Hitscan

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The hitboxes used for bullet-based weapons

Hitscan attacks instantly damage targets in their path. All hitscan attacks emit down the crosshair, from the attacker's eye level, despite what is suggested by the view model and world model. Unlike projectiles, hitscan attacks are not code-rendered physical objects but are infinitely-thin lines drawn on the server that are then rendered client-side visually as projectiles. Depending on the object hit and client settings, the hitscan weapon then generates an effect: dealing damage or painting blood and bullet hole sprites.

In technical terms, this means that hitscan weapons have infinite velocity, but this does not mean that they always damage instantly after firing.

Melee weapons, with the exception of the Spy's unique melee weapons and the Engineer's melees while working on a building, wait 0.25 seconds after input before initiating a short-ranged hitscan attack. This prevents the weapon from hitting or killing a foe before the melee animation completes.

There are two main types of hitscan attacks: those that make contact with the bullet-based hitbox (the eponymous 'bullets' and the Showdown taunt attack) and those that make contact with the environmental/projectile hitbox (melee weapons, the Chargin' Targe bash, and most other taunt attacks).

Bullet-based weapons (a list of which is given below) fire infinite lines. When fixed weapon spread is disabled, all bullet-based weapons (with the exception of the Ambassador) are affected by bullet-spread during a 1.25 second cooldown after firing a bullet, which causes bullets to move off-course to varying degrees. The Ambassador is the sole exception to this rule, and can fire a perfectly-accurate shot after a 0.8 second cooldown. Weapons that fire multiple pellets, like the Shotgun and Scout primaries guarantee a pellet straight down the crosshair if the weapon was not fired within the last 1.25 seconds. When fixed weapon spread is enabled, these weapons that fire multiple pellets will use a fixed spread pattern that does not require a cooldown to be accurate. For example, the Shotgun uses a fixed 3x3 pattern when fixed spreads are enabled. If a weapon fires more than 9 pellets at once, fixed spread will cause multiple pellets to hit the same location.

Hitscan weapons have the ability to destroy enemy stickybombs once they're attached to a surface. Hitscan weapons can penetrate friendly players. The only exception to this rule is Sniper's primary weapons if the scope function is used.

Bullet weapons

List of bullet-based hitscan weapons
Primary Scattergun Force-A-Nature Shortstop Soda Popper Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter
Scattergun Force-A-Nature Shortstop Soda Popper Baby Face's Blaster Back Scatter
Secondary Pistol Lugermorph Winger Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol C.A.P.P.E.R
Pistol Lugermorph Winger Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol C.A.P.P.E.R
Secondary Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack
Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack
Secondary Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack
Shotgun Reserve Shooter Panic Attack
Primary Minigun Natascha Iron Curtain Brass Beast Tomislav Huo-Long Heater
Minigun Natascha Iron Curtain Brass Beast Tomislav Huo-Long Heater
Secondary Shotgun Family Business Panic Attack
Shotgun Family Business Panic Attack
Primary Shotgun Frontier Justice Widowmaker Panic Attack
Shotgun Frontier Justice Widowmaker Panic Attack
Secondary Pistol Lugermorph C.A.P.P.E.R
Pistol Lugermorph C.A.P.P.E.R
Building RED Level 3 Sentry Gun.png Red Mini Sentry.png
Sentry Gun Combat Mini-Sentry Gun
Primary Sniper Rifle Sydney Sleeper Bazaar Bargain Machina Hitman's Heatmaker AWPer Hand Classic Shooting Star
Sniper Rifle Sydney Sleeper Bazaar Bargain Machina Hitman's Heatmaker AWPer Hand Classic Shooting Star
Secondary SMG Cleaner's Carbine
SMG Cleaner's Carbine
Secondary Revolver Ambassador Big Kill L'Etranger Enforcer Diamondback
Revolver Ambassador Big Kill L'Etranger Enforcer Diamondback

Demonstration

The following is a model-by-model video rendering of the bullet-based hitboxes:

See also