Dispenser

“

Need a dispensah here! Click to listen — The Scout

”

A Dispenser is a building that provides health, ammo and metal to nearby teammates (as well as disguised enemy Spies). Engineers rely heavily on metal from their dispensers to construct and maintain their sentry guns and other buildings. Any player may replenish their supplies by simply standing next to the dispenser (unless it is being sapped). Non-engineer teammates or engineers with full Metal will not use up the Dispenser's metal stockpile when they are using it to heal or get ammo.

It is one type of building that can be constructed by the Engineer, costing 100 Metal to place, 200 Metal to upgrade to level two, and an additional 200 to upgrade to the third and final level. Upgrading a dispenser will increase its health, metal and ammo output.

While being constructed, a dispenser's health will increase until reaching 150 upon completion. A newly built dispenser contains 25 metal and thereafter generate 40 metal every 5 seconds unless upgraded. It can hold up to 400 metal, as represented by a gauge on the front of the dispenser. A dispenser can be manually rotated to face a different direction before you build it: When the blueprint is shown, using the alternate attack button (default key: MOUSE2) will rotate the blueprints clockwise by 90 degrees. Once built, a dispenser is solid (impassable) to the Engineer that built it and to enemy team members, but teammates may pass through it. A destroyed dispenser leaves 50 Metal worth of pieces, which can also be picked up by other classes as ammo.

Dispenser Levels

Level	Health	Cost	Health Generation	Ammo Generation	Metal Generation
1	150	100 Metal	10 / sec	20% / sec	40 / 5 sec
2	180	300 Metal	15 / sec	30% / sec	50 / 5 sec
3	216	500 Metal	20 / sec	40% / sec	60 / 5 sec

Dispenser Strategy

• The Pyro standing near a dispenser can act as a mobile firewall. The dispenser is capable of replenishing the pyro's ammo as fast as he can fire so this is a great anti-Spy measure - but it does leave your team an attacker short.
• The Heavy can utilize a Dispenser in the same way as a Pyro, laying down a hail of bullets across a large area. This can be used as an anti-Spy measure, or to defend an area such as a cap point or choke point. Any Heavy using this technique needs to be aware of the damage drop off of his minigun. This can be used to control hallways or even in an enemies base (such as the sewers in 2fort) to keep either an entrance open or a safe place for a teleporter. The Heavy can fire continously, so keep sweeping an area to send away stickies and check for hidden spies.
• A Sniper can keep firing without having to go from his sniper spot and get ammo. Also, since many spies cannot resist sapping an unguarded dispenser, it can be used as an early warning system.
• When entering Sudden death, building a Dispenser first is important to provide health, ammunition and metal to your team.
• Dispensers give ammunition for any teammate nearby, including disguised enemy spies. As a Spy, if you see an enemy dispenser, consider leaving it intact to recharge cloak and fill your health meter.
• When in a centralized area close to other engineers, consider putting all the dispensers close to each other. The healing and ammo dispensing mechanisms do stack for multiple dispensers, so placing them together will allow you and your teammates to refill and heal up to full health much faster than with a single dispenser by each engineer's sentry. While the risk of losing the dispensers is higher, the benefits can sometimes be enough to keep your teammates on the attack.
• A dispenser can effectively block narrow passages from enemies, slowing down their progress. Very effective versus Scouts when coupled with a sentry gun nearby.
• The healing beam and ammo supply mechanisms are two separate functions of the dispenser, someone in healing range of a dispenser is not necessarily close enough to take ammo from the dispenser.
• Similarly, a dispenser can supply ammunition and metal through walls but cannot heal through them.

Trivia

• A level three dispenser heals nearly as fast the Medigun's in-battle healing rate (24 HP/sec).
• At level two, the front "button" panel in the middle of the Dispenser turns into a small tray filled with syringes and medicine pills; at level three, a mechanical panel with a heart-rate monitor rises from the top of the dispenser. The riser is cosmetic however; standing on a level three Dispenser will not give the Engineer a higher boost than a normal Dispenser.
• A sentry gun cannot fire through a dispenser.
• By standing within the healing range of a dispenser, it is possible to stay underwater indefinitely.
• For a short time after The WAR Update, Spies were able to build dispensers, through the use of the console, earning them the nickname "Spygineer," but could not upgrade them.
• Per the sentry instruction manual, the dispenser is a "Dispense-O-Matic 9000 Provisions Dispenser".