Quake (1996) | Quake II (The Strogg) | Quake III: Arena | Quake IV | Quake Champions
Here's the character list for all the monsters, bosses, and the Player Character from Quake.
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Ranger
"Originally a slipgate explorer, the man called Ranger has faced and escaped certain death a thousand times on a thousand worlds. His experiences have left him more alien than human now."
— Quake III: Arena manual description
The main character of Quake, and sole survivor of Operation: Counterstrike, Ranger is a veteran of the Slipgate wars. He cut through countless horrors to find four eldritch Runes, then laid waste to the abomination known as Shub-Niggurath. Trapped in these realms ever since, he has survived using the power of the Dire Orb seized from within the hot gore of the All-Mother. He later bested powerful beings such as Armagon and the Dragon, always coming out on top. His experiences, however, left him more alien than human. Time and delirium have eroded his resolve and even his name, but a worn family photograph tucked away in his armor serves as a scrap of hope and sanity.
In Quake III: Arena, the player fights against him in the Arena Gate.
In Quake Champions, Ranger's active ability is "Dire Orb". He throws the orb in a straight line and can teleport to it by reactivating the ability, potentially telefragging enemies near it. If he chooses not to teleport, it instead detonates to deal heavy damage. His passive ability is "Son of a Gun", which reduces the damage he takes from his own explosives by 20%.
Tropes related to him across all his appearances.
- The Ace: Considered to be the "best man" by the commander in the manual.
- Action Dad: Confirmed to have a wife and two kids in Champions.
- Action Hero: As to be expected from an FPS protagonist who goes around shooting Lovecraftian horrors to smithereens.
- Badass Normal: Just a tough-as-nails marine without any supernatural abilities (except for the power-ups he collects along the way).
- Battle Trophy: Several of Ranger's Vanity accessories in Champions are reclamations from certain Quake enemies. Naturally, they're all just for show.
- "Shambler's Head" is a Shambler head worn as a hood, with Ranger peeking between the teeth.note
- "Spoils of War" hooks a Death Knight's sword and helmet to his belt.
- "Fiendish Hood" is a Fiend's head worn as a hood.
- "Enforcer Helmet" is the helmet worn by the eponymous laser rifle-wielding Quake mooks.
- The Chosen One: The end of episode texts before facing the final boss concludes that he will face The Hell-Mother as an avatar of all earth life.
- Death Glare: Ranger bears a near-constant snarling grimace throughout the entire game, as indicated on the HUD.
- Determinator: Never gives up.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Took on an Elder God, and made it explode from the inside. And several games later, he faces even more deities and beings that put Shub-Niggurath to shame.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Implied to have become this after obtaining all four runes to face the final boss.
- Expy: He is essentially the Quake version of Doomguy.
- Faceless Eye: Turns into a floating pair of these while under the effects of the Ring of Shadows.
- Grumpy Old Man: At least, this is how his fellow combatants view him in Quake III: Arena. One of his possible nicknames is "Old-Timer".
- Hero of Another Story: In both Quake III: Arena and Quake Champions.
- Heroic Mime: The only things that come from Ranger's mouth in both this game and III Arena are, well, grunts. Only Champions gives him a clear voice.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He abandoned the life he knew once he entered the Slipgate to confront Quake, but if he hadn't there wouldn't be anything left.
- Jack of All Stats: In Champions, Ranger is the closest the game has to an all-around character.
- I Just Want to Be Free: Even in Champions, he's still struggling to escape the dimensions and get back to his family.
- Jumped at the Call: His only real character trait in the first game is his consistent way of leaping into action right at the first sign of trouble, no matter how fatigued he may be and with nary a care for his wellbeing, as he knows it would be a Fate Worse than Death to live in a world ruled by Quake.
- Kill the God: Telefrags Shub-Niggurath at the end of the main game.
- Made of Iron: He gets shot, slashed, burned by acid, scorched by lava, fried by lightning and other arcane assaults, breaks his bones falling from high distances, almost drowns while swimming through sewage and even gets his mind defiled by eldritch terrors as part of his quest to find the 4 runes, yet none of that makes a dent in his determination.
- Mind Rape: According to the endings of most episodes, the Runes have this effect on his mind. By the time of Champions, it's clear his sanity has seen better days.
- Misery Builds Character: The man's had a lot of trauma throughout his career, but these experiences hardened him and granted a serious edge for slaughtering interdimensional demons.
- No Name Given: Until Quake III: Arena gave him the name "Ranger" (which Quake Champions retained), he wasn't given any name.
- Older Than They Look: Ranger's backstory in Champions indicates he was a veteran of the Vietnam War and was married at some point before 1978, yet he doesn't seem to have aged a day in the almost three decades he's been fighting in the other dimension. This is either an effect of time being broken in the other dimension, or maybe he's just got whatever "don't visibly show signs of aging until you hit 70" genes that B.J. Blazkowitz has.
- One-Man Army: In keeping with the traditions of the time, it doesn't matter how many monsters get thrown at Ranger. He'll still frag every one of them.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: He's only known as "Ranger", with other characters from all the games he appears in naming him "Quakeguy" or "Old timer". His real name is never displayed.
- Perpetual Frowner: His facial expression is constantly a pissed-off snarl, but turns into a Slasher Smile when he is under the influence of Satan's power.
- Rocket Jump: His passive ability in Champions is all about this, letting him do so without as much damage to himself as anyone else would incur from attempting it.
- Sergeant Rock: Subverted. An experienced grunt that the commander put in charge of the operation, but he's the only survivor of the entire incident before the game even starts.
- Semper Fi: He is the Quake Marine, and is acknowledged as such in III Arena and Champions.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Survivor (and main hero) of the Slipgate Wars. All he has left to keep him going, according to Champions, is a faded family photo tucked into his armor. Also scarred from his tour in Vietnam when he was a young man, as seen in the comic.
- Silent Protagonist: As with most of Id Software's characters, he doesn’t have any need to talk and only makes grunts and shouts. An Averted Trope in Champions.
- Sole Survivor: Of Operation Counterstrike. All his men were either killed or possessed by the otherworldly forces.
- Space Marine: He explicitly refers to himself as a Marine in his Quake III and Quake Champions combat dialogue.
- Staring Down Cthulhu: Does this if the player decides to stay still to admire the hideousness of the final boss.
- Stylistic Suck: The 1996 model of Ranger was ported to Quake Champions as a selectable skin.
- Suicide Mission: There's no way of knowing where he'll appear or if he'll ever make it back, but he darts into the slipgates to stop Quake regardless. He still has this mindset in III Arena and Champions.
- Take That!: After being fragged in Champions, this is one of his messages:"Sometimes the world doesn't need another hero, it needs a monster!"
- Travel to Projectile: In Champions, Ranger can teleport to any part of the arena by using his Dire Orb, which shoots an orb in a straight line that can be cancelled at any point, the result being Ranger getting teleported to his intended destination.
- The Undead: An unusual variation. Ranger's "Geiger Counter" accessory in his "Raider" costume in Champions says that he was alive at one point but got killed. Possibly by the same gang of bandits he murdered to avenge the scavengers.
- War Hero: Vietnam veteran and hero of the Slipgate Wars.
Monsters
Introduced in Quake
Grunt
- Ambiguously Human: The manual describes them as being "customized serial killers" with cybernetic implants that give them ecstasy every time they kill, but it's not clear whether they are reanimated dead or Technically Living Zombies.
- Angry Animalistic Growl: They let out feral-sounding growls when idle, showing that these guys are definitely not normal people.
- Expy: They fill the same role as the Zombieman from Doom: rank-and-file human soldiers controlled by the forces of evil that drop 5 rounds for your most basic weapon when killed.
- Fish out of Water: Being futuristic, gun-toting soldiers, they normally only appear in the science fiction-themed "Base" levels, but they are also present in the Medieval-themed "E1M2: Castle of the Damned", where they look quite out of place.
- Glass Cannon: The weakest unit in the game, however, it's almost always found in packs or alongside other stronger mooks, and the damage from their shotguns piles up.
- Hitscan: The only enemy in the game whose attack is not a projectile that can be dodged. Thankfully, their shotgun is slightly weaker than the player's own.
- Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy: To compensate for the fact that the third weakest enemy in the game is the only one with a long-range hitscan attack, Grunts have poor accuracy in their shots.
- Informed Attribute: Supposedly, the probes in their brains make them feel extremely happy whenever they kill someone, but they are Perpetual Frowners.
- Video Game Caring Potential: For a certain value of "caring": not gibbing them makes them drop ammo for the Shotgun and the Super Shotgun.
- With Friends Like These...: The only monster that will retaliate against attacks from one of their species, likely a consequence of their Unstoppable Rage.
Rottweiler
- Angry Guard Dog: Found in the techbase levels, they'll attack Ranger on sight with a lunging bite as their sole attack.
- Expy: Of the attack dogs from Wolfenstein 3-D.
- Fragile Speedster: One of the weakest units in the game. However, they're almost always found in packs or alongside other, stronger mooks and are quite fast.
- I Have Many Names: In the game files, they're just called "dog".
- Lethal Joke Character: Although their bites and scratches are normally quite wimpy, their leap attack can be a One-Hit KO if it happens to land above the player's head.
- Unique Enemy: In Quake 64, they appear only in the opening level, "E1M1: The Slipgate Complex". They were cut from the only other techbase level included in this port.
Enforcer
"Halt!" "Stop!" "Freeze!" "You there!"
Sturdier marines outfitted in full Biosuits and armed with Laser Rifles.- Ambiguously Human: The manual describes them as "Grunt, Mark Two", but doesn't mention whether they have the same pleasure-inducing cybernetics, and unlike Grunts, they're able to speak.
- Ascended Extra: After appearing in only three levels of the original Quake and being barely any more prominent in the subsequent expansions, Dimension of the Machine upgrades them into the most common enemy, with dozens appearing in every level.
- Elite Mook: Beefier Grunts wearing a full Biosuit and armed with Laser Rifles.
- Energy Weapon: Their Laser Rifles fire bolts that are very hard to dodge and do a lot of damage.
- Faceless Goons: Their Biosuit helmets feature tinted visors.
- Glowing Eyes of Doom: Their glowing, red eyes can be faintly seen beneath their visors.
- Unique Enemy: In Quake 64, due to substantial cuts being made to the techbase levels (with two of the four levels being removed altogether), they only appear in one level (namely "E3M1: Termination Central").
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: Their Laser Rifle cannot be used by the player. Although the Scourge of Armagon mission pack features a usable Laser Cannon, it fires red beams that are much stronger than the rifles' orange beams.
- Vader Breath: After they've spotted the player, their muffled heavy breathing can be heard echoing through the halls as they hunt you down.
Ogre / Multi-Grenade Ogre
Left: Ogre; Right: Multi-Grenade Ogre
Large, humanoid monstrosities armed with a grenade launcher for ranged combat and with a chainsaw for melee combat. The multi-grenade variant is introduced in Dissolution of Eternity.- Bottomless Magazines: They have an unlimited number of grenades to chuck at you. Fortunately, they're easy to dodge.
- Brought to You by the Letter "S": Multi-grenade ogres have the Quake series' stylized Q printed on the centre of their tunics.
- Chainsaw Good: They carry one on their right arm.
- Grenade Launcher: The regular variety fires standard grenades, while the Multi-Grenade variety uses the eponymous Multi-Grenades that split into five more, covering a bigger area. Despite firing grenades that look just like the player's, they are much weaker, to the point that, of all enemies with explosive attacks, Ogres are the only ones that can't gib zombies.
- Informed Ability: They're described as being "cannibal monsters". No related actions are found in the game, though.
- Informed Attribute: They are supposedly cannibals, but much like every enemy except for the Grunt, they will never engage in monster in-fighting with their kin.
- Mighty Glacier:
- Regular Ogres have 200 HP and are equipped with both a Grenade Launcher and a chainsaw, but they aren't all that fast.
- Multi-Grenade Ogres are statistically identical to standard Ogres, but fire Multi-grenades that split into 5 mini grenades if the initial multi-grenade isn't prematurely detonated by hitting an entity.
- Our Ogres Are Hungrier: One of the most common enemies in non-modern levels (only missing the later stages of Episode 4), and inexplicably carry chainsaws and grenade launchers.
- Underground Monkey: The Multi-Grenade Ogres wear yellow-green tunics with a silver Quake insignia, instead of the standard brown tunic and insignia. Other additions include a pad on their right shoulders, a blue tattoo ringing their upper left arms, green wristbands, a belt, crimson glowing eyes, a Slasher Smile and additional blood splatters all over themselves.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The player never gets to wield their chainsaw.
- Video Game Caring Potential: For a certain value of "caring": not gibbing them makes them drop small packs of explosive ammo, which, given the scarcity of ammo for the Grenade Launcher and the Rocket Launcher (and in Dissolution of Eternity, their multiprojectile counterparts), is a Shubsend.
Scrag
- Little "No": They make noises reminiscent of an airy, monotone "no" whenever they're hit.
- Fragile Speedster: Doesn't have a lot of health, and its spit attack is not particularly damaging, but it has the best mobility of all enemies in the base game, and flinching does not stop it from attacking.
- I Have Many Names: The entity's official in-game name is "monster_wizard".
- Non-Indicative Name: Its name was presumably changed due to it being a maggot/snake thing that has no wizard-like traits whatsoever, other than magically floating. The QTest demo showed that the Scrag initially fired explosive orbs instead of slime, but that's as close to a wizard as it gets.
Knight
- Ambiguously Human: They look human and bleed red, but are incapable of speech and seem to be native to the other dimensions, meaning they are likely Human Aliens.
- Artificial Stupidity: Though they're far from the only enemy to relentlessly pursue the player no matter what might stand in their path, they stand out due to having no ranged attacks and no ability to jump, leading to them frequently flailing about uselessly from across a chasm or through a window with seemingly no awareness that they clearly cannot hit you.
- Glass Cannon: Doesn't have a lot of health, but their swords are downright lethal once you get into their swinging range.
- Put on a Bus: For whatever reason, following "E2M2: The Ogre Citadel", they vanish completely from the game for a long while, throughout the rest of Episode 2 and the entirety of Episode 3. They don't appear again until "E4M2: The Tower of Despair", which is also the first level where they appear together with Death Knights, who debuted in "E2M3: The Crypt of Decay" and essentially replaced them.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The player never gets to wield their sword.
Fiend
- Artificial Stupidity:
- They will automatically use their jump attack unless you are at extremely close range, even if the ceiling is too low for it to work. This can lead to amusing scenarios where a fiend keeps jumping in place trying in vain to get at you right up until you kill it.
- They will also automatically use their jump attack if they're on a ledge. Forcing them into that situation can easily make them jump in the wrong direction and fall into a chasm, effectively removing their threat.
- If their leap attack is evaded, they're locked into a specific frame of their animation, where they're quite vulnerable.
- Bullfight Boss: One of the best ways to deal with Fiends is to bait their lunge and sidestep, then punish them as they try to recover.
- Degraded Boss: In the main game, they're introduced with boss-like drama the first time one shows upnote but becomes a regular enemy rather quickly - by Episode 4, they're extremely common.
- Establishing Character Moment: As noted above, their first appearance in the game is behind a locked door in "E1M2: Castle of the Damned", which is likely to give new players a quick and unpleasant introduction to the deadliness of their leap attack.
- Expy: Of the Pinky enemy from Doom, with a leaping attack added for good measure.
- Goomba Stomp: If their leap attack lands on top of the target, it deals devastating damage. The player and most enemies are prone to get instantly gibbed by it, even if they are at full health.
- I Have Many Names: Their programmed entity, model, sound effects, and coding all refer to them by the name "demon".
- In a Single Bound: The first thing you're likely to notice about the Fiend is how quickly they can cover large distances by leaping.
- Lightning Bruiser: Look like Fragile Speedsters at first, but they have 300 hit points on top of their extreme mobility and deadly melee attack. Their leap attack is fairly predictable, but it causes a lot of damage depending on where they hit you.
- Smash Mook: And their mobility makes them quite the apparent example, at that.
Shambler
The Shambler as it appears in Quake.
Click here to see it as it appears on Quake II: Call of the Machine.
Click here to see it as it appears on Quake II: Call of the Machine.
Big, white monstrosities that shoot lightning bolts at their target at long and mid-range, attacking with their claws at close range.
They reappear in the Call of the Machine campaign in the 2023 remaster of Quake II. For tropes related to their appeareance in that game's campaign, go here.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Appears at junctures in the game where a boss would be expected (the end of an episode) and is quite deadly.
- The Cameo:
- Quake Champions feature its head as a Vanity accessory for Ranger, and one of its arms is an alternate skin for the Lightning Gun.
- Several of them make an appearance in the Call of the Machine campaign in the 2023 remaster of Quake II, with a few of them even being bosses.
- Degraded Boss: It fares a little better than the Vore, only becoming common late in Episode 4 and the mission packs. On Hard and Nightmare difficulties you even encounter three of them as early as the third level of the first episode, the first two one after another.
- The Dreaded: The manual states that even the other monsters fear it. It isn't prevalent in the game, since other monsters will fight the Shambler if hit by its lightning attack.
- Eyeless Face:
According to John Romero, it lacks eyes because its native realms are dim, humid, and horrific, and not having eyes there is an advantage. - Giant Mook: Has almost twice the height of the Player Character.
- Hitscan: Its lightning attack always hits its target.
- Lightning Bruiser: Has the highest amount of hit points of all enemies (at 600), takes only half damage from explosives (which are the most powerful weapons the player has access to), and is a lot faster than its huge size might make you assume. Its surprising speed can make it difficult to dodge out of their line of sight to avoid their hitscan ranged attack.
- Meaningful Name: It isn't called "Shambler" for nothing, since he will leave you in shambles if you get too close to him. The monster resembles the Dimensional Shambler from the Cthulhu Mythos both in name and appearance.
- No-Sell: Possess a 50% damage resistance to all explosives.
- Rule of Perception: If it cannot see you when it's about to cast its thunderbolt attack, it will not damage you.
- Shock and Awe: Its main attack method is to cook up a stream of lightning and shoot it at you.
Zombie
- And I Must Scream: Never truly dies, only blown to pieces to not pose a threat.
- Chunky Salsa Rule: It isn't normally killed by bullets or nails (since it's already dead) and must be blown up with either explosives or Quad Damage-powered Shotgun hits.
- Critical Existence Failure: It has to be gibbed to be killed, has 60 health points and needs to reach -5 health to be gibbed.
- Helpful Mook: By itself, it's an annoyance of variating level; however, it'll stop being a threat if gibbed, something only a few high-level mooks can do, and zombies are pathetically easy to draw into infighting with their slow movement speed and quirky attack pattern. Anything lesser than a Fiend or Ogre will lose in a battle of attrition, and Fiends and Ogres will be permanently distracted by hacking at the immobilized prone zombie at their feet.
- Mighty Glacier: Without explosive weapons or Quad Damage they're this: they are very slow, but when killed without being gibbed, will eventually get back up.
- Night of the Living Mooks: It can only be killed by gibbing.
- Our Zombies Are Different: No longer being the possessed soldier of Doom, instead now being your more typical slow, shambling undead - the upshot for it is that nothing puts them down permanently short of full-body destruction.
- Resurrective Immortality: If you "kill" a zombie with non-explosive, non-Quad Damage empowered weapons, it will fall and lie there for about five seconds before coming back to life. The only way to permanently kill it is to blow them to bits.
- You Can't Kill What's Already Dead: It's described as such in the manual. They get back up and continue lurching towards you if they're not gibbed.
- Zombie Apocalypse: Many levels are full of zombies, which are lots of fun to kill. Make sure you have rockets, however, because they won't die any other way unless you have Quad Damage and can splatter them with lesser weapons.
Death Knight
For the Death Knight playable character from Quake Champions, check the QC character sheet.
- Ambiguously Human: Just like the regular Knights, they look human enough but, being apparent natives to the alternate dimension, are more likely Human Aliens.
- Breakout Mook Character: A Death Knight made the cut for Quake Champions as a playable character.
- Elite Mook: Much harder to kill and deal more damage than the regular Knight, as well as having a fan of fireballs for a ranged attack.
- Giant Mook: Tower over the Player Character at almost 1.5x the height.
- I Have Many Names: Also known as the "Hell Knight" within the game files.
- Mighty Glacier: They aren't very fast but have 50 more health points than the Ogre, and their sword can launch several energy bolts with each swing.
- Spread Shot: They fire several fireballs at once, although they're relatively slow and can be avoided. Champions reduced this ability to three and christened it "Wall of Fire".
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The player never gets to wield their sword nor cast its Spread Shot.
Rotfish
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: They're absent from Dissolution of Eternity, being replaced with the Electric Eel.
- Game-Breaking Bug: In earlier versions of Quake, it was impossible to achieve 100% Completion on levels with Rotfish because each one of them was mistakenly counted as two different monsters.
- I Have Many Names: Much like the Rottweilers, their name within the game files is just "fish".
- Piranha Problem: A bit more monstrous and deadly than real piranhas, but certainly inspired by this trope, and they were even directly referred to as "Piranhas" in a beta version of the game.
- Unique Enemy: In Dimension of the Machine, Rotfish only appear in MGE3M1: Down the Waste.
Vore
- Ambiguous Gender: In comparison to the fairly masculine appearances of most of the other monsters, the Vore has a distinctly thin frame and higher-pitched voice, vaguely resembling a woman. At least according to John Romero
, the Vore is indeed female, although whether he means Vores are a One-Gender Race or merely that only female Vores are encountered in Quake is unknown.note - Artificial Stupidity: Depending on the angle or whatever is in front of them, Vores can damage themselves by firing their homing projectiles near the obstruction and have them explode in their faces.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: Appears at junctures in the game where a boss would be expected (the end of an episode) and is quite deadly.
- Call-Back: Vores appear as bosses in the second episode, and then as regular mooks in 3 and 4. This is similar to the Barons of Hell, the bosses of the first episode of Doom.
- Creepy High-Pitched Voice: They emit high-pitched snarls, screeches and sighs.
- Degraded Boss: Vores first appear as a Dual Boss at the end of the second episode, only reappear in the secret and final levels of Episode 3 and only become a common enemy in Episode 4.
- Eyeless Face: According to John Romero, it lacks eyes because the realms that it's native to are dim, humid, and horrific, and not having eyes there is a advantage.
- Giant Spider: It's a cross between this and some sort of demon.
- Have a Gay Old Time: "Vore" in modern times refers to a fetish involving being aroused by the thought of being eaten (by other people, animals, monsters, etc). Both the fetish and the monster get their name from the same source: the Latin Vorus (devouring), from which we get words like "carnivore".
- Hoist by His Own Petard: While it's rather difficult and not generally a good idea, it's possible to get a Vore's homing projectile to crash into it, as the Vore itself is rather slow-moving.
- Homing Projectile: It shoots exploding spikey Firepods that track you with surprising effectiveness, but they can be avoided by getting them to smash into obstacles and walls very early. Particularly hilarious if you can position the Vore so it keeps throwing the spikey balls into a nearby wall or column. It won't realise the splash damage is hurting it and end up slowly killing itself.
- I Have Many Names: Its model, programming, and sound files all refer to it as "shalrath".
- Mighty Glacier: Has twice as much health as Ogres and moves even slower. It's exploding pod attack, on the other hand...
Spawn / Hell Spawn
Left: Spawn; Right: Hell Spawn
Purple, blob-like monsters. When active, they bounce randomly everywhere as they're chasing their target, exploding upon death. Hell Spawns, introduced in Dissolution of Eternity, can also duplicate themselves.- Action Bomb: Downplayed, they attack the player with ramming attacks, but won't explode unless being killed.
- Blob Monster: Both are shapeless blobs.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Upon being destroyed, they explode.
- I Have Many Names: Within the game's code, their name is not "spawn", but "tarbaby".
- Self-Duplication: Hell Spawns are also able to duplicate themselves. The duplicates themselves cannot create further duplicates, however.
- Thanatos Gambit: Upon destruction, they release an explosive blast that damages anything nearby.
- Underground Monkey: Hell Spawns are Spawns with a sickly tar-green colour and are dotted with bulging orange-yellow eyes. Hell Spawn duplicates lack the eyes, making them a truer palette swap to the standard Spawn.
Chthon
- Ambiguous Gender: Zig-Zagged. Unlike Shub-Niggurath, Chthon is referred to as "it" in Episode 1's ending text instead of with gendered pronouns, although Dimension of the Machine does have onscreen text that calls it a "him".
- Back from the Dead: Ends up resurrected in the Dimension of the Machine expansion and serves as the final boss.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Chthon is completely immune to all damage apart from two adjustable columns that can shoot lightning between them. Subverted in Dimension of the Machine, where Ranger has to use the Thunderbolt weapon to damage him instead.
- Eldritch Abomination: A massive, serpent shaped demon with claws, horns and a vertical maw for a face.
- High-Voltage Death: The only way to kill Chthon is by repeatedly zapping him with the two coils by his sides, and in Dimension Of The Machine, the Thunderbolt is the only portable weapon that can touch him, so this trope is par for the course.
- I Have Many Names: Its name within the game's code is simply "boss".
- Meaningful Name: Chthon is Greek for "earth" (as in, underground). Where does he live? Beneath the Earth.
- Puzzle Boss: The main game's final fight against him involves no shooting, as it cannot be damaged by regular means. Luckily, the level provides a way to put it down, and the player must execute it several times.
- Satanic Archetype: Referred to as the "Demon of Fire & Darkness", and "Master of the Underworld" in Dimension of the Machine's end text.
- Tactical Suicide Boss: For an Eldritch Abomination that's weak to lightning, setting up camp in the exact same spot where two electricity coils are wasn't the brightest move he could have made.
- Weaksauce Weakness: Lightning. In the first battle, you have to trigger it by using two coils conveniently placed at his sides, and stepping on some switches on the floor in a certain order in a short period. In Dimension of the Machine, the Thunderbolt is the only weapon capable of damaging him.
Spoiler boss
Shub-Niggurath
- Adaptational Wimp: In the original Cthulhu Mythos, she's one of the "big three" gods (along with Azathoth and Yog-Sothoth), and is invincible. Here, she gets eviscerated by an Old Soldier(albeit by telefragging her rather than using his impressive arsenal, due to them being ineffective).
- Ancient Evil: A being older than time with bad intent.
- Blob Monster: A freakishly huge tub of lard and tentacles.
- Boss-Arena Idiocy: Absolutely nothing can injure her - except for being telefragged by the mysterious spiked sphere that flies around her arena, which never appears anywhere else in the game.
- Boss Tease: She's first mentioned at the end of Episode 2: The Realm of Black Magic.
- Brown Note Being: Standing too close to her will cause you light damage. It seems her very presence is unbearable for Ranger's body to handle.
- Cosmic Horror Story: It's never explained why Shub-Niggurath wants to kill all of mankind, she just does.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Pops like a zit upon death as Ranger emerges from her insides, causing her remains to rain down her otherworldly cathedral.
- Eldritch Abomination: A giant monster with tentacles on top.
- Flunky Boss: As a consequence of not being able to move or attack at all, the Vores and Shamblers found across her level put the players to the test.
- Greater-Scope Villain: Call of the Machine implies she serves as this in the Strogg War due to ambiguous connections between them and her. Whether she created them or was simply offering them assistance is up for debate.
- I Have Many Names: Under the hood, her game files refer to her by the name "old one". Additionally, she's referred to as the Hell-Mother and the Witch-Goddess in the end-of-episode texts.
- It Can Think: Masterminded the interdimensional invasion of the earth.
- Lack of Empathy: This hideous being isn't even slightly bothered by all the men, women and children that will perish to her wicked ways.
- Meaningful Name: Shub-Niggurath is described by H. P. Lovecraft as "the black goat of the woods with a thousand young". Granted, she is a giant tentacled monster, not a goat, but she does control all the enemies in the game and it's implied she created them too. She looks more like one of the "Dark Young" that was invented by Call of Cthulhu creator Sandy Petersen as "children" of Shub.
- Only a Flesh Wound: She will bleed when shot, but your attacks won't injure her at all.
- Puzzle Boss: The only way to defeat her is by teleporting at the same time that the spiked sphere enters her body, though it'll take a bit for the player to figure that out.
- Samus Is a Girl: "Quake" is referred to as a "he" in the instruction manual, since the human military doesn't know their enemy's identity. Not that anyone would be able to tell her sex just by looking at her, anyway.
- Silent Antagonist: Doesn't utter a sound, likely because she doesn't even have a mouth.
- Stationary Boss: Doesn't move from her location at all, relying on the Vores and Shamblers located across the playable area as well as the level's traps.
Introduced in Scourge of Armagon
Centroid
- Beware My Stinger Tail: They use their stinger on their enemies for heavy damage. In the player's case, if they get too close.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: They're large cybernetic Scary Scorpions.
- Cyborg: Described as such in the old official websites for Scourge of Armagon, and heavily supported by their sounds and appearance.
- Expy: Centroids fill a similar role and vibe to Doom's Arachnotrons: walking, bug-like turrets that will rapidly pelt you with projectiles if they wind up.
- I Have Many Names: Their entity name within the game files is "scourge", which would also make them one-half of the title characters of Scourge of Armagon.
- More Dakka: Armed with twin nailguns on each of their claws, which can deal heavy damage if you don't jump around like a madman and put enough effort into dodging them.
- Video Game Caring Potential: For a certain value of "caring": not gibbing them makes them drop Nailgun ammo.
Gremlin
- Giggling Villain: They laugh mischievously whenever they spot the player.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: They can steal the player's weapons (sans Axe, Shotgun and Mjölnir) and use these against them.
- I'm a Humanitarian: They happily munch on any stray corpse it can get their spikey mitts on, including those of other Gremlins.
- Me's a Crowd: They duplicate from eating the deceased monsters' bodies.
- Only the Chosen May Wield: The Gremlins can't steal the Mjölnir.
Spike Mine
- Achilles' Heel:
- They instantly detonate when struck with a nail, no matter which nailgun is used. It's a quite a helpful weakness, as they're deceptively sturdy against other weapons.
- Like the Vores' homing explosive pods, Spike Mines can be duped into hitting walls as they're closing in.
- Action Bomb: Slowly goes towards their target, causing a huge explosion on contact.
- Can't Move While Being Watched: While they still move as long as they detect a player, they slow down considerably when the player watches them. However, the moment the player turns their back, Mines rocket toward them at full speed, almost guaranteeing contact if the player is unaware.
- It Can Think: At first glance, you might assume them to be a simple bomb (albeit a creepily flesh-covered one), but since they make strange chattering noises when spotting the player and pay attention to whether they're being watched, it seems that they are, in fact, alive. Which is not to say that they're particularly intelligent, mind you.
Spoiler boss
Armagon
- Antagonist Title: The Expansion Pack is named after him.
- Boss Tease: Armagon is mentioned as early as the end of Episode 1: Fortress of the Dead.
- Chicken Walker: His legs are shaped like chicken legs.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Armagon let's out a final roar as his body combusts in a bloody & fiery death.
- Dragon Ascendant: Takes over the forces of Shub-Niggurath after her defeat.
- Load-Bearing Boss: His lair crumbles after he's defeated, the destruction revealing a passage back to Earth.
- Mechanical Monster: Biomechanical, a demonic entity of untold evil armed with rockets and lasers.
- Mind Rape: Does this to Ranger midway through the game.
Introduced in Dissolution of Eternity
Phantom Swordsman
- Underground Monkey: Despite being floating swords with no visible wielder, they are no more statistically unique than standard Knights.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The player never gets to wield the sword.
- Visible Invisibility: Besides their visible weapons, Phantom Swordsmen cast a bright, ambient glow from their position.
Electric Eel
- Psycho Electric Eel: The sole aquatic-native enemy of Dissolution of Eternity, with almost thrice the health of the Rotfish and a considerably more damaging attack.
Wrath
- Establishing Character Moment: They make their first appearance rising out of a grave in R1M6: Temple of Pain amidst a cemetery full of zombies.
- Expy Coexistence: Vores and Wraths can be found in the same levels on certain occasions.
- Homing Projectile: They throw red-coloured Vore Firepods that deal considerably less damage.
- Power Floats: Like their Overlord, they're floating entities.
- Taking You with Me: Like Spawns, Wraths will explode on death for a considerable amount of damage, albeit their explosion is a bit delayed, this is their main threat due to the low damage of their spike attack and tendency to try to get close to you.
- Underground Monkey: Downplayed; its similarities with the Vore are that they're both quite hard to bring down and throw a homing projectile. However, that's where the similarities end.
The Overlord
- Defeat Equals Explosion: A blood and bones explosion as usual, but still.
- Degraded Boss: The second episode's time travel shenanigans lead to the Ranger crossing paths with the Overlord again at the end of "R2M5: The Wizard's Keep".
- Homing Projectile: It throws red-coloured versions of the Vore's Firepods that deal considerably less damage.
- Multi-Armed and Dangerous: It has four arms, and it's the end boss of Episode 1.
- Skippable Boss: The second fight with the Overlord in "R2M5: The Wizard's Keep" can be skipped.
- Teleport Spam: Loves to teleport all around the place.
Statues
Left — Knight Statue. Right — Death Knight Statue
Inanimate stone sculptures, which first act as scenery objects... until they awaken and attack the player. Come in Knight and Death Knight variations.- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Like every other enemy, they bleed when shot, choke when they die and explode into gory red chunks when gibbed, despite their not being alive.
- Living Statue: They're initially placed on the map as static props, though will awaken when the player activates certain triggers (entering rooms, opening doors, collecting items/powerups, etc.). They even gib.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: Death Knight Statues resemble armoured minotaurs, befitting the Ancient Grome setting of the level they're exclusively encountered in.
- Underground Monkey: They're little more than Knights and Death Knights with unique models and edited sounds.
- Unique Enemy: They're only encountered in "R2M1: Tempus Fugit".
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The player never gets to wield their swords.
Guardians
Left to right: Greek Guardian (Quake's Guardian), Egyptian Guardian, Aztec Guardian (Quake's High Priest)
A bunch of Quake's generals, stationed across time and fought at the end of several levels in Episode 2: The Corridors of Time.- Boom Stick: Each one of them is armed with a stave that shoots a spread of energy bolts.
- Damage-Sponge Boss: All the main guardians have an easily avoidable attack, but a massive 2000 HP pool. Even the Multi-Rocket Launcher will take several direct hits to bring them down.
- Enemy Summoner: Quake's Guardian can summon more Guardians.
- Humanoid Abomination: While appearing human enough at first, the noises that comes out of its mouth are nothing short of abominable.
- Nepharious Pharaoh: The Egyptian Guardian's getup makes him resemble one.
- Unique Enemy: Downplayed, each of the Guardians have unique names in every level they appear: the one at the end of "R2M1: Tempus Fugit" is called "Quake's Gaurdian" (sic), the one at the end of "R2M4: Curse of Osiris" is called "Egyptian Guardian", and the one at the end of "R2M6: Blood Sacrifice" is called "Quake's High Priest". Other than that, they're the same enemy, reskinned.
- Unusable Enemy Equipment: The player never gets to wield their staff.
Hephaestus
- Expy: They're lesser versions of Chthon.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: They cannot be damaged by lava or fire-based attacks such as the Lava Nails or Super Lava Nails.
- Unique Enemy: They appear only in "R2M3: Elemental Fury II", and only one section of it, at that.
Mummy
- Damage-Sponge Boss: Almost twice the total health of a Shambler. Luckily, you can Tele-Frag one of them if you stand on the exact spot she spawns, and save a ton of ammo.
- Elite Mook: A beefier version of the Zombie.
- Mighty Glacier: A Zombie retextured to look thematically appropriate with the Egyptian level... and a massive health pool of 1000 HP - more than 16.5 times that of the Zombie's paltry 60 HP.
- Underground Monkey: A Zombie draped in tattered white bandages and with an absent lower jaw.
- Unique Enemy: Fought only in one level in the entire pack.
Spoiler boss
The Dragon
- Damage-Sponge Boss: With 6,000 health points on Hard/Nightmare difficulty, it's the sturdiest monster in the game, outside of the invincible Shub-Niggurath.
- Defeat Equals Explosion: Upon defeat, it will crash to the ground and bursts into bloody giblets.
- The Dragon: On top of it being a dragon, it's also the guardian of the Temporal Energy Converter, the evil device that the forces of Quake need to invade other dimensions in the first place.
- Made of Iron: Whether you use bullets, lightning, rockets, or anything else at all, it will take dozens of hits without even flinching.
- Our Dragons Are Different: A winged dragon that serves the eldritch god Shub-Niggurath.
