Tribalman's Shiv

“

Let's see how much blood's in ya! Click to listen — The Sniper

”

The Tribalman's Shiv is an unlockable, community-made melee weapon for the Sniper class. When it strikes an enemy, it leaves a seeping wound which bleeds out for 6 seconds after being inflicted. However, the Knife itself deals 50% less damage as a trade-off. It was released in the second round of content from the Contribution page.

Damage

• Base: 32 (29 to 36)
• Mini-Crit: 44
• Critical Hit: 96

• Bleed Damage: 3-5 damage per tick, 8.5 damage per second for 6 seconds (51 damage total)

Damages are approximate and determined by community testing.

Function times

• Attack Interval: 0.8
• Bleed Duration: 6

All times are in seconds. Times are approximate and determined by community testing.

Trivia

• The Tribalman's Shiv is made entirely of wood. Since several plants from tropical areas possess anticoagulant properties (blood-thinners), it has been theorized that the blade may be carved from the wood of one of these plants, (such as a Boldo tree) which would account for it inflicting a profusely-bleeding wound. This would be intentional on Valve's part though, as the creator of the Shiv did not think this (though he has admitted it is logical, and cool).
• This is the only unlockable Sniper weapon that is a direct variant of the original weapon.
• As shown in the video, the Sniper's viewmodel showed the notches on the Shiv facing toward the opponent, while the world model shows the notches facing towards the Sniper. This was probably an oversight.
• Originally, the creator of the Shiv intended to make the viewmodel as it is now, but on a critical hit the knife would be turned around so that the notched side struck the enemy. However, this did not get implemented as it required custom animations, which neither the creator nor Valve were willing to make.
• Cloaked Spies hit by the Shiv flicker while invisible, due to the bleeding effect.
• Disguised Spies hit by the Shiv will bleed visibly, though the revealing effect is not as obvious as fire. Bleeding also does not reveal team color as fire does.
• Even though the Tribalman's Shiv is made out of wood, when dropped it still supplies Engineers with 100 points of metal, much like the Sandman and the Huntsman.
• The Tribalman's Shiv, along with the Homewrecker, the Scotsman's Skullcutter and the Pain Train, did not originally have a kill icon, instead using the suicide/environmental death icon. The proper kill icons were added by Valve shortly after the Shiv and Skullcutter's introduction when community made icons were sent to them.
• Formerly, if an enemy were to die from the bleeding effect of the Tribalman's Shiv, the HUD would display the kill icon of the weapon you were holding when the enemy died. If you were dead or holding Jarate while the enemy was killed by the bleeding effect, the kill icon displayed would be the suicide/environmental death kill icon.
• The Tribalman's Shiv was the first weapon to incorporate a bleeding effect in Team Fortress 2. The Southern Hospitality also uses this effect.
• The Tribalman's Shiv took approximately 7 and a half hours to make, from formulating the idea to submitting it.
• The name 'Tribalman's Shiv' was coined by Valve, with the original file sent to them merely being labelled 'wood_machete'.

Gallery

• Tribalman's Shiv 1st person cropped.png

  1st person view.

See also

• Tribalman's Shiv strategy
• Bleeding