The Elven Wand is the basic ranged weapon in Heretic. It uses Wand Crystals to fire weak hitscan shots at a medium rate. The shots deal 7-14 damage. When firing in quick succession, the first shot is always perfectly accurate. When enhanced by a Tome of Power, it fires a spread of five hitscan shots as well as a pair of projectile fireballs, each of which do 1-8 damage, for a total of 7-56 damage if everything hits. This weapon is always effective on ghosts. Maximum capacity is 100 shots, or 200 with the Bag of Holding.
Strategy
While very similar to Doom's pistol in power and speed, it does have a slight advantage in that its projectile is visible and therefore may be more easily aimed. The Elven Wand, like the Dragon Claw, is ideal for sniping enemies from afar. With unlimited range and hitscan shots, the Elven Wand provides good damage at long ranges without the player having to face monsters in medium to close combat. To use it in the optimal way, the player must shoot with quick pauses between shots to enable "perfect aim". This way the Elven Wand will act as a sniper rifle, making it perfect for taking out medium-weak monsters far from the player. The weapon is also good at finishing off damaged monsters without wasting precious ammunition from stronger weapons like the Phoenix Rod.
Because its shot isn't a projectile, it will pass through objects (such as decorations) and tiny gaps where monsters' shots can't, thus effectively giving the player the ability to shoot from behind cover.
Data
| Elvenwand Data | |
|---|---|
| Weapon number | 2 |
| Damage | 7-14 (normal hitscan) 1-8 (powered hitscan) 1-8 (powered projectile) |
| Included ammo | 50 (at player spawn time) |
| Max ammo | 100 (200 with Bag of Holding) |
| Ammo type | Wand Crystal |
| Shot type | Hitscan (normal) Hitscan and Projectile spread (powered) |
| Velocity (powered projectile) |
18 map units per tic (630 map units per second) |
| Shots per minute | 190.9 (normal) 210.0 (powered) |
| Sound | WANDHIT (firing) |
| Appears in | Heretic |
| Sprite | GWND (wielded) PUF2 (hitscan puff) FX01 (powered projectile) |
| ||||||||||||||||||||