Imp/Doom

"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."

- Doom II instruction manual

The Imps are Human-sized humanoid Demons, the most common opponents encountered in id Software's IWADs, thus being considered the "backbone" of all hellspawn in the entire franchise.

Physical Appearance
The Imps are humanoid Demons that are leather brown in color. They have blood-red eyes and mouths, with several white bony spikes on their bodies, including their knees, and equally white claws on their hands and bare feet.

Combat Characteristics
Imps will make a loud, serpentine hiss in two different pitches when they spot the player. They will make the same groaning sound as the Former Humans when they are being attacked, and will make a distinct snorting sound similar to a Jaguar while they are roaming.

Imps have Hell-Fire Ball Projection. The hell-fire balls travel at a straight line and will only dissipate once they hit their target, an object, or a wall. At melee range, they employ a clawing attack.

When killed without being gibbed, they either let out an animalistic moan of pain or a distorted gurgle as enormous holes open up in their midsection and faces (most notably on their forehead), unleashing plentiful amounts of blood as they fall onto their backs.

Tactical Analysis
As Imps are the most common enemies to be encountered, a novice player should learn to get adjusted on taking down an Imp and evading their attacks. As the Imps move rather slowly, as do their hell-fire balls, this is not going to be too much of a hassle.

Imps can usually be killed by a single shotgun shell and often by six bullets. 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 Imps' relatively high pain chance sometimes prevents them from retaliating when taking damage.

Imps often come together in groups, making the super shotgun or rocket launcher both particularly effective in this scenario. While the standard shotgun is capable of taking out an individual Imp, it falls short when dealing with multiple Imps in the vicinity. A blast from the super shotgun usually brings multiple Imps down; generally two but even three at times, depending on how they are positioned. The rocket launcher can take out entire crowds with little difficulty if used carefully. However, this should only be reserved for larger crowds, as the rarity of rockets and high firepower can make it a wasteful overkill if used against an individual or small group of Imps.

Melee against an Imp should usually be avoided by novices as it is much trickier than against a Demon, as the Imps are quicker with their clawing attacks 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 in the battlefield. 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 aggressive and don't stop projecting their hell-fire balls 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 projectiles.

Although their ranged attacks and hitpoints give them an advantage against the lesser Zombies, the Imps can easily find themselves outmatched during monster infighting, as their primary strength comes from fighting in numbers. A sole Imp against a Shotgun Guy may yet call victory. And a group of 5-6 Imps can likely outlast against a single Demon, but not without having the first 2-3 Imps become overpowered in melee. Tougher monsters, such as a Cacodemon or a Baron of Hell, will more than likely exterminate a large group of Imps without difficulty.

Data Statistics
Attributes = Melee Range Scratch damage
 * -|Bits list =
 * -|Sprites & sounds =
 * -|Melee/Range attack =
 * -|Damage chart =

Fireball damage The IWADs contain the following numbers of Imps:
 * 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).
 * -|Total amount =