The Emetic Anthropolyp, colloquially referred to by Earth Defense Force soldiers as the "Belcher", is an enemy introduced in Serious Sam 4. It reappears in the standalone expansion pack, Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem.
Overview[]
The Emetic Anthropolyp is a tall, hideously malformed humanoid creature with greenish-yellow skin. Its entire body is covered in large growths and has chains wrapped tightly around its belly. Like the Processed Anthropolyp, the Belcher has short, stubby appendanges growing on its head, which are a colony of Polyps. It is unclear if Belchers are the result of intentional design or merely the accidental byproduct of unsuccessful Anthropolyp conversions.[1]
Application[]
Belchers serve as both melee and ranged units in combat. They use their spit attack to harass the target while they let other troops deal with them at closer range.
Appearances[]
Belchers are fairly common enemies in their appearances. They usually appear alone or in groups mixed with weaker enemies.
Serious Sam 4[]
Belchers are first encountered in Death from Above. In the next few levels, they become much more common.
Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem[]
They first appear in A Smell Of Petroleum Prevails, and then sparingly in the next levels afterwards.
Behavior and skills[]
The Belcher is quite slow compared to other enemies, and will simply walk towards its target when it spots them. Their speed is slightly slower than the player's movement speed. The Belcher's primary attack when it spots the target is hurling toxic bile at them. This attack is easily avoided by strafing sideways, though if it hits the player, it will obscure their vision for a while. At close range, the Belcher will punch the target, which deals minimal damage. Each melee attack hits twice.
Belchers are not very durable. While they have significantly more health than a Gnaar and as much health as a Kleer Skeleton, a single close-range blast from the Double Barrel Coach Gun or a few rounds can easily dispatch the creature.
When the Belcher is killed, the unstable gases contained within its body undergo a reaction and the Belcher's body begins to swell. Eventually, the creature will release a massive and powerful explosion, leaving behind a cloud of noxious gas that damages any entity that gets within its radius, including the player. If the Belcher takes more damage than its hit points (125 HP), it will not swell up and instead explode instantly. This will occur if the Belcher has had its health reduced by more than half and receives more damage greater than the amount of HP it currently has. For example, if a Belcher will less than 60 HP remaining takes a blast from the 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun (which deals 70 damage per shot) and all the pellets connect, the Belcher will explode instantly.
The explosion caused by the Belcher is devastating and can deal a lot of damage, but the gas released from the explosion deals minimal damage. Belchers are slightly resistant to the explosions caused by other Belchers.
Like other enemies, Belchers will take extra damage when shot in the head.
Tactics[]
- As the Belcher's explosion is very powerful, the player should use Belchers to their advantage whenever they appear. A Belcher's explosion is powerful enough to wipe out most, if not all of the enemies that get caught in its blast radius. This tactic works very well with swarms of weak enemies, like Beheaded Kamikazes, Beheaded Rocketeers, male Gnaars, and Processed Anthropolyps.
- The Belcher doesn't have much health; a few shots from the 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun or a well placed shot from the Double Barrel Coach Gun is enough to kill it, so long all of the pellets connect.
- Fire at the Belcher's head whenever possible; not only do they take much more damage this way, but it makes it easier to dispatch them with small-arms fire and saves ammo.
- A clever (but risky) tactic involves using the Combat Knife; a single slash will kill the Belcher and force it to explode. With clever timing, a player can lure a group of weak enemies such as Kamikazes, Gnaars, or Processed into the Belcher's blast radius and have the explosion dispatch the majority of them.
- From medium to far distances and if the player is running low on rockets or grenades, but has enough ammo to spare for the pump shotgun's grenade launcher, a single grenade from this weapon can kill a Belcher in one hit, and cause the Belcher to explode instantly after the grenade hits. This is useful if the player wishes to eliminate these enemies quickly and then focus on other enemies in the group.
- Keep a safe distance when engaging Belchers to avoid the risk of being damaged by their explosion.
- For dealing with Belchers that are some distance away, the M29 Infantry Assault Rifle, MK III Grenade Launcher, and XPML21 Rocket Launcher are effective weapons to use.
- Larger groups of Belchers can be taken down with the XM214-A Minigun, XL2 Lasergun, A-24 Devastator, or TCC-2 "Perun" Crossbow.
- While it may be tempting to use the XPMR "Burner" Raygun on Belchers, it is not very effective as they explode and cause other nearby enemies to be damaged on their own.
- The FRPCL and SBC Cannon can be used as a last resort against massive groups of Belchers.
- The Belcher's projectiles can easily be avoided by sidestepping.
- In comparison with other enemies, Belchers are a low-priority threat, but can become troublesome in numbers or on high difficulty settings. When near weaker enemies, its priority becomes higher due to its ability to take out other enemies upon death.
Related achievements[]
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| Kill a Belcher using Belcher collateral barf damage. |
Trivia[]
- The Belcher looks and behaves in a similar manner to the Bloat from the Killing Floor series. Both creatures are slow, swollen humanoids that produce damaging vomit and violently explode on death.
- Another similar enemy that vomits bile on the player and explodes after death is the Boomer from the Left 4 Dead series.
- The Belcher is called "ProcessedBrawler" in the game files.
- The term "emetic" defines a substance that is known to cause vomiting. The name of this enemy is a reference to its vomiting projectile attack.
- Belchers reuse the gib sound (
Gnaar_Eye_Rip_Pull.wav) from Serious Sam 3: BFE when they explode. This was changed in Siberian Mayhem.
Gallery[]
Artwork[]
Retail[]
List of appearances[]
- Serious Sam 4 (First appearance)
- Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem
References[]
- ↑ NETRICSA description