Drache Trooper

Drache Trooper
Health Points	100 (Easy) 200 (Normal) 250 (Hard) 350 (I'm Death Incarnate)
Attack	Flammenwerfer Explosive
Appearances	Wolfenstein

"Those Drache Troopers are unsafe; the resistance has taken to shooting their fuel tanks. The explosion usually takes out anyone else close by.
Well, now I know not to stand near anyone carrying a flamethrower."

―Two Wehrmacht soldiers in sewers discussing about Drache Trooper

Drache Troopers (German: Drachensoldaten) are short-to-mid ranged enemies in Wolfenstein, armed with the Flammenwerfer which the player can collect and utilize.

They are first encountered during the Cannery level.

Overview

Drache Troopers (lit. "Dragon Troopers") are powerful soldiers armed with a short-ranged Flammenwerfer which deals heavy damage and will set B.J. on fire for damage-over-time if they hit. While powerful if fought the "right" way, they can be killed almost instantly by shooting at a more-than-conspicuous fuel tank on their back that will blow up and incinerate the Trooper with minimal effort. It is currently unknown if this soldier is also part of the Nachtsonne Project.

Drache Troopers speak in a menacingly deep echoing tone, much like the Scribe and Veil Assassin. This is propably caused by their gas masks.

Behavior

The Drache Trooper has a short-ranged weapon and a powerful melee attack. Like Heavy Troopers, Drache Troopers will simply move towards the player and will not try to take cover or evade grenades and other projectiles; they are faster than Heavy Troopers, will usually spawn far closer to the player, and the range of their flamethrower is deceptively long. The Veil Power Shield does not protect B.J. from their attacks, and the Reflective Crystal upgrade cannot reflect the flames. They are also somewhat tough, at somewhere more than 200 hitpoints.

Drache Troopers only spawn in one at a time, and as a result are always encountered alone.

Strategy

• Like their RtCW counterparts, Drache Troopers are immune to the Flammenwerfer and take minimal damage from frontal attacks; their weak point is the bright red fuel tank on their back, which will kill them instantly if it is destroyed and has minimal hitpoints. Seemingly the player is supposed to aim above their shoulders to hit the fuel tank or use Mire and strafe around them to hit their backs. If you use Veil vision, and you can see a red part on their backs, therefore you will know where to shoot.
• However, the Empower ability makes shots pass straight through the Drache Trooper's body and hit the fuel tank; with this ability a handful of shots from the MP 43 will kill the Drache Trooper from the front. If this trick is used it is very rare that a Drache Trooper will live long enough to even deal damage to the player.

Trivia

• "Drache" is dragon in German, this name is presumably come from the fire-breathing ability of a dragon.
• The game guide suggests that the armor this soldier wears is a non-Veil-powered version of the one worn by the Heavy Trooper.
• Drache Troopers are highly vulnerable to shots aimed at their back-mounted fuel tanks that will explode spectacularly when hit and kill the wearer instantly. Flamethrowers in reality do not blow up when shot at, under most circumstances they would only leak fuel and run dry faster unless exposed to very high temperatures or open flame.
  • Drache Troopers killed this way would still drop intact Flammenwerfers (if not collected beforehand) or a varying amount of fuel despite the unit being destroyed in the attack.
• Drache Troopers are weak against the Kar98's bayonet, taking about 7 hits to kill them.
• Drache Trooper mask strongly resemblance to Snifit, a enemy of Mario Bros series of video games.
• Their entity code is enemies_ak_flame_trooper.

See Also

• Nazi Trooper
• Heavy Trooper

Gallery