Hats/pl

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"Throughout history, men have worn hats as a way of showing how much better they are than other men. “I buy hats,” a behatted man seems to say. “I am better than you.” In wartime, hats were a useful way of conferring rank, and ensuring that casualties were confined to the lower classes. During peacetime, hats have been instrumental for men to let the non-hatted know just who is wearing the hat around here." — Hats: The Ultimate Status Symbol.

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Hats or (Headwear) are wearable items of equipment with their own 'head' section in the loadout screen. With no effect on gameplay, hats exist purely for cosmetic purposes. In total, there are 56 unlockable hats available. Valve introduced the first set of 9 hats with the Sniper vs. Spy update. Many of following major updates included additional sets, including hats designed by members of the community themselves.

Hats can be unlocked at random through the item drop system, and through the use of crafting system. But due to their significantly lowered chance to drop randomly and the higher crafting cost, they tend to be highly sought after and subjects of great popularity within the community.

In attempt to make hats more widely available without sacrificing the rarity of existing hats, Valve has made some hats available to players as a reward for completing in-game achievements. Other hats have been added as a bonus for special offers and promotions on games, including Left 4 Dead 2, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse and Alien Swarm.

A Brief History of Hats

• Sniper vs Spy Update

The first nine hats are introduced into the game, announced at the end of the update as an added surprise bonus.

• The Classless Update

The next set of hats is patched into the game, including 18 new hats and three 'hatless' models, (with a noticably higher polygon count than the first hat generation.)

• September 2, 2009

Since the release of the first hats, third-party programs emerge which simulate a normal game server in which players can "idle", thus increasing their playing time and their chances of receiving a hat. Valve takes a stance against this and implements a policy against the use of all external idling applications, and removing items and hats obtained via them. The players who did not use such programs were awarded with the first special all-class hat, the Cheater's Lament.

• 2009 Halloween special

The Halloween event update saw the release of two more special, all-class hats: the Ghastly Gibus, and the Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask. The Gibus was first announced on the Team Fortress 2 Blog and was offered to the first 10,319 users to access a hidden web page. The hat was subsequently made available to all, along with the Halloween mask by obtaining special Halloween achievements. The Gibus can still be worn by players today, however, the Halloween mask was limited to the event only and cannot be worn except during the appropriate event.

• November 2, 2009 Patch

Bill's Hat is added; another special, all-class hat, given to all players who pre-ordered the Valve game Left 4 Dead 2.

• January 27, 2010

Three new hats are added: The Towering Pillar of Hats, the Noble Amassment of Hats, and the Modest Pile of Hat. Special versions of these hats are awarded to the three winners of the Propaganda fanart contest, with first, second, and third placed ribbons attached.

• March 18, 2010

The first set of community hats from Valve's Contribute! site are patched in.

• April 15, 2010

All players who buy Sam and Max: The Devil's Playhouse within the first week of its release are rewarded with a special hat, Max's Severed Head, which is wearable by all classes.

• May 20, 2010

The second set of community hats from Valve's Contribute! site are patched in.

• July 19, 2010

Alien Swarm is released by Valve and with it a new piece of headgear wearable by all classes: the Alien Swarm Parasite. It is unlocked by completing the 'Hat Trick' achievement on Alien Swarm, making this the first item to be awarded for achievements in a game other than Team Fortress 2.

Crafting

Blueprints

Blueprint	Requires	Produces
Fabricate Headgear	3 Refined Metal	1 Random Headgear
Fabricate Class Headgear	4 Refined Metal + 1 Class Token	1 Class Headgear
Rebuild Headgear	2 Headgear	1 Random Headgear
Fabricate Bonk Helm	1 Batter's Helmet + 2 Bonk! Atomic Punch	1 Bonk Helm

Cost summary table

Item	Total crafting cost	Smelt value
Random Headgear	2 headgear or 2 misc (Camera Beard, Physician's Procedural Mask, Whiskered Gentleman) or 54 weapons = 27 Scrap Metal = 9 Reclaimed Metal = 3 Refined Metal	54 weapons
Class-specific Headgear	72 weapons = (36 Scrap metal = 12 Reclaimed Metal = 4 Refined Metal) + 3 weapons (1 Class Token)	75 weapons

Note: Both hats and Miscellaneous items are considered headgear for crafting purposes.

Note: Event hats and other hats of limited availability do not count toward the Rebuild Headgear recipe. These include Bill's Hat, the Ghastly Gibus, the Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask, the Cheater's Lament, Max's Severed Head, the Earbuds and the Alien Swarm Parasite.

Trivia

• Sam's hat, resembling the eponymous character's hat from the Sam & Max series, was to have been included with Max's Severed Head, the Lugermorph, and the Big Kill as part of the week-long cross promotion for purchasing Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse via Steam. It was eventually cut from the game because the modelling team had trouble getting the hat to properly fit each class, though team-specific textures remain in the game files.
• Currently, the only hat that can be specifically crafted and reliably acquired is the Bonk Helm, made by crafting together two Bonk! Atomic Punches and a Batter's Helmet.
• Coincidentally, both former hats that are now miscellaneous items are fake facial hair.
• In the Mac Update, Valve referred to Team Fortress 2 as "America's #1 war-themed hat simulator".

See also

• Item drop system
• Miscellaneous items

External links

• Interview: Valve's Robin Walker on Item Drops and the Future of Team Fortress 2
• Sniper vs. Spy Update Bonus Day
• Classless Update- Official Hat Announcement.
• Classless Update- An Editorial Cartoon of Some Insighte
• Classless Update- Barbary
• TF2 Official Blog- Incoming!
• TF2 Official Blog- Nice goin', pardner