The Aludran Reptiloid: Highlander's Bride is the largest and most dangerous version of the Aludran Reptiloids. She only appears in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter and the Xbox, HD, and VR remakes of the game.
Overview[]
The Highlander's Bride is a female Highlander Aludran Reptiloid. She is more aggressive and dangerous than the male, due to her enormous size and all-year-round PMS.[1] Compared to the males, she has a height of 246 ft (75 m), making her taller than even the huge Lava Golem and the monster variant of The General from Serious Sam 2.
Appearances[]
The Highlander's Bride is the rarest enemy in The Second Encounter. In official levels, there are only two instances where she is located. The first occurrence of the Bride is in Tower of Babel in the "second round" secret, found in the second courtyard. The second Bride appears in Land of the Damned on co-op while playing on at least Hard difficulty.
In the Bright Island campaign for Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, the Bride is first introduced as a boss at the end of Crystal Cove, where she is supported by a pair of Common Reptiloids and is followed by a Fiendian Reptiloid Demon once killed. She later appears again at the end of the secret level Tropical Bluffs, where she is supported by a pair of male Highlanders.
Behavior and skills[]
Being the largest variety of Aludran Reptiloid, the Highlander's Bride is an extremely tough enemy, and she has the highest amount of health of any non-boss enemy in the game. Thus, she requires heavy firepower and the use of Serious Damage to take her down.
Like the normal Highlander, she will launch three homing fireballs in quick succession at the target initially, but she will launch six fireballs when she has taken a substantiel amount of damage. Her second attack is an extremely powerful and long-ranged melee attack dealing a whooping 120 base points of damage that can instantly kill the player, even on Normal difficulty.
Tactics[]
- Avoid getting even in medium-close range or death is almost certain.
- Considering the Bride's extremely high health, the SBC Cannon is the ultimate weapon against her. Other weapons will do a miniscule amount of damage to her unless Serious Damage is active. However, the player should think twice before picking up the serious damage that spawns in the Bride's courtyard, as she stands close to it. Approaching it will usually result in her punching the player to death while they are harassed by Sirian Werebulls and Fiendian Reptiloid Demons.
- If in the Tower of Babel, the player should use the secret Invulnerability power-up if they haven't obtained previously to avoid getting damaged. However, she is far away, and her lava balls are rather easy to dodge.
- If the player doesn't have the cannon, they can use the XPML21 Rocket Launcher, MK III Grenade Launcher, XL2 Lasergun, and/or XM214-A Minigun against the Bride, although the latter will easily erase most, if not all of the player's bullets.
- In Revolution, the CDF-ST-005 Plasmathrower is also effective against her if its alternate fire mode is used; just 17 alternate fire shots will destroy her.
- The Highlander's Bride should be a medium-priority target among other dangerous enemies like Reptiloid Demons and Major Bio-mechanoids. If she is far away, her fireballs are easy to dodge, but if she gets close, she should be a top-priority target due to the extreme amount of damage her punch attack can do along with the fact she can punch even from slightly far away.
- In her appearance in Tropical Bluffs, the player must first deal with any remaining Kleer Skeletons as they spawn with an ice modifier that can slow the player down, making them more vulnerable to enemy attacks, including those from the Highlander's Bride and the lesser Highlanders.
Trivia[]
- The Bride is the second-largest non-boss enemy in the game, after the boss Lava Golem.
- In Serious Sam Classics: Revolution, the Bride can be modified in custom levels to behave like the Serious Sam: The First Encounter rendition of the regular Highlander, making her more dangerous as her fireballs now have the same characteristics as those tossed by the Common Aludran Reptiloid, meaning they can home in on the player much more easily.
- The Bride is programmed to be stationary in all of her official level appearances, despite being the fastest enemy in the game.
- In the classic releases, the Bride will play an "anger" animation with an accompanying "anger" sound effect after receiving enough damage to signal her angry phase. This also applies to the regular Highlander.
Gallery[]
List of appearances[]
- Serious Sam: The Second Encounter (First appearance)
- Serious Sam: Xbox (non-canonical appearance)
- Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter
- Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter
- Serious Sam Classics: Revolution (non-canonical appearance)
References[]
- ↑ NETRICSA description