Duo Play: TF2 with a Buddy

Laughing at that guy you just owned is a lot less funny if your buddy is also lying in a pool of pixelated blood stains. Keep you and your buddy alive to laugh another day with these tips.

Basics

This guide assumes that you and your buddy are playing in a multiplayer (not MvM) game on the same team. Cooperating with your friend is far more satisfying than competing with him or her, in my opinion.
Let's begin!

Communication

...is what sets you and your partner apart from the mindless internet hordes. Whether you're grabbing some health, walking around a corner, chasing that pesky spy or taunting some poor f2p you just owned, tell your friend everything. Two guns are better than one, but both guns have to be pointed in the right direction to do any good.
Yes, TF2's a fast-paced game, but try to be descriptive. “Spy!” is less helpful than “Spy backstabbed me!” which tells your partner both where the spy is and that you are dead.

Movement Speed

...helps communication. In “single-player” TF2, everyone runs as fast as possible to the next fight. In “duo” TF2 that simply splits you and your partner apart. To make it easier to stick together, deliberately pick classes and loadouts that keep you and your partner moving at roughly the same speed. You may think that you would never abandon your partner, but when the game hangs in the balance no-one waits around. Fighting without your partner ruins the point of playing together and can even lead to the vicious Respawn Cycle: you spawn, realize your partner won't respawn for ten seconds, rush outside, die, your partner spawns, realizes you won't respawn for ten seconds....repeat until game ends.

But the more you and your partner play together, the better you will become at working as a team no matter how fast you travel.

Here, have a highly informative table.


Another tip for the beginning of your duo career: play on small maps with few players. It's harder to lose track of your partner on a small map, and fewer players means fewer guns pointed at you. You and your partner live longer per life, can coordinate more, get less frustrated, and you both make more of a difference in the battle.

Weapon Choice

Example: You and your partner are happily bagging headshots together when you notice a stickyjumping cyclops hurtling towards you both. You remember Communication and scream a warning to your partner. Do you:

• And your partner both pull out smgs? The cyclops grins and adds two new heads to his collection.
  
• Pull out jarate as your partner grabs his smg? The soaked Scotsman's “Cripe!” is quickly drowned in a hail of bullets. You and your partner high-five and resume sniping.

Image by the author.

Sad but true, but some weapons are more team oriented than others. Mad Milk, The Sandman's Stun Ball, Jarate, Bonk! Atomic Punch, Sandviches (throw throw throw!), the Buff Banner and the Battalion's Backup can be far more effective than a shotgun or pistol with a friend at your side, particularly if you warn your friend when you're about to use them.

Use common sense, though. Throwing two Jarate jars at the same Demoman isn't going to make anyone live longer. Except the Demoman, of course.

Duos

Everyone prefers some classes over others. Here's a few specific examples of loadouts and classes that have worked for me and my gaming buddy.

Heavy Medic

The old standby. It's such a basic concept that I'm not going to cover it in detail, feel free to check out other guides for the basics. Just watch out for spies, they can backstab both you and your partner before either of you can shout a warning to the other. So keep a pet pyro around whenever possible.

Medic, try to keep your head on a swivel without breaking your healing connection. Instead of relying on that awkward “Incoming!” voice command, you can simply call out any threats you see to your Heavy. Do it.
And if your partner can handle it emotionally, ditch him if death is inevitable. You are far more mobile than your Heavy and can escape from situations that would surely kill him. He'll distract the enemy while you get away, and though he'll mutter curses at you as he waits to respawn, he'll love that 60% ubercharge you've just saved.

Heavy, just do your thing. Shoot stuff, don't drag your medic out where he can be sniped, and throw your sandvich.

Double Scout

Particularly fun on ctf_doublecross where you can blast across the map with the FaN. Have one of you swig a Bonk! Atomic Punch outside the enemy's intelligence room and distract the sentry while the other snags their intel. Remember that the sentry shoots at the closest target.
If he times it right, the Bonk! Scout can retreat with the intel Scout, allowing him to guard and distract on the trip home.

Double Engineer

It's a tricky thing, positioning sentries. If you put both sentries in the same spot you risk being destroyed by a single Demoman, but you can more easily upgrade and repair each other's equipment. Your best bet is to position nearby, where your sentries can cover each other but you can aid one another's base.

Also, don't be afraid to move up. One of you can haul equipment while the other supports him, and you can both fall back to the already established base if needed.

An alternate duo is the Gunslinger and the Wrench, where one of you equips the gunslinger and supports the other's normal sentry. Gunslinger, harass any enemies that come close to the Wrench's base, shift your mini-sentry placement occasionally to throw off opponents, and upgrade and repair the Wrench's equipment. Put your dispenser next to Wrench's to create a beautiful, twice as fast resupply bubble that your teammates will flock to while singing your praises. Wrench, be sure to call for help the second you sniff trouble so the Gunslinger can come beat off whatever Spy or demoman comes calling. Or so he can at least repair your stuff if you die.


What Duos have worked for you and your gaming buddy? Leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading.


Alas I have just started a full-time job, so I have less time to devote to this than I would like.
Edit: From the comments.
My thanks to those who pointed out that the Force-A-Nature is usually abbreviated as FaN, not FoN. It has been fixed.

Other Duos mentioned in the comments:
Pyro Medic- great in close quarters, just don't push your luck. Even with a medic's help a pyro has far too little health for frontal assaults. For all things Medic partners, take a look at this.
Pyro Engineer- turtle power to the max. The Pyro counters what an Engi does not, and vice versa. A Neon Annihilator or Homewrecker can give the Pyro the ability to remove sappers, for added synergy.


Unless specified otherwise, all images from http://wiki.teamfortress.com/.

[Gildemesh]

I feel like every class kind of has a pair, even if they don't directly fight together. Scout and Spy (Scout distracts enemies for Spy), Soldier and Demo (Direct attacks+Creative attacks), Pyro and Engineer (As said, they cover their weaknesses), Heavy and Medic (Heavy is a great heal target) and Sniper...well, another Sniper, of course. (Double the amount of target lasers in the hall)

[Yatsuzume]

Spy + Pyro, and sometimes Spy + Scout are also really fun duos. The Scout/Pyro can distract the enemy team, giving the spy an easy time to get behind enemy lines and get some easy stabs. But this truly shines with a (multi) sentry nest. A spy can get into the nest, sap all the sentries, and when the engies start chasing the spy, the Pyro can come in and just annihilate the entire enemy nest. I find this a faster and more efficient alternative for 'engi bombing' than for example a medic+demo. It only requires way more synchrone activity and communication.

[Jmanjr98]

I love being a quickfix medic (with the solemn vow) paired up with a skilled demoknight. Especially if they have the eyelander or half zatoichi.

[Opal]

Kritz/Ubersaw Medic & Stock Soldier always worked beautifully for me.

[HOOK TUAH]

Double Ubersaw Medic combo. Almost unstoppable.

[Lynn]

A single wrangler is also nice. One of both continuously rains hell while the other keeps the sentry supplied

[TheIonForge]

me and my friend came up with pyro and scout if scout has force of nature he can knock back the enemy in to the pyros range

[ralz]

lol, double mini helped me with sum rage pyros but then they swithed to spies XD

[Saviel the Visually Challenged]

Black Box + Battallion's Backup + Disciplinary Action Soldier and a GL + Targe + Eyelander DemoKnight make an unstoppable killing pair. The DA helps the two go very fast, the EL and Box keep them healed, the Targe helps against Pyros, and the Backup is used for andi-sentry. The only way effective to counter this speedy, constantly-healing pair is a well-timed Natascha Heavy

[Toila]

Medic+Medic.