Zombies that also leave acid pools behind and can deal melee damage.
A good strategy is to kite the Zombie boss toward the corners of the arena, and have it drop its acid bombs either in the corners or at the top or bottom of the screen. This will give you the most mobility when trying to deal damage and avoid the encroaching smaller Zombies.
How to Beat Prowler
The Prowler boss has two primary attacks:
- A volley of three purple projects that spread like the acid shots from regular Blaster Soldier enemies.
- A dash melee attack (which it hardly uses in my experience).
At the start of the boss battle, Prowler will disappear and reappear as four different enemies in each of the stage’s corners. Each of the enemies will shoot purple projectiles. The goal is to find which Prowler is the true Prowler.
Quickly attack each Prowler in each of the corners, and the fakes will instantly explode, leaving the real Prowler open to attack.
How to Beat Mancubus
Mancubus is the last Nekravol boss in Mighty Doom. He’s big, takes up most of the arena, and has two attacks:
- A volley of three projectiles from each of his arm cannons (6 total projectiles).
- Sustained, arcing Flame belch from either — or both — of his arm cannons.
The hardest part of this boss fight is dodging the projectile volleys from Manucubs. He shoots two volleys from each cannon, with the salvos overlapping each other. The projectiles are relatively large, too. Keep your distance and try to weave between the projectiles.
Close the distance a bit for the next attack. Manucubus telegraphs his Flame Belch attack by slamming his arm cannons together before lowering them to spew flames in an arc in front of him. If you’re close enough, he’ll attack the area where you were, letting you move to his backside for easy damage.
Rinse and repeat.
With enough patience and perseverance, you’ll be able to beat Nekravol in Mighty Doom. There’s no guarantee that spending real money on crates will give you an edge in Chapter 5, either. Nekravol can be overcome with base weapons and gear if you spend the time leveling them.
Featured image via Bethesda.
