Spychecking: Becoming a master of spy-hunting

Tired of all those spies roaming every map? Wanna help your engineers keep their little sentries safe FEAR NOT! This guide is here to help you! My name is Landeyx and today I'm here to tell you more about spychecking... and how to become a master in it!

The Spy Itself

This sneaky bastard is a fear to many classes,when playing TF2 you should ALWAYS check your back! Being able to sap sentries (causing these to not being able to shoot) disguise themselves and instantly kill someone by backstabbing them with a knife,you should look out for them.

Let us first take a look at the spy's arsenal!

The Spy's Revolvers

*The stock revolver - It's just stock. Press Mouse1 to shoot.

*The Ambassador - Headshotting with this gun gives a 102 dmg crit,15% damage penalty and slower shooting speed.

*The Enforcer - Hated and nerfed weapon,don't bother you with the stats,it's useless for now.

*The Diamondback - Each succesfully sapped building or backstab will grant you a crit!

*L'etranger - When hitting someone you get your cloak meter a bit filled up! Usefull revolver!

The Spy's Sappers

The Sapper is a tool used to destroy sentries and other engineer buildings or robots in MVM. Stunning them and killing them after a while. However,we're talking about Pubs here so let's get started.

*Stock Sapper - The original and best one,the red-tape recorder kinda sucks...

*Red-Tape Recorder - The red-tape recorder reverses buildings,but doesn't damage them,it only let's the building go from lvl 3-lvl 2-lvl 1 and then just dissapears. However this is just SO SLOW and not usefull so I gess you better just use the stock sapper.

The Spy's Knives

The Knives of the spy are able to deal backstabs,wich kills enemies INSTANTLY!

*The stock knife - One of the best,but just stock.

*The Your Eternal Reward - Your Eternal Reward is a knife wich disables you to disguise yourself,however when backstabbing an enemy you instantly get it's disguise making you letting dissapear the whole enemy team without anyone recognizing it...

*The Kunai - A big loss of 55hp,the kunai takes over someone's hp when backstabbing them.

*The Big Earner - The big earner is a pretty good knife,giving you a speed boost and some extra cloak when backstabbing someone,however you lose only a little ammount of 25hp.

*The Spy-Cicle - My favorite,the cicle protects you fully against pyros! When attacked by fire the knife melts (causing you not being able to use it after a while),best used with the deadringer to escape pyros who will think you died. When picking up ammo the knife regenerates faster,making you able to use it again.

The Spy's Watches

Thought that was all? Hah! The spy still has it's invisibility watches too!

*The stock - Still,stock can be the best!

*The Cloak N Dagger - Making you able to be invisible forever,motion let's the cloak meter drop,with the cloak n dagger you need to move slower and it's not that good of a watch to escape...

*The Dead Ringer - Killed during Gunmettle,revived during Tough Break,the Dead ringer Grants you a fake death! When being shot a tiny bit when having the deadringer out,a decoy of you will be created making your enemies thinking you're dead while you respawn on an ammo pack and have your dr ready for use again...

The Spy's Disguises

The Spy can disguise himself as a member of your team,if you see a sniper running with soldiers you should best check that sniper...

How much do spies disguise themselves as...

Scouts: Not that much... they are easily recognized by running slower then normal scouts.

Soldier: Common,but most don't because of the slower speed.

Pyro: This is a perfect disguise! Most spies disguise themselves as a pyro.

Demoman: This is the same as pyro.

Heavy: No,also because of the slower speed.

Engineer: Engineers are a commonly used disguise for sapping sentries.

Medic: The medic is often used by spies,getting the medigun out and calling "Medic!" to get the attention of the strong classes like heavy,soldier,demo...

Sniper: The most used disguise is sniper,wich isn't very effectove as most spies just run arround and don't use their trickyness..

Spy: Almost never used.

Onto Spychecking!

Spychecking can be done by all classes.

Some tips for spychecking:

-Always look for suspicious members of your team,a sniper running together with some soldiers in the middle of the battlefield can't be trusted.

-When seeing an enemy come from the enemy's side you should definitely spycheck him.

-Spies often use the same disguise,when you found out a spy,look out for this same disguise.

-When you've got a spy and he disguises,think like a spy,where would you go then? Getting some hp? Going to your team?

-Some HP pack dissapear suddenly? Go spycheck that area!

-Stay near an engineer's nest as spies often wander arround there.

-The spawn is also a hiding place for spies.

-Listen very carefully for decloaking and deadringer sounds,or backstabs.

-Check around for flying water droplets in maps with water.

-A dead-ringered spy can easily be recognised by the glitched body.


-Bumping into a teammate means he's a spy,SET THAT ♥♥♥♥♥ ON FIRE!

Spychecking As Scout

The scout is a fast class,being able to track spies easily down. For the scout you best use the bleeding of the boston basher or three rune blade. Also use your sandman to try and bonk a spy,even when invisible the stun sign will stil be shown above the spy's head. Mad milk is irritating for spies aswell because of the particle it creates around a disguised or cloaked spy.

Spychecking As Soldier

Instead of the scout,soldiers are more usefull for spychecking!
First of all,the spalsh damage of the rocket launchers (except for the direct hit) causes invisible spies to appear,this is extremely usefull with the beggars bazooka wich lets 3 rockets going at different places near the spies last sighted spot.

The banners of the soldier also don't affect spies,causing them to not gain any attack bonus or speed boost from the buff banner,concheror,...

Spychecking As Pyro

The Pyro is the greatest enemy of the spy. Being able to set spies on fire,causing this fire particle surrounding them nor they use cloak or are disguised,the pyro can be a real threat to a spy.
However,I've made a loadout of a REAL SPY HUNTER PYRO!


What do you need?

Any flamethrower (I prefer the backburner or degreaser)

The Backburner is very usefull when chasing spies,they run with their back at you so running right into them will grant you some nice crits,killing them instantly.
The Degreaser can be used to airblast your team or cloaked spies,any moved teammates are spies and can easily be finished of by your team and yourself. Cloaked spies can repeatedly be pushed into walls,causing them not being able to go anywhere.

One Of The Flare Guns

Very usefull,when shooting a spy wich is on fire or another enemy with the flare gun,this grants a 90hp crit with the normal flaregun and a 45hp crit with the scorch shot and detonator. That's why I prefer the normal flaregun.

The Homewrecker

The Homewrecker may be the best spy-hunting weapon,together with the powerjack. The Homewrecker can be used to instantly remove sappers from engineer buildings,helping engineers out and pissing of spies. The 15% dmg penalty against players is nothing,as a pyro your likely to use your flamethrower,right?

Spychecking As Demoman

The Demoman isn't that of a spychecker,but usefull.
First of all,the demoman can lay stickytraps arround friendly sentries,when the sentry gets sapped the spy will explode in a horrible way. As you can see this can be very effective. The spy can also get scared of the sticky trap,preferring not going near.

The Demoknight can also add an extra ammount of safety to his team. Charging into a spy will reveal his position,wich leads to you being able to kill him,maybe.

Spychecking As Heavy

The Heavy isn't that good of a spy hunter. However he can help check the area using his minigun to circle arround the area fast. Any cloaked spies will be revealed for a second,causing you to have a plan ready to chase the spy. As a heavy,watch your back because spies will usually go for you. If you see your medic falls away immediatly start shooting behind you! Let the spychecking go for other classes.

Spychecking As Engineer

As an Engineer,you don't spycheck but you defend yourself against spies. Here's how to do so.
As you know the spy has acces to the sapper,causing your sentry and teleporters to be stunned and not being able to do anything.

It also destroys the building in a limited time. The spy will usually go for the sentry first and eventually some lonely buildings. As an Engineer you depend on your guns to save your precious buildings from spies. I will give you a nice loadout against spies and other classes.

The Frontier Justice

Crits with each assist or kill of your sentry. The frontier justice has no random crits but hell,who needs them as engineer? The crits will come when your precious sentry is destroyed and you get some nice crits to get revenge on that spy and defend yourselves against the enemies which are coming now.

The Wrangler

Enemies taunting you from far away? No problem. You have a wrangler and shoot some rockets at that waving hand! A spy deadringered away from your mighty shotgun? No problem. Get your wrangler out and circle the room out with some nice bullets. Then catch that spy!

The Jag

The Jag is just a machine! Builds buildings faster aswell as upgrading,hitting enemies and repairing. The damage penalty is nothing and removing sappers neither!

This loadout can really help you and is MY PERSONAL loadout!

Spychecking As Medic

No. He doesn't.

"I fear the comments section will be full of the sentences that the medic CAN spycheck."

Spychecking As Sniper

The sniper aswell,isn't that good of a class to spycheck! However,you have piss at your disposal.
Use it.

Spychecking As Spy

OW OW OW!
Spychecking as SPY?!
Yes,the frenchman can check his collegues! The spy has his mind for that. You ARE a spy and so you know what the enemy spy will do! Use your mind and become a valuable asset. Also,when running behind a disguised or cloaked spy you will see your knife get into it's backstab pose.
Ready to strike.

Know your enemy (How to disguise)

To really know how to spy check you must know how to disguise. If you really learn how to do it, you can easily identify the signs of enemy spies and therefore hunt them. I am quite the spy main and one of my favourite knifes is the YER (Your Eternal Reward). I really advice you to use it to get familiar with the tricks of disguising. SO lets get started shall we?

General tips

-Stay close to the enemy front at all times, even if your not planning on doing any backstabing. Players always suspect a player thats wondering off behind enemy lines or in the last points.

-Think about your disguise. A scout isnt gonna be near your team snipers. A medic isnt gonna be with the engy defending the briefcase. And much much more. Think before disguising, and you might give enemies a harder time to figure you out. More on this on each class specific tips.

-Hide yourself to disguise. I know this may seem obvious, but dont disguise right after you killed someone. You're a spy. While you can go on amazing chainstabs, you would be many times better off getting one guy and then cloacking away to evaluate the situation and disguise again.

-Ok, this is a important mistake that many spies seem to do. DONT. REPEAT. DISGUISES. Once a player has seen you once disguised as a engy, he will shoot at every single engy he sees for about 2 minutes. After that they just kinda forget and move on with theyr lifes (and backs). Like I said before, adapt to the situation and place with your disguise. For the example I just gave, he will probably not shoot at the engy near ''his'' sentrys.

-Last one, and this is a very important one. Inspect your disguises. See their weapons, guess their playstile. Adapt and act like the enemy player.

Scout disguise tips:

Jump. Dont stop jumping. Jump to the left. Jump to the right. You are slower than a normal scout and people will notice that alot. Jumping lets you slip by more easily. Plus, seeing a Scout jumping is normal, and people dont suspect it. Dont follow this rule if you have a baby face blaster. As a disguised scout you must think like an actual Scout. So, be on the front lines, jumping from a place to another until you get behind a player's back. People will be busy fighting to really notice you and jumping, like I said before, eases off the tension on that side. Also, dont forget to retreat. Seeing a Scout running away with is back turned to his allies is normal since Scouts are cowards and you might just get an easy backstab doing so.

This section is written by The Crazed Buttstaber,grammar mistakes found can be reported to Landeyx because he's too lazy to correct these himself.

Conclusion

Thank for reading! For updates on me,guides,fun,sfm artwork,giveaways,free games and MORE join our group Order Of Friends

Check out our other guides!

Following the endangered species of TF2:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=517570005

How and why you should be a gibus:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=616595098

The Allmighty TF2 species Archive:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=587194535

How To Fight With Honour:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=585522495

Landeyx's guide to SFM:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=469537166

Sniper Community Weapons:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=616766311

Also,leave a comment below and rate at the top fo the guide by clicking the thumbs up button!
Thanks for reading!

[Ham King]

-1000000/10 don't recommend. i swear i am not a spy main.

[Dzeyson]

RUS : Выберите что то одно из этого списка и напишите в моём профиле, отвечу тем же!
ENG: Choose the one that's on the list and write in my profile, I will answer the same!
GER: Such dir eine Sache aus der Liste aus und schreib es unter mein Profil und ich mache es auch bei dir
+rep best engi
+rep born to main engi
+rep good player on mvm
+rep robot destroyer
+rep shotgun aim master
+rep nice looking loadout
+rep kind person
+rep tf2 tryhard
+rep luv ur loadout bruh
+rep cool person
+rep omg what a tryhard

[Lemon]

or if you want to check for spies as a pyro just spray fire

[Shein]

RUS: Выберите что то одно из этого списка и напишите в моём профиле, отвечу тем же!
ENG: Choose the one that's on the list and write in my profile, I will answer the same!
+rep nice middleman
+rep Clutch King
+rep 300 iq
+rep SECOND S1MPLE
+rep AWP GOD
+rep kind person
+rep u real scream!?
+rep nice flicks
+rep king deagle
+rep best hacker
+rep cool teamplayer
+rep.. OMG... Epic Comeback.
+rep ONE TAP MACHINEEE
+rep, good trader <3
+rep Friendly
+rep Killing Machine
+rep very nice and non-toxic player
+rep супер игрок
+rep Лучший
+rep ak-47 god

[roundhouse kicker]

you earned that present from me buddy i love this guide

[DrSTAHP]

Turn around.

[Gent]

Hallo, ik denk dat je me weer uit Discord hebt verwijderd en ik vraag me af of je me nog een keer kunt toevoegen :) Gent#0851

[Fluppy]

thanks

[madlad20]

thx for the tips i was really bad at spy

[Benis Cupcake——the F2P Hero]

Landyx,i want to translate this guide into Chinese cause i think it's useful.
Would you apply?