The Damage Amplifier, (just Amplifier, or UDamage due to its shape and name in the code) also occasionally called the Double Damage from UT2003 on, is a power-up that temporarily enhances the player's weapon damage. It also makes a distinctive sound when picked up, and every time the user's weapon fires to alert others that someone is using it. It is much sought after in multiplayer games due to its relatively big impact.
The original Unreal design resembled a car battery, but starting with UT it became U-shaped, possibly inspired by Unreal's "U" logo, and the Skaarj blades through that. Originally gold in UT, purple became the item's telltale color in later games. It is worth noting, however, that picking up the Damage Amplifier in UT made the player's weapon become purple, as well as make the player themselves glow purple.
The Damage Amplifier started out in Unreal as possibly providing up to 4x the damage for certain weapons only. In UT, this was expanded to all weapons, however, the damage was reduced to only triple. Since UT2003, the damage amplifier has only doubled the damage.
Contents
Unreal
Amplifier
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| Effect: | Dispersion Pistol and ASMD do up to 4x damage. |
| Duration: | up to 8min 20s |
| Time to respawn: | 90s |
In Unreal the Amplifier resembles a battery and only enhances energy weapons: the Dispersion Pistol and ASMD.
The Amplifier initially has 1000 units of charge. It loses 2 charge units for every second it is active and additional charge for every shot fired with the Dispersion Pistol or ASMD. Dispersion Pistol primary fire and ASMD secondary fire drain 80 units, ASMD primary fire drains 100 units and Dispersion Pistol charged fire drains a variable amount, depending on how much it was charged. If the Amplifier still has enough charge left, the damage is multiplied by 4, otherwise a lower factor is applied, depending on how much charge was requested and how much was still available.
Unreal Tournament
Damage Amplifier
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| Effect: | All weapons do triple damage. |
| Duration: | 27s (Hardcore mode) |
| Time to respawn: | 109.1s (Hardcore mode) |
The Damage Amplifier looks like a spinning, golden letter U, similar to the green team's symbol in multiplayer games.
Players equiped with the Damage Amplifier have a purple glowing weapon. The Damage Amplifier cannot be picked up if the player is already carrying the Relic of Strength.
Unreal Tournament 2003 and 2004
Double Damage
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| Effect: | All weapons do double damage. |
| Duration: | 27s |
| Time to respawn: | 82s |
UT2003 and UT2004's Double Damage pickup resembles that of UT, but is purple and semi-transparent. It looks somewhat like a hologram. Players carrying the Double Damage have a purple glowing weapon and emit purple light.
Note that the HUD timer in UT2004 counts game seconds. The displayed initial time of 30 game seconds roughly corresponds to 27 real seconds. This is due to game code making the game run at 110% of real-time speed.
Unreal Tournament 3
Damage Amp
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| Effect: | All weapons do double damage. |
| Duration: | 27s |
| Time to respawn: | 82s |
The damage amplifier, known as the UDamage for its easily recognized "U" shape, boosts all weapons damage to devastating levels. The UDamage overlays a purple hue on the weaponry, and each shot fired gives a keening sound, but these indicators are rarely enough to save the lives of nearby enemies.
Like other power-ups, the Damage Amp is dropped when the player dies or gets hit by the Impact Hammer's EMP mode.
Picking up the Damage Amp while already carrying Berserk or Invulnerability or picking up any of those power-ups while already carrying the Damage Amp gives the user a "Juggernaut" award.
Unreal Championship
UC's Damage Amplifier is similar to that of UT2003.
Unreal Championship 2
In UC2 the amplifier is referred to as "UDamage" (Unreal Damage). It is purple, but has a somewhat more technical look with metal bits. If a player picks it up, it spawns a slowly growing, transparant, purple animation of that player looking like (s)he is roaring, clearly indicating the item was picked to other players. This can be seen roughly two thirds into this video.