Wrangler

“

This thing ain't on auto-pilot, son! Click to listen — The Engineer on manual punishment

”

The Wrangler is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Engineer. It seems to be the remains of a wooden Pistol handle implemented with a joystick and radar dish.

When selected, the Engineer manually takes control of his Sentry Gun's aim. During this period, the Sentry Gun will stop aiming and firing automatically. The Wrangler produces a semi-transparent shield around the Sentry Gun that absorbs 66% of all incoming damage. Furthermore, the gun's firing rate and missile launch rate (for level 3 Sentry Guns) are doubled whenever fired using the weapon's bound keys. A laser sight is emitted from the Sentry Gun which auto-aims the Sentry Gun and its rockets toward the center of those targeted by the Wrangler. Other players can see this laser and use it to quickly ascertain the location of the Sentry Gun.

When switching to another weapon, the Sentry Gun is left defenseless for 3 seconds with its shield, after which time it will resume normal operation. On the Engineer's death, all effects are removed but the Sentry Gun remains idle for 3 seconds.

The Wrangler allows a clever Engineer to get to high places through the use of a Sentry Gun jump.

Bugs

• At this time, the laser emitted from the Sentry Gun while using the Wrangler will travel through some walls and occasionally move back and forth very quickly.
• Picking up a Wrangled Sentry will leave the Wrangler shield visual effect in place for a short time. Also, upon deploying the sentry and Wrangling it, the laser will emit from strange points, such as enemy Sentry Guns. This can be fixed by switching to another weapon then back to the Wrangler.
• There is currently a glitch which causes the targetting laser of the Sentry to be emitted from the eyes of allies when you aim at them. This can make it somewhat harder to aim at enemies. The glitch is also only present on the player's screen; no other players will see it like this.
• Sentry Gun rockets will make the kill icon appear as that of a level 3 sentry instead of the Wrangler.

Trivia

Radigan Conagher holding the Wrangler.

• The Wrangler, as with the Frontier Justice, the Gunslinger, and the Southern Hospitality, appears to have been designed by Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's ancestor. This is shown by a hidden link in the Engineer Update.
• The main component of the Wrangler bears a striking resemblance to the control pad of the Atari 2600.
• It also looks very similar to the Phasor One, an old computer joystick from 1989.
• Humorously, the Engineer's hand appears to get cramps after rotating the Wrangler's joystick for a period of time.
• A Wrangled level 2 or 3 Sentry Gun can survive Taunt attacks that would normally destroy any building instantly (such as the Pyro's Hadouken or Soldier's Kamikaze).

• Being stunned by the Sandman leaves the Engineer unable to fire, but keeps the Sentry Gun in the Wrangled state, effectively disabling it.
• When the Wrangler is used on a Mini-Sentry, the fire-rate increases close to the fire rate of a level 2 Sentry Gun. Use that advantage to make good use of the Mini-Sentry's large ammo capacity.

Gallery

• Wrangler 1st person red cropped.png

  RED 1st person view.

• 

  Full RED 1st person view.

• Wrangler 1st person blu cropped.png

  BLU 1st person view.

• 

  Full BLU 1st person view.

Related Achievements

Rio Grind Perform 50 repairs and/or reloads on a Sentry gun being Wrangled by another Engineer. Search Engine Kill 3 cloaked Spies with a sentry gun under control of your Wrangler. Building Block Have a sentry shielded by the Wrangler absorb 500 damage without being destroyed.

Patent Protection Destroy an enemy Engineer's sentry gun with a sentry under control of your Wrangler. Pownd on the Range Kill 10 enemies outside the normal sentry gun range using the Wrangler. Breaking Morant Kill 10 Snipers with a sentry gun under the control of your Wrangler.

See also

• Sentry Gun jump
• Wrangler strategy
• Aerials