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This article appeared in Quake II  

!Q2-MakronF2Makron
The Makron
Health

3,000

Attack Damage
Found in

Quake II
The Reckoning
Quake II PSX
Call of the Machine

[Source]


Not good enough!

—Makron

The Makron is the codename given by humans to the supreme leader of the Strogg. The Makron resides in the northern area of Cerberon in the Palace City, where he commands the planet. The human forces believe that the death of the Makron would throw the Strogg into chaos, and so its assassination is one of the primary objectives of Operation Alien Overlord.

Apparently little more than an organic brain sitting in a large robotic battle suit, the Makron is the main antagonist of Quake II and forms the game's final boss. The Makron is first seen in the Inner Chamber, but retreats through a teleporter to an asteroid sanctum where the Final Showdown takes place.

The battle consists of two stages. First, the Makron will be piloting the Jorg exo-skeleton - see its own page for details. Once the Jorg is destroyed, the Makron will dismount and resume the battle alone.

Appearances elsewhere[]

The Makron and the Jorg are encountered again in the mission pack The Reckoning, again comprising the final boss of the game. From a story perspective it isn't explained how this might be the case, whether the Makron survived one of these two encounters and went to fight the other Marine with a replacement Jorg, or whether these are not the same Strogg individuals but rather two individual warlords using the same class of battlesuit, for example.

The manual asserts that "the Strogg civilisation is governed through a system of Warlords. Each is given strategic locations to command and control. A single leader, called the Makron, is chosen from the Warlords", which could suggest that the commander of the moon base in The Reckoning is one such warlord. Furthermore, this individual Strogg is not explicitly identified as "the Makron" within the game itself, so we only really call it "The Makron" because its appearance and combat abilities are the same as the other individual Strogg from the first campaign who was identified as the Makron. Whereas Bitterman was given explicit orders to kill the Strogg leader identified as "The Makron", Joker (the protagonist of The Reckoning) is not actually given specific orders to defeat this individual Strogg, merely to destroy the moon base and defeat all resistance.

The Makron and the Jorg comprise the final boss of the Playstation version of Quake II, essentially being the same fight as the PC version.

The 2023 Remaster includes a new single-player campaign, Call of the Machine. Four bosses in this campaign are based upon the Makron, named Makron, two Children of Makron and The System Administrator. As with the final boss of The Reckoning, it's not explicitly clear what connection these individual Strogg have to the Makron fought by Bitterman. None of them seem to have a Jorg at their disposal.

Behaviour and attacks[]

Hyperblaster: The Makron will launch around 20 shots in a horizontal arc and then back again. Each bolt deals 15 damage. It isn't likely that a player would be hit by more than one or two bolts, unless they are strafing in the same direction that the Makron's firing arc is heading.

Railgun: The Makron's second attack is his head-mounted rail gun. Like the railgun used by the Gladiator, it is a hitscan weapon dealing 50 damage per hit, but it can be dodged by strafing. However, there is less of a pre-fire delay than the Railgun used by the Gladiator. Furthermore, there is almost no post-fire delay, meaning the Makron can immediately follow this attack with another weapon of its choosing.

BFG10K: The most powerful and notorious weapon in the game is now in the hands of an enemy. A direct hit from the BFG10k projectile inflicts 200 damage, but the projectile also emits laser beams as it travels, damaging nearby targets. Therefore it isn't enough to simply dodge the projectile - to avoid harm, the player must put a good amount of distance between themselves and the projectile.

The Makron is a significantly smaller target than the Jorg, but does not move particularly fast.

Strategies[]

  • Like the Jorg before it, the Makron is not a particularly difficult enemy. If the player still has an Invulnerability in their possession, then even the mighty Makron cannot harm them for the thirty seconds it's active. With Invulnerability active, it's a simple matter to stay in view of the Makron and fire a weapon such as the Hyperblaster or Chain Gun continually - 150 hyperblaster cells are enough to kill the Makron, which would take fifteen seconds to achieve. Emptying the full 300 bullets from the Chain Gun instead would take a little over ten seconds and could inflict 2400 damage to the Makron, not enough to destroy it but leaving it with only 600 health.
  • Quad Damage is another option, if the player still has one. Assuming the player does not use an Invulnerability, then they should use strafing and cover to their advantage. There are two large pillars in the arena for cover. Bear in mind that while the Makron's blaster and railgun can be dodged by consistent strafing and cover, you must dodge much further away from the BFG10k projectile to avoid harm. The Railgun would be a better weapon to use if you are not invulnerable, allowing you to benefit from cover and take potshots. With Quad Damage active, five Railgun shots are enough to destroy the Makron, or six in the 2023 remaster.
  • Given that the battle consists of two separate stages - the Jorg and then the Makron - you might consider using the Invulnerability for one stage and the Quad Damage for the other, in whichever order you prefer. However, it is quite possible to activate both power-ups at the same time as the fight begins, and destroy both the Jorg and the Makron before the two power-ups run out, even in the 2023 remaster with the Jorg's increased health.
  • It is wise to activate the Power Shield for this fight, if you didn't already have it switched on. This is the last fight in the game, so there is no need to be conservative with your cells.
  • The Makron's railgun attack can be dodged by crouching at the right time. Pay attention to the sound cue and watch the Makron's head: when it rears back, prepare to duck.

Appearance statistics[]

Campaign Any difficulty
Quake II 1
The Reckoning 1
Ground Zero -
Quake II 64 -
Quake II PSX 1
Call of the Machine* 4

*Some of the Makrons in Call of the Machine have altered health and size, and are named individually.

Trivia[]

  • As mentioned in Quake II, Makron is a codename applied to the Strogg leader by the humans. It comes from Greek μακρον, meaning literally "big thing", and is gender neutral, rather than masculine (which would be "Makros"), hinting at the creature's genderless, cyborg nature. The Greek word is also the origin of the English prefix "macro-".

Sounds[]

Sounds
The Makron talking

The Makron roaring

Gallery[]

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