Holy Mackerel

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Tired of people telling you what you can or cannot use as a weapon? Those days are over! This fish is PURE ACTION!
Holy Mackerel publicity blurb

The Holy Mackerel is a community-created melee weapon for the Scout. It is a fish, presumably a mackerel, wrapped in faded, dirty newspaper and tied with a rubber band. The end of the newspaper is shaped for easy handling. The Festive version replaces the newspaper with gift wrap, and places five small, team-colored lights around the handle, as well as one large one in the fish's mouth. The Festivized version of the Holy Mackerel is similar to the default, with nine small team-colored festive lights wrapped around it with a battery pack charging the lights. While the Scout is moving, the Holy Mackerel bends around, depending on your direction.

The Holy Mackerel functions identically to the default Bat. However, every successful hit by the weapon on another player is announced in the kill feed, showing the weapon's icon in addition to the number of times the victim has been slapped recently. Upon killing a player, the kill feed replaces this number with the message "FISH KILL!" alongside the icon.

The kill feed does not register hits or announce "FISH KILL!" on non-player objects such as buildings or bosses. It also only displays the number of hits when it triggers a Spy's Dead Ringer, instead of saying "FISH KILL!", which can be used to determine if a death was legitimate or not.

The kill icon for the Holy Mackerel was contributed by Psyke .

Damage and function times

See also: Damage
Identical to: Bat
Damage and function times
Damage type Melee
Ranged or Melee damage? Melee
Damage
Base damage 100% 35
Critical 105
Mini-crit 47
Function times
Attack interval 0.5 s
Values are approximate and determined by community testing.

Item set

Main article: Item sets
The Special Delivery
Backpack The Special Delivery Bundle.png
Effect

Leave a Calling Card on your victims

Demonstration

Crafting

See also: Crafting

Blueprint

Sandman Reclaimed Metal Holy Mackerel
Item icon Sandman.png + Item icon Reclaimed Metal.png = Item icon Holy Mackerel.png
Class Token - Scout Slot Token - Melee Scrap Metal Possible Results
Item icon Class Token - Scout.png + Item icon Slot Token - Melee.png + Item icon Scrap Metal.png =
Item icon Sandman.png Item icon Holy Mackerel.png Item icon Boston Basher.png Item icon Candy Cane.png
Item icon Sun-on-a-Stick.png Item icon Fan O'War.png Item icon Three-Rune Blade.png Item icon Atomizer.png
Item icon Unarmed Combat.png Item icon Wrap Assassin.png Item icon Freedom Staff.png Item icon Ham Shank.png
Item icon Bat Outta Hell.png Item icon Conscientious Objector.png

As a crafting ingredient

Refined Metal Special Delivery weapon Milkman
Item icon Refined Metal.pngx4 + Item icon Shortstop.pngItem icon Mad Milk.pngItem icon Holy Mackerel.png = Item icon Milkman.png
Reclaimed Metal Holy Mackerel Gloves of Running Urgently Holiday Punch
Item icon Reclaimed Metal.png + Item icon Holy Mackerel.png + Item icon Gloves of Running Urgently.png = Item icon Holiday Punch.png

Strange variant


Update history

September 30, 2010 Patch (Mann-Conomy Update)
  • The Holy Mackerel was added to the game.

October 6, 2010 Patch

  • The Holy Mackerel was altered to not display the hit message concerning disguised Spies.
  • Hitting someone with the Holy Mackerel no longer counts as a kill, as this would cause problems with achievements and some statistics systems.
  • [Undocumented] The Holy Mackerel will no longer add to the kill feed when hitting a building.

October 8, 2010 Patch

  • [Undocumented] The Holy Mackerel was added to the crafting blueprint for the Milkman.

October 18, 2010 Patch

February 3, 2011 Patch

  • Fixed the assister's name not being listed in the fish humiliation and kill notices.

February 14, 2011 Patch

  • Fixed the Holy Mackerel's melee attack not destroying remote detonation pipes (Stickybombs).
  • Fixed players getting set bonuses applied on tournament servers when the server is restricting the player's weapons using the item_whitelist.

June 3, 2011 Patch

  • Added community contributed response rules to the Holy Mackerel.

October 13, 2011 Patch

  • [Undocumented] Added Strange quality.

January 11, 2012 Patch

  • [Undocumented] The Holy Mackerel was added to the crafting blueprint for the Holiday Punch.

December 20, 2012 Patch (Mecha Update)

January 8, 2013 Patch

  • Fixed Festive Holy Mackerel not completing a set when equipped.

January 16, 2013 Patch

  • Fixed the Festive Holy Mackerel using the wrong sounds.

November 12, 2013 Patch

December 21, 2017 Patch (Smissmas 2017)

Bugs

  • If the player assists a fish kill, the kill icon is not highlighted in the kill feed like other kills and assists.

Trivia

  • "Holy Mackerel!" is an expression of surprise found commonly in comedy TV shows, as well as cartoons and other children's TV shows.
  • The Holy Mackarel's level, 42, is a reference to Douglas Adams's book series The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, in which 42 is considered to be the answer to "The ultimate question of Life, The Universe, and Everything".
  • The texture file of the Holy Mackerel reveals that the newspaper wrapped around the fish is named The Gravel Pit Gazette, alluding to the map Gravel Pit.
  • A Fish Bat is a fishermen tool and police, trucker, and SCA slang for a shorter, heavy club.
  • The melee weapon for the Special Delivery pack was originally a spiked bat named "Nail Biter" before being replaced by the Holy Mackerel.
  • As part of a cross-promotion, the Holy Mackerel was available as a melee weapon in Alliance of Valiant Arms, before it was shut down on June 29th, 2018.

Gallery

See also