Compression blast

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When using the alternate fire on the Flamethrower or Degreaser, the Pyro is able to fire a Compression Blast (also known as an Airblast) that can knock enemies away and deflect Rockets, Grenades, Sticky bombs, Baseballs, Jarate, Mad Milk, Flares and Arrows back at the enemy, consuming 20 ammo each time. Rockets fired from a Level 3 Sentry Gun can also be deflected. The compression blast will also instantly remove the fire effect when used on allies.

This compression blast ability is incredibly useful, allowing the Pyro to blow away Sticky Bomb carpets, separate a Medic from his patient and hold his own against a Soldier in close quarters. The blast itself is a sphere-shaped 'explosion' that occurs directly on the end of the Flamethrower or Degreaser. It is a momentary blast, requiring careful timing to execute. Another of Pyro's primary weapons, the Backburner, lacks this ability.

Deflection

Rockets, jars, bottles, arrows, grenades, baseballs, and flares within the area of effect are redirected so that they will impact on the nearest surface that is under the Pyro's crosshairs. When these projectiles are deflected, they are not simply "bounced" as if from a mirror: The Pyro can actually aim them to a new location. For example, a deflected rocket is essentially stopped and "re-fired" from your current position, aimed directly at a point on the nearest surface beneath the Pyro's crosshairs. A skilled or well-positioned Pyro can even make rockets deflect at right angles to their original path.

Grenades and baseballs bounce away from the Pyro in accordance to the angle at which they were deflected. Aiming these deflected projectiles is more difficult, although their trajectory can be influenced somewhat by the Pyro's angle and position. Note that deflected grenades will gain a quick burst of speed. Deflected sticky bombs will roll away from the Pyro.

Deflected projectiles are considered to have been fired by the Pyro deflecting them for the purposes of friendly fire and kill awards. For example, a red grenade will turn blue when deflected and will hurt any RED team players near it when it explodes. It can also hurt the Pyro who deflected it, in the same way that a Demoman can damage himself with his own Grenades. An exception to this rule is sticky bombs, which can be pushed away but do not switch ownership. The only change to a deflected sticky bomb, besides their location, is that if the Demoman who shot it is blown up while the sticky bomb is in motion, it counts as a kill for the Pyro rather than as a suicide. Killing someone with a deflection produces a unique kill icon depending on the projectile.

Deflected projectiles will always turn into Mini-Crits, although it is possible to get a full Crit depending on Critical status. Additionally, a deflected baseball will only stun, as it would for the Scout who launched it.

If the Pyro is under the effects of the Kritzkrieg ÜberCharge, reflected projectiles turn into Critical projectiles, making it very risky for Soldiers and Demomen attacking a Pyro in this state.

Interestingly, there are a few inconsistencies for kill icons from reflected projectiles.

• Sentry Gun rockets can be reflected, and are quite powerful (doing 135-147 points of Mini-Crit damage to a player), but use the reflected rocket kill icon instead of their own.
• Reflected Direct Hit and Black Box rockets do not have a unique icon of their own, but instead use the generic reflected rocket icon.
• Reflected Scottish Resistance stickies do not possess their own unique kill icon and instead use the generic reflected sticky mine icon.

Since April 28, 2010, the compression blast was buffed to deal Mini-Crits on reflection unless the particular projectile was a full-Crit itself. Airblasting enemies into environmental deaths now awards the death credit to the Pyro (such as the pit in Steel, or from fall damage).

• Associated kill icons.
• 

  Deflected arrow

• 

  Deflected arrow headshot

• 

  Deflected flaming arrow

• 

  Deflected flaming arrow headshot

• 

  Deflected grenade

• 

  Deflected sticky bomb

• 

  Deflected rocket

• 

  Deflected flare

• 

  Deflected baseball

Charging

As of the September 30, 2010 Mann-Conomy Update, the Pyro (through editing the items_game.txt file) has the ability to charge airblast. Although it has no effect on projectiles, charging can further the knockback dealt when airblasting enemies, depending on how long it is charged. There is approximately a 5 second charging time for the maximum power achievable and you cannot attack during the charging period.

Knockback

The compression blast will knock enemies back through the air for several feet, allowing you to potentially juggle and finish off the player, or blast them off cliffs and capture points. This ability is highly useful for separating Medics and their patients and neutralizing ÜberCharged enemies. The knock back effect of the compression blast is disorientating, though the enemy will still be able to attack.

Strategy

• The compression blast can be used in two ways, aggressive and defensive.
  • Aggressive blasting includes blasting rockets, arrows, grenades, flares and sticky bombs back towards their original firers team. If timed correctly the color of the projectile changes color and ownership, as if you fired the projectile to begin with (the exception is the sticky bomb as the Demoman keeps control of it).
  • Defensive blasting moves stickies away from vital chokepoints, i.e. friendly Sentry Guns, the Cart track of a Payload map, control points or gated exits. Moving the sticky bombs helps keep your team alive longer, and slightly delays Demoman returning to a vital holding point as they might think it is still secure.
    • Also, remember that explosions will only hurt enemies and the player that fired or reflected them. This means you can protect your teammates from live enemy grenades in close quarters by airblasting them. They will become friendly before exploding, making them completely harmless to any teammates nearby. Watch out though, they will still hurt you (but only you) if you're too close. Despite the risk of hurting yourself, it is advisable to airblast them at all times since self-inflicted explosion damage is lower than enemy-inflicted damage, and there's no excuse to let teammates fall into harm if you can so easily prevent it.
• Be aware of any Medic healing enemy Soldiers or Demomen, and try to re-direct explosives towards the Medic. If the Medic is using the Kritzkrieg you can use this to your advantage, reflecting the stream of Critical rockets or grenades back at the enemy. Additionally, if you have an allied Medic use the Kritzkrieg on you, all of your reflects will be Critical hits, including attacks that normally cannot get Criticals (such as a Level 3 Sentry Gun's rockets).
• Also take note of allies on fire, as the compression blast can extinguish allies on fire. This is an often forgotten but incredibly useful tool in the Pyro's arsenal.
• If you see an enemy running toward a Health kit, you can airblast him away to deny him the health.
• The Compression blast can also be used to delay enemies and keep them out of vital areas either by blowing them off ledges, pushing them into obstructions, or by Juggling them in the air, usually done after they have been set on fire, to stop them being able to reach health kits. If the enemy is close to an instant death area (e.g. Saw blades), blasting enemies into them is a viable method of attack, and this method will earn the Pyro a "finished off" kill, even if said Pyro did no damage to the player beforehand.
• Airblasting ÜberCharged enemies is often a very useful strategy that can result in a wasted Über for the enemy team. A good way to halt an ÜberCharge is to separate the enemy Medic from their target. Oftentimes, the target will continue forward without realizing their Medic is out of reach until it is too late. Another viable strategy is to simply airblast either one or both of the enemies upward, then continue to airblast upwards as they come back down. This method is especially effective against enemy Pyro ÜberCharges due to the Pyro's lack of a sufficient long-range weapon. This strategy however is not as effective against soldiers, as they can easily shoot rockets down at you.
• Airblasting unaware strong opponents such as Heavies can be a good way to disorientate them, allowing your team to take them down. This combined with setting him on fire can be very effective as it will confuse the target long enough for you to land a killing blow with the Axtinguisher. This is known as "Puff and Sting"
• If you're having trouble hitting a moving enemy, you can use compression blast to force them up into the air. They won't have nearly as much maneuverability in the air, and you should be able to hit them with a Shotgun blast or two.
• It is possible to use a deflected Rocket to perform a rocket jump by aiming down, jumping, and airblasting at the right moment.[1]
• When standing above an enemy Soldier or Demoman, a well timed airblast will block their rocket jump and push them back downward.
• Airblast Jarate to reflect it back to the Sniper that threw it or to other members of the enemy team, this is also effective with Mad Milk from a Scout and it is a great way to get a quick heal.
• In order to successfully time a reflect for an arrow, rocket, or grenade the player must time it shortly before the actual visual effect is within range. The visual effect is slightly behind where the actual projectile is, confusing some newer players.
• Use caution when using the compression blast against an enemy Sentry Gun; if it's being wrangled, the Engineer controlling it may chose to never shoot rockets at you, giving you nothing to reflect back.
• Using the compression blast is a good way to stop charging Demomen in their tracks. Be wary of the Eyelander's large range, though.
• Airblasting Spies into the air is a good way to prevent them from backstabbing your allies.
• Airblasting Snipers into the air is a great way to keep them from attacking. Snipers using the Sniper Rifle will have their aim thrown off, and Snipers using the Huntsman will be completely unable to fire until they land. This can be used to better predict when to try to deflect the Huntsman arrow, and just disorient Snipers in general.

Related Achievements

Soldier

Backdraft Dodger Kill a Pyro who has airblasted one of your rockets in the last 10 seconds.

Pyro

Hotshot Kill a Soldier with a reflected critical rocket.

Hot Potato Reflect 100 projectiles with your compressed air blast.

Update history

June 19, 2008 Patch

• Added alt-fire compression blast to the basic Flamethrower.

June 20, 2008 Patch

• Fixed Compression Blast and Flare Gun trail particles on DX8.

May 21, 2009 Patch

• Compression blast now extinguishes fire on friendly targets.
• Grenades and rockets deflected by a Pyro under the effects of Kritzkrieg will now be criticals.

June 8, 2009 Patch

• Fixed not being able to reflect arrows with the Flamethrower.

June 23, 2009 Patch

• Force-A-Nature & Flamethrower air blast knockback effects no longer work on disguised Spies
• A Pyro's air blast will now extinguish burning disguised enemy Spies, since knockback no longer affects disguised enemy Spies.

June 25, 2009 Patch

• Reverted Force-A-Nature and airblast knockback on disguised Spies, so that they can once again be knocked back.

August 31, 2009 Patch

• Fixed the Pyro's airblast pushing Spectators in free-look mode.

December 17, 2009 Patch

• Fixed being able to affect friendly pipes with airblast (they would unstick).

December 22, 2009 Patch

• Fixed Pyros not getting the proper kill icon for kills with deflected Direct Hit rockets.

February 23, 2010 Patch

• Fixed the Pyro not being able to deflect enemy flares.

April 28, 2010 Patch

• Airblast re-fire delay reduced by 25%.
• Airblast ammo usage reduced by 20%.
• All reflected rockets/grenades/arrows now Mini-Crit.
• Airblasting enemies into environmental deaths now awards the death credit to the Pyro.

December 17, 2010 Patch

• Fixed a Flamethrower bug that allowed players to rapidly fake the Pyro's airblast effect.

Trivia

• The size of the air blast is 280 Hammer units.
• If a baseball is airblasted back and stuns the Scout that hit it, it will show the enemy Scout assisting himself when he is killed by the Pyro.
• Despite syringes being projectiles, you cannot reflect them.
• If a teammate kills an enemy who has been recently airblasted, the Pyro receives a kill assist.
• Reflecting a rocket fired from The Black Box will grant the Pyro 15 health per target hit with the rocket.
• While under the effects of Kritzkrieg, airblasted stickies will become critical. They will not switch team however.

See also

• Flamethrower
• Juggling
• Knock-back
• Stun