The very first enemy to have no means of attacking directly, the Necromancer is a support-type enemy. Alone, the Necromancers try to run away from you and are easily defeated, but are considerate threats alongside other enemies.
To attack, a Necromancer shoots an invisible high-speed projectile at their target that spawns a summoning circle when it reaches its destination. After a short animation, all revivable objects within the circle (regardless of how much of it is physically within the circle) will be revived into living Freaks. Revivable object include corpses (regardless of enemy type) and destroyed objects. The summoning circle will fail if there is nothing to revive inside of it.
There is no range to the projectile, aside from the Necromancer's line-of-sight (which is not affected by walls) and the boundaries of the level. This can take the player by surprise, considering that Necromancers can spawn their circles anywhere in the level, including off-screen areas.
If you hear any summoning or see enemies coming back to life, find any Necromancers left and kill them as soon as possible. If they are not dealt with quickly, they will wear down your health and ammunition with a never-ending stream of enemies from all directions.
Melting's active ability can nullify the effectiveness of Necromancers, as they are useless without corpses to revive.
Occasionally, it is possible to find "Necromancerless labs" containing zero Necromancers.
Trivia[]
- The Necromancers were scientists that experimented on mutants, which eventually led to turning themselves into something that resembles a mixture of Eyes, Robot, and a Bandit.
- In update #74, the Necromancer's ability was changed to have an area-of-effect instead of reviving a single corpse. It also got a new area of effect animation. This was done to prevent them from instantly reviving enemies right under your character.