Haunted Halloween Gift
 | “Ok guys, bad news: we lost that last one.” This article documents content for Team Fortress 2 that was removed from the game. It may contain speculation, broken links or errors. |
| Haunted Halloween Gift | ||
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| Pickup Type: | Halloween Masks, Halloween Costumes, Halloween Spells or Voodoo-Cursed Items | |
| “ | Oh hohoho. I love Halloveen!
Click to listen
— The Medic
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” |
The Haunted Halloween Gift was a special pickup that used to spawn during the Annual Scream Fortress Halloween Events in Mann Manor, Eyeaduct, Ghost Fort, and Helltower. It is a large, lime-green gift box with a bright orange ribbon. The player who collected the gift would receive various items, depending on which map the user was playing on.
From Scream Fortress 2015 on, the Haunted Halloween Gifts are replaced with ghostly Soul Gargoyles spawning in the same locations as the original gifts as well as on a few later maps. From then on, the Halloween gift items that could be obtained from the pickups would be obtained from completing Merasmissions and later Halloween Contracts.
Contents
Spawning
The Haunted Halloween Gift would spawn at one of many predetermined locations on Mann Manor, Eyeaduct, Helltower and Ghost Fort. When a player received a gift, they would incur an approximate 3-hour cooldown, during which time they would be unable to find gift boxes. After this cooldown finished, they would be eligible to find another. If a player did not pick up their gift box within 3 minutes, the gift would despawn and the player would have had to wait 5-10 minutes before another spawned. Once they finally received their gift, they would incur the usual ~3-hour cooldown. If the player's cooldown expired when they were not connected to a game server or playing a non-event map, they would receive a gift spawn within a minute of connecting to a server running the event map.
Ten player connections to the server were required (meaning players who were on a team, in spectator, or actively joining the server) for the gift to drop; additionally, servers were required to be registered with TF2 Quickplay on Steam, to prevent cheating or farming to gain items. The total player count only included actual Steam clients, not bots or the replay user.
Former Systems
Prior to Scream Fortress 2013, users were chosen at random to receive the gift box. When a player received a gift, a new recipient was randomly selected after approximately 25 seconds. If that player did not receive their gift within 3 minutes, it despawned and a new player was selected.
Prior to the Spectral Halloween Special (2012), gifts dropped server-wide. When a gift dropped, a notification was sent to every player on the server. Upon spawning, the gift would be temporarily transparent and unable to be picked up, allowing players some time to search for it and kill their competitors. The gift would then solidify and be awarded to the first player to touch it. Should multiple players be touching the gift as it solidified, the recipient would be selected at random. A second alert would notify all players that the gift was found and congratulate the recipient.
Due to the gift's rarity and the fact that any player could pick it up, it was not uncommon for all players on a server to abandon the map objectives and race to find the gift. The reasoning behind the new system included eliminating the need for such a server-wide scramble.[1]
Contents
- Mann Manor spawned gifts that contained 1 of 9 Halloween Masks. Upon collecting all nine, one could craft the Saxton Hale Mask.
- Eyeaduct gifts contained 1 out of 27 costume parts. In addition, a gift found in the Eyeaduct Underworld would have been of the Haunted quality.
- Ghost Fort gifts could have contained either 1 Halloween Spell or several Voodoo-Cursed Items, or on rare occasion a Halloween-themed hat or miscellaneous item.
- Helltower gifts could have contained one of the many Halloween items from the Scream Fortress 2013 (items received would be Uncraftable and Untradable) along with Spellbook Pages and occasionally Spooky Crates or a Costume Transmogrifier of any classes.
Spawn locations
Mann Manor
Eyeaduct
Ghost Fort
Helltower
Audio cues
These audio cues are heard, along with a notification, when the Haunted Halloween Gift spawns or is found by a player.
Related achievements
Ghostchievements
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Masked Mann Collect a Soul Gargoyle in Mann Manor. |
Update history
October 27, 2010 Patch (Scream Fortress Update)
- The Haunted Halloween Gift was added to the game.
- Fixed spectators collecting the Haunted Halloween Gift in Mann Manor.
- Fixed players who are spectating teammates being able to collect the Haunted Halloween Gift in Mann Manor.
October 26, 2012 Patch (Spectral Halloween Special)
- The Haunted Halloween Gift is now only visible to (and can be collected by) one player. This applies to Mann Manor, Eyeaduct, and Ghost Fort.
October 28, 2015 Patch (Scream Fortress 2015)
- [Undocumented] The Haunted Halloween Gift has been replaced with the Soul Gargoyle.
Notes
- A different alert shows up when the gift spawns in Eyeaduct's underworld: "The Haunted Halloween Gift has mysteriously appeared somewhere down below, placed just for you... go and find it!"
- If the Haunted Halloween Gift spawns seconds before the round ends and nobody collects it before the teams switch sides, the gift will remain in place during the change.
- It is possible to collect the gift during Humiliation or while being stunned by ghosts.
- The model and texture of the Haunted Halloween Gift have been reused as pickups in SnowVille.
Gallery
Haunted Halloween Gift in Mann Manor.
Haunted Halloween Gift in Eyeaduct's Underworld.
Message that appears when a Halloween Gift has spawned for the player to claim.
Message that appears when the player finds a Halloween Gift.
Message that appears when the player fails to find their gift in time.
Message that previously appeared during past events when Halloween Gift spawned.
References
- ↑ "The Fourth Annual Scream Fortress Event Begins Tomorrow!", TF2 Team, TF2 Official Website, October 25, 2012. Accessed October 26, 2012
External links
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