Flamethrower (RtCW)

Flamethrower Soldier
Health Points	100-200
Attack	Flamethrower (3 - 30 Damage)
Appearances	Return to Castle Wolfenstein (Venom Flamer) Wolfenstein (Drache Trooper) Wolfenstein: Youngblood (Dieselsoldaten)

Flamethrowers (German: Soldaten mit Flammenwerfer) aka Venom Flamer (German: Giftgewehr Soldaten mit Flammenwerfer) in Return to Castle Wolfenstein who are armed with a Flamethrower. They wear heavy flame-retardant coats and gas masks, which protect them from a retaliatory attack with a flamethrower. If they are encountered in close quarters, the flames will blind you as well as kill you. The best way to dispatch these enemies is from a distance, pull back if they caught you by surprise, before he lights you on fire. They are dangerous opponents in higher difficulties so don't even try to approach them. Also, they are efficient "friendly troop killers", kill them first if friendlies are around.

Strategy

• They are very resilient to damage: they have often 150 or even 200 hit points (vs 40 to 60 hit points of a common soldier), the snooper rifle damages them only marginally (unlike other human targets); headshots to them are just as damaging as shots to the rest of the body, and their helmets can't be knocked off their heads.
• On higher difficulties, this type of enemy is even more dangerous, avoid getting close contact at all times. Unlike their Venom Gunner counterpart, you won't get hurt if you are out of their flamethrower's effective range. The effective range of their Flamethrower is quite long, and the combat in RtCW is mostly taking place at close quarters, so use caution.
• Despite being fireproof, they can still be damaged by bullets; the Sten or FG 42 are good choices for taking them out from a distance. If hit by these weapons, he might be knocked back for a brief period, use this timing to your advantage.
• The Flamethrower is your first primary target to be eliminated before facing other enemies that are less threatening to you.
• Because they wield one and have armor to protect against burning, never ever fight these guys with a flamethrower, you'll be the first one to die between the two of you.
• Venom Gunners and Flamethrowers are unafraid of the player's heavy weapons and unlike other elite human enemies, they will rush into close-quarters battle with the player no matter what. Also, the Venom gun soldiers do not need to reload their weapons, unlike Black Guards equipped with the Venom Gun.

Location

The Flamethrower is first encountered during Deadly Designs in the Kugelstadt, at least once in 5th mission (before the Super Soldier boss battle), then they reappear at least 3 times in the last section of the mission.

Appearances

The Flamethrower appears in Return to Castle Wolfenstein, a similar enemy called the Drache Trooper appears in Wolfenstein, although the Drache Trooper has vulnerable spots and much easier to dispatched.

Trivia

• The Venom Gunners and Flamethrower Troopers are the exact same NPC (AICHAR_VENOM in the game files).
• The Venom Gunners and Flamethrower Troopers both have the ability to kick coded in them, but only NPCs with FG42s are allowed to use the kick functions, so they never do it in-game.

Gallery

Flamethower soldier in X-Labs.

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