Vitals
Health: 125
Speed: 100%
Type: Support
Weapons: Revolver, Electrosapper, Butterfly Knife, Spytron 2007, Invisibility Watch
Unlockables: Ambassador, Cloak and Dagger, Dead Ringer
Weapons:
Ammo: 6/24
Damage: 54-60 (120)
Best range: Medium
Information:
The Spy’s Raging Bull revolver holds the standard six rounds and is quite accurate, causing significant damage up to medium range. It is a weapon that should not be ignored. Once your cover is blown and the enemy is bearing down on you, it’s often best to put away your knife and plug a few bullets into them instead. As they say, never bring a knife to a gunfight, and the fact that it’s ranged makes it far more useful when running for your life. Also makes for a handy alternative for dealing with those paranoid Razorback Snipers.
Functionally the revolver is quite similar to the pistol, but with a slower fire rate, half the clip size, slower reload and higher damage. At around fifty damage per bullet, you can bring down most enemies in a handful of shots (if your aim is true), so be sure to put it to good use. Overall, your revolver provides you significantly better damage potential beyond close range than most other bullet-based weaponry available to other classes.
Advantages: Very respectable damage for a pistol, good accuracy up to around medium range.
Disadvantages: Small clip, ordinary rate of fire and reload speed, firing removes Spy’s disguise.
Ammo: N/A
Damage: N/A
Information:
The Electrosapper is placed on enemy Engineer buildings by standing nearby and clicking primary fire while pointing at it, and will slowly drain the building’s health until destroyed (disabling it while doing so). The electrosapper has no ammunition to worry about, and there is no limit to the number you can simultaneously have placed. Using your electrosapper does not remove your disguise, unlike when attacking with your revolver or knife. Placing an electrosapper on a teleport entrance or exit will automatically place it on the matching teleport as well, if one exists. Engineers can remove your electrosappers with two hits from their wrench; however, you replace them instantly. Repeatedly clicking (or simply holding down) primary fire on an enemy building will replace the electrosapper right after their second hit with the wrench, giving him no time to repair the previous damage. In this contest the Spy will always win, so a smart Engineer will deal with Spy first.
You may shoot a building that you’ve sapped to do additional damage, but note that you do less damage to a building you’ve sapped than normal. While this can be a good tactic for taking down unguarded or nearly destroyed buildings (after all, it could mean the difference between destroyed or repaired), often the best course of action in a field of Engineer buildings is to run around and sap each and every building. This allows you to do the most damage to the buildings in a shorter time, and often guarantees at least one of them getting destroyed (if the Engineer is alone). Always keep in mind that your main target should actually be the Engineer, as without him his buildings are easily destroyed. Be aware of his sentry gun when going for a backstab, as you’ll be best off if it is rendered harmless with an electrosapper first (especially a level three sentry). Quick maneuvering (or stabbing while the sentry upgrades) can allow skilled Spies to stab then sap, but it takes practice to get it right.
Advantages: Not only damages buildings but disables them too, infinite ammo and immediate placement, can be placed while disguised.
Disadvantages: Damages buildings quite slowly, reveals the presence of a Spy and usually results in death as enemies hunt you down, short range, sapper has low health and can be removed easily by an aware engineer.
Ammo: N/A
Damage: 28-54
Information:
This weapon is the Spy’s primary means of attack. It is very weak attacking a target head-on, but a backstab is an instant kill. Backstabs are, simply, when you attack an enemy from behind. To be more specific, a backstab will occur when attacking from within a 180° arc behind the target (even from above or below). The instant you attack, your disguise will be lost, so try to attack the backmost player in a line of enemies first then make your way through the rest. A lot of the strategy relates to the Spy, not the knife itself, so I’ll leave that for the strategy section of this guide. Note that you cannot get random critical hits with the Butterfly Knife.
Advantages: One hit kill to the enemies’ backs, fast attack speed.
Disadvantages: Removes Spy’s disguise, weaker than normal melee weapons if not backstabbing, no random criticals.
Information:
Becoming invisible is a great big part of what makes the Spy an effective infiltration and killing machine. The Invisibility Watch is the tool a Spy uses to attain this otherwise impossible feat of subtlety. There are three variants of this amazing piece of technology; this one being the standard issue model which every Spy has available to him. The secondary fire button will activate your Invisibility Watch regardless of what weapon you are currently holding.
This particular model works by causing you to become cloaked when used (it takes roughly one second to become fully invisible), and will drain at a constant rate regardless of what you are doing while invisible. A full charge will keep you cloaked for nine seconds, or until you deactivate it by again pressing the secondary fire button. You can see how much charge is left via your charge meter. Like all the watches, it will take you roughly two seconds to fully de-cloak, during which you cannot attack.
When not in use, your Invisibility watch will slowly recharge over time (taking roughly thirty-three seconds to fully recharge). However, you can speed this process of recharging and even extend the length of your time spent invisible by picking up ammunition. Ammo boxes, dispensers and weapons dropped by the dead are all good sources of recharging your cloak. Making good use of these sources of replenishment can help you stay alive, get you further behind the enemy lines, and prevent you from having to uncloak in an undesirable position.
Advantages: Longest fully-cloaked time of all the watches while running, able to replenish your cloak using sources of ammunition.
Disadvantages: Your cloak will deactivate automatically when drained.
Ammo: 6/24
Damage: 46-51 (102 on headshot)
Best range: Medium – Long
Information:
This classy-looking unlockable replacement for the Spy’s Revolver is a throwback to the older days of Team Fortress. It retains many of the same characteristics as its predecessor with one big difference; headshots. It may not be a Sniper Rifle, but putting a bullet into the skull of your enemy doubles your damage just the same. Getting a headshot kill also gives you that extra half a point in the same manner as the Sniper, complete with its own unique icon for all to see your handiwork.
However, the Ambassador does not come without its drawbacks. A slower rate of fire and lower damage make it less effective overall, unless you’re getting those headshots this weapon was intended for. You’ll also notice that the accuracy goes way down after you shoot, and takes about one-and-a-half seconds to become fully accurate once more.
When it’s accurate though, it is deadly accurate, and will shoot exactly down the center of your crosshairs. It takes some practice to be able to snipe a long distance with this weapon, but it’s second only to the Sniper Rifle in causing large damage instantly over long distances directly down its crosshairs. Just remember that even a world-class headshot with this weapon won’t do enough damage to kill any class in one shot, unless they are already damaged.
Advantages: Able to perform headshots for double damage and great accuracy if you haven’t shot in the last 1.5 seconds.
Disadvantages: 15% less damage and 20% slower rate of fire compared to the Revolver and accuracy plummets when fired rapidly.
Information:
One of the unlockable replacements for the Invisibility Watch, this model can effectively allow you to remain fully cloaked indefinitely. The charge meter will only drain while you are cloaked and moving, and drains faster or slower depending on your movement speed. Standing still while cloaked allows you to recharge your cloak while remaining hidden from the enemy. It will not automatically deactivate when fully drained, but only when you press secondary fire button. However, be aware that when the charge meter is empty, you will become partially visible while moving.
A full charge of your cloak will give you roughly seven seconds of time fully-cloaked while running at full speed. If you decide to crouch and move slowly to conserve your charge, you can move for roughly one minute before the charge becomes empty. Either approach (running then stopping vs. crouching and slowly creeping forward) will get you the same distance traveled fully-cloaked over time. It takes roughly eighteen seconds of standing still to fully recharge your cloak. Note that sources of ammunition do not recharge your cloak when using the Cloak and Dagger.
Advantages: Can replenish your charge meter when standing still while cloaked and your cloak will not deactivate when you run out of charge.
Disadvantages: A full charge will not get you as far fully-cloaked as the normal Invisibility Watch and sources of ammunition do not replenish your charge meter.
Information:
This unlockable replacement for the Invisibility Watch is quite a dramatic change from the standard way a Spy uses cloaking. Using the secondary fire button will not automatically turn you invisible; instead it will prepare you to become invisible upon taking damage. The damage will be reduced by ninety percent on the attack which cloaked you as well as any attacks while you remain cloaked. During this time, bumping into enemies or getting damaged will not cause you to visibly flicker like the other watches do. However, extending your cloak time using ammo does not add more time that these effects occur; they will wear off after 6.5 seconds or upon decloaking (whichever occurs first).
Upon taking the initial damage causing you to become invisible, a dead body will be dropped for all to see. This will give the appearance to your enemy that they have just killed you (complete with all text-related indications that they have just scored a kill). Disguising yourself as your own team will drop a body of that disguise you chose, while no disguise (or an enemy disguise) will drop a Spy corpse instead.
When you uncloak while using the Dead Ringer, a loud, easily distinguishable sound will occur which can be heard from a good distance away. A full charge will allow you to remain invisible for six-and-a-half seconds. Like the standard Invisibility Watch, you may replenish your cloak meter via ammunition sources. Note that you cannot activate the Dead Ringer unless you have a full charge.
Advantages: Allows you to cloak in the middle of the action rather than having to do so ahead of time, cloaking is instant rather than taking one second to become fully invisible, damage is reduced greatly when used, tricks the enemy into thinking they just killed you or a teammate of yours and you can make use of ammunition to refill your charge.
Disadvantages: Loud and easily distinguished sound upon decloaking alerts nearby enemies to your presence, shorter amount of cloak time than the standard Invisibility Watch and you cannot actively choose when to become invisible.
posted on August 28th, 2009 at 2:44 am