Manta

The Manta is one of the six vehicles introduced in Unreal Tournament 2004.

Description
The Manta is a very lightweight, very agile hovercraft-type vehicle. It has neither strong armor (200 HP) nor much firepower. Its main strength is its agility. Due to this, it is mainly feared by infantry which can easily get squished by the Manta.

The Manta's fans suck in the ribbon which the Scorpion shoots and receives additional damage from it. However, if the Manta can stay away far enough it can dodge the Scorpion's shots and kill it with ease. Part of being a good Manta pilot involves keeping your Manta serviceable for as long as possible, while knowing when to dump the Manta before it is too late.

Jumping
Unlike wheeled vehicles, the Manta is able to jump. When the jump key is pressed, the Manta will quickly rise several feet into the air, and gently float back down to the surface. This move is useful to allow the Manta to ascend steeper hills and cliffs, and also to position the vehicle over an enemy's head to perform a pancake. After a jump has been performed, the pilot must wait a few seconds, as indicated by a bar gauge, before the Manta is ready to jump again. Also, a jump can only be performed when the vehicle hovering just above the ground or water surface.

Pancake!
Aside from the usual method of killing enemies by running into them with the vehicle, a more challenging and more fun method of killing enemies is to pancake them. This can be done by positioning the Manta above the enemy by jumping, and then using the alternate fire or the crouch key to quickly descend, crushing the player like a pancake and doing so much damage that the hit is almost always an instant kill.

Primary Fire
The primary fire shoots a plasma projectile from the front of the Manta that does 30 damage with a direct hit. Although an individual plasma projectile does not do much damage on its own, the vehicle's rapid firing rate will allow the pilot to quickly chip away the health of an enemy or the energy of a power node rather easily.

Usage in Vehicle CTF
If a flag carrier enters a Manta in VCTF, he drops the flag immediately, just like he does when he enters a Raptor or Cicada. This is due to balancing, because a Manta driver could quickly get out of range of everyone and would therefore be nearly uncatchable.

The Manta can also be useful for squishing enemy flag carriers, especially if the carrier is distracted by other players.

Manta Run
Although a flag can't be transported in a Manta, in UT2004 a flag carrier can stand on either one the Manta's wings or (more infrequently) on top of the Manta so the driver can transport them. This is commonly called a Manta run. Some people see the Manta run as an exploit, yet some see it as a valid tactic, so most VCTF servers allow Manta runs. In UT3 Manta runs are no longer possible. Players that try to stand on the wings will get sucked into the rotor and turned into gibs.

Manta runs are also useful in Onslaught when vehicles are rare and the team needs to get to the front as fast as possible.