Team Fortress 2 Engineer Update: Search for the Golden Wrenches

Bobby Miller 5 Jul, 2010 at 4:49pm ET Article published in Gaming

An update to Team Fortress 2, along with the addition of the official update webpage, has revealed that the TF2 Engineer Update is finally upon us. A new objective has been unleashed—the collection of 100 Golden Wrenches—along with an image of the engineer’s bulletin board adorned with photographs from the “Loose Canon” comic. The full update will go live this Thursday.

Following the teaser video and comic, the update webpage continues the back story of Team Fortress 2. The collected photographs show the Engineer’s grandfather, some weapon blueprints, maps, and various news stories. Though few official weapon unlocks have been announced yet, this page teases the idea of a hidden hat-gun and gatling gun turret, among other things.

The primary focus of this update seems to be the Golden Wrenches. At the very top of the page is a link to the “Wrench Log“. This log, currently at 25 wrenches, shows the names of all of the players who have found Golden Wrenches thus far. Though details are not given, it seems that Golden Wrenches are obtained by crafting items in game. Those that find a Golden Wrench will have the weapon for lifetime bragging rights.

Along with the reveal of the Golden Wrenches, Valve has announced that the first Engineer weapon unlock is a new shotgun titled Frontier Justice. While this shotgun carries 50% less ammunition and doesn’t score random crits, it counters by rewarding the player with crits based on the damage their turret has dished out. Two crits are gained per sentry kill, and one crit per sentry assist. The Engineer also recieves bonus crits for the destruction of their sentry.

Don’t delay, the wrenches are going quickly. Now is a great time to jump on TF2 and start crafting. If you find one, your name will be immortalized on the site, and your backpack will hold an item that will tell the world of your success for years to come.

Comments

5 Jul 2010 ~ 4:53pm BuddyJ I want this wrench so bad. It's the best update item by far.
5 Jul 2010 ~ 5:03pm PhIxX Can't even say the spy leaked it this time... interesting to find out how that update post got out there.
5 Jul 2010 ~ 5:07pm UPSLynx Even more interesting is that fact that 24 wrenches have already been found. How are these players finding the wrenches?
5 Jul 2010 ~ 5:22pm _k The first guy to get one had his revoked and then banned from VAC servers for cheating.
5 Jul 2010 ~ 8:30pm Snarkasm Well, some folks found hints in source code and unlocked it themselves - I'm guessing those are the other ones banned. Otherwise, it just looks like lucky crafting (unless there's a specific recipe for the golden wrenches). The first 100 are getting enshrined forever.

And holy crap, the Frontier Justice looks wonderfully overpowered. Two crits for every sentry kill, one for assists, and a bonus when it's destroyed, even if the engi himself destroys it? Yikes.
6 Jul 2010 ~ 1:27am Cliff_Forster Snark, totally off topic, but ya wanna know something that grinds my gears?

No..... Really..... I'm gonna tell ya anyhow.

The term Engi, I mean seriously guys, how damn lazy are we in the Team Fortress 2 community? Engi / Engineer, its one extra syllable guys, get it right! People all running around, whats the Engi doing, where is the Engi with my teleporter, hey Pyro's do a Spy check for that Engi!!

Do we call Medic's a Med, do we call Heavy's a Heav, do we call Sniper's, Snipe, Do we call Pyro's a Pie? (mmmmmmmm pie) NO!, we show them the proper respect that their class deserves! We give them all their syllables in tact, the way Websters intended!

Engi, its not a word, its not a class, its just a despicably disrespectful way to refer to the most important class defending against Heavy's that want to push that little cart and blow team red's base straight to hell!

ENGINEER!

That is all.....
6 Jul 2010 ~ 1:35am Bandrik I took a peek around the intertubes to see if there were any tips in nabbing a Golden Wrench. Here's what I've come up with, and remember it's all sketchy at best.

1. All 100 are available at any time; it is NOT 25 per day.

2. They are achieved by crafting from other items

3. You will only get one with a lucky chance when you craft an item

4. It mayyyy have something to do with the "Loose Canon" comic that was released recently, see the comic here: http://www.teamfortress.com/loosecanon/

5. There may be a specific blueprint/recipe that is needed for the chance of getting a golden hammer. Perhaps a "use this blueprint for a 99% chance of a normal wrench, 1% for a golden wrench". Or maybe you may just get it by crafting anything at all (more likely the latter)

6. They've temporarily disabled just smelting back and forth between the metals, to avoid cheating. So that tells me you can get the golden wrench by just crafting whatever.

7. For those that never crafted before, just launch TF2, go to "character setup", and click the "craft" icon that looks like a hammer and anvil. Go from there (there's a built-in help mini-tutorial).

Hope this helps. Would love to have an Icrontian earn a Golden Wrench. Best of luck - you'll need it.
6 Jul 2010 ~ 1:39am RyanFodder How many other classes have 3 syllables?
6 Jul 2010 ~ 2:00am primesuspect This is insane; it's like Willy Wonka. The 33rd Golden Wrench was just found. Every single player in the world was notified via in-game popup.

Valve are truly masters of the craft. I was talking to LethalBlu tonight (remember him?); neither of us has played TF2 in months. This brought us back
6 Jul 2010 ~ 8:33am Snarkasm

Cliff_Forster wrote:

Snark, totally off topic, but ya wanna know something that grinds my gears?

No..... Really..... I'm gonna tell ya anyhow.

You don't complain about demo/demoman. Cannon already hit on it, but:

Med-ic
Py-ro
Hea-vy
Sni-per
Sol-dier
Scout
Spy

Demoman and Engineer are the only three-syllable classes, and they both have well-accepted two-syllable alternates - demo and engi. Now stop being silly and go find a wrench, darnit. They're releasing further engi updates with every 25 wrenches found, so at 50, the next upgrade gets shown off. Find find find, people!
6 Jul 2010 ~ 8:45am Cliff_Forster

Snarkasm wrote:

You don't complain about demo/demoman. Cannon already hit on it, but:

Med-ic
Py-ro
Hea-vy
Sni-per
Sol-dier
Scout
Spy

Demoman and Engineer are the only three-syllable classes, and they both have well-accepted two-syllable alternates - demo and engi. Now stop being silly and go find a wrench, darnit. They're releasing further engi updates with every 25 wrenches found, so at 50, the next upgrade gets shown off. Find find find, people!

I spent a few minutes crafting last night, no luck. I wonder if there is any method to it at all?
6 Jul 2010 ~ 8:48am PhIxX There has at least been a trend that it's near the hour mark, normally within 6 minutes +/-, or so they say.
6 Jul 2010 ~ 12:51pm UPSLynx Last night, some anon on the internet hate machine apparently figured out the algorithm to this. It seems that the wrech releases are timed. He predicted wrench drops at three different times around midnight PST. Wrenches dropped within two or three minutes of his predictions every time. The thread 404'd before he could explain further.

There is no specific blueprint to this. You just craft.
6 Jul 2010 ~ 12:53pm Winfrey Heavy clearly = Hugwa
6 Jul 2010 ~ 2:45pm Garg

primesuspect wrote:

This is insane; it's like Willy Wonka. The 33rd Golden Wrench was just found. Every single player in the world was notified via in-game popup.

Valve are truly masters of the craft. I was talking to LethalBlu tonight (remember him?); neither of us has played TF2 in months. This brought us back

Worked on me, too. I don't know any of the maps anymore, but I'm running around shooting at anything that moves, anyway.
6 Jul 2010 ~ 7:54pm _k Yes the wrangler. Before ya'll scream OP and Bobby loves blue people. The sentry does go down for 3 seconds after the wrangler comes off it which when played right should force you to kill engi first then sentry second. oh man the insane engi defense I have in my head, a pair could rip people apart.
6 Jul 2010 ~ 8:00pm UPSLynx You couldn't resist.

Keep in mind that shotty has half the amount of ammo as well, that'll make things a bit more difficult. If you don't hit before you reload, you'll be in trouble.
5 Aug 2010 ~ 1:28pm Koreish I believe that some may have commented that if they got a wrench they would destroy it just to piss people off. Well it appears that some one else thought the same thing, but that they would do it for charity.

http://teamfortress.com/post.php?id=4151&p=1