The Big Book of TF2 tips

[Tsukuyomi]

So I've seen a couple of 'I'm sucking at TF2! I hate this game!' topics recently. Not really surprising since it's gone free to play, but as I was looking over the last one I remembered, I thought to myself: "there's alot of great advice in this topic. Why can't it be compiled into one big topic that a TF2 newbie who's looking for tips can dig through and maybe find the solution to his or her problems?"

So, while I'm not sure this'll get anywhere, I'll ask anyway: If you could give any advice to a new Team Fortress player, what would it be?

I'd throw up the NerfNow comic since that is supremely fitting advice for any new player, but I don't have it, so eh.

 

[Pandaman1911]

http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Main_Page

And there you have it. Every single thing anyone could ever want to know about the game.

You can begin thanking me.

 

[Farther than stars]

I think you mean this one?

-My advice: if you're being backstabbed to frustration, switch to pyro and give those spies something to run from! >

-Also, it's the comma (that's ",") for switching classes during the game. I had over 100 hours playtime clocked before I noticed that. >.>

-It's all about mentality. Try not to focus on winning the round or how often you're dying. As long as you're killing one guy per life, then that means you're an asset to your team for playing. Just try to focus on having a good time and you'll improve before you know it.

-Scouts are a good class to quickly scan a map which you don't know, so that you can find all the passages and medkits. Or working as a medic to help a stronger class is good for exploration as well. (And snipers give a good view of where the fighting lines are without having to jump right in.)

-Setting sticky bomb traps at strategic locations can be done from a distance and can be a one-hit kill. (Sticky bombs are the secondary weapon of the Demoman.)

-You can fire sticky bombs further by holding the fire button down and waiting for it to charge before releasing it.

-You can do a whole load of damage on an enemy sentry with a charged scoped sniper shot. (Charging is that little yellow stairs which fills up when you've zoomed in with the sniper rifle.)

-Never look straight at an enemy when you're disguised as a spy.

-When you plan to decloak as a spy (become visible), look for a hiding spot and croach until you've decloaked. That'll help not to give away the fact that you're a spy.

-Scout and pyro are good classes to cloak into as a spy, since they're fast. Soldier and Heavy not so much, since they just slow you down.

I could go on all day doing this, but that's it for now.

 

[rabidmidget]

The most valuable skill a spy can learn is the stab-and-sap, basically, when you see an engineer sitting behind his sentry, stab him, then as the sentry is turning to fce you, run around it in the same direction it's turning (to give yourself another second or so) and quickly switch to sapper and sap it.

It becomes easy after practicing a couple of times.

 

[siffty]

I think you mean this one?

My advice: if you're being backstabbed to frustration, switch to pyro and give those spies something to run from! >
Also, it's the comma (that's ",") for switching classes during the game. I had over 100 hours playtime clocked before I noticed that. >.>

I love you, for that pic

 

[Tommeh Brownleh]

My ultimate tip: pick the class who's playstyle closest resembles that of your favorite game. I like splinter cell and saints row 2, so I'll play as scout and spy.

Another one: YES, YOU CAN HAVE TOO MANY SNIPERS AND TOO MANY ENGIS.

 

[Farther than stars]

My ultimate tip: pick the class who's playstyle closest resembles that of your favorite game. I like splinter cell and saints row 2, so I'll play as scout and spy.

Another one: YES, YOU CAN HAVE TOO MANY SNIPERS AND TOO MANY ENGIS.

Well... I liked the shotgun in Saint's Row, so you're going to have to explain that to me. Also, yes. Your team is far stronger when it's divided over all nine classes.

 

[Neverhoodian]

http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Main_Page

And there you have it. Every single thing anyone could ever want to know about the game.

You can begin thanking me.

As an addendum, here's the particular link new players should check out first:
http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Strategy

Soldier is a good starter class, in my opinion. He's one of the more straightforward and adaptable classes in the game with his powerful rocket launchers and large amount of health. Another good pick is the Medic, since it allows players to provide invaluable healing and observe the other classes in action.

 

[garfoldsomeoneelse]

A couple of quick tips on each class:

Spoiler: Scout

The double-jump isn't a cute little mobility bonus you get to compensate for being fragile, it's essential to making sure you're too hard to hit for your measly handful of hitpoints to hold you back. You can change directions in mid-air with the second jump, so do it constantly and up close to keep your enemy spinning in place while you hammer them with your shotgun. Your job, aside from being a pain in the ass, is to capture objectives, which you can do twice as fast as any other class.

Spoiler: Soldier

Practice makes perfect. The only thing that's going to make you a true terror with the rocket launcher is familiarity with the game, because not only do you need a very instinctual feel for how quickly your rockets are going to connect (and therefore how much you need to lead your target), but also having a feel for how quickly each of your opponents can move, since that's another huge factor in aiming. Just use it a lot, and you'll get better. Also, if you empty your launcher and there's someone up close, DO NOT RELOAD: SWITCH TO YOUR SHOTGUN. The shotgun may seem like an underpowered weapon, but with enough deliberate use, you'll become deadly with it, as well. Also, if you have direct line-of-sight on a sentry that's too far away to shoot you, nail that ***** like it's the prom queen.

Oh, and crouching during a rocket-jump will give you extra height, but this will actually give you so much altitude that you'll take falling damage if you land at your original height, which means taking damage from both the rocket and the fall. Use it only to reach ridiculously high areas.

Spoiler: Pyro

The default loadout for the pyro is incredibly technical and rarely played to its full potential, despite being fairly noob-friendly. Here's a few things that you need to get good with if you're going to play this class effectively:

-Airblast: can return rockets and grenades to their sender with a mini-crit bonus, clear stickies, launch tougher opponents off cliffs (a plr_hightower rage-inducer) or into areas where they can't finish you off, and perhaps most importantly, completely screw up your enemy's ubercharge by either separating the medic from his buddy or by simply making sure they never get close enough to punch a gaping hole in your front line.

-Switching weapons: The detonator and flare gun are cute harassment weapons, but learning how and when to use the shotgun will make you an absolute monster. More often than not, you'll kill your target faster by quickly igniting him and immediately putting a few shells into his face instead of trying to constantly roast him. Also, the axtinguisher (which crits burning enemies) makes mincemeat of any class that you can reliably hit.

-Spycheck: Engineers are vital to success. Medics are vital to success. Heavies are vital to success. A good spy knows this, and can easily wreck the day of all of the above. You are the only reliable line of defense between a skilled spy and your team, and everybody will hate you if you don't. So do it often, and if you know there are a lot of spies dicking around, stay close enough to your team's load-bearing players to be of immediate assistance. Everyone you see gets a puff of flame, and every engie nest gets a complimentary loop-o-fire. If you want to be extra-helpful, use a Homewrecker to keep important structures from being sapped on those inevitable occasions where you're not omnipotent enough to keep your engie from getting stab-n-sapped (sentry first). Use your instincts and be liberal with the fire, because without team damage, there is no such thing as being too suspicious.

Spoiler: Demoman

You've got two jobs: the first is suppression. If you're defending, nothing slows an enemy advance like filling a chokepoint with pipe bombs, because they're both highly visible capable of taking a chunk out of anything standing too close. If you want to see this at its most effective, go demoman when defending stage one, cap two of cp_dustbowl, and use your primary grenade launcher to bounce some rounds into all the tunnels leading out into the courtyard. You'll get called a spammer and cause a lot of rage, but haters gonna hate. Your second job is (as the name implies) the destruction of enemy buildings. While the arc in your weapons may seem like a disadvantage at first, you'll discover that this is actually incredibly useful for launching indirect attacks on things you'd rather not have to make eye-contact with (like sentries). While the pipebomb launcher and sticky launcher are both viable choices, the sticky launcher is usually your best bet, as it delivers its damage all at once and keeps engineers from hiding behind their sentry and repairing the gradual damage caused by other weapons. Your weapons aren't simple to use, but they are incredibly effective in the hands of a skillful user, so like the soldier, practice makes perfect. You might not be able to reliably hit anything at first, but with enough use, you'll be scoring direct hits like it's nothing.

Spoiler: Heavy

You're the biggest and meanest thing on the field, but you've also got crap mobility and are usually #1 on everybody's kill list. The first thing to bear in mind is that range matters A LOT with all weapons, but especially with the minigun. I've found the best way to get a sense of each weapon's effective range is to go to "Advanced Options" and enable "display damage", which will display each hit over your enemy's head as a number. Your role is basically the same as the soldier's (frontline presence and general shit-wrecking), but while the soldier is fairly well-rounded in all respects, you're limited severely in your ability to get around and attack quickly. Your minigun needs time to spin up, so learn to rev it in anticipation of enemies, rather than waiting until you're in the thick of it (for example, when rounding corners or entering a room). Don't get comfortable in any one place, because a heavy that lingers too long will give snipers and spies a chance to EASILY one-shot the most durable class in the game (which is ultra-satisfying). Remember, this is team fortress, which means there's always at least one class with the ability to kill you with a sigh under the right circumstances.

Spoiler: Engineer

There's way too many aspects to quickly cover, so go here: Engie Strategy [http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/Engineer_strategy]. Also note that the site has one of these pages for every class, so it's worth a read if you're looking for more in-depth view on each class. You'll learn more from TF2 wiki than you'll ever learn from me.

Spoiler: Sniper

Your job isn't as simple as just killing things: to be an asset to your team, your job is to weaken the enemy team by taking the heaviest hitters and best players out of the fight. You have the ability to take out every class with one well-placed shot, so use that advantage to assist your team by saving them a lot of ammo and health lost. Here's what your priority targets should be, first being the greatest:
-Snipers
-Medics ready to deploy an uber
-Engineers (in nest or carrying a toolbox on their shoulder)
-Known spies heading for your key players
-Heavies
-Soldiers
-Demomen
-Pyros
-Everything else

Notice how snipers are first. This is less about contributing and more about self-preservation, because nothing is more dangerous to a sniper than another sniper, and if they un-tint your glasses, you won't be able to help anybody, now, will you? An engineer in his nest (surrounded by buildings) is usually going to be quite well-fortified and able to maintain his little castle from inside its safety, so aim for the hardhat and let your team do the rest. It's also worth noting that a charged rifle shot can do a lot of damage to a building, so feel free to put some rounds on those as well. Everything else on the list is in order of hitpoints undone per headshot, which is helpful to your team for obvious reasons.

DO NOT GET FLANKED. Always make sure your perch is fairly secure, because unless they suck, all the other classes will be able to ruin your day by getting close enough. Your SMG is your best bet for self-defense, but your priority should be not having to rely on it.

Also, as a final note, your sniper rifle will put a team-colored dot on whatever it's aiming at, so if you're hoping to pick off enemies as they emerge from a doorway, avoid alerting them to your presence by aiming at something nearby that won't be visible to anyone walking out of it, like the doorframe.

Spoiler: Medic

-HEAL. EVERYBODY. The more players you have in the fight, the better your chances of winning, so don't crawl up a heavy's ass and keep him at 450 when you're surrounded by team mates that are slowly burning to death.

-Don't be afraid to deploy an ubercharge early if it looks like you're about to die, because it's better to deploy it too soon than to lose it completely.

-Move constantly when following players. A lot of the stuff your patient is going to get hit with has splash damage, and just because it misses him doesn't mean it won't hit you. Situational awareness is paramount to keep your squishy butt from getting splattered, so anticipate things before they hit you.

-This should be obvious, but only uber players that are going to make good effect of having ten seconds of screaming invincibility. Heavies, soldiers, demomen and pyros should always be your first choice over any other class.

Spoiler: Spy

lol [http://tf2wiki.net/wiki/spy_strategy]

While I can't tell you anything that's going to make you immediately good, I'll say this: when learning the class, you're going to suck, and you're going to die a lot without accomplishing anything. Don't let this discourage you. The spy has a lot of power to cause chaos, and as such, the class is horribly unforgiving, but as with all other classes, there's no way you won't get better with time, so if you want to get good with the spy, you're gonna have to do it the hard way.

 

[TheYellowCellPhone]

Here's my following tips for each class:

Scout:

NEVER use the Force-a-Nature. In most cases, the Scattergun will win over every weapon -- it does just around as much damage, but it's more reliable, carries more ammo, and doesn't have a stupid knockback.

Play this class as you would a Spy -- never go into the front lines, instead, sneak around and attack oblivious enemies with a point blank hit.

Soldier:

The Rocket Launcher's speed and splash damage takes getting used to. This is an ideal easy to learn, hard to master class. Primarily stick to the default Launcher, since most others use the Rocket Launcher's rocket speed and splash damage.

The Equalizer is unreliable, stick with the Shovel.

Pyro:

The Backburner is a bad choice. You sacrifice helping your team with the airblast to instead do more damage. Airblast is great when used right -- extinguish team mates, blow back Ubers, reflect projectiles, knock enemies off high heights or control points. With the Backburner, you practically can kiss that airblast goodbye.

Homewrecker should never be used for destroying buildings, only for destroying sappers, it's better to use your flamethrower.

Degreaser + Axetinguisher is the best combination.

Demoman:

This class is very similar to Soldier, except it's less beginner friendly. The grenades are harder to predict a point to hit someone, since they bounce, they arc, and they explode after several seconds. But, the grenades are powerful at every range, and a direct grenade hit does a lot of damage.

Use your sticky launcher, not only is it good at area denial but it can limit the flow of enemies.

Heavy:

Sasha is the better Minigun -- Tomislav doesn't fire fast enough, Brass Beast is way too slow, Natasha is too weak.

Always right-click your Sandvich to save time and your life. Remember to heal your Medic with the Sandvich if needed.

Engineer:

First, study a map and see where most Engineers put their sentry gun. That's usually the best place to put them, but for the love of god, do not build a sentry gun right next to another persons.

If your buildings suddenly are covered in stickies, an unstoppable Uber, or your Sentry isn't doing well, for the love of God, save yourself.

If your Sentry is ever sapped, follow this graph:

1. Do you know who the Spy is? Fuck your buildings, kill that Spy.
2. Are team mates around who saw what happened? Unsap your buildings, let them kill the Spy.
3. Did the Spy break disguise? Unsap your sentry, but don't give the Spy an easy backstab.
4. Did the Spy run away, or you don't know who it is? Unsap your buildings, be on high alert.

Medic:

The Quick Fix does not support pocketing (healing one team mate in particular), it supports healing an entire team.

Kritzkreig does best on Defense.

Never use the Bonesaw, always use The Solemn Vow or the Amputator at least.

Keep moving. A medic should be everyone's first target, so never give anyone a chance to take you out.

Sniper:

Keep moving. Keep moving. Don't stand still. Keep moving.

Kill an enemy (especially another Sniper), they'll know your location if you stand there. Move to another location at least every two or three kills. Never get in a Sniper war, that's just counterproductive to your team's efforts. Always take out the slower enemies (Heavies, Soldiers, Demomen). Never use the Razorback, rely on your hearing and erratic locations to keep Spies out.

Spy:

Very hard class for newbies. It's a class that takes high risk, high reward to a new level -- a good Spy can hold back an entire team, but a bad Spy will be nothing but a player who helps fuel the other teams' Ubers, Buff Banners and Revenge crits.

First of all, never ever ever use the Cloak and Dagger. The Invis Watch is better in every way -- longer cloak time, can be refilled with ammo, supports a fast and unpredictable Spy. The Dead Ringer is great for fooling an enemy, but a CnD spy is no help whatsoever, all you'll find yourself doing is sitting in a corner staring at opportunity walk by because you won't move.

Next, take risks, especially with Your Eternal Reward or if you're wielding the Dead Ringer. If anything goes wrong, cloak, run away, change disguise. If a backstab fails, don't keep stabbing your enemy in the face. Either cloak and run, or Revolver and backpedal.

General TF2 tips

Everyone is a Spy unless proven otherwise.
Never attack a Heavy from the front if they have their gun spun up.
Medic gets the Health Pack first, no exceptions.
Engineers get the teleporter first, no exceptions.
Aim for the Medic first.
Use voice commands (Incoming, Help, Thanks)
Kill the Engineer, THEN the sentry.

 

[LeafofStone]

As a pyro only ever use the Degreaser, yes it does less damage but being able to switch weapons faster is so good, especially with Axestinguisher.

As a scout just keep moving, don't stop, preferably try to be in the air often and make your movements unpredictable so snipers have a hard time.

As a heavy learn the jump and spin. When next to a door jump and start spinning up that mini gun while in the air.

As a demo, if you have a lot of heads, just keep collecting them although your health caps, your speed doesn't. If you get enough heads you will be faster than a scout.

As a spy, accept that everybody hates you, you dirty little shit

 

[McPulse]

Well... I liked the shotgun in Saint's Row, so you're going to have to explain that to me. Also, yes. Your team is far stronger when it's divided over all nine classes.

16 medics healing each other on payload is guaranteed success. 12 Engineers and Two Pyros are all you need to win A/D.

 

[bpm195]

wiki.teamfortress.com

Each class page has a video explaining how to play it. The videos may be fairly dated, but all of them are still entirely relevant.

Skill is relevant but tactics win. Watch the videos for classes you play (and eventually watch them for every class) and take the advice to heart for both knowing what you're doing and what you're opponents are doing.

Also remember that each server has a different dynamic and skill levels. Be aware that will work on a server will unskilled players will fail miserably against skilled players, and things that dominate against teams that don't communicate may fail against teams that do communicate.

 

[Mute52]

Does your team have 3 Spies?

If so, DON'T PLAY SPY.

Same goes for every class, if there's a variety of classes, your team is more likely to succeed

 

[The Pinray]

As a dedicated Medic for the past few years I just have to say: PROTECT THE MEDIC!

Also, if you think about being a Medic, remember that while the Heavy-Medic team-up has its many benefits, it's always wise to keep your other teammates alive. When someone screams MEDIC! then heal them. Too many times have I seen a damn newbie Medic sticking to his Heavy and completely ignoring everyone else that runs him by. Pop the Uber if you think you're going to die. Don't run around too long with a full Uber. You will lose it. Also, stay on your feet. Don't camp. Keep moving. Don't forget that Medics are priority targets. And don't run around trying to kill people. Just don't. That gun is a last resort. I've seen that a bit recently. It's hilarious and a bit sad, ha ha.

General tips: Don't forget to Spy check! COMMUNICATE for goodness sake, communicate. I can not repeat that enough. And be sure your team is balanced out for the situation. There is such thing as too much of a good thing.

Also, just enjoy playing the game! Don't let the elitist morons get to you. Let loose and have fun.