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Quake 1 has the least flexibility of all the games in the Quake series, which is both a blessing and a curse. It makes things simpler, but it also hinders your ability to avoid attacks.

Walking / Running

If you want to get any frags you should probably run most of the time. 90% of the Quake players you talk to will tell you they turn Always Run on - and although it's personal preference, it's best to do this. In Quake 1, there is no way to walk if you have Always Run on, so it does have a disadvantage - although, since there are no audible footsteps, you really don't have a reason to travel slowly.

Backpedaling

Backpedaling is not critical, but it is a useful type of movement. For those of you who don't know what it is, backpedaling is simply walking backwards.

Backpedaling is mostly used to avoid weapon fire, but you will soon find that you are using it to pick up items without turning your back. The basic concept of movement in Quake is to never turn your back on an opponent - backpedaling helps you to avoid this and still be able to move around the level. Eventually, you can frag people without even stopping in the room. By memorizing level layouts and item placement, you can backpedal through doorways, teleporters, and onto items to pick them up.

Strafing

This is what just about every Quake player will tell you is the most important part of the control system for you to learn. Guess what? They're right. Strafing is basically walking from side to side, although there are more variations of this movement. It sounds simple enough, but it can get a little complicated when it comes to actually being used.

Strafing is useful for a variety of things, including picking up items and weapons. As mentioned above, keeping your eye on a player is critical. When you start learning the levels - a tough job for even the most experienced players - you can start picking up health and armor without even looking while in the middle of a battle. This obviously gives you an extreme advantage over an opponent who must turn around and look for such items.

Jumping

Jumping is critical in this game - not only is it a great way to avoid attacks and confuse players, but it's also necessary for navigating maps. If you jump a lot while you are being attacked by just about anything, the other player will have a tough time hitting you. Jumping is very useful when firing things like the rocket launcher because it will decrease the amount of damage done to you.

Stairs

Hopefully this one doesn't need to be explained. What you should know is that, when fighting on stairs, it is best for you to be higher than your opponent. It is much easier to aim, and you can utilize splash damage more easily than he can, since he doesn't really have a floor to aim at. So, keep your distance and remember to stay on top. You can also use stairs to drop in with a surprise attack on an unsuspecting player standing near the bottom - if you descend a staircase in a couple of leaps, he will never see you coming in time.

Teleporters

These will transport you to another specified part of the map. They are very useful in escaping hairy situations. If you're trying to get away, find the nearest teleporter and step through it. Once you're in the new location, choose an unnatural path and run in that direction as fast as possible - in other words, if you'd normally turn right, turn left instead, and find somewhere to hide. Chances are your stalker will take his own natural path or the path he feels you would have chosen, so you can lose him fairly easily. You can also trick people into following you - they will almost undoubtedly assume that you will walk straight through and continue to go straight. Using this to your advantage, as son as you transport, run to one side or the other and keep your site on the destination. Within a second or two your opponent will run through, looking straight ahead. You can usually get in a couple of good hits before he realizes what's going on.

Strafe Jumping

Strafe jumping is a commonly overlooked technique. A lot of players know what it is and know how to do it, but many of them seem to use it at the wrong times. Strafe jumping actually accomplishes two things at one time. First of all, it gives you a distinct advantage over players - you move forward and backward, up and down, and left to right simultaneously. If you have really good aim, you can do all of this while never taking your crosshair off of the player. Secondly, when done correctly, you get a significant increase in your forward or backward travelling speed.

For those of you who don't know, strafe jumping is performed by jumping while staffing left, landing, jumping while strafing right, landing, and then repeating. Two things you must watch out for are the fogs of death and the void. They are your worst enemies while you are attempting this technique, and are probably the biggest reason it is not very widely used. You will soon find out for yourself that losing control of your character is very easy to do, which can easily result in a messy landing in dangerous areas. In safer areas, however, you can usually do no more harm than bumping into a wall. If this happens, the time that it takes you to recover your control is probably less than the time that you saved and certainly makes up for whatever damage you can avoid taking.

Rocket Jumping

This is a much more common technique. It involves launching a rocket into the ground or another player and using the force of the explosion to propel yourself in a desired direction while gaining extreme speed and altitude. To do this, you just fire the rocket and jump at the same instant as the explosion. Because of the resulting damage to your character, it is useful for little more than getting out of a heated battle or getting to high places with high payoffs.

Orbiting

Orbiting is performed by strafing in a circle around the player, especially while jumping. It makes you very hard to hit, and when done properly will never cause your crosshair to leave the player. It works best with rapid-fire weapons like the nailguns, although you may find other uses for it.

Stacking

This is very hard to pull off. In fact, it seems that the only thing harder than stacking is actually finding a situation where it is possible. Despite being hard to accomplish, it's a simple process. All you have to do is find a player who's standing still and jump onto their head. If the player doesn't see you coming, he will never guess you're up there. By the time he moves out from under you, you should be able to damage him enough so that killing him won't be all that hard. Just remember to run for it if he looks up.

Sniping

Sniping is exactly what it sounds like - hiding and picking off players from a distance. It is often confused with camping, but it is actually slightly more effective. The only disadvantage to this tactic is the lack of decent sniping spots in the packaged maps. To get a good spot, find an unusual place where you're not very visible. Unusual means on top of a doorway or a ledge, not just an area anyone can walk to. You will probably have to rocket jump to get there, so keep some health in sight so you can get back up if you accidentally fall.

Pull out the rocket launcher (or another good weapon) and start shooting at people as they pass by. Once you snipe a player a few times he is bound to know where you are, so change places often. Also, if you are next to a wall, watch out for rockets.

Camping

Camping is the most controversial skill in Quake. Usually, the people who complain about it the most are the ones who simply can't kill campers themselves. Good players can usually eliminate campers without much of a problem, because campers usually aren't good at what they do. As easy as it is to get killed, and as unpopular as you will be, by camping the right way you can get a lot of frags.

First, find a place that not only has health, but also one entrance. A good item or weapon helps lure people in, so don't pick them up unless you need them. As people come, shoot them. In most cases, they will never learn and just keep coming.

Eventually, however, good players will catch on and there is a large chance you will be killed. The solution is simple: leave your campsite every once in awhile. They will think you moved to another location or just gave up. After a couple minutes, go back. You can actually spend your entire game hopping from one camping place to another and never have to actually fight. It gets boring after awhile, but if you're desperate for frags, it works.

Item Raping

Cheap? Some will tell you yes, however most skilled players don't really mind if you do it, because most of them are doing it themselves. This is especially effective in a 1v1 game. In Quake 1 this is very hard to pull off unless you get to the item first - if you pick up a Quad, for example, make sure that you get back to that spot when the Quad is supposed to respawn. It's hard to get started, because there is no indication that someone picked the item up. It does work though - because, obviously, if you control the only item on the map you're going to wreak carnage on everyone else. Just get ready to hear some whining!

-end-

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