update · October 18, 2024
Team Fortress 2 October 18 Update Adjusts Halloween Upgrades and Maps
Team Fortress 2 receives a substantial update packed with zombie mode adjustments, map fixes across Blazehattan and Sawmill Event, and sweeping changes to Mann Power and Scream Fortress upgrades. Merasmus also gets new dialogue lines and priority rules.
Valve has deployed a new update for Team Fortress 2, bringing a wide range of map fixes, balance adjustments for zombie infection and Mann Power modes, and extensive tweaks to Scream Fortress upgrades. The patch also updates several cosmetic items and refines Merasmus's in-game dialogue behavior.
Zombie Infection and Map Adjustments
The Zombie Engineer EMP Grenade cooldown drops from 10 seconds to 9 seconds. Zombie Pyro's death explosion now briefly ignites nearby players, and bugs allowing infinite dispenser entities or incorrect HUD states for Zombie Heavy and Zombie Medic are resolved. Zi_blazehattan receives major collision fixes, a round timer reduction to three and a half minutes, and adjusted spawn layouts. Koth_sawmill_event sees reduced skeleton spawns, a new underworld exit pathway, and updated water visuals.
Mann Power and Upgrade Balance
Scream Fortress upgrades see heavy balance passes. Ghost Potion radius shrinks from 512 to 384 units while frequency increases from 5 to 7 seconds. Disposable Sentry maximums drop from 4 to 3, crit boosts on kills are disabled, and shield recharge bonuses see reduced maximum levels alongside increased prices. Rocket Specialist and Thermal Thruster upgrades also cost more and feature lower maximum ranks.
Merasmus Dialogues
Merasmus's voice lines receive timing and priority adjustments. He now speaks about his financial problems only during the first seconds of setup time, avoids overly long lines that overlap with control point announcements, and takes over announcement duties for overtime, stalemates, and final point captures from the Administrator.
General Bug Fixes
Players can no longer retain weapon upgrades by swapping loadouts before round changes, and currency bugs tied to leaving upgrade triggers are fixed. Numerous community-reported clipping errors, floating props, and out-of-bounds building spots are patched across multiple maps.
Why this patch matters
This update cleans up map exploits, rebalances Scream Fortress upgrades, and fine-tunes zombie mode gameplay for the seasonal event.