So you're playing TF2 and maybe you're choosing a class and Spy just sounds awesome; or you've been playing a little bit already and you want to be a stealthy badass like that guy who just jumped on your head while invisible, shot you through the face to kill you, then went on to chain stab the rest of your team. Something like this...
Ain't no thang...

Then you start playing Spy and it ends up looking more like this:

Congratulations! You are a baby shpee just like the rest of us were when we started! Being a Shpee just means that you are a Spy who doesn't act very Spy-like... Shpees have lots of questions, like: Why can't I do any damage with my gun? What the heck does the weird box with the buttons and switches do? Why can't I just stab someone in the eyeball with my knife and kill them? Why does everyone keep killing me while I'm disguised? And how the heck do I kill someone while invisible?

This guide may help answer just enough to get you out of the baby shpee nest and get you your wings; in other words, the absolute basic mechanics of how the Spy works. The Spy class is considered by most players to have the highest skill baseline, because it plays very differently from most other classes and games. This guide WILL teach you how the Spy plays different, so you can jump to that baseline ASAP. This guide will NOT cover advanced Spy tips, tricks, and techniques (there are plenty of other guides for that by much better Spies than myself); but since there wasn't a guide explaining all this stuff when I started (I checked), and there still doesn't seem to be one (I checked again), here we are now. I am sure as people read this guide they will point out other locations where you can get this information, and I will try to link to as many of these as seems helpful.


Disclaimer: I am not a pro-Spy. I am barely a halfway decent Spy, so the majority of this guide will discuss the gameplay mechanics and stats stuff you could probably glean from the Wiki. However, given that a lot of the things discussed are common mistakes and misunderstandings about the Spy, especially illustrated by the stupid stuff I have done, I think it will still be relevant, but check it out and see what you think. Oh and if you see any typos or mistakes or have suggestions for how I can make this guide better, please let me know.

Further Disclaimer: I'm a bit of a long-winded know-it-all, so this guide is LOOONG. If you're wanting the tl;dr version, check out my brief summaries at the end of each section.

• TL;DR summaries are in list form like this.

Also, look for the item icons for my summaries of the weapon/item variants if that's what you're looking for as well.

Now for the introduction to the Spy...


In this corner we have the lanky, balaclava'd Frenchman himself! Weighing in at 125 base HP, this puts the Spy in the lightweight league for health along with Scout, Engineer, and Sniper! With a top speed of 107%, the Spy can keep pace with the Medic; only falling behind the Scout at the races; and outrun any other class in the game!

Now what does this mean for you? The Spy is classified as a Support class for a reason: he's not a frontline damage dealer. The Spy is a Man on a Mission; he's not there to execute fancy kills (though it is fun when you manage to do that), he's there for a specific purpose.

The goals of a Spy are:

• Get behind the enemy front lines
  
• Identify key targets that are giving your team trouble or will soon be causing trouble
  
• Either eliminate or hinder those targets so your team can get ahead
  
• Rinse and repeat (of course, surviving whenever possible helps you to repeat this process more quickly)
  
• Oh, and you can also literally spy on the enemy team and communicate what they are doing to the rest of your team, that's good too! (Crazy! I know!)

With these goals in mind, the rest of the guide will tell you about how the equipment given to the Spy helps him to accomplish his mission.

However, here is the first rule of playing Spy:
If there are already 2 people (or frequently even just one person) playing Spy, don't play Spy! Your team probably also has multiple Snipers and Engineers too, so it really needs more Combat Classes to establish a front line rather than a bunch of Shpees running around trying to figure out what to do, and there is no reason EVER that 1/4 of your 12-person team should be Spies. By the way, this is especially true if you have to read this guide to understand how to Spy! :-P

On to the Arsenal!


So in the picture above you see the Spy set. Notice anything different about it? That's right, there are FIVE different items up there, which is more than any other class in the game! Most other classes only have 3 (the Engineer has 4 by my mechanics-focused perspective, feel free to disagree with me about the construct/destruct PDA), so right away you should understand that the Spy is going to play differently than the other classes and his mechanics are more complicated. All 5 of these items drastically alter the gameplay mechanics for the Spy from the way they are for the other classes. The Spy is the class with the highest skill threshold, which means it's the easiest to screw up if you don't know how it is different from the other classes, so pay attention! Because now we're going to learn what all this stuff does.

These items don't do anything to the enemy team directly, but instead are used for positioning the Spy where he needs to be. They can also have major psychological effects (on the enemy team, hopefully not you), so don't rule that out in your considerations either!

Ok, the first thing I want to talk about for the Spy is the invisibility cloak, controlled by an assortment of watches, since it is one of the defining gameplay changes that makes the class different. With the cloak, a Spy is able to make himself invisible to the enemy team for a certain period of time. Sounds great, right? I know when I started I was imagining myself being one of those ghostly spies who shows up out of nowhere and destroys everything and ruins your day (I play Engineer as my main class and have from the beginning, so I was one of those players who tries Spy next because he's Engie's arch-nemesis, right?). So I ran out of spawn, went invisible and snuck around the corner right up behind an enemy Medic, got my knife out and went for the backstab!
We got ourselves a bad*** here!

Except nothing happened... And nothing continued to happen for another few seconds until my cloak timer ran out, I became visible and an enemy Heavy mowed me down...

Why? I couldn't figure it out for a few rounds of playing Spy, but it's pretty simple. The first problem with my plan is that the Spy cannot attack while cloaked and it takes a full 2 seconds for you to decloak! This can especially be an issue depending on the watch you use. The second problem is that when you bump into an enemy while invisible, most of the time you'll shimmer. Remember this guy from the video? -->

Obviously he's having quite a few problems, but I figure that he was using the Cloak & Dagger, which lets you stay invisible indefinitely so long as you stay still, and he couldn't do anything while he was invisible. But you can see what I mean about flickering transparent briefly when someone bumps into you, since this happens several times in the video before the Pyro mercilessly burns him to death...

Related to flickering when bumping into an enemy while inivisble is that fire and liquids (including water!) will also give you away even while you're invisible. If you get hit with Jarate, Mad Milk, a weapon that makes you bleed, you come out of water while cloaked, or you get set on fire; you will be partially visible because of the particle effects associated with these conditions. Also, you will be faintly visible underwater while cloaked! So stay away from Pyros! It's no good to still be visible to the enemy AND still not be able to do anything, so if you can't find a health pack right away to put out the fire, just drop your cloak and try to kill the Pyro because you were probably dead anyway. However, as of the Gun Mettle update, cloaking now gives you a 20% damage reduction and decreases the time that bleed, milk, jarate, and fire stick around, so if you think you can escape, go for it with the cloak!

The final thing to watch for is the charge on your watch because if you run out of charge you can't cloak. Also, with the Dead Ringer, if you don't have 100% full charge, you can't cloak at all. So be on the lookout for ammo boxes while visible with the Dead Ringer or Cloak and Dagger, or anytime with the Invisibility Watch. One other thing to keep in mind about the cloaks are that the loud crackling sound you hear when you become visible again can also be heard by the enemy team! The Dead Ringer is especially loud, though the Cloak and Dagger seems to be a little bit more quiet than the Invisibility Watch, but with any of them you want to avoid decloaking too close to an enemy because even if they are looking the other direction, they might hear you!. On the good side of things, enemy dispensers will provide you with ammo to replenish your cloak (even while invisible with the Invisibility Watch), so take advantage of that, just don't get bumped.

I already discussed some of the details of the watches, but here's a quick run down:

Invisibility Watch (Stock)
The basic timed cloak, good for all around invisibility use. You can extend the timer past the normal 10 seconds by picking up ammo sources while invisible, which means you can move quickly and stay invisible for a long time if you know the map well. Also decloaks a little faster than the other two (2 seconds versus 2.2 seconds according to the Wiki). Useful on most any map or game mode.


Cloak & Dagger
A basic cloaking device, but instead of running on an ammo fueled timer, it only depletes based on the distance you move while invisible (about 6 seconds of constant movement). Also, when fully depleted, you will not automatically decloak, just become transparent (though it recharges faster while visible). However, it will still recharge slowly even while invisible, so crouch walking while invisible will lower the distance travelled per second, so you can stay invisible while still moving for a much longer time period (about 60 seconds of constant movement) than while walking normally. Especially useful on small maps with wide open spaces (Hightower, Harvest, Doomsday) where you might otherwise be seen decloaking when the timer ran out with the other watches. Bad for maps with tight corridors (2fort, Dustbowl final) because there aren't enough out of the way places where you won't get bumped and your escape options are severely limited since you will become transparent again after running a short distance. Great for camping in out-of-the-way corners near the enemy's spawn or Engie nest.

Dead Ringer
Another timed cloak, but one that triggers when you take damage and shows an animation like you died to fool enemies. It gives you 50% damage resistance to the triggering damage, along with a speed boost for 3 seconds and 65% damage reduction that fades to the regular 20% over 3 seconds. It can be triggered by self-inflicted damage, like falling from a height. However, it only activates when you take damage while you are holding it up in front of you, and you can't stab, shoot, or sap while holding it up, even if it hasn't triggered yet. You also will not flicker when enemies bump into you during the 3 second speed boost, but you will flicker when bumped during the rest of the 7 second cloak time. Ammo no longer extends the invisibility for this watch and recharges 35% less cloak while visible (as of the Gun Mettle update). Importantly, it can only activate at 100% charge and it instantly drops to 50% charge on activation. Good as an escape mechanic after being discovered (hopefully after you've gotten the backstab!) or for getting through choke points, hopefully without taking too much damage.

So in summary, the cloak is awesome; it makes the Spy unique by letting him become invisible, which helps him accomplish his first goal of getting behind the enemy lines, but it has some limitations you need to be aware of:

• You can't attack at all while invisible and it takes 2 seconds to decloak (2.2 seconds for the non-default watches)
  
• You will become faintly visible if you bump into an enemy, or if you get hit with a particle effect (i.e. Pyros will mess up your cloak with fire! And sometimes Snipers and Scouts and Engies can mess it up too)
  
• You are faintly visible underwater while cloaked and will have water droplets on you after you exit water
  
• You are also faintly visible for 1 second after activation
  
• Keep an eye on your timer or you might not be invisible when you want to be!
  
• Turn visible again away from enemies whenever possible because they can hear your decloak sound!

Now we come to the other important piece of the Spy's infiltration set: the Disguise Kit, accessed through slot 4 in the Spy arsenal. These disguises can make the Spy appear as any class on either the opposite team or his own team, which is extremely useful for making the enemy think that you are something other than a Spy. Obviously, this is a major gameplay mechanics change for the Spy that makes his job much easier, though not necessarily as easy as it may seem at first... We'll discuss a little how enemies are able to see through Shpee disguises later, but first let's cover what the Disguise Kit actually does.

This little cigarette case provides the Spy with a paper mask to put on his face (visible to teammates) and produces a team-colored smoke cloud around the Spy (see the picture on the right). When the smoke clears after 2 seconds, the Spy will now appear to enemies to look exactly like the class chosen for the disguise. Beware of this smoke cloud, however, as it will immediately give away to the enemy that you are a Spy AND which team you are on. Use the cloak to help cover up the disguise smoke by cloaking first (remember the cloak takes 1 second to activate!) and THEN choosing your disguise while invisible. Once you are disguised, it now only takes 0.5 seconds to switch disguises, but any attack with a weapon (Revolver or Knife, placing a Sapper doesn't count) will cause your disguise to disappear, revealing yourself to any enemies and/or Sentries!

That's the basics of the Disuise Kit, but now for some tricks that lots of new Spies (including myself) don't realize until they either accidentally stumble on them or see someone else do it... For instance, did you know that all enemy buildings will treat you as friendly while using an enemy disguise? This means that enemy Sentries won't auto-target you, enemy Dispensers will provide ammo for your Cloak meter as well as health while disguised, and as a Spy you can use enemy Teleporters, disguised or not! This can be super helpful for finding a hidden Engineer nest or an out-of-the-way Teleporter Exit, since it's frequently a lot easier to find a Teleporter Entrance at the enemy's spawn than the Exit. Going through a Teleporter disguised is great for helping to convince enemy players that you are not a Spy (since not many Spies do it), if it's secluded you can also Tele-camp the Exit by going through and then Backstabbing anyone else coming through, or, if you're lucky and an enemy is standing on the Teleporter Exit when you go through, you can get an instant kill Tele-Frag. You can even Sap it, stand on the Entrance and wait for the Engie to come and remove it, and if he's a lazy Engie, he might be standing on top of the Exit when you come through and BOOM! Dead Engie...

Yes, Engineer... We are your friends! Teammates! Comrades! You are in no danger whatsoever!

One major thing that new Spies don't usually know about is that you can disguise as any class on your own team, nor do they usually realize why this would be useful. Of course, it becomes relatively obvious when you think about it: when you're starting a match and you see a Red player come running out of the Blu spawn, you automatically know that they are a Spy. Now, you may wonder why use a disguise at all then? Using the Cloak once all the initial explosions have cleared is a good plan for a lot of cases (don't be like the Shpees in the video in the intro who "go out of spawn and die!"), but using team disguises can help to confuse the enemy (enemy players may avoid one spawn exit if they think a Heavy is coming through instead of no one or a Spy).

Using team disguises can also help distract an enemy Sniper from targeting higher priority classes (particularly while using the Dead Ringer) because if the Sniper is trying to shoot you, thinking you are a higher powered class, then he's not actually shooting at your teammates. Furthermore, since the Spy is one of the taller classes in the game, if you are disguised as the Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demo, or Engie; then the Sniper will be aiming at your chest when trying to hit the head of your disguised class. This won't save you from a charged bodyshot anyway, but it is nice for avoiding dying to quickscopes.

Hitbox differences while disguised. That sandwich is a Spy!

Now, an important thing to keep in mind regardless is that disguising as a slower class will make you slower, but disguising as a faster class will NOT make you faster! I was under the assumption that disguising as Scout gave you a little speed boost, even if it wasn't as fast as the Scout normally is, but according to the Wiki that has all been wishful thinking on my part. The Spy's speed is always 107%, except for disguising as anything but Scout and Medic, & especially the slower classes (Heavy, Soldier, Demo), so your speed drops to match theirs (77%, 80%, & 93% forward speed, respectively).

Finally, the last trick that I see that new Shpees are unaware of all the time is that you can change the weapon your disguise model is holding, which defaults to the class's Primary, by pressing B (which is also the default shortcut for Last Disguise for quickly getting your disguise back up after attacking). Pressing B will switch your disguise weapon to match the weapon slot of the Spy weapon you are currently holding. For example, if you disguise as an Engie, you will probably look more suspicious if you have the Engie Shotgun out than if you have the Wrench, so switch to your Knife in slot 3, press B, and your Engie disguise will switch to holding the Wrench. Slot 1, Revolver, plus B will switch you back to the disguise's Primary, slot 2, Sapper, plus B will switch to the disguise's Secondary (useful for Medic disguises), and slot 3, Knife, plus B will switch to the disguise's Melee. You can also use the reload button, R, to reload your Revolver which will make your disguise model appear to be reloading its weapon (as long as the disguise weapon has a reload animation, not all weapons reload), as well as using E to call for a Medic or other voice commands. In general, you can help your disguise to seem more "lifelike" if you can take advantage of the things you can do while disguised to distract from the things you can't do.


To summarize, the Disguise Kit is an incredibly useful tool for the Spy to use to confuse opponents:

• Your character model changes to appear to enemy players as any class you choose from either your team or the enemy team
  
• A team-colored smoke cloud appears around the Spy for 2 seconds while disguising
  
• The smoke cloud will be invisible while the Spy is cloaked, so change disguises while invisible whenever possible
  
• Attacking with the Knife or Revolver will drop the disguise, but the Sapper will not drop it
  
• Enemy buildings will treat you as friendly, so Dispensers will heal/reload you
  
• Spies can take enemy Teleporters anytime
  
• Disguising as another member of your own team can sometimes be useful, especially while leaving spawn (use the - key to switch to team disguises from enemy disguises)
  
• Your hitbox will stay the same while disguised, even if the model changes
  
• Your speed will NOT go up when disguising as a faster class!
  
• It will go down when disguising as a slower class
  
• Use the B key to switch your disguise weapon to match the slot of the weapon the Spy is holding
  
• Use the R key to reload your Revolver to make your disguise perform a reload animation
  
• Use voice commands

Understanding what the different classes are going to be doing and what the pros and cons to using them as a disguise will help you be more effective. There are certain things that can be dead giveaways that you are not what you appear, so I will try to cover these so you can avoid being an obvious Spy.

Combat Classes at the Front

These tend to be good general use classes; they are also going to be the hardest for the Spy to handle without dying.

Short Range Focus
Scout: His high speed lets him get to objectives and targets quickly, as well as rapidly escaping afterwards, and the wide scatter of his primary weapon encourages him to attack at close range
Pros: Not unusual to see Scouts all over the map and their small size makes it easier for them to escape notice
Cons: If you are noticed, the fact that you are running much slower and not double-jumping is a dead giveaway

Pyro: Its moderate speed gives good versatility and the flamethrower has the ability to break up enemy lines with airblast and makes them run for health kits with fire
Pros: Pyros commonly follow the same out of the way paths, hang out around Engies, and run the same speed
Cons: Same as above, because they all mean you are likely to run into the Pyro you are disguised as, and Pyros have a tendency to puff flames everywhere looking for Spies, so since you can't do that, it raises suspicion

Heavy: His slower speed makes him focus on dropping any enemies that come across his path with his giant gun
Pros: Heavies are unlikely to be doing much outside of combat, they are Medic magnets, and their larger model might make it harder to hit your smaller hitbox? (Not by much)
Cons: Heavies are the slowest class and it is harder to get a stab on someone when they are coming to you instead of vice versa

Mid Range Focus
Soldier: The range of his rockets gives him a lot of damage projection and the versatility of the rocket jump lets him get around the map unlike any other class
Pros: Soldiers are a main combat class, so you can take advantage of the distraction of combat to get stabs, and try acting like a Soldier reloading and looking for more ammo
Cons: Soldiers are not much faster than Heavies and most make up for this by rocket jumping all the time, which you cannot do

Demoman: His explosives and melee weapons pack a powerful punch, especially when combined with the element of surprise, and he can use his items for extra mobility that rivals that of the rocket jump
Pros: It isn't uncommon for a Demo to lay out all 8 stickies in a trap and walk away from combat while reloading for a long time, so they can be found at the front lines or behind them, sticky jumping is less common than rocket jumping, and they aren't that much slower than average
Cons: You can't sticky jump, charge, spam explosives, or walk around swinging your sword at everything like normal Demos, and not much slower than average, it's still there

Support Classes

These tend to be situational use classes that have specific goals that can drastically alter the momentum of the battle; this means they will be the Spy's most frequent targets.

Closest to the Front
Medic: His speed boost helps him catch up and keep up with the combat classes and provide them with a constant stream of health replenishment and the occasional game-changing Uber
Pros: Everyone loves a Medic, you'll get low health enemies coming right to you, and you have an excuse to be walking behind them
Cons: Everyone hates a fake Medic who stabs them, so it'll probably only work once or twice before they rage-Pyro, plus you can't actually heal them, which Medics do constantly to build Uber, so they will probably notice that

Just Behind the Front
Engineer: His buildings provide the majority of the substance of this class since his own health, speed, and personal weapons are more mediocre: the sentry giving covering fire to secure an area for his team, the dispenser providing a regrouping point for filling up on health and ammo, and the teleporter keeping a steady flow of troops heading back to the front
Pros: Engies (particularly "Ninjaneers") can sometimes be found in odd places on maps, trying to scrounge up metal or putting buildings in out-of-the-way spots, and they can have a tendency to cluster in groups, all building and repairing together in giant "turtle" nests, so get out your wrench and join the gang
Cons: Because newb Engies are the most common target for newb Shpees, they quickly learn to be a paranoid lot, so it can be hard to sneak up while disguised as an Engie, not to mention Engies that aren't constantly building stuff or whacking it with their wrench can raise suspicions

Securely Behind the Front
Sniper: his long range weapons provide powerful pick potential with delivering headshots and the Huntsman lets him move up closer to the front in exchange for not quite as much range
Pros: Often seen in odd locations isolated from the rest of the front lines and usually behind the rest of the group, they are commonly in exactly the type of places a Spy would like to hide out, not moving much and vaguely staring into the distance
Cons: You can't scope and a Sniper that keeps on following right behind you instead of constantly stopping to scope out his sight lines is really suspicious; if you nab a Huntsman disguise though, you are as close to golden as it gets

Beyond the Front
Spy: Now where does the Spy fit in? He doesn't have the health, speed, or DPS to be a frontline combat class, so he is decidedly a Support Class with situational uses and goals, but rather than working behind your Combat Class teammates with them between you and the enemy, the Spy goes to the other end of the field and attacks the enemy from the rear.
Pros: Spy disguised as Spy? Genius! You just act normal except you look like you're on the other team
Cons: Except that Spies generally ignore the rest of their team and go to the opposite end of the field from where you want to be, so a Spy hanging around with the rest of his team is suspicious

My personal favorite disguises? Scout, Pyro, and Demo for getting through the front lines behind the enemy, then Engie and Sniper for hanging out behind enemy lines. However, this is in no way a hard and fast rule and sometimes the element of surprise in using an unusual disguise is best, so switch it up a lot and don't be too predictable. For instance, on KotH or Payload Race maps where everyone is frequently jumbled together, a Medic or Spy disguise can be very effective if the front/back lines aren't well defined. Soldier and Heavy disguises are the least favorable because of the speed nerf, but that also means that they are the least used disguises, so you are less likely to be suspected as a Spy. This means that ANY class is a viable disguise, so experiment with the disguises and see what works and what doesn't. Also be aware that you shouldn't rely on your disguise for most of the infiltration work, it should only be for the brief periods where you go in for the attack. Better players will recognise something off about you after a few seconds, so you should only count on your disguise fooling anyone for a few seconds at a time so you can get close enough for a stab. The rest of the time you should be relying more on map sense, hiding, and your cloak to do the majority of the stealth work.

In the end, the best way to learn how to trick the enemy as a Spy is to not play Spy: spend some time playing each of the other classes and learn how they work and what each is trying to do. The more you know, the easier it will be to duplicate those actions as a Spy. Also, don't immediately go running away if someone briefly spychecks you, play it cool and either take the damage with a poker face, or whip out your Revolver and try to take them out first. Learn how to act the part and you will do well as a Spy. Neglect to follow this advice and the Rage-Pyro will destroy you!

RAGE-PYRO WILL BURNINATE ALL!

Now that you know what the Spy is supposed to do and how to infiltrate the enemy team, let's get to the actual weapons! These are the items that are really going to mess life up for the enemy team! Learn how to use them effectively and you can become a legendary terror! (Or perhaps just really annoying, but that works too...) ;-)

The second major defining mechanics change to the Spy's gameplay is the backstab, executed by the Spy's primary weapon: the Knife.
Yes, I did say primary weapon; it is a melee weapon, so Valve decided to leave it in the 3 position, presumably to avoid confusion, but the Knife is most certainly the Spy's primary weapon. In fact, the Spy's Revolver is officially classified as a secondary weapon on the TF2 Wiki, go ahead and check it out (more on that in the Revolver section). The unique gameplay mechanic associated with the Spy's knife is the backstab, which will always do 6 times the enemy character's current health for an instant kill. The Sniper's Headshot does a lot of damage, and is frequently an instant kill, but not always... A Backstab always kills (assuming the server registers it properly...)

Bakeshtayb! Usually there's less blood...

Now, there are several important things to note about the Knife and the Backstab. The first is that the Knife is a terrible melee weapon when it isn't backstabbing. Why? Because it does the least amount of damage per second of any melee weapon in the game. The Knife does 40 base damage per hit and swings once every 0.8 seconds, which is almost half the damage of most melee weapons, where the base damage per hit is 65 per hit at 0.8 seconds per swing. The Scout's Bat only does 35 base damage per hit, but it also swings once every 0.5 seconds, so the DPS is still higher. Only the Fan of War has less DPS, and that weapon is meant to be a utility item.
You'll be tempted to go flailing around like this guy ^ from the video, but that won't get you anywhere unless you get really lucky and manage to hit someone with really low health before they hit you. When you go trying to hit someone with your Knife without doing a Backstab, it's called Butterknifing, because it's like trying to kill someone with a dull blade (plus it makes for a fun pun with the full Butterflyknife name). If you are holding your Knife like this:
<---------------------
Don't swing it! You're butterknifing!



What you want to do is Backstab your enemy, which instantly kills them in one hit. To do this you need to be within melee range, which is almost close enough to touch them, and you want your knife to hit them in the rear 180 degrees of the character model while your line of sight is passing through the middle of their body. That probably sounds complicated, but try it out with a friend to get a feel for it. When you are in this position the Spy will flip his Knife upside down so that it looks like this.
----------------->
When you see that, Stab! Stab! Stab!

The only other thing a fledgling Shpee should be aware of is the speed of the different classes, which was mentioned in the Spy stats section above: Spy is slower than Scout, even on Medic, and faster than everyone else. So don't waste your time chasing a Scout or Medic because you won't catch up to Backstab them unless they stop, but anyone else is fair game if you aren't too obvious about it!

There are five different Knives for the Spy to choose from:

Butterflyknife (Stock)
The original, and you just can't beat a classic. No situational benefits, but also no downsides, so a great choice for pretty much any situation.


Big Earner
Gives you a speed boost and 30% of your cloak back on a kill, but also reduces your health by 25 points. Some people don't consider it to be worth the extra risk of dying, but it can be fun to use since the speed boost gives you an improved chance of escape.

Conniver's Kunai
Drops your health by even more than the Big Earner, to 70 HP, so the risk of dying is even greater. On the good side though, it has the effect of healing you for the amount of health your backstab victim had on its death, up to the Spy's overheal max of 210 HP (the overheal decay is also slower than normal). This also means that if you were bleeding or burning or anything, the heal will fix that. So it's a big risk versus big reward thing which can really pay off IF you can survive long enough to get a backstab. Not recommended for Shpees...

Spy-cicle
A nice utility option over the regular Knife if there are a lot of Pyros giving you a hard time. If you are on fire while you are holding the Spy-cicle, it will melt and make you immune to fire for 1 second and immune to afterburn for 10 seconds, which is pretty sweet. Unfortunately, it also means you are without your primary weapon for 15 seconds, which is less sweet, BUT ammo boxes will replenish it. Still a good Knife for getting away from Pyros, since you'll be harder to track without the afterburn.

Your Eternal Reward
An interesting knife that automatically disguises you as your backstab victim and cloaks their corpse, so you can more readily fool opponents who may have no idea anyone was backstabbed... As long as the dead player doesn't tell them in chat or over the mic. It also removes your Disguise Kit, which can make it difficult to get a backstab in the first place. Not recommended for beginners, but it can be loads of fun in the right circumstances.

There are also Trickstabs that you can learn and practice that exploit the mechanics of how the Backstab works on the rear 180 degrees of the chracter model: such as the Matador, Cornerstab, Stairstab, Jumpstab, etc. But you came here because you're a newb Spy (Shpee), right? Check out this and other videos for info on trickstabs, you non-newb!

Brief summary for the Knife and Backstabbing:

• The Spy Knife is the only weapon to give guaranteed instant kills, but you have to be in the right spot!
  
• Backstab mechanics are triggered when the Spy is within melee striking distance of the rear 180 degrees of the enemy character's model while looking through the middle of their body
  
• The Spy Knife is the worst melee weapon to use under normal, non-backstab circumstances
  
• So don't go flailing around trying to "butterknife" people!

Super short summary: Backstab! No Butterknifing!

One final note that I feel I have to point out in a guide for Spy beginners... A Backstab has no effect on invulnerable characters! It won't kill a (default) Ubercharged Medic or patient, and Bonked Scouts also won't die to a Backstab, but I didn't have to tell you that, right? ;-)
(If it makes you feel better, I tried to backstab an Ubered Heavy once... You can imagine how that went.)









Don't try to stab any of these Xs...





Oh! And the Sniper has an item that can negate one use of the Backstab, the Razorback, which is also pictured...

When you see a Sniper wearing that, in most cases you'll want to shoot him instead of trying to Backstab him, which brings us to...

Now we come to the other Spy weapon: the Revolver (and its variants). There are two divergent mistakes that beginner Spies (Shpees) make regarding this weapon: the first is to completely ignore it all together in favor of only trying to backstab people, the second is to treat it as the Spy's primary weapon and go around trying to shoot everyone. The problem with the first tactic (which I am still trying to train myself out of) is that it leaves the Spy mostly helpless if he can't get a Backstab; the problem with the second tactic is that the Spy's Revolver doesn't put out nearly enough damage per second (DPS) to compete head-on with the primary weapons of the other classes.

Your first thought as a new Spy will likely be similar to mine: "I can disguise as enemy players, go invisible, and have a weapon that will give me instant kills! What do I need a gun for really? I'll just sneak up while disguised, stab people, then run away while invisible and redisguise... Rinse and repeat! You know, like Batman, no guns? None will be the wiser!"
On the other hand you have guys that think they can be Trinity from the Matrix and that they'll be able to run in with the Revolver blowing guys away, going all "Dodge this." However, if you're like me (and the rest of us Shpees out there) you'll fire off 6 shots at close range and end up missing every single one, then get meleed to death.

Now, as I mentioned earlier, the Spy's Revolver is actually classified as a Secondary weapon, which means that it doesn't do quite as much damage as the Primary weapons the other classes have. Most Primary weapons have single shot damage ranges at close quarters from 70-100 damage depending on your aim; the max damage on a non-crit Revolver shot is 60, and most of your shots are going to do closer to the base damage of 40, even at close range. So your DPS with the Revolver is lower to start with, but in addition to that, all the other classes have some sort of weapon-type that is a little more forgiving of bad aim: whether it is some form of shotgun, machine gun, explosive, or a flamethrower... Sure, they won't do as much damage with bad aim, but they have some leeway where they'll still do some damage. This is not the case with the Spy! The Revolver fires a single bullet every 0.6 seconds, and you either hit or miss with no margin in between. Furthermore, if you fire every 0.6 seconds, you'll get random bullet spread on your shots, making it even harder to aim; to avoid the bullet spread, you have to wait twice as long (1.25 seconds) between shots to ensure that the bullet goes right where you aim it. Furthermore, having good aim is half the battle; still having good aim while running backwards and being chased by angry teammates of the Medic you just backstabbed is the other half. (This is where I fail miserably.) So the major thing you need to do when using the Spy's Revolver is to stay cool under fire.
I don't always use my gun, but when I do, I get Dos Muertes.

Given all of these factors, as a Spy you should NOT ignore your Revolver: it is a useful and potentially powerful weapon when used in the right way under the right circumstances. As a Secondary weapon, it is going to be used as Secondary weapons are used by the other classes: for special situations that your Primary weapon can't handle quite as well. Besides obvious cases like the Razorback Sniper mentioned in the Knife section and picking off targets that are too far away, it is also especially useful for covering your retreat after a stab (failed or otherwise). Most Spies (including myself) start off thinking that the Spy's best strategy is to sneak in a Backstab, then immediately cloak and run away; and as I mentioned in the previous section, frequently this works. However, as you play Spy you will notice that most players who have been in TF2 for a while know the common Spy hiding spots and will find you hiding in them, even when you're invisible. In fact, because of this, most of the cases where immediately cloaking and running away works are cases where no one was paying enough attention anyway. Frequently it is more useful to immediately switch to your Revolver (once you've finished trying for all your Backstab targets) and attempt to shoot anyone chasing you. If they kill you, they probably still would have if you had cloaked; but you might be able to kill them or at least injure them enough that they have to try to grab a healthpack. If you can get around a corner or obstacle where they can't see you, then cloak, it will be much harder for them to predict where you went. Also, as you might have gathered, being able to find your way around the maps while running backwards is an extremely useful skill for a Spy, so try practicing this!

Now, for the quick rundown of the guns the Spy has to choose from:

Revolver (Stock)
The basic stock spiel: base stats, so no nifty pros, but also no annoying cons. The other guns either have slower firing speed or damage reduction (or both), so if you want to get the best of both worlds for maximum DPS (such as it is) when holding down the fire button, you want this gun.

Ambassador
The gun that is favored by a lot of pro Spies because it can provide automatic crit damage on a headshot. In exchange for that massive pro, it has several cons: no random crits, 15% less damage AND 20% slower firing speed, and the Wiki says it has decreased accuracy for a short period after firing when it also will never crit, so I guess that's in addition to the normal random bullet spread? Anyway, this is a very powerful weapon IF (note: big if) you can get headshots with it. Great for Razorback Snipers where it is easier to get an initial headshot for a 2-shot kill. Otherwise, the combination of the reduced damage and decreased firing speed will make its damage output much lower than you would get with the stock Revolver. Not recommended for Shpees! But if you've got good aim, go for it.

Diamondback
Another interesting gun that went through a major redesign: at the cost of no random crits and a 15% damage penalty, this gun will store guaranteed crits for every building you destroy with a Sapper and Backstab kill you get. This can potentially be very powerful if you can manage to stay alive after Sap-destroying a building or Backstabbing people, but otherwise you're giving up base damage; then you also have a lot of people who are actually even MORE hesitant to shoot the gun because they don't want to miss and waste the crits they earned... So it's kind of a gimmicky weapon like the Engie's Frontier Justice, but try it out for yourself and see if you like it, because if you can work it right it can be very powerful.

Enforcer
The cons are 20% slower firing speed and no random crits, like the Ambassador; however, unlike the Ambassador it has a 20% damage increase while disguised, which can be exploited by pressing B quickly between shots. (Patched) The extra damage also helps with destroying sapped Engineer buildings extra fast and can 2-shot 125 health classes at point blank range. Another odd thing that it shares with the Ambassador which I didn't mention earlier is that the random bullet spread for the Enforcer and the Ambassador resets at 0.95 seconds instead of at 1.25 seconds, so if you're pausing between shots to avoid that anyway, the slower firing speed is actually moot for both these guns.

It's been rebalanced, again... Now it "pierces damage resistances", which basically means it ignores the effects of the Vaccinator, Darwin's Danger Shield, and Heavies with the Natascha or Brass Beast. So... Yay? It's not useless anymore, but it's still kinda unimpressive except for the situational use against a Sniper with the Darwin's Danger Shield where you can still 2-shot kill him at close range unlike any other revolver (though at that rate, you could just stab him), but please don't go taking it against Heavies... Oh, and invulnerable people are still invulnerable, so no piercing Uber or Bonk, just so you know...

L'Entranger
Used mostly for its non-combat utility, the L'Entranger gives a 20% damage decrease for a straight 40% increase in cloak duration and it also recharges your cloak by 15% every time you hit an enemy with this gun. When used in combos with the Cloak & Dagger you can walk further while cloaked, or with the Dead Ringer you can get another death-feign without having to lose focus on shooting the enemy to find an ammo pack, or even just with the Invisibility Watch for large maps where you just want to be invisible for a long time. Recommended for beginners if you find yourself frequently not having enough cloak when you need it. Just remember though that it will be more difficult to get kills with this gun, so once you are comfortable with Spy be sure to try out a more powerful revolver.

Now this section has turned out to be much longer than I initially anticipated, so I will summarize briefly and move on to the next section.

• The Revolver fires a single bullet every 0.6 seconds that does 40 base damage
  
• If you wait about 1 second between each shot, it will be perfectly accurate down your crosshair
  
• DON'T try to charge into combat with the Revolver, it is a Secondary weapon and doesn't have the DPS to compete with the Primary weapons of other classes
  
• DON'T ignore the Revolver, it is a very useful tool for the Spy to do damage at a distance
  
• DO use the Revolver to defend yourself, especially when retreating from combat
  
• DO practice your aim, especially when trying to navigate maps while running backwards
  
• Use the Enforcer (at close-range) or Ambassador (at longer-range) to 2-shot Razorback Snipers

Finally we come to an odd piece of the Spy's equipment set and the last in our discussion: the Sapper. It is classified as a Building and occupies the Weapon 2 slot. As you may or may not already know, the Spy's Sapper has the unique effect of immediately disabling enemy Engineer buildings and destroying them after a certain period of time. Of all the Spy mechanics, this is the most straightforward, but there are still a few things I want to point out, including a little bit about Engineer buildings since this directly relates only to them.

But first of all, let's get the two different versions of the Sapper out of the way now so you can understand what I'm talking about later, since they present two different approaches to dealing with Engineer buildings.

Sapper (Stock)
In this case, since there are only two of them, there's a little more than the usual "vanilla-no-benefits-no-drawbacks" line on Stock weapons. This little bugger does straight damage to Engineer buildings in addition to disabling them. It does 25 damage per second, which means it takes 4 seconds to kill a Mini-Sentry (at 100 HP). Because Engineer buildings all have the same HP per level, it obviously takes the same amount of time to kill a Level 2 Sentry as a Level 2 Teleporter. A Level 1 building has 150 HP and takes 6 seconds to kill, a Level 2 (180 HP) takes about 7 seconds, and a Level 3 (216 HP) takes about 8.5 seconds. Since it does straight damage to the building, this can be paired with damage from other weapons (either from allies or your own Revolver, no butterknifing!) to kill the building more quickly. This damage also remains on the building if the Sapper is removed until repaired by an Engineer.

Red-Tape Recorder
This version of the sapper works a bit differently; instead of doing something straightforward like deal damage to the building, it reverses its construction and does no damage to the building at all (at least in theory). It takes about 3.5 seconds to downgrade each upgrade level a building may have, then the building's initial deploy animation plays in reverse. This means it takes just a little longer to "unbuild" from a Level 1 as it takes for the building to deploy in the first place (if the Engineer isn't hitting it with his wrench to speed it up); about 10.5 seconds for a Sentry, and about 22.5 seconds for Dispensers and Teleporters. Mini-Sentries also take about 10.5 seconds to unbuild for some reason despite only taking 3 seconds to deploy, but at least they don't have to downgrade first. During the final stretch from Level 1 building to tool box, technically the buildings are taking damage since buildings slowly build HP during the deploy animation and the Recorder just reverses that, so during this final phase it can finish early if it is damaged by other means and the HP goes to 0 before the animation completes. However, it does not deal any damage to the building during the downgrade stages, so if the Recorder is removed the building will still retain full health if it was undamaged.

Here's a summary of time to destruction to compare the two:


Now, after reading that table you're probably thinking, "Why would I ever use the Recorder when it takes 2-3 times as long to destroy a building as using the Sapper?" And you'd be right about destroying buildings with it: you could destroy the building with your Revolver at close range in less time than it takes for the Recorder to take it from a Level 3 to a Level 1. Of course, technically you could destroy a Level 3 building with your Revolver at close range faster than the Stock Sapper as well, but the Sapper/Recorder provides other benefits as well with disabling the building and allowing the Spy to hide; but the point still stands, "Why use the Recorder if it takes much longer?"

Well, let me set the scene a little while also giving you newb Shpees some extra advice. You're roaming around doing Spy-stuff (maybe specifically hunting for the nest after getting Sentry-killed before) when you come across the jackpot: a full-fledged Engie nest with all the fixin's. There's a Level 3 Sentry, Dispenser, and Teleporter all ripe and ready for you to mess them up.

It's every Shpee's dream to one day become an Engineer's Nemesis...

So you run up and Sap all the shinies, but then bad things happen; the Engie and his friends notice you putting Sappers on the buildings, hunt you down or chase you off, and then the Engie removes the Sappers with 2 swings of his wrench before 8.5 seconds elapse. Pyros with the Homewrecker or Neon Annihilator can also remove Sappers by hitting them. Now the buildings have a good amount of damage on them, but the Engie hits them with the Wrench, at a rate of 105 HP repaired per swing (80 HP with the Jag, but it also swings faster, so the 3 swings required with the Jag happen faster anyway). So even if the Engie removes the Sapper with 1 HP left, it will only take 2-3 swings for him to have it back at full health and all your efforts will have been useless.

Now if you're looking to kill the Engie, there are a few options. You could go for the Stab-n-Sap where you backstab the Engie first, then sap all his stuff, but unless he's really close to or really far from his Sentry, you're going to die. Alternatively, you could go for the Sap-n-Stab, where you disable the Sentry first, then backstab the Engie, but this only works if you can catch the Engie unawares after his buildings start beeping at him and none of his friends go after you either. The best plan is always to coordinate with some of your teammates to take out the Sentry and the enemies together, but unless you're playing with friends, this can be very difficult to pull off. Sometimes the Sentry and other defenses are in a position that makes it hard for your teammates to get to them without dying. So what do you do? Give up and switch to Medic and spend all that time building Uber? Booooring...

No! Instead, you use the Recorder and slap that baby on the buildings and lead the Engie on a wild goose chase to try and kill you. Sure, it doesn't do damage, but if you can delay the Engie removing it for 3.5 seconds, he'll now have a Level 2 building instead of a Level 3! That'll take him 8 swings to upgrade it back to normal. Delay him 7 seconds and it'll be down to a Level 1 and require 16 swings! Sure, a dead Engie and destroyed buildings are preferable, but if you can't do that you can at least make life a lot more difficult for the enemy team: a Level 1 Teleporter takes forever (more or less) to recharge, a Level 1 Dispenser heals less and gives out less ammo/metal, and a Level 1 Sentry is a lot less dangerous for your teammates to dispatch. Also, the Sapper & Recorder disable the Destruct PDA from working on the effected building, so the Recorder is great against Mini-Sentries because the Engie can't build a new one as quickly.

So now that you know a little bit about dealing with Engineers and their buildings, here's the summary:

• The Sapper disables and deals damage to enemy buildings (25 damage per second)
  
• The Red-Tape Recorder disables and reverses the construction of enemy buildings
  (3.5 seconds per downgrade)
  
• The Sapper/Recorder also prevent Engies from self-destroying their buildings, so the Recorder is better on mini-sentries since it slows a Battle Engie down
  
• Shoot buildings you sap with your Revolver to do extra damage to them and destroy them faster!
  
• The Engineer can remove Sappers (and Recorders) with 2 swings of his wrench (Pyros can also remove Sappers with certain weapons)
  
• The Engineer does 105 HP (80 HP w/ Jag) of repair per swing, so 2-3 swings will have a Level 3
  back at full health
  
• Engineer buildings require 200 metal and 8 wrench swings to upgrade 1 level, so the
  Recorder can make the Engineer perform up to 16 swings to get the building back to
  normal even if it isn't destroyed.
  
• Use the Sapper when you want to efficiently destroy buildings
  (or for Competitive matches, since the Recorder is banned in most leagues)
  
• Use the Recorder for when the damage won't be enough & you just need to make the
  buildings less effective more quickly
  
• Don't focus all your effort on Engineers and their buildings as a Spy: there are plenty
  of Backs to be Stabbed!
  
• Oh, and watch out for Pybros! They hate Spies messing with their Engie buddy

Just a few additional tips about Engineer buildings:

• Sentries will do self-damage to the Engie that built them; remove your disguise with
  the Engie between you and his Sentry for a humiliating kill
  
• Dispensers will heal you and restore your cloak if you are disguised, so consider this
  before immediately sapping; it might be more useful to you active than disabled
  
• Teleporters work for Spies (disguise or no) and will instantly kill any enemy team member
  standing on it when you go through; use this to more easily find a hidden Engie's nest, to
  make you seem even more like a teammate, and potentially to get a free kill
  
• You can't walk through enemy buildings, even though teammates can, so this can
  give away that you're a Spy
  
• However, this means that if you crouch-jump, you can get on top of Sentries and
  Dispensers as an extra hiding place while invisible (crouch immediately after jumping)
  
• Also, stepping on a Teleporter will give you just enough extra height to crouch-jump over an
  enemy's head to get behind them

And one final story, I had been playing for almost a year and had discovered that as an Engie, I could place my Sentry in doorways to keep Spies from sneaking around it or jumping over it to backstab me. The thing I had not known up to that point was that the Spy could stand by my Sentry under disguise and hold down M1 with the Sapper and it would automatically replace the Sapper as soon as it was destroyed by my Wrench and before I could get any swings in for repairs! Plus my own Sentry was blocking me from shooting the Spy! That was a very frustrating experience as an Engineer, but a valuable lesson learned for when I played Spy: if the Engie is dumb enough to try to repair his buildings before killing you, just keep wasting his time by replacing the Sapper immediately!

Hopefully, all of this information will help you to be the most annoying part of an Engineer's life...
Which is the way it should be!

His building a sparking junk pile on the floor, the Engineer clutched his bleeding abdomen and glared with defiance into the smirking face of the Spy who had bested him. Then came the resounding blast from the Spy's Revolver and the Engie's world went black and silent... Spy vs. Engineer War

Congratulations on reading this super-long guide! You are awesome! I have a lot of fun playing Spy, but there have been lots of times where it was just plain frustrating, especially when I didn't know why things didn't work the way I wanted them to. Hopefully this guide has/will help you with understanding the Spy class better. Leave a comment, like, or favorite if you enjoyed it!

Also, I think it would be fun for those of us who have played Spy for a while to share stupid stories of when we were Shpees in the comments section! Tell us your embarrassing Spy stories!

Perhaps I will see you on the battlefield sometime, though hopefully the only time you actually see me will be in a kill-cam like this:

That's the way I like it...

Some guides, YouTube channels, and pages that I have found useful (or just fun):
TF2 Wiki
TF2 sub-Reddit
TF2 Competitive Wiki[comp.tf]

Mr. Paladin's YouTube Channel
(the most active TF2 Spy channel currently on YouTube that I know of, lots of great Spy videos)
Jerma's YouTube Channel (fun commentaries)
Stabby's YouTube Channel (excellent Spy gameplay)
Slurgi's YouTube Channel (more excellent Spy gameplay)
Zeigon's YouTube Channel (even more Spy!)
Muselk's YouTube Channel (TF2 Mythbusters!)
NISLT YouTube Channel (TF2 Bloopers and Frags)

My Channel!
EmethSAS's Channel!


As the name says, this is the most comprehensive Spy guide out there and is a great resource to further improve your Spy game from here.
http://steamproxy.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=312421865
Spying: A Guide to Movement, Mindset and Blending (has in-depth analysis of the infiltration aspect beyond what I cover)
The Spyble (great guide for continuing your Spy-ducation! includes more detail on the attacking aspect with class matchups)
Spychecking: A Comprehensive Guide to Weeding Out Spies (a great guide from the opposite perspective with more detail about how other players figure out you're a Spy)
I Feel Tres Bon! - The Spy from A-Z (basically the Spy-pedia: lots of details, especially scripts, all compiled in one place)
The Evolutionary Tree of Spies (fun guide about the typical skill progression of Spy players)

If you have any suggestions or corrections, or if you want me to credit your image that I pulled from Google, leave a comment or send me a message.