Spy: A Beginners Guide

The Spy is a very different class in Team Fortress 2. In that he does not go "guns blazing" and destroying everything in his path rambo style. And instead takes a stealth like approach to cripple his enemies. In this guide, I will teach you some tips and tricks to become a better Spy yourself!

Please note this is also my first guide and definitely not the best Spy guide out there. My grammar isn't the best and it may look a bit sloppy. Constructive criticism is appreciated.

Weapons

The Spy comes with 4 weapons when you start out. First, there is there is the Revolver.





The revolver is the Spy's only ranged weapon and is more reliable than most people think. It has 6 rounds being able to take down a even a Soldier in just a few shots at point blank range. The Revolver has a base damage of 40 at medium range, 60 at point blank and a pitiful 16-25 at long range. And don't forget the whopping 120 if you get a critical hit. Also if you wait 1.25 seconds after each shot it will be 100% perfectly accurate and won't be effected by bullet spread.

Never underestimate the power of the Spy's revolver, even if you are running a weaker side grade such as the l'etranger. You can still use it to get yourself out in a bad situation.





The next weapon for the Spy is a very basic but quite helpful. It is the Sapper





Even those quite new to TF2 can probably understand what the Sapper does. You simply pull it out and press Mouse 1 next to an enemy engineer building to temporarily disable it and drain its health. While a building it being sapped a HUD in the top left will appear showing the buildings health. During the time where a building is under the effect of a Sapper, a Sentry can not shoot, Dispensers can not give ammo or health, and teleports can not be used. But don't think you can just set a sapper down on a building with no effort. When a sapper is placed the Engineer who built the building will quickly be alerted and more than likely run to his buildings if he isn't next to them already. An engineer can quickly remove a sapper with 2 hits from his wrench. Pyros can also remove sappers with the Homewrecker with 1 hit and the Neon Annihilator with 2 hits.







Quite possibly the most recognizable weapon for the Spy is next. This is none other than the Spies melee weapon the Butterfly Knife or simply known as the Knife





The knife can be a devastating weapon in the right hands. Get behind someone and backstab them for an instant kill! With a base damage of 40-46 from the front and from the back a staggering 6x the enemies health. It is the only weapon in the game that guarantees a kill.

You don't even have to be exactly right behind someone to get a backstab on them. All you have to do is be 180 degrees melee range around an enemy to get a backstab on them. However, there are only 2 ways that an enemy can survive a backstab. A Sniper with the Razorback or a Medic with an ÜberCharge.


Next we have the Invisibility Watch





The Invisibly Watch is activated by pressing Mouse 2 on your Mouse. It allows you to go invisible for 8 seconds and get behind enemies. That doesn't mean you are fully invisible however, if you "bump" into an enemy a quick silhouette will be shown on you in your teams color. Try to avoid this as most players will run around looking for you. Also, while invisible you take 20% less damage from all sources. Which lets you survive a headshot at full health with 5 HP while invisible! Being cloaked also decreases state effects such as bleed, jarate, and fire.

Don't forget also to also pick up ammo packs and dropped weapons to extend your cloak time!


Lastly we have perhaps the Spies most reliable ability, the Disguise Kit





The Disguise Kit is a valuable tool for the Spy. Bring it out and press 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 or 9 to disguise as any of the 9 classes. While disguising a cloud of smoke will appear around you. So be careful to not be spotted while disguising! Don't forget you can change the weapon you are holding while disguised by pressing B. Such as switching to your knife and pressing B to switch to your Wrench while disguised as Engineer for example.

I will go a bit more into the Disguise kit in a later section. As there is a lot more to it than just pressing a few keys and disguising as an enemy.









The Spy also has plenty of unlock able weapons. I will be giving them some quick overviews.

Coming Soon

Other Classes

While playing Spy you will of course encounter other classes. Here I will cover their health, speed, primary weapons, and means they can use to track you down. Some of these situations can change of course depending on what weapons you are using. But I am going off the stock loadout.



First off we have the Scout





The Scout is the fastest class in Team Fortress 2. He has 125 health and his primary weapon is the Scattergun which deals a lot of damage as point blank and is pitiful at long range. Scouts also have Mad Milk which can be thrown on spies to track you down similar to a Pyros flames. You won't be backstabbing scouts much but if you get caught off guard by one your best hope is trying to gun him down or retreat.

Next we have the Soldier





The Soldier is a rather slow class but has great mobility with his rocket jumping. The Soldier has 200 health and his primary weapon is a Rocket Launcher that deals large amounts of damage at most ranges. Watch out for these guys, they can take you down in 2 shots quickly. Your best bet is trying to retreat if you get caught by them.

Our third and most deadly class for the Spy is the Pyro





The pyro is a moderately fast class that runs at normal speed. She has 175 health and his primary weapon of choice is the Flame Thrower. Avoid Pyros at all costs. Once you get hit by his flames, you will be shown burning even if you are cloaked or disguised. If you get caught by a Pyro you are almost guaranteed dead unless you can gun him down. Try to get back to your teammates and regroup before heading back in.

The fourth class on our list is the Demoman





Demoman runs about the same speed as Pyro in Team Fortress 2 and has 175 health, also much like Pyro. His primary weapon is the Grenade Launcher and can deal insane amounts of damage. If you get caught out by a Demoman try to get up in his face as he will hurt himself with his own grenades trying to hit you. But watch out for his sticky bomb launcher also, a very popular secondary weapon of choice many players use. It can do a devastating amount of damage.

The fifth class is none other than the iconic Heavy





The Heavy is the slowest class in TF2 but has the most health being 300 and the highest DPS. His primary weapon is the Minigun which like the Scout's scattergun, deals lots of damage at close range. Since you will be getting in melee range of enemies most of the time, you will almost certainly die to a Heavy that catches you trying to backstab him. Your best bet is to retreat.

The sixth class is the Spy's main enemy, the Engineer





While being a small class himself and only having 125 HP. Engineer is one of the strongest classes in Team Fortress 2. His Level 3 sentry gun can stop and entire team from moving forward and can support his own team with dispensers and teleporters. One of your main jobs as a Spy is to get behind the Engineer and his sentry, backstab him, and quickly sap his sentry and run away.

A rare circumstance that can happen is that a Spy and Engineer can get in a 1v1. This will hardly ever happen however, as an Engineer not being near his Sentry or teammates is quite rare. If you do ever come across yourself being in the situation simply gun him down with your Revolver.

Next we have your main target, the Medic





The Medic the second fastest class in Team Fortress 2. A Medic has 150 health and is little to no threat to a Spy. His primary weapon is a Syringe Gun but a Medic will almost always be holding his secondary weapon the Medigun. When full charged he can deploy and Ubercharge making himself invincible and his target for 8 seconds.

As stated above, as Spy your main #1 target is is probably the Medic most of the time. Getting rid of a Medic can make him drop his ubercharge and lose it entirely and keep teammates from getting heals.

Thats not to say though you should always go for the Medic every life. If there is another player such as a Sniper causing trouble for the other team perhaps you should go for them instead.

Arguably the strongest class in TF2, next is the Sniper





The Sniper is a 125 health class and his primary weapon is the Sniper Rifle. In the right hands the Sniper Rifle is just as powerful, and perhaps even more powerful than the Knife.

Getting behind a Sniper should be quite easy, they spend most of their time focusing on a central area and not checking behind them too often unless they are a bit paranoid. Be careful however, some snipers are fast and will headshot you faster than you can get off one shot on them at times.

Snipers may also wear a Razorback which prevents 1 backstab attempt. However this isn't really much of a problem. You can shoot him 3-4 times and he will be down. Though at times a Sniper can be with a razorback with a sentry watching him, making it quite difficult to kill him.

Lastly we the obvious Spy





Very rarely do opposing Spies run into each other. Most of the time when Spies run into each other it results in an awkward knife facestab fight or a gun fight. Personally I think your best bet is to not engage other Spies unless necessary.

Acting

As I said earlier, theres a lot more to the Disguise Kit than just disguising and getting behind someone. "Acting" like the way a class does can really make your disguise blend in and make it look more natural. While disguised think "What would I be doing if I was this class on this team?" Heres a few tips on acting as each class.





Scout

While disguised as a Scout you do not run as fast as a Scout would, but you can still make it look legitimate. Try to act "fidgety" like and jump around a lot so the speed decrease is hard to notice, run around with your melee, jump on rocks and other props around the map. You can be in just about any location as Scouts can usually be anywhere on the map.

Soldier

I would say Soldier is my least used disguised. Not many really tips on this one besides one that's gotten me a few stabs a couple times. If the player your disguised as has the Escape Plan, pull it out pressing B and run towards the enemy spawn jumping. This is rather convincing and you can get behind enemy lines this way.

Pyro

While disguised as Pyro try staying a bit behind teammates and near Engineer buildings. I don't exactly recommend this disguise however because if your caught by the Pyro you are disguised as you are just about dead.

Demoman

This is a tricky class to disguise as. Your team expects you to be setting sticky traps or to fire grenades. My suggestion is, if the person you have disguised as has it, to switch to the Eyelander or Nessie Nine Iron. This way, your team expects you to not do anything but run for health kits or at the enemy.

Heavy

Believe it or not, the Heavy disguise can sometimes be decent. Most players don't expect a Spy to disguise as a Heavy so it can catch even more experienced players off guard. The main downside is the speed. Making it quite difficult to catch up to enemies for a stab.

Engineer

The Engineer contract is great for getting behind enemy lines. Engineers frequently head back to spawn to gain more metal for their buildings. You can disguise as an Engineer, hold out your Knife and press B to switch to your wrench. This is convincing and can allow you to get to an enemies spawn. Though this disguise is commonly used by spies. You may get spy checked easily.

Medic

The Medic disguise can be a risk. A Medic is pretty much always healing an ally, and seeing them not do that is certainly a giveaway. Your best bet is to act like your retreating or you could act as a Battle Medic and running around with the syringe gun.

Sniper

I find that the Sniper disguise is probably the best. You can crouch when disguised as a Sniper and it looks like your scoped in aiming for an enemy. And best of all it doesn't look weird when your not moving around or shooting too much. As Sniper does not do those very often.

Spy

The Spy disguise is probably my most used disguise just out of habit. I just use it when I have nothing else to go. I don't really have any tips for "acting" as a Spy. All I can say is use it when you want to get back to your own spawn easily, as to the enemy it will look like you are crossing into their lines.

Recommended videos.

I am not an expert in the Spy class, there are far more experienced players than I am. So here I will be recommending a few youtubers to check out to improve your spy game.

I highly recommend watsurdeal series on Spy called TF2 Espionage. It is mostly composed of text and has a lot of reading, but tons of useful information. One of my favorite spy guides.

TF2Slurgi is also great. He does not upload often but all of his videos on Spy have helped me in some form or another.

MrPaladin has a great series called "How a Spy Thinks" where he goes into detail about his thought process while playing. You don't have to follow his play style obviously, but it helped me make better decisions while playing.

Perhaps the most famous Spy on TF2, StabbyStabby. He is a UGC Platinum Spy and one of the best. I highly recommend his videos.

Conclusion

Thank you for taking the time to read my guide. I hope it was helpful in some form and I hope to add more to it soon.

I would also like to quickly note that sometimes you just may need to switch off Spy. It may be the map your on, the players your with, or a number of reasons. There are off days and sometimes you will have difficulty using the class in the current situation. Plus, it is helpful to play the other classes. You will learn their mindset and may know what they are thinking when you have to face them later on.

Going to be adding a general tips section and information about unlocks soon.

[EmptyGazelle]

nice guide

[[DEP]Anass]

good guide for a f2p spy :'(
thnaks

[Блядота]

Thank you bro=)

[PunishedSparda]

Thanks for the feedback guys. I don't have 5 ref right now but perhaps when I do I can send you the offer for it.

[Jeff]

Dude your guide is awsome!!! The section entitled Acting was EXTREMELY helpful. In fact, it was the entire reason I was a horrible Spy. The only suggestion I can give you is to put a picture of the Razor Back, so we know what w to look out for. :)

[Блядота]

Hi, man! Wery nice guide, i can translate it to russian for 5 ref. Add me pls