Barbarian Swing

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There can be only one! ... Eye!
The Demoman slicing the neck of another Demoman

The Barbarian Swing, also known as Decapitation, is a kill taunt for the Demoman that can be performed with the Eyelander, Half-Zatoichi, Claidheamh Mòr, Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, Persian Persuader, or Nessie's Nine Iron as the active weapon.

Upon taunting, the Demoman twirls his weapon behind his back, leading to a horizontal slash that deals 500 damage and slices off the head of any enemy slow, unaware, or simply unfortunate enough to be in the way. The Demoman concludes his short swipe by bringing his weapon back and wiping down its length with his fingers.

The decapitation kills an individual player as the weapon swings across them, rewarding the Demoman with a new head to his collection if he has the Eyelander, Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker, or Nessie's Nine Iron equipped. However, a kill with the decapitation does not contribute to any achievements involving performing kills with the Eyelander. Killing someone with this taunt is considered "honorable" by the Half-Zatoichi, allowing the user to sheath it without taking damage, as well as filling health.

The range at which the taunt kills is 128 Hammer units (roughly 8 foot / 2.44 meters), past which it has no effect. Only a single target can be affected by the kill taunt at one time, even if multiple enemies stand in the same spot.

As with most kill taunts, this taunt can be used to kill enemy players during Humiliation and Stalemates.

Damage and function times

See also: Damage
Damage and function times
Damage type Melee
Ranged or Melee damage? Melee
Damage
Point blank 500
Medium range N/A
Long range N/A
Mini-Crit 675
Function times
Taunt duration 5.2 s [1]
Values are approximate and determined by community testing.

Related achievements

Leaderboard class demoman.png Demoman

Scotch Tap
Scotch Tap
Glory in the slaughter of your enemies using the Eyelander.

Update history

December 17, 2009 Patch (WAR! Update)
  • The taunt was added to the game.

December 18, 2009 Patch

  • Fixed a server crash caused by the Demoman taunt kill.

March 15, 2011 Patch

  • Fixed the Demoman taunt not working correctly when the Half-Zatoichi is the active weapon.

April 14, 2011 Patch (Hatless Update)

  • Fixed taunt kills made with a Katana not counting towards honorbound kills.

June 3, 2011 Patch

  • [Undocumented] The taunt was assigned to the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Headtaker and the Claidheamh Mòr.

July 2, 2012 Patch

  • Fixed decapitations creating head gibs in Low Violence and Pyrovision.

Notes

  • This taunt, when performed successfully, always forces the victim to perform their respective headshot death animation.

Bugs

Unused content

  • There is an unused model located in game files, which depicts a cleanly "decapitated" neck, located in the Soldier directory. Whether this model was meant to appear in game, or on an update page in the case of a Demoman victory during the WAR! Update is unknown.

See also

References