Chaingun (Doom 3)



The chaingun (also known as the UAC Weapons Division Mach 2 Chaingun) in Doom 3 is a good mid range weapon with a high rate of fire. It is considerably more powerful than its classic Doom counterpart. While the old chaingun was at best, a light rapid fire weapon that was clearly inferior to the plasma rifle and at best compared to the machine gun, Doom 3's chaingun is more on par with the plasma gun.

Weapon Schematics
The Doom 3 chaingun differs from its original; there is a slight wind-up time (around 1 second) for the barrel array before it begins firing. Also, unlike the classic chaingun, which fired the same standard rounds as the pistol, the Doom 3 chaingun now utilizes exclusive .30 caliber armor penetrating rounds, easily outclassing the Pistol and Machinegun in terms of firepower. Ammo for the chaingun is in the form of Ammo Belts (60 rounds) which appear as ammo cans about the size of a briefcase, and can also be obtained by picking up Chainguns (30 rounds) from deceased Chaingun Commandos. Just like BFG 9000, plasma gun and newcomer machine gun, the ammo counter is located on the weapon itself, instead of the game HUD.

Tactical use
The chaingun is the gun-of-all-seasons, to say the very least. Reasonable accuracy and rate of fire make it a good weapon to use in anywhere from close to far range situations against almost any low to mid-range foe. Even a Hell Knight can be taken down with less than 5 seconds of concentrated fire.

Although it has stupendous firepower at any length, both short and long range use is discouraged. Short range attacks mean possibly being taken down by a melee attacker (such as a tentacle Commando zombie) in a situation where you want to lay down a lot of pain in a split second (say, with a shotgun).

Due to its noticeable bullet spread and low bullet velocity, long range combat is also discouraged. Additionally, the chaingun has no splash effect damage, meaning that unless the target stands perfectly still or you just fire blindly in the targets movement range (which means wasting ammo), you are not going to do much damage.

The best situation is a relatively slow, large monster that affords enough time to be taken down and requires a steady stream of fire to be taken down. Pinkys and Cacodemons come to mind, as does Vagary. Also, a group of Trites or Lost Souls can easily be taken down with some blind firing.

As chaingun ammunition is generally hard to find until the player reaches the Delta Labs, it is recommended to use the Plasma Gun as a replacement for all levels leading up to the aforementioned.