Team Fortress 2/Unused Weapons

There's a lot of unused and abandoned weapons in the game.

Grenades
Yes, these old chestnuts from the original Team Fortress. Some old, some new: They come in Bear Trap, Concussion, EMP, Frag, Gas, Healing, MIRV, Nail and Napalm flavors, all with lovely TF2-style models. When the crafting system was implemented, a crafting token was added for the grenade slot, but was later removed.

There are models for all the grenades in the game files, but they all lack textures. Textures for them have recently been found in the earliest available version of the game on Steam, referred to by the community as "TF2 V0" or "TF2 Version 0" and the textures were eventually made available to the public after being uploaded onto game modding sites like GameBanana.

Frag Grenade
A basic Frag Grenade. All classes but the Scout would have had access to such grenades.

Concussion Grenade
The Concussion Grenade would have been the Scout's secondary grenade.

Nail Grenade
The Nail Grenade would have been the Soldier's secondary grenade.

Napalm Grenade
The Napalm Grenade would have been the Pyro's secondary grenade. The model itself does not properly display the RED texture, instead using the BLU texture for both teams, though this can easily be fixed. NOTE: Like the Soldier, the Pyro has these grenades on his/her strap despite not using them.

MIRV Grenade/Dynamite Pack
A scrapped weapon intended for both Demoman and the Heavy. Came in both grenade and secondary weapon versions. For the secondary weapon version, after throwing it, it'd explode into several smaller sticks, which would then explode separately. The MIRV was seen in the teaser trailer.

The single stick version (w_grenade_bomblet.mdl) calls for a "fuse_spark" particle in its .QC file, which gets attached to the "wick" part of the stick. Because this particle no longer exists in-game (and hasn't for quite some time), the game can't display it, which results in console errors. The particle was shown in the XBOX 360 Orange Box trailer. By decompiling the model, editing the .QC file and changing "fuse_spark" to "fuse_sparks" (the particle from the Loose Cannon's cannonball projectile), you can return the single Dynamite Stick to it's former glory.

EMP Grenade
The EMP Grenade would have been the Engineer's secondary grenade.

Heal Grenade
The Heal Grenade would have been the Medic's secondary grenade.

Bear Trap
The Bear Trap would have been the Sniper's secondary grenade.

This grenade makes a brief cameo in the final game, sitting amongst the clutter in the MvM Upgrade Stations.

Gas Grenade
The Gas Grenade would have been the Spy's secondary grenade. The model itself does not properly display the RED texture, instead using the BLU texture for both teams, though this can easily be fixed.

Crowbar
A melee weapon from very early in development, before the classes were given unique melee weapons. The model exists, and textures were recently discovered in old depots for the game from several years ago. Judging the appearance, it's simply the HL1 Crowbar. NOTE: Most of the melee weapons use sound effects labelled with "crowbar" for hitting the world.

A name string can be found in tf_english.txt

"TF_Weapon_Crowbar"			"Crowbar"

Flag
Referenced in the game's files in part of a text file naming the weapon types, it appears that the flag was to be held as a weapon at one point.

A name string can be found in tf_english.txt

"TF_Weapon_Flag"			"Flag"

Super SMG
An unused weapon class. Possibly the Scout's SMG before he was given the Nailgun and later the Scattergun. Concept art shows the Scout and Medic having different SMG designs.

A name string can be found in tf_english.txt

"TF_Weapon_SuperSMG"			"Super SMG"

Nailgun
A primary weapon intended for the Scout. The model and selection icon (aka "bucket" icon) exist, and textures were recently discovered in old depots for the game from several years ago. Was replaced with the SMG, which was then given to the Sniper.

A name string can be found in tf_english.txt

"TF_Weapon_Nailgun"			"Nail Gun"

Branding Iron
A melee weapon. The model exists, and textures were recently discovered in old depots for the game from several years ago. The textures are completely mapped out, but are white, indicating that texturing was never finished. Was replaced with the Pyro's Fire Axe.

Within game_sounds_weapons.txt, the Fire Axe has the heading BRANDING IRON.

Club
A melee weapon. The model exists, and textures were recently discovered in old depots for the game from several years ago. The textures are completely mapped out, but are white, indicating that texturing was never finished. Replaced with the Sniper's Kukri. Called a Fish Whacker in the melee weapon concept art. NOTE: The Machete is sometimes mentioned by strings as "tf_weapon_club".

Lead Pipe
A melee weapon; concept art on the official TF2 website shows it as belonging to the Heavy. The model exists, and textures were recently discovered in old depots for the game from several years ago. The Heavy ended up using his own Fists for melee.

Syringe
A melee weapon intended for the Medic as seen in the teaser trailer. May have healed friends when jabbing them, same as the TF2 Medikit, however it's shown in concept art alongside the Syringe Gun and Medi Gun. The model and textures exist.

Tranquilizer Gun
A weapon intended for the Spy that was seen in the teaser trailer. The model and selection icon (aka bucket icon) exist, and textures were recently discovered in old depots for the game from several years ago.

A name string can be found in tf_english.txt

"TF_Weapon_Tranq"			"Tranquilizer Gun"

Class Updates
These were weapon concepts for the class updates. They were replaced by the weapons these classes received in their updates.

Overhealer
A Medi Gun alternative. This would have allowed the Medic to overheal players to 200% of their normal health, instead of 150%, and this overheal would not decay over time. To offset this, its ÜberCharge build rate was reduced compared to the stock Medi Gun, and Valve even toyed around with the idea of removing its ability to ÜberCharge altogether. The attachment model was re-used by the Kritzkrieg and is named after this unused 'weapon'.

Beer Stein
A melee weapon that was added in the Gold Rush update. The model exists, but without textures.

Ludmila
A Minigun alternative. Instead of the Heavy being able to spin this gun up without firing, it had a secondary fire mode that did less damage but had the same vampire effect as the Blutsauger. Thankfully, saner heads prevailed and Ludmila was reworked into Natascha. (Okay, so maybe they weren't that sane after all...) The attachment model was re-used by Natascha and is named after this weapon.

Walkabout
A Sniper Rifle alternative. This would have removed the move speed penalty when scoped in, allowing the Sniper to move at normal speed. Known downsides are that it cannot zoom in, so the scope effect was merely in place to reduce the Sniper's field-of-view, as scoping was still required for headshots, and it could not charge for increased damage. Unlike the regular Sniper Rifle, it would've been capable of inflicting random critical hits. Other attributes added at the same time imply that the TF2 team was experimenting with other changes, such as having a faster charge rate but not being able to score headshots, and a lessened zoom amount rather than none at all. Several of these attributes ended up getting reused on the Sydney Sleeper.

A name string can be found in tf_english.txt

"TF_Unique_Achievement_SniperRifle"	"Walkabout" // ADD THE

The unique attributes which seem intended for the Walkabout:

"Attrib_ZoomSpeedMod_Disabled"				"No move speed penalty from zoom" "Attrib_SniperCharge_Per_Sec"				"+%s1% charge rate" "Attrib_SniperNoHeadshots"					"No headshots" "Attrib_SniperZoom_Penalty"					"%s1% zoom reduction" "Attrib_SniperNoCharge"						"No zoom or damage charge"

Instant Teleport
A scrapped secondary weapon for the Engineer. No models or textures exist. It would have allowed the Engineer to instantly teleport back to his Teleport Exit, and was intended to make it easier for Engineer players to return to their Sentry Gun when it was in danger. In an interview with the Kritzkast podcast, Robin Walker stated that, while it accomplished this goal, the TF2 team were unhappy with the side effects of the Instant Teleport: Engineer players placed their Teleport Exit in places that benefited them more than their team, and the weapon removed almost all of the risk of leaving their Sentry Gun.

Despite these concerns, the general concept did eventually make it into the game in the form of the Eureka Effect melee weapon. Instead of returning the Engineer to his Teleporter Exit, it returns him to spawn.

Repair Node
The Repair Node was a new building concept intended for the Engineer update. It used a pool of energy to automatically repair nearby buildings - when the energy ran out, it had to recharge to full before it could repair again. Multiple Repair Nodes could be deployed in the same area, however their effectiveness would be reduced. The Repair Node was tested as both a Dispenser and Teleporter replacement, however this revealed how dependent teams were on both buildings, and that paired with the fact that it slowed the game's pacing sealed its fate. Its model is still included in the game files.

Recon
Added with the Engineer update, this is likely a remnant of a scrapped Engineer building. Nothing remains of it but sound effect data.

Closed Beta
In 2009, Valve ran a closed beta with competitive players. In addition to testing general gameplay changes that went live in the Classless Update and subsequent updates to the game, several new weapon concepts were featured in the beta.

Gloves of Running Urgently
These are the only new weapon from the closed beta to be implemented. Three variations were tested, all of which increased the Heavy's run speed by 30% while they were drawn, but did half damage along with another downside. The first reduced the Heavy's maximum health by 100 when the weapon was equipped. The "Beta 2" variant cut the amount of health Medics could heal to the Heavy in half when the weapon was equipped. The "Beta 3" variant is what was originally implemented in the game proper, the Heavy took 6 damage per second when the Gloves were drawn, however they have since been entirely reworked.

P.D.Q.
The P.D.Q. was a Wrench replacement for the Engineer. It could not upgrade buildings, but would speed up their construction by 150% while whacking them. The P.D.Q. seems to have directly evolved into the Jag, as the Jag's animations begin with the prefix pdq_, and it retains the ability to speed up building construction, albeit at a measly 30%.

Medigun Beta 1
This was basically a rework of the scrapped Overhealer concept. It could overheal players to 150% of their maximum health like the stock Medi Gun, and like the Overhealer this would never decay, but it healed at half the normal rate.

Fire Retardant Suit
A replacement for the Spy's Revolver. Two variants of this weapon were tested: One made the Spy resist direct fire damage by 90%, while the other "Beta 2" variant made him completely immune to afterburn. The downside to these effects was, of course, that the Spy no longer had a ranged weapon. While the suit lacked an inventory icon in the beta (it used the Engineer's Wrench icon as a placeholder), one was later added to the game files, which is still present to this day.

The properties of both Suit variants were later inherited by the Spy-cicle, a knife replacement, with modifications, so it's doubtful this useless "weapon" will ever be implemented.

Open Beta
After the failure of the closed beta, Valve started a new public beta in 2010. Some Natascha nerfs and half of the weapons from the Über Update were tested here, and not much else.

Beta Pocket Rocket Launcher
A mostly terrible new Rocket Launcher concept that uses the Direct Hit model. When it was first added, it'd reward the Soldier with a full eight second crit boost if a Medic was healing him and died. This was later changed to a six second mini-crit boost, and later two different variations were added. One increases the Medic's ÜberCharge build rate by 15% while healing the Soldier; the other speeds up the Launcher's reload time by 50% while being healed. All three have the same downside of dealing 10 damage to the Soldier when a rocket successfully damages a player, which is of course almost instantly negated when being healed by a Medic. Hilariously, this downside also screws over Pyros who deflect the rocket and damage an enemy, since they'll also take 10 damage with no possible way of benefiting from the weapon's upsides. This weapon's data is still in the TF2 Beta game files, but the weapon was removed from players' backpacks.

In addition to the three variants that were tested, there are descriptions for two other weapon attributes which seem intended for it:

When the medic healing you is killed you gain 2 revenge crits When the medic healing you is killed the killer becomes marked for death

Beta Pocket Shotgun
Complimenting the above, a Shotgun replacement that deals more damage while being healed by a Medic, but reduces weapon switch speed when not. The data for this is also still in the TF2 Beta game files, but the weapon was removed from players' backpacks.

Beta Syringe Gun
The final version of this weapon became the Overdose - quite literally, as the Overdose overwrote it. Earlier versions had a completely different concept: It fired at half the normal Syringe Gun rate, did reduced damage (-90% and -50% respectively), but applied the Mad Milk effect to any enemy hit by its syringes for a short time (1 and 2 seconds). It was fairly useless in practice, which explains the rework it got.

This weapon eventually made its way into the real game, in a way, in the Tale of Two Cities update, with the addition of Mad Milk Syringes to MvM.

Beta Sniper Rifle 1
A Sniper Rifle which charges faster or slower based on hits and misses. On release, a hit would increase the charge rate by 35% and a miss by 65%. This was later changed to bodyshots increasing by 25% and headshots by 45%. The concept was reworked into the Bazaar Bargain, however unlike the Beta Syringe Gun, its data is still in TF2 Beta's game files unaltered.

Unimplemented
Weapons with some data in the game files, which have yet to be added.

Heraldic Targe
A Demoman unlock. Information was added to tf_english.txt in the December 23, 2010 patch.

"TF_Unique_Logo_Shield"			"Heraldic Targe" // ADD THE

Baleful Beacon
A melee weapon intended for the Pyro. This weapon was created specifically for the Halloween Update 2011. Texture files were released with Very Scary Halloween Special update.

Flyswatter
A melee weapon intended for the Soldier. A kill icon was added to the game files in the November 10, 2011 patch, and the weapon is used in a promotional image for the Very Scary Halloween Special update.

Toolbox
Backpack icons for the Engineer's toolbox have been found in the game files, indicating that at one point in time, the toolbox may have been a separate equippable item.