Pyro Guide

A while ago, I put a strawpoll in my steam group for if I should make a guide on other classes and not just for Engineer. You guys voted and it turned out. It's here, the guide on none other, than Pyro. And so today, I will introduce you to ambushing, burning and most important of all, makin' bacon.

Introduction

The ? mercenary, nobody knows who Pyro really is, only thing that we do know is that he loves fire. She loves fire? My point is that Pyro is the biggest mystery in Team Fortress 2. And on the battlefield Pyro is no diffrent. It can happen that Pyro will ambush you from behind or you can be victim of the cruel Phlogistinator User.

Basic Info

Pyro has always been considered as a flanking class in higher-level games. The issue for Pyro is that he's too slow to be a flanker (that's why he disposes with Thermal Truster and Powerjack). Other than that, Pyro can be class that can fit in almost any situation.

Class	Health	Overheal
Pyro	175	260

Condition	Normal	Backwards	Crouched	Underwater
Pyro	100%	90%	33%	80%
Powerjack	115%	104%	38%	92%

These informations can be founded on the TF2 wiki but I felt like I can add them here.

Pyro's Role

Usually when someone picks Pyro for the first time, his main goal is to burn many enemies as possible. The main Pyro's function was built around this goal. Deal a massive amout of Damage with the Flamethrower. As time goes on, Pyro got ability called airblast which changed a lot of possibilities for this class. Yes that's right, compression blast was added in 2008 so before this year, Pyro was pure W + M1. No airblasting, no reflecting.

It was obviously diffrent age for TF2 and Pyro's roles and subclasses have evolved.
Pyro has so many options, he can be support and help his Engineer, he can play passivly around the objective and much more...

Primary Weapons

Flame Thrower

Flame Thrower is made in-home by Pyro himself (or herself). The main function of Flame Thrower is to throw flames at enemy, dealing pretty DPS. Secondary fire blasts compressed air which knocks back enemies, redirects enemy projectiles, and extinguishes flames on teammates, using 20 ammo per blast. All deflected projectiles will inflict Mini-Crit damage.

Ammo Count:

• 200

Backburner

The Backburner does not roll for random critical hits, but it does guarantee critical hits whenever it is used on an opponent from behind. It is truly the best flanking weapon out there. However, Backburner's major downside is that you can airblast only 4 times before you have to search for ammo pack.

Ammo Count:

• 200

Degreaser

When players looks for the Combo Pyro, they often picks Degreaser to their loadout. That's beacuse Degreaser allows faster switch speed. But again, with the upside comes downsides which are slightly more expensive airblasts (from 20 to 25 ammo) and weaker afterburn so Degreaser isn't for the main Damage output.

Ammo Count:

• 200

Phlogistinator

Phlogistinator works as a damage weapon but it's main downside "no airblasts" makes this weapon pretty boring and only viable in MvM. On the other hand, if you fill the "MMMPH" meter with 300 Damage, you will now have the ability to gain a criticals for a short period of time.

Ammo Count:

• 200

Dragon's Fury

My favourite Primary for Pyro is the Dragon's Fury. It is a single-shot flamethrower that launches a fast moving projectile that briefly ignites enemies. It also requires a little bit of aiming skill compared to other Pyro's primaries. The real meat of this weapon works that if you successfully ignite an enemy, your firing speed and damage will increase. The downside is that after the airblast, you have to wait a few seconds before the gun starts working again. (Airblast costs 5 ammo)

Ammo Capacity:

• 40

Secondary Weapons

Shotgun

Pick a Shotgun if you need a good reliable damage dealer. Slightly weaker at long ranges so if you're using this instead of the flares, you should avoid big sightlines. Anyway I highly reccomend this for beginners, it won't disappoint you.

Damage Output:

• Point Blank: 80-90; 180 crit
  
• Medium Range: 10-30; 90 crit
  
• Long range: 3-10; 30 crit

Clip Size - 6
Ammo Count - 32

Flare Gun

Iconic secondary for Pyro is the Flare Gun. Often used as the finisher to the combo loadouts. Flare Gun shoots one flare at the time, dealing 30 damage and applying afterburn for 7 seconds. The real meat of this weapon is that if you shoot an enemy who's burning, the flare will deal critical shot in form of 90 damage. All flare gun-type weapons reloads automatically when not active.

Damage Output:

• 30; 90 crit

Clip Size - 1
Ammo Count - 16

Detonator

Sightgrade for Flare Gun exept Detonator deals smaller damage and also has an Alt-fire which detonates the flare and cause a little bit of splash fire damage. This allows you to do a deto-jump (smaller rocket-jump). This is a weapon for utility and for flanking.
Instead of crits on hit vs. burning players, Detonator deals mini-crits but it can destroy sticky bombs.

Damage Output:

• 23; 68 crit

Clip Size - 1
Ammo Count - 16

Reserve Shooter

Shotgun which has faster switching speed and it deals mini-crits to blast-jumped and knocked players in change for smaller clip size. Back in the day, this weapon was HATED beacuse the mini-crits were affected to players, who got to the air by airblast. So with literally no effort, Pyro could meatshot Heavy for more than 150 HP.

Damage Output:

• Point Blank: 80-90; 180 crit
  
• Medium Range: 10-30; 90 crit
  
• Long range: 3-10; 30 crit

Clip Size - 4
Ammo Count - 32

Manmelter

Manmelter has the same damage output as a Flare Gun. No damage on burning players. Alt-Fire extinguishes teammates. Doing so gives 1 guaranteed crit per teammate extinguished (can hold up to 35). Manmelter's projectile is also 50% faster than regular and does not require ammo.
This gun looks like nice device on paper but due on it's unreliable hitbox, it isn't the best one out there.

Damage Output:

• 30; 90 crit

Clip Size - 1
Ammo Count - ∞

Scorch Shot

Scorch Shot is also hated weapon, mainly beacuse it can be easily spamable. The flares explodes after touching the object. If you hit an enemy, the flare will cause afterburn and it'll fall slowly to the ground. After touching the ground, it will explode with mini-crit damage. This can really mess up with Sniper's aim. Flares can also destroy stickies and cause knockbacks. As a downside it has smaller damage.
This weapon can also work like Detonator in form of utility. So the Scorch Shot allows you to deto-jump.

Damage Output:

• 20; 60 crit

Clip Size - 1
Ammo Count - 16

Panic Attack

Shotgun with much faster switching speed and firing speed based on your current health. It's not bad on Pyro, but you're losing the long range damage source that Flare guns can offer.

Damage Output:

Point Blank: 6.3-94; 180 crit
Medium Range: 4.2-63; 90 crit
Long range: 4.2-6; 30 crit

Clip Size - 6
Ammo Count - 32

Thermal Thruster

Jetpack for Pyro with two charges, one for ambushing, the second one for escaping. Incredibly designed. Basically the Thermal Thruster will blast you to the direction you're looking at. It will also push nearby enemies away upon landing. If you crush land on someone's head, you'll also deal damage simillar to Manntreads. You can also extinguish teammates at the start of your launch. Each launch recharges 15 seconds. Obviously, it's downside is that you have no secondary (+ the longer switch speed).
Thermal Thruster was designed to be utility flanking tool and I like it.

Gas Passer

When used, Pyro throws a Gas can which creates a horrific visible gas that coats enemies with a flammable material. Enemies covered in gas ignite into afterburn if they take damage (even enemy Pyros!). This sounds like great liquid weapon to throw into chokepoints right? Well... the Gas Passer meter recharges 60 seconds. It can be faster by dealing damage but it's still a lot of time.
If only Valve would make the Gas Passer more DPS weapon than Support weapon. Making it whoever is in gas cloud would take damage so the burning effect would apply itself. What do you think?

Melee Weapons

Fire Axe

Basic and in most situations; useless. Your really won't need a melee on Pyro that deals damage without any other upside.

Axtinguisher

After this weapon was nerfed to the ground, nobody used it anymore. Luckily, the Blue Moon upgrade happened and this Axtinguisher got a solid buff. It can now make it's combo job better.: Mini-crits burning targets and extinguishes them. Every kill with this weapon grants you a speed boost. Downsides are: -33% damage penality and -35% switch-from speed.

Homewrecker

Every Engie appriciates when someone uses Homewrecker. It can destroy sappers at one hit! And as a small bonus it deals 2x more damage against enemy buildings. Exchanges for smaller damage penality.

Powerjack

Probably the overall best choice. It has faster speed on wearer when active and few extra health points on kill. However, when active, you take 20% more damage.

Back Scratcher

Good pick when your team has no Medic. This weapon gives you 50% more health from health packs. But you gain less health from medic beams or Dispensers. As a extra upside is +25% more damage which is very nice.
But always better answer, instead of picking this when your team has no Medic, is switching to one.

Third Degree & Sharped Volcano Fragment

I'll be honest, both are total trash now. It may change in the future but I'll give you a tip: Don't use them.

Neon Annihilator

Others call them Pyrosharks; or the ones, who are living in the deepest corners of the 2Fort water sewers. It's no secret that this weapon is mainly used on the maps with a lot of water beacuse for the crit reward against wet players. Neon Annihilator can also wipe out sapper on 2 hits. All this comes with the smaller damage penality downside.

Hot Hand

The last one I want to mention is the Hot Hand, also known as the meme weapon. Hot Hand hasn't any practical use but it's way how you can slap damage enemies is very interesting.

Features

Afterburn

Afterbun deals 4 damage per tick and it longs longer the victim was under the flames of your Flame Thrower. You can often rely on Afterburn to kill the enemy for you, you can use it as a combo element.
There's a lot of things you can do with it. Don't forget that if you see a teammate who's burning to death by afterburn, use your Mouse 2 to cease him from fire. By doing this, you'll also get +20 HP as a bonus.

Airblast

When you have your Flame Thrower active (or any other primary except Phlogistinator), you can by Alt-Fire blast a compressed air which knocks back enemies, redirects enemy projectiles, and extinguishes flames on teammates, using 20 ammo (depends on your primary) per blast.
All deflected projectiles will inflict Mini-Crit damage. You can push away projectiles or cause enviromental deaths with airblasts. It is really fun mechanic.








The complete list of things that you can airblast

• Rockets
  
• Grenades
  
• Cannonballs
  
• Sticky bombs
  
• Mad Milk
  
• Cleavers
  
• Baseball Balls
  
• Arrows
  
• Jarate
  
• Flares
  
• Healing Bolts
  
• Repair Shots
  
• Energy Blasts
  
• Fireballs

Team Roles & Subclasses

As I have mentioned before, Pyro has a lot of ways, how to play him. I'd like to introduce you a several subclasses Pyro has.

Damage Dealer

You can choose basically anything, that can deal reliable damage. These Pyros fights at front lines, relying on their high DPS. Their playstyle is very offensive and aggresive. They are usually going for the weaker targets.

Flanker Pyro

Very often you can see those Pyros using Backburner, Powerjack and the Detonator or even the Thermal Thruster. His main goal is to ambush unprepared enemies and kill them from behind with Backburner crits.

Combo Pyro

These Pyros are often relying on the Puff-n'-Sting method which is combination between burning and criting with either secondary or melee.

Pybro

This Engineer-friendly creature is a huge help to an Engie. Pybro's loadout can be pretty much everything that can chase Spies. On a top of it, Pybros often uses Homewrecker which is a good help when the Engie isn't near or he's just dead but keep in mind when playing as Pybro, Your number one priority is to take down the Spy and then the sapper.

Defensive Pyro

Simmilar to Pybro but playing really passivly, punishing anyone who is brave enough to pass the frontline and tries to capture the objective. The loadout isn't that strict but you can use other weapons such as Shotguns, Dragon's Fury or even Gas Passer.

Important task

No matter what subclass you'll play. Your main role is denying übercharges, pushing away übered enemies. This game changing mechanic is the key, why the Pyro shines in competitive scene at least a little bit.

Final Tips

• Never rush straight forward. Always to play safely and be ready to reflect a projectile, axtinguish
  your teammates and spycheck often.
  
  
• Airblasting projectiles is very nice , cool looking and usefull , but don't always reflect every projectile you see. Especially when playing Pybro , don't airblast projectiles that aren't necessary to airblast like Rockets / Grenades that are not going to hit Engie's sentry , because it can get worse. If Engie has Short Circuit , he can deal with them very easily and fast , so you don't have to waste your ammo.
  
  
• In main menu, Pyro is shown as attack class, but not every time he has to necessary be on frontlines. Pyro should play more passively and support his team.

End

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you learnt something new here. Don't forget to rate this guide and write a comment, I read all of them and they really cheer me up.

Do you like discussing TF2 related things and playing with good people? Join our communities:

• ≫︎Engineer Saloon Group≪︎
  
• ≫︎Engineer Saloon Discord≪︎[discord.gg]

[Aya Shmara]

Mmph mmmph mph-mph mmph mmmmph!

[BINALEWALA NYA AKO DAHIL SAYO]

as a pyro main, I aprove of this guide!

[Liquidus]

Thank you!

[Pyroboi]

Umm...good stuff
Now I've seen everything

[Air Man]

As a pyro main you got most things down, except your main goal isn't denying ubers... its denying spies...

[hsn741⁧⁧Selling Unusuals]

First I thought it was a salt guide but itsn't and it's good :ı

[Mazya]

w+m1

[got locked up for parkin tickets]

Thought this was just gonna say "W+M1"

[stratosvarius]

i honestly thoought it was going to be a meme guide

[Jeronimos]

good, despite the grammar which is horrendous at times