Makron (Q4)

"You can't win, human."

- Makron

In Quake 4, the Makron is the supreme leader of the Strogg, and also serves as the guardian of the Strogg Nexus and is one of the game's two final bosses (the other being the Nexus itself). Different from the one previously seen, the Makron is a larger, more powerful version built or elected to replace the previous Makron. This Makron has a noticeably more sadistic personality, often laughing maniacally and shouting out phrases such as "die human!", "you will fail!", and "you cannot win!".

In contrast to the previous Makron, which was an organic brain housed inside a robotic battle suit, the current Makron has an organic alien head and torso, encased in a gigantic, heavily armored robotic torso, and four spider-like mechanical legs. It stands roughly 20 feet tall. In the center of the Makron's torso is an attached Human Torso Unit serving as an extra power supply.

The Makron is armed with a multi-purpose dark matter cannon as its right arm, which can fire a large variety of different attacks; standard large blaster bolts, a spread of standard grenades, a dark matter black hole, a spread of dark matter grenades, and finally a spread of teleport drops to summon Strogg reinforcements. The Makron's left arm is a 3-pronged claw that can also fire a sweeping dark matter beam. The Makron can also stomp the ground to create a 360 degree shockwave attack, and can also step on the player if they get too close.

Nexus Hub Battle

 * The Makron is first encountered at the end of the Nexus Hub, after shutting down the Tetranode and destroying the two Stream Protector bosses. In this fight, the Makron is invincible; depleting his health will simply cause him to grab the player with a dark matter tractor beam, disabling Matthew Kane and causing him to be captured for Stroggification.


 * In this battle, the Makron has 1,400 health, and is limited to his blaster and standard grenades. He does not move during the battle, instead standing still at the far end of the room while constantly firing at the player. The Makron's blaster fires a spread of 3 large blaster bolts every shot, and he constantly fires it throughout the battle. He also periodically launches a spread of several grenades throughout the room, which detonate a couple seconds after landing, or detonate if they hit the player.


 * To win the fight (well, you will be defeated in the script), the player must deal sufficient damage to the Makron to trigger his use of the dark matter tractor beam; otherwise, the Makron will simply kill the player with his attacks. The Makron's blaster fire is difficult to dodge since it fills the entire room and even ricochets around after hitting the walls, so it's important to kill the Makron as quickly as possible before you run out of health. Attacking the Makron with the Nailgun as soon as he appears while dodging around to avoid as much of his blaster fire as possible is probably the best strategy for this fight. Lay waste of it using explosives also help you drain its health quickly. If you lack heavy weapon, stay mobile, use cover wisely and hit him with Machine Gun or Hyperblaster, keep moving will help you dodge the grenades, cover will make you less likely to be the open target for him.


 * The Makron will not chase the player during this fight. There are two pillar filled corridors on either side of the Makron. By hiding in one of the two corners nearest to the Makron, none of its attacks will be able to hit the player. Get into this position early, and then bounce grenades off the pillar into Makron until it uses its tractor beam for the finish move, before he capture you and processing the Stroggification.


 * Besides capturing the player, Makron may kill the players if they are not paying attention.

First Form

 * The Makron is confronted once again in the game's final level, The Nexus. The Nexus Chamber is a much larger arena, with four pillars in the corners of the room that can be used as cover from the Makron's attacks. The Makron has several new attacks and also walks around the room somewhat, although his speed is average and he still doesn't move around that much.


 * The Makron starts the battle by firing a spread of 4 teleport drops to summon in Strogg reinforcements. These teleport drops are stronger than those used by Teleport Droppers or Voss, and can spawn in heavier Strogg such as Berserkers. Fortunately, the Makron only seems to use this attack once, and it can be countered by firing a dark matter projectile or rocket at him to destroy the teleport drops with splash damage before they can spawn Stroggs. You can also kill him quickly to prevent further distractions from him.


 * The Makron can also fire a dark matter beam. The beam takes two forms. First, it can fork out in two directions, with the two beams converging together into the center. Second, he can fire a single beam which he sweeps across the room from left to right. The dark matter beam is fired either high or low; if high, it can be dodged by ducking, if low, it can be dodged by jumping over it.


 * The Makron spends most of the battle constantly firing his blaster at the player; as before, it fires a spread of 3 large blaster bolts per shot which ricochet off walls. Even with your enhanced speed, the bolts can be difficult to dodge (popping in and out of cover from behind one of the pillars helps), although fortunately they don't do too much damage.


 * Periodically, the Makron will fire a dark matter projectile at you; this does fairly heavy damage if it hits you (and also throws you across the room a significant distance), but travels slow enough to dodge by strafing. The Makron also occasionally rears his legs up and smashes them into the ground to create a 360 degree shockwave that travels along the floor. You can jump over the shockwave to avoid it. However sometime it won't, due to a bug the game itself.


 * Despite his many additional attacks, the Makron's first form is noticeably easier than he was in the Nexus Hub, due to the player's noticeably increased speed due to Stroggification as well as the larger room giving the player more room to maneuver, also you are better supplied before facing him. Blast the Makron with a powerful weapon such as the Hyperblaster, Nailgun, explosives, or even the Shotgun and he should fall fairly quickly. Markon is a fairly large opponent so you can use Railgun against him, or use homing Rocket launcher to create a stream of rockets that will drain his health very quickly. Remember don't shoot him until his health bar shows upon the screen, you can unload on him to end the first part in about one minute, the Nexus is the last level in Quake 4, so don't worry too much about ammunition.

Second Form

 * After collapsing from damage, the Makron will be revived with dark matter energy from the Nexus, at which point his torso will detach from his legs and begin hovering around the room. At this point the Makron is faster and much more mobile and agile, flying around the entire room while attacking the player. The Makron also gains a new attack where he fires a spread of several dark matter grenades which explode a couple seconds after landing. Also, in addition to his standard 3-shot blaster spread, the Makron can now also rapid-fire a steady stream of single blaster bolts. The Makron again begins the fight by firing off 4 teleport drops, and proceeds to use all his standard attacks including his blaster, dark matter gun, and sweeping dark matter beam.


 * During the second phase of the battle, Teleporters will appear in the four corners of the arena that allow you to teleport to the upper level. The upper level is the best place to fight the Makron from, as you are much safer from several of his attacks up there, particularly his spread of dark matter grenades. It is possible to win without using the teleporter, you have to drain his health real fast though, if you have enough rocket left, let them fly, you won't have tougher fight after this. Lightning gun also work well, if you can to get closer, use shotgun or grenade launcher to save the dark matter gun ammo for the final boss.


 * Besides having twice as much health as his first form, the Makron can also regenerate his health when it gets low by absorbing dark energy from a Human Torso Unit from one of the four pillars in the corners of the room. You can stop the Makron's regeneration by destroying the Human Torso Unit as the Makron tries to pull it towards him with his tractor beam, or simply continue shooting the Makron in the back with a powerful weapon while he regenerates and hope that you can damage him faster than he regenerates health, Lightning will just undo what he is doing, the Rocket Launcher and Railgun are good because he will be defenseless when he is doing this.

Trivia

 * It is the only boss in Quake 4 that you have to deal with more than once.
 * It is about the same size as the Cyberdemon who is the final boss of Doom 3. Doom 3 was developed by id Software and released a year before Quake 4 was released.
 * The design resembles the Black Widow Guardian's second form in many aspects. They have a beam-like weapon that they sweep across the room, they summon enemies to fight along with them, and they initially walk around on four legs.