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This subject appears in Serious Sam: The First Encounter.  This subject appears in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter.  This subject appears in Serious Sam HD: The First Encounter.  This subject appears in Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter.  This subject appears in Serious Sam: Double D.  This subject appears in Serious Sam: The Random Encounter.  This subject appears in Serious Sam's Bogus Detour.  This subject appears in Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope.  This subject appears in I Hate Running Backwards.  This subject is from the Mental War era. 

The Lava Golem is an elemental enemy that appears in many Serious Sam titles, notably as a boss in Serious Sam: The First EncounterSerious Sam: The Random Encounter and the boss of Molty Python, the third environment in I Hate Running Backwards.

Overview[]

The Lava Golem is a large pile of inanimate lava that has been magically brought to life.[1] Their "bodies" consist of low temperature magma. While the first Lava Golem that appears in The First Encounter is a guardian summoned by the collected elements, the rest of the Golems in the series appear to be made by Mental himself, as they spawn with Mental-allied enemies.

In Serious Sam's Bogus Detour, Lava Golems were created by Mordekai the Summoner to live on the volcanic planet Struna. Mental transported the creatures to Earth during his invasion to make them as part of his forces.[2] As they could not adapt to Earth's environment, the Mental-Altani corporation pumped up magma from the Earth's crust so they could thrive and adapt to the surrounding area.[2]

Application[]

Lava Golems usually serve the role of supporting the main attacking force with their fireballs. They often appear few at a time, despite their size. Medium Lava Golems are often spawned on the ground or in areas of significant importance to the player, such as the entrance to a building. Smaller Golems are slightly more common than the latter and can appear in small to medium groups.

Appearances[]

Serious Sam 1[]

In Serious Sam: The First Encounter, the first Lava Golem encountered is a boss in Alley of the Sphinxes (Metropolis in Serious Sam: Xbox). Subsequent Lava Golems appear mainly in Karnak, but can be found in later levels on co-op.

In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, Golems are more common, starting to appear from the first level onwards. Medium Golems appear from The City of the Gods onwards, while a large Golem appears only on co-op mode in The Grand Cathedral.

Serious Sam Classics: Revolution[]

Lava Golems appear in the Bright Island campaign, but they are much less common compared to their other elemental counterparts, the Storm, Geyser, and Mud Golems. All Golem types, including the Quantum Golem, appear prominently in the final level.

Serious Sam: Double D[]

The first Golems are encountered in Vesuvius and the next few levels that take place inside the volcano. They are quite rare and often appear alone or in pairs.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter[]

The first Golem appears as a fake boss in the Temple Gardens level, approaching the heroes at the start. After they easily kill it, a significantly larger variant appears at the level exit and blocks their path.

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]

Golems first appear in Trouble in Troy, where they come out of lakes of lava. This is the only level in which they appear.

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope[]

Lava Golems are common enemies in this game, and often appear in small groups and with other weak enemies, such as Skeletons. Small Lava Golems first appear in Court of Contemplation while the medium Lava Golem only appears once in Court of the Prophet.

Serious Sam 4[]

This time around, Golems are present only in Gates of Hell as a secret. A tiny Golem is present by the lava lake and if shot, will trigger the spawn of a big Golem. The Golem looks and behaves exactly like its Serious Sam HD rendition, and when killed, will spawn four smaller Golems. Lava Golems can be put into custom levels as normal enemies, but they do not have a NETRICSA description by default.

Behavior and skills[]

As Lava Golems are made out of low temperature magma, they use the magic powers contained within them to summon fireballs and similar projectiles to throw at the target.[1] Power and resistance of any particular Golem depends on its size and the amount of contained magic force.[1] When a large or medium Golem dies, it may spawn several smaller ones in the process which continue their lives independent of their originator. Each size of Golem has a different health pool, damage output, and point value.

Serious Sam 1/Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope/Serious Sam 4[]

The Lava Golem has two attacks: throwing chunks of lava and pounding the ground when the player gets close to it. Medium and large Lava Golems will attempt to predict where the player is going and will try to throw a lava ball to what direction it perceives the player is going. Medium and large Lava Golems' lava balls can be destroyed with weapons, but destroying large Lava Golems' lava balls will cause them to spawn smaller lava balls that rain down onto the ground. If a Lava Golem pounds the player and kills them, the player is also gibbed regardless of damage but only in the classic games. Lava Golems have a much more powerful melee attack in Serious Sam HD and Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, although the HD rendition of the Lava Golem cannot gib players with its melee attack as it only inflicts Punch damage.

In Serious Sam HD, Lava Golems have been given 50% damage resistance to melee weapons, such as the Military Knife.

Serious Sam: Double D[]

The Golem's only "attack" is to jump into the air and try to land on the player with its pogo stick. Every time the Golem jumps, it will leave a small pile of lava rocks from where it jumped from. These rocks do little damage if someone walks over them. When killed, it will leave a small pile of lava rocks.

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter[]

The large Lava Golem does not have attacks at all and its destruction is simply the goal of its boss fight. The real danger are the dozens of smaller Golems it summons, which throw projectiles that travel in an arc fasion at the characters and can very quickly overwhelm them.

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]

Lava Golems will throw several fireballs at the player in rapid succession in a similar manner to the Highlander Aludran Reptiloid. They also throw their fireballs in a straight line, and not where their AI believes the direction the player will be moving at. When the player is hit by a fireball, they will be set on fire for a couple of seconds, increasing the player's movement speed but also draining their health at the same time. Unlike Golems from the previous games, they can regenerate whilst in lava.

Tactics[]

Serious Sam 1[]

  • In general, small Golems are the least threatening of the Golems. Their attacks do little damage and they are the easier out of all Golems to kill. They should be medium-low priority targets.
  • For logical reasons, the XOP Flamethrower should not used be against a Lava Golem unless the player needs to unlock the "Nice Try" achievement in the Fusion re-releases of the game.
  • Small Golems can easily be dispatched with the Thompson submachine gun. It takes around 10 bullets to kill one. The Double Barrel Coach Gun is an alternative to the Thompson but only effective at short range.
  • Medium Golems are much more dangerous than their small counterparts. Their lava balls do much more damage and are harder to avoid because of their size. In addition, their greatly increased health makes them much harder to kill.
  • If the medium Golem spawns with other enemies, the medium Golem should be medium-high priority targets because the need to change moving direction can lead the player to other enemies. There are still more immediate threats like Arachnoids.
  • Medium Golems can be significantly harmed by a charged up cannonball so it would be so wounded that a few bullets will finish it off. A quick follow-up shot with the MK III Grenade Launcher or XPML21 Rocket Launcher can finish it off.
  • Despite their size, large Golems are not significantly more dangerous than their medium counterparts. Their lava balls are usually as easy to dodge and destroy as a medium's.
  • Large Golems can be wounded with either rockets, grenades or charged up cannonballs. However, no matter what weapon is chosen, it will require a lot of ammo for the chosen weapon to kill it because of how much health it has. Thankfully, when the large Golem appears, a health bar will appear, letting the player know how much damage has been dealt to the Golem.
  • The XM214-A Minigun and XL2 Lasergun allow the player to destroy the rocks thrown by medium or large Lava Golems, while at the same damaging the Golems.
  • While Lava Golems are slow, it's not advised to approach them too closely. Their melee attacks do a lot of damage and are difficult to avoid, especially in Serious Sam HD, where their melee attacks have been buffed.
    • For this reason, using melee weapons on Lava Golems is also ill-advised, especially since they have a 50% damage resistance to melee weapons.
  • When fighting large Lava Golems, it is recommended to seek cover when destroying the lava balls, as they can split into smaller lava rocks which can hit an unsuspecting player. With fast reflexes, the player can shoot down the smaller lava rocks quickly enough before they explode on them.
  • In Revolution, the CDF-ST-005 Plasmathrower is a very effective weapon to use against medium Lava Golems. Just three alternate fire shots will kill one, or two plus a follow-up from a rocket, grenade, or coach gun blast.

Serious Sam: Double D[]

  • Lava Golems are quite tough enemies due to their high health, and require heavy firepower to be killed quickly.
  • Having a stack consisting of LM32 Rocket Launchers and MadDog Grenade Launchers is recommended. This can be especially useful if the stack contains multiple rocket launchers or grenade launchers, as they can deal a ton of damage to a Golem.
  • Another strong weapon to use on the Golem is the XL4 Lasergun, its rapid rate of fire and damage output is enough to drain its health fast. The more laserguns are in a stack, the quicker they can kill the Golem.
  • There is a noticeable delay between their bounces. The player should take note of this and go under and past the Golem when it hops towards them to avoid being touched by it.
  • Golems can be a nuisance when paired with other enemies, thus they should be targeted first unless tougher enemies are present.

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]

  • The SBC Cannon can kill a large Golem in one hit, as well as any additional smaller Golems that spawn after the large Golem's death. As the cannonballs continue to travel after hitting a Golem, it can be used against multiple Golems if they are lined up together.
  • As they have less health than their Serious Sam 1 versions, the A-24 Devastator, Thompson, or lasercannon are great weapons to use against Golems, regardless of their size.
  • Try to lure Golems onto land and away from the lava where they spawn, as they can regenerate when in lava.
  • If engaging Golems when being surrounded by enemies, the Golems should be taken out first before finishing off any weaker enemies.

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope[]

  • The Laser Pistol is very useful against lone or small groups of small Lava Golems, as it can kill them with a few shots.
  • The minigun and M29 Infantry Assault Rifle are very useful against medium-large groups of small Lava Golems, as they can kill each one quickly and destroy their projectiles before they hit the player.
  • The RAPTOR Sniper Rifle can quickly kill the medium Lava Golem due to its high damage and fast rate of fire.
  • When encountered with other enemies, Lava Golems are not much of a threat as they can be easily killed. The player should finish them off after killing more dangerous enemies like Scrapjacks.

Serious Sam 4[]

  • Golems in Serious Sam 4 have the same characteristics and behavior as their Serious Sam 1 counterparts, so the same tactics apply to them.
  • Medium Golems can be dealt with using the M29 Infantry Assault Rifle. It has a decent rate of fire which allows it to damage the Golem and destroy its projectiles at the same time.
  • The grenade launcher attachment for the 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun is highly effective against groups of small Lava Golems.
  • Against larger groups of Lava Golems, weapons like the Autoshotgun, lasergun, Devastator, or minigun are effective.
  • As a last resort, the FRPCL can be used against Golems, although in official levels, this is not possible outside of cheats as they are encountered only once.

Behind the scenes[]

  • Originally, there were supposed to be other enemies made out of inanimate materials and were called Elementals. They were to reside on a specific planet, such as the Water Elemental being on the Water Planet, that would be visited after the player completed the Egypt section of Serious Sam 1. However, the planets and most of the Elementals were cut before the game was released. The only Elemental that survived was the Lava Golem; the others (Ice Elemental, Water Elemental, Air Elemental and Stone Elemental) were cut. The other Elementals would later reappear in Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, now named the Geyser, Storm, and Mud Golems, respectively.
  • The original version of the Lava Elemental in Sam2000 could throw three lava rocks in a scatter pattern or fireballs in addition to the lava rocks with size and amount depending on their size. Small ones would throw a single fireball, big ones threw three fireballs, while the boss variant threw five fireballs.

Related achievements[]

Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter[]

Achievement Huge Pile of Lava SSVRTFE
Huge Pile of Lava
Defeat the Lava Golem boss.

Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter[]

Achievement Nice Try SSVRTSE
Nice Try
Use the Flamethrower on a Lava Golem.

Serious Sam Fusion[]

Achievement Huge Pile of Lava SSF
Huge Pile of Lava
Defeat the Lava Golem boss on Alley of the Sphinxes.
Achievement Nice Try SSF
Nice Try
Use the Flamethrower on a Lava Golem.

Serious Sam Classics: Revolution[]

Achievement The talk of parties
The talk of parties
Defeat the giant Lava Golem.

I Hate Running Backwards[]

Golemslayer
Golemslayer 20 Gscore Ps 3 bronze
Kill the Lava golem.

Trivia[]

  • In the classic releases, as well as Revolution, if the player is killed by a Lava Golem's melee attack, they will always be gibbed, regardless of how much damage was dealt upon killing the player. This is because the Lava Golem's melee attack inflicts Crushing damage, unlike in HD, where it inflicts Punch damage instead.
    • This also applies to the other Golems in Revolution.
  • In The Second Encounter, the Golems have fire on their body.
  • In Serious Sam HD, the Lava Golem's death animation is actually its appearing animation (Born) but in reverse.
  • Ironically, in The Second Encounter and the HD rendition of the game, Golems will sometimes take damage from lava and die, such as in Land of the Damned in the lava caves. This has been fixed in Serious Sam Fusion.
  • In The Last Hope, Lava Golems will instantly explode if they are killed with strong weapons, like the Bow.

Gallery[]

Serious Sam 1[]

Pre-release[]

Retail[]

Serious Sam: Double D[]

Serious Sam: The Random Encounter[]

Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]

Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope[]

I Hate Running Backwards[]

Serious Sam 4[]

List of appearances[]

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 NETRICSA description
  2. 2.0 2.1 Serious Sam's Bogus Detour NETRICSA description

External links[]

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