Ionized Plasma Levitator

Player with the grabber weapon.

The Ionized Plasma Levitator, better known as the grabber, is a weapon only found in Doom 3: Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission which has the ability to hold certain objects above the ground for a limited time and can throw them with great force. The grabber can grab fireballs thrown by enemies, reach otherwise inaccessible pickups, destroy certain enemies and remove obstacles in the player's path. It is first acquired early in the game, and remains a solid performer throughout.

"The Ionized Plasma Levitator creates an electromagnetically charged plasma stream that can move objects over short distances."

― PDA description

Tactical analysis

The HUD icon.

A portable tractor beam, it does not use ammo but can only fire when locked onto a target. While it has unlimited ammo, the gun will overheat and cut off the beam after a few seconds. It can pick up objects to either move them or throw them at enemies. Explosive barrels can be thrown at enemies where they will explode upon impact, and the medium-sized orange-yellow oblong crates are fairly powerful when hurled at enemies, being able to kill lesser enemies in one strike. The tractor beam can also intercept enemy fireballs (even revenants’ rockets) from the air and toss them back at enemies. The beam also has the ability to disintegrate Forgotten Ones, trites, ticks, and cherubs simply by catching them in the tractor beam and then "firing" them.

One of the most effective tricks with the weapon is that short of a Hell knight, any enemy which launches a fireball is immediately killed if hit by its own projectile, making it easy to kill imps and other lesser enemies without firing a single bullet. It is also easy to intercept and then toss fireballs on other enemies, although some enemies are slightly tougher and can resist projectiles from lesser demons.

As the levitator can only hold one fireball at a time and takes a short period to recharge, groups of enemies can quickly overwhelm the player.

• Clip size: limited use of beam
• Reloading: approx. 0.5 seconds recharge time
• Ammo: infinite
• Damage: Varies
  • 150 (Imp fireball)
  • 200 (Cacodemon fireball)
  •  ??? (Martian turret projectile)
  • 250 (Hell knight)
  • 300 (Vulgar)
  • 400 (Maledict's meteor)

Bugs

While it is possible to catch mancubus fireballs, they are ineffective if fired back, as they tend to shoot off at a wild, unpredictable angle. It is not obvious that this is an intended behavior, as there is no special case for mancubus projectiles in the weapon's code that should make them behave in this manner. Revenant missiles can be intercepted by the grabber, but cannot be fired back.

Trivia

• The grabber bears a close resemblance to the gravity gun of the Half-Life 2 games and portal gun from Portal, as these can also be used to pick up objects such as physics props or ammunition, though only the grabber and gravity gun can launch them across a distance. Unlike the gravity gun, the grabber will automatically drop the object after a few seconds, and the grabber does not "force pull" objects to the player if they are out of reach.
• The vulgar's plasma ball attack is normally weaker than the imp's fireball, but it does more damage after it has been caught by a grabber.
• Both Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission require the grabber to be used at one point; in Resurrection of Evil it is the only means to defeat the first boss, and in the Lost Mission it is required to restart the Enpro Plant's plasma conduits.