Sapper

“

Spy's sappin' mah sentry! Click to listen — The Engineer on sabotage espionage

”

The Electro Sapper (mentioned by the Sentry Gun Operational Guide as FM/AM Ultra-Electro Sapper), is the secondary weapon of the Spy. It is a small box enscribed 'Electro Sapper' and sports a dial and switches. It also features two clamps that are deployed when used.

The function of the Electro Sapper is to destroy an Engineer's buildings. Should the player select the weapon and stand near an enemy structure, they will be able to see a white Electro Sapper outline on the building, indicating that it is in range to be sapped. Placing the correct bound key will attach the weapon, and the building will slowly be damaged until it is destroyed. For each building the Spy player places an Electro Sapper upon, a small window in their HUD will appear showing the remaining health of the building sapped, and the health of the Electro Sapper on that building. A sapped building will cease to function (Sentry Guns will not fire, Dispensers will not heal or dispense ammo, Teleporters will not teleport), and will produce electrical sparks and a loud hissing noise. When an Electro Sapper is attached to one end of a Teleporter, another Electro Sapper is automatically placed on the other end of the Teleporter, if it exists. If the Spy is disguised, the disguise class will play an animation of placing the charge on the building.

Once the building is being sapped, the Engineer owner will be alerted to it in his HUD, and will automatically play a voice clip alerting nearby players of the building's predicament. Engineers can remove an Electro Sapper with two hits from their Wrench, Gunslinger, or Southern Hospitality. When an Electro Sapper is attacked, the Spy player will be notified by a similar alert in their HUD. If an Engineer removes an Electro Sapper from a Teleporter, the Electro Sapper at the other end is also removed. If another Engineer strikes the Electro Sapper first, he can get an assist for the Electro Sapper kill, and a Medic healing an Engineer can also score an assist in this way. Pyros equipped with the Homewrecker can also destroy Sappers in one hit if they happen upon them. This will provide the Spy with an opportunity to dispose of enemies, often with a backstab, that come to remove the Electro Sapper.

A small gauge is visible on the Electro Sapper when it is being carried. It serves no purpose other than aesthetics, although the "meter" will rise if a Spy highlights a building to be sapped. The Electro Sapper has infinite ammunition and no discernible "cooldown" time. It is possible to repeatedly place Sappers on a building faster than an Engineer can remove them, but this tactic seldom works if there are other enemies around.

A destroyed Electro Sapper, by the "Destroy 3 0" command, only drops metal if it was attached to a Dispenser, otherwise no metal is dropped. The metal debris provides 9 metal, 3 for each piece.

Damage

See also: Damage

The Electro Sapper deals 25 damage to buildings per second.

Destroys:

• Level 1 Building (150 health) in 6.00 seconds
• Level 2 Building (180 health) in 7.20 seconds
• Level 3 Building (216 health) in 8.64 seconds
• Combat Mini-Sentry Gun (100 health) in 4.00 seconds

Note:Dealing damage to a sapped building will decrease the amount of time needed to destroy a building by reducing its health. This applies even to classes that aren't normally focused on destroying buildings.

Related Achievements

Pyro

Firewall Ignite 5 Spies who have a sapper on a friendly building.

Demoman

Spynal Tap Kill 20 Spies within 5 seconds of them sapping a friendly building.

Engineer

Get Along! Manage to get to, and then remove, a sapper placed on your building while you were several meters away. Fistful of Sappers Destroy 25 sappers on buildings built by other team members.

Quick Draw Kill a Spy and two sappers within 10 seconds.

Spy

Joint Operation Sap an enemy sentry gun within 3 seconds of a teammate sapping another. Sap Auteur Destroy 1000 Engineer buildings with sappers.

Sapsucker Sap an enemy building, then backstab the Engineer who built it within 5 seconds. The Man with the Broken Guns Backstab an Engineer, then sap 3 of his buildings within 10 seconds.

Related merchandise

• 

  Sapper iPhone Gelaskin Cover

Trivia

• When the Electro Sapper is held with a left-handed view model, the text on the front of the Electro Sapper will be displayed backwards.
• The view model for the Electro Sapper depicts the Spy holding it with his right hand, yet the world model has him holding it with both hands.
• The view model for the Electro Sapper appears to only have one connector cable attached to it, yet when it is placed on a building, two appear to be attached.
• Although it was sped up severely, the Spy would slowly flick a switch on the Electro Sapper's interface. This did not affect gameplay, however, and did not add onto the duration of the weapon switching animation, so the reason for its speeding up is unknown. The animation has been broken a few patches ago.
• Using the "Destroy 3 0" console command while repeatedly placing Sappers can raise a player's score considerably, as each Electro Sapper placed gives the Spy a point, and a new Electro Sapper can be placed as soon as the old one is destroyed.
• This is the only non melée weapon that Can be used infinitely without recharge or reloading

Gallery

• Electro Sapper 1st person red cropped.png

  RED 1st person view.

• 

  Full RED 1st person view.

• Electro Sapper 1st person blu cropped.png

  BLU 1st person view.

• 

  Full BLU 1st person view.

• 

  Electro Sapper with its attachment wires.

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  Broken Electro Sapper (Gib)

• 

  The HUD image displayed when using the Electro Sapper on a building. Displays Sapper health and building health.

See also

• Electro Sapper Strategy