Friendly fire
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— The Scout after being shot by a teammate
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Friendly fire is the instance where a player can damage, or even kill, an ally on the same team.
The ability to inflict friendly damage was originally an option available to servers during the Team Fortress 2 Beta. This made setting up an ÜberCharge quicker and also assisted Spies, as it discouraged Spy-checking. Valve removed the feature upon release as it was known to cause errors within the game's code, as well as harbor potential for griefing. The low focus on accurate shooting in the game also meant that friendly fire could become an impediment if several classes attempted to cooperate with one another.
Full friendly fire is still available as a server option, but is rarely used in standard play. On such servers, it is impossible to damage friendly buildings or backstab teammates. Lighting your team on fire is also mostly impossible; however, with the exception of the Flare Gun after certain distances. "Jar-Based" weapons such as Jarate and Mad Milk also have no effect on teammates. It is also possible to dominate, and logically get revenge on your teammates. Splash Damage from grenades and rockets still have an effect.
On some servers friendly fire is temporarily enabled for various reasons - For example, while waiting for enough players to join for the round to start, after the round ends, and during stalemate.
Contents
Console option
mp_friendlyfire 0/1
In regular play
Even if friendly fire is turned off on a server, there are ways to trigger situations involving it.
- If a Medic is healing an enemy Spy that kills a teammate or destroys a building, the Medic will receive an assist as if he were on the team of the Spy.
- Triggering a pumpkin bomb with a Huntsman arrow, Jarate or Mad Milk will damage or even kill nearby teammates.
Special scenarios
Explosive projectiles
Projectiles, such as grenades, rockets, and stickybombs (excluding sentry rockets), will passively go through allies, but your allies will still be affected by splash damage resulting from the explosion of the projectiles.
Fire
Weapons that deal fire damage (e.g. Pyro weapons such as the Flamethrower) do not damage or ignite friendly players. The exception to this rule is the Flare Gun, which is capable of igniting friendly players at a certain distance.
Critical hits
Critical hits, and their counterpart, Mini-Crits, still affect teammates as if they were enemies. Most weapons which have special conditions to Crit will also continue to work, such as Headshots, or hitting a Jarate-covered teammate with the Bushwacka. Notable exceptions include Backstabs, and Crits from the Backburner.
Taunts
Taunts such as Showdown, Dischord, or Spinal Tap will result in the death of your ally when they make contact in the area of the taunt.
Gallery
Examples
A Heavy killing a Scout on his team with friendly fire enabled.
A Medic getting an assist for healing an enemy Spy that backstabs a Sniper.
