Slowdown

“

What da hell's goin' on? Click to listen — The Scout on being stunned

”

Slowdown or Slow is a gameplay mechanic that decreases the speed of a player for a set amount of time. This effect can be applied to a player when under attack by certain weapons or as a penalty for using a certain item. In addition, players can naturally slow down their own movement speed by couching (33%) or by running backwards (10%). Specifics on how much a particular class is slowed down can be found in the Classes article.

The slowdown effect has no falloff distance; players hit from any distance will always be slowed down by at least a small amount.

Weapon Effect

Weapon	Slowdown Notes
Natascha	On Hit: 100% chance to slow target Every bullet that hits the target will slow them to approximately 113 hammer units per second. Differences in class or normal running speed does not change this figure. The slowdown effect is reduced the further away the target is. It is currently unknown as to how much speed is reduced over what distance.
Sandman	The Sandman's secondary fire launches a baseball that can stun the target for several seconds. The stunned target will be slowed down and cannot use any weapon for the duration of the effect. If the baseball is launched at the maximum ranged distance, the victim will be completely immobile and not be able to move at all for the duration of the effect.

Weapon Penalty

Sniper Rifle / Sydney Sleeper

Movement speed reduces to 27% while zoomed in, but while zoomed and crouching, it reduces to 1.33%.

Huntsman

Movement speed is reduced to 45% while an arrow is drawn.

Minigun / Natascha / Iron Curtain

Movement speed is reduced to 37% while spun up.

Disguise

Depending on the class a Spy is disguised as, his movement speed can be effected. As a Demoman, his movement speed will decrease to 93%, as a Soldier, it will decrease to 80%, and as a Heavy, it will decrease to 77%.

Hauling

While hauling a building, an Engineer's movement speed will decrease to 75% which is slightly slower than a Heavy.

Brass Beast

Movement speed is reduced to 14.66 while spun up.

Scotsman's Skullcutter

-15% movement speed on wearer

As long as the Scotsman's Skullcutter remains in the Demoman's loadout, his movement speed will constantly be lowered from 280 units per second (93% of normal speed) to 238 units per second (78% of normal speed) which renders his speed to only marginally faster than a Heavy.

Removed Slowdown

Shortstop

The Shortstop was intended to have a slow effect, but it didn't function properly. As a result, the effect was removed in the December 17, 2010 Patch.

Razorback

When first released, the Razorback would slow the Sniper down to movement speed to 85%. This was removed in the June 23, 2009 Patch.

Related Achievements

Heavy

Don't Touch Sandvich Kill 50 Scouts using Natascha.

Scarechievements

Scared Stiff Kill a player scared by a ghost.