Engineer weapons (competitive)

This article is for competitive play, based on the standard community competitive format.
The community competitive scene changes frequently. Some or all info may be outdated.

Some Engineer weapons may be banned in your league. For a list of banned weapons, please see the Weapon Ban List.

The Engineer is a utility class that rarely sees a lot of use in the competitive format. The Engineer is strongest on maps where the enemy is confined to one key route, such as Attack/Defend or Payload maps.

Primary Weapon

The Engineer's primary weapons are shotguns, which deal some damage, but not enough to take on higher-health classes.

The Shotgun

The stock Shotgun deals consistant short and medium range damage, and can quickly remove stickybombs, the main danger for Engineers.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Shotgun	Point-Blank: 90 512 units: 6/hit, avg 6 hits Over 1024 units: 3/hit	Critical: 18/hit (max 180) Point-Blank Mini-crit: 121 Over 512 units Mini-crit: 8/hit	Attack: 0.625s Reload Start: 1.0s Reload More: 0.5s	Affected by fixed weapon spread (1 extra pellet at center).

The Frontier Justice

The Frontier Justice, often abbreviated FJ, provides guaranteed crits for kills and assists earned by the Engineers Sentry Gun. It has a halved clip size, but pairs well with the Gunslinger for disposable, cheap mini-Sentry Guns. The Frontier Justice gives the engineer additional burst damage in exchange for sustained fire.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Frontier Justice	Point-Blank: 90 512 units: 6/hit, avg 6 hits Over 1024 units: 3/hit	Critical: 18/hit (max 180) Point-Blank Mini-crit: 121 512 units Mini-crit: 8/hit	Attack: 0.625s Reload Start: 1.0s Reload More: 0.5s	Affected by fixed weapon spread (1 extra pellet at center). Has half the clip size of the Shotgun. Can fire Revenge Crits upon a Sentry Gun's destruction. Gains revenge crits based on Sentry Gun kills. Earns one critical hit per assist kill. Earns two critical hits per kill. Stores a max of 35 critical hits. Stored critical hits are lost upon death.

The Widowmaker

The Widowmaker allows the Engineer to circumvent reloading by using metal for ammo while granting him metal equal to damage dealt. The Engineer can use this to gain a quick metal boost to upgrade his buildings.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Widowmaker	Point-Blank: 90 512 units: 6/hit, avg 6 hits Over 1024 units: 3/hit	Critical: 18/hit (max 180) Point-Blank Mini-crit: 121 Over 512 units Mini-crit: 8/hit	Attack: 0.625s	Affected by fixed weapon spread (1 extra pellet at center). Damage dealt is returned as metal. (Max 60 metal returned.) Uses 30 metal per shot as ammo. Deals identical damage ot the Shotgun.

Pomson 6000

The Pomson 6000 allows the Engineer to deal better with invisible Spies, and to attempt to deter any Medics. It deals strong damage, but has less ammo than the stock Shotgun. Due to the fact that it removes Ubercharge from Medics, the Pomson 6000 is banned from many competitive TF2 leagues including UGC, ESEA, and ETF2L.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Pomson 6000	Point-Blank: 60 (10 to Buildings) 512 units: 48 Over 1024 units: 36	Critical: 180 Point-Blank Mini-Crit: 81 Over 512 units Mini-crit: 65	Attack: 0.8s Reload: 1.02s (first) 0.53s (consecutive)	Stocks 4 ammo, but has unlimited ammo. On hit: Target loses 20% Cloak or 10% Übercharge, if applicable. Cannot be reflected.

Rescue Ranger

The Rescue Ranger permits the Engineer to repair his and his teammates' buildings from a distance, as well as picking up his own buildings from a distance (at a cost of 130 metal, regardless of building or its level). It is useful for extending the life of your Sentry Gun, when repairing it with a Wrench would be dangerous. However, the Rescue Ranger has less reserve ammo, a smaller clip size, and deals significantly less damage than the Shotgun, making it less than effective for the upfront Engineer. Also, the Engineer will be marked for death when hauling his buildings, regardless of the distance between him and his building. Unlike the Shotgun, the Rescue Ranger fires projectiles ("bolts"), which can be deflected via the Pyro's compression blast, but the reflected bolts won't repair the Pyro's teammates' buildings.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Rescue Ranger	Point-Blank: 60 512 units: 35 Over 1024 units: 18	Critical: 105 Point-Blank Mini-Crit: 72 Over 512 units Mini-crit: 47	Attack: 0.625s Reload: 1.0s (first) 0.5s (consecutive)	Fires projectiles ("bolts") that can repair friendly buildings (maximum 50 health to a building per bolt). Reflected bolts do not repair enemy teams' buildings. Bolts do not damage Sappers. User is marked for death upon picking up a building. User can pick up any of his buildings from a distance at a cost of 130 Metal, provided he can point to his buildings with the Rescue Ranger.

Primary Weapon Usage

The Shotgun provides the best standard damage. The Frontier Justice allows for surprising critical attacks, but without stored critical hits it weakens the Engineer's damage dealing capacity. The Widowmaker requires metal, and without accuracy will quickly drain your metal supplies. The Pomsom 6000 allows for easier Spy-checking, but deals less up-front damage. The Pomson can be used to reduce medic Übercharge, but it is rare to see an Engineer in such close proximity to a Medic. The Rescue Ranger deals slightly less damage and has fewer ammunition, but can repair friendly buildings, helping the Engineer extend the life of his buildings.

Secondary Weapons

The Engineer only has three choices and one of them, The Wrangler is banned in the vast majority of leagues, this leaves the Engineer with the Pistol and the Short Circuit.

The Pistol

The Pistol is the Engineer's default secondary weapon, it has a large amount of ammo and it is good at medium to long range. This means that it complements the Shotgun's small range and means that the Engineer has an effective weapon for all ranges. The Pistol is also particularly effective at harassing fleeing enemies; combined with the fact that it fires and reloads quickly, it can do a fair amount of damage assuming that you can aim it.

The Lugermorph has the same stats as the Pistol.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Pistol	Point-Blank: 22 512 units: 15 Over 1024 units: 8	Critical: 45 Point-Blank Mini-crit: 30 Over 512 units Mini-crit: 20	Attack: 0.125s Reload: 1.36s	If unfired in the past 1.25 seconds, the next shot has perfect accuracy.

The Wrangler

The Wrangler allows the Engineer to take control of his Sentry Gun, determining what it fires, when it fires, and where it fires. In addition, it removes the maximum targeting range of the sentry allowing a much greater field of coverage for the sentry. The Wrangler is the most popular engineer secondary weapon in every league where it isn't banned. It can fire at an overall faster rate than normal, and shields the sentry from 2/3 of incoming damage. When it is switched out of being active, it will de-activate the sentry for 1 second, leaving it shielded for that time.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Wrangler	N/A	N/A	Sentry Down Time: 3s	Directly controllable by the Engineer. Aims at point player is viewing. Will aim at location "through walls" if unable to be seen directly. Aim has slight lock-on. Primary fire fires bullets, secondary fires rockets. Shields the Sentry Gun from 2/3 of incoming damage while active, including Sentry down time. Doubles rate of bullet fire, and increases the rate of rocket fire.

The Short Circuit

The Short Circuit destroys airborne and placed projectiles en masse. It uses 18 metal per fire, unless it doesn't hit anything which uses up an additional 18, totaling 36 metal. It is a very effective counter to the kritzkrieg.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Short Circuit	Point-Blank: 5	Mini-crit: 7	Attack: ≈0.8s	On firing, it generates an electrical field that destroys projectiles and deals 5 damage to nearby players. No reloading necessary. Uses metal for ammo (18 if it hits something, otherwise 36).

Secondary Weapon Usage

The Wrangler is best suited to 6v6, but is rarely usable due to restrictions. The Short Circuit is highly useful, as it can deny stickybombs, but requires a more passive Engineer, and denies the Engineer of a second ranged weapon. The Pistol can help compliment a Shotgun for increased ranged damage, or eliminating Spies. Most Engineers tend to use the Short Circuit for this reason.

Melee Weapons

The Engineer's melee weapons determine key characteristics about his Sentry Gun. All of them can upgrade Dispensers, and increase construction rates by 90% by hitting buildings which are being upgraded or built. Damage removes Sappers in two hits, and repairs/reloads Sentry Guns.

The Wrench

The stock Wrench can build Sentry Guns that can be upgraded to level three.

The Golden Wrench has the same stats as the Wrench.
The Eureka Effect has the same stats as the Wrench, except it cannot haul buildings. Instead, alt-fire teleports the Engineer back to spawn with full ammo and health.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Wrench	Melee: 65	Critical: 195 Mini-crit: 88	Attack: 0.8s	Builds a Sentry Gun. Level 1: Has 150 points of health. Fires at 4 shots per second. Deals 16 damage per shot. Costs 130 metal. Level 2: Has 180 points of health. Fires at 8 shots per second. Deals 16 damage per shot. Costs 200 additional metal to upgrade to this level. Level 3: Has 216 points of health. Fires at 8 shots per second and rockets every 3 seconds. Deals 16 damage per shot, and 53-150 per rocket. Costs 200 additional metal to upgrade to this level.

The Southern Hospitality

The Southern Hospitality functions identically to the stock Wrench with regards to buildings, it simply deals bleeding damage on hit at the cost of increased damage from fire and it cannot inflict random critical hits.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Southern Hospitality	Melee: 65 Bleeding damage: 8/second (total 40)	Critical: 195 Mini-crit: 88 Mini-crit Bleeding: 10.4/sec (total 54)	Attack: 0.8s	Increases fire vulnerability by 20%. Builds Sentry Guns identically to the stock Wrench.

The Jag

The Jag provides 30% faster building, upgrading, and deploying times, at the cost of reduced melee damage. The Jag is used very often in competitive play. The reduced damage is negligible because an engineer will most likely be using his shotgun for close quarters combat.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Jag	Melee: 49	Critical: 146 Mini-crit: 66	Attack: 0.8s	30% faster construction and deployment rate. The construction rate is only 15.8% faster when striking the building (as compared to stock). It is 120% faster when striking than standard building (with stock). 25% less melee damage. Builds Sentry Guns identically to the stock Wrench.

The Gunslinger

The Gunslinger provides the Engineer with a smaller, faster mini-sentry. It cannot be upgraded, repaired, or sped up in building, but its ammo can be refilled. The Gunslinger cannot randomly crit, but the third hit of any three-hit combo will be a guaranteed critical hit. It provides the Engineer with an additional 25 health. The Gunslinger improves an engineer's combat ability, making him much more useful when taking offensive roles.

Weapon	Damage	Critical Damage	Function Times	Special
Gunslinger	Melee: 65	Critical: 195 Mini-crit: 88	Attack: 0.8s	Builds a Mini-Sentry as opposed to a Sentry Gun. Has 100 points of health. Fires at 6 shots per second. Deals 8 damage per shot. Costs 100 metal. Cannot be upgraded or repaired. Can be reloaded. +25 health for a total of 150. Overheal increased to 225.

Melee Weapon Usage

The stock Wrench provides solid melee damage with a normal Sentry Gun. The Southern Hospitality grants bleeding damage for additional Spy-checking at the cost of taking increased fire damage. The Jag provides a key buff for a quick setup with a 30% faster build time. Keep in mind that the Jag requires 3 hits over the normal 2 to kill a Spy. The Gunslinger grants a 25+ health buff and access to Mini-Sentries, which allows for a faster but more temporary setup. The Eureka Effect is highly situational, but allows the Engineer to survive if his nest is compromised.