VS Saxton Hale Mode (custom game mode)

This article is about the community game mode. For the official version of the game mode with the same name, see Versus Saxton Hale.

For Freak Fortress 2, see Freak Fortress 2.

Saxton Hale as he appears in the custom game mode.

“

The name's Saxton Hale! Australian, C.E.O. of MANN Co. and the man who's gonna burn this place to the ground! Click to listen — Saxton Hale

”

The VS Saxton Hale Mode, also known as VSH, is an unofficial "Juggernaut" variation of Arena Mode, in which an entire team of mercenaries is pitted against one player in a battle to the death. Whilst the primary rules of kill or be killed still apply, the modification involves the lone player taking on the role of an overpowered Saxton Hale (or other "boss" character), contending against the rest of the players as the other team until either the boss or all of the mercenaries die. Occasionally the teams may switch, to allow the team-colored models for Vagineer and Christian Brutal Sniper to appear and to generally vary things a bit.

The mod was created by Lizard Of Oz (formely known as "Dr. Eggman") and the Random Fortress community in October 2010. Some updates (August/September 2010) to the mod were done in collaboration with FlaminSarge. Later, in July 2014, Chdata took over main development of the game mode and has opened to contributions via Github. Saxton Hale is voiced by Dreux "Druox" Ferrano Jr.

Maps for this gamemode start with the prefix vsh.

Gameplay

Note: Gameplay may change accordingly across different servers, due to the main VS Saxton Hale plugin being an open source project for anyone to fork their own edits to their liking. This page only covers the default version of the game mode and thus may be different from edited versions of the game mode.

Because the game mode is based on Arena, dead players cannot respawn until the next round starts. The boss, a reskinned Soldier, is usually restricted to using melee swings or Mantreads stomps but is granted with a very large health pool. Most bosses default to a +210% damage increase, giving 3.1x the base damage of 65, allowing them to hit 202 damage (rounded from 201.5, which is still used for internal math checks in the game). This damage allows them to one hit kill most classes, except for Heavy who starts with 300 HP by default and other classes like Soldier if they are overhealed enough to overcome the boss' damage. This can vary if the server enables damage spread and random crits.

A control point on the map will either enable after a certain elapsed time, or when the number of RED team players has dropped to a certain amount, depending on the server's settings. At this point, either team is able to capture the control point and win the round.

In order to reward risky close-range combat with the boss, all melee weapons (excluding the Spy's melee weapons and Market Gardener) are given a constant Crit boost. Many actions that would instantly kill a normal player, such as a backstab, will only deal a large amount of damage to the boss rather than killing him outright.

Backstabs in this case, have a formula that scales how much damage is dealt based on the boss' max health. In a 1 versus 1 or 1 versus 2 scenario, backstabs can hit for around 60% of the boss's health. Granted, it tends to be much harder to pull one off when the boss has less players dividing his attention. In a 1 versus 31 scenario, backstabs will hit about 10% of the boss' health. The boss itself gains a slight resistance to backstabs for every backstab it receives, reducing the damage of the next backstab from any player.

Unless bosses other than Saxton Hale are disabled by the server, the boss player has a chance to become one of the various different boss characters from the game mode; most of these alternate bosses are varieties of internet memes or fads. Whilst several exclusive skins appear on specific servers (such as the Demopan), the core version of the mod includes a playable Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior (a smaller, player-sized HHH), the Vagineer, the Christian Brutal Sniper and the Easter Bunny, a completely original character. Meanwhile, other bosses have been created and developed based on internet celebrities (mostly memes), Valve characters (such as those from Portal), other TF2 NPCs (Announcer) and more.

Versus Saxton Hale's boss selection is weighted to select Saxton Hale the majority of the time, or roll a dice that will equally select from the other bosses.

Boss abilities

In order to provide balance for the greatly outnumbered boss, several abilities are available to the boss player. These include:

• Superjump: By crouching or alt-firing, looking up and releasing crouch/alt-fire, the player will be propelled upwards and usually forward, depending on the pitch (up and down angle) of the player's view upon activation. Generally, crouch super jumping is less beneficial than alt-fire super jumping because it loses the ability to have a "running start" when activating the jump.
  • The Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr.'s Superjump is replaced with the ability to teleport the boss to a random enemy. The teleport takes longer to 'charge', and the boss is stunned for a few seconds after teleporting, giving his prey a chance to escape. The boss's clipping against enemy players is also removed for a short time after teleporting, to prevent the target from getting stuck inside of him. For balancing reasons, the clipping is not removed if the target is a Scout or Soldier. It is still possible for them to not get stuck anyway, due to TF2's physics.
• Super Duper Jump: A variation of the "Superjump" that protects the boss from instant death or becoming trapped by falling into a precipice. This usually activates when the boss is stuck in a environmental damage zone, and such will be able to activate it with Superjump keys. Some maps, such as Nucleus, may instead teleport the boss to spawn instead of granting Super Duper Jump due to the difficulty of being able to jump out of the pit. This per-map behavior is configurable by the server.
  • The Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr.'s Super Duper Jump always causes him to be instantly teleported to spawn. For the first minute, he will only be teleported to his own spawn. After that, he can appear at either spawn. Maps configured to teleport all bosses to spawn (instead of granting Super Duper Jump) also follow this behavior.
• Rage: As the boss takes damage, his rage meter will fill. This generally defaults to 3500 damage being 100% rage, and is configurable by the server. The ability can be triggered either by taunting or by calling Medic and will scare all nearby players, halve nearby Sentry Guns' health while disabling them temporarily, and deal 1 damage to Dispensers and Teleporters, which is able to alert the Engineer who built them that a rage was used as the damage will reflect on his HUD. The boss will also gain a 4 second defense buff after using rage that reduces all incoming damage by 33%. The stun lasts for 5 seconds and the distance of effect defaults to 800 hammer units, but varies per boss. For example, the Vagineer, Christian Brutal Sniper, and Easter Bunny all have severely reduced rage distance due to the other special effects their rages have.
  • The Vagineer's rage ability stuns players in a smaller range than Hale's and grants him an ÜberCharge, protecting him from all incoming damage. Air blasting the Vagineer while he's Übered (raging) increases the length of the uber by about one second.
  • The Christian Brutal Sniper's rage ability gives him a modified Huntsman that allows him full movement speed while charging up an arrow, but also has a small stun range.
  • The Easter Bunny's rage ability causes him to dance and fire explosive eggs in every direction, temporarily disabling his melee attack. The eggs behave like Loose Cannon cannonballs. For every person the Easter Bunny kills, golden eggs will appear, granting 3 seconds of Crits to players that pick them up; this can be used in combination with the Easter Bunny's rage effect to create a barrage of Crit boosted grenades.
• Escape Plan Effect: All bosses' movement speed increases as they take more damage, which adds to their already increased starting speed.
• Mantreads Effect: If the boss meets the requirement for a Mantread stomp, it will generally always result in an instant kill due to having the +210% damage bonus on top of it. The damage tends to vary based on how much fall damage the boss would have taken (despite bosses being immune to fall damage unless it's strong enough to kill them). Some servers commonly use a "Goomba Stomp" plugin that allows much easier "head crushing" kills to occur. As a reference to Mario from Nintendo, it defaults to triggering by merely jumping on an enemy's head as opposed to having to fall far enough to take fall damage. A Spy using the Dead Ringer or the Invisibility Watch and a Medic with an activated ÜberCharge can potentially survive a mantread or goomba stomp.
• Weighdown: After being airborne for five seconds, looking down and holding crouch will force the boss down to the ground to prevent getting stuck from constant knockback. Weighdown also gives the boss 6x gravity for a short time, to further augment sticking him to the ground.
• Anchor: While crouching on the ground, the boss gains 100% immunity from damage induced knockback. Very useful to prevent being knocked out of vents and other small areas that can only be traversed while crouching, or avoid being knocked off small pillars.

Strategy

Main article: Community VS Saxton Hale (custom game mode) strategy

Balancing

The bosses' initial health increases based on the number of players taking part in the game. This health is calculated as the nearest integer to [(760.8+n)×(n-1)]^1.0341 + 2046, where n is the initial number of players on the non-boss team and 2046 is the base health.

Saxton Hale (and other bosses) Health

Number of players on the server	Health gain per player before base health add	Max (spawn) health of boss
1	0	2046
2	478	3003
3	654	4007
10	938	11425
17	1010	19210
23	1046	26095
30	1077	34343
31	1080	35539

Some weapons equipped by Mercenaries will be changed into their default counterparts or edited for balance issues:

All classes

• All melee weapons excluding Spy's Knives, the Market Gardener and the Holiday Punch are Crit boosted.

 Scout

• The Shortstop's effects are applied even without deploying the weapon.
• The Soda Popper and the Baby Face's Blaster are not allowed and replaced with the Scattergun.
• All pistols are Mini-crit boosted.
• The Bonk! Atomic Punch is not allowed and is replaced with the Crit-a-Cola.
• The Crit-a-Cola grants full Crits instead of Mini-crits.
• The Flying Guillotine is Crit boosted.
• The Candy Cane causes a small Health pack to appear on hit.
• The Fan O' War removes 5% of the boss's rage per hit.
• The Wrap Assassin has two baubles instead of one.

 Soldier

• All Soldier primary and secondary weapons (excluding the Cow Mangler 5000 and the Righteous Bison) will perform Mini-crits against an airborne boss (the weapons Mini-crit airborne targets for up to 99999 seconds after weapon switch).
  • The Direct Hit performs Crits instead of Mini-crits.
  • The Reserve Shooter performs Crits in place of Mini-crits, has a +10% damage bonus, and has 3 ammo in clip instead of 4.
• The Rocket Jumper is not allowed and is overridden with the Rocket Launcher.
• The Air Strike gains additional clip for every 200 damage dealt with the Air Strike itself.
• The Gunboats reduce fall damage by 90%.
• The Mantreads reduce fall damage by 90%, increase rocket jump force by 1.8x and deal 1024 damage to bosses upon landing on their head. On servers with the Goomba Stomp plugin, it may be possible to register both a Mantread Stomp and Goomba Stomp simultaneously.
• The Battalion's Backup grants 75% knockback resistance. The meter will fill as normal, but will also do so instantly after surviving any hit from the boss. When activated, it grants Crit immunity and 80% damage resistance against bosses' attacks.
• The B.A.S.E. Jumper reduces damage of Market Gardens by 33% when active. A successful Market Garden will disable the parachute if it is active, however it can be re-deployed instantly.
• The Half-Zatoichi heals +35 health on hit and can overheal the player by up to +25 health. The weapon can be sheathed after a hit.
• The Market Gardener does damage similar to backstabs on a market garden, except scaled lower for balancing purposes. After successfully landing a market garden, the Soldier must blast jump again before being able to do another.

 Pyro

• When a Compression Blast is used on any boss, the boss will gain 4% rage. In addition, using the Compression Blast on the Vagineer while he is ÜberCharged will take extra Ammo and will lengthen the time of the Vagineer's rage.
• All Flare Guns are Crit boosted.
• The Phlogistinator disables Flare Gun Crits and deals 50% less damage while not under effect of the MMMPH buff.
• The Flare Gun and Detonator are replaced with a "Mega-Detonator", a customized Detonator that allows for a very large flare jump at the expense of greater self-damage from explosions. The flare jump will propel the user a large distance regardless of whether it is detonated via alt-fire or via the flare exploding on contact with an object.
• The Manmelter Revenge Crits do 2.5x damage. Incidentally, there are no opportunities to ignite players in the default version of the game mode that are eligible Revenge Crits other than the rare ignited Christian Brutal Sniper arrow or dedicated map element, often rendering the ability useless.
• The Axtinguisher and Postal Pummeler behave like the Fire Axe.
• The Powerjack gives the Pyro +25 health on hit and can overheal the player up to +50 health.
• The Third Degree will add +10% ÜberCharge per hit to any Medics healing the player. This 10% is split among multiple Medics. If a Pyro is able to constantly hit the boss while under the effects of a Medic's Übercharge, it is possible to prolong it infinitely.

 Demoman

• The Ali Baba's Wee Booties and the Bootlegger reduce fall damage by 90% and deal 1024 damage to bosses upon landing on their head under valid Mantread stomp conditions.
• The Chargin' Targe, Splendid Screen and Tide Turner block one hit from any boss, after which they are removed from the player for the duration of the round. All shields grant the player with either a Crit or Mini-crit boost for their Grenade Launcher, depending on the server's configuration.
• The Sticky Jumper is not allowed and is replaced with the Stickybomb Launcher.
• The Eyelander, Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker and Nessie's Nine Iron gain heads on each hit.
• The Half-Zatoichi heals +35 health on hit and can overheal the player by up to +25 health. The weapon can be sheathed after a hit.

 Heavy

• The Natascha is not allowed and is replaced with the Minigun.
• The Killing Gloves of Boxing, the Gloves of Running Urgently and the Bread Bite are modified to allow the Heavy to run at +50% greater speed, but deal 7 damage per second while active. They do not inherit any other penalties from the Gloves of Running Urgently.
• The Fists of Steel are not allowed and are replaced with Fists.
• The Holiday Punch has no stun effects. It does not gain a Crit boost as other melee weapons do, but can still perform its laugh on Crit ability, though the effect will only last for 0.1 seconds on the boss (with the exception of a Vagineer who has used his rage ability).

 Engineer

• Metal from pickups is limited, as all Ammo crate pickups are converted to the small variation.
• All bosses' rage deals 1 damage to Teleporters and Dispensers, indicating whether rage was used nearby.
• The Frontier Justice is Crit boosted as long as the Engineer's Sentry Gun is actively targeting the boss.
• The Rescue Ranger and Pomson 6000 are Crit boosted.
• All pistols are Crit boosted.
• The Short Circuit may or may not be replaced with a Pistol, depending onserver configuration.
• The Eureka Effect may or may not be replaced with a Wrench, depending onserver configuration.
• Telefragging the boss will deal exactly 9001 damage.

 Medic

• The Medic spawns with 40% ÜberCharge, and after each ÜberCharge runs out, gains 31% Übercharge automatically.
• Targets who have been granted a Crit boost by the gamemode will also deal Mini-crit damage for indirect forms of damage if they are being healed. This can affect an Engineer's sentry by giving it Mini-crits when an Engineer has his Wrench equipped, because the game mode normally only grants Crits without Mini-crits for melee weapons.
• All syringe guns are replaced with a custom Syringe Gun that grants +5% Übercharge on hit and the Overdose's speed effect.
• The Crusader's Crossbow is Crit boosted, deals 45% extra damage, and gains +15% ÜberCharge on each successful hit.
• All Mediguns are replaced with a customized Kritzkrieg that grants both Crits and invulnerability during its ÜberCharge and the Disciplinary Action speed boost effect while healing the Scout. Upon activating ÜberCharge, the Medic is boosted to start at 150% instead of 100% charge, causing it to last for 12 seconds rather than 8.

 Sniper

• All Sniper rifles deal 3x more damage than normal. Critical and Mini-crit hits will still deal the same amount of damage as though they were not Crit or Mini-crit hits.
• The Sniper Rifle outlines the boss (like Payload Cart or CTF Intelligence) for several seconds. The time added to the glow timer scales based on the charge of the shot.
• The Huntsman and the Fortified Compound are granted +100% reserve ammo and deal 50% extra damage. They are also Crit boosted.
• The Sydney Sleeper will not apply Jarate to bosses but contributes half as much rage to the boss than other Sniper rifles.
• The Bazaar Bargain is not allowed and is replaced with the Sniper Rifle.
• The Hitman's Heatmaker gains Focus on hit. The amount of Focus gained varies by the charge of the shot.
• The SMG is Crit boosted.
• The Jarate and Self-Aware Beauty Mark removes 8% of the boss's rage, removes one arrow from the Christian Brutal Sniper if he has any, and reduces the duration of the Vagineer's uber.
• The Razorback is not allowed and is replaced with the SMG.
• The Cozy Camper, along with its attributes, also gives the player a custom SMG that causes the boss to bleed for 1.5 seconds on hit, deals 15% less damage, and does not randomly Crit. It is not granted a Crit boost.
• The Bushwacka will allow the Sniper to hit a wall to 'wall climb'. The attack rate of the Bushwacka is reduced on a successful 'wall climb' to lower the player's rate of ascension, each 'climb' also deals around 15 damage to the player to prevent indefinite climbing. The Bushwacka prevents the player from being healed while in use, to further prevent Medics from allowing a Sniper to indefinitely climb.

 Spy

• A backstab from any Spy knife deals massive damage to the boss, from roughly 60% of the boss's max health at lower player counts to 10% on nearly full servers.
• Upon a successful backstab, both the Spy and the boss are alerted, and the Razorback effect is applied to the Spy, disabling further attacks and cloaking for 2 seconds.
• Being cloaked next to a Dispenser rapidly depletes the Cloak meter to prevent camping.
• Rage stun will still affect cloaked Spies, and show "spooked" ghost particle effects above the Spy's head.
• All Spy revolvers gain a Mini-crit boost while the Spy is undisguised.
• The Ambassador does 2.5x (255) damage on headshots.
• The Diamondback grants 2 Revenge Crits on backstab. Each Crit deals 200 damage to the boss.
• Your Eternal Reward and Wanga Prick only disables Disguise Kit and has a lower decloak sound volume.
• The Conniver's Kunai will start the player off with 65 health instead of 70. A successful backstab adds 180 health to the Spy, and can overheal up to 270 health.
• A successful backstab with the Big Earner grants 100% Cloak meter and a 3 seconds speed boost.
• The Invis Watch, Enthusiast's Timepiece and Quäckenbirdt will grant a 90% damage reduction while cloaked. However, it grants only about 42% resistance against bosses' attacks which allows them to deal 85 damage to a cloaked Spy.
• The Cloak and Dagger is not allowed and is replaced with the Invis Watch or Enthusiast's Timepiece.
• The Dead Ringer grants a constant 90% damage reduction. Unlike the other watches, the boss will only deal 62 damage to a Spy that has the Dead Ringer active, feigned or not.

Remember, however, that balance specifics and mechanics may vary from server to server as some of these settings are adjustable via server console variables or may be edited.

Voice lines

Saxton Hale features custom voice lines by Dreux Ferrano, many of these are directly quotes from the Comics.

Plugin information

• Current version: 1.55
• Required SourceMod extensions: TF2Items, TF2Attributes
• The plugin is available for download on the Allied Modders Forum, as of 2 January 2011. It was previously available since 31 December 2010 on the Random Fortress Forum.

Changelog

Changelog:

Version 1.51-1.52 (2/4/2015)

• Added the 2014 festives.
• Market garden nerf: 33% less damage if actively parachuting.
• Successful market garden removes your parachute.
• After a successful market garden, you must touch the ground again before getting another. (Fixes getting stuck in HHH on teleport for multiple mid-air gardens).
• One-Time CenterText messages now appear over repeated messages. For example, "You just backstabbed him" will show for 5 seconds if you're the last player, and prevent the "Current boss health is..." message from overwriting it.
• Fixed rounds ending due to everyone being on the same team when the round starts.
• KGB still acts like GRU, but is no longer visually changed to look like GRU.
• Added some missing Precache stuff.
• Added OVERRIDE_MEDIGUNS_ON. Uncommenting this will replace medigun attributes while keeping their original skin/model, instead of replacing them with a kritzkrieg. Thanks to Starblaster64.
• Fixed the "Living Spectator" glitch that often happens with AFK-Manager and other plugins that move players to spectate.
• Added sm_hale_reload for developers. This command tells the plugin to reload itself at the end of the next round, essentially making the plugin reload itself without disrupting gameplay.
• During the first round, team balance is enforced for even teams. This prevents scenarios where everyone joins RED team and become confused as to why the game won't start (because no one is on BLU).
• Added HideCvarNotify - This blocks chatspam when the following convars change: tf_bot_count, tf_arena_use_queue, tf_arena_first_blood, mp_friendlyfire.
• Special thanks to yarik2720 for russian translations.
• Integrated fix for TeleportToSpawn that prevents the boss from being teleported to other arenas in multi-stage maps, such as in vsh_megaman_* - He will only teleport to the current arena.
• A bunch of random code changes/optimizations/frogs imported from my version of VSH.
• Full list of changes can be seen here. (Note: All the relevant stuff is already posted above).

Version 1.50 (10/7/2014)

• Removed gamedata dependency.
• Fixed mantreads not giving increased jump height.
• Reserve shooter no longer Thriller taunts.
• Optimized some code and brought in sync with the github
• Now incompatible with versions of SM lower than 1.6.3

Version 1.49 (8/24/2014)

• Updated again for the latest version of sourcemod (1.6.1 or higher)
• Botkillers are fixed now.
• Fixed wrong number of players displaying when control point is enabled.
• Fixed festive GRU's stats and festive/bread jarate not removing rage.
• Fixed issues with HHH teleporting to spawn.
• Added configs/saxton_spawn_teleport.cfg

Version 1.48 (8/14/2014)

• Call medic to rage.
• Harder to double tap taunt and fail rage
• Block the boss from using voice commands unless he is CBS/Bunny
• Hale only takes 5% of his max health as damage while in pits, at a max of 500.
• HHH instantly teleports to a random spawn after falling in pits.

- For the first minute, he can only teleport to his own team's spawn. - After that, any spawn team's spawns.

• Cannot constantly spam super jump as much when falling into pots. (Yes pots).

- IMPORTANT: I realize this may make arena_nucleus terrible. On my server I made it teleport hale to spawn like HHH on only this map, but I didn't feel like setting up a config file for this to release publicly yet.

• HHH takes 50 seconds to get his first teleport instead of 25, in light of the wallclimb.
• Updated translation files for the new weapon changes that nobody reads.

Version 1.47 (8/04/2014)

• Updated for the latest version of sourcemod (1.6.1).
• Fixed final player disconnect not giving the remaining players mini/crits.
• Fixed cap not starting enabled when the round starts with low enough players to enable it.
• Fixed players not regenerating on spawn and having items of the opposite team color.
• Using !haleclass as Hale now shows boss information instead of class information.
• Fixed Hale's anchor to work against sentries. Crouch walking negates all knockback.

- Remember to read the installation notes above as TF2Attributes is required for this feature. - Remember to still read it if you don't want to use TF2Attributes.

• Being cloaked next to a dispenser now drains your cloak to prevent camping.

Version 1.46 (7/27/2014)

• Hale can no longer pick up health packs.
• Fixed maps like military area where BLU can't pick up ammo packs in the first arena round.
• Fixed unbalanced team joining in the first arena round.
• Changed /halenew pagination a little.
•  !infotoggle can disable the !haleclass info popups on round start.
• Can now type !resetq to reset your queue points.
• Fixed Tide Turner & Razorback not being unequipped/removed properly.
• Easter Bunny has 40pct knockback resist in light of the crit eggs.
• Phlog damage reduced by half when not under the effects of CritMmmph.
• Fixed botkillers glitch (thanks rswallen).
• Quiet decloak moved from Letranger to Your Eternal Reward / Wanga Prick.
• YER no longer diguises you in light of the quiet decloak.
• Demo shield crits nerfed to minicrits for his grenade launchers.
• Added cvar 'hale_shield_crits' to re-enable full crits. (set to 1 for crits, 0 for minicrits)
• Added cvar 'hale_hp_display' to toggle showing Hale's health on the hud at all times.

Version 1.45 (7/17/2014)

• Fixed equippable wearables (thanks fiagram & Powerlord).
• Fixed flickering HUD text.
• Implemented anti-suicide as Hale measures.
• Hale cannot suicide until around 30 seconds have passed.
• Hale can no longer switch teams to suicide.
• Repositioned 'player became x boss' message off of your crosshair.
• Removed annoying no yes no no you're Hale next message.
• Market Gardens do damage similar to backstabs.
• Deadringer now displays its status. Useful for thirdperson servers.
• Phlog is invulnerable during taunt activation.
• Phlog Crit Mmmph duration has 75% damage resistance.
• Phlog disables flaregun crits.
• Fixed Bread Bite and Festive Eyelander.
• Can now see uber meter with melee or syringe equipped.
• Soda Popper & BFB replaced with scattergun.
• Bonk replaced with crit-a-cola.
• All 3 might be rebalanced in the future.
• Reserve shooter crits in place of minicrits. Still 3 clip.
• Re-enabled Darwin's Danger Shield. Overhealed sniper can tank a hit!
• Batt's Backup has 75% knockback resist.
• Air Strike relaxed to 200 dmg per clip.
• Fixed backstab rarely doing 1/3 damage glitch.
• Big Earner gives full cloak on backstab.
• Fixed Steamtools not changing the game description.
• Fixed medic not getting assist damage from backstabs.
• Reverted 3/5ths of backstab damage assist for medics.
• It should now be 1/2 or less if multiple medics are healing the spy, and 100% if uber, like all other damage sources.
• HHH can wallclimb. (Max of 10 times in a row before touching the floor again).
• HHH's weighdown timer is reset on wallclimb.
• HHH now alerts his teleport target that he teleported to them.
• HHH can get stuck in soldiers and scouts, but not other classes on teleport.
• Can now charge super jump while holding space.
• Nerfed Easter Bunny's rage eggs by 40% damage.

Version 1.44 (7/15/2014)

• Air Strike gains ammo based on every 500 damage dealt.
• Kunai starts at 65 HP instead of 60. Max 270 HP.
• Kunai gives 180 HP on backstab instead of 100.
• Demo boots now reduce fall damage like soldier boots and do stomp damage.
• Fixed bushwacka disabling crits.
• Fixed first round glitch (thanks nergal).
• Sydney Sleeper now generates contributes half as much to rage than other sniper rifles.
• Other sniper rifles just do 3x damage as usual.
• Huntsman gets 2x ammo, fortified compound fixed.
• Festive flare gun now acts like mega-detonator.
• Medic crossbow now gives 15pct uber instead of 10.
• Festive crossbow is fixed to be like normal crossbow.
• Fixed medics getting 2x the damage for backstab assists.
• Medics now get 3/5 the damage, similar to telefrag assists.
• Relaxed Air Strike damage per head to 200 damage.

Version 1.43 (7/15/2014)

• Backstab formula rebalanced to do better damage to lower HP Hales.
• Damage Dealt and Full Health Kills now work properly with backstabs.
• Slightly reworked Hale health formula.
• (Anchor) Bosses take no pushback from damage while ducking on the ground. (Not working against sentries).

- This prevents Hale from being pushed back in vents or in the giant Scorch Shot in the new 2fortdesk map.

• Short circuit blocked until further notice.
• L'etranger's 40% cloak is replaced with quiet decloak and -25% cloak regen rate.
• Ambassador does 2.5x damage on headshots.
• Diamondback gets 3 crits on backstab.
• Diamondback crit shots do bonus damage similar to the Ambassador.
• Kunai now starts with 65 HP instead of 60. It now gains 180 HP on backstab instead of 100. Max 270.
• Manmelter always crits, while revenge crits do bonus damage.
• Bushwacka blocks healing while in use to prevent medirope exploits.
• Cannot wallclimb if your HP is low enough that it'll kill you.
• Bushwacka doesn't disable crits.
• 2013 festives and bread now get crits.
• Fixed telefrag and mantread stomp damage.
• Mantread stomps now OHKO Hale instead of leaving him at 1 health when his health is less than the damage mantreads do (1024 dmg).

Version 1.42

• Festive fixes
• Hopefully fixed targes disappearing?
• Easter and April Fool's Day are so close together this year... what could it mean...?
  • (spoiler, it's a new silly boss)

Version 1.41

• Fixed bosses disguising
• Updated action slot whitelist
• Updated sniper rifle list, Fest. Huntsman
• Medigun speed works like Quick-Fix
• Medigun+gunslinger vm fix
• CBS gets Fest. Huntsman
• Spies take more dmg while cloaked (normal watch)
• Experimental backstab block animation

Version 1.40

• Dead Ringers have no cloak defense buff. Normal cloaks do.
• Fixed Sniper Rifle reskin behavior
• Boss has small amount of stun resistance after rage
• Fixed HHH/CBS models

Version 1.39c

• Backstab disguising smoother/less obvious
• Rage 'dings' dispenser/tele, to help locate Hale
• Improved skip panel
• Removed crits from sniper rifles, now do 2.9x damage
  • Sleeper does 2.4x damage, 2.9x if Hale's rage is >90pct
  • Bushwacka nerfs still apply
  • Minicrit- less damage, more knockback
• Scaled sniper rifle glow time a bit better
• Fixed Dead Ringer spy death icon
• BabyFaceBlaster will fill boost normally, but will hit 100 and drain+minicrits
• Can't Eureka+destroy dispenser to insta-tele
• Phlogger invuln during the taunt
• Added !hale_resetq
• Heatmaker gains Focus on hit (varies by charge)
• Bosses get short defense buff after rage
• Cozy Camper comes with SMG - 1.5s bleed, no random crit, -15% dmg
• Valve buffed Crossbow. Balancing.
• New cvars-hale_force_team, hale_enable_eureka"
• Powerlord's Better Backstab Detection
• Backburner has charged airblast
• Skip Hale notification mixes things up
• Bosses may or may not obey Pyrovision voice rules. Or both.

Version 1.39 beta

• !hale_resetqueuepoints
  • From chat, asks for confirmation
  • From console, no confirmation!
• Help panel stops repeatedly popping up
• Medic is credited 100% of damage done during uber
• Bushwacka changes:
  • Hit a wall to climb it
  • Slower fire rate
  • Disables crits on rifles (not Huntsman)
  • Effect does not occur during HHH round
• Late December increases chances of CBS appearing
• If map changes mid-round, queue points not lost
• Fixed HHH tele (again).
• HHH tele removes Sniper Rifle glow
• Mantread stomp deals 5x damage to Hale
• Rage stun range- Vagineer increased, CBS decreased
• Balanced CBS arrows
• Minicrits will not play loud sound to all players
• Dead Ringer will not be able to activate for 2s after backstab
  • Other spy watches can
• Fixed crit issues
• Hale queue now accepts negative points
• For server owners:
  • Translations updated
  • Added hale_spec_force_boss cvar
  • Now attempts to integrate tf2items config
  • With SteamTools, changes game desc
  • Plugin may warn if config is outdated
  • Jump/tele charge defines at top of code
• For mapmakers:
  • Indicate that your map has music:
  • Add info_target with name 'hale_no_music'
• Third Degree hit adds uber to healers
• Knockback resistance on Hale/HHH

Version 1.38

• Bots will use rage
• Doors only forced open on specified maps
• CBS spawns more during Winter holidays
• Deathspam for teamswitch gone
• More notice for next Hale
• Wrap Assassin has 2 ammo
• Holiday Punch slightly disorients Hale (if stunned Heavy punches Hale, removes stun)
• Mantreads increase rocketjump distance
• Fixed CBS Huntsman rate of fire
• Fixed permanent invuln Vagineer glitch
• Jarate removes some Vagineer uber time and 1 CBS arrow
• Low-end Medic assist damage now counted
• Hitting Dead Ringers does more damage (as balancing)
• Eureka Effect temporarily removed
• HHH won't get stuck in ceilings when teleporting
• Further updates pending

Version 1.37b

• The Fan O' War no longer mistakenly adds the MarkedForDeath condition.
• The music forward now fires consistently even if there's no music. Improvements.

Version 1.37

• Fixed taunt/rage
• Fixed rage+high five
• hale_circuit_stun - Circuit Stun time (0 to disable)
• Fixed coaching bug
• Config file for map doors
• Fixed floor-Hale
• Fixed Circuit stun
• Fixed negative health bug
• hale_enabled isn't a dummy cvar anymore
• hale_special cmd fixes
• 1st-round cap enables after 1 min.
• More invalid Hale checks.
• Backstabs act like Razorbackstab (2s)
• Fixed map check error
• Wanga Prick -> Eternal Reward effect
• Jarate removes 8% of Hale's rage meter
• The Fan O' War removes 5% of the rage meter on hit
• Removed Shortstop reload penalty
• VSH_OnMusic forward added

Version 1.369

• Fixed spawn door blocking.
• Cleaned up HUD text (health, etc).
• VSH_OnDoJump now has a bool for superduper.
• !halenoclass changed to !haleclassinfotoggle.
• Fixed invalid clients becoming Hale
• Removed teamscramble from first round.
• Vagineer noises:
  • Nope for no
  • Gottam/mottag (same as jump but quieter) for Move Up
  • Hurr for everything else
• All map dispensers will be on the non-Hale team (fixes health bug)
• Fixed command flags on overlay command
• Fixed soldier shotgun not dealing midair minicrits.
• Fixed invalid weapons on clients
• Damage indicator (+spec damage indicator)
• Hale speed remains during humiliation time
• SuperDuperTele for HHH stuns for 4s instead of regular 2
• Battalion's Backup adds +10 max hp, but still only overheal to 300
• Full rage meter when hit by Hale. Buff causes drastic defense boost.
• Fixed a telefrag glitch
• Powerjack is now +25hp on hit, heal up to +50 overheal
• Backstab now shows the regular hit indicator (like other weapons do)
• Kunai adds 100hp on backstab, up to 270
• FaN/Scout crit knockback not nerfed to oblivion anymore
• Removed Short Circuit stun (better effect being made)

Version 1.368

• Now FaN and Scout crit knockback is REALLY lessened.
• Medic says 'I'm charged' when he gets 100%% uber-charge with syringegun.
• Added support of VSH achievements.
• Team will scramble in 1st round, if 1st round is default arena.
• Now client can disable info about changes of classes, displayed when round started.
• Powerjack adds 50HPs per hit.
• Short Circuit stuns Hale for 2.0 seconds.
• Vagineer says "hurr"

Version 1.367

• Map-specific fixes:
  • Oilrig's pit no longer allows HHH to instatele
  • Arakawa's pit damage drastically lessened
• General map fixes: disable spawn-blocking walls
• Cap point now properly un/locks instead of fake-unlocking.
• Tried fixing double-music playing.
• Fixed Eternal Reward disguise glitch - edge case.
• Help menus no longer glitch votes.

Version 1.366

• Fixed superjump velocity code.
• Fixed replaced Rocket Jumpers not minicritting Hale in midair.

Version 1.365

• Half-Zatoichi is now allowed. Heal 35 health on hit, but must hit Hale to remove Honorbound.
  • Can add up to 25 overheal
  • Starts the round bloodied.
• Fixed Hale not building rage when only Scouts remain.
• Tried fixing Hale disconnect/nextround glitches (including music).
• Candycane spawns healthpack on hit.

Version 1.364

• Added convar hale_first_round (default 0). If it's 0, first round will be default arena.
• Added more translations.

Version 1.363

• Fixed a queue point exploit (VoiDeD is mean)
• HHH has backstab/death sound now
• First rounds are normal arena
  • Some weapon replacements still apply!
  • Teambalance is still off, too.
• Fixed arena_ maps not switching teams occasionally
  • After 3 rounds with a team, has a chance to switch
  • Will add a cvar to keep Hale always blue/force team, soon
• Fixed pit damage

Version 1.362

• Sounds are not .mdl anymore, they are .wav.
• Fixed minor issue about /halemusic

Version 1.361

• Christian Brutal Sniper music.
• Soldiers Mini-Crit Hale while he's in mid-air.
• Direct Hit Crits where it would Mini-Crit.
• Reserve Shooter has faster weapons switch and +10% damage.
• Added hale_stop_music for admins to stop current music for all players.
• Force-A-Nature and Scout Crit knockback is lessened.
• Your halemusic/halevoice settings are saved.

Version 1.36

• MEGA UPDATE!
• SUGGEST MANNO-TECH WEAPON CHANGES!
• Updated Christian Brutal Sniper model.
• Fixed last man alive sound.
• Removed broken Hale line, fixed one.
• New Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. rage sound.
• Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. music (/halemusic).
• Christian Brutal Sniper jump noise.
• /halevoice and /halemusic to turn off voice/music.
• Updated natives/forwards (can change rage distance in fwd).
• Change hale_crits cvar to turn off Hale random Crits.
• Fixed Sentries not repairing when raged.
• Set hale_ragesentrydamagemode to 0 to force the Engineer to pick up the Sentry to repair it.
• Now uses sourcemod autoconfig (tf/cfg/sourcemod/).
• No longer requires saxton_hale_points.cfg file.
• Now using clientprefs for queue points.
• When on a non-VSH map, team switch does not occur so often.
• Should have full replay compatibility.
• Bots work with queue, are Hale less often.
• Hale's health increased by 1 (in code).
• Many, many, many, many, many fixes.
• Crossbow: +150% damage, +10 ÜberCharge on hit.
• Syringe Gun has Overdose speed boost.
• Sniper glow time scales with charge (2 to 8 seconds).
• Eyelander/Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker/Nessie's Nine Iron add heads on hit.
• Axtinguisher/Postal Pummeler use Fire Axe attributes.
• Gloves of Running Urgently/Killing Gloves of Boxing is +50% speed but -7hp/s.
• Airblasting boss adds rage (no Airblast reload, though).
• Airblasting ÜberCharged Vagineer adds time to the ÜberCharge and takes extra ammo.
• Frontier Justice allowed, Crits only when players Sentry sees Hale.
• Boss Weighdown (Look down and crouch) after 5 seconds in midair.
• Force-A-Nature is back.
• Scout Crits/Mini-Crits do less knockback if not melee.
• Saxton has his own fists.
• Unlimited /halehp but after 3, longer cooldown.
• Fist kill icons.
• Fixed Christian Brutal Sniper arrow count (start at 9, but if less than 9 players, uses only that number of players)
• Spy primary Mini-Crits.
• Dead Ringer fixed.
• Flare Gun replaced with the Detonator. Has large jump but more self-damage (like old Detonator beta).
• Your Eternal Reward backstab disguises as random faster classes.
• Conniver's Kunai adds 60 health on backstab.
• Randomizer compatibility.
• Medic ÜberCharge works as normal with Crits added (multiple targets, etc).
• Crits stay when being healed, but adds Mini-Crits too (for sentry, etc).
• Fixed Sniper back weapon replacement.
• Vagineer "NOPE" and "Well Don't That Beat All!"
• Telefrags do 9001 damage.
• Speed boost when healing Scouts (like the Quick-Fix).
• Rage builds (VERY slowly) if there are only Scouts left.
• Healing assist damage split between healers.
• Fixed backstab assist damage.
• Fixed Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. attacking during teleport.
• Soldier boots - 1/10th fall damage.
• AND MORE! (I forget all of them.)

Versions:1.35_2 and 1.35_3

• Fixed bugs about damage, the Medic's ÜberCharge, the queue, and others.

Version:1.35_1

• Added point system (/halenext).
• Added [VSH] tag to VSH messages.
• Removed native VSH_GetSaxtonHaleHealth() added native VSH_GetRoundState().
• There is Mini-Crits for the Scout's pistols. Not full Crits, like before.
• Fixed issues associated with Crits.
• Added FORCE_GENERATION flag to stop errorlogs.

Version:1.35

• Special crits will not be removed by Medic.
• Sniper's glow is working again.
• No errors in console.
• Fewer messages in chat.
• Added more natives.
• "Over 9000" sound returns! Thx you, FlaminSarge.

Version:1.34_1

• Fixed airblast reload when VSH is disabled.
• Fixed airblast reload after detonator's alt-fire.
• Airblast reload time reduced to 3 seconds.
• hale_special 3 is disabled.

Version:1.34

• Biohazard Christian Brutal Sniper! He's about 20% cooler!
• TF2_IsPlayerInCondition() returns! Fixed some bugs associated with this.
• Now sniper rifle must be 100perc.charged to glow Hale.
• Fixed Vagineer's model (there isn't spam on console and fire on the ground).
• Added Natives.
• Hunstman deals more damage.
• Added reload time (5sec) for Pyro's airblast.
• Fixed hale_special X admin command.

Version:1.33

• Fixed bugs, associated with Uber-update.
• FaN replaced with Soda Popper.
• Bazaar Bargain replaced with Sniper Rifle.
• Sniper Rifle adding glow to Hale - anyone can see him for 5 seconds.
• Crusader's Crossbow deals more damage.
• Plugin uses TF2_IsPlayerInCondition().
• Other code optimizing.

Version:1.32_1

• Fixed bug with replay.
• Fixed bug with help menu

Version:1.32

• added new Saxton's lines on...

 *round start
 *jump
 *backstab
 *destroy Sentry
 *kill Scout, Pyro, Heavy, Engineer, Spy
 *Last man standing
 *killing spree

• Fixed bugged count of CBS' arrows.
• Reduced Hale's damage versus DR by 20 HPs.
• Now two specials cannot be at a stretch.

Version:1.30 & 1.31

• Bug Fixes

Version:1.29

• Fixed random crashes associated with CBS.
• Now Hale's HP formula is ((760+x-1)*(x-1))^1.04
• Added hale_special0. Use it to change next boss to Hale.
• CBS has 9 arrows for bow-rage. Also he has stun rage, but on little distention.
• Teammates gets 2 scores per each 600 damage.
• Demoman with Targe has crits on his primary weapon.
• Removed support of non-Arena maps, because nobody didn't use it and they were buggy.
• Pistol/Lugermorph has crits.

Version:1.28

• Christian Brutal Sniper is a regular character.
• CBS has 3 melee weapons ad bow-rage.
• Added new lines for Vagineer.
• Now Mode uses in-game model change function. (Attachables are broken from Hatless Update)

Version:1.27

• Many bug fixes and code optimization.

Version:1.26

• Added the second URL for auto-update.
• Fixed problems, when auto-update was a corrupt plugin.
• Added a question for the next Hale, if he wants to be him. (/haleme)
• Eyelander and Half-Zatoichi was replaced with Claidheamh Mor.
• Dispenser and TP won't be destroyed after Engineer's death.
• Mode uses the localization file.
• Saxton Hale will be chosen randomly for the first 3 rounds (then by queue).
• Fan O'War replaced with Sandman

Version 1.25

• Fixed silent HHHjr's rage.
• Now bots (sourcetv too) will not be Hale.
• Fixed invalid uber on Vagineer's head.
• Fixed other little bugs.

Version 1.24

• Fixed destroyed buildables associated with spy's fake death.
• Syringe Gun replaced with Blutsauger.
• Blutsauger, on hit: +3 to uber-charge.
• Removed crits from Blutsauger.
• CnD replaced with Invis Watch.
• Fr.Justice replaced with shotgun.
• Fists of steel replaced with fists.
• KGB replaced with GRU.
• Added /haleclass.

Version 1.23

• Added Super Duper Jump to rescue Hale from a pit.
• Removed pyro's ammo limit.
• Fixed little bugs.

Version 1.22

• Now it's working. Also little optimize about player count.

Version 1.21

• Point will be enabled when X or less players be alive.

Version 1.20

• Added new Hale's phrases.
• More bugfixes
• Improved super-jump.
• Coming soon: point will be disabled until last X living players.

Version 1.12

• More bugfixes.
• Now "(Hale)<mapname>" can be nominated for nextmap.
• Medigun's uber gets uber and crits for Medic and his target.
• Fixed infinite Specials.
• Now gamemode's ConVars saves in file (addons\sourcemod\configs\saxton_hale_config.cfg)
• And more bugfixes.

Version 1.11

• Fixed immortal spy.
• Fixed crashes associated with classlimits.

Version 1.10

• Added hale_enabled convar.
• Fixed bug, when all hats was removed...why?

Version 1.00

• Release!!!

Unused content

• The model for Saxton Hale includes two bodygroups, one to hide or show his hat and the other that adds a mustache, glasses and goggles on the top of Hale's head, much like Dr. Robotnik from the Sonic series.

Bugs

• When Saxton is defeated, depending on the version of VSH, his model may disappear and leave behind the ragdoll of the Soldier that Hale is played from.
  • This is the same case with Vagineer, Horseless Headless Horsemann Junior, Christian Brutal Sniper and the Easter Bunny. They will leave an Engineer, Demoman, Sniper and Demoman ragdoll respectively.
    • If a player uses the command explode in console to commit suicide, no gibs will appear.
• The taunt items such as Director's Vision or Schadenfreude can be used by all of the boss characters, albeit without any facial movement, and will activate rage.
• Occasionally, when a player's distance from Hale is too great to render him, the outline caused by the Sniper Rifle will stay in place instead of following Hale's position.
• Jarate is not immediately removed from Hale, but rather removed after a fifth of a second. Thus, Hale may take Mini-Crit damage for that small duration any time the Jarate effect is applied to him.
• When a boss scares an Engineer wearing the Hotrod, the mask flips down.
• If a player joins a VS Saxton Hale server and is fully in-game (e.g. at the MOTD) before a round starts but has not chosen a team or class, they may spawn in at any time during the round by selecting a team and class. This bug also occurs in Arena mode with the server variable tf_arena_use_queue 0.
• When a player is in Pyroland, the bosses' voices may or may not be pitch-shifted, or may be a combination of both states. This is not entirely unintentional.
• The class info displayed on spawn is outdated. According to the current developer, this will be rectified soon.
• Sometimes when being raged players may be able to reload their weapons if "Auto reload weapons when not firing" option is on.

Trivia

• Saxton Hale's line "WELCOME TO DA TUTORIAL LEVEL!" is a reference to Awesome Gaiden, a popular animation by Arin Hanson.
• Many of the lines used by Saxton Hale are also found in the TF2 Comics on the official website, such as "Brave Jump!".
• Other boss characters have varying responses to backstabs, general damage, taunts, and other in-game events (for example, the Vagineer will often vocalize Engineer lines backwards).

Gallery

• 

  The Christian Brutal Sniper's model with the Huntsman equipped.

• 

  The Easter Bunny model.

• 

  The Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr.'s model.

• 

  The old Saxton Hale model.

• 

  Saxton Hale's updated community-remade^? model.

• 

  The RED Vagineer's model.

• 

  The BLU Vagineer's model.

• 

  The RED Vagineer when raged.

• 

  The BLU Vagineer when raged.

• 

  The Easter Bunny egg projectile.

See also

• Community fads
• Freak Fortress 2
• Hidden
• Death Run
• VS Saxton Hale: VScript: A recreation of the gamemode using VScript

External links

• VS Saxton Hale Mode on AlliedMods
• Random Fortress Forum. Archived on 2020-02-02.
• Official Steam group
• Thanks list (credits). Archived on 2019-09-06.
• I Like This Team Fortress 2 Mod's Pepper Sauce! Kotaku. Archived on 2016-12-20.