Cyberdemon/Doom

"A missile-launching skyscraper with goat legs. 'Nuff said."

- Doom II instruction manual

The Cyberdemon is perhaps the most formidable and powerful enemy in Doom and Doom II. This monster first appears as a boss in the level E2M8, and re-appears in the secret level E3M9, and also on E4M2, E4M6, and (on Ultra-Violence/Nightmare! only) E4M7. The Cyberdemon is also featured on the retail box cover of the second game, and they are conveniently placed in maps where the player can take them down with little effort.

The Doom manual does not list this enemy, presumably to make its climactic appearance in E2M8 a surprise. It does get a listing in the official strategy guide however. It doesn't get a listing until the Doom II manual. The PlayStation, Doom 64, and SNES manual for Doom, however, does make mention of the Cyberdemon.

Physical appearance
The Cyberdemon takes the appearance of a tall, muscular, minotaur-like beast with some cybernetic features. It has a large thick patch of red wirings on its lower torso, a cybernetic right leg, and patches of metal and wires on its right arm. Perhaps the most defining feature of this monster is its left arm, which is replaced with a large BFG-like rocket launcher.

Combat characteristics
A Cyberdemon will let out a loud animalistic roar when it spots a player - loud enough to be heard no matter how far away it is from the player. It attacks by firing barrages of three rockets. It has 4000 hit points, having the highest health of any enemy in the classic games. It is also the fastest moving monster in the original game (the Lost Soul's charge attack not withstanding), and second fastest in Doom II (after the Arch-vile). When destroyed, the Cyberdemon's mechanical body parts explode, vaporizing the organic parts into reddish clouds of flesh, blood and gore, leaving only his blood-soaked hooves behind; as he explodes, he lets out a short roar (sounding almost identical to one of the former human's alert sound) that is readily interrupted by the sound of his body exploding.

The Cyberdemon's rockets are the same as the player's rockets; however as with all projectiles shot by monsters, it does not damage other monsters of the same type. Furthermore, the Cyberdemon is immune to all blast damage (BFG's blast damage being the only exception). The Cyberdemon is also more aggressive than than other monsters, as it is likely to launch volleys of rockets at a very high frequency.

Tactical analysis
Killing a Cyberdemon is almost impossible without a large amount of ammunition. The BFG9000 is the most effective weapon against the Cyberdemon, as three to four direct hits will usually destroy, although at point-blank range, two well-placed shots are sufficient (example). If the BFG is not available, the plasma gun is a good alternative; it will take around 150-200 well placed shots to completely neutralize it, but the high rate of fire will ensure that most of the shots will connect. The rocket launcher is also effective - but be prepared for a long fight, since around 45 well-placed hits with the rocket launcher is required to kill the Cyberdemon. Killing the Cyberdemon with other weapons is significantly more difficult: for example it takes around 400 bullets from a chaingun. It is extremely difficult to kill a Cyberdemon with melee attacks and it takes just about 371 chainsaw or non-berserk fist hits to do so, but given its extreme power and low pain chance, it is strongly not recommended under most circumstances.

Because the Cyberdemon has a low pain chance, it is difficult to prevent it from attacking. It is also important to be constantly aware of when it fires a rocket, as it will do so relentlessly. Circle-strafing can be used to avoid return fire while attacking. Because one rocket will often be enough to critically injure or kill the player, it is imperative that all rockets are avoided. The splash damage received from the Cyberdemon's rockets can also be pretty devastating. Therefore, it is imperative to stay away from rocket explosions, and avoid getting cornered into a wall.

A skilled (or extremely lucky) player can somewhat nullify the Cyberdemon's low pain chance by straferunning towards it to get within point blank range, and then hitting it with the super shotgun. The monster will flinch roughly eighty percent of the time when hit by the full twenty-pellet blast, giving the player time to retreat, reload, and repeat the process. This can take the Cyberdemon down in fewer than 25 shots, but is very risky, and only recommended in areas where the rocket launcher is impractical, or to conserve rocket and plasma/BFG ammunition.

The Cyberdemon's immense size can sometimes be used as an advantage when attacking it. In some maps, the Cyberdemon(s) are in a large courtyard or structure and the entrance is too small for them to pass through. This can help a novice player to escape if major injuries are sustained.

Due to its massive firepower and hitpoints which exceeds all other demons, the Cyberdemon easily dominates in monster infighting battles. However, they can occasionally meet their match if fighting either against a Spiderdemon (MAP20: Gotcha!) or a large group of powerful demons like the Baron of Hell (MAP08: Tricks and Traps). If the player also has to deal with a horde of lesser demons, luring the Cyberdemon into fighting a group of other monsters is a better way to make a safe distraction from it.

Data



 * 1) This table assumes that all calls to P_Random for damage, pain chance, blood splats, and bullet dispersal 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 the target takes a direct hit from each shot.
 * 3) Assumes that direct hits are possible, which does not occur in any stock map.
 * 4) Hardcoded exception to infighting prevents all damage. Normally, monsters of the same type will engage in infighting if damaged indirectly via the blast damage from exploding barrels, but in the case of the Cyberdemon, the monster's immunity to blast damage nullifies this possibility.

Appearance statistics
In classic Doom, the Cyberdemon is first encountered on these maps:

The IWADs contain the following numbers of Cyberdemons:
 * 1) May be encountered earlier if the super secret level is played.