The New Maykrs

FooSarr's Content Narration and Overview

DOOM Eternal Needed More

Rising to the challenge, I created 4 new Maykr enemies for Doom Eternal back in 2021 along with the rest of my legacy content. For a variety of reasons, I held off from sharing these ideas for awhile as I wanted them to be paired with another video.

Jump forward to 2026 and the return of FooSarr, here we have now 3 new Maykrs. One was scrapped entirely, and the other was reworked. See the originals here.

I always felt that Doom Eternal needed more Maykrs since it was a brand new enemy type for the series. Prior to Maykrs, we had only ever seen and fought the Demons. I was always quite fond of how ID Software designed the Maykrs in juxtaposition to the Demons, appearing pristine but under the hood so to speak, they're hardly any different to Demons.

In terms of gameplay, I found Maykrs to operate differently on a fundamental level and wanted to bring that design philosophy into my concept. What I noticed was that the two available demons to fight, (the Maykr Drone and Blood Maykr) were able to be defeated in just 1 hit, so long as you hit their weak point.

So what you'll notice with my new Maykrs is that each of them can be defeated in a similar way. The Maykr Arcanum is the only exception to this rule as I wanted to experiment a little bit more with the idea and specifically what a stronger Maykr would look like on a mechanical level.

Sourcing the Art

As I have done routinely in the past for my concepts, I look directly into what the developers never used for their game. In this case, I looked into what the legendary art designer, Emerson Tung had done when designing what the Maykrs would look like in Doom Eternal. Unsurprisingly, there were a lot of variations to Maykrs initially.

While inspecting the concept art, (one of my favourite things to do after playing any game) I discovered that I in many ways prefer the near humanoid look of the early Maykr design, and it made me wonder what ID Software might've originally had in mind.

Looking at the present, Doom: The Dark Ages sees the Maykrs take on a pivotal role in the story, so perhaps we've not yet seen the last of them.

Unlike in other videos where I will create a render for the concept I am discussing, I decided that the concept art was perfect. So I cut them out from the original design sheet and since they were all originally black and white, I crudely added a colour gradient.

The colours I added were purely to make the image stand out on a thumbnail and throughout the video. I tried to make the bottom look either red or blue and the upper parts more yellow / orange since most Maykrs have a reddish inside and golden exterior.

Moving forwards with my FooCept series I would love to work with an artist to design more than what concept art can supply, but since this is a non profit gig at this stage I just can't afford it and hope this doesn't seem lazy.

The Maykr Venator

"The Maykr Venator is my first and favourite of these ideas. It came to me as soon as I saw the concept art, and I originally thought about those shadow clones in Super Mario Galaxy 2 that chase you around, building pressure during difficult levels."

"This concept was always intended to be my answer for those humanoid bodies underneath the Khan Maykr's arena in Doom Eternal. I've always wondered what they might be doing with those bodies and in close proximity to that large organic Maykr body in that oily liquid, too... I always found that area eerie and felt there had to be more to it."

Humanoid Maykr, attacks only with melee and can keep up with the Slayer
It can perform all the same movement actions as the Slayer
Pressure unit, will often mimic your exact movements to keep pace
Can only be defeated when in Melee Range by shooting an opening in the head
Maykr is completely invulnerable to damage (except for BFG / Unmaykr) at range

The Maykr Assassin

"While working on the Maykr Venator, the Maykr Assassin just sprung to me next. It was a really good day for creativity! This Maykr I knew I wanted to work differently to what already exists. I thought at the time that if the Blood Maykr's strength was its shield and the Maykr Venator's was its proximity to the Slayer, then maybe the best option here was to have no form of defence."

"With no defence it made this concept into a little bit of a challenge for me. How would it be useful with the fun cast of characters that already exist, and that I've created, too? Then it hit me, just make it fast and give it teleportation."

"I was thinking at the time of an arena entirely comprised of Maykrs, no demons. Something I had hoped to see in Doom Eternal but unfortunately never got. So if there were your tanks like the Blood Maykr and Maykr Arcanum, your pressure unit like the Maykr Venator, and fodder as the Maykr Drone, then I guess the Maykr Assassin could be in that nice mid-ground, therefore justifying its mechanical deviation from the other Maykrs."

Teleporting Maykr, attacks while teleporting and all attacks are very quick
Requires two precise shots to defeat, no weak-point, just need a powerful hit to defeat it.
Some attacks will halve your movement speed (like Blood Maykrs), these are well telegraphed
Being stunned will incur 2x damage to yourself for its duration and cause the Assassin to attack you in frenzy, a double edged sword as it becomes easier to hit but you will take more damage.

The Maykr Arcanum

"This concept underwent some changes in 2026 a few months before the video was made. I felt these changes were necessary as the original idea just did not sit right with me. In fact, I've honestly never liked this Maykr on a mechanical level... It's cool but it just doesn't hit the right level I think it should. I don't think it would be a lot of fun to fight."

"Even after the rework, the Maykr Arcanum is like a speck of dirt on a nice piece of fruit for me, but since there's nothing wrong with it I decided to share it anyway. The original idea is probably fine too, so you can read up on it here if you'd like."

Stationary Maykr that will attack you at range and requires 2 hits to defeat.
Magic attacks can be interrupted by blood-punching it’s magic card before activation, although the timing is precise.
Arcanum has a shield that would need to be destroyed before destroying its true weak-point.
Destroying the shield will stun the Arcanum, allowing for an easy attack line-up.
Fires out either rapid fire or burst shots that will stun the Slayer.

The FooCept

Ultimately, this project was a test to see if I could fill in the gaps that I felt ID Software had left with Doom Eternal. Regardless on audience reception, I think I did a pretty good job at it. These Maykrs don't seem overpowered or too obnoxious to defeat and keep the core design philosophies that the Maykr Drone and Blood Maykr were made with.

Unfortunately I did have to cut the Maykr Beast / Sentry / Guardian, whatever I was going to call it for a number of reasons. Initially it was going to make the cut when I wrote the script in 2025 but upon reflection in 2026 I just didn't gel with it. It was supposed to be a boss type Maykr that took the idea of 'easy to destroy weak points' and 'the more weak points before death, the stronger the Maykr' and ran wild with it, turning the encounter into a bullet hell.

Another reason it was cut from the final video was simply for time. I had set a goal for myself to complete the Doom Eternal FooCept Series by the end of 2026, and there's some especially large projects up and coming after this one. Since I had been sharing 3 concepts per video previously to this, I felt it would be wise to continue that trend since most people never make it past the 40 second mark, let alone the 3 minute mark... Why put so much effort into the back-end of a video if only 10% or less of viewers will ever see it?

So instead I just went with the Maykr Venator, the Maykr Assassin and almost begrudgingly, the Maykr Arcanum. Perhaps somebody in the comments will create a rework for the Arcanum that'll inspire me to collaborate and do it properly... Time will tell.

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