Versus Saxton Hale
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| “ | What is VS Saxton Hale? It's in the name! You fight Saxton Hale! Or you play as Saxton Hale and fight the Mercenaries. Are you ready to face 23 enemies at once? ‘Cause they surely aren’t ready to face you!
— Publicity Blurb
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VS Saxton Hale is a community-created game mode added in the Summer 2023 update with the July 12, 2023 Patch. It features Saxton Hale (as the BLU team) pitted against the RED team's mercenaries in a large-scale arena.
Contents
Gameplay
One player is chosen at random to play as Saxton Hale, and the rest are assigned to the RED team with one goal: to kill Saxton Hale on behalf of their new boss Gray Mann. Hale has a large arsenal of abilities that he can use against the mercenaries. The mercenaries also have some abilites that they can use against Saxton Hale. Hale has 4 minutes to kill the mercs, if the time runs out RED wins by default. Near the top of the screen, Saxton Hale's health is visible.
Saxton Hale
As Saxton Hale, players have several different abilities to help take on the mercenaries. These abilities display most of their information on the HUD. A regular melee hit from Saxton does 195 damage and his health scales with the amount of players on RED he is fighting.
Saxton Hale has a set of attributes that persist throughout the round. By default, Hale has a 25% resistance against all damage sources and knockback forces,[1] and has a 3x damage multiplier for their only primary weapon.[2] Random critical hits are disabled on-wearer,[3] and Hale has an increased melee range and bound multiplier of 1.2x and 1.1x, respectively.[4]
Saxton Hale cannot be impacted by fall damage,[5] nor can he be healed by a Medi Gun or through health kits.[6] Saxton has a 2x control point capture rate multiplier,[7] but is additionally not able to pick up flags from any team.[8]
Sweeping Charge
Saxton charges up his fist as he yells out in preparation for a rushing punch that knocks opponents away and slams them into walls for extra damage. The charge can be held for as long as desired, making Saxton's fist glow blue and freezing him in place, even while in the air. The charge attack can be used to send Saxton in any direction that he is facing, allowing him to reach high places if needed. Default key: R. The charge attack is on a 10 second cooldown and does 55% of the target's total HP and falls off with distance. The charge attack also deals damage to Engineer buildings every tick that it is active.
Saxton Punch!
Saxton starts a 30 second countdown from when he spawns, slowly charging up a devastating attack. When fully charged, this attack turns Saxton's left forearm bright red with critical hit sparks all over it. Saxton also gives an audio cue when the attack is ready, alerting the mercenaries. Upon striking an enemy with Saxton fist, a shockwave is sent out, damaging every enemy around the target based on their proximity. Saxton Punch automatically applies to the next melee hit when available and does 326 damage before going on cooldown.
Mighty Slam
When Saxton becomes airborne, he has the ability to preform a ground pound, slamming himself back down to the ground with great force. This ability ignores knockback and is triggered by holding the crouch button (default key: Ctrl) while in the air. Upon hitting the ground, a big shockwave is sent out in every direction from the point of impact, and every merc close to the landing site takes damaged based on their distance from the point of impact. This ability is on a cooldown for 15 seconds.
Brave Jump
Similar to Scout, Saxton has the ability to perform a double jump. Useful as a general mobility tool, this ability launches Saxton forward and upward with no cooldown, only requiring the player to touch the ground to be performed again.
Mercenaries
As the mercenaries, players have a few abilities to aid in fending off Saxton. Most classes have voice lines specific to VS Saxton Hale, although not voiced by the official voice actors. These trigger automatically under certain conditions.
Wall climbing
Every mercenary has the ability to scale surfaces with the use of a melee attack. Upon striking a wall or floor, the player is launched upwards to reach advantageous positions with ease.[9]
Last Mann Standing
When there are 3 mercenaries left, all surviving players deal mini-crit damage. When there is 1 mercenary left, the last surviving mercenary deals full critical hits.[10]
Gameplay changes
Some existing gameplay elements (such as classes, weapons and buildings) have had changes of varying degrees:
- All Miniguns deal 40% less damage.[11]
- The Natascha has an 85% reduced chance of triggering the slowdown-on-hit ability.[12]
- Melee weapons for all classes except the Spy deploy 25% faster[13] and have a 60% increased melee range in a 350 Hammer unit proximity between Hale and the player.[14]
- The Scottish Resistance's stickies feature a 20% damage penalty.[15]
- The Sticky Jumper and the Rocket Jumper have their bonus reserve ammo removed.[16][17]
- Backstabs and the Market Gardener (while rocket jumping) deal 2.5x increased damage.[18][19]
- Telefrags deal 2x damage against Hale,[20] inflicting up to 2000 hit points.
- Sentry Guns have a 50% damage penalty.[21]
- Shields provide a one-hit immunity against Hale's primary attack.[22]
- Demoman sword weapons provide added knockback.[23]
- Medics have a 30% on-wearer damage resistance against Saxton Hale's attacks.[24]
- Medi guns provide a 2x ÜberCharge healing rate bonus if an Ubersaw is equipped.[25]
- The Mad Milk has a 50% increased recharge rate.[26]
- The Force-A-Nature knockback power has been increased, and applies within a range of up to 600 Hammer units.[27]
- The Hitman's Heatmaker has an added 7x Focus multiplier for each hit.[28]
- Weapons and cosmetics utilizing Pyrovision are forcibly disabled in order to prevent Saxton Hale from playing Heavy voice lines.[29]
- On-kill effects are now triggered by attacking Saxton Hale.
Strategy
Maps
VS Saxton Hale maps carry the vsh_ prefix; community maps are identified with an italic font.
Update history
July 12, 2023 Patch #1 (Summer 2023)
- Added maps: VSH Distillery, VSH Nucleus, VSH Skirmish, and VSH Tiny Rock.
Notes
- No voice lines are present for identifying Saxton Hale as a disguised Spy; attempting to identify Hale as one will instead provoke the generic response.
- The VSH maps are not present when selecting a map to queue. They are still present in the game and can still be loaded, but are extremely buggy.
Gallery
- VSH Model Saxton Hale JI.png
Saxton Hale.
Saxton Hale's Fists.
Sweeping Charge ability.
Saxton Punch ability.
Sweeping Charge ability HUD icon.
Saxton Punch ability HUD icon.
Mighty Slam ability HUD icon.
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References
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L59-60
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L52, L62
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L54
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L51, L53
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L49
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L57-58
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L55
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\bosses\saxton_hale\saxton_hale.nut:L56
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\melee_wall_climb.nut
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\last_mann_standing.nut:L16-23
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\heavy_minigun_nerf.nut:L25
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\heavy_natasha_nerf.nut:L25
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\melee_buffs.nut:L25
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\melee_buffs.nut:L40-50
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\demo_scottres_nerf.nut:L25
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\demo_jumper_ammo.nut:L24-28
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\soldier_jumper_ammo.nut:L24-28
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\spy_backstab.nut:L26-36
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\soldier_market_gardener.nut:L26-36
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\engie_telefrag_scaling.nut:L18-21
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\engineer_sentry.nut:L30
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\demo_shield.nut:L32-54
- ↑ Demonstration video
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\medic_resistance.nut:L25
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\medic_uber_rate.nut:L16-22, L34
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\scout_faster_milk.nut:L26
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\scout_stronger_fan.nut
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\single_class\sniper_focus.nut
- ↑ scripts\vscripts\vssaxtonhale\mercs\merc_traits\all_class\no_pyrovision.nut:L14-25; Hale is technically a Heavy with Voice Pitch shifted to 0. Pyrovision overrides that shift enabling Heavy's lines.
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