Maykr Sentry / Guardian

MAYKR GUARDIAN - (MINI-BOSS):

Finally we have the Maykr Guardian, this mini-boss will be very unique to Doom as the premise is simple yet hard to master. In short, it’s a bullet hell. The Guardian is covered in eyes which at first do nothing to you, but once shot will detach from the Guardian and float around the arena, firing stray lasers towards you.

At first, it’ll be simple, but the more you destroy the harder the fight becomes. The Guardian itself does not attack you unless you reach melee range, where it’ll try and trample you. Once all the eyes have been detached from the Guardian, phase 2 will begin.

These projectiles will either be fast moving lasers or slow moving orbs, both of which are easy to see and easy to move away from. The orbs can be shot at to prematurely detonate, giving you a chance to catch a breather. The attacks will come out randomly, sometimes being as a barrage, sometimes as stray bolts.

In phase 2, the Guardian will open up 3 vents on its body revealing 3 more eyes that must be detached, once complete, they will fire large focus beams towards you making the bullet-hell arena even more difficult to survive in. To increase difficulty further, the Guardian will begin to create shock waves in phase 2 forcing you to occasionally jump to avoid further damage.

Finally, once all of the smaller eyes and the 3 larger eyes have been detached, the core of the Maykr Guardian will open, where it’s just one simple blood-punch away from defeat.

While simple, this mini-boss will test the movement and precision aiming skills you’ve been using throughout the entire game thus far, and instead of the boss becoming more difficult in different levels, the arena itself can change to increase the difficulty in repeat encounters. For example, the floor can move, have cut-outs in it or be covered in electrified panels like in the Samur fight.

I think this could be an interesting roadblock and when paired with demons to distract you too, or even other Maykrs this fight acting as a bullet hell could be a really huge change of pace while sticking to the Maykr design overall.

DESIGN PHILOSOPHY:

Maykrs in Doom Eternal are weak enemies, each of them only takes 1 hit to defeat when aiming for the weak point, otherwise they are nigh invincible. The exception to this is both the Khan Maykr and Samur Maykr who are boss type foes.

Keeping in line with this design philosophy I wanted there to be an incline in difficulty tied to how many hits it takes to defeat a Maykr. The Venator would only take 1 hit to defeat, the Assassin would take 2 hits in quick succession and the Arcanum would take 3 plus defeating a Spirit.

Then, a mini-boss type Maykr naturally would have many weak-points making it a more challenging foe to defeat. I quite like that each Maykr has a slightly different way to be defeated as it does fall in line with the existing Maykrs in Doom: Eternal. 

Where we see the design of Maykrs move to in future DOOM games, who knows… But for Eternal at least, I think these concepts would perfectly fit in.

MAYKR ARCANUM:

Moving up the ranks we have our first Heavy Class Maykr, the Arcanum. This one might be pushing the envelope a little too far from the core design of the Maykrs but hey, lemme cook.

To defeat the Maykr Arcanum you will need to land a direct hit on the hand that they’re holding their cards in. The Arcanum will use these cards to attack, being able to attack 3 times before going on a cool-down. Tied to each card is an ability, there are 3 colours so you can identify what they do over time.

If the card is green it means they will charge their hand cannon for a BFG styled attack that will splinter off into little orbs that slowly speed up towards you at rapid speeds. The best way to avoid damage is to get behind cover.

If the card is red it means they will throw it out directly towards you and have the card boomerang back toward itself. While the card is reaching its apex it’ll enlarge and catch flame making it harder to dodge and predict before shrinking down and returning to the Arcanum.

Then finally, if the card is blue it will act as a shield for the Maykr Arcanum itself and a random demon in the arena, prioritising the highest tier first. Like any energy shield it’ll need to be overcharged with plasma weapons.

While the Maykr Arcanum is not attacking the Slayer it will create sigils on the ground that buff Maykrs and Demons but slow down the Slayer’s movement. They’re clearly visible and don’t last forever but it acts almost as a Maykr counterpart to the Carcass demon.

Before the Maykr Arcanum is about to attack, the card will be enlarged in front of the Maykr. At this moment the card will flash green and can be shot to stagger the Maykr. Afterwards, the attack cannot be used for a whole minute.

In place of a card attack will be a set of weak ranged attacks and melee attacks if you get too close. The Maykr will not have any exposed weak-points so destroying the cards is your only option.

In doing so, the second phase will activate, releasing a Spirit and much like Samur Maykr the Spirit will need to be defeated; after which, the Maykr Arcanum will be staggered and open for a glory kill. If you somehow miss the opportunity to glory kill the Maykr, it will have an exposed weak point at its chest to instantly defeat it and will not summon any more spirits.

Heavily inspired by the Samur Maykr fight, I believe this Maykr could’ve been a good predecessor to the fight. Adding in a small amount of support and multiple hits to defeat, I think it could be a good fit to be a centrepiece of an arena while still being in the same vein as other Maykrs.

Maykr Arcanum:

The Maykr Arcanum would have three distinct attacks that all can be avoided. I wanted to take a different approach with this Maykr whilst trying to remain faithful to the core principles of Maykrs.

The Arcanum is surrounded by 3 cards, Red, Green and Blue. When their ability is in use, they grow in size making it slightly easier to hit.

The Red card will buff all surrounding enemies for 10 seconds and fire out slow moving homing flame projectiles towards the Slayer.

The Blue card will give all surrounding enemies an energy shield for 10 seconds and summons sigils around the arena that spawn Phantom Demons as seen in the Dark Lord boss-fight.

The Green card will allow the Arcanum to charge a BFG like attack that homes in on the Slayer. If the orb is in close proximity it will rapidly shred your health and armour but can be destroyed prematurely if shot.

Outside of these three attacks, the Maykr Arcanum can fire out very weak attacks with its cannon that have a small stun effect, similarly to the Blood Maykr but aren’t very effective.

The idea for the Arcanum is to be a tankier Maykr that keeps the same approach as the others but in a different direction, potentially being considered a Heavy Tier enemy for the Maykrs.

Maykr Guardian:

Unlike the other concepts, the Maykr Guardian would be a mini-boss and function a bit differently.

Being limited to wide open spaces, the Guardian fills the void and aims to be the primary focus of every battle. To defeat them, you must destroy the giant weak-point on their backside but they’re not exactly forthcoming about it.

Similarly to the Gladiator boss from Doom Eternal, you will need to interrupt their attacks to stun them so you can access their weak-point. Sustained fire from the Chaingun or powerful bolts from your Ballista are likely your best options here.

The Guardian will attack you using mostly melee attacks, charging towards you, creating shockwaves to stun you and trying to stomp you if you are too close. However, they will be able to transform their arm into a siege cannon that can be charged to deal incredible damage in a wide area.

Each charge attack from either the Guardian itself or their gun-arm is an interruptible attack.

Once the protective seal over the weak-point is broken, an orb of light will escape from The Guardian and a second phase will begin. The Guardian will stop moving completely, each of their eyes will leave the body and begin floating around the arena.

In total there are 11 eyes that escape The Guardian’s body and each one will float around nearby and begin to intermittently fire lasers towards you. Unlike the Blood Maykr, these lasers do not stun, just sting a bit…

To defeat the Guardian, you must land 11 precise shots to destroy the eyes. In doing so the orb of light will transform into a Soul Sphere and collecting it will restore your health completely.