# ezQuake Manual - Items

2004-10-16
Items
Weapons

Quake has 8 different weapons. These are explained below:

- 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 axekill. Either by accident or deliberate and you will feel very pleased then.
- Shotgun (SG/Boomstick)
  This is the standard weapon of Quake often referred to as "boomstick" and the one which you get when you spawn. It is 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 power upped enemies.
- Super Shotgun (SSG)
  This is in fact the doublebarreled version of the shotgun with a somewhat slower reload time. It can do lots of damage - but only on short range. It can be used effectively on mid range but its rather useless on long range. Together with the quaddamage it becomes really deadly, even for heavily armored players.
- Nailgun (NG)
  The name already suggests it, the nailgun shoots nails. 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 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.
- Super Nailgun (SNG/Perforator)
  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.
- 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. 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, that is to block the way 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.
- 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 and armored players won't survive more than two direct hits. Nothing and nobody will survive a direct hit from the rocketlauncher when its weilder has the quaddamage - including yourself, so beware. The rockets also have a large splash damage radius, so you don't have to rely on direct hits only. I once heared someone saying that the rockets in QuakeWorld fly at warp speed. In fact they are only slightly slower and that makes them very hard to dodge. Compared to other games Quakeworlds rocket laucnher is the only one that really deserves its name.
- Thunderbolt (LG/Lightning Gun/Shaft)
  Experienced players call it "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 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.
Ammo and 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 30 seconds after it has run out, that is health dropped to 100. When picked up together with armors it is very usefull because that makes you even harder to kill.
Armor
- Green Armor
  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.
- Yellow Armor
  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
  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
  This is the most powerful of all the powerups. In fact teamgames 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 seroiusly you should learn to time that.
- Pentagram of Protection
  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 loose health when being shot you will loose 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 magic
  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.