Sapper

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Spy's sappin' mah sentry!
The Engineer

The Electro Sapper (mentioned by the Sentry Gun Operational Guide as FM/AM Ultra-Electro Sapper), is the secondary weapon of the Spy. It is a small box inscribed 'Electro-Sapper' and sports a dial and switches. It also features two clamps that are deployed when used.

The function of the Electro 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 Electro Sapper outline on the building, indicating that it is in range and can be sapped. Pressing the bound key (default left-click) will attach the weapon, and the building will slowly be damaged until it is destroyed. For each building the Spy player places an Electro Sapper upon, a small window in their HUD will appear showing the remaining health of the building sapped, and the health of the Electro Sapper on that building. A sapped building will 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 Electro Sapper will produce electrical sparks and a loud hissing noise. When an Electro Sapper is attached to one end of a Teleporter, another Electro Sapper is automatically placed on the other end of the Teleporter, if it exists. If the Spy is disguised, the disguise class will play a distinct, unique animation of placing the device on the 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 an Electro Sapper with two hits from their Wrench, Gunslinger, or Southern Hospitality. When an Electro Sapper is attacked, the Spy player will be notified by a similar alert in their HUD. If an Engineer removes an Electro Sapper from a Teleporter, the Electro Sapper at the other end is also removed. If another Engineer strikes the Electro Sapper first, he can get an assist for the Electro Sapper kill, and a Medic healing an Engineer can also score an assist in this way. Pyros equipped with the Homewrecker can also destroy Sappers in one hit if they happen upon them. This will provide the Spy with an opportunity to dispose of enemies, often with a backstab, that come to remove the Electro Sapper.

A small gauge is visible on the Electro Sapper when it is being carried. It serves no purpose other than aesthetics, although the "meter" will rise if a Spy highlights a building to be sapped. The Electro Sapper has infinite ammunition and no discernible "cooldown" time. It is possible to repeatedly place Sappers on a building faster than an Engineer can remove them, but this tactic seldom works if there are other enemies around.

Damage

See also: Damage

The Electro Sapper deals 25 damage to buildings per second.

Destroys:

  • Level 1 Building (150 health) in 6.00 seconds
  • Level 2 Building (180 health) in 7.20 seconds
  • Level 3 Building (216 health) in 8.64 seconds
  • Combat Mini-Sentry Gun (100 health) in 4.00 seconds

Note:Dealing damage to a sapped building will decrease the amount of time needed to destroy a building by reducing its health. This applies even to classes that aren't normally focused on destroying buildings.

Demonstration

Related Achievements

Pyro

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

Demoman

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

Engineer

Get Along!
Get Along!
Manage to get to, and then remove, a sapper placed on your building while you were several meters away.


Fistful of Sappers
Fistful of Sappers
Destroy 25 sappers on buildings built by other team members.
Quick Draw
Quick Draw
Kill a Spy and two sappers within 10 seconds.

Spy

Joint Operation
Joint Operation
Sap an enemy sentry gun within 3 seconds of a teammate sapping another.


Sap Auteur
Sap Auteur
Destroy 1000 Engineer buildings with sappers.
Sapsucker
Sapsucker
Sap an enemy building, then backstab the Engineer who built it within 5 seconds.


The Man with the Broken Guns
The Man with the Broken Guns
Backstab an Engineer, then sap 3 of his buildings within 10 seconds.

Related merchandise

Previous Changes

June 23, 2008 Patch

  • Fixed Electro 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

  • Sappers attached to a teleporter automatically place another Electro 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.

Bugs

  • When the Electro Sapper is held with a left-handed view model, the text on the front of the Electro Sapper will be displayed backwards.
  • The view model for the Electro Sapper depicts the Spy holding it with his right hand, yet the world model has him holding it with both hands.
  • The view model for the Electro Sapper appears to only have one connector cable attached to it, yet when it is placed on a building, two appear to be attached.

Trivia

  • In an earlier version, the Spy would slowly flick a switch on the Electro Sapper's interface. This did not affect gameplay however, and did not add onto the duration of the weapon switching animation, so the reason for its speeding up in a later patch is unknown. Maybe it was done because when Spy activates Cloak and switching his weapon to Sapper, you can see three hands: one is holding cloak, one is holding sapper and one is flicking a switch.

The animation has remained this way for several patches.

Gallery

See also