Pickups

Pickups

Regular kinds of pickups.

“

This thing looks bloody useful.

Click to listen

— The Sniper observing a pickup

”

Pickups are objects that are spawned or dropped in various locations across most maps and can be "picked up" by players coming into contact with them, such as by walking into them or colliding with them. Pickups usually apply various conditions on players when picked up; others can score points towards Achievements or game objectives, and a few pickups can add items to player inventories.

Regular pickups

Small Ammo/Metal box.

Thrown Sandvich.

Dispenser debris.

Main articles: Health, Ammo, Metal, Cloak

Regular pickups are the types that can be found on any map on any given day and consist of varying forms of Health and Ammo, with ammo packs also refilling Cloak and Metal. There are three standard sizes each for Health Kits and Ammo Cases. Players can only pick up these items when they are not at full Health, Ammo, Metal, or Cloak, respectively, with the exception of a disguised Spy. Disguised Spies can pick up a health pack regardless of his or his disguise's health and can even pick it up while invisible. Any regular pickup used in this way disappears, and then respawns after ten seconds with a distinct sound effect. Health pickups and Ammo/Metal pickups each restore a percentage of the maximum health or ammo/metal/cloak capacity of a class.

Fixed spawn point pickups cannot be retrieved if an Engineer builds a Teleporter on the pickup spawn point. Other engineering buildings, such as Sentry Guns and Dispensers, allow friendly players to pass through but block enemy movement, so they can be used to prevent opponents from taking pickups. However, such buildings also block the builder from claiming them.

The Heavy's Sandvich or Buffalo Steak Sandvich can be used to create a pick-up item, in the sense that a Heavy can drop his Sandvich for his teammates or enemies to use. A thrown Sandvich or Steak pickup can recover as much health as a medium-sized health kit. When a Heavy is at full health, he can pick up a health kit to instantly recharge the dropped item if it has been depleted. The same can be done with the Dalokohs Bar or Second Banana; however, the pickup only heals teammates or enemies as much as a small-sized health kit, though its faster recharge speed helps to compensate for that. When a Heavy dies holding a lunchbox item, a medium size ammo kit drops that recovers 50 health for any player that class that picks it up, except for the Scout who recovers 75 health.

Other regular pickups:

Ammo Cases dropped by killed players and broken building parts can both be picked up to replenish ammunition, metal, and cloak.
- Ammo Cases dropped by Engineers who have less than 100 metal upon death give the amount of metal equal to the metal they were carrying on death, with a minimum of 5 (4 with the Eureka Effect) and a maximum of 100 (80 with the Eureka Effect).
The Scout also produces small health packs whenever he score a kill with any weapon while the Candy Cane is equipped.
Hitting the Sandman Ball produces a rolling ball pickup that instantly recharges the Scout's Ball meter, and the Ball can be immediately thrown again.
A weapon dropped by a dead player can be picked up and used by another player that has a compatible class.

Special pickups

Some pickups are exclusive to certain conditions, such as events or game modes.

Event pickups

Large Birthday Health cake.

The regular pickups have Halloween and birthday variants. The change in appearance is merely cosmetic and does not alter the items' benefits. The Halloween variants can be found on Halloween maps, while the birthday variants appear on all maps when Birthday Mode is activated. Additionally, Birthday Mode variants are available for those players who equip Pyrovision with the proper goggles or any other item that enables it.

Halloween events

Halloween maps spawn some specific Halloween-themed pickups. During the annual Halloween events, particular effects can be activated:

Halloween pumpkins are found on several Halloween maps; they randomly drop when players are killed. These Halloween pumpkins function simiarly to a medium ammo pickup and grant a 3-4 second Crit boost when picked up. Picking up 20 of them also completes the Candy Coroner achievement, unlocking the Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask. These effects are always active when the maps supporting them are hosted, regardless of time of year. Progress on the achievement can be made at any time on these maps.

On certain Halloween maps, floating spellbooks, flasks, or crystal balls appear and may be picked up for magic spells by players equipped with a Spell Book.

Ghostly Soul Gargoyles appear on certain Halloween maps, announced by Merasmus. During Halloween events, picking one up scores the player ten souls on their Soul Gargoyle backpack item counter. Picking up one grants the player the Masked Mann achievement.

Haunted Halloween Gifts were dropped for players on a limited number of Halloween maps during events prior to Scream Fortress 2015, when they were replaced by Soul Gargoyles spawning in the same locations. Successfully finding this gift awarded the player a random Halloween Mask, Halloween Costume item, Halloween Spell, Voodoo-cursed item, a Spellbook Page, or other random items depending on the map. The general function of awarding players Halloween gift items was replaced the same year by Merasmissions.

Winter events

Beginning with the Australian Christmas 2011 event, Christmas gift pickups are dropped upon the death of a player during Winter events. These pickups appear as a small gift box and function similarly to the Halloween pumpkins, however, they do not grant the player additional Critical hits. Collecting three of the Christmas gifts grant the player the Gift Grab achievement. In subsequent Christmas/Smissmas events, Christmas gift pickups happen less frequently, but still count towards Gift Grab if picked up.

Ducks

Scout duck.

Bonus duck!

During the End of the Line Update event, killing players and completing objectives occasionally yielded rubber duck pickups, the "class" of the duck matching the player's class. The Duck Journal kept track of the number of ducks a player collected, and also increased the amount of ducks dropped.

On Carnival of Carnage, one of the Bumper Car minigames involves collecting toy ducks on a track. Smashing into enemy players makes golden "bonus ducks" fly out of the smashed player, worth twice as much. The team that collects the specified number of ducks first wins.

Game mode pickups

Merasmus' tickets (and socks).

In Capture the Flag and Special Delivery, a case (containing intelligence, Australium, or carnival tickets) is picked up and carried from its spawn point to a capture objective. A carrying player is highlighted to all players on both teams. On Crasher and Helltrain, the cases are replaced with a barrel bomb and a coal core, respectively.

In Medieval Mode, medium health pickups appear as a slab of ham with a bone sticking out of it on a plate.

In Mann vs. Machine, destroying a robot makes it drop a pile of cash that can be collected and used to buy upgrades at any Upgrade Station. All collected cash is shared between team members. Scouts have a longer cash collect range and also gain health from picking up cash. Snipers can remotely pick up cash from headshots if no other player picks it up first.

In Robot Destruction, the destruction of robots produces Power Cores, which are used to fuel the Reactor Core. The amount of Power Cores gained from killing a robot depends on the level of the robot. The first team to get a predetermined number of Power Cores wins the game.

In PASS Time, the JACK is a "game ball" that is visible through walls, may be picked up or thrown away by players, dropped by killed players, passed to teammates or intercepted, and thrown into scoring goals.

In Player Destruction, scoring pickups (beer bottles, souls, body parts etc.) are produced by killing players. These pickups need to be carried to a point near the center of the map to score points to win the game. When killed, a player drops one new scoring pickup plus all pickups they were holding at the time of death. The person carrying the most scoring pickups on a team becomes the team leader and gains the ability to self-heal and also heal nearby teammates at the rate of a Level 1 Dispenser. The amount of scoring pickups a player is carrying is displayed over their head.

Associated weapons

v • d • e List of weapons related to pickups
Scout	Melee			On kill: A small health pack is dropped.
Scout	Melee	Candy Cane		On kill: A small health pack is dropped.
Pyro	Melee			+50% health from packs on wearer.
Pyro	Melee	Back Scratcher		+50% health from packs on wearer.
Demoman	Melee			Ammo boxes collected give Charge.
Demoman	Melee	Persian Persuader		Ammo boxes collected give Charge.
Heavy	Secondary			With secondary fire, throws it for another player to restore 50% health.
		Sandvich	Buffalo Steak Sandvich

		Robo-Sandvich	Festive Sandvich
				With secondary fire, throws it for another player to restore 20.5% health.
		Dalokohs Bar	Fishcake

		Second Banana
Engineer	Melee			20% less metal from Dispensers and Pickups.
Engineer	Melee	Eureka Effect		20% less metal from Dispensers and Pickups.
Spy	PDA 2			No cloak meter from ammo boxes when invisible -35% cloak meter from ammo boxes
Spy	PDA 2	Cloak and Dagger

Frags to Riches
Earn all credit bonuses in an advanced difficulty mission.

T-1000000
Collect 1,000,000 credits in your career.

Wage Against the Machine
Earn a credit bonus at the end of a wave.

Scout

Dodgers 1, Giants 0
Kill an enemy Heavy and take his Sandvich.

Heavy

Redistribution of Health
Heal 1000 damage with med-kits in a single life.

Konspicuous Konsumption
Eat 100 sandviches.

Update history

February 19, 2008 Patch

Dropped weapons now replenish half of your max ammo when picked up.

August 19, 2008 Patch

The Sandvich was added to the game.

December 11, 2008 Patch

Spies will be able to recharge their Cloak by picking up ammo off of the ground or visiting health cabinets.

February 25, 2009 Patch

Players with full health can now pick up dropped Sandviches.

September 15, 2009 Patch

Alt-fire on the Sandvich now drops Sandviches.
- A single Sandvich can be dropped at a time. Dropping the Sandvich removes it from the Heavy.
- A Heavy can regain his Sandvich by collecting a healthkit while already being at full health.
- Eating a Sandvich using the taunt method now heals a Heavy to full health.
- Dropped Sandviches heal 50% of the collector's health.

October 14, 2009 Patch

Added 1/2 Bonus Point for healing a teammate with a dropped Sandvich.
Fixed being able to eat your Sandvich (via taunt) and drop it in the same frame.
Fixed thrown Sandvich traveling through players before being activated.
Fixed Sandviches sometimes spawning inside walls, or being thrown through thin walls.

October 29, 2009 Patch