Glitches

A Glitch is a bug or error in the game or map. It is not to be mistaken for an exploit, which is abusable to the benefit of a player using them or general griefing. A glitch would be along the lines of not being able to load a menu screen or jumping out of the map by accident.

Console versions

XBox 360

• Accessing Developer Console - Unlike the PC version, the console versions of TF2 are not allowed to access the developer console. Occasionally, the host of the game can accidentally access this console through modified save data. Before the last update, players could modify the binary data in any Orange Box save file and access the console via a bind to a specific button. After the last update, however, the developer console was completely blocked from any modification. (Occurs on Xbox 360)

• Forced Lag - Another specific Xbox 360 glitch where a strange "Deadzone" on Gravel Pit would lag all other players if the host jumps into it. This can be done by only the host and by jumping into the water hose located outside the red spawn door on the left. (Occurs on Xbox 360)

• Invisible 2Fort Bridge Roof - Sometimes, a player will be able to see through the bridge roof on 2Fort. Shots cannot go through this invisible roof though. The cause is unknown. (Occurs on Xbox 360)

• Over the Player Limit If the room has too many spectators, the game will see that the room is still in need of players to fill it up. So, it will still be considered an open room. More players will be able to join and thus, the game will be over the maximum player limit. When the room goes back to the lobby and then they play another match, the game will automatically boot the players who recently joined who made it over the limit. (occurs on the Xbox 360 version)

XBox 360/Playstation 3

• Losing the Aiming Crosshairs - Occasionally, if a player leaves a laggy game and join a new game, their crosshair or aiming reticule will not be visible on screen. (Occurs on Xbox 360 and PS3 versions)

• Losing Main Menu Sound Effects Occasionally, if a player leaves a laggy game or gets lagged out, they will not have any sound effects in the main menu. (Occurs on Xbox 360 and PS3 versions)

• Mouth glitch - Sometimes when a player does a taunt or response, the characters' mouth will not open but the sound can still be heard. The Soldier will never open his mouth when doing a Shovel Taunt. (Occurs on the Xbox 360 Version and PS3 Version)

Windows/Mac

(Note that some of these glitches may appear in the console versions)

Gameplay-specific glitches

• Civilian - This is a glitch which causes the player to appear to have no weapons in third person view and enter a reference pose.
  See also: Civilian

• Crab walking (Spy Crab) - This is an in-game animation glitch that can make the Spy move around in an amusing fashion that resembles a crab. It is triggered by crouching while at the same time looking up with the Disguise Kit equipped. Often used by players who can perform it to a humorous effect, it does not affect gameplay at all. This was later recognized by Valve in the Sniper vs. Spy Update as an Easter egg for the Disguise Kit Taunt (roughly a 1 in 10 chance of happening).

• Switched Weapon Taunt - This is a glitch in which the player's currently equipped weapon does not match his taunt (ex. A Heavy quick-drawing with his Minigun). This can be done by quickly switching weapons after taunting. This has been fixed in the Mann-Conomy update but Robin Walker has stated that the bug will be reimplemented due to its popularity.

• Running Taunt - This glitch makes a player appear to be taunting while moving, jumping, or shooting. To perform, the player must quickly fall from a ledge or be launched by some force. This allows the player to move about as they normally would without canceling the taunt animation. NOTE: Can be used with the switched weapon taunt.

• Lost Crit Glitch - This glitch happens whenever a player achieves a Crit boost by means of flag capture, winning the round or picking up Halloween candy, and the Medic heals them. When the Medic heals them, they will instantly lose their Crit boost. This does not affect random Crits. This can be done by Medics to grief others. Note: This also occurs when given health by a Dispenser even when in full health.

• Compression Blast Glitch - This glitch in particular happens when a Pyro manages to shoot bursts of air instead of fire at an extremely rapid rate from their primary weapon. The Pyro is still capable of attacking as the effect isn't really rapid airblasting, but merely fire under a different material. It stops when the Pyro stops firing, runs out of ammo, dies, or runs into a solid object, such as a wall or a player. (Fixed)

Inconsistency bugs

• In certain instances, a Heavy could see bullets being fired from their Minigun after respawning. (Fixed)

• Shortly after the Mann-Conomy Update, the cooldown timer on the Sandvich was removed due to a bug. (Fixed)

• Building Damaged Model - Sometimes, after repairing a building, it will still emit smoke and small electric sparks implying that it is still damaged, despite the Sentry Gun being at full health. This can be fixed by redeploying the building. (Partially fixed)

• Invisible Models - Occasionally occurs on the PC version if Alt-Tab is used while in full screen mode. Weapon fire can be seen but the player's or weapons' models can not. This usually only happens on one random player with the rest of the players still being visible, and can lead to the player seeing the glitch to think the invisible player is using hacks.
  • On PC, these bugs can be fixed by typing record demo; stop into the console.

• Glitched Reflections - Happens occasionally when entering a server, some surfaces (mainly water and windows) will, instead of reflecting the normal skybox, reflect a purple/black checkerboard texture. This is caused by an unbuilt cubemap.

• Taunt While Dead - If a player dies immediately before a taunt dialogue line begins, their character will still say the taunt and even lip-sync while dead. (Happens frequently when taunting with the Bat or Minigun)

• Locked loadout - After changing from one weapon type to another on the loadout screen, the player may occasionally get locked out of changing them back. Only known workaround at present is to shut down TF2 and restart the program. (Needs verification)

• Fake Crits - A high rate-of-fire weapon will appear to be shooting Criticals, but do not actually result in any Critical hits. Most frequently seen when using the Minigun or similar weapon.

• Taunt Loop - If a Sniper does the Huntsman Taunt to another Sniper equipped with the Huntsman, the enemy Sniper can counter with his own Arrow Taunt, even when stunned. It is possible to chain this infinitely until a third party intervenes or one of the two decides to end it. The same thing can also happen with a pair of Engineers using the Gunslinger's taunt stun, and a pair of Medics using the Übersaw.

• Colored and White Name - Using "setinfo name" in console with a particular code in front of your name will produce a white name when chatting. Your name will also take on a color depending on the code you used. These codes may be generated at http://sieabah.net/quirk/namechanger.html . (This was patched, you can no longer use setinfo name without sv_cheats active)

• The Wrenchslinger - Sometimes a player has the Wrench equipped but it shows the Wrench being held by the Gunslinger. The method to do this is by equipping the Gunslinger, going to the resupply locker, changing to your Wrench, and going to the resupply locker once again.

• The Safety Glove Slinger - Similar to "The Wrenchslinger", sometimes a player's Engineer hand will look like a regular safety glove even though he is equipped with the Gunslinger. Whilst taunting with the Gunslinger the player will appear to have a robotic hand equipped.

• Swimming on Land - Sometimes other players will appear to be using the swimming animation even though they are on land. Glitch stops when player is killed.

• Blinking Hats - Sometimes other players' hats will appear to "blink" from pure white to black in-game. It's unknown how this happens or why. The glitch stops upon re-joining or map change.

• Civilian Glitch - Swapping your primary weapon outside of the resupply room, reentering after doing so, and then swapping to your primary and taunting in front of the resupply closet grants the user the ability to move in The Reference Pose. While doing so, you can not shoot. You can go back to regular by switching weapons or dying. This works with any class.

• Custom Model Glitch - Custom models for weapons and players can fail to appear, or appear in a Wireframe state, if the player enters a server with SV_Pure set to 1, instead of the default model loading. This error will continue to manifest until the player restarts TF2, even if they enter a server with SV_Pure set to 0. SV_Pure 2 servers do not cause this bug.

• Spy's Third Arm Glitch - When a player reloads his Revolver and quickly equips the Dead Ringer, a second left arm will be reloading the Revolver, while the first is holding the Dead Ringer.

Glitches caused by lag compensation

• Flamethrower range - Occurs all the time. Sometimes a player can be instantly killed even when swept by the extreme range of the Flamethrower, or the Flamethrower has simply more range (not a critical sweep).

• "Netquake" - Occurs rarely, but when it does, all players in the server will be unable to move and the player's view will shake (like an earthquake). Sometimes referred to as "Rubberbanding".

• "Killed through a wall" - Being killed by someone (with a direct weapon like a Sniper Rifle), despite being out of its view (and sometimes out of range). This is an artifact of lag compensation and is not an unforeseen bug but an intentional design trade-off in the networking code.

• Sliding characters - Some characters will assume default position (standing still) and slide instead of running around. The Civilian always assumes this position, and is not a lag glitch.

• Primary Fire glitch - Sometimes due to latency issues/lag, a player will fire their weapon, release the primary fire key, and still have fire effects emitting from their weapon, although it has no effect.

• Face Stabbing - A Spy is able to achieve a backstab by stabbing someone's front. There have been several changes trying to reduce its occurrence. It now occurs as an artifact of client to server latency, although it usually looks legitimate to the Spy.

• Swimming characters - Due to lag spikes a character will sometimes appear to be "swimming" in the air, no gameplay is affected by this. This problem can be also be caused by alt-tabbing out of Team Fortress 2, restarting the game can help solve the problem.

Glitches that require verification

Glitches listed here may have been patched at some stage and therefore require verification.

• Still on fire - Sometimes after dying by fire, a player respawns and the burning effect remains around the edges of the screen, but the player takes no damage and the background sound is not present.

• Opposite Team skins - If a player who was playing as a Spy changes class, he will sometimes have the opposite skin (red or blue) of the team he is on. When another player looks at this player, the game will interpret that he is still a Spy, and will display the "Disguised as enemy/friendly class" under his name, depending on the last disguise used. The actual cause of this glitch is unknown.

• Sentry gun Pistol fire - When firing a weapon (commonly happens with the Pistol) at the same time as a Sentry Gun fires its rockets, the gun's fire appears as it is shooting Sentry Gun fire.

• Fast Pistol Fire - If you use the Pistol with either the Scout or Engineer, if you hold the reload button as you shoot it tries to reload the gun quickly but fails, although it does increase your Pistol's fire rate. This can also be done with other weapons, but can be easily done with the Pistol.

• Minigun Fire After Death - Sometimes when you die while firing the Minigun, the fire that comes out the end of the gun will continue to come out of your character ragdoll's chest. This also happens to team members' characters as you watch them move while waiting to spawn. The glitch stops when you spawn.