Killing a Cyberdemon in Two Shots

As the previous section shows, in order to deal enough damage to kill a Cyberdemon in two shots you're going to need to hit him with the BFG twice at point-blank range. Given the Cyberdemon fires rockets that will one-shot you under most circumstances, surely this is suicide, right?Well no. It's actually far easier than you might think. Obviously it will take practice but there's a trick to it. When the Cyberdemon fires his rockets he always does so in salvos of three at a time. These are always fired one after the other with a very particular timing. With enough practice, you will be able to perfectly predict these and dodge them effortlessly every time. It should go without saying that having "always run" turned on really really helps (this is an option in pretty much every source port, usually toggled on using CAPS LOCK).The trick is to stand fairly close (but not too close) and change directions between each rocket he fires. You want to fire your BFG when he fires his second rocket, and move in for the kill while you're dodging the third rocket. You want to deal the damage as soon as possible after the third shot so you can get in and out before the Cyberdemon has a chance to start another rocket savlo. Changing directions between each rocket makes it easier to stay pointing in the direction of the Cyberdemon with as little mouse movement as possible, making you more likely to have the cone fire at the correct angle as opposed to constant circle strafing. This is also the best way if you play only with the keyboard, as you don't need to turn at all, only strafe. An easy way to practice is to load up E2M8 in the original Doom or MAP32 in Doom2. You can do this by starting a new game and typing 'idclev28' (Doom) or 'idclev32' (Doom2). Then type 'idfa' and you'll be given all weapons with full ammo.These levels both have nice big arenas with a cyberdemon in it. If you play on the easiest difficulty setting "I'm to Young to Die" then these levels will have no other enemies in them and you'll take half damage so if you get hit by a rocket you won't die straight away. Note that this will take a fair amount of practice. Not hours, but still a fair amount until you've got it down. Try staying around the Cyberdemon at various distances and practice just dodging rockets, changing direction between each rocket. Once you've got the dodging down the rest comes easily.In the vast, vast majority of Doom levels you will play, two-shotting a Cyberdemon is a completely unnecessary risk. It is way way safer to not move all the way in to point-blank range and instead keep a little bit of distance. This will usually result in a 3-shot kill which is still very fast and ammo efficient, and improves survivability massively.If a Cyberdemon ever turns against another monster then this is the perfect time to get a shot in while his back is turned and is a much safer way to deal lots of damage. Also if you are playing with fast monsters on (the -fast launch parameter or Nightmare! mode) then trying to two-shot a Cyberdemon is suicide and you're going to die. Don't even try it.