Team Fortress 2 Feats, Respect, and Discussion

[Flowering Knight]

Team Fortress 2 is a team-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Valve as part of the game bundle The Orange Box. Eventually the game was released as a standalone title, and later adopted a free to play model in 2011. It is a part of the Team Fortress series, being a sequel to the original Team Fortress mod for Quake, and later Team Fortress Classic. Despite their drastically different art styles, both TF2 and TFC are connected in-universe.

The main story of the game primarily revolves around groups of mercenaries hired by rival companies RED (Reliable Excavation Demolition) and BLU (Builders League United) respectively. While it initially seems like that's all there is to the game's plot, there is actually much more to it than that.

For now I'll start by going over primarily game feats and item descriptions before I go back into the comics (on the basis that I've been playing the game again recently so I'm more familiar with that).

 

[Flowering Knight]

The Cross-Comm Express is a cosmetic item for the Scout that receives satellite signals at light speed. It also implies that Scout moves faster than light, stating the Scout "may have to slow down a little so they can catch up."

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The Manmelter is described as a particle smasher which can reorganize a person's molecules. In-game, characters killed by the weapon even disintegrate upon death.

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The C.A.P.P.E.R. is a ray gun that fires lasers instead of bullets. It is also capable of disintegrating enemies killed by the weapon.

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The Cow Mangler 5000 is a 'wave projector' that is capable of completely vaporizing the mercenaries.

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Interestingly enough, the Cow Mangler 5000, many a year ago, was calculated at around building/large building level.

Team Fortress 2 - Space Guns are Hardcore

Long story short, a rocket (literally from another universe, as it were) crash lands in close vicinity of the Soldier, and just so happens to contain futuristic space weaponry (also from the other, aforementioned universe). Weaponry that also...

www.fanverse.org

At the beginning of Meet the Medic, an already injured scout survives being the target of a large explosion. Later on, a nice endurance feat is shown with the Heavy, fully conscious and attached to no medical equipment, having a conversation with the Medic all while his heart is removed from his body. Since this was part of the procedure to replace his heart with one that withstands Ubercharge, and the ending of the short reveals the rest of RED team waiting in line, it's implied all characters can scale to this.

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Speaking of which, Ubercharge is a state characters can enter through the use of the Medic's Medi Gun, rendering them (and the Medic) completely invulnerable to damage. This is most notably seen during the end of Meet the Medic, in which the Ubercharged Heavy walks through the entire enemy team's fire, completely unscathed.

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Ubercharge can also be gained by any of the mercenaries for a much shorter duration through the use of a Power Up Canteen filled with the Ubercharge buff.

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[Flowering Knight]

Bonk! Atomic Punch is an energy drink used by Scout, which according to the official wiki, is filled with radiation.

Bonk! is fulla radiation, which as we all know is pretty great for givin' people superpowers.

When used, the Scout becomes fully immune to damage, with in-game effects used against the Scout implying the attacks to be missing him. Voicelines by the Scout during this time imply he is actively dodging the attacks. I couldn't find any videos of the 'Miss!' effect being shown off, so have a screenshot from the official site confirming projectile dodging with the item.

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Though Critical Hits and Mini-crits (x3 damage and +35% damage respectively) may seem initially like gameplay mechanics, various items and weapons imply they are an actual force within the TF2 verse. The Kritzkrieg is the most notable example of this, being a Medi Gun that, instead of granting Ubercharge, empowers the mercenary's weapons with critical hits.

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Other examples include Bonk! Crit-A-Cola, anoter energy drink that instead empowers the Scout's weapon with mini-crits. A can of Crit-A-Cola is used as a makeshift handguard for the Soda Popper, which can cause the weapon to glow in a similar fashion and grants the Scout the ability to make (further) additional jumps in the air.

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Additionally, one of the abilities that can be used to fill a Power Up Canteen is temporary critical hits, and lasts for the same shorter duration as the Ubercharge when used in this way.

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[Flowering Knight]

Rocket Jumping is, in fact, 100% canon and not just a gameplay mechanic. As it is seen used by the Soldier in Meet the Soldier.


(Interestingly enough Soldier actually lands a critical hit earlier in the video, lending a bit of credence to crits themselves being canon)

From the official site, there is an excerpt with additional information on rocket jumping's history in-universe.

Team Fortress 2 - WAR!

www.teamfortress.com

The 18th century was a time of rapid innovation; in the space of a single year, the two-storey building, the stage play, America, and the rocket launcher were all invented by the same man: Shakespearicles, the strongest writer who ever lived. Despite his powerful grasp of language and the ability to bench press 700 British pounds, several inventions eluded his iron grip—most tragically among them, stairs. For the next three hundred years, people who needed to get to the second floor used the only method available to them: shooting a rocket launcher at their feet. Yes, it was ridiculous, crippling, and awful, but what are you going to do? Not go to the second floor? That’s where your bed is.

It's canon that even basic civilians used rocket jumping just to move around in their own homes, there's no fucking way the main cast doesn't gain durability scaling from the various explosive weaponry

 

[Blade]

they also scale from the canon crossover game with several animu chars who appear as guests

 

[Flowering Knight]

The sandvich canonically heals the Heavy to full health, as seen in Meet the Sandvich, in which an audibly exhausted Heavy proceeds to eat the sandvich, at which point he easily takes down both the Soldier and Scout entirely with his hands. During this video, the Heavy also apparently punches out all of Scout's blood, however that works



Worth noting that this game's tendency to make gameplay elements canon is reinforced by listing the sandvich's healing properties in the video itself.

 

[Flowering Knight]

Some additional endurance/durability feats, in Jungle Inferno both the Soldier and the Sniper have their spines broken by a Yeti. Later on in the video, both of them can be seen alive despite this.

In addition to the previous post showing the Scout and Soldier surviving having "all their blood punched out" (again, however that works) and having their spine broken (again), plus some of the aforementioned durability feats, it's another nice showing of endurance for the mercs.

Of course, the real durability feat is Scout surviving being used as a makeshift bat by Saxton Hale, but we'll get to him later, when we take a look at comic feats.

 

[MotherFcker Ultimate]

pretty sure thats just straight up immortality type 2

 

[Flowering Knight]

pretty sure thats just straight up immortality type 2

I mean, considering everything else we've seen, in particular the BLU Spy's decapitated head in Meet the Medic still being alive and able to talk, it's a very strong possibility.

 

[Gordo]

Nice thread

 

[Flowering Knight]

Three years after the Gravel War (which is when the main multiplayer component of the game takes place) is the Robot War, in which a massive robot army is sent to all of Mann Co.'s facilities. The mercenaries end up fighting this robot army during the events of Mann vs Machine. There are other story details but we'll get to those when we look at comic stuff. We'll be looking primarily at the mercenaries here since I was gonna combine everything into one massive post but I accidentally deleted the draft (said draft was also why I haven't posted anything new the past few weeks but it was mostly procrastination and I'm too lazy to do the whole thing again lol)

First and foremost, the mercenaries are all capable of upgrading themselves. Most of these come in the form of increasing physical stats as well as enhancing their weaponry, allowing them to more easily destroy waves of robots (and fight against giant robots) or survive more potential damage from said robots. Other forms of upgrades come in the form of additional abilities the mercenaries can make use of.

The Medic can create a shield that negates all projectiles that make contact with it. Said projectiles are able to come from the explosives and bullets of dozens of robots and even giant robots (which we'll get into later).

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The Medic is also capable of delivering doses of Mad Milk through his Syringe Gun.

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And since I haven't talked about it until now, Mad Milk is a non-milk substance that heals mercenaries who shoot at a target covered by it. It apparently works like this because the cows were infused with thermonuclear radiation but that's Mann Co. for you.

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The Engineer can create an additional Sentry Gun, but considering he's shown to have built multiple at once during Meet the Engineer, the one sentry limitation is more than likely a gameplay mechanic.

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The Heavy can push robots away with his minigun's bullets with his Knockback Rage. This can push away even giant robots.

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The Soldier can enhance his rocket launcher to fire rockets faster and have a larger radius than normal.

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Furthermore, each of the mercenaries can use their Power Up Canteen to briefly apply special effects. Ubercharge and Crit Boosted upgrades were already discussed earlier, but there is also the Refill Clips and Ammo canteen, which refills ammunition (duh) and the Teleport to Spawn canteen. The latter is more than likely not relevant in the context of most versus debates but it's worth noting.

There is also another form of Canteen for the Engineer, which automatically upgrades his buildings to Level 3 and fully repairs them.

I'll do a post about the robots themselves later. Just know that if they weren't building level then they sure as hell would be now.

 

[Flowering Knight]

The robots fought in Mann vs Machine are modeled after the mercenaries themselves, and fought in massive hordes by said mercenaries. They are capable of using all the same abilities and weaponry as the mercenaries themselves (including other weapons such as the aforementioned Bonk! Atomic Punch) and should otherwise scale to them individually in base, with the mercs only being superior thanks to their upgrades.

Among these are giant robots, which, while much slower, are far stronger than other robots, and often carry special abilities such as having crit-boosted weaponry. They are also much tougher, often requiring the focus of an entire team to defeat.

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Sentry Busters are designed specifically to destroy an Engineer's sentry, and have a large explosion that can easily kill even upgrades mercenaries (that aren't affected by Ubercharge).

Among all of this, the most powerful robot is the Tank, which, while slow, actually requires a whole team to destroy, being able to soak up dozens upon dozens of attacks from the individual mercenaries.

They also carry a bomb that should be similar to the Payload bomb in magnitude and effects.

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Just for fun, it should be noted that an Ubercharged mercenary can survive the Payload explosion with no damage.

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Knowing what the robots are capable of is important given that the mercenaries >>>>>>> the robots, with the mercs even being able to tank even crit-boosted giants when fully upgraded.

Also, while I said I'd be getting into comic stuff later, I feel this is necessary context: the Mercenaries lost their jobs (the owners of RED and BLU, Redmond and Blutarch Mann, were both killed) only to be re-hired by Saxton Hale to kill the robots. None of them are getting paid but it's canon that the robots run on money and drop it when killed

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Whew, that took longer than it needed to. I feel like if I'm going to talk about anything next it'll probably be the Halloween related stuff, because there is a LOT to talk about with that

 

[Flowering Knight]

Wow I sure forgot to post here again haha

So for some more fun stuff, the mercenaries are capable of casting magic spells through the use of various implements, primarily the Fancy Spellbook, the Spellbook Magazine, or the Fireproof Secret Diary.

By having one of these spellbooks, the mercenaries are capable of casting various magic spells, provided they find them first of course. Which does mean none of these abilities count as standard equipment or powers but it's something worth noting. I also apologize for not having any videos or gifs of them as I couldn't find any on the internet and I don't have any recording software myself, so I just took everything from the wiki please understand

The Shadow Leap spell allows a mercenary to throw a dark smoke-like ball which teleports the merc to wherever the ball lands.

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The Fireball spell throws a blast of fire which sets enemies on fire in a large radius.

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The Blast Jump spell effectively replicates the launching effects of a rocket jump, minus the rocket itself.

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The Overheal spell quickly and greatly heals the user and all allies nearby, in addition to granting one second of ubercharge and pushing enemies away.

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The Swarm of Bats spell shoots a glowing ball which, should it hit an enemy, assaults them with bats.

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The Pumpkin MIRV spell throws an initial bomb that produces a ring of pumpkin bombs which, when making contact with any potential enemies (or their bullets/projectiles), explode.

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The Stealth spell temporarily turns the user invisible. Not much more to it than that.

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The Summon MONOCULUS spell throws a skull which, upon landing, creates a ghostly MONOCULUS that attacks enemies. As for MONOCULUS itself, we'll get into Halloween bosses... eventually.

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The Skeletons Horde spell throws a small bomb much like the Pumpkin MIRV spell, except it creates a small horde of skeletons which attack enemies.

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The Ball O' Lightning spell fires a large wave of energy which damages enemies and sucks them further in.

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The Meteor Shower is much like the Fireball spell, except upon impact it summons several meteors above the area.

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The Minify spell shrinks the user and gives them a big head lol. Also greatly increases their speed (including the firerate of weaponry) and even heals them upon casting.

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There are also spells for the Bumper Cars minigames, which I also feel is worth mentioning just because I wouldn't feel right leaving these out The Bomb Head spell applies a bomb to the user's head, exploding after a short amount of time or when colliding with an enemy. It's also possible for the user to survive this.

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The Boxing Rocket spell fires a giant boxing glove forward. Pretty simple honestly.

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The B.A.S.E. Jump spell is much like the Blast Jump spell, except it also uses a B.A.S.E. Jumper parachute, allowing the user to fall safely.

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There's also the Overheal spell again except this version heals 50% the mercenary's maximum health instantly and applies ubercharge for much longer.

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Again, none of this counts as standard equipment. But in scenarios where mercenaries get access to these spells, they easily become far more formidable than normal. I'll be talking about the Halloween Bosses next (because there's a lot to talk about) and I promise it'll be soon, and not in the Valve Time sort of way

 

[Flowering Knight]

The Summer Update of 2023 is here, and among many things (including a seal) we finally have an official version of VS Saxton Hale! For some background information, VSH was originally an unofficial gamemode pitting the mercenaries against the eponymous Saxton Hale, with most matches being rather one-sided in the latter's favor. It's also a perfect place to start with Saxton Hale before we get to the comic stuff.


Among many other things? Much of the mercenaries' attacks and weapons aren't capable of doing much damage to Hale, while Hale is capable of oneshotting each of the mercenaries with just his fists (except for the Heavy and Soldier... who he two shots lmao). Hale is also capable of producing shockwaves with his punches, meaning he can literally oneshot most of the mercenaries with a single attack

The real meat of this are his Sweeping Charge and Saxton Punch. His sweeping charge causes his fist to glow blue and launches him through the air during his punch, and his Saxton Punch, though it takes time to charge, effectively acts as a critical hit for him... meaning it's pretty much guaranteed to kill anything it hits. As a matter of fact, when his Saxton Punch is fully charged, he's able to instantly kill any of the mercenaries by sending them flying with just one finger.


Though for as powerful as Saxton Hale is, the mercenaries are capable of beating him with enough teamwork and coordination... though considering this was once a fanmade gamemode and many other canon showings show Hale as being far, far above everyone else in the setting, it's pretty much guaranteed that this is only game mechanics. And probably the only thing in this entire thread which can be reasonably dismissed as game mechanics honestly.

Much of this is still very new, so there's likely a lot more that has yet to be discovered.

 

[Paxton]

The Summer Update of 2023 is here, and among many things (including a seal) we finally have an official version of VS Saxton Hale! For some background information, VSH was originally an unofficial gamemode pitting the mercenaries against the eponymous Saxton Hale, with most matches being rather one-sided in the latter's favor. It's also a perfect place to start with Saxton Hale before we get to the comic stuff.


Among many other things? Much of the mercenaries' attacks and weapons aren't capable of doing much damage to Hale, while Hale is capable of oneshotting each of the mercenaries with just his fists (except for the Heavy and Soldier... who he two shots lmao). Hale is also capable of producing shockwaves with his punches, meaning he can literally oneshot most of the mercenaries with a single attack

The real meat of this are his Sweeping Charge and Saxton Punch. His sweeping charge causes his fist to glow blue and launches him through the air during his punch, and his Saxton Punch, though it takes time to charge, effectively acts as a critical hit for him... meaning it's pretty much guaranteed to kill anything it hits. As a matter of fact, when his Saxton Punch is fully charged, he's able to instantly kill any of the mercenaries by sending them flying with just one finger.


Though for as powerful as Saxton Hale is, the mercenaries are capable of beating him with enough teamwork and coordination... though considering this was once a fanmade gamemode and many other canon showings show Hale as being far, far above everyone else in the setting, it's pretty much guaranteed that this is only game mechanics. And probably the only thing in this entire thread which can be reasonably dismissed as game mechanics honestly.

Much of this is still very new, so there's likely a lot more that has yet to be discovered.

I though you said cosmic stuff for a second

 

[Blade]

this game still gets updates

meanwhile, most aaa games dont even bother to fix/patch gameplay issues/ping connections