Gunner (Q2)

"This cybernetic terror eats Mutants for breakfast before coming to work - on you. He does have one weakness, though. It takes a second for his hand to open up into the machine gun so take advantage of the brief delay."

- Quake 2 Manual

In Quake 2, a Gunner is a humanoid Strogg with a Machine Gun replacing its right forearm and a Grenade Launcher replacing its left. Upon noticing player they'll make a characteristic sound, and almost immediately start attacking.

Very agile and more athletic than the Berserker, and it is said to be as powerful as the Iron Maiden in the game's manual, but players will find the Gunner to be the more difficult enemy of the two as it can easily kill a player if they do not keep their eyes on it at all times. The Gunner's armor is of a higher grade than the Enforcer's, and equal to the Berserker's.

Machine-Gun
The Gunner's Machinegun is similar to the Enforcer's Chaingun as it takes a moment for it to aim and fire. But the Gunner is able to shoot for longer periods of time. The second it takes the Gunner to aim and fire gives the player a good chance to prepare and move in for the kill. But when the Gunner does attack, it can fire between 8 and 32 bullets doing 24 to 96 damage. As with any automatic weapon, circle-strafe works best to avoid most of the incoming fire whilst returning fire.

Grenade Launcher
The Gunner's most powerful attack is its Grenade Launcher, which it can launch with minimal delay and catch inexperienced players off guard. A very slight animation of the Gunner standing tall is hard to spot unless the player is used to looking for it. The Gunner will launch 4 grenades in quick succession, each doing around 40 damage (4x40=160). Getting hit by all 4 grenades can mean certain death if the player isn't properly armored. It can be very difficult to dodge the grenades and Gunners are very good at hitting players who are hiding behind corners. It is when the player is not paying attention to the Gunner, that this attack is most lethal.

Strategies

 * Do not under estimate the power that Gunners possess. In close combat they are among the most deadly of enemies the player will face. If the Gunner launches his grenade attack, only a Veteran player can dodge it, so keep as much distance as possible between the Gunner and player.
 * Alone, a Gunner shouldn't pose much of a threat as long as the player keeps their eyes on it. Get close to it and shoot it with either the Shotgun four times or the Super Shotgun two times. If most of the pellets connect, the Gunner will be killed. When getting close to the gunner, make sure to strafe, because it could start firing grenades at you while you're running up to it. If you can't strafe well enough, grab out your machine gun or chain gun and open fire from a distance. When you get the Railgun, use it on a Gunner, as it can stun it with one shot and gib it with two. However, if a gunner is unaware of your presence, then it should only take one shot of the Railgun to gib it.
 * Gunners' grenades are fired very accurately at the player. Often, the grenade would still hit even when the player is strafing. An easier method to evade the grenades is to crouch under it at medium range. This is an ideal range to fight Gunners from. Its grenades will be rendered useless, and once it draws its machinegun, you can circle strafe around the bullets.
 * Be very careful not to back into a corner as you fight the Gunner, as this will leave you very vulnerable and with no where to run if the Gunner uses its Grenade Launcher. As stated above, this powerful attack can be fatal if the player gets the full force of it.
 * Multiple Gunners can be dealt with by shooting Rockets at them. Try to make it so that one it close to another, then shoot one of them with rockets. The splash damage will harm the other, which makes it easy for you to take out another weapon and finish it off. Getting the Gunners to line up and hitting both with a Rail charge is also good because the Gunner's have a lengthy recoil animation and it is easy to fire off a second charge, killing two for the price of one. The Gunners stick to the spot when attacking so a bit of strafing can make this easy to do on a regular basis.
 * With other enemies, the Gunner will be even more dangerous. It can be hard to see its grenades, especially in the middle of a tense battle, so try to take it out when you see it. If you can't (because of distance or you're fighting a powerful enemy, such as a Tank), try to get close enough so that it uses it's Machine Gun instead of grenades. This makes the Gunner much less lethal. Stay out of Gunner's sight if you want to kill weaker Stroggs first.

Trivia

 * There's an unused animation for the Gunner launching grenades while running.
 * Gunners appear to have no armor at his back, revealing their metal spine.
 * Gunners take big steps when they walk. Even when trying to chase the player, they make large steps instead of running.
 * When idle, a Gunner may say something, that sounds like "That's all about war.", "Let's talk about war.", "It's all about war.", "Watch out about war!", or "They told us to go to war".
 * When idle, a Gunner opens his machine gun from time to time and looks at it for a few seconds.
 * There's an unused animation for a Gunner drawing out his machine gun, but it's about two times longer than the actual animation of him drawing it out. The animation was possibly shortened/replaced to make the Gunner a more difficult enemy.

Death Messages

 * Player was machinegunned by a Gunner (Machinegun)
 * Player was popped by a Gunner's grenade (Grenade)