Bolt



The Bolt or Zapper spell is a powerful offensive pickup in Catacomb 3D. It deals massive, concentrated damage to a single enemy (or group), far in excess of the player's ordinary firepower. The pickup resembles a glass sphere filled with crackling yellow energy. It also appears in the Catacomb Adventure Series. In these games it resembles a crystal orb with a trio of vertical lights inside.

In Catacomb 3D


The Bolt spell fires a 12-round burst of Fireballs, each of which does 3 Hit Points of damage. If all hit the same target, the spell will do an impressive 36 Hit Points of damage.

The hotkey for Bolts in Catacomb 3D is B. While you can carry up to 99 Bolts, only 10 will be shown in your status screen.

Because the spell fires a continuous flurry of shots, the player can aim left or right to fire in that direction, allowing the spell to sweep in that direction to hit multiple foes, which also gives the spell impressive potential as not only a means of wearing down a single tough target, but of clearing out multiple weaker hostiles. Correctly managing them can give you a massive advantage in the Dungeons of the game, and they should be used with care.

Bolt Spells are are rather hard to find - rare enough that each one should be saved for when you really need them. Several caches of them can be found throughout the early levels, with a particularly large number in Tower Two in a hidden storeroom. They all but stop appearing by Access Floor, with a trickle of them appearing in later levels. They should usually used sparingly, so you can have them for tough fights - like accidentally opening one of the Troll doors in Lower Reaches or against the many Demons you will face on the way to Nemesis's Lair.

In the Catacomb Adventure Series


Now known as the Zapper spell, the version in Catacomb Abyss, Catacomb Armageddon, and Catacomb Apocalypse has undergone a bit of an overhaul.

The spell now fires fifteen shots rather than twelve, each of which has the same damage as a Magick Missile. While this is much less damage than the the twelve Fireballs fired off by the original bolt spell (a little less than half), the Zapper is ironically a more useful spell despite this. The higher number of projectiles it fires means that the spell is both good for wearing down a tough target with a quick 15 damage, or pinning down a fast-moving or evasive enemy, like a Sentry Eye or Bat. They're also easily the best source of burst damage when using the Crystal Hour Glass.

The biggest upgrade the Zapper has over its predecessor is how easy it is to come by, however. In Catacomb 3D, it was extremely hard to have more than 20 or so by the end of the game, meaning every single one was precious and ideally saved for emergencies. In the Catacomb Adventure Series, the spell is much more common, as it can be found in Treasure Chests, as well as randomly scattered about in the levels. Because they're so common, a player can have much less compunctions about using a bunch throughout the game.

The player should be careful, however - due to the very large number of projectiles it fires, it is extremely easy for the Zapper to hit (and destroy) treasure items in the Catacomb Adventure Series.

Trivia

 * The weapon broadly serves the same purpose as the Plasma Gun in Doom, rapidly directing heavy damage at opponents.