Yagoda the Witch is an enemy that appears in Serious Sam 2. There are two variants of Yagoda; flying Yagodas and ground Yagodas.
Overview[]
Yagoda the Witch appears as a stereotypical witch, with a long crooked nose, missing teeth, a black hat and black clothes. She wears socks with white and red stripes, like the Wicked Witch of the East from The Wizard of Oz, and also rides a broomstick (if she is the flying variant).
Orginally, Yagodas were transformed winners of Mental's beauty contests. They were some of the most beautiful ladies in the galaxy. When they were recruited for Mental's beauty contests, they were transformed into ugly witches. With their self-esteem destroyed, they were easy to recruit into his army.
Appearances[]
Compared to other enemies in Serious Sam 2, Yagodas are quite rare enemies, and only appear on the Magnor levels.
Behavior and skills[]
Yagodas have several attacks, depending on the type of Yagoda. The flying Yagoda rides a broom and casts a spell which fires a blue, teardrop-shaped projectile. To make her more dangerous, she flies around in erratic patterns, is fast, and bounces around when she hits something, like a wall. The ground variant holds a large, poisonous cauldron while floating around. The ground variant shoots homing skulls which are a little more powerful.
Tactics[]
Flying Yagodas[]
- Bullet-firing weapons, such as the Auto Shotgun and Uzi, are very effective against flying Yagodas. The insta-hit nature of their bullets makes it easy to hit her, which is handy because of her speed and bouncy nature.
- If a projectile weapon must be used against a flying Yagoda, try to predict where Yagoda is moving and fire ahead of where she may be moving. Her speed prevents a projectile from hitting her if the player aims at her.
- A better idea is to be positioned so that the Yagoda is flying towards the player. That way, the player doesn't need to predict where the Yagoda is moving; all they need to to is just shoot at the flying Yagoda, and the projectiles will hit her because she is heading to the player.
- Multiple Yagodas can be easily defeated with rapid-fire bullet weapons, such as the uzi or XM214-A Minigun. Their rate of fire and insta-hit bullets make it easy to clear them out, no matter how erratic their flying is.
- The difficulty of a flying Yagoda is when paired with other enemies depends on the weapons the player has. If the player has bullet-firing weapons, they should make the flying Yagodas a top priority because of how irritating they can be when dodging other enemy attacks and the fact that the bullets from those guns will instantly-hit a Yagoda, which is very useful when they're moving and bouncing around erratically.
- However, if the player is using projectile-firing weapons, such as the XL 808 Plasma Rifle, they should keep the Yagodas for later in the fight. While they're still annoying, trying to focus on killing a flying Yagoda with a projectile weapon is frustrating and makes the player vulnerable to other enemy attacks. Trying to dodge other enemy attacks while trying to line up a projectile weapon to hit a flying Yagoda is quite frustrating, so it's a better idea to clear out the other enemies, then use the extra.
- The Beam Gun is incredibly useful against a flying Yagoda. Its hitscan nature and very high damage output will easily shred flying Yagodas in mere seconds.
Ground Yagodas[]
- Ground Yagodas are easier to hit than their flying variants. They're much less erratic than the flying ones and generally don't move often, which makes it much easier to constantly hit them.
- Multiple ground Yagodas should be dealt with by using rapid-fire weapons, such as the plasma rifle, beam gun, and/or uzi. Their rapid-fire nature lets the player quickly destroy them.
- When paired with other enemies, a ground Yagoda is a medium threat. Her homing projectiles can be avoided by constantly moving around, which makes her easy to dodge while avoiding other enemy projectiles. Take her out when stronger enemies, such as a T-Mech, have been defeated. If there are no stronger enemies, kill her first.
Trivia[]
- The model for the flying Yagoda's projectile appears to be very similar to the one that was supposed to be fired by the Water Elemental, a cut Serious Sam: The First Encounter enemy.
- Yagoda comes from the word "jagoda", meaning "strawberry" in Croatian.
Gallery[]
List of appearances[]
- Serious Sam 2 (First appearance) (non-canonical appearance)