Klesk

"It is what we do. It is destiny. It is joy."

- Klesk, while chasing its prey

Klesk is one of the many playable characters in Quake 3 Arena. Klesk is an alien mystic and a religious zealot but as it is an Arena Lord of Tier 3, it terrifies all but oneself at Hell's Gate (q3tourney3); it is a challenge. Hell's Gate is a tight arena loop, centered around the Railgun and Plasma Gun fights on top catwalks near a deathly abyss.

It prefers the Railgun, but will go for the Rocket Launcher or the Plasma Gun if it gets the chance. Its own tourney map includes the Battle Suit but it favors Regeneration more if the skirmish map has it.

It is a Chitinid alien (which are hive-minded creatures), and has large metallic spikes protruding from its back. The blood stains on the claws and spikes are noticeable and contrasted with its gold yellow skin. Its other names on chat lines are; "Bug", "Scum-sucker" and "corpse-gobbler".

Quake III bio
"Yekki-kampt-nikka-klesk-ki-kampt-pikka" means "people of one mind" in this chitinid's chittering tongue. But this being no longer touches the one mind. New voices speak to it, telling it that once it stills the churning minds that clutter the psychic plane around it, it will become the progenitor of a new and powerful people.

Strategy
Be warned, although Klesk isn't Xaero himself, it is still is rather accurate with the Railgun. Klesk is the first boss fight where holding control of Railgun matters. On low difficulty settings, Klesk runs in a straight line across the map, easy enough to rail. It gets progressively better at dodging as you go up in difficulty. At high difficulties, it is very accurate with its Railgun. Make sure it doesn't get the Railgun if you want to live.

Keep the Heavy Armor room beneath the Railgun spawn under control and pick it before they do. You'll note that it's a pretty one-sided map as all important items are piled at one side and map is pretty scarce on sources and offer no stimpacks or Megahealth.

If you want an advantage when playing against Klesk, stand at the rear pillars near the Railgun spawn and use them for cover. Standing by pillars also allow you to check on Heavy Armor spawn below and take cover when you need it. Crouch under its attacks by standing near the bounce pads behind you.

Klesk is pretty aware of advantages and disadvantages of the situations. When it only holds a Machine Gun or in case you're possessing a power-up, it can swiftly escape and evade you to find the weapons it's better with and heal up. However, it also has that obsession of prying the Railgun off from your hands. Plasma Gun is a valid idea to burn its armor and health down if it grabbed the Battle Suit or Heavy Armor.

Once you landed a rail shot when it's at the open, finishing them with Machine Gun will guarantee you a frag. When it's at the jumppads or near gates weaken them with MG fire first is a good idea for finishing Klesk without giving it a chance to retreat.

If it manages to out-throne you down from twin pillars area, fall back to Plasma Gun side of the map. Keep ahold of the Light Armor pickup and try to get the Battle Suit by attacking from RL spawn or side gates to pressure it out from there and steer to the armor shards side to stack armor more. If it's holding a Railgun at the open, using bouncepads only serves you to be an easy target. Don't attempt to perform a hovering entrance unless you pressured him back with some peekshots from plasma and rockets.

It is important for it to keep line of sight with you or else it might give up easily. Taking covers, doing surprise corner attacks, hit-and-runs with Rocket Launcher pretty much works on them.

Trivia
It is featured along with Sarge on the cover of the PS2 port of Quake 3 called Quake 3 Revolution.