L'escampette

L'escampette
Basic Information
Used by	Spy
Slot	Watch
Loadout Stats
L'escampette Invis Watch Cloak Type: Speedy +30% faster move speed while cloaked -10% cloak when damaged under cloak -40% cloak capacity "Make it quick."

Using L'escampette to her fullest potential requires two things: 1) flawlessly executing a game plan and 2) not wasting time making a game plan at all. Cloaking with L'escampette kicks you up to 130% of your default running speed, but the cloak drains almost twice as fast, and getting hurt while cloaked will drain it even faster.

L'escampette promotional blurb

L'escampette is a watch for the Spy. It is a stopwatch without a chain, with a glowing blue circular cloak indicator divided into eight segments. The indicator appears blue regardless of which team the user is on.

Compared to the Invis Watch, L'escampette increases the user's movement speed by 30% while cloaked, at the cost of 40% cloak capacity. This means it drains in 6 seconds instead of 10, and recharges in 15 seconds instead of 30. Like the Invis Watch, picking up ammo crates while cloaked will refill the meter. This speed boost means that the user can jump immediately after cloaking, and then decloak, to preserve the momentum while draining less meter. As an additional downside, any damage received while cloaked will drain 10% of its cloak meter, while emitting a loud electrical sound and particle effects. This means that rapidly receiving damage will drain the cloak instantly.

Properties

Properties
Function Times
Consumption time		6 s
Cloak fade		1.0 s
Uncloak fade		1.8 s
Charge fill speed		6.66% / s
Charge fill time		15 s
All values are approximate.

Related Achievements

Achievement		Description
	Back in a Flash	Using L'escampette, backstab an enemy within 15 seconds of spawning.
	Speedy Recovery	Using L'escampette, recover your lost cloak without decloaking after taking damage from an enemy.
	Hunt Down the Frenchman	Expose an invisible L'escampette Spy by damaging him.

Update history

2.1.0

• Added L'escampette

2.1.2

• Updated L'Escampette:
  • Added +100% cloak regeneration rate (hidden stat)
  • Simplified "+100% cloak consumption rate" and "+100% cloak regeneration rate" to "-50% cloak capacity"
  • Fixed missing phongwarp texture
• The Spy now has a +20% damage resistance and reduced debuff duration while cloaked

2.1.3

• Spies now gain double the amount of cloak from building gibs
• Cloaked Spies now correctly take 20% less damage even from crits

2.1.4

• Updated L'Escampette:
  • Reduced cloak penalty when damaged while cloaked to -10% (from -15%)
  • Reduced cloak capacity penalty to -40% (from -50%)

Trivia

• The word "escampette" comes from the old fashioned French idiom "prendre la poudre d'escampette" ("to take the powder of 'escampette'"), which means "to escape". The word itself isn't really used in any other context in the language, and can be roughly translated to "little escape" or "little getaway".
• The arm the Spy uses to hold L'escampette will still appear even when the "invisible arms" setting, tf2c_invisible_arms = 1, is enabled.
• Reloading while cloaking will make the Spy appear to have three arms - one holding the gun, the second holding L'escampette, and the third reloading the chamber.
• In the promotional art for L'escampette, there is a texturing error on the metal square next to the pipes on the left side. A default Source engine texture is visible where a metal texture should be. This error is not visible on the Flight or Fight update page, as the image has been cropped. In addition, there is a Brick kill icon on the hazardous barrels on the right side, teasing the weapon three days before its official reveal. This is, in fact, visible on the update page.

Gallery

Promotional art for L'escampette. Notice the Brick kill icon on the barrels and the texturing error next to the pipes.