Turret (GZ)

"They shoot a wide variety of weaponry, and they're deadly wherever you find them. If you can see one of these. Dance!"

- Ground Zero Manual

Turrets are automatic guns that are introduced in the Quake 2 mission pack: Ground Zero. Turrets come in different types: Blaster Turret and Rocket Turret. Turrets are very powerful, very tough and can prove to be a great pain in one's back. Turrets are normally found hiding away where the player cannot possibly see them before it's too late. Even a veteran player is going to have a hard time with the sheer number of turrets, causing them to be paranoid about every wall and ceiling in the entire game by peeking every time entering a new area.

Description
Turrets will normally be hidden away behind a wall, although keen-eyed players can spot the distinctive wall plates that conceal them, all in all they are hidden and a player will have no idea. These hidden ones will normally wait for a player will walk past into the room where there will be enemies. Whilst the player deals with the enemies, the Turret will reveal it self and get a few cheap shots from behind. There are two sounds which can be clearly heard that will reveal that a turret has woken up. First off there is an explosion as the plate covering the Turret is blown up and the second is a machine sound as the Turret emerges from the newly opened wall.

In rare cases some turrets might not be hidden, but are dormant until the player gets close to them. These turrets have their back sides with a green stripe facing outward. They will take increased damage in this state, a single shot from a Railgun can destroy them.

The difference between blaster turrets, and rocket turrets (besides their ammo) is that the Blaster Turret has a orange stripe around it, while the Rocket Turret has a yellow stripe around it.

Attack
The two factors that make fighting these things very difficult is their small size and their accuracy. Turrets will fire at the area where you are and also where you are going to move, so being very careful with your movement is a must. Strafing side to side will get you killed very easily. Laser turrets fire at a fast rate, comparable to a light guard who stands on the spot. The player must watch every shot and move out the way and then be ready an instant later to dodge the next and so on.

Rocket turrets are even more deadly as the splash damage is an extra factor in making it difficult. It's a matter of timing, wait for the shot, dodge and then wait for the next shot beware that of the splash damage so move faster. Also be careful of taking cover as when the player takes cover, the Turret will fire off another shot at where it last saw the player. This will take new players off guard as they take cover and then move out again only to be hit by this sneaky extra attack.

Their shots as stated above is light blasts and rockets. Light blasts do 20 damage whilst Rockets do 50 damage. Due to the high damage and relentless attacks, these things are deadly and this is made even worse by its small size. See below for strategies on the best ways to kill turrets.

Strategies

 * There are two strategies to fight the Turrets and both of them work very well across the game depending on the situation and location of the Turrets. The first strategy is to confront out in the open, strafing (see above) whilst returning fire. The best weapons to use are the Rocket Launcher, hyperblaster, railgun and ETF Rifle as they will destroy the Turrets quickly, which is very important. When destroyed, the turrets blow up into pieces.


 * The second, more safer strategy should be practiced more often. When the player knows the location of a turret, step back and out of sight. Then inch around the corner where the Turret is located until the player can just about see it. Using the console to change hands can help with firing around corners like this. If done correctly, the player can hit the Turret whilst the Turret CAN'T hit the player. The best weapon to use now is the Blaster as it will destroy the Turret without using up any ammo (albeit it takes about 30 seconds per turret). This strategy saves both ammo and health and helps with completing missions. If the Turret is on the ceiling it may help to crouch, although the player will have to play around depending on the room layout and location of the Turret. In most cases, this strategy is easy to pull off.
 * Turrets that are activated by walking past them or killing a nearby enemy will make a distinctive sound and will take a few seconds to fully activate, giving players a decent amount of time to duck for cover without the Turret seeing them. If players are lucky, they can hit the turret without the it seeing the player, which can kill it without the turret getting a chance to attack if the right weapons are used, like the Railgun. The Railgun can destroy an unsuspecting turret in one hit.
 * If there are two turrets in a single room (and if they are rocket turrets), then it may be worth using up cells and destroying both turrets instantly with a BFG blast. This can be avoided for the second strategy listed above, but it is worth thinking about this.
 * Machine Gun Turrets may seem feeble because of their being able to shoot only one bullet at a time on the battle scene. But, these beasts have an unexpected twist. If you plan to take pot shots, abandon that plan as when you leave the Machine Gun Turret's line of sight by hiding behind a wall, etc., they will launch a rocket which will catch unwary players and drain around half their health, so your best bet is to kill every other enemy in the room and focus on the Turret last by sidestepping and firing a hyperBlaster, as hyperBlasters are rather effective against all three forms of these beasts.