Team Fortress 2 General Advice
February 9, 2008
There are many strategies, hints and tips that can benefit every class, so instead of re-writing the same thing for every guide, I’ve just put a list of general advice here.
1. Practice
When you first load up Team Fortress 2, you might not be used to a game that involves more than shooting everything in sight. Spending a good ten to fifteen minutes will let you get used to their strengths, and give you an idea of their weaknesses. Since you’ll die often when you haven’t gotten the hang of things you might want to switch over to an instant respawn server, especially if you’re a Scout, Medic or Spy.
2. Setup
During the setup portion of a map like Dustbowl, your team’s Medics will get a boost to their Ubercharge speed, and will get Ubered in around forty seconds. This can let your team charge out and capture points easily, so you might want to be a Medic at the start of a round, use an Ubercharge, and then choose another class you want to play. Stay away from the doors or gates at the start, and see if one of your team’s Spies can go outside and sap any Sentries and back stab any Demomen. And if you’re team doesn’t have any Medics, Engineers, Pyros, or whatever you want, either complain about it until someone chooses that class, or just change classes yourself.
3. Classes
It’s best to have a balanced team, which means NOT having ten Heavies and six Soldiers. If your team isn’t balanced the enemy team will realize it and then become a class that can kill your entire team. Balance ensures that any enemy who gets close will end up getting killed. Switching classes often is also good, since it means that the enemy will have to continually think on their feet, and will let you look like a hero when you’re exploiting weakness and scoring points for your team.
4. The Respawn Room
When you change classes the game kills you where you stand. If you change in the respawn room you don’t die, and you don’t wait for your respawn timer to reset. Enemies can still attack you in your respawn, so never stand close to the door and leave it open, or else a Demoman will get wise and put Sticky Bombs everywhere. The cabinet in the Respawn Room restores all your ammo, metal and health, but will not recharge the cloak for a Spy. It’s often better to retreat to the cabinet than to die and wait fifteen seconds to respawn.
5. Melee Weapons
You get melee weapons for a reason. Occasionally they are useful, and can deal lots of damage. If you’re playing a slow class, then you never want to use a melee weapon unless you’re in a small room and the enemy is cornered. You can also kill enemies who don’t see you fast if you hit them with a quiet melee attack instead of a loud gun than might miss. As a fast class like a Scout or a Medic, your melee weapons can save your life if you attack a slow enemy. If you are a Demoman or a Soldier, and you are in a small area that will damage you if you fire you gun, you should also use your melee weapon. As a Heavy you can use the secondary fire button to punch with your right fist. It doesn’t really affect game play, but it’s pretty cool to know.
6. Spy Check
Spies can easily back stab any class except for fast moving Scouts, and can quickly sap every Engineer building in sight if you don’t pay attention. If you shoot at anyone on your team, you can damage any Spies, and as a Pyro you can set them on fire for the rest of your team to see where he is. Another thing to do is to run into any teammate you see, and check whether you can run through them. You can run through teammates, but Spies are like running into a wall. If you see a Spy, but aren’t close enough to kill him, you should use you pre-programmed response, “SPY”, by pointing at the enemy and pressing it. It will tell every nearby teammate what class the Spy is. If someone near you uses that command, and it happens to say that your class is a Spy, you should fire a weapon (preferably your secondary one so you don’t waste ammo) in order to tell your teammates that you aren’t a Spy. Finally, if you see someone who has the same name as you, then they’re a Spy.
7. Communication
Since teamwork is a major aspect of the game, then being able to communicate is a good thing. I’d suggest that you buy a microphone, so that you can talk to your team. If not, then use the built in quick-speak by pressing “z”, “x” and “c”, and then selecting the term you want. Typing out what you want to say typically isn’t good unless it’s incredibly important. Communication is also good for organization. If your Medic doesn’t say when he’s going to use his Ubercharge, or if your team doesn’t say where a Spy is and what he’s disguised as, then your team is going to end up at a disadvantage.
8. Combinations
When you have two or three classes fighting together, then you can become much more deadly than normal. A Medic and Heavy can become a death machine, a Scout being supported by a Sniper can raid enemy outposts, and a Pyro and Engineer can make defend an area from anyone. You can get any two classes working together to solve problems, or just kill a lot of enemies. It’s a good thing to keep in mind.
9. Helping
You can also prevent your team from losing by helping people around you. If your an Engineer, you can build another Engineer’s buildings, and keep them alive when they get shot at. If you see a Spy stabbing, sapping and shooting someone, then kill them. Not only can you save someone from having to wait for their respawn, you can also get them to help you when you’re in trouble.
10. Never Underestimate Critical Hits
You might have already noticed, but sometimes your weapons will glow, deal more damage, make a funny noise, and have the word “Critical” appear when it hits an enemy. Critical hits do loads more damage than normal hits, so you can easily kill or get killed in less than half the time it normally takes. A critical Rocket, Grenade, or Shotgun blast can kill in one hit. Critical hits often pop up at the most convenient time, so don’t fret when you’ve got a tough enemy to fight. It’s also good to always be at full health so you don’t get killed as fast.
11. Water
When you jump into water that you can swim in, it extinguishes you if you’re on fire. If you’re on a map like Well, where an Spy can jump out of the water in the train station, you can look at the water, and if you see a tiny splash, it means a spy jumped out.
12. Crouch Jumping
If you jump and press crouch, you can get onto different outcroppings in rocks and jump on Engineer buildings. If you’re a Demoman, Soldier or just someone with a bomb below you, pressing crouch jumping when it detonates propels you further than normal. A scout can crouch jump on both of his jumps by pressing jump, crouch, jump and crouch rapidly. On several areas, such as the left building on Dustbowl when you defend the sixth capture point, or on CTF_Well when you jump on the windowsills under the sniper area, crouch jumping gives you that extra boost you need.
13. Explosive Jumps
If you’re going to play as a Demoman or Soldier and you want to make an explosive jump, you’re going to end up hurting yourself. You can have a Medic heal you while you jump and end up having full health when you land, but Medics aren’t always available. If you’re at a place with a health pickup, like the B point on Gravel Pit, and you want to get to the roof, you can time your jump so you grab the health on your way up. It’s easy to do, and you don’t have to rely on someone else to help you jump.
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