Spectre

One of the first enemies in the game has the potential to be your last.

Similar to the Wraith from Catacomb Abyss, the Spectre is an undead entity of pure darkness. Unlike the Wraith, however, the Spectre is a potent ranged attacker.

They show up only in Catacomb Apocalypse, and resemble shadows on the floor until they assume their true form, an oily humanoid shape with a single unblinking red eye.

In Catacomb Apocalypse

The Spectre is uncannily dangerous - much more so than any other early-game enemy in Catacomb history. Encountered at the awkward time when the player won't be blessed with a large amount of resources (most importantly Cure Potions), the Spectre is in many ways the biggest example of the ramp-up in threat posed by Catacomb Apocalypse, as it has the stats of a high-tier monster from one of the previous games - Nemesis, clearly, is no longer playing around.

Spectres are ranged attackers that shoot damaging dark energy projectiles at a fairly high rate. These do much more damage than the Mage, Evil Eye, or even Succubus' projectiles, and fired much more accurately, with the Spectre slowly advancing on the player's position while firing continuously. Worse, it has 15 hit points and is resistant to hitstun, meaning it's impossible to stop it from attacking the player, short of hitting it with a Zapper, making it especially threatening this early in the game.

The Spectre is capable of assuming the form of a shadow on the floor as well, and in this form, the Spectre is completely impervious to attack. One of its favorite tricks is to advance on the player, assume its shadow form at close-range, and use it to slip past the player to get into a better position and continue the assault. Because of this, killing the Spectre before it can cause further harm is paramount, since they excel at racking up damage on the player and are tough enough that they are troubling to burst down. When the player has them available, using a Zapper or Xterminator is a good idea to clear them out fast.

Spectres require the Yellow Jewel to see on the Crystal Sphere. When destroyed, they slowly fade to nothing.

Trivia

• The Wraith appears to be a similar creature to the Spectre.