How To Communicate As A F2P In 2022

This guide is meant to explain what options are still available for F2Ps when it comes to communication after the Anti-Spam Bot updates of 2020.

A Preface

If you're looking at this guide, then it's either because you're a F2P wondering how you can communicate, or a premium user with nothing else to do.

This guide has the singular purpose of noting what options are available for F2Ps when it comes to communicating with others in the game.

However, do remember that communication is not needed to be a good player, especially in a non-competitive setting.

Option 1 - Upgrade to Premium

The first, and most obvious option that will allow you to communicate, is to simply upgrade to a premium TF2 account.
Along with that, you will need to also upgrade your Steam account from a limited account, but as long as you put in $5 onto Steam, you should be fine.

This can be obtained in a few ways, but each will almost certainly require you to spend a little bit of money. For some of you though, this might not be an option, and if that is the case, then I suggest skipping to the next option.

Path 1:
Purchase an item off the Mann-Co store.

The cheapest option is to purchase a $1 item off of the Mann-Co store, with the cheapest and most beneficial being a Backpack Expander.
You will still need to put a base amount of $5 into Steam itself, but if you don't want to spend the full $5 on 2 keys, or just TF2 in general, then this will work just fine.



Path 2:
Have someone give you an Upgrade to Premium Gift or trade for it.

The Upgrade to Premium Gift can be given to you by a friend, or random user for free, and it will automatically upgrade your account to premium. Normally however, you will need to trade another user about 2.24 Keys for it.




Path 3:
Have someone give you a single free item (not begging), and trade your way up to enough to buy an Upgrade to Premium, or, to sell a key on Marketplace.tf to earn money through Pay-Pal, to then place funds onto your Steam account.
Please refer to the Steam FAQ regarding Limited Steam Accounts

Probably the hardest option of the 3, but also the only "free" path. While it is difficult to earn a single key from nothing in todays TF2 economy, especially if you know nothing, this is a possible path if you're able to find someone who is willing to give you an item to work off of.

Option 2 - Use Party-Chat

Note: This option may no longer be viable since the (7/3/2020) update, as it did work before, but now I am getting reports/comments from users that even this no longer is an option. If this is the case, I will remove this section.

If you're unable to upgrade to premium, for whatever reason, then another option available would be for you to use Party-Chat with friends. While it is still limited in terms of who you can communicate to, and does require you to have friends playing at the same time, it is an option that can be used.

For most users, it will automatically be bound to the "p" key, however, if you've changed your binds, or have something else bounded to "p," then you'll need to use the following console command to rebind it.

bind letter say_party
*Note that you'll only be able to open the party-chat menu via the bind once you're in a party.


How it should look


What you should get back

Otherwise, you will have to open up the menu and manually click the Party-Chat button to talk.

Option 3 - Play On Community Servers

The final option available would be to simply play on a community server. Unless the server host/owner decides to change their settings to be in-line with official servers, you should be able to Voice Chat, Text Chat, & use Voice Commands.

If you feel discouraged from community servers, then you shouldn't. If you've had a bad experience with one server, that doesn't mean they're all like that.

The following are some "good" servers which shouldn't cause you much issue when playing on:

Creators.tf

https://creators.tf/servers
Features:

• New community weapons, maps, hats & more in the future.
  
• No Crits
  
• Generally medium to high skill players.

Servers:

(US)

• 199.60.101.138:27015 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27016 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27017 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27018 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27019 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27020 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27021 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27022 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27023 - Chicago
  
• 199.60.101.138:27024 - Chicago

(EU)

• 149.202.89.97:27015 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27016 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27017 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27019 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27020 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27021 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27022 - EU West (France)
  
• 149.202.89.97:27023 - EU West (France)

Uncle Dane's Servers "Uncletopia"

https://uncledane.com/tf2-servers/
Features:

• Mostly all vanilla TF2 maps & gameplay
  
• No Crits
  
• No 2Fort

Servers:

• 64.94.100.214 - US West
  
• 66.85.14.141 - US East
  
• 185.107.96.85 - EU

HiGPS's Servers "Balance Mod"

https://teamwork.tf/community/customserverlist/51
Features:

• Everything from Creators.tf, but now with a balance overhaul to most weapons.

Servers:

(US)

• 64.140.150.232:27015 - Washington
  
• 64.140.150.232:27025 - Washington
  
• 64.140.150.232:27035 - Washington
  
• 64.140.150.232:27055 - Washington
  
• 64.140.150.232:27075 - Washington

(EU)

• 5.134.64.45:27025 - Poland
  
• 5.134.64.45:27035 - Poland
  
• 5.134.64.45:27045 - Poland
  
• 5.134.64.45:27014 - Poland
  
• 5.134.64.45:27015 - Poland

(Asia)

• 221.160.180.46:27015 - Korea
  
• 206.189.81.187:27015 - Singapore

Skial Servers

https://www.skial.com/servers/
Features:

• You've probably already played here
  
• If not, then it's just TF2 Casual, but generally open-voice chat on both teams
  
• That's about it.

Servers:

• I'm not posting all of that.

Notes/End

Published: 7/3/2020
Last Updated: 7/4/2020

If I'm missing anything for any section, or something major enough to be its own section, let me know.

Edit 1: Revised Option 1's trading path, to try and be clearer regarding how to obtain premium status via trading.

Source for select topics or extra notes: TF2 Wiki

[clvr]

Awesome guide, sending this to someone in need.

[♥worthless ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥]

i had a friend send me an upgrade to premium kit, found out the hard way it didn't work, and still needed to spend five more dollars anyways.

[Average Enjoyer]

tf2 sucks rn, i will just play typical colors 2 it loads faster anyway

[SubZeroDestruction]

Well I'd still give it some time, at least 24~ hours total for them to respond.

[jolly]

i did and they are not responding.

[SubZeroDestruction]

If you just did it recently, should've already allowed you to. If you've been both for a while then that's a bit strange. Perhaps contact support and see what they can figure out.

[jolly]

question, i have a unlimited account and i have premium in tf2, but i still cant talk in casual and competitive servers, why is that?

[SubZeroDestruction]

Yes.

[็]

So f2ps are allowed to talk on community servers?

[a_qwe]

Not a question of time since I bought the collection 2+ months ago and still could not write in text chat in TF2 ("text communications not available for this account"). Now spending $2 in TF2 store added premium with chat feature immediately.