Buildings

Buildings are machines that can be constructed by the Engineer using his Construction PDA. These buildings include the Sentry Gun, Dispensers, Jump Pads and Teleporter.

Engie Building a Sentry

Overview

In order for a building to be constructed the Engineer must have enough metal. The Engineer has 200 reserve metal to start with, and is consumed upon placing a building. Extra metal can be gained through ammo packs, resupply cabinets, building gibs and dispensers. Afterwards he can use his PDA to cosntruct a building. The Engineer can only place his buildings on reasonably flat surfaces with enough space. The Engineer can rotate buildings before deploying them (default key: MOUSE2). Each time the rotate key is pressed, the building is turned 90° counterclockwise. Once a building is placed, the Engineer can hit it with his Wrench in order to speed up construction. Multiple Engineers can stack this effect. Once a building is fully completed it immediately begins operation.

Like players, buildings have health and are destroyed when it is reduced to zero. Buildings gain health as they construct, so Engineers can leave buildings to build themselves, for example leaving a teleporter to construct while they find a spot to build. Players can focus their crosshair on a building to determine its current health just like other players, though weak buildings also display visible signs of damage such as smoke, sparks, and flames.

Buildings can be repaired, upgrades and in the case of the Sentry Gun, reloaded by hitting them with a Wrench, but only if the Engineer has enough metal. Some buildings such as Jump Pads cannot be upgraded at all. Repairing a building takes metal priority, then resupply and then finally upgrades, with limits to how much metal can go per strike. Upgrading a building takes a total of 200 metal and increases its health in addition to improving its abilities. Buildings can be upgraded twice to reach level 3, with the exception of the Jump Pad. Buildings can also be used for vertical mobility; a dispenser can be placed and used as a stool to reach higher ledges.

Buildings can be disabled by the Spy's Sapper. If a Sapper is applied to a building, it immediately ceases functioning and alerts the owner, in addition to being drained of health. Sappers can be removed by an Engineer's melee weapon, which restores the building's operations in 0.5 seconds. Buildings cannot be repaired, reloaded, upgraded, or manually demolished while being sapped. A sapper takes approximately 3 hits to remove.

If the Engineer wishes, he can destroy any of his buildings with the Demolish Tool. This instantly causes the building to explode as if it were destroyed by an enemy. The building's gibs can be picked up as ammo and/or reused as metal. Buildings being sapped cannot be demolished. The Engineer's buildings are not vulnerable to his other weapons or to his Sentry Gun (unlike the Engineer himself).

Hauling

Buildings can be picked up and moved by their builders by pressing alt-fire while looking at the building and standing next to them. This allows for the redeployment of a building without having to destroy and completely build a new one, thus saving metal, effort and time. This also preserves any score tallies a building may have. Packing up is sintant, and the Engineer appears to be carrying a toolbox over his shoulder to all players, while from first person he carries a toolbox as a normal building construction. Damaged buildings can be packed up, but still retain their damage while being hauled. Sapped buildings cannot be hauled at all.

Only one building can be hauled at a time, and doing so reduces the Engineer's speed, regardless of type or level of said building. Additionally, the Engineer cannot switch weapons or taunt while hauling, but can still use teleporters, his own or another player's. Unless of course the Engineer starts to haul one end of a teleporter.

If an Engineer is killed while hauling a building, the building will also be destroyed, indicated with a special kill icon showing a toolbox.

Redeploying a building after hauling is similar to contructing a new building, however it is much faster, and an Engineer can speed it up even more. Higher level buildings must cycle through all of their upgrade animations with a short delay between each, so it is inadvisable to place a level 3 sentry in the middle of a firefight.

Related achievements

Achievement		Description
	KA-BLOOIE!	Take out 5 Engineer buildings with the Dynamite Pack.
	Fuse Refusal	Defuse an enemy Demoman's Dynamite Pack with the Wrench.
	Full Transparency	Fully recharge your Invisibility Watch at an enemy Dispenser while cloaked.
	Tele Tourism	Teleport other players over 10 kilometers.
	Phony Express	Kill an Engineer shortly after taking an enemy Teleporter.
	Terminal Velocity	Kill someone by landing on them after using a Jump Pad.
	Skyfall	Get a backstab kill shortly after using an enemy Jump Pad.
	Fan the Flames	Extinguish yourself with a Jump Pad.
	Fan Service	Have other players use your Jump Pads 1,000 times.
	Jumpstarter	Have teammates get 20 kills shortly after using your Jump Pads.
	Out of Circulation	Destroy 40 Jump Pads.