Two Cities MvM: The Complete Sticky Demoman Walkthrough

The Complete Guide to Two Cities Mann vs Machine to common problems faced in Two Cities shown with screenshots with strategies & tips on being successful. How to play the sticky demoman effectively with the proper equipment, upgrade path and strategies specific to the 2 Cities maps.

Introduction

©stabkamay[stabkamay.deviantart.com]
Demoman has the important job of killing the medic bots. The team cannot kill a giant bot until the medic bots are dead. Therefore, it is the demoman's job to kill the medic bots as soon as possible so the team can begin to damage the giants. Failure to do so is the most common reason for failing a wave besides letting a giant scout pass by. The demo should also be one of the top 1-2 damage scorers in a game. The more damage per second a team can produce, the faster a wave can finish.

This guide is still being updated so keep than in mind please before you make a judgement. I have around 200 tours of experience with mostly heavy & demo. :)

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=222214591

Weapons

• Primary: Stock, Lock n Load, Loose Cannon (experts) or Bootlegger / Wee Booties
  
• Secondary: Stock or the Scottish Resistance for extra stickybombs
  
• Melee: Anything that does not changes speed or damage

This guide is primarily for the sticky demoman. You can be a grenade launcher demo or even a grenadeknight which work great with tanks but my expertise is only with the sticky demo.This guide is focused on the every problem that a sticky demo may have.

Upgrade Path

There is not enough money to upgrade two weapons without sacrificing damage, performance or resistances. I recommend using the sticky launcher for beginners, but I have seen good grenade demos out damage a good heavy on Rottenberg maps. Learn to use the stickybomb launcher well so that you do not need to use a grenade launcher. It will make you a better MVM player and a more useful team member. Reload and firing speed are cheaper ways of dealing more damage since more grenades is better than a few grenades even with some boosted damage. With uber medics, you want at least 2 damage points to kill them reliably without setting off their ubers. You want to be able to deal the most damage from your sticky launcher so you can instantly kill a crowd of bots or a regular giant with crits. You and your team must be able to kill most of the bots before the medic shield expires. Upgrade paths are dependant on your style of play, your team and just personal preference also. I always upgrade damage as fast as possible but experiment with the other upgrades for your style of play.


Upgrade secondary weapon:
Offensive Upgrades
1&2 Reload
1-2 Firing, 3 Reload
1 Damage, 3 Firing
2 Damage, 1-2 Crit, 1 Ammo
3-4 Damage, 4 Firing, 1 Bullet
2-3 Ammo, 3 Crit, Blast, 1 Clip, 1 Health on Kill
With extra money, 2 Clip, Health On Kill and/or Crit or Uber Canteens

Defensive Upgrades (Still aggressive so modify as needed)
1&2 Reload, 1-2 Firing
3 Reload, 3 Firing, 1 Damage, 1 Ammo
2 Damage, 4 Firing, 1-2 Crit
3 Damage, 1 Health on Kill, 3 Crit
1 Health on Kill, 1-2 Blast, 1-2 Bullet
4 Damage, 1 Clip, 2-3 Ammo, 3 Blast, 3 Bullet


Empire Escalation Upgrade Example
Wave 1: 1-2 Firing, 1-2 Reload
Wave 2: 3 Reload, 3 Firing, 1 Damage
Wave 3: 2 Damage, 1-2 Crit, 1 Ammo
Wave 4: 3-4 Damage, 4 Firing
Wave 5: 2-3 Ammo, 1 Blast, 1 Bullet, 1 Clip
Wave 6: 2 Clip Size, 1-2 Health on Kill, 2-3 Blast, 2-3 Bullet, 3 Crit

2 Deaths! Damage the priority

Empire Escalation Upgrade Example
Wave 1: 1-2 Firing, 1-2 Reload
Wave 2: 3 Reload, 3 Firing, 1 Damage, 1 Ammo
Wave 3: 2 Damage, 4 Firing, 2 Ammo, 1-2 Crit
Wave 4: 3-4 Damage, 1 Health on Kill, 3 Crit
Wave 5: 1 Clip, 2 Health on Kill, 1 Blast, 1 Bullet
Wave 6: 2 Clip, 3 Ammo, 2 Blast, 2-3 Bullet

Slightly more defensive but still get damage upgraded sooner. Less damage score

Hamlet Upgrade Example
Wave 1: 1 Firing, 2 Reload
Wave 2: 2 Firing, 3 Reload, 1 Clip
Wave 3: 1-2 Damage
Wave 4: 3 Damage, 3 Firing, 1-2 Crit
Wave 5: 4 Damage, 1 Ammo, 3 Crit
Wave 6: 2 Ammo, 4 Firing, 1 Bullet
Wave 7: Phlog Pyro

Gameplay

As a demoman, you should memorize the path of the bots so you know where to put the sticky traps. Demos are not the team meat shield like a heavy so use cover like standing behind the heavy and shoot over the cover. It is also the heavy's job to do the giant medic bot killing but there should be also another 2 damage classes helping the heavy and support like fan o'war, buff banner and krtizkrieg. You should also jump out from a cover like a crate or corner and run back while detonating. To throw stickybombs further, I jump as I shoot at the peak of the jump height. Try to setup your sticky traps further up closer to the spawn points so you team does not have to wait too long for you to kill uber medics. On the Rottenberg maps, decide who goes after the tank ahead of time and it is usually the soldier, pyro or demo. On wave 5/7 of Hamlet, there is a tank and wave after wave of giants and uber medics so the team is forced to split up. With a common 6 class setup, you have 2 options, have demo & soldier stay on the tank to put out the most damage to kill the tank the fastest. With this combo, the engineer may lose the line even with heavy and medic support with the uber medics. After this, just regroup and help kill the tank with a sentry. The other option is a heavy & soldier combo on the tank with the engineer, medic, scout and demo staying behind. Having the demo stay behind has the advantage that the demo can kill the uber medics immediately. With tanks and with giants that break the defenses, learn to get in a rhythm with shooting stickies and detonating while reloading about 3-4 stickies (depending on clip size) while on the run. I put out a tight group of about 4 stickies while reloading another 4 while running away getting a "rhythm" with shooting & reloading. With the standard clip size when around 3-4 are loaded, I immediately shoot 4 stickies for a stickybomb trap & run while reloading and detonating the stickies. This gives me the best rhythm between shooting and reloading to almost constantly shoot & detonate with the smallest delay between detonations. I also use this "rhythm" method with the beginning of Rottenberg waves and the subwaves of early weaker bots. Of course, you wait longer with reloading when you want more stickies for the bigger bots. One final tip is to turn on "Display Damage As Text Over Your Target" in advanced options to make sure you are doing maximum damage finding a balance between the width of the sticky trap spread and getting the most damage with giants.

Mannhattan - Empire Escalation
Mannhattan - Metro Malice
Rottenberg - Hamlet Hostility
Rottenberg - Bavarian Botbash
Study the wave information for stickybomb placement strategies.

Walkthrough - Mannhattan

Empire Escalation

Wave 2: Setup on top level for giant huntsman & uber medic. With crits, both will die instantly. Focus on the huntsman when you detonate. The medic or soldier can also help the out. Otherwise, learn to avoid the huntsman's line of sight and use corners as cover. If you have a spy on your team, let him get the huntsmen.

Giant heavy with uber medics: Setup a medium wide group of stickies 2-3x the width of the giant heavy. As the group hits the ground, notice how spread out the bots are. Wait a few seconds for the medics to get closer to the heavy before detonating. Learn to use a tighter group of sticky bombs for more damage to the giant, about 1.5 width, while still killing the medics. As a demoman, maximum damage is the key or the giant will push your team back and you will not have time to setup for the next group of uber medics.

Instantly killed all 12 uber medics with a giant soldier. With this screenshot, memorize where the giant is for sticky placement. Try 2x giant width sticky spread for more damage but you need more spread w/12 medics.

Giant soldier & giant medic bot: It is safer to ignore the pyro or few scouts letting the rest of the team handle them to save your sticky trap for the giant. Use a tighter grouping of stickies, 1.5 width, for maximum damage & focus on the giant medic. The giant bots tend to drop slighlty left of the warning light but setup on or right of the warning light for giants with small uber medics. I also recommend setting the sticky traps where the bots drop. When you do this, you will get a second chance to do more damage with another sticky trap on the ramp.

The giant medic bot does not die right away so stay close to the ramp with the heavy so you can both put down the medic bot first. A scout or soldier can distract the giant soldier bot to give you more time to kill the medic bot. Always be ready just in case the heavy activates Knockback Rage away from your stickies which is another reason for sticky placement where the giants drop. Here, both a medic shield is deployed and a short circuit firing at the same time. It is better to alternate with the short circuit while the shield is recharging. With giant black box soldiers, the medic shield and short circuit are essential for not falling back since the giant black box soldier heals about 1/4 of its health with every hit. Make sure the scout, heavy, etc. do not get themselves hit regularly. It is also best to use an engineer building like a sentry to body block.

Giant scouts: They tend to drop further away from the wall. You can also leave a trap on or before the ramp. I do hide by the barrel to keep from being bonked & jump for a good view. This is when a good scout with mad milk, soldier with rocket specialist are needed. Body blocking is also essential for the heavy and eng. With the bonk super scout horde, setup sticky traps in front of the body blocking heavy or sentry and kill them before your teammate dies. Form a wall at the 2nd defend pt.

Getting ready for the uber heavies. I made a line of stickies but you can just make a wide spread out group of stickies as shown on the right. When there is wave after wave immediately following each other, you will need to constantly put out stickies so find a balance between shooting and reloading/detonating. When the action gets heavy in this area, put stickies on down the ramp and a group in the bottom of the ramp while hiding behind the crate.

Whether if there are uber heavies, burst fire demos or with wave 4 of Metro Malice with both super scouts & heavy bots, you need to learn to take cover either by the crate and rust colored cylinder or to the left by the stairs on the upper level as shown here. There will be a wave when the medic shield is not ready so staying alive is the key. You must find the right angle to shoot stickies without the bots seeing you which will be closer to the front wall and more to the left away from the edge. There you aim for the ramp area or just before the ramp. If you are behind the crate, you can either shoot to the left of the crate and slowly move left as the bots die or aim above the crate letting the stickies fall before detonating them. The whole team must do tons of damage to pass these waves.

Use the steel beam as cover by keeping the heavy's eyes and gun blocked while shooting around the beam. Be ready to jump down the ramp also. This can be tricky but it can work.

This is the final wave with a giant heavy with health on kill. I use crit canteens here to kill the giant before the next wave shows up. I may also stay behind the heavy or the crate for some cover.

Walkthrough - Empire Escalation With Scottish Resistance

Pre-wave Setups for Scottish Resistance
Special thanks to 7IdE (327k damage record as SR demo) & FL@)I(OK!

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Wave 1
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Wave 2: Giant Huntsman with uber medic
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Wave 3
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Wave 4
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Wave 5
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Wave 6: No screenshot provided as the Scottish Resistance demo changes class. There is a giant health on kill heavy spawning at the bottom and later super scouts spawn on the upper level.
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Why the Scottish Resistance? You can kill giants instantly with crits and the extra 6 pipebombs.
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Wallkthrough - Rottenberg

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Basic setup for most waves except Bavarian Botbash wave 4 with giant demomen and a tank. In the early waves with low resistances and no health on kill, I will take cover behind this boulder or the left stone wall. Also, the last wave of Hamlet Hostility has the tank spawn first so setup stickies deep in the cave.
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With the Scottish Resistance, a demo can be more strategic and lay multiple traps. Here is my basic setup with about 5 in a small cluster to the right on the rock for giants or superscouts. You can also have a small trap for the tank to the left. For Hamlet wave 1, I set aside some stickies under the right cliff for the giant soldier. With the scouts, I make a line of stickies and detonate them a few at a time.
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Bavarian Botbash wave 4: There are some demo knights that first spawn which you can ignore with your stickies. Then shortly after, there is a tank and 2 giant demos which spawn on the right. Give priority to these giant demos because the tank is slow and doesn't shoot at you. You can try to hurt both giant demos with 2 traps as shown here. With the stock sticky gun, it might be better to kill 1 with certainty then setup up only the left trap. The giant demos can mess up the stickies and kick them around so I put them slightly to the side.
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Many of the Rottenberg waves start with group after group of weaker bots at the beginning of a major wave. With more resistances or maybe a team medic who is willing to go past the barrier, I will go closer to the enemy dropzone & get into a "rhythm" of shooting some stickies & reloading some. I don't wait until every sticky is fully loaded. I lay down around 4-5 stickies & then retreat as I reload to the left boulder to avoid enemyfire. By the time another group of bots hit the ground, you detonate and go back to repeat with another small group stickies as the next subwave will soon appear within seconds. The beginning of a wave usually starts with small bots like scouts so I can almost clear group after group of bots by myself with this method until I run out of ammo. I sometimes use this method on the right cliff spawn also which is riskier as these bots are stronger like soldiers or demo bots. Without this method even with clip upgrades, you will find yourself not ready with enough stickies loaded for a group of bots as they spawn within a few seconds of each other.
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Here is another common choke point for spamming stickies. With enough damage upgrades, you can also put stickies in the right upper spawn area but make sure the scout collects the money on the cliff.
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Here a good heavy knows how body block so you lay stickies in front of him and help him before he dies.
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Memorize where the super scout lands to know where to lay the stickies. It will not die without crits so you need to prepare for another stickybomb trap before the brick tunnel. Scouts sometimes take the upper path around the boulder.
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You always need more than 1 damage class to kill giant medics. Use either the boulder on the right or use the stone wall as shown here for cover against the giant bot patient. For the giant medic's last health 10% health, you must kill the medic fast as this is when it will most likely uber to restore its health. Your teammate's loadout matters so mad milk, fan o'war, buff banner, kritzkrieg, etc. all make a difference in how fast your team kills giants. Giant medics are a common reason for teams to fail.
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Going behind the giant medic using the boulder as cover, but watch for bots spawning behind you. The medic and then the giant patient dies shortly after. Note: there is a heavy and scout helping me.
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This is an example where I am using the giant medics as cover from the giant heavy's line of sight. Make sure you don't die when you are exposed right after the medics are gone.
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References

Expert's Basics for MvM

Hacked Exhale's MvM Damage Spreadsheet[docs.google.com]

Giant Medics By Hacked Exhale

Tank Damage Comparison 1 By Botspan

Tank Damage Comparison: Heavy vs Demo By Botspan

[Radioactive Panda]

beggars doesn't need buff to solo tank.

The advantage of heavy on tank is actually quite huge. It is alot easier to deal with the front if the demo stays up front. You have much less incoming that the engie has to deal with/repair. Meta be damed.

[Draekon]

Radioactive Panda & ~PisspoTato | trade.tf~:
ty for your input

MIΩAC:
By Wave 5 of Hamlet, a BB + Buff Soldier can solo the tank, but a good team will kill the tank just after the tunnel. If the heavy maxes firing spd, a brass beast heavy (254 DPS vs 209 DPS stock) can do a little more damage than a sticky/SR demo. I have only seen one team have the Heavy go with tank with the soldier as you will likely see a team follow the Meta setup and tactics. I don't think the advantage is huge as I seen many games still follow the demo/soldier on tank tactic do fine. If you study the numbers enough to think outside of the box, good for you. I just have trouble telling a bunch of pub players to do things outside of the Meta though.

[Softshine798]

" On wave 5/7 of Hamlet, there is a tank and wave after wave of giants and uber medics so the team is forced to split up. With a common 6 class setup, you have 2 options, have demo & soldier stay on the tank to put out the most damage to kill the tank the fastest"
~270 DPS (sticky Demo) And ~ 430 DPS (Buff + Beggar's Soldier) On the tank?

[Ghoti]

You could add that sometimes in botbash wave 3, a demo can solo against the heavy with 2 giant medics (hiding of course) and kill them all in 1 hit if he places the crit stickies properly (using scottish resistance) some people prefer to use those stickies on small bots then place non crit stickies against the giants

[Radioactive Panda]

agree with most except that with your theory of 3-4 sticky traps and more consistent killing of medic should you go for damage > clip size early game? (unless you are carrying crits then i would understand) Also for killing medics (uber) you can set all stickies in 1 spot slight to the right of where the giant kill go so as soon as the giant jumps down and the medics clings to the giant, you can kill all the medics (they are the same distance from the giant) + having maximized damage on the giant and there is no way for the medics to pop since there are 8/14 stickies there if done right.