Eyelander

“

You don’t kill a man by mucking about with rifles, arrows, rocks, or other long-distance rubbish. You kill him by grabbing the biggest bloody sword you can find, running up nice and close to him, and chopping the dumb bastard’s head off. — Close Combat Kit publicity blurb

”

The Eyelander is the unlockable melee weapon for the Demoman. First hinted at on a hidden page during the WAR! Update [1], It is an exceptional claymore, being "harmonically-balanced, made from pattern-welded Damascus steel, and slow-forged in the bowels of captured English kings." It is, unfortunately, also haunted by a bloodthirsty, malevolent spirit.

Wielding the Eyelander results in an initial penalty of 25 to the wielder's health, resulting in a total of 150; however, for every victim the wielder claims with it, they will gain a boost to speed and 15 maximum health (four times per life). On the downside, you cannot gain random Critical Hits but it is possible to guarantee one with the Chargin' Targe special ability. Kills using the Eyelander results in the decapitation of the victim's head. As the Demoman gets more and more decapitations with this weapon, his eye glows brighter. One head cut off will show his eye glowing, but it's not very remarkable. Cutting off four heads at the maximum will make his eye glow extremely bright.

As an added advantage, if a Demoman wielding the Eyelander manages to decapitate another Demoman likewise wielding the Eyelander, the Demoman who decapitated his foe gains the head of his foe, as well as any heads that foe had collected prior to his death.

Damage

• Base: 65 (59 to 72 damage)
• Mini-Crit: 88
• Critical Hit: 195 (cannot crit randomly)

Function times

• Attack Interval: 0.8
• Damage Per Second: 81

All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Special

• Each kill with the Eyelander grants a speed bonus of approximately 22.5 units per second (~ 8%) to the Demoman's base speed, and increases his maximum HP by 15.

• The Demoman can accumulate speed and maximum HP increases from no more than 4 kills, thus capping the total speed gain to 90 units per second (to a total of 370 units per second), and the total maximum HP gain to 60 (to a total of 210 HP). Once 4 kills have been accumulated, he will only gain 15 current HP per with a temporary Overheal, with a max overheal of 315.

• The Eyelander's melee range is approximately 37% more than the Bottle and other melee weapons. The same is true for the Scotsman's Skullcutter.

Trivia

• The Eyelander is a reference, both in name and design, to the movie Highlander; specifically the character of Connor McLeod (last of the clan McLeod). In the film, Connor is an immortal, who must defeat other immortals by, of course, decapitating them.
• It is also a reference, as is the Film, to residents of the Highlands of Scotland who used weapons in the style of the Eyelander.
• The sword itself is based off of William Wallace's sword, though is much closer related to the one seen in Braveheart than the real sword.
• The decapitation craving spirit haunting the Eyelander constantly mutters about heads while it is being held. The wielder may also experience sudden urges towards decapitation.
• The Eyelander was originally issued to American monkeynaut Poopy Joe in order to fight off his Soviet rival Vladimir Bananas before it was acquired by Mann Co. in entirely innocent circumstances. [2]
• Even if you kill someone with Eyelander, the Demoman will yell "Aye, me Bottle of Scrumpy!" (due to no non-domination sword referencing lines being used ingame).
• While you are wielding the Eyelander, sometimes you can hear the spirit moaning "Heads..." multiple times, which gets slightly louder with the more heads collected. Also, when decapitating someone, the spirit will sometimes shout "HEAD!" loudly.
• The sound made by a corpse upon decapitation is the same one made by the BLU Spy upon having his head blown off by the BLU Soldier in the Meet the Spy video.
• Despite decapitated players making a final death scream when killed with the Eyelander, this would not be possible in real life due to the lungs and oesophagus being separated from the mouth upon decapitation.
• The Eyelander has Developer weapon variants, most notably Robin Walker's Eyelander, which has a unique flame particle effect around it and grants him a neverending Ubercharge.
• There are some unused sound files in the game that are related to the Eyelander's taunt. There are two of them: first one has the Demoman saying "There can be only one!", while the second has him saying "There can be only one... Aye!"
• Prior to the January 13, 2010 Patch, a disguised Spy copying the Eyelander weapon had the opposing team see a Demoman with an Eyelander held in the way the Bottle is held (in one hand). There was also an animation issue with the Scout's Force-A-Nature. Both of these were fixed in the update.
• When in first person view, the Demoman swings horizontally normally and vertically for critical hits. Since the Eyelander doesn't roll for crits, you need the Chargin' Targe, get First blood or a Medic's Kritzkrieg for them. However in the third person view, he always swings it vertically. It is therefore unknown how he manages to decapitate his victims every time, especially when he crits.
• The number of decapitations performed by a Demoman is tied to his current life, not to the Eyelander. Collected heads are retained as long as the Demoman is alive, irrespective of whether he has the Eyelander equipped. A Demoman can switch his Eyelander and associated head count benefits for the normal Bottle at any time, and regain them if he re-equips the Eyelander later during his life. Take note that this does not work with the Scotsman's Skullcutter, the heads will reset if you switch to this weapon and you will loose all speed and health benefits of your accumulated heads.
• Within the "Meet the Sniper" video, the "F.O.A.D" sign seems to make a small reference to the Eyelander. Within the letter F it is possible to see a silhouette similar to the Demoman holding a sword, much like the Eyelander, decapitating people. The decapitated corpse also appears to look rather similar to the animation that is played by the Scout after being decapitated.
  

  The F.O.A.D sign within "Meet the Sniper" possibly revealing the Eyelander.
• The decapitation animation the Eyelander's victims suffer does not actually seperate the head from the model of the victim, instead shrinking the head so small it cannot be easily seen and spawning a head gib where their head once was to create the illusion of decapitation. This explains why decapitated ragdolls have a 'pinched' looking neck.
• The notch in the blade implies that a victim of the sword fought back with a bladed weapon; perhaps the Sniper's Kukri or Spy's Knife.
• In the comic Loose Canon, an Eyelander can be seen in Blutarch Mann's office in 1890.

See also

• Eyelander strategy

External links

• The Demoman Update- The Eyelander