Cacodemon (Doom Eternal)

The cacodemon returns as a monster in Doom Eternal, largely retaining its appearance from Doom (2016). It is slightly more red, and now has a pupil in its eye, making its appearance closer to the classic games' incarnation. Its blood has changed to blue in color, a detail taken from the original sprite.

Tactical analysis
More aggressive than the previous version, it is now capable of shooting a rapid sequence of projectiles consecutively, and its bite is accompanied by a lunging motion which extends the range of the attack significantly. This makes them quite a threat when they get close.

There are two ways to quickly deal with cacodemons. The first is to fire a grenade from the grenade launcher or a sticky bomb from the combat shotgun into the cacodemon's mouth when it opens. It will swallow the bomb with a cartoonish gulping noise, causing the cacodemon to suffer an internal explosion which dramatically inflates its stomach, in a fashion reminiscent of the dodongo from . When this happens, it will be instantly staggered, allowing for an easy glory kill.

The second method is to use the ballista with the arbalest mod against it. A fully charged bolt stuck onto a cacodemon will kill it instantly once the bolt explodes. Even without the mod, the ballista's bonus damage against flying monsters makes it an effective counter to the cacodemon.

Glory kills

 * The Doom Slayer grabs onto the cacodemon, with left hand on its eye and the right hand on its mouth. He squeezes the cacodemon's eye out of its socket, and the demon howls in agony before exploding.
 * The Doom Slayer grabs onto the cacodemon, pulls its eye out, and then kicks the demon away, causing it to spin.
 * The Doom Slayer stabs the cacodemon's eye and throws it away.

Lore
Consistent with the prior game in the series, the cacodemon's awareness and cognition are stated to be limited to its hunger, and it is therefore likely to appear anywhere it can find food. Cacodemons are native to the Sloughlands, a part of the murky depths of Hell. Cycloptic titans which once lurked in the same areas of Hell in ancient times were speculated to be ancestors of the cacodemons by the erudite among the Night Sentinels.

Trivia

 * The idea of cacodemons being descended from titans might be a nod to their origin in  as the much larger and more full-bodied astral dreadnought.