Gekk

 

Gekk
Health	125
Will gib when health is	-100
Attack Damage	Claw: 15-20 Spit: 5
Found in	The Reckoning Call of the Machine
[Source]

“	A lightning-fast amphibious creature that lives and hunts in the planet's proto-swamps.	”
—The Reckoning Manual

Gekks are a new amphibious enemy introduced in The Reckoning mission pack for Quake II. They are not Strogg as such, apparently having no cybernetic parts. They are found mainly in the swamps and mountains of Stroggos, although they sometimes venture into Strogg facilities. Joker will encounter large numbers of them in the first level of the game, and occasionally later in the campaign as well - including many of them in the Badlands.

Gekks are notable for being one of few known examples of native Stroggos fauna (others being the Barracuda Shark and Mutant) to have survived the global industrialization program of the Strogg, which has heavily polluted much of their home planet.

With the release of the 2023 remaster, Gekks also appear in the Call of the Machine expansion.

Behaviour and attacks

Spit: The Gekk can spit a projectile at its foe, dealing 5 damage. It's slow to fire and can be easily avoided by strafing.

Claw: A melee attack which deals 15-20 damage, and be performed either as a standing claw swing, a short-ranged jump, or while swimming.

Gekks can swim, and will jump in and out of the water to pursue a foe. When on land, Gekks will use both of their attacks; but when swimming they'll only use their claw attack. They are capable of leaping high out of the water to reach dry land.

Strategy

• The Shotgun or Machine Gun are good enough to deal with small numbers of Gekks, or the Super Shotgun at close range; they are a little more durable than the Enforcer, but less so than a Gunner. It'll take three good hits from the Shotgun, two Super Shotgun hits (one full SSG hit will very nearly kill a Gekk, but not quite), or a fairly brief Machine Gun burst (16 bullets, to be precise) to bring one down. If encountered in a larger group (which happens a couple of times in the Badlands level, especially as you climb the ladder leading outside) a more powerful weapon such as the Chain Gun or Hyperblaster could be wise. A single Railgun shot is an insta-kill on a Gekk, and a solid hit from the Phalanx (i.e. both projectiles connecting) is also an insta-kill, but a direct hit from a Rocket Launcher or Grenade Launcher won't quite be enough to kill one.
• They are arguably more dangerous when in the water. While on land, they tend to advance rather sporadically in the original game, stopping to roar at you and perform their spit attack which is rather easy to dodge, whereas in the water they will move more quickly and consistently towards you to use their more powerful claw attack. Be advised that if you're on dry land, Gekks can leap out of the water to pursue you. In the 2023 remaster, they tend to move faster and more aggressively on land than they did in the original game.

Appearance statistics

Campaign	Easy	Medium	Hard/Nightmare
Quake II	-	-	-
The Reckoning	72*	94	119
Ground Zero	-	-	-
Quake II 64	-	-	-
Quake II PSX	-	-	-
Call of the Machine	22	24	25

*due to a bug, one of these Gekks fails to spawn into the level correctly in the Badlands on Easy difficulty.

Trivia

• Gekks have yellow blood and their gibs are bioluminescent (they glow). And it's unknown if this is a natural evolutionary development, a result of the polluted environment, or perhaps the result of experimentation by the Strogg.
• Gekks are one of very few enemies in Quake II for which a special death message is displayed if they kill the player; normally a player being killed by a monster will cause the message "(Player name) died". If killed by a Gekk, however, the player will see a message saying "(Player name)... that's gotta hurt"
• Gekks seem to not know that laser fences are dangerous, as they sometimes attempt to jump through them, resulting in their deaths. But, to be fair, Strogg are sometimes observed blundering into laser fences as well.
• At certain points in The Reckoning and Call of the Machine you can find a few singing gekks. Their call can be heard from far away and consists of various intonations of groan-like cries. In Call of the Machine, there is a single singing gekk, but its cry is carried through the whole level by the ventilation system.
• Most enemies' appearance changes when their health has been reduced to less than half its original value - displaying blood, for example. Gekks are unlike most other enemies in that their appearance changes twice as they lose more health.
• Gekks are also mentioned in Strogg & Peeker lore scrolls in Quake Champions.

Gallery

Gekk's texture map

Gekk's texture map when lightly injured

Gekk's texture map when heavily injured

Remastered model