Imp

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An imp fighting our hero in E1M1: Hangar

The Imp is a human-sized humanoid demon, the most common opponent encountered in id Software's IWADs. It is leather brown in color, with blood-red eyes and mouth, several white bony spikes on its body, and equally white claws on its hands and feet. The Imp is the most common demon/humanoid-like enemy in Doom games, thus being considered the "backbone" of all hellspawn in the entire franchise.

The Doom instruction manual says:

You thought an imp was a cute little dude in a red suit with a pitchfork. Where did these brown bastards come from? They heave balls o' fire down your throat and take several bullets to die. It's time to find a weapon better than that pistol if you're going to face more than one of these S.O.B.s.

Combat characteristics

An imp will make a loud, serpentine hiss in two different pitches when it spots a player. An imp attacks by hurling a single fireball, which inflicts direct projectile damage. At melee range, it employs a clawing attack. When killed without being gibbed, it either lets out an animalistic moan of pain ("Nuuuh!") or a distorted gurgle ("Eeergh!") as enormous holes open up in its midsection and face (most notably on its forehead), unleashing plentiful amounts of blood as it falls onto its back.

Tactical analysis

The imp moves slowly, as do its fireballs. The player should practice until evading both sorts of objects becomes completely straightforward (except perhaps under highly unusual circumstances, such as a teleportation trap, in close quarters, or when surrounded).

An imp can usually be killed by a single shotgun shell and often by six bullets. As the citation above implies, facing multiple imps with a pistol takes concentration, but it can be done, given sufficient maneuvering room and adequate footwork on the player's part. In fact, the imp's relatively high pain chance sometimes makes it difficult for it to retaliate when damaged often.

Imps often come in packs, and the super shotgun or rocket launcher are both particularly effective here. While the standard shotgun is not completely reliable in dispatching an imp per shell, a blast from the super shotgun usually brings two down and, when well aimed at "clumped" packs, three. The rocket launcher can take out entire crowds with little difficulty if used carefully.

Melee against an imp should usually be avoided by novices as it is much trickier than against a demon, as the imp is quicker with its clawing attack than the generally less dexterous demon. The chainsaw takes only a bit of time to dispatch an imp, so it is convenient against a single enemy, but the player risks being surrounded if there are several imps. If the encounter takes place in a large open area, hit-and-run tactics with the berserk fist are safe and effective, as long as the player is not under fire from different sides.

In the Nightmare! skill levels, like all other monsters, imps become ultra agressive and don't stop shooting after they start. Their projectiles become significantly harder to dodge especially in packs. Their projectiles also move 50% faster and become as fast as a baron of hell's.

Although its ranged attack and hit point total give it an advantage against the lesser zombies, the imp can easily find itself outmatched during monster infighting. A single imp fighting a shotgun guy may yet call victory, but a demon or spectre can almost always overpower the first two or three imps they engage in melee, and a couple of blows from even tougher monsters will more than likely put an imp out of its misery.

Notes

• The Doom source code gives the object name MT_TROOP and the sprite root name TROO to the imp, arguably because imps were called "demon troops" in the Doom Bible, being the main and more common force of monsters of a directly demonic origin in the invasion. According those early plans, the imps were meant to belong to a different species than the demon troops and were described as more traditionally impish in design; small flying demons, possibly like those eventually found in Heretic, which were apparently called gargoyles mainly to distinguish them from the existing Doom monster, since they look like commonplace imps.
• Apart from zombies and Wolfenstein SS, the imp is the only monster that can be gibbed with rockets, berserk fist attacks, barrel explosions and BFG blasts.
• Imps are the only other monsters aside from zombies that emit two different alert and death sounds when spotting the player.
• Its very difficult getting two imps infighting together but, if one imp manages to destroy a barrel, the resulting explosion hurts any nearby imps and will turn towards the one that blew up the barrel in the first place, they will hurt themselves through scratching.
• The Imp gibbing death sprite contains a Zombieman arm.
• In a ZDoom-based source port, if the player is killed by an imp (monster is credited with delivering the blow that reduces player's health to 0%), one of two obituary messages will be displayed at the top of the screen depending on which attack the imp used to kill the player: "[player name] was slashed by an Imp" or "[player name] was burned by an Imp" for the claw and fireball attacks respectively.
• Imps seem to resemble Weevils from Torchwood, particulary their faces.
• In Brutal Doom, Imps launch more realistic fireballs and also have a leaping claw attack which it uses at relatively medium-to-close distance, similarly to their newer version.
• It is possible to hear one of the Imp's death sounds in an episode of Highlander: The Series. During a conversation between Duncan and another immortal in Season 3 Episode 21, you can hear the Imp's death sound faintly in the background. This video is evidence of this claim.
• You can also hear the Imp's death sound in the movie The Santa Clause, as well as the Zombieman's death sound.

Data

Attributes ID # 3001 (decimal), BB9 (hex) Hit points 60 Speed 8 map units per frame (93.3 map units per second) Width 40 Height 56 Reaction time 8 Pain chance 200 (78.13%) Pain time 4 tics Mass 100 Bits 4194310 Bits list 1: Obstacle 2: Shootable 22: Affects Kill %

Sprites & sounds Sprite name TROO Alert sound DSBGSIT1 or DSBGSIT2 Action sound DSBGACT Pain sound DSPOPAIN Death sound DSBGDTH1 or DSBGDTH2 (normal) DSSLOP (gibs)

Melee attack Damage 3-24 Sound DSCLAW Ranged attack Type Projectile Speed 10 map units per tic (350 map units per second) Damage 3-24 Width 6 Height 8 Sprite name BAL1 Sound DSFIRSHT (firing) DSFIRXPL (impact)

Damage done by an imp's attack (either type)

Scratches needed to kill1	Mean	Standard deviation	Min	Max
Player (100% health, no armor)	8.05	1.41	5	12
Player (100% health, security armor)	11.65	1.67	8	16
Player (200% health, combat armor)	29.11	2.22	24	34
Barrel	2.04	0.79	1	4
Trooper	2.04	0.79	1	4
Sergeant	2.77	0.78	2	5
Wolfenstein SS	4.30	1.03	3	8
Imp	4.97	1.09	3	9
Chaingunner	5.88	1.20	4	10
Lost Soul	8.05	1.41	5	12
Commander Keen	8.05	1.41	5	12
Demon	11.65	1.67	8	16
Spectre	11.65	1.67	8	16
Boss Brain2	19.27	1.92	14	23
Revenant	22.81	2.10	17	27
Cacodemon	30.37	2.33	25	35
Pain Elemental	30.37	2.33	25	35
Hell Knight	37.80	2.58	31	44
Arachnotron	37.80	2.58	31	44
Mancubus	45.09	2.84	39	51
Arch-Vile	52.64	2.85	46	58
Baron of Hell	74.97	2.91	69	81
Spider Mastermind	223.72	3.17	217	231
Cyberdemon	298.48	3.71	290	307

Fireballs needed to kill	Mean	Standard deviation	Min	Max
Player (100% health, no armor)	8.09	1.36	5	11
Player (100% health, security armor)	11.68	1.70	8	16
Player (200% health, combat armor)	29.19	2.26	24	34
Barrel	2.04	0.77	1	5
Trooper	2.04	0.77	1	5
Sergeant	2.75	0.78	2	5
Wolfenstein SS	4.30	0.99	3	7
Imp3
Chaingunner	5.87	1.21	4	9
Lost Soul	8.09	1.36	5	11
Commander Keen	8.09	1.36	5	11
Demon	11.68	1.70	8	16
Spectre	11.68	1.70	8	16
Boss Brain2	19.25	2.10	14	24
Revenant	22.80	2.24	17	28
Cacodemon	30.42	2.51	24	36
Pain Elemental	30.42	2.51	24	36
Hell Knight	37.79	2.79	30	44
Arachnotron	37.79	2.79	30	44
Mancubus	45.16	3.09	36	52
Arch-Vile	52.64	3.04	46	60
Baron of Hell	74.95	2.64	70	81
Spider Mastermind	223.64	2.66	217	230
Cyberdemon	298.47	2.97	290	305

1. These tables assume that all calls to P_Random for damage, pain chance, blood splats, impact animations, and backfire checks are consecutive. In real play, this is never the case: counterattacks and AI pathfinding must be handled, and of course the map may contain additional moving monsters and other randomized phenomena (such as flickering lights). Any resulting errors are probably toward the single-shot average, as they introduce noise into the correlation between the indices of "consecutive" calls.
2. Assumes that direct hits are possible, which does not occur in any stock map.
3. Hardcoded exception to infighting negates damage (excepting indirect damage caused by exploding barrels).

Appearance statistics

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

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
Ultimate Doom	E1M1: Hangar	E1M1: Hangar	E1M1: Hangar
Doom II	MAP01: Entryway	MAP01: Entryway	MAP01: Entryway
TNT: Evilution	MAP01: System Control	MAP01: System Control	MAP01: System Control
Plutonia	MAP01: Congo	MAP01: Congo	MAP01: Congo

The IWADs contain the following numbers of imps:

Game	ITYTD and HNTR	HMP	UV and NM
Ultimate Doom	487	771	974
Doom II	488	905	1223
TNT: Evilution	861	1206	1357
Plutonia	371	406	436

Other games

Doom 64

The Doom 64 imp at close range.

The imp is featured in Doom 64, first appearing in MAP01: Staging Area, though with a sleeker appearance, only having noticeable spikes along its back.

A more powerful variant known as the Nightmare Imp is also one of the new monsters in the game.

This version of the Imp also features discrete animations for melee attacks versus ranged attacks, similar to the Revenant in other games. This means that unlike other versions of the game, the Imp will not throw a fireball if his melee attack misses the player (since in other versions, the attack type - fireball or melee - is determined by the victim's proximity at the end of the attack animation).

Doom RPG

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

• Impling (green)
• Imp (normal colors)
• Imp Lord (red with green eyes)

Imps are most susceptible to attacks from shotguns.

See also

• Impse
• Nightmare Imp

Template:Sony PlayStation monsters