Wrangler
- Not to be confused with the Quadwrangler, a cosmetic item for the Medic.
 | “What are you lookin' at?!” This page or section would benefit from the addition of one or more images. Please add a suitable image, then remove this notice. The specific instructions are: "3D model of Festive" |
| Wrangler | |
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| Kill Icon | |
| Basic Information | |
| Used by: | Engineer |
| Slot: | Secondary |
| Released: | Engineer Update |
| Availability: | Unlock, Drop, Craft, Purchase, Uncrate #18, Uncrate #78 or Chemistry Set (Collector's) |
| Tradable: | Yes |
| Giftable: | Yes |
| Craftable: | Yes |
| Nameable: | Yes |
| Craft No.?: | No |
| Medieval: | No |
| Available Qualities | |
| Loadout Stats | |
 The Wrangler |
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| “ | Everyone loves remote control toys. But the problem with most of them is, unless you manage to remote control one directly down someone's throat, they're pretty useless as weapons. But what if we were to tell you that we fixed that obvious design flaw?
— Blog post highlighting the Wrangler
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” |
The Wrangler is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Engineer. It appears to be the remains of a wooden pistol grip implemented under an early-80's single-button style team-colored joystick, with a small, rectangular radar dish protruding from the front.
When in use, the Wrangler allows the Engineer to manually take control of his Sentry Gun. Upon doing so, the Sentry Gun loses its default autoaim and automatic firing abilities. Instead, the Engineer can direct the building to fire in any direction with the primary fire button being used to fire the turrets. If the player utilizes manual control over a level 3 Sentry Gun, the alternate fire button is used to fire rockets. When firing either the turrets or rockets, the Sentry Gun has no maximum range; however, the rockets suffer from damage falloff based on the Engineer's distance to the target.
The Wrangler produces a semi-transparent shield around the Sentry Gun that absorbs 66% of all incoming damage. This shield will last as long as the player keeps the Wrangler as their active weapon. When coupled with a level 2 or 3 Sentry Gun, having the shield active will enable it to survive Taunt attacks that would normally destroy any building, such as the Pyro's Hadouken or Soldier's Kamikaze.
In addition, the firing rate of a manually-controlled Sentry Gun is doubled, and its missile launch rate is increased. A laser sight is emitted from the Sentry Gun, which follows the Engineer's crosshair. The laser sight has a minor auto-aim ability; upon aiming at an uncloaked and undisguised enemy, it will focus towards their center, provided the Engineer keeps his crosshair on them. Other players can see this laser, and use it to quickly ascertain the location of the Sentry Gun.
Upon switching to another weapon, the Sentry Gun is rendered inoperative for three seconds within its shield. Should an Engineer with his Sentry Gun under manual control die, the Sentry becomes inoperative for only one second. Once the inoperative duration has passed, the Sentry Gun will resume normal operation, and the shield will disappear. If the Sentry Gun is sapped while it is in operation, all cooldown effects caused by the Wrangler will be removed.
Being stunned by the Sandman leaves the Engineer unable to fire, but keeps the Sentry Gun in the Wrangled state, effectively disabling it.
The Wrangler allows an Engineer to get to high places through the use of a Sentry Gun jump.
The Wrangler is automatically given to any player who obtains 17 Engineer achievements.
Contents
Demonstration
Crafting
Blueprint
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Related achievements
Engineer
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Update history
- The Wrangler was added to the game.
- The Wrangler no longer shows the Shotgun's ammo count.
- Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 Sentry Guns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.
- Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with wrangled Sentry Guns.
- Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries using The Wrangler.
- Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries for real this time.
March 10, 2011 Patch (Shogun Pack)
- Fixed the "Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas" Engineer achievement not counting Wrangler and Mini-Sentry kills.
October 13, 2011 Patch (Manniversary Update & Sale)
- Wrangler taunt now performs the Pistol taunt animation.
June 27, 2012 Patch (Pyromania Update)
- Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed.
- Changed attributes:
- Slightly reduced accuracy of manually-controlled sentry at long range.
- Protective shield now fades 1 second after the owning Engineer dies.
- Added Collector's quality.
December 20, 2013 Patch (Smissmas 2013)
- [Undocumented] Added Festive variant.
- Updated Strange Wranglers to track wrangled sentry kills.
- [Undocumented] Strange Wranglers now count wrangled kills properly.
- Updated the Wrangler so Strange parts can be applied to it.
- Strange parts only increment if a Wrangler-controlled Sentry does the scoring
Bugs
- Shield and laser effect issues:
- The laser emitted from the Sentry Gun while using the Wrangler may travel through some walls and occasionally move back and forth very quickly.
- Picking up a Wrangled Sentry will leave the Wrangler shield visual effect in place for a short time. Also, upon deploying the sentry and Wrangling it, the laser will emit from strange points, such as enemy Sentry Guns. This can be fixed by switching to another weapon then back to the Wrangler.
- Using a Wrangled Sentry while the Sentry is built on a moving platform will result in the shield being left behind when the platform and the Sentry move.
- There is currently a glitch which causes the targeting laser of the Sentry to be emitted from the eyes of allies when the player aims at them. This can make it somewhat harder to aim at enemies. The glitch is only present on the user's screen; no other players will see the effect.
- The Sentry Gun can retain the shield and laser effects even when the Wrangler is not the currently held weapon. It may still operate normally, without taking reduced damage, but may also retain the Wrangled behavior, including a functional shield, if the player builds the Sentry Gun and then changes his loadout to equip the Wrangler.
- The glitch persists upon the death of the Sentry Gun's owner, and can be fixed by switching to the Wrangler then switching away to another weapon.
- Using the Wrangler to kill enemies with Sentry Gun rockets will produce the level 3 Sentry Gun kill icon instead of that of the Wrangler.
- Once a Level 3 Sentry Gun is directed to fire rockets, it will not play the normal rocket reloading animation.
- If pointing the Sentry Gun at a far distance, the laser will appear to move rapidly away from the player's crosshair, but the Sentry Gun will still fire at the player's crosshair.
- If the Engineer fires level 3 Sentry Gun rockets at an ally and destroy the Sentry Gun, the rockets will able to hurt the teammates.
- If the Engineer builds a Sentry Gun, hit it once or twice, build a level 1 Dispenser, fire wrangled sentry for a moment, select your Shotgun, wait for sentry to return to normal, demolish it, pick up Dispenser and place it in water, Dispenser will act as a wrangled Sentry Gun. It will not heal or give metal.
- The Engineer Achievement Pownd on the Range can be earned if the Engineer kills himself with his wrangled Sentry Gun outside of the normal range.
Trivia
- The Wrangler appears to have been designed by the Engineer's grandfather, Radigan Conagher. The Wrangler shares this origin with the Frontier Justice, the Gunslinger and the Southern Hospitality, This is shown by a hidden link on the Engineer Update page.
- To wrangle is to professionally handle animals, often directing them to perform certain actions.
- When firing the Sentry Gun for a long time, an animation will play: the Engineer will twitch his hand and a quiet sigh can be heard, as if removing a cramp.
- The Wrangler looks very similar to an Atari 2600 joystick.
Gallery
RED first-person view.
BLU first-person view.
RED Festive variant.
BLU Festive variant.
See also
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