Heretic monster item drops

[Hisymak]

I'm playing lot of Heretic (actually I had Heretic earlier than Doom) and one thing which Heretic excels at (in comparison to Doom) are much more variable and interesting monster item drops. Unlike Doom, in Heretic, almost ALL monster types will drop something after killed (except just Gargoyles and D'Sparil). Furthermore, the drops are random and some monsters can drop more than just one type of item (and some even have "rare drops" which can significatnly affect gameplay by giving you advantage, which is just a matter of luck). During my numerous Heretic (vanilla/mappack) playthroughs I was thinking about the drops a lot, and I would like to elaborate about my findings and thoughts. And I'd be happy to make some interesting Heretic-related thread!

 

So, my main idea I got about Heretic monster item drops, is that probably monsters types are designed to drop the ammo type for a weapon, which is the best to use against them. I'll go through every monster type and explain why I think it.

Golem - drops Wand Crystal (3 ammo): Golem is the second lightest monster type in game, which you encounter in the first level, and overally it's expected to appear near begining of levels, when you start just with your elven wand (in case of "pistol start" mode). Therefore getting a bonus wand crystal comes in handy, and if you need to conserve better ammo, it's good to use wand against golems. Wand is also better against ghost golems than a crossbow, and it's good to snipe nitrogolems in larger distance.

Undead Warrior - drops Ethereal Arrows (5 ammo): The third type of monster you encounter, and that's when you already have Ethereal Crossbow. It's moderately strong and ethereal crossbow is a good weapon against it. That does not much apply to ghost undead warriors, but still.

Disciple of D'Sparil - drops Claw Orb (10 ammo) + rare drop Tome of Power: The fourth type of monster you encounter when you own a Dragon Claw. It's a flying monster, which is annoying because it's pushed backwards when hit by your weapon, so often you need to snipe it from longer distance, so Dragon Claw (a hitscan weapon) is more fitting than a crossbow. Its projectiles deal you lot of damage, so you usually want to kill it fast and keep it in pain state by a rapid fire weapon. When charging at you, they alternate into ghost state, so crossbow is not the best.

Sabreclaw - drops Lesser Runes (20 ammo): A fast meele monster, more of them can easily corner you and block your path. Therefore a rapid fire weapon with a strong knockback effect is best against them, which is exactly the Hellstaff!

Weredragon - drops Ethereal Arrows (10 ammo): A big tanky monster, which is rather slow. It has quite big hitbox and no ghost state, so the ethereal crossbow (even better if it's tomed) is pretty fitting weapon against them.

Ophidian - drops Flame Orb (5 ammo): Quite small but very durable monster, not moving very fast but its projectiles take reasonable damage to you. Due to high hit points it's quite a bullet sponge, so a strong weapon that can easily elliminate them is a good choice. Phoenix Rod, like Doom's rocket launcher, deals splash damage, so it's even better against a swarm of Ophidians. You usually need 2 phoenix rod shoots to kill a single ophidian, but due to their drop giving you 5 extra ammo instead of just one, it's definitely worth it.

Iron Lich - drops Claw Orb (10 ammo) or a Morph Ovum: The boss monster in the first episode, where the strongest weapon you have is dragon claw. Their attacks can be strong so you want to keep them in pain state with a rapid fire weapon. Usually you want to keep them farther from you so a hitscan weapon comes in handy.

Maulotaur - drops Flame Orb (10 ammo) or a Mystic Urn: Standalone Phoenix Rod is weak against them as they are immune to splash damage, BUT tomed up phoenix rod is a different story - it's the most effective way to kill a Maulotaur, and if lucky, you need just a single point of ammo to kill. But you must be very cautious against its attacks.

 

So, that's about Heretic's monster drops! What do you think? Does that make sense to you? Any other thoughts?

[ASD]

The items could function as essence, spells and charms used by the monsters. The Nitro Golems and Undead Warriors make most sense in this aspect since they seem to be powered up by those items. But then there's the Iron Lich with its Morph Ovum and Weredragon with its Ethereal Arrows that don't seem to have any connection with their respective items.

[Toilet_Wine_Connoisseur]

details are like that are Why I love Heretic so much. On its surface it feels like a fantasy reskin of doom, but has so many subtle changes that make it stand out more and more the longer u play it 

[Hisymak]

On 7/1/2022 at 4:25 PM, ASD said:

The items could function as essence, spells and charms used by the monsters. The Nitro Golems and Undead Warriors make most sense in this aspect since they seem to be powered up by those items. But then there's the Iron Lich with its Morph Ovum and Weredragon with its Ethereal Arrows that don't seem to have any connection with their respective items.

Yeah, that was also the thing that came into my mind first, when I was thinking about this Heretic mechanics. However, as you say, some of the drops don't make sense (ethereal arrows dropped from weredragons makes the least sense from all) so I thought about coming up with a different, alternative idea, what could be behind these choices.

On 7/1/2022 at 11:37 PM, Toilet_Wine_Connoisseur said:

details are like that are Why I love Heretic so much. On its surface it feels like a fantasy reskin of doom, but has so many subtle changes that make it stand out more and more the longer u play it 

I agree. It's actually completely different game from Doom. It has some things in common (the engine and stuff), lacks some things (bigger variety of monster types and textures), but has many new things, both technical (looking up/down, flying) and gameplay-related (inventory system, tome of power) etc.

When thinking about some more details of Heretic, just recently I found out (and got surprised) that weredragons have gib animation. It can happen only when weredragon is killed with tomed up firemace (which I don't use often because it sucks while strafing around monsters). I'm curious what other interesting things are there.