Berserker (Q2)

"This Bald-mutha is one deadly freak. He may hit the dirt easy, but he’ll get up and is relentless in his pursuits."

- Quake 2 Manual The Berserker is a fast humanoid Strogg that only uses melee attacks. It appears to have been created from captured humans, which is both visually apparent from the human torso and head with drastic cybernetic augmentations, and also based on the fact that a Berserker will utter the English word 'Trespasser' on visual contact with the player. Despite having no ranged attacks, the Berserker has a decent amount of health, making it hard to one-shot kill it. They are also often strategically positioned behind doors and around corners to scare the living daylights out of the player. This is not merely a scare tactic, however, as the Strogg hope this will create a moment of hesitation brought on by surprise where the Berserker can land multiple blows on the target, inflicting massive damage very quickly. However, in practice, the Berserker's complete inability to defend itself at anything but point-blank range, combined with the noticeable wind-up on their actual attacks, makes them fairly ineffectual opponents. More often than not, Berserkers will simply charge straight at their enemies and be gunned down before they can even get in attack range. They can, however, be dangerous in small or narrow rooms where the player's ability to maneuver is severely restricted, and avoiding its melee attacks is more difficult.

Strategies

 * Alone, a Berserker is easy to kill, and even in groups they're not that intimidating. The Super Shotgun, Machine Gun, Railgun, Rocket Launcher, grenades (Hand and Launcher) can kill it in two to three hits. The Chain Gun and Hyperblaster can tear it up to chunky kibbles in no time. If the player is aware of their surroundings, then they can more easily strafe backwards whilst shooting the Berserker, thus keeping him away from the player and avoiding damage.
 * When fighting more than one Berserker, use your Chain Gun or Hyperblaster against them. Their fast rates of fire will tear them up before they can attack you. Explosives are too risky, as their speed will close any distance in a short time, leaving you blowing yourself to bits. Failing that, the Super Shotgun is still an effective means of putting them down, provided the player has room to back away from them as he fires.
 * The Berserker is one of the fastest enemies in the game and can easily close the gap between a still or slow moving player. This can easily result in the Berserker being hit by other Strogg. This of course will result in the Berserker attacking said Strogg and leaving the player time to escape.
 * While the Berserker's blade-arm attacks faster than mace-arm they are both quite slow. You can easily provoke Berserker to strike the air which will stop him for a while due to slow attack animation. This is the best way to deal with Berserkers in confined spaces or if you simply unwilling to run away from it too long.
 * With other enemies around, the Berserker can actually prove a nuisance. Like the Knight or the Death Knight, the Berserker can close up escape routes when you're fighting off multiple enemies, forcing you to take them on without an escape route. Trying to focus on the Berserker will make you very vulnerable, so don't focus everything on it. Instead, take out your Chain Gun or Hyperblaster and unload it on anybody near you. Because the Berserker will constantly be running towards you, it'll get caught in the fire and be torn to shreds.

Death Message

 * Player was smashed by a Berserker

Trivia

 * The Berserker has some unused animations for slower attacks, attacks while running, jump attack, and crouching.
 * When idle, a Berserker sometimes swipes his spike on his hammer, making a metallic noise. Then, he looks at his spike for a while. It looks like the Berserker is "cleaning" his spike, but it's still covered in blood.
 * When a Berserker spots the player, they will shout something that sounds like "Trespasser!".