How to Get Taunts in Team Fortress 2

Many games have taunts to allow your character to do something funny and insulting. While these are often purely for fun and display, Team Fortress 2 (TF2) taunts are sometimes much more than that. Some of them can kill, heal, or upgrade.

If you want to learn more about taunts and how to get them, you’re in the right place. In this article, we’ll guide you on how to acquire them. We’ll also provide a link to a list of taunts.

How to Get Taunts in Team Fortress 2?

According to the TF2 Blog, taunts are “character-specific animations you can trigger in-game to either announce that you’ve just shot someone or would like to be shot yourself”. The humorous nature of TF2 lends itself to some creative and cool taunts. However, what else can they do in-game?

Normally, you taunt when you’ve killed an enemy or even if you just feel like disrespecting any opponents. In TF2, your taunts also have a practical side. Fun aside, the most valuable ones can be your enemy’s worst nightmare.

Before we get into some of the strangest and funniest taunts, let’s talk about getting taunts first. Here are the main ways to get taunts in TF2:

1. Achievements

There’s only one taunt you can get from the Achievements system – the Director’s Vision taunt. You get it when you edit a replay in TF2. The name of the achievement is Star of my Own Show.

2. Buying Taunts

Buying taunts from the Mann Co. Store is an option, though many community members believe it’s overpriced. Community-designed items are sold in the Mann Co. Store, and the creators receive a portion of the profits. Originally, items bought from this store weren’t tradeable.

However, since the Manniversary Update & Sale, these items are now tradable, as long as they’ve been in the purchaser’s inventory for more than seven days. The account must also have purchased something within the last 30 days.

You can get cheaper taunts from other websites and trading with players, but we’ll get to that later.

3. Trading Taunts

You can trade taunts with other players. Trading for TF2 items requires the use of Steam, and the trade is conducted using the launcher’s interface. You can initially trade eight items, divided into rows of four slots

However, Premium account holders who want to trade more than that will spot additional rows of four, allowing them to trade more items. The more items you drag in, the more rows will appear, totaling 256 slots. If you manage to score a good haul, you’ll be dragging and dropping a lot.

Thus, trading up to 256 items at once requires a Premium account. Non-premium accounts will only get eight slots to work with.

Trading for taunts is done by dragging and dropping the agreed-upon items when the Steam window pops up.

4. Item Drops

Occasionally, you can get taunts as rare item drops. They’re very rare, and you shouldn’t bank on them. If you do get lucky, you can always tell your friends.

Item drops happen when you play the game for a certain amount of time. You’ll get the item in your backpack, and an alert will appear onscreen. There’s a limit on how many items you can get this way per week.

After the week is over, it will be reset. You can simply play again to gain more items.

5. Giveaways

Some streamers and content creators might feel generous and give some taunts away. Maybe you can try your luck and win.

The best way to get taunts is to buy from community websites. The Mann Co. Store is the second-best choice. The other methods aren’t very reliable and shouldn’t be your primary way other than getting Director’s Cut.

How to Craft Taunts in Team Fortress 2?

In the Mann Co. Store, taunts are listed as “Craftable,” but you can’t actually craft a taunt. The label is there to denote that taunts are ingredients for other craftable items. Many players have been confused by this label and hunted for ways to craft.

Sadly, there won’t be any ways to craft taunts soon. The Taunt Workshop has already started implementing community-created taunts since 2015. According to the blog post, these taunts will be sold in the Mann Co. Store instead.

However, there is a way to work around it. You can use an Unusualifier on a taunt you own. Doing so will bestow a random Unusual effect upon the taunt, thereby modifying it.

An Unusual Taunt will have the same original animations, but new special effects will also appear. For example, a lightning strike might accompany a dancing taunt. There are many generations of Unusual taunt effects.

However, keep in mind that these aren’t true crafted taunts. Using an Unusualifier is a modification. You can check out the list of Unusual effects here.

How to Equip Taunts in Team Fortress 2?

Normally, taunting is bound to the ‘’Q’’ button. Pressing ‘’Q’’ will bring up a small menu of the various taunts you’ve equipped. If you press ‘’Q’’ twice, you’ll perform a weapon taunt should the weapon have one. Some weapons have special taunts too.

Here are the steps to equipping taunts in TF2:

1. Launch Team Fortress 2.
   
2. In the main menu, select “Items” in the Customize section.
   
3. Select any class you wish to equip taunts on.
   
4. By default, you’ll start at the loadout tab. Select the film reel icon at the bottom.
   
5. Now you’re in the taunt menu, you can select any slot.
   
6. After selecting a slot, pick the taunt you want to equip and repeat if you wish.

These taunts can be used in-game whenever you’re on land. You can’t taunt when you’re underwater or in the air. Any incoming damage and impact will cancel the taunt and you’ll have to fight back.

How to Use Taunts in Team Fortress 2?

When you just killed an enemy, press ‘’Q’’ and select the taunt you wish to use. Your opponent will be stuck looking at you through a third-person angle for a few seconds until respawn, so they won’t be able to miss it. You use your mouse to move to the desired taunt or an analog stick for controllers.

We’ve mentioned taunts that can kill. These are called kill taunts, and they can kill all but the most Overhealed enemies, most of the time. Each kill taunt is different, but setting them up is similar across the board.

Here’s how you kill with taunts:

1. Select a target to kill with your taunt.
2. Move towards the target, preferably without them noticing.
   
3. Do any preparations your taunt requires, such as uncloaking.
   
4. Taunt.
   
5. Watch your class perform the taunt.
6. Laugh and run away, unless you get killed (it’s worth it!).
   

Some taunts require a lot of preparation time. Because of this, you should know the timing. If you miss or swing too early, you’ll end up looking foolish instead of humiliating your opponent.

Kill taunts have differing damage values, usually more than 400 to inflict a one-hit kill. Heavy with maximum Overheal can withstand almost all kill taunts.

There are some exceptions to this, however. Spy’s Fencing taunt kills in three hits regardless of HP – two hits doe 50 damage and the third deals 500. Not even a fully Overhealed Heavy can withstand this, and it can also destroy Engineer buildings.

Pyro’s Armageddon and Execution kill taunts only deal 400 damage, which won’t kill a Heavy with maximum Overheal.

A particularly deadly kill taunt is Heavy’s Showdown taunt. He forms a finger gun with his right hand that kills whoever is in front of him. It can even go through small holes if the player has good aim.

In some cases, the class’ equipped weapon can change the kill taunt’s properties slightly. Some weapons reduce the damage while others yield special results.

You can also use ability taunts, which don’t directly damage enemies. These have a myriad of effects; all positive.

For example, Heavy’s Nomming taunt will provide him with a variety of boosts and healing. The effect depends on what food he pulls out of his lunchbox. The Buffalo Steak Sandvich (spelled this way) will make him use his melee weapon only but move 35% faster and take 25% more weapon damage for 15 seconds.

Using ability taunts requires good positioning and timing, as enemies can cancel the animation. If you manage to activate the effects, it means you’ve done it right.

Where Can I Buy Taunts in TF2?

You can buy taunts in the Mann Co. Store in-game, but this is much more expensive. Instead, the TF2 community has founded several websites that allow players to purchase taunts at a much lower price. Note that these websites aren’t affiliated with Valve, so proceed at your own risk.

DMarket is a popular website that you can buy TF2 taunts on. The prices are quite cheap, sometimes at only a few dollars for taunts. You can select the best price and purchase the taunt you want after registering.

A cool feature about DMarket is that you can register with your Steam account. This makes transferring taunts much more convenient and secure. You can even purchase items from other games such as CS:GO and Rust.

ScrapTF is another popular website that you can get cheap taunts from. Unlike DMarket, it has auctions, raffles, trading, and more. Maybe you’ll find the right price for the taunt you want here.

You must sign in to ScrapTF with Steam. The website is automated, though you can reach the support team if there’s an issue. Originally, the site was for TF2 only but has since expanded to include more games.

Marketplace.tf is another option for taunts. Some of the taunts get more expensive, but you can find almost anything you want in here.

Gamerall.com also has some taunts, though it seems that there aren’t any at the time of writing. However, this site allows for many payment methods. Maybe you’d prefer something like this.

Because these sites are community-run, Valve won’t be responsible if you get scammed or tricked. You should only trade if you’re confident. Always practice caution when using websites like this for buying and trading TF2 taunts.

A Complete List of All Taunts in TF2

While we don’t have a complete list of all taunts of TF2 on one page, we can direct you to the TF2 Wiki Taunts page. If you scroll down, there is a section called “Taunts by Class.” Select the class you want and browse through the lists.

Click here to open the Wiki page and subsection.

Haha, I Killed You With a Taunt!

Kill taunts are entertaining ways to kill the enemy, especially if you time it perfectly. Now that you know how to get them and use them, you might be able to create a montage. Buy your taunts from third-party websites to save money too.

Which taunt is your favorite? Have you managed to land a taunt kill? Let us know in the comments section below.