Cosmetic items

Cosmetic Items

A mock magazine, Hat-Wearing Man, appeared at the end of the Sniper vs. Spy Update announcing the first hats as a bonus.

“

Throughout history, men have worn hats as a way of asserting dominance over other men. “I buy hats,” a behatted man seems to say. “I am better than you.” In wartime, hats were a useful way of conferring rank, and ensuring that casualties were confined to the lower classes (hence the famous command of “Don't fire till you see the tops of their heads” at the Battle of Bunker Hill by William Prescott, a general renowned for only shooting enemy combatants who were poor). During peacetime, hats have been instrumental for men to let the non-hatted know just who is wearing the hat around here.

— Classless Update

”

Cosmetic items (previously known as hats and miscellaneous items, or miscs) are items that can be equipped in any one of the three cosmetic slots in the loadout screen. Valve introduced the first set of nine cosmetics in the Sniper vs. Spy Update, with one hat for each class. The nine hats introduced were the Batter's Helmet for Scout, the Soldier's Stash for Soldier, the Pyro's Beanie for Pyro, the Demoman's Fro for Demoman, the Football Helmet for Heavy, the Mining Light for Engineer, the Prussian Pickelhaube for Medic, the Trophy Belt for Sniper and the Fancy Fedora for Spy. Several updates have since added additional cosmetics, including those designed and submitted by members of the Team Fortress 2 community through the Steam Workshop or the former contribution page on the TF2 Official Website.

There are currently a total of 1889 cosmetic items. 58 can be obtained in Vintage quality, 1214 can be obtained in Strange quality, 267 can be obtained in Genuine quality (see item quality distribution), 234 can be obtained in Collector's quality, and 1315 of the cosmetics can be painted 29 colors using different Paint Cans.

While most cosmetics can be obtained through crafting, the item drop system, or bought from the Mann Co. Store, some cosmetics are only available to players via other means. Some cosmetics can only be obtained by completing in-game achievements. Others have been added as promotions for various Steam games, events in the Steam Store, third-party websites, and merchandise. While it is possible to obtain most of these cosmetics via trading, there is no option to purchase them from the Mann Co. Store (aside from those released with Total War: SHOGUN 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, and the QUAKECON Pack). Only players with the premium account type can receive cosmetics randomly through the item drop system.

With the release of the Mann-Conomy Update, Unusual quality versions of certain cosmetics have a less than 1% chance chance of being "uncrated" when the player opens a Mann Co. Supply Crate.^[1] Unusual quality cosmetics appear identical to their Unique counterparts except for the addition of 1 of 86 unusual particle effects. Effects are chosen at random from applicable groups (certain effects are only obtainable during special events) when the cosmetic item is obtained.

Cosmetics do not affect gameplay, spare the psychology of players. The Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head and the Saxton Hale Mask are rare exceptions, making the wearer immune to the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Boo taunt when equipped. Additionally, several cosmetic items make sounds, potentially revealing the location of the wearer and making them more noticeable. Several cosmetic items provide an additional (cosmetic) effect, such as replacing voice lines or playing certain sounds when taunting. With the release of the July 10, 2013 Patch, item sets from the Polycount Pack (with the exception of The Saharan Spy set, which adds custom particle effects while taunting) now only provide a visual cosmetic grave marker upon killing enemies.

Some cosmetics have holiday or event restrictions, meaning they cannot be seen (except in the loadout menu) outside the period of a holiday or event. Additionally, Pyroland items can only be seen by yourself and other players who wear item(s) that enable Pyrovision. Spectating a player that has a Pyrovision item equipped (with the "When spectating, view the world from the eyes of a Pyro" setting enabled in Advanced Options) also makes other Pyroland items visible.

On January 10th, 2013, a blog post announced that after January 24th, 2013, the original nine hats added in the Sniper vs. Spy Update would be retired, making them unobtainable through crafting, random drops, Mann Co. Supply Crates (in Unusual quality only) or the Mann Co. Store after January 24th. The only source left untouched were existing Mann Co. Supply Crates that had any retired hats listed as a possible reward from unboxing.

On December 20th, 2013, the "Head" and "Misc" slots for player loadouts were merged to form "Cosmetic" loadout slots. All items that were previously Head- or Misc-slot-specific could then be equipped in any Cosmetic-slot.

List of cosmetic items

Crafting

Main article: Crafting

See Headgear recipes in Crafting.

Paint

Main articles: Paint Can, List of paintable items

Update history

Bugs

An Engineer wearing the Soldier's Stash, Chaser and War on Smissmas Battle Socks, which are normally only equipable by the Soldier.

When changing classes, the previous class's cosmetics may stay visually equipped and take priority over the changed-to cosmetics.
Due to a glitch involving high latency, players may equip multiple cosmetics that cannot be normally equipped together.
- This can also be performed by leaving the cosmetic slots empty, disconnecting the internet (if possible), returning and selecting the cosmetics the user wants to combine and reconnects, the player will have their selection. However, if the player dies or touches a resupply, they will return to normal. This is due to the item server only losing connection after 10 seconds, so the player can trick the item server to apply cosmetics selected, not by confliction.
When another player dies, there is a chance their hat will fall out of the ceiling or the floor.
Some hats may be positioned wrong during the Sniper's melee taunt animation.

Trivia

On the History page on the official website and the Mac Update page, Valve refers to Team Fortress 2 as "America's #1 war-themed hat simulator", based on comments that the hats receive more attention than the gameplay itself.^[2]^[3]
The Trophy Belt and Football Helmet were first seen in Meet the Spy prior to the official Sniper vs. Spy Update.

Unused content

A crafting recipe exists for smelting three Miscellaneous items into Scrap Metal in the game files. This recipe was once used when the only craftable miscellaneous item yet released was the Camera Beard, which dropped at the same rate as normal weapons. The recipe is currently disabled in-game.
An unused Scout cosmetic named Bonk'n'Flash that was planned to be released on the Mann-Conomy Update was discarded due to copyright concerns.
An unused Scout cosmetic named Bullseye's Head (which was the head of Bullseye from Monday Night Combat) was discarded because it was too large and visually disruptive.
An unused Soldier cosmetic named Legionaire's Lid was added into the game files during the Mann-Conomy Update, but never actually appeared in the game.
An unused Pyro cosmetic named Mummy Eyes was added into the game files during Scream Fortress 2013. It could be seen in the Halloween 2013 Community Bundle icon for a short time before it was removed.

References

↑ Statistical analysis of TF2 unbox rate
↑ "The Mac Update!", posted 10 June 2010.
↑ "History", retrieved 13 February 2012.

External links

[1] Statistical analysis of TF2 unbox rate

[2] "The Mac Update!", posted 10 June 2010.

[3] "History", retrieved 13 February 2012.

[1]

[2]

[3]

Cosmetic items

Contents

List of cosmetic items

Crafting

Paint

Update history

Bugs

Trivia

Unused content

See also

References

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