Ion Painter

Introduced in Unreal Tournament 2003, the Ion Painter delivers a delayed but extremely powerful blast which appears to come out of the sky. The Ion Painter's strategic use is normally confined to blowing up objectives or crowds of unheeding opponents.

Unreal Tournament 2003
The Ion Painter can usually be found in maps containing the Ion Cannon satellite. When attempting to mark a location, make sure the satellite has a line of sight to it.

Unreal Tournament 2004
''The Ion Painter seems innocuous enough at first glance, emitting a harmless low-power laser beam when the primary firing mode is engaged. Several seconds later, a multi-gigawatt orbital ion cannon fires on the target, neutralizing any combatants in the vicinity. The Ion Painter is a remote targeting device used to orient and fire the VAPOR Ion Cannon. The Ion Painter offers increased targeting accuracy via its telescopic sight, easily activated by the secondary fire mode of the weapon. Once the Ion Painter has been used to designate a target, it is highly recommended that the user put considerable distance between themselves and the weapon’s area of effect.''

Unlike Unreal Tournament 2003, no Ion satellite needs to be placed in the map. Instead there must be a free line of sight upwards from the target location. Also, as a purely visual effect, there are up to three ion beams firing at the target location. The actual number of beams depends on the line of sight for the individual beams, but doesn't affect the damage output.

Unreal Championship
The T.A.G. Rifle in Unreal Championship is the same as the Ion Painter in Unreal Tournament 2003. Only the name is different, although even in UC it is sometimes referred to as the Ion Painter. In early Unreal Championship beta builds it fired rapid projectile laser bursts instead of the single hitscan targeting beam for the Ion Cannon.