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Quake 3 has a powerful collection of fast-paced, multiplayer-friendly weapons for you to indulge in. 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.

Gauntlet Effectiveness: Poor Avoidability: Awful

The gauntlet is pretty much just a slight modification of the chainsaw from the old Doom games. It's not too bad of a weapon considering the fact that it doesn't use any ammunition. On top of that, it deals around 50 damage a snuggle. The only disadvantage is the snuggle part. Let's face it - you want to keep your distance from your enemies as much as possible, and with the Gauntlet this simply can't be done.

Offense is not too hard with this weapon, as long as you have a skill for avoiding attacks. When making your move, try to do it from behind - by running in front of the player you will not only give yourself away, but you will also guarantee an early death for yourself. The key is stealth. The gauntlet is no match for any other weapon, but if it goes unnoticed it can be quite lethal. If you want to trick your opponents, try whipping the thing out when you have a more powerful weapon. It will give other players a false sense of security, as they will assume you're out of ammo and out of luck. While they're busy pumping bullets into you, surprise them by whipping out a little weapon like the BFG and give the janitor a job.

Defense against the gauntlet is fairly easy. Actually, it's about as simple as it gets. All you have to do is run. Running backwards is best, of course, so you can get some hits in while making your getaway. You may think that the gauntlet-wielder won't pursue, but in reality he will probably disregard all logic for the pleasure of hearing the announcer boom "humiliation" for the world to hear. Your only goal is to not let that happen, even if it means losing out on a frag. You don't want to be killed by a gauntlet, trust me.

Machinegun Effectiveness: Average Avoidability: Average

The machinegun made its first appearance in Quake 2, although its ancestors include the familiar chaingun and nailguns seen in Doom and Quake 1. This rapid-fire weapon deals 7 damage for every hit, which makes it good for close combat and a pretty decent starting weapon. Unfortunately, it does use a lot of ammo. Fortunately, you start with quite a bit, and you'll probably find another weapon before you use it all up.

Again, the offense rating is surprisingly high for a starting weapon. The quick firing rate makes the machinegun especially deadly when you're dealing with large groups of players. So, when you have this weapon, look for groups of people duking it out rather than a lost soul or two. Find a nice corner, crouch, and just let loose. Not only will everyone be too distracted to notice you, but you should be able to pull off a few frags. Since you're crouching you won't be hit by a whole lot of stray fire. If you do decide to concentrate your unpleasantness on one player, you will find that crouching helps a lot. When combined with jumping, it provides a very good defensive method. Just stay calm and don't get too jumpy. Once you have a steady lock on somebody, it will not be too hard to kill him or her. All you need to do is follow them with your crosshair. The key is getting that lock without using up too much ammo in the process.

Protecting yourself against the machinegun is actually harder than you would think. Strafing and jumping seem to be the most effective techniques. Don't bother crouching, it is entirely too easy for any mouser to keep a steady stream of bullets on you despite your vertically challenged posture. Just remember that the machine gun can kill even a healthy player very quickly, so don't ever let an opponent get a lock on you. If you have a good weapon, it's important to remember that when your health is low, running away will not solve your problems. Instead, just lay it on him as hard as you can - it's pretty safe to assume that anyone using a machinegun is not in very good shape. You're taking a gamble with this in-your-face tactic, but if you have a decent weapon your chances of winning are far better if you don't hesitate or run.

Shotgun Effectiveness: Good Avoidability: Average

The shotgun has been around since the beginning of time. Well, since the beginning of Quake, anyway. Quake 3's shotgun is arguably the best of the bunch, for many reasons ranging from the damage it deals to the fact that it's just plain awesome looking, especially with the smoke effects. Since it's the only shotgun in the game, this guy features two barrels. The gun pumps out 11 shell fragments with each round, and each fragment deals a whopping 10 damage. That's a total of 110 damage per shot. Yes, that's right - it can send the healthiest players to the floor in no time - and all it takes is a little skill.

The shotgun makes being on the offensive pretty easy. Just remember that it's only useful in short range combat - unlike Quake 1's single-barrel firearm, it doesn't work at all for distance shots. If the player is not close enough to you so you can hit them with most of the fragments, stick with the machinegun. When attacking, get as close to the player as you possibly can. If you give him a direct hit, don't let him run away - in almost all cases, just one well-placed shot will bring him down enough to make the rest of the task easy. For funzies try running up to your opponents and jumping straight up into the air, then shooting them in the head. It makes you pretty hard to hit, and since the shotgun has no splash damage it won't hurt you. Orbiting is not as effective with this weapon since it isn't rapid-fire, but it can do you some good as long as you keep close to the enemy while doing it. Strafing isn't very effective since you need to watch your accuracy.

Unfortunately, protecting yourself from the shotgun is not an easy process. The element of surprise is just too much - all a player needs to do is run up behind you and hit you once, and you'll be so close to dead that it's hardly worth trying to stay alive. There is some hope, however. As long as you concentrate on rapidly changing your horizontal movement (running forward, backpedalling, and strafing a lot) you will not be damaged as badly with each shot. If you have a decent weapon, try to get behind him and take care of him from there... as long as you're at his back, he'll have a hard time getting direct hits in. If you feel you're skilled enough, try concentrating on his fire pattern and try your hardest to jump right before each shot. This takes some practice, but it's very effective if it's done properly.

Grenade Launcher Effectiveness: Average Avoidability: Poor

Pineapple time. Yummy! This classic has been in every Quake game since Quake 1. If you have played both Quake 1 and Quake 2, you will notice the new grenade launcher is most like the one featured in Quake 1. It tosses grenades at long distances, and the grenades bounce quite a bit, making them easy to control. They deal a ton of damage at close range, and have a large blast radius, but they are hard to use in normal combat. If you think of as more of a tool than a weapon, then you have the right idea.

In Quake 1, you could hit players directly fairly easily. Not so in Quake 3 - the grenades don't come out as far when launched. The grenade launcher is best used in filling a room full of unsuspecting victims with its little bundles of explosive joy. Even if you die - and you probably will, if this is the only thing you're using - you can kill a large number of players. You can also effectively use the launcher when you are being chased - even if it doesn't succeed in killing your predator, it will at least get him off your back. If you want a player to stop invading your personal space, then the best way to do it is by whipping out the grenade launcher and showering the room. In fact, you may sometimes find that the grenade launcher is more effective at scaring people away than actually hurting them.

Protecting yourself from this weapon is simple. Run. Whether or not you can frag the person easily, if the room is filled with grenades it's the last place you want to be - they deal a ton of damage, and it's hard to tell where they are. If you are in good enough shape to feel confident about getting a frag, you don't want to be badly hurt or even killed because the guy wanted to scare you away from him. You can always run toward the guy, of course - but only if you're really bent on killing him. If you must, stay as close to him as possible, because he will be the best judge of when and where his grenades will explode. If he decides to commit suicide and take you with him, at least he won't get a frag.

Roket Launcher Effectiveness: Good Avoidability: Excellent

Question: is a first person shooter a first person shooter if it doesn't have a rocket launcher? Answer: of course not! Without rockets, there are no explosions, no gibs, and - well - no fun. Ever since the days of Doom, a rocket launcher has found it's way into just about every game made. There are a very large number of players who love this weapon more than any other, and with good reason: few weapons are as powerful or as easy to use.

When you are attacking players, just remember that rockets will hurt you if you're too close to them when they explode. If you must hurt yourself, jump while doing it - this will decrease the amount of damage you take. Always remember to shoot at floors and walls! Unless you have very good aim, splash damage is more effective than trying to hit a moving player directly. The rocket launcher is all about prediction. After a long time of using it, you will start to learn the speed of the rockets and players, and eventually you will be able to hit them from across entire rooms - even directly, with enough practice. It takes lots of practice, but once you get it down it may just be one of your favorite weapons.

Avoiding rockets isn't easy at all. Because of splash damage, you can't simply jump or strafe to avoid them. Strafe jumping, however, is one of the most effective ways of avoiding most of the damage. It will help you to avoid any direct hits, not to mention confuse the player, so you should be okay as long as you have a good weapon. Don't waste any time - kill them as soon as you have the chance. Not only will you save your life, but you will also have a good reason to live - a nice, shiny rocket launcher.

Lightning Gun Effectiveness: Good Avoidability: Average

For those of you familiar with the Thunderbolt in Quake 1, this weapon just isn't as good as it used to be. Quake 1's version was one of the most powerful weapons available in the game. However, Quake 3's lightning gun has lost a lot of that power. It's still effective, just not as commonly used. You would truthfully have better luck with the rocket launcher. There are exceptions - for example, for a player with high pings the lightning gun is preferable to a weapon like the railgun, because it is easier to get hits with.

For larger numbers of distracted players it is not a bad weapon, but don't try to use it in up close and personal combat - it won't work very well at all. The gun does its best work in distance battles. Try your hardest to get a lock on the player, just like the machinegun. In other words, try to get a streaming shaft into him, not just swishing around hitting him every once in awhile. If you can't manage to get a lock, swishing will work, but you'll probably end up winning the race to the grave. Jump while keeping your aim on him, if you can. Strafing doesn't work too well against just one opponent, but it is slightly effective. With multiple enemies, swishing with the mouse seems to work better because of the lag issues.

Luckily (or unluckily, depending on which side you're on), avoiding the lightning gun is pretty darn easy. As long as you keep your eye on the shaft, you can pretty much jump your way around it. It shows up very well, so if you concentrate on it enough you will find that the player won't be able to hurt you much. The shaft also makes it easy for you to tell where the other player is, so use it to your advantage. He will run out of ammo quickly, and when he does he may be more of a threat if he switches to another weapon. Get the job done as soon as you can.

Railgun Effectiveness: Excellent Avoidability: Average

This Quake 2 classic is a hard weapon to rate. For on thing, ping makes a huge difference to an inexperienced player. Newer players and those that just refuse to practice will find the railgun almost impossible to use under high ping situations. It deals a massive amount of damage per shot, but it has quite a charge time and there is no splash damage. It requires good defensive techniques, skillful aiming, and a good sense of player movement to use, not to mention a whole lot of practice.

That's the key: practice. Start a server with cheats enabled and spawn some "I Can Win" bots, then see how effectively you can rail them. They won't hurt you much, but they move around like spastic chipmunks on caffeine, so they make really good targets. Always remember that the railgun has no limit in range, so it's best used in situations where your opponents are far away. When you hit a player once, whip out the machinegun or shotgun and finish them off. Trying to hit them twice in a row takes longer and gives them a chance to get health.

Avoiding the railgun is not that hard, actually, unless you're playing against the masters. As long as you keep randomizing your jumping and strafing, even the better players will have a problem hitting you. Of course, there are times on maps such as Q3DM17 that you simply can't avoid being shot, but that's just the way it goes. Just remember that the closer you are, the harder of a time he will have hitting you. Try to stack him if he's standing still, which he may be if he's trying to aim at you or someone else.

Plasma Gun Effectiveness: Excellent Avoidability: Good

This is a great weapon that made its first appearance in Doom. It's not quite as good as it was before, but it's still one of the best weapons in the game. It fires like the machinegun, but the plasmoids move, unlike bullets.

When attacking one person, orbit them. When attacking multiple players, strafe. Don't just turn the mouse back and forth, because this does not cover a room as well. If you are attacking a single player, you may also find it easier to simply jump up and down while running in a straight line. There isn't much splash damage, but it's enough to warrant your attention. Don't let your health slip away to low, or you may end up killing yourself.

Defending yourself is quite difficult because many players will cover an entire room with plasma, or focus a whole lot of it on you. Chances are you will be hurt very badly no matter what you try to do. And if they have a Quad, well... get ready to make the big exit. The best defense is to run like crazy if you don’t have a very good weapon. Of course, if you have a battle suit you will be in excellent shape - so dish it out while you can. If you have a good weapon, just try as much random motion as you can.

BFG 10k Effectiveness: Excellent Avoidability: Excellent

Doom. Quake 2. They had BFG's, but both were different - now, instead of a weapon that focuses energy on everything in the room, the BFG is more of a rapid fire rocket launcher with very fast rockets.

The rules here are basically the same as the plasma gun, since both are basically the same type of weapon. Try to conserve your ammo as much as possible - a lot of players make the mistake of actually using the BFG like the machinegun, but you'll find that you can do much more with it if you think of it as a rocket launcher instead. Firing one or two shots at a player is plenty to kill them, so unless you're dealing with a large group, don't go trigger-happy. Above all, remember that you can hurt yourself very badly. While the splash damage you'll receive isn't much compared to the damage you'll be dishing out, it's enough to kill you very quickly.

Defending yourself? Umm... you could always try to run, or maybe hide. Both are good ideas, but more than likely, neither one of them is going to work. If you have a really good weapon, never stop jumping and strafing and you might just stay alive long enough to kill him. Emphasis on "might".

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