The Winch Claw is the Heavy class specialization in THE FINALS that separates passive tank players from aggressive fight-dictators. Fire a chain claw up to 12 meters, latch onto an enemy or object, and drag it straight to you. Enemies can't outrange you, cashout stations can be repositioned mid-fight, and close-range weapons suddenly become terrifying. Getting the most out of it means understanding the cooldown tiers, the pull priority rules, and which weapon you're swapping to the moment your target lands in front of you.
How does the Winch Claw work?
The Winch Claw fires as a straight-line projectile with no gravity drop, which means your aim is purely horizontal. It travels to a max range of 12 meters and triggers on the first thing it contacts. Shields are the exception: both the Mesh Shield and Dome Shield block the claw entirely, so opponents behind those surfaces are safe.
Once the claw connects, the pull behavior depends on the target's weight. Lighter objects like barrels, revive statues, and cash boxes get placed neatly in front of you. Heavier targets like cashout stations and structure debris get forced in your direction rather than cleanly repositioned. Enemy contestants fall into the high-value category, meaning they're pulled straight to your feet with a brief stun on landing.
Winch Claw max range display
One mechanical detail worth knowing: you can move while reeling in a target. Stepping sideways or backward during the pull changes where the grabbed object or enemy lands, which opens up some deliberate positioning plays.
What are the cooldown tiers?
The Winch Claw has three distinct cooldown lengths depending on what you hit, and the gap between them is significant enough to change how aggressively you should be firing.
Missing is the best-case scenario cooldown-wise at 10 seconds, but that's still 10 seconds where you have no specialization. High-value hits cost 18 seconds, which is a long window in a fast-paced fight. Plan your pulls around fights you can finish, not just initiate.
Which weapons pair best with the Winch Claw?
The entire point of the pull is closing distance, so your weapon needs to be something that excels at short range. After testing the available options, four stand out as natural partners.
- Sledgehammer: The pull delivers enemies into melee range. A Sledgehammer follow-up is one of the highest-damage combos available to Heavy.
- Spear: Similar logic to the Sledgehammer. The Spear rewards precise short-range play, and the Winch Claw removes the gap that usually makes that difficult.
- Flamethrower: Pulled enemies land right inside the Flamethrower's effective range. The brief stun on arrival means they eat the initial burst before they can react.
- SA1216: The semi-auto shotgun hits hard at close range, and a pulled target is exactly where you need them for maximum pellet spread.
The one pairing to avoid: pulling someone who uses a melee weapon or shotgun when you're not running one yourself. You're handing them their ideal engagement distance.
Heavy loadout weapon pairing
How do you use the Winch Claw on cashout stations?
This is the Winch Claw's most underused application. Cashout stations count as high-value targets, meaning you can physically drag them to a different location. Two scenarios where this matters:
Offensive repositioning: If the enemy team has set up a strong defensive position around a station, pulling it out of their cover forces them to either abandon the setup or chase the station into a worse spot for them.
Steal denial: If an enemy team is about to complete a cashout and you can't stop them conventionally, dragging the station can interrupt the timing or pull it away from their defensive perimeter.
The pull won't send the station flying across the map. Since patch 5.10.0, the physics force that pulled objects can apply to world objects was reduced specifically to stop cashout stations from launching unreasonable distances. The repositioning is measured, not chaotic.
What are the Winch Claw's hard counters?
Knowing what stops the claw is as important as knowing how to use it.
- Mesh Shield and Dome Shield: The claw cannot pass through either. Enemies who deploy these before you fire are completely protected.
- Wall obstruction: If the target being pulled gets stuck on a wall during the reel, the pull cancels after about one second.
- Patch 9.0.0 distance check: If the grabbed target ends up too far from the initial collision point during the pull, the claw breaks. This was added to fix the wall-grab exploit where players appeared to be hooked through geometry.
The claw also cannot grab a revive statue belonging to an enemy team, coins, or any structure piece still attached to standing geometry. Everything else is fair game.
How do you build item mastery with the Winch Claw?
Item mastery XP rewards cosmetic unlocks at each level threshold. The XP breakdown per action:
Firing alone gives 30 XP, so consistent use even when missing accelerates progression. Hitting opponents adds 13 XP on top. Grabbing non-contestant objects gives nothing beyond the fire XP, so don't expect object-dragging plays to speed up mastery.
Reaching mastery level 5 unlocks the WINCH IN A PINCH cosmetic variant, which requires 54,000 XP at the level 4 threshold alone.
Winch Claw mastery rewards
Stun duration and patch history
The stun applied when a target lands after being pulled scales with distance. As of patch 9.0.0, the current values are:
- Targets pulled from 3 meters or less: 0.2 second stun
- Targets pulled from max range (12m): 0.5 second stun
These numbers were reduced from 0.35s and 0.65s respectively in patch 9.0.0. The range itself has had a complicated history: it launched at a higher value, was cut to 12m in patch 3.10.0, dropped further to 10m in patch 5.8.0, then restored to 12m in patch 6.0.0 where it currently sits.
The cooldown increases in patch 8.0.0 (miss penalty up from 7s to 10s, high-value hits up from 14s to 18s) were the most impactful balance changes to how the specialization plays day-to-day. Accuracy matters more now than it did in earlier seasons.
For a complete look at how the Winch Claw fits into the broader Heavy toolkit, the best builds guide for Light, Medium, and Heavy covers full loadout recommendations across all three classes. If you're exploring other playstyles in action games beyond THE FINALS, there's plenty of ground to cover. The full THE FINALS strategy guides collection has everything from class fundamentals to advanced ranked tactics.