The term grunt is slang for an infantryman in the U.S. military, especially in the Vietnam War: "They were called grunts. They were the infantrymen, the foot soldiers of the war" (Bernard Edelman ).

Grunt in computer games

Quake III Arena

Grunt is a bot in Quake III Arena. Grunt uses weapons the way a soldier should use them — the right tool for the job. When in a short range game, he will use the shotgun if he has it. When there is some distance between him and his opponent, he will use his rocket launcher. He moves quickly around the map, preferring to jump when it gets him someplace faster.

• Tier: 2, 3
• Levels: q3dm4, q3dm6, q3dm7
• Preferred weapon: shotgun, rocket launcher

Warcraft

In Warcraft, the basic orc ground unit is called a grunt.

Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2

In the Halo (video game series), made for Xbox and PC by Bungie Studios, the grunts are the cannon fodder-type regular army of the empire of the alien coalition called The Covenant. Called Unggoy by their superiors, they are named for both their social status and their curious speech patterns, which are high-pitched and outrageously hilarious. They can use a variety of weapons including plasma pistols, needlers, plasma grenades, plasma rifles (although they are not authorized to, they can if it is necessary), fuel rod cannons, plasma cannons, shade turrets, those funky prong turrets, and, on occasion, privileged grunts can ride the light attack vehicles known as Ghosts .

Although they are dutiful followers of the Covenant religion, they are motivated more out of fear of their squad leaders, the Elites, than by personal devotion to their gods. Grunts, in general, lead a fairly depressing life. They live mainly to feed en masse at Covenant food nipples, and will not resist talking about them incessantly. Between the grunts there are separate levels of authority, marked by the color of their armor, which is made to simulate their icy methane-atmospheric swamp homeworld. Without proper sources of methane environments, grunts will suffocate and act like fish out of water. The levels of the grunt authority go as follows, from the bottom of the chain of command up:

• Red - Orange - These Major and Minor grunts are the grunts of the grunts, the bottom of the Covenant barrel. They are considered cannon fodder by all of their superiors and are used exactly as such.

• Black - Black-armored grunts are Special Ops grunts. They are used for more important missions and have the ability to use Elite-style active camouflage. The Special Ops Elites still use them as cannon fodder though.

• Green - Grunts with green armor are "tech grunts" and are very proficient with many different vehicles and weapons.

For the touching story of a grunt named Yayap, read Halo: The Flood from the Halo book series.

After the Grunts, along with the Hunters and their Elite superiors were cast out of the Covenant, they side with the United Nations Space Command. The Heretic Grunts are equipped with an X-shaped methane airtank with pumps that are connected to their mask and they are less cowardly than their Covenant counterparts.