Praetor Suit

20200922142245 1 — The upgraded Praetor Suit as seen in DOOM Eternal

The Praetor Suit is the armored suit worn by the Doom Slayer in DOOM and Doom Eternal. The suit is given to the player at the very beginning and is worn for the entirety of the game.

The player can customize the Praetor Suit in-game in order to advance in-game and adjust to new threats.

Appearance[]

The suit is mostly dark green, silver, black, and bronze in color, with slightly lighter legs and helmet. Both the coloration and the overall design of the suit seems to be made to resemble the original Doomguy appearance, though the Praetor Suit covers the Doom Marine's whole body, including his arms. In addition to this the Praetor Suit also appears much more technologically advanced, with a complex visor and internal systems which allows the Doom Marine to travel to Hell and return again unharmed. The suit is described as being made from nearly impenetrable material, and may be responsible for what appears to be the Doom Marine's superhuman abilities. In Doom Eternal, the original Praetor Suit can be found disassembled in his personal quarters, with the interior composed of lots of wiring and large metal frames that hold the exterior armor plating.

In-Game Description[]

UAC REPORT FILE: HGFLTGTV

Additional relics were found in the tomb alongside the Doom Marine. Some incantation tablets, and an ancient combat suit which was given a name: the 'Praetor Suit'. When found, it was encased in an inscribed stone tomb. The suit was extracted from the rock, cleaned, and subjected to numerous tolerance tests, and found to be almost impervious to any damage. It appeared to have some mechanical function as well- small receptors on the gloves and chest plate that attracted Argent plasma and dissipated it through capillary tubes in the substructure. Markings on the armor were also consistent with images of a man (or humanoid) seen in several of the tablets and stones found on other expeditions. The same markings were also noted on the Helix Stone.

Despite it being clear that the suit can be activated in some way, no method has been found to do it. It appears to be missing a component, likely the Doom Marine himself.

In-Game Attributes[]

The Praetor suit in-game is more than just cosmetic. The suit can be upgraded via Praetor Tokens, found on dead guards, and Argent Caches. There are also so-called Rune Trial Stones, which allow the player to do certain minigame challenges to obtain Runes. All these different collectible items allow the player to obtain certain new abilities, and increase health, suit armor and ammo capacity. The suit may also be upgraded with Delta V Jump-Boots, which allows the player to double-jump when obtained.

In Eternal, the Marine's uniform can and has been further augmented with new weapons tech designs to maximize ripping and tearing through the eldritch hordes of the Doomed. The left arm holds new ordinance known as the Doomblade, a sword of Sentinel make used for quick & grisly finishers during Glory Kills.

On top of the shoulder is mounted Equipment Launcher, adorning the upgraded suit. This device produces any manner of deploy-able secondary munitions to aid the Doom Slayer in slaying the forces of the Khan Maykr and Hell's legions. Ranging from liquid nitrogen-like freeze charges to a hyper incendiary flamethrower which yields armor drops from every torched enemy the slayer assaults. Lastly, there is the standard UAC-model frag grenade launched in an arcing motion. Doomguy's suit also sports a two way communication function which enables A.I. synergy link between his suit and the Fortress of Doom.

Through this link, the Slayer's AI partner VEGA and later Dr. Hayden can interact with the slayer via holographic projection through his helmet. VEGA can also access and bypass the advanced security locks in most UAC and ARC technologies when the need arises, giving the Slayer unfettered access to any system he comes across. There is a quite weird difference in between the DOOM praetor suit and the DOOM ETERNAL praetor suit as the DOOM suit’s melee is FAR superior than the ETERNAL’s as you could punch a zombie twice to kill it but in ETERNAL it’s near impossible to take out a simple zombie.

History[]

The suit was allegedly found alongside the resting Doom Marine in an ancient tomb in Hell, encased in stone. The UAC managed to extract both the Doom Marine and the Praetor Suit and bring them over to Mars. In scriptures found in Hell, the Doom Marine described as having been a very powerful man, known as the "Doom Slayer" and "Scourge of Hell" by the demons, which tried for "eons of time" to defeat the one man who they could never destroy. In the end, after having been the nightmare of even the bravest of demon lords, and having defeated the gigantic Titan, the Doom Marine was eventually captured and deprived of his suit, after which he and the suit were sealed away in a tomb so that Hell would not be destroyed.

Origin[]

The suit is said to have been given to the Doom Marine by an entity only referred to as "The Wretch." The Armor/Suit also appears to have rusted in certain areas, suggesting the suit is in fact old, along with wear being shown as well, further supplying evidence of aging. The suit has the number 8623, suggesting the suit was in fact mass manufactured (which would make sense if the suit was manufactured by the manufacturing plant for Marines). All depictions of the Doom Marine (in Doom 2016) show him in the armor, it is shown in Doom Eternal that the slayer arrives in the armor from Doom 64, it is depicted that he had Sentinel armor (similar to the Marauders) at the time of his crowning.

While the demon scriptures claim that the armor was made in Hell, closer examination reveals English text and even logos for human manufactures, suggesting the armor was actually made on Earth or that the armor is of human origin and the Wretch made upgrades to it. This is further evidence by the "blaster" soldier enemies, encountered in Doom Eternal, are seen wearing armor that appears to be a simplified pattern similar to the praetor suit. Additionally, in DOOM, the praetor suit is shown being compatible with UAC upgrade chips indicating a similar base hardware/software format. It is likely that while the suit was originally made on Earth, it was granted power by "The Wretch" in Hell.

In Doom Eternal, much of the technology used by the Night Sentinels appear reminiscent of the praetor suit. The Sentinel training armor worn by Valen (and Sentinels who were corrupted by the forces of Hell), as well as the mechs used by the Sentinels, appears highly visually similar to the praetor suit. This pattern of armor, as well as the Sentinel mechs, may have been originally made in honour of the Doom Slayer, by copying the appearance of his suit.

When the Doom Slayer grabs the helmet in the introduction scene, he may have attempted to rub the Slayer's Mark off it, if not merely polish, possibly suggesting the mark wasn't there before his capture by Hell. It was probably added as a warning for demons.

Given that the praetor suit, as it appeared in DOOM can be found disassembled in the Fortress of Doom, its likely that the suit Doom Slayer wears in Doom Eternal is an entirely different suit. However this might simply be a gameplay element or Easter egg.

Markings[]

As mentioned there are various markings located on the armor, suggesting a possible Earth origin of Doom Marine's armor, despite its purported hellish origin. Below are the anomalies:

A "D22" marking on the shoulder, Possibly either referring either to the Doom Marine's soldier code or tag if he was a Marine, or a Model code for the Praetor Suit.
The Word CAUTION under the helmet's main exhaust, gauntlets, and backplate.
1/0 Logistics Manufacture is mentioned on several parts of the armor..
A production stamp (lower left of helmet)
A circular Icon with two circles (right arm shoulder pauldron) which could be anything from an early UAC logo, Army squad/force logo, manufacturer logo, or Night Sentinel / Argent D'Nur iconography.
8623 could refer to either the amount manufactured until this specific set of armor, or the date of its manufacture (i.e 8th of June 2123)
55-88.0225 on the left pauldron
1.022.1 IO top of the forearm on the gauntlets
522 on the outside of the gauntlets
A slayer emblem on the chest plate, bottom right side
R.225.5 on the left cheek guard (just under the visor) (Doom Eternal version)
FM under a small latch up the left side of the helmet (Doom Eternal version)

Trivia[]

The suit, despite having the appearance of a powered exoskeleton, provides no armor protection to Doom Slayer at the beginning of the game, and can only have 50 armor points at max without infusing with any Argent Energy Cells.
Unlike previous games, Praetor Suit's Armor Points absorb damage completely, meaning that as long as there is Armor Points left, the player's HP won't be reduced when sustaining damage.
The suit has appeared on numerous promotional artwork, including the Doom 2016 cover.
The suit (or parts of it) may have been manufactured by 1/0 Logistics Manufacture, as this name is found on some places on the suit. Possibly UAC upgraded the suit after it is recovered from Hell, since the helmet is different than Doomguy's original helmet.
The suit model is marked as "D22."
Apart from English text, the suit also bears the Slayer's mark, also seen on the Night Sentinel holograms, associated with the Doom Marine and those who fought beside him.
Praetor comes from the Latin Praetoriani meaning "Praetorian Guard" who were an elite group of soldiers in ancient Rome who were used as protection of the Emperor.
- The Night Sentinels which the Doom Marine was allied with, were also elite soldiers/bodyguards.
- Praetor itself was a term referring to each of two ancient Roman magistrates ranking below consul.
Originally, the Praetor Suit was not available to players in Multiplayer, however in the fifth free update this was changed, so that maximum ranked players could equip it. It is unknown whether or not this proves that the armor was mass produced (due to how MP's lore states it to be a simulation).
In Doom Eternal, there is a partially disassembled Praetor suit in the Fortress of Doom, in the Doom Slayer's private quarters. This may mean he canonically has more than one Praetor Suit.