Prowler



The prowler is a new monster introduced to the franchise in Doom (2016). It is a multiplayer-exclusive demon and can only be accessed via the use of a Demon rune. Note that the monster appears again in Doom Eternal as an enemy in its single-player campaign.

Attacks
Its main form of attack is its speed. The demon will travel at an immense velocity towards a player, either grabbing or pinning the player. If grabbed, the demon will hold on to the player until pinned. If pinned, the demon uses its brute strength to destroy the player's skull against a wall.

Possession mode
In the multiplayer free-for-all mode "Possession", players start out as humans but will be randomly selected for possession at the beginning of a match. After a few moments, those selected will transform into prowlers, whose job it is to try to convert all other humans into demons by slaughtering them. If all human players are possessed before the time limit expires, the demons are declared the winners; otherwise, a point is scored for the humans. When only one human remains, that human player becomes super-powered, with permanent quad damage, regeneration, and haste.

Prowlers have very little health in possession mode and can be instantly glory killed by human players at any point.

Pre-release
The earliest known version of the prowler occurs in footage of glory kill concept testing being performed in a map from Doom 4 1.0 during the "rolling reboot" process of development between that game's cancellation and the formation of the final concept for the 2016 Doom release. At this point the monster is stylistically much simpler, with less texture and detail, but features intact in its final form include a bifurcated jaw, multiple eyes, talon-like claws, a row of protruding bones along its spine, and a thin, smooth abdomen.

The prowler was first found by data miners during the closed multiplayer beta for Doom (2016). At this point, the monster's final form was complete, but its model was untextured. It is unknown if the texture map was simply not included in the resource bake for the open beta, or if it was in fact not yet finished.