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 +100% faster cloak consumption -15% cloak when damaged under cloak "Make it quick."

The 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, the L'escampette gives a 30% speed bonus while cloaked at the cost of a faster cloak drain rate, draining in 5 seconds instead of 10. Like the Invis Watch, picking up ammo crates while cloaked will refill the meter, and the recharge rate is the same at 30 seconds. This speed boost means that the user can jump immediately after cloaking and then decloak to preserve momentum while draining less meter. As a downside, the watch drains its meter twice as fast, and any damage received while active will drain 15% of its cloak while emitting a loud electrical sound and particle effects. This means that rapidly receiving damage will drain the cloak instantly.

Strategy and Tips

main article: Basic Spy Strategy

The L'escampette isn't suited to being invisible for long periods of time. The speed boost and increased drain speed make it difficult to stay invisible for long periods of time, and it is more difficult to decloak behind people because of its louder sound. The Invis Watch is better suited for that. The L'escampette, as the name suggests, can be best used to escape harm with the speed boost or to run into battle. The speed boost can be used to quickly run through the frontlines and into the backlines, especially if ammo boxes are picked up along the way. However, one must plan their route carefully, because the increased drain rate doesn't leave you invisible for long, and the decloak sound is louder than the Invis Watch.

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.

Properties

Properties
Function Times
Consumption time		5 s
Cloak fade		1.0 s
Uncloak fade		1.8 s
Charge fill speed		3.33% / s
Charge fill time		30 s
All values are approximate.

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 the 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 the L'escampette, and the third reloading the chamber.
• In the promotional art for the 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.
• The L'escampette is similar in design and gameplay to the Dead Ringer from Team Fortress 2. They are both watches that are held rather than worn, and when used provide a speed boost. However the L'escampette can be activated at any time, and instead of a damage resistance on cloak there is none and instead getting hit reduces the cloak meter.

Gallery

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