Buff Banner
| Buff Banner | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Kill Icon | |
| Basic Information | |
| Used by: | Soldier |
| Slot: | Secondary |
| Availability: | Unlock, Drop, Craft, Purchase |
| Tradable: | Yes |
| Giftable: | Yes |
| Craftable: | Yes |
| Nameable: | Yes |
| Medieval: | No |
| Available Qualities | |
| Loadout Stats | |
 The Buff Banner |
|
| “ | Admit it: Every so often, you suspect you’re carrying your team. . . How about motivating those lazy sons of bitches to put on their war face and fight?
— Soldier Update blurb
|
” |
The Buff Banner (also known as the BB, Bugle or just Banner) is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Soldier. It appears as a tattered battle standard, mounted on a small backpack and accompanied with a dented bugle. The war flag itself remains hidden in the backpack until it is activated, at which point it will appear on a pole mounted to the pack.
Equipping the Buff Banner makes a "Rage Meter" visible to the Soldier, which is filled by dealing damage to enemies. The Rage Meter becomes full after the Soldier has dealt 600 damage in a single life, at which point he can sound his bugle to rally his teammates. Note that telefragging an enemy results in a fully charged rage meter regardless of previous charge or the type of class killed. During the 10 seconds following this rallying call, all hits made by allies positioned within 450 units of the Soldier (including his own) become Mini-Crits. Buffed players within the radius emit team-colored rings of light from their feet, and their weapons brighten similarly to a Crit boost. It is possible to delay the release of the banner after the trumpet call, and thereby delaying the buffing effect, by holding down the primary fire key (left mouse button by default).
Players only receive the buff while positioned within the buff radius, the source(s) of their damage need not be within the radius, so traveling rockets, pre-laid sticky bombs, Sentry Guns, and afterburn will deal Mini-Crit damage as long as their creator is buffed when the damage is actually dealt. Likewise, a damage source created within the buff radius will not gain a Mini-Crit benefit if its creator no longer has the buff when the damage is dealt.
Switching classes, dying, or removing the Buff Banner from your loadout empties the Soldier's Rage Meter.
Contents
Damage
None. Rage Meter requires 600 damage to fill.
Function times
- Attack Interval: 10 seconds.
- Trumpeting Time: ~3 seconds
All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.
Components
Demonstration
As a Crafting Ingredient
| Buff Banner | Reclaimed Metal | Battalion's Backup | ||
|
+ | 
|
= | 
|
Related Achievements
|
|
Previous Changes
- Soldier Rage bar no longer resets when touching a resupply cabinet.
- Increased the rate of the Soldier's Rage generation by 40%
- Reduced the duration of the Soldier's Buff Banner effect from 14 seconds to 10
- Soldiers no longer maintain their rage level when changing loadout.
Bugs
- The Buff Banner shares the same Rage meter as The Battalion's Backup. If you fill your Rage meter up while equipping The Buff Banner, you can equip The Battalion's Backup by going to a Resupply Locker, and still have the Rage meter intact. This only applies if you have "Automatically respawn after loadout changes in respawn zones" disabled in Options > Multiplayer > Advanced.
Trivia
- The bugle was originally issued to American monkeynaut Poopy Joe as a means of calling for help before it was acquired by Mann Co. in entirely innocent circumstances.[1]
- The Buff Banner has separate, unique calls for both the RED team and BLU team.
- The glow effect of the Buff Banner is a different color for both teams, but neither is the same as their team colors. RED has a gold buff glow, while BLU is teal or mint (greenish blue).
- This was most likely done to prevent confusion with the standard Crit boost effect.
- Mini-Crits from the Buff Banner are not assigned to projectiles, but rather the players that projectiles originate from. If a Soldier is next to you during an active Banner and fires a rocket, but you either run out of rage or that Soldier moves out of Banner range before the projectile makes contact with an enemy, that rocket will not be a Mini-Crit. In order for a projectile to be a Mini-Crit, the person who fired that projectile must be within range of an active Banner at the time that the projectile makes contact (or is detonated, in the case of Sticky bombs) with an object.
- There are two unused textures for separate "attack" and "defense" banners in the game files, which depict an explosion (with an orange background) and a shield (with a green background), respectively.
- The 'defense banner' has subsequently become the Battalion's Backup, which provides 35% damage resistance and Critical hit immunity.
- The Buff Banner has text on its back, reading "Screaming Eagles." This is a reference to the 101st Airborne Division nicknamed Screaming Eagles.
- When using the Buff Banner, if you hold down the primary fire button longer then the animation the horn will dissapear and the Crit affect will not apply untill you release the primary fire button
Gallery
- Buff Banner 1st person cropped.png
1st person view.
See also
External links
References
