Turret (GZ)

 

Turret (GZ)
Health	240 (original game) 50 plus 50 combat armor (2023 remaster)
Attack Damage	Blaster: 20 (original game) 8 (2023 remaster) Rocket Launcher: 50 (original game) 40 (2023 remaster) Machine Gun: 2 Each Turret only has one weapon.
Drops	Cells
Found in	Ground Zero Call of the Machine
[Source]

“	They shoot a wide variety of weaponry, and they're deadly wherever you find them. If you can see one of these. Dance!	”
—Ground Zero Manual

Turrets are new enemies introduced in the Quake II mission pack: Ground Zero. Essentially an immobile gun emplacement, the Turret possesses powerful weaponry, good durability and can prove to be a great pain in one's back. Turrets are often placed so that a careless player entering a room or corridor would blunder into their line of fire. Their overall nature tends to cause players to behave very cautiously, peeking carefully around every corner when entering a new area - at least, until they know each level well enough to remember the location of every turret.

The 2023 remaster significantly nerfs the Turret - their health is drastically reduced, from 240 to 50 (although they are also treated as wearing a suit of Combat Armor with 50 armor points on top of that), their weapons deal less damage, and their rate of fire is reduced, especially the Blaster variety. Furthermore, they have a telltale laser sight which sweeps to and fro, and they now have an "enemy sighted" sound, a mechanical whirring, either of which can potentially alert a player to their presence and position.

Turrets are among the most frequently-encountered enemy in the Ground Zero campaign; on the harder difficulty settings the only foe encountered more often is the Gunner. With the 2023 remaster, Turrets are also encountered in Call of the Machine, but far less frequently than they appear in Ground Zero.

Description

There are three varieties of Turret - Blaster Turrets (red/orange striped), Rocket Turrets (yellow striped), and Machine Gun Turrets (white striped). Blaster Turrets are the most common, followed by Rocket Turrets. Machine Gun Turrets are extremely rare - see the chapter below.

Initially, turrets are either exposed or hidden. An exposed turret will be visible to the player, but just like other enemies it may be idle if it is not yet aware of the player - in which case its back will be facing outward, bearing a green stripe. However, once it becomes aware of the player it will spin around in place and begin firing.

Hidden turrets, on the other hand, are initially concealed behind walls or ceilings, and will emerge when a player crosses a certain point or kills certain enemies. There are distinctive sounds which give away the emergence of a hidden turret - often an explosive sound as a wall section is jettisoned, followed by the sound of machinery as the Turret emerges. It does take a few moments for the overall process of a concealed turret to activate.

Behaviour and attacks

Blaster: The Blaster fired by a turret deals 20 damage per hit in the original game, or 8 per hit in the 2023 remaster.

Rocket: The Rocket fired by a turret deals 50 damage for a direct hit in the original game, or 40 per hit in the 2023 remaster. It can also inflict some splash damage in a radius.

Machine Gun: The Machine Gun fired by a turret fires a stream of hitscan bullets dealing 2 damage per hit. Its bullets can be dodged by strafing.

Blaster and Rocket Turrets will fire at your position directly, but if you're moving they might also fire at the area you are moving toward. In other words, strafing is not always a reliable way to avoid their fire - you'll need to watch their return fire and be ready to change direction. Furthermore, if the player takes cover out of a Turret's sight, the Turret may well fire again once or twice - usually at the spot it last saw the player. This means that if you take cover and then quickly pop out for another shot, you may well find another projectile already heading your way. This can be avoided by waiting behind cover a little longer before emerging again.

Unlike most enemies in Quake II and its expansions, a Turret has no "idle" sound. Its weapon fire makes a sound, and the emergence of a previously hidden turret emerging makes a sound. But as you approach an area, sound alone won't give you advance warning of the presence of a nearby Turret. However, the 2023 remaster does give turrets an "enemy sighted" sound, a mechanical whirring.

Turrets will never engage in infighting with other Strogg, even if one accidentally hits the other.

Strategies

• There are essentially two strategies to fight the Turrets. The first strategy is to confront out in the open, strafing (see above) whilst returning fire. The best weapon to use here is the Rocket Launcher - three direct hits will destroy a Turret in the original game, but due to its splash damage and the Turret's immobile nature it isn't necessary to score direct hits - three close hits can destroy a Turret as well. This is helpful and allows you to focus more on your strafing movements to avoid the Turret's return fire - bear in mind a Turret will sometimes lead its shots to some extent, so mindless strafing isn't always going to avoid getting hit. In the 2023 remaster, the Rocket Launcher is still a good option and can destroy a Turret in a single close hit.
• The second, safer strategy should be practiced more often in the original game, and involves finding a position from which you can shoot the immobile Turret but it cannot return fire. This tactic takes advantage of two particular facts about Quake II gameplay. Firstly, the game allows a player to fire from either a right-handed or left-handed perspective, and if a weapon is wielded right-handed, then its shots originate from toward the right of the screen, towards the center (and vice versa if wielded left-handed). Secondly, enemies only "see" you if they see the centre of your body. These two facts together allow you to fire around corners to a small extent; it's possible to find a spot by the corner from which you can direct your gunfire around it, but most of your body is still behind the wall and therefore not a viable target for enemies. Therefore, once you know the location of a Turret, position yourself so that a wall corner is between it and you. Then inch slowly around the corner (crouch-walking is a good idea, to keep a consistent slow speed) until you reach a position where the crosshair is aimed at the Turret, but most of your body is still behind the wall. If done correctly, the player can hit the Turret while the Turret CAN'T hit the player. The best weapon to use now is the Blaster; as it will destroy the Turret without using up any ammo (it's a little slow and tedious, taking 24 blaster shots to destroy each turret). With care, this strategy can be performed safely against almost all of the Turrets you'll find, but it helps if you know the levels well enough to know the location of each Turret in the first place, to avoid blundering into their line of fire. In the 2023 remaster, this strategy will destroy a Turret much more quickly, requiring only five Blaster shots due to the reduced health of the Turret and the increased damage of the Blaster.
• Using the console can help with the above strategy in the original game - the console commands "hand 0" and "hand 1" toggle between right-handed and left-handed weapon respectively, allowing you to switch hands depending on which direction you're going to peek around the corner. You can bind the "hand 0" and "hand 1" commands to a chosen hotkey, allowing you to instantly switch between hands mid-game. To do this, supposing for example you to wish to bind the keys H and J to this purpose, type "bind h hand 1" and "bind j hand 0" in the console. However, in the 2023 remaster, the "hand" command seems to have been removed.
• If you're having trouble lining up a safe shot using the "blaster strategy" described above (and there are some Turret encounters where it is difficult to perform), then there is a safer version of this strategy - equip the Rocket Launcher and carefully find a position and angle from which you can fire at a spot close to the Turret, dealing splash damage to it without exposing yourself to its view (given that the Turret is immobile, you can take your time here to find a good angle). Obviously the closer to the turret you can aim, the more splash damage will be caused and the fewer rockets it'll take to destroy it - if you can hit close enough, then three rockets will do the job. In the 2023 remaster, one rocket is all it takes if you can aim close enough.
• If you come across an idle Turret (distinguished by its green stripe instead of yellow or orange) and are able to line up a shot against it before it sees you, then your best option by far is the Railgun. The Railgun has the ability to deal twice its normal damage if the target is idle - in this scenario, one shot will instantly and safely destroy the Turret. Firing any other weapon than the Railgun in the Turret's direction will immediately alert it to your presence and invite it to fire back.
• Due to their small size and mostly immobile nature, they sometimes don't visually stand out so well from their surrounding environment, and a player might miss one at first glance. Activating IR Goggles will turn them bright red along with all other enemies and items, making them easier to notice.
• If a Tesla mine is thrown into view of a Turret but is not within range to attack the Turret with its lightning, the Turret will tend to aim its targeting laser sight at the Tesla mine but won't actually fire. This could be helpful if the player wishes to know the position of Turrets in an area in advance. However, the Turret will turn its attention to the player once the player enters its view.

Appearance statistics

Campaign	Easy	Medium	Hard/Nightmare
Quake II	-	-	-
The Reckoning	-	-	-
Ground Zero	100	132	167
Quake II 64	-	-	-
Quake II PSX	-	-	-
Call of the Machine	12	12	12

Machine Gun Turret

• Only one Turret in all of Ground Zero is the Machine Gun variety - this particular turret is found just above the shuttle in Waterfront Storage. However, due to an error, it is also equipped with a Blaster and only fires its Blaster, so it functions like a Blaster Turret despite looking like a Machine Gun Turret. This error is fixed in the 2023 remaster.

Trivia

• When a Turret is hit and takes damage, blue sparks will emerge instead of the typical red blood spatter when most other enemies or humans are hit. The same blue sparks appear when gunfire hits a Tesla Mine or a mine fired by the Proximity Launcher. This would seem to indicate that Turrets are purely mechanical, whereas all other Strogg contain organic material.
• In the 2023 remaster, Turrets are treated as having 50 health plus 50 points of Combat Armor. This means energy weapons are more effective at depleting their health, since Combat Armor has a lower absorption rate against energy weapons, and none at all against the ETF Rifle. In practice, conventional weapons will need to deal 100 damage to destroy a Turret, energy weapons need to deal around 75 damage, and the ETF Rifle only needs to deliver 50 damage. This doesn't change the fact the best weapon overall against a Turret is the Rocket Launcher which can destroy a Turret in a single shot, without even needing a direct hit, but it does make the ETF Rifle a decent backup option if a player is low on rockets, and it also means the Blaster can get the job done in only five shots.
• As of the 2023 remaster, the Turret is the only enemy in single-player equipped with conventional armor. Yellow sparks will appear alongside blue sparks when a Turret is struck by gunfire in the 2023 remaster; the yellow sparks occur when a target wearing conventional armor is hit. But when struck by flechettes from the ETF Rifle, only blue sparks will appear due to this weapon's disregard for conventional armor.
• On the hardest difficulty setting, a total of 167 Turrets are encountered in Ground Zero, a number surpassed only by the Gunner who appears 187 times.
• Unlike most enemies, a Turret's appearance does not change when it has been reduced to less than half its original health.
• Turrets do not leave a "corpse" when destroyed, so they can never be revived by a Medic or Medic Commander.
• The Machine Gun Turret has an unusual distinction of only appearing once in any official Quake II single-player campaign, a distinction it shares with the Guardian and the two forms of the Black Widow Guardian.

Gallery

A rocket variant of the turret.

The back side of both turret variants.

Texture map of a Blaster Turret

Texture map of a Rocket Turret

Texture map of the Machine Gun Turret

Texture map of a Turret's base