Strategy and Survival Guide: Enemies and Weaponry tutorial - Grimm: Quest for the Gatherer's Key Mod for Doom III

Welcome to the Grimm: Strategy and Survival Guide, Enemies and Weaponry!

This guide will be posted in 4 parts: 'Traps and pitfalls', 'Enemies and Weaponry', 'The Grimm Walkthrough on Grimm' and 'Surviving Grimm's Challenge'.

Enemies and Weaponry
The weaponry takes a central place in Grimm. Each weapon has unique characteristics and each weapon has different effects on certain kinds of enemies. Take the time to master the weapons in Grimm, the game rewards skilled players with a vivid experience.

The Dark Staff
This weapon is primarily a concussive weapon. It has two attack modes, the primary mode launches a red ball of energy doing concussive damage to it's victims, it's alternative attack is a single shot of energy that repels enemies away.

The Dark Staff's primary fire works best for Spiders and Ventrils (see below) that have the ability to throw knives. Use it's alternative fire mode to knock away close by melee enemies to give you time to shoot farther away ranged enemies. You can also use the Dark Staff's alternative fire mode to quickly break multiple barrels and pots at once.

The Dark Staff needs tainted energy to fire.

The Scythe
This will be your primary weapon. The Scythe has three different damage modes, depending on when you release the trigger. Below you will find the exact timings needed to do the most damage:

Regular Damage
Hold the attack button shortly and release it before the charge power is filled. This will do regular damage, the longer you hold the attack button, the more damage you will do, but never as much as a Charged Attack.

Charged Attack
Hold the attack button until you hear the distinct sound of the Scythe ringing. Now that the Scythe is charged Grimm is so concentrated that time slows down somewhat. This is a handy trick you can use to give you an edge while traversing certain kinds of traps. When you release the attack button you will hear a different attack sound and the Scythe will do devastating damage to whichever enemy you have in your sights. You need this attack open door seals.

Overcharged Attack
Wait until you hear the first sound of the Scythe being charged. As soon as you hear this sound, release the attack button. (This is usually around 4-5 seconds after you initially pressed the attack button). You will know that you did an overcharged attack by the red color of the effects and the  different sound from a regular attack.

Overcharged Attacks do an insane amount of damage, enabling you to kill any enemy or multiple enemies at once with once attack. Overcharged attacks are the most damaging attacks in the game!

Fumbles
The danger with using Overcharged Attacks is releasing the attack button too soon. This will result in a fumble which falls back to a regular attack meaning very little damage is done. Time your overcharged attacks in such a manner that you have an escape route ready, either by running, jumping or dashing, before you attempt to get close enough to kill multiple enemies at once.

The Firy Scythe
The Firy Scythe works in the exact same way that the regular staff does, except.. it can set 'stuff' on fire. Be careful though, whatever can burn an enemy can burn you too. In future releases fumbling with this weapon will mean damage to the player as right now, this weapon is almost ridiculously overpowered.

The Firy Scythe needs tainted energy to attack!

Tainted Energy
This energy is used by the Dark Staff and the Firy Scythe. Whenever you can find it, stock up on it and don't use unless you absolutely have to. Remember the Scythe doesn't use any energy and is always a better choice in some fights. Leave the weapons that use tainted energy for either tough enemies or spiders (which are very hard to kill with the Scythe).

Enemies
There are 4 kinds of enemies in the Demo.

Ventrils
Ventrils are the most common enemy in the game, they are the lost souls of Purgatory, stuck until either the gates of Heaven or Hell open. There are two types of Ventril, those that can throw knives and walk on two legs are simple called 'Ventril'. Those that can only crawl and can only use melee attacks are called 'Pawn'.

The Ventril are the most dangerous kind of simple enemies. Their knives always find a way into your general direction. When possible, finish off these enemies first! They are also more immune to the pain of burning than regular Ventril.

Weapons of choice for these two enemies: Scythe, Firy Scythe

Dark Spirits
Dark Spirits are lost souls just like the Ventril, but they are Hell bound. Evil men during their life, now bound to stop Grimm from opening the Hell Gates so they can stay in Purgatory. They have a concussive attack and are very fast, they always move in packs.
If you are not in the advantage then run!

Weapon of choice: Dark Staff
You can use the Dark Staff's alternate fire mode to dodge Dark Spirit attacks!

Spiders
Spiders are blind creatures that operate on sound or any movement they encounter. Do not get too close as they will spray you with acid. Spiders are fast creepers, always look out for them when you are underground, in mines or similar dark places. Spiders avoid the light, so don't trust the dark, too much...

Weapon of choice: Dark Staff
You can use the Dark Staff's alternate fire mode to send spiders flying, then use the normal firemode to kill them off while they are stunned.

Elite Ventril
Elite Ventril come in two flavours: Shielded and Unshielded. The main difference between the two is pretty obvious. Elite Ventril have magical ranged attacks and can be deadly from up close. They are nearly two times taller than regular Ventril and have devastating melee attacks.

There are three strategies for this monster you can use.
You can either go very close and use the Scythe's Overcharged Attack to kill Elite Ventril in one blow, but if you miss the Ventril will surely retaliate.

You can also keep your distance from them and snipe them from afar with the Dark Staff, but this will take more time and you will need to avoid hitting the shielded areas.

Shielded Elite Ventril are not kept safe from attacks with the Scythe, with or without shields they will perish instantly by an Overcharged Attack.