Flyer (Q2)

"A small two-winged monster, comprised of a controlling brain and a cyborg body that allows it to levitate."

- Quake 2 Manual

In Quake 2, a Flyer is a small, thin flying cybernetic construct with a humanoid head. It has two rapid-fire Blasters for ranged attacks and uses the blades mounted on its wings for melee attacks.

Flyers first appear in Unit 1, and continue to appear fairly often throughout the rest of the game. Rarely, Flyers have been known to aid technicians, which happens in exactly one level.

Strategies

 * Alone, the Flyer is easy to kill. Take out an automatic weapon like the Machine Gun, Chain Gun or Hyperblaster and open fire. The Super Shotgun or even the regular  Shotgun can also kill a Flyer in one shot.
 * A group of them is also easy to take out, despite their annoying blasters. Again, the above weapons will wipe them out, and their habit of spreading out horizontally makes them ideal targets for the Super Shotgun. Just make sure to strafe when you see them firing, because they can hurt if a lot of their lasers hit you. If you're not very good at aiming at long range, the standard single-barreled Shotgun will do well, as the spread can allow you to hit a few clusters of Flyers.
 * With other Enemies, the Flyer can get pretty annoying. It usually stays away from you and shoots you from a distance. While the blasters are weak, they can distract you long enough for a powerful enemy to get a few shots in. Because it's so weak, splash damage from an explosive can gib it in one shot.

Death Messages

 * Player was blasted by a Flyer (Blaster)
 * Player was cut up by a Flyer's sharp wings (Melee)

Trivia

 * The Flyer's melee attack involves huge blades being drawn from their wings and then cutting with them twice. However, these blades looks to be bigger than flyer's wings.