Helltower
| Helltower | |
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| Basic Information | |
| Variants: | Hightower and Snowtower |
| Developer(s): | Unknown |
| Map Info | |
| Environment: | Desert |
| Setting: | Nighttime, cloudy |
| Hazards: | Pitfall, Pumpkin bombs, Skeletons, Ghost |
| Map Photos | |
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| Map Overview | |
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| “ | Push a corpse-filled cart through a magic-blasted, skeleton-infested terrorscape to reach the infernal maw of a gaping Hellmouth in this Halloween-themed Payload Race of utter pants-filling terror! Just to be clear: You will poop your pants.
— Helltower publicity blurb
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Helltower is a Payload Race map added in the Scream Fortress 2013 Update. It is the Halloween-themed version of Hightower. Players who own a Spell Book may equip it and be able to pick up and cast the many Magic Spells that appear on this map. Occasionally, the Soul Gargoyle spawns for randomly selected players on the server to find and pick up.
The objective is to push a cart of gravel containing the corpse of the opposing team's employer (Blutarch for RED, Redmond for BLU) to the lift at the high towers before the other team, all while the brothers' spirits shout general insults (announcements) at the players. At the beginning of the round each team's employer requests or demands that the team send their corpse (the other team's employer) to Hell. Once either brother is pushed to the checkpoint, all players are sent to Hell.
In Hell, the teams spawn on opposite sides of a ruined tower and must make their way to the spellbook on Skull Island while avoiding enemy fire and spells and falling into the lava. Any player killed in Hell becomes a Ghost and can pursue the living players; however, ghosts have no way to deal any damage. Pressing primary-fire or using a voice command as a ghost causes the player to yell "BOO", which can be used to annoy living players but serves little other purpose. Players that survive and reach the book receive an Unfilled Fancy Spellbook, if they do not already possess one in their backpack, which must be filled with Spellbook Pages in order to become usable.
Soul Gargoyles spawn on the map for each player individually during game play. The first notification of the Soul Gargoyle is vocally announced to the player by Merasmus, and repeated notifications may appear until the player grabs the Pickup or it disappears. Only the player for which the Soul Gargoyle has spawned sees the notifications or the Pickup. During Halloween Events, picking up a Soul Gargoyle scores the player 10 additional collected souls.
- Note: This map was originally released with Haunted Halloween Gifts spawning on the map during Halloween Events; this feature was replaced with Soul Gargoyles in Scream Fortress 2015.
Contents
Witching Hour
The Witching Hour is a timed-event feature introduced in Helltower. It occurs every time the minute hand on the Clocktower reaches 12 and lasts while the minute hand steps backwards around back to 12 again. Every 2 minutes and 25 seconds, the Witching Hour runs for 40 seconds. Clocktower bells ring announcing the Witching Hour. Clockworks clunk loudly within the tower, increasing in rate to warn players of the end of the Witching Hour.
During each witching hour, many Magic Spells spawn all over the open areas of the map and two Bridges open over the Lava pit to the Cliff House. Players who survived the bridge crossing may pick up the Rare Magic Spell at the Cliff House and be returned instantly to their own spawn with an Overheal and a brief speed boost.
At the start of the second Witching Hour and every second hour after that, the Green Skeleton King and 5 Skeletons appear and begin chasing the nearest players.
Mann Brothers
The Mann Brothers, Redmond and Blutarch, serve as Helltower's Halloween-themed Payload carts. After being slain by their long-lost brother Gray Mann, the ghosts of the Mann Brothers endeavour to have their respective mercenaries send the other brother to Hell so that one may claim their father's inheritance as described in Grave Matters. Thus each team must push the corpse of the other team's boss to Hell while the ghosts of their respective employers bicker, report progress, and give instruction in place of the Administrator.
RED team's cart, with Blutarch Mann inside
Close up of Blutarch Mann
BLU team's cart, with Redmond Mann inside
Close up of Redmond Mann
Hell
While the initial push to the end works like a regular Payload race on Hightower, once a team has pushed their corpse to the end, the screen flashes white as all players are transported to what is believed to be Hell.
On first arrival, all players appear on separate sides of a small area surrounded by lava (along with a short dance-off). The team that successfully pushed their cart to the end receive a noticeable Overheal buff as both teams are to fight over winning a prize upon Skull Island; an Unfilled Fancy Spellbook.
At this point, the game turns into a short Arena match, with no respawns. Instead, killed players turn into maneuverable ghosts. The team that manages to make it to Skull Island and lower the gate around the book wins the match, even if they lost the Payload race.
Locations
- The Hightowers: Similar to the Hightowers in the Hightower map. There are movable platforms at the bottoms that when a Payload cart and at least one player is standing on it, will raise. Like the Hightower map, once a cart reaches the end of the track it detonates and kills all nearby players (which respawn in Hell shortly after).
- Central Tower: Includes a long pit/shaft, similar to Ghost Fort.
- The Ramp: Unlike Hightower, the carts do not roll back down the Ramp.
- Cliff-House: Its back wall is now opened up and can be fallen off of, and players can stand on the roof.
- Clocktower: Past the Cliff-House, a Clock tower can be accessed by bridges that appear during the Witching Hour. The ghost of Zepheniah Mann watches over the battle here but disappears during the Witching Hour. His haunting here prevents long-ranged players (e.g., Snipers) from using the location as an unassailable position.
- Balconies: At the end of the spawn hallways, like Hightower, are small balconies that overlook most of the battlefield.
- Tower Corridors: Some changes have been made here, including small puddle rooms on each side that players can drop down into, and small inaccessible tunnels, which can be used to teleport to the opposite tunnel when you are affected by the shrinking spell.
- The Bridge: Two bridges that allows players to access the Clocktower. They appear during the Witching Hour, replacing Zepheniah's ghost and disappear when it is over.
- Hell: When one of the caskets reaches its goal, both teams are sent to Hell. Hell takes on a slightly more demonic and lava-filled appearance than the map itself and still has the top half of the Central Tower. A route can be traveled across to Skull Island where surviving players can find the chatty Bombinomicon and receive a reward.
The Hightowers
Central Tower
Pit in Central Tower
RED Ramp Balcony
RED Ramp
BLU Ramp Balcony
BLU Ramp
RED Sniper Balcony
RED Sniper Balcony
RED Balcony
RED Tower Corridors, included the spawn door to small puddle room
RED Tower Corridors
RED Spawn Room
BLU puddle room
BLU Tower Corridors
Bridge connected to Clocktower
Clocktower
Postal Pummeler at the Clocktower.
Hell Winners' side
From this point of view, the winning team enters on the left, and the losing one enters on the right.
Hell Losers' side
The Bombinomicon in Hell
The Unfilled Fancy Spellbook
Regular Magic Spell
Rare Magic Spell on the Clocktower
A group of skeletons
Strategy
Related achievements
Scarechievements
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Ghostchievements
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Bereavements
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Update history
- Added Helltower to the game.
- Updated the round restart event to remove spells after playing in hell.
- Updated Helltower to improve server stability.
- Fixed players keeping their spells if they were rolling for them while leaving hell.
- Fixed a dedicated server crash related to players becoming ghosts in hell.
- Fixed being able to instantly respawn by changing teams while a ghost.
- Fixed being able to get into the enemy spawn with the teleport spell in Helltower.
- Fixed an exploit caused by attempting to change teams while in hell.
- Fixed players sometimes not being able to select a team and spawn on Helltower.
Bugs
- The carts do not destroy any buildings when passing over them.
- It is possible to go outside the map in certain spots.
- When the speed boost from exiting the clock tower runs out, any speed boost from a Disciplinary Action is also removed.
- Killing players with the Half-Zatoichi will not restore your health in Hell.
- It is possible for pumpkin bombs and Skeletons to spawn directly on the exit gates of a team's base, preventing them from opening.
- Environmental death in Hell is shown in the kill feed as bumper cars rather than the usual skull and bones, regardless of being finished off or falling in the lava.
- It is sometimes possible to escape Hell using the Eureka Effect.
- It is possible to hear footsteps from ghost players not flying around, but hovering just above the ground.
Notes
- If a player manages to get past the gate in hell before it has opened, the player will continually receive damage.
- The bottomless pit in the Central Tower reuses the long fall screams from Ghost Fort, which may result in the Soldier yelling at Merasmus despite Merasmus not being present in this map.
Trivia
- Each Mann brother has a knife sticking out of his back. This is a reference to when Gray Mann stabbed them at the end of the Blood Brothers comic.
- However, Gray used only one knife to commit both murders and he dropped the knife and left it on the floor.
- A Spy corpse (RED Spy for BLU and BLU Spy for RED) can be seen flying towards the lava next to the clock tower after the explosion, most likely serving as stand-ins for Blutarch/Redmond going to Hell.
- According to an unused line for Blutarch, Blutarch states that his laywers are watching from the clock tower at the end of the map, ensuring his team is doing their job.
- This unused reference to an "evil castle" and his lawyers there, as well as the presence of Merasmus's refrigerator, suggests that the tower was meant to be castle at one point.
- In Hell, there is a secret ledge at the bottom of the cliff with a skeleton leg.
- A hut is visible in the far right side of the normal Hightower; in this version, it's missing with a black spot, implying that it exploded.
Gallery
The RED team's tomb cart
The BLU team's tomb cart
The Skeleton King
See also
The Redmond Cycle:
- Helltower, Redmond is taken to Hell.
- Gorge Event, Redmond has escaped from Hell with his coffin; BLU assaults his mansion to send him back.
- Brimstone, Redmond is taken back to Hell.
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