Cacodemon (Doom 3)



The Cacodemon in Doom 3, as compared to the original monster, is taupe in color, has a wider mouth, and has multiple green eyes, as well as some longer, thin tentacles hanging from the bottom of its body. Its brain is clearly visible on the top of its forehead. The Cacodemons are usually found in outdoor areas, although they can be encountered in relatively close-quarter indoor areas, as long as the ceiling is sufficiently high. They often appear in groups of 3 or more.

Combat Characteristics
The Doom 3 version of the Cacodemon is no bloated ball of sloth as it flies rather speedily around this time and as a consequence is harder to hit and closes in faster. Its head also shares a dinosaur-like appearance.

Due to increased firepower in some of Doom 3's weapons, it can be considered "weaker" than the classic Cacodemon (it can be killed with merely two point blank shotgun blasts or a second of sustained chaingun fire), however, it still takes two rockets, 1/3rd of a machine gun magazine, or more than a dozen plasma shots from the plasma gun to kill. Like the original, it fires an energy ball in a straight line at the player, although this projectile is yellow instead of purple and red, and sometimes it fires it in a somewhat wild direction, deliberately "missing" their target, which can confuse players.

Up close, the Cacodemon can bite the player, although this tends to leave it vulnerable to melee attacks as the delay between opening its mouth and biting is long enough to make it rather easy to dodge.

Tactical Analysis
The Cacodemon, despite its updates, is not a difficult foe to deal with. It floats slowly enough and is large enough such that targeting it is fairly easy, and it can be killed rather quickly with either the shotgun or the chaingun. The chaingun is often the most efficient, especially when there is a lot of open space that will allow for plenty of time to keep the aim focused on the advancing beast.

Its energy balls can also be shot down and destroyed in midair, like every other explosive projectile in Doom 3, and they are easy to hit because they travel in a straight line.

The Cacodemon is more dangerous in groups as they can surround the player and attack from occasionally unexpected angles (e.g. from above).

Its biting attack has some surprise value, but often it only leaves the Cacodemon particularly vulnerable to melee weapons such as the fist, flashlight or the chainsaw. The Cacodemon is one of the Doom 3 monsters that are actually fairly easy to defeat with either the fists or the flashlight.

Melee attacks can stun the Cacodemon and knock it back.

Trivia
At some point in development of Doom 3, the Cacodemon was supposedly able to spit Lost Souls at the player, like the Pain Elemental in Doom 2. It is also notable how many similarities the Doom 3 Cacodemon has to the Pain Elemental from Doom 2, so it is likely that the Cacodemon was originally supposed to have been a hybrid of two classic Doom monsters, like the Doom 3 Hell Knight is a hybrid of the classic Doom Baron of Hell and Hell Knight.

The hanging tentacles and large brain also slightly resemble the Octabrain from Duke Nukem 3D. Although they are not really tentacles, they resemble fingers intertwined with each other in a root type fashion.

Combat Details

 * Health: 200
 * Attack Damage: 20 (bite), 12 (fireball), up to 5 (fireball splash damage)
 * Locations: Communications Transfer, Communications, Recycling Sector 1, Delta Labs Sector 1, Central Processing: Server Banks, Site 3 through Caverns Area 2, Erebus Level 6, Phobos Sectors 2-3, Hell (RoE)
 * Cheat Spawn: "spawn monster_flying_cacodemon"