TF2 Spy Guide: Strategies, loadouts, and tactics against spy-aware players and anti-spy equipment

This guide is mainly for playing on pubs against competent players who are experienced enough to recognize spies and take adequate measures to protect themselves. It is also a guide on working around the various weapons, like the jarate and huo long heater, that have been introduced into the game and serve as counters against the spy class.

Introduction

If you hop onto a random server and chose to play spy, chances are that there will be many players that do not know how to properly counter your class choice. They won't spy check. They'll not notice that you'll bump into them and block their movement. They won't think twice about the fact that the medic isn't healing or that the scout is running far too slow. This guide doesn't focus on these players.

Instead this guide focuses mainly on strategies against the other players, ones who know how to detect a spy, protect themselves, and eliminate you. The guide will allow you to more effectively deal with rev jumping heavies that turn around every 5 seconds, engineers that build into corners, and pyros that know to airblast you into corners. While players like these may be a rarity in public servers, more often than not they will completely shut you down. This guide aims to improve your chances against them.

Weapons-Revolvers

Your weapons as a spy will determine how you play. Here I will list the current weapons available to the spy, and their general utility against spy-aware players.

Stock Revolver and reskins

Tried and true, the stock revolver will serve you well in almost any situation. It has a base damage of 40, and a maximum ramp-up of up to 60 damage at point blank. If you don't have the snap-shot reflexes to headshot with the ambassador consistently, this should be your go-to gun. Use this weapon to pick off weakened enemies running for health packs; it is also possible to use the revolver to pick off support classes who are at full health (engy, medic, and sniper) if backstabbing them is too difficult or too dangerous. Assuming all the bullets hit and you are at close or medium range, 4 shots will down them. The stock revolver is also the best panic weapon when you are discovered or need to back away quickly from spychecking enemies.

Utility:HIGH. Only in a very few situations will the revolver be definitely outclassed by any other gun.

The Ambassador

Introduced in the sniper versus spy update, the ambassador allowed spies to be effective at longer ranges than previously possible. With -15% base damage (34 base and 51 at point blank) and a 20% slower fire rate, the ambassador is a less effective panic weapon than the stock revolver unless you have fantastic aim. However, the weapon rewards effective aim by inflicting 102 damage on headshots, allowing the spy to act as a sniper, with sometimes fantastic results.
Video courtesy of Franklin West

Assuming average aiming skills, the ambassador is more effective than the stock revolver only from medium-long to extreme range or in situations when you have the initiative and can land the first headshot before being noticed. Much like how fire or being hit by projectiles will flinch a scoped sniper and disrupt their aim, they will also make it much more difficult for you to land your headshots as well. When using the ambassador it is important that you be able to land the first strike or shoot from a hidden location; otherwise once they begin returning fire the ambassador often becomes a nerfed version of the revolver with lower damage and firing speed.

The most important ability that the ambassador opens up is the option to destroy sentry nests from long range or around corners. In the former instance two headshots will kill the engineer, allowing you to snipe his buildings once he is dead. The second instance refers to the many maps where you may have line of sight to the engineer but not his sentry, but moving in to attempt a backstab on the engineer would put you in range and sight of his sentry gun. This is commonly seen on badwater on the second point, where engineers usually like to put their nest on the roof overseeing the capture point.
In this image, a spy on the right side of the picture behind the air conditioning units can shoot the enginner without getting return fire from his sentry. However if he moves in for a backstab, if the stab fails the sentry will instagib him. At this range the ambassador will kill in one headshot and one bodyshot. You can kill the engineer in safety from around the corner, redisguise, and then sap his nest.

Utility:HIGH. The ambassador is a legitimate sidegrade to the revolver and makes spy more effective from range.

The L'Etranger

A curiosity introduced with the Saharan Spy set. You gain 15% cloak on hit, but suffer a 20% damage penalty (32 base damage, 48 point blank). In general, this gun is useful ONLY with the dead ringer. If you aren't discovered, there is little reason to fire this gun. The damage is too low to be of much use for picking off targets, and firing will only alert them to your position in return for some mediocre damage. This gun should only be used when you are discovered and being actively chased and low on cloak. In these cases however, the stock watch or cloak and dagger will likely not save you. Explosive or spammy combat classes can kill you with splash damage or minigun spraying, and status effects like fire and jarate do not disappear wtih these watches. Cloaking will only make you die while invisible instead of visible. The only way to survive in this situation would be to activate the dr and run for it, and even then a pyro with airblast can delay you in a corner long enough to kill you.

Utility: LOW. This item is only useful if you're being chased. You usually don't want the situation to go that far.

The Enforcer

Once the subject of many rage threads in the era of Dr. Enforcicle, after the nerf debate about the enforce has subsided considerabley. It has a 20% damage bonus while undisguised and a 20% slower firing speed, giving it a base damage of 48 and point blank damage of 72. The enforcer is similar to the revolver in that it is a good panic weapon with adequate damage. For some players the slower firing speed may be a blessing in disguise, and it forcibly gives you more time to aim each shot. Many players who spam revolver shots often miss, and the forced slower fire rate may be a blessing for players with worse aim. Overall, the enforcer is an adequate replacement for the revovler, but fore those that can accurately fire in panic situations the revovlers faster firing speed will make it preferable.

Utility:MEDIUM - HIGH. This is a preference weapon.

The Diamondback

Introduced as a Deus Ex: Human Revolution preorder, the diamondback is a reverse frontier justice. It has a -15% damage penalty on the base damage, but give you crits for every building destroyed with your sapper on it. This gives 34 base damage, 51 point blank, and 102 on a crit. This weapon, in short, is absolutely terrible. Against experienced players spies have short lifespans, making it unlikely you will ever have more that a couple stored crits at any time during the match. A 102 damage crit is the same exact damage that an ambassador puts out on a headshot with one important difference: the ambassador, with good aim, can put out 102 damage on demand. The diamondback can not. There is also another problem:the engy's buildings have to die for you to get crits, and that means you have to kill the engy too. Using the diamondback with it's damage reduction handicaps you in this first confrontation, making it far more likely that the engineer will kill you rather than vice versa. Even calling this weapon is reverse frontier justice misses one thing: the frontier justice can get crits on demand as well, as all the engy has to do is self destruct a sentry with kills or assists. Overall the diamondback is a gimmicky, straight downgrade from every other spy pistol.

Utility:MINIMAL. Less useful than any other revolver in almost every situation.

Weapons-Knives

Stock Knife and Reskins

40 base damage when butterknifing and instant kill on backstab. Backstabs register If you stab in around a 180 degree arc around an enemy's back. Stock is the most dependable knife, as it has no health penalties and no gimmicks.

Utility:HIGH

Your Eternal Reward and Reskins

Upon a successful backstab you rapidly disguise as the player you killed. There is no death scream; however, you can't use your disguise kit. This is a gimmicky and very, very situational spy knife. You are forced to disguise as the class of the person you just killed, which may be detrimental if you're forced to disguise as a slow class, such as a heavy, or classes such as the medic or scout that show obvious signs that you are a spy. Hence you must either chose to spend much of your time undisguised, or you'll be at risk of being unable to chase down targets that are faster than your disguise. Let us look at the list of classes you can disguise as.

Scout-bad disguise, you'll be too slow, though if their scout is using a baby face's blaster this may give them pause before shooting at you.
Soldier-You suffer a speed reduction
Demo-You suffer a speed reduction
Heavy-You suffer a speed reduction
Medic-You're too slow, and the lack of healing will make it obvious that you are a spy
Engineer-Acceptable disguise
Sniper-Acceptable disguise
Pyro-Trying to backstab a pyro is playing with fire. Do it at your own risk.
Spy-Acceptable disguise, though competent players will be suspicious as friendly spies usually are behind enemy lines and not behind friendly ones.

In general this knife will reduce your options. The only area where this knife excels at is chainstabbing, since the tell-tale screams won't be there. Sentrys nests also become much more difficult to destroy, and you must get a backstab first so that the sentry won't blow you to bits.

Utility: LOW-MEDIUM. Extremely situational knife that limits your options.

The Conniver's Kunai

On backstab you aborb your victims health, healing you up to a maximum of 180 hp. Your max health is reduced to 60 hp, and any overheal from the knife degrades at 2 hp per second. While the overheal form this knife may be attractive in that it allows you to survive successful backstabs attempts more often, it hinders you in that the number of attacks that can oneshot you in the game are drastically increased. A single point blank rocket, pipe, or non-headshot huntmen arrow, and non-critical melee attacks won't kill a stock spy at full health. But these will instantly gib a kunai spy if he doesn't have the overheal buff. Without use of the dead ringer, this knife makes you much more vulnerable to random explosive spam at chokepoints and should you fail a backstab your intended target will likely kill you in one shot. In short this knife makes you more likely to survive a successful backstab, but reduces the chance of you successfully backstabing in the first place.

Utility: LOW. You can't backstab if you're dead. This knife will make you dead more often.

The Big Earner

Lowers your health to 100, and you gain 30% cloak on kill. This suffers the same issues as the kunai, in that it increases increases the number of attacks in the game that will instantly kill you. The 30% cloak is useful only with the dead ringer, which also helps you survive the backstab as the big earner doesn't give health like the kunai. Using the other watchs will often get you killed.

Utility:LOW.

The Spy-cicle

When you're hit by fire you can extinguish yourself and become inflammable for 2 seconds, though you will still take direct damage from flamethrowers. Backstab victims turn into ice statues, and the knife will take 15 seconds to regenerate after it melts. The silent killer aspect is a bit misleading, as every backstab produces a cracking sound that is pretty audible to anybody who is paying attention. Overall this knife enchances survivabilty at the cost of stealth and killing power. With the ice statues, any knowledgeable player will know that you are there, and in my experience pyros will more often than not deny you backstabs at the last moment by melting your knife. While your knife is melted, unless you are using the ambassdor you will be incapable of any serious damage. The melting noise is a very audible hissing sound, and the crys of "FIRE FIRE FIRE" eminating from the general vicinity of your fake dead corpse will make dead ringer feigns useless to anybody that plays with sound. You will survive more often in encounters against pyros, but the enemy team will know that you are coming, making them much harder to kill.

Utility: Medium. You gain surviviability in exchange for reduced effectiveness.

Weapons-Watches

Invisibility Watch and Reskins

This most depenadable and versitile watch. Has a cloak time of around 10 seconds when fully charges, and collecting ammo boxes and fallen weapons recharges it, allowing you to travel far distances without decloaking. While cloaked and disguised, enemy dispencers will recharge your cloak, allowing you to camp sentry nests and wait for the right time to attack. Its relatively quite decloak sound allows you to ambush effectively.

Utility: HIGH. This is the most dependable, flexible, and stealthy watch.

Cloak and Dagger

Drains cloak when you move and regenerates faster than it drains when you are still. This watch can't be recharged by ammo. The main pitfall of this watch is that the distance you can move is very limited, as the cloak drains quickly. This watch is best used for camping an area, allowing you to stay cloaked indefinitely and relay information to teammates. However, as many veteran spy players will say this watch promotes bad habits in many spies.

Utility: Medium

The Dead Ringer

Cloak duration of 6.5 seconds.+80% cloak regeneration rate and +60 cloak drain rate. Ammo box restore a lower percentage of cloak than with the stock watch. Cloak can only be triggered when the meter is full, and upon trigger drops a fake rag doll and server kill messages. 90% damage reduction for the first 6.5 seconds of the cloak only; any additional time gained from ammo pickups do not have the damage resistance. Very, VERY loud decloak sound unless the Saharan Spy set is in use.

I know many people may disagree with me, but against experienced players the dead ringer is only effective as a portable meatshield. Dead ringer (henceforth abbreviated DR) feigns are very easy to spot in many situations, like the following.

Did that spy simply drop dead to a single pistol bullet?
How did that spy just die to fall damage?
Why are ammo boxes mysteriously disappearing near a recently deceased spy?
Where's that hissing spy-cicle extinguish noise coming from?
Why did that spy just run straight into minigun fire?
Why do I hear a very loud crackling noise behind me?
Is that a fez and a Your Eternal Reward I see?

The DR is similar to the spy-cicle in that it enhances survivability at the cost of stealth and killing power. Previously it was possible to be stealthy by disguising as one of your teammates and then triggerring the feign. This would drop a ragdoll of your teammate instead of yourself. However, recently this has been bugged and a spy ragdoll would drop instead.

Due to the fact that the feign is easy to spot, the DR provides little protection against aware pyros with airblast. Many of them will spam fire in the area they predict you will go, and should you be lit up they will airblast you into a corner until your cloak runs out and proceed to murder you. Pyro is one of my main classes, and this happens quite often during matches. The stock watch is more effective at avoiding pyros as they won't spam flame as much if they don't know you're there.

The DR excels mainly in one area: chokepoints. The DR will allow you to tank spam at chokepoints whereas other watchs will not.

Utility: MEDIUM-HIGH. The effectiveness of this watch is very variable.

Weapons-Sappers

The Stock Sapper and the Red-Tape Recorder

The stock sapper wounds buildings as it kills them, the red tap recorder reduces their levels instead. The stock sapper destroys bui;dings much faster than red tape recorder. Generally, you want to use the stock sapper against stock enginners and the red tape against gunslinger engineers. For stock engineers it is imperative that you kill level 3 sentry as quickly as possible so that they have less time to unsap the gun. For gunslinger engineers it is a different case, especially frontier justices ones that actively WANT you to destroy their minisentry. Using stock sapper against these engys will result in them building another mini as soon as the first one goes down. The red tape recorder, with its longer kill time, will keep the gunslinger engy sentry-less for longer, giving you more breathing room to stab him or shoot him to death.

Stealth-Why is it important?

In the previous section I've mentioned stealth many times, so you may be wondering why is it so important. The reason is that while the backstab may be an instant kill, it can be stopped by something very, very simple and easy to do.

Your target can just turn around.

Suddenly instead of getting an instant kill you'll find yourself holding a 40 damage per slash butterknife and be within point blank range of an enemy that more often than not can kill you with 2 shots of their primary weapon.

The key to surviving and performing well as a spy is to make sure that this happens as rarely as possible. If the enemy knows that you are coming or in the immediate area, if they are competent they WILL start spychecking and turning around periodically, dramatically raising your chances of seeing the respawn screen. Your best choices at this time would be to hide somewhere and ambassador snipe, or wait for their paranoia to die down.

Enhancing your surviability

With stock loadout the spy has 125 health, tied with the sniper and the engy for being the squishiest class in the game. When using the kunai or the big earner your base hp will be even lower. Therefore it is imperative for you to practice habits that will not only lower the amount of damage you take, but prevent it all together. Here are some practices and principles that I use.

Cloak management and usage

Stay stealthy and don't let enemies see you if you can help it. They usually won't shoot randomly if they don't know that you're there.

Unless you are reasonably sure that it is safe, if you have cloak to spare always cloak or ready the DR before entering doorways or turning corners. Many times you will find that an enemy player was about to walk into you or that a demo was waiting with a sticky trap. If you're uncloaked or don't have the DR out, your opponent will likely shoot you on reflex as they would any suddenly appearing person, klling you or woudning you severely.

Weapons management

You are not a melee only class. Unless you're going in for a backstab, always keep your gun out. This will allow you to immediately shoot at targets of opportunity should they present themselves. Also, if you unexpectedly run into an enemy whose back isn't turned to you, all of the revolvers outdamage the knife at point blank range and all of them also attack faster than the knife. Needless to say that unlike the knife, revovlers can attack from range, allowing you to keep attacking your surprise guest while backing away. Holding the butterknife when you run right into an enemy is akin to getting caught with your pants down. Holding a gun when it happens will give you a chance to survive. This is even more so in the case of pyros, as you definitely do not want to try to butterknife one.

Knowing when and where to attack

Note sentry gun positions and don't stab anybody within it's range. If they enemy team is aware of your presence or is paranoid, attack when they are distracted by your team. If they're more worried about the rest of your team making a push, they will likely not spycheck as much.

Staying clear of other targets

As a spy, you want to stay away from teammates to avoid the explosive and bullet spam that the enemy team will send toward your heavier classes. This is even more important while you're cloaked with anything but the DR. The explosive spam intend for your teammate will make your cloak flicker and reveal your presence. In the same vein, don't walk in front of enemy scoped snipers. It's a stupid and sad way to die.

Knowing the limitations of your disguise

I will be completely honest here. If the members of the other team have half a brain and basic game knowledge, your disguise WILL NOT fool them for more than a dozen seconds. Sooner or later they will notice that you're not firing, that you're going the wrong way, or that you're making a beeline for the medic's back. And if you consistently disguise as the same class, they may connect two and two together and begin focusing their spychecking.

Stairstabs and trick stabs

Other than the matador stab and drop stabs, these are generally useless against experienced players. Most of them know not to follow you up stairs and will orient themselves to stop corner stabs. Should you attempt to stairstab an experienced player, they will often back up and simply let you land at the bottom of the stairs, right in front of them. Congratulations, you just got yourself killed. Against experienced pyros, do not even attempt to get into knife range. Run away and fire your gun if you think you have a decent chance at winning the fight.

Video courtesy of MrPaladin.

In general, the higher the skill level of the opposing team, the less utility trickstabs have. The following reddit thread in foucsed on highlander UGC, which is of a higher skill than the average pub, but the advice is still applicable.
Trick Stabs in Highlander

Observation

Look and observe your targets before attacking, especially if your target is a sentry nest. If you're targeting a teleporter at their spawn, before sapping it and shooting it to death press tab and check to see if anybody is respawning and could potentially rudely interrupt you. Listen around you. The developers of the game made many audio cues for you to use. Sentries beep, miniguns rev, flamethrowers make sound when they fire, and low health enemies will call medic.

When caught, run

Every class with the possible exception of the sniper will outdamage you in a fair one on one fight. If you're caught before having made the first strike, your best chance of survival is to run for it. A dead spy is wastes time not only respawning, but getting back into position.

Now I will proceed to case studies of class specific anti-spy practices and how to counter them.

Case study-Heavies

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The Ballerina Rev-Jumping Heavy

We have all see these heavys that constantly rev-jump and twirl around checking for spies. These are some of the most difficult targets you can find. Generally it is only advisable to approach them when they are distracted by combat.

Huo long Heavy

Especially on payload may heavies use the huo long heavy as a security blanket of sorts. While it doesn't protect them from backstabs aside from the spy-cicle (indeed, many of them become easier targets as they become complacent), it does makes surviving the successful stab more difficult. You can jump over the flame ring to avoid being set on fire as you backstab him. A simpler method would simply to use the DR to extinguish the flames later.

Case study-Soldiers and Demos

Rocket and Sticky Jumping

Note which soldiers and demos on their team tend to explosive jump often. You may be unlucky enough to attempt a backstab on one of them just as they jump away, leaving you damaged by the explosive splash, undisguised, and without a kill. Especially be wary of gunboats soldiers.

Case study-Snipers

The Razorback

The razorback is one of the worst unlocks for a reason. It may stop a backstab, but it doesn't stop bullets. 1 headshot and one body shot from an ambassador, or 3 shots from a stock revolver, will down the sniprs. Like with the huo long heater, many sniper with the razorback are complacent.

Jarate and Bushwacka

One of the more common anti-spy measure snipers take. Assuming that you are alone and the sniper's teammates aren't in the vicinity, you have a decent chance of winning this fight. Many snipers, once they get jarate on you , will charge you mindlessly with the bushwacka. Many spies make the mistake of getting drawn into this melee fight. Do not get into melee range, the sniper will one shot you, while you will need a lucky backstab or 3-4 butterknifes to kill him. Instead back off and fire your revolver. Many sniper will still attempt to melee you at this stage. Since you're using a gun and he is not, you have a decent chance at winning. If the sniper begins to start no-scoping you it is advisable to run.

Case study-Engineers

Turtle in a Corner

You've likely seen it before, an engy buildling all his stuff in a corner, surrounding himself with his buildings and using them as physical walls against spies. There are generallly several ways to take out his nest

One-Cloak and jump on his head. Uncloak and crouch while aiming at his back. Eventually you're knife will go up to the backstab ready position. Backstab him and quickly sap his sentry.

Two-Sap his gun first, and quickly switch to your revolver and shoot him to death. It takes two wacks of his wrench to take off the sapper, more than enough time for you to plug 3 shots into him at close range with the stock revolver or one headshot and bodyshot for the ambassador, which should kill him. If he is about to unsap the sentry, swtich back to your sapper and resap as soon and he removes the previous sapper, then take your gun out again.

Three-Use his dispenser as a shield. His sentry's bullets won't go through his buildings. You can hide behind his dispencer and start shotting him with your gun at point blank range. He also takes self damage from his sentry, so if he is between his sentry and you, he can potentially commit suicide.

Four-Ambassador sniper him. Unless he has the wrangler he can't retaliate. It will take two headshots to kill him. Then take down his buildings from long range with the ambassador.

Multiple Sentries

If there are mutliple sentries covering each other, do not attempt to take on the nest when the engineers are there. Lure the engineers away and kill them out of sentry range or call in help. Or better yet, switch to demo.

Case study-Pyros

Your natural predator. Try to never get in range of one. When one spots you and goes after you, back pedal and fire your revolver if you have enough space to kill him or wound him enough to force him to retreat. Otherwise turn around and run. Do not assume that the DR or spycicle will protect you against any pyro with airblast. Most good pyros will know not to get into a melee fight. If they do, you can sometimes pull off stabs like this.

Video courtesy of stabby stabby

However, this is the exception, not the rule.

Case study-Medics

The Ubersaw

I've noticed that many medics, when they discover me, will charge me with melee out, hoping to extract some uber. Do not get in a melee fight with a medic unless you have a health advantage. Their melee has a high crit rate, and they will likely oneshot you. Back away and fire your revolver instead. If the medic instead runs away and begins firing needles, do not pursue him. You can't catch him and his needles do surprising high damage since you will be following him in a predictable path, allowing him to aim his needles better.

Conclusions

I hope this guide has helped you become a better spy. Spy is a powerful but fragile class, and there is always room to improve your strategies and tactics. The important part of playing a spy is to get the correct targets at the correct time: killing medics that have charges ubers, sapping sentries when your team turns the corner. And the spy's most important skill, the one that allows him to survive behind enemy lines until the right times comes, is making sure that he survives long enough for that time to come around.

Feel free to leave comments below. I may update this guide as time passes and more feedback comes in.

[Mattt]

With the dead ringer you can just run backwards at the enemy team and often get a ridiculous stab out of it. If he situation is convincing enough (your team popped uber and you're pretending to run away from it) the enemy players might even ignore being bumped and might confuse it for lag. Be careful for enemy spies though.

[JHAP]

Another thing- This loadout counters the Big Earners health reduction because they can't see you. Sure it requires patience, but once you master it you can kill most people without being seen

[JHAP]

The Cloak and Dagger does have a use. Combined with L'entragur you get longer cloak. This gave me a habit of never disguising. Reason? I'm always invisible unless I'm about to kill somebody/travelling out of my base. If you combine this with the Big Earner, you can move into the enemy base without being seen and then when you kill, you get cloak back and a speed boost. Cloak straight after a kill and you basically can move away quickly, without getting caught

[Hat wearing Bacteriophage]

I prefer the diamondback because when you only sap a tele (which has 2 sides and gives you 2 crits that way) can let you take a pyro out in 2 shots. Its damage falloff is not too bad either since i still managed to kill a razorback sniper with 3 shots without crit and revolver takes same amount.

[FeelZeSchadenfreude]

I'm assuming english isn't your first language, so I hope I interpreted your comment correctly. Dead ringer fake deaths are very easy to spot, and using it will make them aware that you are coming or trying to sneak through, making them more paranoid and harder to stab. That's why I usually use the invisiwatch or it's reskins.

[Crazywayne]

i always usse dead ringer but i dont camp i think its good as sometime i use invis it decloaks at the wrong time however with deadringer you can attack at the right time

[FeelZeSchadenfreude]

I believe that it teaches bad habits in that it makes you camp more and decreases your maneuverability while cloaked. It's still good for use as an information/intelligence spy, but you don't find those outside of ugc ighlander.

[Crazywayne]

and again cloak and dagger does not really promote bad tatics it teaches patience if used propely it can kill but still great guide

[Crazywayne]

timing i think is the most importatnt you can kill anybody if you attack at the right time

[Dizzy]

you can do an easy fake stair stab and just avoid 9 out of 10 people that 1 percent is the percent that is a scout because they catch up with you and even if some stupid heavy wants to go after 1 spy he's risking not helping his teammates in battle but he does have the risk to get backstabed thats the same with everyclass (besides scout because again they catch up)