Spy strategy
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Weapon Specific
Revolver
Butterfly Knife
The Butterfly knife is the Spy's melee weapon. Attacking with it will break your disguise. Using the knife from the enemy's back, side or top will result in an instant kill. One note on the Butterfly knife is that when you are touching (Close Range) your opponent, your character will perform a 'backstab animation' rather than the usual sweeping one when trying to do an attack from behind. Sometimes this will prevent the attack from landing. To prevent this, if you are trying to chase someone or strafe behind someone, swing your knife before you actually reach your target. What this will do, is cause the Spy to swing his knife rather than use it as a Backstab and the knife will still hit, resulting in a backstab. This way, it is much easier to hit fleeing enemies, moving enemies, and others who are evading (and half of the time, not knowing you're behind them) you.
Disguise kit
The Disguise Kit is the spy's major infiltration tool. See the Disguise page for more details on its use.
Electro Sapper
Cloak
Cloaking is the Spy's special abillity. Right clicking (by default) activates the cloak, which renders the spy fully invisible for enemy players. Players on the own team can still see an outline around the spy. When cloaked, you can not use any of your weapons. Taking damage or running into an enemy will make the spy flicker for a short period of time. The cloak is best used to get into an enemy base, where one should uncloak and continue being disguised. Cloaking and Uncloaking takes 2-3 seconds during which one can be recognized by the enemy. Therefore, it is advisable to look for a save and covered spot to uncloak.See the Cloak article for a more detailed explanation.
Sentry guns
- A sapped Sentry gun cannot fire. If the Engineer is standing next to them, there are several things you can do:
- Sap the Sentry and then run out of the room with the Intelligence (or try and cap a fast-capping/partially capped point) (but remember: Be careful if the Sentry is close to the Intelligence; if you accidentally touch the Intelligence while disguised, you'll lose your disguise, and the Sentry will nail you).
- Sap the Sentry and stab the Engineer if he goes to repair it. If he is already in position and spannering the Sentry, the sapper will be removed before you can switch to the knife and get the backstab. If he is out of position, you will have time to make the attempt. If he is in position and is spannering the Sentry, all you can do is run for it, or keep putting new sappers on the Sentry. He will keep spanning them away, you will keep putting new sappers on. It takes a long time to kill a Sentry in this way! you will almost certainly be spotted by someone else and killed before you're done.
- Sap the Sentry and then immediately unload your revolver into it. This worked well until the December 20, 2007 Patch, which reduced damage done by the Spy to the Sentry he sapped. With sapping and full revolver load, the Sentry doesn't go down and the Engineer has time to come over, double whack the sapper, and then the Sentry will kill you.
- In certain situations, a Sentry may be built so close to the cap point that you can reach it while capping. In this instance, you can quickly sap the Sentry, undisguise, and resume sapping the Sentry over and over. Watch out for the Engineer breaking the capture with his body however.
- Communicate with your team-mates asking them to tell you via voice commands or voice chat when they need a Sentry gun disabled, and then repeatedly sap the Sentry gun.
- A Sentry takes about a second to do a full 180° rotation. If you are directly behind a sentry and the engineer is close to and facing his sentry it is possible to take out the engineer and then the sentry. It requires that you backstab and as soon as the knife hits the engineer use the quick switch key to change to your sapper and place one before the sentry locks on. If there is space starting slightly to one side when you stab will cause the sentry to rotate in that direction, if you strafe with the sentry it will give you more time to set your sapper. Be warned due to lag between the actual placing of the sapper and the sentry being shut down it is possible for the sentry to shoot you. A level 3 sentry will not always kill you immediately(although it has a good chance of doing so unless your reaction time is superb), however it will still be sapped and most likely destroyed. Watch the How to play the Spy video for a demonstration.
- Sentry and dispenser in a position so that you cannot reach the back of the engineer for a backstab? Try jumping on the sentry/dispenser and sitting on the engineer's head, this is an ideal spot as it is in the your victim's blind spot and will allow you to back stab him from above (and apply the stab and sap trick above). However if the engineer is crouched and tries to stand or jump they will be unable to do so and may look up and at that range a shotgun blast or two will kill you instantly. This trick also works well for Heavies acting as stationary sentries.
- Finally, a difficult but satisfying trick is to take advantage of the fact that Engineers take damage from the gunfire of their own Sentry gun. Stand so the Engineer is between his Sentry gun and you and uncloak. You will die, but hopefully so will the Engineer. This is useful if the Engineer is in a position where you simply can't backstab him.
Dispensers
- Watch out for Dispensers while cloaked. They will still heal you, so the twisting, bright health beam will be emitted onto you as you pass. Obviously, this is going to give your position away. This only happens if you are disguised on the side of the Dispenser. You can disguise as your own side to avoid this effect.
Infiltration
- You can disguise as your own team by hitting the minus (-) sign at the top of the keyboard after bringing up the disguise interface. As a friendly non-Spy class, players on the other team are much less likely to alert each other to spies entering the base if they see you. However, the best way to get in and out is to cloak properly.
- While it may not seem immediately obvious to the Spy, as you slowly decloak you take on the color of your team until you are 100% visible. It is vital to let the cloak come on fully before entering into areas where you would be seen. Try to decloak around a corner where an opponent can't see you. Also it is very obvious that you are a Spy if any other class is using a cloak.
- While cloaked, remember to avoid all enemy fire - if you're hit, you flicker visible. The same is true if you bump into an enemy. If you plan to rush out, tell your team-mates to let you go first (cloaked), so that stray fire from the enemy team at your visible team-mates doesn't reveal or kill you.
- While cloaked, avoid giving away your position, especially to snipers or if you have been busted, your pursuers. So do not:
- Pick up medkits (unless you burn) or ammo crates.
- Use a teleporter. (Unless it really gives you an strategic advantage in which case you should wait until the glow at your feet has disappeared.)
- Or simply enter the enemies line of sight before your cloak is fully active. (See above)
- Also, if you go through a door while cloaked and noone else is around, it is obvious that there is a spy. If the door is certainly narrow, you still will become an easy target. Also, if you come out of swimmable water, water will be visible dripping from you.
- When the Spy activates a disguise, his health level will appear to the enemy as exactly 50%, regardless of his actual health. His health level will not appear to go down if they shoot him, but will appear to go up if they heal him. This feature is a double-edged sword; The idea is that it looks less suspicious when a Spy runs into the enemy base calling for a Medic (since he's injured), but the more observant players that know of this feature will often be wary of anyone who appears to have exactly 50% health, and may be more likely to pursue and spy check him.
- Remember that you can call for and be healed by enemy Medic's while disguised. This is a great way to keep your cover up, and also a good opportunity to backstab the opponent's support. Beware that this also risks drawing undue attention to yourself, especially if your alter-ego notices his own name calling for a Medic. For these reasons it is probably best to do this as a retreating manoeuvre.
- Once in the enemy's base, communicate with your team. Talking might not move you up on the scoreboard but reporting Sentry gun placements, if a group of enemies are taking an alternate route, or building a minibase can make a big difference and bring your team closer to victory.
- You can walk backward while heading for the enemy base. Retreating into an enemy base while disguised looks much less suspicious than running into it at full tilt.
- When you disguise yourself, you take the name of an enemy player that is playing the same class as you. It is crucial that you try to use a class that is well represented by the enemy side to decrease the risk of coming face to face with the person you stole the name from.
- If you disguise as a class not represented by the enemy team, you take on a name randomly. This is a dead giveaway as a glance at the score table will make your trickery obvious.
- Try and act natural. Many times, an enemy will shoot you and not notice your health go down; however, if you react to their shots, you can be certain that they and the rest of their team will hunt you down. If you continue heading in the same direction and pay the attack no mind, many times you will be left alone.
- When disguised as a Medic, no ubercharge percentage shows up when an enemy targets you, which is a big giveaway. Avoid disguising as a Medic for this reason.
- After using a Teleporter, wait for the particle effect on your body to go away before heading into action. This effect is one of the most visible giveaways when cloaked or disguised.
- You may, while entering the enemy base, notice that an attack force is heading for your base. Running opposite of them will likely result in a spy check. A great method to single-handedly stop this attack is trying to run with them, towards your base. It looks great in showing that you are not a Spy, and you can slow yourself down a little bit to get to the back of the pack and backstab most, or even all of them. Just be sure the person you are disguised as is not among them, or you will be dead quickly.
- A dead giveaway that you're a Spy in disguise is the fact that your enemies are unable to walk through you. Once they bump into you they will try to kill you immediately. When in small enclosed spaces (e.g. the sewers in 2fort), walk close to the walls and be sure to leave enough room for enemy players to run past you.
- Keep an eye on the enemy players that are about to respawn. When did they die? What class did they play? What is their skill? Remember: these are the players that are going to be in your back in a few seconds. Use this knowledge to time your actions. If you know that the opponents #1 scout will respawn in a few seconds, let him pass by before you take any backstabbing/sapping action. Also remember, if you've just killed the same player say twice in the exact same spot, he's going to be checking for you being there next time he comes through.
- Most importantly: There are many people (Pyros) who will spy check anyone they see, ever, just as a matter of course. Because of this, you must always remember to keep moving, change disguises frequently, and whenever possible, avoid being seen by the enemy entirely.
- As long as there's a damage indication on your HUD, you are semi-visible. To ensure that you're completely invisible, wait until the damage indicator clears before moving.
- Avoid disguising yourself as a scout. While your speed will be slower when disguised as a Heavy or Solider you will not get a speed boost when disguised as a scout. Due to this, the enemy will see a slow scout running parallel with them. This is one of the quickest ways to be detected.
Teleporters
- Walking over an enemy Teleporter exit when someone uses it kills you.
- When you find an exit Teleporter, watch it to see which way players come out. Then stand behind the Teleporter and wait. When the next player comes out, backstab him instantly. He should report this to his team, but he'll be dead for a bit, so you can risk waiting a little for a second teleport and kill, or you can just sap the Teleporter and leave the area.
- Sneaking back into an enemy base to remove a Teleporter entrance can be effective in cutting off an offense and even to remove the engineer from his post enabling you to remove sentry guns, dispenser and exit.
Map Specific
Well
- An effective start rush is to go Medic, then swim so you're under the grate just as the round starts; the grate opens, you go up and immediately cloak. Then go into the central Control point 3 and over to the ramp on the far side. As you run up, the opposing force should already be in front of you and you're at the back of the CP area, so you can uncloak as you go up; then you'll be a Medic standing right behind a bunch of players who are typically busy firing at your team-mates on the other side of the CP itself.
- Lots of swimming: Swim out of your base and into the center of the map (where the trains pass), cloaking just as you pop out of the water. Remain invisible until you've reached the water entrance on the other side of the tracks. The water makes a great place to cloak/decloak and change disguises unsupervised, as most other classes don't use the water tunnels at all.
- Fighting generally happens in clusters on Well, and when the middle point is being fought over, the first and sometimes second enemy points may be entirely undefended. This is a great opportunity for the patient Spy to capture points solo, especially the final point, which can be captured by a single combatant in a matter of moments. A Spy seeing his team pushing hard on point 2 can slip to the rear of the base and stay hidden, waiting for the moment point 2 is taken. Then he can step out of hiding and quickly nab the final point, winning the round.
- Since Well is such a long map, enemy Engineers will often drop Teleporter entrances outside their first spawn point, and then build their sentries near capture point 2 or 3. As a result, a Spy who manages to infiltrate all the way to the rear of the enemy base can easily score points by sapping these unattended Teleporters. Better yet, stand behind an exit Teleporter and stab people just as they come out.
- When a point is being hotly contested, freshly spawned combatants on the offense (Soldiers, Heavies, Demomen, and Medics) will rush out of their spawn and hustle into combat, one after the other. A Spy waiting just outside the base can tag along behind them, backstabbing as he goes, often taking out an entire string of enemies who are too busy to look behind them.
2Fort
Offense
There are four main tasks for a Spy on 2fort:
- Killing Snipers on the sniper deck
- Destroying Sentry guns
- Killing enemy players as they cross the bridge
- Getting hold of the enemy Intelligence
The best way to get into the enemy base is to run from the spawn over the sniper deck and into the water. Cloak before you come out onto the sniper deck, so that you are fully invisible as you step out and fall down into the water. Once you're under the bridge and so well shielded from above, uncloak. Don't forget to get your Revolver out - you're running towards the enemy in a narrow passage, so the Butterfly knife isn't useful. Run through the sewers and up the stairs into the enemy base. Once you get to the top of the stairs you then have a choice; you can take the left passage, if you want to go for the Intelligence, or you can go straight on, if you wish to attack enemy Snipers on the sniper deck.
If you go left, the ten seconds of cloak is just the right amount to let you be fully cloaked as you turn into the longer passageway leading to the open air area, and remain cloaked right up until you're far enough down the back stairs to the basement that you won't be seen. You then continue down into the basement, dealing with whatever is down there and then taking the intelligence.
If you go straight on, cloak as late as possible before coming into the open air area and running up the main stairs. Then cross over into the sniper deck and kill the Snipers there. Once you've done this, don't stay on the deck; when they respawn, they'll be looking for you. Either drop back down to your own base for a quick break, or better, run into the Grate room and disguise as a Demoman. You're out of sight, and if someone does come in, there's a chance they may think you're holding a Sticky bomb trap from that position.
If however you simply want to get kills, a good place to wait is up against the front of the opposing fort. Enemy players generally spawn and then run to the sniper deck and fall off to the area in front of the bridge; very few players actually exit via the ground floor. As such, a Spy waiting up against the front of the fort isn't seen and is behind the enemy players as they run down the narrow, straight bridge.
Granary
- There is an overhead passageway with a circular exit (leading from Control point 2 to Control point 3) which you may take to avoid wasting precious cloak time.
- Stand on containers at Control point 3: Enemies are less likely to expect attacks from above them than in front of them. Be wary of enemy Snipers on the opposite side of the map however.
Dustbowl
- When attacking Stage 1 Cap 1, use the canyon pathway to sneak up on the attackers by using the back door. Be sure once you sap the sentries, you have a Demoman or Soldier standing by to destroy it. Be sure when going through the canyon you are fully cloaked or Snipers will take you down as you come out. Do not wait by the grating; wait next to it or they will be aware of your way of attack.
- Before Stage 1 Cap 1 is taken, you can quickly run to the enemies Control point 2. Although this is locked, if you're team is close to taking it then it would be a good idea to stay here and base camp. Although this is discouraged due to the fact that this is camping, it can help end the stage faster and the enemies will most likely not make it in time to stop you. This also works on Stage 2 and 3.
- When defending Stage 2 Cap 1, have a Spy stay near the Control point building. This Spy will be able to backstab any enemies that come through.
Hydro
Gravel Pit
- Since Gravelpit has 2 initial Control points it can be useful to soften up a lesser defended point (sap Sentries, backstab Snipers etc) co-ordinated by an immediate rush by some of your team (a Scout rush works best in this situation) to easily capture the point. Usually this point is A because it's considered harder to defend.
- A Spy can be quite necessary on the most heavily defended Control point as there are usually at least one or two Sentries that are supported by other players, making them almost indestructible. The best way to deal with these Sentries is to co-ordinate with your team to sap the Sentry and follow it with a push. Keep in mind that as you do this it's likely you'll be seen and killed.
- Defending Engineers will often create Teleporters from their respawn to their front line. If you sap these Teleporters it will slow down the defensive players, and also coax the Engineer(s) away from their Sentry gun(s), allowing your team to destroy it easier. Keep in mind that doing this will often result in the C area to be Spy-checked, so the best idea would be to sap them, cloak and then run back into your own territory.
- After the first point has been captured but before the second, you can cloak up to the C point and camp there until the second point has been captured, when you can undisguise and quickly capture the point. It is likely that defenders will come up and kill you when they notice their point is being captured, but you may finish capping the point before they get there. This is position is easy to hold, because defenders rarely ever go up there until the second point is being captured, but you must make sure that they can't see you from the ground. If they do they'll usually start checking the point. Keep in mind though that the same task could be done with a Scout with usually a better outcome once you get on the point.
See also
