Item levels
The majority of items in Team Fortress 2 have levels associated with them. Levels, viewed with the item name in the loadout menu, are purely cosmetic and have no effect on any weapon or item.
Originally, when the Backpack was first implemented in the Sniper vs. Spy Update, item levels were added by the developers to test if level functionality could be included in the item drop system. Dropped items were given a random level between 0 and 100, and the level would appear under the name of the item, visible to all players. It was speculated that this was intentional on Valve's part to increase variety in items in the trading system (e.g. a Level 100 Ambassador or Level 69 Huntsman would be considered quite rare).
Random levelling is now no longer a feature as of a patch implemented shortly after the "Sniper vs. Spy" Update. All new items receive a standard level. However, it appears that hats will still receive random levels (which can only be seen in a backpack viewing website), and all existing items with random levels will still retain them.
List of item levels
Weapons
| Level | Items |
|---|---|
| 1 | Dalokohs Bar – Direct Hit – Rocket Jumper – Sandvich – Shortstop – Sticky Jumper – Sydney Sleeper – Your Eternal Reward |
| 5 | Ambassador – Battalion's Backup – Black Box – Big Kill – Blutsauger – Bonk! Atomic Punch – Buff Banner – Bushwacka – Crit-a-Cola – Enthusiast's Timepiece – Eyelander – Frontier Justice – Frying Pan – Homewrecker – Iron Curtain – Jarate – L'Etranger – Lugermorph – Mad Milk – Natascha – Pain Train – Powerjack – Scotsman's Skullcutter – Scottish Resistance – Tribalman's Shiv – Vita-Saw – Wrangler |
| 7 | Killing Gloves of Boxing |
| 8 | Kritzkrieg |
| 10 | Axtinguisher – Backburner – Chargin' Targe – Darwin's Danger Shield – Degreaser – Equalizer – Flare Gun – Force-A-Nature – Gloves of Running Urgently – Gunboats – Huntsman – Razorback – Übersaw |
| 15 | Gunslinger – Sandman |
| 20 | Southern Hospitality |
| 25 | Golden Wrench |
| 42 | Holy Mackerel |
| 50 | Community weapons |
| 0-100 | Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, Weapons prior to the release of the standard level patch. |
| 100 | Valve weapons |
Hats and misc. items
| Level | Items |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cheater's Lament – Ghastly Gibus – Ghastlier Gibus – Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask – Polycount Pin |
| 5 | Mercenary |
| 10 | Bill's Hat – Ellis' Cap – Halloween Masks – Mann Co. Cap – Saxton Hale Mask – Soldier of Fortune |
| 15 | Grizzled Veteran |
| 20 | Alien Swarm Parasite – Dangeresque, Too? – License to Maim – Primeval Warrior – Wiki Cap |
| 1-24 | Bronze Dueling Badge |
| 25-49 | Silver Dueling Badge |
| 31 | Cadaver's Cranium – Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head – Horrific Headsplitter – Spine-Chilling Skull – Voodoo Juju |
| 50 | Dealer's Visor |
| 50-74 | Gold Dueling Badge |
| 0-100 | All other hats and Miscellaneous items |
| 75+ | Platinum Dueling Badge |
| 100 | Gentle Manne's Service Medal |
