Arachnoid

Juvenile
Adult
Elder
HD juvenile
HD adult
SS:TRE
SS:TGE

Arachnoid

General information

Type

Arthropod

Affiliation

Mental's Horde

Individual information

Health

300 (juvenile)
600 (adult)
1200 (elder)

Attacks / weapons

Chaingun (3 per bullet)
Juvenile sting (20)
Adult sting (40)
Elder sting (80)

Equipment

Techno-magical ammunition replenisher

Size

10 ft (3 m) standing (juvenile)
20-25 ft (6 to 7.6 m) standing (adult)

Game information

Point value

1000 (juvenile)
5000 (adult)
10.000 (elder)

Entity name

Scorpman (SS1)

Arachnoids are large scorpion-like enemies equipped with a chaingun, which serves as their main weapon in combat. They have appeared in many Serious Sam titles, including remakes and spin-offs throughout the series.

Overview[]

Arachnoids are holy warriors of a primitive race of scorpion-like creatures that evolved from arthropods. On their home planet, they are an extremely hostile species due to their violent culture and religious convictions.^[1] They have willingly joined Mental's army, and they worship him as a Messiah. After they joined his army, Mental replaced one of their pincers with a hand and equipped them with a chaingun and techno-magical ammunition replenisher.

There are two types of Arachoids encountered in ther series: juveniles and adults. Juveniles can be identified by their yellow exoskeleton, while adults are much larger and have a red exoskeleton. The adults also have more health and fire in volleys twice as long compared to the juveniles. Their exoskeletons provide good protection from small-arms fire, though they can still be take moderate damage from grenades and rockets. The other types of of Arachnoids that appear in newer titles (Serious Sam 3: BFE, Serious Sam 4 etc.), the Hatchling Arachnoid and the Adult Arachnoid, are likely the same renditions of the juvenile and the adults from older games, but it is not known if they are the same species or a different race altogether.

A third type of Arachnoid, called the Elder Arachnoid, only appears in Serious Sam Classics: Revolution. It serves as the boss of The Sunken Pyramid, where it is accompanied by weaker enemies like Gnaars and Zorg Mercenaries.

Application[]

Arachnoids are often positioned in places that grant them a good view of their surroundings and to provide them with an opportunity to force the target into cover. Places where Arachnoids spawn include the top of buildings, walls and pillars. Occasionally, an Arachnoid will spawn in front of the entrance to a room. Some are also spawned as traps when picking up susipicious items like health pills or armor shards.

An Arachnoid's main purpose is to harass the player and to force them into cover. In some cases, this can lead to the player getting cornered by enemies on the ground, which can leave the player overwhelmed and vulnerable.

Appearances[]

Arachnoids are common enemies in every game they appear in. In the first few levels, the player will often encounter juvenile Arachnoids, either on their own or in small groups. As the player progresses, adults begin to appear alongside the juveniles and become much more frequent. In some games, especially in The First Encounter, Arachnoids will sometimes spawn as a trap after the player picks up an item like a health pill or armor shard. Tiny Arachnoids can also appear in secrets, such as in Sacred Yards and in the secret yard in The City of the Gods.

Serious Sam 1[]

In Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Arachnoids are first encountered in Tomb of Ramses III. Later on, they become much more frequent.

In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, both variants appear on the first level all the way towards the final level.

In Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, Elder Arachnoids appear in the later levels, occurring infrequently and sometimes spawned as traps in secrets.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter[]

Arachnoids first appear in small numbers, but they continue to grow in larger numbers in later encounters. They only try to come close to the player when they're far away, but when they're close enough, they try to keep a short distance and shoot rapidly at them until the player gets some distance or they die.

Behavior and skills[]

When an Arachnoid spots the target, its primary attack is to fire a rapid volley of bullets from its chaingun. Their chainguns are highly accurate, hitscan weapons, which can make it very difficult to dodge the Arachnoid's bullets, even from a distance. Their chaingun is a dangerous weapon from low to medium range and it can drain the player's health quickly, especially on higher difficulties. Adult Arachnoids fire for a slightly longer period of time than juveniles, and are also equipped with a larger chaingun which deals more damage. The Elder Arachnoid has an even larger chaingun which can fire for an even longer period of time compared to adults and juveniles. Its melee attack does even more damage as well and, just like the Highlander Aludran Reptiloid's punch attack, can instantly kill the player on higher difficulties.

The Arachnoid's secondary attack is impaling the player with its sting. This attack is deadly and deals a lot more damage than their chainguns.^[1] They will only use this attack if the player gets too close to them, which isn't usualy possible as they are often spawned far away from the player and in inaccessible places. Additionaly, the Arachnoid will have cut up the player with its chaingun long before the player can get within melee range.

Like some enemies, Arachnoids are susceptible to flinching, which can temporarily prevent them from firing. This can be used to the player's advantage and enable them to finish off the Arachnoid quickly before it resumes firing again.

Arachnoids emit loud sounds which varies depending on the situation; they will make a hissing sound upon sighting the player, and will scream when they are hurt. When idle, an Arachnoid will give off a loud screech, which can easily give away their presence.

Tactics[]

Serious Sam 1[]

Arachnoids in far-away positions can easily be dispatched with the RAPTOR Sniper Rifle. If the player doesn't have the sniper rifle, they're playing The First Encounter, or they need to dispatch multiple Arachnoids from far away quickly, then they can use the XM214-A Minigun, as it has perfect accuracy and can do a lot of damage quickly. The XL2 Lasergun also works well for this purpose.
Both Arachnoid types are weak to strong weapons such as the MK III Grenade Launcher or the XPML21 Rocket Launcher (though the sniper rifle is still better). A quick volley of grenades or rockets can quickly kill both types of Arachnoid.
In later levels in the games, it appears that the Arachnoid (mostly the juvenile variant) is used as an improvised sniper by placing them in far away areas. This makes them very dangerous because their bullets can reach the player from any distance. On higher difficulty modes, where their bullets can do a lot of damage, they can inflict major damage without the player being able to figure out where it's coming from until it's too late.
Stay away from Arachnoids at all times; their stinger is very dangerous and can deal a ton of damage.
The player should never attack a group of Arachnoids head-on. Their chaingun fire will inflict significant damage, if not outright kill the player, very quickly. Instead, the player should pick them off one at a time and take cover often away from their line of fire.
When an Arachnoid prepares to fire or is firing, the Arachnoid is sensitive to being damaged. A few bullets cause a juvenile Arachnoid to flinch for a few seconds, stopping their barrage of bullets. This allows to take lone or a few of them out in the open. Adult Arachnoids require more damage to flinch, but an explosive or constant minigun fire will do it. A sniper bullet or a poorly charged cannonball from the SBC Cannon always does so (fully charged balls usually kill them instantly).
Arachnoids have a machine gun equipped on only one hand. It is often possible for the player to position themselves so that they have a line of sight on the Arachnoid while not being in danger.
With other enemies, Arachnoids should be high-priority targets as long as there is no cover, as their attacks cannot be dodged. While their attacks do barely any damage on Tourist and Easy difficullties, on higher difficulties, taking them out as quickly as possible is required to survive.

Serious Sam Classics: Revolution[]

During the Elder Arachnoid boss fight in The Sunken Pyramid, the player must be careful to not fall off the top of the pyramid as otherwise they will most likely have to reload from a previous save.
Elder Arachnoids are best taken down with the CDF-ST-005 Plasmathrower or the cannon.

Behind the scenes[]

An early alpha Serious Editor image shows an adult Arachnoid with very undetailed and blurry skin, along with a much lower-poly model.
In Test 1, the adult Arachnoid had a different skin and model compared to both the alpha and final versions. Both skin and model are more detailed than the alpha, but the skin lacks the intricate details the final version's skin had. In fact, it is based off of the alpha skin's design, but had more details. Its eyes were also different compared to the ones seen in both the Alpha and final skins.
Pre-release information reveals there were actually two additional Arachnoid variants that were cut. The game's code reveals that there was supposed to be an even stronger third version of the Arachnoid — the monster. It would have 1200 HP and inflict 80 damage with its melee attack. There was supposed to be a fourth version of the Arachnoid, with rusty skin and blue spots. It would have been as large as a house according to Croteam. It would have been extremely powerful and also would have appeared very rarely. This specific variant later re-appears in Serious Sam Classics Revolution, named the Elder Arachnoid.

Trivia[]

The Arachnoid's chaingun reuses the same Thompson's firing sound.
The Arachnoid is called "Scorpman" in the game files.
In pre-Serious Sam Fusion releases, in co-op, depending on how an Arachnoid kills a player, an on-screen obituary message reading "An Arachnoid poured lead into [player name]." or "[player name] was stabbed by an Arachnoid." (melee) will appear.
- The latter player death message also applies to the Adult Arachnoid in Serious Sam 3: BFE, despite that the Adult Arachnoid in that game uses its pincers for its melee attack instead of its tail.
The King Scorpion, a boss in I Hate Running Backwards, bears a resemblance to the adult Arachnoid variant, though he uses two chainguns instead of one.