Battalion's Backup

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The Battalion's Backup is a craftable secondary weapon for the Soldier class. It appears as a military backpack-mounted radio transceiver, featuring a folded map secured by a couple of straps, and an attached magnetic compass. Accompanying it is a bronze-colored bugle, and a tattered yellow triangular banner when the buff is active.

Working essentially in reverse to the Buff Banner, this weapon aims to support teams defensively rather than offensively. Once the player's Rage meter displayed in the HUD is filled through taking roughly 175 damage from other players in a single life, the pack can be used to make all nearby teammates immune to Critical damage and grants them 35% resistance to regular damage for 10 seconds.

The Critical damage immunity applies to Criticals and Mini-Crits for all teammates within the radius, regardless of Critical/Mini-Crit application method; a Scout under the buff using Crit-a-Cola, for example, suffers no negative trade off for his own Mini-Crits. The Critical immunity also prevents all increases to knockback normally incurred by a Critical hit.

The damage resistance stacks normally with all other damage modifiers, such as Pain Train's hitscan weakness and Chargin' Targe's explosive resistance.

Rage cannot be gained from fall damage or self-inflicted damage, but it can be given by map effects. All forms of enemy-inflicted damage, including Afterburn, give rage.

Damage

See also: Damage

None. Rage Meter requires 175 taken damage to fill. Self inflicted damage from rocket jumping does not contribute to the Rage Meter. Drowning does contribute to the Rage Meter.

Function times

• Attack Interval: 10 seconds.
• Trumpeting Time: 3 seconds

All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Components

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Item set

Main article: Item sets

The Tank Buster
	Black Box Battalion's Backup Grenadier's Softcap
Effect	Leave a Calling Card on your victims

Blueprint

Buff Banner		Reclaimed Metal		Battalion's Backup
	+		=

Related Achievements

Banner of Brothers Buff 5 Steam friends at once with the Buff Banner.

The Boostie Boys Buff 15 teammates with the Buff Banner in a single life.

Previous Changes

January 6, 2010 Patch

• Soldier Rage bar no longer resets when touching a resupply cabinet

October 6, 2010 Patch

• Soldiers no longer maintain their rage level when changing loadout.
• The Battalion's Backup no longer gives rage for falling damage.

Bugs

• If you activate this weapon, then use the Equalizer taunt, you will fall through the floor instead of being gibbed.
• The Battalion's Backup shares the same Rage meter as The Buff Banner. If you fill your Rage meter up while equipping The Battalion's Backup, you can equip The Buff Banner by going to a Resupply Locker, and still have the Rage meter intact.

Trivia

• The Battalion's Backup most closely resembles the US Military's Vietnam-era backpack-mounted radio transceiver, the AN/PRC-77.
• If a player activates the weapon and is subsequently backstabbed, death will still occur but the kill will not register as a Critical one.
• One thing to note is that even after the patch to remove falling damage from contributing to Rage, it is still possible to rocket jump straight up in a corner to accumulate Rage. This process can take a minute or two, though, so it is advised to attempt inside a building in the Setup phase, with the help of a Medic. This still works as of October 16th, 2010.
• It is possible to build up your rage by drowning or standing on torches in maps like Egypt. Both methods take a while, though the latter can be quickly achieved during Setup phase.

Gallery

• Battalion's Backup 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view.

See also

• Buff Banner
• Battalion's Backup strategy