Community Ghost Fort strategy

This page lists community strategy related to the Halloween map Ghost Fort.

General Merasmus Strategy

Main Article : Merasmus

• Merasmus spawns in the corner where the cards of fate display. On spawn, he will push away everyone before immediately engaging nearby players with his staff. One should avoid getting stuck at his spawn point.
• Merasmus has four signature attacks. He can float around the map, attacking any players he finds by hitting them with his staff. He can throw a bomb in the direction of the player he's attacking. He can launch a magical spell to a certain number of nearby players, launching them skyward and setting them on fire, or he can more rarely teleport in the center of the map to brandish the Bombinomicon and release a multitude of bombs in every direction while floating.
• Merasmus will teleport at random intervals, or after his stun condition wears off. He will always reset his attack mode when doing so.
• Merasmus will take full critical damage if he is hit while performing his Bombinomicon attack and floating around or when stunned. Use both of these occasions to weaken him.
• Every time Merasmus teleports, the Bombinomicon will choose two players and transform their heads into bombs. Affected players will be put in Humiliation and speed boosted. If these players can locate Merasmus and collide into him, they will cause the boss to get stunned and allow everyone to deal critical damage to the boss. The player who collides also gets short invulnerability, crit boost and speed boost.
• At two points during the battle, when Merasmus reaches around 50% health and around 5% health, he will transform into a random oversized prop while spawning multiple other props all around the map. Break them all until you find Merasmus. Hitting Merasmus when he is disguised as a prop will stun him and give the player who hit him a short invulnerability, speed boost and crit boost period. Merasmus will also suffer full critical hits due to his stun.

Class Specific Strategies

 Scout

• Try to avoid using Scout unless Merasmus is hiding or a gift has spawned for you. A Scout cannot dish out large amounts of damage at once, and has low health, but he can run across the map faster than other classes, allowing him to find gifts and search for props easier.
• While under the effects of Bonk! Atomic Punch, Merasmus may still try to attack you. Distract him!
• You can rely on your Pistol to deal damage from afar to aid your team, especially when Merasmus performs his Bombinomicon attack, in which all attacks will become crits.

 Soldier

• Due to the wide range of a rocket, combined with Merasmus' size, a Soldier can be ideal against Merasmus.
• Merasmus' large size makes him a fitting target for the Direct Hit. Linger at medium to close range to take advantage of its damage.
• The large pillars surrounding the map's points are remarkably useful for staying close to Merasmus. Rocket jump to them for a unique vantage spot; your increased height will prevent him from reaching you with any attack other than his bomb volley, and you will be able to see him throughout most of the map.

 Pyro

• This boss can't catch on fire, rendering most of the Pyro's weapons, and the Pyro itself, useless. It is recommended to trade away any Flare Guns for the stock Shotgun, as it will deal more damage in this situation.
• If you are planning on using your Flamethrower, wait until the boss is distracted, confused, or stunned before making your move. His volley of fairly short ranged attacks will be sure to take you down quickly.
• Remember, you cannot be lit on fire from Merasmus' attacks, and you can extinguish members of your own team. You can take a support role by lingering near Merasmus and extinguishing members of your own team when they are hit by Merasmus' magic attack.

 Demoman

• Both the Demoman's primary Grenade Launcher and secondary Stickybomb Launcher do adequate damage to Merasmus. Lay down stickies and expend generous amounts of grenades.
• When using sticky bombs, be aware that Merasmus can push away sticky bombs when moving around. Use them when he is stationary or stunned.
• Be careful when using sticky bombs, as you may inadvertently kill the other team if both are cooperating on taking Merasmus down.
• The Eyelander and other melee-oriented items are not advised. Merasmus is guaranteed to do more damage in a melee fight and does not award heads.

 Heavy

• As Heavy, try to stay near a Dispenser. Consider pairing with a Medic as well.
• Every class must remain mobile during the battle with Merasmus, particularly during his bomb volley. The Heavy's slow running speed puts him at a disadvantage when it's time to get away.
• The Brass Beast is a good choice of weapon to fight Merasmus due to its increased damage.

 Engineer

• If a sentry is placed down, make sure it is wrangled at all times. A wrangled sentry can be manually fired when Merasmus is out of range, and it will enable the Engineer to choose his targets (namely, Merasmus and not the opposing team.)
• The damage done by the sentry is reduced to around -4 per round for the bullets, thus the sentry becomes fairly ineffective when it comes to damaging Merasmus. This makes the Gunslinger less ideal.
• Dispensers placed down are important as the fight with Merasmus consumes lots of ammo that is not readily available when the center of the map gets crowded. Keeping your team healed ensures everyone can constantly be dealing damage.
• Keep your sentry out of Merasmus' range. He can destroy Sentry Guns in one hit and his magic attack has wide range. An ideal location is on top of the towers around the control point, which can be reached through Merasmus' low gravity spells or using the Sentry Gun's rockets with the Wrangler to jump to the towers.
• Try to stay alive at all costs. Even if you are using your Wrangler, you will lose control of your Sentry Gun if you die, and it will attack any nearby members of the other team. Members of the other team can help you in your fight with Merasmus.

 Medic

• Make sure to heal people who have been hit by Merasmus' magic attack. They likely have lost a lot of health from the direct impact and the fall damage, and will keep losing health from afterburn.
• Using the Kritzkrieg's Übercharge at the right moment can mean the difference between beating the boss or letting him vanish.
• Do not use the Kritzkreig's Übercharge when Merasmus is stunned or using the Bombonicon: Merasmus already takes full crit damage at these times and the Übercharge will not offer any additional damage.
• As always, heal your entire team and not just one member.

 Sniper

• Merasmus takes increased damage from Sniper primary weapons, making them ideal against Merasmus.
• Equip the Huntsman and aim for the head. A well-placed fully-charged headshot deals 1080 damage.
  • A fully-charged headshot from a Sniper Rifle deals 1350 damage.
  • A team of Huntsman-equipped Snipers can take Merasmus down quicker than any other team composition.
• Hitting the boss while he's stunned will prove to be easier and more rewarding; if you time it right, a maximum of 3 fully-drawn arrows can be fired.
• You can always rely on the SMG to deal damage from a distance if you run out of ammo, especially if Merasmus performs his Bombinomicon attack.

 Spy

• The Spy's low damage revolvers make it incredibly difficult to kill Merasmus.
• A Spy's knife has drastically increased damage, and deals more damage than any other melee weapon (around 100 without crits, around 300 with crits). While you cannot backstab Merasmus, the Spy's damage remains the same when Merasmus is hit at any spot. However, the Spy's low health and necessity to stay near Merasmus in order to deal large amounts of damage makes an even tradeoff. Try to attack Merasmus only when he is stunned.
• A Spy can distract Merasmus with his Dead Ringer. With the Dead Ringer withdrawn, approach Merasmus and have him attack you. He will continue to attack you for quite some time despite your heightened resistance to damage, allowing you to prove an effective means of bait. If done well, your team will seldom have to worry about drawing Merasmus' attention.

Other Notes

• This stage has the same layout as Lakeside, with the exception of there being pumpkin bombs strewn throughout various places in the map. In addition, the water that would normally be present in Lakeside has been replaced with a deadly pit.