need tips for killing archviles

[Zero Master's Clone]

okay so i am very at DOOM 2 but there is one thing i could never get good at doing and that is dodging attacks form archviles

 

so i am requesting tips from the master archvile killers

 

i am usually very busy programming so i will just say thank you in advance

Edited November 21, 2021 by Zero Master's Clone

[Edward850]

 

[GarrettChan]

ZeroMaster's Clone doesn't know how to kill AVs, so does that actually a clone? :thinking:

[Captain POLAND]

Hide behind stuff whenever you see the flame.

[thiccyosh]

Here is a tip from a somewhat good Doom player: fuggin' kill it.

[RonLivingston]

The one way to dodge the archviles fire is to stand in front of a wall just so the flames don't explode on you

[DarkIceCyclone]

Archvile attack consists of 2 parts: an on hit attack and an explosion. 

You want to either hurt him or dodge the attack when she is about to finish it. Best option: duck behind cover. Anything tall enough to block the line of sight will also block the attack.Also, here is Decinos video about arch vile.

Spoiler

 

 

 

[Dweller Dark]

Best tactic I know to deal with archviles is hit-and-run, shoot them and hide when they start doing the flame attack. Sometimes it's important to take them out as quickly as possible too.

[Senor Cacodemon]

1 hour ago, Zero Master's Clone said:

okay so i am very at DOOM 2 but there is one thing i could never get good at doing and that is dodging attacks form archviles

 

so i am requesting tips from the master archvile killers

 

i am usually very busy programming so i will just say thank you in advance

If you see a wall HIDE BEHIND IT WHILE HE IS LIGHTING YOU ON FIRE. Also I usually use an ssg against archviles but for long range rockets are also really good

[Arrowhead]

Another tactic that is useful is bumping into the 'vile between SSG shots, (if in a close-combat situation) this can stop the arch-vile from exiting a smaller room / nook, and going into a bigger open area w/ less cover where you'll more likely be bested...

 

Remember, the arch-vile has no melee attack!

Edited November 22, 2021 by Arrowhead

[Teo Slayer]

Then he is about to attack you, be fast and hide behind a wall. After he stops attacking, get out and shoot at him with whatever you've got

Oh and yeah, do a loop of that if it needs

[CBM]

to defeat the archvile: shoot at it until it dies :-)

[DynamiteKaitorn]

If you're using a ZDooM engine, do the following:

Step 1 - Face the archvile

Step 2 - open the console

Step 3 - Type MDK

Step 4 - Watch the vile die

Step 5 - Celebrate

[OniriA]

Shoot at it until it dies.

 

 

[Eric Claus]

2 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

ZeroMaster's Clone doesn't know how to kill AVs, so does that actually a clone? :thinking:

 

Some flaws are to be expected in the early models

[Zero Master's Clone]

2 hours ago, GarrettChan said:

ZeroMaster's Clone doesn't know how to kill AVs, so does that actually a clone? :thinking:

well I'm the orginal clone so I have to learn everything from the start

[Zero Master's Clone]

2 hours ago, thiccyosh said:

Here is a tip from a somewhat good Doom player: fuggin' kill it.

best tip EVER

[Andromeda]

ZDoom-based source ports:

1. Open console (\ key).
2. Type "KILL ARCHVILE".
3. Press Enter.
4. ???
5. Profit!

Boom-based source ports:

 

Type "TNTEM" while playing.

 

Vanilla/vanilla-based source ports:

1. Type IDDQD, followed by IDFA while playing.
2. Press 7.
3. Hold the fire button (Ctrl, MOUSE1).
4. ???
5. Profit!

Edited November 21, 2021 by Andromeda

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

I always thought that Bloodite Krypto was the OG Zero Master clone?

 

Anyway, besides taking cover, there isn't really too much to add. The SSG has a good chance of causing pain, or you could always shove a rocket up his yellow hiney when it's appropriate.

[Archfiend]

4 hours ago, Zero Master's Clone said:

okay so i am very at DOOM 2 but there is one thing i could never get good at doing and that is dodging attacks form archviles

 

so i am requesting tips from the master archvile killers

 

i am usually very busy programming so i will just say thank you in advance

His attack lands when his hands clasp together. He has a very low pain chance, but each SSG shot has a chance of ~47% to trigger his pain state and interrupt his animations (if all pellets hit). Goes down in... 2-3 rockets, I think? Instantly begins hunting down whatever hits him, even while he's in his attack animation, so if he's infighting with some demons, wait until you see a demon jump (his attack launches targets) and then start firing rockets while he's locked in place.

[lunchlunch]

.

Edited October 18, 2022 by lunchlunch

[PsychEyeball]

I never feel bad using the BFG against Arch-viles. On close range, this is an assured insta-kill on them. Otherwise, they go down with 4 rockets or 4 point-blank SSG shots.

 

If you don't have any cover handy to dodge its attack, use the BFG to kill it as soon as possible. If this isn't an option, the Super Shotgun is good for triggering their pain chance, Plasma Rifle is also quite decent at this (although a little less reliable).

 

Unlike any other enemy in the game, Arch-Viles will prioritize attacking the very last target that attacked it, no matter how much damage was dealt... so you may want to get monsters to infight with it. The moment it starts attacking other monsters, DON'T ATTACK IT AGAIN. There's nothing like watching an Arch-vile getting ready to zap another enemy, then accidently hurting it and watching the Arch-vile suddenly zap you with no warning or time to react.

[Kyka]

18 hours ago, Andromeda said:

ZDoom-based source ports:

1. Open console (\ key).
2. Type "KILL ARCHVILE".
3. Press Enter.
4. ???
5. Profit!

Boom-based source ports:

 

Type "TNTEM" while playing.

 

Vanilla/vanilla-based source ports:

1. Type IDDQD, followed by IDFA while playing.
2. Press 7.
3. Hold the fire button (Ctrl, MOUSE1).
4. ???
5. Profit!

 

I was just gonna say "with guns" But I like that you have gone to way more trouble to mildly troll. :)

 

On a slightly serious note, you can actually see the archvile-hurling-fire-at-you frame for a split second, and you can quickly duck behind cover. You don't have to be in cover at the very moment that the arch fires at you, but a moment after.

[Summer Deep]

The AV zips around really quickly, so he can be very tricky to hit with rockets. However, just when he goes into his crouching position prior to launching his spell, he's immobile, and a rocket fired at him just then is pretty much guaranteed to hit, provided your aiming is on target. You need then to get out of his line of sight very quickly, as you only have a second or so.

 

It's surprising also how frequently the AV doesn't bother to close in on you when fighting at fairly close quarters - in such situations you can often down him with four SSG shots, provided you take cover after each one of course.

 

When you've played a section before, and know where and when the AV will appear, it's usually very straightforward to take him out with a single BFG blast, provided you're reasonably close to him and react quickly.

 

You can occasionally just dispose of him when you're straight in front of him with no cover, by stunning him with your SSG blasts just before he launches his attack, causing him to delay it and let you follow up with further blasts. Your timing needs to be spot on with this though, it usually doesn't work (for me at least), and when it does, it's largely a matter of luck.

 

Edited November 22, 2021 by Summer Deep

[Shepardus]

If you have no way to avoid the arch-vile's attack, see if you can get up in its face so it hurts itself with the blast damage portion of its attack. If you're going to get hurt, you may as well get something out of it, and it's always funny to see an arch-vile kill itself.

[baja blast rd.]

Some basic stuff. The "pro tip" vile one gets tossed around a lot but most of these are individually more important.

 

 

 

Learning to minimize time spent in cover -- and gain the dexterity required to do that -- is the biggest gain. If a vile has you pinned down in hiding practically the instant it starts attacking (or switching into "got to get to cover" mode that early), viles will be really oppressive. Skilled players will sometimes spend like a literal fraction of a second in cover, or even go back out of cover instantly when they realize they can sneak in another shot. That takes practice to do so it can help to practice that. 

 

Vile fights are often very momentum-based, so one common theme is favoring aggression to whatever extent you can get away with it. (And I don't mean "throwing yourself into a horde" to kill the vile and then dying.) 

 

~

 

Viles don't advance at you when they are attacking, so a common benefit of minimizing hiding against one or more viles in the same general area of a room is you keep baiting their attacks so they won't gain ground on you or (worse) separate and team up on you from different angles. 

 

~

 

Many vile fights are essentially gambits* that in the process of trying to avoid vile blasts (or desperately trying to kill the vile), the player will take more damage from other monsters, or panic and get themselves into a crappy spot. 

 

So if you have decent health/armor and a vile+backup fight is actually hard, it's often pragmatic to decide "okay I'll risk tanking exactly one vile blast no matter what to quickly kill it, and that'll effectively autowin (because of nothing else being much of a danger anymore when not collaborating with the vile's threat)." 

 

*(They might not be designed consciously to exploit that, but the mapper has the same bias -- natural, logical assumptions like, "the player wants to avoid vile blasts" -- so is designing the danger of fights around that behavior.) 

 

~

 

The rocket launcher will finish off a vile that isn't attacking before it completes an attack (minus occasional unlucky 5-rocket viles), so if you're caught in a bad position, committing to the offensive like this can be better than trying to take cover. 

 

~

 

Lobbing rockets at viles can be tricky because they are fast and have a narrow hitbox, but is made substantially easier by constantly keeping the angle you are facing at 45(n) degrees diagonal (relative to the blockmap's orthogonality). That greatly increases the effective area of both monster and projectile hitboxes. When you do that, you "track" the archvile not by turning but by strafing to follow it.

 

(Also useful with revenants.)

 

~

 

If you're fighting with the plasma rifle, an archvile that is substantially weakened (like a third or more of its HP gone -- gone, not remaining) usually won't get a completed attack off at all if you hose it down with plasma, even without painstun. I sometimes see people throw themselves way out of position or eat another blast trying to get to cover against a half-health vile when they can instead finish them off with impunity.

 

~

 

BFGing packs of viles: instead of point-blanking one vile, it's more helpful to get 2-4 or more in the cone of tracers (even if that doesn't always kill one, it'll do way more total damage). Sometimes people do the 'kill exactly one per shot' approach which ends up taking them out way too slowly and they can overwhelmed. 

 

With truly big groups of viles, it helps to know of "tracer stacking," where you fire lots of BFG shots at some distant wall with the proper angle, and then engage the viles, and then the combination of BFG shots you're firing and remote-detonating tracers can do a lot of work and immediately neutralize a surprisingly big pack.

 

~

Question your assumptions. If you're playing a big slaughtermap … do you really have to Risk It All to stop that vile from reviving a few hell knights that then re-die to the cyberdemon. Viles are good at baiting autopiloty play that the rest of the encounter capitalizes on to hurt you, so be willing to make adjustments if some type of playing is getting you killed. Also understand when you can and should totally deprioritize viles (it's not unheard of). 

[galileo31dos01]

To add to rd's essay, specifically the "deprioritize" bit mixed with other points... one minimalist, non-slaughter example that first came to mind is in "Oops All Techbase" map 08 at the southern storage area - it's a good place to put this plan in practice and start getting familiar with it in case you aren't already, so lemme describe it:

 

The room is stuffed with crates on both sides plus a couple in the middle, a lot of substantial cover, you have the SSG and the setup features an archvile among other different lurkers, which try their best to corner you between the crates or push you into the archvile's line-of-sight, or other dangers. This way of complementing each other, in a well designed fight, is what gets you into reevaluating priorities (or what's a primary target), so the "player will take more damage from other monsters, or panic and get themselves into a crappy spot" part comes in. You could try to kill the archvile first, because the strategy is accessible, but it also lets everything else bunch up on your face more easily. Or, you may get rid of the other lurkers before, and that's the interesting part because you need to take into consideration where they should be dying -- the archvile tends to stay in the middle as long as you keep alternating cover, so killing the revenants and gunners around the lateral crates decreases the chance of resurrections, so the vile is gonna be all for yourself later.

 

:)

[spineapple tea]

On 11/21/2021 at 1:44 PM, Zero Master's Clone said:

okay so i am very at DOOM 2

 

[Sneezy McGlassFace]

My usual strategy is to shoot at them until they die. But I'm no doomgod, ymmw

 

edit: jokes aside, they're pretty straightforward. You see flames, hide behind something so they can't see you. Wait a bit for them to finish the animation, poke your head out to shoot again. If you pop out too soon, they'll hit you, if you wait too long, they'll come for you, and you may need to find another hiding spot. SSG is your friend - best chance for stun-lock. If they stun-lock, you can get another SSG blast safely.

Edited June 5, 2022 by HrnekBezucha

[smeghammer]

On 11/21/2021 at 8:23 PM, Captain POLAND said:

Hide behind stuff whenever you see the flame.

This, and what @HrnekBezucha says above.

 

You will learn the sequence of the flame powerup and release, so you can hide for as short a time as possible, and loose off shots as often as possible...