Chapter 8. Item Detection, Weapons, Health and Ammo

Table of Contents

8.1. The Detector 5000
8.2. Using the Weapons
8.3. Health, Ammo and Armour Indicators

8.1. The Detector 5000

You have at your disposal a device called the Detector 5000 (or the “D5k” for short). It will help you find a number of things that'll enhance your chances of survival. The items it looks for include health, ammo, armour, weapons and keys.

If the D5k finds more than one item in your vicinity, it will space out the announcement of the items so that you can get a better fix on where they are.

Item detection can pick up ammo, weapons, armour and health. You can toggle it with the D key.

8.2. Using the Weapons

To fire, press CTRL.

To switch weapons, use the keys 1-8 on they keyboard. You won't start off with more than an Axe (1) and a Shotgun (2). By default, you'll be using the gun at the start of any game.

From 1 to 8, the weapons available in Quake are: Axe, Shotgun, Double-Barrelled Shotgun, Nailgun, Super Nailgun, Grenade Launcher (grenades are often affectionately known as pineapples), Rocket Launcher (the “boomstick”) and the Lightning Gun. There are four different types of ammo you can pick up: Shells, Nails, Rockets and Cells (the grenade launcher uses Rocket ammo).

Some weapons are more effective against certain types of enemy than others – you'll begin to get an idea of how your implements of destruction are working as you play the game. There are also a number of special moves you can do with some of the weapons. Again, you'll begin to learn techniques as you play but to help you on your way, here are the names of some of the most interesting ones are the “rocket jump” and the “pineapple jump”. Beware of mixing liquids and electricity, too...

If you run out of ammo, you'll automatically switch to the next best weapon for which you do have enough for at least 1 shot. For more information on weapons, please consult Quake's MANUAL.txt file.

8.3. Health, Ammo and Armour Indicators

You're going to need to know when it's time to find some health or when your favourite weapon is running low on ammo.

To be given a verbal report on your health and armour levels, press 9. Your current level of health will be announced, along with how many armour points you have. There are three types of armour in the game, each saves a certain fraction of the damage that would otherwise take health points off you. This fraction is also read out.

Unless you have a special power-up, your health will never get above 100 points. Even if you do find a MegaHealth power-up, your health can't go over 200 points and it'll gradually decay back down to 100 over time.

To get a rundown of your ammo counts, press 0. The quantity of each ammo type that you posses will be announced.