The Engineer Manual, written by The Flying Engineer [Updated]

Over my time in tf2 I have played engineer quite often (In fact, its what I main), people often over and underestimate the engineer at the exact same time. This will give you a FULL description of the engineer class and what all he entails.

The Engineer

The Engineer, the backbone's brace of any team. In a pub he's literally the backbone, but in competitive he is nothing but a supporting brace to stop the spinal cord from snapping.

This guide will tell you everything you need to know about the engineer, both strengths and weaknesses, for competitive and pub play.

Speed, Health, and Hazards

Speed: Speeds in tf2 are calculated by percentages, while a bit overwhelming at first glance they are fairly easy to understand.

The engineer has a speed of exactly 100% (75% when hauling a building) this puts the engineer in a 4 way tie with sniper, spy, and pyro for 3rd fastest class. Keep in mind this doesn't take in speed changing variables (swimming, powerjack, head taking demo swords)


Health: The Engineer is considered one of the 'light' classes (along with scout, sniper, and spy) and this shows in gameplay.

All the light classes have a total of 125 hp (185 when overhealed). This puts you at a significant disadvantage of health total in fights almost 100% of the time.

Hazards:

Yeah... try and avoid the above situation if possible.

The Engineer is often considered a slow scout, and to an extent, that's true. The engineer's primary is best at point blank range, decent at mid-close range, and negligible at med-long to long range. Your pistol is exactly like the scout's, rapid fire and great for long distance harassment.

The thing is, the scout was designed with combat in mind, so his weapon does more damage at point blank than an engie's, but less at medium range.

The Primaries

Alright, now that you've gotten the details of what makes the Engineer the Engineer, lets get you started on what weapons you'll encounter while playing the game. We get onto the primaries!

• The Shotgun
  The shotgun is the stock primary of the Engineer, and while it is the secondary of the soldier, heavy, and pyro, it is one of my favorite weapons in the game. The shotgun is great for close to mid-range fighting. Long range on the other hand, it does, at best, a bit of chip damage.
  
  
• The Frontier Justice
  The Frontier Justice, an unlockable achievement item for the engineer, is another primary that can replace the shotgun, many engineers will run this thinking its a straight upgrade to shotgun, when at best its really a side-grade. The weapon is a direct downgrade from stock until you get an assist, or kill, with your sentry gun. Even then though, you don't get it until your base it destroyed. Most will think that it would be great to use after your base is busted (from the name of 'revenge' crits) but usually if your base goes down, you go down with it. At best it should be used when you die, and a mini has a couple of kills/assists, and only for that life. The reduced clip size makes it so every one of your shots has to count, and the no random crits really isn't much of a downgrade in pub OR comp, so almost all future weapons I'll leave that detail out.
  
  
• The Pomson 6000
  The Pomson 6000 (Pomson for short) is a laser based weapon. It fires a projectile that moves in a straight line until it hits a player, or wall. The laser causes spies to lose 20% of their cloak, and medics lose 10% uber charge. While it can mess up a medic's day incredibly easy, it has to make it past his usual meat-shield that is his pocket, and most spies aren't detered by the cloak drain unless they're a dead ringer. Its banned in competitive. So if you are planning to play competitive, don't get used to this weapon.
  
  
• The Widowmaker
  The Widowmaker is the definition of high risk, high reward gameplay. Instead of using ammo, it dips into the Engineer's metal reserves by using 30 metal per shot, any damage done is returned as metal, and the weapon doesn't need to reload, this means that if you get your shots right you can actually regain metal through usage, but it just as easily means you can drain through your metal. If you're able to use it great, but its not my personal recommendation.
  
  
• The Rescue Ranger
  The Rescue Ranger (RR for shot) is one of my favorite primaries, right up there with the stock shotty. Instead of firing bullets it fires darts that travel in an arc. While their damage is mediocre 40 damage per shot, and 21 when you have maximum fall-off, its great for harassment, and spy checking. With the bolt making a special sound when it sinks into flesh, its great to spycheck team mates with it. The bolts are also able to heal friendly builds with 75 HP per shot. This, along with its ability to use mouse two to teleport building over long distances makes it a unique weapon among its peers. With the downside of 4 per clip, half your max primary ammo, and mini-crits on building pickup, the weapon is surprisingly balanced.

The Secondaries (Minus the Wrangler)

• The Pistol
  The pistol is almost exactly like the scouts but with two teensy differences, the scout's reloads slightly faster, and you have a wopping 200 max ammo! This means you have a total of 212 shots before you have to think about restocking on ammo. As an engie, you'll probably have a dispenser nearby, so if someone is harassing you at long range, don't be afraid to just pistol spam them.
  
  
• The Short Circuit
  

The short circuit has had many buffs and nerfs over the past year. As of the creation of this guide it destroys projectiles (sticky bombs, pipe bombs, and rockets), with it costing 5 metal per use, and an extra 15 per projectile, and you can not take metal from dispensers with this weapon out. While I personally do not use this weapon, it can be used to stop long range spam from soldiers and demos.

The Wrenches (Minus the Gunslinger)

• The Wrench
  
  The wrench is the stock weapon of the engineer, it lets you repair, and upgrade, all friendly buildings. The random crit ability makes it viable to deal with spies in pubs, but don't use it too often or risk yourself being backstabbed.
  
  
• The Southern Hospitality
  
  The Southern Hospitality is a bit of a let down for me. The bleed damage is useful for dealing with spies... but thats about it, the lack of random crits isn't noticable in competitive, but the 20% fire vulnerability can be a bit annoying if there's a flare pyro.
  
  
• The Jag
  
  The Jag is a bit confusing, its stats say 30% faster construction rate, with a -25% damage done penalty. The truth is the 30% isn't true, its instead 15.79%. The damage penalty isn't bad, because frankly you shouldn't be swinging that wrench as a weapon. Its a tool. Use your primary and/or secondary to deal with any would be threats.) The time saved varies a bit, barely noticeable for sentries, but does save time for dispencers and teleporters.
  
  
• The Eureka Effect
  
  The Eureka Effect allows an engineer to teleport to his exit (regardless of an entrance being placed) or spawn by tapping the reload key, at the cost of upgrading and repairing at half the stock speed, great for gimmicky play, but not all the time.

The Gunslinger

The gunslinger changes the playstyle of the engineer drastically from being a defensive class, to a more combat offensive class. I'll cover the sentry itself in the next section, but lets get onto the gunslinger itself.

The gunslinger gives the engineer a 25 health bonus, which, while not seeming like a lot, it can come in handy at times. The gunslinger also has the ability to have a guaranteed crit, you have to hold the fire button and hit the enemy three times in order to get a crit, or if you're clever, hold M2 while punching a team mate twice, and then holding M2 until you punch an enemy. If you do the M2 bug, you can also switch weapons and release M2 until you want to use the crit, then just press M2 before you switch weapons and you won't lose the crit. Generally used when on offense, and when the it would be more detrimental for the engineer to be stuck in one place, the gunslinger is basically the melee for the engie on the move.

The Wrangler

The wrangler is its own brand of weapon in tf2, it removes your pistol, and replaces it with a way to manually control your sentry gun. Using this causes your sentry to fire at TWICE the normal rate, and rockets fire at a slightly faster rate than normal. The wrangler has a minor auto-aim ability for any non cloaked/disguised enemies. And to top it all off, it has a 66% reduction to damage taken as well for your sentry.

The downside of this is that your sentry no longer auto aims (this is a bigger disadvantage than you may realize, the auto aim makes sure that 100% of shots land) and that when you switch from the wrangler it takes 3 seconds for your sentry to re-arm itself, unless the engie is killed with it out, in which case it only takes 1 second.

The wrangler is also a weapon that suffers when not used correctly. This means that it can be under-used, or over-used. Both of which are bad, so lets go over times on when to use the wrangler.

• When an enemy uber comes in.
  
• When being harassed from a corner
  
• When being harassed from outside sentry range
  
• When sentry is taking too much damage to heal normally

All these times show the wranglers strong point, however, you should NOT just keep the wrangler out, the auto-aim can let you know when a class has flanked behind you, and it stops you from being a sniper's favorite meal, since you can't shoot what you can't see.

But one of the best features of the wrangler will be discussed in the next section, Sentry Jumping.

Sentry Jumping

Sentry jumping, one of the trickiest thing for engineers to learn. Its different from all other jumps, soldier is an immediate affair, demoman can time his for maximum potential, and pyro is more of a just 'up and no where else' type of jump. Sentry jumps though.... they're different. Level one jumps are pure bullet, which means you gotta make the shots land multiple times to get any heighth. Level two jumps, while tricky, aren't impossible, just not recommended, and lastly, one of the most common, the level three jump.

You're probably wonder why I gave this thing it's own section, and why I recommend people learn it. Take a second to watch this video and see what the potential is. (skip to about 0:55 for the jump)

Ok, either you saw it, or you didn't and you're reading this without any context. The jump saved my team the match, because if you pay close enough attention you can tell I didn't have time to run up the spiral to make it before the capture.

Another thing, if you payed close enough attention, you'll see how much health I lost from the jump. Remember engie doesn't take reduced damage like soldier and demo, this means that any time he takes damage, he might as well be an enemy when jumping.

Now for the basics of the level one (and mini) and the level three jump.

Level ones are easy to get the hang of. You stand on the sentry, and shake your booty until you got a laser going up your rectum and out your eyeholes. Just jump and fire, and with some minor correction by strafing, you should be good to go on making it.

Level threes on the other hand, are a bit trickier. You have to time your jump to the rockets impact, so if your sentry is at a distance you generally fire, wait, then jump+croutch. Another thing your level three can be used for is sentry hauling, which is rocket jumping with your sentry and then carrying either it, or another building, as you fly through the air. This can be done with a script, but I prefer doing it myself.

The Sentries

You'll love this little gun.

The level one sentry gun is what you'll start with every time, and people underestimate its dps. It fires 4 shots per second (8 with wrangler) with each bullet doing 16 damage. The sentry holds 150 rounds, so it can fire for almost 38 seconds straight without having to be refilled. It has 150 health when it has fully built, and can be bumped up to 450 if you use the wrangler for the shield. Its average DPS is 64 (128 with wrangler).

The level two is the older brother of the level one. It still does 16 damage per bullet, but it fires 8 bullets per second (16 with wrangler), and has 180 health (540 with wrangler) when upgraded. It has 200 rounds, so it can fire for exactly 25 seconds before it has to be refilled. Its average DPS is 128 (256 with wrangler).

The level three sentry is the oldest brother, and the most deadly, is has the same firing speed and bullet damage as its younger brother, but gains rockets that fire every 3 seconds (slightly faster with wrangler), and do 50-150 damage and he gains 216 health (648 with wrangler).

The mini is the twice removed cousin to the levels 1-3 sentries, and many people dislike him for showing up at some of the worst times. He costs 100 metal to build, and has full health upon deployment. Its bullet does 8 damage, and fires at 6 shots per second. (12 with wrangler). It has 100 health (300 with wrangler) so it can be taken out relatively easy. Its average DPS is 48 (96 with wrangler).

The Dispenser

The level one dispenser, the mini medic, the ammo supplier, and the metal mann! He has an average 150 hp, dispenses 20% of your ammo per second, makes 40 metal every 5 seconds, but only heals ya at 10 hp per second. A must have for any engie base wanting to survive basic confrontation. Generally the second building built of an engieneer's base, it serves as a rally point for your team to rest and recover by. Keep in mind that all regular invis watches do not drain when they're close enough, so keep an eye out for any spies that are just waiting for you to leave. The dead ringer though only drains slowly, so they can't just hang around after you kill em.

The level two is the tougher brother of the building above us. He has 180 health, and heals at a 15 hp per second speed, while dispensing 30% of your ammo per second, and makes 50 metal every 5 seconds. Now the regular watches have a slow regen when they're close, and the dead ringer now doesn't drain at all, so now that pesky DR spy can be waiting for ya to leave now too.





The big daddy of the other two, the level three has 216 hp, heals at a wopping 20 hp per second along with 40% of your ammo, and generates 60 metal every 5 seconds. ALL watches besides the CnD refill slowly now, so be wary every time you kill a spy, he could have already refilled his DR in the 5 seconds since you last saw him.

A note about dispensers, is that they can heal through certain thin walls, allowing an engineer to give his dispenser cover while still gaining the effects.

The Teleporters

A wise mann once said, "Sentries get kills, dispensers heal the team, but teleporters, teleporters win games." I'm inclined to agree with him. Teleporters provide a steady stream of team mates coming through your base, this acts as a basic spy deterrent due to the fact that through sheer chance alone the spy can be bumped into and found. It also turns a 30 second walk from death to the front-lines into just a 15 one (since that's the usual respawn time on default servers).

Teleporters are pretty basic to get the stats of, at level one they take 10 seconds to recharge, and only have 150 hp.

At level 2 they take 5 seconds to recharge, and have 180 hp.

At level 3 they take 3 seconds to recharge, and have 216 hp.

Generally you always want to upgrade the teleporter to at least level two. If needed you can save the other 200 metal that would make it a level 3 until you got a stockpile for you to fall back on in case you get attacked without worrying about running out of metal. Its generally useless to make a teleporter level 3 in competitive, since the traffic flow would be relatively minor.

One thing to keep in mind, if you have one building (say the entrance) fully built, and the other one is still building, if you wack the one that's fully built, it takes a small amount of ammo to finish filling the health of the other one as if it had been damaged. This only applies when they are first being built, but its annoying to have to run and get more metal to finish that last 5 to upgrade.



Teleporter Priority:

Many people don't know when to get off a teleporter, and when they should be on, the picture above is pretty straight forward. When it comes to teleporters, engineer get first priority, no ifs, ands, or buts. We gotta keep our base up, and keep the teleporter you're trying take up. If an engineer is wacking his entrance repeatedly (especially if its level 3), then take that thing, cause chances are its being shot/exploded/burned, and you can probably stop your team from losing a valuable teleporter.

Now, standard order, heavy has second priority, he's slow, the slowest there is, and he takes forever to run to the front lines, medic has third, and usually he's following someone else, only time a medic DOESN'T have automatic third priority privileges, is when he has a pocket, in which case the pocket goes first to be sure of a safe exit. Then there's soldier, while he can explosive jump, he's still slow, and rocket jumps waste valuable health, if theres no heavy or medic waiting, he gets to go. Next is there the list gets a bit off, pyro has fifth, he's decent in speed, so if needed he CAN run with no real penalties, BUT, if you've seen a sapper appear on the teleporter recently, and there's no spy near spawn, let the pyro go, chances are they can get rid of the spy harassing the nest. Next is demoman, he's decent speed, and can explosive jump, so if needed he can run/jump so if someones waiting on the teleporter, demoman can probably reach is the same time the person can teleport, next is spy/sniper, both classes usually aren't in the direct front-lines, so they're pretty interchangeable, scouts, the only time you should ever be on the teleporter, is when you're the only one that's respawned, and its a level 3, otherwise run and let a slower class take the teleporter.

Strategies

This is a spot for general things that can greatly improve your engineering.

• Wack the sapper once before getting the spy, this way he can't replace it and you only have to hit it one more time to remove it.
  
• Don't idly hit your sentry, use your primary to spy check.
  
• Wrangle the sentry when dealing with ubers, you can hopefully pop the medic/target up, if anything it lets your sentry tank damage.
  
• Don't sit still when working on your buildings, be on the move to avoid getting headshot/backstabbed.
  
• Always rotate exit's from the wall, stick it in a corner preferably to avoid tele-stabs.
  
• Never build sentries right next to each other, dispenser are fine since their abilities stack.
  
• If teleporters are unneeded, use them to make small barricades on slopes to stop bonk scouts and slow spies (be careful, they also slow team mates.)
  
• Be willing to help other engineers build.
  
• A single level three is quite often better than two level ones.
  
• DON'T hog another engineer's dispenser, nothing pisses them off more than that. If you DO take their metal, at least help them upgrade something.
  AND REMEMBER
  
• EVERYONE is a spy until proven otherwise.
  
• All classes can circle strafe a sentry fast enough to not get shot, however, this can take most of their focus and make them easy pickings for your primary.
  
• When on removing a sapper on a teleporter exit, crouch to the side, a spy can take the teleporter when you remove the sapper and it will kill you if you're on it.

Class Matchups (When to fight, and when to run)

Scout: When it comes to Engineer vs. Scout, an Engineer usually has a pretty good advantage, your weapon does more damage at mid range, and you're usually not far from your sentry. However, if a Scout gets the drop on you (especially while hauling a building), then you've almost always lost. Watch out if they have bonk, they can make your sentry shoot you instead. If it's in a straight 1v1 fight, its usually about 50/50 on who will come out.

Soldier: The soldier has the engineer beat in just about every aspect, his rocket launcher does insane damage to you, he's got 75 more hp, and he's possibly got the very same weapon you're coming at him with (the shotty). Usually they're going to win, and there's jack you can do about it if you're on your own. However, if he's corner peeking to attack your sentry, chances are he'll build a rhythm, which you can use to charge at him in-between shots to at least get him to back off (hopefully). The Cow Mangler can cause your buildings to shut down, but it does horrible damage to buildings in turn, so if your buidlings suddenly stop working, a cow mangler soldier is nearby, and chances are, he's got friends. A straight fight is usually a last resort for Engie vs Soldier, but usually you have about a.... 20% chance of living, barring crits of course.

Pyro: When it comes to Pyro vs Engie, it boils down to who gets the drop on who, and at what range they are. If a Pyro gets the drop on you, you're pretty much toast (which is almost always the case (hehe, fire pun)). A Pyro can damage buildings around edges (from sides, above, and below. This is because of how fire particles work, alowing them to slightly curve around edges. Another thing to watch out for when you have a level three, is a pyro walking in and out of range of the sentry, they can reflect the rockets back at you. However, if its more of a straight fight, and you're at about mid-range, you got a decent shot at winning (remember, the Pyro can be using a shotty as well, if he's not using a flare gun that is). They're homewrekcer can one-shot mini sentries, so they're able to quickly cripple a mini sentry using engineer if the sentry isn't already built. In a straight up fight, I'd give the Engie a.... 40% chance at winning, not the best odds, but defiantly not the worst.

Demoman: Ah yes, the good ol' cycle of I build it, he trashes it, living up to his name of Demolition Man, the demo can quickly ruin an engineer's day. If he manages to get 3 stickies on your base, barring the wrangler, there's just about jack you can do (besides trying to shoot the stickies/short circuit them). Chances are the Demo is having to corner peek, so if you see him before he gets all 3, chances are you're getting the kill as he's popping in and out (if he's using stickies that is, if its grenades, you have quite a bit smaller chance. In a straight up fight, I give the engie a.... 5% chance of surviving. Unless you're close, you're toast.

Heavy: Chances are if you're fighting this guy, he just walked in range of your sentry, and is limping to a health kit, if he's been exposed for a solid second, by all means, jump down and fill him with lead, be wary if he has a medic though, they can easily refill his health in no time. In a straight up fight (including the heavy not being revved at the very start), I give the Engie a solid 15% chance of living, you gotta make the pre-minigun rev shots count.

Engineer: Engie vs. Engie, the good ol' Texas show down. These fights rarely happen, and if they do, chances are ones not far from his base, only in the case of both being combat (using the gunslinger and not focusing on building) Engies does that not apply. Besides minor differences due to weapon choice, the Engineer has a solid 50% chance of living, its just a matter of skill, and outside interference.

Medic: A Medic by themselves is lunch for a engineer. If you find them without a heal target, fill them with lead. If the medic is healing someone however.... your chances just went down the drain, unless you manage to avoid the pocket long enough (or get a lucky crit), he's not going down. In a straight fight, I give the Engineer a good 50% chance, depending on how good with the syringe gun the medic is.

Sniper: If you're within short range of a Sniper, you've pretty much got it in the bag barring crits. If you're at range.... act like any other class, duck behind cover, spam long range to throw off aim, and try and get as close as possible (pistol is especially good for spam). In a straight fight, barring the sniper being god-tier and able to land headshots point-blank, I give the engineer a good 60% chance at winning.

Spy: This is the section you're wanting isn't it? When a Spy meets and Engineer, usually there's a sapper in one's hand, a wrench in the other's. In a straight fight, I give the engineer a solid 60% chance at winning. Rarely though, are spy fights straight, keep in mind the 1 wack then run strategy, and for gods sake use melee as a last resort, the spy has 180 degrees to get that backstab. If the Spy uses his pistol, he's usually running back from your base, use that opportunity to remove the sapper on your sentry for it to unleash lead. If he's hanging around the base, you gotta use your own judgement. If he's using the red tape instead of the regular sapper, abandon the sentry to kill him after one wack, metal is kept inside the dispenser even when de-leveled, so its a quick rebuild from 1 to 3 instead of losing your life and all of your buildings.. Remember the rules of Engineer though, walls are your friend, team mates are hazards, and you're more hyper than a kid on a 3 day sugar high (in other words, keep on the move, don't just stand in one spot)

[m3tso]

In engineer vs scout the engineer has about 30% - 40% changes of surviving without a nest if you spot the scout first. If a scout gets a shot on engi first the changes of surviving are about 10% - 20%. (when players have equal skill)

[Conagher]

One thing with scout teles, They get base alst priority unless its a ninja tele. Depending on the situation (especially on CTF/5cp, a back teled scout can take a game

[SOL]

Call a Pybro if you can that means, teammates,your Steam Friends or anyone whos willing to help you.

[ooBah]

You forgot one thing, and that is the short circuit can destroy huntsman arrows. Other than that, great guide.

[Jack]

Good guide, just dobt get about the teleporter.Also im a big fan of enginner

[speenis]

i dont like the rescue ranger its hard to use

[Illumina9]

Gunslinger and minisentry should get freaking removed. They are the BIGGEST form of troll and tryhard. They are SO ANNOYING. I want them freaking removed. They should've been removed at least 2 years ago

[Guardsmen]

huh this guide literly outlines MY EXACT play style for engi(barring wrangler) thumbs up ^.^

[SanseiEXE]

Idc what this is but i always let scouts go in my teleporter because they cap faster than any other class think before you make

[Kozmik]

Engineer is best too