Revenant

The revenant’s first encounter in Doom II is MAP06: The Crusher on every skill level. This guide covers its attacks, statistics, and practical ways to fight it; our Doom enemies database provides a broader reference for the monsters encountered alongside it.

Design and lore

Visually the revenant merges the imagery of a blood-streaked skeleton with militarized hardware. The Doom II manual describes it as a dead demon equipped with combat gear and sent back into battle, rather than identifying it as a reanimated human. Its name comes from French and means one who returns, particularly from death.

The revenant’s physical model was built by Gregor Punchatz, who also created models of the arch-vile, mancubus, and spider mastermind. These models were captured on video and adapted into the sprites used in the games.

Combat behavior

The revenant attacks with two distinct modes. At range it fires rockets from its shoulder launchers; some missiles home in on their target and leave a gray smoke trail. The remaining rockets travel in a straight line. Which type an individual revenant favors depends on engine timing: each generally favors guided or unguided missiles at roughly a 75/25 ratio. This depends on whether its attack sequence falls on odd or even game tics, and damage that triggers its pain state can change that timing and reverse its preference.

In melee, the revenant delivers a punch that deals 6–60 damage. It moves at 175 map units per second. When its target is less than 196 map units away, it stops choosing ordinary missile attacks and attempts to close to punching range. If it enters its pain state, however, it will counterattack with a single missile at its next opportunity; it can still punch first if its target is already within melee range.

A guided missile periodically adjusts its direction toward its target, with a limited turning rate. Simply breaking line of sight does not cancel its tracking. Its impact deals 10–80 direct damage without blast damage, so nearby monsters are not harmed merely by standing beside the impact.

Statistics

The revenant has 300 hit points, placing its durability below the hell knight’s 500 and the mancubus’s 600. It is considerably less resilient than a cyberdemon or spider mastermind. Its pain chance is 100 out of 256, making it susceptible to having attacks interrupted by sustained fire.

Sound design

The revenant emits a loud, high-pitched, hollow scream when it spots the player. Its alert sound is DSSKESIT, and its active sound is DSSKEACT. Its missile firing sound, DSSKEATK, is specific to its attack; the impact sound, DSBAREXP, is shared with explosions despite the missile’s lack of blast damage.

Tactics: how to defeat the revenant

For details on the equipment used in these tactics, see our Doom weapons database.

• Use the chaingun to keep a lone revenant under sustained fire. Its relatively high pain chance allows repeated hits to interrupt its attacks, although this does not guarantee that it will remain unable to retaliate.
• Land two solid super shotgun blasts at close range. Two well-placed blasts reliably kill it; keep enough room to avoid its punch while bringing the pellet spread onto the target.
• Steer homing missiles into a wall or pillar. Move behind the obstacle so the missile collides with it, rather than relying on distance or loss of sight to stop the pursuit.
• Do not rely on low cover to block its shots. Its missiles spawn 16 map units above its body’s center, allowing it to fire over obstacles that block other monsters’ projectiles; choose a barrier tall enough to intercept the missile.
• Reserve berserk punching for situations where you can control the distance. As few as two berserk punches can kill a revenant, but step out of punching range between attacks and be ready for its missile retaliation after a pain reaction. This approach is better suited to players comfortable with close-range movement.
• Use the plasma gun, BFG 9000, or rocket launcher against groups. These are useful choices when several revenants attack together; keep moving between attacks so distant missiles do not catch you standing in place.
• Position other monster species between you and an incoming revenant missile when you want to provoke infighting. A direct hit can damage the intervening monster and trigger retaliation; this depends on a collision with the monster itself, rather than splash damage.

Appearances across the series

The classic revenant appears in Final Doom’s TNT: Evilution and The Plutonia Experiment, and can also be used in Doom II-based add-ons.

In single-player on Ultra-Violence, Doom II contains 90 revenants, TNT: Evilution contains 233, and The Plutonia Experiment contains 422. Plutonia includes them on every map except MAP11: Hunted and MAP17: Compound.