Assault Trooper
From Duke Nukem Wiki
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The Assault Trooper (also know as the Predator Trooper or Lizard Trooper) is the most common enemy in Duke Nukem 3D, and appears in almost every level. It is first encountered in the first level of L.A. Meltdown, Hollywood Holocaust.
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[edit] Description
The Assault Trooper is the lowest-ranked grunt in the alien invasion, armed only with a laser blaster. It is also one of the most common (and thus most reliable) grunts of the entire alien attack force assaulting Earth. Its job is to stay on the front lines and do all the dirty work for its Lord. It is the first alien the player encounters in the game.
The Assault Trooper should not be underestimated. Each Assault Trooper owns a jetpack, and uses it to get closer to the player or to gain the high ground. This makes it rather difficult for the player to flee the battlefield, or to pick them off from above. Also, when attacking in groups the Assault Trooper will try to flank the player, making it more difficult to withdraw to a safer area. Finally, the Assault Trooper is the only enemy in the game that can "play dead", allowing it to make a surprise attack on the player later.
[edit] Appearance
The Assault Trooper is a human-sized humanoid creature, with pale brown skin with black stripes across it. It has often been described as lizard-like. The top of its head is shaped like a brain. Each hand has three large fingers, and each foot has three large splayed toes.
It wears light green torso armor, a jetpack on its back, and carries its laser blaster in its right hand.
[edit] Combat analysis
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The Assault Trooper is armed with a single laser blaster, which inflicts minimal damage. Its low health means it can be killed by 5 Pistol rounds or 1 Shotgun round. It is not particularly fast, either. This all means that the Assault Trooper is considered one of the least dangerous enemies in the game.
It makes up for its lack of agility by utilising its jetpack. With it, the Assault Trooper is able to fly anywhere, although in practise it will only do so if the player is above it. While all Assault Troopers have jetpacks, none will ever drop one for the player to pick up.
Upon being killed, there is a 37.5% chance of the Assault Trooper dropping a Pistol clip (containing 12 rounds).
When killed (except by an explosion), there is a 12.5% chance that the Assault Trooper will not die immediately, but instead drop to its hands and knees and clutch at its throat, gagging. It will die with a howl a couple of seconds later, unless the player shoots it again. If it dies by itself this way, there is a 25% chance that it has not actually died, but is instead playing dead. If it is playing dead, it will shortly return to full health and begin attacking the player again.
There are two ways of making sure an Assault Trooper will not revive itself after playing dead. The first way is to shoot it while it is kneeling and gagging. The second way is to blow up its corpse.
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[edit] The Assault Trooper in other games
 Special aliens in Total Meltdown. |
 An Assault Trooper (foreground) and an Assault Captain (background, teleporting) in Duke Nukem 64. |
.jpg) An Assault Trooper wielding a Shrink Ray in Duke Nukem Mobile. |
- In the expansion pack Duke Caribbean: Life's A Beach, the Assault Trooper wears a white suit.
- In the expansion pack Duke: Nuclear Winter, the Assault Trooper wears a red Santa hat.
- In Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown there exist a third variant of the Assault Trooper and Assault Captain. It wears a dark blue suit and has as much health as a Pig Cop, but otherwise is identical to the Assault Trooper.
- In one level of Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown, there are a number of Assault Trooper-like creatures that wear what appears to be yellow and green winter clothing. They are not enemies, but they can be killed.
- In Duke Nukem 64, the Assault Trooper is drawn differently, has blue armor, and is identical in appearance to the Assault Captain. Its laser blaster shot has also been redrawn.
[edit] Trivia
 LameDuke robot named "Trooper". |
 LameDuke robot named "Captain". |
.jpg) "Trooper Heads". |
 Beta version screenshot showing an unused aiming animation. |
 The Duke Nukem 3D box art showing an Assault Trooper with blue armor. |
- In the Duke Nukem 3D beta LameDuke, two robots named "Trooper" and "Captain" exist. They do not resemble their namesakes, but it is easy to see that they had the same role in their respective games.
- Their designs may have evolved significantly during production (rather than simply being replaced). The concept art "Trooper Heads" (below) could represent an intermediate step in their development.
- The Assault Trooper sprites have blue armor, but when loaded into the game they are set to green (palette 22).
- This is likely due to a change of mind by the creators after the sprites had already been created. It is much easier to change the palette afterwards than to recolour all the sprites.
- The Duke Nukem 3D box art features several outdated images. One of these is an Assault Trooper wearing blue armor, which supports the idea of a change of mind.
- Note that several ports of Duke Nukem 3D feature Assault Troopers with blue armor (see above).
- A common bug can cause a shrunken enemy to behave like a normal (unshrunken) enemy. Because of the shrunken enemy's small size, therefore, it is difficult to kill.
- The bug is caused when the enemy flinches after being shot in its shrunken state.
- The lasers that the Assault Trooper fires can reflect off mirrors.
- The Assault Trooper will sometimes drop a Pistol clip when killed, even though its weapon is a laser blaster. It is unknown why it would be carrying a Pistol clip around at all, since it appears to have no use for it.
- The obvious explanation is to give the player a source of Pistol ammo.
- An unused tile (1705) shows a map mode view (top view) of the Assault Trooper (and possibly also the Assault Captain). This is likely a remnant from an abandoned plan to make the enemies appear in the map mode view.
- An unused aiming animation not seen in the final version of the game is present in the art files. However, it was used in the Sega Saturn port of Duke Nukem 3D.
- It appears to be based on the design of the Predator (from the movie of the same name).
- Despite being among the weakest enemies encountered in the game, the Assault Trooper is the most versatile, as it can open doors, fly (with the use of its jetpack), move around freely underwater and play dead.
- It is one of only a few enemies that can move around freely underwater (i.e. swim), as most will simply walk along the floor. The enemies that can move freely underwater are: The Assault Trooper and Assault Captain, the Assault Commander, the Octabrain, the Recon Patrol Vehicle, the Sentry Drone and the Shark.
- The Assault Commander, the Recon Patrol Vehicle and the Sentry Drone are not normally found underwater, although they can be placed there in user-made levels.
- The Protozoid Slimer can move around underwater just as much as on land, although it cannot move freely anywhere between the floor and the water's surface. The Protector Drone can leap further underwater, but it still cannot move freely.
- It is one of only a few enemies that can move around freely underwater (i.e. swim), as most will simply walk along the floor. The enemies that can move freely underwater are: The Assault Trooper and Assault Captain, the Assault Commander, the Octabrain, the Recon Patrol Vehicle, the Sentry Drone and the Shark.
[edit] See also
- Assault Captain - a stronger version of the Assault Trooper.
- Blue Assault Trooper - a stronger version of the Assault Trooper exclusive to Duke Nukem: Total Meltdown.
