Item quality

“

Hmmm, have a gander at this little beauty. Click to listen — The Sniper on the quality of his gear

”

All items have an assigned quality. Quality determines the color of the item's displayed name and influences its perceived trade value.

The names of the following qualities are defined in the game files.

Normal items

Scattergun
Level 1 Scattergun

The Normal quality is assigned to Stock items. These are the standard items that all players start with, and are not counted as space in your backpack. Therefore, they are the only available items if the game cannot connect to Steam. Unique variants of these items are created when using a Name Tag or Description Tag with a Stock item, which are seen by checking the "Show Stock Items" box in the backpack view.

Unique items

The Degreaser
Level 10 Flame Thrower
65% faster weapon switch
-25% burn damage penalty

The Unique quality is assigned to items which can be found through random drops during gameplay, obtained through achievements, crafted, or purchased from the Mann Co. Store. As such, the Unique quality is regarded as the "default" quality for items.

Vintage items

See also: Vintage quality distribution

Vintage Natascha
Level 5 Minigun
On Hit: 100% chance to slow target
-25% damage penalty
30% slower spin up time

The Vintage quality was introduced alongside the Mann-Conomy Update, in which certain items were assigned this quality to increase their appeal in trading; however, they bear no functional difference to their Unique counterparts. In some cases, items that have been re-granted to users by Steam support were assigned Vintage quality.

Genuine items

See also: Genuine quality distribution

Genuine Sun-on-a-Stick
Level 10 RIFT Mace
100% critical hit vs burning players
-25% damage penalty
Spiky end goes into other man.

The Genuine quality was originally introduced alongside the RIFT promotion. Genuine quality is used to distinguish items obtained as part of a cross-game promotion, opposed to items gained via other methods such as random drops or crafting. There is no functional difference between Genuine items and their Unique counterparts.

Strange items

See also: List of Strange weapon ranks, Strange quality distribution

 Minigun
Strange Minigun - Kills: 0

Introduced in the Über Update, Strange quality items can be found by unboxing Mann Co. Supply Crates of a certain series. Kills (or assists, for certain weapons) made with a Strange quality item are recorded as an item attribute. Prefixes are changed automatically by the game based on the weapon's rank.

Unusual items

See also: Unusual quality distribution

Unusual Napper's Respite
Level 1 - 100 Hat
Effect: Circling Heart
After a long day of burning scouts.

Unusual hats

See also: Hats, Unusual effects

Unusual hats are hats with an attached particle effect.

The only method of obtaining an Unusual hat is by unlocking a Mann Co. Supply Crate with a Mann Co. Supply Crate Key or via trading. Unusual versions of the hats contained in a Festive Winter Crate could also be obtained by unlocking the crate with a Festive Winter Crate Key during the Australian Christmas event.

Crafting together two Unusual hats will not produce an Unusual hat in return – it will simply produce a Unique hat.

Scream Fortress Update

Main article: Scream Fortress Update

Two new items with the Unusual quality were introduced with this update: Haunted Metal Scrap and the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker. Besides bearing the Unusual quality, the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker has no discerning attributes from the Eyelander.

Community items

See also: List of Community weapon owners, List of Wiki Cap owners

Community Medi Gun
Level 50 Medi Gun
Effect: Community Sparkle
Given to valuable Community Contributors

( Not Tradable or Usable in Crafting )

Items bearing the Community quality are specially granted by Valve to individuals who have made significant, valuable contributions to the Team Fortress 2 community. Community items have the Community sparkle particle effect attached and an additional description string set to "Given to valuable Community Contributors". Community items derived from certain Stock items receive an additional boost to their Phong shading exponent, resulting in the item having a more glossy appearance. At one point, Community items possessed a hidden ten percent damage boost attribute; this has since been removed.

Community Stock items that existed prior to the introduction of name and description tags are derived from the original Normal variants. This makes them unable to be described or named, however newer variants are derived from the Unique variants; and behave as expected.

• 

  Phong boost comparison

Self-Made items

See also: List of Self-Made item owners

Self-Made Dalokohs Bar
Level 50 Lunch Box
Adds +50 max health for 30 seconds.
Effect: Community Sparkle
I made this!

( Not Tradable or Usable in Crafting )

The Self-Made quality is assigned to items specially granted by Valve to their creators. Like Community items, they have the "Community sparkle" particle effect attached and an additional description string set to "I made this!". See the Contribution page for when the items were added in-game.

• Selfmadedalokohs.png

  In-game example

Valve items

Valve Rocket Launcher
Level 100 Rocket Launcher
+1009900% damage bonus
+109900% clip size
+75% faster firing speed
On Hit: +250 health
On Kill: 10 seconds of 100% critical chance
+50% projectile speed
+100% faster move speed on wearer
Effect: Flying Bits

( Not Tradable or Usable in Crafting )

The Valve quality is assigned to items that are given to Valve employees. In some cases, they have the Flying bits particle effect attached. Because of their nature as developer items, they may possess stacked attributes as seen in the backpack example, however, these additional attributes are not part of the Valve quality itself. The Valve item shown in the backpack example is Robin Walker's Rocket Launcher.

• 

  Flying bits attached to the Equalizer.

Item name colors

Color	Name	Example
#B2B2B2	Normal	Scattergun
#FFD700	Unique	Degreaser
#476291	Vintage	Natascha
#4D7455	Genuine	Sun-on-a-Stick
#CF6A32	Strange	Shotgun
#8650AC	Unusual	Napper's Respite
#38F3AB	Haunted	Wrap Battler
#AA0000	Collector's	Original
#FAFAFA	Decorated	Rocket Launcher
#70B04A	Community	Wrench
	Self-Made	Dalokohs Bar
#A50F79	Valve	Rocket Launcher

Update history

September 2, 2011 Patch

• Updated the Strange quality color from RGB [205, 155, 29] (#CD9B1D) to RGB [207, 106, 50] (#CF6A32).
• [Undocumented] Updated the Rarity3 quality color from RGB [207, 106, 50] (#CF6A32) to RGB [112, 85, 15] (#70550F).

See also

• Item levels
• Item drop system