Hellbender

Unreal Tournament 2004
The Hellbender is one of the vehicles that appears in almost every Onslaught map. It looks and drives similar to a Jeep or an SUV, and carries three people, including the driver. If there are vacant seats in the vehicle, any player currently riding can switch to a different seat by pressing the 1, 2, or 3 button.

The Driver
The driver cannot control any of the weapons in this vehicle; he can do nothing more than drive the vehicle and honk the horn to get other people's attention.

The Skymine Turret
The second passenger is in control of the Hellbender's side turret, which shoots Skymines. This weapon works like the Shock Rifle but can be more powerful. The primary fire shoots slow-moving skymines which are similar to the shock rifle's shock cores. However, unlike the shock rifle which can detonate only one shock core at a time, the alternate fire allows all skymines within close proximity to each other to detonate in a chain reaction. This weapon is useful for close-range defense of the Hellbender, powernodes, or objectives.

The Rear Turret
The third passenger is in control of the Hellbender's rear turret. Unlike the side turret, which is designed mostly for close-range defense, this weapon excels at long-distance sniping. Like the Lightning Gun and Sniper Rifle, the player can use the alternate fire to zoom the view in and out. The weapon is fired by holding down the primary fire to charge up the weapon to the desired strength, and then releasing the button. This allows for a trade-off between weapon power and time spent in-between shots.

Unreal Tournament 3
"The Axon Hellbender is the spiritual successor to the High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicles of the 20th century.

The upgraded chassis provides strong maneuverability in the field, and the up-armored neutron panels offer moderate protection to the vehicle's occupants. The Hellbender's main strength, however, is its powerful weaponry. The rear turret focusses a devastating bolt of plasma at its target. The frond-mounted shock cannon releases floating mines of unstable plasma which can be chain-ignited by the weapon's secondary photon beam.

It is not uncommon to see a group of enemies devastated by this spectacular weapon, and it should be approached with caution."

- UT3 manual

Using the Hellbender
This version of the Hellbender holds only two people, a driver that also controls the skymine turret and the rear gunner, who controls the sniper turret. The handling is markedly more responsive compared to its predecessor and the cabin is now closed, protecting its occupants from damage. The rear turret still does variable damage, but this is based on how often you fire it. The faster you fire, the less damage you do. Giving the weapon a few seconds of cool down between shots will greatly increase the weapons potency.

The Hellbender works well for beating infantry to a bloody pulp and anti air. It works less well when it has to deal with other ground vehicles.

The skymine turret is extremely powerful and can take out almost anything, including incoming AVRiL's if you time it right. The trick to using it effectively is to gauge when your shock balls are within range of your target by looking at the light they emit on the ground. Releasing a string of skymines and detonating the first one will concentrate the damage in a small area while detonating the one you fired last will make most of your skymines detonate somewhere you don't want them to. Effective use of skymines requires a cool head and good timing, which isn't exactly common given the circumstances.

A common advanced (read: not blundering about spewing shockballs everywhere) technique is to fire your first skymine over your target and then fire a group of them at whatever it is that needs to explode. Detonate the skyward skymine just before the group hits. The result is a concentrated explosion that if timed well can deal massive amounts of damage.

The Hellbender can also detonate groups of enemy skymines provided you can hit one of them.

Going against the Hellbender
The Hellbender is easily countered by almost every other ground vehicle. The lighter vehicles are effective as long as you keep out of the range of the skymines but not far enough away that the rear gunner can get a bead on you. Larger vehicles should have no trouble turning the Hellbender into junk metal unless it happens to be a few kilometers away.

For infantry its another story. It is recommended that you find cover and hope it doesn't notice you, then nail it while it's busy turning your buddies into hamburger helper.