Full Moon

We're currently in a Halloween full moon.
The next full moon is from November 13, 2024 at 19:05 UTC through to November 15, 2024 at 19:05 UTC (UTC)

“

It is a full moon! I have turned into a robot again! Awoo-ooh! Click to listen — The Soldier

”

The Full Moon restriction was introduced with the 2011 Very Scary Halloween Special. All previous items that were restricted to Halloween were updated to be equipable during both Halloween events and full moons. These items are available for use during full moons according to a formula that approximates the lunar calendar. During this period, the main menu background will become a full-color image of Double Cross, the menu class portrait will sometimes wear their Halloween Costumes, the default Message of the day will state "Welcome and Enjoy the Full Moon!", and Strange weapons equipped with Strange Part: Full Moon Kills will count kills performed during this timespan.

Note: the dates provided in this article are computed by formulas internal to this wiki and so are not directly coupled to the game and are provided as estimates only.

Most Recent Full Moon

• October 16, 2024 at 12 PM through to October 18, 2024 at 12 PM

Upcoming Full Moons

• November 15, 2024 at 1 AM through to November 17, 2024 at 1 AM
• December 14, 2024 at 1 PM through to December 16, 2024 at 1 PM
• January 13, 2025 at 2 AM through to January 15, 2025 at 2 AM
• February 11, 2025 at 3 PM through to February 13, 2025 at 3 PM

Formula

When the Full Moon restriction was introduced with the 2011 Very Scary Halloween Special, the formula was set such that the Full Moon event occurred every 29.5 days starting Midday, October 12, 2011. The periods lasted for a full day before and after the time calculated, so the very first Full Moon event was one day either side of 12am (Midnight) on November 10, 2011. However, the actual synodic month is close to 44 minutes and 3 seconds longer than the 29.5 day approximation. The effect of this was that after about four years, the TF2 Full Moon schedule was about and a half days ahead of the actual lunar phase -- by June 2, 2015, the game (and the Fmp calculations at that time) would close Full Moon events hours before the real Moon was actually full. However, by September 2015 and in subsequent months, the in-game Full Moon event was observed to be more centered on the real full moon time, indicating that the previous game schedule had been changed. The formulation computing the Full Moon dates for this page was changed in November 2015 to more closely track the observed Full Moon events.

All times on this page are in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC).

Update history

October 27, 2010 Patch (Scream Fortress Update)

• [Undocumented] Added halloween-restricted items.

October 27, 2011 Patch (Very Scary Halloween Special)

• [Undocumented] Halloween-restricted items can now be worn during a Full Moon.

November 10, 2011 Patch

• Added a full moon background for the main menu.

October 26, 2012 Patch (Spectral Halloween Special)

• [Undocumented] Halloween-restricted items now have a pumpkin image in backpack view.

September 17, 2014 Patch

• Enabled Full Moon holiday for one week.

Summer 2015 (Unreported change)

• [Undocumented] Full Moon timing was adjusted to more closely correspond to the real lunar calendar.

Trivia

• The original Full Moon schedule was every 29.5 days starting Midday, October 12, 2011, but NASA times the average length of a synodic month as 44 minutes and 3 seconds longer.

Gallery

• 

  Restricted Full Moon item icon in the backpack

• 

  Allowed Full Moon item icon in the backpack

• 

  No full moon.

• 

  Regular full moon.

• 

  Halloween full moon.

• 

  The default Halloween MOTD

External links

• Full moon on Wikipedia