TF2 hitscan accuracy

Hitscan weapons will fire a 100% accurate attack depending on how long ago the last attack was fired.

Weapons that shoot more than one bullet per shot, like shotguns and miniguns, can fire one perfectly accurate pellet every 0.25 seconds.

So a Heavy can tap-fire their minigun to always hit their target regardless of distance. This is particularly useful against Snipers or while crit-boosted.

Because shotguns typically have an attack interval slower than 0.25 seconds, they're always guaranteed to land at least one pellet even without using a fixed spread pattern.

However, the Scout's scattergun and Engineer's shotgun have a 50% stronger recoil than the shotgun for Soldier, Pyro, and Heavy. This means the aimpunch when firing the weapon takes a longer time to recover from, longer than the weapon's attack interval, making it less precise.

Weapons that shoot only one bullet per shot, like pistols and smgs, can fire a perfectly accurate shot every 1.25 seconds.

The Ambassador is a unique exception. Its random spread cone becomes gradually tighter over time, becoming perfectly accurate 1 second after shooting. Its accuracy begins ramping up 0.5 seconds after shooting, so it has 20% less spread than other revolvers even while shooting as fast as possible.

It is often claimed that the Enforcer also possesses the accuracy properties of the Ambassador or that the Enforcer has a spread recovery cooldown faster than 1.25 seconds. This is a myth and it is easily disproved.

The Enforcer never had those supposed properties at any point in history. The item attribute that lets the Ambassador gradually recover accuracy is the same item attribute that lets it deal headshots, and there has never been any other item attribute available that affects a weapon's spread recovery time.

0:00 minigun
0:21 shotgun
0:36 pistol + revolver + smg
0:52 ambassador
1:21 enforcer