The Ionized Plasma Levitator, also known as the Grabber or Grabber Gun by some UAC employees, is a weapon exclusive to the Resurrection of Evil expansion pack and The Lost Mission. It is a large firearm-like tool that shoots a tethering plasma beam to hold certain objects for a limited time, before hurling them with great force. The weapon is scripted in both expansion packs as a requirement for the player to pick up.
Weapon Schematics
A blueprint of the Ionized Plasma Levitator.
The Grabber does not utilize any ammo. Instead, it relies on a portable tractor beam that can only connect when locked onto a target. It can pick up objects to remove obstacles in the player's path or can be used to collect pickups that are otherwise hard to reach from the player's current position. The Grabber can also ignite exploding barrels while caught in the beam before exploding once it's thrown, although the barrels can also be dropped unharmed by a simple release.
When holding and operating the Grabber it has four modes of operation (indicated on the Levitator’s HUD), which are;
•“SCANNING”, (with a blue screen), for when the Grabber is actively scanning for an object to levitate,
•”LOCKED”, (with a gold screen), for when the Grabber has identified a viable object for levitation, The “locked” object at this point can now be levitated by pressing and holding the Fire button.
•“HOLDING”, (with a red screen), for when the Grabber is actively levitating, (or “holding”), a “locked” object, When the Grabber is actively levitating an object a tractor beam is visibly connecting from the Grabber to the “locked” object. From this point the object can now be hurled in the direction that the Grabber is aimed at (by releasing the Fire button), or simply dropped (by pressing the Reload button). along with being able to carry objects to short distances. However, the Grabber has only a very limited time in which it can levitate (hold) an object (indicated by a rapid buzzing sound), where at this point the Grabber will simply just drop the currently held object
and finally,
•”CHARGING” (also a red screen), a very brief and negligible down-time for the Grabber to recharge before it can resume scanning for an object for levitation (displayed on the HUD by a charging meter that rapidly fills back up).
In terms of its role as a weapon, the Grabber can be used to hurl objects at enemies, or even grab enemy projectiles from the air to hurl right back at them. Smaller enemies like the Cherub, Trite, and the Forgotten One will instantly be disintegrated if caught in the plasma beam before being released, although they can still fight the beam to release themselves unharmed, if the user continues to keep them on hold.
In non-combat situations the Grabber can be used to stack objects on top of each other in order to reach difficult areas to access. Likewise, the Grabber can also be used to remove objects that are blocking otherwise inaccessible paths or reveal hidden weapons and items.
After holding and releasing an object, the Grabber will go through a brief cooldown that lasts around 2 seconds, before it can fire it's plasma beam again to hold another object.
Tactical Analysis
If players are in desperate need of conserving ammo, the Grabber can be very useful in combat. It will kill any projectile based enemies (except for heavy enemies such as a Hell Knight, Bruiser, or Mancubus) if hurled back at them. This is especially effective against the more common Imps and Cacodemons. It is also effective in clearing out a swarm of smaller enemies like the Forgotten One, Cherub, and the Trite.
Projectiles caught and returned with the Grabber can deal significantly more damage than the original projectile fired by the enemy; a Hell Knight takes 6 of its own fireballs to kill, with a normal fireball dealing 40 damage and thus would take 23 fireballs to kill, making a Grabber-thrown Hell Knight fireball deal 150 damage, almost 4x more powerful than a normal Hell Knight fireball. A Mancubus can be killed with just two of its own fireballs, with a normal Mancubus fireball dealing 20 damage and thus would take 50 fireballs to kill, making a Grabber-thrown Mancubus fireball deal 500 damage, 25x more powerful than a normal Mancubus fireball.
The Grabber does have its drawbacks though. The tractor beam can only be maintained for a short period of time before cutting off and dropping the held object. It can also only catch one projectile at a time, thus enemies that fire multiple shots at a time (such as Revenants or Bruisers) or large groups of enemies can quickly overwhelm the player. It also will not catch bullets, thus Z-Sec and Chaingun Commandos must be killed with another thrown object.
Video Disk - Ionized Plasma Levitator Briefing
- Creator: UAC Lead Technology Officer
Date: 11/27/46 - Information and safety considerations
- Union Aerospace is proud to unveil its latest tool to help make safer worlds for everyone. Building on field containment experiments in the Delta Labs and the energy production capabilities of the EnPro Plant, the prototype Ionized Plasma Levitator was designed to transport hazardous materials without physical contact.
- By creating a controlled, electromagnetically charged plasma stream, the IPL unit is able to act upon physical objects of light density and transport them between short distances. Initial tests have shown that the IPL unit is also able to act upon charged energy masses, which is vital to modern experiments in manipulating new potential energy sources.
- With further research and development, uses for this technology would include heavy lifting and the ability to create tractor beams, thereby making low gravity docking procedures much safer for pilots.
- For more information, contact the UAC's Advanced Tool Department.
Trivia
- The IPL bears close resemblance to the Gravity Gun of Half-Life 2 as it can also be used to pick up objects such as physics props or ammunition. Unlike the Gravity Gun, the IPL will automatically drop the object after a few seconds, and the IPL does not pull objects to the player if they are out of reach. It also works similarly to the Telekinesis Plasmid from BioShock.
- The word Mixom is written on the side of the IPL in small faded letters, a tool company introduced in Doom 3.
- A Revenant rocket can be grabbed but can't be held in place because the projectile is still being propelled by its thrusters, instead turning to the left or right. This is still a good way to deflect Revenant rockets.
- Doom 3 appears to ignore the rule that a given demon is immune to its own projectiles, as evidenced by the Grabber.
- The Grabber is the simplest way to earn the "Turncoat" achievement in the BFG Edition.
- The Grabber essentially replaces the Chainsaw from the original Doom 3 campaign, as it is absent in both RoE and TLM.
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