Melee

“

Look at this: just caved in your skull, my bat's still dry. No clumps of hair - nothin'. Click to listen — The Scout

”

Melee is a type of weapon and the short-range combat system in Team Fortress 2. All melee attacks use hitscan, but have a 0.2 second delay between pressing the primary fire button (default key: MOUSE1), or secondary fire (default key: MOUSE2) in the case of Heavy's boxing gloves weapons, and dealing damage. The only exception to this are the melee weapons for the Spy, which damage immediately upon pressing the primary fire button. Standard melee attacks use the bounding box of the player, the same hitbox used to determine collision with other players, world, and projectiles. The bounding box is a large rectangle around the player and does not rotate with the player. Melee swings hit teammates before enemies or buildings, except for the Engineer's melee weapons, which ignore teammates when trying to hit a friendly building. This prevents teammates from blocking him while trying to repair or upgrade a building.

Melee weapons are always available (except for the Spy-cicle) and do not consume ammo upon use. All stock melee weapons (except for the Spy's and Scout's melee weapons) function identically, dealing 65 damage and swinging in 0.8 second intervals. The Scout's Bat deals less damage (35 damage) and swings faster (0.5 second attack interval). The Spy's Knife has the same attack interval as the other stock melees, but deals only 40 damage. In addition to the basic function of dealing damage, the Wrench wielded by the Engineer and the Knife have additional abilities; upgrading, increasing construction speed, and repairing buildings and backstabbing enemy players respectively.

If random Critical hits are turned on, melee weapons have a base 15% Critical hit chance and a maximum chance of 60%. Most weapons have a unique swing animation for a Critical hit, such as the Fists' right-handed uppercut or the Axe swinging from right to left.

Some unlockable melee weapons have extra utility on top of, or instead of, their damage-dealing capabilities. For example, the Back Scratcher increase healing from health kits while reducing the healing from Medi Guns and Dispensers, or the Wrap Assassin trading direct damage for the ability to launch a bauble that inflicts bleed.

Hitting the environment with other melee weapons will leave behind a decal similar to those caused by bullets. Additionally, the sound for missing, hitting a player, and hitting the environment are different, with the environmental sounds depending on the material of the struck object (metal will make a metal sound, wood will make a wood sound, etc.). Some melee weapons can change appearance after hitting a surface or player. The Bottle, Scottish Handshake, Ullapool Caber, and Neon Annihilator all break after hitting a Critical hit on a surface or enemy player. The Half-Zatoichi becomes bloodied after killing, which also indicates it can be sheathed. These effects are purely cosmetic and do not affect the damage.

Gallery

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  Scout bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Soldier bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Pyro bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Demoman bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Heavy bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Engineer bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Medic bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Sniper bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  Spy bounding box while standing and crouching.

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  A comparison between the increased Disciplinary Action and Eyelander range and their stock counterpart.

See also

• Weapons
• Hitscan
• Projectiles