Disruptor (GZ)

 

Disruptor
Production information
Technical specifications
Damage Per Hit	160
Magazine Size	3
Maximum Ammunition	12 Bandolier: 21 Ammo Pack: 30
Ammunition Type	Rounds
Operation	Semi-automatic
Rate of Fire	100 shots per minute
Usage
Era(s)	Quake II: Ground Zero Call of the Machine
[Source]

“	An experimental and super-secret weapon created in the merger of Strogg and Human tech, the Disruptor was long believed to not even exist. It packs a big punch like the BFG10K, and has a high rate of fire, however it will only target one enemy at a time.	”
—iD Vault

The Disruptor is a new weapon introduced in the 2023 Remaster of Quake II. It was originally a piece of unused content from Ground Zero, meant to be a new weapon available to the player, but cut from the game before its release - in the original release of Ground Zero, the weapon can be obtained only through cheat codes. However, it is still present in the original game, wielded by the Black Widow Guardian in her second form.

The 2023 Remaster officially includes the Disruptor into the game as a weapon for the player; it can be found in the single-player campaign of Ground Zero, specifically in the Research Hangar. It also appears in one unit of Call of the Machine, namely OPERATION: Firewall. The remaster also introduces Rounds, an ammo pickup for the Disruptor, each pickup conferring three shots. Ammo for the Disruptor is rare; only six pickups of rounds can be found in the Ground Zero campaign, although rounds are now included in the Ammo Pack as well.

Description

The Disruptor is a very powerful weapon, delivering 160 damage per hit - somewhat more than a direct hit from a rocket launcher or full hit from the Super Shotgun, but it has a significantly higher rate of fire than either, roughly double that of the Super Shotgun. These facts in combination give the Disruptor the highest damage output of any weapon in the game, even higher than the Chain Gun spinning at full speed. It also has effectively infinite range and the ability to home in on a target; if the player aims the crosshair close to a target, the projectile will usually do the rest so long as it has a clear path. Furthermore, it can hurl its victim backward, possibly throwing them off a ledge or slamming them back against a wall, if they survive the damage anyway. As the description in the iD Vault suggests, each projectile only harms a single foe - it does not deal any splash damage.

It has one remarkable advantage on top of all of this - it completely disregards the target's Power Shield and Power Screen, dealing full damage to the target's health as if this protection were not there at all. The same is true for the Disruptor wielded by the Black Widow Guardian in her second form.

Its homing ability can sometimes work against it if the target is partially obscured by terrain; the homing ability may cause the projectile to follow the most direct route to the target even if a piece of terrain is in the way, causing it to strike the obstacle instead of the target partially obscured by it.

When an enemy is killed by the Disruptor, they are always gibbed (if their corpse can be gibbed). Therefore, enemies killed by the Disruptor can't be revived by a Medic or Medic Commander.

Strategies

• The Disruptor is a more formidable weapon against the Black Widow Guardian. On Nightmare difficulty, she has a very high level of durability thanks to her Power Shield, and she can also activate a new Power Shield in response to certain power-ups used by the player (see the Black Widow Guardian's own page for details) - however, your Disruptor completely ignores her power shield. With Quad Damage active, the Disruptor can destroy either of her two forms in roughly five seconds on Nightmare - even the Chain Gun spinning at full speed doesn't come anywhere near this level of damage output in such a short time. The Disruptor also has the bonus of repeatedly hurling the Black Widow Guardian backward, pinning her against the wall so she cannot move.
• The Disruptor's ability to slam its target backwards makes it extremely potent against the Carrier. If you continuously bombard the Carrier as soon as it appears from the hole in the ceiling, it can be repeatedly pushed upwards, preventing it from descending far enough to actually see you. In this way, the boss fight can be ended quickly without taking a single scratch. However, as effective as this tactic is, the Disruptor's ammunition is rather hard to come by, and it is better saved for use against the Black Widow Guardian, a more challenging opponent than the Carrier. Nevertheless, if you want to use this tactic then it takes 25 Disruptor shots to kill the Carrier on Nightmare, although you can reduce that to 13 shots with Double Damage.
• The Disruptor's only real downside is that its ammunition is rather hard to come by, and so it is wise to use it sparingly throughout the Ground Zero campaign and save plenty of rounds for the final boss. Assuming the player collects all the available Rounds and Ammo Packs and doesn't use the Disruptor at all, they will have the full 30 rounds when they fight the Carrier; if the player uses 13 Rounds to kill the Carrier with Double Damage, they will collect 15 more in time to fight the Black Widow Guardian, thereby having full Disruptor ammunition for both bosses.
• It is a worthy option against Medic Commanders, not just for its excellent damage output but also the fact that Strogg killed by it are always gibbed. A Medic Commander can sometimes spawn a Medic, which can be problematic since if the Medic Commander is killed, the Medic could revive the Medic Commander, allowing the spawning cycle to begin all over again. Therefore, if a Medic is spawned by the Medic Commander, the player should either attempt to kill the Medic and Medic Commander very quickly so neither has the time to revive the other, or gib the Medic Commander immediately after killing it - which the Disruptor will do automatically.
• The Disruptor projectile deals a series of hits to its target causing a total of 160 damage, rather than a single hit causing 160 damage. This means that if it is fired against an idle Strogg, only the first hit deals double damage, since after the first hit has happened the Strogg is no longer idle. Therefore, against an idle target the Disruptor will not cause 320 damage but apparently around 180 instead, enough to insta-kill an idle Gunner (175 health) but not an idle Technician (200 health).

Trivia

• The Ground Zero code refers to this weapon as the "Disintegrator", suggesting it was given a different name later in development. In early Quake II development, the Disintegrator was a planned weapon that would apply a faded/static effect on enemies that would accumulate until they disappeared - it didn't have a unique model yet (early builds uses the Quake 1 axe that threw [[[Plasma Cell|plasma]] from DoE, while later builds have a slightly altered BFG). Both exist in the files for Quake II Remaster, the latter referred to as "beta disintegrator" and while planned to be finished at first, it was ultimately cut (again).

Gallery

Quake II Ground Zero Disintegrator

Quake 2 Ground Zero - The Disruptor