Doom 3 > Critters
Here I cover the critters you will meet in Doom 3 and Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil.
Yeah, the official docs call them enemies
, but as many reviews have pointed out, they are dumber than a box of rocks. You shouldn't have too much trouble destroying them with the right weapon … unless they decide to gang up on you.
If you ever played classic DOOM!, I should warn you that these critters are not slow! In the original the monsters seemed to amble along, and the Imps' fireballs were easy to dodge unless you were too close. In Doom 3, the zombies are about the only ones who amble; everyone else runs or jumps, and the Imps and their cousins throw their fireballs like Major-League pitchers.
Also, in classic DOOM! when a monster strikes one of a different sort, the struck critter turns and attacks the one with the bad aim. They would have at it until one or the other is down. (The original Lost Souls would even attack each other.) This does not happen in Doom 3 except between Imps and Hellknights.
And now, your critters:
These animated human corpses slowly amble about moaning and gurgling and (if they still have both jaws — some don't!) dining on any survivors. They are on all levels of Doom 3 up to the Hell level, after which it's all demons until the end.
| Enemy | Summary | Melée | Range | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thin Zombie | Former maintenance workers (in tan), engineers (in teal) and managers (in grey) are out to beat the bejeezus out of you. Some are armed with wrenches or flashlights. Your pistol is enough to deal with them. The worker zombies in ROE are a little more spry. | fist, flashlight, wrench | Mars City Underground | |
| Fat Zombie | Tor Johnson lives! Well, sort of. This guy is a walking restaurant, for every other critter tends to eat off of him! For this bad actor you will need a shotgun, for it is tough to kill. | fist, wrench | Mars City | |
| Flaming Zombie | Bernie drank too much from a flaming plasma stream, and is now on fire itself. It's fast on its feet, though, so pull out that shotgun and don't let Bernie get too close! | fist | Mars City | |
| Hazmat Zombie | Hazmat workers killed on the job now amble the toxic waste conduits … probably still on the job! Shoot them to gain oxygen tanks which (judging from the shattered masks) they no longer need. | fist | Erebus Research (ROE) | |
| Chainsaw Zombie | Big beefy boys with Beavertooths! Fry them or you will find yourself in the starlet role in the Marsas Chainsaw Massacre. | chainsaw | Communication Transfer | |
| Commando Zombie | Betruger takes surviving marines and magically transforms them into helmet-headed Schwarzenegger clones, mostly with whip tentacles, but some with chainguns. They serve as his personal guard. | fist, kick, tentacle | chaingun | Monorail |
| Hell Zombie | The final form of a possessed human corpse: naked, boney, and very, very tough. | fist | Hell | |
| Jonathan Wills | Jonny was freaking out the infirmary people with his knife work. Now he is perfectly happy to lie on that cold steel slab … until you wake him up. | fist | Mars City |
Short for zombie security
, these were your comrades before the lost souls got them. Now they are deadly enemies: fast, tough, agile, and skilled enough to dodge your aim and take cover. They are also armed with pistols, shotguns, machine guns, and shields. Shoot them and pick up their guns for ammo. When you hear quick steps and radio murmurs, you know they're coming! The bald guys with the pistols do not appear in ROE.
The bald ones with the pistols look like one of my ex-boss. Oddly, they talk like him, too! The bald guys do not appear in ROE.
These come straight to you from Hell through the UAC teleport portals. They go down in a puff of smoke when killed (although some mods can turn this off).
| Enemy | Summary | Melée | Range | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Imp | Imps are the grunts of the underworld. Up close Imps whack you with their claws. Far off they pitch balls of fire at you. They can also climb walls and ceilings, leap great distances, and dodge when you aim at them. Imps like to bushwhack you behind doors, from hidden alcoves and from panels in the floor or ceiling. ◊ In ROE they are common only in the Erebus levels and in Hell. ◊ The fireballs of the new Imps travel in a parabolic arc, not a straight line like the old Imps.1 |
slash | fireball | Mars City Underground |
| Pinky | The Pinky is a great big pit bull with sharp teeth, horns and a hydralic rear end. It bites! It stomps! It gores! And, with two hits from your shotgun, it goes puff! Yes, Pinky's a wimp at heart, but don't take it lightly. | bite, gore | Administration | |
| Growth | Sgt. Kelly warns you about it, but nothing prepares you for this red slimy flowing goo. You first find the Growth in Dr. Betruger's office at Administration, with all the candles and the pentagrams and your first encounter with enemy teleportation. Otherwise it is harmless … except when it blocks halls and doors, and summons enemies. | Administration | ||
| Maggot | Two, two, two heads in one! (Sorry: memory of an old breath-mint commercial!) This thingy is very fast, and attacks low to the floor, making it hard to aim at. Fortunately, it's also very weak: A single shotgun blast kills it. That is a good thing, because they often attack in packs of at least two. | slash | Alpha Labs 1 | |
| Trite | A spider-like critter that looks like an upside-down skull on six legs. It bites, rapelles off threads, jumps long, dodges gunfire, travels in packs, and even explodes. If you see floor vents and hear a lot of ticking, a pack of Trites is on its way. Your machine gun is very effective against them; in ROE your grabber can dispose of them. | bite, explosion | Alpha Labs 2 | |
| Wraith | They look roughly like Imps, walk and climb like them, and are just as easy to kill with a shotgun. But Wraiths are not Imps: They teleport in short jumps to their victims before slashing them with machete-like arms. | slash | EnPro Plant | |
| Cacodemon | A humming floating balloon head with a mouth like a shark. And it spits balls of fire. Pull out a machine gun and keep it a bay. | bite | fireball | Communication Transfer |
| Revenant | They're big on recycling in Hell: They glued transparent flesh on a human skeleton and armed it with shoulder-mounted nerve-activated missile launchers that fire heat-seekers at you. If you get too close, the Revenant will whomp you silly. | punch, slash | rockets | Recycling 1 |
| Cherub | This is one of the most disturbing critters2 that id software has ever thought up: the head and tummy of a human baby with crab claws, fly wings and a grub body. They hover in packs low to the ground and slash you up close. They tend to associate with Mancubi. In ROE you can put them to rest with your grabber. | slash | Recycling 2 | |
| Mancubus | These are very tough, slow-moving mountains of adipose tissue that shoot rapid balls of fire that can hurt you even they just miss. Their guns also server as clubs if you get too close. Nail them with rockets from afar, and keep your eyes out for cherubs that usually appear with them. | club | hugh fireballs | Recycling 2 |
| Archvile | This powerful fellow fires a wall of flame along the ground at you if you get close to him. If that isn't bad enough, it summons weaker minions like Imps, Wraiths or Cherubs to pester you. Kill this monster first before you deal with its lackeys, or it will overwhelm you with them. ◊ This differs from the original DOOM! Arch Vile, which brought dead monsters back to life rather than summon them. |
flame, slash | other demons | Delta Labs 2b |
| Hellknight | Everything about this big brother of an Imp is hugh: Its height, its musculature, its satyr-like legs, its fists, and the green bolts of plasma it thrusts down your throat. It has kick thine asswritten all over it, and you will need rockets or BFG bolts to stop it. |
bite, fist, stomp | plasma bolt | Delta Labs 4 |
| Tick | It works like a trite, but has a tiny face, a tiny body, and a giant explosive force! It's a walking bomb that travels in packs of at least six. Fortunately a single bullet pops it before it pops you; or you can kill it with your grabber in ROE. | explosion, bite | Delta Complex (post-Hell) | |
| Vulgar | If Imps are the grunts of the underworld, then the Vulgars in ROE are the shock troops. Vulgars are larger, tougher and attack low to the ground; otherwise they act just like Imps: They slash, pitch balls of fire, climb walls and ceilings, leap great distances, and dodge when you aim at them. ◊ The Vulgar was originally meant to be the Archvile in Doom 3. |
slash | fireball | Erebus Dig Site (ROE) |
| Bruiser | Here's something Betruger threw together: It has the body (and toughness) of a hellknight, the legs and gun-arms of a mancubus, and a television screen for a mouth (usually showing a big set of perfect teeth). This is the creature the Artifact is meant to be used against. ◊ id software planned the television originally as camouflage, in which the player walks up to what looks like an ordinary monitor … until the Bruiser strikes! But it turned out to be unworkable. |
club, stomp | hugh fireballs | Phobos Labs 2 (ROE) |
There are such a variety of these flying nuisances that they get a category of their own. As flyers they can attack from any direction. Their bites are weak, but they hunt in packs, so those bites add up fast.
| Enemy | Summary | Melée | Range | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lost Soul I | These ghostly skulls turn people into zombies and trash equipment wherever they go. They are there for show, and will not attack you. | Mars City Underground | ||
| Lost Soul II | Lost Souls are what remain of the female staff of the Mars base. These fiery air piranhas tend to patrol reactors, propelled with engines from the back of their heads. They do not appear in ROE. | bite | EnPro Plant | |
| Forgotten One | These ROE flaming skulls with horns that are modeled on the original Lost Souls in DOOM!. They are more annoying than dangerous, and can be disposed of with a Grabber or even with your fist. | bite, gore | Main Excavation (ROE) |
| Enemy | Summary | Melée | Range | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vagary | The Trite Mommy. She is your first boss: A nasty psychic spider-babe roosting at Alpha Labs 4, where she guards the entrance to the Enpro Plant. Her abdomen is a big head, from which emanate her psychic powers. She mentally picks up stuff (including spiked cocoons) and throws them at you. She also bites and slashes if you get too close. And let's get this out of the way: She has no nipples. | slash, bite | thrown objects | Alpha Labs 4 |
| Guardian | The hugh and extremely ancient monster has maces for hands and tail. It is blind, but spawns one or more floating critters called Seekers, which scan the ground for you. If a Seeker finds you, the Guardian runs in your direction to pound you to a paste. Kill all the Seekers, and the Guardian becomes vulnerable at the blue spark over it, from which it spawns more Seekers. ◊ Extremely ancient? id software designed the Guardian to look like a dinosaur to imply that the demons walked the Earth in the Mesozoic age and that it is the last of its kind. |
maces | fireballs | Hell |
| Sabaoth | Sgt. Kelly sold his soul for power and got quite an overhaul: A tank for legs, a long claw for a right arm, and Jack Campbell's BFG 9000. You confront Sabaoth in a room that is equally treacherous. And I hope you've read up on the weakness of the BFG 9000, or you will not last long. ◊ Sgt. Kelly is not all the demon that he can be, so the Soul Cube will not kill him. However, it will soften him up for your other weapons. |
claw, tank treads | BFG 9000 | Central Processing |
| Cyberdemon | You walk through a fallen wall and look up … and up … and up! It's three stories of muscle and metal: The ultimate offensive weapon, and only your Soul Cube can stop it. ◊ This last part other players found to be unfair, so there are mods that make the Cyberdemon vulnerable to conventional weapons. |
stomp | rockets | Primary Excavation |
| Enemy | Summary | Melée | Range | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speedy | This fellow zips here and there and throws fireballs at you. You need a grabber to catch bolts from two side cannons and guide them into him. When he dies you get a bullet-time stasis (for which you'll be tested twice). | swipe | fireball | Erebus Dig Site |
| B'zerky | He comes through the walls and goes after you. From time to time he displays his power heart: Fire at it when it appears, and in the end he will fall, adding Berzerker power to the Artifact. | swipe | fireball | Erebus Station |
| Zappy | This guy comes with an electric shield fed from a four-rod reactor. Weaken him until he needs the reactor, then destroy one rod at a time. His doom grants you invulnerability through the Artifact. | swipe | electric shock | Phobos Labs 2 |
| Enemy | Summary | Melée | Range | Debut |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maledict | A giant dragon-like monster with a long tail, tattered bat-like wings, a long neck, and a toothless skull for a head. On the end of its long tongue is the head of Malcolm Betruger, who has either assumed control of the creature or is in symbiosis with it. Maledict/Betruger is the Master of Hell: You see him in the final cutscene in Doom 3; and he is the active opponent in ROE). ◊ What did you hope to accomplish by coming here?, asked Betruger. Answer him with all your weapons and powers. |
flame, meteors | Hell (ROE) |
1A fan cartoon on Planet DOOM site pokes fun at this: An old Imp, irritated by the bragging of a new Imp and his 3-D physics engine and bump mapping
, challenges the new Imp to fireballs at twenty paces. The new Imp throws a fireball at the old, but it arcs down to the ground at the old Imp's feet. Still loving those physics, dipshit?
mocks the old Imp.
2At least until the Gatherer characters (genetically enhanced little girls) appeared in the game Bioshock, released on August 2007.