A Run Down on This Year’s Festive Weapons

For the last few years, we’ve received Festive Weapons, weapons made pretty and Christmassy for the winter holidays. The first year, we got 9 stock weapons, the second year,we got 9 mostly unique weapons like the Huntsman and the Flare Gun, the third year we got 9 more unique popular weapons and this year, we got, um, 7 weapons. Yeah, some people missed out.

The weapons this year were the following: Bonk! Atomic Punch, Shotgun, Backburner, Chargin’ Targe, Bonesaw, SMG and Revolver. A larger collection of stock weapons, at the expense of some classes not getting their own weapons and some classes still being unable to have a full set of festive weapons.

So yes, not so many weapons this year, but we did get our first shotgun reskin. Well, reskin is pushing it. Let’s review these one by one, eh?

First up, Bonk! Atomic Punch. Not much to say. It is team coloured and white. Probably the most original weapon this year, but most people don’t look when Scout has Bonk! out so it’s a pity. The candy cane straw is a nice addition, but Scout never uses it. And that little ribbon bow must be itchy while drinking.

Up next, the Backburner. Amusingly, the Backburner with the lights is actually more of its own model, rather than being just the dragon head attachment on the normal Backburner. It’s nice to see the first flamethrower unlock getting some attention, most people just use the Degreaser these days. The Rudolf thing is unique too, making it stand out from the Festive Flamethrower, which comprises the rest of the weapon.

The next three weapons, the SMG, Revolver and Bonesaw, are standard Festive weapons. The SMG in particular just has team coloured lights wrapped around it, as is often the style with stock festives. The Revolver though follows in the footsteps of the Ambassador, being much darker than the original model, almost black. Unlike the Ambassador though, it has more than one light on it, the lights are wrapped around the weapon like normal stock weapons. The Bonesaw looks okay, it doesn’t have the bell on it that the Ubersaw had (which looks really poor on low quality settings) but it does have a bow on the handle and weird stripes of blood on the saw itself, which don’t really go. I can see that they were going for that candy cane look, but it didn’t work that well here. It’s worth noting that the SMG and Bonesaw are slightly darker than their non-festive counterparts, perhaps to make the lights stand out.

It’s also worth mentioning that for these three classes, any other weapon could have been a better addition. Spy and Sniper still don’t have full festive sets, and the Bonesaw is the worst Medic weapon out there; we already have the Festive Ubersaw anyway. Sniper could have done with a Festive Kukri or Bushwaka or something. For Spy, a festive watch would have been tricky to do, so the Revolver was an okay choice, but a Festive Dead Ringer or Cloak and Dagger for example would have been cool.

After that, we have the Chargin’ Targe. Like the Eyelander, it’s got an icy theme, with a spike of ice on the end, mounted on a large gold ball. This is a stark contrast to the rest of the shield, which has a candy-cane spiral motif on it, as well as Christmas lights around the edge. It’s like a mixture of the stock weapons and the awesomeness that is the Festive Eyelander. Unusual. Strange even. It does look really good, but people will have a hard time ranking up the strange variant. A Festive Splendid Screen or Tide Turner would be easier to rank up.

Finally, we have the Festive Shotgun. Soldier, Heavy and Engineer share this weapon, and it’s probably the most basic of the Festive weapons. While the SMG and Revolver had darker colour schemes and the Bonesaw had candy cane blood, the Shotgun is just the Shotgun with lights on it, mirroring the first wave of festive weapons. Soldier could have easily had a festive melee weapon (Festive Market Gardener, anyone?) so he could have a full festive set. Engineer could have had a festive Widowmaker or perhaps a festive Rescue Ranger, or perhaps a festive Jag that added lights to your sentry. For Heavy, Shotgun was a logical choice, but it’s a pity he has to share with the others.

Oh well. Thanks to the availability of these crates, all these weapons will be super cheap. The Bonesaw is already cheap, I got both the Festive and Strange Festive Variants for less than a key on the Steam Market. Remember, you can unbox these up until early February.