- "You can try beggin'. S'more fun that way."
- — Striker while holding a defeated Sir Pentious at gunpoint with the intent of killing him.
- "Lemme make one thing clear, Blitzy; I don't fuckin' work for no demon royalty. I got ol' Luci wrapped around my finger, and the moment he has his back turned, I'm gonna strike and take 'im and his whole family out to pasture. You're welcome to come along. After what he did to your weak, little friend, I know you want to... And you know I won't mind the help."
- — Striker confronting Blitzø when the latter called him out on his "loyalty" to Lucifer, and using Moxxie's "death" as a way to manipulate him.
Striker is a major antagonist in Hazbin Hotel: Journey to the Light.
He serves as a supporting antagonist in Chapter 4 and one of the two secondary antagonists (alongside Lute) of Chapter 5.
Striker is an ambitious, ruthless, and extremely dangerous hitman and arch imp armed with a vast array of holy weaponry who aspires to rise to the top of Hell's hierarchy by wiping out all of the Inferno's royalty and Overlords. He is also the archenemy of Blitzø.
He was previously tasked by Stella to assassinate her husband, Stolas, which led him into a confrontation with the Immediate Murder Professionals, and subsequently became one of their most notorious foes. When Lucifer Magne forced I.M.P into a suicide mission of killing the Happy Hotel's occupants, Striker was among the many who were enlisted to assist them, and was personally tasked by Lucifer to keep Blitzø from potentially running away. However, Striker betrayed Lucifer in order to kill Leviathan with I.M.P and the hotel crew. In the aftermath of the battle, Striker mysteriously vanished, although it was far from the last I.M.P or the hotel crew would see of him. He, through unknown circumstances, later joined and became the lieutenant of a demon organization called The Insurgency, the organization that shared the same goals of eliminating all of Hell's nobility and higher-ups.
Biography
Background
Striker was born a member of an extremely rare species of imp known as arch imps; imps who possess far more mental and physical prowess and skill than common imps. He claims to have had great physical strength since his infancy, dubiously claiming that he wrestled, killed, and flayed a demonic crocodile when he was a baby. He then used his inherited skills to become an effective and deadly assassin.
Aside from his species and brief childhood stories that could have been fabricated, Striker's actual upbringing is shrouded in mystery, with the only hint to his upbringing being his claiming that he trained himself to kill. Judging by his accent and aesthetic, it is possible that he was born and lived most of his life in the Wrath Ring.
Events of Hazbin Hotel: Journey to the Light
Chapter 4
In "Assemble", Striker and many of I.M.P's past enemies are hired by Lucifer himself, who is organizing an assassination team to take down the Happy Hotel crew, although he does not permit them to kill his daughter, Charlie. After Blitzø and I.M.P arrive at Lucifer's fortress for a briefing, the King of Hell informed Blitzø that Striker was hired specifically to ensure that Blitzø would not run away, much to Blitzø's anger and Striker's smug satisfaction,
After the briefing, Striker breaks up a tender moment between Moxxie and Blitzø, the former of whom is deeply worried about the potential outcome of going after the hotel crew. After Moxxie leaves the two, Striker mocks Moxxie's concern for his teammates, noting how embarrassed Blitzø must be to have Moxxie around. Blitzø replies by facetiously asking Striker if he is aware of what they are going into, noting that they would have to find a way to take down Alastor, one of Hell's most feared and monstrous Overlord. Striker boldly says that he always kills his targets, regardless of how many people stand in his way, flaunting his array of holy weaponry to Blitzø. He reminds Blitzø that running away is not going to work in his favor, unless Blitzø wants Stolas and his family to suffer for his crimes. Striker then enters I.M.P's new tactical van and drives off his "teammates" to begin tracking down one half of the hotel crew in a bid to divide and conquer.
In "Connection", as I.M.P is tracking one half of the hotel crew, Moxxie is attempting to devise a plan to take down each of the hotel's members. When Loona boldly claimed that Alastor was not as powerful as the denizens of Hell believed, Striker taunts Loona by reminding her that she would likely be the first one to be killed by the Radio Demon, due to his hatred of dogs, although Loona insisted that she was not afraid of Alastor at all.
As night falls, I.M.P stops to rest up, with some of them setting up camp outside of their van. Striker challenged Moxxie to a shooting contest, knowing he wouldn't stand a chance in a wrestling contest. The two have an elaborate shooting contest which more or less ends in a draw. Later, while Moxxie was futilely attempting to start a fire using fire starters, Striker breathed fire onto the wood to upstage him which accidentally (or perhaps intentionally) resulted in Moxxie's arm being lit on fire after the flames caught him. Striker and Verosika took the opportunity to laugh at Moxxie's expense as he desperately attempted to put the flame out. While around the campfire, Striker rests against his horse, Bombproof, and calmly strums his guitar while the team shares conversations. During this, Striker began to bond with Verosika due to their mutual opinions on Blitzø, sharing stories about how much he sucks.
During the night, Scorpius attempted to eat Moxxie while the imp was sleeping, but Blitzø stops the hellhound in the act by shooting him, waking Striker from his sleep. Scorpius viciously charged at Blitzø with his fire ax, but Blitzø and Striker teamed up to take down the wrathful, with Striker using his lasso to wrangle Scorpius and wear him down with Blitzø's assistance, although the wrathful hellhound showed some resistance. With Scorpius subdued, Striker offers the option of killing the hellhound due to him being too much of a liability to the team, but is reminded by Moxxie himself that Scorpius is the most powerful among them. Afterward, the team makes Scorpius sleep several meters away from the van and campfire for the rest of the night, and Striker soon fell back asleep next to Bombproof.
The next day, Striker and the rest of the team continued tracking the hotel crew, leading them to a traffic jam on a highway. After Scorpius warns the team that his "battle gland" is hardening, and Moxxie noticed people running away from the bridge, Striker grabbed his nearby weapons for a fight. Sure enough, Sir Pentious, piloting a giant egg robot, emerged from under the bridge with an army of Egg Bois. Since Pentious stood in the team's way of getting to the hotel crew and would not back down when Blitzø asked him to, Striker and the team promptly engaged the snake and his small army in a lengthy battle. I.M.P manages to come out on top after Lucifer sends Robo Fizz and the Loo Loo Land mascot to even the odds. When Sir Pentious tries to escape, Striker manages to catch him and violently throws him to the ground, before holding him at gun-point with his blessed rifle. Striker insisted that Sir Pentious beg for his life, as it would be more amusing for him. However, the Egg Bois manage to distract Striker, giving their boss the chance to escape, much to Striker's anger.
Personality
- "Moxxie: What part of this do you find fun?!
Striker: The killin', duh." - — Moxxie and Striker while they were fighting off the last of the Underground.
Striker is an ambitious, charismatic, highly competent, and amoral assassin who frequently flaunts the fact that he is far superior to most of his kind; he is incredibly prideful of his arch imp heritage, as he scorns and outright hates most imps for their fragility, and refers to them as "vermin", going as far as musing over murdering as many common imps as he could after he succeeded in killing Hell's royalty. He is very prideful and obsessed with his capabilities, to the point where he wrote and sang an entire song about how great he is. However, despite his ego, he is not reckless, as he does know when to cut his losses and run away when he is beaten. He has a very Darwinistic, dog-eat-dog outlook on life, possibly explaining his motive for wanting to kill Hell's rulers to destroy Hell's order so that the strong could kill off the weak. He revels in mocking and belittling those who are considered physically weak, and believes that physical strength and ruthlessness are what makes a person strong.
When needing to deceive others, Striker can easily put on a helpful, approachable, and friendly façade, carrying himself as an innocuous, charming, and polite farmhand who is incredibly skilled and good at seemingly anything. During the Harvest Moon Festival, he used his skills in climbing, wrestling, and even singing to win over an entire crowd of people. However, once he no longer feels the need to hide under a façade, he reveals his true colors of being a sociopathic hitman willing to kill men, women, and children with only superficial regrets. He also displays sadistic tendencies, taunting and mocking his victims either before or while killing them, as shown when he called Moxxie "pathetic" and smiled sadistically while strangling him, or when he suggested that Sir Pentious beg for his life before being erased. He also prefers to kill his targets slowly, outright saying to Moxxie that his favorite part of his job is killing his victim and any witnesses. He is highly traitorous and has no true loyalty to anyone, which he will gladly boast about, and aspires to kill all of Hell's rulers and upper crest, including Charlie Magne and his own employer and the King of Hell, Lucifer.
Striker has also expressed a belief that love and caring for others is a sign of weakness, as he mocked Moxxie and Millie's love for each other, and encourages Blitzø to drop any sense of family he feels towards I.M.P by betraying them and joining him in his crusade to kill Hell's rulers. Despite claiming compassion and love to be weaknesses, Striker ironically appears to care somewhat for his mount, Bombproof, often laying up against the Hellhorse while falling asleep and defending it while in battle, even shooting a member of the Underground directly in the face for attempting to kill the horse. Moxxie even informed Blitzø that Striker never lets anyone touch his horse. He also seemed to be genuinely friendly towards Verosika and Robo Fizz during I.M.P's mission, bonding with them by mocking Blitzø.
Appearance
Striker is an imp with pale red skin, bright yellow eyes with concentric rings in his irises, a pencil-thin mustache, ivory white hair, and a pair of black and white striped horns. As an arch imp, he is of rather tall stature compared to lower imps, even rivaling Blitzø in height. He has a lizard-like face and sports a large gold tooth among his sharp, yellow teeth. His horns point upward and, compared with other imps, his horn pattern is more jagged. He sports a long tail that has four black stripes at the base, with eight red spines lined up on them, and one on his tail fork.
Striker's attire resembles that of a southern cowboy; he sports a stereotypical large, grey sun hat, dark blue cowboy boots, and a light red bandana around his neck. He wears a black turtleneck shirt paired with a dark grey vest and a light gray jacket with dark gray cuffs and black tassels below. He wears black, fingerless gloves and ivory white pants with tatters on the thighs.
Striker is commonly seen holding a straw of wheat in his mouth.
Powers and Abilities
As a result of being an arch imp, Striker is by far one of the most skilled and dangerous members of the imp species. He was able to successfully massacre and assassinate dozens of demons in the past without failing, and was capable of easily defeating and nearly killing the likes of Moxxie, Millie, and Sir Pentious with very little effort. Among the temporary and core members of I.M.P, Striker was also skilled enough to rival and possibly surpass Blitzø, who is arguably the most skilled member of I.M.P, in physical strength, and most likely surpassed even Verosika, her crew, and the cherubs, with only Scorpius easily surpassing him in raw strength.
Natural Powers
- Thermal Resistance: Like every demon of Hell, Striker is immune to extremely high temperatures, and can easily survive and show no discomfort on the occasion he is lit on fire.
Unique Powers
- Enhanced Endurance: As an arch imp, Striker is capable of enduring an extreme amount of punishment and pain without succumbing to his injuries, as he was still capable of giving Blitzø and Moxxie a good fight despite having just survived a vicious attack by Millie only minutes before.
- Enhanced Speed: Striker can move at lightning-fast speed, blitzing his opponents before they can react. While fighting the Egg Bois, he sliced three Egg Bois in half using a knife, all in one dashing motion. While attempting to kill Angel Dust and Fergus at a Lust Ring nightclub, Striker reacted to and dodged the plasma blasts of Fergus' robot arm cannon, which would require supersonic reaction speed.
- Enhanced Strength: Despite imps generally being considered the weakest of demons, Striker's arch imp heritage renders him deceptively strong, with his physical strength rivaling that of Blitzø's. He claims to have wrestled and killed a fully-grown demonic crocodile when he was an infant. During the Harvest Moon Festival, he seemingly managed to wrestle and hogtie Blitzø to the ground, and struggled with him again while mudwrestling. He also used his tail to grab Moxxie by the neck and effortlessly fling him into a wall, and easily overpowered him while attempting to strangle him to death. When confronted by Millie, he quickly bested her by slamming her into a wall with enough force to break her arm. During his skirmish with Scorpius, he used a lasso to very briefly hold the wrathful hellhound back, although he was quickly overpowered. When Sir Pentious ejected himself from his giant egg robot, Striker leaped onto the snake and violently threw him down to the ground with little difficulty.
- Extrasensory Perception: Striker can sense whenever something dangerous is about to happen well before it occurs by analyzing his surroundings, allowing him to prepare accordingly. He can also detect whether his victims are injured or not.
- High Pain Tolerance: Striker possesses a relatively high immunity to pain, allowing him to shrug off otherwise devastating assaults that would have easily killed normal imps. He was barely shaken after getting a lamp knocked onto his head, and while he did audibly scream upon being viciously stabbed in the back by Millie, he barely reacted to the next set of stabs, and proceeded to wrestle with Millie and break her arm, walking off the assault with apparently no real harm done.
- Pyrokinesis: At one point, Striker demonstrated that he was capable of breathing fire, doing so to light a campfire that Moxxie was having trouble starting in order to upstage him.
Abilities
- Agility: During the Harvest Moon Festival, Striker was capable of maneuvering through the Pain Games' obstacle with little difficulty.
- Charisma: Using his talents, charm, and good looks, Striker is capable of effortlessly winning over and influencing unsuspecting people, getting them to trust and even admire him.
- Equestrian Intuition: Striker owns a pet Hellhorse named Bombproof which he domesticated, allowing him to use it as his main mode of transportation.
- Expert Marksman: As an assassin, Striker is an extremely efficient marksman. He claims to have trained his whole life to kill people, and he knows how to use and properly aim his firearms under any condition. While having a shooting contest against Moxxie, Striker demonstrated that he could shoot at several moving targets by accurately ricocheting his bullets, accurately hit targets in the head while riding on Bombproof, and shoot the shape of his own face into a target while quick-firing a revolver. When he and the rest of I.M.P were ambushed by Sir Pentious and the Egg Bois, Striker quickly shot three Egg Bois while dual-wielding revolvers, one of which he wasn't looking at, and killed eleven Egg Bois consecutively using his handgun and a rifle, even shooting some of them mid-air and without even looking at them. Striker later killed two guards at a Lust Ring nightclub with one bullet while they were busying making out, and proceeded to kill more guards with poison-tipped arrows and did not miss any of his shots. Later, he dual-wielded two blessing-tipped revolvers while confronting Angel Dust and Fergus at said club.
- Intelligence: Striker is a professional hitman, and a very cunning one at that. He managed to obtain a "job" under the Rough n' Tumbleweed Ranch using his façade as a helpful farmhand, and keeping his true intentions under the noses of his employers for quite some time. His façade managed to fool the I.M.P team, save for Moxxie, and possibly Stolas, with none of them discovering Striker's plans to assassinate Stolas until Moxxie stumbled upon his rifle. Later, he was seemingly able to keep his intentions of killing Hell's royalty from Lucifer himself, in order to gain the King of Hell's trust.
- Musical Talent: Striker can play the guitar with great skill, and also possesses great prowess with songwriting, coming up with a song about how awesome he is on a whim.
- Natural Weaponry: Striker possesses razor-sharp teeth and claws which he can use as offensive weapons. As an imp, he also possesses a prehensile tail that he can use to grab and throw his enemies or even use as a whip.
- Ocular Illumination: Striker's eyes glow a bright yellow color whenever he is in a dark environment, allowing him to see almost perfectly in the dark.
- Stealth Mastery: When breaking into a Lust Ring club with I.M.P, Striker used stealth to crawl into the ventilation system and use a bow and poison-tipped arrows to quietly kill several of the club's guards.
- Weapon Proficiency: Striker can wield many different types of weaponry with greater skill than most, with his most preferred weapons being holy knives and firearms, and a lasso. He is an expert marksman, and also very deadly with a knife, using his knife to kill a wild hog and bisect one of the Egg Bois.
Weapons
- Blessed M1875 Remington Army Revolver: Striker uses two blessing-tipped revolvers, one of which he could be seen spinning while conspiring another attempt to kill Stolas. He later used the revolver while in a shooting contest with Moxxie to quick-fire the shape of his face into a target, and dual-wielded the revolvers during I.M.P's confrontation with Angel Dust and Fergus.
- Bow and arrows: While competing against Moxxie in a shooting contest, Striker used a bow and arrow to shoot several targets accurately. While killing the security of a Lust Ring club, Striker stealthily employed arrows that were tipped with a poisonous substance that caused the victims to violently convulse before dying.
- Carmine Crafted Blessing-Tipped Rifle: An extremely powerful bolt-action hunting rifle of angelic properties that Striker prefers to use during assassinations. Judging by the weapon's name, he might have acquired it from Carmilla Carmine's angelic weapons company. He first used this rifle in his attempt to kill Prince Stolas. Like all holy weapons, it is said to be capable of easily killing even the most powerful demons if shot at a vital area. He was forced to abandon the weapon after it was taken by Moxxie, but managed to acquire an identical one shortly afterward which he used several times during I.M.P's mission to kill the Happy Hotel crew.
- Colt 1851 Navy Revolver: Striker considered using this during I.M.P's first mission to kill the hotel crew, before settling on a different revolver.
- Colt Single Action Army Revolver: A blessed, black-colored revolver that serves as Striker's most utilized, non-blessed handgun.
- Dynamite Sticks: Striker often makes use of dynamite sticks that he uses to flush his opponents out of hiding or severely injure them.
- Hunting Knife: Striker wielded a serrated knife while killing a demonic hog.
- Lasso: Striker carries a long lasso which is effectively a whip that he can use to tie up, strike, or capture his victims.
- Tomahawks: Striker often makes use of a pair of a tomahawk while fighting and killing his targets, capable of using them as ranged weaponry or close-quarters melee with expert finesse.
Quotes
Chapter 4
- "(scoffs) Little sissy. Must be embarrassin', havin' to drag him around."
- — Striker to Blitzø, mocking Moxxie's concern for the lives of his teammates.
- "I always get my man. I don't give a shit how many men, women, and children I need to mow down to get to 'em. Runnin' won't save you this time, Blitzø. This is our chance to kill the unkillable, startin' with Radio Boy. Unless, of course, you want your Goetia boy-toy and his little girl to suffer in your place."
- — Striker to Blitzø, in response to the latter reminding him that they would have to find a way to kill Alastor.
Chapter 5
- "Rum: AH SHIT!!! MY MOTHERFUCKIN' ARM!! That fucking bitch is gonna fuckin' get it... DAMN!
Striker: SHUT THE FUCK UP! (holds up his severed tail) I lost my motherfuckin' tail fighting that one-eyed sage hen! You're a satandamn sinner! You can regenerate! I can't!!! So cut the fuckin' caterwaulin' or I'll give you somethin' to cry about!
Rum: How about you kiss my arm stump to make it feel better? (chuckles) Maybe I'll regenerate then.
Striker: (he pulls Rum face-to-face by his collar, holding a blessed knife to his face) Say that again, handyman. I dare ya...
Rum: (giggles) Your breath smells like cheap whisky and cigarettes... It's pretty fuckin' hot. (cackles)
Striker: (he stabs Rum in his arm stump, where it was bitten off, causing Rum to screech in pain) There.. Now it's permanent." - — Striker and Rum after their fight with Vaggie, Fergus and Crymini.
Trivia
- Striker draws many parallels to Blitzø and can be viewed as a foil to him. They are both highly ambitious arch imps who used their inherited abilities to become assassins, both are shown to enjoy mocking Moxxie, and they both have a similar taste in weaponry, commonly using old-fashioned handguns (Blitzø's flintlock and Striker's revolvers) and sniper rifles. The difference between the two is that Blitzø has a (more or less) positive relationship with the Goetia family, aspires to have relations and partnerships with Hell's higher-ups, and most importantly, became an assassin to prove that his species was just as capable as any other demons. Conversely, Striker despises Hell's royalty and became an assassin to kill all of Hell's higher-ups, as well as to kill all he viewed as weak. Finally, while Blitzø cares about his associates and family members and has his own set of standards, Striker is more or less completely devoid of morals, with it only being vaguely implied that he values his horse, Bombproof.
- Striker has several traits of a snake, such as rattling his tail, and occasionally making a hissing sound whenever he speaks.
- This Striker belongs to a rare variety of imps called arch-imps, while his canonical counterpart is a hybrid of an imp and an unspecified hellborn species.
- While telling campfire stories, Striker boasts that he wrestled and flayed his first demonic crocodile when he was an infant.