Team Fortress 2 Engineer Guide
January 16, 2008
The Engineer is the primary defense class of Team Fortress 2. He is armed with the ability to create powerful Sentry Guns, useful Dispensers that give health and ammo to teammates, and teleporters that quickly move your team across the map. He is lightly armed and has low health points, but no one can take him on when he’s behind a heavily fortified turret.
1. Weapons
The Engineer has a Shotgun, a Pistol, and a Wrench. These are important for fighting off enemies who try to attack you when your Sentry Gun isn’t there to protect you. The Shotgun is the typical close range gun: use it when you’re attacking someone close by. The Pistol is just like every other Pistol: use it when your opponent is out of Shotgun range. The Wrench is a bit different: Use it to deal damage to close enemies, and more importantly, use it to build and repair your Structures. The Wrench deals a large amount of damage compared to other melee weapons, and often, I’ve been able to one hit kill Snipers and Spies who got too close. If you hit a building with your Wrench while it’s under construction your building will go up faster.
2. Sentry Guns
Sentry Guns (SGs) are incredibly powerful structures that the Engineer can build. They do tremendous amounts of damage, and can prevent enemies from advancing towards your base. You build an SG by choosing your build menu, and selecting the first option. Sentries have three different build levels, with each being more powerful. The first level is a single barreled gun, with a little more power than a Pistol. The second level has a second barrel, and more damage, making it the equivalent of a Heavy’s Mini Gun. The final level has double barrels, and a rocket launcher, making it have the power of a Heavy and a Soldier combined. Each level also adds more health, so it’s a good idea to get the Sentry to level three as soon as you can. They have an almost perfect aim, with most of the shots fired hitting an enemy and killing them in less than four seconds. The final stage SG has a tremendous amount of force, making any enemy who survives a Rocket blast get propelled away from the turret. Sentries don’t have a limitless range though, but when you build an SG you have a blue or red dome appear around you, showing the distance that it can fire. It’s best to put Sentries in places where they can fire at any visible location, and avoid having someone stand just out of range shooting. Corners are good places for Sentries, due to the element of surprise, but it’s also possible for a Heavy to destroy a fully leveled up SG if he can get close, so give yourself a good five foot distance from a corner. Be sure to put a Sentry next to a wall, crouch behind it when an enemy gets close, and keep hitting the SG with your wrench to prevent it from getting destroyed, making the only way to shoot you is by managing to defeat your SG. Sentries can work underwater, so if you need to, you can build it there.
3. Dispensers
Dispensers are Engineer buildings that provide health, ammo, and metal to you and your teammates. They create 40 metal every dozen seconds or so, so they are important to build first if you’re in an area with no other metal supplies. They heal a decent amount of health, and can save your life when your on fire, which are both pretty positive aspects. They can heal all your teammates that are within a few feet, so you can always count on having a few allies hanging around, getting healed, and you can feel a bit safer with someone around in case a Spy shows up.
4. Teleporters
A Teleporter comes in two parts; an entrance and an exit. When someone steps on the entrance they teleport to the exit, it’s that simple. If you place an exit underwater you can have a nicely hidden mode of transportation. Entrances on the other hand, aren’t possible to use underwater, even though you can build one there. It’s best to build a Teleporter right outside of your spawn point, so it gets maximum use. Another good place to put an exit is close to your Sentry, where it can serve as a sort of early warning system for Spies. You can shoot any Spies who greedily sap it, and avoid having them kill you. You can rotate the direction you can build anything by pressing your secondary fire button, and teleporting right into a wall is no fun, so rotate the teleporter AWAY from a wall.
5. Defense
Defense is where Engineers come into play. If you are near a metal supply, then build your Sentry first, otherwise, build a dispenser. Once you scout out a location, build a Sentry using the tips from section 2. After you’ve placed the Sentry next to a wall, put your back against it, and build a Dispenser as close as you can to the wall. Now that you have a a wall on your side, and a dispenser behind you, you can crouch and put your back on the corner of the dispenser and wall. This makes it so you have no way of getting your back stabbed, all attacks hit your Sentry instead of you, and you have an infinite supply of metal and health. Just be sure to repair everything when it gets damaged, and you’ll be fine. If you built a Dispenser first, then just put your back to it and place the Sentry facing where you want to shoot. If a Spy manages to get to you and saps your buildings, you can hit your Sentry twice to remove the sapper, hit the Spy with a Shotgun blast, and then repair your Dispenser. If he manages to sap your buildings again then just repeat the process until he gets killed.
6. Offense
The only way you can use a Sentry offensively is by putting it in a dangerous location where even a Scout can destroy it, so don’t even try using it offensively unless you know that you can get it up and running before someone kills you. I personally like putting them in places where people don’t look, because it buys you some time to get your buildings up. Another thing to do is have your teammates guard you while you put up a Sentry. Even though it’s called offense, you’re technically still using it to defend a location far away from your base, but it’s still useful in places like the sewers in 2Fort or the tunnel in Gravelpit.
7. Teamwork
If two Engineers work on one Sentry, they can have it to level two in the same amount of time it normally takes a single Engineer to build it. Also, if you’re Sentry is right next to another one and it’s Engineer is gone, it wouldn’t kill you to hit it with your Wrench once in a while to reload and repair it. It will make your Sentries last longer, and it’s going to feel nice when someone else returns the favor.
8. One Last Thing
When an enemy or teammate gets killed, they drop their weapon. Every class in the game can pick up those weapons and restore their ammo. The Engineer can also use weapons on the ground to add to their metal supply, so be sure to pick up any weapons you see. You can also get metal from the pieces of broken Engineer buildings.
