Ionized Plasma Levitator

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

- PDA Description

The Ionized Plasma Levitator, better known as the Grabber, is a weapon exclusive to the Doom 3: BFG Edition campaigns Resurrection of Evil and The Lost Mission. It 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.

After obtaining the Grabber, the player can switch between it and the Fists using the "1" key (default fists key).

Weapon Schematics
A portable tractor beam, the Grabber does not use ammo but can only fire when locked onto a target. It can pick up objects to either move them or throw them at enemies, or grab enemy projectiles from the air and toss them back. It ignites exploding barrels if launched (they can also be dropped unharmed by a simple release). It can even hurl barrels, rocks and small containers with enough momentum to damage enemies, and even kill less-powerful foes outright. While it has unlimited ammo, the Grabber will overheat and cut the beam off after a few seconds.

Tactical Analysis
The Grabber is a useful tool and can instantly kill smaller pest enemies (Forgotten Ones, Cherubs, Ticks, and Trites) by picking them up and flinging them away or simply shooting them with the beam, both of which destroy them instantly. It will also kill any enemy that launches fireballs (except for heavy enemies such as a Hell Knight, Bruiser, or Mancubus) if they are thrown back at them, making it very easy to kill legions of Imps and Cacodemons without firing a single bullet. Projectiles caught and returned with the grabber deal significantly more damage than the original projectile would have; a Hell Knight takes 6 of its own fireballs to kill, with a normal fireball dealing 40 damage and thus would take 23 fireballs to kill, making a Grabber-thrown Hell Knight fireball deal 150 damage, almost 4x more powerful than a normal Hell Knight fireball. A Mancubus can be killed with just two of its own fireballs, with a normal Mancubus fireball dealing 20 damage and thus would take 50 fireballs to kill, making a Grabber-thrown Mancubus fireball deal 500 damage, 25x more powerful than a normal Mancubus fireball.

If the Grabber is used to launch one enemy's projectile at another enemy of a different species, the hit enemy will proceed to attack them instead of the player, initiating a monster infight and allowing the player to either sneak past the fighting enemies or kill the weakened victor of the infight.

The Grabber is also the only way to defeat the Helltime Hunter, with its tractor beam being needed to launch plasma balls at it to destroy it.

The Grabber does have its drawbacks though. The tractor beam can only be maintained for a short period of time before cutting off and dropping the held object. It can also only catch one projectile at a time, thus enemies that fire multiple shots at a time (such as Revenants or Bruisers) or large groups of enemies can quickly overwhelm the player. It also will not catch bullets due to them moving too fast, thus Z-Sec and Chaingun Commandos must be killed with another thrown object.

Video Disk - Ionized Plasma Levitator Briefing
Date: 11/27/46
 * Creator: UAC Lead Technology Officer
 * Information and safety considerations
 * Union Aerospace is proud to unveil its latest tool to help make safer worlds for everyone. Building on field containment experiments in the Delta Labs and the energy production capabilities of the EnPro Plant, the prototype Ionized Plasma Levitator was designed to transport hazardous materials without physical contact.
 * By creating a controlled, electromagnetically charged plasma stream, the IPL unit is able to act upon physical objects of light density and transport them between short distances. Initial tests have shown that the IPL unit is also able to act upon charged energy masses, which is vital to modern experiments in manipulating new potential energy sources.
 * With further research and development, uses for this technology would include heavy lifting and the ability to create tractor beams, thereby making low gravity docking procedures much safer for pilots.
 * For more information, contact the UAC's Advanced Tool Department.

Trivia

 * The IPL bears close resemblance to the Gravity Gun of Half-Life 2 as it can also be used to pick up objects such as physics props or ammunition. Unlike the Gravity Gun, the IPL will automatically drop the object after a few seconds, and the IPL does not pull objects to the player if they are out of reach. It also works similarly to the Telekinesis Plasmid from BioShock.
 * The "Grabber" nickname is used by the badly wounded soldier at the beginning of the game who gives it to the Marine, whereas the formal name Ionized Plasma Levitator is found in the video about the object.
 * A Revenant rocket can be grabbed but can't be held in place because the projectile is still being propelled by its thrusters, instead turning to the left or right. This is still a good way to deflect Revenant rockets.
 * The word Mixom is written on the side of the IPL in small faded letters, a tool company introduced in Doom 3.
 * Doom 3 appears to ignore the rule that a given demon is immune to its own projectiles, as evidenced by the Grabber.
 * The Grabber is the simplest way to earn the "Turncoat" achievement in the BFG Edition.
 * The Grabber essentially replaces the Chainsaw from the original Doom 3 campaign, as it is absent in both RoE and TLM.