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This article appeared in Quake II  

!Q2-Guard-Shotgun
Shotgun Guard
Health

30

Will gib when health is

-30

Attack Damage

Shotgun:

  • Up to 24 (original game)
  • Up to 18 (2023 remaster)
Drops

Shells

Found in

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

[Source]


These loyal troops have an automatic scatter gun prosthetic.

Quake II Manual

In Quake II, Shotgun Guards are one of the three Stroggified humans who wear pale green armor. As the name suggests, Shotgun Guards are equipped with a Shotgun and they are a significant step up from the Light Guard - a little more health, but more importantly, a weapon that can actually do some damage to you if you're not careful.

Behaviour and Attacks[]

The Shotgun Guard is equipped with a Shotgun which fires a number of pellets in a spread, potentially dealing 24 damage in the original game if they all connect. It's a hitscan attack, striking its target instantly. A strafing player may avoid most of the damage, but due to the weapon's spread, some of the pellets may still connect. In the 2023 remaster, its potential damage is reduced to 18 per shot.

When fired upon, Guards sometimes duck and may return fire from their crouching position. Furthermore, when a Guard is killed but not gibbed, there is a chance it may perform a final attack - it falls onto its back, raises its weapon and fires two shots directly forward (or only one in the 2023 remaster). This behaviour is common to all of the varieties of Guard.

Strategies[]

  • Alone, a Shotgun Guard is easy to kill - a single good hit from the Shotgun or a very brief burst from the Machine Gun (four bullets, to be precise) is enough to put one down. In groups, the Machine Gun can easily mow them down, but you should beware their return fire - make your shots count. Despite the Shotgun Guard's low health, its damage potential shouldn't be underestimated - it's important to kill them quickly before they have a chance to shoot you. You may encounter a few on the first level before you collect the Shotgun (depending on which route you go), in which case you'll need to use the Blaster against them - it takes three Blaster shots to kill a Shotgun Guard, or two in the 2023 remaster. Once you have the Super Shotgun, it may be advisable to use this for Guards instead of the Shotgun - due to its higher damage output and wider spread, you can be more certain of a swift kill without needing pinpoint accuracy (this tactic uses two shells rather than one, but it's generally worth it if it means you'll avoid its return fire - shotgun shells are plentiful enough).
  • Learn to recognise the sounds Guards make when they're idle. They can often be found waiting around corners or behind obstacles ready to ambush you, but if you recognise their sound ahead of time and work out where they are before they are aware of you, you can dispose of them safely by throwing a Hand Grenade nearby.
  • In the Ground Zero expansion, the Plasma Beam is a new weapon which is able to perform the Machine Gun's role (a rapid-fire hitscan weapon) more effectively, having roughly twice the damage output and better accuracy, so it's a worthy weapon against Shotgun Guards and Machine Gun Guards, although it does consume cells quite rapidly.

Appearance statistics[]

Campaign Easy Medium Hard/Nightmare
Quake II 132 148 158
The Reckoning 36 42 42
Ground Zero 120 109 103
Quake II 64 15 57 13
Quake II PSX 54 61 36
Call of the Machine 164 165 155

Death Message[]

  • Player was gunned down by a Shotgun Guard

Sounds[]

Sounds
The Guard being idle
The Guard spotting an opponent
The Guard being injured

The Guard being killed

Trivia[]

  • The Shotgun Guard has two shooting animations. In one of them, he fires the shotgun with his right arm pointing straight forward, then swings his arm to the left, and reloads the shotgun with his left hand. While in the second animation, he holds his shotgun with second hand, both of his arms are bent like in idle position, but  turn his upper half slightly to the right, so the gun points forwards, and then shots and immediately reloads. The second animation is shorter and allows the Shotgun Guard to fire faster. However, the first animation of him firing with just one arm is more likely to appear.
  • The Shotgun Guard is the only enemy in the entire game who uses a Shotgun.

Gallery[]

See also[]

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