Items
Weapons
Axe
This is Quake's melee weapon which is useful only when all your other weapons have run out of ammo. It only has a very short range, you have to stand next to another player to hit him. It does not do much damage either so it is not very useful in the end. However, sooner or later you will get your first axe-kill. Either by accident or deliberate and you will feel very pleased then.
Technical details: The axe can fire every 500ms. Damage per hit in DMM3 is 20, 75 in DMM4. Unlike all the other weapons, after initiating +attack it takes 375ms for the axe to actually fire (despite the animation starting immediately). Range is 64units.
Shotgun (SG)
This is the standard weapon of Quake often referred to as "boomstick" and the one which you get when you spawn. It's an instant hit weapon with an almost unlimited range. It does not do much damage but you can kill the unwary and weak with it. It can become very effective when used by multiple players who use it to boomstick the same enemy in team deathmatch, typically focusing a player carrying a power up or a good weapon such as the rocket launcher.
Technical details: The shotgun fires once every 500ms. It fires 6 pellets per attack, and each pellet does 4 damage, making for a maximum possible damage of 24. Pellets are arranged in a random pattern. Range is 2048 units.
Super Shotgun (SSG)
This is in fact the double barreled version of the shotgun with a somewhat slower reload time. It can do lots of damage - but only at short range. It can be used effectively at mid range but it's rather useless at long range. Together with the Quad Damage it becomes really deadly, even for heavily armored players. The super shotgun is also a hitscan weapon.
Technical details: The super shotgun fires every 700ms. It fires 14 pellets per shot. Just like the shotgun, each pellet does 4 damage, pellets form a random pattern, and the range is 2048u. Maximum damage is 56.
Nailgun (NG)
The name already suggests it; the nail gun shoots nails. The nailgun is a projectile weapon and the nails fly towards the enemy but due to their rather slow speed he can easily avoid them, especially at longer distances. Since the nails do not do much damage and not many come out of the gun in a short time, the nailgun is perhaps the least effective of all the weapons (even worse than the shotgun).
Technical details: The nailgun may fire every 100ms. Nails travel at 1000ups and disappear after 6 seconds if they haven't hit anything. Nails do 9 damage per hit, and are fired alternatively from 5u left of the crosshair, then 5u right of the crosshair. Nails are 0u wide, 0u long and 0u high; a point.
Super Nailgun (SNG)
This is a way better version of the nailgun. It fires the nails at a much faster speed and they fly faster too. This makes the Super Nailgun a very effective weapon when used by the right hands. Its only weakness is perhaps that it eats up the nails ammo much too fast.
Technical details: Just like the nailgun, the SNG fires every 100ms, nails travel at 1000ups (projectile weapon), nails disappear after 6 seconds if they haven't hit anything yet and nails are 0u x 0u x 0u in size. Unlike the nailgun however, nails are fired from the crosshair, not alternating from 5u to the left and 5u to the right, and do 18 damage per hit (at the cost of 2 nail ammo per nail).
Grenade Launcher (GL)
The grenade launcher fires grenades that do a lot of damage. A single grenade can kill an unarmored player outright. The grenades explode about three seconds after they have been shot and they are quite bouncy too. An unskilled player often kills himself with them because they bounce back from a wall. Most of the time they are used to "spam" a certain area, i.e. to block the way to key areas for other players. You can even use the grenade launcher for direct hits at players but this requires skill, experience and also a bit of luck as the angle at which grenades are shot is not constant.
Technical details: The grenade launcher fires every 600ms. Grenades are fired with 600ups forward velocity (+/- up to 10ups randomly) and 200ups upwards velocity (+/- up to 10ups randomly), upwards being from the POV of the player, ie: perpendicular to forward.
Like the nailguns, grenades have 0u x 0u x 0u volume. Unlike nails, however, grenades are affected by gravity (800ups, 100ups on E1M8) and bounce off non-damageable surfaces. It does bounce off some damageable surfaces (eg: shootable buttons) but explodes on impact on most (players, exploding boxes).
Grenades do 120 splash damage over a 160u radius upon a direct hit on a target, or 2.5 seconds after being fired. For this reason, the angle with which a player is directly hit by a grenade affects the amount of damage inflicted, unlike a rocket. Also note that the splash damage radius of any weapon in Quake is always the damage plus 40.
Rocket Launcher (RL)
The Rocket Launcher is the most powerful and important weapon of Quake, the one that every player desires. It uses the same ammo as the grenade launcher. Rockets are very effective and kill a newly spawned player in one blow and armored players won't survive more than two direct hits. Nothing and nobody will survive a direct hit from the rocket launcher when its wielder has the quad damage - including yourself, so beware! The rockets also have a large splash damage radius, so you don't have to rely on direct hits only. The great splash damage and the very high speed makes them very hard to dodge.
Technical details: The rocket launcher may fire every 800ms. Like nails, rockets travel at 1000ups, and are not affected by gravity. A direct hit by a rocket does 110 damage. All hits, direct or not, do 120 splash damage (over a 160u radius, like the grenade launcher), however objects that are hit directly are immune to this splash damage. Rockets are 0u x 0u x 0u like nails and grenades. Rockets disappear after 5 seconds if they haven't hit anything.
Lightning Gun (LG or "Shaft")
Experienced players call the lightning gun "shaft" only and also know that it is as good as the rocket launcher. It fires a straight lightning bolt in front of the player that has a low to mid range. When it hits another player it does a lot of damage in a short time and also pushes him a bit, sometimes even down a ledge or into lava. This ability can also be used to shaft players in the air or push them into a corner where they have a hard time shooting back. In the right hands the shaft is a nasty and very deadly weapon. Once quadded you can go through other players like hot iron through butter. Its only drawbacks are the limited range and high ammo usage.
Technical details: The lightning gun fires every 100ms. It has a range of 600u, and is a hitscan weapon. It does 30 damage per hit, and may damage up to 3 damageable objects in that 600u range per hit.
When fired underwater in deathmatch mode 3, the lightning gun does (35 x number of cells in gun) splash damage, with the firer as the centre. The radius is the damage (35 x cells), plus 40. A few rules change in DMM4. Discharging only works a random 50% of the time, the rest of the time you do 4000 damage to yourself only. Additionally, the lightning gun is disabled when you obtain Quad.
Ammo & Health
Shells
These are ammunition for the Shotgun and the Super Shotgun.
The small shell packs contain 20 shells, the wider ones contain 40 shells.
Nails
The nails are ammunition for the Nailgun and the Super Nailgun.
The small nail packs contain 25 nails, the wider ones contain 50 nails.
Rockets
The rockets are ammunition for the Grenade Launcher and the Rocket Launcher.
The single rocket packs contain 5 rockets, the double ones contain 10 rockets.
Cells
The cells are ammunition for the Lightning Gun.
The small cell packs contain 6 cells. The wider ones contain 12 cells.
Health
'Small' health packs give you 15 health points, 'large' packs will give you 25. Actually these two health packs are equal in size, so it might be hard to see which one is which, but if you look close on the top you can see a slight difference in the textures.
Megahealth
This nice thingy will boost your health by 100 points. If you already have 100 health (or less) it will add the remaining points to the 100 you already have so that you can have up to 200. However your health will slowly count down to 100. You can even pick up multiple 100 health until up to 250 but the more health points you have the faster they count down. It respawns 20 seconds after it has run out, that is health dropped to 100 or below. However, there can not be less than 25 seconds between the spawns of one Megahealth, even if you drop to 100 points or below within 5 seconds of picking it up. When picked up together with armors it is very useful because that makes you even harder to kill.
Armor
(See also detailed armor page)
Green Armor (GA)
- Armor: 100 armor at 30% damage absorption
- Respawn time: 20 seconds
This is the weakest of all three armors in the game. It will give you 100 armor points and only provides considerable protection from the weakest weapons. You will survive only one hit by a rocket which can still be a great deal compared to having no armor at all.
Yellow Armor (YA)
- Armor: 150 armor at 60% damage absorption
- Respawn time: 20 seconds
This armor is considerably better. You don't have to care very much about players with weaker weapons and you will even survive two rocket hits. It will give you 150 armor points, if you can get it go for it!
Red Armor (RA)
- Armor: 200 armor at 80% damage absorption
- Respawn time: 20 seconds
With the red armor your only enemies are the rocket launcher and the shaft. You don't really have to be worried about anything else. It takes a lot of shells or nails to kill someone who carries the red armor. You will get 200 armor points and you will survive two direct rocket hits and you will still be able to dish out some damage yourself. This armor is very important so you should always take it before your enemy does.
Powerups
Quad Damage ("Quad")
- Ability: Quadruples your damage output
- Respawn time: 60 seconds
- Duration: 30 seconds
This is the most powerful of all the powerups. In fact team games usually evolve around getting the quad damage because it give your team a significant advantage over the other team. When you pick it up it will last for 30 seconds and all your weapons will do four times the damage they usually do during that time. That makes all of them a threat to anyone and you will notice that players will try to avoid you at all costs. The super shotgun, super nailgun and especially the shaft become very deadly at short range. The rocket launcher will be unstoppable but be careful that you do not harm yourself with it because its splash damage will become quadrupled as well. The quad damage will respawn every minute or 30 seconds after it has run out and if you want to play seriously you should learn to time that.
Pentagram of Protection ("Pent")
- Ability: Invulnerability (still takes armor damage but not health damage)
- Respawn time: 5 minutes
- Duration: 30 seconds
This is a very powerful artifact because it renders you absolutely invulnerable for 30 seconds. You can use this time to wait for a good weapon without having to fear death or to attack a heavily defended position. Although you don't lose health when being shot you will lose armor, so beware not to have players with good weapons surrounding you when it runs out. The Pentagram respawns every 5 minutes and you can be sure that experienced players don't miss it, so be there when it spawns!
Ring of Shadows ("Eyes")
- Ability: Invisibility (your eyeballs are still visible!)
- Respawn time: 5 minutes
- Duration: 30 seconds
When you pick up the ring you will get invisible for 30 seconds. Well, almost invisible because your eyes will remain visible, but they are not easy to spot when you move. The ring is quite useful for surprise attacks. Experienced players will spot you easily though once you start shooting at them, especially when you use the shaft or the rocket launcher with its long rocket trails. The ring spawns five minutes after it has been taken, just like the pentagram. In team games it is therefore quite common to take the ring before the pentagram spawns to be able to do a stealth attack when pentagram spawns (if the timing allows it).