Pain Elemental/Doom Eternal



The Pain Elemental is a returning monster in the Doom Eternal. This demon first appears in the mission Mars Core.

Enemy file
''An abhorrent creation of the Umbral Plains, the Pain Elemental is descended from the primal, abominable depths of the demon world. Knowing only its own torment, the Elemental is cursed to forge Lost Souls within the fiery pit of its gut--a process that is excruciating and without end for the duration of the creature's miserable life. The Elemental's only reprieve form its own agonizing and torturous existence is the projection of suffering into the world. For this reason, the Pain Elemental reaps great satisfaction from killing indiscriminately, destroying its environment, and inflicting misery on the innocent.''

Physical Appearance
The appearance of the Pain Elemental is very similar to its original design with a large number of subtle, but effective alterations to bring the demon into the modern era. The demon's face has been significantly altered. It is now very narrow and gaunt-looking, resembling the head of a malnourished human, complete with a single red, glowing eye, small horns on its brow, scalp, and upper back, and two larger horns on the sides of its head. In addition, it also appears to have a pair of nostrils beneath its eye. All of these changes make it closer resemble the lost souls it produces.

Around the "head" of the creature is a condensed, spherical musculature with two arms and eight mandibles, four on each side, giving the impression that its mouth is wider than it actually is. This muscle makes up the bulk of the creature, in-turn maintaining its classical shape. The creature's skin maintains its original brown colour, but now has the added details of being extremely wrinkly, and also appearing sweaty. This, combined with the demon's symmetrical appearance make it out to be among the sturdiest forces Hell has to offer.

In turms of personality, the Pain Elemental seems to have been given an extra dose of care from the developers. The demon displays several animations that showcase its higher degree of intelect than its contemporaries. Among these are its classical strut, where it rocks its arms as if it were walking through the air, a laughing animation, and other animations showing it being angry. It overall appears less beastial than its Cacodemon cousin, of which it appears slightly larger as well.

When discussing the design process of the Pain Elemental, the dev team remarked that the original Pain Elemental from Doom II gave off something of an "old grandpa" vibe, and that they strove to maintain that with the newer design. They also said that the abundance of mandibles around the demon's mouth were to make it resemble an overdone version of the Cacodemon's two mandibles.

Combat Characteristics
For the most part, the Pain Elemental functions like a beefed up version of the Cacodemon in Doom Eternal. The demon tends to fire at slower rate than its counterpart, but on the flipside, can also deal more damage per shot. In addition, the Lost Souls it shoots at the Player explode on impact, unlike the Cacodemon's projectiles.

The Pain Elemental's moveset consists of four known attacks. One where it fires single souls at the player, one where it reaches into its mouth and throws a soul at the player, one where it summons a trio of Lingering Souls and fires them in a barrage formation, and melee attacks when in close range. While relatively easy to dodge on their own, evading them amidst combat with multiple other demons can be difficult and taxing, as dodging direct hits don't negate splash damage.

In terms of health, the Pain Elemental can tolerate punishment en par with Barons of Hell, able to shake off four Super Shotgun blasts at the best of times. The Pain Elemental, for these reasons should be considered one of a handful of high priority targets in any combat scenario. Quick and deliberate removal of their presence can easily take a load off of a player's coming burden in any given fight. Alternatively, for a player that knows how to move swiftly, their bulk can make them great for farming armor pick-ups via Flame Belch, so keeping them around can serve a benefit.

Worth noting is that, though rare, it is possible to use the Meat Hook on a Pain Elemental just as it attacks, which will result in the hook grappling a lost soul, which can slingshot the player all over the place and potentially cause a death via confusion.