Stickybomb Launcher

“

Ye appear to 'ave trodden on a mine! Click to listen — The Demoman

”

The Stickybomb Launcher (labeled confusingly in files as the Pipe bomb launcher), is the default secondary weapon for the Demoman. It is essentially a Grenade Launcher with a large magazine and wide barrel.

The weapon launches small bombs that are able to stick to almost any surface due to their number of spikes, but they will bounce off of enemy players, buildings, or gates. Sticky bombs do not detonate until the player detonates them manually with the correct bound key. The bombs however will disappear harmlessly in a white flash if the owner dies, or if they are shot by any bullet-based weapon. Up to eight sticky bombs can be placed at one time; the oldest sticky bomb detonates when the player tries to deploy a ninth bomb. Total number of sticky bombs in place on the map is shown in the HUD. When detonated or otherwise destroyed, sticky bombs leave a few broken pieces scattered about, each of which be picked up for a single unit of metal or ammo. Should a bomb be hit by an explosion from enemy stickies, grenades, rockets and Sentry Gun rockets, or an Airblast, it will simply be pushed away. The sticky bombs are otherwise unharmed by the force of the blast.

The Demoman can also use sticky bombs to propel himself, similar to the Soldier‎'s ability to rocket jump, which can also be used to juggle enemy players. Unlike the Soldier however, the self-damage incurred by such a tactic is much higher; sometimes as much as half of a Demoman's total health points.

Critical hit sticky bombs can be identified by a glowing aura surrounding them. Sticky bombs do splash damage: there is blast radius falloff, the greater distance from the center of the blast the less damage will be done (even for Critical hits). Note that stickies can do more damage if the enemy is propelled into the air by the force of the blast, subsequently receiving fall damage upon landing. However, if the enemy dies because of the fall damage, the Demoman will not get credit for the death.

Sticky bombs are fired from the launcher at 805 hammer units per second (around 34 miles per hour). By holding down the fire button, rather than simply clicking it, the launcher can be charged up to launch a sticky bomb over greater distances. A meter below the ammo count will show how much force is behind the sticky bomb, and the launcher will begin to tremble when it reaches its maximum strength. If the charge bar fills completely, the sticky will fire automatically. A fully charged sticky travels at an approximate 130% speed increase (speed multiplied by 2.3).

Damage

See also: Damage

• Base: 120
• Max Ramp Up: 115% (138 damage)
• Max Fall Off: 50% (60 damage)
• Mini-Crit: 162
• Splash Damage Reduction: 1% per 2.88 Hammer Units away from epicenter to a minimum of 50% at 9 feet (144 Hammer Units)
• Splash Radius: 10 feet (159 Hammer Units)
• 6 ft from explosion: 47-90
  • Critical hit: 180

• 3 ft from explosion: 60-124
  • Critical hit: 261

• Directly Underneath: 103-171
  • Critical hit: 353

• Self damage: 45-114 (depending on how far you are from the explosion)
  • Critical hit: Deals same amount of self damage as a regular sticky (45-114)

Note: Explosive damage varies depending on how it hits a player, the larger the classes hit box and the closer you are to the explosion the more damage you will take, the further away from the explosion the less damage you can take. Explosions do the most damage when they happen at the mid point of a player model, the explosion will cover more of the hit box and thus do the most damage. Base damage is the damage done at 512 units before damage variance or bullet spread. Ramp up maxes out at 0 units. Fall off maxes out at 1024 units. Damages are approximate and determined by community testing.

Another Note: Sticky bombs suffer from damage falloff like that of most weapons for the first five seconds of its life. Similarly to the Rocket Launcher, the multiplier at point blank is reduced from 150% to 115%. After those 5 seconds, the sticky bomb's distance multiplier becomes 1.0. This is so damage falloff only affects sticky bombs used immediately in combat, not bombs set as traps.

Function times

• Attack Interval: 0.6
• Reload Base: 1.09
• Additional Reload: 0.67
• Sticky Bomb Initialization: 0.92
• Time to Fully Charge: 4.00

Reload base is the time it takes to reload the first ammo. Additional reload is the time it takes to reload each ammo after the first. Sticky bomb initialization is the time from when the sticky bomb leaves your weapon to when you're allowed to detonate it. All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Projectile Speed

• Charge Acceleration: Each second of charge increases sticky speed by 32.5% or 261.63 Hammer Units/16.35 feet per second.
• Minimum (0 seconds charge): 805 Hammer Units per second / 50.3125 feet per second / 34.28 MPH / 55.16 KPH
• Maximum (4 seconds charge): 1850 Hammer Units per second / 115.625 feet per second / 78.84 MPH / 126.87 KPH

Recent Changes

• It was possible to get the achievement Second Eye by taunting with the normal Stickybomb Launcher after killing an enemy (the achievement dictating you need to do the Scottish Resistance's taunt to attain it due to its unique taunt). This was fixed in a later patch.

Trivia

Unused Pipebomb model.

• The Stickybomb Launcher has Developer weapon variants.
• Based on its name displayed on the stats page, the Stickybomb Launcher was originally supposed to be the Pipe bomb Launcher, a weapon from the first Team Fortress game. It is thought it would have been similar to the Grenade Launcher, but the grenades would only detonate when the player pressed the alt fire key. The Pipe bomb launcher's grenade is still in the game files. Additionally, the Stickybomb Launcher bears resemblance to a weapon cut from Half-Life 2, simply named the 'Sticky Launcher'. Had it been included, it would have functioned in an almost identical manner, except that it would stick to enemies as well as map surfaces.
• Increasing the viewmodel field of view (viewmodel_fov 70 in the console) shows that, in first person, the Stickybomb Launcher is held in one hand, whereas in the world model he holds it in two hands, utilizing the forward grip.
• The Demoman never actually loads new bombs into the launcher when he reloads, he simply pulls the bolt back.
• A technical glitch occurred when the War update was in progress: if you held out a Stickybomb Launcher and committed suicide, you would drop a Scottish Resistance, not a Stickybomb Launcher; this would only occur if you had a Scottish Resistance in your backpack. This glitch has not been patched yet.
• There is currently a bug with both the Stickybomb Launcher and the Scottish Resistance: upon death, while holding either weapon, you will always drop a Stickybomb Launcher if on RED, and a Scottish Resistance if on BLU, regardless of which weapon you were actually holding.
• Before reloading, the Demoman's unused hand (left if viewmodels are right and vice versa) remains hidden. After reloading and bringing his opposite hand to pull the bolt on his weapon back, the hand will remain in the screen until he switches weapons. This could be a reloading animation oversight.
• The Stickybomb Launcher's reload animation is inconsistent between the view model and the world view. In the first person perspective, the Demoman grabs the bolt over the top with his palm facing down. In the world view, he grabs it from below, with his palm facing upward.
• There is currently an exploit which allows players to deploy sticky bombs beyond the starting gates at the start of a match.
• The Stickybombs along with the grenades from the Grenade Launcher have a normal map but was for unknown reasons taken out.

Gallery

• Stickybomb Launcher 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view.

• 

  Full 1st person view.

• 

  RED projectile.

• 

  BLU projectile.

Here are the four sticky bomb models found in the game files:

• Sticky1.png

  The original and default Sticky bomb model.

• Sticky2.png

  The Scottish Resistance Sticky bomb model.

• 

  The 1st "rejected" Sticky bomb model.

• 

  The 2nd "rejected" Sticky bomb model.

See also

• Sticky bomb strategy
• Sticky jump
• Juggling

External links

• Pipe bomb Launcher at the Team Fortress Wiki