| |
| Water | |
| Attack Damage |
Drown (4-15) |
| Found in | |
| [Source] | |
| “ | The water on Stroggos is safe enough to enter without needing an enviro-suit, but remember to come up for air periodically. Be careful of water currents. | ” |
—The Quake II Manual | ||
Water in Quake II is a Fluid found on Stroggos that can be blue, grey or brown. Some areas of water are transparent, whereas others completely obscure your view of what is undernearth the surface (but Strogg seem to be able to see through it nevertheless). Water is harmless to the touch, unlike Slime and Lava, but it becomes hazardous if the player remains under the surface for too long and starts to drown. Therefore a player should take care to come up for air in time, or use a Rebreather or Enviro-Suit power-up, both of which contain a 30-second oxygen supply.
Also water will soften the fall blow, but if the water is not deep enough, the player will still be injured.
A player can remain underwater for about ten seconds before they start drowning. Drowning deals damage at one-second intervals, with progressively more damage the longer it is suffered. The damage suffered starts at 4 and then increases by two each second, so it deals 4 the first second, then 6, then 8 and so on, although it reaches a maximum of 15 per second. Drowning damage is unlike most other forms of damage in that armor and a Power Shield have no effect against it; it deals its damage directly to the player's health. However, the Invulnerability does prevent the damage, and the Defender Sphere does reduce the damage taken. It's also unlike other forms of damage in that it only harms living entities i.e. players and monsters, not corpses or destroyable objects.
Barracuda Sharks are an aquatic enemy, only found in water. The Reckoning mission pack also introduces Gekks, who can swim as well as moving freely on land. Other enemies besides the Barracuda or the Gekk (or flying enemies) cannot swim, but will instead sink to the bottom and walk underwater as if it were dry land - and they will start drowning if they remain underwater too long, just like the player would.
Almost all weapons except for the Tesla Mine introduced in the Ground Zero campaign can used underwater, although they may be less accurate due to a "ripple" effect. A Tesla mine that lands in water will explode as it tries to activate.
Moving underwater will move the player in the z-axis according to facing, and there are buttons for swimming up and down. The Jump key can also be used to swim upwards, although at a slower speed than the Swim Up key. The player can alternatively move through the Water at a normal rate by using mouselook and aiming in the direction they wish to swim before moving forward.
In the 2023 remaster, a player who is underwater without an active Rebreather or Enviro-suit will get a few gulping sounds as a warning and then start drowning after the third gulp sound, giving a helpful prompt to activate a Rebreather if they have one. If the player wishes to get the longest possible time out of their Rebreather without suffering any drowning damage, they can start swimming underwater and wait until the gulping sounds before activating it; this is a good tactic in the Water Treatment Plant level of The Reckoning, in which a particular secret requires swimming through a pair of very long underwater pipes.
Sounds[]
| Sounds | |
|---|---|
| Player jumps (in/out/under) water | |
| Player's water gulp | |
| Player comes up for air | |
| Player's drown | |
Death Messages[]
- "Player" sank like a rock