introduction | weapons | items | gameplay

Quake 1, being a chiefly single-player game, doesn't have many items. However, the items that it does have are powerful and can prove to be very useful.

Quake 1's armor is pretty complicated compared to other games, so it warrants a separate explanation. If a rocket hits you and deals 100 damage to you, the green armor will absorb 1/3 of this, meaning you will lose 67 health (2/3 of 100, rounded up) and 33 points of green armor. You can only pick up one type of armor at a time, and each type is different in the way it protects you. Although the different colors of armor provide varying levels of protection, the game will only let you pick up armor if it will protect you more than what you already have. In other words, if you have 100 points of red armor, it's not going to give you 100 points of green armor instead. It determines this by how many total health points the armor will protect you against, factoring in the armor's strength. So, if you only have 10 points of red armor, it will let you pick up 100 points of green armor. Confused yet? Probably. You don't really want to be doing fractional mathematical calculations to determine how well your armor is going to work while you're in the middle of a heated battle - so just be confident that the game knows what it's doing.

	Green Armor This armor absorbs about 1/3 of the damage you receive. You get 100 points of green armor.
	Yellow Armor Yellow Armor absorbs about 3/5 of the damage you receive. You get 150 points of yellow armor.
	Red Armor This is the best armor in the game. It absorbs about 4/5 of the damage you receive. You get 200 points of red armor, but they will disappear fairly quickly.
	Megahealth A megahealth gives you 100 extra points of health. You have a maximum of 250 health points, so you can actually pick up a couple of these things. After a short grace period, any extra health you have wears off at a rate of about 1 point per second until it reaches the standard maximum of 100.
	Biosuit This suit will protect you against slime and water. You can't drown while wearing it, slime won't hurt you, and you can see a little better because it gives everything a tinge of green and makes the screen a little brighter. You don't necessarily want to grab the suit just because it's there, it won't do you a whole lot of good unless you actually need to use it for something (like staying underwater for a long period of time). It can't hurt, but don't go too far out of your way or risk being killed to get it.
	Ring of Shadows This handy little device makes you completely invisible except for your eyes. It's really quite entertaining to fight against people who have this ring, because a pair of gaping eyeballs flying through a room firing rockets is one of the funniest things you'll ever see. It gives you the ability to sneak up on people, but you are pretty easy to spot once they notice you're there, so be cautious. If you have a powerful weapon, you can take them out before they really notice you, so it won't be too much of a problem.
	Quad Damage A quad damage will cause your weapons to dish out four times their normal power. Be careful with explosive weapons, because it's not exactly hard to kill yourself. Every time you hit a wall, it's like shooting yourself dead-on with two rockets. Yeah, ouch. Then again, there's not much that can save a player from even one quaded rocket, so if you're in an open area use them as much as possible. The best alternatives to the explosive weapons are the super nailgun and the thunderbolt - they both do plenty of damage. Just remember that you glow when you have this, so players will know it.
	Pentagram of Protection Evil, evil, evil. You can't be hurt - by anything. The only disadvantage to this is it scares the living bejesus out of anyone within half a mile, which makes it a little difficult to get frags. The best way to avoid being lonely is to avoid being hurt - you will make a loud sound that screams "Run!" to any seasoned Quake player whenever the pentagram is damaged. Use rockets if you can, because they deal the most damage and can't hurt you now. Grenades also tend to become more useful. For laughs, take a dive into a pool with 100 cells and your trusty thunderbolt.

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