Nutcracker

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Nutcracker
Pd nutcracker.png
Basic Information
Map type: Player Destruction
File name: pd_nutcracker
Released: December 9, 2025 Patch
(Smissmas 2025)
Developer(s): Vasilis "Billo" Chatzikostas
Viktor "Doom" Pieńkowski
Alex "FGD5" Stewart
Apostolos Mpaltas
Stuffy360
Map Info
Environment: Snowy
Setting: Factory
Hazards: Deadly waters, pitfall, giant nutcracker
Deep Water: Yes
Map Items
Healthico.png Health Kits: Smallhealth.png ×2  •  Mediumhealth.png ×8  •  
Largehealth.png ×1
Ammoico.png Ammo Boxes: Smallammo.png ×2   •   Mediumammo.png ×6   •  
Largeammo.png ×1
Map Photos
Loading screen photos.
Map overview
Nutcracker overview.png
Map Stamp
Item icon Map Stamp - Nutcracker.png
Supporters Leaderboard
Some say the Medic built this machine to restore human limbs and heal any injury.
Others believe it could make a man immortal.
One thing’s for certain anyone brave enough to approach him... is nuts.
Nutcracker publicity blurb

Nutcracker is a community-created Player Destruction map released during the Smissmas 2025 update. It is set around the Mann Co. Toy Factory, where a giant nutcracker has been mechanized and converted by the Medic into an immortality machine that is powered by nuts. The Nutcracker serves as the map's announcer, inhabited by a man who was unwillingly transformed through experimentation and wishes to be freed.

Players are tasked with collecting jars of nuts to deliver to the Nutcracker, who will periodically open his mouth for a short time and begin demanding players to deposit their jars of nuts inside him, before closing his mouth and swallowing anyone caught inside. Once a team has succeeded and fed him the required amount, the Nutcracker, initially anticipating freedom, will begin a short speech, before abruptly exploding.

Nutcracker was contributed to the Steam Workshop.

Locations

  • Spawns: Each team's spawn is located in a small shed sitting atop a hill and has two exits. The hill descends down to the Toy Workshop.
  • Toy Workshop: The large building that separates the team spawns from the middle area. It has multiple rooms, complexes, and hallways that can be traversed. From the direction of the spawns there are three entrances leading into the Toy Workshop.
    • Levers: Taking the left/right entrance leads down a short, machinery-filled hallway that takes players to the outside grounds.
    • Library: On the other side of the Toy Workshop is the right-most/left-most entrance, which leads to a spacious room decorated with Christmas trees and various ornaments. Found here are a medium health kit and a medium ammo pack. The Library connects to the Central Room.
    • Central Room: The biggest and the centre-most area of the Toy Workshop, accessible from either the middle entrance or the Library. The room is split in half by a concrete pathway that connects two exits located on opposite sides of the room. Crossing perpendicularly over said pathway is a catwalk that directly connects the Library to the Battlements. Found at the bottom of the Central Room are a pair of miniature railway tracks, over which a toy train can be occasionally seen passing.
    • Battlements: The side of the Toy Workshop facing the Nutcracker has a small terrace that offers a good vantage point of the immediate area. When the nutcracker's mouth opens, catwalks extend from this area.
  • Shed: Exiting from the Levers and traversing a dirt pathway takes one to a small shed containing a medium health and ammo pack.
  • Clocktower: Further along the path, behind the Shed, is a large building just to the left/right of the Nutcracker. It has two side rooms, each with a ventilator fan pointing upwards, allowing players to boost themselves up and access the middle section. From then on they can either overlook the Nutcracker from an elevated doorway or go through a hole in the floor that takes them down a flight of stairs to the base of the Nutcracker (where a medium health pack resides). Players are also able to jump across the railings into an out-of-bounds area that borders the Clocktower, resulting in their death.
  • Boardwalk: On the opposite side of the map is a shoreline that kills anyone who falls into it. Hanging over the water are two boardwalks and four wooden pillars which players can stand on.
  • Coast House: Also next to the shore is a small house that contains a large health pack. The side of the house facing the Nutcracker also has a jump pad that launches player's directly towards the Nutcracker's mouth. Located below the jump pad is a large ammo pack.
  • Nutcracker: The Nutcracker himself is located in the middle of the map between the Coast House and the Clocktower. His back is lined by wooden walkways that allow for easy access to the deposit zone that appears when his mouth opens.

Strategy

Main article: Community Nutcracker strategy

Update history

December 9, 2025 Patch (Smissmas 2025)

  • Added Nutcracker to the game

December 23, 2025 Patch

  • Fixed out of bound exploit at BLU spawn.
  • Adjusted clipping outside of RED spawn.
  • Fixed misaligned fence prop in BLU lounge.
  • Added nobuild to middle route on both sides.
  • Removed steps from Pipe rooms and adjusted clipping.
  • Minor detailing and clipping adjustments.
  • Fixed Nutcracker voice being cut off at start of round.

Changelog

This is the changelog of the map before it was added to the game.
Changelog:
Changelog (December 26, 2024)
  • Reworked the whole map with Doom
  • Added a proper Hud
  • The nutcracker actually can open it's mouth now
  • Let's get nuts

Changelog (December 26, 2024)

  • Fixed blu spawn doors and UI

Changelog A3 (December 29, 2024)

  • opened up the lobby
  • opened up the main entrance to the point and reduced cover people holding the point can have
  • moved healthpacks around to nerf overly aggressive forward holds
  • extended the ramp around the nutcracker to make jumps easier
  • improved jumping vents (sound + particle effects)
  • fixed red being able to open blu respawn doors
  • (experimental) added additional window exit

Changelog (January 20, 2025)

  • The lobby and spawn was reworked.
    • The idea was to guide the players better to all routes, add more space to move around and also provide highground to attackers. (Also making the layout more interesting was a goal)
  • The left route was made longer and also added an additional building
  • Small improvements were made around the map, such as the ramp getting smoothed.
  • The spawn waves got fixed
  • When the nutcracker is about to close it's mouth, a sound effect plays alarming players to leave.
  • Finally the nutcracker timers for opening/closing the mouth is 45s closed/30s open instead of the 30s/30s.

Changelog (January 25, 2025)

  • The nutcracker damages the players only when the mouth closes (and even that has 3 second delay so as to avoid unecessary deaths)
  • The score points trigger is a little smaller now , to prevent players from scoring even when the mouth is closed.
  • The spawn wave times were improved. So in theory no more 20+ seconds of waiting

Changelog (February 3, 2025)

  • The highground was made more accessible to both teams via the side building, the highground was also made more useful to attack the point.

Changelog (March 5, 2025)

  • The upper area (highground overlooking the point) got a rework by yours trully (Billo). Now it allows for a quicker rotate, it offers a new window for snipers or explosion classes to attack, as well as more cover. It also prevents the enemy team from easily flanking you because of the high ground it provides.
  • The lower area was also reworked by Doom to feel better to play around in. Now it's more risk/reward and overall more interesting. Scouts that don't see much play in the map, can use this area to their advantage now.
  • Notes:
    • it looks like we are arriving to beta soon. Thank you everyone who helped with the map's developement, we are going pretty strong!

Changelog (March 13, 2025)

  • Mid was reworked to be more fun, risky and interesting.
  • The side buildings can see more use now, and the jump pads around the map were repurposed. For instance one jump pad launches the player into the mouth of the nutcracker for riskier plays and at the same time, the building which holds the jump pad also features a full hp pack near a deathpit. Risk/Reward in this map was a huge goal I tried to achieve.
  • The nutcracker now closes it's mouth faster, creates a shake effect, makes noise and also creates smoke
  • Notes:
    • I wonder if anyone still reads those.
    • Hey, so similar to sharkbay, I wasn't happy with how mid played. Many people talked about this map working as a koth map, the side paths not being used and I was watching all the demos and I felt as if this map could be improved. I wanted a more interesting and exciting mid. I started with the idea of making the actual attraction of this map the nutcracker more fun. So, you can climb up the nutcracker now, and it's more risky there. Bridges or jump pads connect to the nutcracker making it harder to stay there. Also the head hides certain sightlines. All the decisions I took was to make the map feel more fun. Obviously it feels like a deathmatch map, it's pd afterall. But I want to make something special. I am not doing all of that for money but for the art. I love what I do and I hope it's clear.
    • To make the new layout I used the best ideas Doom and I had, and implemented them differently. Hope it plays good. We will see.

Changelog (March 20, 2025)

  • Mid got the old platform back. Now you can use the elevated platform to access the nutcracker or hold mid like it used to before. The platform features a hole in which you can drop down to the hp pack or to use the jump pad.
  • Mid's cover also got reworked.
  • The highground flank with the jump pad got improved so as to help players hold it better. The doors leading up to the highground are more easily spammable now and give the attackers space outside the doors to take cover.
  • The lobby was improved. Now it gives the players easier access to the paths and goes better with the flow of the movement. For instance the mid path had an elevated platform which could be used for highground/to drop down quickly. However because there was a wall right in front of it (for sightlines) that highground wasn't useful. Now with the new update the highground can be used to deny any upcoming pushes and it's also useful for sentries.
  • In addition, players coming out from spawn can see through the newly added windows if any enemies are planning to attack or they can see the possible routes they can take.
  • Also players coming out of spawn have more highground and cover now to help with potential attacks.
  • Notes:
    • The map got definitely improved and feels more unique/interesting. But it needs more testing before we have something truly 'good enough'. Last playtest didnt go as planned but I hope the problems with the last update were fixed or improved with this one!
    • Any piece of feedback is much appreciated as we are reaching beta.

Changelog (March 26, 2025)

  • Added windows on the highground for better attacking (by doom)
  • Optimized the map further (by Billo)

Changelog B1 (August 9, 2025)

  • The whole map is textured
  • The nutcracker has voicelines
  • The map includes Color Correction and Cubemaps
  • Notes:
    • As we speak FGD5 is making the nutcracker model, my voice actor and I are expecting your feedback for any potential changes and we are finishing this bad boy!
    • We are really excited to get to finish this map and a lot of love and care has been put to it. Hope it shows!

Changelog (August 11, 2025)

  • Fixed Clipping issues + Voicelines are louder now

Changelog (September 7, 2025)

  • The voicelines were rewritten and recorded again from the ground up. Based on the feedback we received it was clear that - more serious, angry and shorter voicelines were the best way to go. Now instead of 6 open/close voicelines there are 14, instead of 6 intros there are 12 and instead of 6 finale voicelines, there are 8 now. We tried to spice things up by making the nutcracker comment on what the mercenaries are doing, giving lore with each line and also commenting on what is happening. If one mercenary is eaten, the nutcracker comments on that mercenary only but if there are multiple ones he will comment on those too. He will also comment on no nuts being delivered giving a more angry response.
  • The lighting was improved so areas can look brighter now.
  • Improved the detailing on Red side.
  • Mid building was changed a little to help with the direction of the jump pad.
  • Added a gradient to indicate when it's time to deposit points.
  • Changed the timings of the point being closed from 40 seconds to 55 and changed the point being available from 30 seconds to 35.
  • notes:
    • This update was released a little early, I wanted to see if the changes I made work or not. Also more feedback for the voicelines or the timings that were changed could help me a ton.
    • I am waiting for your feedback!

Changelog (September 13, 2025)

  • Attempted to fix the server freeze caused by prop dynamics. Ent Data were around 142% in the previous version (B2) and now I managed to reduce them down to 85% while keeping most of the detailing the same and while adding even more. So in theory the map should look better and run better. I had to go back and redo all the lighting from 0 for this update but I think it was worth it.
  • Both Red and Blu sides on my opinion are 'done' I am pretty happy with how they look like and I will be adding touches to make them look better as we go on.
  • Notes:
    • Map's detailing is almost done, from my point of view mainly the middle building with the jump pads is left before I can call the map fully finished. To be honest the detailing was pretty difficult considering I dont have many reference images that also fit tf2 so I had to get creative. But I like how it looks so far. I will keep improving the map as I go on and **I hope you guys are enjoying what I am making.

Changelog (September 24, 2025)

  • Mid building got simplified
  • Area around the nutcracker got wider
  • Improved the detailing
  • Improved optimization
  • Changed the health/ammo pack placements to better suit rollouts.
  • Added cover to the side building by the cliff/lake so as to prevent unfair airblasts. (Thanks Alox!)
  • Improved how the players interact with the environment. (A jump pad was larger that the trigger which made it unclear where the trigger is that for example got changed to help players understand, there are more examples but I will keep it short)
  • Notes:
    • The map's detailing is not 100% done. You can clearly see that the midbuilding's detailing is pretty simple and basic. I intend on improving it in the next version. The thing with nutcracker is that I have been working on the detailing since April, which really burned me out. But you can at least see the quality I am going for this time around. I truly spent hours upon hours reworking the detailing so as it looks nice. Red and Blu sides are asymmetrical which was tough to do but I think it's very rewarding. I just wanted to say to everyone reading this that I truly love what I am creating and I am doing it with all my heart and soul. In the next update I intend on finishing the detailing 100%, adding a 3D Skybox and hopefully we will also have the nutcracker model ready to go which is currently being worked on.
    • I honestly have no idea if anyone reads these notes but if someone does I really hope I can deliver something special this Winter.

Changelog (September 29, 2025)

  • The nutcracker model (version 1) is complete and we will need feedback to iron out issues and improve it.
  • Voicelines now play with vscript (done by Doom)
  • Entity performance was improved
  • Various improvements around the map
  • Notes:
    • Almost there guys.. I am really excited about this map. My team and I are trying our best to deliver something special this winter. Any piece of feedback is much appreciated

Changelog (October 22, 2025)

  • Nutcracker model was completed by FDD5.
  • Blu side detail was reworked.
  • Added 3D skybox
  • Improved fog
  • Improved clipping
  • Improved lighting
  • Added and replaced a few voicelines to fit the new 'lore' of the map.
  • The map got 27% more nuts. How about you? You wanna get nuts?
  • Notes:
    • This is the last update before we upload the map to the workshop. A few things still remain such as the HUD, the pickups and one prop. However we are working on it. Really proud of how the map is turning out. I have put a lot of soul and love into this one and I would like it to be something special. See you in the next playtest in order to record clips for the trailer...

Changelog (October 27, 2025)

  • Mid was given more cover for easier approach
  • New Pick up model created (jar with nuts) by FGD5
  • Menu Photos + HUD created by your truly.
  • Detailing Improvements in the map.
  • Improved clipping around the nutcracker
  • Updated fog.
  • Notes:
    • Thank you guys for your amazing support for the map's release! Couldn't be happier. I am really glad the map has been received well and I am looking forward to hearing more peoples' opinions!

Changelog (November 1, 2025)

  • Improved clipping
  • fixed small issues
  • added easter eggs
  • that's about it

Trivia

  • Hidden in the game files is a thank you note to the Team Fortress 2 community from one of the map's developers.

Gallery