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This article appeared in Quake II  

!Q2-Icarus
Icarus
Health

240

Will gib when health is

-100 (to gib instantly)

Attack Damage

Twin Blaster: 1 per bolt

Drops

Cells

Found in

Quake II
The Reckoning
Ground Zero
Quake II 64
Quake II PSX
Call of the Machine

[Source]


Relies on a huge jet packed attached to its back, with laser blasters mounted into his shoulders.

—Quake 2 Manual

In Quake II, an Icarus is a humanoid Strogg with a jetpack built into its upper back, with twin blasters mounted onto its shoulders. Whilst it is only ever seen in flight, it does have legs, which is suggestive of a need to land on a regular basis, probably to refuel, rearm and take in some Stroyent. They first appear in the Security Complex of Unit 3, and are a fairly common enemy throughout the rest of the single-player Quake II campaign.

Behaviour and attacks[]

Twin Blaster: The Icarus fires a random number of bolts in each volley - but always an even number. Each individual bolt deals 1 damage, and they can be reliably dodged by strafing.

An Icarus will only infight with other flying Strogg, i.e. a Flyer, Technician, Daedalus or Hornet. Strogg on the ground might accidentally hit an Icarus, or vice versa, but it won't cause them to deliberately start fighting each other.

Strategies[]

  • Despite having a decent amount of health (same as a Berserker), an Icarus is easy to kill and most of your weapons are effective against it. It is larger and slower than a Flyer. The Shotgun, Super Shotgun or Machine Gun are adequate for the task; the Chain Gun, Railgun, Hyperblaster can be used if you want to get the job done quicker. Its return fire can be avoided by strafing, and with each hyperblaster bolt only dealing 1 damage, the occasional hit isn't a big problem so long as you dodge most of them.

Appearance statistics[]

Campaign Easy Medium Hard/Nightmare
Quake II 61 77 91
The Reckoning 13 18 22
Ground Zero 44 48 31
Quake II 64 24 35 33
Quake II PSX 5 8 9
Call of the Machine 32 39 43

Death Message[]

  • Player was blasted by an Icarus

Trivia[]

  • The jetpacks of the Icarus are used by Strogg teams in Quake Wars: Enemy Territory for temporary aerial combat and flight. The Strogg at the time of the first invasion of Earth hadn't developed any of the units later seen on Stroggos as they weren't as technologically advanced at this time, hence the separate jetpack module.
  • The enemy is named after Icarus from Greek mythology. Icarus was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus (who designed the Labyrinth to contain the Minotaur), but eventually they were both imprisoned by King Minos of Crete. Daedalus fashioned wings for them both, so that they might attempt to escape by flight, but Icarus flew too close to the sun, causing the beeswax in his wings to melt and he fell to his death. Incidentally, the Ground Zero expansion contains a new enemy named the Daedalus - essentially a more powerful version of Quake II's Icarus.
  • It's not terribly clear what the plural of "Icarus" should be - originally the word was a Greek proper noun with no plural form. "Icaruses" or "Icari" seem fine.
  • The projectiles fired by an Icarus have the appearance of those fired by a Hyperblaster, but the overall physics of its weaponry are closer to a pair of blasters.

Sounds[]

Sounds
The Icarus spotting an opponent
The Icarus being injured
The Icarus being killed

Gallery[]

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