Plasma Whip

The Plasma Whip was a weapon manufactered by Gadgetron that acted much like Ratchet's wrench, visually represented as a whip. It is first available from a vendor on Florana.

Similar to the wrench, it had modes of attack. Until it becomes the Quantum Whip at V5, the throw is the most useful move, having the farthest range for attacking frontal enemies of the 3, as well as being capable of hitting any number of enemies in that range multiple times with only one ammo. The basic ground swing is the next most useful attack; while not very damaging at lower versions, it covers a wide area around Ratchet, and is handy for defense or clearing out groups surrounding him. The least useful is the jump attack; It covers much less area than the other 2, and the damage increase is minimal. Even at V4, when the jump-attack-shockwave becomes available, the throw attack arguably outclasses it. Once it becomes the Quantum Whip, the powerful shockwaves emitted from the basic ground swings make even the throw obsolete for the most part; if used close enough to the enemy, the whip itself *and* the shockwave it emits will both hit, greatly increasing damage output and conserving ammo. Note that the shockwave only goes in front of him, however.

In Secret Agent Clank, Ratchet used this when he was in jail, in which it could have been upgraded into the Plasma Cord. Clank sent Ratchet the weapon in a Plasma Whipcream cake.

Mega Weapons
The Quantum Whip could be upgraded to the Mega Quantum Whip when playing the game in Challenge Mode. This upgrade cost 180,000 bolts (162,000 with Gadgetron discount). The Mega Quantum Whip had a power of 1400 with medium range and 50 ammo which cost 3 bolts each. At 10,000 experience points it upgraded to the Giga Quantum Whip and at 15,000 experience points it upgraded to the Omega Quantum Whip.

Bugs
If Ratchet swung the wrench, then immediately switched to the whip when he was out of ammo, it acted as if it had ammo in it. It would activate for a split second, lashing out, before going back to its "dead battery" mode. This could be exploited as many times as desired, but was not necessarily the smartest choice, as there was a chance it won't activate and be left vulnerable to attack.

Interestingly, the player can see the plasma whip without its plasma effect. If you go to the chainblade room in the insomniac museum, walk on the left wall and position ratchet right next to the back wall, the plasma effect will disappear and you can see it's "skeleton". This no longer works in the HD collection.

Appearances

 * Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal
 * Secret Agent Clank
 * PlayStation Move Heroes