Lost soul

The Lost Soul is a flaming, flying skull first introduced in Doom's second episode, The Shores of Hell. Arguably one of the most frustrating enemies in the Doom games, Lost Souls float at a leisurely pace until they decide to attack, at which point they launch themselves towards the player at high speed. If they miss, they will continue careening through the air until they hit a wall or other object. The player can stop a lost soul's charge by shooting it while it is attacking. It is uncommon to find a lost soul on its own — they are more often found in groups. The Lost Soul is also the only monster in Doom that does not make any sound when it is alerted, sometimes surprising careless players.

Lost Souls do not leave a corpse - they simply explode. However, there exists a thing type named "Lost Soul Corpse". In the alpha versions of Doom, Lost Souls were grey, non-flaming and used a "psychic" attack, facing the victim and flashing for a moment, thus causing damage. These early Lost Souls left behind a pile of bones. However, it is not possible for an Arch-Vile to resurrect a Lost Soul even if it is crushed as it does not have resurrection frames.

Note that the Lost Soul sprite remains fullbright even in dark areas (this is a property of the monster, not the sprite).

Doom II furthered the use of the Lost Soul by utilizing them as the projectile weapon of the new Pain Elemental monster.

In Doom II (and later in Ultimate Doom), Lost Souls were modified to no longer affect the player's kill score, so it is possible to achieve 100% kills without destroying all Lost Souls on a level. Some source ports have reverted to the older score system.

The Lost Soul is the only monster in Doom unaffected by the -respawn switch (including the Nightmare! skill level).

In the Doom novels, Lost Souls look the same but are mechanical beings, flying on rocket fuel and exploding into a shower of mechanical parts when killed.

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


 * Phantom (green)
 * Lost Soul (normal colors)
 * Nightmare (blue)

Appearance statistics
The IWADs contain the following numbers of Lost Souls: