Hello everybody and welcome to my Guide about the Item Quality "Strange". I made this Guide to hopefully answer some Questions some of you may ask yourself about the Stranges, such as known Bugs and other special properties. One thing before we start: Everything I wrote in this Guide represents my own Opinion. If you do/do not agree with some content in this Guide, let me know and write it down in the comments. But for now, enjoy and have fun!

"Oh no, I got killed by this Blackbox Soldier, again! But why does his Weapon counts his kills and my Blackbox does that not?" - This could be a frequently asked Question among New Players. May some of you already know, what Strange Weapons are, the New Players surely do not. You can skip this Part if you already know this, but for the New Players I am going to start from the bottom. There are different Item Qualities, such as Unique (The Standard Item Quality) and that, mentioned before, Strange Item Quality. The difference between those Item Qualities is that, the Strange Variant of a Weapon (or Cosmetic, but more about that later) counts the Kills you do with that Weapon. Those Weapons rank up on the amount of Kills recorded on that Weapon. A high amount of Kills on your Strange Weapon can gain you a lot of Respect in the Community and shows your Experience with that Weapon. But not only Weapons can be Strange, cosmetics can be Strange, too! Those do not rank up on kills, furthermore they do not even record them. Strange Cosmetics count the points you score and rank up on the amount of the scored points.

Here is a list of Ranks and the amount of kills needed to reach each Rank. There are some exceptions referred to "Special" Strange Weapons, such as the Holiday Punch, any Invis Watch for the Spy, Mantreads, Sapper, Spirit of Giving. Cosmetic ranks shown seperately.

• 0 - Strange
  
• 10 - Unremarkeble
  
• 25 - Scarcely Lethal
  
• 45 - Midly Menacing
  
• 70 - Somewhat Threatening
  
• 100 - Uncharitable
  
• 135 - Notably Dangerous
  
• 175 - Sufficiently Lethal
  
• 225 - Truly Feared
  
• 275 - Spectacularly Lethal
  
• 350 - Gore-Spattered
  
• 500 - Wicked Nasty
  
• 750 - Positively Inhuman
  
• 999 - Totally Ordinary
  
• 1000 - Face-Melting
  
• 1500 - Rage-Inducing
  
• 2500 - Server-Clearing
  
• 5000 - Epic
  
• 7500 - Legendary
  
• 7616 - Australian
  
• 8500 - Hale's Own

Here the Ranks for the Strange Cosmetic Items:

• 0 - Strange
  
• 15 - Ragged
  
• 30 - Tacky
  
• 50 - Secondhand
  
• 75 - Odious
  
• 100 - Garish
  
• 135 - Comfortable
  
• 175 - Dapper
  
• 250 - Sharp
  
• 375 - Fancy
  
• 500 - Fancy Shmancy
  
• 725 - Fashionable
  
• 1000 - Glamorous
  
• 1500 - Posh
  
• 2000 - Fabulous
  
• 2750 - Stunning
  
• 4000 - Epic
  
• 5500 - Legendary
  
• 7500 - Australian
  
• 10000 - Mann Co. Select
  
• 15000 - Mannceaux Signature Collection

(If you wonder why there is a Kill counter on a Cosmetic Item, it's a Strange Part but more about that, later)

I will now list the "Special Strange Weapons" which I mentioned before, at the beginning of this Guide. Those Weapons do not count and rank on kills.

• Jarate, Mad Milk - Counts and ranks on "Sodden Victims".
  
• Bonk! Atomic Punch, Crit-a-Cola - Number of Times Ingested.
  
• Battailon's Backub, Buff Banner, Concheror - Number of Times deployed
  
• Festive Sandvich, Dalakohs Bar - Number of Times eaten
  NOTE: Sandvich only counts when actual healing is done.
  
• Holiday Punch - Ranks and counts Critical Hits or "Tickle Fights Won".
  NOTE: This Weapon has its own Rank System
  
• Medi Gun, Vaccinator, Quick-Fix - Counts and ranks on ÜberCharges.
  
• Kritzkrieg - Counts and ranks on Kill Assists
  
• Razorback - Counts and ranks on backstab attempts by enemy Spies.
  
• Mantreads - Counts and ranks up on smashed enemies.
  NOTE: This Weapon has its own Rank System.
  
• Sapper, Snack Attack, Red Tape Recorder - Counts and ranks on destroyed Buildings.
  NOTE: This Weapons has its own Rank System.
  
• Dead Ringer - Number of feigned deaths.
  
• Invisible Watch, Cloak and Dagger - Amount of seconds cloaked.
  NOTE: This Weapon has its own Rank System

Now we've come to a very, uhm, expensive Part of the Guide, the Australium Weapons.

Australium Weapons can be earned after completing a MvM Operation Tour. After completing a tour there is a small chance of winning a Australium Weapon. Why am I telling you this, you may ask. It's because every Australium Weapon is Strange. There is no way getting a Australium Weapon in another Item Quality than Strange. Since this Guide is all about that bass Strange Items, I have to mention them. Australium Weapons (often called Aussie) are just golden reskins of some stock and non-stock Weapons.
Next to the Australium Weapons there are, less expensive, but still cool Strange Weapons which can be earned by completing a MvM Operation (except the Operation Two Cities). They are default stock Weapons (in Strange of course, like Australium Weapons they only drop in Strange), but a Robot Head is often applied using a chain or a cabel. Completing different Operations means getting different Botkiller Weapons. Each Operation (except Two Cities) has two Botkiller Weapons as a reward of completing it. One of the Botkillers series of each Operations are more rare than the other series. For Example the Operation Oil Spill has Rust Botkiller Weapons and the rare Blood Botkiller Weapons. There are Botkiller Scatterguns, Rocket Launcher, Flamethrower, Sticky Bomb Launcher, Miniguns, Wrenchs, Medi Guns, Sniper Rifles and Knifes. I will now list the Operations and their Botkiller Weapons.

Operation Oil Spill:
(6 Missions)
Rust Botkiller
Blood Botkiller

Operation Steel Trap:
(3 Missions)
Silver Botkiller
Gold Botkiller

Operation Mecha Engine:
(3 Missions)
Silver Botkiller
Gold Botkiller

Operation Gear Grinder:
(3 Missions)
Carbonado Botkiller
Diamond Botkiller

Additional Note:
Thanks to Zeldafan2000 for reminding me of the Botkiller Weapons. ^^

So, now you have a Strange Stock Shotgun and you'd really like to show the World how many Sniper, Spy, Engi's you killed? How many buildings you destroyed and how many Damage you dealt at all with your Shotgun? You want to make it your own, personalized Killing Buddy? Then are Strange Parts the right thing for you! There are many different Parts out there. Want to show how you hate Pyros and how many you killed them? No Problem, a strange Part applied to your Strange Weapon will count the specific Criteria. You can even add some Strange Parts to Strange Cosmetic Items, such as "Kills, Assists or Fires survived". But hold on before you start buying: A Strange Item can only hold 3 Strange Parts at a time. And not all Parts can be applied on some Weapons. For Example: You can't add the Strange Part "Allied healing done" on a Strange Shotgun. Sounds logic, huh?


And yes, there are some Strange Items which cannot be used with Strange Parts at all.
The following list shows some of them. Notice, that I might comment some and that this list may not be complete, but I'll update it, when I discover new ones.

1. The Construction PDA
NOTE:On this weapon tool you can't add any Strange Parts, which kinda bothers me. Wouldn't it make sense if you could add "Damage Dealt", to show how many Damage your Sentry did? Or "Robot's destroyed"? Or, I don't know, "Scouts killed"? Well, I'll come back to the PDA later.

I continue the list of Exceptions: INCEPTION?! lol

2. Invisible Watch

NOTE:Well, I'm ok with that. Wouldn't make sense with any Strange Part. I am including the Dead Ringer as a Invisible Watch here.


















3. Sapper

NOTE:Think about if you could add the Strange Part "Buildings destroyed".

4. The Razorback


NOTE:Same as the Invisible Watch. Wouldn't make sense at all.

I want to show you now, which Strange Weapons I personally really like and why.
Here we go:

Rank 3:


I really like the Wrench, because it does not only counts the Sentry Kills, it also counts the melee Kills! It's like a free Strange Part added.


Rank 2:


The Medi Gun, just like the Wrench, has a additional Strange Counter. In this case it counts the UberCharges you did with the Medi Gun and the additional counter counts the assists while healing a Teammate. Just like the Wrench a "free Strange Part".

Rank 1:


Now we've come to my absolute faveourite Strange "Weapon". It's the PDA for the Engineer! You may ask yourself why, because it only counts the Sentry Gun Kills, right? Why not using a Wrench then, when it has the same function? Well, I tell you why: It has 2 additional counters! Yes, it counts the Sentry Gun kills and rank up on the amount of them, but it also counts the dispensed healing with your dispenser to your teammates and the players teleported. That's really awesome! It's like 2 Strange Parts! The negative aspect is that you cannot add any Strange Part, like I mentioned before. But, hey, at least it has additional counters on it.

And yes of course there are some weapons, which Strange Variant doesn't make much sense, because of special properties of the weapon. I will now list 3 of, in my Opinion, useless and unnecessary Strange Weapons. Here we go:

Rank 3:


The Mantreads. Yes. A lot of old school Market Gardener Soldiers are using them, along with the Market Gardener and the Rocket Jumper. Since you make crits while Rocket Jumping with the Market Gardener, you mostly want to kill with the Market Gardener. You only want to use the mantreads if you miss your hit with the Market Gardener. And since you are a good Market Gardener and don't miss your targets often, your mantreads are rarely in use.

Rank 2:


The Razorback blocks a Single backstab attempt. That's all. It counts those and ranks up on the amount of tried backstabs. But this depends on the Spy. When you are a Spy and you see your target is a Sniper with the Razorback, the last think you think of is, to try a backstab. You'll just pull your Ambassador out and Headshot him. So, in my opinion, it depends on the enemy Spies. If they are new, sure, they'll try to backstab you. But no "Standard" Player will ever try this.

Rank 1:



The Fan O'War. May some of you know, that this Melee Weapon does -90% less damage. That's a lot! It makes around 4-5 Damage. Wow. Killing someone with this Weapon is not impossible. But very, very hard! I never saw someone (in Public servers), killing someone with this Weapon. I am not speaking of the ability of marking someone to death. You could hit someone with the Fan O'War and the finish him off with the Scattergun. But that does not count as a kill for the Fan O'War itself. In MvM this Weapon is great, but yeah a Strange Variant? Nah, not really.

Yeah, no one is perfect. Just like Strange Weapons. I will talk about some Issues with Strange Parts or other thingys around Strange Weaapons. I'll update it when I discover new bugs and/or Issues. Let's begin:

The Construction PDA

This one has some really buggy things. In MvM, if you have a Strange PDA equipped, you will have trouble with Upgrade stations. Sometimes, when you want to buy something it suddenly abort and throw you out of the buy menu. For. No. Reason. Trust me, I experienced it by myself.

Medi Gun

Well, it's not really a bug, I just want to tell you in case you didn't know. You can extinguish team mates with your Medi Gun by healing them. The thing is that you can't add the Strange Part "Allies extuingished" to a Strange Medi Gun? Why? Ugh, well it has to do something with the count system, that with the difference of a immediately extinguish like the Jarate and the a the extuingish process of a Medi Gun.


The Wrench

It has some small Issues, not that buggy as the Strange PDA in MvM, but I still want to mention them. First, do not try to add "Robots destroyed" to a Strange Wrench. It won't count, as expected, the Sentry Kills. Only Melee. I don't know about you guys but, when I apply this Strange Part on a Wrench, I don't want to count the melee robot kills I do. Right? Same thing with the Strange Part "Damage dealt". You expect it to count the damage you have done with your Sentry, right? Guess what, you just got "noped". Only melee damage. Not really satisfying, because you may know, that this Part is the most expensive Part of all Parts.

Cosmetic

Hey, I just recently figured out that if you apply the Strange Cosmetic Part to a Engineer Cosmetic, it won't count Sentry Kills. Just "normal" Kills you do with you Shotgun or Wrench. Great. Just great! *sigh* Valve, please!

There are many Weapons and Items many Players want to be Strange. I list some Weapons and Items which I would love to have in Strange, but at the moment their not availiable in Strange. If you have any Weapons and/or other Cosmetics, you want to see in Strange, let me know, I'll put them here. Let's start.



I would love to see this Weapon in Strange. It's just a reskin of the default spy knife, but I see many players using it just because it looks more awesome than the default knife, even when they have a Strange knife.

The Black Rose

Many players would love to see it in Strange, because this knife has a really good style and looks not bad. You can get this Weapon for free, it's an achievement Item. Maybe Valve will add a Strangifier. We'll see.



Recently Requested:
Ham, Nostromo Napalmer, Big Kill, Lugermorph, Maul




Of course. Of course, you did think about Strange Taunts. I mean, who didin't? There are Unusual Taunts, so why shouldn't there be Strange ones? Strange Taunts could count the amount of Times used. Or in case of the Conga, the distance you have traveled or the amount of Time doing the Conga. Or High Five Taunt, how many people you slapped your hand to their hand. You can continue this with any Taunt and I would be really amazed if Valve would create Strange Taunts. But, hey, if they don't, it's not that bad. You can't have everything.

(More coming soon...)

There is a tool in CS:GO, which allows you to swap the counters of StatTrak Skins (Strange in TF2). They have to be the same weapon and they have to be in StatTrak. I thought about this feature in TF2. I think it's a good Idea. Imagine: You are maining Scout. You have a Scattergun Strange since you play Scout. You have over 8000 Kills on it and you are very proud of it. You decide to buy a Australium Scattergun. This tool would be perfect to show your experience with Scatterguns, even on a new bought one. So, it's a good way to keep the spirit of your fave Strange weapons alive and transform them in to a eventually "better Strange Weapon. The only Problem I see, is the thing with the Strange Parts. How do you swap it when one of your Strange Weapons has Strange Parts and the other one don't? They can't swap it, when there is no counter. So, I just wanted to show you the possibilites of this tool. What is your Opinion? Write it down in the comments to let me know.

Here is a picture of a potatoe.

You made it to the end of my Guide. I hope you enjoyed it and it hopefully answered some of your Questions. If it didin't, feel free to add me, so I can explain it to you. (Hopefully). What do you think about this Guide? What was good, what was bad? Write it down in the comments, so I can improve myself in the future. But for now, Thanks for reading and happy Strange Weapon leveling! (Happy Fragging)



NOTE: I do not own any photos, ALL photos go to their rightful owners which I seriously cannot find because I just googled photos of this topic.