Skeletons
| Skeletons | |||||||||
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| Kill Icon | |||||||||
| Basic Information | |||||||||
| Health: | King: 1000 Normal: 50 Small: 50 | ||||||||
| Damage Done: | King: 100 Normal: 30 Small: 20 | ||||||||
| Affected By: |
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| Found On: | Helltower, Gorge Event, Hellstone | ||||||||
| “ | The Skeleton King! Oh... gravelpits, you are in for it now!
Click to listen
— Redmond Mann
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” |
Skeletons are AI-controlled entities that were introduced in Helltower and are now found in other Halloween maps.
They can also be spawned using console commands with sv_cheats enabled.
There are two types of Skeletons that can spawn: team-colored and green. While team-colored Skeletons can only attack or receive damage from the opposite team, green Skeletons can attack or receive damage from either team. Team-colored Skeletons are only spawned by the players on the server using a Rare Summon Skeletons Magic Spell.
There are 3 different sizes of Skeletons: Small (or "Babies"), Normal (or Medium), and crown-wearing Kings. Normal Skeletons spawn individually or in groups, while Small Skeletons only spawn from the shattered bones of destroyed Normal Skeletons. Single Skeleton Kings, much larger with a greater pool of health, usually spawn with a number of Normal Skeletons.
When destroyed, Normal Skeletons drop three glowing skulls, which then sprout into three Small Skeletons that then attack until destroyed.
The Skeleton King drops a Rare Magic Spell when destroyed.
- Maps with Skeletons
- Brimstone
- Carnival of Carnage (rare magic spells only)
- Gorge Event
- Hellstone
- Helltower
- Pit of Death (rare magic spells only)
Contents
Stats
All Skeletons move at a speed of 300 Hammer units per second when navigating the map, and hit at about once per second.
- Small Skeletons spawn with 50 health and do 20 damage on hit.
- Normal Skeletons also spawn with 50 health but do 30 damage per hit.
- Skeleton Kings spawn with 1000 health and do 100 damage on hit.
Skeleton King attacks have strong knockback; Normal and Small Skeletons have successively weaker knockback.
Skeletons are not affected by damage falloff, status ailments (such as Mad Milk or bleeding), on-hit effects (such as Rage-building or the Blutsauger's on-hit healing), knockback, or airblasts. Neither are Skeletons subject to Headshots. Skeletons are, however, otherwise affected by critical hits.
Kill Taunts generally have no effect on Skeletons, doing no damage to them.
- The Execution still fires the normal Scorch Shot round as part of the taunt, which does do normal Scorch Shot damage to Skeletons and, so, can destroy multiple Small and Normal Skeletons in two shots, albeit at a rate much slower than normal shooting.
- The Kamikaze does do limited splash damage all Skeletons that are close enough, but enough damage to destroy any nearby Small and Normal Skeletons, however it is a slow taunt.
Behavior
Skeletons spring from the ground at the spawn points. Normal Skeletons and Skeleton Kings spawn with recognizable sound cues that vary between maps (for example, chiming bells or Merasmus's incantations).
Once spawned, they run towards players, maneuvering around obstacles. They are unable to jump or crouch.
Once they are close enough to a player, they will start to melee attack them. Upon destroying a Normal skeleton, 3 glowing skulls will be scattered to the immediate surrounding area. These will spawn Small skeletons, which then continue attacking players. Once the target is killed, or has gotten to an inaccessible point (such as a roof in which there are no solid pathway connections), the Skeletons will move on to the next nearest player. Should no players be present to target, all Skeletons will stop in place and stand still. All types of Skeleton will gib on the spot after being on the playing field for an extended period of time without being destroyed.
Skeletons will target all bots that take up player slots, such as TFBots or puppet bots, but will not target any Engineer buildings or bosses such as the Horseless Headless Horsemann, Merasmus, or MONOCULUS. All TFBots, Sentry Guns, and team-allied MONOCULUS will target the Skeletons, however. Skeletons created with a Magic spell have the same stats and navigation, but will attack both the opposing team and other Skeletons that are not on the team of the summoner.
Strategy
Related achievements
Bereavements
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Console commands
In order to enable the spawning of Skeletons on a non-Halloween map, the server must be running Halloween mode. The server administrator can manually enable this mode by using the command tf_forced_holiday 2. The server is also required to have cheats (sv_cheats 1) enabled, which will disable obtaining achievements. TF Zombie entities can be manually spawned with the command ent_create tf_zombie.
| Command | Description |
|---|---|
tf_halloween_zombie_mob_enabled
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If non-zero, enables skeleton spawning.
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tf_halloween_zombie_mob_spawn_count
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Determines the total number of skeletons to spawn each wave.
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tf_halloween_zombie_mob_spawn_interval
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Determines the time between consecutive skeleton waves.
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tf_halloween_zombie_damage
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The amount of damage a skeleton hit does. This command no longer works as of the Scream Fortress Fifth Annual Helloween Special.
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tf_halloween_zombie_speed
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The speed at which the skeletons move at. This command was removed as of the Scream Fortress Fifth Annual Helloween Special, so skeletons always move at the same speed.
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Unused content
- There exists 3 unused skeletons in the game's files: a plain skeleton that does not glow any specific color, a skeleton that glows an orange color, and a skeleton that glows a purple color.
Notes
- If spawned through the console using the command
ent_create tf_zombiebefore the Scream Fortress Fifth Annual Helloween Special, the Skeleton would be a random class wearing a Voodoo-Cursed Soul, with an invisible melee weapon. - Skeletons use modified Sniper animations while moving and attacking, in a similar vein as Merasmus.
Trivia
- The Skeleton King wears Prince Tavish's Crown (with RED gems).
- Skeletons use the Flying Guillotine's hitsounds when spawned from a skull (eg. when spawned from a spell or after killing a medium-sized skeleton).
Bugs
- The Skeletons are able to hit players through certain wall, ceilings, or other obstructions, if players stand within their normal reach. Particular examples include King and Normal skeletons reaching through the windowed wall in front of the team spawns in Helltower and The King reaching players standing above him on some balconies on Helltower.
- On rare occasions, the Skeletons summoned by either team will freeze and won't move or attack, rendering them useless. They can still receive damage as normal. This often occurs when skeletons are spawned in areas which lack a Navigation Mesh.
- Skeletons will not spawn on AI-noded maps if there are no players on both teams, even with bots present.
- If there is already a large amount of skeletons on a map, any further skeletons spawned will gib immediately after spawning.
- Skeletons will instantly killed by the Payload cart if a team is pushing a cart. Small skeletons doesn't spawn, and the Skeleton King will not drop a Rare Magic Spell.
Gallery
The Green Skeletons
The Skeleton King
The RED team skeleton
The BLU team skeleton
The unused plain skeleton
The unused orange skeleton
The unused purple skeleton
