[OUTDATED] Mannpower Mastery - a Comprehensive Guide to Mannpower Mode

Mannpower is a flawed, but fun gamemode that was banished to the "Alternative Gamemodes" section before it even got a chance to be properly appreciated by most players. A lot of them have only played it once or twice, or maybe not at all. But what exactly is it? How is it played? Is it worth playing at all, or is it just Capture the Flag but with longer stalemates? Well, that's up to you. This guide aims to explain the basics of the gamemode, as well as more advanced tactics and strategies so you can get the most out of your Mannpower experience.

Introduction

Disclaimer: The first version of this guide was published on July 4th 2020. Since then, there has been an update to Mannpower that made plenty of changes to the game-mode. I haven't updated this guide since, so this information is mostly outdated.

Are you tired of regular TF2? Have you gotten bored of playing 2Fort, Upward and Hightower on repeat? Well, I have the solution for you: Mannpower mode! Grappling hooks, power-ups, overpowered loadouts, ridiculously long stalemates and lots of general crazyness! The perfect thing if you want to try something new and have fun.

What is Mannpower, exactly?

(SFM poster made by BibaGuyPerson, whom I must thank for letting me use it)

According to the Team Fortress 2 Official Website: Mannpower is a CTF-like game mode with powerups scattered throughout the map. When picked up, the powerups give you different abilities that you can use to help capture enemy flags. You can also use the grappling hook to fly through the air and get to places that feet alone can’t take you.

Basically, it's Capture The Flag on steroids. However, it's a much more dynamic, gimmicky and fast-paced version of CTF, and it's the perfect thing to try out if you want to try something new in TF2. Mannpower is known to attract a lot of new and inexperienced players, which is only natural, considering how many seemingly weird features this gamemode brings to the table. After all, this is what this guide is for: helping players that are just trying out Mannpower for the first time. So, let's get to it!

Gameplay basics

Mannpower's quirks

Mannpower is a more complex and crazy variant of CTF and, implicitly, these two gamemodes share many differences. The most obvious would have to be the existence of the Grappling Hook and the power-ups (which we'll get to later), but they're not limited to just that. Here are some important (and some less important) things to note when playing Mannpower for the first time:

• Mannpower plays out up to up to 7 captures, instead of the usual 3 in CTF.
  
• You can only capture the enemy Intelligence if your team's Intelligence is uncontested and at its spawn point.
  
• You only have 90 seconds to capture the enemy Intelligence. When that timer runs out, you will be poisoned and marked for death. This was presumably done to avoid eternal stalemates due to the capture mechanic listed above, among other reasons.
  
• When you pick up the enemy Intelligence and you drop it, there's a period of time in which you or a teammate can pick it up again. In regular CTF, that timer resets when the Intelligence is picked up and dropped again — however, that's not the case in Mannpower. For this reason, capturing the Intelligence can often be very difficult if you die and somebody else on your team doesn't pick it up again in time.
  
• The respawn time is very short in Mannpower (only 4 seconds).
  
• When spawning, you receive a short period of invulnerability.
  
• All melee weapons do 30% more damage in this gamemode, except if you're a Demoman with a shield.
  
• Random critical hits and dominations are both disabled.

For the reasons stated above, stalemates are very common in Mannpower. There's no timer here, just like there's no timer in Capture the Flag, but the stalemates in this gamemode are usually much, much longer. It's not unusual for games to draw out over several hours. Even if you join in the midst of a match, you can topscore at the end of the game with several hundred points (as long as you don't leave). Of course, games don't always take that long, but it's important to keep in mind the fact that they can.

Sometimes, these stalemates aren't even that bad. Mannpower games are quite uncommon as most people don't play it regularly or don't bother to select it when queueing up for Casual mode. Some people haven't even tried Mannpower at all — perhaps you haven't either, which is why I made this guide. You see now why stalemates in this gamemode aren't all that hated, because they allow for unrestricted and long, fun games that you rarely get to play unless you specifically queue up for them.

With these things out of the way, let's get to the more concrete things.

The Maps

There are 4 official Mannpower maps in the game. They are all very large, spacious and have tall skyboxes which is good for the gamemode's use of the Grappling Hook and power-ups (once again, more on these later). These maps are as follows:

Name	Picture	Environment & Setting	File name
Foundry*		Industrial, cloudy	ctf_foundry
Gorge*		Alpine/industrial, sunny	ctf_gorge
Hellfire		Desert/hellish firepit, daytime	ctf_hellfire
Thundermountain*		Alpine, rainy	ctf_thundermountain

(Note: the maps marked with an asterisk are not original Mannpower maps, merely Mannpower counterparts of the original ones)

Hellfire is generally considered to be the best Mannpower map. It's the only one that is original and was made with this gamemode in mind, as many areas are completely unaccessible without the use of the Grappling Hook. Speaking of...

The Grappling Hook

The Grappling Hook is an item that can only be used in this mode. Once you enter a game of Mannpower, you are prompted to equip it on the action slot (the fourth slot on the right side of the loadout menu).

Arguably the most asked question in a Mannpower game is "How do I grapple?". By pressing and holding down the action key (H by default) with the Grappling Hook equipped, you can shoot a hook in the direction you're aiming. Alternatively, you can select it via the 6th weapon slot and press the attack button to fire the hook. This will allow you to cling onto surfaces and players and help you move rapidly across the map, making it arguably the most important and unique feature in this gamemode.

The Grappling Hook allows for great mobility and it can be used in conjunction with rocket jumping. Spies can use it even when they're disguised and invisible, which is one of their many advantages in Mannpower. Jumping while grappling onto a surface will detach the hook automatically, which is often very useful for getting over rooftops, platforms and other such things.

The Grappling Hook is easy and fun to use, and once you play with it for a bit you'll get used to it. If, however, you want to see more about how this item works, check out the demonstration video below:
https://youtu.be/k0tg6RTIQCE
However, the Grappling Hook isn't Mannpower's only unique feature. I wasn't originally planning to dedicate an entire section to the next topic, but there's just too much to cover and too little space left in this section. Introducing...

Power-ups

Of course, Mannpower wouldn't be Mannpower without the power-ups. In this gamemode, the player can collect various power-ups that spawn all over the map in certain places. There are neutral and team-specific power-ups. The neutral power-ups are yellow and they're the ones that spawn naturally. Once you pick one up and you die, it will drop and become usable only by the opposite team, which is what "team-specific" means. For example, if you're on the RED team and you die with a power-up equipped, it will drop and turn blue in color, and only a member of the BLU team will be able to pick it up again. The only exception to this scenario is if you're a Spy and disguised as the enemy team, in which case you can pick up power-ups of any color. See, I told you the Spy has its fair share of advantages in this gamemode!

There are currently 12 unique power-ups in the game:

1. Strength - Makes you deal more damage

• Double Damage for all weapons
  
• Distance damage fall-off immunity (no mather how far away your target is, you will still do the
  same damage)

Works best on: Damage classes like Soldier, Demoman & Heavy



2. Resistance - Makes you withstand more damage

• Reduces damage you take by half
  
• Makes you immune to Plague and Reflect power-up damage
  
• Blocks backstabs

Works best on: Bulkier and slower classes like Soldier & Heavy









3. Vampire - Leech health off of other players

• All damage done is returned to you as health, with the exception of miniguns and flamethrowers which return less health
  
• Melee attacks return 1.25x times the damage you deal as health (25% more than with primary/secondary weapons)
  
• 25% damage resistance
  
• Maximum health increased by 80
  
• Makes you immune to Reflect power-up damage

Works best on: Pyro



4. Reflect - Damage you receive is reflected to the attacker

• 80% of the damage you receive is returned to the player who damaged you
  
• Players who attack you can't die from the reflected damage, as they will survive with 1 HP in the worst case scenario
  
• All of the damage you receive from a Sentry Gun is returned to the Sentry Gun
  
• Maximum health increased to 400
  
• Players who receive reflect damage also receive pushback force

Works best on: Any class


5. Haste - More and faster firing

• Double weapon firing and reload speed
  
• Double clip size and maximum ammo count
  
• Movement speed increased by 30%
  
• Offers faster stickybomb arm time, double Übercharge build rate and faster Sniper Rifle charge

Works best on: Scout, Soldier & Demoman






6. Regeneration - Passively regenerate health and ammo

• Health regenerates at a very fast pace (inversely proportional to your maximum health), often making you nearly unkillable
  
• Ammo and metal also regenerate, but at a slower pace

Works best on: Classes directly involved in combat such as Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman & Heavy






7. Precision - Makes your shots precise and deadly

• Greatly reduced bullet spread
  
• Distance damage fall-off immunity (no matter how far your target is, you will still do the same damage)
  
• Sniper Rifles deal double damage and charge quicker
  
• Explosive projectiles travel much faster and have no radius damage fall-off
  
• Blast weapon clip size increased by 50%
  
• Grants immunity to self-blast damage

Works best on: Soldier, Demoman, Heavy & Sniper


8. Agility - Makes you very agile and mobile

• Movement speed increased by 50%
  
• Much faster speed when grappling
  
• Jump height increased by 80%
  
• Grants immunity to fall damage
  
• Instant weapon switch

Works best on: Scout, Pyro & Spy





9. Knockout - Makes you deadly at close range

• Restricts you to your melee weapon and your Grappling Hook
  
• You receive an increase of +150 maximum health.Heavies and Demoknights receive less.
  
• Melee weapons deal 190% more damage and knock the enemy away. Additionally, they make the enemy drop their power-up and/or the Intelligence briefcase.
  
• Immune to airblast and damage pushback
  
• Demoman shield charge cooldowns are greatly reduced

Works best on: Demoknight

10. King - Gives you and your teammates several buffs

• Your maximum health is increased
  
• You and your teammates regenerate health (not as fast as with the Regeneration power-up)
  
• Fire and reload rate increased for you and your teammates

Works best on: Soldier, Heavy, Medic






11. Plague - You infect enemies and make them bleed

• Touching an enemy gives them and their nearby teammates the Plague
  
• The Plague effect makes the player bleed to death in 10 seconds unless they pick up a health kit or touch a resupply cabinet
  
• The Plague effect also blocks the King's buffs

Works best on: Demoknight & Spy




12. Supernova - Charge your Supernova attack and stun all nearby enemies

• When your power meter is full, discharge your Supernova using the Grapple Hook's secondary fire to stun all nearby enemies and make them drop their power-ups and/or Intelligence briefcase
  
• The power meter is charged over time, but you can charge it faster by dealing damage
  
• When the power meter is full, enemies that are in range of you will glow. This also includes disguised Spies
  
• Once used, the power-up disappears and respawns

Works best on: Any class


Remembering what all of these power-ups do might be a little difficult when playing Mannpower for the first time, but fortunately, their simple and intuitive design is sufficient enough to make you at least vaguely remember what they do. You can also see their stats in the game, when inspecting other players. If you want to drop a power-up, you can do so by pressing the key which you also use to drop the Intelligence briefcase, which is L by default. This is a useful feature because it allows the player to switch power-ups upon seeing a better or more suitable one at the time being, so don't hesitate to switch out your Vampire for Strength if the situation calls for it.

A couple of things to note: when carrying the enemy Intelligence, if you have a power-up, your Grappling Hook will receive a 25% speed penalty (except if you have Agility), which means it will be slower to grapple around the map. If you don't, however, have a power-up when carrying the enemy Intelligence, you will receive health regeneration.

Revenge crits

Revenge crits are team-specific pseudo-power-ups that are automatically activated and spawned when a significant game imbalance is detected. They appear in front of one team's spawn and any player that walks through the icon receives full critical hit power for 30 seconds. Picking up the power-up doesn't make it despawn — it only despawns when the teams are no longer considered unbalanced.

Strategies, loadouts and power-up synergy

General strategies

• If you are struggling with a stalemate or if the enemy has a very good defense, you can use Agility to capture the Intelligence briefcase. You can sneak past the enemy defense unnoticed, and when you pick up the Intelligence, it might already be too late for the enemy to catch you, as the power-up will help you escape swiftly and carry the briefcase to your base.
  
• Reflect is a very useful power-up, especially if used in combination with a friendly Medic, since you can reach 600 health when overhealed. Even without a Medic, it's arguably one of the best power-ups in Mannpower and you can make use of it as any class. A lot of the time, enemies won't even dare to put a finger on you if they see that you have Reflect.
  
• King is yet another versatile power-up. If you have it, stick around your team. If you work with your teammates and stick with them while using this power-up, you can break stalemates and capture the Intelligence together.
  
• I think it should go without saying that the Grappling Hook is extremely useful in this gamemode. It allows you to compensate for your class' speed limit and it can help you reach otherwise inaccesible areas - especially on Hellfire, Gorge and Thundermountain. Always use it.

Class-specific strategies (for offensive/damage classes)

In Mannpower, classes that are typically considered to be more defensive —like the Demoman and the Heavy — become a lot more offensive thanks to their increased mobility (and survivability, thanks to some power-ups). I will be talking about these offensive/damage classes here and I will dedicate classes that are more oriented towards support their own section, because of the character limit in each section (which I can do nothing about).

Scout

• The Agility power-up is very effective on Scout, since it doubles your jump height and speed, and you can get across the map using the Grappling Hook ridiculously fast. This can be very useful when trying to capture the enemy Intelligence.
  
• Haste is very effective as well, as it also offers extra speed (just like Agility) but also doubles your Scattergun clip size, making you especially deadly in close quarters combat if you're using the Force-a-Nature or the Soda Popper. If you combine this power-up with the Crit-a-Cola, you become a force to be reckoned with.
  
• If you are struggling with getting past chokepoints or certain parts of the map, you can use Reflect, which will turn your fragile 125 health to an incredible 400 and sometimes enemies won't even bother attacking you since they know they're the ones that are going to be damaged.

Soldier

• Haste is very useful on Soldier. It synergizes with the Black Box quite well, allowing you to shoot up to 6 rockets that will give you health when they hit an enemy, ensuring good survivability in crowded areas. Any other rocket launcher works just as well with this power-up, except maybe for the Liberty Launcher and the Direct Hit.
  
• If you plan on using the Direct Hit in Mannpower, try using it with Strength. The damage one Direct Hit rocket is able to do with this power-up is insane, and it also deals mini-crit damage to airborne targets - which includes grappling enemies. This means that you can often kill a grappling Heavy at full health with just one rocket.
  
• Precision is also a very useful power-up for Soldier, best used in conjuction with rocket launchers that have significant splash damage.
  
• If you're working together with a Medic, then possibly the strongest combination you can pull of is Reflect (for you) and King (for him). If you're also using a banner like the Battalion's Backup or the Buff Banner, then you will have even more success with this strategy. This is especially effective if you're playing with a friend.

Pyro

• Vampire is very useful on Pyro despite the fact that your flamethrower doesn't leech as much health off the enemy as other weapons do. Afterburn also gives you health back. Just don't get too confident and don't pursue high-damage targets such as Heavies or any class with Strength.
  
• Once again, I have to mention Reflect. It's literally useful on any class. As a Pyro, this power-up combined with your high damage capabilities at close range and the general visual clutter and panic the flamethrower creates, you can clear out chokepoints or crowded areas quite easily, especially if paired with a friendly Medic.
  
• Haste is pretty much useless on Pyro, there's no real good reason to use it over Agility since the double clip size and double firing speed bonuses don't do anything for you.

Demoman

• The Knockout power-up is the perfect choice for a Demoknight and I don't think I need to explain why that is.
  
• If you don't feel like playing Demoknight though, and you just want to play regular Demoman, then your best choices are Haste and Strength.
  
• The Scottish Resistance is not recommended in Mannpower. The maps are typically very large and stickybomb traps aren't all that useful, and since this weapon is best used for setting up these traps, using it here is kind of a waste since you could be using the normal Stickybomb Launcher or the Quickiebomb Launcher.

Heavy

• The Regeneration power-up is very useful on Heavy, since it allows you to tank a lot of damage and makes you independent from other healing sources such as Medics or even your sandwich, which means you finally have a reason to use shotgun instead of a food item, which actually works quite well considering you grapple a lot in this gamemode and don't always have the time to bring out your minigun in the heat of the battle.
  
• Supernova is good to use when trying to clear a crowded area or a choke point. If you can surprise the enemy team by grappling in their zone and activating the power-up, you can stun all of them and take them out with your minigun.
  
• Other useful power-ups for Heavy include Strength, Resistance and Reflect, maybe even Agility if you want to be a bit more speedy.
  
• Just like with Pyro, there's no reason to use Haste on Heavy.
  
• A really fun strategy I feel like I have to mention is to use Knockout in conjuction with the Killing Gloves of Boxing, which makes you deadly - one hit can be enough to kill your enemy, in which case you will receive critical hits and you can either continue killing people with the gloves, or drop the power-up temporarily, quickly switch to your minigun (preferably the Tomislav or at least the normal Minigun since you can bring them out and start firing faster) and decimate anyone unlucky enough to be in your general area. I got to say I've had a lot of fun with this strategy.

The support & defensive classes

Engineer

• On Mannpower, your role as an Engineer is very different to that of a normal Engineer. You will have to weigh your role very carefully and take into consideration the different factors that this gamemode offers, such as the Grappling Hook, the power-ups, the large size of the maps and the very open spaces. You have to choose between defending your team's Intelligence or providing support and mobility to your team by setting up a frontline in the middle of the map or in a zone you can defend along with a few teammates.
  
• Due to the sheer size of the Mannpower maps, fully upgraded teleporters can be really good for assisting your team and can shave a good half a minute off their trip to the frontline.
  
• Sentry Guns are just as useful in Mannpower as they are on any other gamemode. Once again, you have to choose between defending your team's Intelligence and holding down an important zone in the map. One of these zones, for example (which a lot of Engineers love to set up their nest on) is the roof in the middle of Hellfire (pictured below).
  
  
  
• If you choose to guard the Intelligence, keep in mind that it is quite hard to do so for two reasons: one is that power-ups can make it easy for your enemies to destroy your Sentry Gun if nobody is around to take care of them, and the second reason is that the Intelligence on Thundermountain and Hellfire is in a very open zone, which means an enemy Scout/Spy with Agility can pick it up and run away before you can do anything about it. If you want to guard the Intelligence, do so with another fellow Engineer or any other teammate for that matter. If nobody is helping you at all, then you can get away with turtling up near your team's briefcase on Gorge and Foundry, since on these maps the Intelligence is situated in a lot more enclosed area and the enemy has no way to escape your Sentry Gun's fire.
  
• Dispensers aren't as important as they are on other gamemodes, since there are plenty of other ways to heal yourself when low on health, be it by the use of power-ups or just by grappling to a health kit. Nonetheless, if you set up a nest in the frontlines, your team will still appreciate a fully upgraded Dispenser to help them out.
  
• As for power-ups: Defense, Reflect, Regeneration and perhaps even Plague are solid choices which will help you set up a nest in the frontlines without worrying about being killed. Haste is also useful since it doubles your metal capacity and makes you swing your wrench twice as fast, which means you can build a lot quicker.
  
• Another useful spot for building a Sentry nest is the upper room on Hellfire (pictured below). You can build a Sentry Gun on the edge of the dropdown and keep a Dispenser and a teleporter exit in the back so your team can use them. If you feel like Ninjaneering, you can build in the same spot but on the enemies' side, by hiding a teleporter exit in the vents in this room and then setting up a nest, but it will be more difficult for you to defend the area.
  

Medic

• From my personal experience, the Kritzkrieg is the best medigun in Mannpower, because it can break stalemates and it can help clear out large areas of enemy players in a short amount of time. It is most efficient when used in conjuction with other power-ups that supply healing and resistance to the Medic and/or his patient. The other mediguns are also a good choice when teams aren't as organised around a certain point of the map or in general.
  
• The King power-up is a fantastic choice for the Medic, as the buffs help not only you, but all your nearby teammates, which will naturally stay by your side because you're the Medic.
  
• Reflect and Haste are also good choices until you get your hands on the King power-up.
  
• If you want to play Medic without actually playing as a medic and if you just want to kill enemies, then you can use the Crusader's Crossbow in conjuction with the Strength power-up for very powerful shots. You'll esentially be a battle medic, but this is Mannpower, nobody really cares, play how you want to play.

Sniper

• The Sniper is very useful in open areas, and Hellfire and Thundermountain are full of such areas. You can hold down sightlines and chokepoints all while keeping a safe distance from your enemies. If you can hit your headshots, you can be a great asset to your team and you can assist fellow Engineers in keeping the frontlines and their nests untouched.
  
• Precision is definitely Sniper's most useful power-up, as you can deal double damage and charge your sniper rifle much faster than normal. Fully overhealed Heavies are no match for a good Sniper with Precision.
  
• A fun alternative to sniping is equipping a bow and picking up the Haste power-up. You can shoot a lot of arrows really fast and kill anything that dares to come close to you by abusing the arrows' ridiculously large hitboxes. I've seen this strategy on YouTube in this video and have had a lot of fun with it myself, so I recommend you try it out too.

Spy

• The Spy is very versatile in Mannpower mode. He has the ability to steal dropped enemy power-ups when disguised and he can sneak behind enemy defenses by grappling while cloaked.
  
• If you're good with the Spy, you'll see just how many trickstabs you'll be able to pull off in this gamemode using the Grappling Hook. I recommend watching Risk Endeavors' video on how to play Spy in Mannpower which I have linked below, as he goes into great detail and also demonstrates certain strategies and tricks in real games:
  https://youtu.be/n8faWeZoUmM
  
• Agility and Plague are Spy's best power-ups. Agility will help you escape enemies and capture the Intelligence a lot more easily, while Plague will infect any enemy you touch (which you will do a lot, since your job as a Spy is to get close and personal with your enemies). Reflect is also a solid choice because it helps you tank a lot of damage that will be redirected to the enemy anyway.

Closing note

Well... that about covers everything significant regarding Mannpower mode. I meant it when I said this guide was gonna be comprehensive, hopefully it's comprehensive enough. All that's left is for you to go and play it!

If you've gotten so far and you've read (mostly) everything, thanks! This is my first guide and I spent three days making it, so I hope it was worth it. Whether you're a new player who wants to try out Mannpower mode or a more experienced player who has played this gamemode before but just wanted to check out the guide, don't forget to rate it accordingly!

Grapple your way to victory and become a Mannpower master! And most importantly, have fun while you're at it!

Special thanks to BibaGuyPerson for letting me use his SFM poster, go check him out.