| Team Fortress 2
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Official Box Art
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| Release Date:
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October 10, 2007
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| Developer:
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Valve
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| Publisher:
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Valve
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| Platforms:
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Microsoft Windows
MacOS
Linux
Xbox 360
PlayStation 3
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| Genre:
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Multiplayer First-Person Shooter
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Team Fortress 2 (TF2) is a multiplayer first-person shooter created by Valve running on the Source engine as the sequel to Team Fortress Classic. As the name implies, the action is team-based, with both teams composed of nine distinct classes divided into offensive, defensive, and support categories. The game is well known for its less-than-serious tone, colorful characters, and lazy, if hilarious, animations.
Development of Team Fortress 2 initially aimed to give it a more serious, militaristic theme, but it eventually evolved into its current art style, a distinctive cartoonish take on 60s espionage; the designs of the game's weapons are stylized versions of familiar designs. Many weapons in the game were made by the community and added in by Valve instead of being made by Valve themselves. The game's lore has been expanded through officially released animations, comics, and events. It has established that TF2 takes place in the late 1960s, with its prequel in the 1930s (creating many anachronisms), and many absurdities such as Abraham Lincoln inventing stairs to replace the need to jump explosively via rocket launchers.
The servers for Team Fortress 2 are still maintained by Valve for PC and Xbox 360, although the latter has only received a small handful of patches since release, while the PlayStation 3's servers were run by EA (which had received even less patches than on Xbox) until March of 2023. Today, the PC version is mainly updated with bug fixes and content additions of cosmetics and maps only.
The following weapons appear in the video game Team Fortress 2:
Shared Weapons
"Pistol"
The secondary weapon for the Engineer and Scout classes, the "Pistol" is a mixture of the Makarov PM, Walther PPK, and Smith & Wesson 61 Escort. It possesses the Makarov's slide, trigger, upper frame, the PPK's ejection port, handle, grips, and the S&W's trigger guard. It lacks power and has only average accuracy but possesses good range and a very fast reload time for its 12-round magazine; therefore, it is best used as a backup when one's primary weapon is out of ammunition (either for finishing off injured enemies or covering a retreat), or for harassing enemies and picking off undefended buildings at a distance. The light-traveling Scout carries three extra magazines (36 rounds), and the ever-prepared Engineer carries sixteen extra magazines and two-thirds of one more for a total of 200 reserve ammunition. A balancing mechanic shared with all pistols, revolvers, and submachine guns is that after firing the first shot, consecutive follow-up shots will significantly drop in accuracy until the player stops firing for 1.25 seconds.
Interestingly, early concept art shows that there was originally supposed to be a sidearm based on the SIG P210; also considered were a hammerless variant with a slide-mounted safety and several suppressed designs, including a Remington Model 51, an FN Model 1922, a Sauer 38H, and one in particular based on the Mauser HSc.
Makarov PM - 9x18mm Makarov
Smith & Wesson 61 Escort - .22 Long Rifle (Blank adapted movie gun)
The in-game model of the "Pistol".
The Scout draws his sidearm, giving a good view of the unusual left-handed ejection port; while the nature of this animation would suggest that he carries the pistol in a chest or shoulder holster, he doesn't actually have a holster anywhere on his model, leaving the whereabouts of the Pistol when he's not using it a bit of a mystery.
Ignoring these inquiries, the Scout watches the enemy spawn near the second point of cp_dustbowl's first stage. Like many Valve characters, he uses the rather inadvisable "cup-and-saucer" grip, notorious for being unhelpful in recoil management. Note the slide which has what appears to be trench sights, but also a front sight which contradicts the use of the trench sights.
Inspecting the Pistol, a feature that was initially implemented for skinned weapons in the Gun Mettle update; it was later added to the rest of the game's weapons, skinned or otherwise. Note that the magazine seemingly comes out of its own volition here; there is no magazine release modeled anywhere on the gun, nor is there a notch for one anywhere on the magazine itself.
The Pistol's other side; surprisingly enough for a Boston teenager with more confidence than brains, he exercises good trigger discipline during this animation.
Firing off a few rounds; while ostensibly semi-automatic, the Pistol will fire continuously if the fire button is held, like all weapons in
TF2. This wasn't always the case; the Pistol used to fire as quickly as the player could click their mouse, but this was changed after people starting using macros to turn it into what effectively amounted to a single-shot shotgun that could one-shot a Soldier with damage to spare.
Reloading, using an odd technique seen practically nowhere else; first, the magazine is ejected, showing that it has flat, featureless upper surface devoid of a follower or feed lips...
...before flipping the weapon over, slapping in a magazine, and spinning it back into place. Considering that this routine involves pointing a loaded handgun at oneself with a finger on the trigger, it's easy to see why it's not seen anywhere else.
Meanwhile, near the first point of the second stage of Dustbowl, an Engineer draws his own Pistol, giving it a flashy spin. Given the nature of the animation, the Engineer is drawing his Pistol from his tool belt pouch cross drawn. Judging by the clipping on the trigger, this animation was presumably originally meant for someone who wasn't wearing a rubber glove on their firing hand.
The Engineer surveys his domain, Pistol in hand; unlike the Scout, he holds it with one hand.
The Engi's inspection animation begins with a flashy sideways spin...
...though, apart from that, it's largely the same as the Scout's.
That being said, his inspection of the right side is a fair bit more scrutinous.
Firing the Pistol. Note that, as is the case with the Scout, the entire gun moves at once; the only separable part of the weapon's model is the magazine, with the slide, trigger, and hammer all being completely fixed in place.
The Engineer reloads his sidearm, slapping a new magazine in dramatically enough to almost hide the fact that the divot in the side is simply a texture. Strangely enough, this reload animation is somehow 0.11 seconds
slower than the Scout's reload routine.
The Engineer's default pistol taunt, which is shared with all but one of his secondaries, first involves yet another flashy twirl...
...then has him pose dramatically with the pistol...
...and is capped off with him blowing the smoke from the muzzle of the gun.
Luger P08
Max's signature "Lugermorph" sidearm in the Sam and Max: Freelance Police series appears as an unlockable secondary weapon for the Scout (and the Engineer after the July 1st 2010 update) for players who pre-ordered Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse or bought it within the first week of its release, or by winning it from Max in the game Poker Night at the Inventory. Based on the Luger P08, the Lugermorph is only a cosmetic reskin of the regular Pistol. The handgun's model (which has no moving parts) was taken wholesale from the Sam and Max games, so it does not eject spent casings and the slide does not move. The magazine is also fixed to the model, remaining static during the reloading and inspecting animations.
Max's sidearm from the
Sam & Max adventure game series
A BLU Scout draws his Lugermorph outside of his team's spawn on cp_gorge. This is probably as good a look at the pistol as one is going to get.
The Scout holds the Lugermorph at ready. Par for the course for Team Fortress 2, the rear sight is nonexistent and the front sight is comically large and would result in shots going low if anybody actually used iron sights in this game, although since the model was from Telltale's Sam and Max games this one wasn't Valve's fault. The large size of the Lugermorph, at least compared to all the other pistols in the game, also makes it obvious that the base of the pistol is clipping into the Scout's off hand.
The Scout inspects the Lugermorph. Amusingly, as all the Scout's pistols share the same animations this first involves a magazine check, but since the Lugermorph has no moving parts the Scout instead
pretends to check the magazine while the pertinent sounds play. Maybe he mimes them with his mouth.
He then finishes the inspect animation by glancing at the other side of the Lugermorph.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the map, a RED Engineer draws his Lugermorph. Determined to outdo the clipping issues present in the stock pistol's draw animation, the Lugermorph decides to clip through
all of the Engineer's fingers.
The Engineer menacingly points his Lugermorph at a threatening-looking concrete wall. Visible on his 3D model on the bottom left of the HUD (a feature that can be enabled in the advanced options menu) is the other reward one could've obtained for knocking Max out in Poker Night at the Inventory: Sam's Freelance Police badge.
The Engineer inspects the Lugermorph; as with the stock pistol this first involves a fancy twirl (and more clipping issues)...
...then is followed by a magazine check, or rather a mimed magazine check while the Engineer presumably also makes gun noises with his mouth...
...and is finished off with a glance at the other side.
Ithaca 37
A sawed-off Ithaca 37, holding 6 shotshells (in its 4-round tube) and generically referred to as the "Shotgun", is the Engineer's primary weapon and the secondary weapon for the Soldier, Pyro, and Heavy. All classes capable of using the Shotgun carry 32 spare shells, each of which contains 10 pellets. At close range, the shotgun deals high damage, but a combination of damage fall-off and the shotgun's pellet spread limit its damage at range. Although it is his primary weapon, the Engineer uses it primarily in self-defense of himself and his buildings. The other classes that use the shotgun as a secondary have highly-damaging primary weapons and use the shotgun to finish off injured opponents or to conserve primary weapon ammo. The Soldier's shotgun taunt has him firing three shots in the manner of a twenty-one-gun salute, though no ammo is expended and the taunt does no damage. Also when drawing it, the Pyro will rack the forend, while the other classes don't.
Strangely, the bolt of the shotgun only moves when the Engineer cycles the action, but not for the other classes or even when the Engineer racks the forend after reloading. The ejection port (which on a real Ithaca 37 doubles as the loading port on the bottom of the receiver) is also located on the left side of the receiver, but for some bizarre reason the shells are ejected to the right, a quirk present in all the pump action shotguns in the game.
Airsoft Ithaca 37 with sawed-off stock and barrel - (fake) 12 gauge
Notice that the shotgun's ejection port is on the left side, not the bottom like the real Ithaca 37, but in-game it oddly ejects to the right.
The Soldier pumping the Ithaca 37 after he deals with a Spy in
Meet the Spy. In this scene (not visible in this screenshot), the spent shell correctly ejects from the left, but the Soldier short-strokes the forend.
The Heavy resting his Ithaca 37 on his shoulder in
Meet the Scout. Note that his ring finger fills up the entire trigger guard.
A BLU Soldier holds his stock shotgun at the ready, having just exited his team's spawn on koth_viaduct. Note the addition of a left-handed ejection port on the receiver; the real Ithaca 37 has its loading port double as an ejection port, although as we're about to see the addition of an ejection port is the least of the stock shotgun's bizarre properties.
The Soldier inspects his shotgun while exercising good trigger discipline, first by checking out the left side of the shotgun. Note the action bar, or rather the complete lack of one since apparently Valve have mistaken it for a solid...
thing that connects the barrel and the magtube. It doesn't even go all the way from the forend to the receiver! (This is a recurring problem with all of Team Fortress 2's pump action shotguns.)
Trying to ignore the fact that the lack of an action bar means there's no actual way to eject spent hulls, the Soldier glances at the right side of the gun. This "left side, right side" inspection routine is more or less the same as the other classes that can equip the shotgun, albeit with minor variations.
The Soldier decides to test his shotgun out on a nearby wall. Here the hitscan properties of the weapon are apparent; the impact sparks indicate that the pellets have hit their target before the cosmetic tracers have even traveled all the way.
The Soldier pumps the shotgun to eject a spent shotgun hull, whereupon everything just kind of falls apart. Despite a left-handed ejection port, the shotgun ejects to the
right, and the shotgun hull is also ejected with the brass head facing
towards the muzzle (these are both recurring discrepancies with all of Team Fortress 2's pump-action shotguns, although the Family Business is an exception to the former). Also note the static nature of the bolt; while one might assume it to be solid as is the nature of Team Fortress 2's art style and general low-detail firearms, this isn't actually the case as we'll see in a bit.
The Soldier tops off the shotgun. For whatever reason, the shotshells that are loaded into the shotgun have a black brass head, making it look less like a shotshell and more like an off-brand battery, despite the earlier use of a perfectly normal shotshell model (this issue is only present with the stock shotgun). Also note the "shotshell" itself clipping into the Soldier's fingers, and the solid nature of the loading port.
The Soldier's shotgun taunt, which is shared with all his shotgun secondaries, first has him perform a small arms variant of a 21-gun salute by firing his shotgun three times in a row, while the start of Taps plays in the background. Thankfully this doesn't actually consume any ammunition. Though not visible in this screenshot, there are no muzzle flash effects while performing the taunt, so visually it looks more like the Soldier is mime firing his shotgun.
He then salutes while yelling "BOOYAH!", as last (dis)respects to his fallen opponent.
Meanwhile, an allied Pyro in another section of the map draws their shotgun. All well and good so far...
...except that, for no apparent reason, for a few frames the Pyro yanks the forend
forward, though the clamp and forward of its default position, which should be physically impossible but for the infinite wackiness of Team Fortress 2...
...before pumping the shotgun and getting ready to go to work.
The Pyro holds the shotgun at the ready.
As mentioned earlier, the Pyro's inspect animation for the shotgun is similar to the Soldier's, albeit without the trigger discipline (as befits the reckless nature of an insane pyromaniac). First, the left side is inspected...
The Pyro fires the shotgun at an intimidating-looking staircase.
The Pyro pumps the shotgun. The discrepancies with the Soldier's shotgun pumping animation are also present here, although not as noticeably in this screenshot since a significant portion of the pumping animation occurs off screen.
The Pyro tops off the shotgun. Once again, batteries are used to load the shotgun, as opposed to actual shotshells.
Finishing the reload animation by pumping the forend, something that is actually done by all classes every time a pump-action shotgun is fully loaded. Normally, this pumping animation is similar (though not identical) to the pumping animation while firing, and so wouldn't be worth dedicating screenshots to...
...except, once again, the Pyro yanks the forend forward for a few frames for no apparent reason (compare the position of the forend relative to the clamp in this screenshot to that of the inspect screenshot if you have a hard time seeing this)...
...before correcting themselves and properly pumping the shotgun, ready to fire again. (This weird forend yanking issue exists on the Pyro's draw and reload animations for all the shotguns available to them, which makes sense as they all share the same animations.)
Concurrently, on the opposite side of the map, a wary RED Heavy holds his shotgun at the ready.
The Heavy inspects his shotgun. Once again this first starts with a familiar glance at the left side of the gun, although the Heavy holds the shotgun with his firing hand alone...
...then he grabs the forend again with his off hand and glances at the right side of the gun...
...before staring harder at the right side of the gun from a different angle.
The Heavy test fires his shotgun.
The Heavy pumps his shotgun. Again, the issues with the Soldier and Pyro's shotgun pumping animations are also present here.
The Heavy tops off his shotgun. Unlike with the Soldier and Pyro, the Heavy has no issues with off-model shotshells in his reload animation...because his reload animation doesn't feature shotshells at all; instead he mimes loading the shotgun by repeatedly gesturing his thumb and index finger towards the bottom of the receiver. Somehow this still works.
The Heavy's shotgun taunt, shared with all his shotgun secondaries, begins with the logical conclusion of twirling a pistol; the Heavy twirls a whole shotgun around his finger. Though not as obvious as the screenshot from the Meet the Scout SFM above, the Heavy's index finger (and all of his fingers, really) are so big that they can just barely fit in the trigger guard, in a way that would only make physical sense if the actual trigger was missing. Also, though it's hard to see in this screenshot, the shotgun will clip through the thumb multiple times while the Heavy is twirling it.
The Heavy then proceeds to point dramatically at the man standing opposite to him, which may or may not be the article reader...
...and makes a dramatic "throat-slitting" gesture with his thumb.
While all of this is going on, a RED Engineer standing near the control point draws his shotgun. Compared to the other three classes, who draw their shotguns from the bottom of the screen so quickly that it's barely noticeable, the Engineer enthusiastically draws his shotgun and brings it to bear from over his head.
The Engineer holds his shotgun at the ready.
The Engineer test fires his shotgun on a menacing-looking rock.
The Engineer pumps his shotgun. As mentioned earlier, the bolt isn't actually static, although why it only moves for the Engineer is a mystery. The bolt being a moving part also makes it obvious that there is a black void instead of actual internals in the receiver of the shotgun, but this is still a step forward.
A few frames later, the spent hull is ejected. The shotgun's bolt being a moving part doesn't preclude all the other errors with the pump animation, of course.
Much later, during an actual match in pl_barnblitz, the Engineer tops off his shotgun. As with the Soldier and the Pyro, the shotshells he uses look more like batteries than they do shotshells.
Having loaded his shotgun up to full capacity, the Engineer wraps up the reload animation with a pump of the forend. The bolt doesn't move when this happens for reasons unknown.
Mossberg 500
There are two shotguns in the game that bear a resemblance to the Mossberg 500. The first of the two is the "Family Business", an unlockable secondary weapon for the Heavy that is fitted with wooden furniture, an adjustable stock and a safety selector mounted on the left side of the receiver. Concept art for the weapon shows that it used to more closely resemble a Benelli M3 Super 90. It fires 15% faster than the default Shotgun, holds eight rounds (the highest ammo capacity of all the shotguns in the game) and appears to be chambered in 20 gauge, since it deals less damage per shot and has a thinner barrel and magazine tube in comparison to the game's other shotguns. Due to a bug (which has since been patched), spent shells from the Family Business would eject from the center of the screen, appearing out of thin air. In addition, the forend was previously fixed to the gun's magazine tube, causing the whole weapon to move back and forth instead of the forend; this has now been fixed. Alternative names that were considered for the Family Business include the "Soviet Stampede" and "Russian Riot", with the latter name still being used in the game's files.
The other shotgun is the "Reserve Shooter", which features a green frame with a white star inside of a ring similar to the symbol seen on US Army vehicles in World War II, a green USMC-style barrel clamp, wooden sawed-off stock, and wooden forend. Above the shotgun's receiver is an external mechanism of sorts whose purpose is unclear (however, an early weapon model shows that a folding stock would've been mounted here). Originally available exclusively to the Soldier, recent updates allowed the Reserve Shooter to be used by the Pyro as well. The weapon only holds four rounds (despite its magazine tube being visually almost the same length as the default Shotgun's) at a time, and after drawing it will deliver mini-crit damage to targets launched mid-air, mainly by explosions. As of the Jungle Inferno Update on October 20 of 2017, it cannot mini-crit targets launched by the Pyro's flamethrower compression blast, but the damage bonus will count against enemy Pyros airborne with the "Thermal Thruster" jetpack item. It also has a 20% quicker draw speed compared to the stock shotgun.
Mossberg 500 "Persuader" with high-capacity magazine tube - 12 gauge
A Heavy taunts with the "Family Business." Note the Soviet hammer and sickle symbol on the stock. Also note how the ejection port on the world model is a missing surface, allowing the camera to see through the gun.
A BLU Heavy in koth_badlands holds his Family Business at the ready. Note the lack of a left-handed ejection port; this is the only pump-action shotgun in the game with a ejection port located on the proper side.
The Heavy inspects his shotgun by glancing at the left side of it. Besides the comically oversized screws, and the fact that the Family Business's proportions are clearly not designed with the Heavy's idle animations in mind since his thumb is clipping into the receiver, note the nonsensical AR-15 styled safety (though it's hard to make out due to the fidelity of the screenshot, the letters F and S are engraved into the receiver, the letter F being colored red; presumably these represent 'Fire' and 'Safe'. The safety is pointed at 'F').
The Heavy glances at the right side of the gun. Note what appears to be the breech bolt bulging out of the ejection port, which should firstly not be possible on a Mossberg 500 because the elevator would be in the way, and secondly highlights the fact the elevator is missing. Even disregarding these two factors, the bolt bulging out of the ejection port would surely immobilize the forend and prevent the extraction of spent hulls. Also note the Heavy's right hand is clipping through the stock; evidently the Heavy's inspect animations weren't designed with shotgun stocks in mind either.
The Heavy glances harder at the right side of his gun, while clipping his index and middle finger through the trigger guard.
Pumping the shotgun to chamber another shotshell. Seemingly deciding that all the above clipping issues weren't enough, the Heavy clips the forend through the receiver too.
Concept art for the Reserve Shooter.
A BLU Soldier holds his Reserve Shooter at the ready in his team's spawn on koth_badlands. Note the weird...
thing atop the receiver, where the Mossberg 500's safety would usually be located; while this would have originally accomodated a top folding stock, that hasn't made it to the final product, and what would've been the mount has been bastardized into a vestigial external mechanism of unknown use.
The Soldier inspects his Reserve Shooter. Note the long clamp near the muzzle of the gun, which is likely based off the USMC Remington 870 Mark 1 bayonet mount. Also note the weird magtube/barrel clamp near the receiver; normally the action bar would prevent one from installing a clamp in this location (not that the Reserve Shooter is modeled with one anyway).
The Soldier glances at the other side of the Reserve Shooter. The receiver is adorned with a WW2 US Army star identification marking, as befits the Soldier (or not, given that part of his backstory involves his rejection from every branch of the US military).
The Soldier fires the Reserve Shooter.
The Soldier pumps the Reserve Shooter, revealing another issue with putting a clamp near the receiver - the clamp would block the forend from being pumped and prevent the extraction of any spent hulls, as well as the chambering of ammo in the first place. Luckily, this is Team Fortress 2, and the forend just clips through the clamp with no issues, besides the visual one obviously.
A few frames later, the spent hull is ejected.
The Soldier tops off the Reserve Shooter.
Meanwhile, a RED Pyro standing near the control point draws their Reserve Shooter. Much like the stock shotgun's draw animation, this starts out fine...
...except once again, for a few frames, the Pyro decides to yank the forend forward and clip it through the front clamp for whatever reason...
...before deciding to pump the forend back and clip it through the rear clamp as well, in a routine that can only be described as the firearms equivalent of
Frank Drebin attempting to parallel park.
The Pyro holds the Reserve Shooter at the ready.
The Pyro fires the Reserve Shooter.
The Pyro pumps the forend, once again clipping it through the rear clamp.
The Pyro tops off their shotgun.
An older model of the Reserve Shooter as it appears in a preview image as part of the "Polycount Pack" contest in which users animated and submitted items in a chance to have them added into the game with their own stats. The Reserve Shooter shotgun in this image has a number of visual differences to the one that was ultimately added to the game: It has a shorter barrel and magazine tube held together by a more generic clamp, a slightly thicker but straigher forend, a folding stock, grooved grip and no clamping before the forend.
Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun"
The "Panic Attack" shotgun is based off a Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun", with a sawed down stock and a drum magazine loaded into the bayonet mount, although despite this it still holds a measly 6 shotshells like the stock Ithaca 37. The Panic Attack used to act similarly to the Soldier's "Beggar's Bazooka" launcher; upon holding down the firing key, the shotgun's user would load in up to 4 shells, with releasing triggering the shotgun to fire off the loaded rounds in quick succession. Each round was inserted 50% (33% when first added to the game) faster than with the Ithaca and its firing/cycling speed increased as its user's health got lower with accuracy also decreasing. However, in 2017, the M1897's stats were altered it to have it function like the game's other pump-action shotguns. Currently, the Panic Attack is drawn by its user much quicker and fires 15 pellets per shell in a fixed horizontal five-by-three grid pattern, but as a trade-off each pellet deals less damage and the shot pattern widens between consecutive shots that are fired too quickly.
Winchester Model 1897 "Trench Gun" - 12 gauge
The model for the "Panic Attack". Note the extremely short magazine tube and the drum magazine attached ahead of it. The shotgun's bolt appears to be simplified as a single piece that fills the ejection port unlike on a real Model 1897.
A RED Heavy wielding the Panic Attack. Besides the stylisations befitting the game's cartoonish art style, the obvious addition is the nonsensical drum magazine near the front of the gun, although since it still has a somewhat reasonable ammo capacity, it's possible the drum magazine is entirely cosmetic and clips onto the bayonet mount.
A BLU Soldier holds his Panic Attack at the ready on koth_nucleus. Note the thumb clipping through the heat shield. The rear of the receiver is incorrectly modelled as missing the hole that the bolt slides back through to cock the (static in this case) external hammer.
The Soldier inspects his shotgun. Note the "action bar" between the barrel and magazine tube; while still obviously just a solid bar, this is the closest any of the pump action shotguns in Team Fortress 2 get to looking like they have one.
The Soldier glances at the other side of his shotgun. Note that the action bar is also visible on the right side, which isn't the case for real life Winchester 1897s.
The Soldier test fires his shotgun.
The Soldier pumps his shotgun, with shells still being ejected from the wrong side and position.
The Soldier tops off his shotgun. As with the Family Business, the Panic Attack has a stock, which the Soldier's right hand (and all the other classes that can use the Panic Attack, for that matter) clips through since these animations were designed for the stockless Ithaca. Also note the lack of an actual shotshell being loaded into the Panic Attack, the Soldier instead miming reloading it like the Heavy for some reason (this also happens with all the other classes that can use the Panic Attack). Also also note the Soldier's thumb clipping through the receiver.
The Soldier takes a closer look at his aggressive redecoration of the concrete wall he was aiming at. Note the weirdly uniform horizontal 5x3 pellet pattern, an attribute that was added to the Panic Attack in the Jungle Inferno update, although there is still a little bit of spread deviation since the pellets don't line up. As an aside, there is a command that completely disables random spread on shotguns, causing them to fire similarly uniform pellet patterns with no deviation, and a different number of pellets depending on the weapon (most shotguns will fire a fixed 3x3 pattern). A sizable number of community servers have this command enabled.
Meanwhile, an allied Pyro inside the BLU spawn draws their Panic Attack with a pump. Note that the action bar extends all the way from the receiver to the drum at the end of the magazine tube, which isn't how action bars work, although at least this is very hard to notice in game due to the Panic Attack's expedited draw speed.
The Pyro holds their shotgun at the ready.
The Pyro fires the shotgun.
The Pyro pumps the forend, ejecting a spent hull.
The Pyro tops off the shotgun. As with the Soldier, the reload animation lacks shotshells for whatever reason.
While this is going on, a RED Engineer near the RED spawn holds his Panic Attack at the ready. Note how the Engineer's entire off hand is clipping into the forend and the receiver.
The Engineer fires his shotgun.
The Engineer pumps the forend, ejecting a spent hull. Note the fact that the bolt is static during the pumping animation, even though the stock shotgun's wasn't; unlockable weapons having less moving parts than their stock equivalents is a recurring theme in Team Fortress 2.
The Engineer tops off his shotgun. As with the other classes, no shotshells are involved in the reload animation, the Engineer instead miming stuffing shotshells into the ejection port. Also note the Engineer's thumb clipping into the receiver, as well as his firing hand clipping through the stock and his index finger through the trigger.
Scout
COP 357
The "Shortstop," a pearl-gripped derringer based on the COP 357 Derringer with a single external hammer, is one of the Scout's unlockable primary weapons. It has a tighter spread than the Scattergun, fires 75% faster, and reloads in one second, but inflicts 20% less damage overall, only loads four rounds, and each round only has four pellets. It is the only primary weapon based on a secondary. Visually, the Shortstop seems to chamber oversized .357 Magnum rounds but actually fires several projectiles per shot, similar to "snake shot" ammunition. The weapon also used to draw from the same ammunition pool as the Pistol, Lugermorph, or Winger, which has since been changed in a patch. The Shortstop currently has the unique feature of enabling the Scout to do a shove attack at an enemy in front of him, though it increases all knockback force taken by 20% while active. Concept art of the "Shortstop" suggests that it would have more closely resembled a combination of a COP .357 and a four-shot Remington-Elliot Derringer, though the final product only has some slight features of the Remington (such as the grip shape).
Remington-Elliot Derringer - .32 Rimfire
A render of The Shortstop.
The Scout holds his Shortstop on pl_upward.
Source Filmmaker render of the Shortstop. Note the unfired rounds in a quad clip (which are inserted into the derringer when reloading) and the spent casings (that are ejected from the derringer in its reload animation) which lack a clip and contain unstruck primers.
The Scout takes watch near the hill on koth_lakeside_final, Shortstop in hand, as Team Fortress 2's cartoonish artstyle and the Shortstop's status as a primary weapon take the "pocket" out of "pocket pistol" and "backup" out of "backup gun". Note the addition of the external hammer; the real life COP 357 has an internal hammer and a striker that rotates with every trigger pull, firing off each chamber in sequence.
The inspect animation begins with the Shortstop being opened with a flick of the wrist and staring at the left side, curiously
not looking at the ammunition loaded in the chambers. Though the latch that holds the barrels closed on the real COP 357 (or a rough cartoon approximation of it, anyway) is actually modeled on the Shortstop, the Scout doesn't touch it at all, seemingly opening and closing the barrel assembly by sheer force of will.
The Shortstop is then closed with another flick of the wrist. For a few frames the chambers are visible and don't have any ammunition in them for whatever reason (which probably explains why the Scout doesn't stare into the chambers during the first half of the inspect animation).
The Scout then caps off the the inspect animation by staring at the right side of the Shortstop, similar to that of his inspect animations for his other pistols.
Firing the Shortstop. As a primary weapon for the Scout, the Shortstop fires off multiple pellets with each round, as if it's been loaded with snakeshot ammunition. Note the muzzle flash originating from the same location every shot, which happens for all the multi-barreled weapons in Team Fortress 2.
Reloading the Shortstop, which first involves the Scout flicking the Shortstop open again, causing the empty casings (which will all be empty, regardless of how many rounds you actually fired before reloading) to be ejected with utmost vigor. How exactly it does this when the Shortstop's barrel assembly isn't modeled with an ejector or even an extractor or why this nonexistent ejector doesn't activate during the inspect animation isn't clear.
The Scout then grabs a quad clip (from over his left shoulder, for some reason) and slams it into the breech, instantly loading the Shortstop. Though not possible to depict with screenshots alone, the Scout puts the clip into the breech by clipping it through the left side of the barrel assembly.
Introduced with the Meet Your Match update was an altfire attack for the Shortstop: a shove that deals 1 point of damage and punts the enemy back, similar to the "airblast" feature of the flamethrower. While doing this, the Scout makes a sound that presumably is meant to be a labored grunt from exertion of force, but sounds more like a constipated man trying to use the toilet. As for the shove itself, its short range compared to that of the flamethrower's airblast range, as well as the short delay between the shove connecting and the enemy player actually getting pushed, means that it is seldom used in actual gameplay.
Beretta 3032 Tomcat
The "Winger" resembles a stylized Beretta 3032 Tomcat with a squared back-end (lacking an external hammer) and Smith & Wesson 61 Escort-like trigger guard. This pistol is adorned with a radiation hazard symbol on the grips and a set of yellow wings imprinted at the rear of the slide. The Winger is an alternative secondary weapon for Scout, which inflicts 15% more damage per shot than the default "Pistol", but only holds 5 rounds in its magazine. Drawing the Beretta also increases the user's maximum jump height by 25%. According to the creator of the Winger's model, the lack of its external hammer was intentional and was done in order to avoid it looking too similar to the default pistol, claiming that the Winger is striker fired.
Beretta 3032 Tomcat in Stainless Steel - .32 ACP
Smith & Wesson 61 Escort - .22 Long Rifle (Blank adapted movie gun)
In pl_upward, a RED Scout pulls out the "Winger". It lacks a rear sight and external hammer, with a flat surface taking their places.
Repeating the same inspect procedure for the "Pistol", Scout checks out his new Berettain't.
Inspecting the pistol's right-hand side, which is a mirror of the left and lacks any sort of safety control present on the real Beretta.
Unloading some rounds with the Winger. To no one's surprise, nothing moves or ejects from the pistol, and Scout still uses the impractical "tea cup" grip as an attempt to manage recoil.
After unloading 5 rounds (which is too low for a 3032 Tomcat as they feed from 7-rounders), Scout performs the same ridiculous twirling reload. The magazine that drops out from the pistol carries over the same problem with the stock Pistol's magazine in that it lacks an opening for rounds to feed through. Its double-stacked model also makes the Winger's 5-round capacity even more bizarre. Also, the texture for some reason has a black rectangle on the backside.
Slapping in a new magazine.
Swinging back his pistol, the Scout thinks to reconsider his handling of basic firearm safety.
Third-person shot of another RED Scout armed with the Winger.
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket
Released as part of the Pyromania Update, the "Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol" is based on the Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket with wood grips. The pistol's name is inspired by notorious gangster Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd. The weapon also shares the same reloading animation as the Scout's default pistol. It previously fired 10% slower than the normal Pistol (before an update gave it a 15% firing speed bonus) and now holds only 9 rounds in the magazine with the ability to heal the Scout for up to 3 health per hit. Because all in-game weapons can be fired for as long as its user holds down the fire button, the increased firing speed properties of the in-game Colt appears to fire like a fully-automatic pistol.
Colt Model 1908 Vest Pocket with wood grips - .25 ACP
Promo image for the "Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol", showcasing a render of its model and magazine (strangely shaped to fit the tapered grip). The front of the slide is to be too short to fully lock back the slide and expose the pistol's ejection port.
The Scout, still in cp_nucleus, aims his Pocket Pistol at the control point on the map...
...and then starts firing at it
Immediately after, he begins to inspect his Pocket Pistol.
Then he slides out the magazine, seemingly by will as the pistol lacks the Vest Pocket's heel release. Note the witness holes on the magazine, which appear as just a flat texture which doesn't show any rounds nor details of a magazine's internals (such as the follower or its spring).
After a brief inspection, the Scout reinserts the Colt's magazine.
Taking a look at the Pocket Pistol's right side.
"Scattergun"
The Scout's default primary weapon is a stockless, semi-automatic, double-short-barreled "Scattergun" with an integral six-round drum magazine and a hammerless lever-action receiver somewhat akin to the Savage 99. It is statistically similar to the Shotgun, but with slightly different reload timings (faster for the first shell, but slightly slower for each subsequent one) and a unique damage ramp-up at close range (175% of its base per-pellet damage as opposed to most weapons' 150%). Oddly, the Scout never actually loads new shells into the weapon; he simply works the lever to eject spent shells, which replaces them with fresh ammo in a manner that is best not thought about. Like the shotgun, the Scattergun has 32 shotshells of reserve ammo and each shotshell has 10 pellets.
Some early concept art depicts several alternate concepts, including more conventional-looking sawn-offs (which presumably turned into the "Force-A-Nature" below), single-barreled variations with and without drum magazines (in both cases possessing magazine tubes and forends more akin to a traditional lever-action rifle), and a version with two separate triggers and a Winchester Model 1887 receiver.
The Scattergun's model. The presence of iron sights on the barrel rib implies that the weapon was manufactured at this length, rather than being sawn off.
The Scout readies his Scattergun in
Meet the Scout. He notably works the lever and ejects a shell in this scene; given how the weapon works in-game (and his personality), it can be surmised that he deliberately left it partly unloaded for dramatic effect.
As with his other weapons, the Scout draws his Scattergun somewhat more dramatically than many other classes; this animation apparently implies that he keeps the weapon on his back, facing lever-out and muzzle-up, possibly in the bag he keeps over his shoulder (see above).
Idling with the Scattergun on koth_lakeside. This rather clearly shows the problem with the weapon's iron sights: they're completely blocked by the drum, and are thus entirely unusable. Not that any irons are usable in-game either way.
Returning to his street-hooligan roots, the Scout peppers a parked car with 10-pellet buckshot. Given the location of the muzzle flash, the weapon either fires exclusively from the left barrel, or fires each shell out of both barrels at once; the former could theoretically be excused as some form of selectable-barrel system (which could be useful for different ammunition loads - say, one barrel choked for slugs, and another for shot), though no such functionality is present in-game.
"Reloading"; while this would make some sense if the Scattergun uses a rotary magazine or cylinder (like, say, the
Armsel Striker), as such a weapon would require manual ejection and re-winding after spring-cycling the entire drum/cylinder, this still doesn't explain how the new shells get into the weapon. Also, these shells come out facing backwards for some reason, as they have since 2007.
Inspecting the Scattergun; it apparently lacks any sort of locking system to prevent the lever from simply falling open, which would mean that the Scout would have to be manually holding it shut at all times. Most real-world lever-actions have some form of mechanical lock to prevent this, as a firearm's action spontaneously opening itself is generally considered a bad thing. As is a firearm doing pretty much anything else spontaneously.
The opposite side. Note that the weapon has ports on both the bottom and side of the drum; the latter is presumably used to eject shells while reloading, though it isn't clear what the former is for.
Taunting; the Scout laughs and slaps his leg, defying everything that was said earlier about the lever not being locked in place, and raising yet further questions about how this thing is supposed to work in the process.
Sawed-off Double Barreled Shotgun
The Scout's initial unlockable primary weapon is a 12 Gauge Double Barreled Shotgun with sawed-off barrels, called the "Force-A-Nature" in reference to one of his lines in the promotional video "Meet the Scout". Compared to the Scattergun, it has a higher rate of fire and fires more pellets per shot, but does slightly less damage per pellet and (unsurprisingly) only holds two shots at a time. Targets hit at close range are knocked back a considerable distance; if the Scout fires it in mid-air, he is knocked back as well, which can be used to give the user an ersatz third jump.
The "Soda Popper" is a haphazardly-repaired double-barreled shotgun that is similarly cut down like the Force-A-Nature, with a can of Crit-a-Cola taped under the barrels, replacing a majority of the handguard. Shells loaded into this shotgun have a unique model, which bear radiation hazard symbols on their headstamps. Stat-wise, the Soda Popper reloads 25% faster than the Force-A-Nature and fires 50% faster than the Scattergun. Equipping the Soda Popper gives the Scout a "Hype" meter, filled by damaging enemies, and if activated when full, will allow him to jump five extra times in mid-air until the boost ends.
With both the Force-A-Nature and Soda Popper, reloading with only one barrel fired will waste the unspent shell. Both shotguns are also modelled with a single trigger.
Stevens SBS shotgun with sawn-off barrels - 12 gauge. Similar to the Force-A-Nature, but less compact and cartoonishly proportioned.
Render of the Force-A-Nature.
The Scout takes in the beautiful view of cp_dustbowl while holding his Force-A-Nature.
He then proceeds to fire the shotgun, sadly without anyone around to demonstrate its knockback effect.
Reloading begins with the Scout pushing the opening lever. Rather surprisingly, given this game's relationships with weapon animations.
The barrels are then tipped open, the shells helpfully hopping out of the shotgun on their own. Like the Force-A-Nature's barrels, the shells are slightly tapered.
Slipping in two new shells simultaneously. Somewhat concerningly, the shells are slightly smaller than the bore diameter, although this is not visible in this image.
Inspection animation; the Scout takes a look at the left side of the shotgun...
A Scout taunts with the Force-A-Nature on pl_hoodoo_final.
Promo image for the "Soda Popper". Despite the strange notches in the barrels' muzzle, this doesn't affect its in-game accuracy, which is statistically the same as the default Scattergun.
The Scout holds his Soda Popper in ctf_turbine.
Reloading is much the same as the Force-A-Nature, including the shells flying out of the chambers on their own. A small inscribedd "Bonk!" logo is present on the opening latch, though not very visible here.
Sliding in two new shells.
Inspecting the left side...
Winchester Model 1887
Released as part of the Love and War Update, a stylized Winchester Model 1887 with an MG15-style magazine appears as the "Back Scatter". The shotgun itself is in a sawed-off configuration. The "Back Scatter" works similarly to the Pyro's "Backburner" flamethrower, dealing 35% more damage (via the "Mini-crit" damage multiplier) if the enemy is shot from behind. Enemies shot from behind within roughly thirty feet suffer this damage bonus, though the weapon cannot inflict random critical hits and is 20% less accurate than the normal Scattergun. Just like the Scout's default Scattergun, the weapon is reloaded by cycling the lever action, with no new shells shown being loaded into the weapon.
Airsoft replica Model 1887 with sawn-off stock, barrel, and cutaway trigger guard, as seen in
Terminator 2: Judgment Day - (fake) 10 gauge
A render of the "Back Scatter".
Handling the Back Scatter in-game. Note the inverted iron sights and the odd ejection port (which is too small for any shotgun cartridge to fit through) modelled onto the left side of the drum magazine.
Viewing the left side of the shotgun. As the weapon reuses animations from the default Scattergun, the shotgun's lever lets loose when its user inspects it.
Inspecting the fake 1887's other side. The drum magazine appears to be permanently strapped to the gun.
Carrying out the same nonsensical reload procedure for all of Scout's lever-action shotguns. The spent shotgun cartridges aren't even ejected to the left as the drum's model suggests. The Back Scatter's lever less resembles that from a Model 1887, but more like one on a repeater rifle.
Browning Auto-5
Released as part of the Pyromania Update, a stylized Browning Auto-5 appears as an unlockable primary weapon for the Scout, referred to in-game as the "Baby Face's Blaster", with the name inspired by the infamous gangster nicknamed "Baby-Face Nelson". The weapon is modelled with a lever-action loop, an integral drum magazine and a "mare's leg" style sawed-off stock & barrel. It functions similarly to the default Scattergun, though it reduces Scout's initial speed by 10% and holds only 4 shells at a time. However, dealing damage with either this shotgun or the user's currently equipped secondary/melee weapons will fill a "Boost" meter, which allows the Scout to run faster, up to a maximum of double his speed at most. However, boost is very easily lost just by double-jumping or by taking small amounts of damage.
Before the current stat revision of the weapon, the Blaster in-game used to have increased accuracy and an unrealistic 6-round capacity, but a reduced damage output and harsher penalties to its user's movement speed (especially with built-up boost when jumping). This was likely changed for balancing reasons.
As with Scout's default Scattergun and the Model 1887 above, the reload animation for this weapon involves its user simply cycling the gun's lever a required number of times to magically load shells for it.
Browning Auto-5 - 12 gauge
The Scout aims his "Baby Face's Blaster" at the control point of cp_nucleus.
He proceeds to fire it...
...then afterwards, cycle the lever to eject used cartridges from the Blaster. Note the knob at the receiver of the shotgun; a characteristic not present on the Browning Auto 5. While the gun's action is cycled, this piece can be seen moving through its cut-out slot. Oddly, the bolt itself remains static.
The Scout inspects the left side of his shotgun...
...and later, the right side.
Promo image for the Baby Face's Blaster, shown wielded by the Scout.
Soldier
RPG-7
The Soldier's primary weapon is the "Rocket Launcher", a heavily stylized RPG-7. Unlike its single-shot real-life counterpart, the Rocket Launcher can pack four rockets at a time inside the tube, lacks a rear sight, and it has its trigger on the rear grip instead of the front one; it is worth noting, however, that concept art features the correct grip orientation, along with a scope and front sight. The Rocket Launcher, along with the Demoman's "Grenade Launcher", is one of the most damaging weapons in the game: a critical shot from either is usually enough to take out any enemy player in the blast radius. Notably, the game allows for "rocket jumping," a spectacular display of cartoon physics wherein a Soldier shoots towards the ground as he jumps, using the blast from the explosion to propel himself through the air over large distances and obstacles; while TF2 isn't the first game to allow this (it was first seen in Doom, though it really came into its own in the Quake series), it is perhaps the first to actively encourage it, to the point of even having a musical piece named for the act (the "Rocket Jump Waltz").
An obtainable (either by crafting, purchase, trade, or drop) variant called the "Rocket Jumper" is a non-damaging primary "weapon" that serves as a practicing tool for rocket jumping. It is equipped with 40 spare rounds. Visually, the Rocket Jumper is the default Rocket Launcher but with no iron sights, some of its pre-existing parts recolored orange, and the addition of an orange muzzle extension and a road warning-style sign (which depicts the silhouette of a rocket-jumping Soldier) attached to the side. The original model of the Rocket Jumper had a mount for its ladder sight (which itself was missing) and an orange-painted muzzle, but was made more visually distinct when it was changed to the current version in a 2016 update. Visually, projectiles fired from the Rocket Jumper do not produce a burning trail.
The unlockable "Direct Hit" slightly resembles a stylized RPG-7, but features a fatter body with a slimmed-down exhaust tube, and a (cosmetic) targeting scope. The Direct Hit has 30% of the Rocket Launcher's splash radius, but its rockets travel 80% faster (roughly 84 mph) and are more damaging to the point where it can kill any light class with a single shot at very close range.
The "Rocket Launcher"'s model. Yeah, when we said "heavily stylized", we meant
heavily stylized.
Multiple soldiers holding the RPG-7-based weapon in
Trailer 2. The rocket on the end of the tube made its resemblance to the RPG-7 even closer, and was removed prior to the game's release.
Guarding the world's most unsafe sawmill (self-explanatorily named koth_sawmill) from any troublesome OSHA operatives, the Soldier holds his Rocket Launcher.
Upon firing, there is a frame or two in which the rocket's particle effects appear before the rocket itself does. Here, one can also see that the front sight wobbles around while firing, as if it wasn't useless enough already.
The rocket hits its mark, as it generally tends to; owing to its over-the-shoulder position (and resultant projectile angle), the Rocket Launcher actually includes a built-in rangefinding mechanic to ensure that the rocket will hit the point of aim regardless of distance, meaning that a target that moves out of the way will cause the rocket to hit to the left of the crosshair at a longer distance.
Reloading is accomplished by shoving several additional rockets down the muzzle, in what quite likely mounts to yet another OSHA violation.
Inspecting the Rocket Launcher is done in 3 phases: first, the front-left is examined, showing that the Soldier displays a precious lack of trigger discipline, rather befitting of both the era and the lead-addled character.
Next, the rear-left is looked at, showing off a somewhat questionably-placed sling hook...
...and, finally, the top-right is inspected, with most of this area being consumed by a somewhat odd quarter-tube shield attached to the weapon's right side; exactly what this is for isn't clear.
Executing a rocket-jump in a different area of the map. This one's relatively simple, and will no doubt be chuckled at by some of the more field-experienced individuals in the community (who've formed something of a community in and of themselves).
The current model for the "Rocket Jumper". Note the silhouette sign of a rocket jumping Soldier, which references the "slow moving vehicle" sign used in Canada and the U.S.
On pl_venice, a RED Soldier deploys his trusty launcher, which has now been modified into a training tool.
Inspecting the Rocket Jumper's left side...
...followed by looking at its exhaust...
...and finally, its right side. The mounted sign warns of "Screaming Eagles" in the area.
Reloading the Rocket Jumper. As Soldier's primary weapons use the same reload animation, his hand will clip through the Jumper's muzzle extension.
The in-game model for the "Direct Hit".
Returning to pl_venice, the Soldier swaps his primary for a Direct Hit.
Beginning the inspect procedure. Much to Soldier's dismay, he cannot use the mounted scope.
Inspecting the narrower side of the Direct Hit.
Looking at the weapon's right side.
Stuffing a rocket into the Direct Hit's muzzle.
A BLU Soldier armed with the Direct Hit on pl_goldrush.
M202 FLASH
A single-barreled version of the M202 FLASH rocket launcher without the scope is an unlockable Soldier weapon called "Black Box". It restores up to 20 health per rocket fired, but only holds 3 rockets. Like with the RPG, the modified M202's rockets are stuffed through its muzzle consecutively. Concept art shows that the Black Box was intended to have a scope on the model (unusable like the one on the Direct Hit), but that detail was removed from the final model.
Like the default Rocket Launcher, the Black Box has an Australium variant.
The Soldier in cp_nucleus reappears with his Black Box equipped.
The launcher's user fires one of his rockets at the respawn's exit door...
...and reloads after expending a single rocket.
The Soldier inspects the left side of the Black Box. Its trigger has been downsized, compared to the real M202.
Inspecting the rear left side...
...to finally take a look at the right side of the Black Box.
Note: All of the Soldier's rocket launchers have the same inspection animation.
A Soldier carries the Black Box on ctf_turbine.
M20A1 "Super Bazooka"
The "Liberty Launcher" is an unlockable rocket launcher for the Soldier. Although made as an ambiguous old "Bazooka" type weapon, it is notably based on the M20A1 "Super Bazooka" with many elements from the M1 "Bazooka" and RPG-7. It holds one extra rocket and its rockets fly 40% faster than the basic Rocket Launcher's but they deal 25% less damage. The bell-shaped shoulder rest section on the Liberty Launcher is no coincidence as it is a nod to the Liberty Bell, even further referencing it by featuring a crack on its wooden shell.
M20A1 "Super Bazooka" - 3.5" Rocket
M1 Bazooka - 2.36" Rocket
In-game model of the "Liberty Launcher".
On pl_venice, a RED Soldier draws his kitbashed Bazooka.
Inspecting the Liberty Launcher. Similarly to the "Reserve Shooter" pump-action shotgun, the Bazooka features an inscribed WW2-era U.S. Army star emblem.
Glancing the launcher's rear portion...
...before moving onto its right-hand side. Note the cracked Liberty Bell-shaped shoulder rest.
Firing some faster-moving projectiles.
Reloading the Liberty Launcher with the same generic rockets used by Soldier's other primary weapons.
Third-person view of the "Liberty Launcher". Note the crack in the Liberty Bell-styled shoulder rest.
An early model of the Liberty Launcher as shown in its community-submitted preview for the "Polycount Pack" modelling competition. This version deviates from the final product in that its overall body is straighter and better resembles the Super Bazooka, has no bell-shaped shoulder rest, has a flatter and more rectangular ladder sight, a straighter foregrip that is bolted to the tube rather than a bracket and an extended trigger guard which unlike the Super Bazooka, has a right-angled rear (it's likely meant to be the real weapon's shoulder rest although its right angle shape would prevent the user from utilizing it as one).
"Beggar's Bazooka"
A fictional rocket launcher that was added in the Pyromania Update; the "Beggar's Bazooka" is a makeshift launcher that the Soldier constructed out of assorted salvaged materials. A distinctive feature of this weapon is the ability to fire three rockets in a 'burst mode', dealing devastating damage to all but the strongest enemies. Accidentally loading a fourth rocket will cause an explosion in the launcher, damaging the Soldier and removing one stored rocket. The weapon cannot regain ammunition from friendly Dispensers when held out, and differs from all other rocket launchers in that it features a small degree of random projectile spread
The Soldier with his Beggar's Bazooka observes the lower part of the control point of koth_brazil.
The Soldier loads the three rockets that Beggar's Bazooka can carry...
...and then fires them all at the same time.
Inspecting the Beggar's Bazooka.
Inspection of the rear side of the junk that the Soldier made.
A final inspection of the right side of Beggar's Bazooka.
First-person view of the Beggar's Bazooka
"Air Strike"
Another fictional primary for the Soldier is the "Air Strike". Visually, it is a rocket launcher which consists of a green body that is shaped after the "Little Boy" atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima during World War II along with the same two handed configuration present on all of Soldier's primary rocket launcher weapons. For each kill achieved with this weapon, the Air Strike's capacity is increased by one rocket up to a maximum of 8 shots and while airborne from a rocket jump, its fire rate is significantly increased but projectiles fired from it deal 15% less damage than the default rocket launcher as well as having a smaller explosion radius. These downsides make the Air Strike a less favorable weapon to use among most Soldier players.
The Soldier in koth_badlands aims his Air Strike at the BLU emblem near the control point...
Reloading the Air Strike.
The Soldier inspects the Air Strike...
...then looks at the rear side...
...and finally inspects the right side.
Source Filmmaker render of the Airstrike. The miniature surface-to-air missile is the model for the projectiles this weapon fires. Its reload animation however, still depicts normal RPG rockets being inserted.
Mk 2 Hand Grenade
The Soldier wears two Mk 2 hand grenades strapped to his chest. He uses them as demonstration aids in the Meet the Soldier promotional video. He only uses them in-game as part of his "kamikaze" taunt: he pulls one from his chest and uppercut swings the hand gripping it, killing himself and any enemy within a six foot radius. The grenades appear to have an overall black coloration with an orange/yellow band around the body but with four bumps per column on its shell like the Mk 1 instead of the Mk 2's five. In another taunt, the Soldier will juggle these grenades and extra ammo for his Rocket Launcher. A cut "Frag Grenade" weapon is also based on the Mk 2 and is the most detailed model of this grenade. A third rendition of the Mk 2 appear inside the "Upgrade Station" kiosk in the "Mann vs. Machine" game mode, with six visible on a shelf. None of these grenade models have a pin attached.
The Soldier with his hand grenades in
Meet the Soldier.
A close-up render of the "Upgrade Station" stall in
Mann vs. Machine. Visible here are lower quality renders of the Ithaca shotgun and Demoman's GL.
Render of the cut "Frag Grenade" (RED team version), likely removed pre-release for balancing reasons.
M26 Hand Granade
The "Stealth Bomber" cosmetic replaces the Soldier's Mk 2 hand grenades with M26 hand grenades. They retain the yellow/orange band around the body, and the Soldier will still use them during the "Kamikaze" taunt.
The Soldier with the "Stealth Bomber" equipped. In additon to the new grenades, he also gets camo pants.
"Stealth Bomber" thumbnail from the Steam Workshop.
Pyro
"Flame Thrower"
The Pyro's primary weapon simply named the "Flame Thrower" is a custom-built flamethrower which appears to be based on a commercial weed-burner rather than a military weapon, although it has features similar to the M1 Flamethrower in some ways. It uses a propane tank as a fuel source and a team-colored gasoline pump handle for a trigger assembly. Enemies hit with the flame from the weapon will instantly ignite and take 4 damage per half-second for approximately 3-10 seconds unless extinguished. Other Pyro players are immune to being engulfed in flames, though they still take damage via active bursts from an enemy's flamethrower.
The alternative fire attack on the Pyro's flamethrower emits a blast of propellant (which is inexplicably unaffected by the weapon's pilot light) that can extinguish burning teammates (rewarding the Pyro with a small health bonus), push back enemies, and deflect non-hitscan projectiles (i.e. everything except bullets). There are four (not including reskins) alternate flamethrowers available; the "Backburner", "Degreaser", "Phlogistinator", and "Dragon's Fury". With the exception of the Dragon's Fury, all of the Pyro's primary weapons are fed by fuel which is carried in 200 units max at a time by its user, and continuously depletes the longer its user holds down the fire button. 20 units of fuel is depleted per blast of air with the default Flamethrower.
The "Backburner" is visually identical to the stock Flame Thrower, but is distinguished by a crudely-made team-colored dragon head welded over the muzzle. It always inflicts critical hits from behind (hence the name), but uses 50 fuel units per air blast and is incapable of attacking with random critical hits.
Promo image of the Pyro holding the Flamethrower.
On pl_venice, a Pyro draws their "Flamethrower".
Inspecting its left side...
then its right side, giving a close view of the propane tank.
Burning some fuel for nothing in particular.
Taunting. When doing this with all of Pyro's flamethrowers, they will raise the weapon and let out a loud cry (some of which sound identical to their death screams).
"Degreaser"
The "Degreaser" is an alternative flamethrower for the Pyro. While it has a different appearance, it features the same layout as the Flame Thrower, this time being built out of comprised of a gas pump (for the grip/trigger assembly), car muffler, exhaust pipe, stove top burner (presumably as the ignition), and strangely for its fuel source, a fire extinguisher. When equipped, the Pyro will switch to it 60% faster than the other flamethrowers, though it deals a measly 1 damage of "afterburn" and uses an additional 5 units of fuel for every air blast.
First-person view of the "Degreaser" equipped.
Inspecting the Degreaser's left side. As a result of Pyro's primary weapons using the same handling animations, their fingers will visibly clip through parts of the Degreaser's model.
How exactly a fire extinguisher provides a fuel source for a
flamethrower is unclear.
Burning away at empty space, again.
Releasing a blast of compressed fuel.
"Dragon's Fury"
The "Dragon's Fury" is a bulkier flamethrower design with a much longer muzzle, and holds a maximum supply of only 40 fuel units as opposed to the other primary weapons' 200. Instead of a continuous cone of fire, it launches a fast-moving medium-range fire blast and has a short cooldown (labelled as repressurization in-game) between shots, essentially making it a semi-auto weapon. A successful hit will cause speed up the cooldown interval after the hitting shot by 50%, and the weapon deals +300% damage against burning targets. Air blasting consumes 5 fuel unit, and also has a delay between blasts, but the repressurization interval is 50% slower.
Incendiary Grenade
The Pyro wears three cylindrical grenades strapped to his chest. Given that most of the Pyro's weapons are fire-based, it's reasonable to assume these are supposed to be incendiary grenades; their shape is similar to the AN/M14 incendiary grenade. They have black bodies with an orange/yellow band and spoons.
AN/M14 Incendiary Grenade
A view of the incendiary grenades on the chest of a BLU Pyro in
Meet the Soldier.
"Nostromo Napalmer"
Added into the game in 2014 as part of a promotion for Alien: Isolation, the "Nostromo Napalmer" is a primary weapon for the Pyro. It is based on the flamethrower from that game, which in turn is based on the custom flamethrower from Alien. However, the Team Fortress 2 version of this flamethrower is not an exact replica; in order to reuse pre-existing animations for the Pyro's primaries, some of the weapon's features were altered such as some components being repositioned, and the removal of the vertical foregrip and pistol grip. As with most of TF2's promotional weapons, the Nostromo Napalmer is only a reskin, and is statistically identical to Pyro's stock flamethrower. Unsurprisingly, this flamethrower does not spray napalm despite this being suggested by its name.
Also included in the promotion for Alien: Isolation are some cosmetic items: a full xenomorph costume set for the Scout class (which can normally only be donned during October or full moons) and the helmet from the Mk.50 suit in Alien for the Pyro. Equipping both the helmet and Alien flamethrower will grant the player a 3x damage bonus to their flamethrower against Scouts dressed as a xenomorph.
Screen-used flamethrower from
Alien. Image from Prop Store of London.
The in-game
Alien: Isolation flamethrower model.
A RED Pyro equipped with the "Nostromo Napalmer" in the loadout menu. They are also wearing the
Alien Mk.50 helmet, among other cosmetics in a silly combination.
A RED Pyro is dispatched into an Italian town, for the ever present threat of xenomorphs.
Patiently waiting, the Pyro begins inspecting their new flamethrower...
...only to find out someone stole their foregrip.
Releasing a stream of flames into some invisible, airborne aliens.
Thrusting away some compressed air.
Orion Flare Gun
The "Flare Gun" is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Pyro. It is an oversized, elongated flare gun in team colors. It has an overall appearance similar to the Orion Flare Gun with part of the latching mechanism from an M8 Flare Pistol. Enemies hit with its projectiles (with the exception of other Pyros) are set on fire, and it inflicts a critical hit on a target that is already on fire. The Flare Gun, including its alternatives fire the entire cartridge inserted into their breech, implying they load caseless flares (while somehow sitting still in the gun's chamber). Concept art of the Flare Gun depicts variants of it looking more akin to the M8 flare pistol and the Webley & Scott Signal Pistols.
The Über Update added the "Detonator", a visually different weapon which still partly resembles the Orion Flare Gun, but features a straighter barrel, redesigned handguard, extended hinge. The Detonator's model also draws more inspiration from the M8 Flare Pistol as evidenced by its frame shape, trigger guard, and entire latching assembly. Stats-wise, the Detonator allows its user to detonate its projectiles (which have the appearance of a miniature firework) in mid-flight, though it deals 25% less damage than the default Flare Gun. Targets in the blast radius are set alight just as if they had taken a direct hit. The Pyro wielding it suffers 50% more damage from self-inflicted flare damage, making premature detonation a serious matter. Skilled Pyros can also use the Detonator to launch themselves into the air in a similar manner to the Soldier and Demoman's explosive-jumping abilities. Unlike the Flare Gun, the Detonator will only deal mini-crits (a 35% damage bonus) on burning targets. As of the Jungle Inferno Update, all flare guns deal a fixed 7.5 seconds of afterburn to ignited foes.
Orion Flare Gun - 12 gauge
The in-game model for the "Flare Gun" (RED team version). Its breech latch seems to be based on that of the
M8 Flare Pistol. Despite the hammer being cocked, the Flare Gun's trigger remains in the same unloaded position.
Prepared to capture a point, a BLU Pyro readies their Flare Gun.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the Pyro magically summons a new flare into their left hand. If one looks closely however, the flare cartridge quickly clips out of its gun's chamber and into the user's hand at the start of the reload animation.
The Flare Gun's break-action then magically drops open, without the Pyro's need to operate its release latch first.
Directing the flare into the gun's chamber...
...and cocking the hammer. This is done before the Flare Gun's breech is fully shut.
Glancing at the Flare Gun's left side. For a supposedly delusional pyromaniac, the Pyro still shows good trigger discipline.
Inspecting the gun's right side.
Inspecting the gun's right side.
The limited-release "festive" variant of the Flare Gun. Among the many Christmas-themed decorations, its release lever has been replaced with a large candy cane.
The model for the "Detonator" (RED team version). Note the addition of the second hook in the breech latch mechanism, which in the context of the M8 Flare Pistol, enabled the gun to fix onto an aircraft's fuselage to allow flares to be safely fired out into the air. However, this hook seems to serve very little use for the Detonator (an incendiary anti-personnel launcher), especially with its differently-configured barrel being incompatible for this purpose. Also for some reason, the Detonator's barrel features an
M79 grenade launcher-style front sight which is already rendered useless by said latching mechanism blocking the sight picture.
Having perched on a rooftop in pl_venice, a RED Pyro readies their Detonator. Note the cocked hammer which is clipping through the frame's rear, rather than being properly aligned with the firing pin.
Inspecting the Detonator's left side. A short strip of tape appears to be just enough to keep the barrel and hinge together.
Ditto, right-hand side. The tiger-stripe paint job on the barrel's back half
seems familiar...
Firing away. The weapon's firing pin and (now uncocked) hammer has been modelled lower down the gun's frame; this was probably done to reuse the regular Flare Gun's animations, and a likely result of modelling an external hammer to the otherwise hammerless M8-style frame.
Reloading the Detonator. Like the normal Flare Gun, the gun spontaneously breaks open before the Pyro loads inside another cartridge. Note the firework-style flare.
Source Filmmaker render of the Detonator's model. The sharp edges modelled at the hinge's front end causes it to clip through the lower section of the flare gun's fence during animations.
"Phlogistinator"
The "Phlogistinator" is a stylized steampunk-style ray gun, being based on a steampunk blunderbuss prop by New Zealand-based prop company Wētā Workshop. In-game, the Phlogistinator features a critical boost bar called "Mmmph", which is filled by dealing any type of fire damage towards enemies. When full, the Pyro can taunt to use the boost, giving guaranteed critical hits with the weapon until it wears off (as well as invulnerability during the taunt itself). However, it cannot gain random critical hits nor can it cannot propel a blast of air.
A RED Pyro in the loadout menu equipped with the "Phlogistinator".
Beginning the typical inspect procedure for Pyro's primary weapon.
Inspecting the weapon's right side.
"Scorch Shot"
A third flare gun added as part of the Pyromania Update is the "Scorch Shot". It is overall grey in color with an orange band around the muzzle. In addition to setting enemies on fire, it also knocks them backwards, similar to the effects of the Scout's Force-A-Nature shotgun. The projectiles fired by the Scorch Shot will bounce off whatever they hit, and can injure the Pyro who fired them if they hit him (such as if he fires at a wall directly in front of himself). Taunting with the Scorch Shot will perform his 'execution' taunt, wherein the Pyro stands side-on to wherever he's aiming at the time and draws down with the Scorch Shot, firing a single round. Like other attack taunts in the game, the 'execution' taunt will kill enemies hit by it at close range, while only doing normal damage at a distance (it is also the only taunt attack that consumes ammo, expending one round per taunt). The flares fired by the Scorch Shot will also destroy sticky bombs, just like the Demoman's Scottish Resistance mentioned below. They also deal 35% less damage than the Flare Gun and will do mini-crit damage to burning targets, just like the Detonator.
First-person view of the Scorch Shot. Despite it being a single action flare launcher, its hammer has no firing pin to strike.
Source Filmmaker render of the Scorch Shot. Above it is the flare ammunition which also serves as the entire projectile.
Demoman
"Grenade Launcher"
The Demoman's primary weapon is a grenade launcher that appears to be an amalgamation of several designs. In particular, it has a rotary 6-round cylinder like the Milkor MGL attached to a break-action frame with the stock, handguard, and front leaf sight of an M79 grenade launcher. Despite being modeled with a 6-round cylinder, the weapon can only hold 4 grenades at a time, due to the fact that it originally held 6, but its in-game stats were re-balanced with model never being updated. Only in the PlayStation 3 version of the game did the Grenade Launcher officially hold the full 6 rounds. This launcher is depicted as firing team-colored seemingly caseless grenades that detonate after harmlessly tumbling on a surface before exploding on a timer, or on direct hit with either an enemy or Engineer's building. A popular tactic with this weapon is to lob volleys of grenades like mortar rounds at dug-in enemies to soften up their defenses prior to an assault. When reloading, the Demoman will strangely insert each individual grenade into the same bottom-left chamber, due to the cylinder not being rotated.
Milkor MGL fitted with Armson OEG reflex sight - 40x46mm
M79 grenade launcher - 40x46mm
The "Grenade Launcher's" model from
Team Fortress 2
In first-person view, a BLU Demoman holds his Grenade Launcher. Note the empty chambers. When viewed from the side, the Grenade Launcher's release latch appears to mimick the M79's shotgun-style pivoting lever, however the actual in-game weapon instead has a push-forward latch modelled.
Inspecting the "Grenade Launcher". This animation consists of three steps: checking the left side...
...then flipping the weapon to glance at its right...
...and finally, the Demoman spins the cylinder by slapping it.
Firing out some grenades.
Ditto. For some reason, the muzzle flash effects appear
before the grenade projectile spawns. Said projectile will always tumble mid-air as soon as it is launched. Like with the Milkor MGL, this launcher's cylinder rotates to the next chamber after a shot is fired.
Reloading starts with the Demoman breaking open his launcher after pushing its latch.
Preparing a grenade cartridge, which is apparently in a "neutral" color before it is armed (as fired grenades glow up in the shooter's team color). However, the Demoman himself by default sports a bandolier with identical grenades, in yellow.
Inserting the round into the cylinder's bottom-left-facing chamber.
The Demoman also loads his grenades too far into their chamber that it clips through the walls, though this is hard to spot without checking each frame. One of the fired grenades can be seen exploding on its timer here.
Magically, the inserted grenade round vanishes and the previous steps are repeated for the remaining ̶5̶ 3 rounds. The GL's cylinder is never rotated when loading subsequent cartridges, and it is never wound (if it is to be believed that this launcher functions like the MGL).
Ending the reload animation by shutting the Grenade Launcher.
The Demoman flashes his would-be victim(s) with a special hand-written note. The grenade rounds worn on his chest appear to be substantially larger than the individual chambers on the GL.
The RED Demoman holds his launcher in
Meet the Demoman.
M79 Grenade Launcher
The "Loch-n-Load" is an alternative primary weapon for the Demoman. It resembles a double-barreled M79 grenade launcher arranged in an over/under configuration. The weapon only holds three (yes, three) grenades compared to the Grenade Launcher, but grenades deal 20% more damage to buildings only and fly 25% faster, similarly to the Direct Hit. However, any grenades that miss will shatter harmlessly, and have a 25% smaller explosion range on a direct hit. Its double-barreled model was originally due to its former capacity of only two grenades, much like the regular Grenade Launcher displaying six chambers rather than four, but this has been changed as of December 22, 2014.
M79 grenade launcher - 40x46mm grenade
The model for the "Loch-n-Load". Other than the second barrel, this M79 features a ribbed top barrel, no front sight, and its break-action hinge being located several inches behind from that on a real M79. Its barrel locking lug has also been heightened, though it is unclear if it has been mistaken for some type of iron sight.
On cp_well, a Demoman arms himself with a new primary weapon.
Firing the Loch-n-Load. The muzzle flash effects only come from the bottom barrel, oddly.
Breaking open the launcher. Due to reusing animations from the default Grenade Launcher, the Demoman works an invisible latch, located only an inch-or-two away from the actual one on this weapon.
Loading a grenade. For every grenade that is inserted, the Demoman strangely stuffs a round into the
bottom barrel only, seemingly confusing it for some type of magazine tube.
Inspecting the left side of the Loch-n-Load. Its steep grip shape is the result of the o/u barrel configuration.
Inspecting the weapon's right side.
A Demoman carries the Loch-n-Load grenade launcher in the BLU spawn room on ctf_turbine. Note how the leaf sight is out of alignment with its mounting bracket; this is a bug that was caused by an update after the Loch-n-Load was initially added to the game.
"Stickybomb Launcher"
The secondary weapon of the Demoman is a drum-fed grenade launcher known as the "Stickybomb Launcher", resembling a very fat Sten with the charging handle on the wrong side. It holds up to 8 "stickybombs" at a time, that appear in the form of spherical-shaped explosives covered in spikes, which presumably enable them to which stick to non-moving surfaces, and are (after a short delay) manually detonated by the player; up to 8 stickybombs can be active at any given time (placing any more will detonate the first ones placed). The range of the weapon can be increased by holding down the fire button, making the bombs fly further following a delay in "charging" the shots. The Demoman reloads this weapon by ratcheting a charging handle mounted on the left side above the trigger; like the Scout's Scattergun, no new ammo is seen being loaded into the launcher during reloading, though unlike the Scattergun, no empty shells are ever ejected either. Like the Soldier with his Rocket Launcher, the Demoman can "sticky-jump" by jumping just as he detonates a sticky bomb under his feet.
Two specialized versions of the Stickybomb Launcher are also available; the "Scottish Resistance", which has a higher rate of fire, the ability to set more bombs, the ability to detonate individual bombs by aiming at them (which can also destroy enemy sticky bombs), but a longer delay in arming the bombs, and the "Sticky Jumper" which fires sticky bombs that do no damage at all and are used solely for executing sticky jumps. Both variants use the default Stickybomb Launcher's model, with some modifications.
Sten Mk V - 9x19mm Parabellum
The "Stickybomb Launcher" in the loadout selection menu. Note that the icon depicts the weapon with an ejection port on the left side; to the right of this is the weapon as it appears in-game, with its ejection port on the right.
Doing some point defense on koth_badlands, the Demoman holds his Stickybomb Launcher.
Inspecting the left side of the launcher, showing off the somewhat oddly-placed (and enormous) sling loop on the side of the drum (which appears to be bolted to the magazine well). Said drum somewhat resembles an oversized 75-round
RPK drum.
The launcher's right side; this ejection port never opens, and is substantially narrower than the weapon's bore diameter, raising some questions about what it's actually supposed to do.
Setting down a few bombs, while noting the reciprocating charging handle. Unless it's concentrically wrapped around the bolt, nested inside of it, or placed in front of it, the recoil spring would have to be quite something to properly cycle a bolt this size with that little space behind it.
"Reloading"; it's not particularly clear how yanking the charging handle eight times is supposed to transfer ammunition to the weapon, but the ways of a drunken Scot with two grenade launchers are best not questioned.
Taunting; the Demoman spins in a circle, thumps his chest with his fist twice, then points forward with two spread fingers.
At the conclusion of this taunt, one can momentarily glimpse the Demoman as he appears to others; note how he holds his Stickybomb Launcher with two hands, rather than the one he uses in first-person. As seen in screenshots above however, the Demoman grips the weapon with both hands during its inspect animation.
After making his way to pl_venice, a RED Demoman takes out his "Scottish Resistance".
Inspecting the Scottish Resistance. This Stickybomb Launcher variant features a new finish, and laser pointer, replacing the front sight. Said laser pointer along with its power supply appears to be have been crudely taped atop the weapon's muzzle.
Inspecting the right-hand side of the launcher, whilst its wielder takes a break from holding it one-handed.
"Reloading" the Scottish Resistance after having planted some stickybombs. These projectiles in particular feature larger, fewer, but more blunted spikes than their default counterpart.
The older model for the Scottish Resistance. For a while after being added into the game, its magazine, magazine well, and ejection port were inverted, likely due to a developer oversight.
Patiently waiting outside BLU's spawn in pl_venice, the RED Demoman waits with his newly acquired Sticky Jumper. Like the Soldier's Rocket Jumper, this "weapon" features the same attachments and a similar paint job.
Inspecting the sign on the Jumper. This one warns bystanders of flying Scottish drunks.
The Demoman glances at his Sticky Jumper's projectiles. How exactly they can stick to surfaces given their lack of spikes is unclear. For balancing reasons, only 2 bombs can be laid down at a time with the Sticky Jumper.
"Iron Bomber"
The "Iron Bomber" is an alternative primary weapon for the Demoman. Although its visual design is mainly fictitious, the bomber's wooden stock resembles the overall shape of an M79 grenade launcher's stock. The weapon is a four-barreled launcher that loads and fires spherical shaped projectiles which roll less on surfaces and detonate sooner than grenades from the Demoman's default primary launcher. In gameplay, the Iron Bomber's barrels are supposed to rotate in order to ready the next shot, but a bug renders the bomber's barrels fixed to one position.
M79 grenade launcher - 40x46mm grenade
Promotional image of the Iron Bomber from when it was released in December 2014, hence the written weapon stats which it no longer possesses in-game.
Promotional render of the bomber and its team colored sphere-shaped grenades. The weapon's original name was "The Scotch Guardian" as its model was submitted to Steam.
Model 24 Stielhandgranate
Released alongside the Loch-n-Load, the "Ullapool Caber" is a Mann Co.-branded Model 24 Stielhandgranate with black tape around the grip. The Demoman does not throw it (as one would expect a Scot to throw a caber or a sober man to throw a grenade); he swings it as a melee weapon. The first hit with the Caber against an enemy or solid object/surface causes it to detonate, propelling the Demoman into the air and leaving him with a weak melee weapon (if he survives the fall) until he respawns or resupplies. If paired with one of Demoman's charge shields which grant him a critical melee strike, the Stielhandgranate can be used to blow up any class at full health.
Model 24 Stielhandgranate
The in-game model for the "Ullapool Caber". The text below the Mann Co. logo reads "HAND-HELD EXPLOSIVE DEVICE".
A RED Demoman draws his Ullapool Caber.
Beginning the grenade's inspect animation.
Viewing the Model 24 whilst holding it upside-down. The awkward handling here is a result of Valve reusing animations for Demoman's default melee weapon, being a glass bottle.
The Demoman swings the Ullapool Caber.
One impact later, and the Stielhandgranate's head has been detonated, much to the Demoman's discomfort.
The RED Demoman shows off his new club. This taunt was also meant for Demoman's bottle melee, but was unused for that particular weapon.
Heavy
GE M134 Minigun
The Heavy's signature weapon is "Sasha" (alternatively called "Sascha" in some official sources; referred to simply as the "Minigun" in-game), a portable minigun based on a GE M134 Minigun with Dillon Aero flash suppressors and a white 200-round ammunition drum, in a configuration probably based on the feed system used by the M61 Vulcan mounted on the F/A-18. The Heavy claims that she weighs 150 kilograms (roughly 331 pounds) and fires $200 custom-tooled cartridges at 10,000 RPM (substantially faster than she fires in-game). Given a complete M134 Minigun (sans ammunition) only weighs 61 pounds, this implies Sasha fires something much larger than the standard 7.62mm NATO. Heavy has to ready Sasha before she can fire (a process which can be completed ahead of time by holding Mouse 2, which pre-spins the barrels); while her barrels spin, Heavy's movement speed is reduced to 47%. The weapon also has lessened damage and accuracy for a short time after being spun. While powerful up close, the Minigun lacks accuracy and long-range damage; further hampering its potential output is its reduced damage against certain enemies (namely a 15% reduction against level 2 Sentry Guns, a 20% reduction against level 3 Sentry Guns, and a whopping 75% reduction against Tanks in Mann vs. Machine). Curiously, in terms of game mechanics, Sasha functions somewhat like a shotgun; each unit of ammo consumed produces 4 distinct hitscans, suggesting either a stacked, multi-projectile cartridge (which would go some way to explain their exorbitant cost, and "custom-tooled" description) firing at 600 RPM, or simply a somewhat roundabout depiction of standard rounds firing at 2,400 RPM.
"Natascha" is an unlockable primary weapon for Heavy. Natascha has a black ammo drum and an external feeding chute. Hits from Natascha reduce the target's movement speed, but she requires 30% more spin-up time and inflicts 25% less damage. As an additional upside, Natascha gives the Heavy 20% damage resistance when fully spun-up.
Winning against the Heavy in the crossover poker game Poker Night at the Inventory unlocks a Minigun called the "Iron Curtain." Heavy claims he made it himself from Soviet iron and mahogany from Alexander II's favorite chair and it displays the hammer and sickle on the drum. The Iron Curtain is a cosmetic reskin of Sasha.
Airsoft handheld M134 Minigun with 'Chainsaw grip' to handle the recoil force. This variant was seen in
Terminator 2: Judgement Day. This is an airsoft version which retains the half-circle attachment point for the M60 foregrip from
Predator; the real T2 minigun did not have this - (fake) 7.62x51mm NATO
M61 Vulcan in the mounting used by the F/A-18 Hornet - 20x102mm Vulcan
Sasha, a minigun, in the inventory model viewer. This view of the weapon isn't seen very often; it shows off some worryingly torn cables and the electronics at the rear, the feeder/delinker assembly, the structure of the Y-frame, and the uncertain location of the trigger (an official poster depicts a button on the rear grip, though no such button is present in-game).
The Heavy fires Sasha in
Trailer 2. This was before the game's release, showing that this particular weapon is one of the few that did not go through any more design changes. It even stayed largely the same throughout the concept art phase, though
some pieces depict it without the flash hider. On a sidenote, it also appears to be ejecting shotgun shells from thin air.
The Heavy hefts his Minigun onto a box in the
Meet the Heavy promo trailer. At full size, the box's markings can be read; the "SUPER CALIBER - CUSTOM TOOLED CARTRIDGES" marking (along with the context) implies this to be a box of ammunition for the minigun; if the drawing is assumed to be accurate, then the rounds are both rimmed and double-tapered (rather like the 8x50mmR Lebel), which would make the feeding mechanism rather...
interesting.
Inspecting Sasha's barrels, he apparently finds a fingerprint (which, needless to say, displeases him greatly); a clicking sound is heard as he indexes the barrels. The weapon is presumably unloaded here, as manually rotating a loaded minigun's barrels will cause it to fire.
"Some people think they can outsmart me. Maybe... maybe. I have yet to meet one that can outsmart bullet." The Heavy holds up a round of Sasha's ammunition; in a normal human's hands, this would probably proportionally be akin to .50 BMG, but in the Heavy's head-sized mitts, it's probably more along the lines of a 20mm shell.
Laughing maniacally, the Heavy fires his Minigun; note that this trailer still used the older style of cartoonish muzzle flash effect, along with the Heavy's pre-release class icon. At least it isn't ejecting shotgun shells anymore.
Having successfully captured the center point on koth_vidaduct, the Heavy holds his Minigun.
Inspecting the left side for any signs of unauthorized touching.
Spinning the barrels prompts the Heavy to lower the weapon, to the point that it's largely covered by his knuckles.
Its muzzle flash is still plenty visible, though. At full size, two simultaneous tracer effects can be seen, showing the weapon's shotgun-like behavior.
Natascha, also a minigun. This render is commonly used in-game for the weapon and is in reverse, as the gun's ejection port and belt chute are actually on its right hand side.
A burning Heavy fires Natascha on ctf_turbine. The small, yellow cylinder renders outside Natascha's rear section are low quality cartridge casings, which all of the Heavy's guns eject when fired. However, promotional material and unused files include a more recognisable 7.62mm-style casing render.
Gatling Gun
"The Brass Beast" is another unlockable primary weapon for the Heavy, based on an 1860s Gatling Gun. It appears to have a Broadwell drum modified with an ammo chain rather than being a gravity-fed drum positioned above the gun and is powered by an electronic motor instead of being cranked by hand. This handheld Gatling Gun deals 25% more damage than Sasha but spinning it up is increased by 50% and the user's movement speed is reduced by 50% when readying to fire, making it more of a stationary defensive weapon. To complement this, the Heavy using it is also given a 20% damage resistance buff while under 50% of his maximum health when the gun's barrels are fully spun up.
British M1865 gatling gun - .45-70 Government
The Brass Beast. Note the M1865 central front sight, which would be unusable due to the handheld framing blocking the sight picture.
Heavy holds his heavy Brass Beast in an elevated position in cp_gorge.
...and then immediately start rotating the barrels of his Gatling Gun without the need for a crank.
Heavy fires his Brass Beast.
Heavy show his great strength by raising his Brass Beast to inspect the left side.
...and then his right side.
Heavy also loves this gun. Note how the ammo chain and drum clip through the Heavy's right arm.
Thompson Submachine Gun
An enlarged, highly-modified M1928A1 Thompson called "Tomislav" is an alternate primary weapon for the Heavy. All that remains of the base Tommy gun are its receiver, handguard, and barrel; the feed mechanism and trigger have been altered to resemble Sasha's two-hundred-round drum and chainsaw grip. The receiver though has an M1/M1A1-style side-charging handle on the left side, and a right-handed ejection port. The Tomislav has a 20% slower rate of fire but is readied 20% faster, has no spin-up sound (except for a quieter jingling sound from the gun's sling) and a bullet spread stat 20% less than the Minigun's. It is the only weapon in the game depicted by default with a fitted sling. Said sling is rigid and does not move with the gun nor its user.
M1928A1 Thompson with 50-round drum magazine - .45 ACP
Heavy with the Tomislav equipped in koth_viaduct.
Unlike his other main weapons, Heavy simply lowers the weapon before starting to fire.
He then proceeds to fire the Tomislav towards the fences near the control point.
The Heavy inspects the left side of the Tomislav...
...and then the right side. The sling appears static as it does not move with gravity at all.
Engineer
Ithaca 37 (Full length)
The Engineer's first unlockable primary weapon is a full-length Ithaca 37 with an engraved receiver and team-colored capacitor called "Frontier Justice." Instead of regular critical hits, Frontier Justice earns two "Revenge Crits" for every Sentry kill and one for assists, to a maximum of thirty-five, awarded when the Sentry is destroyed. Despite having an extended magazine tube, it has half the magazine size of the regular shotgun. The Frontier Justice also has an externally exposed hammer.
Ithaca 37 with extended magazine tube - 12 gauge
An Engineer fires the "Frontier Justice" on ctf_turbine.
The Engineer chambers a round in the Frontier Justice during the
Mac Trailer, which was released to announce the porting of numerous Valve Software games to the Apple OS. In gameplay, the Frontier Justice's forend is pumped further back, causing it to clip through the band holding together a part of the gun's magazine tube and barrel.
A BLU Engineer overlooks the area near his team's spawn on the first stage of cp_dustbowl while wielding the Frontier Justice. Note the magtube/barrel clamp near the receiver, similar to that of the Reserve Shooter's.
Inspecting the Frontier Justice; first the Engineer glances at the left side of the shotgun...
...then he glances at the right side.
The Engineer testfires his shotgun.
The Engineer pumps the Frontier Justice, again clipping the forend through the rear clamp like with the Reserve Shooter. A spent hull is still ejected while pumping; it's simply not visible in this screenshot due to the placement of the capacitor.
Meanwhile, a RED Engineer keeps his Frontier Justice trained on a gate. Several weapons in the game have different color schemes depending on which team you're on, though for the Frontier Justice this is merely relegated to the color of the capacitor.
Getting a better look at that red capacitor.
SRM Arms Model 1208
Players who pre-ordered Deus Ex: Human Revolution earned the "Widowmaker" (itself based on the SRM Arms Model 1208) in "Genuine" quality (an item quality for weapons and cosmetics which is marked in dark green text, often given out as promotional items) as an alternative primary weapon for the Engineer. For other players, it can be obtained in a "Unique" quality via the drop system, trading, or by buying it in the in-game store. Firing the Widowmaker once consumes thirty units of the Engineer's metal and returns one unit for every point of damage dealt. The weapon also deals 10% more damage if fired at an enemy currently being targeted by the owner's sentry gun and has the exact same fire rate as the Engineer's pump-action primary weapons. The shotgun's bolt does reciprocate when fired nor are any spent cartridges ejected. In third-person view, the Engineer's right hand clips through the Model 1208's grip due to the game reusing handling animations for the Engineer's differently-shaped shotguns.
SRM Arms Model 1208 - 12 gauge
Model render of the "Widowmaker".
The Engineer points his Widowmaker at the "A" of the first point of cp_gorge.
The Engineer also inspects the left side of his Widowmaker. This reveals that his left fingers are too close to the gun's muzzle, which would result in an unfavorable outcome when fired this way in reality.
Inspecting the gun's right side.
In both animations it is not explained how the Engineer can load this shotgun only with metal.
"Rescue Ranger"
A different weapon, usable only by the Engineer is the "Rescue Ranger". Visually, it has the receiver (with a left-handed ejection port, like the other pump-actions in the game) of an Ithaca 37, colored black with a dark brown sawed-off grip, a black ribbed barrel and a short magazine tube both similar to that of some Remington 870 versions, and a straight, dark brown forend. The gun also has a yellow/orange (depending on the team it belongs to) monitor (which displays a moving sine wave), attached above the receiver and a team colored cable running from said monitor to a yellow/orange extension of some sorts located at the end of the shotgun's barrel. The Rescue Ranger has unique abilities unlike the game's other shotguns in which instead of firing hitscan shotgun pellets, the Rescue Ranger shoots a slower moving cylindrical battery connected to a retractable claw per shot. The purpose of this weapon is to act as a defensive utility item, as these special projectiles repair the Engineer's (or user's teammates') buildings when shot at (at the cost of metal) and also allows its user to safely pick up any one of their buildings at any distance as long as their crosshair is focused on it. Picking up buildings from long ranges consumes 100 units of the Engineer's metal and also "marks" them for death (meaning any incoming damage will be registered with a 35% damage bonus during this time). The Rescue Ranger can also be used to harm enemies, but is impractical for direct combat due to the gun only holding four "bolt slugs" per reload, having a reserve ammo count of 16 rounds (half the amount of reserve rounds for other shotguns) and its fired projectiles being easily avoidable because of their slow travel speed along with their middling damage. Because the Rescue Ranger doesn't chamber combustible ammunition, it appropriately does not eject shotgun shells, though its reload animation still shows them being inserted.
Airsoft Ithaca 37 with sawed-off stock and barrel - (fake) 12 gauge
Remington 870 Express Field Gun with raised barrel ribbing and shortened barrel - 12 gauge
The model for the "Rescue Ranger". This is the RED team version, as the BLU counterpart has a blue cable and a more yellowed wave monitor and barrel extension.
A BLU Engineer equips his Rescue Ranger on cp_well. The sine wave on the receiver mounted monitor isn't just for show, and actually has a use; the lower the amplitude, the less metal the Engineer has. Here, the Engineer's metal supply is at its maximum.
Inspecting the Rescue Ranger's left side. As with the other pump-action shotguns, the Rescue Ranger's action bar is simply a static render between the barrel and magazine tube.
Inspecting the shotgun's right side. Note the short magazine tube.
Firing a "rescue claw" from the weapon. While travelling in mid-air, these projectiles are followed by a team-colored trail. Unsurprisingly, the shotgun's bolt does not move back when the action is cycled.
Reloading the Rescue Ranger. Despite chambering and firing a custom projectile, the reload animation still shows standard shotgun shells being inserted.
A RED Engineer holds his Rescue Ranger in the customization menu.
"Sentry Gun"
The Engineer's signature weapon is an automated "Sentry Gun" that can be upgraded with twin M134 Miniguns once it reaches "Level 2". Upon upgrading to "Level 3", the Sentry Gun will arm a quad-barreled rocket launcher, which appears not to be based on any real model. Its projectiles however slightly resemble the warhead from an RPG-2's rocket. An unlockable secondary weapon for the Engineer called the "Wrangler" is a remote control that allows him to take manual control of his Sentry Gun to engage enemies outside the Sentry's normal detection range and reduce damage it takes, though it also reduces repairing done.
General Electric M134 - 7.62x51mm NATO
At level 2, the Sentry Gun acquires a pair of miniguns.
A level 3 Sentry as seen in
Meet the Spy. Were this an actual game, the Sentry would have detected the undisguised Spy in the background and opened fire.
Sniper
"SMG"
The Sniper's secondary weapon is a submachine gun called the "SMG". It combines the general shape and distinctive front sight of a MAT-49 with the rear sight, magazine, and bolt of an M1A1 Thompson. It deals very low damage and has average accuracy beyond the first shot fired, but its very rapid fire rate can pile on damage quickly if aimed well. It has a 25-round magazine, with 75 in reserve. Like the other Support and Defense classes, the Sniper isn't meant to go into the front lines with this weapon, but rather be able to defend himself during medium-range combat when there isn't enough time to snipe an incoming enemy, or to finish off pre-damaged enemies when there's not enough time for a follow-up shot. Early concept art shows a weapon more closely resembling the MAT-49, along with the "SMG" that made it into the game.
MAT-49 - 9x19mm Parabellum
Put 'em together, apply a generous amount of cartoon squash-and-stretch, and you wind up with this.
The Scout holds the SMG in
Trailer 1. It was originally meant as his primary weapon, but was later switched to the Sniper's secondary weapon. With no handguard or barrel shroud on the SMG, the Sniper's left hand grips it by the magazine well.
A Sniper holds his SMG on koth_nucleus, vowing to let nobody take this incredibly strategically-important health kit.
Inspecting the left side of the submachine gun...
...and the right side, showing off the ejection port; the fact that it's a ways behind the magazine (and substantially smaller than it) might go some way towards explaining why it never ejects spent casings. Jury's still out on why it works at all, though.
Spraying some rounds at the floor; despite not even ejecting casings, the SMG has a moving rear sling hook.
Yanking out an empty magazine. The Sniper doesn't press the magazine release to do this, not leastly because the weapon doesn't actually have one.
Loading in a fresh magazine; it having 25 rounds in it apparently doesn't stop it from being empty.
The SMG's taunt animation; the Sniper jumps, clicks his heels, and punches the air in front of him upon hitting the ground, either yelling "God save the Queen!", or simply yelling.
Kimel AP-9
Released as part of the Pyromania Update, the "Cleaner's Carbine" is a submachine gun bearing resemblance to the Kimel AP-9 with a suppressor, side-folding wire-frame stock, left-hand ejection port, wood grips, and top-mounted charging handle which reciprocates when fired. This weapon's magazine holds a paltry 20 rounds, fires 35% slower than the standard SMG, and cannot deliver random critical hits, rather coming with a "Crikey" meter that fills as the Sniper deals damage with the weapon. When full, the Sniper can activate 8 seconds of a 35% "mini-crit" buff for any his equipped weapons.
Kimel AP-9 Mini - 9x19mm Parabellum
The Sniper on the top of the second respawn in cp_gorge while holding the "Cleaner's Carbine".
Opening fire with the gun, although it doesn't eject any casings. It also fires from a closed bolt. The firing sounds for the AP-9 are taken from the silenced
M4A1 in
Counter-Strike: Source.
Once he finishes wasting ammo, proceed to remove the empty magazine...
...and put in a new one. However, the magazine isn't inserted far enough for any rounds to realistically feed, nor does the Sniper pull the charging handle.
Inspection animation; The Sniper inspects the left side of the Cleaner's Carbine. Oddly, there is a small gap behind the bolt.
...and then the right side.
Note that the side-folding stock of the Cleaner's Carbine is essentially unnecessary as the sniper will use the weapon's magazine as a side grip as a result of reusing animations from the SMG above.
Promotional image of the Cleaner's Carbine together with "The Urban Professional" set. This item set is a reference to the film
Léon: The Professional.
Remington Model 700
The Sniper's primary weapon is, as one would expect, the "Sniper Rifle", which appears to be based on a Remington Model 700 (albeit quite heavily stylized, as with most of the game's weapons) with a visible laser sight and cartoonishly large scope (which looks similar to the AN/PVS-2 Starlight scope, but without the night-vision abilities). It has a 25-round capacity with no reserve; the Meet the Sniper short portrays the rifle as being single-shot (with the Sniper loading a new round every time he opens the bolt), whereas the in-game animation simply shows the Sniper lifting the bolt handle up and back down, somehow opening the bolt and ejecting a case, while also loading in nothing, however, the third-person animation simply depicts the extra steps of pulling back and pushing forward the bolt. To discourage quickscoping, a charge meter is built by uninterrupted use of the scope, increasing damage; after 3.3 seconds, the zoom acquires max charge, enough to take out lower-health classes with a single bodyshot and kill even an overhealed Heavy with one headshot. The rifle can be fired without looking through the scope, but it only inflicts minimum damage and cannot deal headshots. Notably, the Sniper Rifle (and its counterparts) are the only hitscan weapons in the game (barring sentries and other firearms boosted by critical damage) to suffer no damage falloff over distance.
A bolt-action air-powered dart rifle based vaguely on the default Sniper Rifle/Remington called the "Sydney Sleeper" is a purchased alternate primary weapon for the Sniper. It acquires a full charge after 2.8 seconds of zoom, and any enemy target hit when scoped will be coated in the Sniper's urine (a comical and temporary debuff referred to in-game as "Jarate", where the victim receives 35% more of incoming damage), with the duration of the target's urine-soaked debuff depending on its charge. The Sydney Sleeper cannot inflict critical headshots, though hitting the target's head will deal a 35% "mini-crit" bonus.
Remington Model 700 - .308 Winchester
The model of the Sniper Rifle. The laser sight is the tubular device in front of the scope, which has a wire leading from it to the scope; its mounting appears to be part of the scope base.
The Sniper is about to realize that his target's ally has spotted him in
Meet the Sniper.
The Sniper aims his Sniper Rifle in
Trailer 2.
A RED Sniper aims his Sniper Rifle on pl_goldrush.
Completely ignoring the objective on pl_upward, a Sniper watches a sightline with his Sniper Rifle.
Completely ignoring the sightline he's supposed to be watching, the Sniper looks at his rifle. Note the wire leading from the laser sight; the opposite end suggests that the laser's power source is part of the scope, though why there's so much extra wire is anybody's guess.
Completely... y'know what, nevermind. Anyway, the Sniper Rifle has apparently seen some use, given the scratches on the stock. Also note that the Sniper is one of the mercenaries who actually practices proper trigger discipline.
Looking through the scope, which has a zoom factor of ~5X. Note the charge meter off to the right; the lightning bolt icon flashes on and off while the charge builds up.
Once fully charged, the icon stays solid (and gets brighter), and a brief tone plays. The blue laser dot is just barely visible here; it can give away your intentions to a particularly attentive enemy. Or a particularly shot-in-the-same-place-five-times-in-a-row one.
Firing off a round that definitely isn't going to hit someone off in the distance; note that the laser's wire is jiggleboned, and wobbles when the rifle moves.
Working the bolt handle (which causes the bolt body to rotate in the opposite direction, as though it were some sort of dustcover), and ejecting a spent-but-unstruck casing.
Shifting his consciousness outside his body for a moment, this horrifying abomination of a Sniper lowers his rifle and waves at the silence.
While that Sniper inspects his stock rifle, another on the opposing team holds his "Sydney Sleeper". Visible here are the additional dart rounds slung over what is presumably the air tank that powers this tranquilizer gun. Note the unusual way the front end of the scope is attached; a band that slots onto the barrel section.
The Sniper holds up his Sydney Sleeper to take a glance at its furniture...
...and turns it over to reveal the exact same crack and bleached spot on its right side. Several functional oddities are visible here: the bolt handle is oddly attached directly onto the bolt in its ejection port area, the gun frame lacks a cut-out to allow for said bolt handle to pass through when it is cycled, and there seems to be a lack of room in that frame for the bolt to slide back due to the tranquilizer gun's pneumatic tubing being in the way.
Ignoring those problems, the Sniper goes ahead and takes a shot. For a tranquilizer gun that fires out urine-laced darts, it is strange for it to emit the muzzle flash of combustible ammunition.
Cycling the rifle. The same nonsensical "lift up the bolt handle and push it back down" animation from the default Remington rifle is reused not only for this gun, for all of Sniper's other rifles. Somewhat appropriately, this particular weapon is scripted to not eject an empty casing after it is "cycled".
Aiming through the scope. Aside from the "Jarate" icon in place of the charge symbol, The scope reticule and zoom level is the exact same for all other primary weapons of the Sniper class.
Jezail Musket
One of Sniper's alternative primary weapons, called the "Bazaar Bargain" is based on a modified Jezail musket. It appears to have been converted into a breech-loading, cartridge-chambering bolt-action rifle given the bolt handle and case ejection. However, the gun's receiver lacks an actual port to allow said casings to be ejected and new rounds to be loaded. This Jezail also includes attachments such as an underbarrel laser pointer and a WW1 Galilean-style optical sight, which both make up the rifle's "scope" mechanic. The Jezail's stats adds a 50% longer shot charge duration, but every headshot kill decreases the charge by 25% up to a maximum of 200%, making it deadly with more experienced players. Despite a bug patch that fixed a similar issue, the cartridge-converted Jezail's spent casings are still ejected somewhat far from the rifle's action.
First person view of the Bazaar Bargain. Excluding the default Sniper Rifle, the Sniper's primary weapons all have static bolts which are never moved during their cycling animation.
"Hitman's Heatmaker"
Another alternative primary weapon for the Sniper, named the "Hitman's Heatmaker" and added in the Pyromania Update shares some features of the Walther WA 2000. The in-game weapon's differences include a non-bullpup configuration, angled grip, and a bolt-action for a seemingly single-shot operation instead of the semi-automatic magazine-fed design of the actual WA 2000. On kills and assists, the Hitman's Heatmaker builds up a "Focus" meter and, once activated, charges damage while scoped 25% faster, fires tracer rounds, and does not unscope the player's view between shots firing. However, it deals 20% less damage on a bodyshot, leaving it unable to one-shot the lightest of classes with their standard maximum health stat. This weapon also decapitates targets killed with a headshot.
Walther WA 2000 - .300 Win Mag
The "Hitman's Heatmaker" model.
First-person view of the Hitman's Heatmaker.
Inspecting the Heatmaker's left side. If it is to be believed that this rifle is bolt-action, then this hump piece behind the bolt handle (plus the scope's laser pointer's positioning) would make cycling the rifle's action a difficult task.
Checking the rifle's right side. There is seemingly little space above the ejection port for cases to reliably eject, with the scope's laser pointer assembly being in the way.
Accuracy International Arctic Warfare
Introduced as a promotional item for pre-orders of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, the "AWPer Hand" is a cosmetic reskin of the Sniper Rifle as an Accuracy International Arctic Warfare fitted with a folded Harris bipod. Players can still obtain this reskin by crafting a random primary weapon for Sniper. The AWPer Hand's item description references the AW's notoriety in the Counter-Strike community. As it is a reskin of the standard Sniper Rifle, the AW shares its animations, including its cycling process, where its bolt is never moved. The in-game "AWPer Hand" name continues the error of incorrectly referring to the Counter-Strike series' Accuracy International rifle as the police version.
Accuracy International Arctic Warfare - 7.62x51mm NATO
In a promotional image, the Sniper holds the "AWPer Hand".
Tired of his own rifles, the Sniper steals a new one from the
Counter-Strike universe.
While admiring his statistically-indifferent AW, the Sniper reads the scrambled Accuracy International branding, which denotes the rifle as having been manufactured by "ACUVENMULTINATIONAL ENGLAND".
Taking a glance at the AW's right-hand side.
Cycling the AW. The bolt handle remains static during its cycling animation. However, inspecting the model in external software such as Source Filmmaker will reveal that the bolt handle is a seperate bone that could have been rigged to move in the game's handling animation.
Heckler & Koch G36
Introduced as part of the Love and War Update, the "Classic" is a sniper rifle made to resemble a long-barreled Heckler & Koch G36 with an olive-drab handguard, stock, and lower receiver. As per all the Sniper's rifles in the game, the Classic is fitted with a laser pointer, the team-colored beam emitting from the top part of the ZF 3x4° dual sight system when the weapon begins charging a shot. Unlike the Sniper's other rifles, the Classic can be charged and can deal head shots without having to look through the scope (though when charging a shot, the Sniper's movement speed is reduced similarly when scoped in with other rifles), and the Sniper can also fire multiple shots while staying scoped-in, but it deals 10% less damage. Enemies killed by a charged shot from this weapon will be gibbed and leave a brief cloud of red mist where they were killed. Despite the G36 being an automatic rifle, the in-game version fires about as slow as Sniper's other primary weapons, and reuses the same animations for them, where its user will rack a non-existent right-handed bolt after firing (in the case of the G36).
The Classic is a throwback to the "Sniper Rifle" from Team Fortress Classic, which operated with almost identical mechanics and also heavily resembled a G36.
Heckler & Koch G36 with ZF 3x4° dual optical sight - 5.56x45mm
The model for the "Classic".
The "Classic" in
Team Fortress 2. Note that it has an RIS rail instead of a charging handle.
Beginning the inspection animation. Note the extremely unergonomic angled pistol grip; this is presumably so that it can reuse animations for the Sniper's other rifles. The selector is lacking any markings, and the flimsy stock less resembles that from an actual G36.
Taking a look at the G36's right-hand side. In accordance with
Team Fortress 2's art style, the G36 has had its proportions rebalanced; the magazine and ejection port have been widened, and the case deflector has shrunk. Also, the Sniper's left hand is clipping through the magazine.
Charging a shot. As a mechanic unique only to this rifle, shots are charged by holding down the fire key, with discharging it being achieved by releasing the fire key. Strangely, the laser visual on the dual optical sight comes from the
red dot sight section.
"Cycling" the G36 with a non-existent bolt handle on the right-hand side. While there exists a bolt-action version of the H&K SL8 (itself a G36 variant); the R8, its charging handle is in fact, located atop the receiver as all G36 versions.
Spy
Colt Python
The Spy's firepower option is the "Revolver", modelled after a stylized Colt Python with a 6" barrel and ivory grips. Although in-game it is the first weapon in his inventory, his revolvers are internally classed as secondary weapons. It has better-than-average range, and is fairly strong; enough so to kill most lower-health enemies in three shots. However, like the Scout and Engineer's pistols, later shots fired too quickly by the Spy will have increased spread until the shooter stops firing for 1.25 seconds. The Spy's Python is also intended to serve as a backup weapon in case of trouble, rather than as an offensive weapon. The Medic uses Spy's Python in the unreleased version of Meet The Medic to try to end the agony of BLU Spy's severed head, failing in the attempt.
For a brief time, a "festive" variant of the Python was released as a special limited (but cosmetic) weapon that replaces the ivory grips of the gun with wooden ones (much like in pre-release content and concept art).
Colt Python with 6" barrel and ivory grips - .357 Magnum
The Revolver's model. The cartoon styling has granted the Colt oversized features such as the barrel and grips, and consequently, a slightly misaligned ejector rod.
Drawing the Python on cp_gorge; this animation starts with the revolver at the top of the screen coming downwards, which raises a few questions about where exactly the Spy is supposed to be hiding it.
Idling with the Revolver. Note that the rear sight has no notch; as
TF2 has no ADS functionality for anything without a scope, this is a bit of a moot point. For some reason, the Spy has decided to rest his thumb
above the grip's grooved section which would also obstruct the enlarged hammer's path. Again, a moot point as the hammer isn't animated anymore.
Inspecting the revolver; despite being based on a Colt, the logo in the grip is more reminiscent of
Ruger's. Merged with the rear section of the barrel lug is seemingly a S&W-style ejector rod shroud, which is also present in
concept art.
A look at the opposite side reveals that the in-game rendition of the Python has an ambidextrous cylinder release.
Firing off some rounds at nothing in particular.
Reloading starts by swinging open the cylinder, which prompts all of its contents to spontaneously vanish.
This followed by the use of a speedloader...
...and finished off by closing the cylinder, with a less-than-advisable flick of the wrist. This animation does a good job of hiding the never-moving crane and ejector rod, though they can still be spotted if you pay close enough attention. Initially in all platforms of the game, the Colt's hammer and cylinder were animated to cycle, with the latter properly connected to the ejector rod and crane that correctly swung out while reloading. However, a PC-exclusive update downgraded several in-game assets, among them the models for the classes' starting weapons, which included the Revolver.
Taunting; the Spy simply dusts off his suit, adjusts his tie, and clears his throat.
Amusingly, if Spy reloads and activates his cloaking ability at the same time, he will suddenly grow a third arm; while this occurs with all of the invisibility watches, the Dead Ringer makes it more apparent, as it is held higher up than the other watches (and can be active without making the Spy invisible).
Colt Python with 6" Barrel - .357 Magnum
In pl_badwater, a RED Spy holds his Christmas-fied Python which is now fitted with a wooden set of grips...
...and Christmas lights which have been strung around the gun, including around the ejector rod and crane. Not that this is a problem here, as only the cylinder itself has to fly out in order to reload it.
Dan Wesson PPC
The Spy's unlockable "Ambassador" is a stylized Dan Wesson PPC .357 revolver heavily customized with rosewood grips with a Taurus Raging Bull-style barrel and front sight shape. Engravings on the barrel depict the Scout's mother. The Ambassador's large size implies that it is chambered for a cartridge larger than .44 Magnum. Added during the "Sniper vs. Spy" page update, the release page for the weapon claims that the Ambassador weighs a whopping 8lbs (the French translation however states that it weighs 3kg/6.6lbs); The Taurus Raging Bull weighs up to 5lbs. The Ambassador is missing three things essential to a revolver's operation, which are exposed by its reload animation: the barrel's rear is blocked, the crane/ejector rod assembly do not follow the cylinder when swung out (as with the Colt Python), and the cartridges in the revolver are never ejected but remain stuck in its chambers. Despite its physically imposing appearance, the Ambassador in-game, deals 15% less damage than the Python, only inflicts critical hits on headshots, and has a short period of severe inaccuracy right after each shot (which is indicated by the crosshair enlarging which then gradually resizes back to normal). As with the game's other handguns, the Ambassador is otherwise almost as accurate as the Sniper Rifle when firing timed shots, though as of the Jungle Inferno Update, this is counter-balanced with a range penalty, removing the critical hit bonus after a certain distance. When initially added to the game, the Ambassador was viewed as an overpowered weapon, which led to a number of balance changes by Valve which has now rendered it effectively inferior to the Python, and only a viable sidearm to Spy players with experienced aiming.
Like with the Python, a "festive" variant of the Ambassador, with its visual changes including an alternative barrel engraving amd blacker finish which makes the revolver resemble a regular Dan Wesson PPC.
Dan Wesson PPC w/ stainless finish - .357 Magnum
Taurus Raging Bull stainless with 6" barrel - .44 Magnum
Render of the "Ambassador". The Taurus-style barrel still retains the thickness of the PPC's barrel. Note the odd single-action trigger on a double-action revolver and lack of cylinder release latch.
Still in cp_gorge, the Spy points his Ambassador towards the building in front...
Running out of rounds to fire, the Spy swings out the cylinder (which is again magically floating) and "reloads" it. Prior to an update that downgraded in-game assets to improve performance, the reload animation for all of Spy's revolvers had him hold his gun at a slightly different angle, which hid the Ambassador's oddities regarding ammunition offscreen.
Spy inspects the left side of the Ambassador...
Note that the trigger appears to be made of gold or brass.
...and then the right side.
Dan Wesson PPC - .357 Magnum
The Festive Ambassador. The woman in the engraving appears to be someone other than Scout's mother. Its ammunition has also been retextured to steel-cased rounds with lead bullets.
Colt Detective Special
The Spy's alternative "Enforcer" revolver is a stainless Colt Detective Special with pearl grips. It inflicts 20% more damage than the Colt Python but fires 20% slower and does not deal random critical hits in servers with them enabled. The damage bonus doesn't take effect however unless the player is disguised when they fire the shot (though firing while disguised will drop the disguise, requiring the user to constantly disguise to gain the damage increase).
The Enforcer's hammer and cylinder do not move when firing, as a result of its in-game model (excluding the cylinder) being a single piece. The gun's frame also lacks a solid top above the cylinder and like the Colt Python, incorrectly has another cylinder release latch, on the right side. On another note, the in-game Detective Special is the only other revolver that is actually reloaded with new cartridges, albeit with cases leftover in the cylinder simply disappearing at the start of the reload animation.
Colt Detective Special with stainless finish and pearl grips - .38 Special
Render of the "Enforcer".
Drawing the Enforcer in-game.
The Detective Special in idle.
Inspecting the weapon's left side. Note the awkward proportions, such as the oversized barrel and the ejector rod, which is heavily misaligned with the cylinder and crane.
Inspecting the revolver's other side. Likely to simplify the model, its left side has been mirrored to the right, leading to another set of frame screws, a second cylinder release latch, and another crane.
Reloading the Enforcer with a fresh set of .38 Special rounds, which initially clip through the (levitating) cylinder. Noted the glitched textures on the speedloader.
Source Filmmaker render of the Enforcer model disassembled. Note the oversized bore and incorrectly textured speedloader. Like the other revolvers in TF2, the Enforcer's cylinder is not connected to anything while it swings out.
Nagant M1895
"L'Etranger," a silver Nagant M1895 revolver with custom engraved ivory grips and an extended barrel, was added during the "Mann-conomy" (Polycount) Update as a new Spy weapon. Shaylyn "Chemical Alia" Hamm created it for the Polycount Pack contest. It restores 15% of the user's cloak charge on hit and extends the cloak duration of any Spy watch by 40%, but does 20% less damage per shot, making it more of a utility tool for the Spy's cloaking ability. L'Etranger, unlike the real-life Nagant revolver, uses a 6-round cylinder that flips out for reloading, during which no cartridges are ejected nor inserted. While a civilian variant of the Nagant, the 1910 model featured a swing-out crane/cylinder assembly (that pivoted to the right unlike a majority of conventional revolvers), L'Etranger is clearly modelled after a gate-loading M1895. However, this loading gate is omitted on the revolver's in-game model for unknown reasons.
Nagant M1895 Revolver - 7.62x38mm R. This example was dated 1939 manufacture and was a War time issued weapon. Note the angular front sight which was used from 1930s.
"L'Etranger" as seen in a preview. The trigger seems to be in the single-action position.
The Spy stands on the top of the second respawn in cp_gorge while holding "L'Etranger"...
...and then begins to inspect his antique sidearm, which appears to be larger than your average Nagant revolver. Strangely, the left side of the Nagant's frame (incorrectly) includes a loading gate spring, which is already present on the other side. Another oddity with this weapon is that its cylinder's exterior is modelled with 8 chambers despite its ends only having 6 chambers modelled; the actual M1895 Nagant has a 7-round cylinder.
Inspecting L'Etranger's right side. Visible here is the access point to the cylinders, but also the missing loading gate would lead to cartridges falling out at the angle this gun is currently being held at.
Firing the L'Etranger. Unsurprisingly for Spy's arsenal, this revolver's cylinder and hammer also stay still.
Through sheer force of will, the Spy forces the Nagant's cylinder to the side and slaps the steel-cased rounds with a mime speedloader. Visible here is the blocked bore, lack of cylinder axis pin, and the protruding rear of the ejector rod, the latter of which is apparently clipped through by the magical swing-out and levitating cylinder.
Smith & Wesson Model 29
Players who pre-ordered or bought Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse within the first week of its release earned Sam's signature sidearm, the "Big Kill," as a replacement primary weapon for the Spy. Visually, the gun appears to be based on a cartoonishly simplified Smith & Wesson Model 29, though it is much smaller than its Sam & Max counterpart. Statistically, the Big Kill is a reskin of the Python and like the other revolvers (excluding the two Colts), its cylinder is never emptied in the reload animation. Its hammer and cylinder also do not move while firing with the latter floating on its own outside the frame when it is swung out for reloading.
Smith & Wesson Model 29 revolver with 8 3/8" barrel - .44 Magnum
Sam's sidearm from the
Sam & Max adventure game series
Baikal MCM
The first Team Fortress 2 trailer showed the Spy wielding a stainless Baikal MCM "Tranquilizer Gun." It was replaced with the Revolver by the game's release. The model, though not usable, remains in the game's files.
Baikal MCM with magazine removed - .22 LR.
The Spy holds his Tranquilizer Gun in
Trailer 1.
Other
American Derringer Model 1
In the "Expiration Date" animation released to promote the Love and War Update, Miss Pauling can be seen wielding a double-barreled derringer that resembles an American Derringer Model 1, albeit scaled up to the size of a normal handgun. This is thus far the only weapon that has appeared in an official animation that is not playable in the game in any form.
American Derringer Model 1 - .45 Long Colt
Miss Pauling with her derringer drawn in the "Expiration Date" animation.
Cannon
Featured in the "Drunk Mann's Cannon" taunt (unique animations that the player can summon) is a naval cannon mounted on a cart. This taunt is specific to the Demoman class and in it, he sits and rides on the moving cannon cart until the player cancels the animation or is otherwise interrupted.
18th century naval cannon with ramrod and projectile
In-game preview of the cannon taunt.
Concept Art Weapons
Various firearms were planned to be included into Team Fortress 2, presumably before Valve took a cartoon approach when developing the game.
From left to right: sawed-off Ithaca 37, Baikal MCM,
M1918 Browning Automatic Rifle (with extended magazine and barrel), sawed-off double barreled shotgun,
SIG P210, Remington Model 700,
MAC-10 with suppressor, Pyro's "Flamethrower" (contains features of the M1 Flamethrower), Sniper's "SMG" (partly inspired by the MAT-49), Spy's "Revolver" (stylized Colt Python), RPG-7, M79 grenade launcher, a proper MAT-49 and Heavy's "Minigun" (partly based on M134 Minigun and/or M61 Vulcan).
Maxim Gun
An unused background prop for the map "Mercenary Park" contains both a model and a matching texture sheet for what strongly resembles a Maxim Gun. As part of a scrapped idea, self-controlled turrets positioned at a team's spawn room (likely as an anti-spawncamping measure, similarly to in Team Fortress Classic) were planned to be added into Team Fortress 2, however, it is unknown why this idea was shelved. There are also unused textures for a turret mount, implying that the Maxim Gun may have been used for this spawn-turret role.
Maxim 1895 on tripod - 7.92x57mm Mauser
The cut watchtower with the untextured Maxim. The accompanying (and levitating) ammo belt is incorrectly clipped into where a Maxim's empty belt links are ejected.
The stylized Maxim Gun with textures applied. Note the oversized bore.
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