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In General
- Artificial Stupidity: Every single enemy is dumb as a bag of hammers. Melee enemies will simply run at you and hit you, while projectile enemies will either run at you while shooting and shoot you while standing still, not even trying to dodge your attacks, even the Painfully Slow Projectile weapons. This is mostly done so they can throw hundreds of enemies at you at a time without straining system resources. Downplayed a bit in BFE, where some enemies will at least dodge projectiles at long range and strafe/flank rather than running straight.
- Beam Spam: Since the game loves to throw hundreds of enemies at you, and a lot of them shoot lasers (most prominently the Minor Biomechanoids), this will happen frequently.
- Beating A Dead Player: You can watch all the melee enemies run frenziedly back and forth over the spot where you died.
- Disproportionate Retribution: Picking up a mere 1HP or 1 armor pickup might trigger an ambush with HORDES of enemies. The games are not friendly to Munchkins.
- Early-Bird Cameo: If you pick up secret items, you can encounter certain enemy types much earlier than they would normally spawn.
- Fireballs: Many enemies fire them, though they seem to be favored by Giant Mook types in particular.
- Homing Projectile: Many enemies in The Last Hope have these, being a game where almost every enemy fires a projectile of sorts. Homing projectiles are just par for the course.
- The Horde: Mental's army of course! They're mostly made up of things like robots, zombies, clones, biomachines, war beasts, and genetically engineered species, but Mental's not above just recruiting primitive races and using their own primitive technologies (such as the Reptiloids, Arachnoids, Orcs, Zorgs, Octanians, and Atlantleans) to bolster his ranks.
- Legion of Doom: Mental likes to recruit some of the galaxy's most notable villains into his army, like Ugh Zan III (an ancient deity and one of the most feared beings around), Mordekai the Summoner (one of the galaxy's most infamous sorcerers), Prince Chan, Count Kleerofski (both local alien dictators), and the Uber Lava Golem (ancient guardian of the Alley of Sphinxes). His headquarters is also the home of The Joker, Lex Luthor, and Darth Vader.
- Mooks: Literally tens of thousands of mooks of dozens of different types in any given game. They include alien soldiers, wild alien animals, alien mercenaries, zombies, robots, witches, harpies, clones, demons, ogres, and biological war machines. Mental's got a lot of resources, apparently.
- Our Monsters Are Different: Consists of a large amount of robots, cyborgs, headless zombies, reanimated skeletons, liquid elementals, and other baddies, all supposed to be extraterrestrial.
- Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: When factoring in the enemies' Artificial Stupidity, it's fairly easy to position Sam where one enemy can deal damage to, if not outright kill, other enemies. The Major Biomechanoid's rockets are particularly useful to lay waste to other mooks.
- Sound-Coded for Your Convenience: Pretty much any enemy. Lampshaded in Second Encounter, where the player's AI comments that she can "hear those familiar hooves coming" right before a fight with a bunch of Kleer Skeletons.
- Teleporting Keycard Squad: To the point of parody. Whenever you pick up anything, expect a legion of monsters to attack you. And if it's any level after the first, another one after that. It gets kind of humiliating when you get your ass kicked six ways to Sunday over a health pill that restores 1 HP. And it's a secret to boot!
- Zerg Rush: Smaller enemies have a tendency to appear in large numbers. Some boss battles are even composed of a single enemy class appearing in huge numbers. Lampshaded by Sam in TSE."Oh, God. Never underestimate the power of stupid things in large numbers."
Introduced in Serious Sam: The First Encounter
Beheaded Soldiers
Beheaded Bomber, Beheaded Firecracker, Beheaded Rocketeer, and Beheaded Kamikaze, as seen in 4.
Former Sirian soldiers executed by Mental. They now operate as Mental's minions.- Action Bomb: The Beheaded Kamikaze is a running, beheaded executed Sirian soldier which explodes upon contact. It constantly screams "AAAAAAAA" as it runs towards the player, despite having no head. According to NETRICSA, they have voice synthesizers implanted in them to psyche out their targets.
- Artificial Zombie: Beheaded, resurrected and made into lightweight soldiers with rudimentary intelligence.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Players can distinguish them by the color of their shirt: Rocketeers use purple ones, Firecrackers use red ones, Grenadiers use green ones, and Kamikazes are shirtless.
- Denser and Wackier: In II, the Beheaded Kamikazes have a bomb for a head and a gym top.
- Distaff Counterpart: The giant female Beheaded Kamikazes ("Femikazes") in Double D.
- Elite Mook: Beheaded Rocketeers have the red-shirted Firecrackers that fire out five shots at a time instead of one.
- Giant Eye of Doom: Picking up a lone pill at one point in TSE spawns a "secret watcher", a pair of giant eyeballs staring at you. Shooting them reveals that they're connected to a Giant Kamikaze.
- The Goomba: Beheaded Rocketeers are among the easiest enemies in the series (they can be melee killed in BFE), and are ubiquitous enough to be mascots.
- Losing Your Head: Well...
- Mascot Mook: Beheaded Kamikazes, who are even the focus of the first trailer for BFE and 4.
- Our Zombies Are Different: Reanimated Sirian soldiers, revived with a combination of magic and cybernetics (in BFE especially, where they have a robotic eye in the place of their head). They are extremely weak when compared to the average human, but unlike most zombies they still retain rudimentary intelligence (being able to use weak, basic weapons and obey orders) as well as move at a pace faster than a walk.
- Painfully Slow Projectile: The Rocketeer's missiles actually do a decent amount of damage, about ten times as much as a bullet fired by a Cloned Soldier's rifle or a Juvenile Arachnoid's minigun, but they move about as fast as a thrown baseball and have no tracking so they're quite easy to dodge.
- Perspective Flip: The mobile game Serious Sam Kamikaze Attack! is played from the POV of a Beheaded Kamikaze who tries to kill Sam.
- Pinball Projectile: Firecracker shots bounce along the ground and off walls.
- Punch-Clock Villain: All of them, especially the Beheaded Kamikazes
. - Screaming Warrior: The Beheaded Kamikazes run at Sam while screaming.
- Underground Monkey: There are many varieties of them, including Rocketeers (purple shirt, shoot small energy ball-like rockets), Firecrackers (shoot an array of fireballs which follow the surfaces), Grenadiers (throw grenades towards their enemies) and Kamikazes (run towards their enemies and explode on contact).
- Use Your Head: Being that they're, well, beheaded, you wouldn't expect this to apply. However, Rocketeers in the HD remakes of the first two games have a buzzsaw implanted in place of their head, and will attempt to headbutt Sam with it if he gets into melee range.
Gnaars
Female Gnaar and Male Gnaar, as seen in 4. Plus, the Cryomorph Gnaar Pair from Siberian Mayhem.
Running monsters which can only punch. They have their face on their torso.- Belly Mouth: They contain a big eye and mouth on their torso.
- Cephalothorax: Their entire face is located on their thorax.
- Demoted to Extra: Gnaar were enemies in TFE and TSE, but in II they're NPCs who just appear doing mundane or silly things and are never fought otherwise.
- Elite Mook: Female Gnaars are bigger and have more health.
- Eye Scream: Most of Sam's executions on them involve their big eye: in BFE Sam rips the eye out, while in 4 Sam stabs the eye.
- The Goomba: Same deal as the Beheaded Rocketeers: among the easiest enemies in the series (in fact, the first one you face in BFE when you only have your hands to attack can be finished with a melee kill), and ubiquitous enough to be mascots.
- Invisible Monsters: In some games, especially at higher difficulties, some of them are nearly invisible.
- More Deadly Than the Male: Female Gnaars are bigger and have more hitpoints than their male counterparts. They're still cannon fodder, though.
- Underground Monkey: They come in male and female varieties. Some games also add the flying variety (faster and, well, can fly).
Marsh-Hoppers of Rigil Kentaurus
Suicidal frogs who attack by leaping at their enemies and explode upon contact.
- Action Bomb: A One-Hit-Point Wonder that jumps towards Sam and blows itself up on contact to coat players in toxic slime stored in its body. A good half of the occurrences of the boss health bar in TFE are merely you having to take on a tidal wave of the things all at once. Unlike the Kamikazes, they don't deal Splash Damage, though.
- Glass Cannon: Weak as a papersheet, but deal a lot of damage to Sam if they explode.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: A secret in TSE involves destroying a big Hopper who then splits upon lots and lots of atom-sized (faster!) ones that still chase down Sam. The only way to get rid of these is by using a Serious Bomb.
Sirian Werebull
As seen in 4.
Bull-like creatures who charge towards Sam.- Bullfight Boss: Only the first you encounter is a miniboss. After that they become one of the most common enemies.
- Half-Human Hybrid: Or half-Sirian, anyways. The Werebull is a result of Sirian DNA being combined with some kind of cattle native to Sirius, which NETRICSA presumes is meant to be some kind of genetic insult or cosmic joke on Mental's part.
- Pint-Sized Powerhouse: There's a stampede of rat-sized Werebulls as a secret in one level of TSE. They still retain the devastating properties of their regular-sized counterparts.
Kleer Skeletons
As seen in 4.
Running skeletons who attack from a distance by throwing bolas, and have a leap attack on close range.- A Day in the Limelight: Get an entire chapter devoted to them in 2, taking place on their ruined homeworld.
- Battle Bolas: The Kleer use a pair of bolas as their ranged attack, throwing them at their enemy in a straight line.
- Dem Bones: Reanimated skeleton warriors.
- Glass Cannon: It doesn't take much to take them down (in BFE they can be melee-killed), but their leap attack (and in the hardest levels, their bolas) deal quite a lot of damage.
- Improbable Weapon User: Their bolas are real tools supposed to be thrown so that they wrap around a person's legs and trip them up, but instead they're always used as standard projectile weapons.
- Lethal Lava Land: Their homeworld, Planet Kleer, thanks to Mental dropping 10 billion gallons of napalm on it.
- Schizo Tech: Their old ball-and chain projectiles.
- Tragic Monster: Once a peaceful species of mammals, now rendered extinct and reanimated as tools of war.
Scythian Witch-Harpies
As seen in 4.
Flying humanoid bird-like monsters who hit Sam with either energy balls or by charging at him from the air.- Cute Monster Girl: Flying female humanoids shaped like birds. Subverted in BFE and 4.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: The beginning of "Under the Iron Cloud" in BFE has Sam entering into Cairo, and taking a look at a roof. Cue one of these appearing and Sam commenting on its... facial features.Sam: Hey, baby, is your daddy a pilot? 'Cause you're really... frickin... UGLY!
- Ms. Fanservice: Zig-zagged; in the early games they're sexy women in tiny bikinis with a few birdlike features, and are treated as blatant fanservice in pieces of official art such as this. In later games they're completely bare-breasted, but have a serious Nightmare Face under a fake human face, and increasingly inhuman bodies (such as their wings replacing their arms).
- Nightmare Face: The harpies in BFE and 4 have a head which splits open, with their attractive-but-fake human face sliding up onto their foreheads to reveal a gaping, fang-lined maw. In BFE they also have an ugly pair of yellow eyes above it, while in 4 they're eyeless but the lower jaw also splits open into a pair of mandibles.
Reeban Fishes
Underwater monstruous fishes which shoot lightning attacks at Sam.
- Bilingual Bonus: In a stealth form. The word "Reeban" as in the Reeban fishes is pretty close in pronunciation to a Russian word "ryba", which means "fish".
- The Cameo: Don't show up at all in 4, but one of them can be seen after diving into a hole in a frozen lake in Siberian Mayhem.
- Shock and Awe: Unleash a strong electric current to attack their prey.
Arachnoids
Adult Arachnoid and Hatchling Arachnoid, as seen in 4.
Minigun-wielding scorpion-like creatures.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Adult Arachnoids are colored red, Hatchling/Young Arachnoids are colored yellow.
- The Coup: Were victims of this. Mental helped a Renegade Splinter Faction of religious fanatics in overthrowing their High Council of Scorpius and ruined thousands of years worth of culture.
- Cyborg: Retconned into this in BFE. In contrast to TFE and TSE, the adult Arachnoids now have their red armor surgically attached to their skin (on the front of their torsos as well as their arms, heads, and two of their legs) and their machine guns built into their pincers.
- Degraded Boss: The first encounter with an Adult Arachnoid in BFE and an Elder Arachnoid in Bright Islandnote is a Mini-Boss battle complete with health bar on the HUD. Afterwards, they appear more often.
- Elite Mook: The Adult Arachnoids are also bigger and have more health.
- Establishing Character Moment: In BFE, Sam finds the first instance at the end of the "Into the Spider Nest" level. The arena it's fought is a two-level ruined area.
- Giant Mook: Adult Arachnoids.
- Glass Cannon: Juvenile Arachnoids can be necksnapped in BFE, but they still have two miniguns which can shred their enemies' health bars if they're not careful.
- Insectoid Aliens: Sentient scorpion-like creatures which use weapons and armor and have stingers for their melee attacks, but don't move around much.
- Knight Templar: Heavily religious warriors who worship Mental as a Dark Messiah. According to Charlie, they weren't always this way.
- La Résistance: Apparently, there is a resistance movement within the Arachnoid civilization that's trying to fight back against Mental. One of their agents, Charlie, is present as an informant to help humanity during 4.
- Pintsized Powerhouse: A secret in the last level of TFE involves a pair of them the size of a rat... whose miniguns STILL deal quite the damage.
- Underground Monkey: They come in two varieties: smaller, weaker yellow ones ("Juvenile"), and larger, stronger red ones ("Adult").
Biomechanoids
Major biomechanoids and Minor biomechanoids, as seen in 4.
Big walking machine-like creatures.- Arm Cannon:
- The Minor ones and II's Tank variety have laser cannons in place of their hands
- The Major ones carry rocket launchers.
- Bilingual Bonus: Tank Biomechanoids in II speak Croatian.
- Chicken Walker: These units walk in this way due to the way their legs were implemented.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Major biomechanoids are colored red, Minor biomechas are smaller and colored blue instead.
- Cyborg: Artificially built biomechanical war machines.
- Degraded Boss: In BFE, the Major Biomechanoid becomes a Boss in Mook Clothing after the boss fight, either appearing solo or with other Biomechanoids, mostly Minor.
- Distaff Counterpart: The Female Major Biomechanoids in Double D. Complete with huge boobs and a purse.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In TFE, going into the desert behind the starting point will trigger five of them as a secret.
- Elite Mook: Major Biomechanoids have much more health, are bigger, and fire missiles instead of energy beams.
- Giant Mook: Major Bomechanoids, which are signifanctly taller than Minor Biomechanoids. The green Dominants exclusive to Serious Sam Classics: Revolution are even larger than that.
- "Instant Death" Radius: Major Biomechanoids are an interesting variation: at close range, you can't dodge their rockets, and they have tons of Splash Damage to shred Sam with.
- Last Ditch Move: Both classes, though Major Biomechanoids have quite a high chance of hitting the player with that one.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: The giant Biomechanoids are colored red, while the smaller ones are colored blue. True to form, the red Biomechanoids are stronger than their blue counterparts. In BFE the first encounter with one of these is even a Mini-Boss battle.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: At the end of the level "Broken Wings" in BFE, the Major Biomechanoid is introduced right after Sam cleans the Ibn Tulun mosque. It shoots down Garret's helicopter that the EDF was planning to use to extract Sam from the area. Then it makes an opening in the mosque with its missiles, and screams.
- Turns Red: In Double D, Female Biomechanoids will fire more rockets on low health.
- Underground Monkey: Four variations: Minor (blue, small, fires lasers), Major (red, big, fires missiles), Double D's Females, and II's Tank (replaces the chicken legs with a tank bottom and fires two laser cannons).
Aludran Reptiloids
Aludran Reptiloid, Male, as seen in 4.
Multi-handed creatures which fire homing energy balls towards their enemies.- Boss in Mook Clothing:
- Your first instance facing an Aludran Reptiloid in TFE is a Boss Battle.
- The rare "Highlander's Bride" version, which is, for all intents and purposes, a boss.
- Degraded Boss: In TFE. Menacing enough the first time, later they're just Giant Mooks.
- Fireballs: They fire green, homing ones.
- Homing Projectile: They fire balls which home on Sam whenever they lock on him.
- King Mook: Aludran Reptiloids - Highlanders.
- Lightning Bruiser: Aludran Reptiloids. Especially the Highlander's Bride variant, who is the fastest enemy in TSE, and one of the biggest.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: In 4, during Chapter 3, Sam just put a satellite beacon on the floor, when one of these approaches and conjures a homing projectile. Sam's response:Sam: Is that a wizard lizard, or a lizard wizard?
- More Deadly Than the Male: The Aludran Highlander's Bride. She's taller, angrier, and, if you get within slapping distance, can score a One-Hit Kill on you even with full health and armor.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: All variants have four arms each.
- Socialization Bonus: Several encounters with the Highlander and Highlander's Bride variants can only take place in Cooperative Multiplayer mode on higher difficulties:
- TFE spawns a Highlander in "Oasis" and another in "The Great Pyramid".
- TSE spawns six Highlanders in "The Great Cathedral", and a Highlander's Bride in "Land of the Damned".
- Spell My Name With An S: It's Aludran, not Alundran.
- Super-Persistent Missile: The magic fireballs thrown by them will never give up trying to hit the player - they simply bounce off terrain and buildings as they try to home in on the player.
- Tiny Guy, Huge Girl: The female Aludran Reptiloid - Highlander's Bride in TSE is much bigger than the males (110 feet tall to the male's 45 feet), as well as being powerful enough (they have about 6000 hp) to count as a Boss in Mook Clothing. Luckily you only encounter one on normal difficulty and the fight is optional.
- Turns Red: Highlander (And Highlander's Bride) Aludran Reptiloids fire twice as fast when heavily damaged.
- Underground Monkey:
- Common Aludran Reptiloids are green, medium-sized, and fire green homing projectiles.
- Aludran Reptiloids - Highlanders are red-colored, have more health than the Common variant, deal extra damage and Turns Red, shooting 6 fireballs per burst instead of 3. They also fire gold-colored homing projectiles.
- Aludran Reptiloids - Highlander's Brides has a pale skin color.
Lava Golems
Golems which attack throwing fireballs and split upon taking enough damage into smaller monsters.
- Asteroids Monster: Not only once, but the smaller fragments divide into smaller fragments when they die, and those smaller fragments divide into even smaller fragments.
- Fireballs: They fire them in an arc.
- Golem: Magical creatures made of lava.
- "Instant Death" Radius: It's not recommended to be near the big one during its Boss Battle.
- King Mook: The Uber Lava Golem.
- Magma Man: Humanoid golems made of lava.
Introduced in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter
Fiendian Demon Reptiloid
As seen in The Second Encounter HD.
A Demon-like creature that appears across The Second Encounter.- Big Red Devil: They certainly look the part, although they are actually just another race of aliens.
- Elite Mook: Twice as tough as their green Aludran counterparts, deal twice as much damage, and their projectiles travel twice as fast.
- Expy: Function-wise, they cover the same ground as the Aludran Reptiloids.
- Expy Coexistence: They can be found at the same time and space than Aludran Reptiloids. Case in point: "The Grand Cathedral".
- Fireballs: They fire fast, red ones spawning from a portal. Unlike the Aludran Reptiloids, these projectiles cannot be destroyed by most weapons, sans the SBC Cannon or the Laser.
- Giant Mook: Almost as tall as the Aludran Reptiloids.
- Super-Persistent Missile: The magic fireballs thrown by them will never give up trying to hit the player - they simply bounce off terrain and buildings as they try to home in on the player.
Zumb'ul of the planet Ras-ad-Nyk
As seen in The Second Encounter HD
Bipedal rocket-launching monsters.
- Bilingual Bonus: The name of the enemy Zumb'ul of the planet Ras-ad-Nyk translates to "Hyacinth of the planet Plant Nursery".
- Dual Wielding: They carry two Rocket Launchers, one on each arm.
Cucurbito the Pumpkin
As seen in The Second Encounter HD.
A gardener with a pumpkin as a head carrying a chainsaw.
- Chainsaw Good: It carries one.
Zorg from Beelmez IV
Zorg Commander and Zorg Mercenary
Humanoid, reptile-like mercenaries with blasters.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Zorg Commanders are blue-tinted, while Mercenaries are red-colored.
- Elite Mook: While they are still disposable cannon fodder, they are basically Beheaded Rocketeers except twice as good in every way. Twice as durable, fire two projectiles at a time instead of one, said projectiles do twice as much damage, and they travel twice as fast.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Inverted. The red-colored Mercenaries are in a lower tier than the blue-colored Commanders.
Introduced in Serious Sam II
Zombies
Weapon-wielding, reanimated civilians working for Mental.
- Bilingual Bonus:
- Zombie Stockbrokers speak Italian.
- Zombie Chaingunners speak German.
- Expy: Of Doom's zombie shotgunners (Stockbrokers) and chaingunners (Chaingunners).
Hell Chicks
Red-skinned stripperiffic female devils.
- Cute Monster Girl: Despite being shaped as devils, they aren't too bad looking.
- Devil's Pitchfork: Demonic women that wield tridents as weapons.
Yagoda the Witch
Flying witch who attacks from a distance. Mostly a stand-in for TFE and TSE's Witch-Harpies.
- Bilingual Bonus: Downplayed, her name could be roughly interpreted as "Berry the Witch".
Trash Spiders
Big spiders found in Magnor.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The smaller ones are as big as Sam, while the large ones are towering behemoths!
Ratbulls
II's stand-in for the Sirian Werebulls. They attack the same way one can expect towards Sam: by charging at him at full speed.
- Bilingual Bonus: They speak Croatian.
- Expy: Of the Sirian Werebulls from TFE and TSE.
Marcel the Clown
A monocycle-riding clown acting as a sturdier counterpart to the Beheaded Kamikaze.
- Action Bomb: A faster, sturdier, and more damaging version of the aforementioned Beheaded Kamikazes.
- Monster Clown: Evil alien clowns willing to blow themselves up just to kill people, all while laughing about it.
- Villains Out Shopping: One of them can be seen performing at Count Kleerofski's circus later in the game's fourth chapter. He accidentally falls to his death while the reporter at the event is talking.
Flying Kleer
Winged Kleer Skeletons armed with blunderbusses.
- Airborne Mook: Well, it's a flying Kleer Skeleton.
- Dem Bones: Flying sentient skeletons who shoot fireballs.
Primitive
A race native to M'Digbo that frequently attack the Simbas and are allied with Mental.
- Primitive Clubs: They wield spiked clubs as a weapon.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: The smaller primitives carry a shield.
Introduced in Serious Sam 3: BFE
Antaresian Spiders
Non-sentient species of arachnid-like aliens with adhesive surfaces on their feet, enabling them to cling onto walls and ceilings. They can also weave webs just like regular spiders, and are found in cocoons.
- Establishing Character Moment: The beginning of "Into the Spider's Nest" has Sam talking with Quinn about the findings of the deceased Professor Stein, when a hatchling crawls behind him.
- The Goomba: Both species can be melee-killed: Hatchlings by Sam stepping on them, and Juveniles by Sam ripping their head casing.
- Underground Monkey: The Hatchling Antaresian Spiders are mostly light-red-colored, and can be melee-killed. The larger Juvenile Antaresian Spiders are mostly light-blue-tinted, but are more resistant than their Hatchling variants.
Cloned Soldiers
Cybernetically modified clones of human soldiers. Carrying both shotguns and assault rifles, they are one of the most common enemies in the game.
- Body Horror: They have damaged skin by acid and temperature as a side effect of the process of their implants.
- Expy: Of Doom's Zombiemen enemies. Hardly surprising, considering that Croteam was approached by Id Software in order to work on what ended up being Doom (2016).
- The Goomba: Like the Beheaded Rocketeers, they are among the easiest enemies in the series.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: The Cloned Shotgunners wield one.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They serve as this to the Zorg enemies from TSE.
Sandwhale
Huge alien creatures acting as the game's Border Patrol.
- Border Patrol: Exist solely to prevent Sam to go out of bounds and are impossible to kill without straight-up nuking them. Some secrets require going through it, though.
- Chekhov's Gunman: They initially just seem to fulfill a gameplay function, but turn out to play an extremely important role in the final battle.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Their Flower Mouth is lined with multiple rows of large, black teeth and two massive, pincer-like appendages.
- Sandworm: Massive worm-like creatures that swim through sand, sense even slight seismic activity in their territory and eat anything that gets in their way.
- Small Role, Big Impact: During Sam's battle with Ugh-Zan IV, a sandwhale keeps attacking the general purely to defend its territory. These distractions give Sam the openings he needed to throw the metal rods into Ugh-Zan's back to weaken and defeat him. If it weren't for that sandwhale, Sam never would've made it to the Time-Lock in time and the rest of the series wouldn't have happened.
- Swallowed Whole: The fate of any creature unfortunate enough to catch their attention. They are large enough to swallow a bus without issue.
Technopolyp Helicopter
As seen in 4.
A parasite-possessed helicopter.
- Advancing Boss of Doom: The first part of the Mini-Boss battle in BFE involves Sam avoiding its attacks while searching for a Rocket Launcher, the only thing that can damage it.
- Airborne Mook: Basically, a parasite-possessed helicopter.
- Degraded Boss: Appears more frequently and in pairs after its boss fight.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: Halfway through "No Place to Hide" in BFE, after Sam reaches the crashing site of the helicopter and finds Garret dead, a Technopolyp falls from the sky and possesses the helicopter. Cue the Mini-Boss battle.
Aurigan Cave Demon
Monkey-like aliens originating from dark and cold caves in the bowels of their home planet. They have a small body, consisting of only veins and muscles, numerous bony growths on the nape and the line of the spine, a mouth full of sharp teeth and eyes that glow in the dark.
- Establishing Character Moment: Sam first finds a pack of them inside of the pyramid in the "Unearthing the Sun" level. They reside in a dark cave, and will try to avoid Sam's flashlight, while also attacking him In the Back.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: According to NETRICSA, their eyes glow in the dark.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: According to NETRICSA, they have quite a lot of sharp teeth.
Witch-Bride of Achriman
As seen in 4.
Formerly sorceresses of the Great Council, these witches arranged an alliance with Lord Achriman, Mental's General on Earth, but were deceived by him and overwhelmed by his dark powers.
- Deal with the Devil: What their alliance with Achriman turned out to be in the end. He was supposed to help them fight off Mental, unaware that Achriman was actually one of his servants the entire time.
- Degraded Boss: Introduced as a boss fight in BFE and 4, but become recurring enemies after that.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: The first is fought at the end of "The Dark Bride" in BFE. A bunch of nightmarish strings play in the background while the camera turns to her. She then makes a display of her telekinetic powers by lifting some stones... and then destroying them.Sam: Oooooohhhhh, I like a powerful woman.
- No Ontological Inertia: Sadly for them, this does not apply to whatever Achriman did to them, as he's already dead by their first series appearance.
- Intangibility: How their invulnerability actually works. They are trapped in a constant shift between the physical realm and the Shadow Plane that Achriman rules over, but can only attack and be attacked while in the same dimension as their enemy.
- Slave Mook: Exceptionally powerful ones, but the Witch-Brides do not work willingly for Mental. They originally tried to fight against him, but were enslaved by Lord Achriman when he tricked them into allying with him.
- Stripperific: As seen in the folder image, they are very attractive ladies put in revealing leathery outfits with a massive Cleavage Window. It's likely that Achriman intentionally made them wear it for extra humiliation.
Khnum
Click here to see the Khnum in BFE
Massive, ram-like creatures that shoot fireballs.
- A God Am I: According to their NETRICSA file in 4, the Khnums were the apex predators in their home system and ruled over the lesser sapient species by having them worship the Khnums as gods.
- Degraded Boss:
- The first Khnum that Sam fights in BFE appears as a boss at the end of the level "Unearthing the Sun". They appear more frequently in later levels.
- Similarly, the first Khnum that Sam encounters in 4 appears as a boss at the end of the level "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse," making further appearances later in the game.
- Establishing Character Moment:
- In the very first level of BFE, Sam sees a Khnum walk by behind a wall, barely even acknowledging Sam's presence as if he was beneath it.
- In 4, the first one faced by Sam is seen eating Thomas Jones.
- Expy: Of Doom's Baron of Hell enemies. Hardly surprising, considering the creature originated from a pitch Croteam created for what eventually became Doom (2016).
- Final Boss: One Khnum is faced as the boss in the Legend of the Beast DLC for Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter.
- Fireballs: Khnums' default attack is throwing fireballs at the player. The amount varies between games and difficulty, but usually maxes out at three.
- Giant Mook: The biggest normal enemy type in the mainline Serious Sam games and easily the toughest to take down.
- I Fight for the Strongest Side!: They willingly joined Mental's Horde because they acknowledged his superior military might.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The first Khnum faced in 4 is killed by getting the last HAARP beacon jammed through its skull as payback for eating Thomas Jones.
- Off with His Head!: In BFE, two players using the Sirian Mutilator on a single Khnum can rip its head clean off, which even nets an achievement. Sam also does it to one in 4 with the use of a snow mobile.
- Puzzle Boss: The Khnum fought in the Legend of the Beast DLC has more health than any other boss in the game, necessitating the use of an electric trap inside the arena that deals massive damage.
Scrapjack
As seen in 4.
Massive soldiers with rocket launchers for hands.- Expy: Of Doom's Mancubus enemies. Hardly surprising, considering the creature originated from a pitch Croteam created for what eventually became Doom (2016).
- Giant Mook: One of the tallest mooks of the series.
- Mook Debut Cutscene: In 4, it's seen shoving aside a Processed Anthropolyp and screaming.
Introduced in Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope
Skeletons
Humanoid variants of the Kleer Skeletons that stand on their hind legs and use their front legs to carry a sword and shield. They have glowing blue crystals on their backs, which makes them look as if they are actually blue.
- Temporary Online Content: The cosmetic Christmas variety can only spawn during the namesake dates.
Kalopsy
As seen in 4.
A strange flying creature with the shape of a large floating brain with a mouth. When not engaged in combat, it may occasionally spawn 5 guided projectiles, but when shot at, it will continouly spawn projectiles until its target is overwhelmed.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Upon death, it explodes and releases a massive burst of projectiles.
- Expy: Of Doom's Cacodemon.
- Interface Screw: The projectiles, should they hit the player, cause the screen to shake a bit.
Space Mummy
As seen in 4.
A mummy from outer space. Unlike many other more scientific enemy names, Sam was the first person to meet these mummified aliens and was thus allowed to name it.
- Attack Its Weak Point: Their exposed torso is the key to bing these bastards down.
- Playing with Fire: They throw indestructible fireballs to the player.
- King Mook: A gigantic mummy is encountered as the first boss of TLH.
Saggitarian Sidewinder
- Boss Tease: In 4, its first appearance has it bursting out from a building in the level it's fought.
- Degraded Boss: Fought as the first boss in 4, being encountered at the end of the second level. It shows up as a normal enemy later on.
- Macross Missile Massacre: Unleashes large amounts of missiles to attack.
Introduced in Serious Sam 4
Processed Anthropolyps
- Fragile Speedster: Quick to approach their enemies, but go down in a few shots.
- Was Once a Man: Humans caught by Mental forces who underwent a painful process where their heas was replaced by a bunch of microorganisms.
- Wolverine Claws: Their main method of attack is a series of hand blades attached to their arms.
Emetic Anthropolyps
- Giant Mook: Duplicate the size of the regular soldiers.
- Hollywood Acid: They shoot damaging balls of acid, and when they explode they release an acid cloud which causes Interface Screw and causes damage over time.
Zubenhakrabian Spiders
Adult Zubenhakrabian Spider and Zubenhakrabian Spider Nymph
Stand-ins in 4 for BFE's Antaresian spiders. Originally exotic pets adopted by Sirians, due to their short size, once the Sirians went extinct, Mental enlarged them through unknown means and added them to their army.
- Acid Attack: Their main way of attack is to spit acid.
- Spider Mook
- Underground Monkey: The Adults are bigger, stronger and have tougher exoskeletons than the Nymphs.
Aurigan Haemovore
- In-Series Nickname: Sam calls it "vampire".
- Mook Debut Cutscene: Sam, Kenny and Father Mikhail are crossing a passage when the following conversation occurs. Afterwards, an Haemovore vanished and starts attacking the party.Father Mikhail: I sense evil presence.Father Mikhail: No, I just see pale corpses and floating objects. [Points towards the Haemovore]
- Power Floats:
- Teleport Spam: One of its preferred methods of evading Sam's attacks is to harass him by teleporting all over the place.
Combat Drone
Octanian Soldiers
Octanian Gamma Trooper, Octanian Commander, Octanian Sniper and Siberian Mayhem's Octanian Grenadier
4's stand-in for the Beheaded soldiers, sometimes fighting alongside them.
- Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Soldiers have their visors cyan-colored, Commanders have theirs red-colored, and Snipers have theirs yellow-colored.
- Expy Coexistence: They share the battle with their Beheaded counterparts.
- Laser Sight: Octanian snipers have a highly visible laser so they are a bit easier to locate.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: They serve as this to the Zorg enemies from TSE as well as the Cloned Soldiers from BFE.
Draconian Pyromaniac
Large humanoid creatures wearing fireproof suits who belong to a species of fanatical fire-worshippers.
- Attack Its Weak Point: The napalm tanks on their backs are highly susceptible to weapon fire, and if they're destroyed, they die.
- Ax-Crazy: They aren't here to do Mental's deeds, they only want to watch anything burn.
- Kill It with Fire: Their only weapon is a flamethrower. When your motto is "it must end in fire", there's really nothing else to fall back on.
- Pyromaniac: It's right there in their name. And their only weapon is a Flamethrower.
Octanian Zealot
A heavy soldier who carries a huge hammer into battle.
Introduced in Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem
Aludran Microhopper
Cold-blooded tripedal amphibians with a heavy dependence on external heat sources. Microhoppers hibernate during periods of strong cold and can do so during the entirety of the winter. Any interruption of their hibernation cycle makes them extremely hostile.
- Acid Attack: Their main way of attacking is an acid spit.
- Expy: Of the Marsh-Hoppers from previous titles. Their NETRICSA file even points out their similarity, though research by the EDF has shown that they are more related to the Aludran Reptiloids. There's also a recreation of the first Marsh-Hopper swarm from The First Encounter, complete with the same music.
- Zerg Rush: Usually found in packs.
