Nerf Now



Nerf NOW!! is a gaming webcomic centering on the RED and BLU Teams' endless battle in Team Fortress 2, though it also includes story arcs taking place in Left 4 Dead, Starcraft, or one-shot comics based on other games. What sets it apart from its rivals is its art, which is Animesque, dangerously cute, and somewhat inappropriate for a scenario involving two factions trying to murder each other, as well as for the fact that the comic is quite capable of telling a story without any dialogue (though more recent arcs have been using more Speech Bubbles).

Tropes include:
"Fanservice? In MY Nerfnow?"
 * All Men Are Perverts: The Team Fortress crew? Mostly. Mario especially. Which leads to....
 * All Women Are Lustful: The ladies are just as willing as the men.
 * Almost Kiss: Dammit, Scout!
 * And I Must Scream: Female Shepard probably shouldn't have used the Renegade option when backtalking the author.
 * Animesque: Sweat Drop? Check. Cross-Popping Veins? Check. Corner of Woe? Check. Luminescent Blush? Check...
 * Art Evolution or Art Shift: The November 22nd 2011 comic had much more detailed shading than previous ones (and Engie-tan dressed like an actual Engineer for a change). It remains to be seen if this is permanent.
 * Author Avatar: The Engineer with short, red hair. She appears more often than the other TF2-tans and is used as Jo Pereira's avatar for Twitter and Deviant ART. Also, in this strip and various Mass Effect 2 strips.
 * And then denied here, where he is apparently a tentacle monster in the comic.
 * From time to time, he'll occasionally appear as himself.
 * Badass Adorable: Mini Medic-Tan when she gets her Heavy training.
 * Badass Old School Gamer: In a mini-arc, Grandpa wants to show the noob kids how it's done, but he fails... before revealing everything went exactly as he planned.}}
 * Batman Gambit: "Master Plan".
 * Berserker Tears: He loved that doctor.
 * Bishonen: A fix suggested by Engie-tan for Heavy.
 * Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Steam-tan. Her true love is money. Of course, this is returned in kind.
 * Bittersweet Ending: Drone-tan being forced to become a Hatchery, with some overlap with Crowning Moment of Heartwarming.
 * Blush Sticker
 * Bottom of the Barrel Joke: Hat jokes. Lampshaded here.
 * Brain Bleach: You've seen it, Now you can't unsee it.
 * Break the Cutie: Drone-tan's first arc.
 * Sniper-tan.
 * Breast Expansion: 2-up.
 * Brick Joke: Harking back to Meet the Demoman, the Sniper, after ticking off Demo-tan, is being stitched back together... "In Hell!"
 * Santa didn't forget about what happened to him on Engie's home last year; but he's a forgiving fellow: He even gave her a hat!
 * Butt Monkey: The Sniper. Back during the Sniper VS Spy Update, there was a string of comics with the Spy being far superior to the Sniper. He then later pissed of a RED Demogirl, and... it ended badly.
 * In contrast, Sniper-Tan has been exempt from this treatment.
 * YMMV. Sniper-Tan has had some pretty bad luck. Pyro was only interested in her because Engie-Tan was, at the time, dating Scout. After she broke up with him, Pyro started pursuing her again, (or did he?) even though he and Sniper-Tan were still dating. Poor girl just needs a hug.
 * After exhausting all her options, the now-homeless Engie-tan still refuses to spend the night at Sniper's camper van.
 * Cardiovascular Love: Heart Symbol imagery appear all the time.
 * Clingy Jealous Girl: Origin-tan.
 * Sniper-tan as well.
 * Corner of Woe: This one. Can't really blame the Medic for it; over more or less the entire arc, things were going really, really badly for him. Good thing the enemy heavy was sympathetic.
 * Creator Cameo: Here. Brain Bleach is that way.
 * Early-Bird Cameo?
 * Crossover: Neon Fortress Senterion, anyone?
 * The RPG Elements Valve is adding to Team Fortress 2...
 * Cultural Translation: "Localization".
 * Cute Little Fangs: Zergling-tans.
 * Cute Monster Girl: The Zerg. No, seriously.
 * And the Lusty Argonian Maid.
 * Deep-Immersion Gaming: From kill reports, chat channels, and the fact that they occasionally change classes/games, the two teams are obviously in a video game, though their players are never shown.
 * Distaff Counterpart: The Team Fortress 2 classes are joined by (hot) female couterparts.
 * Does This Remind You of Anything?: This short arc about a newbie video game princess' first kidnapping.
 * And this previous mini-arc featuring a casual gamer
 * Oh God yes.
 * Double Standard : Of the non-gender-issues related variety.
 * When this trope meets Anything That Moves.
 * Downer Ending:
 * Early Installment Weirdness: It started as a story-driven Team Fortress 2 comic, but it's mostly a gag-a-day general gaming comic now.
 * Even Evil Has Standards: The American Violent Gamer may be violent, but he doesn't violate women. Only Japanese gamers do.
 * Even the Girls Want Her: Red haired Engie-tan.
 * Expy: The most recent one is how one Engie-tan resembles Rei.
 * A more obvious version.
 * Fan Service: With a huge engineered lampshade.


 * Fan Disservice: Curse you, WoW!
 * Fiery Redhead: Engie-tan.
 * Foe Yay/Les Yay: Based on his Deviant ART page, BLU and RED Engie-tans.
 * And Drone-tan and Probe-tan. Probably NSFW.
 * Engie-tans love has jumped from the Deviant ART pages and into the main comic.
 * Apparently made canon now. . . or at the very least an extreme Ship Tease.
 * French Jerk: Guess who.
 * Fridge Logic: In universe, coupled with Eureka Moment: Dr. Wily finds a strategy to exploit Mega Manning.
 * What happens if you are already dead to begin with?!
 * Gameplay and Story Segregation: This comic lampshades the impossibility of the Engineer's feats in the actual game as a punchline.
 * Genius Bruiser: The Heavy, apparently.
 * Genre Shift: "She Was Just Level One" is a pretty grim and gritty story for a comic that normally runs on the Rule of Cute.
 * Now an Ascended Fanfic.
 * Revisited in Revengineer 2.0. Brief but satisfying.
 * Girl-On-Girl Is Hot: The author does enjoy drawing lesbian make-out scenes every now and then, and again...
 * It seems Pyro and Demoman in the third comic agree. Scout probably agrees also, he's just impatient.
 * Invoked by Chun-Li and Cammy who use themselves as bait.
 * Goofy Print Underwear: Considering they're being worn by Pyro, you can probably guess what they are...
 * A female example serves as an enjoyable last view for the sniper.
 * Hair of Gold: Blonde Engie-tan.
 * Hands Go Down: Concerning uses of the new Kinect system.
 * Head Pet: Heavy Weapons Guy needs to go Scout to deliver a message, but doesn't have a helmet. Mini-Medic wants to tag along. The solution is obvious.
 * Hot Amazon: Heavy Weapons Girl.
 * Hikikomori / Crazy Survivalist: This strip.
 * Hotter and Sexier: It's Team Fortress plus anime babes.
 * Idea Bulb: This comic.
 * I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Heavy Weapons Guy and Heavy Weapons Girl compete for the Medic's affections. When Medic chooses HWGirl, HWGuy leaves so as not to come between them.
 * I Warned You: When the Engies go out on a camping trip, BLU-Engie brings along her DS and extra batteries while RED brings "her spirit of adventure". When nature dumps a rainstorm on them, keeping them in their tent, BLU rubs it in when RED admits she's bored.
 * Irony: Situational, noted in the News Post under Strip 297, the end of the "Nerf" arc.
 * Innocent Innuendo: What were you expecting?
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: In Soviet Russia, Tetris plays YOU!
 * Jerkass: The Sniper.
 * Kawaisa: Sleeping Zerglings. Dawwwww.
 * Limited Wardrobe: Averted to hell and back with Engie-tan who has a different (and extremely fanservicey) outfit in pretty much every comic.
 * Loners Are Freaks: The original TF2 Sniper is a Butt Monkey due to his exaggerated loner reputation.
 * Lovable Sex Maniac: Redhead Engie-tan.
 * Love Hurts: Several arcs go take the major relationships to dark places.
 * Love Triangle: Between a Medic and two Heavies.
 * Between a gamer, Steam-tan and Origin-tan.
 * Major Injury Underreaction: Sometimes being aflame is just a chance to flirt. Or not.
 * Medium Awareness: Sonic, in this comic. Too bad he was wrong about what to expect.
 * Moe Anthropomorphism: Drone-tan is genki about harvesting minerals, Zerglings and Hydralisks are Cute Monster Girls, and an Overlord is a Meganekko dangling from a balloon. The Zerg have never been more precious.
 * The Protoss add their Probe-tan to the fray. And when a Probe and a Drone meet in the mineral fields, traditional harvesting isn't on their minds.
 * Money, Dear Boy: Steam-tan.
 * Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Bangus the Endowed
 * New Old Flame: Deus Ex, personified as Adam Jensen, to Engie-tan.
 * Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Nice job ruining Christmas, BLU Engie-tan...
 * Not Distracted by the Sexy: Heavy. Dammit, Heavy.
 * Nostalgia Filter: Discussed in a Pokémon comic.
 * Also Cool Old Lady GOG-tan.
 * NSFW: Parodied.
 * Older and Wiser:
 * The Heavy after joining a team of "babies". Has shown elements of being a Papa Wolf as well.
 * The old man from the "Noob" arc.
 * Peek-a-Bangs: The Demogirl has these in lieu of an Eyepatch of Power.
 * Power Perversion Potential: For the Kinect.
 * And for the time manipulation on Singularity.
 * The Protoss find a new purpose for Observers.
 * Puppy Dog Eyes: Only it's larva eyes for zergs.
 * Rage Quit: In the Little Red Riding Hood episode.
 * Reality Ensues: Here, though instead of making the story more realistic, it's Played for Laughs.
 * Rebus Bubble: Used for the dialogue-free arcs.
 * Red Eyes, Take Warning
 * Rescue Romance: The very first arc.
 * Ripped from the Headlines: Just about each of the major Team Fortress 2 updates have garnered a reaction strip or three, but other examples include: Backstab, Karma, and Lottery.
 * Second Love: Sniper-tan to Pyro.
 * Self-Deprecation: "I got bored of butchering the english language. Now I butcher grammar in japanese too."
 * Serenade Your Lover: Sniper-tan confesses her love for Pyro by singing Never Gonna Give You Up.
 * Roses Are Red: Violet is BLU
 * Short-Range Shotgun: Discussed.
 * Shout-Out: To Plants vs. Zombies, with the Peashooter in all of the Left 4 Dead arcs.
 * To My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic and only the Sniper's not having fun
 * Shout-Out / Memetic Mutation: #300
 * I'm on a pig.
 * Smoke Shield: This strip, complete with Big Damn Heroes moment.
 * Stealth Pun: Tonight's Jeopardy! special guest: Dracula.
 * Guess who's in the pit of snakes.
 * Stripperiffic: The female Team Fortress 2 characters' outfits can be dangerous distractions.
 * Stop Having Fun Guy: Apparently, the Starcraft scene is nothing but this.
 * In other strips, SHFG's are depicted as grey-brown skinned cultists in purple robes with "Mr. Yuk" on them.
 * Super-Deformed: Particularly the "Entire Team Is Babies" arc.
 * Take That: This comic makes a not-so-subtle jab at Twilight.
 * Also this against game reviewers and Xkcd.
 * There Are No Girls on the Internet: Inverted here.
 * Tsundere: Jack from Mass Effect 2.
 * A female Predator for Valentine's Day.
 * Title Drop: Here.
 * And again here.
 * Two Gamers on a Couch: Strips involving Jo and Engie-tan have this vibe to them.
 * War Has Never Been So Much Fun: Team Fortress, now with romance!
 * What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Mineral Scan!!!
 * White-Haired Pretty Girl: Soldier-tan and Steam-tan.
 * Who Wears Short Shorts?: Engie-tan.
 * Woman Scorned: BLU Sniper discovers that RED Demo-tan doesn't take rejection well.
 * Hell hath no fury as an AI scorned. Master Chief really should have cleared his browser history.
 * More like Anthropomorphic Personification scorned, but...
 * Worlds Smallest Violin: Requiem.
 * Wrench Wench: Engie-tan, of course.
 * Yandere: Everyone.
 * Your Cheating Heart: