How to Play

[Thomas]

Hello, Thomas here

 

As Team Fortress 2 has become free to play, many of you are new players.

There are many things to wrap your head around in your first encounters such as :

 

 

Soldier:

 

"OMG, did that soldier just rocket jump?"

-Yes, he did. It's as simple as jumping and shooting at the ground near you to get elevation, its mostly used in arena. You can jump even further when you tap your crouch button quickly before jumping.

"When I hear the soldier play a little horn what does that mean"

-They are various support items for the soldier's second loadout slot (Shotgun by default). They give the soldier and nearby team-mates various buffs in damage or defense.

"Why do the other soldiers run faster than me?"

-They run faster than you because they have an Equalizer. The Equalizer is a special melee weapon that players get for completing the soldier achievement milestone 1 (5 soldier achievements.). It increases the soldier's movement speed and damage the lower the soldier's health points get, but blocks any healing while using it.

 

Scout:

 

"Why can scouts double jump (jump twice)"

- It's a game mechanic so you should just get used to it, with the new scout weapon called The Atomizer they can triple jump aswell, but it costs the scout 10 health points whenever they do.

"Why does the scout's shotgun push me back?"

-It's because the scout is using the Force-A-Nature. It deals alot a lot of damage at close range and pushes the target back.

"How does the scout hit a baseball at me that stuns me?"

-The scout is using the Sandman. It allows the scout to fire a ball once in a while that stuns and/or slightly damages the target. At close range it only damages, but the further the target is away from the scout, the longer it stuns the target for. The scout can also pick up the ball from the ground to fire the ball again. However, the Sandman reduces the scout's (already low) health pool, leaving them easier to kill.

 

Pyro:

 

"What exactly does right clicking do when I'm a pyro?"

-Right clicking, when you are using a flamethrower, unloads a compression air blast that can be used to knock people back, for example off cliffs points payloads. It also counters übercharging medics very well. (see medic section)

There are not many questions to have about pyro but you should have some tips.

-You can rightclick (compression air blast) and shoot incoming projectiles (rockets, grenades, stickybombs, jarates, mad milk, and so on) away making you ideal for defending an engineer's nest or teammates from them.

-Lghting a running enemy on fire is a nice way to ensure kills, because fire burns for quite a lot of health even if they only are in the flame less than a second, you can even use the Flare Gun for this if they get out of range.

-Teaming up with another pyro can allow you to defend points more effectively, and you can keep spies off your teams back. (See spy section.)

-The Flamethrower deals more damage to the enemy the closer you are, and can burn multiple enemies at a time.

 

Sniper:

 

"What is the little bar charging up when i zoom in my scope as a sniper"

-That is your shot charging, it doesn't make sense but the game mechanic makes it so the longer you are scoped in the more damage you do, it allows you to oneshot kill any class with a headshot. (Headshots dont deal extra damage for any class except spy (with the Ambassador) or sniper.)

"What did the sniper just do to me? He threw a yellow jar on me!"

-It's called Jarate ( a jar of piss) (Jar-based Karate). Snipers can throw it on you. It splashes on impact and causes the targets to take mini-crits as damage ('stead of normal), and it also reveals spies.

 

Heavy:

 

There shouldn't be many questions about what a heavy is doing but I have tips.

-When you go to shoot, your gun has to spin up before you fire, if you are initiating I'd jump around a corner rather than walk, because while jumping you can spin up without losing speed, because while shooting after spun up you move slower.

-When you get a Sandvich it helps a lot, as you can heal yourself to max hp with a cooldown, or even use your secondary fire to throw it to a on the ground as a medpack (if you're familiar with ET) (mostly for medics) in need of quick healing.

-You are a big guy as a heavy, you take up a large hitbox and can protect much smaller and less healthy (heavies have 300hp compared to medics at 150) teammates by walking infront of the line of fire, your medic will heal but he needs to be alive to do so! Simply keep the line of fire from reaching him and you should stay alive.

-When fighting another heavy crouch, you have the same health and the same medic behind you healing you so who ever gets the headstart should win. If you crouch it reduces your hitbox's size. As the minigun hits hard at close quarters combat but in med, and long-ranged combat its spray will miss the target, and crouching makes it even more difficult to hit the target (the target crouching). Aim for the beltline when trying to kill someone. (Remember, headshots are no bonus.) Aiming for the belt on a standing heavy should be 100% hit, but if you are crouched it can miss which is the difference between life and death.

 

Medic:

 

"Why is he glowing? I seem to be doing no damage to him and whoever he heals takes no damage and they glow aswell."

-Well, this is an Übercharge. As the medic heals teammates you charge up, once you reach 100% charge your gun will glow and even the medic will say "Übercharge ready!". Right click and you gain limited invulnerability (Or increased healing/100% critical chance, depending on your Medi-Gun) until the bar hits 0%.

That is the only thing i can think of question wise but i do have tips like always.

- When healing teammates try to stay behind them, if you hide behind a teammate you will prevent yourself from taking almost all direct damage from snipers, heavies and will only take little splash dmg from soldiers and demomen.

-When healing teammates keep your eyes open, you want to save teammates from dying if they are on fire, low health etc. because the longer they are in the fight the more likely you will win. Also you need to watch for spies, good spies will seem like a teammate by acting normal, but a bad spy is obvious! If you think they are a spy hit them, spies can disguise as teammates but wont always have the correct name, so if you know someone isn't that class call out that you see a spy. If you simply stare at the back of your Heavy you will both get backstabbed and be useless to your teammates.

 

Demoman:

 

" Why does his melee weapon have more range than mine?"

-Valve thought it would be a good idea to give demomen extra range with weapons, for example Eyelander, Claidheamh Mòr, Persian Persuader

"How does he charge at me really fast?"

-The Demoman has become the "melee" class in updates past, with shields that allow charging at people from a distance and guaranteeing a critical strike for a small period of time at the end of the charge for a melee weapon. The charge also deals damage at the end of the charge.(The shields replace the sticky launcher)

" Why did the demo man hit me and blow up?"

-The Ullapool Caper is the answer - it is a WWI grenade the demoman uses to smack people. On it's first strike it explodes, dealing large detonation damage to the demoman and the target, but after the first strike it won't explode anymore, and will deal less melee damage than the other Demoman melee weapons.

"Why is that demoman running faster than myself?"

-With the Eyelander you gain a head count (You can 1 head for every kill you do with the Eyelander). It gives you bonus damage, health, and speed depending on how many heads you have. It doesnt make you invincible but pretty strong. It's obvious because the head on the demoman glows. The heads also increase the damage your charge deals at the end of it by 10 damage for every head, up to 5 heads, for a maximum of 100 damage with the Chargin' Targe and 135 damage with the Splendid Screen.

Tips!

-When using the sticky launcher you can hold down the fire button to charge up how far you will shoot a sticky bomb! You can also detonate the bombs mid-air by rightclicking midflight.

- Use the enviroment to your advantage. place sticky bombs around corners that are strategic points, and lure people to them. Remember that a stratagy is your best friend!

 

Engineer:

 

Most of the engineers items are self explanitory so I'm going to give tips!

Tips!

-Always team up, 2 engineers means you build twice as fast! Twice as fast means you can defend a location faster when you are in a rush.

-Location, location, location, like real estate location is key, turrets have a range. you want either the range to block a specific location, or for the turret to be in a close quarter where it can shoot anything in the room. You also want it out of range from stickeys. NEVER!! stick a turret near where someone can lay stickies without coming in turret range.

 

Spy:

 

Last but not least, probably most important. Spies can make or break any team, A good spy can change a whole game. Spies can go invisible, disguise as enemy teammates. They have an item called an Electro-Sapper that makes Engineer buildings gradually die, and go out of commission. His melee weapon is a Butterfly Knife that is an instant kill if its a backstab! A good spy can confuse a whole enemy team and have them looking for him continuously taking a lot away from their defense. I do not recommend you to play as a spy for a long time. You will not be good as one because you dont even know how to play normal classes, spies must know how to pretend to be every class very well, let alone pretend to be an actually player being a teammate to be extremely effective. However for the adventurous I will give tips

Tips!

-Always attempt to seem real, you want to be as much like a real teammate as possible. This includes walking around doing nothing, to pretend to be.

-The Ambassador is useful to headshot enemies when your cover is blown and backstabbing isnt an option, never backstab a sniper that has a razorback on ( ooks like a wooden shield on his back) it electrocutes, stuns you and leaves you vulnerable while the sniper doesnt die from the backstab, just pull out your ambassador and shoot him twice

-Stay away from pyro's they ignite teammates for spy checking, once you kill a few people go invisible and stay low while a pyro checks people.

-Do not uncloak unless you are disguised, and do not backstab people near turrets it will undisguise you and you will die. However, if you're very quick, you can sap a turret right after backstabbing someone right next to it without getting hit.

-Do not backstab someone infront of another player or you will die. If you have to backstab someone or are going to make sure there is a corner you can slip around or something you can jump off while cloaking, or you are running towards your team.

 

Thats about it on the tips to help etc.

 

Dont worry about not having good items like everyone else, as you play items will randomly drop and you will also get 1 item for each class as you reach their milestones in achievements, Doing the achievements will take you a bit of getting usto a class but once done they are satisfying. The harder achievements also help you learn how to play the classes better and be more helpful for your team. If your method of doing things doesnt always work you can always watch Youtube videos and integrate strategies into your build.

 

If you have any questions, Steam ID: Wocow ( =F|A= Thomas), be sure to specify who you are because people can get annoying asking for trades on Steam

 

See you all in game, - Thomas

Edited July 23, 2011 by Thomas

[General]

once in a lifetime, thomas posting on forums, and its like a page long.

Edited July 20, 2011 by General

[Antichrist]

TF is free like ET now????

[General]

Yes

[Thomas]

TF is free like ET now????

 

 

yes this guide is for any new ET, Cod members that need help on their game in TF

[daredevil]

Server IP:

 

[Sithnian]

TF is free like ET now????

 

It's free to play, but Steam premium accounts get a few bonuses (that are rather nice, for example extra inventory space, more rare items, and so on.), and you can buy items from the 'Mann Co. Store', but you can't trade them to other people or craft with them.

 

Now, a capitalization, spelling, grammar and other stuff check, free of charge by the Dahl corporation Sithnian. Extras are marked with red! (As are rewritten parts of the text)

 

Cut out for space. (Integrated into main post)

 

You can also ask me (Steam ID: Sithnian) if you have any questions. I'd be happy to answer if I can.

 

Also, I wanted to post something useful as well, but I forgot. :/

 

edit: spelling, grammar, whatnot.

[Piglet]

Pyro: -The compressed air blast will extinguish teammates that are on fire

-Pyros are flameproof, so use your secondary or melee weapon to kill them.

[Sithnian]

Pyro: -The compressed air blast will extinguish teammates that are on fire

-Pyros are flameproof, so use your secondary or melee weapon to kill them.

 

 

Pyros are not actually flameproof, but they don't ignite, meaning that the flamethrower (and flare gun) initial damage does damage them, but doesn't leave the damage over time part of them.

[Crasher]

I like to experience games with no guides first hand, and then if I struggle I go back. it's a lot more fun this way.

[SkWaL']

Thanks for this "How to Play".

 

I installed it since it's free, but i was damn lost, i was a poor victim on all servers.

 

Now, i'm still a victim, but i know what to do !

 

Hope to see some of you ingame

[riverhawks32]

Great guide...This was a nice reinforcement to what I taught myself coming from COD.

[Crasher]

Great guide...This was a nice reinforcement to what I taught myself coming from COD.

 

If you want another guide, take a look at my tutorials. (Click on contributor to see all my tutorials.)

 

[-RedAcid-]

I've read through this, and thus helped me a lot. Thank you everyone who came up with this

[riverhawks32]

I will Crasher.