The Juvenile Antaresian Spider is an enemy that first appears in Serious Sam 3: BFE, and later on in several Serious Sam games; Serious Sam's Bogus Detour, Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, and Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE.
Overview[]
The Juvenile Antaresian Spider is a young Antaresian Spider, a species of arachnid-like aliens from Antares Prime, a planet that orbits the red supergiant Antares. The star's extreme mass and size has allowed life on the planet to become extremely large.[1]
Appearances[]
Juvenile Spiders are deployed along with other creatures in Mental's army in groups of any size, from a few individuals to huge swarms. They usually serve as main ranged/melee hybrid frontline units or are used in small ambushes.
Serious Sam 3: BFE[]
In Serious Sam 3, they first appear in Into the Spider's Nest along with Hatchlings. Later on, they appear much more frequently, with giant swarms in the last level.
Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]
In this game, Juveniles are just as common in this game as they are in Serious Sam 3, though this time around they come out of holes from underground. Each hole contains up to 3 Spiders. Large groups of Spiders also appear during the fight with Tetrachoke. Their role during this fight is to try to distract the player and attempt to have the player concentrate their fire on the Spiders rather than Tetrachoke himself.
Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope[]
In Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, Juveniles appear on the first level of the game, Monolith of Time. Like the previous games, they are fairly common enemies, appearing on most levels. They are usually paired with Hatchlings or other enemies.
Behavior and skills[]
Compared to the Hatchlings, Juvenile Antaresian Spiders are larger, have stronger jaws and a more developed exoskeleton, which gives them more protection from small-arms fire.[1] They can, however, be killed with one hit with a close-range Double Barrel Coach Gun blast or with strong melee weapons such as the Axe or Sledgehammer. They can also be blown into pieces with explosive weapons such as rockets or high explosive cartridges. Like many enemies in Serious Sam 3, Juveniles can be killed instantly with the Melee Grab feature; if the player presses the use key when they get close to a Juvenile, Sam will rip off its casing, which will instantly kill it.
Like Hatchling Spiders, Juveniles have advesive surfaces on their feet, which allows them to cling onto walls and ceilings, which can sometimes give them the advantage and remain hidden to unsuspecting targets.[1]
When a Juvenile Spider spots the target, it will usually give chase and try to bite them with their jaws, which deals moderate damage. If the target is some distance away, they will use their secondary attack, which is firing a ball of acid that is produced by glands in their tail.[1] These projectiles do not home in on the player, and can be destroyed by gunfire.
In the Serious Sam Fusion version of Serious Sam 3, while playing on Hard or Serious difficulty, Juveniles have the chance to fire green acid balls that can bounce off surfaces and ceilings in the same manner as the Exotech Larva's plasma orbs. These acid projectiles are more difficult to avoid, but can easily be destroyed with weapons fire. They can be seen doing this when they stay still momentarily and start charging up the acid from their mouths.
Tactics[]
Serious Sam 3: BFE[]
- While having almost the same health as Kleer Skeletons and filling the same role in combat, these enemies are significantly easier to deal with. They are not as fast and lack the Kleer's deadly lunging attack. Their only advantages are that they can climb on walls and ceilings and have faster projectiles, which can be more dangerous in Serious Sam Fusion where they can bounce off surfaces and ceilings if playing on at least Hard difficulty.
- Two close to medium-range shots from the 12 Gauge Pump-Action Shotgun or one shot from the coach gun are enough to kill one at close range, although larger packs of them can be dealt with the XPML21 Rocket Launcher, especially if an ammo crate containing unlimited rockets is present.
- Smaller groups can effectively be dealt by using melee attacks or the sledgehammer. Care should be taken to dodge their acid spit when they are about to fire. The bouncy acid projectiles in Serious Sam Fusion on Hard and Serious difficulties are especially more difficult to avoid, but can be destroyed in midair with the player's weapons.
- C-4 Demolition Charges are useful for flushing out medium groups of Juveniles.
- Extremely large groups (such as the horde in The Guardian of Time) can be dealt with using either the A-24 Devastator, XL2 Lasergun, or XM214-A Minigun, although the lasergun's ammo is quite rare owing to being only in secrets.
- In the Fusion version of Serious Sam 3, Juveniles have a tendency to fire acid at the player more often, and have a short "warmup" period before firing acid at the player. An experienced player can use this timing to their advantage and quickly dispatch the Spider with a blow from the sledgehammer, another melee attack, or a double shotgun blast before it can fire.
- When they appear with other enemies, they are usually a low or medium-low priority target. Most of the other enemies are more powerful, faster or have harder-to-dodge attacks. However, despite their low profile, they have a tendency to block more dangerous enemies like Beheaded Kamikazes, Kleers, and Scrapjacks, making their movement more unpredictable.
Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]
- Unlike the Juveniles in Serious Sam 3, their projectiles cannot be shot out of the air and must be avoided by sidestepping or dashing.
- The player should be careful when engaging Spiders in areas with large holes, as this is where they emerge from and they can quickly swarm the player in seconds.
- The Devastator, Erasergun, Flamethrower, Laser Cannon (especially the upgraded version) and Thompson submachine gun are great weapons against large groups of Juveniles, as they have much lower health in this game compared to Serious Sam 3.
- The Auto Shotgun, pump-action shotgun or Super Shotgun are effective to use against small groups of Spiders.
- During the fight with Tetrachoke, the player should only concentrate on the Spiders if they are low on health or if their numbers get too big. Shooting at them constantly with strong weapons is a waste of ammo that should be really used on the boss.
Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope[]
- When paired with Hatchlings, the P-LAH Chainsaw or Laser Sword can quickly take them out, especially if both weapons are dual-wielded.
- Dual-wielded assault rifles, miniguns or rocket launchers are useful for taking out swarms of Juveniles at a time.
- The RAPTOR Sniper Rifle is also a great weapon for eliminating groups of Juveniles.
Related achievements[]
Serious Sam 3: BFE[]
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| Rip 10 Juvenile spiders apart. |
Serious Sam Fusion[]
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| Rip 10 Juvenile spiders apart. |
Behind the scenes[]
- Juveniles were meant to fire lightning from their back instead of acid projectiles, as seen in early concept art.
Trivia[]
- Despite being arachnid-like in appearance, Juvenile Spiders exude green blood as opposed to the haemolymph found in the majority of arthropods. The composition of green blood, erythrocruorin, is usually found in segmented worms like leeches and polychaetes.
- The Spider Mechanoid from Serious Sam 2 also bleeds green blood, despite also being arachnid-like in appearance.
- It requires approximately 50 pounds of force to rip the casing off a Juvenile Spider.[2]
Gallery[]
Serious Sam 3: BFE[]
Concept art[]
Retail[]
Serious Sam's Bogus Detour[]
Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope[]
List of appearances[]
- Serious Sam 3: BFE (First appearance)
- Serious Sam's Bogus Detour (non-canonical appearance)
- Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope
- Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE (non-canonical appearance)