Whiplash

The Whiplash is a brand new demon appearing in Doom Eternal.

Codex Entry
''A scavenger of the Hellscape, the Whiplash creature was first discovered by UAC expedition teams in the black desert of the Sanctum Wastelands. These elusive, serpentine demons move with great speed and agility. They are capable of striking from a great distance with retractable bladed whips concealed within their forearms. This particular demon breed became an object of great interest to the UAC engineers on Earth, while attempts to capture live specimens of this nimble and unpredictable creature proved to be exceptionally dangerous. After successfully acquiring living specimens, researchers implanted cybernetic augmentations designed to enhance the Whiplash's innate strength and lethality.''

Physical Appearance
The Whiplash is a cybernetic snake-like Enhanced Demon, with two thin horns curving up and backwards over its head, where its brain is exposed. Its arms are covered in what resembles long, black gloves and wields a chain whip ending in a curved blade, hence its name. From its abdomen down, the Whiplash's body is cybernetic and snakelike.

Combat Characteristics
The Whiplash crawls and slithers at an alarming speed to flank and slash the Slayer with its energy chain blades. It can hop ledges with its chains, using them like grappling hooks. It can also fire argent energy waves similar to the Summoner.

Due to its tendency to duck its head and slither around on the ground, accurate weapons capable of firing high-speed projectiles such as the Heavy Cannon, Combat Shotgun, Plasma Rifle, and Super Shotgun are highly recommended. Most notably, the Rocket Launcher's Lock-On Rockets and the Ballista's Destroyer Blade can dispatch a Whiplash in one shot.

In especially difficult levels, such as the missions found during The Ancient Gods, Whiplashes are sometimes replaced by Whiplash Spectres. They have the same stats as a regular Whiplash, lacking any alterations similar to the Pinky Spectre's missing armor. Like the original Spectre, their invisibility makes them much harder to keep track of in a fight, and leaves them completely immune to Lock-On Rockets, Microwave Beam, or the Meat Hook if they aren't frozen. This bolsters their already strong flanking ability, and makes them mostly immune to what was originally their greatest weakness, the Lock-On mod.

Trivia

 * The Whiplash bears some resemblance to Nharre's demon from John Romero's Daikatana.
 * According to game director Hugo Martin, the Whiplash is female.
 * The Spectre Whiplash actually existed in the base game as an unused enemy, seen here.
 * Like the Gargoyle, it appears to be based on a monster in the Heretic universe; in this case, the Ophidian. The parallel is somewhat looser, with the two monsters having different equipment and attacks.

See too

 * Whiplash Spectre