The Sandman and Flying Guillotine are my favorite Castaway reverts, without a doubt. There is nothing more satisfying than stunning someone, especially from afar, and then killing them with a critical cleaver. A server where this combo doesn't exist isn't a server worth playing on.
Since I've been working on a very ambitious video involving the two weapons, consisting of me getting a moonshot + cleaver combo on every map in our rotation (as of writing I have just 18 of 124 maps remaining), I thought I'd make a thread for discussing these two weapons and share a few tips and tricks for any aspiring moonshotters.
Loadout
There's no "perfect primary" to pair with the Sandman and Flying Guillotine. Here's my review of every primary weapon based on how well they synergize with the Sandman:
- Scattergun: Never a bad choice, nothing special about it
- Baby Face's Blaster: Great horizontal mobility, letting you easily close the distance with whoever you stun. Can also be used to more quickly rotate between a staging area for ball launches and a resupply locker
- Force-a-Nature: Great vertical mobility, better movement weapon than the BFB in some scenarios (e.g. after stunning someone during setup on CP Well, you can use it to jump over the train cars); alternatively can be used for getting environmental kills on stunned players
- Soda Popper: The best primary if you want to try and kill people specifically with the ball for whatever reason due to the mini-crits, but is worse than the Crit-a-Cola at that job
- Shortstop: You could use the shove to push people you stun off cliffs or into other hazards but that's about it
- Back Scatter: Worthless
If you don't want to use the Flying Guillotine, there are only a few secondaries that have any synergy with the Sandman:
- Bonk! Atomic Punch: Can be used to get behind enemy lines if you're looking to go for moonshots from a very strange place
- Crit-a-Cola: If you're just going for ball kills, this is better at the job than the Soda Popper in most cases
- Winger: Its higher jumps can come in handy sometimes
- Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol: Puts you back at 125 health, gives you some extra survivability against everything but Pyros
Moonshot Tips
- For a hit to register as a moonshot, the ball must have been in the air for at least 1 second. This is roughly how long the ball takes to cross the bridge at Badlands mid. This is the only requirement; any sightline that's long enough can serve as a viable "moonshot lane" (as I like to call them). In fact, there are probably more moonshot lanes than Sniper sightlines on some maps due to the Sandman's arcing projectile.
- The longer the enemy can see your ball, the more time they have to dodge it and less likely your shot is to land. Try to launch the ball from an an area as perpendicular to your target area as possible so the enemy can't see your ball until it's too late.
- Chokepoints are better target areas than open areas due to enemies not having as much room to move around and therefore being closer to each other, and because they usually don't have as much time to react to an incoming ball.
- Timing is very important. If you're aiming at an enemy spawn door, for instance, look at the scoreboard to see when a respawn wave happens and try to time your ball launch so the ball reaches its destination roughly when an average-speed class would reach the exit.
- Über pushes can actually be a good opportunity to get a moonshot, as players tend to (or at least should) stick close to Übered players. Once you notice an Übered combo, you can launch the ball at wherever they came from to try and hit an enemy trying to push alongside them.
- Speaking of Übers, don't try to stun a player that's just been Übered if the Medic is still healing them; it won't work due to a bug.
- Crouching doesn't affect the ball's trajectory. Keep this in mind if you're crouching to move to a precise spot to line up a shot or make yourself smaller. Don't try to crouch to give yourself a better angle for a shot; you're just going to waste your time.
- There is no map you can't get a moonshot on. To prove this, here is a video of me getting a moonshot on Junction.
Moonshot Cleaver Combo Tips
- A critical cleaver deals a flat 154 damage (150 from the cleaver itself and 4 from a single tick of non-critical bleed), plus 24 damage per second from bleed as long as the enemy is stunned. The bleed lasts 5 seconds, meaning a single critical cleaver can deal up to 270 damage, enough to kill all classes but Heavies.
- Non-critical moonshots last 7 seconds, while critical moonshots last 9 seconds. Depending on when you threw the cleaver and whether or not your ball was a crit, you will either get 1 or 2 chances at a combo after landing the moonshot. If your ball wasn't a crit and you threw the cleaver less than a second after the target got moonshot, you might get a second chance. If your ball was critical and you didn't wait more than 3 seconds between getting the moonshot and throwing the cleaver, you'll always get a second chance. Otherwise, you only get one shot at hitting the cleaver.
- Once you launch the ball, it's usually a good idea to immediately start running towards your target area. If the ball ends up moonshotting someone, you want to be able to get close to them for an easier hit before a teammate kills them, more enemies arrive, and/or the stun wears off.
- The Flying Guillotine travels slower than the Sandman. After stunning someone, you should move closer to him and/or look higher to compensate.
- The Flying Guillotine also has a max flight time - after being airborne for 2 seconds, the cleaver plays its impact sound and loses its ability to deal damage. After moonshotting someone from very far away (i.e. if the ball traveled for 1.75 seconds or longer), you need to get closer to him to ensure this doesn't happen.