Team Fortress 2 Beta

The Team Fortress 2 Beta is a beta version of the game that is separate from TF2 itself and is open to all owners of it, made available on December 2, 2010. This is the second period of public beta testing, the first one occurring before official release of the game. The beta is used for purposes including, but not limited to:

• Testing and tuning various class, item, and weapon changes
• Testing map changes and variants
• Running higher level, game-wide experiments (like doubling player health)
• Testing new technologies without the risk of breaking the game

Players receive all achievement-related items, all promotional items their account is entitled to (excluding promotional items received from a trade), and the complete Saharan Spy pack. Random drops, trading, crafting, and the Mann Co. Store are disabled as well. The current Team Fortress 2 beta differs from the beta first released to any user who pre-ordered the game back in 2007, and is more similar to the closed beta from 2009.

Changes

Weapons

Class		Weapon	Ammo Loaded	Ammo Carried	Damage Range	Notes / Special Abilities	Active
Heavy	Beta	Natascha1	200	N/A	Base: 340 / sec. Crit: 720 / sec.	On Hit: 100% chance to slow target   Slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance   -25% damage done   30% slower spin-up time	Not Active (1/06/2011)
	Beta	Natascha Variant 1	200	N/A	Base: 312 / sec. Crit: 648 / sec.	On Hit: 100% chance to slow target   Slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance   -35% damage done	Not Active (1/06/2011)
	Beta	Natascha Variant 2	200	N/A	Base: 340 / sec. Crit: 720 / sec.	On Hit: 100% chance to slow target   Slowdown-on-hit effect falls off over distance   -25% damage   -20% (60) max health on wearer	Not Active (1/06/2011)

¹This variant appears to have been implemented in TF2 in the December 17, 2010 Patch.

Natasha Variants 1+2 were removed in the January 6, 2011 Beta patch.

Maps

• cp_granary: New entrance added into the RED and BLU mid ramp room.
• cp_5gorge: 5 CP version of cp_gorge.
• Well: Made the 2nd point defender spawn door one-way

• 

  Granary: New entrance on RED from inside.

• 

  Granary: New entrance on RED from outside.

• 

  Granary: New entrance on BLU from inside.

• 

  Granary: New entrance on BLU from outside.

Balance

Class		Weapon	Ammo Loaded	Ammo Carried	Damage Range	Notes / Special Abilities	Active
Engineer	Buildings	Buildings	N/A	N/A	N/A	Damage against buildings (sentries, etc) reduced 50%	Not Active (1/13/2011)
Medic	Stock	Medi Gun	N/A	N/A	N/A	ÜberCharge grants Medic and patient 8 seconds of guaranteed invulnerability.  Players being healed are immune to movement-impairing effects generated by hit-scan weapons.	Not Active (1/06/2011)
	Unlock	Kritzkrieg	N/A	N/A	N/A	ÜberCharge grants patient 8 seconds of guaranteed critical damage.  Players being healed are immune to movement-impairing effects generated by hit-scan weapons.  Has 25% faster charge rate.	Not Active (1/06/2011)
All Classes	Health	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	All Classes have double Health	Not Active (1/13/2011)
	Health	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	All Classes have 25% extra Health	Active

Patches

Main article: Patches (Beta)

Bugs

• The Iron Curtain shows up on the left hand side of the screen instead of the normal right hand side.
• An Engineer can prepare to build a Mini-sentry, switch to either the Wrench or Southern Hospitality, and still deploy the Mini-Sentry without having the Gunslinger equipped. This does not work the other way around to build normal sentries with the Gunslinger equipped.
• As of the January 6, 2011 patch, the drop system appears to be active, allowing players to receive normally-dropped items, crates, and hats in the beta.
• Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head can drop in the beta.
• The 50% damage reduction against an Engineer's buildings also applies to a Spy's sappers, which now take more than two hits from an Engineer's melee weapon to destroy.
• Because of the doubled health, it is possible to survive your own Kamikaze taunt-attack as well as other taunt attacks as Heavy.

See also

• Beta weapons – for weapons of the previous closed beta.

External Links

• Official TF2 Beta Forum on Steam Users' Forums
• TF2 Beta Blog Post
• TF2 Beta Update history