The Biobliterator is a boss in Up Your Arsenal and Into the Nexus. It was a superweapon developed by Dr. Nefarious designed to transform all organic lifeforms into robots. The Biobliterator was a large spherical vehicle, with the main ability to fire a beam from its main cannon that instantly transmogrifies any target. It was also capable of transforming into a giant robot form that can fire missiles. All information about Nefarious' plans for the Biobliterator were stored on a datadisk known as the master plan.
The Biobliterator was first developed by Dr. Nefarious on Daxx, and tested by his accomplice Courtney Gears on Obani Draco. It then ravaged Metropolis, Kerwan and turned the entire population into robots, before Ratchet and Clank destroyed it on Koros. However, Nefarious had developed a second, more powerful Biobliterator, which Ratchet, Clank, and Captain Qwark destroyed on Mylon, ending Nefarious' war. A replica of the Biobliterator was created in the Intergalactic Museum of History in Meridian City, Igliak, which fought Ratchet and Clank.
History[]
Up Your Arsenal[]
The Biobliterator was created on Daxx by Dr. Nefarious, whose goal was to use it to attack every planet in the Solana Galaxy and transform all organic lifeforms into robots.[1] In the interview, Nefarious and his butler Lawrence were briefly interviewed by Supervillain Weekly about its existence. Nefarious claimed he would annihilate critics that thought his new scheme was unoriginal, while Lawrence denied that it was a superweapon.[2] All information about the Biobliterators' capabilities were deleted from Daxx' computers,[3] though it was stored in a data disk in Nefarious' star cruiser, the Leviathan, which contained the full plan.[1] One day prior to Ratchet and Clank's arrival on the planet, it was delivered to Obani Draco, the hideout of Nefarious' accomplice Courtney Gears, in a transport vessel.[3]
Ratchet and Clank traveled to Daxx after watching the Supervillain Weekly episode. In "Infiltrate the Weapons Facility", they learned of the existence of the weapon, its name, and that its destination was the Obani moon system, but could not learn about its capabilities due to the records being deleted.[3] Courtney Gears later kidnapped Skidd McMarx, and took him to the Biobliterator testing facility in her hideout. She then successfully transformed him into a robot.[4] By the time Ratchet arrived at Obani Draco, the Biobliterator had already left. Later, when Ratchet and Qwark searched the Leviathan for Nefarious, Qwark spotted the master plan and remained behind to obtain it, claiming he had "spotted something important".[5] After the Leviathan crashed on Zeldrin, Qwark left behind the data disk along with an escape pod, before escaping using the Supernova Taxi service.[6]
Nefarious first used the Biobliterator to attack Metropolis, Kerwan, having sworn previously to return to Metropolis to have his vengeance after Captain Qwark had defeated him there years ago.[7] Nefarious invaded the city with an army of tyhrranoids, before using the Biobliterator to transform the entire population into robots, which also transformed the tyhrranoids into robonoids, and destroying also several buildings in Metropolis with the same Biobliterator (confirming also a secondary destructive function) after Ratchet defeated Klunk.[8] As a result, President Phyronix effectively conceded defeat to Nefarious, believing that it would transform all organic lifeforms to robots within a week, and changed his re-election campaign strategy around this.[9] The Biobliterator then recharged at a base on Koros, with Veldin as its next target.[1]
In "Explore the Crash Site", Ratchet and Clank picked up the master plan data disk from the crash site on Zeldrin. They then took it back to the Starship Phoenix so that Al could decode it. Al then learned it was targeting Veldin next and was recharging at the Nefarious BFG on Koros.[1] After telling Ratchet and Clank, they traveled to Koros to stop it. Ratchet lamented that none of his weapons would deal sufficient damage to it, though Clank suggested that they could take over a large ion cannon.[10]
After getting inside the command center, Ratchet and Clank accessed the control panel of the cannon, and destroyed the Biobliterator. However, as they did, Sasha Phyronix informed them that Nefarious had constructed a second, more powerful Biobliterator in secret, which she suspected was in Nefarious' command center on Mylon.[11]
In "Battle your way to the launch site", Ratchet and Clank traveled to Mylon to find the Biobliterator, and upon reaching it, Nefarious and Lawrence teleported inside the Biobliterator and flew away, where Nefarious initiated the launch sequence to send the Biobliterator to space and attack Veldin. Sasha sent Ratchet and Clank a Ranger dropship to follow him. After performing a HALO jump and landing, Ratchet destroyed the terminal from which Nefarious was launching the Biobliterator, and then defeated him.[12]
Nefarious then called upon Lawrence to transform the Biobliterator into a giant robot form and kill Ratchet and Clank. Before it was able to, Qwark flew in with a shuttle and interrupted its fire. The three then destroyed the Biobliterator, with Qwark piloting a shuttle, and Ratchet and Clank piloting a hovership. This caused the reactor to detonate. It was due to detonate within sixty seconds, but detonated much earlier, before Nefarious could specify a destination to teleport to.[13]
After Up Your Arsenal[]
During A Crack in Time, Ratchet flippantly queried Nefarious on what his current plan is, asking if he was still trying to turn everyone into robots.[14] Later, during the final battle, Nefarious mockingly asks Ratchet if he remembers when he destroyed the Biobliterator, and proceeds to consider that triumph erased, once he controls the Great Clock and alters history to undo his previous defeats.[15]
Sometime before Into the Nexus, a miniaturized replica of the Biobliterator was constructed in the zero-g galactorium for the Solana Galaxy, at the Intergalactic Museum of History in Meridian City, Igliak, in the Polaris Galaxy. The replica was part of an interactive experience in which patrons could fight the Biobliterator. The effects of the replica Biobliterator however were only temporary, and biobliterated targets would transform back within a few short moments. The exhibit was sponsored by Captain Qwark.
During Into the Nexus, Ratchet and Clank fought the replica Biobliterator while searching the museum for the original Dimensionator. The tourbot, Docent 427, led them to the galactorium, where Ratchet defeated the Biobliterator before proceeding with his objective.[16]
Characteristics[]
The Biobliterator was an immense, metal, spherical superweapon with an orange light from which its beam is fired. It was capable of flight through the air with no visible thrusters, and could transmogrify organic beings into robots. It was also well-armored, and Ratchet believed none of his weapons could so much as dent it.[10] The weapon was capable of transforming the entire population of Metropolis into robots,[8] but needed to recharge its fuel cells afterward on Koros.[1] It was implied by Courtney Gears that the transformation from organic lifeform to robot was somewhat painful.[4]
The second Biobliterator was capable of transforming into a giant robot form. By expanding its main compartments outwards, it revealed two legs, two arms with missile launchers in place of hands, and a small head with a V-shaped visor. From its chest it was capable of firing homing missiles that could disperse widely, and from its arms it could fire missiles in a straight direction as well as plasma blasts.
Combat[]
Behind the scenes[]
The Biobliterator was inspired by the Death Star from Star Wars.[17] It has a similar spherical design, and like the Death Star, two models were created.
In an early draft for the 2016 Ratchet & Clank movie script, written by TJ Fixman, the Biobliterator was originally included. In this script, it was explained that the Biobliterator used elemental nanobots to replicate cellular tissue. This would have been used by Elaris to replace Brax Lectrus' damaged arm with a robotic arm by replicating his muscles and bones.[18]
While working on the boss fight for Up Your Arsenal, many developers at Insomniac Games had the vision that it would be the "true" final boss fight, after the developers had already put a lot of effort into the Nefarious boss fight. Many developers suggested that the final boss fight be much more complex, with a complicated AI used for Qwark, and that more skill would be involved in dodging the Biobliterators' attacks instead of just moving around to avoid its rockets. Programmers had to temper expectations and say that the Biobliterator fight could not be as complicated as the Nefarious boss fight with how much time was already spent on the Nefarious fight, and the Biobliterator ended up serving as an exclamation point at the end of it rather than a true final boss fight.[19]
In Up Your Arsenal, when Darla Gratch interviews President Phyronix about the Biobliterator attack on Metropolis, she refers to it in plural terms, implying multiple Biobliterators attacked the cite.[9] However, there are only two Biobliterators fought, and this is the only reference to the existence of multiple Biobliterators existing prior to Ratchet and Clank learning of a second Biobliterator being constructed in secret.[11] Therefore, this was likely an error.
The Biobliterator was also seen in the short Ratchet & Clank: Life of Pie as one of the weapons stored in Galactic City's weapons museum, where it was identical to the Dynamo of Doom, and used by Qwark to turn the local guard Bruce into a robot, and then back to normal again.
Citations[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Up Your Arsenal script § "Get to the bridge (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Supervillain Weekly"
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Up Your Arsenal script § "Infiltrate the Weapons Facility (gameplay)"
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Up Your Arsenal script § "Beat Courtney Gears (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Find Nefarious (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Supernova Taxi"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Quit While You're a Head"
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Up Your Arsenal script § "Defeat Giant Klunk (gameplay)"
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Up Your Arsenal script § "Phoenix 7"
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 Up Your Arsenal script § "Get inside command center (gameplay)"
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Up Your Arsenal script § "Access big gun control panel (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Defeat Dr. Nefarious (gameplay)"
- ↑ Up Your Arsenal script § "Agent Clank's Next Mission"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Pollyx Industries"
- ↑ A Crack in Time script § "Confront and Destroy Dr. Nefarious (gameplay)"
- ↑ Into the Nexus script § "Find the Dimensionator (gameplay)"
- ↑ Stout, Garcia June 4 2012 20:26
- ↑ Fixman 2017
- ↑ Stout, Garcia December 30 2012 11:51
References[]
- Video games
- Insomniac Games (2004). Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal [Game]. PlayStation 2.
- Insomniac Games (2013). Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
- Websites
- Fixman, TJ (2017, October 5). "[916011645477859328 Another oldie but goody from the Ratchet script. This was initially how I worked the biobliterator into the story.]". From "TJ Fixman". Archived from the original on November 8, 2019.
- Videos
- Stout, Mike; Garcia, Tony [@uselesspodcasts] (2012, June 4). Clank 3 Dev Commentary: 14 - Crates, Crates, Crates [Video]. YouTube.
- Stout, Mike; Garcia, Tony [@uselesspodcasts] (2012, December 30). Ratchet & Clank 3 Dev Commentary: 36 - Doctor Nefarious [Video]. YouTube.