Death & Taxes

The Death & Taxes update was the first major update for Team Fortress 2 Classic.

The update focused on cut content from Team Fortress 2, including the VIP gamemode, the Civilian class, and various weapons such as the Nail Gun and Tranquilizer Gun. The update also introduced new original maps, gamemodes, weapons, achievements, and other features.

Announcements

The Death & Taxes page officially began on July 4th, 2020, as announced on the Team Fortress 2 Classic Website.

• Day 1: Introduced the VIP gamemode, Civilian class, and maps Mineside, Harbor and Trainyard.
• Day 2: The Nail Gun, The R.P.G., The Dynamite Pack, The Tranquilizer Gun and The Fishwhacker were re-introduced as weapons, along with The Hunting Revolver, The Mine Layer, The Shock Therapy and The Coilgun as new additions.
• Day 3: The new Domination gamemode was introduced along with the map Oil Canyon. The new Four-Team gamemode, along with GRN and YLW teams, was also announced with the maps Flask and Hydro (Domination).
• Day 4: Badwater Basin (VIP) was announced with 6 returning weapons from Team Fortress 2: The Kritzkrieg, The Überspritze, The Huntsman, The Flare Gun, The Gunboats and The Sandvich. Scoreboard medals for developers, content contributors, and beta testers, bot improvements, and a new achievement pack were also announced. The update was also officially released.

Additions

Maps

Main article: List of maps

Name	Picture	Game mode	File name
Mineside		VIP	vip_mineside
Trainyard		VIP	vip_trainyard
Harbor		VIP	vip_harbor
Oil Canyon		Domination	dom_oilcanyon
Hydro (Domination)		Domination	dom_hydro
Flask		Domination	dom_flask
Badwater (VIP)		VIP	vip_badwater

Weapons

Scout

Weapon	Kill icon
Nail Gun

Soldier

Weapon	Kill icon
R.P.G.
Gunboats	N/A

Pyro

Weapon	Kill icon
Flare Gun

Demoman

Weapon	Kill icon
Dynamite Pack
Mine Layer

Heavy

Weapon	Kill icon
Sandvich	N/A

Engineer

Weapon	Kill icon
Coilgun

Medic

Weapon	Kill icon
Kritzkrieg
Shock Therapy
Überspritze

Sniper

Weapon	Kill icon
Hunting Revolver
Huntsman
Fishwhacker

Spy

Weapon	Kill icon
Tranquilizer Gun

Trivia

• The name of the update is a reference to a famous quote from Benjamin Franklin: "Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes"
• The Civilian class and the VIP gamemode were originally planned for Team Fortress 2 but were cut.
• A lot of the weapons were cut from earlier versions of Tf2 or cut entirely. Some can even be seen in the Orange Box 2006 Playstation trailer.