The Winterizer is a weapon manufactured by GrummelNet Industries in Into the Nexus. It fires a beam that morphs enemies into snowmen. Whilst firing, the weapon plays "Jingle Bells", a holiday carol by the composer James Pierpont.
The Winterizer can be purchased upon reaching planet Kragg for 30,000 bolts from a weapons vendor. It can be upgraded with raritanium, and with use, it can be upgraded to the Blizz-O-Matic, which unleashes a Frost Nova wave after morphing an enemy that morphs nearby enemies to snowmen.
History[]
The Winterizer was originally designed to create snowmen during the holiday season.[1]
Characteristics[]
The Winterizer is a white weapon with red highlights that fires a bright red beam containing red candy canes at enemies. It contains a blue snowglobe with a snowman inside as its core. The beam morphs enemies into unique types of snowmen, which often wear red hats and green scarfs. Each snowman is frozen into its exact pose before the morph began. It has a scope shaped like a snowflake and makes a jingle sound when deployed.
Combat[]
Ratchet firing the Winterizer
The Winterizer fires a beam that gradually morphs enemies into snowmen, with the transformation time depending on their health. Unlike similar morphing weapons, the Winterizer has limited ammo that depletes over time, but in return, it continuously damages enemies until they are transformed. This makes the weapon particularly effective for crowd control against mobs of smaller enemies in a short-to-medium range.
What makes the Winterizer particularly effective is that the continuous damage dealt to enemies by the weapon means that, unlike similar transmorphing weapons in the Ratchet & Clank series prior, the Winterizer can still damage non-morphable enemies, such as bosses. Additionally, if an enemy escapes the beam, the morphing process will not reset. Hence, the weapon is more versatile than its predecessors (serving a role similar both to morphing weapons and flamethrowers of prior games) as it can affect a wider range of enemies. The only limitation of the weapon is its range, as it is ineffective against targets at great distance, while being very powerful against all targets up close.
The weapon is vastly improved through upgrades. Upgrading the weapon with use allows it to become the Blizz-O-Matic, which unleashes a Frost Nova after an enemy transforms that can damage or help morph nearby enemies, making it more effective at clearing waves of enemies. A mystery raritanium upgrade increases the damage this deals. Its other mystery raritanium upgrade—Deck the Halls—allows snowmen to drop presents containing bolts, nanotech or ammo, which allows it to be effective to transform smaller enemies to gain ammo for other enemies to defeat larger ones. Other normal raritanium upgrades increase the ammo, damage, bolts dropped, and raritanium dropped by enemies defeated with the weapon.
Behind the scenes[]
Winterizer concept art
The weapon was originally going to turn all enemies into the same snowman. Individual snowmen for each enemy were created in a last minute hustle.[2]
Citations[]
References[]
- Insomniac Games (2013). Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus [Game]. Sony Computer Entertainment. PlayStation 3.
- Sony Interactive Entertainment (2018). The Art of Ratchet & Clank [Book]. Dark Horse Comics. ISBN 978-1506705729.