Difference between revisions of "Mancubus"

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A gathering of mancubi in MAP07: Dead Simple, in Doom II.

The mancubus is a large and formidable monster shambling about on sturdy, stumpy elephant-like legs, glaring at opponents through hateful green eyes, while dribbling the remains of its victims from a lusting mouth, displaying sharp yellow fangs. To make things worse, its arms have been replaced by huge flamethrowers capable of spouting a rapid series of scathing bursts of flame, which are powered by a pair of fuel tanks grafted onto the obese monster's back. The game manual describes the mancubus as follows: "The only good thing about fatso is that he's a nice wide target. Good thing, because it takes a lot of hits to puncture him. He pumps out fireballs like there was no tomorrow.".

This monstrous creature makes its first appearance in MAP07: Dead Simple of Doom II, where the player is forced to fight them to break through a fortified area controlled by the enemy.

Tactical analysis

A mancubus will make a gurgling/snorting sound that crescendos into a monstrous tiger-like roar when spotting a player. Mancubi are dangerous opponents, but have a number of exploitable weaknesses. They are slow, and make large targets, so are easy to kill with rapid-fire weapons. The rocket launcher is possibly the most effective weapon against the mancubi. Furthermore, because they pause briefly before attacking, and also give out their distinctive battle cry before firing, it is pretty easy to prevent them from attacking using slower weapons, even the super shotgun. When they do attack, it is helpful to attempt to keep one's distance. Otherwise, the player might take two fireballs instead of just one. When dodging from a greater distance, it is important to avoid over-dodging. With the first two attacks from the mancubus, one fireball will go straight toward the player while the other will fly off diagonally to the other side (left or right, depending on the player's location); in the third volley, one will go left and one right. This pattern can be figured out and used to avoid mancubus attacks.

Once a mancubus has begun to attack its target, it continues to fire (if it remains unhurt while firing) until all six bursts have been discharged, even if the target has moved out of its sight. This characteristic of their attack can be abused to cause monster infighting.

When killed, it lets out a low-pitched exhale of air as its head is split in two. Its body then begins to slowly divide in half, unleashing deluges of blood, until all that remains are folds of ripped flesh, bloody ribs, and its eyes spilling out onto two disembodied fireball launchers. This is quite possible the goriest death sequence of any enemy.

Notes

• The latex model of the monster used as a base for the sprite, seen here, has three pairs of nipples. The extra nipples are not really distinguishable in the in-game representation, where only the upper "normal" ones are seen, although their intended locations can still be seen.
• The mancubus's face is very similar to that found in the megasphere.
• A fitting explanation for the name of the monster seems to be a bastardized combination of the termination of the medieval demon names succubus and incubus preceded by the syllable man-, possibly refering to the Latin verb manducāre, which means "to chew" or "to devour". Manducus is also the Latin word for glutton. It could also be based on the Latin word mancus, which means "maimed" or "with a crippled or missing hand", referring to the flamethrowers grafted onto its amputated forearms.
• The mancubus, along with the demon, spiderdemon, and cyberdemon are the only monsters whose dying sound clips includes noise other than the monsters' vocals; in this case, there is an audible gurgling as the mancubus' blood pours out.
• John Romero stated that the mancubus says "Menablanablah!!!" before firing.^[1]

Data

Damage done by a full fireball volley

Appearance statistics

In classic Doom, the mancubus is first encountered on these maps:

The IWADs contain the following numbers of mancubi:

Other games

Doom 64

Doom 64's mancubus in MAP09: Even Simpler

While their function in Doom 64 is unchanged, their appearance is greatly altered. They have less fat and a more bear-like face, are taller and wear a metal body harness. Their fireballs are smaller and appear more like fiery brimstone.

This type of mancubus appears on the cover of an issue of Nintendo Power featuring a spread of Doom 64, including a two-page poster that features it in conjunction with other demons.

Doom RPG

In Doom RPG, the mancubus appears as a class of monster. There are three variations, identified by color:

• Behemoth (blue with red eyes)
• Mancubus (normal colors)
• Druj (red)

This monster class is weak against rockets.

References

1. ↑ @romero: "Menablanablah!!!" on Twitter

See also

• Models
• Mancubus fireball clipping