Wrangler

Not to be confused with the Quadwrangler, a cosmetic item for the Medic.

Wrangler
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Kill Icon
Basic Information
Used by:	Engineer
Slot:	Secondary
Released:	July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)
Availability:	Unlock, Drop, Craft, Purchase, Uncrate #18, Uncrate #78 (Festive), Chemistry Set (Collector's) or Uncrate #92 (Strange)
Tradable:	Yes
Giftable:	Yes
Craftable:	Yes
Nameable:	Yes
Craft No.?:	No
Medieval:	No
Available Qualities
Unique Vintage Strange Collector's
Loadout Stats
The Wrangler Level 5 Laser Pointer Take manual control of your Sentry Gun. Wrangled sentries gain a shield that reduces damage and repairs by 66%. Sentries are disabled for 3 seconds after becoming unwrangled.

“

Everyone loves remote control toys. But the problem with most of them is, unless you manage to remote control one directly down someone's throat, they're pretty useless as weapons. But what if we were to tell you that we fixed that obvious design flaw? — Blog post highlighting the Wrangler

”

The Wrangler is an unlockable secondary weapon for the Engineer. The Wrangler is automatically awarded to any player who obtains 17 Engineer achievements.

The Wrangler allows the Engineer to manually take control of his Sentry Gun. Upon switching to the Wrangler as their active weapon, the Sentry Gun loses its default autoaim and automatic firing abilities. Instead, the Engineer can use their crosshair to direct their Sentry to fire in any direction, with primary fire (default key: MOUSE1) being used to fire the gun(s). For a Level 3 Sentry Gun, alt-fire (default key: MOUSE2) is used to fire rockets.

When firing either the guns or rockets, the Sentry Gun has no maximum range; however, rockets suffer from damage falloff based on the Engineer's distance to the target. Bullets fired outside the Sentry Gun's normal range face damage falloff based off of the Sentry Gun's position instead of the Engineer's position; the bullets also experience some spread.

When active, the Wrangler adds a translucent, team-colored shield around the Sentry Gun that absorbs 66% of all incoming damage. This shield remains as long as the player keeps the Wrangler as their active weapon. Repairs made to a shielded Sentry Gun restore health and ammo at 33% the normal rate. In addition, the firing rate of a manually-controlled, "Wrangled" Sentry Gun is increased, to differing degrees depending on type: a Combat Mini-Sentry's firing speed is increased by +50%, a Level 1 Sentry Gun is increased by +40%, and Level 2 or 3 Sentry Guns are increased by +33%. A Level 3 Sentry Gun's missile launch rate is increased by +26.5%. A laser sight is also emitted from the Sentry Gun, which moves with the Engineer's crosshair. The laser sight has a minor auto-aim ability; upon aiming at an uncloaked and undisguised enemy, it will focus towards the center of their model, provided the Engineer keeps his crosshair on them. Other players can see this laser, and can use it to quickly identify the location of the Sentry Gun. It is possible for the Engineer to shoot himself with the Wrangler by standing in front of their Wrangled Sentry Gun, and using primary or alt-fire.

Any damage can be used to check for the Spies.

Some Engineers attempt to push Stickies away with Sentry Gun's rockets while wrangled.^{[citation needed]}

While using the Jag, the 20% slower repair rate stacks with the 66% slower repair rate while the Wrangler's shield is active. This makes it harder to maintain a Sentry Gun that is taking incoming damage.

When the Engineer switches to another weapon or dies, the Sentry Gun is disabled for 3 seconds with the shield still active. Once the inoperative duration passes, the shield disappears and the Sentry Gun returns to normal. If the Sentry Gun is sapped or hit by a charged shot from the Cow Mangler 5000 while in operation, all cooldown effects caused by the Wrangler are removed.

Being stunned by any means leaves the Engineer unable to fire, but keeps the Sentry Gun in its Wrangled state, effectively disabling it.

The Wrangler can allow an Engineer to access high areas through use of a Sentry Gun jump, similar to a Rocket Jump.

It appears to be a team-colored, early-80's single-button style joystick, attached atop the remains of a wooden pistol grip, with a small, rectangular radar satellite dish protruding from the front. A team-colored wire taped and attached to the joystick runs from the back and into the radar dish.

Crafting

See also: Crafting

Blueprint

Class Token - Engineer		Slot Token - Secondary		Scrap Metal		Possible Results
	+		+		=

Strange variant

Strange variant information

Strange Wrangler Strange Laser Pointer - Wrangled Sentry Kills: 0 Take manual control of your Sentry Gun. Wrangled sentries gain a shield that reduces damage and repairs by 66%. Sentries are disabled for 3 seconds after becoming unwrangled. Only the first statistic counts towards the strange rank. Available as a Strange Festive variant.

Compatible Strange parts Strange Part: Damage Dealt Strange Cosmetic Part: Fires Survived Strange Part: Allied Healing Done Strange Part: Allies Extinguished Strange Part: Scouts Killed Strange Part: Soldiers Killed Strange Part: Pyros Killed Strange Part: Demomen Killed Strange Part: Heavies Killed Strange Part: Engineers Killed Strange Part: Medics Killed Strange Part: Snipers Killed Strange Part: Spies Killed Strange Part: Cloaked Spies Killed Strange Part: Low-Health Kills Strange Part: Posthumous Kills Strange Part: Kills While Übercharged Strange Part: Defender Kills Strange Part: Underwater Kills Strange Part: Critical Kills Strange Part: Gib Kills Strange Part: Kills While Explosive Jumping Strange Part: Headshot Kills Strange Part: Airborne Enemies Killed Strange Part: Burning Enemy Kills Strange Part: Medics Killed That Have Full ÜberCharge Strange Part: Unusual-Wearing Player Kills Strange Part: Point-Blank Kills Strange Part: Long-Distance Kills Strange Part: Domination Kills Strange Part: Revenge Kills Strange Part: Full Moon Kills Strange Part: Halloween Kills Strange Part: Kills During Victory Time Strange Part: Kills with a Taunt Attack Strange Part: Buildings Destroyed Strange Part: Sappers Destroyed Strange Part: Robots Destroyed Strange Part: Giant Robots Destroyed Strange Part: Robot Spies Destroyed Strange Part: Tanks Destroyed Strange Part: Robots Destroyed During Halloween Strange Part: Projectiles Reflected Strange Cosmetic Part: Freezecam Taunt Appearances Strange Part: Killstreaks Ended

Bugs

• Shield and laser effect issues:
  • The laser emitted from the Sentry Gun while using the Wrangler may travel through some walls and occasionally move back and forth very quickly.
  • Picking up a Wrangled Sentry will leave the Wrangler shield visual effect in place for a short time. Also, upon deploying the sentry and Wrangling it, the laser will emit from strange points, such as enemy Sentry Guns. This can be fixed by switching to another weapon then back to the Wrangler.
  • Using a Wrangled Sentry built on a moving platform will result in the shield being left behind when the platform and the Sentry move.
  • There is currently a glitch which causes the targeting laser of the Sentry to be emitted from the eyes of allies when the player aims at them. This can make it somewhat harder to aim at enemies. The glitch is only present on the user's screen; no other players will see the effect.
  • The Sentry Gun can retain the shield and laser effects even when the Wrangler is not the currently held weapon. It may still operate normally, without taking reduced damage, but may also retain the Wrangled behavior (including a functional shield) if the player builds the Sentry Gun and then changes his loadout to equip the Wrangler.
    • The glitch persists upon the death of the Sentry Gun's owner, and can be fixed by switching to the Wrangler and then to another weapon.
• Using the Wrangler to kill enemies with Sentry Gun rockets will produce the Level 3 Sentry Gun kill icon instead of the Wrangler's kill icon.
• Once a Level 3 Sentry Gun is directed to fire rockets, it will not play the normal rocket reloading animation.
• If pointing the Sentry Gun at a far distance, the laser will appear to move rapidly away from the player's crosshair, but the Sentry Gun will still fire at the player's crosshair.
• The Engineer Achievement Pownd on the Range can be earned if the Engineer kills himself with his Wrangled Sentry Gun outside of the normal range.
• When attaching the Buildings Destroyed Strange Part to a Strange Wrangler, it will not track the number of buildings destroyed.

Gallery

• 

  BLU variant of the weapon.

• 

  RED first-person view.

• 

  BLU first-person view.

• 

  RED Festive variant.

• 

  BLU Festive variant.

Trivia

Radigan Conagher holding the Wrangler.

• The Wrangler, along with the Frontier Justice, the Gunslinger, and the Southern Hospitality, appears to have been designed by Radigan Conagher, the Engineer's grandfather. This is shown via a hidden link on the Engineer Update page.
• In North America, the profession of a Wrangler is to handle animals, often directing them to perform certain actions.
• When firing the Sentry Gun for a long time, an animation will play in which the Engineer shakes off his hand and lets out a quiet sigh, as if removing a cramp.
• The Wrangler's joystick looks very similar to that of an Atari 2600 controller, though it lacks a button in its upper left corner.

Achievements

 Engineer

Breaking Morant Kill 10 Snipers with a sentry gun under the control of your Wrangler. Building Block Have a sentry shielded by the Wrangler absorb 500 damage without being destroyed. Patent Protection Destroy an enemy Engineer's sentry gun with a sentry under control of your Wrangler.

Pownd on the Range Kill 10 enemies outside the normal sentry gun range using the Wrangler. Rio Grind Perform 50 repairs and/or reloads on a Sentry gun being Wrangled by another Engineer. Search Engine Kill 3 cloaked Spies with a sentry gun under control of your Wrangler.

See also

• Wrangler strategy
• Sentry Gun jump (Rocket)
• Sentry Gun jump (Bullet)
• Festive weapons

Update history

July 8, 2010 Patch (Engineer Update)

• The Wrangler was added to the game.

July 9, 2010 Patch

• The Wrangler no longer shows the Shotgun's ammo count.
• Fixed a bug where Wrangled level 3 Sentry Guns would still fire rockets when they were out of ammo.

July 19, 2010 Patch

• Fixed an exploit that allowed team kills with wrangled Sentry Guns.

October 18, 2010 Patch

• Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries using The Wrangler.

October 19, 2010 Patch

• Fixed Engineers being able to build level 3 mini-sentries for real this time.

March 10, 2011 Patch (Shogun Pack)

• Fixed the "Best Little Slaughterhouse in Texas" Engineer achievement not counting Wrangler and Mini-Sentry kills.

October 13, 2011 Patch (Manniversary Update & Sale)

• Wrangler taunt now performs the Pistol taunt animation.

June 27, 2012 Patch (Pyromania Update)

• Fixed sentry sometimes spawning in shielded mode while the Wrangler was equipped, but not deployed.

July 10, 2013 Patch

• Changed attributes:
  • Slightly reduced accuracy of manually-controlled sentry at long range.
  • Protective shield now fades 1 second after the owning Engineer dies.

November 12, 2013 Patch

• Added Collector's quality.

December 20, 2013 Patch (Smissmas 2013)

• [Undocumented] Added Festive variant.

January 9, 2014 Patch

• Updated Strange Wranglers to track wrangled sentry kills.

January 10, 2014 Patch

• [Undocumented] Strange Wranglers now count wrangled kills properly.

April 1, 2014 Patch

• Updated the Wrangler so Strange parts can be applied to it.
  • Strange parts only increment if a Wrangler-controlled Sentry does the scoring.

June 18, 2014 Patch (Love & War Update)

• Sentry bullets are now affected by damage falloff outside of sentry scan range.
• Sentry bullet damage has been changed so it calculates damage based on the Sentry Gun's position, not the Engineer's.

March 12, 2015 Patch

• Added Strange quality.

July 2, 2015 Patch #1 (Gun Mettle Update)

• Updated description to better detail the weapon's features.
• Changed attributes:
  • Ammo and Repair given to a shielded Sentry is reduced by the strength of the shield (66% reduced) when shield is active.
  • Engineer death keeps the Wrangled sentry shielded and disabled for 3 seconds, same as when Wrangler is switched away. Previously Engineer death caused disable state for only 1 second.

July 8, 2015 Patch #1

• Fixed the Wrangler not properly disabling Sentry Guns for 3 seconds on Engineer death.

October 28, 2015 Patch (Scream Fortress 2015)

• Fixed an idle animation bug for the Wrangler

December 18, 2015 Patch

• Fixed Engineer's Wrangler contract updating points for players other than the Engineer doing the contract.

January 20, 2016 Patch

• Fixed the Engineer's Wrangler contract updating points while the player is not an Engineer.

March 28, 2018 Patch #1

• Fixed the Wrangler's death notice icon being clipped.

March 28, 2019 Patch

• Fixed Exorcism effect not working for Wrangler kills.