This surprisingly extensive guide outlines all the methods I could think of for detecting enemy spies in your midst. Also, to mix things up a bit I took a cue from YTMND’s news posts for each of the points. Read on!
PLEASE NOTE: As always, the blunt text version gets rolled out the door first, and pictures will follow shortly. Naturally this is the kind of guide that would benefit greatly from pictures, so I’ll try and get them here ASAP.
Weapon Of Choice:
This piece of information applies to all of the following points. A spy’s model can only ever be holding the disguised class’s primary weapon. Period. Hence you should be suspicious of any teammates holding primary weapons when they normally wouldn’t, such as medics, friendly-looking spies and engineers around base.
Red Mask:
Similar to the previous point, this is useful to know for the following points. If a friendly spy is wearing a mask, then he is in fact a friendly spy. Enemy spies can’t look as though they’re disguised, so don’t waste your ammo.
Reckoner:
One of the most obvious indications of a slimy spy is seeing someone else with your name. They may not always be the same class, but it’s more likely they will be than not. Kill the imposter, or at least tell your team you’re a spy.
Crash Into Me:
My standard test for spies is to run into my suspect head-on. Players can pass through their teammates but not through enemies, so if you run into a friendly-looking player and stop, or even just nudge an impassable teammate and get pushed to the side, you’ve found a traitor. Having just run into them, you should be at a perfect distance to dish out some pain - point blank.
Disappear Here:
Perhaps the most obvious sign that someone is a spy is when you see them cloak or uncloak. First off, if you see anyone (except a masked spy) that looks like a teammate cloak or uncloak, they’re definitely a spy. Sic ‘em, Rex.
However the more subtle clue is the colour of their cloak. When a player cloaks, their model changes from solid to translucent to all but invisible. In the translucent stage, they have a faint tinge of red or blue, depending on which team they are. If you’re on the blue team and see any reddish translucent shapes, they are enemy spies, regardless of what model they turn into. Knowing this, you only have to catch a glimpse of a cloaking/uncloaking player to tell friend from foe.
Question And Answer:
When a spy is cloaked, he is pretty much invisible. However if he is shot or he bumps into an enemy, he will briefly flicker his tinged translucent model. If you see a flicker, spam the area with bullets, keep track by shooting where the flicker is headed, and keep shooting until the flicker turns into a corpse.
Pouring Petrol On A Burning Man:
The pyro is the spy’s worst nightmare. One tiny puff of flamethrower and the spy, cloaked, disguised or otherwise, turns into a walking BBQ. If you see a teammate on fire running away from your other teammates, shoot him, assuming the pyro that lit him up originally hasn’t already disintegrated him. If you yourself happen to be a pyro, burn everyone around you at regular intervals, especially around objectives and engineer buildings.
Another thing to note is that when a cloaked spy is on fire, the flames will glow his team’s colour (quite subtle). This is more noticeable with blue spies, but either way it gives you even more reason to help the cause of the disembodied flames.
Message In A Bottle
In the same way that teammates are passable to other teammates, they are also passable to a friendly demoman’s grenades. If you fire a grenade (on the full) at a teammate it will pass right through, but if your target is a spy, it will explode on contact. Sometimes friendly rockets seem to do the same thing, but more often than not they explode on friendly contact as well as enemy.
One way you can use rockets (and grenades for that matter) however is to shoot at your questionable friend’s feet. A spy, even when disguised, is still susceptible to the laws of physics, and the force of the explosion will send him flying into the air.
Long Black Veil:
When a spy disguises, three things happen. He is surrounded by a field of little grey clouds, these are then interspersed by a field of glowing lines, and finally the spy’s model changes and the clouds and lines dissolve. Playing the spy first-person, it is often difficult to know the state of these particles, and this presents opportunities for the spy hunter.
Firstly, if you see any teammate (other than a friendly spy) with clouds and/or stars around him, he’s obviously an enemy spy, since no other class would ever be surrounded by such stuff. Secondly, any teammate, regardless of model, with the little stars around them will be given away, since the stars are the colour of the spy’s team (red or blue).
Don’t Drink The Water:
When any class is underwater they will (briefly) have bubbles coming out of their mouth, and when they leave the water, they continue to drip for a few seconds. The same applies to spies, and when said spy is cloaked, it can result in a rather suspicious sight. If you see disembodied water droplets or bubbles, restore the natural order and match them up with a body. A dead one.
Sparks:
When anyone uses a teleporter, they will leave a sparkly, glowing trail behind them for about 10 seconds. This includes spies, so if you ever see a blue teammate with a glowing red trail, punish his stupidity.
Boobytrapping:
When you as a spy are about to place an electrosapper on an enemy building, you see a little white wireframe of said electrosapper before you place it. As far as I know, not only the spy but everyone can see this wireframe, so if you see a wireframe on one of your team’s buildings, start shooting anyone with a primary weapon.
EDIT: This may or may not be true - indeed it has been investigated on the forums and apparently it’s not. However I’m absolutely positive I’ve seen it, so I won’t remove this just yet. Maybe it’s just a bug sometimes.
Slow Cheetah:
There are a few classes that are generally inadvisable to disguise as, but one that really must be avoided in almost all cases is the scout. If a spy disguises as a slower class (soldier, demoman, heavy) he will move slower in accordance with his disguise’s maximum running speed. However if he disguises as a faster class, he will still move at spy speed. When you see a scout in his flat out running animation but only going ¾ of his regular speed, you notice that something is wrong. Shoot first, ask questions later.
Shoot The Runner:
Slightly more subtle but still a sight that should raise alarm bells in your head is a teammate running the opposite way to what he should. This includes a medic or sniper running backwards, away from your frontline troops, or an engineer running towards the front line. Naturally there will be occasions where teammates are actually running the wrong way, but it’s worth a quick check.
Save Me:
During the beta and early release, a popular tactic for spies was to run straight into enemy lines calling for a medic. The enemy would think you were just an injured offensive teammate coming back for health, and having earned their fickle trust you would take up a position behind their lines. Nowadays this doesn’t work so well, but if a spy manages to get a medic to heal him, he quickly earns the trust of the enemy, and can of course take more hits should an inquisitive spy hunter plug a few rounds into him.
The moral of the story is look out for teammates calling for a medic but not actually in, near, or approaching a fight. As a spy, it’s a good way to get into the enemy fold, and if you can waste an übercharge it’s a huge bonus. As a spy hunter, don’t let them waste your medic.
The Pretender:
Some more intelligent spies really get into their roles, such as snipers standing still behind enemy lines or demoman crouching around a corner from an enemy’s sticky bombs, pretending to watch over them as though they’re his. This can be incredibly effective if people aren’t on the lookout for it. On Hydro I once sat on the little hut next to the bridge control point as sniper for about 5 minutes, and eventually the entire enemy team had seen me and just accepted that I was one of them.
However a few subtle inconsistencies tend to arise. For example, a spy disguised as a sniper can’t raise his sniper rifle to his eye like real snipers do when they activate their scopes. Soldier and demoman spies will not spam enemy-occupied areas with rockets and grenades even though any real soldier or demoman would. Engineer spies won’t to head for ammo/metal pickups, even though engineers tend to. If you notice a teammate not doing what you’d expect, be suspicious and try walking through him.
Pickpockets:
Be wary of friendly looking folks running around in your midst who run sideways more than forwards, frantically avoiding running into any of you, so that they fall to the back of the pack. They may want to be at the back for a reason.
Where Are You Going:
Some of the less confident spies are very susceptible to panic. Sometimes simply walking towards someone is enough to make them turn around and run the opposite direction. If a teammate appears to react to you and run away, plug a few rounds into him. See how he reacts then. Of course disguised spies show no indication of being hit when they are shot (except by the flamethrower and explosives knockback), but if he’s nervy enough to run in the first place chance are he’ll start strafing or nonchalantly head for cover.
Vicarious:
Another example of a ‘teammate’ not doing what they’re supposed to. If you come under attack, and real teammate would help you out, or at least see who’s attacking you. If you have someone lurking behind you refusing to even fire a shot, be suspicious. Even if you’re busy fighting your assailant, watch your back.
The Fallen:
Something to try if the enemy is making liberal use of spies. Keep an eye on the top right corner of your screen taking brief notice of the names of your teammates that get killed. It takes at least 20 - 30 seconds before you’re likely to see them again, so if you see someone with a teammate’s name who died less than 20 seconds ago, be suspicious. Chances are you’ll pick them out as a spy a different way, but hey, it’s a method.
Title Summary:
Fatboy Slim - Weapon Of Choice
Tony Williams - Red Mask
Radiohead - Reckoner
Dave Matthews Band - Crash Into Me
Bloc Party - Song For Clay (Disappear Here)
Roy Haynes Quartet - Question And Answer (Modern Drummer Festival 2005)
Paul Kelly - Pouring Petrol On A Burning Man
The Police - Message In A Bottle
The Band - Long Black Veil (covered by Dave Matthews Band)
Dave Matthews Band - Don’t Drink The Water
Coldplay - Sparks
David Holmes - Boobytrapping (Ocean’s 11 Soundtrack)
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Slow Cheetah
Kasabian - Shoot The Runner
Dave Matthews Band - Save Me
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
David Holmes - Pickpockets (Ocean’s 11 Soundtrack)
Dave Matthews Band - Where Are You Going
Tool - Vicarious
Franz Ferdinand - The Fallen