Sandwhale

 

Sandwhale
General information
Type	Wildlife
Affiliation	Mental's Horde (presumably)
Individual information
Health	N/A (unkillable)
Attacks / weapons	Devour (instant death)
Game information
Entity name	SandWorm

 

"I'm a lot of things fella' but I am not your lunch!"

―Sam Stone

The Sandwhale is an unkillable enemy and obstacle introduced in Serious Sam 3: BFE. Its main purpose is to prevent players from wandering too far away from the map boundary.

Overview

Due to their massive size and the fact they filter sand, these creatures are commonly referred to as Sandwhales. Despite their name, they are not whales, but are in fact worms of polychaeta class. How they arrived on Earth is not quite fully understood, although the most likely cause is that they were transported there in their microscopic larval state from an unnamed desert planet in Gamma Pegasi, probably due to landing pad contamination.

It is not known if the Sandwhale has any connection to Mental's forces, since they arrived on Earth by accident. Despite this, they show no hostility towards any of Mental's forces, even if they are wandering on the sand. The only exception is Ugh-Zan IV, the final boss of the game, who the Sandwhale will fight with in the final level.

Appearances

Serious Sam 3: BFE

A Sandwhale first appears in the game's opening cutscene, bursting out of the ground and attempting to devour the UH-60 Black Hawk that Sam and Alpha Team are flying on. Luckily, the pilot manages to avoid the creature by performing evasive maneuvers. They are first encountered in-game in "The Silent Riddler", and appear in every subsequent level onwards (they are absent from Jewel of the Nile levels). When playing on a map that features a Sandwhale, they can occasionally be seen diving in sand far out in the distance (which somewhat resembles a whale breaching the water), possibly engulfing prey.

In the final level of the game, a Sandwhale will come bursting out of the sand when Ugh-Zan IV appears and they begin fighting.

The Sandwhale also appears in the Deathmatch map "Slumoner", functioning exactly like how it does in the campaign.

Behavior and skills

Sandwhales are highly territorial and will devouring anything that enters their range. Even aircraft flying at low altitude is enough to provoke them.

Sandwhales mostly feed on minerals and sediments, and don't usually prey on living organisms. However, they are extremely territorial, and if they are disturbed, an aggravated Sandwhale will instantly devour it without hesitation. There doesn't appear to be a limit to what the Sandwhale can swallow; their mouths are large enough to swallow a main battle tank whole, without chewing. They are so well protected by their thick scales that the only known way to kill them is with nuclear weapons. The short stubs along the Sandwhale's back are thought to act as a kind of very sensitive cilia, allowing them to feel presence of intruders walking on sand for some distance. These scales are sensitive enough to detect a cat walking on sand from up to 10 miles away.

When the player begins to move away from the map boundary, the ground will start shaking, which is an imminent warning that a Sandwhale is approaching. If the player continues to wander, the Sandwhale will burst out of the ground and devour them, resultimg in instant death. A Sandwhale can move much faster than the player, making it impossible to outrun the creature, even by sprinting. The only known way to escape a Sandwhale is by moving back to the confines of the map before it bursts out of the ground.

The player cannot damage or kill the Sandwhale with any of their weapons, as they will have no effect. Despite being invulnerable to the player's weapons, the player can use the Sandwhale to help them defeat the final boss, Ugh-Zan IV, as he will sometimes walk up to the sand and growl, calling the Sandwhale to fight him. The player still needs to be careful though, as being in the area of the Sandwhale will cause it to eat them.

Tactics

• The player should not stray too far from the map, even if they are being outnumbered by enemies, as death by a Sandwhale is always certain.
• When the player starts to see the sand shaking and the Sandwhale coming towards them, they should get back within the map boundary immediately.
• On the map "Slumoner", the Sandwhale will rise and eat any players that try to go out of bounds, deterring players from running away from heated firefights.
• A few secrets in the campaign are located oustide of the map boundary (for example, the secret the minigun in "The Silent Riddler" and the Lasergun in the level "Unearthing the Sun"), thus, they require the player to exit the map. This does, however, put the player at risk of being killed if they are not quick enough to find the secret weapon or item. The player should exercise extreme caution before doing this.
  • For this reason, it is strongly advised for the player to quick-save before attempting unless they are confident enough to make it there and back to the map in time before a Sandwhale approaches.

Behind the scenes

• In the game's files, there are "wound" and "death" sounds in the Sandwhale's folder.
  • The Sandwhale's unused death sound would eventually be reused for the Draconian Burner enemy in Serious Sam: Siberian Mayhem as one of three possible death sounds.
• As their bodies are partially hidden underneath the sand, they have no "tail", but rather a stub at the end of their body. This can be seen in the Serious Editor in the Animations tab, or by no clipping under the map.

Trivia

• The Sandwhale seems to be heavily inspired by other fictional creatures, such as the Sandworm from the Dune series and the Graboid from the Tremors film series.
  • The Sandwhale is also called "SandWorm" in the game files, which is likely another reference to the Dune series.
• Like the sentry turrets that appear earlier in the game, NETRICSA will automatically update the player about the Sandwhale rather than show its description, as, like the turret, the Sandwhale cannot be killed.
• The Sandwhale is one of four enemies that does not appear in Jewel of the Nile, the other three are the Cloned Soldier, Technopolyp, and Witch-Bride of Achriman.
  • Since they don't appear in the expansion pack, this implies that Sandwhales only inhabited parts of Egypt that had more arid environments or were more densely populated, rather than areas that wasn't inhabitated by many humans, such as Abu Simbel or Philae.
• More civilians have been eaten by Sandwhales after Mental's forces invaded Cairo than the ones who were killed by his forces in the city.
• Some of the Sandwhale's sounds are recycled from Kwongo.
• Sandwhales are one of the few enemies in the series that do not appear to have any connection to Mental or his forces. Another example of a non Mental-affiliated enemy is Kukulkán, the Mayan god of wind.
• In real life, polychaete worms are mostly marine, so it is bizarre for a Sandwhale being classed as such and being able to adapt to living in such a hot, arid enviroment like the Sahara.
• Sandwhales are not present in Serious Sam: The First Encounter, due to the game being set in a different timeline. Even if the player wanders from away from the map in desert areas, most notably in "Dunes" which features a secret that requires the player to go out of bounds, they will instead slowly start to lose health and/or armor due to heat damage.
  • The same heat damage mechanic is reused in Serious Sam: The Second Encounter, albeit only officially used in the level "Ziggurat".
• Unlike other enemies in the game, the Sandwhale's health will not show on the player's crosshairs, as they are invulnerable.
• The Sandwhale is one of the few enemies in the series that cannot be killed.
• There are certain tactics to avoid the Sandwhale's attack on some levels, which can help speedrunners.
• The jetpack will overheat instantly if the player flies far enough into the desert to provoke the Sandwhale.
• After Sam defeats Ugh-Zan IV and escapes just before the Moon is sent crashing into the Earth, any Sandwhales on the planet at the time were also killed, resulting in their extinction on the planet.
• The Sandwhale makes a cameo in the The Talos Principle 2 DLC Road to Elysium. Appropriately enough, it also appears in an out-of-bounds area. However, in The Talos Principle 2, the player character (1K) will activate their Distress Mode and then be sent back to the main playable area if they venture too far out instead of being eaten by the Sandwhale.
• Oddly, they do not appear in Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope, despite some of the levels taking place in Egypt and the game being set roughly around the same time Serious Sam 3.

Gallery

Model.

Concept art.

Ditto.

A provoked Sandwhale bursting out of the ground.

List of appearances

• Serious Sam 3: BFE (First appearance)
• Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE (non-canonical appearance)
• The Talos Principle 2 (non-canonical appearance) (Easter Egg)