Jim taking on a Shadow Demon.
Shadow Demons, also known as Heck Hounds, are one of the few creatures that reside on the planet Heck, as well as one of the more "hellish" aspects of it. They are seen throughout the level What the Heck? in the game Earthworm Jim. The only other ground enemies that can be found in the level are Lawyers, appearing much less often than Shadow Demons, and only in specific places. They're also found in Level 5.
Appearance[]
Shadow Demons are black, ghost-like shapes that have two red-yellow eyes and a large, fully toothed mouth with fangs. They will only show their mouths when they try to attack you. They will only try to attack you when you get near them, which will cause them to appear from nowhere or to come out from behind rocks. They will first appear to just hover in place until you make a move, which will entice them to swoop around, chomping at you, similarly to the Crows from New Junk City.
Tactics[]
Shadow Demons aren't very hard to kill, but you should continue moving during combat, especially when taking on multiple Demons at once, to avoid being bitten. If they are directly above you, then you should whip at them, dealing out about half of their life, then you should either jump up and finish them off with another whiplash, or simply aim diagonally, or wherever they flew off to, and just continue to blast them until they die. If you're dealing with multiple Shadow Demons, one on the left of you, the other on the right, you should probably quick move under the one that you whipped first, to avoid taking damage from the second one, and you should jump up and whip the other one again, killing it, and then finish the other one off by shooting it to death. The alternative, assuming the first one doesn't make a move on you as you do it, is to wait for the second one to swoop down at you and diagonally whip at it, and then jump over it and whip down on it, or back away and jump and whip sideways, or you could jump up and finish it off with a super-blast. If you are going to try and take on two in the same spot you should go near or under them and fire a super-blast, killing one and taking half of the life off the other. The one that did not die will swoop down at you, so you should jump up quickly and do a midair diagonal-whip at it, killing it. If you are going to take on three of more, a good way to dispose of them quickly would be to slowly walk towards them if they are all in the same spot, and just fire strait at them all, and if you can only kill one or two, just back away and keep unloading on to them and they will go down fast.
Trivia[]
- They will let out a sinister moan when they die.
- They are ghosts, not demonic entities, as their name suggests.
- They growl before they chomp at you.
- The occasional nickname, "Heck Hounds", is a play on words with the deadly mythological dog-like creature known as a "Hellhound."
Gallery[]
They can open their gaping mouths VERY wide.
A still Shadow Demon. (upper right)
A Shadow Demon biting Jim.