Wrangler

Not to be confused with the Quadwrangler, a cosmetic item for the Medic.

Strange variant

Strange variant information

Strange Wrangler Strange Laser Pointer - Wrangled Sentry Kills: 0 Take manual control of your Sentry Gun. Wrangled sentries gain a shield that reduces damage and repairs by 66%. Sentries are disabled for 3 seconds after becoming unwrangled. Only the first statistic counts towards the strange rank. Available as a Strange Festive variant.

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

Related achievements

 Engineer

Breaking Morant Kill 10 Snipers with a sentry gun under the control of your Wrangler. Building Block Have a sentry shielded by the Wrangler absorb 500 damage without being destroyed. Patent Protection Destroy an enemy Engineer's sentry gun with a sentry under control of your Wrangler.

Pownd on the Range Kill 10 enemies outside the normal sentry gun range using the Wrangler. Rio Grind Perform 50 repairs and/or reloads on a Sentry gun being Wrangled by another Engineer. Search Engine Kill 3 cloaked Spies with a sentry gun under control of your Wrangler.

Update history

July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)

• The Wrangler was added to the game.

July 9, 2010 Patch

• The Wrangler no longer shows the Shotgun's ammo count.
• Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 Sentry Guns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.

July 19, 2010 Patch

• Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with wrangled Sentry Guns.

October 18, 2010 Patch

• Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries using The Wrangler.

October 19, 2010 Patch

• Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries for real this time.

March 10, 2011 Patch (Shogun Pack)

• Fixed the "Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas" Engineer achievement not counting Wrangler and Mini-Sentry kills.

October 13, 2011 Patch (Manniversary Update & Sale)

• Wrangler taunt now performs the Pistol taunt animation.

June 27, 2012 Patch (Pyromania Update)

• Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed.

July 10, 2013 Patch

• Changed attributes:
  • Slightly reduced accuracy of manually-controlled sentry at long range.
  • Protective shield now fades 1 second after the owning Engineer dies.

November 12, 2013 Patch

• Added Collector's quality.

December 20, 2013 Patch (Smissmas 2013)

• [Undocumented] Added Festive variant.

January 9, 2014 Patch

• Updated Strange Wranglers to track wrangled sentry kills.

January 10, 2014 Patch

• [Undocumented] Strange Wranglers now count wrangled kills properly.

April 1, 2014 Patch

• Updated the Wrangler so Strange parts can be applied to it.
  • Strange parts only increment if a Wrangler-controlled Sentry does the scoring.

June 18, 2014 Patch (Love & War Update)

• Sentry bullets are now affected by damage falloff outside of sentry scan range.
• Sentry bullet damage has been changed so it calculates damage based on the Sentry Gun's position, not the Engineer's.

March 12, 2015 Patch

• Added Strange quality.

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

• Updated description to better detail the weapon's features.
• Changed attributes:
  • Ammo and Repair given to a shielded Sentry is reduced by the strength of the shield (66% reduced) when shield is active.
  • Engineer death keeps the Wrangled sentry shielded and disabled for 3 seconds, same as when Wrangler is switched away. Previously Engineer death caused disable state for only 1 second.

July 8, 2015 Patch #1

• Fixed the Wrangler not properly disabling Sentry Guns for 3 seconds on Engineer death.

October 28, 2015 Patch (Scream Fortress 2015)

• Fixed an idle animation bug for the Wrangler

December 18, 2015 Patch

• Fixed Engineer's Wrangler contract updating points for players other than the Engineer doing the contract.

January 20, 2016 Patch

• Fixed the Engineer's Wrangler contract updating points while the player is not an Engineer.

March 28, 2018 Patch #1

• Fixed the Wrangler's death notice icon being clipped.

March 28, 2019 Patch

• Fixed Exorcism effect not working for Wrangler kills.

File:.png

Caption text

Bugs

File:The Bug in Action..png

In-Game Screenshot of the bug in question.

• Shield and laser effect issues:
  • The laser emitted from the Sentry Gun while using the Wrangler may travel through some walls and occasionally move back and forth very quickly.
  • Picking up a Wrangled Sentry will leave the Wrangler shield visual effect in place for a short time. Also, upon deploying the sentry and Wrangling it, the laser will emit from strange points, such as enemy Sentry Guns. This can be fixed by switching to another weapon then back to the Wrangler.
  • Using a Wrangled Sentry while the Sentry is built on a moving platform will result in the shield being left behind when the platform and the Sentry move.
  • There is currently a glitch which causes the targeting laser of the Sentry to be emitted from the eyes of allies when the player aims at them. This can make it somewhat harder to aim at enemies. The glitch is only present on the user's screen; no other players will see the effect.
  • The Sentry Gun can retain the shield and laser effects even when the Wrangler is not the currently held weapon. It may still operate normally, without taking reduced damage, but may also retain the Wrangled behavior, including a functional shield, if the player builds the Sentry Gun and then changes his loadout to equip the Wrangler.
    • The glitch persists upon the death of the Sentry Gun's owner, and can be fixed by switching to the Wrangler then switching away to another weapon.
• Using the Wrangler to kill enemies with Sentry Gun rockets will produce the level 3 Sentry Gun kill icon instead of that of the Wrangler.
• Once a Level 3 Sentry Gun is directed to fire rockets, it will not play the normal rocket reloading animation.
• If pointing the Sentry Gun at a far distance, the laser will appear to move rapidly away from the player's crosshair, but the Sentry Gun will still fire at the player's crosshair.
• The Engineer Achievement Pownd on the Range can be earned if the Engineer kills himself with his wrangled Sentry Gun outside of the normal range.
• When attaching the Buildings Destroyed strange part to a Strange Wrangler, it will not track buildings destroyed.
• Equipping Wrangler while using the taunt Rancho Relaxo will keep Wrangler's properties, on top of also keeping it's automatic aim, however, it can't shoot at any enemies in it's range.

Trivia

Radigan Conagher holding the Wrangler.

• The Wrangler, along with the Frontier Justice, the Gunslinger, and the Southern Hospitality, appears to have been designed by Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's grandfather. This is shown via a hidden link on the Engineer Update page.
• To wrangle is to professionally handle animals, often directing them to perform certain actions.
• When firing the Sentry Gun for a long time, an animation will play in which the Engineer will twitch his hand and a quiet sigh can be heard, as if removing a cramp.
• The Wrangler's joystick looks very similar to that of an Atari 2600 controller, though it lacks a button in the upper left corner.

Gallery

• 

  BLU variant of the weapon.

• 

  RED first-person view.

• 

  BLU first-person view.

• 

  RED Festive variant.

• 

  BLU Festive variant.

See also

• Wrangler strategy
• Sentry Gun jump (Rocket)
• Sentry Gun jump (Bullet)
• Festive weapons