Bleeding

Sniper 

 Spy

“

You know what yer dominatin' now? Bleedin'. Click to listen — The Sniper

”

Bleeding is a damage effect that is inherent in certain weapons. Should a player be struck by bleeding, their health will gradually dissipate at a rate of 4 health points every 0.5 seconds until either the effect wears off, the victim dies, or they manage to reach a Medkit, Resupply locker. Bleeding cannot be cured by water or teammate support items (excluding the Sandvich and reskins variants or Buffalo Steak Sandvich).

Bleeding players can learn of the afflicted status from their screen flashing slowly with a red hue, a red drop on their health display, and continual flinching. Any other player viewing the effect will see blood particles being emitted from the player.

Bleed duration will vary between weapons and does not stack on multiple hits by the same weapon; being struck again rather resets the status to full duration. However, if a player is struck in quick succession by several different bleed-inflicting weapons, the bleed damage does stack for the normal duration. Although bleeding cannot Crit on its own, damage inflicted from it can be given Mini-Crit status if the target is covered in Jarate, has been hit with the Fan O'War, or if the player who caused the bleeding is under the effects of the Buff Banner, the Crit-a-Cola or the Soda Popper. In addition, a stunned target struck by the Flying Guillotine will suffer from critical bleeding until either of the effects wears off.

Bleeding can be used during hit-and-run maneuvers to great effect, allowing players to avoid direct confrontation while dealing considerable damage over time. Additionally, it proves to be a useful tool for seeking out cloaked Spies, who will flinch and produce blood particles.

Associated weapons

List of bleed-inflicting weapons
Scout	Secondary			The Flying Guillotine can be thrown by using either primary fire or secondary fire, causing the enemy to bleed when hit. The effect lasts for 5 seconds, allowing for a successful hit to deal 90 damage total.
		Flying Guillotine
	Melee			The Boston Basher's/Three-Rune Blade's bleeding effect lasts for 5 seconds; a single hit deals 75 damage. Hitting yourself only deals 18 damage; this results in a total 58 self-damage with the 5 seconds bleed.
		Boston Basher	Three-Rune Blade
				The Wrap Assassin's alt-fire allows a bauble to be launched similarly to the Sandman's alt-fire, causing the enemy to bleed when hit directly. The effect lasts for 5 seconds, allowing for a single collision to deal 55 damage total. Throwing the bauble from an extreme distance and hitting an enemy results in a critical hit, but does not extend or alter the bleeding, allowing for a successful hit to deal about 85 damage total.
		Wrap Assassin
Engineer	Melee			The Southern Hospitality's bleeding effect lasts for 5 seconds, allowing for a single hit to deal 105 damage total.
		Southern Hospitality
Sniper	Melee			The Tribalman's Shiv's bleeding effect lasts for 6 seconds, allowing for a single hit to deal 81 damage total.
		Tribalman's Shiv
All classes	Action items			Bleed persists as long as it is attached.
		Grappling Hook

Update history

October 9, 2012 Patch

• Overhealed players that are bleeding or on fire can now pickup healthkits to remove these conditions.

January 16, 2013 Patch

• Fixed a server crash caused by players bleeding to death

Bugs

• If a new round on a map is started while a player is bleeding, that players screen will continue to flash as if the player is suffering from bleed damage until the player leaves the server or exits the game.

Trivia

• When bleeding was first introduced with the release of the Tribalman's Shiv, the kill icon would display whatever weapon was being wielded at the time by the killer. When holding Jarate or being in the process of respawning, the generic "Skull and Crossbones" kill icon would be used.

Gallery

• 

  An example of the bleeding notification being displayed on the HUD.