How to Not be Noob: King of the Hill

New to TF2? Here's the guide for you! This guide is for beginners, but veterans can come back to get a refresher as they want!

Intro and Basics

Hello there, and welcome to the 2nd guide to "How to not be Noob: Gamemode" Series, and it will cover King of the Hill.

No, not that kind of King of the Hill! The Gamemode!

Ah, way better.

So, what do you do in King of the Hill (now mentioned as KotH)?
Well, it's really simple!
And I will teach you!
KotH is a gamemode that was introduced in the Classless update in August 2009, where RED and BLU fight over 1 central contol point, usually on a hill (wow, would've never guessed) or in a building. Each team tries to keep the point captured for 3 minutes. Each time the other team caps the point, the other team's clock stops and their's start. This lasts until either teams' clock goes down to 0:00, and then they win. When you capture a point, there will be a progress arrow on the little box on the bottom of your HUD. The more people on your team on the point will make capturing faster than just 1 person. When an enemie gets on the point when you or someone on your team is capturing, capping stops. When no one or the other team is on the point, capping stops, and can be picked up again, but the progress will slowly fade away. Overtime will be called if either team is capping and the opposite team has 0:00 on their clock. Pretty confusing, but it will make sense when you start playing KotH. In the next section, I will go over what the Heads-Up-Display (HUD) will look like.

Heads-Up-Display (HUD)

Here, I will show you all of the possible HUD when you play KotH. I'm using FlatHUD, but it looks similar to the stock.

Here we go!

Locked point

This is the HUD when a new match starts. The point will be locked for less than a minute (can't tell exactally) and when the point is about ready to be unlocked, numbers will appear where the lock is, starting from 5.

Neutral Point

This is the HUD when a point is unlocked, but no one has tried capturing it. This HUD only exists right after a point is unlocked, and before either team tries to cap it.

When no one has captured the point yet, either locked, neutral, or capture in progress, a question mark in a triangle will float over the point with the color being tan or white.

Capture in Progress

This is the HUD when either team tries to cap the point. The team that is capping will have a team-colored capture arrow. Also, it will show how many people that are on the point, it will have a # times the people symbol (ex. 2xPerson).

Capture not in Progress

Same as the Capture in Progress, but this is shown when a team didn't fully capture a point and no one is on it. Instead of the capture going away, progress is still kept up, but will slowly diminish.

Captured Point

This is shown when either team fully captured their point, and it can be either RED or BLU. When this is captured, the clock starts ticking down for the team that capped it.

Also, when a point is capped, the RED or BLU logo will float over the point. Please ignore the flamethrower, my mistake.

Clock

This clock will show how much time a team has to keep the point. This will be generally located at the top of the screen. If any other time-related events happen, like an Overtime, the word will be located under the team that has the point. On koth_lakeside_event (Ghost Fort) the clock will stop for both teams when the boss Merasmus appears, and until he's dead or goes away, the clock will be at a standstill.

Class Strategy

Here is some class based strategy for all 9 classes.

Scout: Having a Scout on your team will help you with caps, because Scouts count as 2 people on a capture point. Get a Scout behind enemie lines to shoot away! Also, if you have a Bonk! Scout, it will ease the pain, because Bonk!ed Scouts can attract Sentry fire for teammates to blast it away.

Soldier: Really good for clearing out control points, Sollys can push a team forward. Use your Rocket Jump ability to get to hard to reach areas, like ontop of the barn on Harvest.

Pyro: Pyro's are god on KotH because when you reach the point, you can easily get everyone in your flamethrower range. And when everyone is in your range, and no where to go, burning, it is irrestitble to whip out your Axtinguisher and deal 100% guarenteed mini-crits on people, or even better, crits. A group of Pyros rushing down a point is the scariest thought ever.

Demo: Demo is also good, because of the Stickybomb Launcher he has. Lay some on the point, and when some dumb Scout gets on, KABLOOOIE! Hes ded. For even better defensive cappabilities, use the Scottish Resistance. Having 14 bombs to play with, all seperetally detonatable, and the ability to destroy enemie stickies, using the SR on KotH is the greatest.

Heavy: Heavy is simple: watch for Spies, Scouts, Snipers, and every known class there is. Help team cap, and there isn't much else for Heavy. Just be carefull. With the maps as small as they are, getting to the front lines shouldn't take too much time, and even less with the Gloves of Running Urgently.

Engineer: Engie on your team is great for crowd control on or around the point. Just watch out for those bastard Spies that try to rue your day. If Spies are giving you hassle, and want to control the point a little bit more, go Gunslinger Engie and lay a Mini-Sentry on the point to help you and your team out with killing. Use your Teleporter and Dispenser building abilities to help your team out.

Medic: Duh, he's the healing class. Of course he is helpful. Heal and buff people pushing the point and heal almost-dead teammates. Pop an Uber when on the point can help clear it out easily. Watch for Spies too, because they might stab your healing teammate, or even worse, YOU! A medic dead means that no health is being supplied to your team. Try to stay alive as long as you can. I did it before, but in an Attack/Defense game, and never died. If I can do it, you certainly can.

Sniper: He is kinda poor when it comes to KotH, depending on the map. If it's Harvest, Sniper isn't going to help much at all because the point is covered, but on a map like Nucleus, Sniper might be good. It all comes down to the point being covered or not. And even if it isn't covered from Sniper fire, he ain't going to do much really. Just watch out for Spies as usual.

Spy: As Spy, you have to be careful about your moves, and the risk is even higher on KotH maps, because the maps are so small. Going Dead Ringer will save your a$$ when you are trapped in a corner. As you are disguised, you can't cap at all, so watch out if an enemie see's you, and puts 2 and 2 togeather.

Maps

Now, what's a gamemode without maps to play on. Many of the maps here share with other gamemodes, like Control Point (5CP) or Arena. I will list the name of the map, file name, and any other important bits of information. Community made maps that got into TF2 will have the name be in italics. Let's get rollin'

• Harvest
  File name: koth_harvest_final
  
  Note: This may be the only map that shipped with the Halloween equivilant.
  
  
• Harvest Event
  File name: koth_harvest_event
  
  Note: This was the very first Halloween-themed map and has a nighttime setting, and there are pumpkin bombs scattered around the map. The ghost of Zepheniah Mann (Father of Redmond, Blutarch, and Grey that went off to make RED, BLU, and Gray Gravel Co.) is in this map, and any unfortunate person that gets near him will be unable to attack. A little easter egg is in this map, and it is the Ghost Room. It's located under the control point and you can't access it unless if you go noclip. It's where the ghost hangs out until it's triggered, and has a TV and lockers in that room.
  
  
  
• Kong King
  File name: koth_king
  
  Note: This was made with the game Sleeping Dogs in mind, along with 3 other Oriental Themed weapons and a bunch of cosmetics. Some Chinese text found in the level is RED (可靠的开挖破坏), BLU (建设者联盟联合), and many others.
  
  
• Lakeside
  File name: koth_lakeside_final
  
  Note: This map shares a lot of textures from the Attack/Defend map Egypt, including the hierogliphics.
  
  
• Ghost Fort
  File name: koth_lakeside_final
  
  Note: This is the map for the 2011 Halloween update, and it's a retextured version of Lakeside. There's a boss in this level, called Merasmus, and if beaten, will grant you a hat from Ghost Fort Island seen in the distance.
  
  
• Nucleus
  File name: koth_nucleus
  
  Note: This was originally an Arena only map, but now supports KotH!
  
  
• Sawmill
  File name: koth_sawmill
  
  Note: This was also an Arena map, and later a remade version of this map for Capture the Flag.
  
  
• Viaduct
  File name: koth_viaduct
  
  Note: This was the first KotH specific map released with this gamemode back in the Classless Update in August 2009! To this day, it is still the only Valve made KotH map to be made compleatly from scratch.
  
  
• Eyeaduct
  File name: koth_viaduct_event
  
  Note: This is a Halloween reskin of the map Viaduct, and has the boss Monoculus in it. Whenever he teleports, he leaves behind a hole in space. Jump in it and you are transported to the Underworld, where you slowly lose health. If you can get though all of it alive, you are rewarded with a health boost and temporary Uber.
  
  
• Badlands
  File name: koth_badlands
  
  
  
• Suijin
  File name: koth_suijin
  
  Note: This map...is beautiful. Not only does it look nice, but it heavily focuses on rooftop combat, something that other maps don't have. Also, theres Japanese letters all over the map that mean BLU (青) and RED (赤), and Suijin is Japanese for 'water god' (水神)
  

Conclusion

Thats all for King of the Hill. I hope you liked this guide on how to play this gamemode. I have a whole series on How to be Noob on classes, and also trying to build up the gamemode side of things. You can find all of my guides in my guide portal. If I made any mistakes, or you just want to compliment, there is a comment box under this guide just made for me and you. Until we meet again, in a server or another guide, see yal' later.
~TomZeBomb
All pictures belong to their respective owners

[TomBoi]

*NOTE* Map updated on July 8th to add Suijin from the Gun Mettle update.