Versus Saxton Hale

This article is about the official game mode. For the community version of the game mode with the same name, see VS Saxton Hale Mode (custom mode).

Tiny Rock

“

What is VS Saxton Hale? It's in the name! You fight Saxton Hale! Or you play as Saxton Hale and fight the Mercenaries. Are you ready to face 23 enemies at once? ‘Cause they surely aren’t ready to face you! — Publicity Blurb

”

​VS Saxton Hale is a community-created game mode added in the Summer 2023 Update with the July 12, 2023 Patch. It features Saxton Hale (as the BLU team) pitted against the RED team's mercenaries in a large-scale arena.

Gameplay

When one round starts, one player is chosen at random to play as Saxton Hale on the BLU team, and the rest are assigned to the RED team with one goal: to kill Saxton Hale on behalf of their new boss Gray Mann. The gameplay is similar to the Arena game mode; players have one life and are not able to respawn once killed. Players who join a server in the middle of a round must wait until the next one in order to participate. There are no protected respawn areas or resupply lockers in the map, but health kits or ammo boxes can be found across various locations.

Both Hale and the mercenaries have an arsenal of abilities that can be used against each other. Saxton Hale (BLU team) wins when all the mercenaries are killed; Mercenaries (RED team) win when Saxton Hale is killed. Each game also has a 4 minute timer until the middle control point unlocks, when the control point unlocks, mercenaries or Hale can also capture the control point and win the game. Saxton Hale's health is visible at all times near the top of the screen.

Saxton Hale

As Saxton Hale, players have several different abilities to help take on the mercenaries. These abilities display most of their information on the HUD. A regular melee hit from Saxton does 195 damage (77 damage to buildings) and his health scales with the amount of players on RED he is fighting. Saxton Hale can use all-class taunts, several of which have unique animations on Saxton.

Saxton Hale has a set of attributes that persist throughout the round. By default, Hale has a 25% resistance against all damage sources and knockback forces, and has a 3x damage multiplier for their only primary weapon. Random critical hits are disabled on-wearer, and Hale has an increased melee range and bound multiplier of 1.2x and 1.1x, respectively.

Saxton Hale can stomp players, similarly to the Mantreads, dealing 195 damage to the player landed on.

Saxton Hale cannot be impacted by fall damage, nor can he be healed by a Medi Gun or through health kits. Saxton has a 3x control point capture rate multiplier, but is additionally not able to pick up flags from any team.

Initiating the Flippin' Awesome or Skullcracker taunt as Saxton will act as a taunt kill against the mercenary it was used on.

Sweeping Charge

Saxton charges up his fist as he yells out in preparation for a rushing punch that knocks opponents away and slams them into walls for extra damage (Default key: R). The charge can be held for as long as desired, making Saxton's fist glow blue and freezing him in place, even while in the air. The charge attack can be used to send Saxton in any direction that he is facing, allowing him to reach high places if needed. The charge attack is on a 10 second cooldown and does 55% of the target's total HP and falls off with distance. The charge attack also deals damage to Engineer buildings every tick that it is active.

Saxton Punch!

Saxton starts a 30 second countdown from when he spawns, slowly charging up a devastating attack. When fully charged, this attack turns Saxton's left forearm bright red with critical hit sparks all over it. Saxton also gives an audio cue when the attack is ready, alerting the mercenaries. Upon striking an enemy with Saxton Punch, a shockwave is sent out, damaging every enemy around the target based on their proximity. Saxton Punch automatically applies to the next melee hit when available and does 326 damage before going on cooldown.

Mighty Slam

When Saxton becomes airborne, he has the ability to preform a ground pound, slamming himself back down to the ground with great force. This ability ignores knockback and is triggered by holding the crouch button while in the air (default key: Ctrl). Upon hitting the ground, a big shockwave is sent out in every direction from the point of impact, and every merc close to the landing site takes damaged based on their distance from the point of impact. This ability is on a cooldown for 15 seconds.

Brave Jump

Similar to Scout, Saxton has the ability to perform a double jump. Useful as a general mobility tool, this ability launches Saxton forward and upward with no cooldown, only requiring the player to touch the ground to be performed again.

Mercenaries

As the mercenaries, players have a few abilities to aid in fending off Saxton. All classes have voice lines specific to VS Saxton Hale, although not voiced by the official voice actors. These trigger automatically under certain conditions.

Wall climbing

Every mercenary has the ability to scale surfaces with the use of a melee attack. Upon striking a wall or floor, the player is launched upwards to reach advantageous positions with ease.

Last Mann Standing

When there are 3 mercenaries left, all surviving players deal mini-crit damage. When there is 1 mercenary left, the last surviving mercenary deals full critical hits.

Gameplay changes

Some existing gameplay elements (such as classes, weapons, and buildings) have had changes of varying degrees:

•   The Force-A-Nature deals increased knockback, which applies within a range of up to 600 Hammer units.
•   The Market Gardener (while rocket jumping) and backstabs deal 2.5x increased damage.
•   The Warrior's Spirit heals for 50 health on hit.
•   Telefrags deal 2x damage against Hale, inflicting up to 2000 hit points.
•   Sentry Guns are awarded 1 assist for every 200 damage inflicted to Saxton Hale.
•   Medi Guns provide a 2x ÜberCharge rate bonus if an Ubersaw is equipped.
•   The Ubersaw gives 50% ÜberCharge on hit.
•   The Hitman's Heatmaker has an added 7x Focus multiplier for each hit.
•   Spies take 50% less damage from Saxton Hale while cloaked.
•   Melee weapons for all classes except the Spy deploy 25% faster, have guaranteed crits (except for Market Gardener and Holiday Punch), and have a 60% increased melee range in a 350 Hammer unit proximity between Hale and the player (the Disciplinary Action and Demoman's sword weapons are unaffected by this range increase).
•   On-kill effects are now triggered by attacking Saxton Hale. Demoman sword weapons, the Killing Gloves of Boxing, and the Candy Cane are triggered every hit. Spy knives trigger on every backstab, the Bazaar Bargain triggers on every headshot, and the Air Strike triggers on every 250 damage done to Saxton Hale.
•   The Direct Hit and Reserve Shooter always deal mini-crits on Saxton Hale while he is in the air.
•   Demoman's shields provide a one-hit immunity against Hale's primary attack; after absorbing an attack, the shield breaks and the player loses any effect from the shield, like the ability to charge.
•   Medics have a 30% damage resistance against Saxton Hale's attacks, but are knocked back with an extra 300 Hammer unit force.
•   Weapons and cosmetics utilizing Pyrovision are forcibly disabled in order to prevent Saxton Hale from playing Heavy voice lines.
•   The Rocket Jumper and the Sticky Jumper have their bonus reserve ammo removed.
•   The Scottish Resistance's stickies feature a 20% damage penalty.
•   Demoman's sword weapons deal reduced knockback.
•   All Miniguns deal 40% less damage.
•   The Natascha has an 85% reduced chance of triggering the slowdown-on-hit ability.
•   Sentry Guns have a 50% damage penalty.
•   After backstabbing Saxton Hale, Spy cannot cloak or attack for 2 seconds

Strategy

Main article: Community VS Saxton Hale strategy

Maps

See also: List of maps

VS Saxton Hale maps carry the vsh_ prefix; community maps are identified with an italic font.

Update history

July 12, 2023 Patch #1 (Summer 2023 Update)

• Added maps: VSH Distillery, VSH Nucleus, VSH Skirmish, and VSH Tiny Rock.

July 20, 2023 Patch #1

• Updated vsh_distillery, vsh_tinyrock, vsh_nucleus, vsh_skirmish
  • TF_Bots now function in Versus Saxton Hale.
  • Fixed first-person spectators not seeing Hale's arms glow when he uses his abilities.
  • Fixed players dropping Player Destruction pickups.
  • Fixed Hale sometimes holding Necro Smasher or Sandvich.
  • Fixed Hale's "Dispenser Down..." line playing for any type of building destroyed.
  • By community request, added Pyro VSH lines, performed by James McGuinn.
  • Updated VSH voice lines for Spy.
  • "Behind you" and "Above you" now play exclusively for the player the line is addressed to.
  • Reduced the frequency of Hale's on-kill lines with more than 20 players currently alive.
  • Mad Milk recharge rate returned to stock value.
  • Demoman's Swords now deal less knockback than other melee weapons.
  • Demoman's Shields will now break when absorbing a Hale punch.
  • Fixed a bug relating to sending a class-restricted duel to Hale during Setup.

July 20, 2023 Patch #2

• Enabled Versus Saxton Hale (Community) support for Valve matchmaking servers.

Notes

• No voice lines are present for identifying Saxton Hale as a disguised Spy; attempting to identify Hale as one instead triggers a generic response.
• The Festive Eyelander does not gain heads upon successful melee hit.

Gallery

• VSH Model Saxton Hale JI.png

  Saxton Hale.

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  Saxton Hale's Fists.

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  Sweeping Charge ability.

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  Saxton Punch ability.

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  Sweeping Charge ability HUD icon.

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  Saxton Punch ability HUD icon.

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  Mighty Slam ability HUD icon.