Team Fortress 2 welcomes Teddy Roosebelt (kawaii!)

Want, want, want!

In the latest update for TF2 from Valve, as well as providing yet more hats, Valve has given us a Bear. Teddy Roosebelt (the name is a play on Theodore Roosevelt whose nickname has been given to the ‘teddy bear’).

In TF2 , hats are big. Very big. That is, not metaphorically, but collectably. Players collect them. Hats can be crafted, bought or traded for, on rare occasions they can be found as drops, items that you find randomly in-game. Once found, hats can be worn by characters.

Hats don’t interest me much.

But Teddy Roosebelt does. He is a miscellaneous item that fits into the ammo pouch of the Engineer; he is a little Engineer Teddy. He can be bought but I don’t like micro-transactions in games, he could be traded but I have nothing to trade, or he can be crafted. But TF2 doesn’t have recipes in the same way that MMOs do. For Teddy I know what I need, but if I combine the ingredients I have no way of determining what I might get, it’s random…something for the Engineer, often a Hat, but not necessarily Teddy (it’s 4 refined + engie token for those interested, 3 refined for a totally random chance). I think someone said there was a 9% chance of crafting him.

I do know someone who has Teddy. A player who is part of the Community whose servers I most often play on, is a Hat Dealer of some reknown. Within a day of the update, he had Teddy, no doubt after calling in various dubious favours and following myriad shady connections made within the Hat Trading World. He put a screenshot up in the forum, for us all to gaze upon, of his Engineer with Teddy proudly swinging from his belt.

As for me, I reckon it will have to be crafting. I may find myself too, drawn into the Hat Trade if I find myself crafting hats of value to some but not to me, or at least only as a way to bargain my way to Teddy.

Valve, do I love you or hate you?

Red Engineer with Teddy Roosebelt