| 1 | Freedoom is a real-time first-person shooter (FPS). |
| 2 | You'll be exploring a series of levels, in each one trying to find the way to the exit. |
| 3 | An assortment of monsters will try to stop you, and you'll need to use weapons to defend yourself. |
| 4 | Portions of the levels may be inaccessible until you find a particular key, or find a switch to open a locked door. |
| 5 | This gives a puzzle element to the game in addition to the action. |
| 6 | By default, the keyboard cursor keys will move forward and backward, and turn left and right. |
| 7 | The Control key fires the current weapon, and the spacebar will open doors and activate switches. |
| 8 | *CURSOR KEYS* *CONTROL KEY* *SPACEBAR* All source ports allow you to rebind these keys to a setup that you find more comfortable. |
| 9 | You'll also want to look into using the strafe (sidestep) and run keys to better control over your movement. |
| 10 | If you haven't played Freedoom before, take a few minutes when you start the game to get familiar with the controls, and reconfigure controls as you find makes it more comfortable to play. |
| 11 | Practice moving around and firing the weapon. |
| 12 | You may encounter some low-level monsters, but those encountered in the first level do not present much of a challenge and they're a good opportunity to practice taking shots at. |
| 13 | Within the game you'll encounter various collectible items and power-ups. |
| 14 | These will typically give you more ammunition for your weapons, more health or more armor. |
| 15 | You can also find new weapons and some rarer power-ups which give you special abilities. |
| 16 | Picking something up is a simple matter of walking over it -- an on-screen message and a brief flash of the screen indicate that you've done so successfully. |
| 17 | If you don't pick it up, it's likely you don't need it right now |
| 18 | (for example, you can't pick up a health pack when you already have 100 <percnt> health). |
| 19 | Tactical tips |
| 20 | If you're struggling with the difficulty of the game, one option is to change to an easier skill level. |
| 21 | Alternatively, you can try some of these tactical suggestions: |
| 22 | Firstly, put some time into setting up your controls. |
| 23 | Most players find that a mouse and keyboard combination is the most effective, where the mouse is used to turn while the keyboard is used to move around. |
| 24 | In particular, make sure that you have set up strafe (sidestep) keys. |
| 25 | Many of the enemies in the game launch projectiles which must be dodged. |
| 26 | Sidestepping these projectiles is an important skill to learn. |
| 27 | You'll know you've mastered this skill when you can easily circle around an enemy and dodge its projectiles while simultaneously keeping your weapon trained on it. |
| 28 | Play with headphones. |
| 29 | The game's stereo separation can give helpful audio cues about the positions of enemies and alert you to incoming projectiles. |
| 30 | Headphones give you a more precise way to pick up on these cues. |
| 31 | Take cover! |
| 32 | Monsters only attack when you're in their line of sight. |
| 33 | You'll want to find walls, pillars and other forms of cover you can hide behind while your weapon reloads. |
| 34 | This advice is particularly important when facing certain monsters which can “lock on” to you (minigun zombie; necromancer); hiding from these is a crucial skill. |
| 35 | Many of the levels are littered with exploding barrels. |
| 36 | While these can pose a danger to you, they're equally dangerous to your opponents. |
| 37 | A single, well-timed shotgun blast aimed at a barrel can take down several enemies at once. |
| 38 | One barrel explosion can trigger another, so it can sometimes set off a chain reaction that takes down a whole crowd -- but be careful that doesn't include you! |
| 39 | If a monster gets injured by another monster, it'll retaliate against the one that injured it (this is called monster in-fighting). |
| 40 | If faced with a crowd of enemies, an effective strategy can be to stand in just the right place so that those at the back shoot those at the front. |
| 41 | Do it right and they'll spend more time fighting each other than fighting you, and the survivors will be significantly weakened. |
| 42 | Be aware though, that a monster can not be injured by a projectile launched by another of the same species. |
| 43 | Sometimes you'll face crowds of monsters, which can be overwhelming and also drain your ammo supplies. |
| 44 | Learn to master crowd control. |
| 45 | The primary instinct of all monsters is to move towards you. |
| 46 | Circle around the crowd continually -- this encourages them to cluster in a single spot that's easier for you to target. |
| 47 | It also encourages monster in-fighting; if done effectively, they'll spend their energy killing each other and you'll save on ammunition. |