Full Moon
“ | It is a full moon! I have turned into a robot again! Awoo-ooh!
Click to listen
— The Soldier
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We're currently in a Halloween Event!
The next full moon is from October 15, 2024 at 06:22 UTC through to October 17, 2024 at 06:22 UTC (UTC)
The Full Moon restriction was introduced with the 2011 Very Scary Halloween Special. All previous items that were restricted to Halloween were updated to be equipable during both Halloween events and full moons. These items are available for use during full moons according to a formula within the game that approximates the lunar calendar. During this period, the main menu background becomes a full-color image of Double Cross, the menu class portrait sometimes wears their Halloween Costumes, the default message of the day states "Welcome and Enjoy the Full Moon!", and Strange weapons equipped with Strange Part: Full Moon Kills count kills performed during this timespan.
- Note: The dates provided in this article are computed by formulas internal to this wiki and so are not directly coupled to the game and are provided as estimates only.
- Note: The times that the game sets for each of its Full Moon holidays can be a day or more before or after the real world Full Moons.
Contents
Recent Full Moons
- August 17, 2024 at 04:55 UTC through to August 19, 2024 at 04:55 UTC
- September 15, 2024 at 17:38 UTC through to September 17, 2024 at 17:38 UTC
Upcoming Full Moons
- October 15, 2024 at 06:22 UTC through to October 17, 2024 at 06:22 UTC
- November 13, 2024 at 19:05 UTC through to November 15, 2024 at 19:05 UTC
- December 13, 2024 at 07:48 UTC through to December 15, 2024 at 07:48 UTC
- January 11, 2025 at 20:31 UTC through to January 13, 2025 at 20:31 UTC
- February 10, 2025 at 09:14 UTC through to February 12, 2025 at 09:14 UTC
- March 11, 2025 at 21:58 UTC through to March 13, 2025 at 21:58 UTC
If you would like to keep up on Full Moon event times, you can view this website to be ahead by one year.
Formula
When the Full Moon restriction was introduced with the 2011 Very Scary Halloween Special, the formula was set such that the Full Moon event occurred every 29.5 days starting Midday, October 12, 2011. The periods lasted for a full day before and after the time calculated, so the very first Full Moon event was one day either side of 12am (Midnight) on November 10, 2011. However, the actual synodic month is close to 44 minutes and 3 seconds longer than the 29.5 day approximation. The effect of this was that after about four years, the TF2 Full Moon schedule was about one and a half days ahead of the actual lunar phase -- by June 2, 2015, the game (and the Fmp calculations at that time) would close Full Moon events hours before the real Moon was actually full. However, by September 2015 and in subsequent months, the in-game Full Moon event was observed to be more centered on the real full moon time, indicating that the previous game schedule had been changed.
The formulation computing the Full Moon dates for this page was changed in November 2015 to more closely track the observed Full Moon events, largely by changing the period to be closer to the actual average Lunar period. However, any computation using a fixed constant period does not account for the various oscillations seen in the Lunar period, so the present formula runs several hours ahead or behind the actual event for several months at a time.
In the 2020 leaked source code, presumed from 2016-2017, the Full Moon Holiday was configured as a Cyclical Holiday with a period of 29.53 days starting from 2016-05-21 with a duration of 48 hours.[1] The activation of the holiday effects is computed from the server's time, not from Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) or any other basis, such that the holiday starts and ends at different times for players around the world.[2]
Update history
October 27, 2011 Patch (Very Scary Halloween Special)
- [Undocumented] Halloween-restricted items can now be worn during a Full Moon.
- Added a full moon background for the main menu.
October 26, 2012 Patch (Spectral Halloween Special)
- [Undocumented] Halloween-restricted items now have a pumpkin image in backpack view.
- Enabled Full Moon holiday for one week.
Summer 2015
- [Undocumented] Full Moon timing was adjusted to more closely correspond to the real lunar calendar.