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A deadly device by any measure, the Cow Mangler will quantum disentangle Cows, Sheep, Humans and even Demomen! — Cow Mangler 5000 publicity blurb
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The Cow Mangler 5000 is a primary weapon for the Soldier. It is a large, shoulder-fired, retro-futuristic ray gun. Several portions are team-colored, and arcs of electricity appear periodically on the frontal nodes.
This weapon can fire up to five blasts of team-colored energy that, compared to the default Rocket Launcher, deliver 10% less damage to players and 80% less damage to buildings. The blasts fired function similarly to rocket projectiles; as such rocket jumping can be performed without hindrance, and the shots can be reflected by enemy Pyros. The Cow Mangler 5000 features a "Mangler" bar in the HUD which serves as an indication of its ammunition clip. After the bar is depleted, it can be recharged through a reloading process in which the lever on the side is cranked. It does not incorporate the traditional ammo reserve used by other weapons, a feature shared with Righteous Bison, Pomson 6000 and Manmelter.
When the Mangler bar is full, pressing the secondary fire button will cause the weapon to begin charging up. During this process, the entire Mangler bar is consumed and the Soldier's movement speed is reduced to a third (from his standard 80% of normal speed to roughly 27%). This charging period lasts for two seconds, after which a single charged shot is fired with both the speed and blast radius of a typical blast. This shot deals mini-crit damage to players and will cause them to suffer six seconds of afterburn damage at the same rate as the Flamethrower. This can affect the Soldier who fired it if he is near enough. The charged shot also disables any enemy buildings hit for four seconds.
Although this weapon is unable to be crit-boosted during an Übercharge of the Kritzkrieg or Humiliation, it is able to perform mini-crits from the Buff Banner, even though it does not glow while the banner is active.
Enemies killed by the Mangler suffer a distinctive death by vaporization: they turn black, hover in mid-air while performing a specific disintegration animation surrounded by team-colored particles, and then disappear into ashes.
Damage and function times
Damage and function times
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Shot type
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Projectile
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Damage
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Maximum ramp-up
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125%
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101
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Base damage
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100%
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Players: 81 16
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Maximum fall-off
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53%
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43
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Point blank
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96-101
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Medium range
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45-81
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Long range
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41-43
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Mini-crit
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109
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Afterburn
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3 / tick 36 total
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Afterburn (mini-crit)
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4 / tick 48 total
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Splash damage
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Minimum splash
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50%
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9 ft
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Self-damage
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24-80
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Self damage (rocket jump)
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24-41
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Function times
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Attack interval
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0.8 s
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Reload (first)
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1.3 s
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Reload (consecutive)
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0.85 s
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Afterburn duration
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6 s
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Values are approximate and determined by community testing.
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Item set
Demonstration
Crafting
Blueprint
As a crafting ingredient
Related achievements
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Backdraft Dodger Kill a Pyro who has airblasted one of your rockets in the last 10 seconds.
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Where Eagles Dare Get the highest possible rocket jump using jump and crouch.
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For Whom the Shell Trolls Bounce an opponent into the air with a rocket and then kill them with the shotgun before they land.
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Mutually Assured Destruction Kill an enemy sniper with a rocket after he kills you.
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Death from Above Rocket jump and kill 2 enemies before you land.
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Update history
July 20, 2011 Patch (
Dr. Grordbort's Victory Pack)
- The Cow Mangler 5000 was added to the game.
July 22, 2011 Patch
- Improved the impact sounds for the Cow Mangler 5000’s projectiles.
- Optimized many particle effects related to the Cow Mangler 5000.
- Updated the Cow Mangler 5000 to display the drawbacks in its attribute list.
- Updated the gamehaptics file
- Added recoil/draw/crit/reload forces for the Cow Mangler 5000
- Added charge shot force for the Cow Mangler 5000
July 22, 2011 Patch #2
- Fixed the charged shot sometimes doing more damage than intended.
- Fixed a bug that caused the projectiles to stay in the world after a team change.
- Slowed reload rate by 5%.
- Decreased damage dealt by 10%.
July 26, 2011 Patch
- Corrected the damage ramp for the Cow Mangler 5000
August 18, 2011 Patch
- [Undocumented] Updated the kill icon for Cow Mangler 5000.
September 15, 2011 Patch
- Updated the particle effects for the Cow Mangler 5000 and the Righteous Bison
October 14, 2011 [Item schema update]
- The Cow Mangler 5000 can no longer be painted.
October 27, 2011 Patch (Very Scary Halloween Special)
- Updated effects for The Cow Mangler 5000.
Bugs
- Once the Soldier begins charging a shot, the weapon will fire a charged shot even if the charging process is interrupted by getting stunned or the Soldier's team losing.
- Deactivating an enemy Sentry Gun during humiliation will cause them to reactivate afterward and shoot the winning team.
- Pyros who deflect the laser will deal full critical damage instead of mini-crits.
- If the player changes from the Cow Mangler 5000 to another Rocket Launcher using a Resupply locker while charging a shot, they will be stuck with the slower moving speed until they change classes or finish firing the charged shot.
- Rarely, after a moment of not firing, the Soldier will automatically reload the weapon's clip, regardless of the player's auto-reload setting.
- The laser can go through thin walls such as setup gates when fired at a correct angle.
- Several Pyro achievements, such as Controlled Burn, can be earned using the afterburn of the charged shot.
- Attempting to rocket jump with a charged shot will set the user on fire, awarding the Pilot Light achievement.
- The fire damage self-inflicted on the Soldier by the weapon is treated as an environmental hazard. As such, the last enemy to injure the player will be credited in the kill feed should the Soldier die from the afterburn damage.
- There is no kill icon for a deflected kill with this weapon.
- It is still possible to taunt and quickly press alt-fire to charge a shot. The result is a laser fired from the Soldier's chest as he taunts.
- If the Soldier is killed by his own laser, his ragdoll or gibs will glow with the opposing team's colors.
- When killing a player going to destroy the cart in Hightower, the Soldier will be awarded with a Kamikaze kill.
- While switching weapons between the Cow Mangler 5000 and a different slot weapon, sometimes, an ammo count will appear stating that the Cow Mangler 5000 has 100 loaded ammo and 20 carried ammo although it is a weapon with infinite ammo.
- Due to the weapon's reload time being slowed by 5%, the cranking sound effect of the reload will play slightly out of time with the actual turn of the handle.
- When minimizing the game with this weapon equipped, the ammo portion of the HUD may disappear. Looking at the scoreboard may fix this.
Trivia
- The name Cow Mangler is a reference to the association of alien contact coinciding with cattle mutilation. This originated from American science-fiction movies of the 1950s in which aliens would use laser and plasma weapons to cause mutilation to livestock.
- Unlike other weapons that have two separate VMTs for team colors, the Mangler, instead, uses the same method used to paint hats to give the weapon team colors. The projectile is colored using the same method as well.
- This weapon's design seems to be inspired from the "Pearce 75 Atom Ray Gun", a model which can be bought here at Weta's online store.
- When this weapon first came out, it was paintable. After a quick patch, it was no longer paintable making the few painted ones very rare.
Gallery
See also
Soldier |
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| Weapons |
Primary | | | Secondary | | | Melee |
Shovel ( Frying Pan, Saxxy, Conscientious Objector, Freedom Staff, Bat Outta Hell, Memory Maker, Ham Shank, Golden Frying Pan, Necro Smasher, Crossing Guard, Prinny Machete) · Equalizer · Pain Train · Half-Zatoichi · Disciplinary Action · Market Gardener · Escape Plan | | | |
| | Abilities | | | Cosmetics | | | Item sets | | | Special taunts | | | Achievements | | | Character | | | Strategy | | | Other | |
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