Merasmus
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| Found On: | Ghost Fort | ||||||||
| “ | Cower fools! Merasmus is here!
Click to listen
— Merasmus the Magican
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Merasmus is the RED Soldier's former roommate and keeper of the Bombinomicon. In the Bombinomicon comic, when the RED Demoman was seven years old, he discovered Merasmus while seeking work. Ultimately, the Demoman lost his left eye to the book, and Merasmus was forced to remove it. Years later, the magician's tumultuous relationship with the RED Soldier was revealed, and he summoned MONOCULUS for the RED team to fight. During the events of Soldier Needs a Home, Merasmus kicked the Soldier out of his castle for being a nuisance. When he found later that the Soldier trashed his home and evicted him, he took on a ghostly form and decided to attack the Soldier's team.
Merasmus (stylized as MERASMUS!) makes an appearance in the game as the boss the players must fight in Ghost Fort.
Merasmus is voiced by Nolan North.
Contents
Behavior
Merasmus will spawn on Ghost Fort's control point every few minutes when there are at least 10 players playing on the server. The players have 1 minute and 30 seconds to defeat him before he leaves. While he is alive, the point resets to neutral ownership and is unable to be captured. Merasmus's health is displayed as a bar in middle of the screen.
When Merasmus spawns, he pushes all nearby opponents away and destroys all stickybombs around him, also knocking back all stickybombs he comes in contact with. Merasmus has a wide variety of attacks, and can teleport throughout the map on random intervals. Merasmus can melee players with his staff, roll bombs at them, and perform a magic attack which sets selected targets on fire and launches them skyward. Merasmus can also use an attack far less often than his other attacks, in which he hovers over the control point and uses the Bombinomicon to spread bombs a wide range around the control point. Whenever Merasmus is hovering in the air while performing this attack, all damage dealt to him will be critical hits.
Every time Merasmus teleports to another location on the map, the Bombinomicon will choose a few players and transform their heads into bombs. Players cannot attack after being turned into bombs and are stuck in their humiliation pose until the bomb detonates, but their speed is also boosted. The screen and the Bombinomicon will instruct the player to find Merasmus and run into him. If the player reaches Merasmus with the bomb, it will stun him, stopping him in his tracks, and the player who transported the bomb will become invulnerable, speed boosted, and crit boosted for a short time. If the player fails to reach Merasmus in time, the bomb will detonate, damaging the player and surrounding members of the opposing team by 100 HP. If the player kills anyone, those show up on the killfeed and grant the player a point. At all times while stunned, all damage Merasmus takes will be critical hits.
At around 50% and less than 10% health, the boss health bar will turn green as Merasmus teleports away and disguises himself as a random prop, while other props are scattered about the map to throw players off. These props will bleed green liquid when attacked, distinguishing them from background elements. If an incorrect prop is destroyed, it will drop a large Halloween pumpkin, which any player can collect. If the correct prop is destroyed, Merasmus will reappear and may be stunned for a short period of time, with the player who destroyed the prop always given limited invulnerability, speed boost and crit boost.
Upon Merasmus' defeat, he will disappear and be replaced by the Bombinomicon. Players can use it to teleport to Skull Island. The portal to Skull Island is only open for a few seconds. When the players reach the island, they can climb the hill and collect the Skull Island Topper in the cage. Entering the cage will transport players back to the main field. Defeating Merasmus will award the Necromannchievement Wizards Never Prosper, while collecting the Skull Island Topper will award A Lovely Vacation Spot .
As of November 2, 2012, Merasmus' behavior has been altered. He is now easier to defeat, with various classes better able to inflict damage upon him. However, he now levels up. Like with MONOCULUS!, each time he is beaten, he grows stronger in the next appearance. If he manages to escape, his level returns to 1. The Skull Island Topper will track the highest level of Merasmus you manage to defeat.
Strategy
A simple strategy is to use the Sniper's Huntsman which will deal a total maximum of 1080 damage upon headshot to Merasmus while he is stunned or spreading bombs across the map. A fully charged Sniper Rifle will do 1350 damage with a fully charged headshot, but will take longer to charge than the Huntsman, making it inconvenient because of Merasmus's teleportation. The player will be safe from the bombs that Merasmus spreads if the player is far away from Merasmus while still being able to attack him with the Huntsman or any other Sniper Rifle.
Related achievements
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Update history
- Introduced MERASMUS!
- Added new audio lines for Merasmus to use when he attacks
- MERASMUS! has leveled up at WizardCon!
* "The Skull Island Topper" now tracks the highest level of Merasmus the owner has helped defeat * Increased Engineer, Scout, Pyro and Heavy damage against Merasmus * Increased Soldier and Demoman damage against Merasmus while he is in hiding * Updated the health bar for Merasmus and Monoculus
Bugs
- When Merasmus uses his long-distance attack to set nearby players on fire, the Pyro will take damage from the initial attack, but remain visually on fire for the duration of the afterburn. The afterburn deals no damage. This also happens with the Whammy effect of the Wheel of Fate that sets all players on fire.
- If Merasmus spawns after the round ends, the server will crash upon map change.
- If a player with a bomb head switches to spectator, the bomb will explode, hurting all nearby players and buildings regardless of team.
Trivia
- Merasmus is the magician that the RED Soldier angered, causing both teams to be sent back in time to DeGroot Keep.
- Merasmus' model uses the Sniper's animations[1], though he uses the Heavy's when the dance card is selected.
- Template:W is a medical condition characterized by emaciation and wasting, generally caused by malnutrition. The name of the disease in turn comes from the Greek word marasmos, meaning "decay".
- Merasmus' Prop spell is a reference to a community gamemode called Prop Hunt. Prop Hunt is a server-side mod where the players on one team are disguised as props, and the other team searches for them.
Gallery
Message that appears when Merasmus has spawned.
Message that appears when Merasmus has left.
References
See also
- Spectral Halloween Special
- Skull Island Topper
- Bombinomicon (comic)
- Doom-Mates
- Community Ghost Fort strategy
- Merasmus responses
