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Posts Tagged ‘killstreak’

TF2 Patch Update: 2/11/15

Posted on: February 11th, 2015 by Obey

Oh look, a patch!  (I’ve also attach the small patch from several weeks ago.) It is mostly bugfixes, but below are the significant changes:

  1. Removed Naughty and Nice 2014 Winter Crates, and added Crates #90 and #91 (see below for drop list).
    • New Strange Weapons: Cow Mangler 5000, Third Degree, Winger, AWPer Hand
    • Crate #90 is Strange Weapons, Strange Parts, and Hats.
    • Crate #91 is 99% Killstreak Kits.
  2. Fixed a “bug” so that the Heavy can now switch weapons while a minigun weapon is spinning down.
    • Expect Heavies to quickly switch to a shotgun, lunchbox item, or fist weapon.
  3. Fixed a bug where a Dimaondback-wielding spy stacking saved critical hits by backstabbing invulnerable targets.
  4. Some item sounds have been updated, including axe hits, sword hits, and fixed the Panic Attack using the wrong sound for crits.

 

Crate #90:

Cow Mangler 5000 StrangifierCow Mangler 5000 Strangifier
9 .90%
Third Degree StrangifierThird Degree Strangifier
9 .90%
WingerWinger
9 .90%
Strange Part Not Crit nor MiniCrit KillsStrange Part: Not-Critical Kills
9 .90%
Strange Part Player HitsStrange Part: Player Hits
9 .90%
Strange Cosmetic Part AssistsStrange Cosmetic Part: Assists
9 .90%
Texas Ten GallonTexas Ten Gallon
9 .90%
Frenchman's BeretFrenchman’s Beret
9 .90%
AWPer HandAWPer Hand
9 .90%
Ullapool CaberUllapool Caber
9 .90%
or an Exceedingly Rare Special Item!
1 .00%

Crate #91:

Flare Gun Killstreak KitFlare Gun Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Wrench Killstreak KitWrench Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Revolver Killstreak KitRevolver Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Machina Killstreak KitMachina Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Baby Face's Blaster Killstreak KitBaby Face’s Blaster Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Huo-Long Heater Killstreak KitHuo-Long Heater Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Loose Cannon Killstreak KitLoose Cannon Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Vaccinator Killstreak KitVaccinator Heater Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Air Strike Killstreak KitAir Strike Heater Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
or an Exceedingly Rare Special Item!
1 .00%

 

Full Patch Notes: 2/11/15

  • Added Crate #90 and Crate #91 to the drop list
  • Removed Naughty Winter Crate 2014 and Nice Winter Crate 2014 from the drop list
  • Added convar sv_rcon_whitelist_address. Rcon clients failing to auth from the specified IP address will never get banned.
  • Added convar r_drawtracers_firstperson to disable the drawing of first person bullet tracer particles
  • Added “redirect” client command that can be used to send clients to a different server. Does not function for clients that came from matchmaking or certain server browser tabs.
  • Fixed an exploit related to the “connect” command allowing servers to redirect clients when they should not be able to
  • Fixed a client crash related to extreme viewmodel_fov settings
    • The viewmodel_fov convar is now clamped to valid values. Users who were using this to hide the viewmodel and tracers should use r_drawtracers_firstperson 0 and r_drawviewmodel 0 to achieve the same effect.
  • Fixed missing Killstreak sheen effects for the Iron Bomber
  • Fixed the Explosive Headshot upgrade in Mann vs. Machine not applying to The Classic
  • Fixed the Panic Attack not using the correct sound for crits
  • Fixed The Peacenik’s Ponytail not using the correct team skins
  • Fixed not being able to switch away from the Minigun while spinning down
  • Fixed not being able to deliver wrapped Giftapult packages
  • Fixed The Classic zooming-in when the Sniper teleports while charging a shot
  • Fixed The Bootenkhamuns not hiding the correct bodygroup when equipped
  • Fixed the Diamondback accumulating crits for backstabbing invuln players
  • Fixed players not receiving timed drops when running the game in Ukrainian
  • Updated weapons sounds for the axe_hit, blade_hit, and cbar_hit sound effects
  • Updated the equip_region for the Brimstone
  • Updated Mann Co. Store prices for foreign currencies to current USD equivalents
  • Updated the localization files
  • Mannpower mode changes:
    • Fixed bug that sometimes caused two intel briefcases to spawn
    • Reduced capture trigger size to match capture area on CTF_Gorge
    • Powerup changes:
      • Haste: Doubles the Medigun‘s ubercharge build up speed
      • Vampire: Reduced health leeched when using the Flamethrower and Minigun

       

     

Full Patch Notes: 1/27/15

  • Fixed a client crash related to Spies disguising as players and then switching their disguise weapon
  • Fixed a bug related to overhead icons disappearing (Nemesis, Dueling Partner, Powerups, Coach/Student)
  • Fixed wrapped Giftapult packages not having the “Deliver Gift” option in the context menu
  • Fixed some taunt sound effects that were clipping the character lines
  • Fixed a bug with Dead Ringer cloak meter being lowered to 40% after Super Armor duration ends when cloak was extended via pickups or the L’Etranger
  • Removed the promo restrictions from the Brimstone
  • Added TF2Connexion Season 14 tournament medals
  • Updated the localization files
  • Mannpower mode changes:
    • New temporary powerupUber. Respawns at 1/3rd the speed of Crit powerup
    • Fixed some bugs that would cause powerups to stop spawning[1]
    • Fixed the Action Slot key behaving different for the grapple hook depending on the setting for hud_fastswitch
    • Powerup changes:
      • Vampire: Flamethrower and Minigun return 80% of damage back as health instead of 100%
      • Warlock: Added 25% damage resistance. 100% of sentry damage is now reflected back to the sentry
      • Vampire and Warlock max health buffs are now additive (+80hp and +100hp) instead of multiplicative (x1.4 and x1.5)
      • Haste: Sticky bomb arm time reduced
      • Precision and Haste: Sniper rifles now have quicker damage ramp-up and re-zoom after shooting
      • Precision: Sniper rifles now have double damage. Increased blast weapon clip size by 50%
    • Scoring Support
      • Capture flag: +20 points
      • Return team flag: +4 points
      • Kill an enemy who is carrying a powerup: +1 point
    • Flag mechanics
      • Captured flags now take 12 seconds to re-emerge from the ground so they can’t be stolen again right away

Notes

This change also has the effect that, if a map manually applies the powerup conditions to a player, they drop a powerup on death whether they initially picked one up or not.

[N] Obey

TF2 Smissmas 2014 Update

Posted on: December 22nd, 2014 by Obey

Merry Smissmass! Team Fortress 2 is on a roll with new content! This update is HUGE in terms of affecting your gameplay. Demoman’s grenade launchers, stickybomb launchers, and charging-attack items have all been reworked/tweaked, stemming from last summer’s temporary changes. As usual, the summary is above, and the full patch notes are below.

TF2 Newbs ICYMI’s (In Case You Missed It news items):

  1. TF2 Newbs’ Server Rules have been modified/clarified in regards to dodging autobalance on December 15th.
  2. The “End of the Line” related duck drops and duck-related statistics will continue until January 5, 2015.
  3. If you haven’t read them lately, here are some links you’ll want to bookmark:
  4. Server Keys Contest
  5. Steam Holiday Sale–vote on Flash Sales and earn Holiday Cards!

Smissmas 2014 Update Summary:

  1. Just log in to TF2 and get a Stuffed Stocking. Identical to last year’s Gift-Stuffed Stocking, you can Use it to get items:
    • A Giftapult
    • A Backpack Expander
    • A Name Tag
    • A Description Tag
    • A Tour of Duty Ticket
    • Two or three random drops (weapon or rarely a cosmetic).
    • You can’t market or trade these Stockings.
  2. If you’re Premium, you also get one Secret Saxton. You can Use it to give one random person on your current server a single random item drop.
  3. Demoman got 3 new weapons, and many existing Demoman weapons were modified.  See below at 1. for more info.
  4. Nice 2014 Crate Keys and Naughty 2014 Crate Keys have been added.
    • Just like previous years, Nice Crates have 29 new, Limited community-designed cosmetics, and Naughty Crates have new, Limited Festive and Festive Strange weapons.
    • See below at 2. for more info.
    • Longer expiration window: They can be opened until February 16, 2015 (or just after Valentine’s Day).
  5. A new game mode and mode-variant maps: Mannpower!
    • This is a variant capture-the-flag game with specific changes (no random crits, instant respawn with 6-second invulnerability) and new Mannpower-specific powerups. See 3. below for specifics.
    • Employs a new default, stock Action Slot item: the Grappling Hook.  Only used on Mannpower-enabled servers.
    • Currently supports ctf_gorge and ctf_foundry.
  6. Now all Advanced and Expert MvM Tours of Duty have a (~2%) chance to drop an existing Australium weapon.
    • Previously, only the “Two Cities” Advanced Tour granted Australium weapons.
    • Now, the following Tours also grant a chance at an Aussie:
      • “Operation Steel Trap”: Advanced — two Decoy missions, two Coal Town missions, two Mannworks missions
      • “Operation Mecha Engine”: Advanced — one Decoy mission, two Big Rock missions
      • “Operation Gear Grinder”: Expert — one Decoy mission, one Coal Town mission, one Mannworks mission
    • No new Australium weapons are available.  The same pool of ten items are currently possible; there are now four different Tours that can be undertaken to try to earn them.
    • Killstreak Kits and Fabricators of the three new weapons are available to drop after completing a Two Cities Tour.
  7. Bugfix: Crafting while consuming an item that is “temporarily untradable” will yield a “temporarily untradable” output, instead of a permanently Not Tradable output.

 

1. Major Demoman Changes

If you can recall the Love and War patch (and subsequent repatch), Demoman changes have been in the works for some time.  Welp, here they come!  A few seemingly minor nerfs will affect the one-eyed wonder’s ability to do quite as much damage, despite the apparent buffs given to his many weapons. Lemme explain….

First, the changes to the existing Demoman items:

Charging and Movement

  • Bootlegger, Ali Baba’s Wee Booties, and Claidheamh Mor now grant +25% Charge meter on a charging kill. (The Claidheamh Mor stacks with either of the boots, refilling half of your Charge meter.) These items lengthen your current Charge, not reducing the delay of your next Charge!
  • Scotsman’s Skullcutter now only reduces your movement speed when the weapon is active, instead of constantly when equipped.
  • The Tide Turner has two tweaks:
    • Charging kills now give only 75% of your Charge meter, instead of 100%, forcing you to pause briefly between charges.
    • Taking damage during your Charge reduces your remaining Charge meter, relative to the damage dealt.

So Tide Turner Demoknights will have shorter charges than before, even when they are successful at going from kill to kill. Damaging them between Charges should not prevent them from Charging again very soon, but now they won’t be one continual blur as frequently.

However, the two boots items and the *Claymore can lengthen the current charge, so that Splendid Shield/Chargin’ Targe Demoknights can replicate some of the Tide Turner’s cleaving-from-kill-to-kill fun.  But use the Claidheamh Mor with the Tide Turner, and your current Charge can really stretch long, helping you reach your next victim before the Charge ends.

Projectile Damage

  • ALL grenades and stickybombs now have their damage variance reduced to +/- 2% base damage, from +/- 10% damage.

If anything, the damage dealt by both projectiles have become more reliable on a direct hit, not less. Grenade base damage went from 100 (variance 90-110) on a direct hit to 100 (variance 98-102). Stickybomb base damage on a direct hit or close-range blast went from 120 (variance 103-138) to 120 (variance 118-122). Enemies with about 110 health, such as barely wounded Spies/Snipers/Engies/Scouts and most Soldier loadouts struck by your first direct projectile, will survive less often. But that’s not all of the changes….

  • Direct-hit grenades (not stickies) now deal full damage to the target regardless of where it struck the enemy.  Previously, full damage would only occur when exploded closest to the target’s feet or legs.

So you no longer have to play like a Soldier and “aim for the feet” or guesstimate where a jumper will land; direct hits should be easier to land, eh? But wait, there’s more:

  • ALL grenades and stickybombs now have their blast radius reduced by about 10% (from 159 Hammer Units to 146 HU), which is identical to rockets’ blast radius.

Demomen are now a bit more reliant on using direct hits to inflict full damage.  A ten-percent reduction sounds small, but in live play, that will relegate many more hits as partial bursts. Your sticky placement and detting will need to be more exact, and a stray grenade is less likely to deal a chance direct hit.

All stickybombs have further changes:

  • Stickybombs now have a more visible trail when traveling through the air.
  • Armed stickybomb particles are easier to see.
  • Stickybombs detonated midair now have a blast radius rampup, starting from 85% base radius at the moment they arm (0.8 sec after firing), increasing to 100% base radius after 1.2 seconds in midair (2 sec after firing). Stickybombs that touch the world instantly revert to full blast radius.

Valve has been trying to nerf an arguably-OP stickybomb launcher that can be used both as a zone-denial, reactionary defense weapon (hence the Demoman’s assignment as a Defense unit), as well as a reliable offensive weapon. With greater blast radius and damage than a Soldier, higher damage-per-second than a medium-range Heavy, and less reliance on actually hitting the target with the projectile directly to deal full damage, some (including myself) felt that there was little reason for a Demoman to forgo the stickybomb launcher in favor of… well, just about anything else. Grenades and stickies also do not suffer from damage falloff due to range, unlike a Soldier’s rockets. A skilled sticky-wielding Demoman has been absolutely essential in competitive play, MvM Tour, and pubs with Engineers that place sentries guarding 90-degree angle chokepoints.

Previously, Valve tried to apply a damage rampup during the Love and War Update, and Demoman mains’ opinions were largely negative. Valve decided to revert those changes and continue testing. That rampup seriously nerfed the damage of a sticky, doing something like 35% of its base damage the moment it was armed, making midair detonation largely unaffective, and granting enemies too much opportunity to remove or evade them before they could become lethal.  It was too severe of a change.

TF2_Demoman_by_JayAxer

Valve seems to have settled on not nerfing the base damage it deals, but rather making it harder to land a direct hit, by slightly reducing its blast radius. Fewer direct hits may lead to many more partial hits, nerfing the Demoman’s damage less substantially than before. This simply increases the skill required to play an effective Demoman, without substantially reducing the effectiveness of detting defensive sticky traps. In the same manner, it is possible to play an aggressive, offensive Sniper–you just have to be a crack shot with your primary to do so.

Launching a single sticky and detting it is still effective, and its direct damage output has less variance than before; you just have to detonate them closer to your target’s body. Note that stickybombs still only have a rocket-sized full blast radius, so midair stickybombs have up to 15% small radius than that (125 HU upon arming in midair, from previous 159). That’s a significantly smaller blast radius to aim and det a midair explosive. You may find yourself waiting to det the projectile the instant it touches the world, effectively increasing its blast radius a bit by the delay.

  • Loose Cannon: A successful double donk now automatically deals full blast radius damage to the target with the secondary explosion. Previously the damage was reduced by radius distance from the explosion.
  • Removed a hidden penalty where cannonballs that touched the world received a 50% damage penalty before applying regular grenade damage reduction.

The Loose Cannon will no longer be penalized if you double donk a target away from the center/legs of the hitbox; simply timing the projectile to achieve a partial blast will deal full explosion damage.

  • Loch-n-Load:
    • Old damage output: base 120 (direct hit variance 103-147)
    • New damage output: base 120 (direct hit variance 116-124)
    • Clip size increased to 3 (from 2).
    • Removed the +25% self-damage penalty. Added a -25% blast radius penalty.

The Loch-n-Load is now less effective on tightly clustered enemies. It still fires +25% faster projectiles, and still deals +20% more damage. And now it gets a third grenade per clip (which is a little silly on a double-barrel)! However, it can’t do more than 124 damage on a non-critical hit, so the 125 health squishies (stock Scout, Spy, Engineer and Sniper) cannot die in a single hit if they have full health. That makes it very difficult to kill more than one enemy unit before reloading, despite having a third grenade per clip. Loch-n-Load is now more effective at taking out a single target with repeated direct hits before reloading.

  • Scottish Resistance: Increased range check for stickybomb jumping (146 HU, previously 100 HU).

 

Weren’t there new weapons? Here they are:

smissmasguns2

The Iron Bomber is for Demomen who want their grenades to land hard and not roll and bounce around before exploding. It launches a sphere-like grenade that barely moves when it touches the world. Projectiles do not stick; they just seem heavy and drop and stop quickly. They deal slightly less damage (direct hit variance 89-111) if they explode 2.3 seconds after fire. They also have a -20% explosion radius, slightly larger than the Loch-n-Load’s new radius adjustment, so the Iron Bomber is also intended for single-target killing.

Why have a grenade launcher that can’t execute angular bounces, but doesn’t defuse its grenades when coming in contact with the world?  Players who keep having their grenades bounce back at them or rolling where they don’t want them now have a third choice. This launcher drops the grenade at its impact point with little risk of it bouncing or rolling away from its intended impact spot. The radius is smaller and the damage is marginally less, but can be used for a few seconds of zone control. Also, demoman trying to pepper an area (such as a sentry) can keep their projectiles close when they land near their target even if they don’t hit directly, and can continually have pills detonating in an area without fear of them bouncing away and without having to switch to a stickybomb launcher for tight zone control. Players who hate the way grenades take silly bounces may learn to love this weapon.

Crafting: Iron Bomber = two recalimed metal + Air Strike

 

The Quickiebomb Launcher is for the Demoman that wants to use stickybombs chiefly for midair or short-duration detonations, much like a grenade launcher. They still don’t explode on a direct hit like a grenade, but you can detonate them in midair like normal stickies. They arm 0.2 seconds sooner (at 0.5 seconds after launch), so they’re more effective for medium-range combat. They deal -15% less damage: base 102 damage (variance 100-104). The Quickie stickies do not suffer the blast radius rampup penalty!  Players wanting to avoid this penalty can switch to the Quickiebomb Launcher and still enjoy most of the original AoE radius (Quickie stickies still have a rocket-sized blast radius).

These stickiebombs can also remove enemy stickies on detonation, rather than merely knocking them around. They are faster to charge for long-range shots, but they fizzle without detonating only 2 seconds after launch if you haven’t detonated them yet. So you give up the ability to leave stickies in defensive locations in order to keep the offensive properties of the original weapon. And you gain the ability to have useless stickies fizzle so they don’t harm you, and the ability to defuse enemy stickies.  They have slightly less blast range and slightly less damage than the original weapon, and have a clip of 6 instead of the original 8, but you’ll be able to det stickies at 0.5 seconds unlike before.  It’s hard to say if the weapon is weaker or stronger than before, for pure offensive might.

Crafting: Quickiebomb Launcher = two reclaimed metal + Tide Turner

 

The Panic Attack is a shotgun (primary: Engineer; secondary: Soldier, Heavy, Pyro) that behaves in combat like the Beggar’s Bazooka: the player holds down the primary fire button to load up to 4 shells (34% faster than stock Shotgun; 0.66 sec for first shell and .33 sec for each additional shell, 2 seconds for a full clip). Release the primary fire to shoot each shell in turn automatically. As your health decreases, the Panic Attack fires faster but fires a more erratic bullet spread.

If you overload the Panic Attack, it will not harm you like the Beggar’s; it will simply fire off its four shells. The stock shotgun is deceptively powerful at close range, so this weapon could deal some incredible burst damage if you can ensure the bullets will hit; if you can sneak up on an opponent while loading, you should be able to kill them quickly, like a Scout’s scattergun.

Crafting: Panic Attack =  two reclaimed metal + Back Scatter

 

2. Nice and Naughty 2014 Crates

Nice 2014 Crates drop list

These cosmetic items will drop in Limited quality, with the usual 1% chance of getting an Unusual accessory instead (probably from this item list and with unknown effects). These crates can’t be opened after Feb 16, 2015.

 

Naughty 2014 Crates drop list

Items have a roughly 50% chance of being Strange Festive, and 50% chance of being Festive. All of these are limited, as the crate can’t be opened after Feb 16, 2015.

 

3. Mannpower CTF Mode

You know what? I’m tired… I will add this in later.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

 

Full Patch Notes — 12/22/14

  • All Players who play TF2 during the event will receive a Gift: a Stuffed Stocking! Stockings contain goodies for good little Mercenaries.
  • Added 29 Limited community-contributed winter items to the Nice crate.
  • Added new Limited Festive weapons to the Naughty crate.
  • Limited time items can only be found during a limited window of time. The Naughty and Nice crate items will no longer be available after February 16, 2015.
  • Added Naughty and Nice winter keys to the Mann Co. Store.
  • Naughty and Nice winter crates cannot be opened after February 16, 2015.
  • Premium Players will receive a Secret Saxton to give to another player.
  • Item grants from previous events (including the Spirit of Giving and the Winter Holiday noise maker) have been re-enabled for all players, including those who deleted their earlier grants.

Weapons

Added The Iron Bomber

  • Demoman Grenade Launcher
  • Grenades do not bounce or roll
  • Damage radius reduced by 20%
  • Grenades that self-detonate deal 10% less damage
  • Added The Iron Bomber to the Mann Co. Store, craft list, and item drop list

Added The Quickiebomb Launcher

  • Demoman Stickybomb Launcher
  • Stickybomb arm time reduced by 0.2 seconds
  • Stickybombs can destroy enemy stickybombs
  • Charge time decreased by 50%
  • Stickybombs fizzle after 2 seconds
  • -15% damage penalty
  • -25% clip size
  • Added The Quickiebomb Launcher to the Mann Co. Store, craft list, and item drop list

Added The Panic Attack

  • Multiclass Shotgun
  • 34% Faster reload time
  • Hold fire to load up to 4 shells
  • Fire rate increases as health decreases
  • Weapon spread increases as health decreases
  • Added The Panic Attack to the Mann Co. Store, craft list, and item drop list

Demoman Changes

  • Damage variance on grenades and stickybombs reduced from +/- 10% damage to +/-2%.
  • Grenades and Stickybombs now have the same base blast radius as rockets. Changed to 146 from 159.

Grenade Launcher

  • Direct hit grenades now deal full damage to target regardless of where it struck the enemy. Previously full damage would only occur when grenades exploded closer to the targets feet.

Stickybomb Launcher

  • Stickybombs that detonate in the air now have a radius ramp up, starting at 85% at base arm time (0.8s) going back to 100% over 2 seconds. Stickybombs that touch the world will have full radius.
  • Stickybombs now have a more visible trail while traveling through the air
  • Stickybombs arm particle is slightly more visible

Loose Cannon

  • Double donk explosive damage now deal full radius damage to victims. Previously double donk explosive damage was reduced by radius distance from the explosion.
  • Removed a hidden penalty where Cannonballs that touched the world would deal 50% less damage in addition to regular grenade damage reduction on world touch.

Loch-n-Load

  • Changes to base grenade damage variance now ensure the Loch-n-Load does not exceed 124 damage on a single hit.
  • Removed +25% self-damage penalty
  • Added -25% radius penalty
  • Changed clipsize penalty to -25% (3 grenades per clip) from -50% (2 grenades per clip)
  • Loch-n-load grenades no longer visually tumble when fired

Bootlegger / Ali Baba’s Wee Booties

  • Added +25% Demo Charge meter on charge kill

Tide Turner

  • Added Penalty: Taking damage while shield charging reduces remaining charging time
  • Kills while charging now only add 75% meter on charge kills instead of 100%

Scottish Resistance

  • It is now slightly easier to do sticky jumps with the Scottish Resistance. Increased range check for stickybomb jumping to sticky damage radius of 146 from 100.

Scotsman’s Skullcutter

  • Movement speed penalty now only applies when weapon is active

Claidheamh Mor

  • Added +25% Demo Charge meter on charge kill

Added new game mode Mannpower to the TF2 Beta

Mannpower Mode

  • To Play. Click on Play Multiplayer, enable Play Beta Maps checkbox, and then choose Mannpower Mode.
  • The Following is a list of features in the initial launch of Mannpower and is subject to changes in future updates. Feedback is highly encouraged
  • Contains 8 permanent power ups players can find in the map.
  • Players can only hold 1 permanent power up at a time.
  • Killing a player with a permanent power up forces the power up to drop.
  • Contains 1 temporary power that can be found in the map.
  • Use the ‘dropitem’ command to drop the currently held permanent power up
  • Added new Default Stock Action Item Grappling Hook. Grappling hooks are usable in Mannpower mode and servers that enable it. Once equipped, press and hold the action key to use it. Use to move the player toward the hooked object.
  • Mannpower Beta plays a modified version of Capture the Flag that requires your team’s flag to be at base in order to capture the enemy flag.
  • Touching your flag will instantly return it to base.
  • Currently supported on maps ctf_foundry and a modified ctf_gorge.
  • Instant respawns enabled
  • Random critical attacks disabled
  • Players spawn with 6 seconds of invulnerability

General

  • MvM : Added chance to find Australiaum Weapon rewards to all Advanced and Expert Mann vs. Machine tours. Previously only available on Two Cities tour
  • MvM : Added Killstreak kits for Quickiebomb Launcher, Iron Bomber and Panic Attack in to Two Cities MannUp loot tables
  • Crafting items that are marked as temporarily untradable will now yield temporarily untradable items instead of permanent
  • Fixed a client crash related to the material system
  • Removed the Giftapult from the store and added a crafting recipe for it
  • Updated the equip_region for The Beastly Bonnet
  • Updated the localization files
  • Removed the map restriction on players in karts respawning ghost teammates when they touch them

[N] Obey

TF2 Update: 8/13/2014

Posted on: August 14th, 2014 by Obey

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!
  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 KitStickybomb Launcher Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Minigun Killstreak KitMinigun Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Direct Hit Killstreak KitDirect Hit Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Huntsman Killstreak KitHuntsman Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Backburner Killstreak KitBackburner Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Back Scatter Killstreak KitBack Scatter Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Kritzkrieg Killstreak KitKritzkrieg Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Ambassador Killstreak KitAmbassador Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
Frontier Justice Killstreak KitFrontier Justice Killstreak Kit
11 .00%
or an Exceedingly Rare Special Item!
1 .00%
Crate Series #85
Drops Yes
Items
Air Strike StrangifierAir Strike Strangifier
9 .90%
Classic StrangifierClassic Strangifier
9 .90%
Manmelter StrangifierManmelter Strangifier
9 .90%
Vaccinator StrangifierVaccinator Strangifier
9 .90%
Strange Part Robot Scouts DestroyedStrange Part: Robot Scouts Destroyed
9 .90%
Strange Part Taunting Player KillsStrange Part: Taunting Player Kills
9 .90%
Strange Part Buildings DestroyedStrange Part: Buildings Destroyed
9 .90%
Anger StrangifierAnger Strangifier
9 .90%
Apparition's Aspect StrangifierApparition’s Aspect Strangifier
9 .90%
Widowmaker StrangifierWidowmaker Strangifier
9 .90%
or an Exceedingly Rare Special Item!
1 .00%

 

Team Fortress 2

Undocumented Changes

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

A TF2 Newbs Guide to Getting More and Better Items

Posted on: July 4th, 2014 by 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.

 

 

trophy 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:

 

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

Cold_Snap_Coat

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.

Upgrade Premium

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”

trophy

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.

Spy achievements

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

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

Ghastly GibusEarn 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.

Mann Co CapEarn 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!

World Traveler's HatEarn 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).

Item_drops_frequency_graph

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:

dangeresque

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:

 

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

 

Earn Items by Playing “Mann Up Mode” in MvM

500px-Mvm_logo

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.

mannworks

  • 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.)

fabricator rl

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

Crafting_anvil

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

 

metal

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.

Crafting

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!

Mann_Co._Supply_CrateOh, 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.

Reinforced_Robot_Emotion_Detector

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.

Starter Packs

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.

GadCIcM

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):

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.

 

Item Qualities

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

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:

Warbird

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.

 

How to Trade-Up Graded weapons:

300px-Civilian_Stat_Clock_Menu

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.

250px-Backpack_Pile_o'_Gifts

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?

Backpack_case

  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:

 

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

 

TF2 Update: April 1, 2014

Posted on: April 1st, 2014 by Obey

(This update is real, and not an April Fool’s joke.)

Added April 3, 2013:

  1. If you haven’t seen the first post on the Official TF2 blog in four months, do so. It will link to a third comic in the Gray-takes-over-Mann-Co. storyline, and gives teasers for moonbases, new gameplay, and community-inspired taunts that just look awesome.  (And if you can’t find the obvious Anchorman movie reference, you obviously don’t remember the movie.
  2. Updated blogpost: A TF2Newbs Guide to MvM Item Hunting

The Most Important Things to Know:

  1. [Fixed 4/3/13] Added holiday mode 9 for April Fools Day, which sometimes substitutes Schadenfraude taunts for ordinary taunys, and class responses are changed to laughing (akin to Pyrovision).
  2. Standard crates will now drop much less often. Salvaged Crates #60 can no longer drop, as well as crates #75, #76, and #77.
  3. Crates #82 and #83 have been added.
    • Crate #82 contents:
      • Rocket Launcher Killstreak Kit
      • Scattergun Killstreak Kit
      • Sniper Rifle Killstreak Kit
      • Shotgun Killstreak Kit
      • Ubersaw Killstreak Kit
      • Gloves of Running Urgently Killstreak Kit
      • Spy-cicle Killstreak Kit
      • Axtinguisher Killstreak Kit
      • 1% chance for an Unusual
    • Crate #83 contents:
      • Note that it grants Strangifiers and not the Strange Weapons themselves!
      • Pretty Boy’s Pocket Pistol Strangifier
      • Phlog Strangifier
      • Strange Cosmetic Part: Kills
        • A Strange cosmetic ittem tracks points scored, not kills. This part adds a kill counter.
      • Strange Part: Full Health Kills (your full health, not your victims)
      • Private Eye Strangifier
      • 1% chance for an Unusual
  4. Changes to Chemistry Sets:
    • Chemistry Sets now have a “Series” number attached. Older Series #1 and Series #2 are now named as such.
    • Current Series #3 (and presumably future Chemistry Sets) now have expiration dates.
    • Since Chemistry Sets drop alongside standard crates, I assume that Chemistry Sets will also drop much less often now.
  5. The Wrangler can now take Strange Parts–but will only track increments while the Sentry is actively Wrangled.
  6. Exploits granting a Demoman increased turn rate (due to increased frame rate) while Shield-charging have been fixed.
  7. Added the Little Bear (a cosmetic Giant Heavy Robot) to the Mann Co. Store, purchasable for US$7.49.
    1. Three A Toys sells a toy figure Giant Heavy Robot; purchasing it can award you a Genuine-quality Little Bear.
  8. Occasionally, players that taunt will randomly do the Schadenfraude taunt, even without having the Schadenfraude equipped or possessed.

 

 

Full Patch Notes: April 1, 2014

Undocumented changes

 Added April 4, 2014

Thanks for reading this far! Just so you know, {N} Haley is giving away an unusual hat in a contest!! Read this thread to find out how you can win.

 

[N] Obey