The scout's physical attributes are quite simple! He is fast, he strikes at close range and delivers a lethal "meatshot" that can bring the strongest enemies to their knees. The scout relies on his scattergun to deal damage. He tends to use his speed and agility to his advantage by double jumping quickly and effectivly. Scouts tend to jump in and out to avoid projectiles. He hops in and slaughters one or two enemies and retreats, back to the safety of his team. Anyone playing scout (This is more important in competitive play) should target the medics. The medic is a force to be rekoned with, he makes the diffrence between a succesful push and one that isn't so strong. If you are faced between a heavy and medic TAKE THE MEDIC OUT FIRST. Although you may die in the effort your team will be able to take out the lone heavy quite easily. This is astronomical in all levels of play, medics are key targets! The scout should also be a distraction! You can bait someone into chasing you while your team caps the point. This can be suprisingly succesful, it does not always work but dealing a simply three damage scattergun shot can annoy and distract enemies.

The scout's job is quite complicated and there is many things that are important to playing this class well. But if there was one thing I could say to someone who was just begining to play scout I would discuss flanking's importance. Flanking is basicly taking side routes to avoid the enemy. Flanking can provide instances where you can suprise a medic heavy/demo/soldier combo and pick the medic off and sometimes the pocket as well. Using the bonk atomic punch is a fantastic way to get behind enemy lines easily, many players don't care or notice...unitil it's to late. If you want to make game-changing plays this is the way to do it!

As the scout, your health is quite low and you have to be careful. A good way to do this is to avert enemy fire by staying away from your team. I know it sounds strange, why would you want to leave the safety of your medic? The most concentrated area of damage will be around the medic demoman/heavy/soldier combo. If you want to survive all of the splash damage directed at your team, you have to seperate yourself. As a heavy or soldier, were your health is high evenwithout an overheal, you don't have to be as careful with your health. The scout should usually be at the outskirts of the battle, picking off the enemy one at a time until the right moment arrives for the scout to sprint in and make a large play!

The scout has a wide array of weapons at his disposal. There is quite a few that are utterly terrible and should not even be spoken of. The main weapon in any scout loadout should be the scattergun. This weapon has earned its place as the top scattergun through its lethal damage output. Although some upgrades have put the scattergun in their shadow these weapons have been nerfed, sometimes so badly they are rendered completly useless.

The secondary weapon is the stock pistol. There is not much I can say about it, it has a nice damage output and is quite reliable.

The melee in any competitive scout loadout should be the boston basher/three-rune blade. This weapon has the ability to damage its user, enabling the user to help medics build uber faster than the enemy without wasting ammo.


A diffrent melee/secondary combo that is more for casual play is the sandman and guillitine combo. This stun and run tactic is often forgotten but should be respected. This tactic can kill anything above a pyro's health in a quick m2 m2 combo! You can stun an oncoming heavy, run up and cleaver and then melee him and completly decimate that russian bafoon.

There is two ways to aim in this game

• Strafe aiming: Strafe aiming is using your A and D keys to aim and keep your mouse mostly steady, this provides strong results with any mouse because of its dependancy on your keyboard.

• Mouse aiming: It may seem silly but mouse aiming is beyond helpful if you play a hitscan class like scout or sniper. There is no perfect mouse setting, I run it on in-game 5.5. It is all prefence, I know incredible snipers and scouts that run it on 3. All that matters is that you have a good mouse.
  I am not that good on knowing good mouses, but I suggest a logitech gaming mouse. I rarely hear anything negetive about them! Mouse aiming is basicly what it sounds like, using your mouse to aim. This is the way I aim, along with millions of others. Depending on the "gear" you own, mouse aiming is the straight foward way to victory!

The scout has many physical gifts that allow him to exel in his playstyle, one of those gifts is the double jump. The double jump allows him to dodge enemy fire and play a little bit of "hide and go seek". The scout can double jump around a prop unpredictably, and make it incredibly difficult to land a shot on him. A good example is on koth_viaduct, this map has to rock formations by the point. If the scout lands in a sticky situation he can use these rocks to his advantage and raise his chance of surviving astronomicly. It doesn't always work, but it is a fantastic way to avoid taking damage!

Scout There is no shortcut to beating another scout. You simply have to land your shots and stay unpredictable, if you run in a straight line you will be easy to take down.

Soldier It is key that you dodge the rockets the soldier fires, it may sound hard to dodge them, but just double jump in different directions and shoot until the soldier is dead.

Pyro To kill a pyro there is one rule DON'T GET HIT use a serpentine motion and jump over the pyro's head to ensure you do not get ingited. Since you are both short range classes you must use your agility to your advantage, otherwise you will be burnt to a crisp.

Demoman Killing the demoman is similiar to killing a soldier, avoid the pills and stay mobile to minimize the danger of stickies. Try to make the demo waste all his pills and then "swoop in for the kill."

Heavy When combating the heavy (which is not advised) you must jump all around him, right in his pudgy face landing meatshots and avoiding his bullets.

Engineer There is not much you can do when an engineer is sitting by a lvl three sentry. Just sit at a distance and pester him with your primary and secondary.

Medic The way to kill a medic is actually quite hard. He is usually surrounded by his team. It is basically an obstacle course getting to him, but if you manage to get up close and personal with him one or two meatshots will suffice!

Sniper When dealing with a sniper take corners wide to avoid them having a headshot lined up for you. Once you are in close range, whip out your scattergun and hit him a few times. There isn't much a sniper can do once you are directly in his face.

Spy Shoot him with your gun, that is literaly it, they can't do much damagewise with their primary (Yes, the ambassador can.) Other than a skillful/lucky headshot the spy should not be something to be concerned with. Of course in competitive play, or when playing against a generally good spy, the chance of trickstabs or just a revolvershot (which does significant damage) can turn the tides in the spies favor. To combat this, make sure to change directions while double jumping. It's easy to headshot a scout at the end of his double jump because he can't strafe, you basicly become a sitting duck begging to get hit if you play that way.

• When you are in an enviroment where there is a sniper and a medic the situation is quite optimal. Both of those classes are considerably easy to take down, and you can engage and get some hopefully easy picks.

• On the other side of the "spectrum" If you are facing a Heavy, Medic, and Soldier, the outcome of you surviving is not likely, in that instance you should back down and come back at a better time.

• If their is a Spy and a Scout together it is all about what skill level you and the enemy are. If you are confident that you could slaughter them both and walk out alive, go for it. But if you are not as certain that your health or skill level is high enough, don't engage. There is no reason to give your life away (unless you are going for medic.)

• If you see an engineer and a level one sentry, you have to gauge if your health is high enough and if that engineer is using weapons that deal a considrable amount damage. If that engineer is using the rescue ranger (which has a low damage output) you should probobly go for it!

• I love to go on large maps like Upward and bonk! You can stealthily get behind the enemy lines and get some cheap kills, along with generally annoying the enemy team. It is suprisingly effective.If you want to "up the ante", use the backscatter to stealithly slaughter the enemy team.
  Thanks to Furby for reminding me of this great strategy!

• Another fun strategy (though a little less effective) is to use the bonk atomic punch

and taunt using the sandman! Once in a blue moon you can get a gratifying taunt kill.

• Some great tips, I swear to god I got a 22 killstreak right after watching this video~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flse73Kux8o

• Same guy showing off his skills as the scout I learned from this, I hope you do too~ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4H2rnoKL9Bk

This concludes Hamsty's guide on everything scout. Thankyou so much for reading this guide, if you want to compliment or more likely insult (Jokes....) my guide, feel free to comment! Thankyou so much for reading this guide I hope you learned something about the scout.

-This has been some Hamsty wisdom

THANKYOU

P.S-Thanks to Pugz for helping out with some pictures, He's a great SFM poster maker, check him out!