Soul sphere



The supercharge powerup (called soul sphere in the manuals) is an item that appears as a floating blue sphere with a glassy appearance and a pulsing humanoid face inside. Picking one up increases the player's health by 100 percent, up to a maximum of 200 percent (or 199 in early versions of Doom), and the player receives the message "supercharge!".

At one point in Doom's development, it was intended for the player to have a limited number of lives. The Doom Bible notes that the soul sphere contains the life energy of a human soul (hence the appearance and naming) and that collecting it would award an extra life. That behavior would have made it resemble the 1-up (extra life) powerup from Wolfenstein 3D, which is somewhat similar in appearance.

This item is included in the items percentage displayed at the end of each level.

Appearance statistics
The IWADs contain the following numbers of supercharges:

Doom RPG
In the Doom RPG, the soul sphere gives the player maximum health and maximum armor, similar to the megasphere in Doom II.