Projectiles

“

Catch dis. Click to listen — The Scout

”

Projectiles, unlike hitscan bullets, do not travel instantaneously across the map, but rather at a preset speed, differing depending on the projectile, and are often subject to engine physics. Projectiles use a large hitbox shared by all classes to judge contact, the same as that used by melee weapons, other players, and the environment. The damage of a projectile is usually determined by the distance the target is from the attacker upon collision or, alternatively, from the spot said attacker was at upon death. Many projectiles have unique properties, which differ depending on the weapon. Projectiles are not affected by lag compensation.

A Heavy's dropped Sandvich, pieces of destroyed Stickybombs, buildings, Sappers, and dropped weapon pickups from dead players are not considered projectiles. Although they are launched and subject to engine physics, they have different properties.

Special projectiles

The properties of projectiles differ depending on the weapon that fired them. Projectiles often damage on contact like a hitscan bullet. Alternatively, many projectiles generate explosions upon contact, or in the case of the Demoman, generate explosions and destroy themselves when a certain time has passed (in the case of grenades) or at the Demoman's cue (in the case of stickybombs). All projectiles except rockets and energy blasts are subject to gravity and fall downward. All gravity-affected projectiles except for crossbow bolts and arrows are affected by air resistance. The damage of the projectiles that are fired from the Demoman's weapons (after five seconds, in the case of stickybombs), the Flare Gun, the Detonator, the Manmelter and the Huntsman are not affected by distance; however, the Crusader's Crossbow has an inverted damage falloff (which means damage and healing increase by distance).

Certain projectiles apply effects upon contact. The baseballs launched by the Sandman apply a slowing effect, while the Wrap Assassin's bauble inflicts bleed, and flares set enemies on fire. Jarate and Mad Milk do not deal damage at all, but instead apply their respective effects to enemies, temporarily remove the Cloaking ability from Spies, and put out fires within their splash radius. The Blutsauger and Black Box restore health to the firing Medic or Soldier on a hit, and the Crusader's Crossbow heals and damages a teammate or enemy respectively. The Huntsman can also be made to apply the fire effect when ignited with any Flame Thrower. Note that effects are not applied when the target is ÜberCharged.

Stickybombs adhere to the environment, but bounce off spawn doors, players, and certain objects. Arrows and bolts stick to players and the environment, but only cosmetically; syringes also cosmetically stick to the environment. Rockets from a level 3 Sentry Gun circle each other in flight; the cluster of four is considered a single object.

Flames

Main article: Fire

Flames are large, damage-dealing, player-igniting 'particles' fired from the Pyro's primary weapons: the Flame Thrower, Backburner, Degreaser, Rainblower, and Phlogistinator. The Dragon's Fury launches a different type of projectile, similar to a rocket, that share properties with flame particles. These particles use the projectile hitbox to judge contact, like projectiles, but have both a limited lifetime and a maximum distance, and have their damage largely determined by time since being fired rather than distance. Also unlike other projectiles, flames do not stop when they collide with players or buildings, but instead continue moving and dealing damage to other objects until their maximum lifespan is reached. Flame particles can bounce on the environment. They also have a "negative" curve that cause them to drift upward, and their momentum is partially determined by the firing Pyro's movement.

Explosions

Explosions are instantly damaging splash effects produced by projectiles (and the Grenade taunt and Ullapool Caber melee weapon), that usually have significant knockback. They also use the projectile hitbox. The knockback, size, and damage of explosions varies depending on the projectile that generates them. Explosions cannot pass through walls, and thus conform their shape to the shape of their surroundings. They deal damage and knockback proportional to the amount of any hitbox encompassed in their radius and the distance between their origins and the midpoints of affected players. Explosions can hit the player that fired them, which may be used to augment jumping abilities.

Rockets fired from a level 3 Sentry Gun have their damage calculated from the distance of the Engineer to the target, and not from the Sentry to the target. The compression blast and splash effects from Jarate and Mad Milk are sometimes classified as explosions, and have similar properties, conforming to walls in the same way. Explosions (with the exception of the Scottish Resistance and Quickiebomb Launcher) will not destroy stickybombs but will knock them away.

Syringes

Syringes, fired by the Syringe Gun, the Blutsauger, and the Overdose, are some of the only projectiles that cannot be destroyed or reflected by a compression blast. They also deal bullet damage, thereby destroying Stickybombs and inflicting bonus damage to enemies with a weakness to bullets. The Syringe fired by the Crusader's Crossbow can be reflected, however.

Other properties of projectiles

The compression blast ability of the Pyro's primary weapons can reflect all projectiles except small energy beams from the Righteous Bison and the Pomson 6000 and Syringes from the Syringe Gun, Blutsauger, and Overdose. With the exception of stickybombs, once reflected, projectiles switch ownership to the Pyro who reflected them, and deal Mini-Crit damage on enemies they hit.

The energy orb from the Short Circuit destroys almost all projectiles in the game, with the exception of projectile-based weapons that cannot be reflected (etc. Righteous Bison, Pomson 6000).

The Huntsman's arrows critically headshot when they pierce a particular area of the projectile hitbox, around the head. The Backburner Crits when attacking the back of a player's hitbox.

Stickybombs on surfaces can be destroyed by bullets, syringes, melee weapons, the energy orb from the Short Circuit, the charged shot of the Cow Mangler 5000, or the Scottish Resistance's and Quickiebomb Launcher's stickybombs.

Projectiles

The complete list of projectiles in Team Fortress 2 is shown below. Note that "Speed" accounts for the initial movement speed of a projectile before air drag becomes prominent; this applies for the Sandman's baseballs, Wrap Assassin's baubles, Jarate and Self-Aware Beauty Mark, which have different travel arcs and maximum distances despite appearing to be identical.

List of projectiles
Projectile	Weapon		Speed (Hu/s)	Arcs	Sticks	Reflectable	Can be destroyed by
Jar		Mad Milk	1019.9	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Jar		Mutated Milk
Cleaver		Flying Guillotine	3000	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Baseball		Sandman	3000	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Bauble		Wrap Assassin
Rocket		Direct Hit	1980	No	No	Yes	Short Circuit
		Liberty Launcher	1540
		Rocket Launcher Black Box Rocket Jumper Original Beggar's Bazooka	1100
Large energy beam		Cow Mangler 5000					Short Circuit
Rocket		Air Strike					Short Circuit
Small energy beam		Righteous Bison	1200	No	No	No
Fireball		Dragon's Fury	3000	No	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Flare		Flare Gun Scorch Shot	2000	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Flare		Detonator
Flare		Manmelter	3000
Gas Can		Gas Passer	2009.2	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Grenade		Grenade Launcher	1216.6	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
		Loch-n-Load	1513.3
Cannonball		Loose Cannon	1453.9
Grenade		Iron Bomber	1216.6
Stickybomb		Stickybomb Launcher	925.38 2409.2	Yes	To world	Yes	In air: Short Circuit On surface: Bullets Melee weapons Syringes Scottish Resistance Quickiebomb Launcher Short Circuit Detonator Scorch Shot
Stickybomb		Scottish Resistance
Stickybomb		Sticky Jumper
Stickybomb		Quickiebomb Launcher	930.88 2409.2
Rocket		Sentry Gun (Level 3)	1100	No	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Small energy beam		Pomson 6000	1200	No	No	No
Repair claw		Rescue Ranger	2400	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short Circuit
Syringe		Syringe Gun Blutsauger Overdose	1000	Yes	To world	No
		Crusader's Crossbow	2400	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short Circuit
Arrow		Huntsman Fortified Compound	1800 2600	Yes	Yes	Yes	Short Circuit
Jar		Jarate	1017.9	Yes	No	Yes	Short Circuit
Jar		Self-Aware Beauty Mark
Grappling Hook		Grappling Hook	1500	No	Yes	No
Magic Spells		Magic Spells	422.17 1019.8	Sometimes	No	No
Rocket		MONOCULUS	330 1100	No	No	Yes	Short Circuit

Update history

January 5, 2023 Patch

• Fixed entities being considered static props after long server times.
  • Fixed rockets occasionally being solid.

August 13, 2024 Patch

• Fixed hearing the deflection sound when deflecting arrows that are already stuck in something. (community fix from Marxvee).
• Fixed arrows instantly breaking when being fired by an invulnerable player with the projectile penetration upgrade in Mann vs. Machine. (community fix from Marxvee).

October 10, 2024 Patch

• Fixed the reload speed attribute in Mann vs. Machine not scaling projectile speed and gravity correctly for the Huntsman. (community fix from Marxvee).

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.

See also

• Weapons
• Hitscan
• Melee