Horseless Headless Horsemann

Horseless Headless Horsemann
Kill Icon
Basic Information
Health:	3000 +200 for each player in the server
Damage Done:	current health of player x2
Affected By:	• Battalion's Backup: No • Bonk! Atomic Punch: Yes • Candy Cane: No • Chargin' Targe: No • Dead Ringer: Yes • Gunboats: No • Mini-crits: No • ÜberCharge: Yes
Found On:	Mann Manor

“

Listen closely! What's that you hear? Is it the clip clop of haunted hoofs? Nope. It's the terrifying, completely foot-generated clomping of the Horseless Headless Horseman! He's come to steal your soul! And, if you have one, your horse! — The TF2 Blog

”

The Horseless Headless Horsemann, the undead form of Silas Mann, is a neutral enemy that appears only in Mann Manor. Approximately every 8 minutes, he spawns at the currently contested control point and hunts down players from both teams. He has a great deal of health, is capable of instantly killing any class with one attack, and will continue to rampage until defeated by the players.

The Horseless Headless Horsemann is referred to as "Team Fortress's first boss monster" on the official Scream Fortress Update page.

Mechanics

Damage graph showing the number of players vs. the health of the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

NPC entity

The Horseless Headless Horsemann is classifed as part of the map's environment; any kills made by him count as environmental deaths for the victim. On-hit effects, such as the charging of the Buff Banner, healing provided by the Black Box, or the L'Etranger refilling Cloak, will not trigger upon a successful attack against the Horsemann. Additionally, the Horseless Headless Horsemann is completely immune to all status ailments, such as Jarate, slowdown, or bleeding. He is, however, affected by critical hits and damage ramp up/fall off.

Player targeting

When the Horseless Headless Horsemann spawns or does not have a target, a random player within a certain proxmity of him will be designated as "It" after a short period of time. The Horseless Headless Horsemann will relentlessly chase the player who is "It," slaying any others unfortunate enough to be in the way.

The player designated as "It" is notified via an on-screen message and marked with a floating white skull and crossbones icon. The Horseless Headless Horsemann will change targets if "It" is killed, is far enough away from the Horseless Headless Horsemann, survives for 30 seconds, or is in an area inaccessible to the Horseless Headless Horsemann, such as the respawn room. Additionally, a player can hit an enemy with a melee weapon to pass the "It" status to them, in a manner similar to tag.

If no player is currently "It", the Horseless Headless Horsemann may perform a taunt, spreading his arms and releasing a loud "Boo!" Any players within 500 units are stunned and placed into a state of fear. Players wearing the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head or Saxton Hale Mask are immune to being stunned by the Horseless Headless Horsemann's taunt.

Health

The Horseless Headless Horsemann has a base health of 3000 that increases by 200 for each player in the server. His actual minimum possible health is 5000, as he will not spawn if there are fewer than 10 players in the server, while his maximum possible health is 9400, in an increased slot 32-player server.

Death

The Horseless Headless Horsemann will begin to "shiver" when he has been defeated before exploding shortly afterwards. His defeat will be announced via a sound and on-screen message to all players on the server. The last three players to damage the Horseless Headless Horsemann will be credited with killing him.

Audio cues

These sounds play during the event:

• Halloween Boss has spawned^‡
• You have been tagged as 'it'.
• Another player has been tagged as 'it'.
• Halloween Boss has been defeated.^‡

^‡Accompanied by a notification Popup.

Holiday items

Contributing to killing the Horseless Headless Horsemann awards both the Sleepy Holl0wnd Ghostchievement and Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head hat. If a player is credited with killing the Horseless Horsemann with a melee attack, he will receive an Unusual Haunted Metal Scrap and the Gored Ghostchievement.

Strategy

Main article: Community Mann Manor strategy

Main article: Horseless Headless Horsemann match-ups

Related achievements

Scarechievements

Scared Stiff Kill a player scared by a ghost.

Ghostchievements

Sleepy Holl0WND Kill the Horseless Headless Horsemann. Reward: Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head

Gored! Collect the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Haunted Metal Scrap.

 Scout

Foul Territory Cause an environmental death by stunning or slowing an enemy.

Fall Classic Cause an environmental death or suicide using the Force-A-Nature's knockback.

 Demoman

He Who Celt It Use the Sticky Launcher to kill an enemy player via environmental damage.

Update history

October 27, 2010 Patch (Scream Fortress Update)

• Introduced the Horseless Headless Horsemann to the game.

October 28, 2010 Patch

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann can now climb the ladder at point B.

November 1, 2010 Patch

• Fixed a minor issue with the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

May 5, 2011 Patch (Replay Update)

• Fixed the Horseless Headless Horsemann displaying the burning material in DirectX8.
• [Undocumented] Sentry Guns and Bots now properly target the Horseless Headless Horsemann as an enemy.

October 27, 2011 Patch (Very Scary Halloween Special)

• [Undocumented] Damage notifications and hitsounds now appear when damaging the Horsemann, if they are enabled.

Bugs

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann may in semi-rare cases move right into players, rendering them completely stuck and vulnerable to a quick and painful death.
• Sentry Guns will shoot the Horseless Headless Horsemann even when he is outside their normal range.
• Killing the Horseless Headless Horsemann with the Half-Zatoichi will not enable the player to sheathe the weapon.
• The flavour line in the Deathcam is influenced by the last enemy other than the Horseless Headless Horsemann to damage the player. As a result, it can say "by the late The Horseless Headless Horsemann", "again by The Horseless Headless Horsemann", "by the Sentry Gun of The Horseless Headless Horsemann", and so on.
• The Axtinguisher deals the same damage tables as the Fire Axe towards the Horseless Headless Horsemann. Since there is random crit coding on the Axtinguisher, it deals 195 damage for the random crits as if a crit from the Fire Axe.

Trivia

Presumably Silas Mann in the Mann family portrait. Notice that he is holding keys and that something is burning in the fireplace.

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann is a parody of the Headless Horseman from the story Template:W by Template:W.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann has several unused animations that can be found in the game files. These include the "Cheers" thumbs up action and Medic calls. This is due to the Horseless Headless Horsemann using many of the Demoman's original animations.
  • The animation the Horseless Headless Horsemann uses when walking changes depending on how much health he has. After he loses a certain percentage of health (presumably 50%), he stops using the two handed walk animation and starts using the one handed walk animation.
  • Even though the Horseless Headless Horsemann never jumps, an unused jump animation exists from the original Demoman animations. The Horsemann will walk around height obstacles or change his target if confronted with an enemy on a higher ledge.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann's kills count as environmental deaths. Therefore, achievements such as Foul Territory for the Scout can be achieved by stunning someone about to be killed by the Horseless Headless Horsemann.
• Despite avoiding hazards such as pits, the Horsemann can be killed by other environmental hazards if he is spawned somewhere other than Mann Manor. He is killed in one hit by the trains on Well, for instance.

Gallery

• 

  The Horseless Headless Horsemann attacking some members of both teams.

• 

  An in-game screenshot of the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

• 

  The icon displayed above "It".

• 

  The icon which appears above a scared player .

• Horseless headless horsemann outside Mann Manor.jpg The Horseless Headless Horseman outside Mann Manor

See also

• Scream Fortress Update
• MONOCULUS