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 an unlockable melee weapon for the Demoman class. It is an exceptionally large bloodstained claymore said to be haunted by a bloodthirsty, malevolent spirit. As such, the blade will constantly mutter the word 'heads' when held.

Aside from being a formidable weapon and having a longer range than most melee weapons, the Eyelander inflicts a 25 max health penalty to the player, resulting in a total of 150 base health points. It also cannot deal random Critical hits, forcing players to rely on the Chargin' Targe's special ability, a Crit boost or a Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge.

The main benefit of the weapon is that it will automatically decapitate enemies upon a kill, and doing so will gift the Demoman with a speed boost and 15 additional max health. This rampup will continue with each beheading until the player has decapitated a maximum of 4 heads, at which point the class's speed and health will be capped at 370 Hammer units per second (slightly slower than a Scout) and 210 health. If the Demoman is overhealed, any extra heads (more than 4) will overheal by 15 points, with a max overheal of 315. The number of heads taken is shown in the HUD. The number of heads taken by a Demoman is the number taken in his current life. Collected heads are retained as long as the Demoman is alive, and do not carry over to his next life, irrespective of whether he has the Eyelander equipped. Cutting off opponent's heads also has a cosmetic effect; The Demoman's single eye will glow unremarkably after taking only one head, but as he takes up to four heads, the eye gets brighter and brighter.

As an added advantage, if the player decapitates an enemy Demoman wielding the Eyelander or the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, in addition to the Demoman's own head, the player receives any heads previously taken by that Demoman.

Damage

See also: 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.

As a Crafting Ingredient

Equalizer Eyelander Homewrecker + =

Eyelander Reclaimed Metal Bushwacka + =

Related Achievements

Beat Me Up, Scotty Use a critical swing with the Eyelander to kill 5 enemy players. Brainspotting Decapitate 50 enemy players. Left 4 Heads Decapitate 4 players with only 10 seconds between each kill.

Scotch Tap Glory in the slaughter of your enemies using the Eyelander. Shorn Connery Decapitate a cloaked Spy. Slammy Slayvis Woundya Decapitate an enemy Soldier who is brandishing the Equalizer.

Previous Changes

June 10, 2010 Patch/June 11, 2010 Patch

• The Eyelander now collects the heads inside Eyelanders of Demomen it decapitates.

Bugs

• Bottle lines are spoken by the Demoman upon a kill.
• The head count is lost when switching from the Chargin' Targe to the Stickybomb Launcher or Scottish Resistance. This can be re-enabled by unchecking the box marked "Automatically respawn after loadout changes in respawn zones" in Options->Multiplayer->Advanced.

Trivia

• 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. [1]
• The name "Eyelander" is a play on the word "Highlander", the name given to inhabitants of the Scottish Highlands. Additionally, the name and function of The Eyelander bear a similarity to the movie Highlander, where immortal humans could gain another immortal's power by decapitating them in a sword fight.
• The design of the sword itself bears a striking similarity to William Wallace's sword as it was portrayed in the movie Braveheart.
• 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.
• If a Dead Ringer Spy is hit with the Eyelander, even though the death is not real, the Demoman still receives a head, possibly from the spawned ragdoll.
• 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!" These are direct quotes from the Highlander movie.
• When in player view, the Demoman swings horizontally normally and vertically for Critical hits. In world view, however, the weapon is swung always vertically. As decapitations should require a horizontal swing, it is unknown how heads are actually cut off.

The F.O.A.D sign within "Meet the Sniper" possibly revealing the Eyelander.

• 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.
• Decapitated players make a final death scream when killed, which is impossible as their lungs and vocal cords would be completely disconnected from their head.
• The decapitation animation of the Eyelander's victims does not actually separate 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. A severed neck model for the Soldier is in the game files but neither it nor any other models have been implemented as of yet.
• In the comic Loose Canon, the Eyelander can be seen in Blutarch Mann's office in 1890.
• In the censored version of Team Fortress 2 (Often refered to as Australian/German version) the blood on the weapon's edge is removed.

Gallery

• Eyelander 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view.

• Eyelander with Chargin' Targe 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view with Chargin' Targe.

• Eyelander glow.png

  The Demoman's eye glowing from collecting heads

• 

  Demoman appearance after four decapitations, as seen in game

See also

• Eyelander strategy

External links

• The Demoman Update - The Eyelander