Main menu

The main menu of Team Fortress 2 after the Über Update.

“

Click to listen

— The Administrator, eagerly (or impatiently) awaiting the player's upcoming bloodbath.

”

The main menu is the opening screen of Team Fortress 2. Upon the initial opening of the game's menu, one of the soundtrack songs will play, but it will not loop or play again until the game is restarted. The menu can also be opened while connected to a server (the default key to open the menu is Esc).

Main menu button appearances and functions

Alerts & messages

The messages panel open.

Example of a trade alert.

The alert box is a temporary box that appears to the left of the message tab. It shows notifications such as trade requests and map events (so far only Mann Manor has made use of this via gift drops and Horseless Headless Horsemann appearances during the Scream Fortress update)

The messages tab, when expanded, shows a "newspaper" with the most recent updates from the official Team Fortress 2 blog.

The right hand side of the main menu is occasionally used for special update related events such as the War Update or the Saxxy Awards.

Start Playing/Resume Game

This button will take you to matchmaking so you can automatically select a server for a certain game modes. If connected to a server it becomes the resume game button.

Call Vote

The tick symbol allows you to call a vote on the server you are currently on as long as the server supports it. Options include player kicking, map changes and team scrambles.

Mute Players

Main article: Muting players

The Mute Players button brings up a menu that allows the player to mute other player's in-game voice chat. This will only show an empty list of players when outside of a server. It will not mute text chat, sounds triggered by scripts or the server, or sounds from a Template:W

Request Coach

The whistle symbol allows you to call for a coach to teach you how to play.

Browse Servers/New Game

Allows the player to join or set up a game. By clicking the main body of the button the Server browser is opened. When the player is currently connected to a server it becomes the 'New Game' button to allow to search for a game through matchmaking.

Create Server

The plus symbol allows you to start up a listen or LAN server.

Training/Change Server

Main article: Training

Allows the player to start up a training level or play a practice game against Bots. Whilst in a game this button will become the change server button which brings up the server browser.

Items

Main article: Manage items

Will take you to the loadout and stats pages.

Shop

Main article: Mann Co. Store

Clicking the Shop button opens the Mann Co. Store, which allows players to purchase in-game items such as hats, weapons, action items, and tools using money stored in their Steam Wallet. A current "featured item" is also shown under this button.

Replays

Main article: Replay

Takes you to the Replays window where you can view your recorded clips, takes, and movies.

View Promotional Codes

This button will open a Steam web browser page to a listing of all your Team Fortress 2 related claim codes on your account. Currently the only promotional code available is from the RIFT Well Spun Hat Claim Code item.

Quit/Disconnect

This button with either close the game if not connected to a server, or will disconnect from the currently connected server.

Glyphs bar

New User Forum

Opens the Steam overlay web browser to the Team Fortress 2 New Players forum.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

Brings up a window that shows earned and unearned achievements, along with progress bars for achievements that require them. Unearned achievements have a tick box that can enable the achievement's progress to be shown in the HUD while playing.

Developer Commentary

This menu allows the player to enter one of three empty versions of the official maps. These contain non-functioning bots and speech bubbles, which provide voice commentary from the designers detailing the game's development.

Be a Coach

Main article: Coaching

This gives you the option to volunteer to coach other players in the coaching mode.

Report Bug

This menu gives the player a fast and efficient option to quickly report a bug with an optional screenshot.

Options

This button opens up a window where the player can change keyboard bindings, mouse, audio, and video options, voice configuration for use of a microphone, and multiplayer options.

Main article: Advanced multiplayer options

This button opens the advanced multiplayer options directly.

Update history

September 20, 2007 Patch

Disabled the loading of background maps

September 21, 2007 Patch

Removed background map due to incompatibilities

October 2, 2007 Patch

Added "Very High" texture resolution option
Fixed non-English language text overlapping in a few places
Extra options added to 'Game' tab in "Create Server" menu option

October 9, 2007 Patch

Fixed loading screen and intro movie showing up on Windows Vista with full screen AA

January 25, 2008 Patch

Added new option to auto-save a scoreboard screenshot at the end of a map to the Multiplayer->Advanced dialog
Removed the "Reset Stats" button from the Player Stats screen

April 1, 2008 Patch

Fixed a few instances of truncated text in the menus and dialogs for languages other than English

April 29, 2008 Patch (Gold Rush Update)

Added Character Info and Loadout to the main menu

December 17, 2009 Patch (WAR! Update)

Added 2 new game startup songs (Right Behind You and Petite Chou-Fleur)

July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)

Added Engineer main menu music.

July 13, 2010 Patch

[Undocumented] Changed the song 'More Gun' to be different from Wilco's 'Someone Else's Song'

October 27, 2010 Patch (Scream Fortress Update)

[Undocumented] Added new game start up music "gamestartup_halloween".

September 30, 2010 Patch (Mann-Conomy Update)

Added the Mann Co. Store & Catalog
Server browser tweaks
- It will now encourage you to add servers to Favorites or Blacklists after you have a good/bad experience on them.
- The Server Browser now automatically closes after successfully connecting to a server (opt-out via the Options-Multiplayer->Advanced dialog)
[Undocumented] Removed the "class advisor" and class records from the top-right corner of the main menu

April 14, 2011 Patch (Hatless Update)

Updated the main menu to include 'resume game', 'call a vote' and 'request coach' selections.
Menu background is now transparent when connected to a server.
The Mann Co. Store featured item is no longer viewable in the menu unless the player selects the store button specifically.

May 5, 2011 Patch (Replay Update)

Added the Replay feature to the menu
[Undocumented] Added the Saxxy 2011 Theme

May 6, 2011 Patch

Fixed a client crashed caused by using custom main menu resource files

May 9, 2011 Patch

Saxxy fanfare music wasn't playing on music channel. Music will only play once per launch now and will not play on a changelevel

May 18, 2011 Patch

Added an Advanced Options button to the main menu to allow tweaking of many gameplay options

May 19, 2011 Patch

Fixed a rare case where users running Service Pack 3 on Windows 7 64-bit with graphics driver version 12.42 saw a graphical glitch on the main menu Options button

May 31, 2011 Patch