Sabaoth

"Welcome to the mess hall!"

- Sabaoth upon greeting the player

Sabaoth is a boss in Doom 3. He is essentially a demonically transformed Sergeant Kelly, with the lower half of his body being replaced with a tank-like vehicle, while his upper half attached to heavy machinery with a robotic tri-clawed right arm and a shoulder-mounted BFG9000 he acquired from Jack Campbell, located on his left side. The former military commander will greet the player in a demonically modified voice, in the CPU chamber of Central Processing: Primary Server Bank.

Combat characteristics
Second only to the Cyberdemon, Sabaoth has one of the largest health of any bosses in the game with a total of 1750 hitpoints. This allows him to withstand a single charge attack from the Soul Cube.

Sabaoth will primarily attack by firing his BFG9000. The BFG shots will continuously damage the player from the large rays emitted by each shot, but will instantly kill the player upon a direct hit. Up close, he will make a huge swipe from his right arm to slash at the player.

Sabaoth will also rely on the four pillars around the arena. Upon activating a pillar, it will emit an electrical field around it's radius which can damage the player should they stand too close to them. The bridges will also extend from the central platform to various side rooms where additional health, armor, and ammo can be found for the player's convenience.

Sabaoth follows a fixed movement pattern; he is limited to moving at one direction until reaching the end of the arena, in which case, he will suddenly turn at another direction before firing another BFG shot.

Tactical analysis
In order to make the fight end quickly, the player should have the Soul Cube be active prior to fighting Sabaoth. Given he has 1750 hitpoints, one Soul Cube attack (which will absorb a max of 1000 hitpoints) will still leave him standing with enough health to take down the player. As there are plenty of enemies earlier in the level that can help power up the Cube, it is advisable to have it fully charged moments before directing the security bridge to Central Processing where Sabaoth will be waiting.

While the BFG shots fired by Sabaoth are very slow moving and easy to dodge, they can constantly emit secondary rays which can deal continuous damage to the player if they are within the projectile's line-of-sight. Fortunately, an informational video of the BFG9000 is found earlier in the level which can help counter Sabaoth's BFG shots. Shooting the green projectile will cause it to immediately explode, neutralizing the shot before it hits the target. Using automatic weapons like the Chaingun, Machine Gun, and Plasma Gun works well in destroying the BFG shots. Alternatively, constantly firing at Sabaoth's shoulder-mounted BFG9000 can work even better; if Sabaoth momentarily fires his BFG, he will get caught from his own weapon's explosion. If the BFG shots close in too quick, try not to get hit by the shot, as it will mean instant death.

During the fight, Sabaoth will occasionally stand behind one of the four pillars to activate them. Try not to get caught within the pillar's electrical field, while being aware of which direction Sabaoth is approaching towards. Getting close will cause him to perform a clawing attack, doing significant damage to the player. Fortunately, it takes time for him to execute such an attack, so the player should be given enough time to move out of his line of attack. If health becomes critical, the player can move to the bridge to obtain medkits and armor. Be cautious not to end up getting cornered in this process.

Sabaoth is overall very powerful but nonetheless, slow and predictable. Seeing where his tank treads turn towards can help the player know which direction he will move next, as well as anticipate if he is going to fire his BFG. After destroying his subsequent BFG shot, switching to the Rocket Launcher to deal damage to him can quickly end the fight, provided if he does not approach the player's direction to claw. Upon defeating Sabaoth, the components of his tank machinery wildly explodes as the former sergeant painfully screams before dying and dropping Campbell's BFG9000.

Quotes

 * "Your duty has always been to die, soldier!"
 * "On your knees, soldier!"
 * "Assholes and elbows!"

Related achievements

 * You're Not My Boss!- Defeat Sabaoth boss

Trivia

 * Sabaoth is the only boss in the game that doesn't have an introductory cutscene.
 * The word "Sabaoth" is Hebrew for "armies." Ironically, the term is almost always a suffix for Yahweh, forming "Yahweh Sabaoth", or "Lord of Hosts (or Armies)", and was found (untranslated, as a Hebrew word) in the pre-1970s Latin Catholic Mass.
 * During the course of the fight, Sabaoth will frequently taunt the player; one of them being "assholes and elbows", is a derogatory command given by higher ranking military personnel to "move quickly".
 * Sabaoth bears a strong similarity to the style of cyborg enemies (especially the Tanks), called the Strogg, seen in Quake II. He also has a similar appearance to that of the Arachnotrons and Spiderdemons, being an organic humanoid demon with a robotic, tank-like lower body.
 * A similar monster appears in Doom Eternal in the form of the Doom Hunter (a humanoid on treads).
 * No matter where Sabaoth dies, his corpse will always end up in the middle of the room.
 * According to the Making of Doom III book, the idea for Sabaoth was that Sergeant Kelly's torso would be crucified onto a demon, which in turn would be fused with a tank. The demon would then use Kelly's military experience and knowledge to his advantage. Some of this concept, however, was "lost in translation".
 * The character Sarge in the Doom movie bears a resemblance to Sabaoth, as they were both allied to the protagonist before being transformed by antagonistic powers, defecting, and then being killed by the protagonist. It's also possible that Sarge is based on Kelly.
 * The name "Sabaoth" is never used in the game. Even the demonic voices which taunt the player about his upcoming confrontation with Sabaoth always refer to him as "Sarge" ("Sarge will destroy you!", "Sarge is waiting for you.", etc.).