The Coal Frightener is a Heavy weapon introduced in the 17.1.0 update as part of the Krampus Lottery.
Description
It is a Krampus-themed heavy weapon with an energy cannon in the shape of Krampus. It deals good damage initially with higher damage due to 
. It also features an average to high fire rate and capacity but low mobility.
Appearance
It takes the appearance of a rocket launcher in the form of Krampus.
It features a coal grey stock taking the from of Krampus' tail, a light yellow pistol grip, a grey body with the back of Krampus on top, a black/grey handguard, and a large piece of coal in the mouth of Krampus' mouth. Under that large piece of coal are several spiky, cyan stalactites which makes it have a miner’s atmosphere, if you will.
Performance
When the fire button is pressed, the weapon will fire a single 
large blue energy projectile 
. This projectile has travel time and will slow down enemies 
as well as increasing the damage taken from the user that initially hit them .
When reloading, the user will low the weapon then eject the magazine underneath the cannon and insert a new one.
It has the Fixed Delay trait. This means that once the player switches from any weapon to this weapon, the Coal Frightener will always have a pull-up time lasting around half of a second.
Strategy
Tips
- Its rockets have the area damage effect, so taking out a group or team of enemies makes the weapon's rockets more effective when in use.
- Try to aim at the ground near enemies so they can't easily avoid the rockets.
- Enemies can easily see the rockets at long range, so fire the rockets instantly to give them a hard time at avoiding the rockets (to ensure the enemies' death quickly), or sneak attack them from behind.
- The weapon has the ability to slow down enemies, take advantage of this by using a powerful one-shot weapon to finish them off.
- It has the ability of rocket jump, so use this to an advantage.
- It has a fixed delay, so think ahead of time when you want to kill someone.
- It has the
attribute, meaning that the second shot will deal more damage, so use that to your advantage. - You may use this weapon to rocket jump as well as dealing damage.
- Because of this, it can be useful for dealing additional damage to monsters with high HP.
Counters
- Try avoiding getting too close to the user.
- Strafe while jumping to minimize the chances of getting hit.
- Rockets are easy to dodge in long distances. So pick off its users in medium-long ranges to prevent them from raining rockets at you.
- Attack its users while they are vulnerable. Like while they are reloading or standing still.
- Use high mobility or low-weight weapons to dodge, evade and or escape the rockets fired from these users. Weapons like the Dark Force Saber perform well in dodging and maneuverability.
Recommended Maps
Equipment Setups
This weapon can be used for crowd control, by weakening groups of players and then finishing them off with a Primary weapon.
Changelog
17.1.0
- Initial release.
22.0.0
- AOE radius increased to 3, rocket speed increased to 360
Trivia
- It is one of the 3 Krampus weapons in the game (The other 2 weapons being: Ice Chaser and Sneaky Pistol). They are also available in the Insidious Krampus lottery as well.
- It exactly has the same reloading animation as Rocket Jumper, Renegade and Ghost Launcher.
