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Flintlocke's Guide to Azeroth is a popular Webcomic by Dave "Fargo" Kosak, made using screenshots from World of Warcraft. Originally conceived as part of a column about virtual life in WoW, focus soon shifted to Flintlocke and his quest to discover the ultimate weapon.

Flintlocke is a dwarven warrior who prefers to fight with his bizarrely engineered weapons, to his own detriment and that of those around him. Scatterbrained and none-too-bright, he nonetheless slaps together a party to aid him in his quest for more boom. This team includes:

The original comic ran for two years before reaching its explosive conclusion, after which a "drawn" comic was planned to follow it up. That didn't pan out, so after spending some time in limbo, the comic was revived with a new story, Flintlocke Versus the Horde, focusing on a group of Horde players opposing Flintlocke's band. The new story concluded in early 2009, and with the creator's decision to move on getting hired by Blizzard to work as a designer for World of Warcraft, this would seem to be the end of Flintlocke's adventures, at least in this format.

The Horde counterparts include:

  • Rok'tar: A Roleplaying Orc Hunter who gets a bit too much into his character.
  • Gravy: A Troll Shaman who prefers to just get high all the time.
  • Bubbles: A Forsaken Priest who serves as the group foil to Bloodrose.
  • Cheri: An incredibly ditzy Blood Elf Warlock.

Due to Gamespy having been taken down, Flintlocke is no longer available to read there. However, someone was nice enough to copy both comics and place them on a zipfile, found here. Or if you still prefer to read them online, Dave uploaded the whole series to ComicFury, found here (original series) and here (Flintlocke vs The Horde).


This comic contains examples of:

  • Abnormal Ammo: A lot of what Flintlocke ends up shooting from his musket is both alive and reluctant to take part in the fighting.
  • Achievements in Ignorance: Flintlocke regularly performs ludicrous feats without understanding it should be impossible, such as gaining negative reputation with his own race (they charged him more money than the default amount for riding training) and binding his hearthstone to Thunderbluff somehow.
  • All-Natural Fire Extinguisher: Parodied with its titular character certain that he and Schweitzer can pull this off to put out a burning town. It doesn't work, but according to Schweitzer's shocked yelling, Flintlocke might have stood a slightly better chance attempting this than one would expect.
    You just knocked over a tree!!
  • Ascended Fanboy: Dave Kosak gave up doing the series...because he got hired by Blizzard to work as a designer for World of Warcraft. Huzzah! (and yes, that's the real reason Flintlocke, Schweitzer, Rok'tar, and Gravy appear in Cataclysm).
  • Ascended Meme: The Twilight Highlands, one of the new zones in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, features NPCs named Fargo Flintlocke and Doc Schweitzer. Flintlocke's even got custom lines!
    • Players can now use the Chuck Shot!
    • Additionally, Gravy is an innkeeper in the Valley of Honor, and Rok'tar is commander of a ship that crashed in the Twilight Highlands.
    • The Twilight Highlands introduction questline for Alliance Players has them partner up with Flintlocke for a while... with hilarious results.
    • Both of the crews can become your followers in Warlords of Draenor, minus the nameless Shadow Priest. Many of them had had cameos and short appearances, but now they're back together for new adventures in Draenor! Fittingly, Schweitzer can become a follower for both the Alliance and the Horde.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Flintlocke refuses to use the Ultimate Goblin Engineered Weapon on the Everblooming the group is being attacked by... because the forest they are surrounded by is too green for the weapon to achieve maximum collateral damage.
  • Batman Gambit: Schweitzer pulls of a funny one in the sequel: Flintlocke bought a "strategy guide" on Ebay, which tells him that random people across the world are dangerous bosses such as Illidan or Kel'thuzad. In Southshore, Flintlocke suspects the barmaid to be Kael'thas Sunstrider. Schweitzer immediately goes to "interrogate" "Kael'thas", and starts hitting on her. When she doesn't return the feelings and insults him, he calls out, "Kael'thas, you fiend!". Already pumped from killing a "turkey scourge", Flintlocke immediately yells out that he'll save him and starts shooting the barmaid.
  • Becoming the Boast: Rok'tar does become a powerful hero of the Horde, proving himself after taking on Flintlocke and Schweitzer (using one of the Wuuf's talent build and macros no less) alone with Bun'kar and winning.
  • Big "NO!": In the July 9, 2009 strip.
  • Bill... Bill... Junk... Bill...: "Auction... auction... vendor... auction..."
  • Brick Joke: Very nearly involving actual bricks in fact. Early on, Flintlocke finds a way to make gold. Seven months later, this happens. Of course, the author made sure to point it out.
  • Chekhov's Gun: The Wuuf training Schweitzer and reallocating his talent points.
  • Cherry Tapping: In the final battle between Rok'tar and Flintlocke, Bun'kar finishes off Lowping, who had previously been reduced to 1 hp.
  • Contemplate Our Navels: When the alliance isn't raiding crossroads they take the time.
  • Death is Cheap: It is based on World of Warcraft, after all. Slightly subverted in the battle between Rok'tar's party and Flintlocke's party; death is still cheap, but the closest Graveyard to the area is too far away for anyone killed in the battle to return in time to be effective again.
  • Destructive Saviour: Flintlocke's party manage to save Stormwind from the Horde raid by crashing a zeppelin into the Cathedral of Light and unleashing the Ultimate Goblin-Engineered Weapon on the city, resulting in heavy amounts of damage and the flooding of the Valley of Heroes. This leaves Darnassus very wary of his definition of "saving" them when Rok'tar is mistaken for a One-Man Army assaulting the city.
  • Deus Exit Machina: In the battle between Rok'tar and Flintlocke's parties, Bloodrose, The Munchkin of Flintlocke's party, is the first to be killed, having been caught while out of mana.
  • Distant Reaction Shot: Common when Flintlocke gets his hands on anything explosive.
  • Dual Wield: Exclamation points.
  • Edible Ammunition: According to Flintlocke, a Dwarven Thanksgiving tradition is to stuff the turkey with blasting powder, so it can be fired as-is from a cannon in the event of an attack. The party ends up actually doing so, albeit offscreen.
  • Epic Fail: An oddly victory version. According to Bloodrose, the Horde once went AFK for an entire battleground and lost... 3-2.
  • False Reassurance: When Bloodrose expresses concern that the "Remote Backstab" is just another ridiculous made-up tactic of Flintlocke's:
    Flintlocke: Nonsense. Tha' Remote Backstab is a time-honored move wit' tha utmost a' respectability.
    Flintlocke: Now reach into me backpack an' get out me toilet plunger.
    • In Gadgetzan, when Schweitzer is buying drugs from a goblin merchant.
      Goblin: Here, try a hit of this!
      Schweitzer: Ooh... is it legal?
      Goblin: It's approved for industrial use.
  • Fastball Special: The "Remote Backstab," which involves six charges of blasting powder, a musket, a plunger, and Lowping the gnome.
  • Gratuitous Spanish: Flintlocke's "Human Accent".
  • Gray-and-Gray Morality: How Schweitzer's father sees the world, apparently.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: Besides Flintlocke's animal-based weapons, Bloodrose reflects that "it's amazing what you can learn while beating someone over the head with their own spine."
  • Guy In Real Life: Cheri is initially suspected to be this. She's not.
  • Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Lowping; when he's actually playing, anyway.
  • I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Apparently the reason the Horde overran Westfall. And the next stronghold after that was Fort Pwned.
  • Improbable Weapon User: Flintlocke once wields a question mark in battle against a goblin using dual exclamation points.
  • I'm Going to Hell for This: Schweitzer notes this after he uses his revive on Flintlocke's ram and instead zombified it. He notes however that he'll have a drink first before hell.
  • Insult Backfire: Kathrena calls Schweitzer "the worst living priest on the server". Schweitzer points out that, putting emphasis on the "living" part, it's actually not that bad a title.
  • It's a Wonderful Plot: One strip has a variation when the characters imagine what Azeroth would be like without rogues. Apparently, in such a world, the Alliance and Horde have settled their differences and the classes are all in perfect balance.
  • Just One More Level!: The Five Stages of Warcraft.
  • Killer Rabbit: Bun'kar. Although it's somewhat of an Informed Ability, as the most impressive thing it's actually shown doing is Cherry Tapping Lowping.
  • Line-of-Sight Name: The terrifyingly-named Horde guild, Desk Chair Lamp.
  • Mad Scientist: Those who created The Ultimate Goblin-Engineered Weapon.
    • Flintlocke to an extent. He's certainly got the "Mad" part down.
  • Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: "We're gonna save and/or destroy tha world!"
  • Mistaken for Badass: During his infiltration of Darnassus, Rok'tar attacks a passerby with Bun'kar after being spotted. News of a Level 80 One-Man Army assaulting Darnassus quickly spreads. The passerby's description of Rok'tar may have helped.
  • More Dakka: When Bun'kar kills Lowping and Flintlocke pulls out a minigun to kill him in a Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
  • No Kill like Overkill: Flintlocke's philosophy in a nutshell.
    • The Remote Backstab:
      Bloodrose: He bored a hole clear through him!
    • And the Pween Scene Investigators mentioned that bits of his ribcage were found three zones away.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: The final showdown between Flintlocke/Schweitzer and Rok'tar takes place off-panel.
  • Older Is Better
    Kathrena: "I don't know if this map to the ultimate goblin engineered weapon is legitimate. It's written in crayon."
    Flintlocke: "Ancient crayon!"
  • Porky Pig Pronunciation: Zeppelin would have been easier to say.
  • Ramming Always Works:
    Flintlocke: "RAMMING SPEED!"
    Bloodrose: "What are we ramming?"
    Flintlocke: "EV'RYTHING!!"
  • The Rashomon: A few of the last strips are separately shown from the perspectives of Schweitzer and Cheri.
  • Red Baron: Flintlocke's great-great-uncle "Triggerfinger" Ironstone.
    Schweitzer: So named for his legendary marksmanship?
    Flintlocke: No! So named 'cuz tha's tha only finger 'e 'ad left... after 'e mastered tha Chuck Shot!
  • Relax-o-Vision: Used for a particularly messy fight involving Flintlocke and the Beaverstick.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Flintlocke gets one after he sees Lowping getting killed by Bun'kar. Unfortunately, it didn't work.
  • Running Gag: "Tell me you like my hat!"
    • Early comics had comments on Flintlocke's purple boots. That went away after his first armor upgrade, though.
    • Rok'tar's pets and animals he's decided to tame as pets getting killed, usually by his teammates.
    • Almost every time the party or the PSI investigators come across dead bodies, they put a hanky on it as a very inadequate attempt at preserving the dignity of the dead.
  • Shoot the Medic First: Schweitzer is convinced that all enemies subscribe to this philosophy.
  • Shoot the Shaggy Dog: Rok'tar spends an entire story arc running through Alliance territory totally naked and unarmed in pursuit of a pet owl. Gravy cooks it for dinner shortly after he gets back.
  • Small Name, Big Ego: The PSI guys see each other as competent and brilliant, though they come to conclusions that no detective ever would, ever.
    • Flintlocke himself, though he does manage to be pretty effective in combat from time to time.
  • The Stoner: Gravy the Troll Shaman.
  • Stuff Blowing Up: Generally the result of Flintlocke's actions.
  • Tempting Fate: In the final strip of Flintlocke vs. The Horde.
    "We can't possibly lose!"
  • Took a Level in Badass: Schweitzer, after the reveal that the Wuuf had custom designed a "Murder" macro for him and his party managed to convince him to actually use it.
  • Tuxedo and Martini: Bubbles' plan for Rok'tar to get through Teldrassil is pictured as him becoming this.
  • UltimateGamer386: The Wuuf, a night elf priest who spends his time calculating the most powerful talent combinations, a gamer so hardcore that even WoW's developers are scared of him. His Horde counterpart is Bubbles the Forsaken Priest.
    • He reached level 60 in a couple days. His only reviews, "Too easy." and "Nerf everything."
  • Unusual Euphemism: Flintlocke appears to use the term 'jimmy/jimmies' instead of testicles.
    • Justified, since it's a part of the Scottish accent Flintlocke favors.
    • Tinkmaster Overspark calls Flintlocke a "lugnut" when he doesn't seem to grasp the concept of a mount.
  • We Need a Distraction: Flintlocke finds his true calling.
  • You Killed My Father: Rok'tar declares vengeance on Flintlocke due to him killing off his father. It's not really that big of a deal since his father's an NPC who just respawns in a few minutes. Admittedly, Flintlocke did kill his father twenty more times as well as Malakkaboom, as he thought that they were Kel'Thuzad and Illidan, respectively.
  • Your Mom: Barrens chat gives several of these(many of them unheard) to Rok'tar.

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