Equalizer

“

Get close enough to death, and you will become Death himself. — Equalizer publicity blurb

”

The Equalizer is the unlockable melee weapon for the Soldier. It is simply a worn handheld pickaxe, leading to it often being named 'the Pickaxe'.

Uniquely, this weapon has a damage potential that is inversely proportional to the player's current health, dealing low damage at high health and high damage at low health. This can make the player vastly powerful, able to destroy buildings in two hits if at low heath. Additionaly, the speed of the wielding Soldier is also inversely proportional to the his health, his movement speed increasing the more he is hurt. Medics cannot heal a Soldier who is holding out his Equalizer. For its Critical hit animation, the Soldier swings the Equalizer in a backhand fashion, attacking with the sharp end. This animation is identical to the Shovel.

Taunting with the Equalizer will undertake the Soldier's Kamikaze kill taunt.

Damage

See also: Damage

Scales inversely with health. Approximately 113.7 − 0.405x (113.7 minus 0.405x), where x is the amount of health the player currently has, with a minimum of 33 when the player is at or above 200 health, and a maximum of 113 (before random damage and Critical hits).

Health	Damage	Notes
200	33
121	65	Base damage of Shovel
100	73
50	93
14	108	Two hits destroy any building
1	113

Speed

Equalizer speed and comparisons

Main article: Speed

Speed values are based on player's current health. For reference, the standard movement speed is 100% which is 300 velocity units per second, the speed of the Spy, Sniper, Engineer and Pyro, whilst the Scout moves at 400v (33% above the standard movement speed).

Health range	Speed (units per second)	Relative speed increase	Notes
161-300	240	0%
121-160	264	10%
81-120	288	20%	Faster than Demoman
41-80	336	40%	Faster than Medic
1-40	384	60%

Function times

• Attack Interval: 0.8

All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Related Achievements

Ain't Got Time to Bleed Kill 3 players with the Equalizer in a single life without being healed. Duty Bound While rocket jumping kill an enemy with the Equalizer before you land or just after landing.

Near Death Experience Kill 20 enemies with your Equalizer while you have less than 25 health. Spray of Defeat Use a grenade to gib a player.

Recent Changes

• Before the April 15, 2010 Patch, the Equalizer was able deal up to 162 damage (damage equation: 162.5 − 0.65x), making it one of the few weapons that could single-action kill a fully overhealed Heavy. It was probably for this reason that the damage was reduced.

As a Crafting Ingredient

Equalizer		Eyelander		Homewrecker
	+		=

Trivia

• The Equalizer has Developer weapon variants.
• Dubbed the "High Risk, High Returns" weapon, the Equalizer can be the strongest melee weapon in the game even with non Critical damage, with the exception of the Knife's backstab. However, when the Soldier's health is at maximum or higher (200+ HP) its damage output makes it one of the weakest melee weapons, dealing less damage than a regular (non-backstab) strike of the Knife and ties with a regular (non-burning) strike of the Axtinguisher and the initial strike of the Tribalman's Shiv.
• Before becoming an official weapon, the Equalizer was first thought of by community members Tom Francis and jibberish. These users were to receive unique version of the weapon called "The Great Equalizer"[1], however, they are currently labeled as "Community Equalizers."
• Based on the hidden Poopy Joe page on the WAR! Update, the Equalizer was originally a pickaxe issued to American Monkeynaut Poopy Joe for him to "pierce the Vault of Heaven itself" before it was acquired by Mann Co. in entirely innocent circumstances.
• The Equalizer's speed increase still affects you in Humiliation, even if you are on the losing team.
• A Spy who is disguised as a Soldier with the Equalizer will not move faster than default Soldier speed, regardless of the Spy's fake health display. Furthermore, Medics will also be able to heal the disguised Spy.
• The Equalizer is one of the few weapons that benefits the player for taking damage. The Battalion's Backup is another.
• Despite the fact that Medics cannot heal Soldiers with the Equalizer active, which is a negative attribute, the trait is listed as blue in the backpack and therefore indicated as a positive attribute.

Gallery

• Equalizer 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view.

• 

  Full 1st person view.

See also

• Equalizer strategy

External links

• The Soldier Update- The Equalizer