Buff Banner
| Buff Banner | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Kill Icon | |
| Basic Information | |
| Used by: | Soldier |
| Slot: | Secondary |
| Released: | WAR! Update |
| Availability: | Unlock, Drop, Craft, Purchase |
| Tradable: | Yes |
| Giftable: | Yes |
| Craftable: | Yes |
| Nameable: | Yes |
| Medieval: | Yes |
| Available Qualities | |
| Loadout Stats | |
 The Buff Banner |
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| “ | Admit it: Every so often, you suspect you’re carrying your team. . . How about motivating those lazy sons of bitches to put on their war face and fight?
— Soldier Update blurb
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” |
The Buff Banner (also known as the BB, Bugle or just Banner) is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Soldier. It appears as a tattered battle standard, mounted on a small backpack and accompanied by a dented brass bugle. The war flag itself remains hidden in the backpack until it is activated, at which point it will appear on a pole mounted to the pack.
Equipping the Buff Banner makes a "Rage Meter" visible to the Soldier, which is filled by dealing damage to enemies. The Rage Meter becomes full after the Soldier has dealt 600 damage in a single life, at which point he can sound his bugle to rally his teammates. Note that telefragging an enemy results in a fully charged rage meter regardless of previous charge or the type of class killed. During the 10 seconds following this rallying call, all hits made by allies positioned within 450 units of the Soldier (including his own) become Mini-Crits. Buffed players within the radius emit team-colored rings of light from their feet, and their weapons brighten similarly to a Crit boost. It is possible to delay the release of the banner after the trumpet call, and thereby delaying the buffing effect, by holding down the primary fire key (left mouse button by default).
Though players only receive the buff while positioned within the buff radius, the source(s) of their damage need not be within the radius, so traveling rockets, pre-laid sticky bombs, Sentry Guns, and afterburn will deal Mini-Crit damage as long as their creator is buffed when the damage is actually dealt. Likewise, a damage source created within the buff radius will not gain a Mini-Crit benefit if its creator no longer has the buff when the damage is dealt.
Switching classes, dying, or removing the Buff Banner from your loadout empties the Soldier's Rage Meter.
The Buff Banner is automatically given to any player who clears 17 Soldier achievements.
Contents
Damage
None. Rage Meter requires 600 damage to fill.
Function times
- Attack Interval: 10 seconds.
- Trumpeting Time: 3 seconds
All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.
Demonstration
Components
As a Crafting Ingredient
| Buff Banner | Reclaimed Metal | Battalion's Backup | ||
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Related Achievements
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Update history
- Fixed the Buff Banner not working when +reload has been forced in console.
- Fixed inconsistent Rage generation with the Buff Banner.
- Fixed the player keeping their rage setting when the Buff Banner isn't equipped.
- Fixed resupply cabinet not clearing the rage and the buff status effect.
- Soldier Rage bar no longer resets when touching a resupply cabinet.
- Increased the rate of the Soldier's Rage generation by 40%
- Reduced the duration of the Soldier's Buff Banner effect from 14 seconds to 10
- Added jiggle bones to the Buff Banner
- Soldiers no longer maintain their rage level when changing loadout.
Bugs
- The Buff Banner shares the same Rage meter as the Battalion's Backup. If you fill your Rage meter up while equipping The Buff Banner, you can equip the Battalion's Backup by going to a Resupply Locker and retain the charge stored in the Rage Meter. This only applies if you have "Automatically respawn after loadout changes in respawn zones" disabled in Options > Multiplayer > Advanced.
- The Buff Banner does not glow while being held when the player is Crit boosted. However, the Crit electricity can be seen.
- If the Buff Banner is activated during Humiliation by a Soldier on the winning team, it may trigger as soon as the next round begins. The Soldier will spawn with his weapon glowing and his rage meter draining from full, and he and others around him are able to deal Mini-Crits. The effect still wears off after the normal length of time.
Trivia
- The bugle was originally issued to American monkeynaut Poopy Joe as a means of calling for help before it was acquired by Mann Co. in entirely innocent circumstances.[1]
- The Buff Banner has separate, unique calls for both the RED team and BLU team.
- The glow effect of the Buff Banner is a different color for both teams, but neither is the same as their team colors. RED has a gold buff glow, while BLU is teal or mint (greenish blue). This was most likely done to prevent confusion with the standard Crit boost effect.
- There are two unused textures for separate "attack" and "defense" banners in the game files, which depict an explosion (with an orange background) and a shield (with a green background), respectively.
- The "defense banner" has subsequently become the Battalion's Backup, which provides 35% damage resistance and immunity to Critical hits.
- The Buff Banner has text on its back, reading "Screaming Eagles." This is a reference to the United States Army's Template:W, which is nicknamed the Screaming Eagles.
- The Buff Banner's juggling taunt was originally used as the Shotgun taunt before the WAR! update.
Gallery
1st person view.
Players being buffed
See also
External links
References
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