Team Fortress 2 Crafting FAQ
Team Fortress 2 Crafting Frequently Asked Questions by DanPMK
I’ve seen several questions and sometimes incorrect answers about some crafting things, so I decided to make a thread about it. Tell me if you’d like more questions to be added! The guide is broken into 3 sections: General, Headgear, and Weapons. Note that this guide containers “spoilers” for crafting recipes, so if you want to discover the recipes yourself, maybe avoid the Weapon section 
.
Now updated with information on the Shogun Update. Also remember to read the Mann-Conomy FAQ for additional information on the previous update. Additionally, I can’t update the thread immediately after every update so remember to check out the official TF2 Wiki for more up-to-date information!
General questions
Q. How do I find blueprints?
A. All blueprints are now listed right inside TF2! Just go to the crafting section and find the button to view all the blueprints. Here’s two sites that have the blueprints for reference outside of TF2:
Crafting article on the Team Fortress Wiki
Blueprints page on the TF2 Backpack Examiner
Q. Can I find Metal or Tokens from random drops?
A. No. On occasion, the crafting system glitches up and items “fall out” of your backpack. When you play the game next and die, you will re-find the items that fell out, and if any of the items that fell out was a metal, it will show the message that you found metal. For example, this was my backpack, but then, for some reason, some of the items fell out later in the day. The next time I played, I “found” all my items, including a Reclaimed Metal. This is only a visual glitch. You cannot actually find Metal.
Q. Can I use Tokens to create things other than weapons or hats?
A. Yes, you can use Tokens to either create new Tokens, or smelt 3 Tokens together to create Reclaimed Metal. Doing the latter is only a net loss of 1⅓ Scrap Metal, so if you have extra it’s a good idea. See the links above to learn the blueprints.
Q. Can I turn my Reclaimed Metal back into Scrap Metal?
A. Yes, simply put one Reclaimed Metal in the crafting box and you’ll get 3 Scrap Metal back. The same goes for a Refined Metal, which will give you 3 Reclaimed Metal back.
Q. Can I craft or smelt Tools or Action Items?
A. No, Tools such as Crates, Keys, Backpack Expanders, Name Tags, Description Tags, and Paint Cans cannot be crafted or smelted into new items, however they are all tradeable to other players and can be found in the item drop system (with the exception of Keys). The same applies to the Action Item, the Dueling Mini-Game.
Headgear questions (Hat and Misc.)
Q. Do Hats and Misc. items drop at the same rate?
A. Yes. They are both considered headgear and both drop at the same rate, far less frequently than weapons.
Q. How many weapons do I need to smelt to make headgear?
A. If you use the “Fabricate Headgear” recipe to create a random hat, it costs a total of 54 items. If you use the “Fabricate Class Headgear” recipe to make a class-specific random hat, it’s an additional 21 for a total of 75 weapons.
Q. When I craft 2 headgear, am I guaranteed to get a new headgear, or a headgear I don’t have?
A. When you combine 2 headgear, you’ll get a headgear different from the two in the recipe, but it’s possible to get a headgear you have elsewhere in your backpack.
Q. When I craft 2 Unusual headgear, will the new headgear be Unusual as well?
A. No, so craft with care! Any properties of the headgear you craft, including Unusual, Vintage, and level, are randomized when you create a new hat with them using any method. The only exception to this is being untradeable: If you craft 2 untradeable hats together, or 1 tradeable with 1 untradeable, the resulting hat will be untradeable.
Q. Can I smelt or create Bill’s Hat, or other special hats?
A. No. The following special headgears are unsmeltable and uncraftable, and cannot be made, or crafted into new hats:
Hats:
- Cheater’s Lament
- Ghastly Gibus & Ghastlier Gibus
- Mildly Disturbing Halloween Mask
- Bill’s Hat
- Max’s Severed Head
- Alien Swarm Parasite
- Lumbricus Lid
- Mann Co Cap
- Ellis’ Cap
- Wiki Cap
- Dealer’s Visor
- Foster’s Facade
Miscellaneous items:
Q. Can I trade the Hats and Misc. items listed above?
A. You cannot trade any of the Misc. items, but according to the catalog, you can trade all the Hats except the Halo and the Gibus. You can trade any item if you use Gift Wrap on it, which is purchasable from the Mann Co. Store. Valve seems to change tradeability frequently so check the item description.
Q. I heard you can craft 4 3 Camera Beards to make a Misc Token, and use that to create a Gentle Manne’s Service Medal. Is this true?
A. Sadly, it is not. There is no Misc Token in the game’s coding, at all. Crafting 3 Camera Beards would only give you a Spy Token, there is no option to use other blueprints. There is no way to craft a Gentle Manne’s Service Medal.
Q. Are there any other ways to get hats?
A. Right now there are a few recipes:
The Polycount set hats are also craftable:
- Milkman = 4 Refined + [Mad Milk, Shortstop, or Holy Mackerel]
- Grenadier’s Softcap = 4 Refined + [Black Box or Battalion’s Backup]
- Attendant = 4 Refined + [Degreaser or Powerjack]
- Ol’ Snaggletooth = 4 Refined + [Sidney Sleeper or Darwin’s Danger Shield or Bushwacka]
- Familiar Fez = 4 Refined + [L’Etranger or Your Eternal Reward]
Weapon questions
Q. What is the blueprint for X weapon?
A. There’s about a billion weapons now, so if you want you can check out the Weapons page on the Team Fortress Wiki, as well as their weapon navigation template. Click on a weapon’s name and the page will give you all the information you need to find or create it!
Q. How do I get new weapons? Do I need to do achievements?
A. Those weapons which do not have achievements can be obtained in 4 different ways:
- Wait for them to randomly drop.
- Purchase them from the store.
- Craft them using the standard weapon recipe.
- Craft them using the special weapon recipes.
Posting every single special recipe would make the post too long, and is no longer necessary since you can view the blueprints in-game now, or on the wiki. Instead, I will only post the blueprints for the most recently added weapons.
First, the RIFT weapons:
- Scout’s Sun-on-a-Stick = 2 Reclaimed + Boston Basher
- Pyro’s Sharpened Volcano Fragment = 2 Reclaimed + Axtinguisher
And second, the Shogun weapons:
- Scout’s Fan O’War = 1 Scrap + Mad Milk
- Soldier’s Concheror = 1 Scrap + Battalion’s Backup
- Soldier/Demo’s Half-Zatoichi = 1 Scrap + 2 Eyelanders
- Spy’s Conniver’s Kunai = 1 Scrap + Your Eternal Reward
And third, if you need those ingredients:
- Boston Basher = Sandman + Tribalman’s Shiv
- Mad Milk = Reclaimed + Jarate
- Battalion’s Backup = Reclaimed + Buff Banner
- Your Eternal Reward = Reclaimed + Cloak & Dagger
Q. What are the standard recipes? Am I guaranteed to get the weapon I want using them?
If you instead choose to use the standard weapon recipes, it’s very simple. The system works using Tokens. You get a Class Token by combining 3 weapons of the same class, or a Slot Token by combining 3 weapons of the same slot. The formula Class Token + Slot Token + Scrap Metal will give you a random weapons for that class and in that slot. Since there are sometimes multiple weapons of the same slot for a given class, it doesn’t always give a 100% chance of getting the item you want. It’s a gamble.
For example:
- Demoman Token + Scrap Metal + …
- Primary = Scottish Resistance or Chargin’ Targe or Sticky Jumper (training item) = 33.3~% chance
- Secondary = Loch-n-Load = 100% chance
- Melee = Eyelander or Pain Train or Scotsman’s Skullcutter or Ullapool Caber or Claidheamh Mòr or Half-Zatoichi = 16.6~% chanceSpy Token + Scrap Metal + …
- Primary = see below for slot details
- Secondary = Ambassador or L’Etranger = 50/50
- Melee = Your Eternal Reward or Conniver’s Kunai
- PDA2 = Dead Ringer or Cloak & Dagger
Q. The above formula says the Demoman’s Sticky unlocks are primary, but they are in slot 2! WHAT’S GOING ON?
A. Even tho in-game the Grenade Launcher is in weapon slot 1, and the Sticky Bomb Launcher is in slot 2, they are in opposite positions in the game’s coding, and thus in the game’s crafting system. The Grenade Launcher is a secondary weapon, and the Sticky Bomb Launcher is a primary weapon.
To avoid confusion, I strongly suggest referring to the Grenade Launcher as “Slot 1” and the Sticky Launcher as “Slot 2”. Additionally, I’d avoid terms such as “Pipes” or “Pipe Launcher” since Valve wanted to further confuse you by using those to internally refer to stickies.
Q. What about the Spy’s Ambassador and L’Etranger?
A. As with the Demoman, the Spy’s Revolver is a secondary weapon, and should be referred to as being in “Slot 1” instead. The Spy technically doesn’t have a primary weapon, see below.
Q. I crafted 4 3 of my Spy watches and got a PDA2 Slot Token. What the heck is that?
A. The Spy watches, not being primary, secondary, or melee weapons, occupy what is called the PDA2 slot in the game. If you craft 3 of them together, you will get the option of making a Spy Token or a PDA2 Token. The Engineer’s Destroy Tool is also in this slot.
The PDA2 Token originally had the appearance of a bottle but Valve fixed it a day after the update. Here is what it looks like now. You can use the PDA2 Token to craft another watch, but if you had 3 already that’d probably be a waste. I’d save them, to show them off :P
Q. Is there a PDA1 Token, or other tokens? If so, how do I get them?
A. There were other tokens in the game, including a Grenade Token, a Building Token, and PDA Token, but since there are no weapons you can unlock in those slots, and we cannot obtain them, they were removed. At the moment, the PDA(1) slot is the Engineer’s Build Tool and the Spy’s Disguise Kit.
Q. What crafting slot is the Spy’s Sapper or the Engineer’s Toolbox?
A. These items are in the Building slot.
Q. Are there any uncraftable weapons?
A. The following weapons cannot be crafted or smelted:
- From the Sam & Max promotion: The Lugermorph and The Big Kill.
- From the L4D2 promotion: The Frying Pan.
- From Poker Night at the Inventory: The Iron Curtain and the Lugermorph.
Thanks to all of you who posted additional questions and information, and pointing out mistakes. I’d list all of you, but it’d be a chore to update, so check the other posts to see who helped!
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