"Blammo!" -Soldier's Primary Weapons

Good morning, afternoon, or evening, ladies and gentlemen. The name's Desso, and today I will be teaching you little budding TF2 players out there how to use the all-amazing, powerful, fantastic, awesome, beautiful and totally cool rocket launchers of the Soldier class. Let us begin, shall we?

Primary Weapons

Rocket Launcher
The good ol' stock rocket launcher. This rocket launcher is commonly used by competitive players, so it must be good, right? That's, kind of correct. Although stock is always good, there are many other rocket launchers that bring many benefits to the table. Mind you, I'm not complaining about this, it is in fact my favourite rocket launcher. But, there are many other rocket launchers that suit the play style of other players. Anyway, let's take a look at the stats that this weapon brings, shall we? This weapon does about 105-112 damage at point blank range, 50-90 at medium range, and a pitiful 45-60 damage at long range. This weapon is good for all situations, unlike some of the other situational weapons we see at the bottom of this list.
With no stats modified, this is the absolute best all-around primary for Soldier. It is generally regarded as the best launcher by many players because of its universal utility. I highly recommend the use of this launcher for all skill levels of Soldier because of its well rounded stats, which perfectly fits the essence of what a Soldier is, a class that is good at everything but the best at nothing. Use this launcher if you are beginning to play, if no others fit your playstyle, or if you need an all-around launcher.

Direct Hit
This is unarguably the strongest rocket launcher in the game. No doubt. However, there is one tiny little drawback. Your rockets lose 70% of their blast radius. Now that, is a LOT. What you have left is the blast radius of a teleporter. On the bright side, this rocket launcher has an increased projectile speed of 80%, making it easier to hit your targets, and a damage increase of 25%. Besides that, your rockets also mini-crit enemies in mid-air! Wow, sounds great, right? Well, you would first need to get used to the new rocket speed if you are already familiar with the stock rocket launcher. Besides that, the tiny blast radius only allows you to hit enemies with a direct hit, thus the name. I would immediately recommend this rocket launcher for those with expert aim, as you can really take advantage of the damage bonus. Also, if you airshot people, it does a MINIMUM of 152 damage! Holey moley! That kills 5 of the 9 classes in this game in one shot! This launcher also excels against slow targets, and many Pyros will have trouble airblasting these rockets. However, Scouts are generally hard to hit because of how unpredictable they are, and the loss of blast radius severely hinders effectiveness against Scouts. Do not be discouraged if you perform poorly with this launcher at first, it is harder to use than other launchers, but is incredibly powerful when used properly, and training will pay off in the end.

Black Box
The black box. Oh how I love this rocket launcher. It only has 3 rockets in a clip, but it compensates by healing you by up to 20 points if you hit a target! That's like, wow. This rocket launcher gives you great survivability in games, but you have to beware about that one missing rocket in your clip, as it can cause you your life if you are caught off-guard. Unfortunately, this health bonus does not apply to disguised spies or enemies under the effect of an ÜberCharge.
However, this health bonus applies to scouts under the Bonk! Atomic Punch effect. Aim properly, as if a pyro airblasts your rockets and hits you with it, the health bonus is applied to the pyro, instead. The health bonus is helpful when there are little healing sources on the map, and can be useful for regaining some of the damage that lighter classes cause at medium ranges. This healing will not cause afterburn or bleed damage to cease. Use this when the number of healing sources on the map are low, and there are many smaller classes on the battlefield. Stay away if the opposite is true.

Rocket Jumper
For those that are unable to read weapon stats, this weapon does ZERO damage. Zilch. Nada. This rocket launcher cannot damage enemies, enemy buildings, or yourself. This weapon also has 300% more ammo, meaning that it has 60 ammo. This allows players to rocket jump whenever, wherever. This weapon is great for rocket jumping around and generally just being silly, but I personally think this is a viable option if paired up with the shotgun and market gardener. While rocket jumping, the market gardener gains guaranteed critical hits. So, in conclusion, you jump, you smack, you land. Done! The shotgun is for dealing with enemies that you are unable to get a market gardener on, such as airblasting pyroes or scouts. Also, I'm not sure if I mentioned, but this weapon does absolutely ZERO damage. This weapon is harmless if not paired up with another weapon. I am SO tired of seeing new players find this weapon and immediately use it as if it were a rocket launcher, without reading the stats. Also, this weapon does ZERO damage, if you didn't know yet.

Primary Weapons Cont'd

Liberty Launcher [Redone, as suggested by thdhtey]
The controversial Liberty Launcher. This rocket launcher's rockets fire 40% faster than the stock, making it slightly easier to hit your targets. This weapon also has an extra rocket loaded into its clip and does 25% less damage to both your enemies and yourself. This weapon is great when you want to switch out the gunboats in your secondary slot for a banner or shotgun, as you deal less damage to yourself while rocket jumping. I wouldn't recommend this weapon to new players, as they usually have not learnt how to rocket jump, and that 25% less damage may be quite a burden.
This launcher makes a sacrifice in necessary damage for slightly increased mobility chance, and the trade off is kind of up to you. This launcher is great at picking of long-distance targets who are retreating, the +40% rocket speed may throw of scouts at close range or pyroes, sometimes.
So I'd recommend that you play this weapon in a way where you pick of weakened targets, try not to get too close to powerful enemies as with this launcher you would have a little harder time taking them down. Instead, use that extra rocket bestowed upon us by Gun Mettle to escape, very much alive and kicking.

Beggar's Bazooka
Now this rocket launcher is hard to explain. It does not have any rockets loaded in a clip passively, but by holding the attack button, this weapon loads up to 3 rockets into a clip, and when the attack button is released, all the 3 rockets are shot at the same time, with a firing speed of 70% more than the stock rocket launcher. The downsides are that this weapon has an up to 3 degrees spread, which means that the rockets don't go directly where you are aiming. The other catch is that if you load any more than 3 rockets into a clip, it misfires, causing you to damage yourself. This can also be used as an advanced rocket jumping mechanic to rocket jump against thin air, but that's another story for another day. Back to the point at hand, this rocket launcher is one for close range, as any farther than that would mean that your rockets would not aim themselves where you want 'em to go.Although it is possible to achieve great rocket jumps with this weapon, it is generally more challenging to pull it off because rockets can not be fired on command. The airstrikes that are possible by this weapon are very devastating if done right, because up to 3 rockets will essentially be released on target all at the same time. Although this weapon may seem to be designed to appeal to a lower skill class at first, there are many interesting strategies with the Beggar's Bazooka that make it worthwhile. Pyroes also may have a harder time airblasting your rockets without injury.

Air Strike
Okay. The spawn from bloody hell, the air strike. This is a seriously overpowered weapon in my opinion, let me tell you why. Alright, let's begin with them stats. While rocket jumping, it's attack speed is increased by 65%, and the rockets fired produce white contrails. In addition, on each kill using the weapon, its clip size is increased by one, up to 8 rockets after 4 kills. The projectiles fired by this weapon deal 15% less damage (both to enemies and the Soldier when rocket jumping) and have a 10% smaller explosion radius. This sounds horrible on paper, right? Well, you cannot be more wrong. When this weapon is paired up with the B.A.S.E Jumper, you can stay in the air with its parachute function. Thus, you have more time to rain hell on people. 65% faster firing speed! You literally just ♥♥♥♥ all over them! Heavies? Bam! Dead. Pyroes? Bam! Dead. Seriously, you can load up to 8 rockets? Just call Satan, why don't ya? I must admit, this weapon is not all-powerful, though. It's very hard to use against sentries and snipers, as with how slowly you are parachuting in the air, they can just headshot or wrangle you to death. My opinion is that, if you want to do the whole world a favour, don't touch this rocket launcher. Unless you wanna, in which case I can't really do anything.

Cow Mangler 5000
Okay, this has got to be the most hated rocket launcher on this list. By FAR. Like, 2% of TF2 players use this, and that's mostly in custom gamemodes where this gun is actually helpful. Like in Versus Saxton Hale, Etc. Alright, down to the stats. This weapon loses 80% of its damage against enemy buildings, it is incapable of firing critical hits via any means; while it can deal mini-crits as with any other weapon, it does not get random crits, attempting to critboost it via the Kritzkrieg or a Power Up Canteen has no effect, and it cannot even fire crits during humiliation. Only by reflecting one of its shots with a crit-boosted flamethrower or hitting a stunned Merasmus can its shots be critical hits. It has infinite ammunition, but has a clip like any rocket launcher. When your ammo bar is full, you can hold your secondary fire to shoot out a single minicrit rocket that applies afterburn to enemies for up to 6 seconds and disables buildings for 4 seconds. This looks good on paper, but in application it just bombs. 4 normal rockets are better than 1 minicrit rocket, and you cannot crit it in any way or form? What!? Okay, I may have a personal prejudice against this rocket launcher, but the majority of TF2 players say this weapon sucks, and they are absolutely correct. Don't even touch this stinkin' pile of mangled cows.

Thanks for giving this a read!

Okay, this may be a tiny bit cheesy, but to you as the reader, thank you for reading my second guide ever! If it was helpful, I would appreciate it if you rate this guide up and add it to your favourites! If it wasn't, however, please tell me in the comments how I may improve! Again, thanks for giving this guide a read. Anyways, I just wanted to express my thanks to the people who supported my first guide. Like I said there, I was only trying out the guide-making thing and that I wasn't really all serious about it. However, the overwhelming positive response just makes me think that I HAVE to make a second and serious gameplay-related guide. Thanks for reading for the third time, and peace out, gentlemen.

My first guide, if you want to read it for some reason:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=540662860

[Jargo]

And the direct hit requires someone to have actually shoved the enemy up into the air by any means other than them jumping or falling of something.

[Jargo]

Also add that the rocket jumper does not allow you to carry the briefcase please.

[Jargo]

I have noticed that the Orginal's one difference to the stock rocket launcher is not completely useless. In some maps, if there is a sentry nest outside spawn on the RIGHT, it is very hard to take it down from inside spawn with a normal rocket launcher. Original solvers this problem.

[Jargo]

Plz update airstrike's new feature. Less explosion radius while rocket jumping. I think this can be good and bad. It makes it even harder than it already is to hit targets, but if you are very close to your target when airstriking them, the rockets will deal much less damage to you than previously, because the explosion radius becomes tiny.

[Desso]

+CappyPlays because its just a reskin, albeit it changes where the rocket comes from +thdhtey and element 030366 Hm..I'll think about that.

[Sonictroid]

Y u no mention original?

[Ordo]

In my opinnion the Cow Mangler 5000 is a decent choice for MvM (again just my opinnion) because when upgraded you can do a lot of damage because you don't need ammo, this thing basically turns in to a "laser machinegun of death" (But i still prefer the Black Box.)

[thdhtey]

I personally think the Cow Mangler's fine. It mostly gets a lot of hate for being VERY commonly used by noobs. The reason most people think it sucks is because they're not using it in the right situations, like many other "bad" weapons. The cow mangler is best used on Defense, where its -80% damage to buildings is mostly irrelevant. The whole "the charge shot is bad" thing is also kinda useless if you don't really use it a whole bunch. What the Cow Mangler IS good at is holding down locations and dealing strong burst damage to groups of enemies(one charged shot that hits directly will kill a medic with the afterburn damage(136 minicrit damage+about 36 damage via afterburn=172 damage) and it pairs pretty well with the buff banner.

Also as a note:
The Cow mangler has a hidden reload speed debuff on the first rocket loaded. This is a -22% reload speed on the first rocket loaded.

[Desso]

Thanks for the nice comment! Have a jar of yellow liquid that is not piss at all!

[NotEvenClose]

Really, really nice guide! I agree with everything here, I didn't think the cow mangaler was THAT underpowered though :(

Time to be a scrub and use the air strike :>