The Complete Guide to Saxton Hale Mode

Whether you're a mercenary looking to retaliate against your employer, or a half naked butch australian, this guide covers everything you need to know about saxton hale mode, including playstyles, tips, and little tricks to give you the edge over your foes / peaceful protesting hippies.

Introduction

Welcome to the 101 in saxton hale mode!
In this guide, i primarily intend to give you valuable advice on various types of loadouts, maps, strategies, and tricks on how to best your former employer and/or former employees. It is worth bearing in mind that while you are part of the 5% of mercenaries most likely to NOT be part of any flower filled hippie movements, and even fewer of you will live long enough to see this advice get put to use, there will be a fine few of you that ascend into the ranks that often show Hale the underside of your boots.

If you are looking for specific loadouts that are ideal for certain playstyles, i would strongly reccomend reading through the guide created by Mech Nexus :-
Mech's Setup Guide

Even if you don't find the following information useful, a rating would really be appreciated no matter how good or bad, as it gives me, along with others who stumble upon it, a general idea of how beneficial/interesting it has been to you all <3

I already have good skills in Saxton Hale Mode. How can this guide help me?

This guide is designed with new players in mind, as it is all too often that they join into a game type that, while being stated as a fun mode, can really get quite competitive. As such, the guide is intended to give them a foot in the door, so to speak, as in providing them with some foundations in which to build their skills, or improve on those given as examples in this guide.

More seasoned players, no matter how "professional" you may think you are, always have something new to learn, be it a tactic, playstyle, loadout, and so on - so theres a good chance that you will know about most of the topics covered in this, but is even more likely that you will pick up a few new ideas, and tweak them to your liking.

Weapon Tweaks You May Want to Know About

As with many mods, saxton hale mode has many variants of weapons in game, all with different stats from their standard. For reference, here are some of the more useful ones you will likely come across - though consider that each server may vary slightly in weapon tweaking :-

When Playing as a Boss- Your maximum health is calculated along the lines of the amount of players in the game x1000. 10 players, you have 10k health. You only have a melee weapon throughout the round and will instantly kill anyone you hit that is unbuffed and is not a heavy, and occasionally soldier.

All Classes- All melee items (bar the holiday fists) are crit boosted, and once only two survivors remain, they both gain mini-crits to all weapons, and likewise when one of them is killed, the last survivor gains crits.

Scout- Crit-a-Cola gives you the standard speed boost, but gives crits rather than minicrits. useful for those of you who prefer to keep distance between you and your enemy.

Soldier- The mantreads are severely buffed in the sense that rocket jumps are significantly longer/higher, again, something for escape artists to bear in mind.

Pyro- The flaregun now has a jump ability similar to a soldier with mantreads equipped. Worth considering should you need a quick exit.

Demoman- When a shield is equipped, your primary weapon will be permenantly crit boosted. The shield also negates one hit from hale, but destroys it in the process. Any headtaking melee also grants heads on succesful hits, and once they are all collected, overbuffs you by 15 per hit.

Heavy- On some servers, shotguns will give the heavy health based on damage dealt - with no limitation - meaning you can tank a few hits from a boss without batting an eyelid.

Engineer- The frontier justice will be perma critted anytime your sentry is attacking the boss, and all pistol shots are perm-crits with 45 damage per hit. Telefragging is also buffed :- Dealing 9001 damage. enough to kill a boss VS 9 people. He also has the potential to replace his dispenser with an amplifier, giving all within its range a mini-crit buff.

Medic- The stock syringe gun is the only syringe gun that can be used, but gives 5% to ubercharge with every hit. The crusaders is similar, only dealing 10% ubercharge and is permenantly crit boosted. Your greatest asset however is the medigun, as it has most of the positive attributes of all the mediguns combined. The kritzkriegs faster uber rate, The quickfix's quicker heal rate and ability to match the movement pattern of any heal target some special modifications include its significantly larger overheal and more recently its ability to heal the medic using it once the uber is activated. It has the standard uber, but, this is counteracted by it being significantly longer in duration.

Sniper-
All weapons deal criticals regardless of whether a headshot is landed or not - unless you wield the bushwacka, with good reason. The bushwacka is capable of climbing anything more than slightly vertical at the expense of 10% of your health. The jump is equivelant to about 6 times the standard jump height.

Spy-
All revolvers cause mini-crits, and all knives will deal 10% of hales health, but will stun you momentarily upon a succesful backstab , and causes the boss to play one of its audio lines. This usually alerts them, so moving out of their sight is key to staying alive. The dead ringer can usually take 2 hits for you, as hale deals 60-70 damage per hit with it enabled. Cloak and dagger is also disabled here, so dont expect to be able to sit smugly in a corner for 3 hours.

The Bosses You Will Encounter

Within saxton hale mode, many individuals work under the will of hale himself, all of which have interesting and fairly potent abilities to make your life a living hell. Do take note that all bosses are liable to instantly kill any unbuffed class besides the heavy - and in rare cases, the soldier.

Saxton Hale
The half naked australian owner of Mann. Co, Saxton loves everything that involves pummeling hippies (and his workforce, who for legal purposes were "thought" to be hippies) into the ground. Hale has a couple of specials in his arsenal, least of which includes his ability to jump to ludicrous heights at will, giving escape artists an especially hard time to, well, escape. His most prized weapon is the ability to render all foes within a medium range unable to attack, and their movement rates cut in half. This, however, requires to be charged overtime by loosing a portion of his health.

Horseless Headless Horseman Jr
Brandishing a great cursed executioners axe, cursed similar to that of the eyelander, the horseman is typically one of the more irritating bosses to battle against. He shares his main ability with saxton hale in the sense that all enemies are rendered unable to attack, but rather than having immense jumping capabilities like him, the horseman is capable of teleportation to any random player. Regardless of how well prepared your setup is, it is often made void by the fact that he often clips into the person he teleports to, meaning regardless of playstyle or class, you will most likely be killed.

The Vagineer
Yes, that is his name, and when you see his face, its not hard to wonder why. The vagineer, considered the most troublesome by many, has the same jump capabilities of hale, but has his own unique special. After he has sustained enough damage, the vagineer can also "rage" to immobilise people, but with its severely reduced range he is also able to activate a lengthened ubercharge, and any attempts to move him away (airblasts or otherwise) only further increase the amount of time he spends ubercharged. all knockback -bar airblasts- is removed during this phase, meaning your little sentry nest or heavy parade are left at his mercy.

Christian Brutal Sniper
Sharing the jump ability of both hale and the vagineer, the christian brutal sniper is often saught after due to his special in which after raging, he gets given an upgraded huntsman with ammo based upon the amount of players left alive. While the arrow does not always kill an enemy outright (demomen and above in terms of health) a headshot will always kill its target, and it shot/reload speed is lightning fast. Basically, it doesn't matter if he missed, he's got another 10 with your name on them. Long corridors should be avoided.

The Easter Bunny
Practically a drunk demoman confined within an easter bunny costume, he seeks only to deliver happiness to his fellow mercenaries by means of either his bottle, or simply crushing them under his feet. The easter bunny has a buffed version of the "super jump" that the other bosses besides HHH possess. Along with this, once damaged enough, again, another able to rage the opposition, the bunny is capable of launching 50 buffed grenades in spontaneous directions around him. He is the most feared boss when it comes to using his ability in small camping spots.

Playing as the Bosses

Now to completely contradict myself, all the abilities i reffered to in the last section are at your disposal to cause as much pain and suffering to the enemy team at your door. As each boss has its own version of the abilities, i'll go through them one by one.

*all bosses can hold Ctrl when in the air to crash to the ground at lightning speed.

Saxton Hale
Abilities

• Super jump ability : can be used every few seconds, and propels him into the air slightly higher than that of a mantread soldier.
  
• Rage Taunt : Once he has sustained enough damage, hale can taunt to disable turrets, half players speed and make them unable to attack.

Overview
Saxton Hale is a good all rounder, as he is able to adapt to any kind of team build. He excels at tackling faster enemies such as scouts, and is able to take out sentries by jumping to their location before they have even had chance to lock on. He is somewhat weaker at dealing with enclosed areas of people, especially when it comes to a sentry nest guarded by classes such as the heavy or pyro's. Save your rage ability for these areas - provided the server has the rage ability enabled.

Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr
Abilities

• Teleportation : used the same as the super jump, only the time you must wait inbetween teleports increases with every use.
  
• Halloween Rage Taunt : A much more potent rage than the other bosses, his rage has increased range to compensate for his inability to chase airborne targets.

Overview
The horsemann is somewhat of a pain to get used to playing as, seeing as how you lack the ability to get the drop on your foes as you can with all the other bosses - no, the pun was not intended. His melee weapon, the headtaker, has increased melee range which assists in close range enviroments, of which he is most formiddable. You are particularly vulnerable in the open, can be hit in any direction, and at any time. While he is nearly completely unable to kill an often airborne target, sentry nests are completely void. As the teleportation ability randomly selects someone, kill as many people as you can before trying to warp to a particular person. if you're lucky, you may warp into a pesky enemy, such as a rocket jumping soldier or nuisance of a sentry nest.

The Vagineer
Abilities

• Super Jump Ability : can be used every few seconds, and propels him into the air slightly higher than that of a mantread soldier.
  
• Vagineers Rage Taunt : Causes a rage effect with a much smaller radius than that of the other bosses, but gives the vagineer a buffed invulnerability ubercharge instead.

Overview
The vagineer is capable of taking much more damage through his special rage taunt, and has no problem with taking out classes unable to halt his advance. The best way to utilise his abilities is to activate it well before you've made an appearance on the location you wish to attack (heavies and sentries will be the main enemies you should try to focus on) which sometimes can cause the classes to disperse in an attempt to avoid you. Splitting them up leaves them for easy pickings. Along with his uber, the vagineer is an all-rounder, as he is able to tackle anything thrown his way, albeit perhaps less effectively than another boss that is specialised for it.

Christian Brutal Sniper
Abilities

• Super Jump Ability : can be used every few seconds, and propels him into the air slightly higher than that of a mantread soldier.
  
• CBS's Rage Taunt : Causes a rage effect with the same radius as the vagineers unique taunt, except provides CBS with a huntsman instead.

Overview
Straight off the bat, the Christian Brutal Sniper is the only boss capable of killing his opponents at a distance, meaning regardless of how well defended they are, so long as you have a line of sight you will also have an arrow with their name on it. When using the arrows, the best enemies to use them upon are scouts, engineers and medics. Scouts often assume they are safe by running, and so usually run in a straight line, making them easy pickings. Engineers safeguard their sentry and never steer more than a few inches left or right, so use that to your advantage. Medics will usually do the same, and unless he is quick, the arrow will be through his head before he has had chance to uber himself and his ally. Even with his arrows, an engie cowering behind his sentry is one of the only situations that CBS really struggles with. Take out the dispenser before the sentry, as it will limit his repair capabilities.

The Easter Bunny
Abilities

• Buffed Super Jump Ability : can be used every few seconds, and propels him into the air much higher than the other bosses can.
  
• Easter Bunny Taunt : Causes a rage effect with the same radius as Vagineer and CBS, but gives the bunny a grenade launcher that when fired, spews 50 buffed grenades in random directions about him.

Overview
The easter bunny is the end all to any form of camping or nest. When playing as him, you will have no trouble completely wiping out even the largest sentry nests, as despite his rage's close proximity, the grenades fire far and wide, enough to coat an entire room, killing everything... and anyone... within it. Enclosed areas are a definite strong point for him, so coaxing enemies into a small area is a good idea. Try to avoid using your rage in open areas, as the angle at which the grenades shoot is completely random, meaning your enemies can find it especially easy to escape. Killing an opponent also causes golden eggs to drop, which give whoever picks it up the equivelant of a medium ammo pack, and a critical buff for around 5 seconds.

Tips on the characters
Any boss apart from the Horsemann

• Any time you have the jump ability ready to go, use it. People are much less likely to hit you and in turn you will take less damage. You are buffed afterall, not invincible.
  
• Use the jumps to get in front of a person, rather than anticipating where you think they will be. If you land infront you will startle them, giving you enough time to finish them off.

Every Boss

• Dont just charge in. You have a lot of health but it is easily depleted in seconds if you waltz in thinking you can tackle the world. try taking out small groups and loners first, as these will charge your rage, letting you save it for any big groups you encounter.
  
• Popping Ubers. Persist in trying to kill a medic long enough, and he will bring his medigun out, which in most cases, means he has an uber and will pop it the second you get too close. Let him. just follow him until it runs out but do not hit him, as he may be trying to use a trick i will talk about later.
  
• Fake a loss of interest. say you've tried to get a scout for a long time and it just isn't working, just pretend to give up. Begin to run in the opposite direction and the scout/ class will assume you are either low on health or have gone searching for someone else. The less wise scout will frequently follow your footsteps to see where you have gone, where you will be waiting right round the corner. Its one of the cheaper kills you can do, but lets face it, its cheap to always run away like a scout does.
  
• Try to limit how much you use your taunts. It is seen as the easy way out and in most servers you will be shunned for using it.
  
• Never follow someone if you can hear a sentry near that location. Theres a good chance there will be a nest waiting, and a pyro to keep you pinned in a corner. Any hale with a nerfed rage radius will have a hard time escaping, even with their weigh down.

Use Rage at Your Own Peril.

Now then, everything i just said that probably makes raging sound like a good thing and that it should be used by everyone - ignore it. It is irrelevant what server you play saxton hale mode in, or who you use it on, but to do so much as use rage is considered one of the most taboo things to do in the history of gaming. Its up there with button mashing on Super Mario Smash Brothers - It's cheap and you're a terrible person for doing it. The only valid time you should ever use rage is when you are brand new to the game and need to get used to its mechanics. Any other time is considered as the pinnacle of evil and you will probably be sacrificed by the rest of the server in the name of satan. In other words, leave that G key alone.
To prevent this section being too long, i'm only having one comment put here, but nevertheless, his voice is shared by all.
"Rage is bull because (bar CBS's rage, he isn't as bad) it stuns EVERYBODY near you without warning. You don't need to aim it, it's not telegraphed, and it strips everybody caught inside of every tool they normally have. Their entire loadout giving them a unique playstyle to help them battle hale and stay away from his megaton punch, all gone. While it has a place, mindlessly spamming it just pisses people off, and is seen as a crutch for bad players, which is why some servers disable it. If you want to score brownie points, look like a pro and actually get better as hale, never use it." - Mech Nexus
He rests his case. I rest his case too.

Play Styles

As with any game mode you find yourself on, each class has a few main styles in which their abilities can be utilised - Saxton Hale is no different.

The primary styles you will see on most servers tend to fall within three categories :

Escape Artists
Those who employ this play style prefer the element of dealing light damage, fast and often, with the intentions of being able to remove themselves from harms way before hale has chance to take them out. This style is most commonly taken on by scouts, and any class with explosive ordinance. That does not mean, however, that these are the only classes to employ it.

• Deal light-moderate damage
  
• Usually live the longest
  
• are the most irritating type of players, albeit the least threatening.

Heavy Hitters
For those of you in favor of the glass cannon approach, the heavy hitter is presumably the style you will go for. Their sole purpose is to inflict the greatest possible damage to hale in the blink of an eye - usually with no consideration that it will inevitably kill them. Make no mistake, while a heavy is the class you would assume would be the only one to use this tactic, it is by no means useless to other classes. Medics, for example, can sustain themselves infinitely should a Hale continually attack them.

• Deal high damage
  
• Short-lived, angry lives
  
• Just a minor irritation, as they don't intend to run you around the map.

Defenders
As the name implies, the role of a defender is to provide support to a weaker class. The most common approach to this would be that of the pyro, which can often be found safeguarding an engineer, as the airblasts from the pyro combined with sustained ammo from dispensers provides a tough nut to crack for hale. Other classes that can be found playing this role include heavies, and occasionally scouts with the FaN or Sandman, as the stuns and knockbacks can warrant considerable distractions.

• Damage varies dependant on class typically.
  
• Long-lived, out of the line of fire
  
• Again, varies - FaN knockbacks aren't that bad, being juggled by a pyro however....
  

The Scout

Do not let pre-determined facts such as the scout being the fastest class fool you. Every boss is faster than you and are in every case but the horseman, much more agile. This means that relying on speed alone isn't going to get you anywhere. This is where any of the three types of play style come in. Its down to you which route you prefer to take.

Escape Artist -
Typically speaking, the scout is designed for evasion and flash raids. as such, utilise your double jumps whenever the chance presents itself. Doing so much as jumping forward then backward right over the bosses head is more than capable to provide you with a few seconds to remove yourself from the firing line. In these few moments, if you are fast enough, you can have a bonk atomic punch drink gulped down before the boss hits you. In general, once a boss sees that you have drank it, they will begin to pursue another individual, giving you the chance to escape. If that doesnt seem to be the case, try and provoke them to hit you while under its effects AND jumping. You are guarenteed to be hit off into the distance to some degree, generating distance between you and the boss.

Heavy Hitter -
While not technically a weapon of his own, the scout deals the main of his damage through stomps, which are caused when he lands on the bosses head from a particular height. this causes the boss to be stunned temporarily and to loose around 10% of his health - a great asset to big teams. By angling the FaN knockback correctly at the ground as you jump, you gain enough height to stomp hale upon landing. if used correctly, you can easily coax a hale into thinking you are running away, and then with a shot of the FaN, end up on top of him... Literally.

Defender -
Probably one of the least useful classes for use as a defender, the scout is by no means unable to be one. in particular situations, you can easily give bulkier classes a chance to escape whilst you repeatedly FaN hale, where the knockbacks would be potent enough for you and your defendee to be long gone before hale can even retaliate. Another way to provide assistance is to be a sizable distraction, giving your comrades the time they need to set up a good foothold somewhere in the map.

• Is instantly killed by any hit taken, usually regardless of an overheal or not.
  
• Is a prime target usually, so you need to keep on your toes 24/7.
  
• Will be raged at continually, so have your audio recieve set to mute.
  
  Tip
  When attempting to stomp the bosses, take note that if they have half a brain cell they will begin to anticipate you trying it again. You're easy prey if you do. Be spontaneous, switch around which style you play each round, keep them guessing.

The Soldier

As a soldier, it can be relatively easy to have a loadout suited to be all three playstyles, though to maximise effectiveness, it is often better to have one that is focused on just one. Given that the previous section explains how hale is faster than even a scout, you will have a really hard time continually evading hale by any other means than rocket jumps - so that's what we will mainly be focusing on on the soldiers approach.

Escape Artists
In general, you want to be sticking to the black box for its +15 HP on hit, as most bosses will not give up pursuing you regardless of how many times you rocket jump away - meaning opportunities for collecting health are scarce. As you are intentionally removing yourself from the line of fire after only a rocket or two, the mantreads are essential in your escape, as the distance in which rocket jumps generate is massively buffed by mantreads on saxton hale mode. In most situations, the mantreads are the best secondary at your disposal, as shotguns or banners are fairly void at long range if not completely. As a last resort, the escape plan is, as the name suggests, a useful tool to evade hale when you are either out of rockets or simply do not enough health to land another succesful rocket jump. Try to make him latch onto someone else, or find some ammo and get your launcher reloaded as fast as possible.

Heavy Hitters
This one is slightly more tricky to pull off than the previous method. Soldiers are more than capable of continually rocket jumping and landing on the bosses head, deducting 10% of his health with each succesful land. to compliment this, gunboats are a good alternative to mantreads, as they do not cause you to jump as high as them, but only take around 1/3 of the health from you that the mantreads do (10-20 usually.). Once your ammuntion is depleted, an equaliser should give you some last chance damage dealing before your lights are snuffed. The rocket launcher is usually fairly irrelevant, but it never hurts to have a 4 rocket capacity just in case you don't reload before landing.

Defenders
Probably one of the least common forms of playstyles that you will see a soldier using, a defending soldier usually relies on knocking a boss into the air so prevent his advance on a weaker class. You may see medic/soldier combos fairly frequently, however, it follows the same principle - the medic ubers the soldier, and with buffed rocket knockbacks, sends the boss out of the medics immediate range.

• Almost completely reliant on ammo, so any chance to grab some should be taken
  
• Often less of a target, so is more able to navigate the map undisturbed
  
• Can still deal sizable damage and escape without much of an issue
  
  Tip
  If you don't think you can make a succesful hit on the boss, don't try to. It can save you a lot of ammo and reduces the amount of time you will be looking for it - effectively reducing how vulnerable you are.

The Pyro

Unlike the other mercenary categories, the pyro is undisputed as the most annoying or irritating class to be up against, and with obvious reasons (Hint: airblasts. all the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ time.). In light of that, the three play styles will all sound incredibly similar, as that is the main tactic you will employ - and even if you say you won't, lets face it, you will succumb at some point.

Escape Artists
Being only bested by the spy in its ability to evade the bosses, they pyro will always be found running backward, airblasting hale every time he gets so much as within a meter of him/her/it. In no case is the degreaser bested by any other flamethrower using this method, as 65% bonus weapon switch means that even though you may run out of ammo, you will immediately switch to your flaregun (of which has increased self knockback, and a jump similar to that of the mantreads on hale mode.) and can "flarejump" well out of harms way. Melee is pretty pointless, none give the pyro a sizable advantage against hale when using this method.

Heavy Hitters
10 Points if you guessed i'd start by saying airblasting is key. Because again, it is. Whilst in close proximity to hale, the reserve shooter is a vital component of any pyro's aresenal who wishes to deal maximum damage. A little trick is that whilst you have the degreaser and reserve shooter equipped, switching from melee straight to the reserve shooter will give you a split-second to fire off a crit boosted shot, which when combined with a continual airblasting/reserve shooting method, will deal massive damage, and still give you some time to keep up the damage dealing. For those of you wishing to push damage output further, the powerjack can be applied immediately after the before mentioned tactic, as it generates +195 extra damage per cycle and allows for a quick withdrawl from hit range.

Defenders
You will defend engineers and medics. Fact. The stream of ammo you gain from dispensers means that any boss blindly walking to a sentry nest will 9/10 times be airblasted either away from the nest, or, if you are a little more cunning, (and likewise all the more of an ass for doing it) you could airblast him into a roof corner - if one is available. The sentries knockback with your juggling him into the corner means hale has an inevitable fate provided the sentry doesn't run outta ammo. Medics usually tend to follow where you lead them, so by taking them to a sentry nest, its two birds with one stone. The third degree gives medics 10% uber for every hit you land on hale, so if the sentry is upkeeping hale, you can always help your medics uber progression.

• If you don't kill hale using weapons, the rage inducing airblasts should finish him off.
  
• Airblasting capabilities are limited - once the ammo is gone, most pyro's will die.
  
• Airblasts are mainly useless against airborne targets - mobile hales will have no trouble in killing you.

Tip
Save your allies! as far as self preservation is concerned, put it to one side and get hale away from your comrades - they will assist you in the long run, be it healing from a medic, ammo from an engineer, ecetera.

The Demoman

The demoman is one of the more flexible classes in hale mode in the sense that he can use any weapon slot for any play style, and all tend to work very effectively.

Escape Artists-
Slashing hale with a head taking weapon gives you a head per hit, with all the advantages that it brings. In the long run, it allows for you to make getaways in which hale is only fractionally faster - which if you have the loose cannon equipped is not a problem as you can just hit him and he'll be sent backwards, giving you precious seconds to distance yourself. Other launchers require a more precise hit on his lower quarter for similar effects. You could also have a pre-determined spot to lay a sticky trap, so that if the pursuit is fierce, just lead him over them.

Heavy Hitters-
most of the demomans primary weapons can deal great damage when you have a shield equipped, which coincidentally is the best sort of secondary for this play style. Each launcher is capable of dealing roughly 300-400 damage, and coupled with the head-taking melee's ability to inflict 195 damage per hit, along with +15 max health for the first four hits, then +15 buffed for each subsequent hit, its no surprise why demomen often get high amounts of damage using this method. If you really insisted, a scottish resistance pile of bombs could also deal considerable damage, but the security loss of a guarenteed blocked hit isn't something you should consider loosing so lightly.

Defenders
in general, a demoknight or sticky trapping demo are the only two kinds of defenders you will encounter. Stationary classes like heavies or engineers are often the most defended by demomen (if at all) as it is easy to place a trap a few feet in front of their position, and detonating upon a boss trying to attack them. depending on the size of the map, it can grant your protectorate anywhere between a few seconds or a few minutes to escape. Demoknights are more head-on, using themselves as a human shield, buying the defended ally enough time to find a secluded area to set up in.

• Requires some good accuracy to land the majority of grenades.
  
• Sticky traps can easily be jumped over by most bosses, so manipulating where they land is key.
  
• Shields are removed if the boss hits you, meaning you only have a primary and melee.

Tip
If hale begins to gain on you, run back on him, maybe even get a melee hit in, and more often than not he will not have anticipated this, gaining you both a head (if you are not already maxxed out) and more space between the two of you.

The Heavy

The big baby man. capable of inflicting huge damage at close range, and faster than you would imagine if he needs to be, the heavy is stereotypically the go-to class in hale if you want to deal some pretty significant damage. His other applications, however unusual, are not to be looked down upon.

Escape Artist
Now i know how this sounds. The great big fat man being able to escape a man three times his speed. Take the gloves of running urgently, which are buffed so that the heavy runs somewhere between a head collected demoman and a scout. If you combine this with the stock minigun or tomislav, popping up unexpectedly, peppering the boss, followed by a quick sprint/sophisticated waddle away, you'll have dealt some good damage without loosing your life. Constantly jumping and switching to a primary or secondary means the gloves will not cause you to loose as much health, but you will not loose momentum either, allowing for lengthened escapes.

Heavy Hitters
Practically the same as the Escape artist approach, only you literally don the brass beast and dont stop firing. Even when hale has quickly reacted and taken you out, you can deal anywhere within the region of 1000-5000 damage, dependant on how inaccurate hale is. If you use this tactic when last alive, the persistent 130/92 damage you deal per bullet (4 fired per 1 Ammo), you truly are a force to be reckoned with.

Defenders
He's a hulk of a man, and should be used as such. When safeguarding someone, you can choose to be a good ally, and stand in the line of fire - or manly fists. When it comes to close quarters, block off the entrance to the defended area if possible, and if you have the fortune of having a medic on your back, his uber could ward hale off to search for other players, letting those inside the area to continue fortifying it. A more comical way of defending your allies is to use the Gloves of running urgently, and take hale around the map. He'll spend more time dying of laughter watching your little legs waddle than he will watching around the map for other people. If hale mocking you isn't your thing, cause a distraction by punching him around a little. That way, allies in close proximity are not being focused on, allowing them to escape.

• You only sponge one hit, meaning the added health of a heavy is usually ineffective.
  
• The speed at which you run limits you to the GRU as your melee should you want to escape.
  
• Heavy damage output is offset by small life expectancy - make your shots count.

Tip
In most cases, if hale sees you alone, you will die. with regards to that, don't try to run from him, just deal as much damage as possible to him before he can kill you. you can get up to an additional 2000-3000 damage if you do, helping your team in the long run.

The Engineer

Like the medic, the engineer usually forms part of the backbone of a good Saxton Hale Team. He is able to deal considerable damage with both his Crit-Boosted frontier justice and sentry, but is also capable of providing supplies to his team-mates.

Escape Artists
Engineers that do this are usually particularly stealthy. They will often build in a hidden from view area, and will build a teleport somewhere in the map that leads directly to it. They build all their structures in secrecy and will occasionally deploy a sentry somewhere in the open, before quickly withdrawing back to their secret place. Should a boss locate him however, he is able to run to his teleporter, granting a clean getaway, allowing him to repeat the process many times over. Say, when the worst comes to pass, hale is gaining too fast for you to use a teleporter, the short circuit is a worthwhile secondary to possess. A sucessful hit renders hale stunned briefly, giving you enough time to warp out of trouble. For extra effect, the rescue ranger can withdraw your sentry before destruction allowing your getaway to have a sentry intact, ready for deployement on the other side.

Heavy Hitters
Those who wish to take their plans to the next level of cunning will use telefrags to their maximum potential. The process is fairly straightforward - find a confined space, build the teleporter exit furthest away from you, then either a sentry of dispenser, and behind that the entrance. once you bait them in succesfully, jump over the sentry and wait for them to stand on the exit. Get on the entrance and congratulations. You just did 9001 damage to him. This process always leads to your death however, as you remain stuck within the boss. Only a medic's uber can save you from it, and even then it is unlikely. As it is a mainly metal based method, the widowmaker would assist if you are within suitable ranges of hale.

Defenders
This shouldn't really need explaining if you know the basic principles behind an engineer and what he does. You provide a sentry to defend your allies / distract hale, and your dispenser generates health and supplies for your allies to use. From a reverse perspective, i suppose you could argue that should a pyro airblast a boss into an upkept position, you are actually preventing him from harming anyone.

• if your sentry goes down, you usually go down with it.
  
• Allies running to your dispenser give away your location quite often to the bosses.
  
• Other engineers can still take your metal, which when setting up is quite frustrating.
  
  Tip
  On most maps, there are places that, strictly speaking, you should not be able to reach but also do not break any server rules. To access them, you often require the wrangler, which will replace your permenantly crit boosted pistol. If you are good at aiming, it is better that you do not try to reach these places, if you find any.

The Medic

Now this class is so under-rated on Saxton Hale mode. People assume that for him to deal any notable damage he must be attached to another class to do it for him. That is in no way the case. Medics are the backbone of any Saxton Hale team and can turn the tide of a round with a single uber. Do not underestimate their potential.

Escape Artists
Regardless of how close a Boss is to him, the medic can attain full uber with so little as 14 syringes due to the medigun always starting at 40% uber, even after an uber is finished (may vary from server to server.). In this time, you can manipulate hale into hitting you just as you uber, causing you to be launched skyward, and hopefully as far away from hale as is physically possible. In this time you can reunite with a defender who can hopefully give you somewhere to restock on ammo and build some of your next uber.

Heavy Hitters
Medics are able to deal vast amounts of damage if you are skilled enough. The main way in which they do this is through a maintained "chain uber". This can be done either alone or with a partner, and both have their benefits. A chain uber on your lonesome refers to you repeatedly hitting the boss with an ubersaw, or if you're a good shot under pressure, the syringe gun. It is more effective when last alive, however. Chain ubering with a partner means you both take turns ubering the other then being the attacker. this makes a fluid ubercharge which, so long as hale persists, will not end.

Defenders
This can be split into two different forms. Team, and pocketing. Defending your team is just what it says on the tin, you provide all of your team with consistent overhealing and when hale attacks, as oppose to healing one individual, you pass the uber to everyone within the bosses range. This improves the whole teams chance of surviving, and in turn, gives you a whole team's damage output. Pocketing is pretty much the opposite, where you focus on a single person with the intention of keeping them alive for as long as possible. In some servers, the bust melee weapon tells you how full the rage meter is, helping in timing your ubers more precisely. It is easier to pocket, but unless you want lots of screaming infants on your back, i'd suggest at least making it look like you care about other team members.

* Regardless of what approach, the medic always carries the stock syringe gun (or crusaders) and stock medigun. The ubersaw is always the best available melee in any setup on Saxton hale.

• without your uber, you are incredibly vulnerable to being instantly killed by the bosses.
  
• Chain ubers are reliant on you having a co-ordinated pair of medics. Dont assume a random person on the server knows what they are doing.
  
• When you pop an uber, some hales will just wait you out. Attempt to find an ally to latch onto, or use a scout to gain a speed boost away from hale.
  
• on rage enabled servers, the audio line played with a rage taunt is a split second prior to the rage itself. With practice, you can pop an uber just before the rage takes effect.
  
• When preparing to uber, waiting round a corner and enabling third person (!tp or !thirdperson if the server has the function) allows you to time a precise uber for maximum effect.

Tip
Depending on how good you are at aiming, consider using the crusaders crossbow over the syringe gun. It does significantly more damage, but cannot generate as much uber in as little time as the syringe gun can. Take both factors into consideration when choosing which you will use. Also, when chain ubering with another person, always use the syringe gun. Even if you are accurate, it just gives the pair of you a fallback in case you don't land enough ubersaw hits to fully charge the next uber.

The Sniper

Snipers are the one class that, similar to MvM, are always shunned without reason. They are as big a threat as any to hale if used by the correct person. Treat them as such.

Escape Artists
A bushwacka is essential for these kinds of players. With the bushwacka's capability to launch the sniper up a vertical object for 10% of his health, you can often lunge up to a safe spot upon being attacked, or could jump a wall and get to the next available vantage point. While using the bushwacka does mean that all primary and secondary weapon crit boosts are removed, it does not mean that headshots no longer score criticals. If you are a crack shot, the downside of using the buckwacka is complimented well with any good hit with a sniper rifle. Personally speaking, the cosy camper is a good tool to use, as its passive healing can grant you full health before the boss has found you again. A machina further compliments those of you with competent sniping skills.

Heavy Hitters
For the best damage, the sydney sleeper is a more capable sniper rifle than its standard counterpart. Using any melee other than the bushwacka means that the sleeper will still have permanent crits despite its inability to score headshots, meaning you can fully charge a shot 25% faster with no drawbacks. Do note that the jarate effect is removed, however. Any SMG would do as a secondary weapon, as these too do decent damage at 24 damage per bullet regardless of range.

Defender
Withdrawn at a safe distance, the sniper is capable of providing his team with some more tactical assistance. When using any sniper, shooting a boss that is in the air past using his jump ability will usually send it far off course, meaning if the people you are trying to save are in a particularly tricky spot to land on/get to you will, in the majority of cases, prevent him from reaching them. Melee and secondary weapons are chosen at your discretion, as they will not effect this playstyle in most scenarios. Never use jarate however, as its minicrit bonus is removed, and instead it only remove a portion of the bosses rage meter.

• If you are not capable of scoring consistent headshots, dont attempt to use the bushwacka setup - unless you are going for stomps.
  
• The machina's tracer rounds are often followed back to you. Only fire when hale is turned away.
  
• Dont use the hitmans heatmaker for bodyshot crits. you will be facepalmed into next week if you do.

Tip
You can fool an opponent into thinking you are trying to escape by climbing a wall, which is the opportune moment to strike. As the jump gives enough height for a stomp, redirect your flight onto his face. Its unexpected and still gives you enough time to climb the wall before he can rejoin the pursuit.

The Spy

The man of mystery can turn the tide of any map or round if used correctly. While most would assume only his knife will generate a good amount of damage, there a few other ways in which he can be used to you and your teams advantage.

Escape Artist
95% of spies will use this, as it only requires them to run up behind hale whilst he is distracted, land a succesful backstab, and cloak before he has chance to backhand them. The type of knife is usually not important, though it is better to stick to knives that do not have a negative impact to your maximum health. While it is possible for a kunai spy to get backstabs, it is much less common for them to survive the aftermath. If close quarters doesn't suit you, the enforcer and its increased damage means you can sustain an admirable amount of damage dealing, and cloak away long before the boss has a chance to reach you. When using the enforcer, stick to the regular cloak, and any cloak when using the l'etranger. its 40% extra cloak and +15% on hit makes both the dead ringer and standard watch much more effective.

Heavy Hitters
The most dangerous combination of class and play style of them all. It's not recommended you attempt this until you know the spies little tricks in and out. Especially sidestabbing. Similar to that of a raving lunatic, you practically run near to hale, and keep on dodging him. For it to work well you need to be completely random in your movement near him, as he will be constantly trying to hit you, whereas you are only waiting for a few short moments to strike. Its hard to pull off once you first try doing it, but the windows of opportunity to backstab hale become much more apparent the more you try it. With more than one spy doing this at once, the results are usually deadly to hale. If you're crazy enough, that is.

Defenders
Not as much as a defender as he is a moving target, a spies primary method of delaying the deaths of allies is to put himself in "harms way". I use the term "harms way" lightly because in its essence, you are really quite safe - que the dead ringer. All you really need to do is duck and weave around hale enough for him to try and attack you, and to the best of your ability just keep dodging. Usually they will persist in trying to hit you as they want to keep their back pointed away from you, so you could even use that to your advantage, keeping him aimed in one direction while an EA spy could come along and give him a little tap in the back. As this style isnt primarily used for dealing damage, feel free to choose whatever loadout suits you best. Bar the dead ringer. Cant fake death if you've had a fist through your face.

• the loud noise along with the stun after backstabbing means you can often be killed if you dont immediately remove yourself from point blank range.
  
• with only 30 bullets, even the enforcer cannot deal a staggering amount of damage, it should only be used for withdraws or when the boss is too far away to get his attention otherwise.
  
• You need two medpacks to heal a hit from hale - of which could be going to a class much more capable of dealing more damage than yourself.

Tip
Indirectly attacking hale is one of the safer close range approaches. Find something high enough to jump off of, as this will still give the same damage a knife would, but without the stun effect on you.

Practice Suggestions

Now, if you aren't an able melee combatant but would like to gain some practice at it, a valid way to train is through cp_degrootkeep. In this map, you are limited to Melee and Medieval weaponry - which, bar the Easter Bunny, are the only two threats posed by any of the bosses in VSH mode.

For varied weapons practice, try joining a server later at night, as there is the chance that you will be matched against a couple of people. With only a couple of people to kill, its easier to practice manouvers so that when it comes to a standard match, you will be harder to target/kill. The same applies for playing as the mercenaries, as you will have most of Hale's attention, you can get some good practice as either escape artists or heavy hitters. Defenders aren't reccomended, as hale will come looking for you specifically, and you often won't have enough time to set up.

Thanks :3

Well, thats all folks!
i appreciate the time you've taken to read (or skip) through this guide, if you have any suggestions or comments about it, leave them down below.
If there's anything specific you would like to know about the mode, such as more advanced tactics, you're more than welcome to join either the servers i play - just look for NO RAGE saxton hale and the [GO] server i play should come up - or you can add me and i'll talk to you about it.

The Author ~ Terry

Just as a little background information, I've not played steam games for a grand amount of time, but that hasn't stopped me clocking nearly 2000 hours within a years time on tf2 - Of which would probably have me flawlessly passing exams instead of doing something completely un-beneficial to my life - and most of that is composed of time on Saxton Hale Servers : so its safe to assume that i know what i'm talking about when it comes to this mode.

As i said before, however, i do not know everything there is to know about it - people with some originality, for example, never fail to impress me with new concepts to kill the numerous Bosses. Having a heavy get teleported on and getting a medic to uber him, for example, was one of those instances.

And, as i have held onto for a very long time, i am very good at playing any of the bosses. I have only been killed legitimately to a maximum of around 2-3 times since my beginner days. The tips i give based on playing them are from much earlier times, as most are reliant on using rage - which i never use, and for the best part will never need to.

In terms of the merc's, i am capable with classes such as the spy, heavy and sniper, but my true potential lies within The soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Scout, and especially medic. You'll learn to hate me should i be any of them. Mind, i normally play as a heavy hitter, though if i'm not killed quickly i am usually gone long before you have another chance.

Oh, and all pictures on this guide were made by myself on SFM, so the regular Copyright jargon isn't required.

Public Contributors

In the instance that some of you will leave comments, it's necessary to note everyone who has given support, or left their own take on tactics, be it the ones given here or those designed by themselves. Their names and contributions are as follows :-

¤DLq¤™Doom Whale Sniper - Addition of the powerjack to the heavy hitter playstyle for pyro.
Mech Nexus - Complimentary guide for loadouts based on the information in this guide.
[GO] Applejack - Always showing love, no matter the weather/Lack of ice cream.
That Annoying Guy - Addition of the short circuit stun ability to the escape artist style for engie.
中国Finn the human - Medic improvements : 3rd person suggestion and sound timings on popping ubers. Heavies GRU jumping to preserve health trick also.
Cpt. Magikarp the organ grinder - added The bust of "the greek guy" (:3) to the medics defender style, and heavy being a meatshield on his defender playstyle.

[rshipwash]

thanks did not read a thing thanks for the guide anyways

[The Iron Tasche]

Go on the server browser, wait for it to buffer then in the search bar type VSH, should come up with a selection of servers offering saxton hale gameplay c:

[JayTheWig]

how do you get to the mode

[The Iron Tasche]

I wrote this to highlight the main ones you face, most servers when this guide was made tended to switch between the ones i've listed.

[caconoat]

It seems you are not hunting for every single boss on every single server, or I'd inform you of the wonderful Cave Johnson.

[The Iron Tasche]

Anytime! ^-^

[Sandshark]

Alright, thanks for the advice :P

[The Iron Tasche]

(this didn't fit the 1000 word limit so i'll just add it here)

All in all sandshark, its best to just explore what each server has to offer, and settle in one thats right for you :3
Last note, it was never much of a problem when i first began looking for a server, but one with a healthy up-time is important too. :)

[The Iron Tasche]

Before i settled down with [GO] there were often 3 criteria i had for a good server :-

1. The "regulars" in the server - If the frequent players are sociable, friendly and skilled, chances are you'll have a good time with them.

2. Active/Reactive admins and updates - Servers with an active admin overwatching them, and that regularly updates the mod and its maps, is vital for a good server.

3. Skill level - Look for a server with low skilled participants if you're new, then move up to other servers as you progress in your abilities as hale/ the mercs. If you're skilled already, search straight for skilled servers.

Hope that helped ^-^
i'd reccomend taking a look at [GO] servers for it, we have both Rage active and inactive servers. The server without rage is for typically filled with highly skilled individuals, where rage enabled is often contains a mixture of newcomers + veterans.

[Sandshark]

Any advice on server choice? :3