introduction | weapons | items | gameplay

Quake 1 has a unique and entertaining collection of weapons that mimic real-life machines but have a gothic feel to them. Each weapon is rated for how powerful it is against opponents (effectiveness) and how easily the weapon can be avoided (avoidability). The ratings are Awful, Poor, Average, Good, and Excellent. They are both taken from the user's point of view.

First thing's first: before using any weapons at all, you have got to enable mouse look. To do this, type "+mlook" in the console. By default it's turned off, so you need to add it to a file named "autoexec.cfg", which should be in the same folder as your config file. All commands listed in the autoexec config will be executed when the game starts. Another one you want to add is "crosshair 1", which will give you a crosshair.

Axe Effectiveness: Awful Avoidability: Awful

What the axe lacks in quality it makes up for in entertainment value! There are few things more satisfying then axe murdering someone, especially when the message is displayed for all on the server to see. This goes way below pummeling in Quake 3, which involves only a couple snuggles. It requires many whacks with the axe to defeat even an injured opponent, which makes pulling this off even more worth your while.

If you're using the axe, keep in mind that if you have any other weapon - I don't care what it is - you're making a big mistake. If you really do want to use it, though, or if you don't have anything else, you will surely meet your fate soon enough - but you may be able to get a couple of frags first, if you're careful enough. Try to attack the person from behind if possible. Once he turns to meet you, run to his back again. Basically, try to get as many whacks in without being in his line of fire. Any other weapon will surely kill you in a head-to-head skirmish, so don't let yourself get caught in one.

Fortunately for anyone being attacked by it, the axe is very easy to avoid. A few simple jumps when the person gets near you will assure that he won't be able to touch you. Just keep him in front of you as much as possible so you can shoot him. Chances are, he will become more of an annoyance than anything else. You may need some extra health afterwards, but the chances of you dying are hardly phenomenal - unless you're hardly phenomenal yourself.

Shotgun Effectiveness: Poor Avoidability: Poor

The shotgun is a weapon Quake just wouldn't be complete without. Despite the fact that it has fairly low ratings, for a starting weapon it's quite powerful. Regardless of range (within reason), you are able to kill an opponent with relatively few shots. And, since you get 25 shells along with it, you have a fair chance of making a few frags without having to pick up any ammo or another weapon. With so many weapons that are many times better, though, you won't find yourself using it much if you have much else - but it's always a good thing to keep around. Plus, it's free... and we all know you can't beat that.

Using the shotgun is a fairly simple process. It's good for both distance and close range combat. For distances, you should stay relatively still and try your hardest to hit your opponent as many times as possible. Usually it will take awhile for opponents to realize where the shots are coming from, but once they do they may be able to clean you out very quickly, so be ready to move out of the way. At close range, do a lot of jumping while firing it. It is easy for you to hit an opponent while you are jumping around, but it will be quite difficult for him to hit you.

Avoiding the shotgun is easy, if you remember one thing: since the shotgun has a narrow spread, it requires decent aim to use. Because of this, the more you move the harder it will be for your opponent to hit you. There is no specific pattern that helps best in avoiding the gun - just about anything done randomly will work quite effectively. Choose your defense based on whatever weapon you are using.

Double-Barrled Shotgun Effectiveness: Average Avoidability: Poor

This shotgun plays very differently from the single-barreled version. The spread is much wider, so it is not good for distances. However, it deals a lot more damage. It also has a fairly fast reload rate, so it turns out to be a very powerful weapon in close quarters. The problem is, it's really bad for distances, and it uses a lot of precious ammo that may be better suited for the single-barreled gun.

Only use this weapon when other players are very close to you. Otherwise, the single barreled shotgun would actually do you more good. Strafing seems to be very effective because of the close range. It might also be to your advantage to lay it all out on your opponent from behind, getting as close as possible and keeping to his sides and back, firing as often as you can. This way, he will have no way of knowing where you are. By the time he knows what's happening he will be dead. If you don't manage to surprise him in some way, however, you may face that fate yourself, as many other weapons can do the job more quickly.

Defending yourself against this weapon is not an easy thing, but you do at least have some time to do it. Similarly to the single-barreled shotgun, the more movement the better. Try to get as far away as possible without turning your back, and don't try to run away unless you're desperate. Get rid of him as soon as possible, because if he manages to start hitting you, it's going to hurt - a lot.

Nailgun Effectiveness: Average Avoidability: Average

The nailgun is, overall, a good weapon. Although the nails only deal 9 damage each, they are fired quickly enough to keep the player on his toes. In most close-range situations, the double-barreled shotgun would probably serve you better - but when there is more than one opponent or your target is farther away, it's a very good weapon to use.

With the nailgun, strafing really helps a lot. Sending a straight line of nails towards a person will not do nearly as much good as sending an entire wall of them. By filling the room in this matter you use more ammo, but it will do the job more quickly and make them defensive, probably saving you some harm. Jumping helps a little bit, but really only if the other person is jumping too - otherwise, a lot of your nails are going to go right over his head.

It's pretty hard to avoid the nailgun because it fires so quickly. It's not really a good idea to go head-to-head with a nailgun unless you have a lot of health and a weapon that can kill very quickly. A better thing to do is force them to run out of ammo by avoiding the nails as much as you can. Jump around and strafe a lot, and keep it as random as possible. If you just start going left, right, left, right, and so on, he's going to catch on pretty quick and start following you. If you can get up close to the player, definitely orbit them - this way you can get some bonus damage in before the real fight begins. Once the nails stop coming and the shells start spreading, simply let him have it. Obviously, if you have a rocket launcher or something of the sort, you can just let them have it right away.

Super Nailgun Effectiveness: Good Avoidability: Average

Ouch. This one uses twice as many nails, but it also dishes out twice the damage. 18 health is stolen with each little spike. It fires off just as fast as the nailgun, but it only fires one stream of nails instead of two alternating streams. This makes it a little bit harder to use, but with the extra damage it's worth the risk.

Strafing doesn't help you a whole lot with this weapon, mostly because you won't have that much ammo to waste. Jumping really doesn't help a lot either, again because a lot of nails will end up flying over someone's head. Your best bet is to keep running and simply look back and forth while firing. This is the best way to spread the nails without wasting too much ammo. For the most part, you're going to have to get a good lock on someone at a fairly close range to make this weapon truly effective.

Defense for this weapon is very much like that of the nailgun, except that little mistakes will cost a lot more. Try to make them run out of ammo, but this time never stop jumping and strafing - don't even try to orbit them unless you're stuck being in close range. Once their nails run out - and it won't take long - they have also lost the use of their standard nailgun, so you have a fair chance of being able to kill them. Again, if you have a really good weapon, just let them have it without trying to make them run out of ammo.

Grenade Launcher Effectiveness: Good Avoidability: Average

Time to feast on pineapples. Yum, yum. Quake 1's grenades hurt just as much as rockets, which make them very effective weapons. It's really fun to fill a whole room with these babies and watch innocent passers-by get blown to tiny little chunks when they explode.

If there is a rocket launcher in the level and you have a good weapon other than the grenade launcher, the grenade launcher not a good choice. If you actually have a rocket launcher, it's just a plain stupid choice. It uses up precious rockets and it's hard to hurt players without also hurting yourself. Now, an exception to this rule is when you want to use them to scare people away - if you plant grenades in the floor while someone is chasing you, they're probably not going to try to follow you. If they do, you'll get a frag. This works best on stairs, because on a staircase the grenades will stick wherever you set them. If want to use the launcher for standard combat, remember that the grenades bounce a lot and travel far, so they are actually pretty easy to control. Bouncing them off the floor into players, or offering to play your own little game of "catch" (i.e., let them have it), will do a lot of damage because the grenades will hit them directly. Just watch out for that splash damage.

It's actually kind of easy to avoid grenades. If you're too close, you can't really see the things coming, so there's not much you can do except get far away. And, if you're far enough away, all you have to do is run backwards and fire off whatever you have.

Rocket Launcher Effectiveness: Excellent Avoidability: Excellent

An enormous amount of splash damage combined with a fast firing rate makes this weapon extremely hard to avoid. You can carry around 100 rockets, too. In most online games someone ends up with the "good pack" that has 100 rockets in it, and everyone lucky enough to pick it up usually stays alive for quite awhile. Once you use the rocket launcher, it's not hard to see why.

When using it, always aim for walls, floors, or anything else that happens to be near a player. The splash damage is enough to kill them. If they are in a hall or something you may want to try the direct approach, but the rockets in Quake 1 travel a little slowly and can be avoided if fired from a safe distance. Speaking of safe distances, I cannot stress this next tip enough: if the player is right next to you and you absolutely must pull the trigger, jump right before you fire the rocket into them. If you fire a rocket right into something while jumping, it hurts less. It may not help much, but when you come out of a battle with 5 health you will be glad you did it.

It's a very tough job to defend yourself against the rocket launcher. Because the rockets deal more than 100 damage, one will be enough to kill you if you have no armor - and that one may come with absolutely no warning. The wide splash range makes them very tough to dodge. Your best bet is to orbit the player, as this makes it very hard for him to aim the travelling rockets. Never run away - he'll just hit you in the back and you won't even see it coming. Stay as close to the player as you can so he will hurt himself if he actually does hit you, and don't stop moving until either he's run out of rockets or he becomes interested in someone else. If you have an equal weapon, try to take him out as soon as possible - but do it carefully.

Thunderbolt Effectiveness: Excellent Avoidability: Good

The thunderbolt is really only hindered by the fact that it doesn't work at long range (and the little issue involving H2O). Other than this, it is one heck of a powerful weapon. When Quaded, it will gib a player with a red armor and 250 health in no time at all. On top of all this, it doesn't even cause damage to its user. The only problem is that it uses cells at a very fast rate, so ammo conservation is critical.

Stay closer to the player so you have a better chance of hitting him. Turn from side to side if he's moving a lot. If he's staying still, you won't have much to worry about. He'll be dead in a couple seconds once you get a steady lock on him. Try jumping and aiming at the player's head - this works pretty well for avoiding his attacks and confusing him. It actually impairs your opponents vision if you aim the bolt at their eyes, as the model gets in the way. Obviously, it would be best to avoid water. Unless, of course, there happens to be more than one player going for a swim. In fact - if you become good enough at calculating damage - it's possible for you to discharge without dying as long as you have enough health and armor, and a small enough number of cells. The half-damage rule applies to cells as well as rockets, so you can kill someone else and still survive. Just make sure you don't have too much juice...

To defend yourself, you need to run, jump, and strafe. That's your only chance. Even then, you may be killed. If your weapon is weak, try your hardest to avoid the shaft long enough for the other player to run out of ammo, and then let him have it. If you have a powerful weapon, try avoiding the shaft but also be a little careless and try to hit him. Unless you have a powerful weapon, you'll probably die, so make your peace while you still can.

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