How exactly does the Gunslinger work?

Question

I've recently noticed that people have been referencing the Gunslinger's mini-sentry with the fact that it regenerates HP.

What is this regeneration of HP? I know many players regard the Gunslinger as an extremely OP weapon, but I don't understand how it fully works. Can someone explain how the Gunslinger works completely?

Answer 1

To clarify, because it hasn't been given as an answer yet, the 'gunslinger' itself, the weapon that you use that allows you to build Mini-Sentries, does not have an HP-regen ability. It grants you additional HP, guarantees a crit on a third consecutive hit, and does not random crit, but the item itself has no further special properties.

Formerly, the Mini-Sentries that a Gunslinger could build would always deploy at full health. This had the unintended side-effect that was likely what the SPUD user was referring to - a mini-sentry in the process of being built would constantly regenerate its health until it finished building, making it nearly impossible to destroy before it finished deploying (unlike normal sentries, which can very easily be destroyed before they finish their initial building animation).

This has since been patched out, so that mini-sentries no longer infinitely regenerate health while being built.

Answer 2

The Gunslinger has the following stats:

• +25 max HP
• No random critical hits
• Sentries Guns are replaced by Mini-Sentries

I'll explain each point in order.

The Gunslinger does not regenerate HP; rather, it seems more likely that they just meant that it gives the Engineer a larger total health pool.

In order to compensate for the additional HP, the Gunslinger cannot roll for random critical hits. However, it is able to strike a guaranteed critical hit upon the third consecutive hit on any enemy. You can hit different enemies, so long as you don't let go of your attack button. Note also that since this is a guaranteed critical hit, it works even on nocrit servers.

Finally, equipping the Gunslinger replaces your ability to build a Sentry Gun with the ability to build the Combat Mini-Sentry Gun. The Mini-Sentry will build much faster and starts with a full health bar instead of the partial HP of a normal Sentry. It also costs 30 less metal to build at just 100 metal, and shoots 1.5 times as fast as a Level 1 Sentry Gun, or 0.75 times as fast as a Level 2 or 3 Sentry Gun. However, each shot deals only 50% damage, resulting in a lower DPS than normal Sentry Guns. The Mini-Sentry also cannot be repaired or upgraded, meaning that damage dealt to it is permanent. Its lower health pool of 100 HP means that it can be destroyed in one shot by a Direct Hit rocket.

The Gunslinger also provides access to a kill taunt, which can be used even during Humiliation or Stalemate.

Answer 3

According to the Team Fortress 2 Wiki, the Gunslinger has these effects:

• It raises the maximum HP of the wearer to 150
• Every 3rd hit will be critical. You can do this on multiple enemies, but the attack key cannot be released or you will lose the combo.
• Instead of building the normal Sentry Gun, you will build the Mini-Sentry Gun. It takes 2.5 seconds to build and fires twice as fast but does half damage and cannot be repaired nor upgraded.
• The Gunslinger does not regenerate health.
• Taunting with the Gunslinger will perform the Organ Grinder taunt.