Iron Maiden (Q2)

Iron Maiden (Q2)
Health	175
Will gib when health is	-70
Attack Damage	Rocket Launcher: 50 Melee: 10-15
Drops	Rockets
Found in	Quake II Ground Zero Quake II 64 Quake II PSX
[Source]

In Quake II, an Iron Maiden is a female humanoid Strogg equipped with a Rocket Launcher for a left arm. Her other arm is a claw of sorts used for melee attacks. Her durability is equal to that of a Gunner, even though she doesn't appear to be wearing much in the way of armor.

Iron Maidens first appear in the Power Plant of Unit 6. In the first mission pack The Reckoning, they are replaced by an upgraded version. The original Iron Maiden appears again in Ground Zero (though only in one level), and are somewhat more common in the Nintendo 64 version and PSX version. They don't appear in Call of the Machine.

Behaviour and attacks

Rocket Launcher: The Iron Maiden fires one rocket at a time, dealing 50 damage if it achieves a direct hit. If her target remains visible, she may fire continually. The rockets are easily dodged by strafing, but do inflict splash damage in a radius. The Iron Maiden will make a telltale sound before firing, giving the player time to react.

Melee: In melee range, an Iron Maiden will strike with her claw dealing up to 15 damage per strike.

The Iron Maiden is fairly slow, walking towards her target whereas most other Strogg will run.

In the mission pack Ground Zero and the 2023 remaster, an Iron Maiden that loses sight of her target may continue to fire rockets towards the position where she last saw them. Furthermore, she may "lead" her shots in the direction a player is strafing.

Strategies

• Iron Maidens are among the easiest enemies in the game, despite possessing moderate health and heavy weaponry. Her Rocket Launcher is quite powerful, but it's slow to fire and its rocket is easy to dodge by strafing to either side. Her melee attack is not very threatening either and she doesn't move quickly. All in all, they don't pose much of a threat unless the player is caught unawares. Just about any of your weapons will do fine against her. However, bear in mind her improved behaviour when playing the 2023 remaster; see the "Behaviour and attacks" passage above. In the remaster, if you have taken cover when fighting an Iron Maiden, it is wiser to wait for her to appear in your view rather than to appear in hers, in case she has already fired a rocket in your direction.

Appearance statistics

Death Messages

• Player almost dodged an Iron Maiden's rocket (Rocket Launcher)
• Player ate an Iron Maiden's rocket (Rocket Launcher)
• Player was bitch-slapped by an Iron Maiden (Melee)

Sounds

Trivia

• In Unit 10, by defeating the Makron, go down into a corridor, shoot the crack at the end of this corridor, to reveal the id Gallery, go down this room, and a door covering a hole in the ground will explode. Go around, and you will find a Tank sitting down, with two Iron Maidens. There is strange music playing. Next to them on each side are two crying Marines. The Iron Maidens will gasp, rub and tickle the Tank.
• When an Iron Maiden spots the player, they will shout something that sounds like "Sweetheart!" or "Traitor!".
• If a player gets very close to an Iron Maiden when she is about to fire a rocket, the rocket won't be fired, but her firing animation will continue.
• In Quake II RTX, the Iron Maiden's face is considerably less monstrous, with intact lips and lacking the alien-like brow ridges.
• In the PSX version, Iron Maiden has been weakened to 120 health points, so a perfect-hit grenade can be enough for killing her.
• In the manual photo of the Iron Maiden, she can be seen with metal plates completely covering her thighs. However, these plates arent shown on the in-game model and instead show bare skin and cybernetics.

Gallery

Quake II Manual photo

Iron Maiden's texture map

Iron Maiden's texture map when injured

Quake II RTX screenshot

Remastered model