Doom Eternal Slayer Gates are challenge arenas in many of the game’s levels, and they aren’t for the faint of heart. Just opening them usually requires at least a little outside of the box thinking, as you’ll need a Slayer Key to unlock the purple-shining doors of death in the first place.
Slayer Keys almost always live close by their gates, and while you’ll see them on the map once you get close enough, actually reaching them can be tricky.
This guide will tell you where to find each Slayer Key and how to reach them. This isn’t a guide for the Slayer Gate arenas themselves. That’s a whole other article.
Exultia Slayer Key
The first Slayer Key you encounter lives near the end of the Exulta mission, the game’s second. After traversing the area with the sinking platforms and swirling fire chains and taking out the two Cacodemons, you’ll enter a small room with a few Gargoyles and a Dash Recharge Orb near the ceiling.
Hop onto the ledge at the far end of the room and turn around. You should see something along these lines:
Jump and dash across the gap. Grab on to the ledge beyond and look down and slightly left. You’ll see the Slayer Key on the platform just below you. The Gate is nestled in the wall nearby.
Cultist Base Slayer Key
Another Slayer Key at the end of a level, you’ll find the one in Cultist Base behind some bars in the room with the giant crucified demon. Getting to this key is a little bit of a puzzler if you don’t know what you’re looking for — in this case, a sort of hidden climbing wall.
Look to the left of the crucified demon, then look at the lower wall below you.
Jump down and clamber on, then do a full 180. You’ll see a set of monkey bars leading into a hallway, going under the platform you just jumped off of.
The monkey bars will allow you to jump to another climbable wall, where you’ll turn to the right to see a longer hallway and a dash charge.
Climb up the wall at the hallway’s end, turn around one last time. Jump up to the room across from the climbing wall, and you’ll see the key. Note: don’t knock down the block that opens the center area. It will bar the Slayer Gate itself, and you’ll have to reload your checkpoint and do everything again.
Super Gore Nest Slayer Key
Reaching the Slayer Key in the Super Gore Nest level requires you to have all three Gore Keys: Yellow, Red, and Blue. You’ll retrieve them over the course of play, and you’ll likely do the same for the Slayer Key.
Once you have the Blue Key (the last of the three), you’ll quickly return to the first open area of the level; it’s where you had your first big fight. There’s a blue locked door in the center spire, and it hides a jump pad. Near the pad is an easily reached secret (you can’t miss it), and to the far right of that is a climbable wall.
Time your jump so you don’t hit any of the flying debris, and climb up, then turn left. Turn left again and go down the hall. Turn right at the end of that hallway, and you’ll come face to face with a Specter, one of those invisible Pinkie demons. Kill it or dodge around it.
Trudge down the path, and you’ll drop down to the key. Jump out of the window and stay to the right of the area below to find the Slayer Gate.
ARC Complex Slayer Key
More climbable wall searching is in your future in the ARC Complex mission. In this level, the key is close to a Vega Weapon Attachment drone (modbot), again near the mission’s end. The drone in question appears deep in the level, in one of the final destroyed buildings. It can be seen below:
Directly across from the drone is a stairwell you can take up and to the left. You’ll arrive at a gap made by a broken walkway. You can jump across for a pair of regular secrets, or you can look to your right for the climbable wall.
Attach yourself to the wall and turn around. You should be able to see the key just waiting for a quick double jump-dash combo.
Mars Core Slayer Key
One of the easier keys to come across, grabbing the Mars Core Slayer Key is located deep in the level, once you reach Mars itself. You’ll have passed through an arena with a Buff Totem and reentered the main facility. You’re looking for the section with the massive amount of tentacle holes and a button near a terminal.
Once pressed, the wall you can see in the window will move back, revealing two breakable vents on the left and the right. For a secret, smash the vent on the left. For the key, go right.
Beyond this vent is a very red hallway with the key floating at its end.
Taras Nabad Slayer Key
Probably the easiest Slayer Key to find in the game, you’ll find Taras Nabad’s just waiting for you after a single left turn near the level’s end. No jumping puzzles, no crazy hunting for climbable walls. Just there, in the regular course of play plus a couple turns.
After you leave the chamber where you lower the water twice and jump on the big box, you’ll enter a series of sluice tunnels. Continue through them until you come to your objective marker at a T intersection.
Turn left, then at the end of the hall, do so again. The key will await you, with the Gate sitting just around the corner.
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That’s every Slayer Key in Doom Eternal, from beginning to end. The Slayer Gate arenas they unlock are another matter entirely, but that’s a story for another time. As always, we’ve got more Doom Eternal guides coming, so stay tuned.
Check out the rest of our coverage here:
- Doom Eternal Review: Ripping and Tearing Never Felt So Good
- Doom Eternal Marauder Tips: How to Beat This Tough Enemy
- Our guides hub will have more in the coming days!
Published: Mar 23, 2020 10:03 pm