Team Fortress Guide

Welcome to the ultimate Team Fortress guide which will hopefully help many new players with the game. This guide will provide you with a lot of information about the game from the bottom to the top. Feel free to scroll down the guide to find the desired topic.

Introduction

Team Fortress 2 is over 10 years old, there are so many stuff new player must learn to be successful. Getting into the game with no clue whatsoever is asking for a disaster. That's why I have decided to take all things the new player might need and put them into one huge guide.

Interface - Section covering the main menu, settings and player display (HUD)
Play modes - All information about Casual, Competitive and MvM can be found here.
Game modes - Every game mode is described in this section.
Classes - You can find here a detailed description about every playable class and their arsenal.
Team - Many written tactics and tips that will surely help your team.
Mechanics - Very important part of the guide where you can learn many features.

You can find the section you're interested in by just clicking on it's name. However I recommend to read the guide from the top.

About TF2

Developer: Valve

Type: Action multiplayer FP shooter

Price: Free to play

Supported OS: Windows, OS X, Linux

Team Fortress 2 introduces two teams, RED and BLU, fighting over worthless lands in a New Mexico. The game itself is set in the year 1971.
You can choose from 9 different game classes, each with its own specific skills and weapons. In addition to fighting, Team Fortress 2 offers crafting and selling of new items. These items include mainly popular hats and skinned weapons.

Main menu

The game itself will introduce you to the main menu trough those white text boxes pointing around and explaining. However I personally think that this is not enough to explain everything you can find in the main menu.





















We'll take a look at every feature that is on the main menu. For now, this will be your main screen when you launch the game until you get a custom HUD.

Item management

You can get from the main menu to the item management by clicking on this button.






Item management provides you access to your equipment, backpack, forging, Mann Co. catalog and exchange. The item management menu also displays personal user statistics and records. You can also access the item management menu using the "M" key.
Since the Jungle Inferno update, you can even inspect War Paints.

Here you can choose equipment for each class, forge a new item, look at the existing Mann Co. catalog, exchange with another player, see the colors on the weapon and view your statistics.

Loadout

Loadout is a collection of items which your class will be using during the fight. As you can see, on the left side, you have weapons usually separated to three main types:

Primary - Usually the most needed weapon.

Secondary - Handy when your primary is somehow useless in the current situation.

Melee - Close ranged weapon (has higher chance for random crits).

PDA - Not for every class, makes the class unique.


On the right side, you can find three slots for cosmetic items and one slot for accessory.
Cosmetics can easily make your character unique and interesting. In TF2, there are hundreds upon hundreds of hats, a wide customization is on place.
The accessory item can be used in game by hitting "H" hey and it does a very specific thing. Many accessories are restricted to game types or holiday events.



















There is actually a second loadout type you can have on the same character, to enter the Taunt loadout page, click on this button:




Taunts can be activated in game by pressing "G", every weapon has it's own unique stock taunt. However you can buy or trade a special taunt. Sadly, you can see that my taunt loadout page is very poor, but you can have up to 8 taunts equipped.

Backpack

To get to your backpack, you have to click on this button from the item management.









Once you get into your backpack, you can see all your items you own.





















A backpack in Team Fortress 2 is a player's inventory that allows you to store all in-game items. Items are stored in separate slots where they can be viewed, moved to another slot or deleted. In addition, most tools can only be used inside the backpack. The backpack is displayed in the form of pages, each of which can store 50 items. The contents of the backpack can also be sorted by class, rarity, and type.

A premium user will have generally a larger backpack than an user without premium. You can alternatively buy Backpack Expander from Mann Co. store for 0.90€.

Crafting

Crafting is extremly useful for players, who aren't able to trade yet. Crafting their own weapons from scraps is a great way to start. However I heavily recommend turning to scrap only duplicate items. Do not merge items you have only once.








There are 4 crafting sections, each has it's own purpose. However you find yourself only using two or three at most.




















As you can see, two weapons of the same class is required to craft a Scrap metal. In the following sections, you can find blueprints for common items, for rare items and even for special items. Metals can be crafted into a desired item if there's a blueprint for it. But the metal truly shines* in trading.

Scrap metal - can be crafted out of 2 weapons of the same class. In the trading community, the Scrap metal is marked as 0.11 ref or 1 Scrap.

Reclaimed Metal - can be crafted out of 3 Scrap metals. In the trading community, the Reclaimed metal is marked as 0.33 ref or 1 rec.

Refined Metal - can be crafted out of 3 Reclaimed metals. In the trading community, the Refined metal is marked as 1 ref.

Mann Co. Store

Mann Co. Store provides you a wide choice of unbeliveably expensive items. I don't recommend buying hats and weapons from the Mann Co. store unless you mentally think it is okay to buy The Conscientious Objector for 11.50€.
The only thing worth buying from Mann Co. store would be a key and a Campaign Pass.
Even though the store is so financial unbalanced, you can upgrade your accout to premium by just buying a single thing from this place.

Having premium account expands your backpack, allow you to trade, to craft rare items and more!

Settings

Before playing a game, step back to the main menu and click on the "settings" button located on the bottom right panel:






Team Fortress, being the old game that it is, has a pretty bad default settings. It is time to set it all up. Click to the left-most "settings" button to access this panel:









After you find your advanced settings, set your Wait for Vertical Sync to Disabled for smoother gaming experience.

















There are several commands that will surely make your game better. These commands need to be written in the console. You first have to enable the console.

Go to Settings -> Keyboard -> Advanced... -> Enable developer console

This command increases your field of view, meaning you can see more of what's going on around you.

fov_desired 90

This command successfully increases your viewmodel, which means that your weapon won't cover quarter of your screen.

viewmodel_fov 70

You can open your advanced settings by clicking on the left-most button:














Now I recommend you turning ON following settings:

Automatic reload

You will automatically reload your weapon whenever you're not firing, if the weapon needs ammo to reload. This has no downside because the reload animation doesn't prevent you from shooting.

Play a hit sound every time you injure an enemy

This will keep track of how much damage you're dealing per second when in fight.

Display damage done as text over your target

This is very important feature becuase it'll allow you to calculate how much damage you have to deal in order to kill an enemy.

Accumulate combat text damage events into a stacking number

In order to make this work, you need to have the previous setting enabled. Basically what this does is that the damage text won't appear individually every time you deal a damage, instead it'll stack up.

MEDIC: Injured teammates automatically call out

As a Medic, your job is to heal everyone and prioritize wounded targets, this setting will help you out.

If you want to get your Team Fortress preformance to perfection, I highly recommend reading one particular guide made by Z0rpi. The guide contains much more detailed setting variations, graphic improvements, information about custom HUDs and much more!
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1792598328

ConTracker

ConTracker is a part of the main menu interface that keeps track of contracts. It can be activated by clicking on the ConTracker icon in the main menu.

You can open for the stars new contracts further down the branches. Stars can be obtained for each task, that means for every contract, there is maximum of 3 stars. You need to have all 108 stars to aquire Golden ConTracker.

If you have activated a campaign pass, you can buy cases and war paints for bloody money. Blood money can be aquired by completing contracts.

Contracts are individual tasks that, if completed, rewards a player with a war paint or Blood Money. Each contract requires a certain amout of stars and a completing of previous contracts.

Each individual contract is separated to Primary task and two Bonus tasks.
After the first primary task is completed, the reward and a star will be aquired. For the last two remaining bonuses there is a star for completing each.























A completely free campaign featuring mostly Pyro contracts as well as on Heavy contract. The Pyroland Campaing rewards you with Jungle Inferno weapons. These contracts lets you try out these weapons and after completing your contract, you're rewarded with one that you can keep forever.






Requires a Jungle Inferno Campaign Pass which costs 2.22€. This campaign features much more contracts and very unique rewards including an elite grade Dragon Slayer War paint. The Merc Park Campaign is separated to 5 diffrent sets of contracts.
























In the ConTracker's gift shop, you can exchange your earned blood money for cases, keyless crates or war paints. Each has it's own price and quantity.

Party

In-game party allows you to gather a group of six friends and queue up together for a match. You all will be assigned to the same team.



This in-game party disposes with a small party chat which can be accessed through either the main menu or by pressing "P" if binded right. The party member with a little star displayed on his picture is considered a party leader.
Party leader has the ability to invite or kick players from the party or queue up for matches.

There is also an option to set requirements for people to join your party. For example players can join freely or they have to send a request first.

Only players from your friend list can be invited or can be joined to your party!

Player display (HUD)

A player display or HUD is a system for quickly transferring important information to the player. It is a set of various informative icons on the player's screen.

• Health bar - Current amount of your health points (HP). Health bar changes it's colors based on how much HP you have left.
  
• Ammo capacity - Current amount of your ammo. Heavy primaries in particular don't use clips so you can see your capacity as one number.
  
• Objective status - Very important thing, you can see that someone from the RED team is trying to capture the point.
  
• Damage numbers - These will inform you over how much damage you've recently done to a target and therefore, keeps you aware of how much health the enemy has.
  
• Timer - Another thing on your HUD you need to keep an eye on. Timer shows how much time is left until the end of the game.
  
• BLU team - Composition of the BLU team (teammates), shows how many players are waiting for respawn.
  
• RED team - Composition of the RED team (enemies), it is handy for deciding whether it is a good time to push.
  
• Chat - General chat for both teams. Keep an eye for small voice messages such as MEDIC! or Sentry Ahead!
  
• Kill feed - Every kill, domination and capture is showed here. Kill feed will be a huge help if enemy is using deadly weapons.
  
• Item charge meter - Cooldown of a certain items, in this example it is the Sandwich.

Casual mode

Casual mode is a classic play mode where players clash together on varity of maps and game modes. When queued, you'll get matched into 12v12 unranked game with players of similar skill. This makes it for a perfect battleground for many players of diffrent interests. Tryharders, friendlies, pubstompers or even fresh new players can enjoy because casual is for everyone.

You will gain XP for your preformance in a match. The higher your level is, the higher you have the chance to match up with and against better players.
Levels are divided to 6 grades, each grade require 25 levels to boost up. There are also 8 tiers. Once you pass level 150, you will get back to level 1 and upgrade tier to 2.

Competitive mode

Competitive mode is serious, fast paced TF2 ranked mode with teams of six players. The official competitive format known as sixes (6's) requires all six memebers to be strong contributors. Communication is almost crucial for playing competitive successfully.
Official competitive settings also features Stopwatch mode on game modes like Attack / Defend and Payload.



In order to get into competitive, you need to have a few things ready. First of all, you need to activate your brain. But to gain access to Competitive Mode mechanically, you must be at least Casual level 3 and have a Premium TF2 Account and a qualifying telephone number on Steam.
Those are the requirements that have to be well placed in order to successfully queue up.

• Casual level 3
  
  
• Premium TF2 Account
  
  
• Qualified telephone number on Steam
  
  
• Having a brain (often lacks)

With Competitive Mode, every win (and every loss) counts. You'll be competing against opponents of similar skill level in structured and progressive play. Your match-to-match performance will determine how you rank up (or down).

Matchmaking ranks your ongoing performance in competitive play and assigns you a score called your Matchmaking Rating (MMR), which is then used to match you with players of a similar skill level.




































Your MMR increases by winning matches and goes down by losing. Push your MMR high enough and you'll rank up. But be careful -- you'll drop rank if you lose too much.





Official competitive sixes are drowning in Control Points. With the 5CP being the most popular gamemode even outside official competitive. There has to be strong, fast team composition.
The strongest team composition for 6's high level players agrees on are following classes:

• 2x Scout
  
• 2x Soldier (one being roamer, one pocket)
  
• Demoman
  
• Medic

The reason these classes form the efficient competitive meta is that they can react to most situations whether it is defending or attacking. This type of class even has a name - generalist.



The Scout is a highly mobile "clean up" class, used to capture points and move in and out of fights to deal and avoid as much damage as possible. In the standard 6v6 play, a team will have 2 Scouts. When playing this class, one will be expected to successfully capture points, control the flank, and be able to clean up the damage put out by heavy classes (Soldier and Demoman).

• Scattergun
  
• Pistol
  
• Boston's Basher

Roamer

Agressive Soldier equipped with Gunboats and Rocket Launcher. Roamer rocket jumps pretty often and uses the splash damage of his rockets to deal maximum damage as possible. The Escaple Plan is there to escape from a certain danger.

• Rocket Launcher / Original
  
• Gunboats
  
• Escape Plan

Pocket Soldier

Defensive type of Soldier with Rocket Launcher and Shotgun. Pocket often fights around Medic and plays more passively. Unlike previous mentioned Roamer, the Pocket uses his rocket jumps only in needed situations. Pocket Soldier can also be seen with a banner but that's a very rare occasion.

• Rocket Launcher
  
• Shotgun / Banners
  
• Disciplinary Action

In 6's, Demoman holds the primary role of dealing initial damage and crowd control. He makes sure the enemy never pushes into his team without taking damage and uses his spamming abilities to funnel the enemy team so they can be cleaned up by his teammates. He is also essential for defending as his sticky traps can get him easy kills and force the enemy to retreat, and his pill spam can easily chunk the enemy teams health if they are careless with their positioning.

• Grenade Launcher / Iron Bomber
  
• Stickybomb Launcher
  
• Bottle / (Pain Train)

The Medic is a vital part of any 6v6 team, with his ability to use ÜberCharges or KritzCharges on teammates for pushes from point to point or for saving teammates. Due to this, he is usually the most targeted player by the enemy team. If a team loses a Medic they are posed with a large disadvantage of no heals, and may be pushed back to another point or even lose the game.

Notice that Medic's job is to heal everyone as the overheal is a very strong buff. However the Übercharge should be activated on carefully chosen targets.

Stock Übercharge

Standart Übercharge is very helpful in many ways but mostly to defend the point. As a Medic, your Scout and Pocket Soldier is a best candidate for your Über. Stock Übercharge will be fully charged in ~40-80 seconds based on who you heal.

Kritzkrieg

It's Übercharge provides you and your patient with 8 seconds of criticals. Use your Kritzkrieg if you're assured the enemy Medic doesn't have Stock über ready. Kritzkrieg will (if charged right) be generally ready to use 8 before the Stock could be (if charged at the same time). This makes the Kritzkrieg best for dropping enemy Medic. Simply pop on your Soldier or Demoman and wreck the enemy point. Let the scouts do the rest.

I've just described the classic 6's meta for CP and KotH. However teammates can change if played for example A/D or Payload. Notice that the core of the team will generally stay the same.

• Cp_Badlands
  
• Pl_Badwater
  
• Cp_Foundry
  
• Cp_Gorge
  
• Cp_Granary
  
• Cp_Gullywash
  
• Cp_Metalworks
  
• Cp_Process
  
• Cp_Snakewater
  
• Cp_Sunshine
  
• Pl_Swiftwater
  
• TυɾႦιɳҽ
  
• Cp_Vanguard
  
• KotH_Viaduct

Mann vs. Machine

Mann vs. Machine is an alternative game mode that is very diffrent compared to already known Casual. In MvM, you team up with six players and together, try to stop waves of menacing robots of diffrent types and strengths.

You can play this mode free just for fun or you can get more serious and buy Tour of Duty tickets for 0.90€ and try to win epic golden weapons and bragging rights!

While Mann vs. Machine being almost like a entirely diffrent game. I suggest to read my guide I've made which covers almost everything MvM there is. If you're interested in decimating robots like a professional, check the MvM Ettiquette
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1714483501

Community servers

Community servers - either the scary part of TF2 or a place, where you can chill on a server with a bunch of players.
Many players refuses to join community servers mainly because the server browser, dated back to the 2003, looks exactly like that, small grey box with no order whatsoever. New players simply doesn't know how to operate this thing.





















However it doesn't take a long time to get used to. To join a desired server, paste an ID code, if you want to join random server of a chosen gamemode, type correct prefix (cp_; pl_; ctf_), select filters and start playing!

Training

Basic training in Team Fortress 2 is very poorly designed, sure it teaches you how to move, shoot, jump or crouch, but the fact that the training only features four out of nine classes makes the official training very bad choice for learning mechanics of the game.

Nontheless, this should be one of the first play mode you should try as a new player. Complete all four available trainings and move on to learning other classes trough Bot Practice.

Shot from a training hall, player learns how to operate with their own weapons.


Shot from training Dustbowl, player learns other stuff and classes trough playing against AI.


Offline practice alllows you to sharpen your skills on Bots. Upon entering offline practice, you'll be able to choose one of three basic gamemodes and then individual map, difficulty and amount of bots on each side.
Playing offline practice can help you prepare for gaming against real players but it will push you no further.

You see I selected Viaduct with 12 player slots which means the match will be 6v6.

Attack / Defense

Attack / Defense is very popular core game mode where the BLU team has to take over all control points in order to win the game and the RED team has to stop them by defending control points until the time runs out.

The time will increase every time the point is captured, giving the BLU team more time to capture the rest. At the start of the round, there is usually a setup time, a short period (~60 seconds) when BLU team is locked in their spawn room and RED is preparing for defending.

Captured: The control point is currently owned by the RED team but can be retaken by the BLU team.

Locked: The control point is currently owned by the RED team and cannot (yet) be retaken by the BLU team.

There are many types of Attack / Defend maps. In this particular, BLU must capture all control points in a set order. After capture, time will increase and the next point will unlock.




This A/D type is the most basic and welcoming for new players because there's usually one objective to focus at a time.
















BLU must capture a group of control points in a set order to move to the next stage. Reaching the final stage and succeeding is required to ultimately win the map. If BLU fails to win a stage, then the map is reset to stage 1 and the teams switch.







Multi-stage Attack / Defense matches takes a long time if team are even. I suggest you to queue up for these if you know you'll be able to play whole match.













BLU must capture three points. The first two points may be captured in either order. Once both points are captured, the final point is unlocked.










When attacking, communicate with your team and select first point on which you'll be attacking, it is importaint to rush on one point at a time.















BLU's objective is to capture the central main control point, which can be done at any time. There is another set of control points available, one of which is open for capture at a time in a set order. Capturing these auxiliary points makes it easier to capture the final point.






There is only one map of this kind and that is Steel. At first, pretty complicated maze-like map, but after playing enough, it is really fun once you learn every path and hallway.

Capture the flag

Capture the Flag features both RED and BLU bases, each containing its own Intelligence briefcase (also known as the "flag"). The goal for both teams is to capture the enemy's Intelligence until they have reached the game's capture limit (default limit is 3 captures) while preventing the enemy team from achieving the same.

If the Intelligence carrier is killed or the Intelligence is intentionally dropped, the Administrator informs the teams over the loudspeaker and the Briefcase will remain stationary for 60 seconds, with a timer shown above the Intelligence indicating how much time is left before it is returned to the Intelligence room. During that time, the Intelligence can be picked up as normal.









Your HUD will indicate the state of the game. It will also point to each Intelligence for you to orientate.

Control Points

Control Point maps, whether they contain 5 Control Points or 3 Control Points, have same rules. Each team starts with their main control point (usually in front of their base) and have to capture all control points to end the game.

There is also a timer, each point sets the timer under 10 minutes when captured. If the timer runs out, stalemate occurs and the round is restarted.





Symmetrical large maps with 5 Control points. Each team controls two points and the middle (third) control point can be taken by either team.






Once the center point is captured by for example RED team, the following BLU point will unlock and it will be ready for capturing.





The main diffrence between 5 CP maps and 3 CP maps other than the number of Control Points is that the 3 CP is more welcoming for specialist classes like Heavy, Engineer or Pyro.
This Control Point type doesn't change spawn rooms on capturing the point. That means Teleporters are much more efficient and easier to maintain.







Standin, unlike Powerhouse, has all three control points neutral and can be captured at any time. Each team has to make a bunch of coordinate pushes as there is more objectives to focus on.

King of the Hill

King of the Hill focuses on a single control point at the center of the map, which is neutral and locked at the beginning of the round. Teams must make their way to the control point and capture it when it becomes available. Once the point is captured by a team, their team clock will start a three minute countdown. If the enemy team manages to capture the point back, their clock will start counting down while the other team's clock freezes at the time the point was recaptured. A team wins once they own the point and their clock runs down to zero.

If a team's time elapses but the other team is in the middle of capturing the control point, Overtime occurs; the first team must fully reverse the capture (or, if it is overtaken, recapture it) to win.











If trying to capture the point, work as a team! A well-planned attack on the area will work better than Scouts running randomly onto it.

Payload

Payload is a very popular game mode in which the BLU team must escort a cart full of explosives through a series of checkpoints and into the RED team's base within a certain amount of time.

The cart is pushed by standing next to it – the more people there are, the faster it moves, up to a limit of 3 players. Any additional players who push it will not increase the speed further. Every checkpoint captured adds an additional time for BLU (similar to CP). If any opposing team member stands near the cart, it is blocked and the cart will not move until the opposing player leaves or is killed.
The cart also functions as a limitless level one Dispenser as a small bonus.









If nobody is pushing the cart for a while, it will slowly roll back until it either someone touches it or gets to the captured checkpoint.

Payload race

In Payload Race, both the RED and BLU teams have an explosive Payload. To win, each team must push their cart through enemy territory to reach the finishing point while preventing the enemy team from doing the same.
There is no round timer so the match can take longer than you might expect.










Payload race offers the best map for practicing Market Gardenering skills as Soldier. The map is called Hightower.

2Fort Invasion

Added in the Invasion Update back in 2015, Teufort Invasion is by far one of the best maps in the game by it's asthetics. The community creators did a fantastic job recreating the original 2Fort into something that has been obliterated by aliens.

The map is pretty much same as the original from the gameplay perspective. However in 2Fort Invasion, you can find small alien robot bombs that explodes upon a hit (similar to pumpkin bombs).
These bomb allows more healthy classes like a Heavy to jump to the enemy sniper nest and mow unaware Snipers down.

DeGroot Keep

DeGroot Keep features a new way to play that is the Medival Attack / Defense. This alternative gamemode allows all players to use only Melee weapons with a few exeptions like a Sniper's Huntsman or Medic's Crossbow.
DeGroot Keep, being the only map featuring the medival mode, is well designed map with three control points to the pyramid-style. There are a few ramps for Demoknights to suft on, torches for Snipers to light up their arrows and more.

Two point much be captured at the same time to open the gate to the castle where the third main point is. When conquering the main point, you will witness the most epic melee battle you've ever seen. If BLU team won't capture the third point in time, the gate will close and the other points will become RED again.

Doomsday

Doomsday also introduces us to a specific gamemode called Special Delivery. In this gamemode, teams have to deliver a breifcase with australium to the rocket and prevent the other team from doing the same. You have to stay at the lift with an australium in order to go up and launch the rocket. If the austalium carrier is killed, the lift will go down and the australium will become "team only" for 45 seconds.Then it will respawn.

Hydro

Hydro is, belive or not, one of the oldest 6 maps in the game. It also features a special gamemode called Territory Control. RED and BLU team fights over six territories, the team who catures all territories, wins. Each territory has two control points, each owned by one team. In order to lock down a territory, your team must cature all two control points in a specific time. If the timer runs out, stalemate occurs and the teams has to fight for another territory.













This map seems very confusing and hard to orientate. However I can tell you that if you complete ~5 balanced matches, it will be a lot easier. For now, navigate yourself by the big glowing arrows.

Probed

Second Invasion map that has been released to alternative gamemodes. Probed is well designed King of the Hill map from the both asthetic side and gameplay side. There are small alien bomb to be found and once in a while the UFO will fly across the control point and suck all players nearby inside the space ship. Players then have to find a way out, if they do so, they will be rewarded with a few bonuses to get into the fight.

Snowplow

Promotional map from End of the Line Gun Mettle update called Snowplow works as a slightly modified Attack / Defense two staged map.

BLU team has to cature all control points while RED has to prevent them from doing so. There is a diffrent round timer and a never-seen-before indicator on your HUD. The timer cound down to a next "strike" to BLU team's train. Train starts at 100% health and every 30 seconds gets 10% down.
RED wins if the train gets to the 0% health, BLU wins if they capture all points and blow up the train in RED's base.

Watergate

Watergate is a community-made Player Destruction map set in a seaside town during an alien invasion. The objective for the map is that both teams must kill players to collect beer bottles to deliver to the UFO. A team wins upon successful delivery of a set number of bottles. The amount varies depending on the number of players currently in the server.

player on each team with the most beers also becomes the "Team Leader", making them dispense health and ammo to themselves and nearby teammates at the rate of a level 1 Dispenser. The player's HUD will display a gold star next to the current number of beers carried.

As more beers are deposited into the UFO, it will get drunk, visibly wobbling more and more the higher a team's score is. Once one team scores enough points to win (the number scales based on the amount of players at the start of the round), the UFO flies away and drunkenly crashes into the mothership in the distance, destroying it and winning the game for that team.

About a Scout

Scout is the fastest and most mobile mercenary on the battlefield unassisted. His double jump allows him not only to jump into otherwise unreachable areas but mainly to dodge incoming damage. Scout is a core member of every competent team as he can claim objective twice as fast. His movement allows him to quicky respond to almost every situation.

Scout's role

Some classes needs their team's help to be successful, others not so much. Scout relies on himself most of the time. His quick movement is the best defensive weapon he can have. A good Scout will dodge incoming damage and avoid being hit at all costs. A great Scout will dodge incoming damage and make sure he's dealing pressure to enemies at all costs.

Scout's position
When the your team is pushing trough, it is the Scout who's doing all the work around. Because Scout is so quick, he can kill an enemy Medic, drop Übercharge, manage to take care of flank, meatshot jumping classes, prevent the enemy Scout, Sniper and Spy from killing your Medic and capture the point all in less than 15 seconds.

Scout is a fast moving offensive class that can take out enemies one by one. His main strenght come from the Scattergun. When it comes to objective, Scout captures and pushes cart twice as fast.
He takes care of flank routes, kills Spies before they can manage to stab a teammate.

Scattergun as a primary weapon allows Scout to be high burst damage class. Pistol is better for picking enemies for a medium to long range. The Bat does less damage than other stock but Scout swings twice as fast.

• Scattergun
  
• Pistol
  
• Bat

To be honest, the Mad milk is actually great secondary for Scout. Not only it extinguish fire, but it gives you and your team an advantage in a fight can give you nearly all your health back in one meatshot if there's no health pickups around. The Boston Basher is there to help build Medic's Übercharge and to have the ability for possible bleed jumps.

• Scattergun
  
• Mad milk
  
• Boston basher

This loadout allows the Scout, who has great mobility, be even more mobile. All three weapons offers a some kind of jump buffs. Soda Popper is actually good damage scattergun.

• Soda popper
  
• Winger
  
• Atomizer

On a battlefield

Scout is very strong class but nontheless, there are a few weaknesses that Scout players have to keep in mind and avoid at all cost.

Common class victims:

• Medic
  
• Spy
  
• Sniper
  
• Demoman

Common class nemesis:

• Heavy
  
• Pyro
  
• Engineer (Sentry gun)

As a Scout, you want to be in open spaces where you can utilize your movement. Try to avoid small hallways as you'll be an easy target for Soldiers and Heavies.

Mind games

As a scout, you have to get into the head of your opponent and never engage them directly. Being too headstrong will be suicide in most cases. Hit and run tactics are the key to surviving and eventually getting kills, so keep your distance if the enemy knows you're there.

Go for the Medic

Just like a spy, a scout's prime target should be the medic. Medics usually hang back a few feet from the pack as to not take frontal damage. This leaves them very open to a flank attack. Unlike a spy though, a scout may not be able to kill them before they can move or react. Depending on the situation, you may want to pull back after a couple shots.

Make each shot count

The tendency for players is to shoot the moment each shot is reloaded, or the moment an enemy is on screen. They do this because they are overly-concerned that if they delay even a moment, the enemy will land a fatal shot on them. Try restraining yourself. Don't click unless you have a good line on your opponent.

Movement

Use your double-jump or triple-jump to get to areas that other players cannot, or to get to areas that would normally require a different path to get to. If you can attack from an angle that other players are not accustomed to, especially from above, you can generally confuse them and get easy kills. Don't stand still, dodge and trick enemies with your quick movement.

About a Soldier

The Soldier is a crazed, jingoistic patriot from America's heartland. Tough and well-armed, he is versatile, capable of both offense and defense, and a great starter class to get familiar with the game.
His ability to rocket jump is pretty big part of playing Soldier as well as his position and role.

Soldier is the second slowest class in the game, rocket jumps negates this downsides and thanks to them, Soldier is more mobile than you might think.

The Soldier is a good offensive and defensive class whose primary is the powerful Rocket Launcher. He can do a large amout of damage in a short period of time but has to remeber to keep the Rocket Launcher loaded at all time or be caught off-guard.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1599502959

Soldier's role

Having a Soldier on your team can make a lot things easier. Unlike specialist classes, Soldier can do multiple things whether he can take care of flank, be a part of a push, helping his teammates with a certain buffs or even protecting weaker classes which has strong potentional for team (Medic or Engineer).

I will talk about individual roles and weapons


Agressive Soldier equipped with Gunboats and Rocket Launcher. Roamer rocket jumps pretty often and uses the splash damage of his rockets to deal maximum damage as possible. The Escaple Plan is there to escape from a certain danger.

• Rocket launcher / Original
  
• Gunboats
  
• Escape Plan

Defensive type of Soldier with Rocket Launcher and Shotgun. Pocket often fights around Medic and plays more passivly. Unlike previous mentioned Roamer, the Pocket uses his rocket jumps only in needed situations.

• Rocket launcher
  
• Shotgun
  
• Disciplinary action

Similar to the Pocket but instead of the Shotgun, this one is equipped with banners filled with certain buffs. Banner Soldier plays around his team and he's often the very core of the push. Equipped with the banner of choice.

• Rocket launcher
  
• Buff banner / Battalion's backup / Concheror
  
• Escape plan

Very specific style of play. This Soldier uses Air Strike and B.A.S.E Jumper. Parachutist plays very safe and picks the loners or taking down Sentries from a distance. After a few kills, he can unleash the barrage on a group of enemies.

• Air strike
  
• B.A.S.E jumper
  
• Market gardener

Many players thinks this weapon set is too overpowered but this thought is incorrect. There are many weaknesses as you have no backup shotgun, less firepower. But on the other hand, ConchBox Soldiers heals themselves as they hit a shot which means they're hard to kill.

• Black box
  
• Concheror
  
• Disciplinary action

This type of Soldier plays completely away from main combat. Enemies who are unaware of their surroundings can be often in a surprise. Other than that, he uses similar loadout to the Roamer's one.

• Rocket launcher
  
• Gunboats
  
• Escape plan

On a battlefield

When in fight:
Your movement is really important when attacking not only for dodging enemy fire, but also avoiding your own splash damage. To avoid your explosives, try to jump sideways when firing.

Height Advantage:
When doing 1v1 or fighting in a team push, it is always good to get a high ground.
Not only in Star Wars, but in TF2 appies whoever has the height advantage, usually wins. Soldiers gains their power as their position.




Rocket management is very important when playing Soldier. Knowing how many rockets you should fire and how many you should keep for rocket jump often separates the good Soldiers apart from the better ones.
It is ideal to have at least one rocket in a clip. Before rocket jumping, reload all four rockets so you're ready to go.
If you often run out of ammo, learn where ammo packs are for better preformance.

Splash Damage

Soldier's big advantage is Splash Damage. I highly recommend using it when defending a point or a cart because you can just spam your rockets on point / cart and kill many people.

Airshot wisely

Airshots are cool and good-looking indeed, but if you aren't epic master, you'd be better just killing off an enemy on the ground than trying for airshot and missing an 25% of your clip.

Choosing Target

Some classes are easy to kill with splash damage, kill them first before killing the stronger, healtier ones.

Team Composition

Soldier is a team class that can fit in any situation. Play the style which is needed, too many Soldiers? Switch to something else.

Health Management

Alright, I should've mentioned this earlier, when rocket jumping, keep an eye on your health. You should have 200 HP before jumping to the battle. You should count that you will lose a lot HP in the fight (if not dying). And save few HP for jumping away.

About a Pyro

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.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1512089399

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 went on, Pyro got the 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...




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

• Flamethrower
  
• Flare gun
  
• Powerjack

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.

• Backburner / Dragon's Fury
  
• Detonator / Thermal Thruster
  
• Powerjack

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

• Degreaser
  
• Flare gun
  
• Axtinguisher

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 the Homewrecker which is a good help when the Engie isn't near or he's just dead. Keep in mind when playing as Pybro, your number one priority is to take down the Spy and then the sapper.

• Flame Thrower
  
• Scorch shot
  
• Homewrecker

Similar to Pybro but playing very 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 the Gas Passer. This is a playstyle, not a particular loadout.

• Any primary
  
• Any secondary
  
• Any melee

On a battlefield

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.

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.

Play smart

Never rush straight forward. Always to play safely and be ready to reflect a projectile, extinguish
your teammates and spycheck often.

Airblast efficiency

Airblasting projectiles is very nice, cool looking and useful, but don't always reflect every projectile you see. Trying to airblast everything may result in either running out of ammo or totally getting obliterated by projectiles.

Support your team

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.

No matter what subclass you play. Your main role is denying übercharges and pushing away übered enemies.

About a Demoman

The Demoman is a scrumpy-swilling demolitions expert from the Scottish town of Ullapool, and is one of the most versatile members of the team. Armed with his Grenade Launcher and Stickybomb Launcher, the Demoman uses his one good eye and the knowledge of his surrounding environment for well-timed sticky bomb detonations that send enemies to the Moon, often in many pieces.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1542520097

Demoman's role

Demoman is extremly deadly with his explosives. But vanilla Demoman shows his weaknesses mostly at close range. Demoman is also considered as the very generally class and probably the best Sentry gun counter.




Basic Demoman armed with stock weapons. Vanilla Demoman can deal pretty massive damage to grouped enemies. And while vanilla Demoman definetly shines in destruction, his main weakness lies in close combat because his primary and secondary weapon deals splash damage so the chance to take self damage is very high.

• Grenade Launcher
  
• Stickybomb Launcher
  
• Bottle

Demoknight trades a splash burst for a quick flanking. With boots and shield equipped, he can charge on enemies with his heavy sword.

There are 3 types of Demoknight based on his melee choice:

Basic
Flanking playstyle. Doesn't have that much downsides to begin with.

• Bottle
  
• Scotsman's Skullcutter

Collector
Starts weaker but after collecting heads, he gets powerful. Stacked up to 4 heads.

• Eyelander

Restore
Relies on his charge. After kill, he regenerates health or charge meter to get away.

• Claidheamh Mòr
  
• Half-Zatoichi
  
• Persian Persuader

Charging shields are good for Demoknight. Let's take a look at each shield:


From all three shields, this will grant you the most resistances. Use this when you're using weapons which has vulnerability downsides




Splendid Screen allows you to charge more often and, with melee, dealing more damage. Use this with high damage weapons.




Little bit less of resistances but it gives you full turning control with charging. And if you get a melee kill, it refills your charge meter with 75%.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1556542721

The Hybrid Demoman is something between a Demoknight and vanilla Demoman. The main loadout is basically any primary except Boots, any shield and a sword.
When playing with Eyelander, you have to be careful as you start with less health, but after a few successful Eyelander kills, you can pull out your primary and get in fight.

• Any primary
  
• Any shield
  
• Eyelander

Jumper Demoman relies on his Grenade Launcher or any other primary and on his movement. This playstyle is great for practicing your pipe aim skill since you won't be able to spam with stickies.

• Grenade Launcher
  
• Stickybomb Jumper
  
• Bottle

On a battlefield

Advantage summary notes

• Can attack groups of enemies at once, doing massive damage.
  
• Can become more powerful through specific head collecting melee weapons.
  
• Perfect pocket of Medic. With kritzkrieg, Demoman can wipe out an entire enemy team.
  
• Great area denial class, can prevent enemies from capturing the objective.
  
• Can shoot around corners to mess with positions.
  
• Good aim with the Grenade Launcher variants can obliderate enemies.
  
• Has a fire resistance with Chargin' Targe.
  
• Can hold his own on a decent amount of situations.
  
• Can use the Stickybomb Launcher or Sticky Jumper to explosive jump and move faster.
  
• Planting sticky traps can surprise unaware enemies.

Disadvantage summary notes

• Vanilla Demoman is weaker on short / close range.
  
• You can hurt yourself with your weapons without being careful.
  
• Picking up a lot of the different melee weapons can make you weaker when not used correctly.
  
• Pyros can really mess you up while playing as Demoknight.
  
• Pyros can reflect all of your ranged attacks and really hurt your team.
  
• Pipe bombs from primary weapons can be tough to aim, especially at Scouts.
  
• Scouts and Snipers are your worst nightmare in open spaces.
  
• Reloading your Skickybomb Launcher is slow, be sure to have at least few stickies.
  
• Sticky jumping takes a big chunk of you health.

Always reloaded

Keep your clip of all your weapons full at all times. You never know when you'll need to jump away or get rid of annoying Soldier with two pipes.

Damage numbers

This doesn't apply only for Demomen but knowing how much damage you need to do in order to kill an enemy is crucial. One grenade deals 100 damage at direct hit, this is the most important thing you need to learn.

Keep your distance

Simply to avoid self-damage. But don't stay too far from your enemy so you can hit all your shots.

About a Heavy

Heavy, the iconic character of Team Fortress 2, is probably the largest and probably most dangerous class in the game. The big health pool and massive fire power from his trusty Minigun, the Heavy is no pushover. The Heavy's Minigun can inflict heavy damage at a high rate of fire, allowing him to mow down opposing babies, cowards, and teeny-men in seconds.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1519697080

Heavy's role

Heavy's role is much more important than you might think. The ability to have tank on your team is incredible, with Medic's overheal, you can crush opponents like an egg. Heavy is useful on both Offense and Defense. As you can tell by his speed, the attacking may be harder. But luckily, there are teleporters in the game. So if you're playing Engineer and you have Heavy on your team, build one.

Remember, diffrent weapons can change your role.

• Minigun
  
• Natasha
  
• Sandwich
  
• Fist of Steel
  
• Gloves of Running Urgently

• Tomislav
  
• Second Banana
  
• Dalokohs Bar
  
• Family Business
  
• Shotgun
  
• Buffalo Steak Sandvich
  
• Eviction Notice

• Brass Beast
  
• Huo-Long Heater
  
• Panic Attack
  
• Warrior's Spirit
  
• Killing Gloves of Boxing

How Heavy should play on Defense
Understand that defensive play tends to emphasize more power to less mobility. You want to be able to stop attackers in their tracks with powerful onslaughts that may take time to prepare or reduce your own ability to chase.

How Heavy should play on Offense
In offense, these are the weapons you should use if you plan to be following the front lines. They allow you to stay in battle, but also give you some fast firepower in a pinch. Instead of sitting and eliminating, you charge and destroy. These typically include buffing yourself and allow more movement on quicker notice than others.

How Heavy should play in any situation
In most situations (Attack or Defense), you have to be around your team and being the core in the push (along side with the Medic). You will mostly use the stock primary and sightgrades including the glorious Sandwich.

On a battlefield

As a heavy, you must be slow and deliberate in your movements. To get good at this, you must know the map well in addition to having "gamesense". We'll talk about gamesense later. Basically this allows the Heavy to stay where his enemies will be, not where they are actively attacking and thus catching him at a vulnerable point.


A properly positioned Heavy can cripple an entire team with nothing but a health kit, sandwich and some situational awareness. If you happen to get seperated from your team, don't waste your time and retreat, sure one Scout with pistol can't kill you but if you get face-to-face against just respawned enemy team, you won't be happy.
Heavy is the force to be reckoned with. Large amount of health and ammo at his disposal makes him the ultimate team carrier just by his position.

Heavy wants to avoid:

• Open spaces. Scouts and Snipers flourish here, and they are some huge problems for a slow Russian man.
  
• Blind corners. A coordinated assault can take down a Heavy once he is committed to jumping around the corner. You should always move around corners judiciously, because you may be overwhelmed on the other side and you will be unable to run. But on the bright side, you can surprise unprepared enemies from those corners. However you must know, what's behind them first.
  
• Any ambush point that's separated from your team. Although you can hit solitary enemies when they pass by, you will be dead meat if three or more players come around the corner; they can easily decimate you before you waddle away.

Heavy wants to be in:

• Tight places. Designed particularly as traps for Scouts and Snipers, they allow the Heavy to mow down enemies very easily because of the lack of bullet spread. Beware the way you came for Spy attacks, though.
  
• On the defensive end of blind corners. A heavy can be a powerful force of area denial when he stops an unaware team at the corner.

The Heavy's main physical weakness is lack of speed in return for high firepower and defense. His other weaknesses are psychological: everyone will shoot at the huge Russian dude simply because he's the largest threat. In a middle of the fight, you have to know when it is a good time for retreat. Usually when you have 150-120 health, it is the best time for a health pack.
You have to learn the damage of your Miniguns, the amout of damage you can take, it will all come with a several games of Dustbowl.

Pre-spin your Sasha

Spinning before shooting is very important, not only it can increase your awarness, but without pre spin, your bullet spread will increase and your damage will decrease! Two disadvantages at once just beacuse you didn't held the mouse 2 button.

Feed injured allies

Mostly, feed your Medic with your Sandwich. You can refill your massive health pool or you can help your teammates and throw them a medium health pack.

Jump-spin tactic

Did you know that if you spin your Sasha in air, you won't lose your momentum? Well, use it as your advantage, jump and spin, that way, you will get further to the enemy and therefore, lay more damage.

Play safe

Don't rush to the chokepoints expecting like you will smash anything that moves, you are vulnerable more than you expect.

About an Engineer

The Engineer specializes in constructing and maintaining Buildings that provide support to his team, rather than fighting at the front lines. The Engineer's various gadgets include the Sentry Gun, an automated turret that fires at any enemy in range, the Dispenser, a device that restores the health and ammunition of nearby teammates, and Teleporters that quickly transport players from point A to point B.
Beacuse of his buildings, Engineer is the class which plays the supportive role, and that support only gets stronger and more effective the longer he's left with his own devices.

My guide list disposes with 10 separate Engineer guides on various topics. Instead of one guide, I will link you my list of all my Engineer guides in order which I heavily recommend reading trough.

≫︎ Engineer guide list ≪︎

Engineer's role

In the section menu, Engineer is assigned to the defense section but when you consider that Engie can build Dispensers which can grant heals and ammo to your team, Teleporters which can get your teammates to the front much faster and he also can control an area with his reliable Sentry Gun, I would take the Engineer more like a Support than defensive class.

Playing Engie properly requires a completly diffrent skill mindset compared to Demoman or Scout for example. You should be always aware of incoming push.
Try to use all of your buildings at maximum. Just beacuse Sentry has a bigger icon on HUD, it doesn't mean that it's more important compared to the other two.




The name is kinda misleading, in fact you can use other melees if you want to run this playstyle. Point is that it's not Gunslinger because you will need level three Sentry gun. Along that, you will also need primary and secondary of your choice, preferably chosed based on the situation. If you're defending, I recommend Rescue Ranger. If you're attacking, I recommend Shotgun. Choice is yours.

• Any primary
  
• Any secondary
  
• Wrench / Jag / Southern Hospitality / Eureka Effect

A Battle Engie is an Engineer, who's playing more offensive than usual. Hanging out on front lines near his team and supporting teammates with his Dispenser and Teleporters.

Battle Engineer trades his defensive role for aggressive offensive role!

With your shotgun and gunslinger equipped, you can defend yourself pretty easily. Be aggressive with shotgun isn't a bad thing since that gun is really strong. But don't overestimate it! Remember you're support to your team. Not the main source of damage.

• Any shotgun
  
• Pistol (any secondary)
  
• Gunslinger

The Ninjaneer creates and capitalizes upon opportunities made by his team. He's just as likely to spawn-camp the opposition so his team can cap safely as he is to put a Teleporter above the enemies to create a new flank. He, essentially, defines and starts encounters rather than the normal Engineer, which lets his enemies initiate them.

• Any primary
  
• Any secondary
  
• Any melee (Eureka Effect or Gunslinger is prefered)

On a battlefield

Sometimes (another) Engineer isn't just a good option. If you want to select Engineer, you should always ask yourself: Do my team really needs an (another) Engie?

Having more than 3 Engineers on Offense is just trash. On Defense however, stacking Engineers really slows the game and it can lead to stalemates and that's always bad.




A lot of Engineers, especially in pubs, tend to build their buildings and especially Sentry guns close to each other just beacuse it looks stronger; it's not. So you should always build your buildings separated from the other buildings and themselves.
Keeping a Sentries close together makes it easier for explosive classes to destroy them.
Instead place your own Sentry somewhere else, where it can cover more area.

Stay away from your buildings. If you have a Rescue ranger, this will be an easier part for you but if you haven't, lisen. Sitting behind your Sentry is not good for you for a few reasons.

Spy can murder you from behind and sap your Sentry before it can even turn around. However if you are a few meters next to your Sentry, Spy now have a two targets to care about. If he decide to sap your gun, you can easily kill him and remove sapper with your wrench. If he decide to murder you, Sentry will finish the job for you (unless the Spy is using Your Eternal Rewad).




Maybe most important thing is position not only around your team, but in a match as a whole. While playing as Engie, you should have an idea where the front line is. This magical line can actually help you when moving that gear up / back. For instance, when your team manage to push a little bit to claim a certain area, you want to move your gun there and secure that area, punish enemy players who wants to claim it back. I'm not talking only about moving your Sentry.

Moving a Dispenser could be more viable. Make sure you'll keep that Dispenser behind a cover. It should be near a chokepoint or an area, where are things getting a little bit more dangerous so your team can easily retreat to refill ammo and health.

Teleporter should be built slightly more back than previous buildings but also pay attention to it's effectiveness. Having a Teleporter way behind your team,where an action is happening isn't always good. It's understandable to not building your shiny plate too aggressive (close to enemy team) beacuse previously mentioned front line is constantly moving so your Teleporter have small change to survive and your just teleported teammates too.




Don't be afraid to run away from your nest, let it destroy and then build another one in passive lines behind your team. Trying to save it from Über push and die simply isn't worth it. However, while running to the next point to setup again, you can often use the ability to pick up a buildings from a far with Rescue Ranger. I recommend doing it so with the Dispenser as you will have disposable metal for constructing other buildings.

About a Medic

Medic, also known as "the german mann of medicine", is the only exclusively healing class in TF2. His healing potential and the ability to Übercharge are crucial for his team and can be a difference between winning and losing the round.
His weapons won't do much damage (except for Übersaw's random crits of course), but they can help his teammates survive in tough situations. Especially for Medic, wrong loadout can make or break your game.

Intermediate Medic Guide made by Z0rpi:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1782585822

Medic's role

Stock Medigun provides you and your patient with invulnerability Übercharge for eight seconds, making your patient almost unstoppable with exception of knockback.

Attack:

Stock Medigun allows you to storm a nest of Sentry guns in seconds. When pushing with multiple teammates, I recommend popping early and flashing few players destroying everything within arms reach. But be careful, since every time you flash a teammate, you lose half a second of your Übercharge.

Defense:

If you want to run stock on defense, it is important to let your team know that if you use your Übercharge, there is no need to push enemy back to spawn. Defense is called defense for a reason, pushing too far may result in a backcap. When defending, your priority is to waste time and stop the enemy forces which tends to work best when reclaiming your position, giving a time for your Engineers to setup again.






Kritzkrieg Übercharge provides you and your patient with 8 seconds of criticals. Use it if you're assured the enemy Medic doesn't have Stock über ready. Kritzkrieg will (if charged right) be generally ready to use 8 before the Stock could be (if charged at the same time). Make sure that you are not facing against Sentry nests because crits doesn't affect buildings. I personally recommend using Kritzkrieg on defense.






Quick-Fix is a special weapon that requires a lot of teamwork to be successfull with. I personally like to use Quick-Fix while playing with not-that-good teammates, mainly because the heal rate is one of the things your team truly needs.
If there's alot of stuff happening on the battlefield and there's no other Medic that could assist you, utilize Quick-Fix's heal rate to keep your teammates at full HP. Keep in mind that buff won't last as long as other medi gun's buff, which means your teammates will need to come to you more often to get re-buffed.






Some people dislike Vaccinator, since the overheal is much slower. Overheal is incredibly important, and It's one of the reasons why Medic is so important. Besides that, the Vaccinator can block large amounts of damage, but only one particular damage source at the time. Vaccinator's ÜberCharge is split into four mini-charges that can be used to block one of three damage sources - Bullets, Explosions and Fire. ÜberCharge provides a 2.5 second resistance bubble that blocks 75% base damage and 100% crit damage of the selected damage source to the Medic and his patient. This makes Vaccinator really situational, which doesn't mean it's bad. Consider using it in matches with enemy team full of one / two particular damage sources.
In my opinion, this weapon is really unappreciated, and shouldn't get hate it receives.

On a battlefield

After you fully heal your teammate, you may notice that you can extend their health by 50% of their maximum health. This is called overhealing and it is very important aspect of the game. Buffed teammates will have a strong advantage over those, who recived none buff.

While some classes are better candidates for overheal than others, you should overheal everyone. Make sure everyone has their buff in order to do the job correctly.




In order to build your Übercharge fastest as possible, you have to choose right targets. Healing injured teammates will build your Übercharger faster than healing healthy teammates. If you choose the same patient as your fellow Medic, you both will build Übercharge slower.

Awareness

Medic should be aware of his surrounding at all times. The enemy team wants opponent's Medic dead and they will make sure he stay dead as long as possible. Because of that, Medic has to be aware of incoming enemies or else he'll be more dead than alive.

Über masking

Masking Übercharge is a way how to either trick enemies into thinking you don't have über ready when you have. Upon reaching 100% Übercharge, Medic makes sure that he announces that pretty loudly. While it may benefit your team that they notice you are ready, it's not ideal for the enemy team as you can expect a Soldier to land on your head. Mask it with another quiet voice command that will cancel "Activate Charge" voice command by replacing it.

Über tracking

Keep in your mind the percentage of the übercharge of the enemy Medic. You can decide when to push or when to stay back only based on this knowledge.

About a Sniper

Sniper can be either the most relaxable or the most frustrating class in the game. I'd say the better player won't be the one who manages to hit every headshot but rather who can pick a Sniper without messing his team composition. Yep, that's right, having more than one (or two) Snipers can really hurt your team. I am saying this from the start because I want you to understand what makes a Sniper really good.

Sniper's role

Sniper supports his team from a far by removing dangerous enemy classes from the battlefield and therefore, giving his team an advantage.
Some people might say that Sniper's job and Spy's job is very similar. And of course, removing important targets is a main priority for both classes. But unlike Spy, Sniper is much more effective in doing "quick-kills". Sniper is able to act right away with his rifle scoped and that's something Spy struggles in.

Sniper has a few rifles and tools in his arsenal. These crafts his individual subclasses and playstyles.



With stock Sniper rifle equipped, this Sniper playstyle is the most common and honestly, best playstyle you can have. It gets the job done right, quickly and easy withou any major struggles and downsides.
Of course, there is one downside and that is a short (or mid) range. Basically any other class can kill you easily in that range. You can protect yourself with your SMG or melee but these weapons are weak compared to the gear that enemy has.

• Sniper rifle
  
• SMG
  
• Kukri

With Sydney Sleeper, you can weaken your enemies and allow your team to kill them for you. This comes in handy if you don't feel good enough to do your daily routine (100% headshot). Also you can throw your suspicious liquid at your enemies to make them feel disgusted and lose their faith in winning.

• Sydney Sleeper
  
• Jarate
  
• Bushwacka

Bow and arrows are not that effective in 1970's gravel wars, it may still help to land some good headshots. Huntsman subclass pushes the Sniper out of the cover and allows him to be slightly more aggressive. Usually works with another Sniper running stock.

• Huntsman
  
• Anything
  
• Anything

On a battlefield

Change position

After one or two kills, change your position because the enemy will look out for the sight line you were and won't expect a new spot.

Be polite

Other Snipers tends to be very manly in the chat after you headshot them. Keep your cool and continue owning enemy gamers.

Be efficient

Let your Sniper rifle to charge up before firing. A non-charged headshot will do 150 damage which is enough to kill several classes. However for better result, wait a bit more to do more damage and therefore, kill even the toughest Heavy with overheal.

Have a plan to kill everyone you meet

The most important part of Sniper gameplay is the ability to prioritize targets. Your main priorities should always be Medic, Sniper and Heavy. After you take care of those, keep killing enemies which poses a threat to your team.

About a Spy

Hailing from an indeterminate region of France, the Spy is an enthusiast of sharp suits and even sharper knives. Using a unique array of cloaking watches, he can render himself invisible or even fake his own death, leaving unaware opponents off-guard. His Disguise Kit lets him take on the form of any class on either team, allowing him to blend in while behind enemy lines before stabbing his unsuspecting foes in the back.

Spy's role

Unlike his teammates, Spy tends to play disguised among his enemies. Belive or not, Spy is one of the best contributors to the push. The ability to remove important targets from the field and make others paranoid is such a great advantage. Spy's electro-sapper can be used to slowly destroy building and effectively turning them off. This makes another advantage for other classes to easily destroy Engineer's nest.



Stock loadout allows you to do the basic Spy job. Use your knife to stab enemies and then get out of there with your Invis Watch. In case you are being attacked, pull out your Revolver and fire a few well aimed shots at your opponents. Stock Sapper is pretty much nessessary as the other option is not near as good as your stock.

• Revolver
  
• Sapper
  
• Knife
  
• Invis watch

The real meat of this loadout is your ability to fake your own death. Be careful though as you trade this ability for regularly going invisible. Faking your own death is incredibly useful but it can be also very obvious. Pull out your Dead ringer in the right moment. As a supportive weapon, use your L'Etranger.

• L'Etranger
  
• Sapper
  
• Any knife
  
• Dead ringer

Very challenging but very rewarding playstyle. Conniver's Kunai sets your health to just 70 points. However if you backstab an enemy, you steal all of their health in form of a buff. If you can manage to get your first stab, then you can go on a rampage. Every backstab will get you buff which can be very very effective in dangerous environment.

• Any revolver
  
• Sapper
  
• Conniver's Kunai
  
• Any watch

On a battlefield

After you backstab an enemy several times, they will surely look for you and watch out for every possible moment you could strike. As a Spy, you need to figure out what's the best moment of surprise. Usually it is the one when enemy is trying to defend themselves against a push or basically when they're focusing something else - and that's a time for you to strike.



Have a situation under control. Do not go for a single backstab just because one Sniper just scoped in. Play smartly and communicate with your team.
One of the biggest mistakes I see most Spy players do is that they tend to think that they are MLG trickstabbers. And while you can happen to accidently face-stab an unaware enemy in one game. Trust me when I say you it is not worth going for a trickstab every single time you see a staircase or a corner. Spy's skill lies in mindgames and previously mentioned moment of surprise; not in a random hitbox shenanigans.

Pick

Always look out for many Spies are on your team before choosing a class. If your team happen to have 2-3 Spies. Pick somebody else.

Sap & Shoot tactic

If you sap a building and no enemy is around, you can speed up it's destruction by a few well-aimed revolver shots. As a Engineer main, I personally hate this tactic but that doesn't change it's very effective.

Communication

In Team Fortress 2, it is difficult to combat the enemy team with everybody working alone, and essentially impossible just by yourself. Working with the other classes on your team is an important aspect of success.

Coordination between the team players and the right balance of classes will always lead the team towards victory.
Even regardless of skill levels, communication is the most important ability to learn. Either through the use of the in-game chat, a team with good communication and synchronization can defeat skilled players that lack teamwork. Effective team communication and coordination is especially desired in the more competitive venues of the game.



There are three types of text chats. First one (DEFAULT) can be accessed trough "Y" key and lets you communicate to all players on the server. Not ideal for discussing tactics with your team.

Second chat (TEAM) can be opened by pressing "U" key. This chat can be visible only by members of your current team.

Third chat (PARTY) lets you communicate trough your party members. You can access this chat in the main menu or by pressing "P" if binded right.


















With a microphone, it will always be a more reliable way to communicate with your team. For example, vital information such as the location and disguise of enemy Spies, the place of enemy Sentry nests and Stickybomb traps and the timing of attacks and Übercharges (by the enemy or by the team).

Voice chats are only for your team in Casual and Competitive. However in some community servers, you'll be able to communicate with entire server.



Using quick voice commands are very useful thing. Most used command is of course "MEDIC!" which you can say by pressing "E" and it will inform your Medic about your current state. It may take a while to get used to all three quick voice command menus but you'll be okay with "x+2" for "SPY!".

Team composition

Team Fortress 2 is a class-based team game in which players on a team have to cooperate and coordinate to achieve victory. The nine different classes have their own strengths and weaknesses and their own unique styles of play, based around maximizing their strengths and minimizing their weaknesses.
However, it is impossible for any one player no matter how skilled to completely compensate for the weaknesses of the class they are currently playing. One player may be less skilled than the other, but he could still win in an encounter in which his current class has the upper hand (such as a less-skilled Pyro beating a skilled Spy).

This makes the choice of which class to play very important, and the player will be rewarded for learning more about different classes, and at the same time it makes cooperation equally important. One could think of it as a very complex game of rock, paper, scissors.

Most combat situations in Team Fortress 2 will be between groups of players involving a variety of classes. Therefore to be successful, one must think and work as a team, rather than as a solitary unit. This includes being aware of what classes currently make up your team as well as the classes that make up the opposing team, this is known as team composition. It is often possible to gain an advantage by having several players that play as classes who counter the classes of the enemy team (an example being, using Demoman and Medic combos, to counter a team that has many Engineers, thus too many Sentry Guns).

"Main" dilemma

It is important to be good at a few classes rather than just one. Know your class' strengths and weaknesses, so that you can make good calls about when you should switch to another class.

In general, instead of saying "can somebody be Medic," it would be a better idea for you yourself to swap to Medic and fulfill that need as long as you are not already playing a vital role.

Try to find what kind of combat strategy appeals to your playstyle, and improve your skills with those classes or those close to them. Not everyone has what it takes to can play Spy proficiently or the steady hand to play Sniper for example. Some players find they are better suited in the back, supporting their team from the rear or in the background, some find they are better at picking off enemies from a distance, while others find they are more comfortable up close and personal.

Group 1 - General combat

Characteristics:

All the members of this group possess high average firepower, survivability, or maneuverability and in some cases a good mix of all three. All of them except for the Scout have a health range of 175-300 without overhealing, and will receive the vast majority of Übercharges due to their powerful Primary weapons which have a high rate of damage over time and also due to their simple presence on the front lines.

Team role:

Makes up the majority of most teams, and engages in the heaviest and most direct fighting on the front lines. The members of this group are generally the most responsible for spearheading pushes into enemy territory and securing objectives, and should play as aggressively as a situation allows. Their success is usually measured in kills made and damage dealt before dying.

Group 2 - Artillery

Characteristics:

Both of these classes have a high amount of damage potential, range, resilience, and mobility, and they possess similar weapons. The Rocket, Sticky, and Grenade Launchers fire highly damaging rounds that deal a large amount of "splash" that can damage multiple enemies at once. Not only that, but these weapons, and the Demoman's in particular, are the only consistent form of indirect fire in the game, able to damage and kill without direct line of sight to a target.

Team role:

Dealing huge amounts of damage at medium ranges, forcing enemies out of cover and entrenched Sentry positions, and punishing enemies that are tightly packed together.

Group 3 - Close combat

Characteristics:

While also belonging to Group 1, the members of this group are distinguished by a few things. Namely, they have more pronounced strengths, but also more pronounced weaknesses than the artillery classes, creating trade-offs, along with a few more specialized roles such as Spy checking and objective-grabbing.

Team role:

This group is very good at working with and protecting allied support classes – Pyros work synergistically with Engineers and both Pyros and Heavies work very well with friendly Medics. This group is also very good at punishing enemy teams that neglect having enough Group 2 classes to heal and restrict their movement with Sentry Guns.

Group 4 - Support

Characteristics:

By far the most team-oriented classes, the Engineer and Medic are the only classes that can provide reliable healing to their allies, often several at once, greatly reducing team losses due to simple attrition. For this reason alone, almost any team of any size greater than one on any map will benefit from having at least one support class.

Team role:

Providing healing and resupply to allies in the field, reducing team losses due to attrition, and allowing teammates to hold positions while under constant enemy pressure, or apply constant pressure of their own. Sentry Guns and overhealed / invulnerable teammates are very good at absorbing and shrugging off damage.

Group 5 - Assassination

Characteristics:

While both possessing similarly low Health (70-125) and average movement speed, the most obvious similarity of these two classes is their shared ability to instantly kill any opponent with a single attack, largely regardless of target health.

Team role:

Precision elimination of key enemy targets. These can be very talented enemy players that your team is having trouble with, or they can be resilient targets such as Heavies, or they can be high-value targets such as Medics and Engineers. The assassin classes are at their most valuable at countering the influence of the Group 2 support classes.

Flanking

Find alternate routes and use them to get behind the enemy or Capture points, but keep in mind how much extra time this will take. Do not take the same flanking route too often to avoid becoming predictable, as the enemy will quickly learn from their mistakes and anticipate your strategy.

There are several routes on a map designed for this. Play Spy, Scout or Soldier to flank an enemy and catch them off guard.

Ambushing

Wait around corners and surprise your enemy. Your team could wait around corners and ambush any enemies that walk by as a defensive or offensive tactic. One teammate can lure an enemy into either a Sentry gun, a sticky trap or into your team who's prepared to take down unprepared enemies.

Übercharge push

Communicate with your Medic buddy. Try not to waste your Übercharge, but remember that it is better to spend your charge and survive than to die with a charge ready. Have a plan for what you will do when Übercharged. Let your team assist.

Main priority is to take down a Sentry gun, secure an area, deny enemy's über push or lock down a control point.

Coordinated sap

Small team of Spies (max. 2) will conjure together to sap Sentry Gun emplacements just before an offensive push which enables teammates to safely attack the disabled Sentry Guns and Engineers. The Spies will then communicate when they have sapped the Sentry Gun to enable the attack to commence immediately.
They will continue to sap to enable the rest of their teammates to take out the Engineer first. Alternately, the Spies may take out the Engineers while they are being distracted by the attack.

Game plan

Planning your game ahead is something you want to do in more serious mode such as Competitive or even Mann vs. Machine. However, there are unusual cases where in casual, you might find a very serious game (depends on players and the game mode you're playing).

I personally like to plan our way to the point on maps such as Gravel Pit or Steel. But you can plan up your Übercharge push, coordination or which enemy to kill first.

Damage

Most weapons deal damage to health points. Unless the server is modded, weapons do not cause damage to teammates, though many weapons are capable of damaging their user. Weapon damage is subject to a number of variables, though the vast majority of weapons don't deal locational damage (the main exceptions being Sniper or Spy headshots and Spy backstabs).

Damage falloff
Most weapons deal increased damage to targets that are nearby and reduced damage to targets that are far away, though mini-crits are not subject to the latter and critical hits are subject to neither. Distance modifiers to damage are based on the distance between attacker and target.

Critical damage
Critical hits are not subject to damage randomization or distance-based damage modifiers, and always deal 300% of the weapon's base damage.
Critical attacks are usually accompanied by team-colored visual effects and electric shock sound effects (most noticeably on explosive projectiles).

Random critical hits

Usually, non-melee attacks have a 2-12% chance to become critical based on recent damage output while melee attacks have a 15-25% chance; however, some weapons, like the Market Gardener, are unable to get random critical hits.

Be honest, even with these listed chances to get a critical strike, there's no way how to predict them. It's a mechanic that doesn't need to be in the game. But for now, this is the chart for calculating the percentage based on your recent damage output.

Hit detection

There are two types of weapons: Projectile weapons (such as Rocket Launcher) and Hitscan weapons (such as Sniper rifle).

Produce moving objects with positioning and effects determined by the server's game state, which can make them less reliable for players with high latency. Projectiles usually have unique rules of physics applied to them separate from the player, and player velocity is not used in determining the initial velocity of projectiles.

Projectile collision detection does not use model-conforming hitboxes; instead, projectile hit detection relies on a single, large hitbox, also used for collisions with the map and other players, that completely encompass the player model.


Produce instant hit-or-miss attacks instead of projectiles. Melee weapons and bullet producing weapons are generally hitscan. Hitscan weapons determine collision based on the game state of the attacker (as opposed to projectiles, which use the server's game state), which can produce somewhat disjointed hit detection ("I already got behind cover; how did that hit me?"). Hitscan weapons are produced from center-screen, even if visual effects seem to suggest otherwise.

Status effects

Status effects include a variety of weapon-induced player conditions, such as Fire and Bleeding. All status effects are removed by death, touching a Resupply Locker, or class change, and most negative effects are removed by Übercharge. Some can be removed by healing or submersion in water. There are both positive and negative effects.

• Übercharge - An ÜberCharged player is invulnerable to all forms of damage other than environmental hazards or a Telefrag. ÜberCharged players can be identified by their bright team-colored shimmer and glowing eyes. Caused by the Medi Gun.
  
  
• Megaheal - A player under this effect is immune to movement-impairing effects (such as knockback, stun, and slowdown) and is healed 3x the Quick-Fix's base heal rate. Received by the Quick-Fix's ÜberCharge.
  
  
• Overheal - An overhealed player's health is above 100% (limited to 150%). Overhealed players emanate health icon-shaped, team-colored particles.
  
  
• Crit (and mini-crit) damage boost - Critical hits deals 300% of normal damage. Mini-crits adds an extra 35% damage bonus.
  
  
• Speed buff - A 40% speed boost is applied, which caps at 150% of the basic move speed. Speed-boosted players are indicated by a wind breeze particle effect surrounding them.
  
  
• Resistance - Players can have up to three resistance types deployed on them. Those resistance types are called Bullet Resistance, Blast Resistance, and Fire Resistance. These Resistance types can be deployed as a ÜberCharge with the Vaccinator equipped.

• Fire - A burning player takes damage over time (an effect known as Afterburn), to which Pyros are immune (unless they are coated by the liquid from the Gas Passer). From most sources, this deals 4 damage every 0.5 seconds for a maximum of 10 seconds (depends of the weapon used).
  
  
• Bleeding - Bleeding players take damage over time. Bleeding duration is based on the source (either 5 or 6 seconds), dealing 4 damage every half-second.
  
  
• Marked for death - If you get hit by a Fan o' War or covered by Jarate, you will take mini-crits for a short period of time.
  
  
• Slow / Stun - Movement speed reduction caused by being hit by Sandman's ball or Natasha.

Knockback

Most weapons produce at least some sort of knockback, much of which is too small to notice. Attack modifiers to knockback include damage, critical hit or mini-crit status, and weapon-specific effects. Knockback can be used to manipulate the positioning and movement of players, especially those of enemies through juggling, and oneself through rocket jumping or sticky jumping.

Some weapons and abilities, such as the Force-A-Nature, the Shortstop's alt-fire and compression blast, are based on unique knock back functionality. ÜberCharged targets are less influenced by enemy knockback than normal targets.

Objective

Maps are made based on a variety of game modes, which are used to determine the objectives for both teams. Teams may compete over the same goals (such as in Control Point and King of the Hill maps) or oppose each other in an offense vs. defense setup (such as in Attack / Defend and standard Payload maps).

And while it's fine to go on a god-like killstreak, never forget that objectives wins games.
If you're not a team player or you want to mess around on a map, do not stand in your teammate's way to the objective.

In A/D or PL gamemodes, BLU plays offense while RED plays defense. In such maps, BLU tends to have faster respawn times, but RED is given a setup time to prepare a robust defense.

Pickups

Players start the round in their team's spawn, where they can change class and loadout instantly. Most spawn rooms contain resupply lockers, which fully restore health, restock weapon ammo, refill most item meters, and remove most negative status effects, though a similar effect can be achieved by class switching.



Health kits are items that can be collected in the various maps during gameplay. They restore a set amount of the user's health when picked up and automatically regenerate after ten seconds. There are three different types of health kits.

Small health kit - Heals roughly a fifth (20.5%) of the user's health.

Medium health kit - Heals half (50%) of the user's health.

Large health kit - heals full (100%) of user's health.








Replacement ammunition can be found in the form of Ammo pickups that spawn on maps or drop from player deaths. Classes other than the Engineer may also pick up destroyed building parts for ammo. The amount of ammo in a pickup is applied to all weapons equipped, not just the one currently held.

Small ammo pack - Refills a fifth (20%) of each weapon's ammo capacity.

Medium ammo pack - Refills half (50%) of each weapon's ammo capacity.

Large ammo pack - Refills all (100%) of each weapon's ammo capacity.

One last tip

I know many players out there including myself takes this game way too seriously, and that's completely fine. Team Fortress is a game where everyone can find their place and other players should respect that. Exploring the game on your own is worth it and it's twice as fun when you party up with your friends. Enjoy the game!

Credits

I want to thank everyone who helped me with making this guide in any way.
Mainly speaking to:

• m. - A friend of mine and contributor to this guide. Helped mainly with Classes and Settings sections.
  
• Engineer Saloon Discord members[discord.gg] - Provided me with many helpful tips and tricks.

End

Thank you so much for reading and I hope this wasn't waste of your time. This is, hands down, my longest guide and it took quite some time to make so don't forget to rate it 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]

[Reepus Vanguard]

Incredible guide

[Lyra]

The pleasure is mine!

[@ your service]

Man i wish i had this when i started. This is great!
It reminds me of why i fell in love with this helpfull community.

[Moose-tache]

this guide is great

[Lyra]

Haha yes, maybe too much info at once.

[hoghunt]

By far the most in depth TF2 guide I've seen. Well done!

[Mugg]

qball

[Lyra]

Thanks!

[leokao960811]

Amazing guide for beginners.
Well done.

[Lyra]

Glad you like it! :)