when playing as a spy there are two playstyles to pick when the time is right: aggressive or defensive...

Q: how do i know when i should play Aggressive or Defensive?

A: when you enter a server and if your go to class is a spy, play how you normally play spy but learn to asses your team and the enemies;

a simple team assesment is in your mind should be: "my team has 10 players and they have 10, my team consits of 2 snipers, 1 engineer, 1 heavy, 1 soldier, 3 pyros,1 scout, and me a spy." now this is done very quickly, to get a good look at who your enemies are check any places where a sniper might be... there always a good place to start, if you already have a desguise on then simply walk around the spawn or general vacinity of the objective and start inspecting.

Q:but wont they get suspicous after a team mate of theirs dies? is there an easier way?

A: yes you can use clearvoyance,( ILL cover that later); or you can use the last games info and determine what classes they might play as the round.

now knowing when to play agressively you'll need to meet some of these requirements: are there more than 3 engys on the enemy team?, how many snipers are on the team as well? and how far can you get from spawn before dying? if all three of these critera are met thats your cue to come in and play agressively

Here are some tatics that could work when playing aggressive:

CHAOS TROLLING: this tatic is sort of self explanitory, i recomend taking the stock knife (or any knife that allows you to desguise (exept YER or wanga pick) cloack and dagger invisablity watch and the ambassidor. this loadout will allow you to well troll any engineers and for the knife your goal IS to get as much NOTORIETY as possible.

Q: why is notoriety good? isnt your goal as a spy not to become notorious, and try to take down the other teams defences?

A: the point of this tatic is to take the enemy team down form INSIDE and have them tripping over each others tails, once the enemy no longer trust each other then your work is done.

TOTAL CHAOS: this tatic is all about witnesses; normally you dont want witnesses but when agressive make sure someones watching and have them know you mean buisness. ( you will die a lot this is garrenteed but the payoff is worth it); for this loadout heres what youll need: diamond back revolver, stock knife, and dead ringer once you notice more pyros change to the cloack and dagger and hide in a corner.

CONCLUTION TO TATICS: playing aggressive is all about chaos the more chaos you ensue on the enemy the more they weaken and start to break down and then victory will be yours and they will never trust anyone again

TROLL: knife (your choise execpt YER and wanga pick), abassador, cloak and dagger

this loadout is pretty self explanitory

CONTROLED CHAOS: any knife (exept YER or the wanga pick), any revolver, dead ringer

this loadout makes to where you want to as stated conrol the chaos and by having dead ringer you can lower there suspiton or raise it in which more chaos all about.

COLD AS ICE: spycicle, diamond back , cloak of your choise (but dead ringer also works)

after assesing the teams one way to jump on the defence is if your team is winning or to prevent them from winning. your whole purpose as a defensive spy is the opposite of an aggressive spy. so that means youll need to be stealthy and deceptive; this is typically how he is to be played and but can be difficult. when this is employed correctly this game will significantly slow down meaning its now a battle of time. so for the next section I'LL go over it.

Q: whats the best way to stay very deceptive without random spy checks?

A: your desguise will make or break you as a spy so learn the parts of each class and take advantange of that.

thers not that much to go over other than keep paranoia and unwanted attention low one decent way is this:

TATICAL BACKSTAB: this stratige is basic threat assesment, how threat assesment works is you must quickly analize who posses the greatest threat to you. to avoid this cloak and run away, but if you have cloak and dagger then simply hide in the vasinity of the enemies.

PICK YOUR VICTIMS WISELY- employ stealth and cloak tricks to out smart your enemy once their gaurd is down backstab them (this is easier said then done)

As for loadouts your knife and watch should be YER and cloak and dagger, the revolver i would recommend the enforcer for damage reasons. USE IT if your caught. but as long as you have a way to remain silent and undetected by the enemy your good.

Q: whats clearvoyance?

A: clearvoyance is an ability that is often overlooked, basically clearvoyance allows you to see into future and somewhat predict whats about to happen basically its being one step ahead of your opponent. this isn't the spy's ability this is something that can only be learned, and once mastured is second nature.

an example of clearvoyance is: "this sniper is vunerable, ill backstab him then move around and head to the intel room where there will be a sentry in the area gaurded by a heavy-medic duo ill back stab them both and sapp the sentry, then lure the engy to me and preform an illution, uncloak and backstab the medic and then act like an afk freeze." this might be calculated instantiously and is basically your sixth sence. and happening all mentally, another trick that works is lisening for footsteps and if you hear some that should be a sign to get ready.

if this guide was at all helpful please comment and sorry for any spelling errors my spelling isnt the best... next time that i will go in depth on cloaking.

also any suggetions feel free to comment on what you think