Cacodemon


 * For the Cacodemon in Doom 3, see Cacodemon (Doom 3).

Cacodemons are large, red, round, one-eyed round monsters that float slowly through the air. They are called pumpkins in the Doom novels, and the Doomguy in the Doom comic refers to them as "big-mouthed floating thingies."

In Doom II, their instruction manual description says: ''They float in the air, belch ball-lightning, and boast one Hell of a big mouth. You're toast if you get too close to these monstrosities.''

Combat characteristics
They attack by spitting a ball of lightning or by biting with their gaping maw. The cacodemon often seems to distance itself from the player when under attack, though the cause of this is that it is being pushed back by successful hits from its enemies.

Cacodemons hiss when they first see the player or otherwise become active, and use the pain sound shared by the most of the demonic monsters from Doom. When killed, they let out a gurgling moan and fall to the ground, splitting open like a burst pustule, spewing copious amounts of blue goo, to reveal their bared brains while their sole eye pops out of its socket.

Tactical analysis
Cacodemon attacks are relatively easy to dodge, and with sufficient space large numbers of cacodemons can be fought while sustaining little or no injury. Because they are slow, and because their pain chance is high, they are fairly easy targets. The chainsaw can incapacitate them, and repeating weapons such as the chaingun or the plasma gun are very effective against them, as they are pushed away and are nearly unable to fight back. They are relatively easy to goad into attacking other monsters, but can occasionally be tricky in this respect if they are floating in a high position allowing most of their shots to go over other monsters in the player's area.

Inspiration and development
The name cacodemon, which comes from the Greek kakodaimon usually meaning "evil spirit", a more precise name for what we generally know as demon (which ultimately comes from "god" or "spirit"), is in English a word that may be found in most comprehensive dictionaries.

The monster's general visual design can be considered that of the same floating spherical type of creature as the beholder, a similarly one-eyed classic AD&D monster (with eye stalks instead of horns), shaped from a cropping of the face of the monstrosity from the same game which was eventually named astral dreadnought, initially depicted by Jeff Easley for the cover of an expansion book for the RPG. Coincidentally, the sprite prefix of the cacodemon is HEAD.

The earliest known version of Doom to include cacodemon graphics is the 0.5 alpha, released on May 22, 1993, and the earliest known appearance of the monster as an in-game adversary is in the press release version of Doom, released on October 4, 1993.

Appearance statistics
In classic Doom, the cacodemon is first encountered on these maps:

The IWADs contain the following numbers of cacodemons:

Doom 64
In Doom 64 the cacodemon underwent a design change, becoming brown, with a single yellow-green eye, and gaining two arms with broken chains attached, and a rather terrifying face. It resembles Doom II's original Pain Elemental. The Nightmare Cacodemon variation remained red.

Doom RPG
The cacodemon appears in Doom RPG as a class of monster. There are three variations, identified by color:


 * Malwrath (gold body, red eye, red throat)
 * Cacodemon (normal colors)
 * Wretched (blue body, olive green eye, bright red throat)

Cacodemons attack three times consecutively and are most weak against axe attacks and plasma blasts.

Hissy
Circa 1997-98, amateur Doom level designer Jonas "Chrozoron" Feragen created Hissy, a plush cacodemon which quickly became famous in the Doom community. Hissy can be found as a character in Skulltag, Cacodemon Squad and EarthBound Doom; the plush cacodemon itself is on a "world tour." She has been in the hands of over a dozen community members in the past eight years.

Pixel
Pixel is a plush-toy cacodemon created in late 2004 by Doom enthusiast Hughe, in response to a challenge from a friend. Pixel was created to be as accurate in form as possible using five different materials, including all his horns, separate teeth, upper mouth and single eye. Pixel was created before Hughe had any knowledge of the plush Hissy, and was in no way made to compete with her. In fact, it is said that Pixel finds Hissy rather cute.