Flyer (Q2) | |
Health |
50 |
Attack Damage |
|
Found in | |
[Source] |
“ | A small two-winged monster, comprised of a controlling brain and a cyborg body that allows it to levitate. | ” |
—Quake 2 Manual |
In Quake II, a Flyer is a small flying cybernetic construct with a humanoid head. It is armed with a pair of hyperblasters (much weaker than the Hyperblaster available to the player, thankfully) and can use its wing blades as melee weapons.
Flyers are first encountered in Unit 1, and continue to appear fairly often throughout the rest of the game. They tend to be encountered in groups of three.
Behaviour and Attacks[]
Hyperblasters: The Flyer will fire a volley of eight hyperblaster bolts at its target, each bolt dealing 1 damage. They can be reliably dodged by strafing.
Wing Blades: If it enters melee range, the Flyer will strike twice with its wing blades, each strike dealing 5 damage.
Flyers will only infight with other flying Strogg, i.e. a Technician, Icarus or Hornet. Strogg on the ground might accidentally hit a Flyer, or vice versa, but it won't cause them to deliberately start fighting each other.
In the mission pack Ground Zero, Flyers will strafe from side to side while firing their hyperblaster volley. Furthermore, in the 2023 remaster, Flyers tend to behave more aggressively and are sometimes more quick to approach the player into melee range.
Strategies[]
- Flyers are not difficult to kill - a brief burst from the Machine Gun (seven bullets, to be precise) or two decent hits from the Shotgun will destroy one. The Super Shotgun is another option if you're fairly close. However, due to their flying nature and small size, projectile weapons such as the Grenade Launcher and Rocket Launcher are not good choices against them. As for their return fire, their hyperblaster bolts are easily avoided by strafing, and with each bolt only dealing 1 damage, the occasional hit isn't a big problem so long as you dodge most of them.
Appearance statistics[]
Campaign | Easy | Medium | Hard/Nightmare |
---|---|---|---|
Quake II | 108 | 127 | 134 |
The Reckoning | 16 | 19 | 20 |
Ground Zero* | 45 | 56 | 68 |
Quake II 64 | 71 | 99 | 123 |
Quake II PSX | 36 | 39 | 48 |
Call of the Machine* | 61 | 61 | 61 |
*Not including Flyers spawned by the Carrier and its variants.
Death Messages[]
- Player was blasted by a Flyer (Blaster)
- Player was cut up by a Flyer's sharp wings (Melee)
Sounds[]
Sounds | |
---|---|
The Flyer spotting an opponent | |
The Flyer being injured | |
The Flyer being killed |
Trivia[]
- The Flyer's melee attack involves huge blades being drawn from their wings and then cutting with them twice. However, these blades looks to be bigger than flyer's wings.