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This article appeared in Quake II  

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The invulnerability item renders you temporarily indestructible.

—Quake 2 Manual

In Quake II, Invulnerability makes you immune to almost all damage for 30 seconds - enemy attacks, your own weapons' splash damage, and hazards such as lava will have no effect on you. During that time, a red glow will envelop you, alerting others to your status.

The first opportunity to collect one is in a secret area in the Lost Station, which is itself a secret level. They appear in both mission packs as well, The Reckoning and Ground Zero, but are much rarer there. They also appear in Call of the Machine, but not Quake II 64.

There are a few things which can still harm you despite the Invulnerability artifact - see the list below. Most of them are unique environmental hazards. The only weapon available to the player which can freely bypass Invulnerability is the Trap found in The Reckoning.

The final boss of Ground Zero, the Black Widow Guardian, has the ability to use Invulnerability too, but she will only use it on certain difficulty settings and only in response to the player using their own Invulnerability - see her own page for details.

Hazards which bypass Invulnerability[]

Appearances[]

Quake II: Lost Station, Torture Chambers, Drilling Area, Power Plant, Toxic Waste Dump, Pumping Station 2, Outer Courts, Lower Palace, Upper Palace

The Reckoning: Intelligence Center, Industrial Facility (unobtainable), Water Treatment Plant

Ground Zero: Eastern Warehouse, Maintenance Hangars

Call of the Machine: The Casali Effect, Give Me Back My Moon, Security Annex, Comms Bunker, Ruined Earth, McGee Station, Too Deep

Quake II 64: Not present in this campaign

Quake II PSX: Detention Center, Pumping Station 2

Strategies[]

Single Player[]

  • In the Quake II single-player campaign, the Invulnerability power-up is not actually all that rare - a total of nine can be found throughout the Quake II campaign (however, almost all of them are found in secret areas). Invulnerability is such an extraordinarily useful bonus that it's best to save them for the most challenging fights - or, at least, have one available for when a fight seems to be going badly. So long as you do have one in your inventory, a quick tap of the I button is all it takes to make you invincible for 30 seconds, allowing you to safely dispose of the current threats. The 2023 remaster no longer includes these key bindings, but introduces the inventory wheel, accessed by the Q button.
  • They appear in both mission packs The Reckoning and Ground Zero as well, but only two Invulnerability artifacts can be collected in each mission pack, so they must be used more sparingly there. Given only two Invulnerability uses in those two campaigns, it's not a bad idea to plan ahead for when you want to use each one.
  • The final boss of Ground Zero, the Black Widow Guardian, has an Invulnerability power-up too, but she will only activate it on Hard or Nightmare difficulty, and only if the player activates their own Invulnerability power-up. Furthermore, on Nightmare difficulty she will also activate an additional Power Shield with 750 cells. Therefore, while Invulnerability is helpful against the Black Widow Guardian on Easy or Normal difficulty, it doesn't help much on Hard difficulty since all it really does is creates a 30-second ceasefire in which neither the player nor the Black Widow Guardian can harm each other (this isn't completely worthless, since it does give a safe window in which to collect health and ammo from the arena if necessary, but it is perhaps not as helpful as the Invulnerability would be against some of the other fights in Ground Zero). On Nightmare difficulty, it's positively counter-productive to use Invulnerability against the Black Widow Guardian because after both your Invuls wear off, her durability will be higher than it was before.

Multiplayer[]

  • In MP, Invulnerability will allow you to rack up a ton of kills. Take out your favorite weapon and go to town with it!
  • If you see somebody with Invulnerability, run! The red glow surrounding them is a big hint that you need to get your ass in gear. Keep running until you're far away from him. You can, though, knock him off platforms and edges with weapons that cause splash damage, like the Rocket Launcher.
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