Items

This article solely refers to the items featured in Team Fortress 2. For specific item pickups such as health, ammo and metal, see Pickups.

“

I'll put it in my trophy room, with the othas. Click to listen — The Scout, having unlocked his third in-game item.

”

A Scout equipped with three items: the Candy Cane (a weapon), a Bonk Helm and a pair of Summer Shades (cosmetic items).

Items refer to objects that players can collect and use within Team Fortress 2. With some exceptions, weapons are the only type of item in the game to directly influence gameplay; all other items are purely cosmetic.

Types

There are five types of items:

Weapons	Cosmetic items	Action items	Craft items	Tools	Taunts

Item release dates

Main article: Item timeline

Obtaining items

Item drop system

Main article: Item drop system

The most common way to obtain items is through the item drop system; after a certain amount of time in game while playing (does not count idling), the system will distribute a random item to the player. When received, the item is placed in the player's backpack and the game displays the newly earned item on screen, as well as alerting the rest of the current server with a text message. Items that can be obtained via this method include weapons, Mann Co. Supply Crates, certain cosmetic items, and tools. There is a cap on the amount of playtime each week in which drops can be received, after which no items will be received via drop for the remainder of the week.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

The original method of obtaining items. Each class has their own set achievements, that when a certain number have been acquired, would result in a Milestone Achievement. Earning these milestones would award the player a set item from that class' designated class update (excluding the Gunboats). These can only be earned once per account, even if the achievements are reset. There are exceptions to the Milestone method, such as the Ghastly Gibus, earned through the Ghastly Gibus Grab achievement and the Pyrovision Goggles, earned through the A Fresh Pair of Eyes achievement. Additionally, certain promotional items require obtaining an achievement from a different game on Steam.

Purchasing

Main article: Mann Co. Store

Items can be bought directly from the Mann Co. Store using money from the player's Steam Wallet. Introduced in the Mann-Conomy Update, the Store provides players with an alternate way of obtaining items instead of waiting for them to drop, crafting, or trading for them. Creators of community-contributed items receive a percentage of sales revenue for their creations.

In the past, items bought from the Mann Co. Store were originally neither tradable nor usable in crafting (with the exception of tools such as the Paint Can). However, bonus items received from the store (such as the bonus item given for spending at least $20 on a single transaction, before the Mann Co. Store Package was introduced) were usable in crafting, and using the Gift Wrap item from the store on another item enabled it to be traded to other players.

Currently, any cosmetics purchased from the Mann Co. Store since the November 21, 2012 Patch can be used in crafting.

Crates

Main article: Mann Co. Supply Crate

A Mann Co. Supply Crate Key, available only at the Mann Co. Store, can be used with a Mann Co. Supply Crate to obtain an item. All items received from a Mann Co. Supply Crate are tradable. Opening a crate is the only way to obtain Unusual items, Strange weapons and Strange Parts, aside from trading. In addition, certain other items in other qualities, such as the Robotic Boogaloo items, are also only available through crates. Each crate has a different series number, each of which contains a different set of items.

Crafting

Main article: Crafting

Players can craft unwanted or duplicate items (such as weapons) into other items like cosmetic items or metal. To craft items, the player must use blueprints. If a player attempts to craft items together that do not match a blueprint, no new item will be crafted and the ingredients will remain in the player's backpack.

Gifting

Players can receive items from other players through gifting. The Gift Wrap tool allows a specific item, even ones that are usually untradable, to be traded to other players (including offline players). There are a number of other Gift tools which, when used, drop items to players currently in the server. Certain tools will drop random items, while others will drop specific items.

Trading

Main article: Trading

The trading interface.

The trading system allows players to swap items for other items, provided the items are tradable.

Promotions

Main article: Promotional items

Some cosmetic items and weapons have been distributed as promotional items for other Steam games including Left 4 Dead 2, Sam & Max: The Devil's Playhouse, Alien Swarm, Worms Reloaded, Poker Night at the Inventory, Killing Floor, Monday Night Combat, Rift, Homefront, Total War: Shogun 2, Football Manager 2012 and many more.

Since the February 3, 2011 Patch, promotional items tend to be granted in Genuine quality.

Events

There are several event-specific items such as the Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask, Halloween Masks, Golden Wrench, Gentle Manne's Service Medal, and Saxxy, that can only be obtained at specific times.

Dueling

Main article: Dueling Mini-Game

Every time a player levels up their dueling badge (by winning ten duels), the player is awarded a 5-use Dueling Mini-Game, and a random drop; this random drop may be anything that is regularly dropped, such as weapons, cosmetic items, or tools. Supply Crates may not be obtained in this manner.

Community Contribution

See also: Steam Workshop

Community items are distributed manually by Valve to reward extraordinary community contributions. Historically, these items have been awarded to users for submitting outstanding maps or models (via the Steam Workshop), for assisting Valve in language translation or locating bugs or exploits within the engine. Community items were also awarded in other circumstances, as well; self-made item versions are given to players who create items that enter the game officially (via the Steam Workshop, or through a contest such as the Art Pass Contest). The Wiki Cap is awarded to players who have proven to be valuable contributors to the Team Fortress Wiki.

Community Market

Main article: Steam Community Market

Players can purchase items from the Steam Community Market using the funds available from the user's Steam Wallet. Items can be sold from the Market home page or directly from the user's backpack. Currently, the list of marketable items includes tools, Festive and Botkiller weapons, Unusual and Strange quality cosmetic items, Killstreak Kits and Fabricators, Killstreak weapons, Chemistry Sets and items in Vintage, Genuine or Haunted quality. When selling an item on the Market, a fee of 10% of the desired funds is added to the asking price. Any items purchased from the Market are immediately added to the inventory of the user that purchased it, while the funds go into the Steam Wallet of the user that sold the item.

Retired Items

Main articles: List of retired items, Mann Co. Supply Crate

A number of items have been retired, which means they are no longer available through the Mann Co. Store, through crafting, through the item drop system, or as Unusual items obtained from crates. The only ways to obtain retired items are to trade for them, receive them through gifts, purchase them through the Steam Community Market, or, in the case of the retired cosmetic items, uncrate them from crates that contain them.

Limited Quantity

Limited Quantity is an attribute added to items that are no longer obtainable from crafting, item drop system, crates (unless the crate listed in the description), or Mann Co. Store. Items with this attribute that are tradable can be listed on the Steam Community Market.

Characteristics

Quality
Level # Item
Neutral attribute
Positive attribute
Negative attribute

The item information panel as it appears in-game in the backpack screen.

Levels

Main article: Item levels

Every item in Team Fortress 2 is either assigned a specific level or a random one. Cosmetic items are assigned random levels (with a few exceptions) while weapons are assigned specific levels depending on the weapon. Metal, tools, and action items are also assigned specific levels.

Levels are a purely cosmetic feature and have no actual impact on gameplay. The cosmetic items released during the Scream Fortress Update update are all level 31, representing the day that Halloween falls on (October 31st).

Quality

Main articles: Item quality, Item quality distribution

Item quality is a cosmetic feature that is included in all backpack items. It is assigned based on when and how the item was obtained and is identified by the color of the item name when viewed in game or from within the backpack. For example, Stock weapons such as the Scattergun are of the "normal" quality (grey), and unusual items such as Horsemann's Headtaker are of the 'unusual' prefix (purple). Items acquired before the Mann-Conomy update feature the Vintage prefix and have their name colored blue.

Attributes

See also: Full list of item attributes

Attributes are strings and values attached to an item that determine their effects. An attribute can be neutral, positive, or negative. A negative attribute is one that is harmful to the user, a positive attribute is one that is beneficial, and a neutral attribute is one that is neither negative or positive but more of an alternative behavior.

Customization

Main articles: Paint Can, Name Tag, Description Tag, Decal Tool, Strange Part, Strange Filter

Scattergun Level 1 Scattergun	+	+	=	"A custom named weapon" Level 1 Scattergun "A custom description!"
The Name and Description Tag tools allow the player to edit the items' names and descriptions. These modifications are also visible to other players.
Brigade Helm Level 50	+		=	Brigade Helm Level 50
The Paint Can tool can be used to alter the color scheme of items in the game. Currently, the paint can only be applied to certain cosmetic items, but Valve has not ruled out extending it to weapons in the future.
Conscientious Objector Level 25 Sign	+	+ (Any image here)	=	Conscientious Objector Level 25 Sign
The Decal Tool can be used to apply a custom image to Flair!, the Photo Badge, Clan Pride, or the Conscientious Objector.
Rocket Launcher Strange Rocket Launcher - Kills: 5	+		=	Rocket Launcher Strange Rocket Launcher - Kills: 5 (Airborne Enemy Kills: 0)
The Strange Part tools can be used to add a maximum of 3 additional counters for certain stats to your Strange weapons.
Rocket Launcher Strange Rocket Launcher - Kills: 5	+		=	Template:Dictionary/items/strange canadian Rocket Launcher Strange Rocket Launcher - Kills: 5
The Strange Filter tools can be used to restrict the tracking of statistics to a certain map. Additionally, a prefix is added to the weapon name depending on the map.

Backpack

Main article: Backpack

The backpack stores all items earned by a player. By default, all backpacks contain 50 slots to store items. Once upgraded to premium, the backpack will be upgraded to 300 slots (6 pages of 50 slots each). Additional slots can be added using the Backpack Expander tool, to a maximum of 2000 slots (40 pages).

Visibility

There are two methods in which other players will be able to see items, including their painted color, rarity, name and description. The first is that after death, the deathcam will show the player responsible, and also display the full information of a non-stock item they have equipped. The second method is via inspection, where hovering the crosshair over a teammate and pressing the inspect key (F by default) repeatedly to cycle through the non-stock items they have equipped.

Bugs

• Sometimes cosmetic items and certain other things (items unused for fighting such as the Razorback) will be found floating in the middle of nowhere as if the items have frozen in game in the position they would be on the player if still attached. Sometimes these items may get attached to a Spectator.