Acolyte

The player's first battle in Strife: two Acolytes

Acolytes are enemies from the game Strife. They are soldiers of The Order. They are dressed in full body armor, varying in color, which covers a mostly cybernetic body. Acolytes are armed with assault rifles, and most of them drop a bullet clip when killed. They usually attack only if the alarm is active, and the player can even talk to them while they are on stand-by, although most acolytes are temperamental and will rudely brush the player off.

Some acolytes are dressed in shadow armor and are called shadow acolytes. They are translucent, but other than this are no different from ordinary acolytes. All acolytes have 70 hit points (the same as a heavy weapon dude).

According to Macil the main platoon of acolytes are controlled by a single program, created by the Programmer. This is why the player must eventually face him in the first part of the game. Acolytes are created by a machine known as the "Convertor". It is found inside the Factory near the commons.

Acolytes are somewhat unique in that they will react to seeing nearby comrades killed by the punch dagger by attacking the player, even if the alarm is not active. The acolytes must be in the same sector for this to happen. Templars also react in this fashion.

Acolyte actors

There are nine different acolyte actors with mostly identical properties. These exist so that multiple conversation IDs can be used in dialogue scripts, allowing for a variety of characters with the same appearance to co-exist on the same levels.

Type	DoomEd number	Enum	Conversation ID	Special properties	Notable uses
Tan	3002 (decimal), BBA (hex)	MT_GUARD1 (53)	53		Sewer duty
Red	142 (decimal), 8E (hex)	MT_GUARD2 (54)	54		Door guards, Temple Guards, Foreman (MAP04), Bailey Guard, Order Sergeant (MAP32)
Rust	143 (decimal), 8F (hex)	MT_GUARD3 (55)	55		Body guards, Foreman (MAP15), Prison Guard, Watchman
Gray	146 (decimal), 92 (hex)	MT_GUARD4 (56)	56		Reactor Guard, Sergeant
Dark green	147 (decimal), 93 (hex)	MT_GUARD5 (57)	57		Sewer Guard, Overseer, Warehouse Guard (MAP17)
Gold	148 (decimal), 94 (hex)	MT_GUARD6 (58)	58		Body guards, Core Guard, Warehouse Guard (MAP18)
Light green	232 (decimal), E8 (hex)	MT_GUARD7 (59)	59	Hit points 60	unused
Blue	231 (decimal), E7 (hex)	MT_GUARD8 (60)	60	Hit points 60	none
Shadow	58 (decimal), 3A (hex)	MT_SHADOWGUARD (61)	61		none

Data

These statistics reflect the base characteristics of the majority of acolyte actor types. Deviations for specific types were noted above. Note that bit flags 28 through 30 are added to change the color translation appropriately (the base color of the peasant without any color swap bit flags applied is tan).

Acolyte data
Appears in (except MT_GUARD7)	Strife demo Strife full version Strife Veteran Ed.
Hit points	70
Speed	7 map units per frame (40.8 map units per second)
Radius	24
Height	64
Mass	400
Reaction time	8 tics
Pain chance	150 (60.16%)
Pain time	8 tics
Flags	4194310 (decimal) 00400006 (hex)
Flags list	1: Obstacle 2: Shootable 22: Affects kill %
Flags2 - VE	2 (decimal) 00000002 (hex)
Flags2 list	1: Render as billboard

Sprites & sounds
Sprite name	AGRD (main) GIBS (gibbing) DISR (disintegration) BURN (burning)
Alert sound	DSAGRSEE
Active sound	DSAGRAC1, DSAGRAC2, DSAGRAC3, or DSAGRAC4
Pain sound	DSAGRDPN
Death sound	DSAGRDTH (normal) DSSLOP (gibs) DSDSRPTR (disintegration) DSBURNME (burning)

State	Frames
Idling	1 [A]
Chasing	4 [ABCD]
Attacking	4 [EFEF]
Hurting	1 [O]
Dying	10 [GHIJKLMNKL]
Gibbing	12 [ABCDEFGHIJKL]
Disintegration1	11 [ABCDEFGHIJ]
Burning2	24 (ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQPQRSTUV)

Ranged attack
Type	Hitscan
Shot count	3
Shot interval	4 tics (≈0.114 seconds)
Damage	3-15
Sprite	PUFY (impact, miss) POW3 (impact, robot) SPRY (impact, human) if damage > 13 BLOD (impact, human) if damage <= 13
Frames	4 [ABCD] (impact, miss) 8 [ABCDEFGH] (impact, robot) 7 [ABCDEFG] (impact, human) if damage > 13 3 [CBA] (impact, human) if damage <= 13 2 [BA] (impact, human) if damage <= 9 1 [A] (impact, human) if damage <= 6
Sound	DSRIFLE

1. A disintegration death is caused by the mauler's primary and secondary attacks, the templar's mauler hitscan attack, and the sentinel's laser attack.
2. A burning death is invoked by the flamethrower, the flames of phosphorous grenades, and the crusader's flamethrower attack.

Becoming Acolyte data
Thing type	201 (decimal), C9 (hex)
Enum	MT_BECOMING (29)
Appears in	Strife full version Strife Veteran Ed.
Hit points	61
Speed	0
Radius	16
Height	56
Mass	100
Reaction time	8 tics
Pain chance	255 (99.61%)
Pain time	0 tics
Flags	4227078 (decimal) 00408006 (hex)
Flags list	1: Obstacle 2: Shootable 15: Can NPC talk 22: Affects kill %
Flags2 - VE	66 (decimal) 00000042 (hex)
Flags2 list	1: Render as billboard 6: Always spawn at -nomonsters

Sprites & sounds
Sprite name	ARMR
Alert sound	none
Active sound	none
Pain sound	none
Death sound	DSPSDTHA (unused)

State	Frames
Idling	1 [A]
Hurting	disappears

Appearance statistics

In the IWAD acolytes exist in eight colors, but in many maps they have roles as minor characters with specific names, which are used in the things tables on the pertaining map pages. Below are the raw statistics of the unnamed enemies.

Acolytes are first encountered on these maps per skill level:

Single-player
Color	1-2	3	4-5
Blue	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town
Dark green	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town
Gold	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town
Gray	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town
Light green	-	-	-
Red	MAP01: Sanctuary	MAP01: Sanctuary	MAP01: Sanctuary
Rust	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town
Tan	MAP01: Sanctuary	MAP01: Sanctuary	MAP01: Sanctuary

The IWAD contains the following numbers of acolytes per skill level:

Single-player
Color	1-2	3	4-5
Blue	5	7	9
Dark green	13	19	18
Gold	108	114	114
Gray	15	17	21
Light green	0	0	0
Red	15	16	16
Rust	22	23	23
Tan	340	440	514

The shadow and becoming acolytes are first encountered on these maps per skill level:

Single-player
Game	1-2	3	4-5
Shadow	MAP04: Power Station	MAP02: Town	MAP02: Town
Becoming	MAP27: The Lab	MAP27: The Lab	MAP27: The Lab

The IWAD contains the following numbers of shadow and becoming acolytes:

Single-player
Game	1-2	3	4-5
Shadow	151	172	178
Becoming	56	56	56