Your Eternal Reward

“

Hehey, look, you shape shifted into a dead guy! Click to listen — The Scout

”

Your Eternal Reward is a melee weapon for the Spy class. It appears as a long, ornate dagger with distinct oriental designs.

This weapon retains the backstab ability inherent to the Knife, but with additional features. Should the player successfully execute a backstab, the Spy will instantaneously disguise as the target without the "puffs of smoke" disguise effect. Furthermore, the enemy will not scream in pain as usual and their corpse will fade away almost instantly as if they are cloaking. The process is so fast that the Spy is never revealed between disguises; he simply swaps instantly to the new one. Sentry Guns will therefore be unable to target the Spy during the process, making it easier to backstab unaware Engineers and sap their Sentry Gun. Despite this, the kill feed will still display the death to observant players. By backstabbing someone who is being healed by a Medic, the healing beam will automatically transfer to you upon killing them. These effects together make backstabs increasingly difficult to spot, as victims disappear silently with the Spy instantly taking their place in battle.

The disguise effect is activated upon a successful backstab; if the target does not die (for example if they are invulnerable or wearing a Razorback) the Spy will not disguise. Kills made without backstabbing will not disguise the Spy, yet the kill will be silent and the corpse will disappear. Returning to a resupply locker will remove the current disguise on the Spy.

The player will be unable to disguise normally using the Disguise Kit, which will be removed from the inventory. Moreover, disguised weapons cannot be switched. This forces Spies to rely on extended use of Cloaking to move around undetected.

Damage

• Base: 40 (28-56 damage)
• Mini-Crit: 54
• Critical hit: 120, but only during Humiliation, charged via Kritzkrieg or during Crit boost given after capturing the Intelligence.
• Backstab: 600% of the enemy's current health resulting in an instant kill if stabbed in the back (an arc of approximately 180° behind the player model).

Note: Damages are approximate and determined by community testing.

Function times

• Attack Interval: 0.8s

Note: Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Item set

Main article: Item sets

The Saharan Spy
	L'Etranger Your Eternal Reward Familiar Fez
Effect	Extra effects when taunting.

Blueprint

Cloak and Dagger		Reclaimed Metal		Your Eternal Reward
	+		=

Related Achievements

Soldier

War Crime Spybunal Kill a Spy who just backstabbed a teammate.

Sniper

Shock Treatment Kill a spy whose backstab attempt was blocked by your Razorback.

Consolation Prize Get backstabbed 50 times.

Spy

A Cut Above Kill a gun-wielding Spy with your knife. Come in from the Cold Get a Revenge kill with a backstab. Die Another Way Kill a Sniper after your backstab breaks his Razorback. FYI I am a Spy Backstab a Medic who has healed you in the last 5 seconds. Identity Theft Backstab the enemy that you're currently disguised as. May I Cut In? Backstab an enemy and the Medic healing him within 10 seconds of each other. Slash and Burn Backstab an enemy, who then switches to Pyro before they respawn. The Man from P.U.N.C.T.U.R.E. Stab an enemy while fencing. Triplecrossed Backstab 3 Snipers in a single life. You Only Shiv Thrice Backstab 3 enemies within 10 seconds.

Agent Provocateur Backstab your Steam Community friends 10 times. Counter Espionage Backstab a disguised Spy. Dr. Nooooo Backstab a Medic that is ready to deploy an ÜberCharge. High Value Target Backstab an enemy who is dominating 3 or more of your teammates. Is It Safe? Backstab 50 enemies who are capturing control points. Sapsucker Sap an enemy building, then backstab the Engineer who built it within 5 seconds. Spymaster Backstab 1000 enemies. The Man with the Broken Guns Backstab an Engineer, then sap 3 of his buildings within 10 seconds. Wetwork Stab an enemy to death while under the influence of Jarate.

Previous Changes

October 6, 2010 Patch

• The auto disguise effect is fixed to only occur when the target does not survive the backstab.
• Disguising will no longer occur when the Spy is carrying the Intelligence.

Bugs

• When pulling out Your Eternal Reward, the blade-opening sound effect of the Knife unfolding can still be heard.
• Should the player die after switching Your Eternal Reward to the Knife, respawning may not be possible until they swap classes.
• Occasionally, when the player attacks with the weapon (Either quickly or by holding down mouse one), the animation will appear idle but a sound will still play. The world model of the Spy will still swing the weapon.
• Backstabs with the weapon will give the opposing team a kill notification. Robin Walker has stated that this is a bug and will be fixed. [1]
• Being auto-balanced or team-switched while holding Your Eternal Reward will cause the player to respawn with both the Disguise Kit and Your Eternal Reward equipped. Dying or accessing a Resupply Cabinet will remove the kit.
• Should Your Eternal Reward be used to backstab an enemy who is then auto-balanced, the Spy will disguise as a friendly version of that class.
• Backstabbing anyone whilst an enemy Sentry Gun has a lock on the Spy will cause it to continually fire at him even while disguised.
• Backstabbing two of the same class in a row will make the disguise weapon switch to melee, instead of disguising as the weapon held by the last killed player.
• Enemy bodies will not fade away if the game is under DirectX 8.
• Upon an enemy being stabbed with the weapon and fading away, any badges attached to them will remain behind, apparently floating in midair.
  • This also happens to the Gunboats (which are only metal plates on the bottom of the Soldier's shoes).
• If you rack up your 1000th backstab while using Your Eternal Reward, you will still gain the Spymaster achievement, but it will not be announced on the server's chat feed and no sound will be played.
• When backstabbing someone with the Earbuds equipped, the body will disappear but the Earbuds will remain visible on the invisible ragdoll.

Trivia

• Before the item was released, Robin Walker joked that the Eternal Reward's drawback would be that it cannot facestab.
• The name is a reference to a scene in the 1992 film Aladdin. The entry's description in the Polycount contest furthers this by mentioning the phrases "Phenomenal [sic] Cosmic Power" and "Diamond in the Rough", both of which are used in the movie.
• Your Eternal Reward shares a similarity with the Knife from the Half-Life 2 mod "Fortress Forever". Indeed, they both have the same identity theft ability. However, in Fortress Forever, Spies can still disguise without backstabbing anyone.
• A backstab attempt that is blocked by a Sniper's Razorback will not cause the Spy to lose his disguise.
• The Eternal Reward is currently the only replacement for the Knife.

Gallery

• Your Eternal Reward 1st person red cropped.png

  RED 1st person view.

• Your Eternal Reward ready to Backstab 1st person red cropped.png

  RED 1st person view ready to Backstab.

• Your Eternal Reward 1st person blu cropped.png

  BLU 1st person view.

• Your Eternal Reward ready to Backstab 1st person blu cropped.png

  BLU 1st person view ready to Backstab.

See also

• Your Eternal Reward strategy