The submachine gun racing weapon icon.
The Punisher plane weapon icon.
Machine guns are the common default vehicle weapons featured in the Jak and Daxter series. They are characterized and uniquely identified by their default availability, unlimited ammunition, rapid rate of fire, and relative inferiority to acquired weapons. Many also have both muzzle flashes and bullet streams yellow in color.
In Jak 3, three buggies use machine guns as the default and only weapon. In Jak X: Combat Racing, all race cars use a type of machine gun known as the submachine gun before acquiring other temporary yellow eco weapon pick-ups. In The Lost Frontier, all planes by default can equip a type of machine gun called the Punisher.
Additionally, many enemy vehicles, such as the Aeropan planes encountered in The Lost Frontier, are equipped with their own generic machine guns.
There are other types of machine guns, considered separate as they do not share the aforementioned unique identifiers as this vehicle weapon. Said machine guns include the Vulcan Fury racing weapon used in Jak X, and the Vulcan Cannon for planes in The Lost Frontier.
History[]
Jak 3[]
The Sand Shark engaging its machine gun.
In Jak 3, only the Sand Shark, Desert Screamer, and Heat Seeker came equipped with a machine gun. They all fired the same bullets in the same pattern, and have a yellow muzzle flash with silver bullets (as well as yellow bullet streams, giving the weapon an overall yellow appearance). The Gila Stomper was equipped with a similar weapon, but came in the form of a rear-mounted auto-aiming turret, specifically called the Stinger tri-barrel gatling gun.
These machine guns are strong enough to destroy patches of the smaller metal head egg pods, bust the larger green eggs in the Metal Head nest, and can even bring down the massive metal head beasts and metal-pedes after repeated punishment. Moreover, a single shot is capable of disposing of pod spiders and desert cacti. They are slightly weaker, however, than the Dune Hopper and Dust Demon's Plasmite RPG-like launchers.
Jak X[]
Machine guns returned as submachine guns in Jak X as the default weapon for all race cars. However, they are only available in arena tracks, the death race event, and the final boss fight against Mizo. Similar to the buggy weapons, they had limitless ammo and were sufficient for pounding opponents (easily taking out drones), but were weaker compared to other weapons. Most notably, the machine gun is clearly outclassed by the Vulcan Fury, a similar but faster and stronger weapon with an ammo cap.
Note that different race cars have the submachine guns placed in different spots, therefore some larger cars will have a tendency to shoot over smaller cars unless at a longer range. Nonetheless, all cars have a relatively (but still usable) short range with the submachine gun.
Submachine gun fire is similar in appearance to the buggy weapon, though fires considerably slower and while the muzzle flash remaines yellow, the bullets are red in color. Additionally, its dark eco upgrade has a slight purple color to it and does slightly more damage.
The Lost Frontier[]
The Punisher is a universal weapon of aerial combat. Simple to equip and maintain in a variety of battlefield situations, the Punisher is a repeating slug-thrower that offers a high rate of fire and solid damage.
Menu description, The Lost Frontier
In The Lost Frontier, the default machine gun weapon is simply called the machine gun in menu text, and the Punisher in the weapon description menu.[1] It has an unlimited ammo capacity, though slightly differs in pattern and appearance, firing noticeably slower. Additionally, the bullets themselves do not appear to be physical bullets but some other blast, like a laser, yellow in appearance even aside from the muzzle flash and bullet streak.
Despite the fact that the Sky Raiders flown by pirates fire red bullets at a considerably faster rate, Jak's Sky Raider retains the Punisher.
The Punisher is valuable for its reliability, offering a capable rate of fire and an unlimited ammo capacity, eliminating reload time. This imparts continuous damage delivery for larger targets, as well as indiscriminate bullet spraying for smaller enemies. Nonetheless it will eventually pale in comparison to more powerful weapons acquired later damage-wise, and falter in sufficiency upon encountering stronger enemies later in the game. Although the damage output can be upgraded for a few thousand scrap pieces, it will ultimately have to be replaced for a more powerful weapon.
Locations and availability[]
| Number | How to get | Location and availability |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | — | Available by default on the Hellcat. |
| 2 | — | Available by default on the Hellcat. |
| 3 | — | Available by default on the Sky Raider. |
| 4 | — | Available by default on the Interceptor. |
| 5 | Daxterjacking | After the mission "Stop the Behemoth". |