Horseless Headless Horsemann

Horseless Headless Horsemann
Basic Information
Icon:	N/A
Type:	NPC
Health:	3000+
Speed:	133%

“

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 who 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 amount of damage the Horseless Headless Horsemann deals is equivalent to two times the current health of the character it is striking. The Horsemann will also instantly destroy any Buildings that are in his path.

Players too close to the Horsemann when it makes a kill 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 same symbol used for the G.R.U.). The person marked as "It" can pass on their status by striking a player on the opposing team with their melee weapon or by moving close enough to RED or BLU's spawn. After 30 seconds, the Horsemann will abandon chasing whoever is "It". 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. He crouches and then spreads his arms wide, releasing a loud ghostly "BOO!" and scaring anyone in a range of 500 units. This is similar to the Ghost's effect and also grants 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 blow with a melee weapon he will drop a Unusual Haunted Metal Scrap. "Killing blow" either being you actually getting the fatal hit on him, or being one of the last 3 players to hurt him before his death with a melee weapon. If the Horsemann begins "shiver", he is about to die. When the Horseless Headless Horsemann does die, the game shows a message and plays 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; meaning, unless the console is used to spawn him manually, his minimum possible health is 5000. The Horsemann spawns roughly every 8 minutes (± 1 minute).

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

Strategy

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

General Strategy

• 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 runs as fast as a Scout.
• 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 also appears to be completely immune to most, if not all, status ailments such as being coated in Jarate or Mad Milk, afterburn, slowdown, or 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.
• The Horsemann can see through the Spy's Cloak. Additionally, cloaked Spies can be designated "It", and the corresponding icon displays above their head, regardless of whether or not the Cloak is active.
• 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.
• As of November 8, 2010, it is no longer possible to force spawn the Horsemann on maps other than Mann Manor. Attempting to do so will result in a fatal crash.

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 Horseless Headless Horsemann's mechanics are similar to a community made mod called VS. Saxton Hale, in which everyone is on RED except Saxton Hale, who is able to instantly kill anybody with a single hit, as well as startle groups of enemies.
  • The VS. Saxton Hale Mod has a random chance each round to replace Saxton Hale with a smaller version of the Horseless Headless Horsemann, who is called Horseless Headless Horsemann Jr. or "HHH Jr."
• 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.
• By using the console command ent_create headless_hatman, it's possible to spawn the Horseless Headless Horsemann while in Mann Manor (requires cheats). However, like other bots, he won't move or attack unless the map has nav meshes. Another command to spawn the Horseless Headless Horsemann is the following command: tf_halloween_force_boss_spawn (requires cheats).
  • By using the former code to spawn multiple Horsemenn at once they will attack each other as well as players.
  • By using the latter code to spawn multiple Horsemenn, each separate Horsemann's health is calculated by the formula: (3000 + ([# of players on server] * 200)) / [# of HHH spawned].
• 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 completely ignore him.
• The Horseless headless horsemann has a dramatic entrance. He rises up from control point C, holding his pumpkin head high up in the air. When he comes out of the ground, he then grasps his pumpkin with both hands, places into position, twists it back and forth a few times, gets out his headtaker, and then starts his killing spree.