Beheaded Rocketeer

SS1
SS:XB
SSHD
SS:DD
SS3
IHRB
SS4

Beheaded Rocketeer

General information

Type

Undead soldier

Affiliation

Mental's Horde

Individual information

Health

5 (IHRB normal variant)
15 (IHRB tier 1 variant)
19 (other games)
35 (IHRB tier 2 variant)

Attacks / weapons

Magic missile (5)
Chainsaw (10) (SSHD & SSVR only)
Kick (5-10) (SS3 & SS3VR:BFE only)

Equipment

Life control unit
Vocal synthesizer

Size

6 ft (1.8 m) standing

Game information

Point value

10 (IHRB)
15 (IHRB tier 1 variant)
25 (IHRB tier 2 variant)
100 (SS3 & SS3VR:BFE)
200 (other games)

Designed by

Admir Elezović (all games except for SS:NE, SS:DD, SS:TRE, SS:DD:XXL & IHRB)

"Would you consider attacking one at a time?"

―Sam Stone^[src]

The Beheaded Rocketeer is a reoccurring enemy in the Serious Sam series. They are one of the commonest enemies in the games, often serving as lightweight frontline troops or cannon fodder.

Overview

The Beheaded Rocketeer is an executed Sirian soldier that has been raised from the dead by the use of Mental's cyber-zombie technology. The remains of the head have undergone cybernetic modifications. The main part of these cybernetics is the life control unit, an electronic device replacing the functionality of the removed upper part of the central nervous system. The device includes crude sensory modules and a vocal synthesizer.

The Rocketeer carries a magic missile launcher in his right hand and uses it as his primary attack. In most games, he also carries his head to receive audio and visual data like Beheaded Firecrackers.

Appearance

In Serious Sam 1, Serious Sam HD and Serious Sam VR, the Rocketeer appears as a headless man wearing a purple t-shirt (blue in Serious Sam: Xbox). He holds a magic missile launcher in one hand and his head in the other.
In Serious Sam: Next Encounter, the Rocketeer wears a red shirt.
In Serious Sam 3: BFE, Rocketeers appear very much the same as their classic counterparts, though they make different sounds and feature a mechanical red "eye" where their head should be, just like the Beheaded Kamikaze.
In I Hate Running Backwards, the Rocketeeer looks just like he does in Serious Sam 1, though this time he has more of a 'blocky' design. The tier 1 Rocketeer has grenades on his shoulders and the tier 2 Rocketeer has rockets on them.
In Serious Sam 4, the Rocketeer wears tan/brown combat pants and has the Mental's Horde logo on his shirt. He also has three small red mechanical 'eyes' instead of one like in the previous game.

Occurrence

In Serious Sam: The First Encounter, Rocketeers usually appear in small to mid-sized groups. Most of them are encountered in the first half of the game, often serving as bait so stronger enemies can attack. In Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, outside a few areas (particularly in the Tower of Babel), they're much less numerous and are usually replaced by Zorg Mercenaries, especially from the third level onward. On Serious difficulty, many Rocketeers are replaced by stronger enemies, most commonly Kleer Skeletons.

In Serious Sam 3: BFE and Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE, Rocketeers are encountered in the first level of the game, Summer in Cairo in small to medium-sized groups. Later, they appear on almost every level, becoming more numerous on later levels. On the last level, they appear in groups of up to a hundred strong.

In Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, Rocketeers appear on almost every level in the game, starting from the Monolith of Time onwards.

In I Hate Running Backwards, they first appear in the Desert environment, though not a lot of them will appear on the screen at once, but in subsequent environments, they can be more common.

Behavior and skills

As Rocketeers have been raised from the dead and are controlled by a life control unit, they have little to no brain functionality, and therefore lack sentience. Like Major Bio-mechanoid and Minor Bio-mechanoids, their intelligence is mostly limited to blindly attack targets without any form of tactics.

Serious Sam 1

A Rocketeer's primary attack is to a fire a magical missile at the player. These projectiles travel in a straight line and take time to reach their target, making them easy to avoid. They have very low health, and can be easily killed with any weapon in the game. They are essentially cannon-fodder, even on high difficulty levels.

They are immune to projectiles fired by other Rocketeers.

Serious Sam 3: BFE

The Rocketeer is armed with a weak single shot pistol that fires a slow projectile (though if it hits, the projectile actually does five times as much damage as a round from a Cloned Soldier's assault rifle). Unlike their Serious Sam 1 counterparts, they have to manually reload their gun after each shot. If a target gets too close to the Rocketeer, he will kick them. This attack deals more damage than the missiles ires by them.

On Serious difficulty in the Serious Sam 3: BFE version of Serious Sam Fusion, Rocketeers have a chance to fire homing projectiles, making them harder to avoid than the regular ones.

I Hate Running Backwards

In this installment, the Rocketeer fires slow-moving rockets that can be deflected using the hammer attack. These rockets have a small chance of spawning as homing rockets, which will follow the player for a short period of time. After a while, if the Rocketeer has still survived, it will move upwards and attack the player at the same time until it exits the screen. As a basic enemy, its health is low, making them easy to defeat.

Tactics

General

Their projectiles can be avoided by sidestepping or jumping.
His projectiles are very easy to avoid, as they are slow. Simply strafing in one direction makes it impossible for them to hit the player.
When paired with other enemies, the Rocketeer is a small threat. His projectiles are easy to dodge, and do little damage if they do hit the player, especially if the player is wearing armor. He should be be targeted last when mixed with other enemies.

Serious Sam 1

Small groups can easily be dispatched with one or dual Schofields or the Military Knife. Using anything stronger than the 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun against them is an outright waste of ammo.
Large groups can be dispatched with any weapon with ease. Although the Thompson submachine gun or the XM214-A Minigun is recommended for these situations.
In Serious Sam HD, attempting to kill a Rocketeer with a melee weapon is slightly more dangerous, due to the buzz-saw inflicting higher damage than the missile launcher.
The player should be aware that Rocketeers might serve as traps, especially on higher difficulty levels. A single Rocketeer might be mixed with other enemies. When killed, much stronger enemies will spawn. An example of this is seen in Sand Canyon on serious difficulty.
The Rocketeer is a low-priority target due to how little damage it does, and how easy the projectiles are to dodge. However, like Beheaded Firecrackers, they can become a potential threat when the player has a low amount of health.

Serious Sam 3: BFE

He has very low health; two shots from the SOP38 Pistol or a single 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun blast will kill him. Large groups of Rocketeers can easily be killed with the coach gun, M29 Infantry Assault Rifle, XPML21 Rocket Launcher, C-4 Demolition Charge or the Sirian Mutilator. These weapons can completely wipe out a group of them.
Rocketeers are extremely common, but due to their extremely low durability, relatively low damage and easy-to-dodge projectiles, they should always be the bottom priority targets.

Serious Sam: Double D

The Rocketeer is little more than cannon-fodder. He can easily be killed with any combination of weapons. Even a single Type II Machine Pistol can kill him with three or so shots.

Serious Sam: Next Encounter

The dual Shofield Desert Hawk's large magazine, quick rate of fire and good accuracy make it the ideal for taking on Rocketeers, no matter how how many there are.
If Rocketeers needs to be dispatched in a hurry, the Shofield Uzi Pistol can reduce even the largest group of Rocketeers to nothing in a second or two.

I Hate Running Backwards

It is best not to let a large number of Rocketeers swarm the area, as their numbers can increase quickly, making it tougher to avoid and deflect all the incoming projectiles.

Related achievements

Serious Sam 3: BFE

File:Cardiac surgeon.jpg

Cardiac Surgeon

Rip out 10 Rocketeer hearts.

Serious Sam Fusion

File:Cardiac Surgeon.jpg

Cardiac Surgeon

Rip out 10 Rocketeer hearts.

Behind the scenes

In Test 1, the Rocketeer had a slightly different skin and a different model for their magic missile launchers.

Trivia

In Serious Sam HD: The Second Encounter, if Sam is killed by the Rocketeer's buzz-saw, he will be sliced in half. This is not the case in the HD version for the First Encounter, in which case the player will just die normally. This is fixed in the Fusion version.
Unlike previous games, Rocketeers in Serious Sam 3 will reload their pistols after each shot, explaining the firing delay.
The Rocketeer in Serious Sam 3 does not carry a head unlike the previous games.
The gun that the Rocketeer in Serious Sam 3 uses looks very similar to the ones used by the Zorg Commander in Serious Sam HD.