Arachnotron

From Doom Wiki

In the upper courtyard of MAP11: Circle of Death, in Doom II, an arachnotron turns toward the player with intent to kill. The translucent effect on its plasma burst is a feature in some source ports.

The arachnotron is a spider-like monster introduced in Doom II. It is quite similar to the spiderdemon but smaller and with large eyes that change color depending on the monster's current state (moving, hurt, or attacking). It is supported by a metal chassis and his body consists primarily of a large brain, along with two small arms. Instead of a chaingun it wields a powerful plasma gun that fires bursts of yellow and green energy.

According to the manual: Maybe cybernetics wasn't such a great idea after all. Look what the demons have done with it. It seems unfair somehow you're not the only guy in Hell with a plasma gun.

In Doom II, they make their first appearance in Dead Simple, where the player must fight them when they reinforce the fallen mancubi.

[edit] Combat characteristics

Once the arachnotron engages an enemy it will continue to fire until the enemy moves out of its field of view or until the monster flinches in pain or is destroyed. Similar behavior can be observed with the spiderdemon and the heavy weapon dude.

[edit] Tactical analysis

Although they may seem slow, arachnotrons are actually faster than quite a few of the other monsters and can catch up with the player at an alarming rate. They have a medium pain chance, so rapid fire weapons such as the chaingun will work well, although using the chainsaw on them is very risky. Their attacks are easier to avoid than the hitscan attacks of the other monsters that use rapid fire weapons, but the plasma bursts move faster than most other projectiles and can quickly hurt the player severely, if not avoided. If a player constantly attacks, moves in broad side-to-side movements, and tries to get out of the arachnotron's line of fire periodically, then the player will sustain minimal damage. Additionally, the projectiles fired by arachnotrons can obscure the player's vision.

[edit] Notes

• As with the spiderdemon, the term arachnotron (roughly translatable as "spider instrument") is not absolutely literal, as they only have six limbs; two arms and four mechanical legs. Arachnids (spiders and such), on the other hand, have eight limbs. Curiously, while the Doom 64 version increases their leg count to six, they lack the arms.

• In the Doom source code the internal name for the arachnotron is MT_BABY, and the root of its sprite name in the IWAD is BSPI, so the monster was arguably called baby spider during the development of Doom II.

[edit] Data

Damage done by each plasma burst

[edit] Appearance statistics

In classic Doom, the arachnotron is first encountered on these maps:

The IWADs contain the following numbers of arachnotrons:

[edit]

[edit] Other games

[edit] Doom 64

The Doom 64 arachnotron has 2 plasma guns. In addition its appearance is different: it is a bit higher, has 6 legs instead of four, it has red eyes insted of blue and the brains are smaller and more pink in tone. In combat, it fires the plasma shots in a semi-automatic fashion instead of entire streams.

[edit] Doom RPG

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

• Arachnotron (normal colors)
• Plasmodium (light green brain, bronz-colored robotic chassis)
• Astaroth (light purple brain, gold-colored robotic chassis)

Arachnotrons attack three times consecutively, and are most weak against bullets and rockets.

[edit] See also

• Monsters open locked doors