Resource collection plays a key role in Quake. Always stay attentive to what items you lack and learn to move deliberately through the arenas, setting a course to pickup key items you need to improve your combat standing. Don’t always rush into combat, try to choose when to fight, and make sure you have the right items in hand before you do.
While aim plays an important role in Quake Champions, sometimes surviving comes down to who was most prepared for the fight. Suppose you encounter an enemy with equal skill; what may ultimately set you apart from your opponent is what we call your stack. A player’s stack is comprised of their total health and armor combined, defining how much damage they can take before being fragged. Let’s take a look at the most important items to pick up to maintain a healthy stack and ensure that you are ready for combat.
Each arena has at least one Mega Health and one Heavy Armor. Players who learn the location of these items, and when they respawn, guarantee themselves a healthier stack, and a great deal more success in combat.
Health #
If at any time you’re wounded, seek out the nearest health. All health pick-ups are blue. These Small Health pick-ups are readily available throughout the arena. They restore one container, and respawn 15 seconds after pick-up.
There is almost always one nearby, so try to refill your health between or even during fights – but beware, your opponent will also know the temptation and may be baiting you to pick up the item. Try not to enter fights if you are low on health.
Stay one step ahead of your opponent by controlling the Mega Health. When you pick up a Mega Health, four health containers will be restored, increasing your health by up to 100 points, including up to three containers (75 HP) above your max health.
Any additional health that the Mega Health grants you above your max health is temporary, and will slowly decay back to your max health. Make sure to use that extra health to play more aggressively.
Mega Health respawns every 30 seconds, so pay attention to the timer when you grab it to determine when the next one will be available.
Each regular Health pick-up restores 25 health points, increasing it up to but not beyond your max health. These can be found throughout the arena, so keep track of the nearest pick-up area.
Special Health pick-up restores 50 health points. Can be found at the Crucible and Tower of Koth (in Duel) arenas.
Respawns every 30 seconds.
Armor #
The other half of your stack is your armor. Unlike health, a player never spawns with full armor, so you can immediately begin picking up armor after you spawn. All armor items are green and come in three forms. Light Armor will restore one armor container, and respawns in 30 seconds. More importantly, a suit of Heavy Armor will restore four armor containers, increasing your armor rating by up to 100 points, including up to three containers above your max armor. Like the Mega Health, the Heavy Armor is a major item with a 30 second respawn time.
Lastly, following combat, each fallen combatant will drop three Armor Shards. Armor Shards provide 5 armor points each, a small boost to your armor pool to provide you a bit of protection and reward for your success in combat. Even when you are already at max armor, Armor Shards can also be collected to increase your armor stack, granting you temporary protection, much like the Heavy Armor – so try to get in a habit of collecting those armor shards.
The Heavy Armor is the armor equivalent of Mega Health. It is a major pick-up that will increase your armor points by 100 points, including up to three containers (75 AP) above your max armor.
Like the Mega Health, your armor points will decay back to your max armor, so take advantage of the bonus while you can. Heavy Armor takes 30 seconds to respawn.
Each Light Armor shield pick-up restores 50 armor points, increasing it up to but not beyond your max armor. You can often find a few of these throughout the arena, where they can provide you a good boost to get back into the action when low.
30 second respawn time.
In most game modes, when a player is killed they drop 2 Armor Shards. These small shards grants the user 10 armor points as a quick means to recover and repair your damaged armor.
While they each only grant a small boost, collecting them after fragging your enemy can make the difference between life or death in your next encounter.
They have a 15 second lifetime.
Power Ups #
Power-ups are temporary bonuses to help you in the arena. Present in most modes, these powerful items can turn the tide of battle or secure a convincing victory, but they only appear in the match every two minutes, and once obtained you only have 30 seconds to make good use of them. 15 seconds before a power-up is available, players receive an incoming power-up warning. This means you and your team will need to position around the power-up location and fight for control before it becomes available. If you’re standing there too soon, you may become an unfortunate target, but if you make it there too late you may let it fall into enemy hands. Time your arrival carefully.
Each arena has at least one power-up location where either a Quad Damage or Pentagram of Protection can spawn.
Quad Damage is one of Quake’s most iconic power-ups. When you pick up a Quad Damage, your weapons are supercharged dealing 4x damage for 30 seconds.
This can make any weapon seriously deadly, including your own rockets, so watch your fire and avoid rocket jumping whenever you have Quad Damage.
Spawns 90 seconds after match start. Respawn time is 120 seconds.
The Pentagram of Protection casts a magical protective barrier around its carrier, reducing all damage they receive by 2/3 (67%).
Unlike the Quad Damage, Protection’s shield ensures that you can safely rocket jump throughout the arena, granting you more speed and mobility.
In Capture the Flag and Sacrifice, Protection can be a great offensive tool used to push into the enemy base and steal the flag or soul. Whether your team wishes to utilize a power-up for offense or defense, controlling the power-up room and securing the pick-up either secure your lead or trigger your comeback.
Spawns 90 seconds after match start. Respawn time is 120 seconds.
Other #
Also commonly referred to as Cooldowns or Time Shards by the community, Hourglasses reduce your Champion’s remaining Active Ability cooldown time by 10% (4.5 sec) of the total time (45 secs).
30 second respawn time.
Restores your weapon’s ammunition.
20 second respawn.
