There’s a Christmas Winter Australian Christmas update for Team Fortress 2! I knew there would be! What secrets does this update bring with it? Let’s look.
New weapons!
Of course with any major update the game needs new weapons. This update saw the Heavy, Medic and Demoman each receive an Item Set, complete with a set bonus when the items are equipped. Where these weapons differ from the previous sets released in the Mann Conomy Update is that the sets do not require the hat in order to get the bonus; just the weapons. This comes as a relief to the many who complained and complained, but I am disappointed; part of the allure of the sets was how difficult they were to obtain. Either way, it’s an interesting mix of items added. Additionally, there are quite a few other random assorted weapons added, but first up, the sets.
The Demoman received a set consisting of the Loch-n-Load and the Ullapool Caber which are replacements for the Grenade Launcher (Making this the Demoman’s first alternative for his primary weapon) and his melee weapon respectively.
The Loch-n-Load is a relatively basic yet interesting primary unlock; the Demoman fires 25% faster and does 10% damage. As a sacrifice the Lock-n-Load has a 60% smaller clip (Oh wow), and any self-damage from the grenades costs the Demoman an additional 25 damage. Additionally, any shots made that don’t make direct contact with an enemy disappear the moment they hit a surface. This prevents spam in maps while rewarding accuracy.
Even simpler still is the Ullapool Caber, which is designed to look like WWII grenade, and has only one attribute in that it doesn’t deal random critical hits. Additionally, the first hit it makes on a solid object, the weapon explodes damaging both the player and the enemy. While that seems rather bad, the trick is that when both of these items are worn, the player receives a bonus 10% resistance to fire damage.
Looking at those stats, it seems like it’d be a half decent set in combination with the Targe; both that and the set would add 60% fire resistance to the player, making the Pyro a rather ineffective class in one on one combat.
Next is the Medic’s set which seems amazingly interesting. It comes with two weapons again, a primary and a melee.
The melee weapon, The Amputator, is my favourite of the unlocks that I have seen so far. It has no negative attributes, or any battle-friendly attributes. Instead, when you taunt, everyone around you that is on your team receives a healing effect. This is quite an interesting feature that will inspire some such as the members of Kritzkast1 to cry out “World of Team Fortress 2-craft”, but is amazingly clever and fits in with the theme of “Team”.
The Crusader’s Crossbow is the primary weapon in the set, and it also a different style of weapon to what is expected. As the name suggests, it is a crossbow. It has 75% less ammo than it’s needlegun counterparts, and only loads one shot per clip. The major plus is that if you hit a teammate with a bolt, it will actually heal them. Furthermore, damage and healing it does actually build up over distance, as opposed to almost every other weapon which drops.
When both items are equipped, the Medic receives an additional boost on his health regeneration. With the set bonus this makes the set an all round marvel. The only negative I can see is the delay in ranged attacks means a pyro-or any class really-can make short work of the medic.
The final set contains three items necessary for the bonus. The Heavy gets the Brass Beast, Buffalo Steak Sandvich and the Warrior’s Spirit. 
The Brass Beast is a minigun replacement, the model of which is shown on the right. It feels more like the old version of the Heavy, with a slower spin up time, and even slower movement when the gun is spinning. The upside to such an obvious choice of downside is that the gun does an extra 20% damage, giving it a slight advantage one on one against a vanilla Heavy, and an even bigger one against a Heavy wielding Natascha. The slowdown would leave the Heavy susceptible to a variety of other attacks though.
Yet another edible secondary weapon, the Buffalo Steak Sandvich combines the features of Crit-a-Cola and the Gloves of Running Urgently. Eating it will give the Heavy increased speed, and any damage dealt or received will be mini-crits. When consumed the Heavy can only use his melee weapon, but this leads to some interesting combinations. The TF2 Wiki reports that when you use the steak in combination with the G.R.U the speed effect stacks, allowing the Heavy to run faster than a Scout. While the Buffalo Steak Sandvich does not heal when consumed, it can be dropped. When dropped, it becomes a normal consumable sandvich.
Finally, the Warrior’s Spirit is the melee replacement, causing an extra 30% damage dealt while reducing the Heavy’s maximum health to 2802. It’s a straight trade there that doesn’t require much, if any, explaining.
Wearing all three items will give the Heavy a 5% extra resistance to any critical hits made against him, which will reduce the negatives of the steak and give him a slight edge should he participate in a melee only battle.
The sets are interesting, with the Medic’s being my personal favourite (Coincidently the only one I have a complete set for). I’m kind of glad they eliminated hats from the set bonus, but it does mean they will be a lot more prominent now.
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The Wrangler
