Sapper

This article is about the stock building item for the Spy. For other sappers, see Sapper (disambiguation).

Sapper
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Kill Icon
Basic Information
Used by:	Spy
Slot:	Building
Availability:	Stock, Uncrate #40 (Strange) or Uncrate #78 (Festive)
Nameable:	Yes
Craft No.?:	No
Medieval:	No
Reload type:	No Reload
Available Qualities
Normal Unique Strange
Loadout Stats
Sapper Level 1 - 100 Sapper Place on enemy buildings to disable and slowly drain away its health. Placing a sapper does not remove your disguise

The silhouette shows that a Sapper can be applied to the building. Note the needle gauge is in the red.

A level 1 Sentry being sapped.

“

Spy's sappin' mah sentry! Click to listen — The Engineer

”

The Sapper, mentioned in the Sentry Operating Manual as the AM/FM Ultra-Sapper, is the default building weapon for the Spy. It is a small electric generator inscribed 'ELECTRO-SAPPER', with a carrying handle, two long yellow wires and a meter. It also features two clamps that are deployed when used.

The sole function of the Sapper is to destroy an Engineer's buildings. Should the player select the weapon and stand near an enemy structure, they will be able to see a white outline of the Sapper on the building, indicating that it is in range and can be sapped. Additionally, the needle on the gauge will move to the right red zone. Pressing the primary fire key (default key: MOUSE1), will attach the weapon, and the building will slowly be damaged until it is destroyed. A sapped building will immediately cease to function; Sentry Guns will not fire, Dispensers will not heal or dispense ammo and Teleporters will not teleport. When applied to buildings, the Sapper will produce electrical sparks and a loud hissing noise. When a Sapper is attached to one end of a Teleporter, another Sapper is automatically placed on the other end of the Teleporter, if it exists and is not in building progress. If the Spy is disguised, the disguise class will play a distinct, unique animation of placing the device on the building. Unlike the Spy's other weapons, using a Sapper will not cause him to lose his disguise.

For each building the Spy player places a Sapper upon, a small window in their HUD will appear showing both the remaining health of the building sapped and the health of the Sapper on that building.

Once the building is being sapped, the Engineer owner will be alerted to it in his HUD, and will automatically play a voice clip alerting nearby players of the building's predicament. Engineers can remove a Sapper with two hits from their melee weapon (three with the Jag). When a Sapper is attacked, the Spy player will be notified by a similar alert in their HUD. If an Engineer removes a Sapper from a Teleporter, the Sapper at the other end is also removed. If another Engineer strikes the Sapper first, he can get an assist for the Sapper kill, and a Medic healing an Engineer can also score an assist in this way. Pyros equipped with the Homewrecker or the Maul can destroy Sappers in one hit (two with the Neon Annihilator). Enemies focused on removing Sappers may leave themselves open to a backstab or headshot, allowing the Spy or a teammate to distract and dispose of enemies in addition to the building in question.

The Sapper has infinite ammunition and no discernible "cooldown" time; Sappers can be placed on a building faster than an Engineer can repair the damage each one causes, which guarantees the building will be destroyed if the Spy is not dealt with.

Sapped Sentry Guns take 33% less damage from the Spy who applied the Sapper, for example when shooting it with a Revolver. Dispensers and Teleporters are unaffected by this.

In Mann vs. Machine mode, Sappers can be attached to robots, stunning them (and, if upgraded, any other robots nearby). Sappers do not damage robots - they only disable them for a short period of time. Giants, being immune to stun, will only be slowed down. However, unlike regular multiplayer, sapping either a robot or a building requires the Sapper to recharge for 15 seconds before another one can be deployed.

Damage and function times

See also: Damage

Damage and function times
Damage
Base damage	100%	25 / s
Function times
Recharge time		Normal: N/A MvM: 15 s
Building destroy time		Level 1: 6.00 s Level 2: 7.20 s Level 3: 8.64 s Mini-Sentry: 4.00 s
Values are approximate and determined by community testing.

Strange variant

Strange variant information

Strange Sapper Strange Sapper - Buildings Sapped: 0 Place on enemy buildings to disable and slowly drain away its health. Placing a sapper does not remove your disguise Only the first statistic counts towards the strange rank. Available as a Strange Festive variant. Notes: The strange Sapper has a unique set of rankings.

Compatible Strange parts Strange Part: Damage Dealt Strange Cosmetic Part: Fires Survived Strange Part: Allied Healing Done Strange Part: Allies Extinguished Strange Part: Scouts Killed Strange Part: Soldiers Killed Strange Part: Pyros Killed Strange Part: Demomen Killed Strange Part: Heavies Killed Strange Part: Engineers Killed Strange Part: Medics Killed Strange Part: Snipers Killed Strange Part: Spies Killed Strange Part: Cloaked Spies Killed Strange Part: Low-Health Kills Strange Part: Posthumous Kills Strange Part: Kills While Übercharged Strange Part: Defender Kills Strange Part: Underwater Kills Strange Part: Critical Kills Strange Part: Gib Kills Strange Part: Kills While Explosive Jumping Strange Part: Headshot Kills Strange Part: Airborne Enemies Killed Strange Part: Burning Enemy Kills Strange Part: Medics Killed That Have Full ÜberCharge Strange Part: Unusual-Wearing Player Kills Strange Part: Point-Blank Kills Strange Part: Long-Distance Kills Strange Part: Domination Kills Strange Part: Revenge Kills Strange Part: Full Moon Kills Strange Part: Halloween Kills Strange Part: Kills During Victory Time Strange Part: Kills with a Taunt Attack Strange Part: Buildings Destroyed Strange Part: Sappers Destroyed Strange Part: Robots Destroyed Strange Part: Giant Robots Destroyed Strange Part: Robot Spies Destroyed Strange Part: Tanks Destroyed Strange Part: Robots Destroyed During Halloween Strange Part: Projectiles Reflected Strange Cosmetic Part: Freezecam Taunt Appearances Strange Part: Killstreaks Ended Strange Part: Player Hits

Strange ranks

Rank	Buildings Sapped	Name
0	0	Strange
1	3	Unremarkable
2	9	Scarcely Shocking
3	15	Mildly Magnetizing
4	21	Somewhat Inducting
5	30	Unfortunate
6	42	Notably Deleterious
7	54	Sufficiently Ruinous
8	69	Truly Conducting
9	84	Spectacularly Pseudoful
10	105	Ion-Spattered
11	150	Wickedly Dynamizing
12	225	Positively Plasmatic
13	299	Totally Ordinary
14	300	Circuit-Melting
15	450	Nullity-Inducing
16	750	Server-Clearing
17	1500	Epic
18	2250	Legendary
19	2345	Australian
20	2550	Mann Co. Select

Related achievements

 Pyro

Firewall Ignite 5 Spies who have a sapper on a friendly building.

 Demoman

Spynal Tap Kill 20 Spies within 5 seconds of them sapping a friendly building.

 Engineer

Fistful of Sappers Destroy 25 sappers on buildings built by other team members. Get Along! Manage to get to, and then remove, a sapper placed on your building while you were several meters away.

Quick Draw Kill a Spy and two sappers within 10 seconds.

 Spy

Joint Operation Sap an enemy sentry gun within 3 seconds of a teammate sapping another. Sap Auteur Destroy 1000 Engineer buildings with sappers.

Sapsucker Sap an enemy building, then backstab the Engineer who built it within 5 seconds. The Man with the Broken Guns Backstab an Engineer, then sap 3 of his buildings within 10 seconds.

Mann vs. Machievements

Sly Voltage As a Spy, sap 10 robots at once.

Update history

October 2, 2007 Patch

• Fixed server crash related to Spy Sappers.

November 7, 2007 Patch

• Fixed Spies being able to attach Sappers through thin walls.

December 20, 2007 Patch

• Sapped buildings now take slightly less damage from the Spy who sapped them.

March 1, 2008 Patch (Xbox)

• Fixed exploit attaching Sappers to buildings through walls.

June 23, 2008 Patch

• Fixed Sapper viewmodel animation popping.

June 8, 2009 Patch

• Fixed Spies not being able to sap a building if an enemy player was colliding with the building.

August 13, 2009 Patch (Classless Update)

• Sappers attached to a teleporter automatically place another Sapper on the other end of the teleporter, if it exists.

December 2, 2010 Patch

• Fixed Spies being able to destroy Sappers by using the "destroy 3 0" command.

March 22, 2012 Patch

• [Undocumented] Added Strange quality.
• [Undocumented] Made the Sapper nameable.
• [Undocumented] The Sapper now appears in backpack when viewing stock items.
• [Undocumented] Fixed Sapper needle animation not properly playing.

August 2, 2012 Patch

• Fixed Sappers attaching incorrectly to Teleporters that are still building.

February 14, 2013 Patch

• Fixed "Buildings Sapped" strange counter sometimes incrementing when buildings were destroyed without a Sapper attached.

March 12, 2013 Patch

• [Undocumented] Converted the Sapper and buildings to use c_sapper models.

March 19, 2013 Patch

• Fixed the Spy not holding Sappers correctly in third person.

December 20, 2013 Patch (Smissmas 2013)

• [Undocumented] Added Festive variant.

January 9, 2014 Patch

• Fixed not being able to gift wrap the Festive Sapper.

July 17, 2014 Patch

• Fixed the Festive Sapper not having a skin for the Blu team.

January 7, 2015 Patch

• Updated the Vampire powerup to give health for damage done by Sappers.

July 2, 2015 Patch #1 (Gun Mettle Update)

• Decreased the damage penalty on Sentry Guns sapped by the Spy from -66% to -33% (i.e. shooting a Sentry the Spy sapped with a Revolver is now more effective).

September 24, 2015 Patch

• Fixed the Spy Sapper not drawing on robots in Mann vs. Machine mode.

December 17, 2015 Patch (Tough Break Update)

• After removing a Sapper from a Sentry Gun, there is now a 0.5s delay before the sentry is active again.

December 18, 2015 Patch

• Fixed a bug where the Sapper preview would disable buildings when removed.

August 29, 2016 Patch

• Fixed Sappers sometimes only being applied to one Engineer teleporter.

November 2, 2016 Patch

• Sappers can no longer be used while a truce is active.

December 21, 2016 Patch (Smissmas 2016)

• Fixed not being able to transfer Strange stats between versions of the Sapper.

Unused content

• The game files have referenced a taunt for the Sapper since the game's launch, however, the animation is not present in the Spy's animation set.

Bugs

• An issue can occur when the Sapper is placed on a building that upgrades to the next level at the same time; the Sapper will be unremovable by both Engineers or Pyros equipped with the Homewrecker, Maul or Neon Annihilator. Additionally, the sapped building will function as normal, albeit with draining health. Hauling the affected building corrects the problem.
• The idle animation does not play during a replay, causing the needle to remain still.
• Occasionally, if a Spy saps repeatedly one end of a Teleporter while an Engineer attempts to destroys the Sappers on the other end, the Sapper will be removed from the Engineer's end and not from the Spy's end.
• The Sappers and Sapper placement outlines on robots currently do not render, though the bomb carrier's objective border still draws around the invisible model.
• The festive variant does not make hissing noises when sapping a building.
• If a Sapper is placed on an Engineer's building, it makes a beeping sound. The beeping sound could still be heard if the player disconnects from the current server and joins a different server at a fast pace, even if the player doesn't play as Engineer. This can be fixed by exiting the server and rejoining it.

Trivia

• Sappers are considered by the game to be buildings with 100 health. As such, they are immune to critical hits (they are not destroyed in one hit by a single critical Wrench swing) and can be created with the build console command.
• The festive variant has a note on the right side in French roughly translating to: Merry Smissmas, my friend!

Gallery

• 

  RED first-person view.

• 

  BLU first-person view.

• 

  Electro Sapper with its attachment wires.

• 

  Broken Electro Sapper (Gib).

• 

  RED Festive variant.

• 

  BLU Festive variant.

• 

  RED Festive variant with its attachment wires.

• 

  BLU Festive variant with its attachment wires.

• 

  The HUD image displayed when using the Sapper on a building. Displays Sapper health and building health.

• 

  A Robot Demoknight being sapped.

See also

• Sapper strategy
• Ap-Sap
• Snack Attack