Community Ghost Fort strategy

This page lists community strategy related to the Halloween map Ghost Fort.

General Merasmus Strategy

Main Article : Merasmus

• Merasmus spawns in the corner where the cards of fate display. On spawn, he will push away everyone before immediately engaging nearby players with his staff. One should avoid getting stuck at his spawn point.
• Merasmus has four signature attacks. He can float around the map, attacking any players he finds by hitting them with his staff. He can throw a bomb in the direction of the player he's attacking. He can launch a magical spell to a certain number of nearby players, launching them skyward and setting them on fire, or he can more rarely teleport in the center of the map to brandish the Bombinomicon and release a multitude of bombs in every direction while floating.
• Merasmus will teleport at random intervals, or after his stun condition wears off. He will always reset his attack mode when doing so.
• Merasmus will take full critical damage if he is hit while performing his Bombinomicon attack and floating around or when stunned. Use both of these occasions to weaken him.
• Every time Merasmus teleports, the Bombinomicon will choose two players and transform their heads into bombs. Affected players will be put in Humiliation and speed boosted. If these players can locate Merasmus and collide into him, they will cause the boss to get stunned and allow everyone to deal critical damage to the boss. The player who collides also gets short invulnerability, crit boost and speed boost.
• At two points during the battle, when Merasmus reaches around 50% health and around 5% health, he will transform into a random oversized prop while spawning multiple other props all around the map. Break them all until you find Merasmus. Hitting Merasmus when he is disguised as a prop will stun him and give the player who hit him a short invulnerability, speed boost and crit boost period. Merasmus will also suffer full critical hits due to his stun.

Class Specific Strategies

 Scout

• While the Scout is not the best class to deal damage to Merasmus, due to a low amount of health, the Scout can make up for it when Merasmus hides as random props, being able to easily get across the map and find props faster and get to props in more hidden or higher places.
• While under the effects of Bonk! Atomic Punch, Merasmus may still try to attack you. Distract him!

 Soldier

• Merasmus' large size makes him a fitting target for the Direct Hit. Linger at medium to close range to take advantage of its damage.
• The large pillars surrounding the map's points are remarkably useful for staying close to Merasmus. Rocket jump to them for a unique vantage spot; your increased height will prevent him from reaching you with any attack other than his bomb volley, and you will be able to see him throughout most of the map.

 Pyro

• This boss can't catch on fire. It is recommended to trade away any Flare Guns for the stock Shotgun, as it will deal more damage in this situation.
• If you are planning on using your Flamethrower, wait until the boss is distracted, confused, or stunned before making your move. His volley of fairly short ranged attacks will be sure to take you down quickly.

 Demoman

• Both the Demoman's primary Grenade Launcher and secondary Sticky Bomb Launcher do adequate damage to Merasmus. Lay down sticks and expend generous amounts of grenades.
• The Eyelander and other melee-oriented items are not advised. Merasmus is guaranteed to do more damage in a melee fight and does not award heads.

 Heavy

• As Heavy, try to stay near a Dispenser. Consider pairing with a Medic as well.
• Every class must remain mobile during the battle with Merasmus, particularly during his bomb volley. The Heavy's slow running speed puts him at a disadvantage when it's time to get away.
• The Brass Beast is a good choice of weapon to fight Merasmus due to its increased damage.

 Engineer

• If a sentry is placed down, make sure it is wrangled at all times. A wrangled sentry can be manually fired when Merasmus is out of range, and it will enable the Engineer to choose his targets (namely, Merasmus and not the opposing team.)
• The damage done by the sentry is reduced to around -4 per round for the bullets, thus the sentry becomes fairly ineffective when it comes to damaging Merasmus. This makes the Gunslinger less ideal.
• Dispensers placed down are important as the fight with Merasmus consumes lots of ammo that is not readily available when the center of the map gets crowded. Keeping your team healed ensures everyone can constantly be dealing damage.

 Medic

• Make sure to heal people who have been hit by Merasmus' magic attack. They likely have lost a lot of health from the direct impact and the fall damage, and will keep losing health from afterburn.
• Using the Kritzkrieg's Übercharge at the right moment can mean the difference between beating the boss or letting him vanish.
• As always, heal your entire team and not just one member.

 Sniper

• Equip the Huntsman and aim for the head. A well-placed headshot deals 1080 damage.
  • A fully-charged headshot from a Sniper Rifle deals 1350 damage.
  • A team of Huntsman-equipped Snipers can take Merasmus down quicker than any other team composition.
• Hitting the boss while he's stunned will prove to be easier and more rewarding; if you time it right, a maximum of 3 fully-drawn arrows can be fired.

 Spy

• The Spy's low damage revolvers make it incredibly difficult to kill Merasmus.
• Backstabs do not affect Merasmus, so the knife does next to no damage, rendering it almost useless.
• A Spy can distract Merasmus with his Dead Ringer. With the Dead Ringer withdrawn, approach Merasmus and have him attack you. He will continue to attack you for quite some time despite your heightened resistance to damage, allowing you to prove an effective means of bait. If done well, your team will seldom have to worry about drawing Merasmus' attention.

Other Notes

• This stage has the same layout as Lakeside, with the exception of there being pumpkin bombs strewn throughout various places in the map.