Black Widow Guardian

The Black Widow is the final boss of Ground Zero and the final enemy fought by the player in all of Quake 2. She is found in the last map of the game, Widow's Lair, protecting the Gravity Well and must be defeated to gain access to the Gravity Well's computer in order to plant the anti-matter bomb and finish the game.

The Black Widow Guardian is the most difficult enemy in Quake II and is arguably one of the most, if not the most, difficult enemy in the whole Quake series. She is the second Makron after the previous one's defeat.

As well as having the ability to spawn in Stalkers (similar to the abilities shared by the Medic Commander and Carrier), the Widow is one of the few Strogg (Makron) who have two forms. When her first form is defeated, she will teleport away and return moments later, suited up with stronger armor and more powerful weapons.

Upgraded Light Blaster
The Widow will fire multiple green blaster bolts either in a slight arc towards the player's direction or directly at the player. They are just like other green laser blasts seen in the game however they are more powerful. The Widow's bolts will get mixed in with the ones fired by the Stalkers that she spawns in, however the arc can make dodging them a bit more difficult. Each bolt does 10 damage, dealing about 80 damage with 8 bolts shot at a time on average although she can fire a lot more in a row.

Rail Gun
Every so often, the Black Widow will use her Rail Gun which appears to have very poor aim. The Widow rarely uses this attack, and when she does, it will miss most the time. The one problem with this attack is that there is little or no animation to signify that a shot is incoming. As the player confronts the Widow, she can easily get a cheap shot off with the Railgun in the midst of battle. Each shot does 50 damage like any other Railgun.

Kick
If the player gets close to the Widow, she'll kick him/her with her mechanical legs, sending the player flying backwards much like Armagon's melee attack, which flings the player flying across the arena. Each kick will deliver around 55 damage.

Battle Characteristics
When the Widow is defeated, she'll teleport away and get suited up with better legs, weapons, and armor to become arguably the most powerful enemy in Quake. Her new spider-like legs allow her to move faster and her new weapons are far more effective at killing the player. The ability to summon Stalkers remains, adding to the difficulty of this fight. The Widow's new attacks allow her to easily continue inflicting damage, be it the very accurate Plasma Beam or a few homing shadows from the Disruptor, with the Stalkers also constantly attacking. With all this going on, the player will lose a lot of health very quickly and the problem will be the player being unable to deliver the fatal blow before he/she gets maimed by the Widow and her Stalkers. This form could be described, as some may argue, as the Beastly form of the Widow.

Plasma Beam
Similar to the player's Plasma Beam, the Widow can launch this powerful beam with unlimited range and pin point accuracy. The Widow can either use the beam in a sweeping motion at the area in front of her, dealing small damage, or put the beam directly into the player with minimal hassle, dealing high damage. The best way to avoid this is to hide behind the pillars. Each shot does 10 damage but due the nature of the attack, the damage will add but very quickly. When the Widow fires in an arc, the player will be hit for about 10 to 20 damage from each pass but if caught by a direct attack, the player will quickly lose 100 health a second. The Widow can deliver short bursts of 40 damage to long ones of 160 damage. If the player does not stop moving, the attack will easily hit.

Disruptor
The Widow can launch multiple balls of darkness which home in at the player much like the Vore's Fire Pod but a lot faster and harder to see in the dark arena. The shadow balls make a unique, easily heard sound so the player knows when there is one coming after him/her. Each ball will do 20 damage but due to the number of balls launched and the difficulty of dodging them, they can very quickly do heavy damage on top of the Stalker's light blasts and the Widow's Plasma beam. The Widow is capable of launching many balls in at a very fast rate (5 to 10) dealing in the excess of 200 damage. The best way to avoid them is to hug the wall so that when the player dodges them, there is less chance of them bending around.

Pincers
The Widow's melee attack now involves the giant pincers on her new spider legs. If the player gets anywhere near the Widow, a web-like claw will shoot out her legs, pull the player towards where they will be sliced n' diced by her pincers. As with any melee attack, it is easy to avoid as long as the player doesn't get near the enemy. If she carries out the whole attack, it will deliver around 35 damage.

Strategies
The final level of Ground Zero involves taking the Anti-Matter Bomb created in Unit 4 and placing it on the Gravity Well to destroy it, thus completing the game's main objective. Before the player can gain access to the Gravity Well, he/she must defeat the Black Widow Guardian. This is by far the most difficult enemy in Quake II and one of the most difficult enemies in all of Quake series.

Part I

 * Collect all the items that surround the hole in the floor before dropping in. The player will fall into a very large round shaped room with pillars very similar to that of Armagon's Lair. There are numerous ammo and health pick-ups spread across the arena, outside and inside the circle of pillars. The most important of these are the Cell packs.


 * The Widow will be patrolling the inner circle until she sees the player and begins to attack. Her most common attack is her Upgraded Light Cannon which she fires lazily towards the player. Occasionally she'll launch a Railgun slug although this is as accurate as the Carriers and will hardly ever hit as long as the player keeps moving. Keeping moving in the outer circle whilst returning fire. The Chaingun and Railgun are a good start but it won't hurt to use a few BFG shots to deal some good damage from the start. Though the railgun is most useful. Keep moving around and shooting her with the railgun. Make sure to make a direct hit to deal the most amount of damage. Of course, not only will this deal heavy damage but it will also kill off any Stalkers currently in the arena.


 * When the Widow falls, there will be a long delay between her teleporting away and returning in her second form. Use this time well to collect ammo (mainly Cells) and health. It would be useful to let off one more BFG shot after she teleports to clear away any Stalkers without wasting this time between fights. Once the player has collected relevant health and ammo, await by the big red doors for the Widow to come crashing out in her second, more powerful form. Stay behind the poles alot, due to her plasma attack. If your a dare devil stay right behind the pole next to the red door and then, kill her. Otherwise, stay away from the red door.
 * Especially if you are playing on Hard difficulty, you will not want to use up your most powerful weapons and powerups on her first form, as her second form is considerably more powerful. So if you have quad damage or full Cells for your BFG, save them for her second form, and try to rely on your next-tier weapons for her first, weaker form: namely, your railgun, and perhaps double damage if you have it. Lay down fire towards her with the railgun until she teleports away for her second form. (Tested by anonymous and it takes 5 shots on easy, 5 shots on medium, and 7 shots on hard.)
 * If you play on hard, or hard+ difficulty and use Quad Damage, Double Damage, or Invulnerability Power-ups, she will copy them. For example, using invulnerability will cause her to become invulnerable as well. Therefore, invulnerability is pretty much useless here, but you will likely still want to use your quad and double damage powerups in order to kill her more quickly while, of course, becoming proficient at dodging her attacks.
 * On hard+ difficulty The Black Widow has additional protective shield (like Daedalus, or Medic commander have) which enlarges her already enormous HP.

Part II

 * See above for her new arsenal of weapons. The Widow will continue to spawn Stalkers so keep moving to avoid being hit by them. Her most deadly weapon now is the Plasma beam which she can deal very high damage with. Don't stop moving so as to give her a much more difficult time in hitting the player with the beam. Continue to empty the BFG into her and when that runs dry, switch to Chaingun or Railgun.
 * Save another quad damage, (double damage and invulnerability on hard), and lay down fire towards the 2nd form Widow with the BFG10K. Takes about 2-5 shots to kill.


 * If the player runs low on health, then attempt to get the health packs near the pillars. Go for the outer circle pick ups as the player can go for these whilst taking cover behind the pillars. If the situation becomes dire and he/she is low on health and has used up all the health packs outside the pillars, then attempt to pick up the packs on the inside. This is more difficult as the player will be exposed but as long as he/she does not stop moving, the packs can be picked up without being hit.


 * With 4,000 health (first form) and 5,000 health (second form), this battle is going to be very long and the biggest problem is surviving long enough to deal 9,000 points of damage. The Widow's shadow beams make even strafing and jumping deadly as the shadow balls can home in on the player and even bounce off walls if they miss and hit the player from behind. Be careful not to get too close so as to avoid her melee attack.


 * On Hard+, the Black Widow has an immense 13,500hp (both forms). Needless to say, a Quad Damage and at least 1 Double Damage are pretty much required for fighting this boss on this difficulty, otherwise, you may either not survive the onslaught or run out of ammo if your shots are inaccurate.

Alternative Strategies

 * There's also a second strategy, which involves player staying in the room above the arena and not dropping into the hole at all. This strategy works best if the player has a good amount of Grenades for the Grenade Launcher and some Tesla Mines. Dropping grenades and teslas at the Stalkers and Widow from above is not a bad strategy, but then blaster bolts and Railgun shots become very hard to dodge. When player runs out of Grenades and Teslas, he/she can use any other weapon to fight Widow from above. Finally (if player survives) the Widow will teleport away, giving player time to kill remaining Stalkers or just wait for Widow's second form. Then player will have trouble dodging her Disruptor and Plasma Beam (and blaster bolts of the Stalkers). The only advantage of this strategy is, that player always has a room to rest in, being out of enemies' reach.
 * In order to deal with this boss quickly and (relatively) easily, bring along two Double Damages AND two Quad Damages, and simply activate both of them at the same time; the effects of both powerups WILL stack with each other, allowing you to dish out absolutely immense amounts of damage very quickly. To maximize effectiveness, use weapons with faster firing rates on the boss' first form (such as the Chaingun, ETF Rifle, etc.), and save your BFG10K for the boss' second form. By the time you destroy the first form, your Double/Quad Damage combo will run out before her second form emerges. As soon as she breaks through the wall, activate both damage powerups at once again and unleash hell with the BFG10K. Not only will this deal quick and major damage to the boss, but it will also keep most if not all of her spawned Stalkers at bay as well. When you run out of Cells, go back to your fast-firing weapons (you will have time to scrounge for ammo in between forms) and finish her off. This is by far the quickest and easiest way to deal with this boss with minimal trouble. Again, on Hard/Hard+ difficulties, be aware that she will copy your Double Damage, Quad Damage and Invulnerability the second you activate them, so you will need to dodge her attacks while firing at her.

Trivia

 * When her first form is defeated she teleports away, but her legs still stay on the ground and then explode.
 * Black Widow, like every enemy in Quake 2 can be gibbed. Furthermore, Black Widow has a few unique gibs.
 * In her second form, Black Widow has the Disruptor alongside Plasma Beam. Actually it is one of the few weapons, that player cannot obtain.