Horseless Headless Horsemann

Horseless Headless Horsemann
Kill Icon
Basic Information
Health:	3000 +200 for each player in the server
Damage Done:	current health of player x2
Affected By:	• Battalion's Backup: No • Bonk! Atomic Punch: Yes • Candy Cane: No • Chargin' Targe: No • Dead Ringer: Yes • Gunboats: No • Mini-crits: No • ÜberCharge: Yes
Found On:	Mann Manor

“

This is my world! You are not welcome in my world! Click to listen — The Soldier to the Horseless Headless Horsemann

”

The Horseless Headless Horsemann, often abbreviated as HHH, is an enemy that appears in Mann Manor. As the undead form of Silas Mann, this character will spawn out of the currently contested control point after a pre-determined amount of time, and proceed to hunt down and kill players on both teams. Because of his immense size and strength, the Horseless Headless Horsemann is capable of instantly killing any player or building that he strikes. He will continue his massacre until killed by a player (or players).

The Horseless Headless Horsemann is referred to as "Team Fortress's first boss monster" on the official Scream Fortress Update page.

Mechanics

Player targeting

A player within a certain proximity to the Horseless Headless Horsemann, when it spawns or loses its target, will be designated as "It", whereupon they will become the primary target for the Horseless Headless Horsemann. The player who is "It" will be notified via an on-screen message.

The current target ("It") is marked with a floating white skull and crossbones symbol, but the status can be passed on by striking a player on the opposing team with a melee weapon. The Horseless Headless Horsemann can change targets if the player marked "It" moves close enough to RED or BLU's spawn, moves out of range from the Horseless Headless Horsemann, or survives for thirty seconds without being killed.

If no one is "It", the Horseless Headless Horsemann may perform a "Boo" taunt. When doing so, he crouches and spreads his arms wide while releasing a loud "Boo!", stunning anyone in a range of 500 units. This is similar to the Ghost's effect and can also grant the Scared Stiff Scarechievement. Wearing the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head or Saxton Hale Mask provides immunity from being stunned in this way.

Health

The Horseless Headless Horsemann has a base health of 3000, increasing by 200 per player in the server, setting his health at 7800 (24-player server) or a maximum of 9400 (in an increased slot 32-player server). He will not spawn if there are under 10 players in the server (excluding bots), placing his minimum possible health at 5000. The Horseless Headless Horsemann will begin to "shiver" when he has been defeated before exploding. The game will then announce his annihilation via a sound and message on-screen.

The Horseless Headless Horsemann spawns roughly every 8 minutes (± 1 minute), and can only spawn on the map Mann Manor.

Audio cues

These sounds play during the event:

• Halloween Boss has spawned^‡
• You have been tagged as 'it'.
• Another player has been tagged as 'it'.
• Halloween Boss has been defeated.^‡

^‡Accompanied by a notification Popup.

Holiday items

Contributing to killing the Horseless Headless Horsemann awards both the Sleepy Holl0wnd Ghostchievement and Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head hat. If a player delivers a killing melee blow, either delivering the fatal melee hit or being one of the last three to deliver a melee hit, that player will receive an Unusual Haunted Metal Scrap and the Gored Ghostchievement.

General strategy

Damage graph showing the number of players vs. the health of the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

• A strategy for the player designated "It" is to act as bait for the Horseless Headless Horsemann, while all other players inflict as much damage as they can.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann's target can trap him by standing on the ledge behind the wall of the shack on the rock outcrop. Standing there while targeted makes the Horseless Headless Horsemann attack the wall of the shack and ignore all other players, including those attacking him with melee weapons. Using this method, the "Gored!" Ghostchievement can be easily obtained.
• Any on-hit effects such as the Buff Banner's rage building are not triggered by the Horseless Headless Horsemann. The Horseless Headless Horsemann is completely immune to all status ailments, such as being coated in Jarate or Mad Milk, affected by afterburn, bleed, compression blast, slowdown, The Sandman's ball, or knock back, and being marked for death. However, the Horseless Headless Horsemann is affected by critical damage and damage ramp up/fall off. Damage to the Horseless Headless Horsemann does not display damage text or play hit sounds.
• The control points stay active while the Horseless Headless Horsemann is out. It is a good strategy to use this time to take control of the point while the enemy is distracted.
• A strategy regarding RED on Point C is to stay as close as possible to the spawn and retreat into the spawn as soon as a player on said team is "It". The Horseless Headless Horsemann will spend most of the time chasing BLU, thus defending Point C. This strategy works well with Sentry Guns guarding the point.
• Use the gap around the final control point as a buffer. If HHH gets too close, it is possible to simply jump the gap while he will be forced to maneuver around the crack in the floor in order to reach the player.
• Though the Horseless Headless Horsemann can chase the player designated "It" onto the roof of B, he cannot chase a player onto the roofs of the buildings near it. Therefore, it is still possible to deal damage without the risk of being killed.
• Sentry Guns will not be targeted by the Horseless Headless Horsemann, however, they will still target him. This allows Engineers to do damage without risk by placing a Sentry Gun and retreating. However, the Horseless Headless Horsemann will destroy anything in his path, including buildings. When targeted with a Wrangled Sentry Gun, the Horsemann will attempt to destroy the Sentry Gun.
• The damage dealt by the Horsemann is equal to two times the current health of the player it strikes. This allows Spies using the Dead Ringer to survive for as long as they have it activated with the necessary health.
• The Horsemann can not jump, but he will walk off of ledges and fall down to reach those marked as "It". Despite this, though, if standing too close to a ledge the Horsemann might be able to kill a player due to a large attack range.

For class specific strategies, see Horseless Headless Horsemann match-ups.

Related achievements

Scarechievements

Scared Stiff Kill a player scared by a ghost.

Ghostchievements

Sleepy Holl0WND Kill the Horseless Headless Horsemann. Reward: Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head

Gored! Collect the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Haunted Metal Scrap.

 Scout

Foul Territory Cause an environmental death by stunning or slowing an enemy.

Fall Classic Cause an environmental death or suicide using the Force-A-Nature's knockback.

 Demoman

He Who Celt It Use the Sticky Launcher to kill an enemy player via environmental damage.

Update history

October 27, 2010 Patch (Scream Fortress Update)

• Introduced the Horseless Headless Horsemann to the game.

October 28, 2010 Patch

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann can now climb the ladder at point B.

November 1, 2010 Patch

• Fixed a minor issue with the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

May 5, 2011 Patch (Replay Update)

• Fixed the Horseless Headless Horsemann displaying the burning material in DirectX8.
• [Undocumented] Sentry Guns and Bots now properly target the Horseless Headless Horsemann as an enemy.

October 27, 2011 Patch (Very Scary Halloween Special)

• [Undocumented] Damage notifications and hitsounds now appear when damaging the Horsemann, if they are enabled.

Bugs

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann may in semi-rare cases move right into players, rendering them completely stuck and vulnerable to a quick and painful death.
• Sentry Guns will shoot the Horseless Headless Horsemann even when he is outside their normal range.
• Manually spawned Horseless Headless Horsemanns are immune to direct grenade hits and do not show a killcam upon slaying a player.
• Killing the Horseless Headless Horsemann with the Half-Zatoichi will not enable the player to sheathe the weapon.
• A player killed by the Horseless Headless Horsemann with an assist by an enemy's Sentry Gun will cause the player's screen to say the kill was by a Sentry Gun belonging to the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

Trivia

Presumably Silas Mann in the Mann family portrait. Notice that he is holding keys and nametags, and something is burning in the fireplace.

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann is a parody of the Headless Horseman from the story Template:W by Template:W.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann has several unused animations that can be found in the game files. These include the "Cheers" thumbs up action and Medic calls. This is due to the Horseless Headless Horsemann using many of the Demoman's original animations.
  • The animation the Horseless Headless Horsemann uses when walking changes depending on how much health he has. After he loses a certain percentage of health (presumably 50%), he stops using the two handed walk animation and starts using the one handed walk animation.
  • Even though the Horseless Headless Horsemann never jumps, an unused jump animation exists from the original Demoman animations. The Horsemann will walk around height obstacles or change his target if confronted with an enemy on a higher ledge.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann's kills count as environmental deaths. Therefore, achievements such as Foul Territory for the Scout can be achieved by stunning someone about to be killed by the Horseless Headless Horsemann.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann will continue to chase a Spy target that has activated a Dead Ringer.

Gallery

• 

  The Horseless Headless Horsemann attacking some members of both teams.

• 

  An in-game screenshot of the Horseless Headless Horsemann.

• 

  The icon displayed above "It".

• 

  The icon which appears above a scared player .