Weapon design is changed from Quake III Arena, but they work the same way.
Each weapon has got an unique fire type. There is a mod for Quake 3 that works also with OpenArena and adds a secondary fuction to each weapon: Alternate Fire. Another mod that adds additional fire modes is Rune Quake 3.

You can find weapons and their related ammo boxes around the arena: getting an ammo box before you get its weapon is useless (except for the fact that your enemies will not be able to grab them before they re-spawn again).

Killed players may drop their weapon, allowing other players to pick it up.

Important: the autoswitch weapons feature makes your character automatically choose the weapon you just picked up, and you may wish to select the autoswitch mode you prefer or to completely disable it, according to your taste. OpenArena 0.8.8 added some new autoswitch modes that are not supported while playing with old mods.

Usually you enter the game with the gauntlet and the machine gun only, but the map creator may allow to spawn with more weapons. In Elimination, CTF Elimination and Last Man Standing modes (plus pontentially every other gamemode, if g_elimination special game option is active), instead, all items are removed from the map and the starting weapons and ammo are set by the server admin.

You can choose a weapon by scrolling your weapon inventory (usually using your mouse wheel), or by pressing the corresponding key (that may provide a faster switch, if you are quick at pressing the right key). Each weapon is identified by a number: the command /weapon <number> directly selects the corresponding weapon, and you can bind such command to a key by using the command console or from the SETUP -> CONTROLS -> SHOOT menu. See Manual/Controls for more info.

Note: for info about other items you can pick-up, please read Manual/Items. For other things in the maps that you can interact with, please read Manual/Map elements.

Tip: OpenArena introduced some options to customize your weapon bar (weapon inventory) look: take a look to Manual/Graphic options#Weapon bar.

Hint: switching from a weapon to another one requires a little time (and if you just fired, the change will be done only after the current weapon reload time). It is a quick operation... however, there are a few mods that allow to customize weapon switch speed, and OpenArena itself (baseoa) added a "dmflags" value to allow instant weapon switch (still after weapon reload time!) with OpenArena 0.8.8.

Contents 1 Vanilla OpenArena weapons 1.1 Gauntlet 1.2 Machine Gun 1.3 Shotgun 1.4 Grenade Launcher 1.5 Rocket Launcher 1.6 Lightning Gun 1.7 Rail Gun 1.8 Plasma Gun 1.9 BFG10K 2 Missionpack additional weapons 2.1 Prox mine launcher 2.2 ChainGun 2.3 Nail gun 3 Offhand grapple 4 Pickup rules[2] 5 Respawn time 5.1 Ammo and Weapons 5.2 Modifying respawn times 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

Vanilla OpenArena weaponsEdit

These are the weapons from the original Quake III Arena. In OpenArena, their look is different than in Q3A, but they work the same way. "Vanilla" is intended to mean the "base" game.

GauntletEdit

• The gauntlet is a mêlée weapon which combines a whirling saw blade with an electrical charge.

• It is used for close combat only, and one hit inflicts 50 damage.

• When a gauntlet kill is achieved, the killer earns a gauntlet medal and both the killer and the victim receive a "humiliation" message.

• It is normally a last-resort weapon, but is also useful in narrow corridors and doorways.

• It does not need ammo.

• Important: unlike other weapons, gauntlet is not selectable by scrolling your weapons inventory with the mouse (to avoid unintentinal selection), but you have to press the proper key ("1", by default) to select it instead.

• Weapon number: 1

Machine GunEdit

• The machine gun is the other weapon that the player starts out with. It is a hitscan weapon (instantaneous impact) that can rapidly inflict small amounts of damage (7 hp per bullet, 5 hp in TDM) and has a small degree of spread (approx. 2 degrees).

• The machinegun has a rate of ten shots per second.

• Weapon number: 2

ShotgunEdit

• The shotgun is primarily used for close range combat since its large spray diminishes with distance.

• The shotgun shoots 11 pellets that deal 10 damage each, so a concentrated spread can kill an unarmoured player.

• Like the machine gun, it is an instant impact weapon.

• The shotgun is found on almost every stock map.

• To mitigate its high damage it has a one second delay between shots.

• Weapon number: 3

Grenade LauncherEdit

• This weapon fires grenades that detonate either on contact with another player or 2.5 seconds after being launched.

• Grenades will not detonate as a result of contact by the one who launched it or be obstructed by him/her.

• In comparison to the rocket launcher, it releases projectiles faster although more ordnance is required to inflict similar damage due to the grenade's inaccurate short-range arc and bounce unpredictability (making it hard to score a direct hit).

• It fires at a rate of 0.8 seconds.

• Weapon number: 4

Rocket LauncherEdit

• The rocket launcher can inflict a lot of damage with little aim as the rocket impacts cause a lot of splash damage.

• Because of its wide blast radius, players are encouraged to shoot the ground, wall, or ceiling, rather than aim for the opponent directly.

• This however becomes a double-edged sword at closer ranges; at point blank range the player could significantly harm or kill himself if he is careless.

• This weapon can also be used to rocketjump, taking advantage of the player's own blast to reach even higher heights than regular jumping.

• A direct hit on an opponent deals 100 damage, but splash damage cannot be added to the victim.

• Weapon number: 5

Lightning GunEdit

• The lightning gun (also referred as the shaft) is much like the machine gun, it directly impacts a destination, but it fires a beam with limited range.

• It can kill a healthy opponent in less than two seconds because it shoots at 0.05 seconds per pulse.
• The lightning gun makes a unique noise when selected, even when not active. Opponents in close range might hear it, alerting them of your presence and of your selected weapon.

• Weapon number: 6

Rail GunEdit

• The railgun is primarily used for long range combat or sniping (but there does exist a distance limitation, although it's only relevant in really large maps).

• It is 100% accurate, inflicts 100 damage but has a low fire rate (default 1.5 seconds).
• The rail gun makes a unique noise when selected, even when not active. Opponents in close range might hear it, alerting them of your presence and of your selected weapon.

• Weapon number: 7

Plasma GunEdit

• The plasma gun is an effective weapon for close to medium range combat.

• It rapidly fires a stream of deadly pulses (10 per second) which inflict a significant amount of damage (20 hp per orb).

• The fast-traveling bursts however are not instant impact like the machine gun.

• The plasma also inflicts minor splash damage, which can actually be used to "plasma climb".

• But, because the power of the splash damage is small, plasma climbing is slower than rocket jumping, cannot gain as much height, and requires more skill. (more details about plasma climbing are under the Techniques section).

• Weapon number: 8

BFG10KEdit

• BFG10K is considered the ultimate weapon.

• A rapid-fire weapon, firing out bursts of fast-moving plasma at a rate of about 5 shots per second, which inflict damage and splash damage 100 hp per cell.

• In effect, BFG10k is a rapid-fire Rocket Launcher with faster projectiles and other than the name it shares little in common with the first famous BFG weapon.

• It exists a Mod for Quake III Arena that works also with OpenArena and features the BFG from Quake II instead of the one from Quake 3: BFG10K Arena.
• The BFG10K makes a unique noise when selected, even when not active. Opponents in close range might hear it, alerting them of your presence and of your selected weapon.

• Weapon number: 9

Missionpack additional weaponsEdit

These weapons are originally from Quake III: Team Arena. They can be found in standard OA too, so learn to use them.
Note: when playing mods designed for Q3 (except Team Arena itself), you will probably not find anything in the place where these weapons would spawn in baseoa, because standard Q3A gamecode (the base for Q3 mods) did not contain them.^[1]

At the time of this writing, they have no specific keys binded by default (you can associate keys of your choice to them from the SETUP -> CONTROLS -> SHOOT menu).

Prox mine launcherEdit

• Launches prox mines that stick to the ground, wall, ceiling or even to other players.

• They will explode if enemy is close, are hit by splash damage or after 20 seconds.
• They deal up to 150 damage.
• The prox mines are color coded and they will not cause any harm to you although they can push you back. You and your teammates will not trigger the explosions of your mines, but you may risk to kill your teammates by attaching the mines to them!
• Mines are normally only found in team games but should you get a mine launcher in a non-team based gametype (as Free For All) then the mines will not be color coded and you will trigger your own ones, although they will still not deal any damage to you.
• In addition to the above, you can combine a Quad Damage with a well-timed mine on the ground to attempt a very high mine jump.

• Mines on players are hidden but active on the corpse until the body disappears.

• Weapon number: 12

ChainGunEdit

• A powerful Gatling gun. Similar to the Machine gun, but fires ammo at a much faster rate. It can be very deadly but its ammo will not last long.

• Damage per shot is identical to the machine gun: 7 (but it is still 7 also in TDM mode). The spread is about 3 times larger than the machinegun.

• Weapon number: 13

Nail gunEdit

• Fires a wave of 20 nails that hurts 20 HP each.

• However, it is a bit slow.

• Weapon number: 11

Offhand grappleEdit

Offhand grapple, also known as grappling hook ("grapple" or "hook" for short), is not a normal weapon (it makes 2 damage if you hit a player with it, but it is not its goal). You can use it only if it is included in the map (in OA 0.8.5, no standard map have it) or if you are playing Elimination, CTF Elimination or Last Man Standing game modes (or in any other mode when using g_elimination) with \elimination_grapple 1 (enabled).

Offhand grapple is selected like a weapon in your inventory. Select it, then shoot to a wall and hold the button: you will be dragged there and you will remain there until you release the button. While you are hanging, you can switch to a "real" weapon, and shoot your enemies: in this case, you will detach only when you select the hook again, without pressing fire button.

Some mods (like CorkScrew or Alternate Fire) may include a different kind of offhand grapple, which does not appear in the weapon bar. This kind of mod-specific hook must be "binded" to a particular key, and you do not need to select grapple before using it.

• Weapon number: 10

Related CVARS:

• g_offhand_grapple (for example, some mods -like Alternate Fire- enable or disable an always-equipped hook through this variable, that is probably not part of the base OpenArena game, or similar)
• elimination_grapple (1 enables and 0 disables grapple in Elimination, CTF Elimination and Last Man Standing modes)

Pickup rules^[2]Edit

• You can collect up to 200 shots per weapon. Having 200 shots blocks ammo pickups for that weapons, but not the weapon pickups.
• Taking a weapon pickup fills up to a basic ammount of ammo. If you already have more ammo than that, it only adds 1 shot. Exception is Team Deathmatch where you always get the basic amount added.
• The mapper can change the numbers for weapons and ammo with the count-property.

Normal values are^[3]

Weapon	basic ammo	ammo charge
Gauntlet	-	-
Machine Gun	40	50
Shotgun	10	10
Grenade Launcher	10	5
Rocket Launcher	10	5
Lightning Gun	100	60
Rail Gun	10	10
Plasma Gun	50	30
BFG10K	20	-
Prox mine launcher	5	10
ChainGun	80	100
Nail gun	10	20

Respawn timeEdit

Ammo and WeaponsEdit

Ammo pickups respawn after 40 seconds. The time for the reoccuring of weapon pickups depends on g_weaponRespawn (default is 5 seconds) except for Team Deathmatch where g_weaponTeamRespawn (default is 30 seconds) is used.

Modifying respawn timesEdit

Superior to admin setup or game defaults, the mapper can change respawn timing:

• The random-property adds randomness by adding/subtracting up to random seconds to the respawn time with a bottom line of 1 second in result.
• The wait-property set to something other than zero replaces the respawn time (negative values mean: no respawning of this item).

See alsoEdit

• Manual/Items
• Manual/Map elements

NotesEdit

1. ↑ Hint for map creators: you should place enough "standard" weapons to allow the map to be playable also in old mods that do not support Missionpack weapons. A smart solution could be to use the "team" key to make a missionpack weapon spawn alternately to a standard weapon: in that case, while using old mods, players will be able to pickup the standard weapon each time.
2. ↑ http://openarena.ws/svn/source/code/game/g_items.c
3. ↑ http://openarena.ws/svn/source/code/game/bg_misc.c

External linksEdit

• Quake III Arena Guide - Weapons on PlanetQuake
• Quake III Team Arena Guide - Weapons and Items on PlanetQuake