Uac Headquarters

Lore & Background

The UAC facility on Mars was built to exploit an energy seeping from Hell, an alternate dimension populated by hostile lifeforms known as demons. To solve an energy crisis on Earth, the UAC constructed the Argent Tower to extract and refine raw Hell energy into Argent energy. The facility deteriorates the physical and mental health of the facility's staff, and allowed transit to and from Hell. After discovering that Argent energy had properties that defied their understanding of physics, the UAC began occult research into Argent energy and Hell, and the demons, who its staff began to worship and cybernetically modify. The facility is run by Samuel Hayden, a UAC scientist who transferred his consciousness to an android body after being afflicted with terminal brain cancer during the construction of the Argent Tower. In addition to directing the energy extraction and refining process, Hayden organizes expeditions into Hell to retrieve captive demons and artifacts for study. Among them is a sarcophagus containing the player character, a being they call the Doom Slayer and fear immensely, along with his armor, the Praetor Suit. Assisting Hayden is VEGA, a self-aware artificial intelligence that controls and monitors the facility. Leading the UAC's research into biomechanics is Olivia Pierce, a protege of Hayden's who developed crippling scoliosis while working on Mars and makes a pact with the demons to open a portal between Mars and Hell and allow the demons to conquer humanity.

In Their Own Story

At an undetermined time, Pierce opens the portal for the demons, who overrun the facility and kill almost all of its staff. To repel them, Hayden awakens the Slayer, who recovers his armor and initially ignores Hayden's entreaties to work together. Denied information unless he agrees to help Hayden, the Slayer acquiesces and begins to be guided by VEGA. After clearing out the facility core and preventing a meltdown in its foundry, the Slayer pursues Pierce up the tower, along the way destroying infrastructure critical to the refinement of Argent energy despite Hayden's protests. At the top of the tower, Pierce opens an explosive rift into Hell using a device called an Argent accumulator, destroying the Tower and sending the Slayer back to Hell. In Hell, the Slayer fights his way to the tomb in which he was imprisoned and reaches a teleporter back to Mars. The Slayer makes his way to Hayden's office, where Hayden installs a teleporting device in the Praetor Suit for more reliable teleportation. Hayden also tells the Slayer of the Helix Stone, an artifact used to study and harness Argent energy, which is being housed in Pierce's office in the Lazarus Labs. Entering the Lazarus Labs, the Slayer observes the Helix Stone and learns of the Well, where the portal is powered, and of the Crucible, a magical blade. To reach the Well, he makes another excursion into Hell with the Argent accumulator within the Cyberdemon, a massive and cybernetically modified demon. After killing the Cyberdemon, the Slayer fights through a labyrinthine gauntlet and three more powerful demons to recover the Crucible. Hayden teleports the Slayer to a facility in the frozen north of Mars that houses VEGA's core, which he plans to use to trigger an explosion powerful enough to send the Slayer to the Well. The Slayer triggers a meltdown of the core, but makes a backup copy of VEGA before the explosion. Entering the Well, the Slayer uses the Crucible to destroy the portal's power source and confronts Pierce, who is betrayed and transformed by the demons into the Spider Mastermind. Upon killing the Spider Mastermind, the Slayer is teleported back to Mars by Hayden, who tells the Slayer he has won and stopped the invasion. Hayden confiscates the Crucible to continue his research into Argent energy. To keep the Slayer from interfering with his plans, Hayden teleports him to an undisclosed location.

Reader's Guide

The UAC facility on Mars is the primary setting for Doom's single-player campaign. The single-player campaign has 13 levels, which typically have multiple pathways and open areas for players to explore and find collectibles, secrets, and upgrades to their equipment. Other pickups include Doomguy figurines and data files that expand on the setting and story. Throughout the campaign are Easter egg references to Commander Keen, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Fallout 4, Terminator 2, and the preceding Doom games. Each level contains a hidden lever which opens an area extracted from a classic level in the original games. An arcade mode in which all upgrades in the single-player campaign are unlocked from the beginning of the game was added on October 20, 2016. The facility includes areas such as the facility core, foundry, Argent Tower, Lazarus Labs, and a facility in the frozen north of Mars that houses VEGA's core.

Did You Know?

• The UAC facility on Mars was built to exploit an energy seeping from Hell, an alternate dimension populated by hostile lifeforms known as demons.
• Samuel Hayden transferred his consciousness to an android body after being afflicted with terminal brain cancer during the construction of the Argent Tower.
• Olivia Pierce, who led the UAC's research into biomechanics, developed crippling scoliosis while working on Mars and made a pact with the demons to open a portal.
• The facility deteriorates the physical and mental health of the facility's staff, and allowed transit to and from Hell.
• The UAC began occult research into Argent energy and Hell after discovering that Argent energy had properties that defied their understanding of physics.