Stickybomb Launcher

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Ye appear to 'ave trodden on a mine!
The Demoman

The Stickybomb Launcher (labeled confusingly in the game files as a Pipe bomb launcher), is the default secondary weapon for the Demoman. It appears as a modified Template:W with a large magazine and wide barrel.

This weapon launches small spiked bombs that adhere to almost any surface, but bounce off enemy players, buildings, and certain map entities (like spawn gates and control points). Stickybombs do not explode on contact, but instead are detonated manually with the correct bound key. The bombs disappear harmlessly in a white flash if the owner dies or if they are hit by bullets, syringes, melee attacks, or explosions caused by Scottish Resistance sticky bombs. Up to eight stickybombs can be placed at one time; the oldest stickybomb detonates when the player tries to deploy a ninth bomb. The total number of bombs in place on the map is shown in the HUD. When detonated or otherwise destroyed, stickybombs leave a few broken pieces scattered about, each of which can be picked up for a single unit of metal or ammo. Should a bomb be hit by an explosion or compression blast from any enemy weapon bar the Scottish Resistance, it is pushed away. The stickybombs are otherwise unharmed by the force of the blast. Stickybomb explosions deal splash damage: there is a blast radius falloff that causes less damage to be done the greater the distance a target is from the center of an explosion (even for Critical hits). Note that sticky explosions can juggle targets for more damage.

The Demoman can also use stickybombs to propel himself, similar to the Soldier‎'s ability to rocket jump. Unlike the Soldier however, the self-damage incurred by such a tactic is much higher; sometimes as much as half of a Demoman's total health points.

Stickybombs are fired from the launcher at 805 Hammer units per second (around 34 miles per hour). By holding down the fire button, rather than simply clicking it, the launcher can be charged up to launch a stickybomb over greater distances. A meter below the ammo count will show how much force is behind the stickybomb, and the launcher will begin to tremble when it reaches its maximum strength. If the charge bar fills completely, the sticky will fire automatically. A fully charged sticky travels at an approximate 130% speed increase (speed multiplied by 2.3).

Critical hit stickybombs can be identified by a glowing aura surrounding them.

Damage

See also: Damage
  • Base: 120
  • Max Ramp Up: 115% (138 damage)
  • Max Fall Off: 50% (60 damage)
  • Mini-Crit: 162
  • Splash Damage Reduction: 1% per 3.18 Hammer units away from epicenter to a minimum of 50% at 10 feet (159 Hammer units)
  • Splash Radius: 10 feet (159 Hammer units)
  • 6 ft from explosion: 47-90
  • 3 ft from explosion: 60-124
    • Critical hit: 261
  • Directly Underneath: 103-171
    • Critical hit: 353
  • Self damage: 45-114 (depending on how far the player is from the explosion)
    • Critical hit: Deals same amount of self damage as a regular sticky (45-114)

Note: Explosive damage varies depending on how it hits a player; the larger the classes hit box and the closer they are to the explosion the more damage theywill take, the further away from the explosion the less damage they can take. Explosions do the most damage when they happen at the mid point of a player model, the explosion will cover more of the hit box and thus do the most damage. Base damage is the damage done at 512 units before damage variance or bullet spread. Ramp up maxes out at 0 units. Fall off maxes out at 1024 units. Damages are approximate and determined by community testing.

Another Note: Stickybombs suffer from damage falloff like that of most weapons for the first five seconds of its life. Similarly to the Rocket Launcher, the multiplier at point blank is reduced from 150% to 115%. After those 5 seconds, the stickybomb's distance multiplier becomes 1.0. This is so damage falloff only affects stickybombs used immediately in combat, not bombs set as traps.

Function times

  • Attack Interval: 0.6
  • Reload Base: 1.09
  • Additional Reload: 0.67
  • Stickybomb Initialization: 0.92
  • Time to Fully Charge: 4.00

Reload base is the time it takes to reload the first ammo. Additional reload is the time it takes to reload each ammo after the first. Stickybomb initialization is the time from when the stickybomb leaves the weapon to when the player can detonate it. All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Demonstration

Related Achievements

Soldier

Bomb Squaddie
Bomb Squaddie
Destroy 10 sticky bombs with the shotgun in a single life.

Demoman

Caber Toss
Caber Toss
Bounce an enemy into the air and kill them before they land.


Double Mauled Scotch
Double Mauled Scotch
Kill 2 people in a single sticky jump.


He Who Celt It
He Who Celt It
Use the Sticky Launcher to kill an enemy player via environmental damage.


Highland Fling
Highland Fling
Sticky jump a really long way...


Loch Ness Bombster
Loch Ness Bombster
Kill an enemy player with stickybombs within 5 seconds of them teleporting.


Pipebagger
Pipebagger
Kill at least three players with a single detonation of stickybombs.
Scotch Guard
Scotch Guard
Kill 3 enemies capping or pushing a cart in a single stickybomb detonation 3 separate times.


Something Stickied This Way Comes
Something Stickied This Way Comes
Kill 30 players with air burst stickybombs.


The Argyle Sap
The Argyle Sap
Blow up an Engineer, his sentry gun, and his dispenser with a single stickybomb detonation.


The High Road
The High Road
Sticky jump onto a cap point and capture it.


The Scottish Play
The Scottish Play
Get a melee kill while sticky jumping.


The Stickening
The Stickening
Kill 3 Heavies from full health with a single stickybomb detonation.

Heavy

0wn the Means of Production
0wn the Means of Production
Remove 20 stickybombs by killing the Demomen who produced them.

Engineer

How the Pests Was Gunned
How the Pests Was Gunned
Destroy 50 enemy stickybombs lying in range of friendly buildings.

Previous Changes

September 27, 2007 Patch

  • Fixed prediction error that caused jittery Stickybomb Launcher behavior.

February 28, 2008 Patch

  • Reduced Demoman's maximum stickybomb reserve ammo from 40 to 24.

February 16, 2009 Patch

  • Stickybombs now get a reduced close range damage ramp up (like Rocket Launcher & Syringe Gun).
    • Ultimately reduces damage done by stickybombs to enemies <512 units from the Demoman.
  • Demoman's secondary weapon has been renamed to Stickybomb Launcher.

May 5, 2010 Patch

  • Fixed deflected stickybombs becoming Mini-Crits when detonated.
  • Fixed deflected stickybombs becoming Crits if the Pyro was Crit-boosted.

Bugs

  • Increasing the viewmodel field of view shows that, in first-person mode, the weapon is held in one hand, whereas in the world model he holds it in two hands utilizing the forward grip.
  • Before reloading, the Demoman's unused hand (left if viewmodels are right and vice versa) remains hidden. After reloading and bringing his opposite hand to pull the bolt on his weapon back, the hand will remain in the screen until he switches weapons.
  • The weapon's view and world view differ. In the first person view, the drum is wider to the left side, while in third person the wide side is to the right side.
  • Holding a Stickybomb Launcher and committing suicide will result in the ragdoll dropping a Scottish Resistance; this would only occur if the player had the Scottish Resistance in their backpack and were on the BLU team. RED team members would drop a Stickybomb Launcher.
  • The Stickybomb Launcher's reload animation is inconsistent between the view model and the world view. In the first person perspective, the Demoman grabs the bolt over the top with his palm facing down. In the world view, he grabs it from below, with his palm facing upward.
  • Players are able to deploy stickybombs beyond the starting gates at the start of a match.
  • If the player dies while holding a Stickybomb Launcher, and before they respawn it is changed in the loadout to the Chargin' Targe, the Demoman will appear to be holding an invisible bottle on respawn. This invisible bottle cannot attack. To fix this, switch to a new weapon.

Trivia

Unused Pipebomb model.
  • Based on its name displayed on the stats page, the Stickybomb Launcher was originally supposed to be the Pipebomb Launcher, a weapon from the first Team Fortress game. It is thought to have been similar to the Grenade Launcher except that the grenades would only detonate when the player pressed the alt fire key (as seen in Trailer 2). The Pipebomb Launcher's grenade is still in the game files. Additionally, the Stickybomb Launcher bears resemblance to a weapon cut from Half-Life 2, simply named the 'Sticky Launcher'. Had it been included, it would have functioned in an almost identical manner, except that it would stick to enemies as well as map surfaces.
  • RED and BLU stuffed stickybombs are featured in the Valve store.

Gallery

See also