Commando/Doom II

The Chaingunner (sometimes called a Chaingun guy, Heavy weapon dude, or occasionally just Dude) is a marine who has been turned into a zombie during the demonic takeover of Earth. He appears as a burly, dark-skinned man with a shaved head and a goatee, wearing red body armor and carrying a chaingun and a bullet belt.

The Doom instruction manual says:
 * Geeze, weren't shotgun zombies bad enough? At least when you fade these jerks you get a cool chaingun.

In the instruction manual the chaingunner is called a Former Commando.

The chaingunner is first encountered on MAP03: The Gantlet (Hurt me plenty, Ultra-Violence, and Nightmare!) or MAP04: The Focus (I'm too young to die and Hey, not too rough).

Combat characteristics
The chaingunner attacks by firing his chaingun, which does slightly less damage per bullet than the player's chaingun and whose rate of fire is also somewhat lower. Once he begins to fire, however, he holds down the trigger until his target dies or leaves his line of sight, or he is stunned (causing him to move) or killed. When slain, he drops the chaingun, which contains 10 bullets (20 on I'm too young to die and Nightmare!). In common with other monsters, although the chaingunner's weapon is show in his right hand, the bullets emerge from his middle.

Tactical analysis
Because chaingunners employ ranged attacks in rapid succession which cannot be dodged (even the Spider Mastermind pauses briefly in her tracks before firing, giving the player a fraction of a second to take cover), the player must avoid spending any time at their short or medium range if he possibly can. One shot from the shotgun at close range almost always kills a chaingunner, continuous fire from the player's chaingun at close range almost always prevents the chaingunner from firing, whilst chaingun "tapping" normally limits him to a couple of bullets during the remainder of his life. Chaingunners do not have an ammunition limit, and multiple chaingunners at any distance may well reduce the player's health by 100 or more points in the time it takes to cross a large room; in that situation, it is essential to remain in motion.

The chaingunner's high rate of fire makes him a formidable presence in monster-monster battles; provided he survives the initial blow, one chaingunner can actually take down a healthy Cacodemon (often), Revenant (perhaps), or Hell Knight (from time to time). Like all hitscan firing enemies, Chaingunners will also in-fight each other.

Doom RPG
In Doom RPG, the Chaingunner appears as the "Commando" monster class. There are three variations, identified by color:


 * Yellow : Troop
 * Blue: Commando
 * Red (normal colors): Assassin

Appearance statistics
The IWADs contain the following numbers of chaingunners: