Team Fortress 2 Tips and Tricks
I'm playing Team Fortress 2 for a while know and thought that it would be nice to share the knowledge and expertise that I gained while playing the Beta of Team Fortress 2 with players who just got the game recently.
I therefore compiled a list of tips and tricks describing certain aspects of Team Fortress 2 that make the game more enjoyable and your character more competitive when competing against other players and teams online.
If you have more tips post them in the comments. This is not a complete collection of course but contains some good pointers for beginning Team Fortress 2 players.
General Tips:
- Activate Fast Weapon Switching in the options to switch the weapons faster when using the mouse wheel.
- A good teamplayer selects a class that is needed to play in a certain situation. That means you do not start as Sniper if your team already has 4 and no Engineer at all.
- Every weapon makes less damage over distance except the rifle of the Sniper and the nades of the Demoman
- You can almost walk through team members, if you meet someone that is blocking it is most likely a spy.
- Hitting or coming close to an invisible spy reveals his location for a short time.
- Players exit teleporters always facing the same direction
- Water stops the flames if players have been hit by a Pyro if the character can swim in it. As does a Medic Gun and a Dispenser. This
Team Fortress 2 Classes:
- A capping scout counts as two players
- A medic boosts health of the player that he hits his medic gun with by 150 Hitpoints.
- Overcharge lasts for ten seconds
- Overcharge fills faster when healing injured team members. Use this to your advantage on maps where you have to wait 50 seconds before they start by healing either a Demoman or a Soldier who do Rocket / Bombjumps. Overcharge will be ready when the map begins, switch to a heavy then.
- Use Rocketjumps and Bombjumps to reach roofs or places that other players can't. This includes the houses in Gravelpit, the hole when entering the base in 2Fort or the balcony in 2Fort.
- A good medic is able to make two players invulnerable with his medic gun by pointing it to each player alternately.
- Don't place Sentries, Dispensers or Teleporters in places that can be seen from a distance. This way everyone can take them out from that distance without getting hurt at all. The best place is behind or under objects.
- A sentry gun can kill the Engineer who build it if he stands in the way of the rockets and bullets.
- Pyros are less effective when running after someone.
- Spies always use a nickname of the enemy team when disguised. Use this to your advantage
- Spies: First the sentry, then the Engineer. (Attacking the Engineer reveals the true colors of the spy which means the Sentry gun will attack him.
- Use your sapper while in disguise as a spy. Remember to change classes that you disguise as frequently.
- Don't disguise as classes that are either faster or slower than a Spy. This means no Heavy, no Soldier, no Scout. No Medic as well because it becomes obvious that you are a spy if you do not heal someone that requests it.
- Engineer: First the Sentry, then the Dispenser. Reverse order in Sudden Death games unless the enemy is know for rushing your base.
- Engineer: Build Teleporters. Start when the map begins by placing an entrance next to your base, run back in to get your metal filled up and continue. Move Teleporter entries and exits frequently if the situation changes.
- Sentry Guns, Dispenser and Teleporters can be placed in the water as well. A Dispenser heals faster than staying to long in the water subtracts
- Engineers: Hit anyone coming near your position, it could be a spy. Remove sappers and repair Sentries and other equipments with your Wrench. A good hit with the Wrench can kill a spy.
- Don't try to kill something from the distance with a Heavy. You crit far more often when close by because of the immense amount of bullets in your gun. Hit Sentries from close range only.
- Heavy: A Medic is your best friend. Treat him better than your gun. That means have an eye on him and kill everything that attacks him. Use your body to block enemy bullets from reaching your Medic.Know when to retreat.
- If you are injured and near your own base go into the cabinets in Resupply to heal completely.
- Snipers do more damage when the lightning symbol is fully charged.
- The Demoman is the best character to defend. Place sticky bombs around a capturing point or entrance / exit / way to stop the enemy advance
- If the enemy is charging in with overcharge hide and concentrate on damage reduction. Try to hit other enemies that are vulnerable
- The Scout is mighty powerful. They can take down Heavies with some shots from their Scattergun if close by.
- Use the Double-jump ability to reach areas that other players can't reach from there. An example is jumping from the bridge in 2Fort to the enemy balcony which is actually the fastest way in and out of the base
- Pyros are great in buildings and winding hallways. Also great when a lot of enemies are standing in one place, e.g. when capping. Most players flee when they are ignited.
Distance does not affect damage. I often kill players from a long way away using my pistol as an engineer, it is my favorite fun because of rapid fire. Snipers are always surprised when I take them out with 5 well placed pistol shots while they are trying to draw a bead on me. Running side to side while shooting makes the engineer an awesome fighter.
https://wiki.teamfortress.com/w/images/thumb/7/78/Damagefalloff.png/400px-Damagefalloff.png?t=20120329021239
as a spy find a teammate ho on their backs see if your knife will change in to backstab thats alos an enemy spy luckily if your a spy and find yourself cloak and follow him before he sees you backstab this way you can help your team find other spies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_DDtJZUcSk&feature=plcp&context=C3388387UDOEgsToPDskJkICqgRoTk_56g5KSDrUNZ
You should cloak before getting out.
very helpful
seriously. i use the sniper quite often and i have to say they are quite useful. you don’t want the other team sniper taking out your heavies and engineers, so look for him and shoot his head off first, then you can deal with his teammates. also, the huntsman is a bad ass weapon. if you’re having trouble with it, keep practicing, they’re better to use in hallways and up close. use huntsman for your up close warrior style, and sniper rifle to pick people off from afar. possibly my favorite class. as for you spies, i hate you! you can always tell who is a beginner spy, for example in 2fort, i love seeing one of my guys coming from the other teams resupply on the left side of the balcony and knowing he is not one of my guys. BOOM! headshot. not too smart of spy my friend. another favorite is pyro. i usually do the same thing, set someone on fire and then shoot em in the face or the back of the head with your shot gun. great class to defend your base with. thanks for the article, i know it’s a bit old, but i learned some new things.
Also i know this is obvious but as a spy don’t disguise yourself before you leave your base seeing as how the person your trying to be couldn’t be there
Did you know when your a solider or demoman you can shoot rockets or bombs at your feet in the air causing you to go further up in the air
Side effects: this method will damage you a bit
also dont be a engineer. if the ask for teles or dispensers, you cant make em and they kill you
OnE more tip for people who play sniper, if an enemy scout is running at you, then dot try Nd get a headshot, go for a 100% charged bodyshot, its easier to land and will still kill. And for spies, if you use the cloak and dagger ,hide near an engie and his buildings if he leaves to get metal, turn visible again, sap the buildings And hide against a rAndom spot on a wall, he will rarely find you. If he tries to rebuild a building, let him begin to build it, backstab him and then sap the building before it is finished. I have done so well off of these strategies
You can jump four times with the Scout if you have “Vintage force ‘a’ nature” or “The force ‘a’ nature”
if you aim down and shoot after the double jump.
While on the subject of spies – if you’re using the dead ringer, disguise as one of your own team members. That way, nobody will think they got such an easy spycheck that it must be a deadringer “kill”
here’s another tip: if you see a friendly spy who is going towards the enemy team disguised as a enemy, attack him but do not hit him, or else enemies will think it’s odd that noone followed one of their own team.
also, spies move at the same speed as the one they’re disguised as (as heavy, they’re really slow) but they can’t run at the same speed as medics and scout, so… don’t disguise as them.
hope this helps! :D
That’s a very good tip – but it’s worth letting the spy know that is what you’re doing, and the reason behind it.
Quite often I get spychecked by my own team when I’m obviously not behaving like a spy, such as running towards by own team’s demo grenades. It’s infuriating because any enemy within earshot knows there are at least two of you nearby.
Similarly, don’t shout “Spy” without reason
also:
as a spy, do not look walk in a straight line or facing an enemy while trying to sneak into their base, look the other way, and move kind of unpredictably.
that way, enemies will think it’s because you try to avoid bullets.
and don’t run towards sentries that aren’t close to dispensers when disguised, the enemy will be suspicious of your behaviour, and if you have to get rid of the sentry, try and do it when either: noone’s around or few people are around, that way, you can kill the closest engineer and destroy the sentry, this way, you’ll at least get rid of something that threathens your team.
(sorry for late reply)
Pyro tip: If your not close to anyone, use your shotgun. The shotgun is your best bet if you don’t have and other ranged weapon.
fn awsome game
I have once put a sentry at the end of the bridge in 2fort and a despenser close by and built both into a level 3……I got 99 kills. even newbies can do this.
Obviously you were facing a team of inexperienced or perhaps just thick players. Sentry guns should *never* get lots and lots of kills unless they are well protected… and even then if the team has their shit together, an uber usually breaks it up.
I once made sentrys with some other engies guarding turbine. Once we had gotten 100 kills we had a hoedown. The best part is when we took down our sentrys to move them, some engineers from the BLU team joined in the hoedown :P
Hi, recently I’ve been thinking about making maps for the game. Any suggestions? If you have ideas please reply and I will try and put it into use. (Go to the cp orange map. It’s got a great layout for any cp maps.)
A pyro should flame everyone because everyone is a potential spy, try and avoid getting burned yourself. Stand beside walls and shoot across doors, someone may and often will run through it. Clear out potential trap points where your team may get ambushed. When everyone is pinned down flame up and advance blocking enemy players view so your team may retreat or cover you. You will die but you are expendable. Your team will love you for it. The moving and flaming modifier is the fact that the tip of your flame does less damage than the red hot nozzle. Someone slightly faster than you will be taking less damage per second of flame contact as they pull away. Some one charging into your flamer will be taking more damage as they advance. Stand between the balcony and the bridge and flame any scouts who jump across the gap. Use your flare pistol to sniper across the bridge. You only have to be close to ignite someone moving into its path. It also scares them and it disrupts their aim. Burn and spin in groups of enemies, save your fuel for when you need it but don’t forget to puff every lurking spot of a cloaked spy, your team depends on it. Burn the enemy pyro, it just feels good. A hot flamer is a happy flamer.
All very good tips.
Remember that the flares (like the medic’s syringe gun or an arrow from the huntsman) drop as they travel, so the further your enemy is, the higher you should aim.
Also, when retreating from a burning opponent, you should switch to the flare gun if it’s not already armed, because you get crits if they are already on fire when it hits.
I often fire the flare across gaps for the same reason PyroGuy mentions above – useful when the gap is beyond the range of the flamethrower…
as a spy try to study the enemies and disguise yourself as a class with not many or no people in that class
go into a class with lots of people and hide around. then it will be harder to find the spies. and DON’T disguise as a class which no one is playing on a map with not that many people. i have been on a 2 on 2 and their spy kept on being a heavy and we just had me (as a pyro) and a soldier.
“I’m playing Team Fortress 2 for a while” is what the person who made the guide said. “These tips have been published when the game came out.” someone else said.
How can they have been published when the game came out if this guy has been playing TF2 for a while?
These tips were published by me in 2007, 4 days after the beta game was released to Steam. I did play it extensively and consider myself a good player. Some of the tips are no longer valid because of changes that have been made to the game and some because people figured out how to do things more effectively. Back then they were solid tips to get you going.
“Heavy: A Medic is your best friend. Treat him better than your gun. That means have an eye on him and kill everything that attacks him. Use your body to block enemy bullets from reaching your Medic.Know when to retreat.”
I know what you mean but the medic really should be looking all around the back and sides. Then when he can see the enemy behind him he should go infront of the heavy, so the heavy knew to either retreat or kill the person behind him.
“Assuming the weapon levels are the same, the only situation where he’ll probably lose is where he’s using a backburner and the chaser is not.”
Why would it be less effective if he is using the backburner? The Backburners only downside is that it doesnt have the airblast technique. Besides that you have more health for the FIRST parts of time you use it (I think it is until you are MVP) and it gives critical hits on every hit thats on the enemys back. (hence the name Backburner)
well sam, when using the backburner, if you dont get the crit from behind then there is a damage decrease for your contact damage which would give the pyro with the regular flamethrower a significant advantage.
In arena, you need at least 2 medics for a team of 10. 1 medic won’t be able to reach everyone fast enough and wil eventually be stranded.
I have to say… some of the tips aren’t that great. Disguising as a heavy but particularly a soldier are situationally good ideas… simply because, NOBODY EVER SUSPECTS THE HEAVY! :D
Though the speed can be frustrating at times.
Also, Martin is kind of fighting an uphill battle here – every update changes the game significantly.
Don’t get me wrong, these tips are great for beginners. I think I’m seeing it through the eyes of an experienced player too much.
WDMartin.
These tips have been published when the game came out. Lots has changed since then.
Oh, yeah, fair enough.
ive always found that circle strafeing with the backburner is easier because you can get to the back of the enemy and kill them quickly
i also find the flare gun good because you can ignite them then run off without them knowing who ignited them; they will be looking for who ignited them and eventually realise they are getting attacked or the pyro who ignited them must be hiding, either one of those or they go to a medipack or their spawn. After 30 seconds i run up behind them with the backburner and finish them off while they are on a pyro hunt, under fire or getting health.
what i DONT find useful is the axetinguisher. Why would you switch from the most effective short range weapon in the game(flamethrower/backburner) to an axe which only gives you crits and makes them have more time to shoot at you? I dont even use the regular fire axe really. all the pyro needs are his primary and secondary weapons. really my melee weapon is the taunt kill(only because its hilarious and reminds me of the achivement name(which is also hilarious.)
On Well, if the enemy captures the middle point, right away jump into the water and swim toward the middle point. If it’s a dumb, they will use land routes to the next point. Get out of the water a start capping the point (Best if you use a scout).
Tip for engineers: Build your dispenser behind walls. I for one find a great spot to farm nubs is atop the winding staircase (one of the entrances to intel room). Put dispenser inside room in corner and sentry in door entrance. Just got through about a 35 kill streak before they realized “Hey i can be a spy!”
I’ve found one of the best techniques for Pyro’s is to go in Hard and heavy, especially anywhere you know a lot of enemies are bunched together.
Keep flaming, jumping, and moving around as you ignite as many people as possible before getting killed.
The pyro’s weapon covers a much larger area than others at close range, and can ignite quite a number of players in a short time.
And in those situations, always attack Medics first!!
If you manage to damage the medics enough, they’ll die before they can Uuber and leave the other ignited players defenseless, and injured. Often this can lead to many assists, and in a lot of cases kills as enemies burn to death.
Also, it serves to break up attacking groups, as it will often mean those players still alive will spread out to look for health.
As for scouts, don’t try to get near other players, your speed is the key.
If you’re worried about snipers at range, pull out your pistol, and pop out and in to cover quickly rattling off a few shots in succession each time at the sniper.
Usually this will cause them to retreat for a moment, giving you time to run at their base.
WEAVE CONSTANTLY, AND UN-PREDICTABLY!
Someone going from side to side in the same pattern is an easy target for snipers. While going left-right-right-right-left-left-right (Random) is not.
The key for Engines is simply not to put your sentries and dispensers anywhere obvious. Nowhere that a good demo would likely fire a couple of nades before proceeding…
And heavies, while it might be slow, walking through tunnels, and around corners with your gun spinning can be life saving, it often doesn’t hurt to spray an area quickly to reveal spies before proceeding, since they move a lot faster than you spinning around and firing the shotgun behind you occasionally can help in this case also.
And use ‘Q’ to swap quickly between weapons as mentioned above to easily take out opponents at close and distant ranges.
Hope this helps too.
brooooooo, these tips are good for noobs, HORRIBLE for people who’ve played for a while. All noobs, do not learn to play this way. Especially the spy thing, make sure you DO NOT sap first then stab… stab first then sap. If he’s got no other engineers around him, his sentry is done. Even if you die, you get a destruction that will DEFINITELY help your team, and a kill on an engineer that cannot setup camp again until (insert spawn time here) As well, as a scout, you forgot to say, CONSTANTLY move and jump around. Your quick movement and double jump is key to avoiding enemy fire. Only fire when you have a clear shot, (the scatterguns ASS to reload). To take out sentries I wouldn’t bother ubering a heavy, its easier to just launch stickies from a safe place. (3 or 4 will kill the sentry). What else, what else… Yeeah, oh yeaah. Pyros lighting enemy spies on fire cloaked or uncloaked, the spies will glow their team color. (Red spies will glow blue, vice versa). And about the pyro being less effective while running after someone.. That’s bull unless he’s chasing a scout… or if he tries folowing someone from across the map… The flamethrower does the same amount of damage if you are chasing somebody. Another forgotten tip is if you constantly hold down the sapper button, while strafing (running circles around the sentry) the engineer hits off the sapper, however, instantaneously afterwards, another one is put back on, giving ZERO time for him to heal his sentry. After enough time, guess what? Poor engineer has no sentry to defend himself. At that point you’d want to CLOAK and hide while the dumbfounded engineer hits rapidly around him trying to kill you. Eventually he will give up, at which point you stab him because he ill pull out his calculator thing to make another sentry (usually causing him to stand still for a couple seconds)…
The most important part about Team Fortress 2, is even if you’re an amazing player, you need to learn to GET THE HELL OUT whenever you think you should and can.
“Pyros lighting enemy spies on fire cloaked or uncloaked, the spies will glow their team color. >Red spies will glow blue, vice versa<."
i think you got that a little bit wrong. red spies glow red. not blue
“And about the pyro being less effective while running after someone.. That’s bull unless he’s chasing a scout… or if he tries folowing someone from across the map… The flamethrower does the same amount of damage if you are chasing somebody.”
Not quite true – the flamer has a limited range, so if you’re running forward you’re closer to that limit by the time the flame gets there – limiting its range (relative to the pyro). By the same token, firing while running backwards appears to extend the range of the flamer relative to the pyro.
Thanks for the tips guys only started playing 1 week ago, and wow this is alot of fun.
First time as a medic I stayed with a heavy, he told me to “hit it” and i thought wtf. Ya we died heheh I learnt from that. Uber !!!!!!!!!!
Excellent tips. A++
when u r a engineer build something under a hidden platform,keep jumping to get half way through, build a Teleporter, change to a different person,then change back to the engineer BUT!!! before all this, build the entrance WHERE EVER,hope it helps!!!
Great tips, just started playing about 4 days ago and I’m gonna try these out, including the ones left in the comments. Thanks a ton!
Thanks for the tips! Pretty handy for those new to the game,such as myself.
Hey I’m getting the game soon so will it work wit windows vista and how much memory does it take up coz i putting it on a laptop?
THANKS FOR THE TIPS.
to everyone else…lay off the critizism, smartasses.
if you’ve got a correction to make, do it, but dont do it to make yourself sound better. because if you were better, you would have written all these tips fot others to learn from.
thank you all for the good tips ….
As a demo man place stickies on near by walls so the enemies don’t notice them
Or
for capture the point place the stickies on the ceilings, no one ever notices them!
A good spy disguises himself as a spy when cloaked to run faster and thus cover more ground.
Also Spies can disguis themselves as a teammate by pressing “4” (to cloak) and then
“-“.
Another thing a lot of people don’t know is: Engineers can change the direction their sentry, dispenser and tellies are pointing at with the right mouse button.
engineers dont build T.Vs lol :D
also 2 things
1.ive disguised as the enemy and had my nickname before
2.Pyros are MORE effective when they chase after someone (W+M1)
“ive disguised as the enemy and had my nickname before”
if there isn’t a soldier (for example) on the enemy team and you disguise as one then it will use your nickname.
Sorry Sam, with pyros chasing pyros – the one being chased will win if he’s running backwards, with his flamer going.
Assuming the weapon levels are the same, the only situation where he’ll probably lose is where he’s using a backburner and the chaser is not.
Love, Dad.
p.s. Do your homework.
Not sure where you got that no engineer from and it stated that the heavy crits more often when the enemy is closer which is true because he hits the enemy more often when he is closer.
Engineers usually place their backs to the wall so that a spy cannot stab them so easily.
And the article is from October, the game has changed a lot since then..
the majority of these tips are inaccurate, and some are just bad.. No engineer? they’re quite possibly the best defense in most situations. Medics buff players by 150% not 150hp, I’m assuming you just said the wrong thing there. Range doesn’t affect crits with the heavy, or any class. The heavy does more damage at close range due to bullet spread as well as damage fall-off. If an engineer is behind his sentry a spy can stab the engy then quickly sap the sentry, without taking a hit (this is often far better than sap-then-stab because it doesn’t blow your cover) These are just a few things..
When he said no engineer he meant “If your team has 4 snipers and it doesn’t have an engineer, it is better to be an engineer, rather than having another sniper.”
Well you are almost guaranteed to lose if you play CTF and do not have an engineer in your team, unless the other team does not have one as well or is incredibly good while your team is made up of new players who think Sniper is the coolest class (it is actually the most useless class in the game if you ask me, especially if there is more than one on the team).
“this is often far better than sap-then-stab because it doesn’t blow your cover”
bit don’t forget that when faced with a sap-then-stab then you should crouch-jump onto the engineer’s head to that he can’t see you then sap and crouch to land the backstab.
“Cool game but ahhh, from where do u download it?”
It can be purchased using Valves game manager Steam. its around $20 atm.
http://steampowered.com/v/index.php
“It can be purchased using Valves game manager Steam. its around $20 atm.”
OR it can be purchased via orange box along with hl2, portal, hl2 episode 1, hl2 episode 2 and hl2 lost coast for $84.95 (i think)
Actually, It’s free! (I think players who bought it got extra benefits, but anyone can play the game).
actually it is now about 20 or so dollars
Cool game but ahhh, from where do u download it?
steam
^^^ it also causes less damage if done correctly (at the correct angle it causes about 30hp damage and not 50hp if done running forwards)
When you rocket jump as soldier do it running backwards, with a bit of practise you can turn the right way soon as you leave the ground and control the flight direction. you fly for miles! (doing it facing backwards means you get the correct angle to rocket jump, instead of the rocket pointing straight down at the ground.)
hang on what if you go the wrong way because you cant see where you are going
also it IS a spy if they dont let you through, you can walk through team mates but not enemies.
another way to find a spy is if they ar disguised as a pyro but they are on fire, regulare pyros recive the damage from the fire but only briefly, it might explain why they are wearing all rubber and hardly anything else
Tip for spies: You CAN be a Scout, if you jump repeatedly.
Scouts double jump, not to mention, every spy scout I’ve ever seen, was PAINFULLY obvious, not because of jumping, but because they were moving so slow. The Spy can’t move any faster than his base speed no matter what the disguise
you cant really disguise as scout because most scouts double jump wheras spy cant
When charging the medic for uber, have a soldier shoot into the chest from the right or left side. It will not refill his health, but will refill his ammo. He won’t have to reload, and can charge the medic’s uber much faster. If facing the chest from the right, aim directly at the right side, and press up + right to stay put.
Tim that’s not what I meant. Once a teleporter is placed players exiting it will always face the same direction which is a nice to know.
Not always nice when the teleport leads to a group of enemy sentrys or a nasty spray (both are forms of “Greifing”)
uhh u say “Players exit teleporters always facing the same direction” but when ur a engineer you can rotate any of ur structures by right clicking before you drop them. This means they can be facing anywhere, it also means u can put sentrys facing the right way in CORNERS. Thanks
Medic only overheals to 150% not 150 hps (it’s only 150 hps on the 300 hp Heavy)
First of all, how do you activate fast weapon switching? Secondly, when disguised as a Heavy or Soldier, a spy will automatically slow down accordingly. Scout, of course, is still a no-go.
Otherwise, thanks for the list of tips. Most of them I knew from reading the forums and the like, but it’s still nice and helpful.
probably little known tip: the medic is also faster than the spy so by comparison if your walking side by side, you will be caught.
The medic is the 2nd fastest character in the game. The fastest being the scout. 3rd being pyro/engie/sniper(unscoped)/spy speed, 4th being demoman, 5th soldier, 6th heavy, 7th heavy (spinning minigun barrel) and probably scoped sniper.
Thanks for all those tips. I think the first one (Fast Weapon Switching) is the most basic tip for every first person shooter!