Equalizer

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Get close enough to death, and you will become Death himself.
— Equalizer publicity blurb

The Equalizer is the unlockable melee weapon for the Soldier. It is simply a worn pickaxe, leading to it often being referred to as 'the Pickaxe'.

Uniquely, this weapon has a damage potential that is inversely proportional to the player's current health, dealing low damage at high health and high damage at low health. This can make the player vastly powerful, able to destroy buildings in two hits if at low heath. Additionally, the speed of the wielding Soldier is also inversely proportional to his health, his movement speed increasing the more he is hurt. Medics cannot heal a Soldier who is holding his Equalizer. For its Critical hit animation, the Soldier swings the Equalizer in a backhand fashion, attacking with the sharp end. This animation is identical to the Shovel.

Taunting with the Equalizer will perform the Soldier's Kamikaze kill taunt.

Damage

See also: Damage

Scales inversely with health. Approximately 113.7 − 0.81x (113.7 minus 0.405x), where x is the amount of health the player currently has as a percentage of their max health, with a minimum of 33 when the player is at or above 100% health, and a maximum of 113 (before random damage and Critical hits).

Health range Health (RJ) Damage Notes
200-300 100-150 33
121-199 61-99 65 Base damage of Shovel
100-120 50-60 73
50-99 25-49 93
1-49 1-24 113

Speed

Equalizer speed and comparisons
Main article: Speed

Speed values are based on player's current health. For reference, the standard movement speed is 100%, which is 300 velocity units per second (the speed of the Spy, Sniper, Engineer and Pyro,) whilst the Scout moves at 400v (33% above the standard movement speed.)

Health range Health (RJ) Speed (units per second) Relative speed increase Notes
161-300 81-150 240 0%
121-160 61-80 264 10%
81-120 41-60 288 20% Faster than Demoman
41-80 21-40 336 40% Faster than Medic
1-40 1-20 384 60%

Function times

  • Attack Interval: 0.8

All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

As a Crafting Ingredient

Equalizer Eyelander Homewrecker
Item icon Equalizer.png + Item icon Eyelander.png = Item icon Homewrecker.png

Related Achievements

Ain't Got Time to Bleed
Ain't Got Time to Bleed
Kill 3 players with the Equalizer in a single life without being healed.


Duty Bound
Duty Bound
While rocket jumping kill an enemy with the Equalizer before you land or just after landing.
Near Death Experience
Near Death Experience
Kill 20 enemies with your Equalizer while you have less than 25 health.


Spray of Defeat
Spray of Defeat
Use a grenade to gib a player.

Previous Changes

April 15, 2010 Patch

  • Reduced the damage bonus the Equalizer receives as the player loses health
    • The speed boost was not changed

Trivia

  • Before becoming an official weapon, the Equalizer was first conceived by community members Tom Francis and jibberish. These users were to receive a unique version of the weapon, called "The Great Equalizer"[1], but currently they are both labeled "Community Equalizer".
  • Based on the hidden Poopy Joe page on the WAR! Update, the Equalizer was originally a pickaxe issued to American Monkeynaut Poopy Joe for him to "pierce the Vault of Heaven itself" before it was acquired by Mann Co. in entirely innocent circumstances.
  • A Spy who is disguised as a Soldier with the Equalizer will not move faster than default Soldier speed, regardless of the Spy's fake health display or actual health. Furthermore, Medics will also be able to heal the disguised Spy.
  • After the Soldier throws the Equalizer over his shoulder when taunting, it simply disappears. This was to fix a bug which would cause him to drop two Equalizers upon the taunt's completion (one from the drop, the other from dying).

Gallery

See also

External links