Heretic/Weapons

The game has 8 weapons in all, each of which has an alternate powered up mode activated by the Tome of Power item. The weapons are;


 * Staff/Gauntlets of the Necromancer; the staff is made of wood and is used to "poke" enemies, doing a very small amount of damage. The staff is a non-magical weapon, and cannot hit non-corporeal enemies (ghosts). It is like the fist in Doom. When the Tome of Power is used, the staff becomes charged with electricity, increasing the damage per attack, though it still can't be used against ghost monsters. The Gauntlets of the Necromancer cause a green electricity-like discharge to emit from their fingers when the player attacks. The gauntlets will freeze an enemy in place and do continuous damage to an enemy. They cause slightly more damage than the Staff and at increased range. They are analogous to Doom's famous chainsaw. Neither requires any ammunition. When under the influence of a Tome of Power artifact, the Staff is electrified, does more damage, and has knockback. The Gauntlets' electrical charge changes its colour to red and does more damage with a much greater range, draws the player near the intended target, and drains health points from the enemy transferring them to the player. This powerful ability renders the player near-invincible in most conditions.
 * Elven Wand; a staff topped with a magical crystal that shoots weak projectiles at slow rate, manifested by a gold-coloured "spark" at the point of impact. This is one of two hitscan weapons in the game. Analogous to Doom's pistol. When under the influence of the Tome of Power, the wand fires a spread of 5 sparks as well as 2 crystal-like projectiles at both ends of the spread. It uses wand crystals and crystal geodes as ammunition.
 * Ethereal Crossbow; a more powerful weapon, shooting green "ethereal" arrows traveling in clusters of three. The centre arrow is more powerful than the two on either side, can hit ghosts and is not blown around by the wind. Analogous to Doom's shotgun, except for its not being hitscan. Under the influence of the Tome of Power, the crossbow fires 5 bolts per attack, three of which have the same properties of the central one of the original attack as described above. The crossbow uses ethereal arrows as ammunition, which are either found loose or in quivers.
 * Dragon Claw; a helmet-like weapon worn over the fist with claws mounted on its top; it shoots projectiles at high rate manifested by a blue-colored "spark" at the point of impact. This is a hitscan weapon, and is mostly analogous to Doom's chaingun. When fired under the influence of the Tome of Power, the weapons spark is more powerful and releases five spiked balls on impact that tear through anything it touches, aside from the player who uses it. In exchange for this, the weapon uses five times as much energy per shot and has a slower rate of fire. The Dragon Claw uses special "claw orbs" or energy orbs as ammunition, the latter being a more potent source.
 * Hellstaff; a staff topped with a horned skull that shoots red projectiles at a high rate, doing more damage than the Dragon Claw and, unlike the Dragon Claw, possessing some stopping power. Analogous to Doom's plasma rifle. Under the Tome of Power, the rate of fire is greatly reduced. However, the weapon fires a larger projectile that homes in targets and does more damage than the standard Hellstaff projectile which requires five times as much ammunition to fire. In addition, the projectile causes energy bolts to rain down on the area where it lands, causing heavy damage to whatever is underneath. However, the Maulotaur and D'Sparil take lesser damage from the energy rain than lesser monsters, making the weapon less effective against them. The Hellstaff uses runes as ammunition, which come in two varieties, small and large.
 * Phoenix Rod; a golden staff topped with a phoenix-like design, shooting a fiery, smoking, moderately fast projectile that explodes upon impact into a phoenix-like shape. The projectile deals splash damage to anything near it, including the player but excluding the Maulotaur and D'Sparil. This makes it very similar to Doom's rocket launcher. The projectile goes straight through ghosts, although ghosts still take splash damage from the weapon. The weapons recoil will throw the user back a short distance with each shot. The Tome of Power turns the weapon into a flamethrower, which reduces the weapons range but deals heavy damage to anything the flame touches. Unlike the fireball projectile, the flamethrower attack is effective against ghosts and bosses. It only takes about two powered up ammo units to kill a maulotaur. Flame orbs or inferno orbs are used as ammunition, with inferno orbs being more potent than flame orbs.
 * Firemace; a mace-like staff that shoots exploding cannonball-like projectiles at high rate. The spheres, powered or not, cannot hit ghostly enemies and will disappear into any liquid at their impact points. Has no Doom analog; the BFG9000 operates completely differently. When under the influence of the Tome of Power, the firemace has a slower rate of fire but shoots out large metallic spheres for the cost of five normal spheres that can home in on targets with each bounce they make and can instantly kill any enemy in the game, aside from the Iron Lich, the Maulotaur and D'Sparil. Unlike most projectiles, the large firemace sphere can travel through teleporters and thus can telefrag anything at the other side and the speed at which they travel is directly influenced by the players speed when they fire the weapon, to the point that they can be fired backwards if the player backpedals fast enough. Mace spheres are used to power the firemace, which can be found in small and large piles.

Heretic also has equivalents of Doom's exploding barrels of toxic waste, which appear as large green thorny spheres. Like Doom's barrels, they can be used as weapons by shooting them when enemies are standing next to them. Unlike Doom however, the spheres can be nudged around by the player. In some areas the spheres spawn automatically from apparently nowhere.