"You got a thick skin?" ~ Sam
The Khnum is an enemy that appears in Serious Sam 3: BFE and a boss in the Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter DLC, The Legend of the Beast.
Overview
The Khnum is a large, aggressive creature that comes from the distant planet Arietis Lambda, where it is worshipped by smaller creatures as a god. Although not divine in any way, its thick skin and regenerative abilities make it appear to be immortal. The name Khnum, comes from an ancient Egyptian god due to their ram-like head.
There is no apparent explanation with why they are working with Mental's forces.
Appearance
The Khnum is a very large, bipedal creature, standing approximately forty five feet tall. Its thick, grey skin and immense muscle mass make it both durable and powerful. Its head features red eyes, a gaping mouth showing razor teeth and two prominent horns similar to a goat, but not practical for use as a weapon. They do not have feet, rather they have two large hooves that, while slow, allow it to walk as fast as Sam. They do have hands, each with three fingers and what appears to be an opposable thumb, which they use to conjure fireballs.
NETRISCA information
"Khnums are a very powerful and aggressive race, originating from Arietis Lambda. On their home planet they are worshiped as gods by smaller creatures. They are not actually divine, but due to their thick skin and powerful regenerative capabilities, they can appear immortal. Due to their ram-like heads, this race is usually associated with the Egyptian god Khnum. Khnums are very powerful and dangerous opponents, relying on their immense physical strength and size to crush everything in their way and smash anyone who dares to oppose them."
Occurrence
The Khnum appears early in the game as a passing feature, looking at the player but does not engage, as if disinterested. Later, it emerges after Sam activates the first Time-Lock generator, Horus. The first encounter with it takes place in a relatively narrow corridor with pillars that can be destroyed and a crate of C4 Explosive, which can help defeat it when no other explosive weapon may be available.
Subsequent Khnums appear most commonly alone or in pairs with groups of enemies. However, in the final level, several can appear at the same time. They usually appear with larger amount of weaker enemies.
Attacks
The Khnum has several attacks it may perform.
- If Sam gets too close, it may attempt a swipe, which does high damage.
- Also, it may use a hoof stomp attack which is faster, but does less damage.
- Its ranged attack is a triple fireball that it conjures in its hand. It can toss it quickly for a quick attack, but this has less range and the fireballs are tightly grouped together. It usually performs this attack when it sees incoming projectiles from the player (such as rockets) and is strafing to dodge them.
- It may also charge the fireballs, which is easily visible by the glow in its hand. This will make the fireballs travel great distances and also spread them out.
Although the fireballs have no target tracking of their own, the Khnum can throw them so that if the target is moving, it will hit the target if it continues its movement in the same direction. An easy counter for this is to change direction. The fireballs travel extremely fast and cause immense amounts of damage to Sam's health.
Unlike missiles and fireballs in earlier Serious Sam games, fireballs in Serious Sam: BFE cannot be destroyed by gunfire.
Fighting
Due to its thick skin, bullets bounce harmlessly off a Khnum, regardless of where they're hit. Only explosives will damage a Khnum, with each explosive weapon sometimes being more appropriate depending on the situation. With C4 equipped, a red C4 target will appear on the Khnum's chest. Although effective, (requiring roughly three attached blocks of C4) C4 may not always be the best choice considering the distance required to successfully attach C4. Khnums tend to run towards the player, bringing themselves, and the attached explosives closer to an unsafe distance. On the other hand, detonating an attached C4 will always stun the Khnum, so consistently using C4 can take it down without it attacking or advancing.
The Rocket Launcher is also another choice, but Khnums will actively dodge rockets shot at them, making hitting them difficult when not in close proximity. Khnums will also throw fireballs when dodging rockets, increasing the difficulty of successfully hitting one. This makes the Rocket Launcher one of the more challenging ways to engage Khnums, especially multiple groups. It is advised to fire rockets just as Khnum starts charging, stop when Khnum gets too close and then start firing again when Khnum starts to use a ranged attack.
The AS-24 Devastator is a much better choice, doing roughly as much damage as the rocket launcher, but because of the faster projectile, Khnums are unable to dodge each shot.
The SBC Cannon is a very good weapon to take a Khnum down, needing only two fully charged hits. In addition, it causes them flinch after getting hit, preventing them from firing. However, due to the rarity of Cannonballs, players may opt in using other methods.
It is possible to decapitate a Khnum with the Sirian Mutilator, but only with at least two players using the Mutilator simultaneously. If a player attempts to decapitate a Khnum alone, then it will grab the beam and pull the player closer, which puts them in danger of a melee attack and usually disrupts the beam's charging process. Even if the player holds the charge indefinitely alone, the Khnum will not be decapitated.
However, using sirian mutilator in single player against khnum can still be useful as it temporarily stuns khnum, stopping its charge and making khnum vulnerable to C4.
With other enemies, Khnums are a medium-high-priority target. Their projectiles can be dodged at a distance but they deal a lot of damage and it can be hard to keep track of if other enemies are present.
Boss
The first Khnum encountered in the game serves as a boss. It is fought in "Unearthing the Sun" in an enclosed space filled with pillars, and has over twice as much health as a normal Khnum. The fight is fairly simple; there is a crate of (infinite) C-4 Demolition Charges in the area, simply open it, run up the Khnum, throw the explosive charge on the creature's chest, then quickly detonate it. This will take a chunk off it's life bar, and temporarily stun it. While it is stunned, throw another charge on it, detonate the charge, and repeat until it's dead. It should only take six or seven charges as long as you make sure to attach to the Khnum rather than detonate the pack near it. If you need to avoid the boss to gather more explosives or to just get to the ammo box in the first place, remember to use the pillars as cover to avoid it's fireballs, and to sprint at all times, since the boss will be constantly trying to melee you.
Legend of the Beast
The Khnum appears in the Legend of the Beast DLC as the final boss of the 3-level mini-campaign. It's found waiting for the player on its throne, in a reddish room. The room has a number of columns, which the Khnum can easily smash, but they will protect the player from an incoming fireball.
The room also has 6 switches and a metal platform in the middle, where a lightbeam shines. One of the switches is located above the Khnum's throne, and another one is on the opposite side of the wall, facing the one above the throne. 2 others are on the right and left upper wings of the room, and another group of 2 are on the right and left lower wings of the room. The ones on the lower wings of the room need to be activated in order for the one opposite of the throne to be activated. The one above the throne will not activate unless all others are active.
The Khnum has a tremendous health amount of 100,000, which makes it the second boss with the highest health in the Serious Sam series, only exceeded by the Mental Institution. Given that fact, your weapons will do no harm to it. Although, once all 6 switches are activated, if the Khnum is hit by the electric beam, it will take out 1/3 of its health if it stands in it for the full duration (the Khnum is stunned while hit by the beam). The Khnum will also punch the player if he/she gets too close.
Unlike Khnums in Serious Sam 3, the Khnum from the Legend of the Beast is vulnerable to every weapon, asides from the Serious Bomb (which you cannot acquire normally in the mini-campaign anyway).
Appearance Statistics
The below list shows how many of this enemy type appears in each game, per difficulty and either single or co-op mode.
| Games | Tourist, Easy and Normal Single Player | Hard and Mental single player | Serious Difficulty single player | Tourist, Easy and Normal Co-op | Hard and Mental Co-Op | Serious Co-Op |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Serious Sam 3: BFE | 127 | 127 | 127 | 133 | 133 | 133 |
Related Achievements
| Name and Icon | Description | Notes |
| Headsman | Decapitate a Khnum. | Can only be done in multiplayer with 2 or more players leashing a Khnum. |
Trivia
- The Khnum originally appeared in a screenshot in a 2006 demonstration of Serious Engine 3, where it was smaller and had a slightly different face.
- Its appearance is similar to Doom's and Doom II's Baron of Hell and Hell Knight, as is the fact that it is first encountered as a boss and has pale skin like the Hell Knight.
- The way its legs bend mean it also slightly resembles the Cyberdemon, the second boss of Doom and final boss of Doom 3.
- The Khnum in Egypt mythology is the god of the underworld.
- The Khnum is the only enemy in the Serious Sam franchise to be introduced in a new game and then retroactively added to an old one.
- In its case, the Khnum was introduced in Serious Sam 3 in 2011, then added to Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, released in 2010, by the Legend of the Beast DLC, which itself was released in 2012.
Gallery
Pre-release
Release
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