TF2 Newbs (Team Fortress 2) Blog

This blog has been updated for the changes from Day 2.  Here’s the summary, with more details forthcoming:

 

Day 1′s Important Changes

• Competitive Mode is now out of Beta
• PASS Time is now out of Beta
• You can play in unranked (casual) games, if you wish, to match you into games with players with roughly equal Comp Rank
• Three new Community maps
  • Released in the Day 2 patch: Sunshine, Swiftwater, and Metalworks
• No TF2 patch has released yet–but one is expected on Day 2 (tonight or tomorrow?)

Day 2′s Important Changes:

• A “WAR” between Team Heavy and Team Pyro
  • Choose one Team when you join your next Ranked or Unranked game
  • Points you score go toward your Team; doesn’t matter what class you play
  • Winning Team overall all of TF2 (Heavy or Pyro) will decide which character will be first to get a patch designed for that character
  • The losing character will likely get a patch some time after the winner
• Some important game rebalances
• Added 4 new taunts
• Added the Perfect Stranger crate
• Added new “starter pack” crates and “keyless cosmetic” crates in the Mann Co. Store
  • Each class has one of each, so that you can outfit your favorite class
• Added new items in the Valve Store
  • More TF2 stuff in the Valve Store

 

What is Competitve Mode?

As the splash page says, you can now join a ranked 6-vs-6 game, solo or with up to 5 of your friends, to play a Ranked game where the outcome of the game affects your Rank. Measured from 1-18, your Rank can go up or down depending on points scored and whether you win or lose. You can lose Rank and face temporary bans from Comp play by leaving a match or being disconnected.

There seems to be an option for 9-vs-9 games as well, but it isn’t currently available.

Quickplay now has the option to join a casual, unranked match where you play against players of similar Rank. “Unranked match” means that playing doesn’t affect your Rank, but does put you into a game with (hopefully) users of similar skill.

Here’s the FAQ and the wiki page, but here’s some more pertinent info:

• To play, you need to be a Premium (not F2P) user. See this blogpost for more info on what Premium is.
• To play, you also need either a valid phone number registered to your Steam account OR buy a Lifetime TF2 Comp Pass.
  • The Lifetime Comp Pass is not to be confused with the TF2 Comp Beta Pass.
  • If you currently have the Steam Mobile Authenticator on your smartphone, you should already qualify.
• During play, note the following additional rules:
  • Currently only 6v6 is supported, no class restrictions
  • You can’t change your teams, and you’re penalized if you leave the match
  • Random critical hits are disabled for all weapons
  • Shotgun-type weapons (only) have fixed damage spreads (in a 3×3 grid pattern)
  • Symmetrical Control Point maps play best-of-3 rounds (or best-of-5 rounds in higher Ranks)
  • Attack/Defense maps play the Stopwatch mode where the fastest attacking team wins
  • DirectX9 and certain vanilla graphical modes/options are enforced
• Maps currently supported: Process, Badlands (!!), Gorge, Gullywash, Snakewater, and KOTH Viaduct
  • Note that the 3 new Community-made maps are not yet supported

3 New Community Maps

(I’m glad to see that these maps aren’t set in the desert.)

 

Sunshine is a traditional 5CP map designed for competitive 6v6 play that might remind you a little of Badlands. Has already seen UGC Comp play. A Halloween-themed clone, Sinshine, also exists, so expect it to show up in this year’s Halloween rotation as well.

 

Metalworks is also a traditional 5CP map, set in a cloudy industrial setting at night. It’s as grey as your bosses’ hearts.

 

Swiftwater is a payload map in a water bottling map in an Alpine setting. This map has seen lots of play in the UGC Comp Highlander ladders.

 

Important Game Rebalances

There are SO MANY important game rebalances, I’m going to have to write a separate blogpost about it. Here are the biggest changes:

Yeah, I’m out of time. Scroll down to read the patch notes–you’ll be glad you did. Have fun adjusting how you play Medic!!

 

4 New Taunts

These taunts are currently only available for purchase in the Mann Co. Store, and not in a crate at this time.

1. The Balloonibouncer has the Pyro jump onto a spring-loaded Balloonicorn and ride it… well, a little gentler than the Engineer rides his Bucking Bronco. $7.99 in Mann Co. Store.
2. The Disco Fever has the Spy do a short disco-inspired dance for 8 seconds. $4.99 in Mann Co. Store.
3. The Carlton has the Scout do a 6-second dance where he wishes he was related to the Fresh Prince, Will Smith. $6.99 in Mann Co. Store. Da da DAA daa….
4. The Fubar Fanfare has the Soldier play a sad trombone for 5 seconds. $4.99 in Mann Co. Store. Womp womp womp womp….

 

The “Perfect Stranger” Crate

Also known as Crate #103, this crate requires a standard Mann. Co Key, and is filled with Strange-quality weapons and weapon parts that have been requested by the TF2 community. Here’s what’s inside:

• Strange Part: Heavies Killed
• Strange Part: Pyros Killed
• Strange Part: Critical Kills
• Strange Part: Allied Healing Done
• Strange Part: Damage Dealt
• Strange Sandvich
• Strange Natascha
• Strange Powerjack
• Strange Degreaser
• Strange Reserve Shooter
• Strange Ambassador
• Strange Quickiebomb Launcher
• Strange Back Scatter
• Strange Panic Attack
• Strange Iron Bomber
• or the usual 1% chance of an Unusual cosmetic item

None of the above items existed as a Strange item before. Also, all of those items are assumed to have an equal chance to drop. (Don’t forget: all of those items are marketable also!)

 

“Starter Pack” Item Bundles

Nah man, it’s not a meme.  These are item packages sold in the Mann Co. Store to outfit the class of your choice. They’re on the Home screen of the Store under the “Starter Pack” tab.

Each item bundle includes one each of all of the non-Stock, non-promotional items for that class. All of the items are Unique-quality, cannot be used in crafting, and they (and the item bundle itself, if left unopened) are tradable after a few days. The bundles cost between US$2 and $6, with the Medic being cheapest (fewest items) and the Soldier being the most expensive (most items). Each bundle also includes one Name Tag, so you can rename your new favorite weapon.

For example, the $3.99 Sniper Starter Pack include a Huntsman, Razorback, Jarate, Tribalman’s Shiv, Syndey Sleeper, Darwin’s Danger Shield, Bushwacka, Shahanshah, Bazaar Bargain, Machina, Cozy Camper, Cleaner’s Carbine, Hitman’s Heatmaker, and the Classic, plus a Name Tag. (Note that you don’t get items like the AWPer Hand or a Fortified Compound, because those were both promotional weapons and cosmetic reskins of other weapons.)

You can also choose not to open the bundle after you buy it, and trade or market it later. Perfect for gifting to noobs.

 

“Keyless Cosmetic” Crates

Called the “Unlocked Cosmetic Crates” in the Mann Co. Store, you can buy for US$2.49 (the same price as a key!) this tool item of the class of your choice. When opened, it produces one random cosmetic equippable by that class, with an unknown chance of it being Strange or Unusual. These crates are found under the same “Starter Pack” tab in the Store.

We don’t know what the chances are for the item to be Strange or Unusual. We also don’t know if all-class or multiple-class cosmetics can drop from it, or cosmetics from certain series like Robocrates, or promotional items. The crates do say that any Strange or Unusual items pulled are hats only, so don’t expect to get lucky and pull an Unusual that wasn’t possible before. If a drop list becomes available, I’ll provide a link in the future.

Consider this: It costs four refined metal + one class token to craft a hat of a given class (or three ref for a cosmetic of a random class), which is cheaper than buying this crate (or a key). But it can be a pain to bother finding a trading partner to trade enough metal, with keys being worth 20 ref for a while now.

Also, all of the cosmetics for sale in the Mann Co. Store are minimum US$4.99, so whatever you get is a relative deal. The TF2 community, as well as Valve, has gotten away from crafting or introducing new weapons into the economy (at least until the Pyro and/or Heavy future patches come out), and players are much more likely now to buy straight from Valve or the Market. TF2Newbs still has two trade servers, #2 and #18, so you can try to find trade partners there.

 

One More Thing About Crates

All (well, maybe most) crates in your inventory now include a list of the possible items within. If you mouse over the items, you get a pop-up picture of the item, so you can see better what possible items are in the crate.

 

 

Full Patch Notes: July 8, 2016

As always, the full patch notes are from the Official TF2 Wiki.

Patch 1: The Meet Your Match Update has arrived!

• Added Casual and Competitive Matchmaking modes
  • Additional information available on the website ( http://www.teamfortress.com/meetyourmatch/ )
  • Casual mode replaces Quickplay
• Added the Heavy vs. Pyro war
  • Additional information available on the website ( http://www.teamfortress.com/meetyourmatch/war.php )
• 3 new community maps
  • Sunshine
  • Metalworks
  • Swiftwater
• Added 3 new community taunts
  • The Balloonibouncer (Pyro only)
  • Disco Fever (Spy only)
  • The Fubar Fanfare (Soldier only)
• Added 1 new official taunt
  • The Carlton (Scout only)
• Added the Perfect Stranger crate

General

• Reworked the main menu
  • All play-related buttons are now accessible by clicking the “Find a game” button
  • Moved the Workshop and Replay buttons down the bottom group of mini-buttons
• Enemies killed by energy weapons now play a special sound as their body dissolves
• Improved stopwatch UI to help better communicate game state
• Added new sound vo files for Competitive Mode
• Added sounds to all attacks where the target player resisted a part of the damage
• Added Prinny promo items for purchasing Disgaea: Prinny Hat, Prinny Pouch, and Prinny Machete
• Added AsiaFortress Cup Mercenaries Cup Season 7 medals
• Added TF2Maps 72hr TF2Jam Summer Participant medal
• Added Random Acts of TF2 medals
• Added check to prevent players with P-REC loaded from participating in matchmaking
  • Prevents P-REC crashing which results in players receiving abandon penalties
• Updated the Demo Support feature
  • Added an option to only record matches that are played using Tournament mode (mp_tournament)
  • Added an option to auto-delete matches that don’t have any events recorded
  • Fixed a bug where tickcount values were being noted incorrectly
  • Options can be set using the Adv. Options menu
• Updated model/materials for the Bonk Boy, Dr’s Dapper Topper, The Sole Saviors, and The Dark Falkirk Helm
• Updated the localization files
• PASS Time update
  • No longer in Beta!
  • New Items Available
    • An Early Participation Pin will be awarded to everyone who played PASS Time during beta
    • Two new achievements with item rewards
      • Tune Merasmus’s Multi-Dimensional Television
      • Jackpot!
  • Map Changes
    • All maps are tweaked, polished, and out of beta
    • Renamed pass_pinewood to pass_timberlodge
    • Renamed pass_warehouse to pass_brickyard
    • Added a new city-themed map, pass_district
    • An updated pass_template for level designers will be released on http://www.escalation.com/news
  • Game Mode Changes
    • Changed the score limit from 3 to 5
    • Tweaked various JACK throwing parameters
    • Pack Running
      • The JACK no longer heals the player carrying it
      • A player carrying the JACK with no nearby teammates is marked for death
      • Teammates near a player holding the JACK will be slowly healed, and can run as fast as the fastest nearby teammate
    • JACK Power
      • Passing the JACK increases a power meter
      • The power meter will decay over time
      • Filling the power meter unlocks a special goal worth extra points
  • Art Changes
    • New view model animations
    • The HUD provides more information about goal type and status
    • Player pips for Spies will reflect cloak and disguise status
  • Misc Details
    • Added cvar tf_passtime_scores_per_round
    • Added tf_glow entity that can be used to enable the glow effect on any entity
    • Updated trigger_passtime_ball FGD entry to hide unimplemented features, temporarily
    • Spawnflag added to func_passtime_goal to indicate to the HUD that a goal is unlocked by JACK power

Bug fixes

• Fixed being able to repeatedly activate taunts before the current one had ended while underwater
• Fixed disguising with the Conniver’s Kunai while spotted by a Sentry causing the Sentry to ignore the Spy
• Fixed class change notifications appearing to the enemy team for a period of time after teams swap sides in Competitive Mode
• Fixed a case where players would sometimes see other players carrying the wrong weapon(s)
• Fixed a bug where the Engineer couldn’t remove the Sapper from a linked teleporter if was building (not active)
• Fixed a bug where the Engineer was able to heal a linked teleporter while it was building. This now matches the behavior for the other buildings.^[1]
• Updated several hats to fix the Sniper not removing them while taunting
• Fixed hiding the Pyro’s head when using the second style of the Fear Monger
• Fixed using the wrong ozfortress medals for divisions other than Premier
• Fixed a few UGC tournament medals using the wrong names
• Fixed the Engineer’s missing pelvis hitbox
• Thanks to Justin G., aka sigsegv, for these reports
  • Fixed airblasts sometimes sending reflected projectiles toward friendly players, buildings, and projectile shields
  • Fixed demo record/read stringtables not writing/reading past 512kb
  • Fixed inconsistency between items that use mini-crit buff (TF_COND_ENERGY_BUFF)
  • Fixed multiple Mann vs. Machine bugs caused by bot AI functions being executing after the bots have died
  • Fixed a bug related to lunchbox items, where the ammo bar can be drained in cases when it shouldn’t be
  • Fixed Medics sometimes instantly reviving players in Mann vs. Machine

Performance

• Fixed several cases of loading and rendering hitches that would cause abrupt changes in FPS
• Improved Flamethrower flame performance in Mann vs. Machine on clients and servers by up to +500%
• VGUI .res files are now cached after loading, reducing framerate hitches. Custom HUD authors can disable this by setting vgui_cache_res_files to 0.
• Improved rendering performance of zombies
• Improved VGUI font performance

Custom HUD Versioning

• In order to reduce crashing and broken UI elements after updates, custom HUDs now must explicitly specify the version of the TF UI with which they are compatible
• Custom HUD files must now be installed as add-ons under the tf/custom/ folder. Loose .res files extracted to the game directory will not be loaded
• Custom HUDs must now contain a file named “info.vdf” in their root folder, with the key “ui_version” set to the TF UI version with which they are compatible
• The current TF UI version is 1
• Non-HUD add-ons under tf/custom/ will continue to work without an “info.vdf” file, but may not load .res files

Mann Co. Store

• Added the Competitive Matchmaking Pass
• Added new class starter packs
• Added new key-less cosmetic crates
• Revamped main store pages
• Added a spotlight item
• Added ability to mouse over and preview items in a bundle/crate/collection
• Adjusted some weapon prices for consistency

Maps

• cp_granary
  • Added new ammo pack locations in final and yard areas
  • Clips and blockbullets added to stairs
• cp_badlands
  • Final cap point capture time increased to 2 seconds (from 1 second)^[2]
  • Clips and blockbullets added to stairs
• cp_foundry
  • Reduced ammo kit in final cap entry room (attackers’ side) to medium
  • Slightly reduced attacking team’s spawn time when working on final
• pl_upward
  • Fixed an exploit where players could sometimes build sentries in the cliffside by capture point 3
• pl_thundermountain
  • Fixed the first and second cap points of stage 3 each awarding 2 points to the capturing team instead of 1
• Mannpower
  • All official maps now set Mannpower mode without requiring the use of the tf_powerup_mode convar

Game Balance

• Scout
  • Crit-A-Cola
    • Added Marked-for-Death debuff for 2 seconds after the buff effect expires
  • The Soda Popper
    • Added “On hit: build Hype”
    • Removed “build hype by running around”
  • Shortstop
    • Added an Alt-fire attack — reach out and shove someone!
    • Removed +healing bonus
    • Reduced pushback vuln to +20% (from +40%)
  • Sun on a stick
    • Take 25% less damage from fire while deployed

• Soldier
  • The Righteous Bison
    • Fixed a bug causing players to be hit by the same projectile multiple times, causing the damage dealt to vary wildly
    • Per-shot damage has been increased to compensate, resulting in slightly more damage on average ^[1]
      • Point-blank deals 54 damage (previously 20-80)
      • Maximum range deals 24 damage (previously 14-56)
    • Slowed projectile by 30%
    • Projectile damage reduced by 25% for each enemy penetrated
    • Updated projectile impact sound
  • The Disciplinary Action
    • Reduced duration of speed bonus on teammates to 2 seconds (from 3)
  • The Rocket Jumper
    • Updated model/materials and sound

• Sniper
  • Cozy Camper
    • Now requires a full charge to gain flinch resistance
  • The Sydney Sleeper
    • When fully charged, or when making a headshot, now applies Jarate in a radius
    • Scoped shots now extinguish teammates
  • The Cleaner’s Carbine
    • Removed hidden +10% damage taken multiplier while under the effects

• Heavy
  • Natascha and Brass Beast
    • 20% damage resistance now only applies when spun up and below 50% max health
  • Huo-Long Heater
    • Added -10% damage
    • Added +25% increased damage vs. burning players
    • Reduced ammo drain to -4/sec (from -6)
    • Reduced pulse damage from Ring of Fire to 12 (from 15) due to increased damage vs. burning
  • Buffalo Steak Sandvich
    • Fixed “damage taken” multiplier accidentally being +10%, instead of the listed +25%
• Spy
  • Base
    • Max speed increased to 320 (from 300)
  • Enforcer
    • Attacks pierce resist and absorb effects from all sources

• Pyro
  • All Flamethrowers
    • Added: Direct damage reduces Medi Gun healing and resist shield effects by 25%
      • Medics hear a “healing interrupted” sound when this is happening to their heal target
  • The Manmelter
    • Removed (hidden) 20% fire rate penalty

• Medic
  • Base
    • All Mediguns allow the Medic to match the speed of their heal target
      • Previously only available on The Quick Fix
  • Quick Fix
    • ÜberCharge rate reduced to +15% (from +25%)^[3]
  • Overdose
    • Increased movement speed bonus to +20% (from +10%)
    • Increased damage penalty to -15% (from -10%)
  • Dropped Mediguns
    • Stored ÜberCharge begins to decay over time after coming to rest

• Demoman
  • Base
    • All boots now require a shield to activate any move speed bonus listed on the item
  • The Iron Bomber
    • Decreased the fuse time to 1.4 seconds (from 2.0)
  • The Quickiebomb Launcher
    • Increased charge time reduction to -70% (from -50%)
    • Increased damage bonus for (max) charged shots to +35% (from +25%)
    • Increased clip size penalty to -50% (from -25%)
    • Removed “Stickybombs fizzle 4 seconds after landing”
  • The Sticky Jumper
    • Updated model/materials and sound

• Engineer
  • Base
    • Level 1 teleporters now cost 50 metal (previously 125)
  • Widowmaker
    • Damage increased +10% when attacking the same target as your sentry
  • Eureka Effect
    • Reduced “50% less metal from Dispensers and Pickups” to 20%
    • Added “Teleporters cost 50% less metal”
  • The Short Circuit
    • Base projectile attack is -10 metal (hit or miss) and then add -5 metal for each projectile destroyed (sometimes a buff, sometimes a nerf)
  • The Pomson^(sic)
    • Fixed an exploit with shooting through your own buildings
    • Increased close-range damage to 72 (from 62)
    • Reduced long-range damage to 32 (from 42)
    • Updated projectile impact sound

= Undocumented changes

• Loch-n-Load
  • Updated firing sound.

• Pomson 6000
  • Added projectile impact particle.

Patch 2

• Fixed a bug where the Medic’s run speed would not adjust when his heal target was killed
• Fixed client crash related to custom HUDs

 

[N] Obey

Feel free to leave a comment with any questions, and I’ll answer them in a future blogpost.

And expect a blogpost about the item rebalances and bugfixes in a LENGTHY blogpost in the next three days. 284,677 lifetime hits, and we want more!

 

Subsequent patch notes at bottom of post; latest patch July 6th.

Here we go! A MAJOR TF2 UPDATE lands Friday, July 2nd! As always, here is the short version:

1. Here is the original TF2 blogpost announcing the update.
2. Here is the TF2 comic that will attempt to explain the background story up until now.
3. Here is the Page One splash page: The Gun Mettle Update!
4. Here is the Page Two splash page: Describing the 3 new maps and the extensive weapon changes.
   • You will want to scroll down to the heading “Gameplay Changes”; TF2 gameplay has been changed considerably!
   • Some spies can gain a speed boost (on trigger with Dead Ringer; on kill with Big Earner).
   • Spies take 20% less damage when cloaked.
   • Sentries take more damage when sapped than before.
   • Most Engineers build faster and move buildings faster.
   • Repairing a wrangled sentry is less effective than before.
   • Mini-sentries can be repaired, but don’t drop metal when destroyed.
   • Soldiers deploying Equalizer/Escape Plan can be healed by a medic, but at 10% normal heal rate.
   • Soldier’s Liberty Launcher is now a five-clip!
   • Ullapool Caber does less damage than before.
   • Charging Demomen now gain charge gauge on melee kills, not charging kills.
   • Scorch Shot deals more damage, more knockback, and has larger area-of-effect.
   • Vaccinator Ubers now always use just one ubercharge bar.
   • Sydney Sleeper now applies Jarate with non-fully charged shots, but with a duration from 2 to 8 seconds.
   • Bazaar Bargain charges much slower, but a missed shot doesn’t lose counted heads.
   • Heavy miniguns are more effective at damaging sentries.
   • Natasha and Brass Beast grant 20% damage resistance while spun-up or firing.
   • Tomislav now spins up faster, fires 20% smaller bullet spread.
   • Eviction Notice grants Heavy a 3-second speed boost on hit.
   • Dalokohs Bar now overheals to 400 hp (previously 350), cooldown reduced to 10 seconds, can be thrown like a sandvich.
   • Panic Attack shotgun now weapons switches faster, fires and reloads even faster than before.
5. And here is a FAQ about some of the changes.

 

The “Gun Mettle” Update

The first splash page says that you can buy-in to a special three-month event (lasting until approximately October 1, 2015) for US$5.99. This will earn you a badge-like Campaign Coin that levels up as you complete contracts.

Contracts are achievement-like “skill-based challenges” that you attempt to complete in a week’s time, such as tanking a lot of damage as a heavy or backstabbing five players of a specific class. Each player is assigned two different contracts to attempt completion each week (assuming that each week begins on Thursday at midnight GMT, like the item drop system).

Completing a contract will earn you Contract Points (CP). Collecting CP levels up your coin (to bronze, silver, and gold) and lets you purchase your choice of either a random “Contract-exclusive weapon” OR an unlockable Weapons Case (that requires a key that you have to buy in the Mann Co. Store, I assume). Weapons Cases also drop a single, random “Contract-exclusive weapon” but with potentially rarer qualities.

Contract Weapons

Weapons are randomly generated with the following:

• Its weapon type, such as Shotgun. (Unknown if only stock weapons, or all available weapon types, can be Contract Weapons.)
• A unique “paint job” that is centered differently on each weapon, so no two are exactly alike
  • Teufort and Craftsmann paint jobs come from completing Contracts only.
  • Concealed Killer (generally camoflage-themed) and Powerhouse (neon/electric-themed) paint jobs come from Weapons Cases only.
  • It is not known if any paint jobs are more/less rare than the others, but it can be assumed that Teufort/Craftsmann paints will eventually become more common than the other two.
• One of five levels of “wear”. Unknown if any level of wear is more/less rare than the others.
  • Factory New
  • Minimal Wear
  • Field-Tested
  • Well-Worn
  • Battle Scarred
  • Note: Weapons DO NOT wear when used. They are a given level of wear when dropped, and do not change later.
• One of six “grades” of rarity. Civilian is most common; Elite is most rare.
  1. Civilian–contracts only
  2. Freelance–contracts only
  3. Mercenary–contracts or weapons cases
  4. Commando–contracts or weapons cases
  5. Assassin–weapons cases only
  6. Elite–weapons cases only
  7. NOTE: The rarity grade should not change appearance whatsoever.
• A weapon’s paint job, wear, and grade is entirely cosmetic and does not change its gameplay whatsoever.
• That’s not all. The weapon will be marked as Limited, and will have a chance of being Strange, Unusual, or even both Strange and Unusual!
  • Will the Unusuals have unusual effects? Ummm…. maybe? These are the first weapons able to have the Unusual quality.
• These weapons will be tradable and marketable. If you wish to trade or sell a weapon, look up its worth on the Market or another site like backpack.tf first, so you don’t get scammed.

For example, a possible outcome for a single contract would be a Strange Freelance Shotgun for the Heavy with a Craftsmann yellow-and-blue paint job and a Minimal Wear grade. You can earn potentially two weapons per week, or perhaps two dozen weapons in all over the three-month event window.

 

 

 

Four New Maps

NOTE: These are all Valve-Official; none of them are Beta maps. See the second splash page for pictures.

Powerhouse (I’m guessing cp_powerhouse) is a smaller, three-point control point map, where you have to cap all three points (yours, the central neutral cap, and theirs) to win a round. This looks like it was created by Valve, not the community.

Borneo (I’m guessing pl_borneo) is an “Alpine-themed, single-stage Payload map” Community map.

Suijin (I’m guessing koth_suijin) is a King of the Hill Community map with Oriental buildings and pink-white cherry blossom trees. Sun Tzu would approve.

Snowplow (cp_snowplow_rc3) is a two-stage attack-defense Control Points map. First stage strewn with wooden buildings, second stage is very snowy, with a cart path throughout (but no payload to push). Yes, this is the Community map from the End of the Line Update that wasn’t approved the first time around.

 

Gameplay Changes

 

The following are permanent changes to how TF2 is played. Read carefully, and adjust your future play to these new mechanics.

Weapons Now Drop on Death

Previously: A killed character would drop a weapon gib, which can be touched by your character as a medium ammo pickup (and 100 Engineer metal).

Now: A killed character drops a medium ammo box (identical to the medium ammo powerups on a map) and their weapon. If the weapon is normally equippable by that character (such as a Shotgun dropped by an Engineer and picked up by a Heavy), and you pick up the dropped weapon by pressing the (default) F key, you temporarily drop your normal weapon in that slot and equip that weapon until you die.

It will temporarily replace your usual item in its loadout slot until you die (i.e. a Shotgun would replace a Heavy’s Sandvich). It will have the same looks and effects as the weapon had from the person you just looted (i.e. picking up an Australium Sniper Rifle and carrying it around with its cosmetic features). When you die, the weapon goes away, and you drop one of your weapons (essentially a lookalike copy of a weapon in your current loadout). Weapons that have charge meters, such as the various Medic uberguns, provide the amount of charge they had when dropped; a Medic can pick up a Kritzkrieg to find it fully charged!

Worry not about losing a prized possession; your loadout items are retained in your inventory as usual. Someone may get to kill you and take your purple rocket launcher, then go around shooting people with a purple rocket launcher until they die. And you can kill them, take their weapons, and go do the same. No actual items are lost; however, you can drop a weapon that isn’t working and grab a class-allowed weapon in the heat of battle, CS:GO style.

 

Weapon Updates and Tweaks

 

A LOT of weapons have been tweaked! Prepare to be surprised at just how much the game has changed by this one update, as Valve has stated that they want underused, unpopular weapons to once again find a role within the game. Here is a summary of the changes:

 

Global Changes

• Weapons and ammo boxes now drop on death. See heading just before this one.
• Inspect Target now inspects your own deployed weapon when you aren’t targeting anything. Necessary for Contract work, and to stare at your own fancy weapon.
• Random Damage Spread now DEFAULTS OFF on Valve servers.
  • This means weapons will consistently deal the same damage with each hit.
  • Previously, weapon damage would vary plus-minus 10% of its base damage. Now, each hit deals identical damage.
• Auto Reload now DEFAULTS ON.
  • This affects new players only, so that they will auto-reload as soon as they stop firing, if able.
  • All existing players have their usual setting, and will have to go into their Options menu and toggle this on/off.

 

Class and Weapon Changes (from the second splash page’s patch notes)

[N] Obey

P.S. Oh, by the way, there are also three new taunts. See splash page two. At the moment, they are only available by buying them from the Mann Co. Store.

First, the news:

1. Don’t forget: The Newbs’ Medieval Arent Event is this Saturday, Aug. 16th!
2. [EDIT: 8/15/14] Dota 2 is fundamentally changing its economy to remove Treasure Keys entirely.
   • These keys, which used to cost $2.49 from the Dota 2 Store, were removed in the June 6, 2014 patch.  Treasures now open without a key.
   • Existing keys now expire on July 1st, 2015. You can redeem a Treasure Key for one unlocked Treasure of your choice. Use them before they expire!
   • Mastery Gems have been removed, with their functionality merged with Kinetic Gems.
3. [EDIT: 8/15/14] Valve is now accepting merchandise design submissions via the TF2 Workshop. Click here for more info.
4. Newbs’ #15 is now officially 24/7 Hightower.  We’re stepping up the search for Jr. Admins and Server Starters.  You can also win some free stuff! See this client post and this forum post for more info.
5. TF2 patched yesterday.  See below for full patch notes and see what’s in the new crates.
6. Steam client patched around 4 PM EST today.  Those notes are at the end of the blog post, but here are the major changes:
   • Visual upgrade
     • The borders on all of the windows and popups are gone.
     • The Steam Icon has changed.
     • Plenty of Big Picture bugfixes.
   • Mac OS X 10.5 will no longer be supported.  This is its final patch.
   • Games can be assigned to categories, and more than one at a time.  You can now hide games so you/others can’t see them.
     • Hiding games probably tells Valve what games users strongly dislike.
   • Linux: Fixed audio being lost when alt-tabbing.
   • Some newer NVIDIA hardward support has been added.
   • Web browser updated for increased performance and stability.

 

Here’s what happened in the latest TF2 Patch:

1. Two new crates!
   • Crate #84 drops just standard killstreak kits, one primary weapon for each class.
   • Crate #85 drops new strangifiers and new strange parts
   • This means the following items now have strange variants:
     • Air Strike soldier primary wep
     • Classic sniper primary wep
     • Manmelter pyro secondary wep
     • Vaccinator medic secondary wep
     • Widowmaker engineer primary wep
     • Apparition’s Aspect cosmetic
     • Anger cosmetic
   • New strange parts:
     • Robot Scouts Destroyed
     • Taunting Player Kills (number of times you’ve killed a taunting player)
2. You now can has your very own Spycrab!
   • Now available in digital cosmetic, and IRL plushie.
3. Some bugfixes.

1. “Supply Munition” Crates #84 and #85

These only drop standard Killstreak Kits. If you want to use them for crafting higher-tier Specialized or Professional K. Kits, make sure you apply them to a Unique-quality item only!  See my guide for more information.

Crate Series #84
Drops		Yes
Items
Stickybomb Launcher Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Minigun Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Direct Hit Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Huntsman Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Backburner Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Back Scatter Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Kritzkrieg Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Ambassador Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
Frontier Justice Killstreak Kit		11 .00%
or an Exceedingly Rare Special Item!		1 .00%

Crate Series #85
Drops		Yes
Items
Air Strike Strangifier		9 .90%
Classic Strangifier		9 .90%
Manmelter Strangifier		9 .90%
Vaccinator Strangifier		9 .90%
Strange Part: Robot Scouts Destroyed		9 .90%
Strange Part: Taunting Player Kills		9 .90%
Strange Part: Buildings Destroyed		9 .90%
Anger Strangifier		9 .90%
Apparition’s Aspect Strangifier		9 .90%
Widowmaker Strangifier		9 .90%
or an Exceedingly Rare Special Item!		1 .00%

 

Team Fortress 2

• Added a new startup music track from Expiration Date
• Added Crate #84 and Crate #85 to the drop list
• Added a new promo item: the Spycrab
• Fixed a Mann vs. Machine dedicated server crash
• Fixed materials not refreshing correctly in the Steam Workshop item import tool
• Fixed a bug where cloaked Spies would be visible to some players
• Fixed an exploit where Engineers could build level 3 mini-sentries
• Updated the localization files
• Updated the backpack page buttons to indicate how many items the pages contain
• Updated Hammer to add a new Normal Mode for the Sculpt tool
  • “Screen XY” automatically chooses the axis most aligned with current view’s XY axis for push/pull displacement editing

Undocumented Changes

• Updated the Classic to allow for Name Tags, Gift Wrap, and Strange Parts to be applied.
• Added new Strange Parts.
  • Robot Scouts Destroyed, Taunting Player Kills

   

Steam Client Update: Patch Notes

General

• Updated desktop user interface styles, simplifying common controls and navigation elements, and neutralizing overall color palette to align with Steam web pages and Big Picture mode
• Major update of embedded web browser to increase performance, reliability, and to bring in various security fixes and functionality updates
• Work around to prevent duplicate key presses in some cases for games running inside Adobe AIR
• Don’t delay content updates for games set to high priority
• Fixed in-game progress indicators for workshop downloads displaying incorrect percentages for compressed files
• Fixed mods and shortcuts not displaying their names correctly in the friends interface and server browser

Library

• Games can now be assigned to more than one category at a time
• Add “Hide this game in my library” functionality, accessible from the Set Categories menu. Games that are hidden will not show up in library filters except for a new filter called “Hidden”, which will only appear once at least one game is marked as hidden. Hidden games are still available for play and will still appear on the user’s profile.
• Add an “Uncategorized” filter in desktop library filter drop downs. This will appear when a user has at least one game in a category and at least one game that has no categories.
• In desktop library details, list, and small views, games can be multiply selected using shift-click and control-click and certain operations can be performed on the group
• Added install option to context menu for multiple selections
• When filtering by favorites or by owner, display only a single section instead of all the sections that the games are in.
• When adding a new category, scroll the category list to the bottom so we can see the category that was just added
• Added by-category filter options to the filter drop downs in all library views
• When switching between library views, remember the category of the game selected and retain it when possible
• In list view with game images selected, display the image on all instances of the game instead of only one
• Eliminate extraneous “Favorite” category when favorites are added from Set Categories instead of Add to Favorites
• Make type-to-search properly expand categories in list view. Better synchronize type to search between library views.
• Remove user categories from navigation bar hover menu. They are still available in the game filters drop-down in the library views.
• Add context menu to category headers in library views, containing “Expand All” and “Collapse All”, and, in details/mini view, “Show/Hide Icons”
• Improve category collapse state synchronization between library views.
• Don’t show hover effect on list items when a context menu is visible
• Add glow effect on hover to 2′ library game filter button
• Retain selections when switching filters whenever possible
• Retain multiple selections when switching between details and list view
• Synchronize selection between main window library views and Small Mode.

Mac OS X

• This update ends support for Mac OS X 10.5
• Updated Big Picture to make use of the Spaces feature for full-screen mode
• On 10.9 and above ask the OS to prompt for Accessibility access to enable the overlay

Linux

• Updated Steam Runtime with support for newer compilers
• Added support for entering custom network settings in Big Picture
• Fixed audio being lost when alt-tabbing
• Fixed crash when doing a voice chat if you did not have a network connection
• Fixed launching SteamVR games

Big Picture

• Updated various visual styles across Big Picture including focus treatments
• Limit daisy wheel input to numeric entries where appropriate
• Improved gamepad navigation through checkout
• Fixed custom icons for streaming non-Steam games
• Fixed crash when enabling parental controls
• Fixed scroll bars disappearing on some EULA pages after scrolling to the left
• Fixed daisy wheel adding multiple periods after pressing space twice to end a sentence
• Fixed automatic capitalization getting stuck enabled in daisy wheel
• Fixed a bug preventing the user from changing payment methods if their stored credit card has expired
• Fixed crash on launching Big Picture if your PC has no sound card (or it is disabled)
• Fixed crash on game launch if you mashed the A button

In-Home Streaming

• Added support for NVIDIA hardware encoding for D3D9+ games on GeForce 650+ cards and the latest NVIDIA drivers. You can enable this by turning on hardware encoding in the advanced options on the host computer.
• Reset hardware encoding setting to default off, to minimize surprises now that NVIDIA encoding is available
• Added hardware accelerated decoding for Mac OS X 10.9 and 10.10
• Reset hardware decoding setting to default on for Windows and Linux, and default off for Mac OS X
• Improved software decoding performance for clients with multiple CPU cores
• Disabled vsync while streaming for a smoother capture framerate
• Fixed being able to scroll the right and bottom edges of a map in certain resolutions
• Fixed Steam crash streaming from a host with an i5-3450 CPU
• Fixed games detecting both local and streaming controllers; streaming controllers take precedence if they are connected.
• Fixed streaming games from Steam when it has been put in Windows XP compatibility mode
• Made it more clear that unlimited bandwidth increases latency and is not recommended

[N] Obey

The following is a beginner-level guide describing all of the ways to earn weapons and cosmetic items in TF2. For details on items, gameplay, or anything else Team Fortress related, be sure to bookmark The Official TF2 Wiki.

 

 

 Over 25k lifetime hits!

Updated 11/2/16:

• Simplified information about item qualities
• Compared rocket launcher prices with differing item qualities
• Added links to Halloween-themed items where necessary
• Added more pictures for easier reading
• Hit 25,000 lifetime hits by November 1st

Updated 7/31/16:

• Added links to recent tutorials on class rebalances and matchmaking changes since Pyro vs. Heavy patch

Updated 4/23/16:

• More info about free hats you can earn
• More info about Australium and Graded (contract) Weapons

 

So you’ve just started playing TF2, learned some maps, captured some points, and found a couple of nifty items. But other players are blowing you up with awesome weapons while wearing ridiculous hats.  How can you get more weapons and cosmetic items?  That’s what this guide is for, so read on!

Similar bloglinks useful to you:

• My new TF2Newbs Guide to Halloween Items shows all of the items you can earn, and how to earn them
• A TF2Newbs Guide to MvM Item Hunting, for those looking for Australium and Botkiller weapons, and Killstreak Kits
• A Closer Look at TF2 Class Rebalances for the changes to the game since Pyro vs. Heavy
• This short tutorial on TF2 Matchmaking for the differences in Casual/Comp play and how to create your own game

 

Table of Contents

0. Being Free-to-Play vs. Being Premium

1. Earn Items By Playing TF2

• Achievement Items
• Free Cosmetics You Can Earn
• The TF2 Item Drop System
• Rewards for Playing Mann vs. Machine, the Players-vs.-Bots “Horde Mode”
• Earn TF2 Items While Playing Other Steam Games

2. Crafting Items: What To Do with Metal, Crates, and Robot Parts

3. Buying Items From the Mann Co. Store or the Steam Market

• Explanation of Item Qualities like Stranges and Unusuals
  • Updated: Rocket Launchers as example of price comparison
  • Updated: Typical item prices of each quality
• Decorated Weapons, earned by contracts
• Trading-Up Items

4. Trading Items With Other Players

5. Free Unusuals!

6. What To Do If You Have Too Many Items

7. Helpful Links

0. First: Are you Free-to-Play?

There are two kinds of TF2 accounts: free-to-play accounts and premium accounts.

• Free-to-play (or “F2P”) accounts only get one page of 50 inventory slots, limited crafting options, can only drop some basic items, and most importantly, have limited trading options.
• Premium accounts start with six pages of inventory slots (300 total), have full crafting options, can drop basic and rare items, and have normal trading options.

Why aren’t all accounts Premium? The reason is to reduce the number of spammers and cheaters on Steam by attaching a small monetary cost to each account, so that thousands of accounts cannot be used by a single person for these schemes.

So if you are free-to-play, you will not have full access to all of the kinds of items out there. There are a couple of simple ways to gain a premium account:

• Buy something in the Mann Co. Store, anything at all, no minimum. A single US$0.49 weapon is all you need.
• Buy the Orange Box from the Steam Store for US$19.99, which grants you a Premium TF2 account as well as two other Valve games: Half-Life 2 and Portal.
• Have someone trade or gift you an Upgrade to Premium Gift, which is a tool item that makes your account premium when used.
  • However, your Steam Account must be premium to be able to trade from the Steam Client, which means you’ve made at least $5 worth of purchases. Steam Trading and Steam Chat are two features disabled if you’ve never bought anything on the Steam Account you’re using.

Why would someone give you a Premium Gift? Doing so grants the giver a Professor Speks accessory, or adds to the counter of their existing Professor Speks.

If you make a purchase that upgrades your account to premium, you are asked to refer one person on your friends list as someone who has helped you in the game.  That is how a person is awarded a Professor Speks or ranks up its counter.

 

Now that you know your status, here are all of the ways that you can acquire new items:

 

1. Earn Items By Playing the Game

Earn “Achievement Items”

There are hundreds of achievements to earn in Team Fortress 2. Just play the game, and if you complete a specific task, the achievement will unlock and announce it to everyone on the server. You can check which achievements you have or haven’t learned in your Steam Client.

If you earn enough class-specific achievements, you will earn one of three weapons available for each class. These items significantly change the role or options available for that class, such as a Sandvich healing item for the Heavy, or a Huntsman bow that replaces the Sniper’s rifle!  Here is the full list of 27 achievement weapons in TF2.

Note: These achievement-reward items have the untradable trait, so you can’t trade them away later. And if you use them to craft metal or another item, the resulting item will carry that untradable trait, and the game will warn you that that will occur.  This is to keep players from having dozens of separate Steam accounts just to farm for items. Only achievement-reward items will have the untradable trait.

There are “achievement servers” in the TF2 community, but TF2Newbs doesn’t have one; they’re frowned on by Valve.

 

All-Class Cosmetics You Can Earn

As stated above, earn the Professor Speks all-class cosmetic by gifting someone an Upgrade to Premium Gift. It cannot be painted or traded.

Earn the Ghastly Gibus all-class hat by earning a domination on a player wearing their own Gibus. There are multiple, slightly different versions (the Ghastly, Ghastlier, Ghastlierest, Ghostly, and Galvanized), and dominated any player except for the Galvanized will earn you your own Ghastly Gibus (the other versions were awarded earlier). You can earn this achievement at any time, and it can be worn at all time, unlike many Halloween-themed items. It is paintable, but cannot be traded.

You can also get the Pyrovision Goggles by dominating a player that is wearing them. Pryovision items changes the scenery on most official maps so that you play in a pastel-painted world of balloons and laughter instead of the screams and gibs of your enemies. You can change its vision in your Advanced Options menu.

Earn a Mann Co. Cap all-class hat the first time you buy anything at the Mann Co. Store, regardless of amount spent. (You can only earn one.) It is paintable, but not tradable. You can also buy a real-life version from New Era. There is a second hat, the Mann Co. Online Cap, which you can earn by buying something from the Mann Co. Online store, which sells real-life Valve merchandise like posters, T-shirts, and hats!

Earn the all-class World Traveler’s Hat by buying your first Map Stamp, which is not an item, but a donation that goes directly to the author(s) of the Community-made map you choose. You can level it up by buying more Map Stamps. When you play on a map where you’ve purchased map stamps, you can give your hat unusual effects! This hat is paintable, but not tradable.

Other cosmetics you can earn by playing TF2:

• There are lots of other cosmetics that can be earned during the annual Halloween or Winter Holiday events! See my Halloween Items FAQ to learn how to earn Halloween-themed items. Some can be earned at any time, like the Ghastly Gibus.
• Director’s Vision: Earn this all-class taunt by recording a replay of yourself playing the game, then enter the video editing window. It’s that easy.
• Frontline Field Recorder: Get this hat by uploading a replay video to YouTube from within TF2, and earn 1,000 lifetime views.
• Proof of Purchase: By being gifted the game, or buying TF2 yourself, like in the Orange Box from the Steam Store, earn this hat.
• Party Hat and TF Birthday Noisemaker: Get an all-class hat and an action item by playing the game on August 24th, TF2′s anniversary launch date. The Noisemaker can only be used on August 24th (or any server that has Birthday Mode enabled).
• Spirit of Giving: Earn this accessory playing during the annual Winter Holiday. Rank it up by gifting, such as using a Secret Saxton tool item.
• Horace the Bear Mask: Be an RPS Supporter (for the gaming news website Rock Paper Shotgun).

 

Earn Items by Playing the Game

Team Fortress 2 wants to reward you for playing, and does so by granting you periodic “item drops”. Approximately every hour you play in a week, up to roughly 10 hours a week, you will earn a random item, usually a weapon but rarely (perhaps a 3% chance) a cosmetic item such as a hat. Most, but not all, craftable weapons can drop via this system, and if you don’t play much one week, that extends the playing time where you can earn items in the next week only. “Weeks” for this purpose begin on Wednesdays at 7 PM Eastern Standard Time (which is also Thursdays at midnight Greenwich Standard Time; doesn’t change for Daylight Savings Time).

The list of possible weapons available is roughly the same as the craftable weapon list plus the achievement-reward weapon list (i.e. almost all non-stock weapons). “Stock” weapons are the default weapons and action-slot items of each class, which are also the only weapons that most computer-controller bots use, and they’re the only weapons you can access in those rare, unfortunate times when your server loses connection to the item server :(  Stock weapons never drop, and you can’t lose access to them by crafting or trading.

By a similar but separate system, crates (and rarely, other tool items such as Name Tags instead) can drop for you as well, and they are NOT limited by your weekly playing time.  Of course, you need keys to open crates; they are basically opportunities for Valve to make money by selling you keys. Crates always provide a random item out of a list, and the series number relates to the list of items available to drop; most crates drop Strange-quality weapons (with a 1% chance for a random Unusual item instead!).

Crate drops are rarer than in years past; players got annoyed by having too many crates.  Sometimes, such as during the winter holiday, crate drops will occur more often. You may also get a crate once a week in your account just for logging in. They’re simply “opportunities” to spend money on keys for virtual items.

 

Earn Items by Buying and/or Playing Other Games

Many cosmetics can be earned just by buying certain games. Some were only available during pre-order, but many are still available if you buy the game today. Here is the current list of games that award TF2 items, maintained by the Official TF2 Wiki. Note that many of these items will be Genuine quality.

For example, the $4.99 game Poker Night at the Inventory features five unlockable items (some of which may be difficult to do so), as you play Texas Hold ‘Em against the Heavy, Strongbad and other characters. You need to get good at playing poker, but you can earn:

• Iron Curtain
• Enthusiast’s Timepiece
• Lugermorph
• License to Maim
• Dangeresque, Too?

Its $4.99 sequel, Poker Night 2, features five more unlockable items, as you play Texas Hold ‘Em and Omaha Hold ‘Em with Claptrap, Ash Williams and others! Earn the following:

• Bloodhound
• Dapper Disguise
• Necronomicrown
• Long Fall Loafers
• Samson’s Skewer
• Some Borderlands 2 and platform-specific unlockables can also be earned.

 

See this link to learn how to earn TF2 items by playing these free-to-play Steam games:

• The Spiral Sallet by playing Spiral Knights
• The all-class Bolt Action Blitzer by playing CrimeCraft GangWars
• The Flamingo Kid and the Triclops by playing Super Monday Night Combat
• The all-class Alien Swarm Parasite by playing Alien Swarm
• The Black Rose knife by playing Alliance of Valiant Arms

 

Earn Items by Playing “Mann Up Mode” in MvM

Mann vs. Machine, or “MvM”, is a horde mode where you and five other players form a RED team that defends against an onslaught of class-specific BLU robots.  The free-to-play “Boot Camp” mode does NOT earn you items, but is good for practicing the game. The real rewards can be gained by completing “Mann Up” missions, which require a brown Tour of Duty ticket that costs US$0.99 in the Mann Co. Store (not to be confused with the white Surplus tickets). Tickets are used up and rewards are earned only when you successfully win an entire mission.

• Each completed mission earns you an item drop, in exchange for your Tour of Duty ticket, if you did not previously have credit for that mission on your current Tour.
  • If playing the “Two Cities” Tour, you will instead earn some robot parts, and possibly even a Fabricator, after each mission.
• Each completed Tour of missions will earn you different rewards, on top of your usual mission rewards:
  • “Two Cities” Tours reward Killstreak Kits, and one or two higher-tier Fabricators.
  • Other Tours reward one of several kinds of Strange Botkiller weapons, depending on both random luck and which Tour had been completed.
  • Completing any Advanced or Expert difficulty Tour also has a small chance (~2%) of getting an Australium weapon! (You won’t have any chance to drop them on Intermediate Tours.)

For more information on MvM and the items you can earn by playing in “Mann Up” Mode, please refer to the TF2 Newbs’ Guide to MvM Item Hunting.

2. You Can Craft New Items

You can take undesired items and turn them into metal, which is used to craft other weapons.

two weapons of same class  —> one scrap

 

                                          three scrap  <—> one reclaimed

 

                                                     three reclaimed <—> one refined

 

What Can You Do with Metal?

• Use as a trading currency (see Trading, below)
• Craft cosmetics, such as hats
• Craft weapons

 

Crafting Cosmetic Items

There are two ways to craft cosmetic items such as hats. Here is the first:

three refined  —> one random cosmetic item

The above menu says the output is a “random headgear”, but in reality the output is some kind of cosmetic, such as a hat or an item that equips elsewhere on your person, and are never weapons. For instance, you might get a Football Helmet for a Heavy, or an Itsy-Bitsy Spyer that hangs on the hip of your Sniper, or a Big Mann on Campus sweater for a Scout. These items are always Unique quality; you’ll never get Stranges or the like. Almost every non-Limited cosmetic can be crafted, but of course, what you receive is randomized.

But if you want to ensure that you get an item that a specific character can use, consider the next formula:

four refined + class token  —> random class-specific cosmetic item

With the above formula, you apply some extra metal and a token, but you ensure that you’ll get an item wearable by the token’s class (and possibly other classes also, depending on the item you receive). Use this formula if you really want more cosmetics for your favorite class.

See this page for a list of many other crafting recipes, which are also found in your Crafting menu.

 

Crafting Weapons

There is a list of craftable weapons under the second tab, “Common Items”. Simply follow the recipe to craft a desired weapon. If you lack the items, you can’t make the item, but you may be able to trade someone for the parts you need (or just buy it from the Mann Co. Store instead).

The top recipe reads, “Fabricate Class Weapons” with the following recipe:

scrap + class token + slot token –> random matching weapon

The above formula will generate one random weapon out of the possible craftable weapons that match both the class and weapon slot of the tokens. For example, following this recipe with a Pyro token and a Secondary token can generate a flare gun, detonator, reserve shooter, manmelter, scorch shot, or panic attack. See the “Crafting Weapon Classifications” heading in the the TF2 Wiki Crafting page for the full list.

 

What Are Crates For?

Crates are opened with keys (usually Mann Co. Crate Keys, but special crates require special keys), and they can be purchased from the Mann Co. Store for US$2.49, traded, or bought and sold in the Steam Market. Opening a crate provides you one random item (usually Strange) from its short drop list, but rarely (about a 1% chance) grant you an Unusual hat!

Oh, if you have too many crates, you should probably just delete any duplicates you have. You’re unlikely to sell any on the Market, as you’d only get one cent, and there are thousands of them for sale already. You’ll always have more crates than you’ll ever open–they’re simply opportunites to buy a random Strange item.

What Are Robot Parts For?

If you have robot parts in your possession, you have probably been playing some Mann vs. Machine “Two Cities” missions. These are used for crafting certain Killstreak Kits.  See this MvM Item FAQ for more information.

3. You Can Buy Items

Access the Mann Co. Store within the TF2 game itself. You can’t while you’re playing in a server, however.

 

Items You Can Buy from the Mann Co. Store

You can buy most Unique-quality items in the Mann Co. Store.  Unique is the standard item quality that doesn’t do anything special, and signifies something that is probably not rare. Want a different kind of rocket launcher for your Soldier?  It’s probably US$1 or less. Want a new community-designed hat? Snap one up for US$2 to $10. Just look at the catalog of items in the in-game menu, and purchase with your Steam Wallet funds.

Don’t want to bother with crafting or trading, but you want all the possible options available for your favorite class? You can buy a Starter Pack the gives you one of each Unique weapon for that class! They run between $2 and $7, depending on the class; some classes like the Soldier have more items, so they’re more expensive.

You can also buy (from either the in-game Store, or from the Market) an Unlocked Class Crate, which will drop you one random cosmetic equippable by that class. You could get just about anything. They’re $2.49 in the Mann Co. Store.

You can’t buy everything at the store, such as an Unusual hat… but there’s lots to buy on the Steam Market!

Items You Can Buy on the Steam Market

• You can’t buy most plain Unique-quality weapons in the Market, but you can buy Unique Tools such as crates, keys, robot parts, and killstreak kits.
• Also, almost all Strange, Haunted, Vintage, Collector’s, or Unusual item can be bought and sold on the Steam Market.
• Unique items that are also Limited can also list on the Market. Limited items cannot be crafted, item dropped, or bought from the Mann Co. Store anymore.
• Decorated weapons can also be bought and sold in the Market.

 

A Short Explanation of Item Qualities–and Rocket Launchers!

“Wait a minute. Why do I need an explanation of item qualities?” you ask.

Not all rocket launchers are created alike. (Set aside the Black Box and the Liberty Launcher and all those others; we’re talking just about the stock Rocket Launcher.) The stock Rocket Launchers are all alike, of course.

But there are many kind of reskinned rocket launchers. They’re all functionally the same. How they’re different is that they might be promotional items, have different colors on the weapon itself, or have a counter to track kills or other statistics. (The pictured Rocket Launcher is a Decorated weapon; scroll down to the next section to learn more about Decorated weapons.)

Here’s a comparison for the different rocket launchers out there, and the cheapest price for one on the Steam Market (as of this writing):

• Strange Rocket Launcher: US$0.65
• Killstreak Rocket Launcher: $0.75
• Festive Rocket Launcher: $2.10
• Strange Specialized Killstreak Rocket Launcher: $4.50
• Collector’s Professional Killstreak Original: $38
• Shell Shocker (Battle-Scarred): $2
• Strange Shell Shocker (Minimal Wear): $50
• Strange Australium Rocket Launcher: $115

All of the above rocket launchers behave identically in play. But they’re also a show of status: players may assume that if you’re using the stock rocket launcher, that you haven’t been playing very long. Sure, it’s a silly game, but it stands out all the same.

 

Okay–here’s the different item qualities out there:

• Stock items are items that every TF2 account has access to; they cannot be removed, sold, or traded.
• Unique items are common items, often found via the TF2 item drop system or from certain older crates.
  • They can typically be traded, but not marketed.
  • Achievement items and some Halloween-themed items are untradeable Uniques.
• Limited items are uncommon; they can no longer be purchased or crafted, such as retired hats.
  • They can be traded or marketed.
• Vintage items are simply items that were crafted before March 15, 2011.
  • These are cheap to buy on the Market.
• Strange items track total kills (on weapons) or points scored (on other items) while the item was equipped.
  • Most commonly, Stranges are dropped from a crate; the item is randomly chosen.
  • A few Strange items are rare, such as the Kritzkrieg.
  • A few Strange items have been made so by Strangifier items, which are also sometimes rare.
• Australium weapons have a golden sheen, but are otherwise Strange weapons.
  • They are a rare reward for completing Mann vs, Machine tours, and are valuable.
• Haunted items are usually Halloween-themed cosmetics.
  • In some cases, they can only be worn during Halloween/Full Moon times.
  • They can be purchased cheaply on the Steam Market.
• Genuine items are promotional items, often given away for (pre)purchasing another Steam game.
  • Many of these can be purchased on the Steam Market.
• Collector’s items are rare, requiring a rarely-dropped Chemistry Set plus two hundred identical copies of the item to craft.
  • They can be purchased on the Market, but are usually expensive.
• Killstreak weapons show in the killfeed how many kills the player has earned since their last death.
  • The killstreak property only modifies the weapon, and doesn’t change its quality color. But it does add value to the weapon.
  • Specialized Killstreak kits also add a temporary visual sheen to the weapon after five kills are scored during the same life.
  • Professional Killstreak kits add the visual sheen and an eye effect to your character as well.
  • Killstreak kits and fabricators (used to craft the kits) are Mann vs. Machine rewards.
• Unusual items are rare, with a visual effect centered near the head of the character.
  • They are very rarely (1%) dropped from a crate, and are always valuable.

See my MvM Item FAQ for more information about Australium weapons and Killstreak Kits.

 

Decorated Items

A decorated item is a weapon, cosmetic, or taunt that has been reskinned with different visual effects (and rarely, different sounds). Below is the Warbird, a rare decorated rocket launcher from the Tough Break season:

A ”season” is a period of weeks, directly after a major content patch such as the Tough Break Update, that allows players to complete missions/contracts in order to earn random items with randomly generated paint jobs. A decorated weapon or item includes the following:

• One of six Grades of rarity, which determines the text color of the item. Civilian is very common; Elite is rare.
  1. Civilian:                contracts only
  2. Freelance:            contracts only
  3. Mercenary:          contracts or crates
  4. Commando:        contracts or crates
  5. Assassin:                                    crates only
  6. Elite:                                           crates only
• Each item Collection (of item skins or “paint job” themes) has many weapons in a variety of Grades.
  • For example, items from the Concealed Killer Collection are generally camouflage-themed.
  • Some Collections are only Grades 1-4, and some are only Grades 3-6 (see above).
  • Each skin is tied to its specific grade. For example: The “Warbird” above is always a Grade 6 Elite.
• Each Weapon has one of five random levels of Wear, which changes the look of the weapon skin somewhat. All are equally as common, but the more Wear variations are less popular because the weapon skin is less visible. (The wear patterns are also randomly positioned to give a further uniqueness to each individual item.)
  • Factory New (most popular and valuable)
  • Minimal Wear
  • Field-Tested
  • Well-Worn
  • Battle Scarred (most of the paint job has worn off)
• NOTE: Weapons DO NOT increase their Wear when used. They have a set level of Wear when dropped which does not change. A weapon’s Grade, Skin, and Wear is entirely cosmetic and does not change its gameplay whatsoever.
• Also, these Weapons and Cosmetics are Limited quality. Unboxed Weapons and Cosmetics will have a chance of being Strange (and in a few cases, being Unusual, or both!)
  • Also, items exist that can Strangify these items.
• These weapons will be tradable and marketable. If you wish to trade or sell a weapon, look up its worth on the Market or another site like backpack.tf first, so you don’t get scammed. Unusual items are always valuable and very rare.

How to earn Graded items:

1. Buy-in to the current update Season by purchasing the appropriate pass from the Mann Co. Store. This will grant you a fixed number of contracts to complete over a set period of time (even if you join late in the Season). Completing these contracts (with tasks such as completing objectives on a certain map or getting kills while playing a certain class or weapon) will earn you a graded weapon OR one of several Weapon Cases.
   • NOTE: You can purchase these Weapon Cases from the Steam Market also, as the cases, their corresponding keys, and the items obtainable within are all marketable and tradable.
2. Or, you can simply buy Cases and the appropriate Key for the Case, and use the Key in your TF2 inventory screen.
   • For example, the Creepy Crawly Case drops graded cosmetics from the Halloween 2016 collection, such as the Showstopper spy cosmetic.

 

How to Trade-Up Graded weapons:

Some items can be used in a trade-in, much like crafting, into another item.

• 10 Graded items of the same Grade level, regardless of Collection or Update, can be traded in for 1 random item of the next higher Grade.
  • Example: 10 Freelance items for 1 Mercenary item.
  • You may collect ten decorated items from all of the different collections ouut there, but the formula will only work if they are all of the same Grade.
  • BEWARE: The possible output item is from all available Collections, not necessarily the same Collection.
• 5 qualifying items can be traded into a Civilian Grade Stat Clock, a tool item similar to a Strangifier for Graded items only.
  • Qualifying items include any Freelance Grade or higher item (of any Collection), and any Strange item (Graded or not).
  • ANY item with the “untradeable” trait also qualifies, but the resulting Stat Clock will also be “untradeable”.
    • Yes, this means you can use your untradeable Achievement items to create a Stat Clock!
• During the annual Halloween event, you can trade-in three qualifying items for a random, untradeable Halloween cosmetic.
  • Find this function by right-clicking your Soul Gargoyle tool item.

How can you tell the difference between a Strange Graded Item, and a vanilla Graded Item with a Stat Clock attached? Look at the item name: one will be Strange, and the other will say “Stat Clock”.

 

4. You Can Ask Others to Trade or Give You Items

Yes, there are gifters who play TF2 regularly. Very few players just go around looking for Newbs who need items. But there are plenty of players wiling to give a couple of weapons or an odd hat to someone who has none.  The important thing is to be nice and civil. Spamming chat with demands for free items will annoy anyone who would have been willing, and that behavior can get you banned from the Newbs servers.

If you want people to trade or gift you, show some proper etiquette:

1. Be gracious and don’t make demands.  Don’t spam the text chat or the voice chat.
2. Many players are willing to trade away a spare copy of a weapon (not cosmetics) for a single scrap metal, or its equal value of any two weapons. Likewise, if you happen to have extra copies of an item, you can offer to trade two of them to someone for one weapon you need.
3. If there is an item you want to trade for, or to ask for free, you should ask people in chat if they have specific items you’re looking for.  But don’t spam the chat with constant messages.
4. Look at your friends’ profiles, and click on Inventory to see their TF2 items.  Unless their profiles are private, you can find out what spare items a friend has, which can help you make them a trade or gift offer.
5. When you really want to trade items, go to a trade server, such as Newbs #2 and #18 Trade Servers. You won’t be interrupting anyone’s game with trade offers or chatter, and you’ll meet up with others actively looking to trade.

 

Trading Items for Items

Trades do not involve the exchange of Steam Wallet funds (that’s what the Steam Market is for). So how do you trade items for other items and know one of you isn’t being cheated out of value? Over the years, players have established a de facto economy by using certain common and uncommon items as currencies, specifically metal, keys, and earbuds.

Metal is the crafting ingredient discussed above to create random cosmetics and weapons. Because of these uses, metal also has worth in the economy.

Common item prices are discussed in “ref”, an abbreviation for refined metal. A refined metal is 1.00 ref.

A reclaimed metal is .33 ref, since it takes three reclaimed to make a refined.

A scrap metal is worth .11 ref, since it takes three scrap to make a reclaimed (nine to make a refined).

For example: A hat worth 1.33 ref is worth a refined and three scrap.

If you play TF2 10 hours a week and smelt all of your non-cosmetic drops into metal, you’ll average one refined metal in three weeks.

Keys, or standard Mann Co. Crate Keys, cost US$2.49 in the Mann Co. Store. Since they’re tradable (after a week) and the price doesn’t change, they are good for trading valuable items. Popular, in-demand items that are not very rare are often measured in keys, such as taunts or popular hats.

How much ref a key is worth changes based on the demand in the economy (how bad people want keys, or metal). Refined metal is also useful for making “change”, since a key cannot be broken into smaller values. As of January 2016, a key is worth about 20 ref.

Buds, or Earbuds, are a somewhat rare, Limited cosmetic item. Buds were often used as currency for rare, high-demand items, such as Unusuals. They’re not used for trading much anymore.

 

5. Where Can I Get Free Unusual Hats?

The following is a list of phrases people enter into their search engines:

how to get easy hats in tf2

tf2 free hats

tf2 easy unusuals

tf2 item giveaway

tf2 free keys

free tf2 unusuals

…and so on.  I know this because the blog dashboard shows me certain search engine terms that bring readers to this blog. Lots and lots of TF2 players want free unusual hats, keys and items.  New players beg for free items, and sometimes start raging when they don’t get what they want.

The TF2Newbs community, like many other public gaming communities out there, frown on begging. Repeatedly asking for items disrupts the game and can lead to a permanent ban on Newbs servers.  Would you want your games interrupted by beggars?

My point is, earn or buy items yourself. Trading exists so that you can meet other players and swap items. It’s a metagame–a game within a game–to collect desirable items. Don’t disrupt a good game by begging; go to a trade server if you’re looking for something specific.

TF2Newbs’ Trade Servers (type these into your console to jump right in):

connect s2.tf2newbs.com

connect s18.tf2newbs.com

 

6. Too Many Items?

Well, that’s embarrassing: it is certainly possible to fill your backpack with so many crates, weapons, tools, and cosmetics that you cannot hold more. When this happens, you won’t receive more items from the item drop system; it “stops the clock”, so to speak.  What do?

1. Delete worthless items: crates and untradable duplicate items are the only ones I would advise deleting.  You’re not likely to sell them on the Market or trade them for any value. (The only crates that have a value are crates numbered in the 20s–because each class has one that only carries items for that class–and crates #30, #40, #50 and #60, which are rare and may drop high-demand Strange weapons.)
2. Condense your metal: 18 weapons <-> 9 scrap metal <-> 3 reclaimed metal <-> 1 refined metal.  Refined metal can “carry more value” in a smaller space, and is faster if you want to trade for a valuable item. Condense your space further by trading for keys or more valuable items.
3. Buy a Backpack Expander, or several, from the Mann Co. Store (US$0.99) or the Steam Market. Each one gives you 100 slots (two pages) more, up to a maximum of 2000 slots or forty pages. This is very necessary if you’re collecting robot parts from “Two Cities” MvM Tours, or trying to get one copy of every weapon.
4. Check to see if you own a Summer Adventure Pack, Summer Starter Kit, or a Gift-Stuffed Stocking tool item. A Backpack Expander is inside, among other items.
5. Put items up for sale on the Steam Market. While on the Market, the item is removed from your inventory, so you can fill those slots once more. You can remove the item from the Market if it doesn’t sell, and then you will receive the item once more.
6. Check the Crafting List and see if there are any desirable weapons or cosmetic items you can craft. For example, if you don’t have a B.A.S.E. Jumper parachute for your Soldier, you can craft one at the cost of a Sticky Jumper, a Buff Banner, and a reclaimed metal.

 

7. Other Useful Links You Should Bookmark in Your Browser:

• The Official TF2 Wiki’s Item page can answer almost any question about TF2 items.
• The background story for TF2 is told by a series of comic books.
• Improve your play by reading strategies when playing specific maps, game modes, and characters.
• Sites for trading and pricing:
  • Backpack.TF‘s Price List page
  • Trade.tf
  • TF2 Outpost
  • (Evidently, TF2 Spreadsheet is no longer updated.)

 

I hope this blogpost has helped you learn about the wide variety, and multiple functions, of the items of Team Fortress 2.  The item-acquisition game within the “war-themed hat simulator” keeps players coming back. If I have helped you in your quest for mighty loot, feel free to say so in the comments, or post in the forums.

[N] Obey

 

The TF2Newbs Blog hit 200,000 lifetime hits yesterday! Thanks to all of our visitors, regulars, donators, and admins! Stay tuned for a fun event in the works in July!  If you want to donate, click here.

Scroll below for more information. Here’s the summary:

1. Steam Summer Sale is on!
2. IMPORTANT: Some existing weapons have been rebalanced
3. Five new TF2 weapons… and they’re not reskins!
   • Craftable immediately.
   • MvM Killstreak Kits for the new weapons can also be earned or Marketed.
4. New crates, keys, and craftables:
   1. Craftable for a limited time: Bread Boxes!
   2. Mann Co. Stockpile Crates added to the droplist. They can be “shuffled” to drop one of four possible items.
   3. Mann Co. Audition Reels added to the droplist. They contain taunts, with a rare chance at an Unusual Taunt with unusual effects, very much like an unusual hat.
5. 15 New Taunts!
   1. “Taunts” are no longer in the “Action Slot”, and are now in their own “Taunt Menu”. You can now equip multiple Taunts at once.
   2. Partner Taunts can now be performed with enemy team members, not just your own.
   3. Pressing the Taunt key once opens a Taunt Menu for you to choose from multiple equipped taunts.
   4. Pressing the Taunt key twice performs your weapon taunt, or joins in with a partner taunt.
6. 43 New Cosmetic Items:
   • “Head” and “Misc” slots have been changed to “Cosmetic” slots.
7. Full patch notes, including:
   1. Granary and Harvest Event have been updated for collision, bugs, and to prevent building inside spawn doors.
   2. Halloween Event maps now have Halloween Mode auto-enabled, so Halloween items can be equipped.  About time!
   3. Crates now show which Unusual series are potentially  (1% chance) dropped if opened.
8. A very minor patch on June 19, 2014

1. Steam Summer Sale 2014 IS ON!

What else is there to say? Uh… Half-Life 2 is $2.49…?  Follow this link to earn Summer Cards, Badges, unique prizes, and even free games from your wishlist!

2. Existing Weapon Rebalances

1.  The Hitman’s Heatmaker can now activate your Focus on demand, by pushing the reload button. Previously, the Sniper automatically began burning Focus as soon as the gauge filled.
2. Axtinguisher (and the Postal Pummeler, I assume?) no longer automatically crits a burning enemy. It only mini-crits a burning enemy, unless you hit the burning enemy directly from behind, where it still causes full crits.
3. The Bushwacka no longer grants random crits. It still grants full crits whenever it would normally mini-crit, such as hitting a Jarate-soaked enemy.
4. Demoman stickybombs now have damage ramp-up, reaching full standard damage after two seconds.
   • This means that stickybombs detonated as soon as they are armed, such as when they are still in mid-air, will do substantially less damage. This will profoundly effect the way many TF2 players play the Demoman.
5. Sentries have multiple changes:
   • Sentries now have damage and accuracy ramp-up, with full standard accuracy and damage reached after one second of firing. So the first few bullets will do less damage, making them less lethal when peeking around corners or darting from one wall to another.
   • Sentry bullets are now affected by damage fall-off outside of their normal scan range, based on the placement of the sentry and not the Engineer.  For instance, wrangled sentries shooting beyond where they would otherwise detect enemies will deal less damage based on how far away their target is.

2. Five NEW Team Fortress 2 Weapons!

 

The Back Scatter

This new primary weapon for the Scout functions like a scattergun, but deals mini-crits when you hit someone directly in the back. But it is a little less accurate than the stock scattergun, and only has a 4-clip as opposed to the scattergun’s six.  But then, attacking from behind is one of the Scout’s strongest methods of ambushing the unwary.

Crafting formula: 1 reclaimed metal + 1 crit-a-cola + 1 shortstop = 1 Back Scatter

The B.A.S.E. Jumper

This is a parachute for the Soldier, hinted at a few days ago on the Official TF2 Blog. If equipped into the secondary slot, you can press the jump button while in midair to deploy and you can fall slowly, extending your jump. And while you’re hanging around up there, feel free to lob some rockets at the bad guys!

However, you’re a sitting duck for Snipers, Pyros with flare guns, or skilled Demomen. Fortunately you can hit the jump button again and undeploy/redeploy during the same jump! The parachute is also great for not taking falling damage.

Crafting formula: one reclaimed metal + one Buff Banner + one Sticky Jumper = one B.A.S.E. Jumper

The Tide Turner

This secondary weapon for the Demoman is the steering wheel of a ship, and functions as a shield.  It lets you lots of ability to turn as you charge, and some fire and explosive damage resistance. And if you kill something while charging or impacting, you can charge again!

Crafting formula: one reclaimed metal + one Chargin’ Targe + one Ali Baba’s Wee Booties = one Tide Turner

The Classic

This primary weapon for the Sniper, a take on the H&K G36, gives you some freedom that other sniper rifles don’t have: this weapon charges its focus even when you’re not scoped! However, you cannot score headshots–scoped or unscoped–until it is charged. It does slightly less damage with all bodyshots, too. But no doubt, some players will try to headshot while unscoped.

The Classic fires differently than other sniper rifles, however. You hold the fire button down to begin charging your shot, and release the button to fire.

Crafting formula: one reclaimed metal + one Hunstman + one Bazaar Bargain = one The Classic

The Air Strike

This primary weapon for the Soldier is a rocket launcher that makes your rockets fire if you are in midair from a rocket jump. It holds only three rockets, but as you earn kills, the clip size increases! It deals less damage than standard rockets, and its rockets have a slightly smaller splash radius. If you’re skilled with the Direct Hit and enjoy rocket jumping, you may want to give this puppy a try.

Crafting formula: one reclaimed metal + one Beggar’s Bazooka + one Gunboats = one The Air Strike

3.New Craftables and Crates!

Mann Co. Stockpile Crates and Keys

These are unnumbered crates that will drop a community-made cosmetic item from this update (or the usual 1% of the time, an Unusual instead). This is new: the drop list of the crate can be shuffled!

When the item drops, it has a drop list of four possible cosmetic items with pictures of the item. Not impressed with the drop list? Shuffle it by typing it a word into the blank–which is used for the random seed–and it will give you a different drop list of four items. Use any word at all; the same word will grant the same list of items. So remember keywords you use if you’re trying to pull a specific item; you still have a one-in-four shot of getting a desired item.

The keys themselves are the usual $2.49, and neither the Stockpile Crates nor the Keys have an expiration date.

Mann Co. Audition Reels

These are a type of crate that only have taunts inside. I don’t think they need keys; you open one, and it grants one of the 15 taunts released in this update.  Since they open for free, I assume that they will drop more rarely than common crates.

Bread Boxes: Now Craftable

You can only craft bread boxes until July 9th. Crafting one will unlock one of four reskinned items (see below).  Here’s how:

• Go into your Crafting Menu, and choose the Special Recipes tab (with the star)
• Choose three headgear items that are craftable, which are spent to create the Bread Box.
• You will get one of the following four items:
  • Self-Aware Beauty Mark (reskinned Jarate)
  • Snack Attack (reskinned Sapper)
  • Bread Bites (reskinned Gloves of Running Urgently)
  • Mutated Milk (reskinned Mad Milk)
• These items have a chance to be Strange quality, else they are Unique quality.

4. 15 New Taunts!

[[[ This area under construction.  Please come back later!  -- [N] Obey ]]]

5. 43 New Cosmetic Items!

And here they are, with links to each item’s Official Wiki page:

6. TF2 Patch notes: June 18, 2014

As usual, lifted from The Official TF2 Wiki.

• Love & War Update
  • Added 5 new weapons^[1], 15 new taunts^[2], and 43 cosmetic items^[3] for the Love & War update
  • Partner Taunts can now be performed with the opposing team
  • Added a new Taunt Loadout with 8 slots so multiple taunts can be equipped at the same time
    • Taunts are no longer equipped in the Action Slot
    • Pressing the Taunt key in game now brings up the new Taunt Selection menu
    • Pressing the taunt key while the Taunt Selection menu is open performs a weapon taunt, or joins a partner taunt

• Mann Co. Store
  • Added 15 new taunts and a taunt bundle
  • Added 5 new weapons and a weapon bundle
  • Added 44 new cosmetics and a cosmetic bundle
  • Added “Taunt” category into the store
  • Added Mann Co. Stockpile Crate Key
  • The “Hats” and “Misc” categories have been merged into “Cosmetics”

• Items
  • Added the Mann Co. Stockpile Crate to the droplist
    • Each Mann Co. Stockpile Crate can be repeatedly shuffled to contain a set of 4 possible items
  • Added the Mann Co. Audition Reel. Contains taunts and a rare chance at an unusual taunt
  • Updated Mann Co. Crates to display which Unusual Series they can potentially output
  • Added Bread Box Special Crafting Recipe. This recipe will no longer be available after July 9th, 2014. Items from the Bread box have a chance to be strange.
  • Added crafting recipes for newly added weapons
  • Added Killstreak Kits to MvM for newly added weapons
  • Added OzFortress Season 11 tournament medals

• Weapon changes and updates
  • With The Hitman’s Heatmaker, pressing ‘reload’ now activates focus when it is full
  • The Axtinguisher now does mini-crit damage from the front and full crit damage from behind to burning targets
  • The Bushwacka can no longer randomly crit
  • All mini-guns now have damage and accuracy ramp up after they start firing. Full accuracy and damage is reached 1 second after firing.
  • All Demoman stickybombs now have damage ramp up. Full damage is reached 2 seconds after firing.
  • Updated Loch-n-Load reload animation
  • Sentry bullets are now affected by damage falloff outside of sentry scan range
  • Sentry bullet damage has been changed so it calculates damage based on the sentry’s position, not the Engineer‘s

• Misc Changes
  • Updated the Halloween holiday to automatically be enabled when the server runs an _event map
  • Added a check to prevent achievement announcement spam
  • Converted several weapon models^[4] to use the c_models system
  • Updated the localization files

• Bug Fixes
  • Fixed an exploit where charging Demoman could turn more than allowed
  • Fixed a bug where Halloween spellbooks were overriding PDAs and Disguise Kits
  • Fixed The Director’s Vision taunt not playing both variations for the Pyro
  • Fixed the Pyro’s spell audio not sounding like the rest of the Pyro’s audio
  • Fixed a bug that would sometimes cause items to unequip themselves
  • Fixed a dedicated server crash related to using ‘mp_forcecamera 0‘ with one player on the server
  • Fixed a regression with the trigger_gravity entity not correctly applying its settings
  • Fixed another exploit where Engineer buildings could build up a large amount of health
  • Fixed a server performance issue related to the item_teamflag entity
  • Fixed the itemtest command
    • Fixed cosmetics shared between multiple classes not rendering correctly
    • Updated the cosmetic item list to sort by name

• Map Fixes
  • Updated cp_granary
    • Removed collision from lights and small props protruding from walls
    • Fixed collision on fences
    • Fixed the tire props near Blu’s forward spawn so players may no longer jump up to the spawn door platform
    • Fixed players shooting through gaps around forward spawn doors
    • Fixed door protruding through roof on Red’s forward spawn
    • Fixed a collision bug that gave players access to the roof above Red’s spawn door
    • Prevented players from building inside spawn room doors
    • Adjusted area portals to improve rendering and performance
  • Updated koth_harvest_final
    • Added metal panel prop to Blu building, which now mirrors the jump up on the Red side
    • Small performance increase through prop fade adjustments
    • Players can no longer build inside spawn doors
  • Updated pl_upward
    • Fixed physics debris triggering the payload cart’s finale explosion

Undocumented changes

• The Loose Cannon’s cannon ball explosions now use a deeper sound.
• Fixed Doomsday lagging every time the Australium respawned.
• The scoreboard now displays support points and damage dealt on non-MvM maps.

7. Patch: June 19, 2014

• Added a new startup music track from Expiration Date.
• Added a crafting recipe for The Back Scatter.
• Fixed a client crash caused by Strange Fists.
• Fixed players using the partner taunts to enter enemy spawn rooms.
• Fixed a regression with the Disco Beat Down unusual effect.
• Fixed The Classic automatically zooming in after going through a teleporter while charging.
• Updated The Tide Turner to also refill the charge meter from impact kills.

 

[N] Obey