Cacodemon

From Doom Wiki

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

A cacodemon in E3M2: Slough of Despair

Cacodemons are red monsters with large spherical bodies crowned with horns, that float slowly through the air. They have a single green eye over a large mouth which is persistently twisted into an evil grin showing a series of nasty teeth and a bluish interior.

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.

[edit] 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 that flows forth, to reveal their bared brains while their sole eye pops out of its socket.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Notes

The huge monster that was used as a base for the cacodemon, on the cover of the original Manual of the Planes

• 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.^[1]

• 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.

• Cacodemons are called pumpkins in the Doom novels, and the marine in the Doom comic refers to them as "big-mouthed floating thingies."

[edit] Data

Damage done by a Cacodemon's bite

Damage done by a Cacodemon's projectile

[edit] Appearance statistics

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

The IWADs contain the following numbers of cacodemons:

[edit] Other games

[edit] 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, introduced in the Doom 64 TC, remained red.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Plush cacodemons

Hissy in 2003

Pixel, just after being finished in 2004.

[edit] 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Sources

• This article incorporates text from the open-content Wikipedia online encyclopedia article Cacodemon.

[edit] Notes

1. ↑ Merriam-Webster, cacodemon, Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary. Retrieved on April 5, 2008.