History GameBreaker / QuakeII

* The Railgun is a futuristic scopeless SniperRifle. Its base damage is 150 (100 in Deathmatch), enough to kill most enemies, including unarmored, respawned players in MP, [[OneHitKill in one shot]]. The Railgun also has a ridiculously high ammo limit of 50 slugs without any upgrades (and it benefits from the Bandolier, unlike explosive weapons of similar tier), works as a substitute to the Super Shotgun at any range, is perfectly accurate ''and'' [[OneHitPolykill the slugs punch through as many enemies as there are in its path, dealing the same damage to every single one of them]]. Its dominating capabilities are very comparable to the Rocket Launcher from [[VideoGame/QuakeI the previous game]], trading SplashDamage with {{hitscan}} projectiles. The weapon was unfortunately nerfed in the 2023 remaster to keep it on par with the re-balanced difficulty, its damage output being reduced from 150 to 100, matching its multiplayer counterpart. A patch has increased the damage in single player up to 125 as a compromise between the old 150 damage and nerfed 100 damage in the remaster.

** ''Call of the Machine'' introduces the BFG as the first weapon of the first level of ''Operation: Corpse Run''. [[NewWeaponTargetRange Just picking up the weapon summons nearly 40 Machinegun Guards.]] A single, well-placed shot clears the room.

* The Railgun is a futuristic scopeless SniperRifle. Its base damage is 150 (100 in Deathmatch), enough to kill most enemies, including unarmored, respawned players in MP, [[OneHitKill in one shot]]. The Railgun also has a ridiculously high ammo limit of 50 slugs without any upgrades (and it benefits from the Bandolier, unlike explosive weapons of similar tier), works as a substitute to the Super Shotgun at any range, is perfectly accurate ''and'' [[OneHitPolykill the slugs punch through as many enemies as there are in its path, dealing the same damage to every single one of them]]. Its dominating capabilities are very comparable to the Rocket Launcher from [[VideoGame/QuakeI the previous game]], trading SplashDamage with {{hitscan}} projectiles. The weapon was unfortunately nerfed in the 2023 remaster to keep it on par with the re-balanced difficulty, its damage output being reduced from 150 to 100, matching its multiplayer counterpart.

* ''The Reckoning'' introduces the Trap, a powerful item that makes health cubes out of a lot of enemies. Tempering its power, however, is the fact that said trap a) doesn't work on heavier enemies (such as Gladiators, Tanks and Bosses) and that b) [[HoistByHisOwnPetard the user themself can be turned into a health cube]]. Used correctly and on the right enemies such as Gunners and Berserkers, though, you can get beefy health packs for free, the health from these packs overstacks without the degeneration of Megahealth, and unlike Quad and Double Damage, it counts as a weapon rather than an item, so you can carry plenty of them in any difficulty level.
* With the 2023 remaster adjusting power screens/shields to take additional damage from energy weapons, the Plasma Beam from ''Ground Zero'' has emerged as the most potent weapon against shielded enemies. Whereas the other energy weapons (Blaster, Hyperblaster, Ion Ripper and Phalanx Particle Cannon) projectile-based, the Plasma Beam is a hitscan tracking weapon ''à la'' the [[VideoGame/QuakeI Thunderbolt]]; guaranteed, pinpoint-accurate damage with zero travel time so long as you keep your cross-hairs on an enemy. Being a non-projectile attack means that enemies also cannot sidestep or duck beneath any incoming fire, further enhancing its potential damage output. Couple it with a Double or Quad Damage and those pesky Brains, Daedali and Gunner Commanders can kiss their shields goodbye.
** The sole exception is the [=BFG10K=]; the tracer lasers fired by the BFG ball allow it to damage targets that are simply within close proximity to it, making accuracy largely a non-issue against shielded foes. The obvious drawback is that the weapon’s massive cell ammo expenditure per-shot makes it extremely wasteful to use against anything besides large groups or particularly durable foes; Medic Commanders are a prime target for this gun.

** Since it features the item pools from both expansion packs, the 2023 remaster's ''Call of the Machine'' makes it possible to have Quad, Double ''and'' Dualfire Damage all active at the same time, allowing you to go an awe-inspiring (close approximation to a) '''''Sexdecuple Damage rampage'''''! Case in point: ''[[Recap/QuakeIICallOfTheMachineOperationCorpseRun Operation: Corpse Run]]'', [[spoiler:should you keep the Dualfire Damage from "Give Me Back My Moon". The next level, "Strogg Jammers" has a Double Damage in the first Makron area, and a Quad Damage in the Sons of Makron area]].
* The [[DeflectorShields Power Shield]], a piece of equipment that adds another protection layer on top of your armor, even more so when playing Deathmatch. It has a tradeoff that it uses cells as power, so the Hyperblaster, ''The Reckoning''[='=]s Ion Ripper, ''Ground Zero''[='=]s Plasma Beam, or even [[{{BFG}} the BFG10K]] can't be used as freely, but as long as the power cells are kept stocked, the user is very difficult to kill unless their opponent is a crack shot ''and'' happens to have a Railgun and QuadDamage handy. If they have an armor vest on top of that, then the opponent is in for a long slog. It's of little surprise that the Power Shield appears quite late in ''The Reckoning'' and became an EleventhHourSuperpower in ''Ground Zero''.

* With the 2023 remaster adjusting power screens/shields to take additional damage from energy weapons, the Plasma Beam from ''Ground Zero'' has emerged as the most potent weapon against shielded enemies. Whereas the other energy weapons (Blaster, Hyperblaster, Ion Ripper and Phalanx Particle Cannon) projectile-based, the Plasma Beam is a hitscan tracking weapon ''à la'' the [[VideoGame/QuakeI Thunderbolt]]; guaranteed, pinpoint-accurate damage with zero travel time so long as you keep your cross-hairs on an enemy. Being a non-projectile attack means that enemies also cannot sidestep or duck beneath any incoming fire, further enhancing its potential damage output. Couple it with a Quad Damage or Double Damage, and those pesky Brains, Daedali and Gunner Commanders can kiss their shields goodbye.

* The {{BFG}}10K is a cousin to ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''[='=]s {{BFG}}9000; fire it into a room full of enemies, be it in PvE or PvP, and watch as the giant green ball and its tracer lasers reduce practically everything in that room to chunky piles of gore. Its extreme lethality is enough to make whole hordes of enemies and even ''bosses'' a joke, allowing you to conserve on using the game's several damage multiplier power-ups (though nothing's stopping you from using the BFG with one and watching as it slices through everything like a red-hot knife through butter). It's telling of the difficulty of ''Ground Zero'' that you're given the weapon as a secret ''[[DiscOneNuke in the second level of the second unit]]''. The late appearance of the Power Shield (mentioned below) frees the cells to be used for the weapon, and the presence of [[EnemySummoner the Medic Commander]] justifies completely its use.

* With the 2023 remaster adjusting power screens/shields to take additional damage from energy weapons, the Plasma Beam from ''Ground Zero'' has emerged as the most potent weapon against shielded enemies. Whereas the other energy weapons (Blaster, Hyperblaster, Ion Ripper and Phalanx Particle Cannon) projectile-based, the Plasma Beam is a hitscan tracking weapon ''à la'' the [[VideoGame/QuakeI Thunderbolt; guaranteed, pinpoint-accurate damage with zero travel time so long as you keep your cross-hairs on an enemy. Being a non-projectile attack means that enemies also cannot sidestep or duck beneath any incoming fire, further enhancing its potential damage output. Couple it with a Quad Damage or Double Damage, and those pesky Brains, Daedali and Gunner Commanders can kiss their shields goodbye.

* The preferred item to take down shielded foes is the Plasma Beam from ''Ground Zero''. Unlike the Hyperblaster, you can hit most of what you shoot. And unlike the Ion Ripper, the Hyperblaster and the Phalanx Cannon, there's no travel time between the projectile and your foe. Couple it with a Quad Damage or Double Damage, and those pesky Daedali can kiss their shields and health goodbye.

* The {{BFG}}10K is a cousin to the {{BFG}}9000 from ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''. If you fire it into a room full of players in Deathmatch, you can take out most or all of the room in a suicide rush. If you have Quad damage activated too, it slices through everyone like lava. In single-player, it's extremely lethal too and you can save a QuadDamage in your inventory to make a group of enemies (and even the bosses) a joke. It is telling of the difficulty of ''Ground Zero'' that you're given the weapon as a secret ''[[DiscOneNuke in the second level of the second unit]]''. The late appearance of the Power Shield (mentioned below) frees the cells to be used for the weapon, and the presence of [[EnemySummoner the Medic Commander]] justifies completely its use.

* The 2023 remastered version of the game has ''Threewave CTF'' as an integrated gamemode, much like [[VideoGame/QuakeI its predecessor did]]. Sounds good, right? Well, there are two maps ("[=Q2KCTF1=]: Capture Reckoning" and "[=Q2KCTF2=]: Nexus CTF") which show what happens when you combine the overpoweredness of the ''The Reckoning'' and ''Ground Zero'' arsenal and items with the Runes from TWCTF, leading to obscene things such as the 8x Quad+Double Damage combo ''plus'' the Power Amplifier tech, or the Hunter/Vengeance/Defence spheres combined with the [[GradualRegeneration AutoDoc]] rune in order to become a NighInvulnerable juggernaut.