Monsters - October 14, 2018

The following 16 monster types are monsters that are planned to appear across all modes. Though Story Mode will have more monsters, be they normal enemies or bosses, these monsters' common appearances make them stand out as monsters to understand better.

Standard enemies

Force Fighters

Force Fighters are Fire elemental enemies that have average HP and Attack, but with above average Defense, making them resilient enemies at their base. At higher levels, Force Fighters gain a great deal of versatility, gaining the ability to block attacks, heal all of their allies, a Knockdown attack and a power attack that they use on their knocked down victims.

Zombies

Zombies are Water elemental enemies that have above average HP and Attack, making them formidable melee opponents. At higher levels, Zombies gain a Bite that inflicts damage, Stun and has a quick cooldown, allowing them to more frequently Stun your party and take advantage of it.

Dark Knights

Dark Knights are very fearsome Wind elemental combatants, sporting high HP and Attack, as well as decent Defense. At higher levels, Dark Knights gain the ability to block and access to Hellgust, which inflicts high damage and Knockback to a large area. At any level, Dark Knights are a threat to take seriously.

Shadows

Shadows are Earth elemental enemies have below average HP, average Attack and solid Combat Movement. At higher levels, they gain the ability to use a Stun Blast inflict damage and Stun to an area around themselves at a relatively low cooldown, making them able to close in and frequently inflict wide-area Stun.

Demons

The titular Demons are Fire elemental enemies that have average HP, but high Attack and Speed. At higher levels, they gain the ability to block and can apply a buff to themselves that boosts their Attack and Combat Movement further, making them able to close in on party members quickly and deal massive damage with their standard attacks.

Ghosts

Ghosts are Water elemental enemies that have terrible HP and Attack, but high Combat Movement. At higher levels, their strengths are shown, as they are able to fire low cooldown projectiles that explode over a large area, dealing damage and randomly inflicting Stagger, Stun, Knockdown or Knockback, making them the "status ailment" enemy.

Mages

Mages are Wind elemental enemies have low HP and average Attack. At higher levels, they can fire Static projectiles that deal damage and Stun, as well as their own version of System Shock that deals small damage and inflicts wide-area Stun around the caster, making Mages very Stun-heavy opponents.

Necromancers

Necromancers are Earth elemental enemies have average HP and low Attack. At higher levels, they gain access to Vital Shot, which fires a projectile that deals damage while healing the user, as well as a healing ability that heal all allies (and is more potent than the Force Fighters' healing ability), making Necromancers the enemy with the most powerful overall healing abilities.

Devolved Vipers

A new enemy type not from the original The Demon Rush, Devolved Vipers are Fire elemental enemies with stats like Force Fighters, with average HP and Attack and above average Defense. At higher levels, they can fire a Viper Beam that deals rapid damage and covers the length of the battlefield, making them powerful long range attackers, as well. [EDIT: As of 2019/08/06, Viper Beam has been replaced with a fireball projectile]

Siphon-Ripped

A new enemy type not from the original The Demon Rush, Siphon-Ripped are Water elemental enemies that have high HP, average Attack and high Combat Movement. At higher levels, the Siphon-Ripped gain access to a tackle that inflicts damage and Knockdown, as well a Pummel attack that they use on their knocked down victims for higher damage, making them enemies that are capable of closing in quickly and dealing a lot of damage if the player lets their guard down.

Deformed Vipers

A new enemy type not from the original The Demon Rush, Deformed Vipers are Wind elemental enemies that have low HP, but high Attack and Combat Movement. At higher levels, they gain the ability to do a tackle that inflicts damage and Knockback, as well as being able to fire out a Violent Gust that deals damage and Knockback at long range, making Deformed Vipers a Knockback-centric enemy.

Adamant Golems

A new enemy type not from the original The Demon Rush, Adamant Golems are Earth elemental enemies with high HP and above average Attack and Defense. At higher levels, Adamant Golems gain the ability to block, as well as a Power Slam that deals large damage and inflicts Knockback, making Adamant Golems slow-but-powerful opponents to deal with.

Mini-bosses

In the original The Demon Rush, the following four enemies appeared as normal enemies in some of the hardest dungeons. Though they will appear in Story Mode, they will act more like above-average standard enemies in terms of power and presence (as opposed to superdungeon level enemies). In the other games modes, they will function more akin to bosses and mini-bosses, though.

Bad Pupils

Bad Pupils are Fire elemental enemies with very high HP and the highest Attack of these 16 monsters. At higher levels, Bad Pupils gain the ability to do a multi-hit Crazy Bite that deals high damage over 4 hits while inflicting Stun, as well as a damage-over-time Field Flame, making the Bad Pupil an offensive powerhouse.

Icemen

Icemen are Water elemental enemies with excellent HP, average Attack and the highest Defense of these 16 monsters. At higher levels, Icemen not only gain the ability to call a high-damage large area Deep Freeze, but also gain the ability to block, establishing their defensive expertise further.

Windmills

Windmills are Wind elemental enemies with high HP and Attack and the highest Combat Movement of these 16 monsters. At higher levels, the speed of Windmills becomes more pronounced as they gain access to a very low cooldown Spin attack that inflicts damage and Knockback, and a very low cooldown Tornado that inflicts damage and Knockback, making Windmills among the most mobile and quick of all monsters.

Teras

Teras are Earth elemental enemies with high Attack and above average Defense, and have the highest HP of these 16 monsters. At higher levels, Teras gain access to an large-area Stomp that deals high damage and Knockdown, as well as an Earthquake that attacks all living party members on screen for damage over time (and cannot be nulled by Pound's Barrier or Jimmy's Withstand Seal), making Teras fearsome foes up close and at a distance.

Trivia

-Some of these original 12 monsters have had their Elements changed, partly for the sake of the non-Story modes, so that 4 of each Elemental type is represented among monsters (so that there is an equal amount of thriving under each Field Effect), but also for Story Mode variety. Dark Knights were changed from Fire to Wind, as the parts they appear in tend to have more Fire elemental foes. Demons were also changed to Fire for similar reasons.

-Some of these original 12 monsters have also gone through some aesthetic changes. In particular, Force Fighters now have a buckler added to them, and Zombies have clothes on.

-The Icemen have also made a cameo appearance in Skylight Freerange 1 during the quest "Should Have Stayed Buried", and were meant to be a reference to The Demon Rush (as they also appeared in what was, prior to the Saskatchewan expansion, one of the game's superdungeons).

-Of the 4 mini-boss enemies, the Teras was the only one that did not make it into the final version of Dragooned (while Bad Pupil, Iceman and Windmill did). Though it was originally planned to be included, over the course of development, it was decided the Teras would not be included in Dragooned's final monsters. This was due more to it beign statistically too similar to the Iceman (very resilient) and its Earthquake not fitting so well with Dragooned's mechanics.