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The Protector Drone, also known as the Alien Beast, Alien Drone, or Newbeast, is an enemy in Duke Nukem 3D. It was introduced in Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition and first appears on "It's Impossible".

Description[]

The Protector Drone is a slim beige creature, somewhat humanoid in appearance but certainly very alien. It has three red eyes, positioned just above a large mouth full of extremely big teeth. On the top of its head is a small fleshy fin. It has large fleshy fins sticking out of its shoulders and spikes on its elbows, and its rib cage stands out prominently (it doesn't wear any clothing). It has large hands, with three long sharp fingers per hand. Its legs are rippling with muscles, and each foot has three large toes.

Despite its seemingly frail appearance, the Protector Drone is very durable. It can survive two direct hits from an RPG.

The Protector Drone fires Shrink Orbs from its mouth, which is presumably a biological feature since there is no visible technology on its body. It being immune to the Shrinker is probably due to needing to be immune to its own attack. When it dies, it spews a large amount of green blood from its wounds. This blood is toxic/acidic, and can sometimes be left behind in puddles, which are harmful to touch. Their appearance is heavily inspired off the Xenomorph Aliens; they possess the same objective as the Xenomorph - protect their Queen.

Combat analysis[]

Weapon effectivenesses
Mighty Foot
MightyBootSprite
30 kicks
Pistol
PistolSprite
50 shots
Shotgun
ShotgunSprite
4 shots
Chaingun Cannon
ChaingunCannonSprite
34 shots
RPG
RPGSprite
2 rockets
Pipe Bomb
PipebombSprite
3 bombs
Shrinker
ShrinkRaySprite
Not effective
Expander
MicrowaveExpanderSprite
20 shots
Devastator
DevastatorSprite
9 rockets
Laser Tripbomb
LaserTripbombSprite
3 mines
Freezethrower
FreezethrowerSprite
12-15 shots
Incinerator
Incinerator
3 shots
  • The values given for the Shotgun and the explosive weapons are minimum values only.

The Protector Drone is very quick-moving, and is capable of jumping high to pursue any foes that attempt to escape it by fleeing to higher ground.

Its main attack method is to get close to its foe and slash at it with its claws, an attack that does significant damage. Its less common method of attack is to fire a Shrink Blast at its foe, which acts identically to the Shrinker (i.e. a single shot will shrink the foe for a certain amount of time), and to then stomp on them while they are shrunken and helpless.

Being an agile enemy, the Protector Drone may dodge most projectile weapons. Only 3 Pipebombs are needed to kill it, but because the Protector Drone is so quick, the act of deploying them may often be too slow. The same goes for the Laser Tripbomb (3 mines). The other danger with explosive weapons, particularly the RPG and the Devastator, is that the Protector Drone may move to close range so swiftly that the weapon user can forget explosions will harm them as well at close range, and they ends up hurting (or even killing) themselves in the process.

An important point to note is that the Protector Drone cannot be shrunk by the Shrinker, even though it is an organic enemy. This is likely because it uses Shrink Blasts as a weapon, and is therefore immune to any effect that would try to shrink it. It is however susceptible to the Shrinker's counterpart, the Microwave Expander, and needs about 20 shots from it to kill it.

Also the Freezethrower is very effective. It slows the Protector Drone down and when it is eventually frozen, it can be shot or kicked. It is recommended to take one Protector Drone at a time if possible.

The Protector Drone is still dangerous even when it is dead. Its blood is harmful (either toxic or corrosive), and standing on its corpse will cause damage.

Data[]

Attributes
Hit points 300
Speed 182
256 (Running)
264 (Jumping)
Pain chance 12.5% (32/256)
Clipdist 80
Scale 40 x 40
Sprites & sounds
Actor tile number 4610/NEWBEAST
4611/NEWBEASTSTAYPUT
4670/NEWBEASTHANG
4690/NEWBEASTJUMP
Alert sound blrec4b.voc
Action sound blroam2a.voc
Pain sound blpain1b.voc
Death sound bldie3a.voc
Shrink Blast Attack
Type Projectile
Speed 768
Damage 0
Blast radius 680 map units
Actor tile number 1646/SHRINKSPARK
1656/SHRINKEREXPLOSION (impact)
Sound blspit1a.voc
thud.voc (impact)
shrink.voc (hit)
Slash Attack
Type Health access
Rate 1.4 hits/second
Damage 22
Sound blrip1a.voc
blrip1b.voc (miss)
exert.voc (player hurt)

The Protector Drone in other games[]

  • Duke Nukem 64 does not contain the episode The Birth, which is the only episode in Duke Nukem 3D: Atomic Edition the Protector Drone features in. However, some of The Birth's levels are moved into other episodes, and the Protector Drone is also distributed around some other levels as well, mainly the more popular levels in "Lunar Apocalypse" and "Shrapnel City".
    • The Protector Drone is first encountered in "Lunar Apocalypse" or "Fusion Station" (on lower difficulties).
    • While there is no color applied to palette 6, the Protector Drone gibs will show red blood instead of green.
    • Since the palette system is not applied, the poster in Area 51 will shown a blue Protector Drone, instead of brown.
  • The Protector Drone, or rather an alternate version, makes an appearance in Duke Nukem: Zero Hour, but are instead called Chimera. They possess blades instead of claws and also spit poisonous gas instead of shrink orbs.

Trivia[]

  • The Protector Drone's alternate name of Newbeast is the temporary name given to the monster by the developers during the creation of the game.
  • The Protector Drone' code is based on that of the Enforcer. The two enemies share several attributes, such as jumping and crouching.
    • The Protector Drone will spawn the gibs of the Enforcer when destroyed.
  • The Protector Drone cannot be shrunk by the Shrinker.
  • The Protector Drone was initially intended to be blue like The Queen, but it was later changed to beige for unknown reasons. Sometimes the actor placed in the maps will have a palette of 15 (blue changed to brown).
  • There is a Protector Drone contained in a glass tube at "Area 51" in a fetal position. This is the position the Protector Drone is born in (i.e. born from the Alien Queen).
    • This particular Protector Drone will remain in its fetal position indefinitely, unless it is attacked.
  • If a fetal position Protector Drone is hit by an attack that is strong enough to kill it in one shot (i.e. from full health), it will instead became immortal. This never happens in normal gameplay, though, since no weapon used by the player has such firepower.
  • The Protector Drone is based on the Xenomorphs from the Alien film series. Their appearances are similar, and their blood is harmful. Both also have a queen which is larger and deadlier than them, while also giving birth to them.
  • Strangely, it can jump a lot further underwater.
Duke Nukem 3D
Episodes L.A. MeltdownLunar ApocalypseShrapnel CityThe BirthAlien World Order
Weapons Mighty FootPistolShotgunChaingun CannonRPGPipe BombShrinkerExpanderDevastatorLaser TripbombFreezethrowerIncinerator
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Bosses BattlelordOverlordCycloid EmperorAlien QueenCycloid Incinerator
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