Cosmetic items

Cosmetic Items

A mock magazine, Hat-Wearing Man, appeared at the end of the Sniper vs. Spy Update announcing the first hats as a bonus.

“

Throughout history, men have worn hats as a way of asserting dominance over other men. “I buy hats,” a behatted man seems to say. “I am better than you.” In wartime, hats were a useful way of conferring rank, and ensuring that casualties were confined to the lower classes (hence the famous command of “Don't fire till you see the tops of their heads” at the Battle of Bunker Hill by William Prescott, a general renowned for only shooting enemy combatants who were poor). During peacetime, hats have been instrumental for men to let the non-hatted know just who is wearing the hat around here.

— Classless Update

”

Cosmetic items (previously known as hats and miscellaneous items) are items that can be equipped in any one of the three cosmetic slots in the loadout screen. Valve introduced the first set of nine cosmetics (named hats at that point in time) with the Sniper vs. Spy Update, with one hat for each class. The nine hats introduced were the Batter's Helmet, the Soldier's Stash, the Pyro's Beanie, the Demoman's Fro, the Football Helmet, the Mining Light, the Prussian Pickelhaube, the Trophy Belt, and the Fancy Fedora. Several updates have since added additional cosmetics, including those designed by members of the Team Fortress 2 community through the Steam Workshop or the former contribution page on the TF2 Official Website.

There are currently a total of 1890 cosmetic items. 109 can be obtained in Vintage quality, 329 can be obtained in Strange quality, 301 can be obtained in Genuine quality (see item quality distribution), 78 can be obtained in Collector's quality, and 1315 of the cosmetics can be painted 29 colors using different varieties of Paint Cans.

While most cosmetics can be obtained through crafting, the item drop system, or bought from the Mann Co. Store, some cosmetics are only available to players via other means. Multiple cosmetics can only be obtained by completing in-game achievements. Other cosmetics have been added as promotions for various Steam games and events in the Steam Store. While it is possible to obtain most of these cosmetics via trading with other players, there is no option to buy these cosmetics from the Mann Co. Store (aside from those released with Total War: SHOGUN 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and the QUAKECON Pack). Only players with the premium account type can receive cosmetics randomly through the item drop system.

With the release of the Mann-Conomy Update, Unusual quality versions of certain cosmetics have a 1.00% chance of being "uncrated" when the player opens a Mann Co. Supply Crate. These cosmetics function in exactly the same way as Unique cosmetics except for the addition of 1 of 86 unusual particle effects, chosen at random from applicable groups (certain effects are only obtainable during special events) when the cosmetic item is obtained.

Cosmetics do not affect game-play, spare the psychology of players. With the release of the July 10, 2013 Patch, Item sets from the Polycount Pack (with the exception of The Saharan Spy set, which adds custom particle effects while taunting) now only provide a visual cosmetic grave marker upon defeating your enemies. However, wearing the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head and the Saxton Hale Mask makes the wearer immune to the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Boo taunt. Additionally, the Bootie Time, Jingle Belt, Jolly Jingler, and Elf Care Provider make jingling sounds, possibly giving away the location of the wearer and making them more noticeable.

Some cosmetics have holiday or event restrictions, meaning those cosmetics can't be seen (except in the loadout menu) when it's not currently a holiday or an event. Additionally, Pyroland items can only be seen by yourself and any other players who are wearing an item that allows them to see in Pyrovision or is viewing a player who has equipped an item which enables Pyrovision as a Spectator with the "When spectating, view the world from the eyes of a Pyro" option turned on.

On January 10th 2013, a blog post was made, announcing that, after January 24th, 2013, the original nine hats added in the Sniper vs. Spy Update would be retired, making them unobtainable through crafting, random drops, Mann Co. Supply Crates (in Unusual quality only) or the Mann Co. Store after January 24th. The only source that was mentioned not being removed were existing Mann Co. Supply Crates with any of the hats listed as possible results.

On December 20th, 2013, the "Head" and "Misc" slots for player load outs were merged together to form "Cosmetic" loadout slots. All items that were previously Head- or Misc-slot-specific could then be equipped in any Cosmetic-slot.

List of cosmetic items

Crafting

Main article: Crafting

See Headgear recipes in Crafting.

Paint

Main articles: Paint Can, List of paintable items

Update history

Bugs

Sometimes at random when a player moves into a shadowed area of the map, the lighting on a cosmetic will still have the lighting as if they were having a light on them.
Due to a glitch involving high latency, players may equip multiple cosmetics that cannot be normally equipped together.
- This can also be performed by leaving the cosmetic slots empty, disconnecting the internet (if possible), returning and selecting the cosmetics the user wants to combine and reconnects, the player will have their selection. However, if the player dies or touches a resupply, they will return to normal. This is due to the item server only losing connection after 10 seconds, so the player can trick the item server to apply hats selected, not by confliction.
When another player dies, there is a chance their hat will fall out of the ceiling or the floor.
Some hats may be positioned wrong during the Sniper's melee taunt animation.

Trivia

On the History page on the official website and the Mac Update page, Valve refers to Team Fortress 2 as "America's #1 war-themed hat simulator", based on comments that the hats receive more attention than the gameplay itself.^[1]^[2]
The Trophy Belt and Football Helmet were first seen in Meet the Spy prior to the official Sniper vs. Spy Update.

Unused content

A crafting recipe exists for smelting three Miscellaneous items into Scrap Metal in the game files. This recipe was once used when the only craftable miscellaneous item yet released was the Camera Beard, which dropped at the same rate as normal weapons. The recipe is currently disabled in-game.
An unused Scout cosmetic named Bonk'n'Flash that was planned to be released on the Mann-Conomy Update was discarded due to copyright concerns.
An unused Scout cosmetic named Bullseye's Head (which was the head of Bullseye from Monday Night Combat) was discarded because it was too large and visually disruptive.
An unused Soldier cosmetic named Legionaire's Lid was added into the game files during the Mann-Conomy Update but never actually appeared in the game.
An unused Pyro cosmetic named Mummy Eyes was added into the game files during Scream Fortress 2013 and could have been seen in the bundle icon for a short while before it was removed.

References

↑ "The Mac Update!", Teamfortress.com, June 10, 2010
↑ "History", Teamfortress.com, retrieved Feb. 13, 2012

External links

[1] "The Mac Update!", Teamfortress.com, June 10, 2010

[2] "History", Teamfortress.com, retrieved Feb. 13, 2012

[1]

[2]

Cosmetic items

Contents

List of cosmetic items

Crafting

Paint

Update history

Bugs

Trivia

Unused content

See also

References

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