Horseless Headless Horsemann

Horseless Headless Horsemann
Basic Information
Icon:	N/A
Type:	NPC
Health:	5000+

“

This is my world! You are not welcome in my world! Click to listen — The Soldier on undead horseless horsemen

”

The Horseless Headless Horsemann (often abbreviated to HHH) is a neutral enemy that appears in Mann Manor. As the not-quite-dead form of Silas Mann, this character will crawl out of the currently contested control point after a pre-determined amount of time before hunting down and killing any player on either team until he is defeated. The Horseless Headless Horsemann will instantly kill any players and Buildings he strikes.

The Horseless Headless Horsemann is referred to as "Team Fortress's first boss monster" on the official Scream Fortress update page.

Mechanics

A player too close to the Horsemann when it spawns or loses its target will be designated as "It," whereupon they become the primary target. The current "It" is marked with a floating white skull-and-crossbones symbol. The person marked as "It" can pass on their status by striking a player on the opposing team with their melee weapon. The Horsemann may also change targets if the player marked "It" moves close enough to RED or BLU's spawn, moves too far away from the Horsemann, or survives for 30 seconds without being killed. He will then choose the first player that is within range as the new "It".

If no one is "It", he may perform a "Boo" taunt. When doing so, he crouches and then spreads his arms wide, releasing a loud ghostly "Boo!", scaring anyone in a range of 500 units. This is similar to the Ghost's effect and can also grant the Scared Stiff Scarechievement. Wearing the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head or the Saxton Hale Mask provides immunity from being scared in this way.

Contributing to killing the Horseless Headless Horsemann awards both the Sleepy Holl0wnd scarechievement and the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head hat. If a player delivers a killing melee blow - either delivering the fatal melee hit or being one of the last three to deliver a melee hit - that player will receive a Unusual Haunted Metal Scrap and the Gored Scarechievement . The Horsemann will begin to "shiver" when he has been killed before exploding, and the game will show a message and play a special melody to all players in the server.

The Horseless Headless Horsemann has a base health of 3000, increasing by 200 per player in the server, making his maximum possible health a massive 7800 (24-player server) or an even higher 9400 (in an increased slot 32-player server). He will not spawn if there are under 10 players in the server, placing his minimum possible health at 5000. The Horsemann spawns roughly every 8 minutes (± 1 minute), and only appears on the map Mann Manor.

General Strategy

Damage graph showing the number of players, vs. health of the Horsemann.

• One basic strategy for the player designated "It" is to act as bait for the Horsemann while all other players inflict as much damage as they can.
• The Horsemann's target can trap him by standing on the ledge behind the wall of the shack on the rock outcrop. Standing there while targeted makes the Horsemann attack the wall of the shack and ignore all other players, including those attacking him with melee weapons. Using this method the "Gored!" ghostchievement can be easily obtained.
• Like a building, the Horsemann does not activate any on-hit effects such as the Buff Banner's rage building. The Horsemann is also completely immune to all status ailments such as being coated in Jarate or Mad Milk, afterburn, slowdown, The Sandman's ball and knockback. However, the Horsemann is affected by Critical damage and damage ramp up/falloff. Damage to the Horsemann does not display damage text or play hit sounds.
• The control points are still active while the Horsemann is out. It is a good strategy to take advantage of this and use this time to take control of the point while the enemy is distracted.
• A strategy regarding RED on C is to stay as close as possible to spawn and retreat into the spawn as soon as a player on said team is "IT." This way, the HHH will spend most of the time chasing BLU, thus defending your point. This strategy works great with Sentry Guns aiming at the point.
• Use the gap around the final control point as a buffer; If he gets too close you can simply jump the gap and he will be forced to run around the crack in the floor to reach you.
• Though the HHH can chase the player designated "It" onto the roof of B, he cannot chase a player onto the roofs of the buildings near it. Therefore, it is still possible to deal damage without the risk of being killed.

For class specific strategies see Horseless Headless Horsemann match-ups

Related Achievements

Sleepy Holl0WND Kill the Horseless Headless Horsemann. Reward: Horseless Headless Horsemann's Head

Gored! Collect the Horseless Headless Horsemann's Haunted Metal Scrap.

Previous changes

• Originally, it was possible to evade the Horsemann by staying on the roof of point B, as he would fall through the playerclip ladder. This was fixed in an update on October 28, 2010.

Gallery

• 

  The Horseless Headless Horsemann attacking some members of both teams

• 

  An in-game screenshot of the Horseless Headless Horsemann

• 

  The icon which appears above a scared player

• 

  The Horseless Headless Horsemann's kill icon

See also: List of kill icons

Trivia

Presumably Silas Mann in the Mann family portrait. Notice that he is holding keys and nametags, and something is burning in the fireplace.

• The Horseless Headless Horsemann is a parody of the Headless Horseman from the story Template:W by Template:W.
• The Horsemann has several unused animations that can be found in the game files. These include the "Cheers" thumbs up action and Medic calls. This is due to the Horsemann using many of the Demoman's original animations.
  • The animation the Horsemann uses when walking changes depending on how much health he has. After he loses a certain percentage of health (currently not known, presumably 50%) he stops using the Eyelander/Skullcutter walk animation (two handed) and starts using the Bottle/Pain Train/Frying Pan walk animation (one handed).
  • There is also an unused jump animation, also left over from the Demoman. This animation is unused as the Horsemann never actually jumps, though he will fall from a higher level if he is chasing someone. He will otherwise walk around height obstacles or change his target.
• The Horsemann kills count as environmental deaths. Therefore achievements such as Foul Territory for the Scout can be achieved by stunning some one about to be killed by the Horsemann.
• Bots will not attack the Horsemann and will ignore him completely.
• The Horseless Headless Horsemann doesn't do damage in the regular manner. He forces the client of anyone he hits to activate the suicide command. This can be seen by looking at the console after he kills people.