QUICK JUMP
| Vitals | Health | 125 HP | |||
| Primary Weapon | |||||
| Revolver | 55-60 | 35-45 | 20-25 (120) | ||
| Secondary Weapon | |||||
| Electro Sapper | N/A | N/A | N/A | ||
| Melee Weapon | |||||
| Butterfly Knife | 30-50 | ||||
Spy Strategies
The Spy is one of the most challenging classes to play. His primary function is to use espionage to create mayhem in the enemies base; to collect information about sentry gun locations, defense, etc. and to cause enough chaos to allow his team mates to get through a choke point, like the ramp room in 2fort.
He is armed with a few things to help with this task. The Spy can cloak; literally go invisible, for 10 seconds. This allows the Spy to put on a disguise, cloak, run across the map, and decloak in the enemies base. In previous games, spies had to run across the map; and snipers could easily tell that spies were coming by seeing "teammates" running towards their base alongside the enemy.
The Spy also has an Electro Sapper. This is a weapon that can be placed on Sentry Guns, Dispensers, etc. and it will destroy them. It also tells the Engineer that a Spy is in the base, so use them with care. You can use an Electro Sapper without losing your disguise! Your other weapons, the knife and the revolver, will make you lose your disguise when used. But you can use the electro sapper all day long while disguised.
…even cloaked spies burn…
Lets take a look at the disguises available to the spy:
Sniper: Nobody questions Snipers standing behind people, or when they don't answer spy checks. However, it's rare to see Snipers in lots of places on the map. I snipe from everywhere on the map, but I'd say 90% of snipers just stick to the sniper deck. Because of this, a sniper in a water tunnel will look suspicious.
Medic: Avoid disguising as a spy for a long time. You don't have an uber charge meter, so people can tell you aren't legit. Plus once you don't heal damage people after a long time; it will seem really suspicious.
Engineer: This is probably the most common Spy disguise, so people spy check Engineers often. It's usually okay as long as you avoid other Engineers and stay away from the front lines of battle. If you are on the front lines of battle without a tool box, you look suspicious.
Pyro: This is okay as long as you avoid other pyros. If they spy check you, the jig is up because you will burn.
Soldier: This often looks suspicious because soldiers are often firing constantly; so a soldier just chilling is a rare thing.
Spy: My favorite disguise. Most people on the enemy team wouldn't question the spy on their team just running around; but if the other team doesn't have a spy... you're in trouble.
Demoman: A good disguise, but don't spend too much time around the intel room or capture points because people will wonder why you aren't laying down stickie grenades.
Scout: You don't run as fast as a Scout; you aren't shooting like a manic like Scouts do, and you aren't running into the enemies (your) flag room like Scouts do. In others words; this is a bad disguise.
Heavy: Pretty bad disguise since you can't be triggy happy or even fire.
Now that you know about the disguises, here are some basic tips for playing as a Spy:
- Don't disguise as a scout under any circumstances. Scouts run faster than spies; so these are dead giveaways that you are a spy.
- Disguise before you cloak, and decloak in an area where you are hidden. It helps to be in an area where it makes sense for an ally to be coming from. A good example is come up through the water spiral and cloak on the stairs; decloak under the respawn area drop down, and run into the ramp room. This way it is logical that you may have spawned in the sniper respawn, dropped down, and are now running into the ramp room. It helps if you don't look around; run straight to your destination, like you are going specifically to get health at the respawn area. If you get spy checked; ignore it.
- Pay attention to what classes the enemy is using. If you are in the front of their base and see a soldier run out of the front door, disguise as a soldier and back pedal into the base.
Do not look at your targets. Think about it; when you are an engineer and you run into your base; do you stare at the sniper deck? Of course not; you focus on your business. So if a sniper sees an engineer running towards the base looking up, it's likely he is a spy. Same thing with flag rooms, sentry guns, etc.
Be the class you are disguised as; you are too busy to be looking around!
- Avoid Pyro's. If a pyro sprays you with the flame thrower, you will burn.
- Once the enemy team finds you a few times, switch classes. Go soldier for 10 minutes, and be aggressive. Make sure they know you are a soldier. Once everyone on their team knows you switched, go back to being a spy. When they know the other team has a spy, they will check more often. But once they see that you have switched, they will back off.
- Remember that you need to tell your team where sentry guns are, who is guarding what, etc. This is just as important as you causing chaos; the Spy is an espionage character, meant to collect information and catch the enemy off guard.
- Work with your team. Spies are not invinceable; you need to use your brain. Killing a medic is more important than killing the HWGuy; taking out a sentry gun and remaining behind enemy lines is more important than taking out the gun and grabbing the flag. You should work with your team, and let them get the flag. If you are the only enemy "chasing" the flag carrier; you now have 2 people on an attack instead of one lone gunman.
…Just because you are cloaked doesn't mean you are invisible…
And here are some basic strategies for playing as a Spy:
- Disguise as a Medic or Sniper and have a HWGuy on your team shoot at you while you retreat. This will help you blend into the enemy base.
- Disguise as a Sniper and pretend you are a sniping at your team. For example in 2fort, stand in the entrance of the base with your back to the wall, walk back and forth behind cover, and jump around.
- Be careful using teleporters. When you use one, you will be surrounded by a ring of your teams color for about 10 seconds. So if you have to use a teleporter, wait around for a while before entering the enemy territoriy.
- Don't think you are invisible in water. You give off air bubbles if you are underwater, and once you exit the water you will be dripping water as you walk. Just because you are cloaked doesn't mean you are invisible.
- Another thing to be cautious of is when you put on your disguise, you will give off smoke for about 5 seconds. You have to be patient as a spy.
The most important tip for a Spy is to play as every class. You will learn how obvious Spies are by killing them.
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