Gunslinger

“

Ain't that a cute little gun? Click to listen — The Engineer on attractive killing machines

”

The Gunslinger is an unlockable Wrench replacement for the Engineer. It is part of the Engineer Update and was announced on Day 4.

The Gunslinger appears as a robotic fist. It allows the Engineer to perform a combo attack, in which the third strike with the fist becomes an automatic critical hit. The Gunslinger also gives the Engineer an extra 25 max health, boosting his max up to 150 and making him a considerably more offensive class.

Using the Gunslinger allows the Engineer to build a Combat Mini-Sentry Gun instead of the standard Sentry Gun. A Mini-sentry only take 2.5 seconds to build, and costs only 100 metal, but cannot be upgraded or repaired, and only deals half of a normal level 1 Sentry Gun's damage.

Taunting with the Gunslinger will make the Engineer's robotic hand turn into a spinning cutter that stuns and kills.

Damage

• Base: 65 (59 to 72 damage)
• Mini-Crit: 88
• Critical Hit: 195
• Damage Repaired per Hit: 105
• Upgrade Amount per Hit: 25 (Corresponding loss in metal)
• Metal Cost per Repairing Stroke: 1 + Damage / 5
• Metal Cost for reloading ammo: 1 per bullet, 2 per rocket salvo

Trivia

Radigan Conagher wielding the Gunslinger.

• The Gunslinger, as with the Frontier Justice, the Wrangler, and the Southern Hospitality, appears to have been designed by Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's ancestor. This is shown by a hidden link in the Engineer Update. It also appears to be placed over the mangled stump of Radigan and the Engineer's arms. Valve's own blog post furthered this.
• The Gunslinger is more or less a reincarnation of the P.D.Q. item from the closed beta, both sharing the ability to build sentries faster, but are unable to upgrade them.
• The Gunslinger is the only melee weapon to gain crits via hit succession.
• The Gunslinger and the Chargin' Targe are the only weapons to affect viewmodels other than themselves, as the robotic fist can clearly be seen holding all of the Engineer's other weapons.
• When it was first displayed on the Engineer Update page, The Gunslinger was mistakenly shown as occupying the Pistol slot. [1]
• When equipped, The Gunslinger appears to replace the Engineer's entire hand, not be simply worn over it. On the Team Fortress blog it is implied that the Engineer sawed his own hand off to use it.
• The Gunslinger bears a resemblance to the metal glove worn by Ashley J. Williams in the movie Army of Darkness, who also coincidentally removed his own hand in the previous movie.
• It can also serve as a reference to Luke Skywalker replacing his arm stump in The Empire Strikes Back.
• Before being patched on July 9th, 2010, you could build a sentry with the Wrench, upgrade it to Level 2 or 3, then switch to the Gunslinger and move it, becoming a Mini-Sentry at the same level. It is normally impossible to upgrade a Mini-Sentry. This Mini-Sentry, however, still dealt the proportional damage (half damage) that a Mini-Sentry deals, and even its rockets are affected. The flashing light effect would remain despite the light itself being absent on the Level 2 or 3 model, and the upgraded Mini-Sentry was displayed as RED, regardless of team.
• One fan theory has always been that the Engineer's right hand was robotic as there was no way to tell under the glove. It's still possible - he may be replacing his regular robot hand with the Gunslinger, or simply removing the glove to use its special abilities.
• If the user of the Gunslinger manages to pull off a three-hit combo, as soon as they stop attacking the Gunslinger remains locked as a fist for a second, and after a mechanical twitching noise it returns to normal.