Sapper
“ | Spy's sappin' mah sentry!
Click to listen
— The Engineer
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” |
The Sapper, mentioned in the Sentry Operating Manual as the AM/FM Ultra-Sapper, is the default building weapon for the Spy. It is a small electric generator inscribed 'ELECTRO-SAPPER', with a carrying handle, two long yellow wires and a meter. It also features two clamps that are deployed when used.
The sole function of the Sapper is to destroy an Engineer's buildings. Should the player select the weapon and stand near an enemy structure, they are able to see a white outline of the Sapper on the building, indicating that it is in range and can be sapped. Additionally, the needle on the gauge moves to the right red zone. Pressing the primary fire key (default key: MOUSE1) attaches the weapon, and the building is slowly damaged until it is destroyed. A sapped building immediately ceases to function; Sentry Guns do not fire, Dispensers do not heal or dispense ammo, and Teleporters do not teleport. The Engineer is also unable to use his Destruction PDA to self-destruct a sapped building. When applied to buildings, the Sapper produces electrical sparks and a loud hissing noise. When a Sapper is attached to one end of a Teleporter, another Sapper is automatically placed on the other end of the Teleporter, if it exists and is not in building progress. If the Spy is disguised, the disguise class plays a distinct, unique animation of placing the device on the building. Unlike the Spy's other weapons, using a Sapper does not cause him to lose his disguise.
For each building the Spy player places a Sapper upon, a small window in their HUD appears showing both the remaining health of the building sapped and the health of the Sapper on that building.
Once the building is being sapped, the Engineer owner is alerted to it in his HUD, and automatically plays a voice clip alerting nearby players of the building's predicament. Engineers can remove a Sapper with two hits from their melee weapon (three with the Jag). When a Sapper is attacked, the Spy player is notified by a similar alert in their HUD. If an Engineer removes a Sapper from a Teleporter, the Sapper at the other end is also removed. If a Medic is healing the Engineer, he can get an assist for the Sapper kill. Pyros equipped with the Homewrecker or the Maul can destroy Sappers in one hit (two with the Neon Annihilator). Enemies focused on removing Sappers may leave themselves open to a backstab or headshot, allowing the Spy or a teammate to distract and dispose of enemies in addition to the building in question.
The Sapper has infinite ammunition and no discernible "cooldown" time; Sappers can be placed on a building faster than an Engineer can repair the damage each one causes, which guarantees the building's destruction if the Spy is not dealt with.
Sapped Sentry Guns take 33% less damage from the Spy who applied the Sapper, such as when shooting them with a Revolver. Dispensers and Teleporters take normal damage.
Contents
[hide]Damage and function times
[collapse]Damage and function times | ||
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Damage | ||
Base damage | 100% | 25 / s |
Function times | ||
Recharge time | Normal: N/AMvM: 15 s
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Building destroy time | Level 1: 6.00 sLevel 2: 7.20 sLevel 3: 8.64 sMini-Sentry: 4.00 s
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Values are approximate and determined by community testing. |
Demonstration
In Mann vs. Machine
In Mann vs. Machine, Sappers can be attached to robots, stunning them (and, if upgraded, any other robots nearby). Robots stunned this way can be backstabbed from any angle. Sappers do not damage robots - they only disable them for 4-7 seconds depending on how many Robot Sapper Power upgrades have been purchased. Giants, being immune to stun, are only slowed down and can still attack players. Sapping an Engineer Robot's buildings works as usual, however only one building can be sapped at a time.
Unlike regular multiplayer, sapping either a robot or a building requires the Sapper to recharge for 15 seconds before another one can be deployed.
The Sapper can be instantly recharged with a Ammo and Clip Refill canteen; however, if the Spy has placed a Sapper on a robot or building, he is unable to deploy it until the previous Sapper is no longer active (either all the objects it was applied to are destroyed or the effect time expires).
Sapper Power Upgrade Points | Stun/Slowdown Duration | Radius of Effect |
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0 | 4 s | 0 HU |
1 | 4 s | 200 HU |
2 | 5.5 s | 225 HU |
3 | 7 s | 250 HU |
Demonstration
Strange variant
[expand]Strange variant information |
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Related achievements
Pyro
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Demoman
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Engineer
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Spy
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Mann vs. Machievements
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Update history
- Fixed server crash related to Spy Sappers.
- Fixed Spies being able to attach Sappers through thin walls.
- Sapped buildings now take slightly less damage from the Spy who sapped them.
- Fixed exploit attaching Sappers to buildings through walls.
- Fixed Sapper viewmodel animation popping.
- Fixed Spies not being able to sap a building if an enemy player was colliding with the building.
August 13, 2009 Patch (Classless Update)
- Sappers attached to a teleporter automatically place another Sapper on the other end of the teleporter, if it exists.
- Fixed Spies being able to destroy Sappers by using the "destroy 3 0" command.
- [Undocumented] Added Strange quality.
- [Undocumented] Made the Sapper nameable.
- [Undocumented] The Sapper now appears in backpack when viewing stock items.
- [Undocumented] Fixed Sapper needle animation not properly playing.
- Fixed Sappers attaching incorrectly to Teleporters that are still building.
- Fixed "Buildings Sapped" strange counter sometimes incrementing when buildings were destroyed without a Sapper attached.
- [Undocumented] Converted the Sapper and buildings to use c_sapper models.
- Fixed the Spy not holding Sappers correctly in third person.
December 20, 2013 Patch (Smissmas 2013)
- [Undocumented] Added Festive variant.
- Fixed not being able to gift wrap the Festive Sapper.
- Fixed the Festive Sapper not having a skin for the Blu team.
- Updated the Vampire powerup to give health for damage done by Sappers.
July 2, 2015 Patch #1 (Gun Mettle Update)
- Decreased the damage penalty on Sentry Guns sapped by the Spy from -66% to -33% (i.e. shooting a Sentry the Spy sapped with a Revolver is now more effective).
- Fixed the Spy Sapper not drawing on robots in Mann vs. Machine mode.
December 17, 2015 Patch (Tough Break Update)
- After removing a Sapper from a Sentry Gun, there is now a 0.5s delay before the sentry is active again.
- Fixed a bug where the Sapper preview would disable buildings when removed.
- Fixed Sappers sometimes only being applied to one Engineer teleporter.
- Sappers can no longer be used while a truce is active.
December 21, 2016 Patch (Smissmas 2016)
- Fixed not being able to transfer Strange stats between versions of the Sapper.
- Fixed the Festive Sapper not playing a timer sound while attached to buildings.
Unused content
- The game files have referenced a taunt for the Sapper since the game's launch; however, the animation is not present in the Spy's animation set.
- Prior to the March 12, 2013 Patch, the Sapper would drop gibs when destroyed; however, this feature was removed, leaving the gib models unused.
Bugs
- If the Sapper is placed on a building as it upgrades to the next level, an additional Sapper can be placed on the building for a brief period of time. Doing so causes the second Sapper to disappear, and renders the first Sapper indestructible by melee attacks from both Engineers and Pyros equipped with the Homewrecker, Maul, or Neon Annihilator. Additionally, the sapped building functions as normal, albeit with draining health. Hauling the affected building corrects the problem.
- The idle animation does not play during a replay, causing the needle to remain still.
- Occasionally, if a Spy saps repeatedly one end of a Teleporter while an Engineer attempts to destroys the Sappers on the other end, the Sapper is removed from the Engineer's end and not from the Spy's end.
- The Sappers and Sapper placement outlines on robots currently do not render, though the bomb carrier's objective border still draws around the invisible model.
- No matter how many buildings the player has sapped, the HUD only shows one sapped building notification at a time.
Trivia
- Sappers are considered by the game to be buildings with 100 health. As such, they are immune to Critical hits (they are not destroyed in one hit by a single critical Wrench swing) and can be created with the
build
console command. - The Festive variant has a note on the right side in French roughly translating to "Merry Smissmas, my friend!".
Gallery
See also
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[expand]Weapons |
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