Possible playable characters
Considering that characters in Quake Champions will have abilities, let's play the guessing game. Confirmed characters and passives/abilities will be marked in bold.- The Doom Slayer: The Doomguy was playable in Quake III, which this game is a successor to, and the last Doom game was wildly successful.
- Possible ability: Berserk - Uses only his fists to insta-smash enemies into gibs.
- Another possible ability: Glory Kill - Gets extra ammo, health and armor bonuses from each close-range execution, either with the Gauntlet or by using the Ability key.note
- CONFIRMED, and the alternate skins officially show the Doom Slayer without a helmet in HD glory.
- William "B.J." Blazkowicz, because of being the face of the Wolfenstein franchise, and because he NEEDS to appear here after skipping Arena and Live.
- Possible ability: Knife Throw - Throws a knife to insta-kill an enemy (should he hit one); he needs to retrieve the knife from the fallen body to use the ability again.
- Another possible ability: Guts - Regenerates his health if he doesn't get hurt during a period, mirroring Wolfenstein (2009)'s Regenerating Health mechanic; he doesn't gain the Thule abilities because a) they're for Grosse -below- and b) he loses these powers after his Final Boss battle with him.note
- CONFIRMED.
- Matthew Kane, because of being that game's Player Character.
- Possible ability: Strogg Transformation - Allows him to turn into his Strogg self, gaining extra health and speed.
- Johann Strauss, if only to beat him because of his Insufferable Genius tendencies.
- Possible ability: Armor regeneration - Regenerates his teammates' armor, he's a tech after all.
- Another possible ability: Field ops - Gives his teammates -and possibly himself- a brief hint at where the enemies are, which might be redundant with Visor's ability.
- Scott Voss as a Strogg, and because he was a memorable boss.
- Possible ability: Berserker Hit - Punches the ground, causing an electrical shock, dazing everyone inside of it.
- The Gladiator, as an ascended mook.
- Possible ability: Deflector shield - Activates a shield that deflects all kinds of attacks.
- JOSSED: Appears as a skin for Strogg & Peeker.
- Light Tank, as an ascended mook.
- Possible ability: Missile barrage - Little drunken missiles roboteching an opponent.
- The Makron.
- Possible ability: BFG Blast.
- Joker, the Player Character from The Reckoning.
- Possible ability: Dualfire Damage.
- Another possible ability: Trap.
- Stepchild, the Player Character from Ground Zero.
- Possible ability: Strogg disguise.
- Another possible ability: Defender Sphere (spawns a sphere which attacks the attacker)
- Another possible ability: Vengeance Sphere (spawns a sphere that attacks the attacker once the player's health is below 25%)
- Another possible ability: Hunter Sphere (spawns a sphere that pursues the user's killer and kills him)
- Another possible ability: IR Goggles (allows the user to highlight items and players for them)
- UAC Marine, because of being that game's Player Character.
- Possible ability: Soul Cube - Allows him to get a free frag after getting 5 other frags by throwing it at another enemy, insta-killing him, mirroring the artifact's mechanic in D3.
- JOSSED: The D3 Marine is present, but as a skin for the Doom Slayer.
- Malcolm Betruger, as a human.
- Possible ability: Demon Summoner - Summons an enemy demon from Doom 3 in order to assist him.
- Deathshead, because he's Wolfenstein's recurring villain.
- Possible ability: Soldier Summon - Summons a soldier with a submachinegun and few health points who racks up frags for his superior.
- Heinrich I, because of being the Final Boss of that game:
- Possible ability: Ghosting - Throws a ghost that chases an enemy, if it catches them, it blackens the screen of the opponent. This mirrors his ability and Helga Von Bulow/Olaric's in RTCW.
- The Ubersoldat, because of being a memorable boss of that game (may be inspired by either RTCW, W2K9's Heavy Trooper, or WTNO):
- Possible ability: Tesla Discharge - Shots a very strong lightning bolt to an enemy, killing them. This was a common attack from his boss self from RTCW.
- Viktor Zetta, because of being a memorable boss:
- Possible ability: Veil power - Floats and becomes invincible to enemy weapon fire for seconds, mirroring his boss fight in Wolfenstein where you could only damage him if you're in Veil mode, something absent here.
- Hans Grosse, because of being a memorable character and boss:
- Possible ability: Super Armor - In exchange for a bigger hitbox, he gains a Powered Armor with the four Thule crystals powering it, also enhancing attack speed, damage and walking speed.
- Possible Guest Fighter: Malcolm, in order to revive the ages' old Quake vs. Unreal feud, and because the game is called Quake Champions and Malcolm himself IS the nine-time champion of the Liandri Grand Tournament:
- Possible ability: Adrenaline - adds an extra bar in the HUD which is filled by fragging and completing objectives; once full, and after pressing the Ability key, a countdown starts, during which Malcolm needs to input a sequence which gives him a time-limited ability: Speed, Berserk, Booster, Invisibility, Nimble or Sentinel-.
- Another possible ability: Titan - adds an extra bar in the HUD which is filled by fragging and scoring objectives; once full, Malcolm turns into a Titan, for a few seconds to keep everything balanced, so no Behemoth or long-time Titan for you.
- The Engineer from the classic Team Fortress mod for Quake.
- His ability can be a time-limited sentry spawn or dispenser spawn, the sentry would shoot enemies in range for a limited time, and the dispenser would heal and give allies ammo for a limited time. His passive can be that enemies drop ammo boxes on death and ammo boxes recover a small amount of his armour.
- Confirmed to a certain extent. Eisen is the closest thing we have to an Engineer, outright confirmed by the devs to be based on the TFC Engineer.
- Another Guest Fighter: The Soldier - it's time to return The Original where it belongs!
- Possible active ability: Buff Banner - gives Soldier and nearby teammates 10 seconds of extra 35% damage boost.
- Yet another Guest Fighter: Gordon Freeman - as a tribute of sorts to the fact the first Half-Life runs on a heavily modified Quake engine.
- He can "talk" with reused Half-Life 1 and 2 player sounds or even gain his voice since he should be able to talk to graduate from MIT; also he can reuse his footsteps sounds from HL 1 and 2.
- His skins may be HEV Mark IV (with optional helmet) as default skin, HEV Mark V, Lab Coat and Ivan the Space Biker as legendary skin.
- Possible active ability: HEV Battery - restores Gordon's armor to the max like Anarki's Health Injection, maybe with a permanent additional 1 AP with each charge.
- Possible passive ability: Long Jump Module - increases his foward jump range by pressing Crouch+Jump buttons like in the original HL.
- Another possible passive ability: Charging - reduces the cooldown time of HEV Battery every time he collects a LG ammo or Lightning Gun itself.
- This is gonna be even more wild than some previous guesses - female Splatoon Agent!
- Her skins could be Agent 3 as default skin, Agent 4, Agent 8, orange inkling from Splatoon 1 box art and SSBU.
- Active ability: Ink Strike - every weapon except Gauntlet leaves ink spots on the walls and floors. Ink can slightly obscure enemy's sight when hit. Uses a set amount of ink which cannot be replenished while ability is active.
- Passive ability: Squid Form - crouching on the ink of Agent's color turns her into squid, allowing her to slowly regenerate health and cooldown active ability. However, the enemy still can see and shoot this squid, so it's not like Nyx's Ghost Walk.
- More wildness - Samus Aran!
- Her skins could be Varia Suit as a default skin, Fusion Suit, Dark Samus. She also would have to ditch her arm cannon unless it would be a Rocket Launcher skin.
- Active ability: Morph Ball - rolls around bombing everything.
- Passive ability: Power Armor - armor absorbs all damage. Downside - potential damage to health sums to damage to armor.
- Corvus, the Sidhe Elf protagonist of Heretic.
- Skins could include his original attire (based on his Heretic sprite) as his default skin, the Daedolon from Hexen, the Necromancer from Hexen II and D'Sparil as his Legendary skin. Unique weapon skins could include a Gauntlet of the Necromancer (Gauntlet, fires short-ranged electrical blasts as opposed to featuring a spinning blade), the Dragon Claw (Machine Gun/Heavy Machine Gun) and the Phoenix Rod (Rocket Launcher)
- Active Ability: Tome of Power - Powers up Corvus' acquired weapons for 15 seconds, giving them powerful new abilities.
- Gauntlet - Slight increase in range, a drastic increase in damage and firerate.
- Machine Gun/Heavy Machine Gun - Increased damage and firerate, weapon spread eliminated.
- Shotgun/Super Shotgun - Increased damage and pump/reload speed, projectile spread tightened.
- Nailgun/Super Nailgun - Increased damage, firerate and projectile travel speed. Nails can penetrate opponents, dealing slightly reduced damage to successive targets.
- Tri-bolt - Increased damage and firerate. Temporarily becomes a Penta-bolt (similar to the Ethereal Crossbow), firing five projectiles as opposed to three. The three centre bolts have an increased explosion radius.
- Rocket Launcher - Can fire a stream of rockets similar to a flamethrower (or the Phoenix Rod), from which Corvus takes zero splash damage.
- Lightning Gun - Increased damage and firerate. Lightning will chain to nearby opponents from the target being struck and damage them as well.
- Railgun - Increased damage and firerate. Shots can penetrate targets and bounce off of surfaces 10 times.
- Passive Ability: Bag of Holding - Corvus can carry twice the amount of ammunition for any weapon.
- With Activision and Id under Microsoft's wing, the chances of him appearing have increased substantially.
- Intruder, also known as Duskdude, the treasure hunter.
- Active ability: Climbing Thing - allows to climb up vertical surfaces by holding the walk key. Pressing the jump key would launch Intruder in the direction he's looking. Maximum height would be limited by the map ceiling similar to Athena's Grappling Hook.
- Possible passive ability: Diagonal Hopping - Duskdude would be able to greatly increase his movement speed via jumping and inputting two directions.
- Another possible passive ability: Crouchslide - allows to briefly increase movement speed by crouching while running.
- Tanya Adams Hero of the Allied Forces.
- Abilities: Time Belt; able to "cheat death" using a Chrono Shift to go back in time to a more favourable status OR can teleport to a spot with some limitations. Inspired by the Chrono Legionnaire's Flash Step.
- Passive:
- Dual Colt 45s: Replaces starting weapon; has high accuracy and good power, made PVP Balanced but has perks over regular starting weapons.
- Veteranacy: Can gain promotions from frags, increasing maximum health and gaining regeneration.
- Skins: Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2, or Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 appearances at the very least.
- Natasha Volkova Hero of the Soviet Union.
- Abilities:
- Laser Designation: Provides a damage bonus to the target for a limited time.
- Piercing Shots: Shots penetrate barriers for a very limited time for reduced damage. Inspired by the Pilot Snipe ability.
- Passives:
- Master Sniper: Gains bonus perks when using the Railgun that still rewards skilful aiming.
- Veteranacy: Can gain promotions from frags, increasing maximum health and gaining regeneration.
- Skins: Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 appearance at the very least.
- Abilities:
- Nick "Havok" Parker Loose Cannon GDI Commando.
- Abilities:
- Jump Jets: an alternative to the Rocket Jump that doesn't injure you, inspired by the same ability on the Tiberium Wars Commando.
- Proximity C4: Plants C4 to wound players who enter proximity. Emits a warning beep for balance's sake.
- Passives: TBA
- Abilities:
- Athena (one of the selectable characters for multiplayer)
- Ability: Grappling Hook (Quake II CTF reference?)
- Commander Keen (seems that Hide Your Children won't take effect this time...)
- Death Knight (as either an ascended mook or as the Final Boss of Wolfenstein II: Spear of Destiny)
- Ability: Wall of Fire note
- CONFIRMED as Quake 1 Death Knight.
- Ability: Wall of Fire note
- Strogg Infiltrator
- Ability: Drone Deployment note
- CONFIRMED as Strogg & Peeker.
- Ability: Drone Deployment note
- Nicholas Raine
- Beastmaster (?)
- Ingrid (?)
- Terada (?)
- Umumrey (?)
- ''Halo:
- Master Chief
- Arbiter
- Gears of War:
- Marcus Fenix
- General RA'AM
- StarCraft:
- Jim Raynor
- Tychus Findlay
- Sarah Kerrigan
- Alexei Stukov
- Zeratul
- Artanis
- Alarak
- Overwatch:
- Soldier: 76
- Reaper
- Tracer
- Winston
- Widowmaker
- Killer Instinct:
- Fulgore
- Kilgore
Characters which may return
- Biker
- Possible ability: Beer Can - improves his reflexes at the cost of some temporal Interface Screw.
- Bitterman
- Possible ability: Invulnerability - Allows him to absorb all kinds of damage, both from enemies' fire and from every environmental hazard sans void/death pits.
- Crash.
- Possible ability: Berserk. With Doom getting the Glory Kill, she would get this. Allows her to insta-kill enemies but restricts her weaponry to Gauntlet-only.note
- Daemia
- Gorre
- Possible ability: Item analysis - This would work in the same way as Visor's ability, but with items instead of enemies, allowing him to check which items are already spawned on the battlefield.
- Grunt
- Possible ability: Dualfire - Speeds up the ROF of his weapons, a nod to Quake II: The Reckoning's Dualfire Damage item.
- Hunter
- Possible ability: Instinct - Alerts her whenever a power-up is close to spawning.
- Another possible ability: Camouflage - Renders her semi-invisible and increases her overall speed, but is interrupted when firing a weapon or grabbing a key objective such as a flag (drains quickly when carrying the flag, for example).
- Keel
- Possible ability: Hologram - Casts a holo copy of himself which distracts enemies, the holo can move on its own.
- Another possible ability: Grenade swarm
- CONFIRMED. And yes, he's got the grenade swarm.
- Klesk
- Possible ability: Lightweight - Allows him to jump twice the regular height and reach places other players cannot reach.
- Major
- Possible ability: A-M Bomb - Sacrifices herself by setting a HUGE explosion which shakes a big part of the area she was in, as a nod to Quake II: Ground Zero's namesake item. The explosion would be toned down for balance reasons, acting like Quake III: Team Arena's Kamikaze item, should it be absent from here.
- Another possible ability: Disguise - In team games, she would disguise as an enemy teammate, in Deathmatch-based modes the disguise would be a heavily used prop on the level such as a crate, a statue, etc., making it akin to UT200X's Camouflage adrenaline combo. This is also another nod to Ground Zero, where there was a part in that game where Stepchild disguised themself as a Strogg to pass through heavily-defended lines of Strogg at one point.
- Orbb
- Possible ability: Arena Broadcast - Allows him to watch from one of the map's cameras, may work like Duke Nukem 3D's security cam system.
- Slash
- Uriel
- Archangel. Could be a 5-sec Flight + slight armor/health boost.
- Vadrigar
- Possible ability: Arena Master - Increases his weapon's stats such as damage and ROF but by a short time.
- Wrack
- Possible ability: Horn of Invocation - Uses the namesake item from Quake: Scourge of Armagon which revives a fallen enemy to rack up frags for him.
- Xaero
- Possible ability: Zen Mode. Increases his health and armor points at the cost of speed.
Maps which may make a return
They're a key part of the QC experience, and considering Quake IV already went the remake route, these maps would be adapted to QC's gameplay like Campgrounds was.- From Quake (and Threewave CTF):
- ctf1 (McKinley Base)
- dm1 (The Place of Two Deaths)
- dm2 (Claustrophobopolis)
- dm3 (The Abandoned Base)
- dm6 (The Dark Zone)
- From Quake II (and Quake II CTF):
- q2ctf1 (McKinley Revival)
- q2ctf5 (Capture Showdown)
- q2dm1 (The Edge)
- q2dm2 (Tokay's Towers)
- q2dm3 (The Frag Pipe)
- q2dm8 (The Warehouse)
- From Quake III Arena:
- q3ctf1 (Dueling Keeps)
- q3ctf4 (Space CTF)
- Confirmed, kind of. The CTF version of "The Longest Yard" has elements from the map.
- q3dm7 (Temple of Retribution)
- q3dm12 (Deva Station)
- q3dm13 (The Lost World)
- q3dm17 (The Longest Yard)
- q3tourney2 (The Proving Grounds)
- q3tourney4 (Vertical Vengeance)
- q3tourney6 (The Very End of You/Beyond Reality)
- From Quake Live:
- Aerowalk (cpm22/hubaeroq3)
- Bloodlust (q3w1/q3wctf1)
- Courtyard Conundrum (q3w2/q3wctf2)
- Dismemberment (cpm12/hub3dm1)
- Japanese Castles (!) (q3wcp1/japanctf)
- Wicked (cpm1a)
Possible weapon skins
Since weapons will have several skins, let's bet on what will appear next.- Gauntlet:
- Doom Chainsaw
- Doom 3 Chainsaw
- Doom 2016 Chainsaw
- Doom Eternal Chainsaw
- Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero Chainfist
- Wolfenstein Chainsaw
- Jossed. There's a Wolfenstein Chainsaw in the game, but it's B.J.'s Vanity accessory.
- Machinegun/Heavy Machinegun:
- Doom cut/viewmodel Machinegun/Rifle
- Doom 3 Machinegun
- Doom (2016) Heavy Machinegun
- Doom Eternal Heavy Cannon
- Doom Chaingun
- Doom 3 Chaingun
- Doom (2016) Chaingun
- Doom Eternal Chaingun
- Quake II Machinegun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Stepchild", as a Machinegun skin.
- Quake II Chaingun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Old Painless", as a Heavy Machinegun skin.
- Quake IV Machinegun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Annihilator", as a Heavy Machinegun skin.
- Unreal Enforcer
- Unreal Minigun
- Unreal Tournament Minigun
- Unreal Tournament 2004 Minigun
- Shotgun/Super Shotgun:
- Doom Shotgun
- Doom 3 Shotgun
- Doom (2016) Combat Shotgun
- Doom Eternal Combat Shotgun
- Quake Shotgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Boomer", as a Shotgun skin.
- Quake Double-Barreled Shotgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Double-Barreled", as a Super Shotgun skin.
- Quake II Shotgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Bitterman", as a Shotgun skin.
- Quake II Super Shotgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Trespasser", as a Super Shotgun skin.
- Quake III Arena Shotgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Terminator", as a Shotgun skin.
- Quake III Team Arena Nailgun
- Quake IV Shotgun
- CONFIRMED, it has the name "Painkiller", as a Shotgun skin.
- Team Fortress 2 Scattergun
- Unreal Stinger
- Unreal Flak Cannon
- DUSK Lever-action Shotgun
- DUSK Super Shotgun in all its blocky pixelated glory
- Nailgun/Super Nailgun:
- Doom Plasma Gun
- Doom 64 Plasma Gun (sans the audible buzz)
- Doom 3 Plasma Gun
- Doom (2016) Plasma Rifle
- Doom Eternal Plasma Rifle
- Quake II Hyperblaster
- CONFIRMED with the name "Executioner", as a Super Nailgun skin.
- Quake II: Ground Zero ETF Rifle
- Quake IV Hyperblaster
- CONFIRMED with the name "Ravager", as a Super Nailgun skin.
- Half-Life Hivehand
- Unreal Stinger
- Unreal Tournament 3 Stinger Minigun
- Rocket Launcher:
- Doom Rocket Launcher
- Doom 3 Rocket Launcher
- Doom (2016) Rocket Launcher
- Doom Eternal Rocket Launcher
- Quake II Rocket Launcher
- CONFIRMED with the name "Peacemaker".
- Quake IV Rocket Launcher
- CONFIRMED with the name "Monsoon".
- Quake IV Mini Dark Matter Gun "Imploder": Since the BFG 10K isn't available, a scaled-down DMG could be added that also causes players to be carried away by a vortex if the direct "rocket" impact is deadly.
- Team Fortress 2 stock Rocket Launcher
- Unreal Eightball
- Unreal Tournament Rocket Launcher
- Unreal Tournament 200X Rocket Launcher
- Unreal Tournament 3 Rocket Launcher
- DUSK Riveter
- Railgun:
- Doom (2016) Gauss Cannon
- Doom Eternal Ballista
- Quake III Arena Railgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Eraser".
- Quake IV Railgun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Violator".
- Half-Life Tau Cannon
- Unreal Tournament Sniper Rifle
- Unreal Tournament 200X Lightning Gun
- Unreal Tournament 3 Sniper Rifle
- Lightning Gun:
- Quake III Arena Lightning Gun
- CONFIRMED with the name "Shaft".
- Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero Plasma Beam
- CONFIRMED with the name "Incinerator".
- Team Fortress 2 Short Circuit
- Unreal Tournament Pulse Gun
- Unreal Tournament 200X Link Gun
- Unreal Tournament 3 Link Gun
- Quake III Arena Lightning Gun
- Tri-Bolt:
- Quake I Death Knight Arm (the one which he uses to shoot the wall of fire).
- Jossed. Death Knight is a playable champion who throws fireballs as an active ability.
- Quake I Mission Pack: Scourge of Armagon Proximity Launcher
- Quake II Grenade Launcher
- CONFIRMED with the name "Joker".
- Quake II Mission Pack: The Reckoning Ion Ripper
- Quake II Mission Pack: Ground Zero Proximity Launcher
- Quake III Arena Grenade Launcher
- CONFIRMED with the name "Warthog 3000".
- Quake III Team Arena Proximity Launcher
- Quake IV Grenade Launcher
- CONFIRMED with the name "Galang".
- Quake I Death Knight Arm (the one which he uses to shoot the wall of fire).
