Mann Vs. Machine: Using The Soda Popper

The Scout: Easily one of the most important classes in succeeding in any MvM game. This guide will explain how to use the updated Soda Popper to improve survivability, as well as cash collection.

Introduction: The Updated Soda Popper

As pretty much any TF2 player is aware, TF2 recently received the Smissmas 2013 Update on Dec. 20th. The update added new Festive Weapons to the game, added new cosmetics, and toyed around with old weapons to make them more favorable in gameplay. One of the weapons updated was the Soda Popper for Scout.

Before the Update: The Soda Popper granted +25% reload speed, +50% firing speed, and -60% clip size. The Soda Popper would build hype as the player ran with it equipped. Once this hype was filled, it was instantly released, granting the player mini-crits for a short duration.

Following the Update: The Soda Popper's stats remained unchanged. Now, however, instead of unleashing mini-crits upon instantly filling hype, this hype could be released at any time once full by clicking alt-fire while the Soda Popper was equipped. Additionally, hype now provided five (5) extra jumps to players for a short duration, as opposed to mini-crits.

How is The New Soda Popper Good?

This short commentary sums up quite nicely how the Soda Popper is useful:

To quote the video: It is really hard to hit somebody directly over top of you who is constantly changing directions. This is no different for the robots in MvM than it is for actual players attempting to shoot you online. With a total of seven jumps once hype is full, a scout can change directions in mid-air a total of six times with just the Soda Popper equipped, all while moving further away from the ground. This greater mobility means less damage taken, and less damage taken means better survivability!

As a scout in MvM, your top priority is not damage -- Your top priority is to survive, and to collect the cash. The extra jumps provided by the Soda Popper grant extra mobility, and this extra mobility will help improve your survivability immensely.

Okay, Extra Mobility May Help. But Still, Why the Soda Popper?

Well, let's review all of the Scout's primaries.

The Stock Scattergun

The Stock Scattergun. Does a large amount of damage at close range, decent reload speed, and decent firing speed. All around balanced in terms of combat, but again, as a scout, your top priority is not to deal damage, but to collect cash. Heavies, Engies, and Demos, as members of your team, can deal hundreds of damage per second to several bots at a time as waves go on, but are not mobile enough to collect cash. Let them stick to their jobs, and you, as a Scout, stick to yours.

The Force-A-Nature

Faster firing speed, more pellets for more damage up close, and knock back on enemies, all in exchange for a smaller clip. The knock back grants the Scout a third jump when aimed properly. While the extra damage may seem practical when constantly up close with the robot hordes, and the knock back proves to be useful, it still does not offer the most mobility as a Scout.

The Shortstop

Extra range, decent firing speed, and a faster reload than the Scattergun, once again, in exchange for a smaller clip. Also updated in the past couple of months, the updated Short stop offers +20% bonus healing while deployed. The updated Shortstop, however, also increases push force taken from damage and airblast, making it harder to control your Scout every time he is knocked around. In terms of mobility and stability, this weapon actually hinders both while granting more health from health packs and medics. In terms of survivability -- Not a bad option. In terms of actually collecting cash though, it is not the best option.

Baby Face's Blaster

Another Scout weapon which was tweaked with recently, the Baby Face's Blaster was changed so that instead of losing all boost on an air jump, only twenty-five percent of boost is lost per air jump. The boost, which is gained through damage done, can increase the Scout's movement speed by about thirty percent. In exchange, the Scout spawns with 10% less movement speed, but this hardly makes a difference considering how easy it is to gain boost, especially in MvM. This is definitely a viable weapon in terms of mobility -- In MvM, however, there are some shortcomings to the Baby Face's Blaster which the Soda Popper does not have. We'll talk more about that later.

The Soda Popper

As discussed, the Soda Popper grants five extra jumps, allowing the user to jump a total of seven times while hype is active. This grants vertical mobility which none of the other primary weapons grant. Sure, such attributes can be acheived through the Winger or the Atomizer, but generally in MvM, those weapons are not the most favorable. That's a topic for another guide though.

Simply put, the level of vertical mobility which is offered by the Soda Popper is not seen in any of the other Scout weapons. This vertical mobility will prove to be useful, as the next section will cover.

Extra Mobility: Using It

It is easy to build hype: Just run with the Soda Popper equipped, and in about 13 seconds, you'll have full hype. Hype, however, only lasts for 8 seconds, and after that, it takes another 13 seconds to build up hype again. As such, hype should be used sparingly and appropriately in order to properly utilize the five extra jumps. Here are some situations where hype works well:

Against A Giant:

Which way is the best to get past a giant when you still have to get cash? Would you rather go on ground level...










...Or go above them?










When you go by a giant on ground level, not only are you more likely to be spotted by a giant due to running close to him, you are also more likely to be hit by him. It does not matter what giant you are running by -- Rapid-Fire Demo, Rapid-Fire Soldier, Pyro, or Heavy -- every type of giant is more likely to hit you if you are on the same level as them. This is because giants are generally more focused on the ground near them. Giants know it is easier to kill targets directly at their feet, and as such, will aim for them first, whether that target is a Sentry gun as shown above, or a Scout attempting to get past them.

Think about your last MvM experience against a giant: Most of your team was very likely trying to shoot from an elevated spot, whether they were Soldier, Engy, or Heavy. As for the ones that tried to go against the giant from the same level -- They either did their damage and got out quick, or stayed fighting the giant at ground level, and likely died in the process

This robot AI is based directly on observed player behavior. Scouts are fast and obnoxious online, but you would still still be able to hit them if all they did was run, because running movement is fairly predictable. When a Scout changes direction with every jump though, hitting him becomes more difficult, and you're more likely to switch your attention on an easier target. This is the mentality that the giants will follow. Unleash hype to get past the giants while suffering minimal damage.

Dodging Regular Bots:

The regular bots in MvM don't operate too differently from the giant bots: If they see you trying to run by them, they will attack you, as you are the closest target, and as such, the easiest to kill. As a stock Scout with double jumps and fast speed, dodging hits is easier for you than it is for other classes. When going against about a dozen enemies at a time though, especially heavy hitters such as Soldiers or Demomen, it becomes a little more difficult to dodge.

Remember how earlier I said the Baby Face's Blaster had shortcomings which the Soda Popper did not? This is where those shortcomings become clear. While running at 130% speed can definitely be helpful in online versus where you are going against 12 other players scattered throughout a map and trying to complete a specific goal, it becomes less useful when you are going against 12+ robots clustered together, all intent specifically on killing you. While with Baby Face's Blaster, you can definitely run along alternate paths to dodge bot encounters and collect cash, odds are once you turn the corner, you are going to encounter bots, and a couple of them will notice you, especially if you take a few shots at the group. Again, it is harder to dodge shots just running along the ground -- It is better to go above them. Yes, Baby Face's allows four seperate air jumps before returning you to 10% slower than a Scout should run, but in the midst of trying to dodge rockets, bullets, pills, and bumping into robots, all while attempting to collect cash, those jumps can go by without you realizing, leaving you stranded at slow speeds.

Another thing to consider is this: Your team may not be able to kill the bots around you. There will be instances where the damage dealing portions of your team have to deal with a tank or a giant that is getting awfully close to spawn, but there is still cash somewhere towards where the bots spawn. As a Scout, you may have to get in, grab the cash, and make it back to collect the next round of cash without your team's help. When in this situation, it will be much easier to dodge the bots by simply jumping over them, as opposed to attempting to run by them. If you remain on the ground, no matter how fast you are, you risk bumping into bots, or exposing yourself to damage which may get you cornered and killed, resulting in lost cash. In these situations, it is better to jump past the robots to safer points (such as the rock in the image above, or behind the fences going along the cliff), and then collect the cash from there.

Reaching Cash in Tough-to-reach Spots:

As has been stated multiple times in this guide, Scout's main goal in MvM is to collect cash due to his mobility. Even for the Scout though, there are some spots that are tough to reach. Two examples:

The balcony on Manhattan, and the top of these shipping containers, also on Manhattan.










Robots, at some point or another, will run through these areas, and may get killed in these areas, dropping cash. While both spots can be reached by a Scout running, running to these locations will be much more difficult when bots are firing at you, or blocking where you would run. However, both of these places can be reached while hype is in use.

The shipping containers can be reached by jumping several times while hype is active.










The same is true for the balcony in Manhattan, although this will require careful timing, and for certain players, maybe even jump upgrades.





Not only will jumping to these locations as a Scout allow you to collect any cash that may be dropped up in that area, but it also provides a convenient way to get behind incoming robots while remaining undetected. Baby Face's Blaster, while it may boost run speed, would in both situations force the player to run directly at incoming robots, making him/her an easier target. The extra boost is not as useful when it is used to run into the line of fire, especially when the Soda Popper offers a method that could be used to avoid robots practically all together.

Conclusion

The best way to succeed in any game of MvM is by collecting as much cash as possible. The Scout is great for MvM since his mobility allow him to collect cash easily, and as such, many teams rely on the class in order to best succeed in a game of MvM. Even the best Scouts though, will inevitably face situations where it is tricky to evade bots, cash is in a tough to reach spot, or just surviving in general is difficult. The updated Soda Popper though, offers the opportunity for any Scout to vastly improve his/her survivability and cash collecting skills, thus ensuring the success of the entire team!

While other blasters offer improved mobility (i.e. Force-A-Nature, Baby Face's Blaster), none of them offer the range of mobility granted by the Soda Popper's hype feature. The extra vertical mobility gives the Scout easier access to alternate pathways, and vastly improves his ability to dodge incoming damage, all while changing up gameplay in a way that is fun and different to use! Any Scout wishing to improve should at the very least, give the Soda Popper a try. You might be surprised with how it works out!

Thanks for the read everybody!


Leave a rating and feedback if you enjoyed this guide, and happy gaming! :)
-Patches Petunias

[Li'l Trigga]

What about the extra firing speed upgrade exploit for the soda popper and force of nature?

[D. B. Wooper]

Whenever people swear by the Force-A-Nature or BFB, I always scoff at them because the Soda Popper basically magnifies the Scout's natural, huge advantage by so much. I used this in a recent Empire Escalation match and had no trouble with the giant black box soldiers, nor anything else.

This guide has just made me very happy that there are other MvM players who understand the potential of the Soda Popper in MvM.

[Twinsen]

I haven't used the soda popper in over a year unless it was on a randomizer server. I feel like the shortstop or force-a-nature works better. Force-a-nature for the 3 decoy, coaltown, and mannworks. Shortstop for anything else. You get blasted back more you say? It might have just saved you your live. Besides jump height upgrades give you more mobility anyway. I would recommend the soda-popper for manhatten only for the first area.

[Funtines]

This is guide has helped me so much! Thanks heaps!

[Baker]

And people complains about Valve removing the mini-crits. Have they even read this guide

[Yatsuzume]

Soda Popper is basically the reason why Scout is my main MvM class. It's just the most fun weapon to use, it gives that Touhou-ish feeling when you are flying around everywhere, dodging a fire curtain of rockets and grenades.

[Captain Daddy]

Yats:

I'm glad to see me and my friends aren't the only ones recognizing its potential! My best rounds as Scout have come from using the Soda Popper, I never expected to enjoy it, but now I swear by it.

[Yatsuzume]

Thanks for making this guide. Once I tried the new Popper like the day after it came out on MvM, I was completely in love with it. It just makes it so easy to... well I will just quote a part of my comment from another guide:

''...The Soda Popper became a pretty nice alternative to the FaN/Shortstop if you are not aiming for dealing much damage as a scout. If you increase your speed and jump height, you can basically fly, which gives you more opportunities to:

- See and get money that spawned on stupid places
- Take out assist classes that are out of reach for others (like those annoying hill snipers on Rottenburg)
- Get out of sticky situations
- Get behind an enemy
- Distract giants and play danmaku games with soldiers
- Take down low-hp key targets behind enemy lines

And the amount of mobility you have is unbelievable. The only real downside that I can come up with now is that you can't deal solid damage to multiple enemies .''