Blaster (Q4)

"Standard Marine-issue energy pistol, with two different modes of fire. Pull the Attack trigger to quickly fire smaller blasts. Fire a stronger blast by holding down the Attack trigger briefly and charging up, and then releasing it to fire. A lit panel on the back of the weapon indicates a full charge. Powered by nuclear batteries, the blaster never runs out of ammo. In addition, there’s an under-barrel-mounted flashlight for use in dark areas. Press the Flashlight button to get some light."

- Xbox 360 manual

The Blaster is the starting Weapon in Quake 4, a small energy pistol that fires hitscan energy projectiles. Like its Quake 2 counterpart, the Blaster is very weak, and should only be used against weaker enemies such as guards. Notably, it's one of only two weapons that supports an integrated flashlight.

While charging, an indicator at the end of the weapon emits a bluish glow, the projectile will be a little slower as well.

Single Player

 * You'll start off with the Blaster. You'll be forced to use it for a short time until you get a Machine Gun. The Blaster may seem useless, but it can be more useful then you think; it is the only weapon in the game that has infinite ammo and one of the few that don't need to be reloaded, making it good in the early missions as well as in the Strogg Medical Facilities. Also, it can be used to illuminate dark areas. However, use the Machine Gun instead whenever it is available.
 * The Blaster is quite weak, with a normal shot doing about half the damage of a Machine Gun bullet or Hyperblaster bolt. Even the Charged Shot, while stronger, needs at least two hits to kill even the weakest of foes. It's possible to kill most enemies with Blaster, but this will take time.
 * The Blaster's charged shot is also lethal to the Zombies found in the Waste Processing Facility. Note that they are the only enemies in the game who can be killed with a single charged shot, unless any Guard, Scientist, or Sentry is shot in the head, the charged Blaster headshot is useful on most non-boss enemies, you can even conserve ammo for big guns if you mastered this technique. However, try to avoid close quarter battles as its rate of fire is rather low and you are more prone to self-inflicted splash damage, like the Grenade Launcher or Rocket Launcher
 * In early levels until Operation: Advantage, you might want to use Blaster on Guards as much as possible to conserve ammo for other foes, as Berserkers and Grunts will eat away a lot of ammo for your machine gun and shotgun.
 * The Guards have a time gap while aiming the player, use this timing to take the headshot.
 * The Blaster's rapid semi-auto action and almost perfect accuracy on medium range make it lethal in the hands of a skilled player.
 * If you feel comfortable with this gun, try to use it on weak enemies to conserve ammo for stronger weapons. this is useful after the level Nexus Hub.

Multiplayer

 * The Blaster doesn't appear in multiplayer; it is instead replaced with the Gauntlet.
 * In Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, the blaster is the Strogg version of the GDF pistol. However, the blaster has infinite ammo (countered by easy overheating), while the pistol does not overheat, but requires ammo.

Trivia

 * The Blaster can fire either single, extremely weak shots or more powerful charged shots in a manner similar to the Plasma Pistol from the Halo series or the Dispersion Pistol from the Unreal series.
 * Due to its relative weakness, the Blaster is almost never seen in the hands of other Marines, though its probably used as a sidearm among the Marines.
 * Before you obtain the Machine Gun, this is your flashlight, press flashlight button (default key F) will draw out this weapon.
 * Blaster, along with Grenade Launcher and Dark Matter Gun are the weapons that didn't received upgrades.
 * Though pretty rare, you will need the Blaster if you used up ammo for all other weapons.
 * Whenever you draw the weapon, the sound it makes is similar to the Glock-18 from older installments of Counter-Strike, a game developed by Valve Corporation.