Items
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— The Heavy on in-game items.
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Items refer to objects that players can collect and use within Team Fortress 2. With some exceptions, weapons are the only type of item in the game to directly influence gameplay; all other items are purely cosmetic.
Contents
Types
There are five types of items:
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| Weapons | Hats | Miscellaneous items | Tools | Action items |
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Item release dates
Obtaining items
Item drop system
The most common way to obtain items is through the item drop system; after a certain amount of time in game, the system will distribute a random item to the player. When received, the item is placed in the player's backpack and the game displays the newly earned item on screen, as well as alerting the rest of the current server with a text message. Items that can be obtained via this method include weapons, hats, Mann Co. Supply Crates, certain Miscellaneous items, and tools. There is a cap on the amount of playtime each week in which drops can be received, after which no items will be received via drop for the remainder of the week.
Achievements
The original method of obtaining items. Each class has their own set achievements, that when a certain number have been acquired, would result in a Milestone Achievement. Earning these milestones would award the player a set item from that class's designated class update (excluding the Gunboats). These can only be earned once per account, even if the achievements are reset. An exception to the Milestone method is the Ghastly Gibus, earned through the Ghastly Gibus Grab achievement.
Purchasing
Items can be bought directly from the Mann Co. Store using money from the player's Steam Wallet. Introduced in the Mann-Conomy Update, the Store provides players with an alternate way of obtaining items instead of waiting for them to drop, crafting, or trading for them. Creators of community-contributed items receive a percentage of sales revenue for their creations.
Items bought from the Mann Co. Store are normally neither tradable nor usable in crafting (with the exception of tools such as the Paint Can). However, bonus items received from the store (such as the bonus item given for spending at least $20 on a single transaction) can be used in crafting, and using the Gift Wrap item from the store on another item will enable it to be traded to other players.
Crates
A Mann Co. Supply Crate Key, available only at the Mann Co. Store, can be used with a Mann Co. Supply Crate to obtain an item. All items received from a Mann Co. Supply Crate are tradable. Opening a crate is the only way to obtain an unusual hat.
Crafting
Players can craft unwanted or duplicate items (such as weapons) into other items like hats or crafting metal.
To craft items, the player must use blueprints. If a player attempts to craft items together that do not match a blueprint, no new item will be crafted and the ingredients will remain in the player's backpack.
Gifting
Players can also obtain items via gifting. The Gift Wrap tool allows a specific item, even ones that are usually untradable, to be traded to other players (including offline players). The Secret Saxton and Pile o' Gifts tools, when used, drop random items to players currently in the server.
Trading
The trading system allows players to swap items for other items. Currently, this is the only way to acquire vintage weapons and hats.
Promotions
Some hats, Miscellaneous items and weapons have been distributed as promotional items for other Steam games including Template:W, Template:W, Template:W, Template:W, and Template:W.
Events
There are several event-specific items such as the Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask, Halloween Masks, Golden Wrench or Gentle Manne's Service Medal that can only be obtained at specific times.
Dueling
Every time a player levels up their dueling badge (by winning ten duels), the player is awarded a 5-use Dueling Mini-Game, and a random drop; this random drop may be anything that is regularly dropped, such as weapons, hats, or tools. Supply Crates may not be obtained in this manner.
Community Contribution
Community items are distributed manually by Valve to reward extraordinary community contributions. Historically, these items have been awarded to users for submitting outstanding maps or models (via the Contribution page), for assisting Valve in language translation or locating bugs or exploits within the engine. Community items were also awarded in other circumstances, as well; self-made item versions are given to players who create items that enter the game officially (via the Contribution page, or through a contest such as the Art Pass Contest). The Wiki Cap is awarded to players who have proven to be valuable contributors to the Team Fortress Wiki.
Characteristics
Quality
Level # Item
Neutral attribute
Positive attribute
Negative attribute
Levels
Every item in Team Fortress 2 is either assigned a specific level or a random one. Hats are assigned random levels (with a few exceptions) while weapons are assigned specific levels depending on the weapon. Metal, tools, and action items are also assigned specific levels.
Levels are a purely cosmetic feature and have no actual impact on gameplay. The hats released during the Scream Fortress update are all level 31, representing the day that Halloween falls on (October 31st).
Quality
Item quality is a cosmetic feature that is included in all backpack items. It is assigned based on when and how the item was obtained and is identified by the color of the item name when viewed in game or from within the backpack. For example, stock weapons such as the Scattergun are of the 'normal' quality (grey), and unusual items such as Horsemann's Headtaker are of the 'unusual' prefix (purple). Items acquired before the Mann Co. update feature the Vintage prefix and have their name colored blue.
Attributes
Attributes are strings and values attached to an item that determine their effects. An attribute can be neutral, positive, or negative. A negative attribute is one that is harmful to the user, a positive attribute is one that is beneficial, and a neutral attribute is one that is neither negative or positive but more of an alternative behavior.
Customization
 Scattergun |
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= | "A custom named weapon" |
| The Name and Description Tag tools allow the player to edit the items' names and descriptions. These modifications are also visible to other players. | ||||
 Brigade Helm |
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= |  Brigade Helm |
| The Paint Can tool can be used to alter the color scheme of items in the game. Currently, the paint can only be applied to hats, but Valve has not ruled out extending it to weapons in the future.[1] | ||||
Backpack
The backpack stores all items earned by a player. By default, all backpacks contain 300 slots (spread over 6 pages) to store their items. Additional slots can be added using the Backpack Expander tool, to a maximum of 1000 slots (20 pages).
Visibility
There are two methods in which other players will be able to see your items, including their painted color, rarity, name and description. The first is after dying, the deathcam will show the player responsible for your death, and also display the full information of a non-stock item your killer has equipped. The second method is via inspection, where you can hover your reticule over a teammate and press the "Inspect" key (f, by default) repeatedly to cycle through the non-stock items they have equipped.
Bugs
- Sometimes hats and other items (items unused for fighting such as the Razorback) will be found floating in the middle of nowhere as if the items have frozen in game in the position they would be on the player if still attached. Sometimes these items may get attached to a Spectator.
References
- ↑ "Email From Robin - Painting Weapons in the Future (Provided That We Want It)", Steam Users' Forums post by Pebr, October 1, 2010.
External links
- All Item Types on TF2 Backpack Examiner – displaying all items currently present in the game (collected from the WebAPI schema)
- All Items on optf2.com – displays the same list with more detailed information (collected using the same method)
