Helltower

Note: ​This map was originally released with Haunted Halloween Gifts spawning on the map during Halloween Events; this feature was replaced with Soul Gargoyles in Scream Fortress 2015.

Helltower
Basic Information
Map type:	Payload Race
File name:	plr_hightower_event
Released:	October 29, 2013 Patch (Scream Fortress V)
Variants:	Hightower and Snowtower
Developer(s):	Valve
Map Info
Environment:	Desert
Setting:	Nighttime, cloudy
Hazards:	Pitfall, Pumpkin bombs, Skeletons, Ghost, Crushing
Hazards (Underworld):	Infernal Lava
Pyrovision Support:	Yes
Magic spells:	Yes
Bot support:	Yes
Map Items
Health Kits:	×4  •   ×7  •    ×1
Ammo Boxes:	×5   •    ×5   •    ×3
Special:
Map Photos
Map Overview

“

Push a corpse-filled cart through a magic-blasted, skeleton-infested terrorscape to reach the infernal maw of a gaping Hellmouth in this Halloween-themed Payload Race of utter pants-filling terror! Just to be clear: You will poop your pants. — Helltower publicity blurb

”

Helltower is a Payload Race map added in the Scream Fortress 2013 Update. Players who own a Spell Book may equip it and be able to pick up and cast the many Magic Spells that appear on this map. Occasionally, the Soul Gargoyle spawns for randomly selected players on the server to find and pick up.

The objective is to push a cart of gravel containing the corpse of the opposing team's employer (Blutarch for RED, Redmond for BLU) to the lift at the high towers before the other team, all while the brothers' spirits shout general insults (announcements) at the players. At the beginning of the round each team's employer requests or demands that the team send their corpse (the other team's employer) to Hell. Once either brother is pushed to the checkpoint, all players are sent to Hell.

In Hell, the teams spawn on opposite sides of a ruined tower and must make their way to the spellbook on Skull Island while avoiding enemy fire, spells, and falling into the lava. Any player killed in Hell becomes a Ghost and can pursue the living players; however, ghosts have no way to deal any damage. Pressing primary-fire or using a voice command as a ghost causes the player to yell "BOO", which can be used to annoy living players but serves little other purpose. Players that survive and reach the book receive an Unfilled Fancy Spellbook, if they do not already possess one in their backpack, which must be filled with Spellbook Pages in order to become usable.

Soul Gargoyles spawn on the map for each player individually during game play. The first notification of the Soul Gargoyle is vocally announced to the player by Merasmus, and repeated notifications may appear until the player grabs the Pickup or it disappears. Only the player for which the Soul Gargoyle has spawned sees the notifications or the Pickup. During Halloween Events, picking up a Soul Gargoyle scores the player 10 additional collected souls.

Witching Hour

The Witching Hour is a timed-event feature introduced in Helltower. It occurs every time the minute hand on the Clocktower reaches 12 and lasts while the minute hand steps backwards around back to 12 again. Every 2 minutes and 25 seconds, the Witching Hour runs for 40 seconds. Clocktower bells ring announcing the Witching Hour. Clockworks clunk loudly within the tower, increasing in rate to warn players of the end of the Witching Hour.

During each witching hour, many Magic Spells spawn all over the open areas of the map and two Bridges open over the Lava pit to the Cliff House. Players who survived the bridge crossing may pick up the Rare Magic Spell at the Cliff House and be returned instantly to their own spawn with an Overheal and a brief speed boost.

At the start of the second Witching Hour and every second hour after that, the Green Skeleton King and 5 Skeletons appear and begin chasing the nearest players.

Overview of the Hell part of the map.

Mann Brothers

The Mann Brothers, Redmond and Blutarch, serve as Helltower's Halloween-themed Payload carts. After being slain by their long-lost brother Gray Mann, the ghosts of the Mann Brothers endeavour to have their respective mercenaries send the other brother to Hell so that one may claim their father's inheritance, as described in Grave Matters. Thus, each team must push the corpse of the other team's boss to Hell while the ghosts of their respective employers bicker, report progress, and give instruction in place of the Administrator. Voice responses spoken by them are typically made in response to progression of the game, including environmental factors such as spells or newly spawned enemies.

• 

  RED team's cart, with Blutarch Mann inside

• 

  Close up of Blutarch Mann

• 

  BLU team's cart, with Redmond Mann inside

• 

  Close up of Redmond Mann

Hell

While the initial push to the end works like a regular Payload race on Hightower, once a team has pushed their corpse to the end, the screen flashes white as all players are transported to what is believed to be Hell.

On first arrival, all players appear on separate sides of a small area surrounded by lava (along with a short dance-off). The team that successfully pushed their cart to the end receive a noticeable Overheal buff as both teams are to fight over winning a prize upon Skull Island; an Unfilled Fancy Spellbook.

At this point, the game turns into a short Arena match, with no respawns. Instead, killed players turn into maneuverable ghosts. The team that manages to make it to Skull Island and lower the gate around the book wins the match, even if they lost the Payload race.

Locations

Note: If you are having trouble with finding the locations listed here, see the Helpful overview section to see their exact position marked on the map.

• The Hightowers: Similar to the Hightowers in the Hightower map. There are movable platforms at the bottoms that when a Payload cart and at least one player is standing on it, will raise. Like the Hightower map, once a cart reaches the end of the track it detonates and kills all nearby players (which respawn in Hell shortly after).
• Central Tower: Includes a long pit/shaft, similar to Ghost Fort.
• Crossing':Just like with the Hightower, there is a crossing shortly before the ramp.
• The Ramp: Unlike Hightower, the carts do not roll back down the Ramp.
• Cliff-House: Its back wall is now opened up and can be fallen off of, and players can stand on the roof.
• Clocktower: Past the Cliff-House, a Clock tower can be accessed by bridges that appear during the Witching Hour. The ghost of Zepheniah Mann watches over the battle here but disappears during the Witching Hour. His haunting here prevents long-ranged players (e.g., Snipers) from using the location as an unassailable position.
• Balconies: At the end of the spawn hallways, like Hightower, are small balconies that overlook most of the battlefield.
• Tower Corridors: Some changes have been made here, including small puddle rooms on each side that players can drop down into, and small inaccessible tunnels, which can be used to teleport to the opposite tunnel when you are affected by the shrinking spell.
• The Bridge: Two bridges that allows players to access the Clocktower. They appear during the Witching Hour, replacing Zepheniah's ghost and disappear when it is over.
• Hell: When one of the caskets reaches its goal, both teams are sent to Hell. Hell takes on a slightly more demonic and lava-filled appearance than the map itself and still has the top half of the Central Tower. A route can be traveled across to Skull Island where surviving players can find the chatty Bombinomicon and receive a Unfilled Fancy Spellbook.

• 

  The Hightowers

• 

  Central Tower

• 

  Pit in Central Tower

• 

  RED Ramp Balcony

• 

  RED Ramp

• 

  BLU Ramp Balcony

• 

  BLU Ramp

• 

  RED Sniper Balcony

• 

  RED Sniper Balcony

• 

  RED Balcony

• 

  RED Tower Corridors, included the spawn door to small puddle room

• 

  RED Tower Corridors

• 

  RED Spawn Room

• 

  BLU puddle room

• 

  BLU Tower Corridors

• 

  Bridge connected to Clocktower

• 

  Clocktower

• 

  Postal Pummeler at the Clocktower.

• 

  Hell Winners' side

• 

  From this point of view, the winning team enters on the left, and the losing one enters on the right.

• 

  Hell Losers' side

• 

  The Bombinomicon in Hell

• 

  The Unfilled Fancy Spellbook

• 

  Regular Magic Spell

• 

  Rare Magic Spell on the Clocktower

• 

  A group of skeletons

Helpful overview

1.Tower corridor 
2.Balconies
3.Central Tower
4.Crossing
5.The Ramp
6.Cliff House
7.Clocktower

Blue diagonal lines: Blu spawn
Red diagonal lines: Red spawn

Blue circle: Blu's Hightower
Red circle: Red's Hightower

Strategy

See Community Helltower strategy

See Community Skeletons strategy

Related achievements

See also: Obtaining Halloween achievements

Scarechievements

Attack o' Lantern Cause the deaths of 5 players by exploding nearby pumpkin bombs.

Scared Stiff Kill a player scared by a ghost.

Ghostchievements

Masked Mann Collect a Soul Gargoyle in Mann Manor.

Bereavements

Helltower: Competitive Spirit Win 142 rounds Helltower: Hat Out of Hell Get the loot from Skull Island in Hell Helltower: Hell on Wheels Send Redmond/Blutarch to Hell 10 times Helltower: Hell's Spells Get and use a rare spell

Helltower: Mine Games Perform 17 environmental kills in Hell Helltower: Skeleton Coup Kill 99 skeletons Helltower: Spelling Spree Use spells to kill 25 players Helltower: The Mann-tastic Four Earn 4 of the Helltower achievements

Update history

October 29, 2013 Patch (Scream Fortress 2013)

• Added Helltower to the game.

October 30, 2013 Patch

• Updated the round restart event to remove spells after playing in hell.
• Updated Helltower to improve server stability.

October 31, 2013 Patch

• Fixed players keeping their spells if they were rolling for them while leaving hell.

November 1, 2013 Patch

• Fixed a dedicated server crash related to players becoming ghosts in hell.

November 6, 2013 Patch

• Fixed being able to instantly respawn by changing teams while a ghost.
• Fixed being able to get into the enemy spawn with the teleport spell in Helltower.

November 11, 2013 Patch

• Fixed an exploit caused by attempting to change teams while in hell.

November 6, 2015 Patch

• Fixed players sometimes not being able to select a team and spawn on Helltower.

Bugs

• The carts do not destroy any buildings when passing over them.
• It is possible to go outside the map in certain spots.
• When the speed boost from exiting the clock tower runs out, any speed boost from a Disciplinary Action is also removed.
• Killing players with the Half-Zatoichi does not restore the user's health in Hell.
• It is possible for pumpkin bombs and Skeletons to spawn directly on the exit gates of a team's base, preventing them from opening.
• Environmental death in Hell is shown in the kill feed as bumper cars rather than the usual skull and bones, regardless of being finished off or falling in the lava.
• It is sometimes possible to escape Hell using the Eureka Effect.
• It is possible to hear footsteps from ghost players not flying around, but hovering just above the ground.
• Ghosts players in Helltower can be healed by friendly Medics and are affected by magic spells.

Notes

• If a player manages to get past the gate in hell before it has opened, the player will continually receive damage.

Trivia

• Each Mann brother has a knife sticking out of his back. This is a reference to when Gray Mann stabbed them at the end of the Blood Brothers comic.
  • However, Gray used only one knife to commit both murders, and he dropped the knife and left it on the floor.
• A Spy corpse (RED Spy for BLU and BLU Spy for RED) can be seen flying towards the lava next to the clock tower after the explosion, most likely serving as stand-ins for Blutarch/Redmond going to Hell.
• According to an unused line for Blutarch, Blutarch states that his laywers are watching from the clock tower at the end of the map, ensuring his team is doing their job.
  • This unused reference to an "evil castle" and his lawyers there, as well as the presence of Merasmus's refrigerator, suggests that the tower was meant to be castle at one point.
• In Hell, there is a secret ledge at the bottom of the cliff with a skeleton leg.
• A hut is visible in the far right side of the normal Hightower; in this version, it is missing with a black spot, implying that it exploded.

Gallery

• 

  The RED team's tomb cart

• 

  The BLU team's tomb cart

• 

  The Skeleton King

See also

The Redmond Cycle:

• Helltower, Redmond is taken to Hell.
• Gorge Event, Redmond has escaped from Hell with his coffin; BLU assaults his mansion to send him back.
• Brimstone, Redmond is taken back to Hell.