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This article appeared in Quake II  

Adrenaline

Adrenaline as it appears in game.

This slightly increases your health permanently.

—Quake II Manual

In Quake II, Adrenaline is a power-up that permanently increases the player's maximum health by 1, as well as instantly boosting the player's health to the new maximum. In the original game, it takes effect immediately as the player collects it, but in the 2023 remaster it is added to the player's inventory to be used whenever the player chooses. Like many other consumable power-ups such as Quad Damage, the number of Adrenalines a player can carry in their inventory depends upon the difficulty setting - three on Easy, two on Normal, one on Hard/Nightmare.

While the idea of having just 1 extra health point does not seem like much, certain single-player campaigns (especially vanilla Quake II and The Reckoning) contain many Adrenalines, which can add up to a substantial boost in the long term. The vanilla Quake II campaign contains thirty-seven Adrenalines plus a unique item (see the Ancient Head section below) which if all are collected will increase the player's maximum health to 142.

In deathmatch, Adrenaline will heal the player to their full health, but it does not add 1 to their maximum health value.

Strategies[]

  • The change to Adrenaline in the 2023 remaster - making it an inventory item that can be used whenever the player chooses - changes it into a useful portable healing item. It is generally the best idea to keep it in your inventory ready for whenever the player might be in health trouble. If another Adrenaline pick-up is found while the player's capacity is full, they can simply use an Adrenaline from their inventory to benefit from the +1 to their maximum health and then pick up the new one.
  • It is a good idea to bind the a key or a mouse button to "use adrenaline". By doing this, the player will have the option of instantly healing themselves to full health with a simple tap of a key or a button as long as they have an Adrenaline in their inventory. To e.g. bind the right button this way, issue the command bind mouse2 use adrenaline via either the console (opened with the tilde key) or via AUTOEXEC.CFG file.

Locations in vanilla Quake II[]

  1. Outer Base: through the window at the start of the level and down the ladder
  2. Lost Station: Secret area beyond the blaster trap
  3. Comm Center: Circular pit containing slime
  4. Supply Station: On the crates in the room containing the first power cube
  5. Warehouse: Secret area at the bottom of the spiral staircase
  6. Detention Center: Two in a secret area with the Power Shield
  7. Detention Center: see #6
  8. Guard House: Secret area in the outer courtyard
  9. Guard House: Inside an explosive crate near the combat armor
  10. Upper Mines: after ascending the first elevator, in the recess above the crusher
  11. Borehole: Secret area in the water underneath the walkway
  12. Borehole: Secret area near the drilling machinery
  13. Lower Mines: In front of the tunnel where the drilling machine chases you.
  14. Drilling Area: On top of the crates by the exit of the unit.
  15. Sudden Death: Upper level, on the rim of the top edge.
  16. Processing Plant: In the alcove upened by shooting the hidden button.
  17. Power Plant: Shoot the flashing button in the entrance.
  18. The Reactor: Behind the indented panel.
  19. Cooling Facility: Down the ladder, after walking along the edge of the canal.
  20. Toxic Waste Dump: After collecting the envirosuit, next to the secret with the invulnerability powerup.
  21. Pumping Station 1: Explosive crate that blows up after shooting the light.
  22. Pumping Station 1: After shooting the damaged pipe, in the room with the technicians.
  23. Pumping Station 2: At the secret alcove after the toxic waste canal.
  24. Outer Hangar: Behind the pipes in the lower control center.
  25. Comm Satellite: On the lower beam, in the chamber with the bottom opened to space.
  26. Comm Satellite: On the beam next to the door that leads to the exit.
  27. Inner Hangar: Inside the sparking computer by the entrance.
  28. Inner Hangar: Hidden alcove beneath the water, next to the boss.
  29. Outer Courts: After pushing the button in the courtyard, behind a hidden door in the starting area.
  30. Outer Courts: After the alarm goes off, inside the newly blown-up compartment.
  31. Outer Courts: Hidden behind a shootable, indented wall next to the data spinner.
  32. Lower Palace: Secret area behind an explosive barrel next to a destructible wall.
  33. Upper Palace: The chamber from which a Technician emerges near the level entrance.
  34. Upper Palace: In the secret area opened after shooting the indented ceiling.
  35. Upper Palace: Next to the button deactivating the yellow force fields.
  36. Upper Palace: In the slime tunnel leading to the iD Memorabilia Room.
  37. Upper Palace: In the iD Memorabilia Room after collecting the Ancient Head.

Ancient Head[]

Super-Adrenaline ver2

Ancient Head appears to take the form of the John Carmack's head.

The Quake II single-player campaign includes a one-of-a-kind secret item called the Ancient Head. It has the appearance of John Carmack and is hidden in a secret chamber in the Upper Palace. It involves quite a bit of searching and detours throughout Unit 9, but collecting it has the effect of five Adrenalines, permanently increasing your maximum health by 5. In the 2023 remaster, it also increases your current health by 5 as well.

To begin, explore the Outer Courts and you will find that one of the five secrets is unobtainable on your first visit; the fifth secret is behind the red forcefields in the waterway leading to the Data Spinner. Take the lower entrance to the Lower Palace and you will soon find a terminal to deactivate the red forcefields; before advancing with your main objective, head back to the Outer Courts to find the final secret, containing a Red Key as well as various other items. The Red Key will be needed later to obtain the Ancient Head.

Secondly, from the room in the Lower Palace containing the supercomputer, proceed to the lower exit to the Upper Palace and explore this part of the level. You can find an excavation area at the bottom of a mineshaft of sorts, blocked by yellow forcefields (you'll deactivate these later). Take note of a secret in this area; a Technician will emerge from the ceiling, revealing a shootable button in the ceiling which allows you to obtain an Environment Suit. This will be useful later.

Continue to explore this section of the Upper Palace until you find the maze of elevators and ladders. About halfway up this maze you can find another keycard, the Security Pass. With this in hand, you can return to the Lower Palace to continue with your mission of destroying the Communication Laser. When you reach the room containing the Communication Laser itself, look for a concealed doorway on the lower level. The Security Pass allows you to deactivate the forcefields mentioned earlier. You can now make your way back to the excavation mineshaft - incidentally, deactivating the yellow forcefields has opened a shortcut leading directly from the Communication Laser area to the ladder maze mentioned earlier.

When you reach the excavation mineshaft, head through until you find a small pool of slime. Concealed just across the pool of slime is a small rock next to the wall which is actually a switch; press this to open a passageway underneath the slime. Activate your environment suit and swim through to find the iD Software Memorabilia Room. There is a computer console which requires the Red Key to use; the console drains a storage tank and allows you to claim the head of John Carmack.

Legacy Head[]

The 2023 remaster includes a new single-player campaign, Call of the Machine. There are several secret levels in this campaign; the one in OPERATION: Ruined Earth is named Pumping Station 3. In this facility you can find the Legacy Head, which is a callback to the Ancient Head - but it has the appearance of Ranger, the protagonist of the first Quake game. When collected, it does the same thing as the Ancient Head, permanently boosting your maximum health and your current health by 5.

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