This is because of their inheritance from the Atari Jaguar source, which predated Doom II's development.

However, in console ports such as the PlayStation and Saturn versions of Doom, they are still considered part of the kill score, easily pushing the kill ratio past 100%. This was undoubtedly due to the addition of the pain elemental. In Doom II and Doom v1.666, lost souls were modified to no longer affect the player's kill score, so it is possible to achieve 100% kills without destroying any lost souls found in a level. Note that the lost soul sprite always remains fully bright in the same way projectiles and lamps are lit up, to represent the light emitted by their flames. Regardless, it is not possible for an arch-vile to resurrect a lost soul even if it is crushed while it dies, as it does not have the necessary resurrection frames. The lost soul will however leave a small pile of gibs if it is crushed while dying, in a similar manner to the pain elemental. Because of this, the lost soul does not normally respawn when the Nightmare! skill level is chosen or the -respawn parameter is used. The lost soul is one of two monsters that do not leave a corpse (the other being the pain elemental) it simply explodes. Since lost souls have 100 hit points each, a group of lost souls can drain precious ammo, especially during pain elemental battles. It is uncommon to find a lost soul on its own - they are more often found in groups. Erebus, a lost soul that missed or was pushed back can travel for a long while before being able to become active again. On maps with large open areas, like E3M6: Mt. A lost soul's charge can be intercepted by a projectile or hitscan attack when this happens, the impact negates the lost soul's momentum without interrupting the charge and as a result the monster will slowly drift, still considered as being in a charge but unable to perform any other action until it collides with something. If a lost soul's attack misses, it will continue careening through the air until it strikes a wall or other object. Unlike all other monsters, the lost soul is completely silent when alerted, giving it an element of stealth. In addition, the numbers of hunters has greatly evolved near regions with a Soul Menhir since they can travel to them easily by warping.Arguably one of the most frustrating enemies in the Doom games, the lost soul floats about at a leisurely pace until it decides to attack, at which point it launches itself towards its target at high speed with a hissing breath sound, often the first audible warning of their presence. The existence of the Soul Menhirs has more than quadrupled the number of world adventurers and has resulted in a market flood of monster-related items. The line to touch the stone grew to the thousands and a new rush of miners headed into the mountains to find their own Soul Menhir. People gathered to feel the uplifting energy emitted from the stone. None knew of the power this menhir held, as it was sold for about 1/100th the current Soul Menhir value, and was used as decorative ambiance and a nighttime light source.

The discoverer of the first Soul Menhir brought it down from the mountain and sold it to the city of Tulimshar. Many of the stones were placed in major cities. Believed to have been created as a result of the Great Quake, Soul Menhir stones have been discovered in the mountains of Tonori, Argaes and Kaizei.

The last soul