User:Nereid/Link Gun

The Link Gun is a weapon in UT2003, UT2004, and UT3. It replaces the Pulse Rifle from UT.

Similarly to the Pulse Rifle, the Link Gun's primary fire launches plasma projectiles at a rapid rate, and its secondary fire shoots a constant beam of plasma, though this beam is of limited length. The Link Gun is different from the Pulse Rifle, however, in that a player may "link up" with a teammate who also has the Link Gun, by firing the beam at the teammate, boosting the teammate's firepower. Multiple players can link up to create a chain or any other (acyclic) arrangement of links for a greater boost.

Unreal Tournament 2003
The Link Gun's primary fire projectiles are normally green, and while their initial speed is slower than that of a rocket, they speed up to four times that in under a second. The usefulness of the primary fire is generally limited to close-to-medium range, since their slow initial speed makes them easy to react to at longer range. However, with a fire rate of 5.5 shots per second with 30 damage per shot, at close range and especially against unmoving targets the Link Gun primary fire is one of the deadliest weapons considering its raw damage rate (165 damage per second).

The secondary fire tends to be more used, however. Though the green wiggly beam is of limited length, since the beam is hitscan it is far more reliable within its range. 5.5 times a second the beam checks for a hit, and will do 15 damage to a target, which comes out to be 82.5 damage per second. Though it can be hard to master, in the right hands the beam is more deadly than the primary fire, especially considering its lockdown effect: whenever the beam hits, it pushes the target slightly, making it difficult for the target to dodge out of the way, effectively locking the player down.

If a teammate is linked up to you, the teammate's link beam assumes the color of the team, and both the primary and secondary fire of your Link Gun become yellow and do extra damage. If there are n people linked up to you, the damage on the primary fire is multiplied by 1 + n, and the damage on the secondary fire is multiplied by 1 + (0.5 &times; n). For example, if two people are linked up to you, primary fire will do 90 damage per shot, and secondary fire will do 30 damage per hit for 165 damage per second.

Unreal Tournament 2004
As with most UT2003 weapons, the UT2004 version of the Link Gun has remained largely the same, though it has received several tweaks. The primary fire now consumes 2 ammo per shot, and the secondary fire has a greater fire rate of over 9 hits per second, although the damage per hit has been decreased to 9 such that its rate of damage has been unchanged. In compensation for the increased ammo consumption rate, the ammo capacity of the UT2004 Link Gun has been increased.

In UT2004, players can also repair vehicles and Power Nodes with the alternate fire, greatly increasing the utility of this weapon over UT2003.

Unreal Tournament 3
The Link Gun returns in UT3, but as that is still unreleased, not much is known about its specifics. The Link Gun is now white, along with its plasma projectiles and beam. The beam is now curved, although it will still hit exactly where the crosshairs are aimed. Also, the primary fire rate has been increased.