The Spy is a highly shunned class in the Man vs Machine game mode. The learning curve is so infuriating that some people just give up. Some people play the class wrong, which turns them into a dead weight. This class takes a lot of finesse and knowledge of the foe and surroundings to pull it off right. You need to know your enemy, how he thinks, and the proper way of dealing maximum damage in your own unique way. Once you become familiar with this, you become a surgeon’s blade. You cut out all the nasty things so that your team can deal with the leftovers easier. I have grown so fond of this playstyle in MvM, and seeing all the flak the Spy gets in the forums inspired me to write this guide. This is for those who really want to learn how to play Spy effectively. This really is a class suited for teams who know what they are doing. Effective teamwork makes an effective Spy! The Spy does what he does to benefit the team; he’s not trying to score the most kills! Keep this in mind!

I will be gathering more screenshots for the guide. They will be uploaded over time

You need to be properly prepared to face an army of metal monstrosities. For the Spy, only a few items tend to stand out above the rest.

For the watches, there is only one you will ever use: the Dead Ringer. This watch was made for spam defence. Plus, the AI is not very forgiving with the other watches, but more on that later. The Dead Ringer also allows you to stay mobile. The other watches just slow you down. Sadly, the Bots only drop money and not metal, so your Dead Ringer is going to slow you down on that regard. You need to keep it primed to stay in the action. So how do we get past that?

Say hello to the Big Earner. This knife is next to useless in the normal game, but it really shines here. There are so many things to stab, so you will be recharging your Dead Ringer very quickly. The downside is the ding to your health. You have just been turned into a glass cannon. But this is MvM! You have upgrades that turn you into a murdering monster to counter this slight weakness. I will cover the upgrades later.

Another weapon that combos well with the Big Earner is the L’Etranger. You can shoot your Dead Ringer back to full cloak. The damage penalty can be a kick in the pants when you see Razorback Snipers around. That’s why I tend to go with the Enforcer. The Enforcer is nice when dealing with Engineer Bots too, but more on those later. Also, with a recent update, the Diamondback gains a free critical shot per stab too, making it a very attractive option. Do note though that Engineer buildings are immune to critical damage.


Dem Crits...

And finally we have our little gem the Sapper. It is the only weapon that can stun a large group of Bots. With this much power, it does have a bit of a cooldown. This can be bypassed with Ammo Canteens, but that’s 25 dollars a pop. The Sapper also allows you to chain stab a large group of robots, which I will be covering in the next section, since it can be a juggle with the twitchy AI. What makes the Sapper REALLY shine is WHAT you sap!

Before I forget… one last little tidbit about your Disguise Kit. You should always disguise as a Scout, so any speed bonuses you use won’t get canceled out.

Enforcer, Big Earner, Dead Ringer, Sapper, Disguise as Scout: this is my preferred loadout. I hear nice things about the Kunai, but I have not used it, so I can’t add any additional knowledge to that Spy play style.

The way the AI works makes some of your arsenal useless. These items are the two other Watches, Your Eternal Reward, and the Saharan set pieces all equipped together. Keep this in mind as you learn the AI’s quirks. It won’t take long to figure out why!


Looking smooooooooth!

This is a feature you should have turned off when playing Spy. You can’t see your watch and knife. Those two items have visual cues on when a stab will register and the cloak level of your watch. If your one of those people who like to play with no view models, then it may not affect you much.



Holy crap, I can see my bling bling!

With playing Spy, you really need to upgrade properly, or you’re going to have a hell of a time. I will list the upgrades with what priority they should be taken in.

For the top priority upgrades there are 3: Run Speed, Attack Speed and Sapper Power. These 3 should be maxed as soon as possible. Typically, Attack Speed should be the first to max, followed by Sapper Power and Run Speed. If you only had these 3 upgrades, you would still do well. This is the max performance of an MvM Spy right here. Run Speed lets you get places and escape. Sapper Power maximizes the size of the sap radius and the time the Bots are sapped for. Attack Speed is how fast you can stab.

Secondary upgrades are an interesting batch. These just help you survive better or aid in taking down larger targets. Some are better on other missions then others and some can be very map specific.

For health recovery, we have +Health on Melee Kill and Health Regeneration. You just need one point in the Health per Kill. You will be overhealed after a few stabs from this upgrade, allowing you to quickly recover and stay in the backfield. The Health Regain helps survival too. If you’re using the Big Earner, you will recover your health pretty quickly with just a few ticks in this upgrade. It also helps with being set on fire, negating the damage you take while in Dead Ringer phase.

For an extra boost in movement we have Jump Height. This upgrade tends to be a bit map specific. It’s not well suited for Coaltown, its ok in Decoy and it’s amazing in Mannworks and Big Rock. It’s hard to say why about the map specifies. I would love to make some videos of Spy movement though those maps, but my computer isn’t strong enough to record and play on this game. As for the jumping itself, it can throw off the AI’s aim in some cases and allow some ridiculous escapes that you couldn’t do before with normal jump height.

With Armour Penetration some people would take it as priority. This allows you do inflict a percentage of the backstab damage to Giants. Maxed out, I believe you do full backstab damage to Giants. Without this upgrade, you can’t inflict any backstab damage. To me, it’s only high priority on maps with Giant Medics. The team tends to do enough DPS to destroy Giants outright without your aid. Some missions you get a load of cash, so near endgame I may max this upgrade out. I’ll do hit and runs on some Giants to soften them up then. With the Mecha Engine missions, this upgrade does take some higher priority thanks to the Boss Bots at the end.

And speaking of Mecha Engine, these are the only missions I will upgrade damage resistances in. These missions tend to have a lot of Crit Boosted Bots that can still shred you in Dead Ringer phase. Also, the Boss at the end serve out crits like it’s a buffet. It helps to max out Explosive, Bullet and Crit resistances, yet still, there is so much crit spam flying around at times that you will still die, even in Dead Ringer phase!

A Spy shouldn’t be spending lots of money on canteens until late game. Early on, you need to get your priority upgrades maxed as soon as possible. It’s later on where waves tend to get more heated, and some situations may need some Canteen Power.

The Uber Canteen is the one you will lean to a lot. Some situations you just can’t weasel out of, and if a target has to go down, then this will allow you to do it.

The Ammo Canteen is also interesting, as using it resets your Sapper cooldown. I myself don’t use this. I’d rather spend the money on upgrades. When I learned of this trick, I was too used to working around the Sapper cooldown. Old habits’ sometimes never die!

The Kritz Canteen is too expensive. You’re not a direct DPS machine. Don’t even think about spending money on these!

The Teleport Canteen is just too situational. It may be better on other classes, but I’d rather pester the Engineer to upgrade his Teleporter to 2 ways (That’s a situational upgrade too, but some maps I want to beg for one)!

You are the second best class for collecting money. You can collect money while safely disguised! Be careful about crossfire though! If you’re playing with a Scout, you two should be aware of each other’s positions so you don’t get each other killed in crossfires. If the Scout dies, you’re still around to grab that money before he gets back! Scout and Spy do make an interesting tag team when working together! Scouts love Sappers!

There are some waves were a Spy can’t do much killing. This is where you start to feel a little useless. In situations like these, you must really focus on priorities. These are the times were you really focus on the money. If you’re having trouble, the team must be having trouble too!

Here is an example of this. On Expert Decoy, I see the team is having a hell of a time with the strong support waves and there is Giant Scouts in the mix. I’ll sap the Scouts, but due to the congestion; I can’t take any stabs at them. I can only sap Giant Scouts and collect money though the whole wave! I even ask after if I was a little useless that wave and they said I was not. They had no time to collect any money as they were stuck defending the bomb. Instead of losing hundreds of dollars, we got an A+!

This is another element of MvM that you can eliminate with ease. When the Bomb carrier gets that crits aura, it can spell disaster for the team. You can easily sneak in, eliminate that carrier, and reset the Bomb upgrade cycle.

If you see the team pushed back, you need to start keeping an eye on that bomb upgrade cycle. If you can keep all the elements in the backfield in check while the rest of the team recovers, everyone should be able to pull out of a bad situation.



Right behind you…



What a nice squiggly K you have there… K means I am going to KILL you…

You need to know how the enemy behaves in order to survive. This is the huge hurdle when learning to Spy on MvM. A lot of people will just give up as they die over and over again to things they don’t understand.

You can move among the Bots freely with your Disguise. You are a predator amongst prey. With this much power, you can eliminate key targets easily before your team even has to deal with them. But to do this, you need to know your prey!

The first part to overcoming this is to know how the AI works. What can make Spy so hard is that the Spy becomes a high threat very quickly. You need to know when you’re going to trigger the AI’s threat assessment, and you will trigger it REALLY fast!

A backstab does a lot of damage very quickly. After 2-3 backstabs on Bots or a Giant, you just became the player who is dealing the most damage to the mob, and they will target you right away. Even worse, the AI’s threat assessing abilities become overcharged in Expert, were one backstab will cause them to turn right around and shoot you if there is no other sources of damage nearby. Crit Boosted Bots are very sensitive too, even on Advanced. These are extremely dangerous for a Spy to deal with, as their Damage can bust right though a Dead Ringers invulnerability bubble. I will talk more about those Crit Boosted Bastards later. The same goes for non-Giant Deflector Heavies. Those are very twitchy too.

So how do we deal with the AI’s twitchiness towards Spies? By using your Brain! You now know that whoever does the most damage over time (DPS) to the Bots will attract their attention. On Normal, you now know you can get around 3 stabs in before you’re enemy number one. The moment you see those Bots start to turn, duck around cover or activate your Dead Ringer. If you’re close by your team, that Sentry tends to get the AI’s attention, so you may get a few more stabs in before you get the Bot’s attention. On your own, you trigger that aggression towards you must faster.

Then you wonder… well if I can only kill 3 guys before I have to get away, how am I useful? Again, you need to think. You see a huge blob of Scout Bots spawn and then 3 Heavy Bots behind them. What are you going to target? Why would you attack the Scouts when you can’t kill them all? You may try, but those 3 Heavies with them will tear you apart. If you sneak around and chain stab those Heavies, that’s 3 nasty bots your team doesn’t have to deal with, yet your team can blast those Scout Bots to ribbons easily. So then you chain stab those Heavies and trigger max threat on those Scout Bots. Then, you activate your Dead Ringer or duck away to safety. While those Scouts are flipping out over you, the team is shooting them down. You just killed 3 nasty bots and distracted the rest of them! How is that not useful! You’re pulling the AI buy the strings now.

The other way to get by that small window of stabbing is using the Sapper. You can shut down a large group of Bots and freely stab away. You can stab them from ANY direction; you don’t have to stab them from behind. The big thing to watch out for here is if there is any other Bots around. You have disabled this group, but another group may have just jumped down right behind you, and you most defiantly have triggered max threat.

Sappers ALWAYS mark you as max threat when you use one! DO NOT STAB until they look away from you. Any Bot not caught in the sap will turn and look at you. This lasts about one or two seconds before they lose interest. Try to stab them first, then the disabled squad. This is HUGE when dealing with Medics on a Giant. I wish to cover this aspect when I talk about Medic Bots later.

Sappers only slow down Giants. They will always spin around and look at you when you sap them, due to you instantly triggering their threat assessment.

You need to be situationaly aware at ALL times. You need to circle around the Bots like a predator. Make sure no backup is around, then sap and stab away when everything is clear! Some situations don’t allow this, and if your target needs to be taken out, Uber Canteens are your best friend. This is for those extreme scenarios were high value target mobs are just too close to each other, or if you know they are a very twitchy target like a crit boosted bot.

Sapping is also like stabbing were you need to choose wisely on what you sap. Why would you sap a bunch of cannon fodder Scout Bots when there’s a group of Soldier Bots that would push the team back if you don’t deal with them? To help a bit with target priority, I shall move onto the Bot types now.



A Crit Boosted Heavy with a Medic, and 3 Pyro body guards, all sapped and ready for the killing



Now here is the the same mob, but with a Giant Soldier in the way. I can only chain stab the Crit Boosted Heavy and Medic before having to duck out with my Dead Ringer. The Giant Soldier will kill me if I try to go for the Pyros. The Heavy and Medic are higher priority targets. Here, an ally has saved me the headache, taking advantage of the sap.



Crit Boosted Huntsmen are never fun… but you can do something about this!



Wait until they are all clustered for a sap! They are not as threatening when the majority is disabled. Since there may be more spawning behind me, I will not risk my life to stab them. The team will mow them down easier now!



This is a nasty formation. With that Giant Demo in the center, you can only stab 1-2 Steel Fists before that Demo targets you! Dead Ring out, circle around, uncloak, and pick off another few!


Giant blobs of Crit-Boosted Heavies? No problem!


Now the team can destroy them all without suffering a scratch!



I hate it when this happens and I am unsure what triggers it. They chase you down to oblivion. They won’t shoot at you, they just chase. I am disguised yet they still chase! I had enough running room and they eventually lost interest when I exited the tunnel.

We need to pick apart the tide of soulless abominations and learn how each one ticks. Some Bot’s you won’t bother with much, while others are so high on your hit list that if you fail to eliminate them, it will cause headaches to the rest of your team! First up is the more agressive members of the horde.

Scouts

These are mostly cannon fodder. They are fast and typically spawn in large packs. The cannon fodder variety spawns with bats, and will be the most common ones you will see. The more annoying version of these drinks Bonk before jumping down from their spawn, and the Sandman spam squad. The most deadly swarm Scout I dub the lightsaber Scouts, who have crit bats! These swarm types you usually won’t bother with. They die easily enough to the rest of the team. Try to stay clear of those lightsabers though. They swing their bats randomly and you may get hit.

They can spawn with Scatterguns and Force a Nature's too, though in lesser numbers. The Crit Boosted ones you need to be cautious about, but they tend to die easy enough. They shoot the Scatterguns at long range too, which doesn’t inflict as much damage as it should. Still, Getting clipped by a crit scatter can still hurt a bit. They are not high priority as other Crit Boosted Bots though.



Lightsaber Scouts can’t jump, high rocks are their weakness! Hight advantage is a must if these get into huge swarms.

Giant Scouts

These are one of the most annoying Giants in the game. They are always high priority targets for the team. They run at 88mph and will get that bomb to the hatch in no time! One mission even has them launching Sandman balls at you! When upgraded appropriately, a Spy can sap and kill it in 2 to 4 backstabs. Remember what I said about sapping Giants. You need to wait for the Scout to lose interest in you before you go in for the kill. The best defence against these jerks is to have the team form a blocking line in a choke point. It’s Red Rover and we call Giant Scout over! But wait, there is more! Now Giant Scouts come in a high jumping pain in the arse form AND Bonk drink form! Thankfuly those are rare and only featured in two missions!



This is one of the best ways to deal with Giant Scouts. The team forms a line across a choke point.



They don’t know how to jump. They inflict minimal damage before being blown to bits![/b]

Pyros

You don’t want to be near these. Once on fire, all the Bots are drawn to you like a moth to a flame! They exist to make you suffer. Some even have their flamethrowers permanently shooting fire just to make your life hell. They were specifically designed to toast Spies, and sometimes they spawn to protect Medic Bots! You know how the AI’s think now, so you know why these will give you a headache. If you’re sneaky and quick, you can pick one or two off, and run the hell away before they flip around. If you’re not quite at that level, then you will have to use your Sapper if you’re forced to deal with Pyro Bots.



Even the robotic ones are jerks to Spies!

Giant Pyros

DO NOT WANT! You stab their Medics if they have any and run the hell away! Thankfully, Giant Pyros are rare. Even the super rare Flargun one you don’t want to go near. Once you’re on fire, all the Bots want a piece of you!

Soldiers

These are up there on your to kill list. They tend to spawn in small mobs and are easy to sap and stab out of existence. They can also be fairly easy to dodge if you become target number one… that is if they are not right beside you. Sometimes, a Banner Soldier will appear in a group. This guy is a top target. Stab him out. Other times, the whole group will have banners, but the typical banner in these groups is a Concheror. The two very nasty types of Soldiers are the Direct Hit and Crit Boosted varieties. These guys should always be sap and stabbed, else death awaits you! Black Box Soldiers also appear now, firing 3 round bursts that heal a larger chunk of their health!



Crit-Boosted Soldiers… you just gotta love them!



O M G

Giant Soldier

These are quite common and prime targets for a Spy if they have no backup. The rapid fire ones can be a bit more dangerous for a Spy to deal with, as hit and runs get slowed down from having to activate the Dead Ringer. There is one Giant Soldier who you never want to go near, and thankfully there is only one of it. A Crit Boosted Rapid Fire Soldier (not the Boss, that’s a different story) is one of the most hellish things in all of MvM... waaaaait... now there is even more of them... thanks Two Cities update haha!

Giant Blackbox Soldier

These are EXTREAMLY annoying and thus get a special mention! They fire that 3 rocket burst that heals a huge chunk of health on hit! If they have a Giant Medic on them, it’s even more painful! Just like those Giant Medics, these are EXTREAMLY HIGH on your assassination list! Have an Uber Canteen at the ready, as once you get their attention, use the canteen and keep their focus so the team can finish them off!

Demomen

Demobots have their swarming Demoknights and their smaller formations that launch grenade spam. The Demoknights are like the Scout cannon fodder swarms, but much tougher thanks to that shield. Their charging makes them a bit annoying to deal with as a Spy. Like their cannon fodder breather, you will ignore them most of the time.

There are also tougher and extremely deadly Samurai Demobots, who can LEAP into the air and charge! They also have a larger healthpool on top of this. They are defiantly on your to stab list, that is if they don’t jump away on you!

As for the grenade spam brigade, I find them not as deadly as Soldiers. It still helps a bit to pick a few off. They tend to spawn in small packs and if your team is nesting on top of a high piece of terrain, those grenades hardly hit them. The only time these bastards are really nasty if they spawn in multiple small groups. It’s raining spam then! Still, half those shots tend to bounce harmlessly away if the team is nested in a prime position.



Try and not get in their way, this may happen!

Giant Demomen

These are interesting but usually not as threatening. They can be hellish when spawned in groups due to spam! You could pick on them but I try not to. Their grenade’s fire too fast, and at point blank, you tend to get splatted in the face before you can even prime your Dead Ringer! One thing about these guys is they take a while to reload. If you want to pick on one, that’s the time to.

Heavies

These guys have quite a few forms. Like the Scout and Demomen, Heavies too have a swarm form. Due to their high health and slow speed, they are a prime target for stabbing. You can just dance around them if you have triggered their attention. They are quite amusing to play with. Like a cat toying with a mouse before killing it! My favorite swarm is TICKLE HEAVIES. While most melee Heavy Bots are jokes, there is one among them that will cause lots of troubles: The Steel Fists. These guys are tanks thanks to that ranged damage reduction on those gloves! They melt like butter on your knife though. You can carve though these easily. Sadly, they tend to combo spawn with other Bots; some even form a body guard to Giants!

The ranged Heavies tend to spawn in small groups. They may be slow, but they can swing around quite fast and shoot you in the face when you got their attention. These are definite sap and stab groups. There is one ranged Heavy that is the bane of all things, the Deflector Heavy. Not only do they move in a wide formation to deny you a group sap, they are extremely sensitive to threats. This is one group you really need to use Uber Canteens to sap and stab. They are such a high threat target that they need to die.



So much DAKKA!



Oh the pain… sometimes they get you when you least expect it!



Unfortunately I died, but fortunately, I managed to get the rest of those Deflector Heavy’s sapped. Sometimes, you just aren’t quick enough to get away… also… lag sucks!

Giant Heavies

While the normal one easily goes down, the Deflector version is a tough nut to crack, due to the projectile deflection and the Medics. They spawn with Medics 95% of the time, so your job with them is just to get the Medics off them. They have so much Health that it will take you too long to even stab one to death. Still, it could be a nice distraction for the team. Also, keep an eye out for that Giant Shotgun Heavy... at first you will laugh, until you see it one shoting your team mates!

Giant Heal on Kill Heavy

This is your Deflector Giant on steroids. While not as bad as a Black Box Giant, it can still wreck face if everyone is not on their toes! While one spawns in Boss form, the others that follow tend to spawn with weaker health pools, to the point that the Boss health bars vanish.

These Bots tend to spawn in the Support role, but they do have some Assault types. These Bots are also prime targets for you to take out. Left unchecked, they can wreak havoc! It’s why they usually have an announcement when they spawn! Engineers will have their own section below, due to size limits per section.

Medics

This is one of your best jobs, well more like YOUR JOB to kill these jerks before they use their Uber and push the team back! You are one of the best to get rid of these pests. They tend to always spawn paired with Giants. Sometimes, they spawn paired with normal Bots.

Most suggest to sap and stab. When starting out with Spy, I would suggest this too. Just remember about the Sapper triggering the AI’s attention onto you instantly. You need to wait till they turn around before you can safely chain stab the disabled Medics. I prefer to wait until the Medics are grouped together, then I quickly chain stab them. Then, duck away or arm the Dead Ringer before their partner turns around.

There is a Quick Fix Medic type that tends to spawn en-mass. These you’re not so worried about, as the team’s DPS can shred them. Even when the Giant “OctoHeavy” and his ten Quick Fix buddy’s pop up, it can’t stand up to the teams DPS.

There are times where Medics will spawn in large numbers. Sometimes, it’s early on where you are not upgraded enough to swiftly dispatch them. Other times, they spawn in staggered swarms, like in one stage, they swarm out attached to Pyros, and you just can’t deal with it alone. In situations like these, it’s best to communicate with your team and co-ordinate an assault.


Wave 2 of Expert Coal Town is one situation where you’re not upgraded enough to sap and stab all those Medics in one run. Here, I worked with the Demoman to set up a trap. One we know what side they are spawning at, the Demoman places sticky bombs on the wall of said side. I sap them near the sticky bombs, and then tell him to set them off. Any surviving Medics I stab, after the Giant Heavy turns back around.

Giant Medics

This – Thing – Is –Wrong. This bastard always spawns paired with a Giant and all shall cower in fear when it’s a Giant Deflector Heavy! This is the only time a Quick Fix becomes the death of us all. Even for a Spy, it’s a pain to destroy.

With Spy Blocking gone the way of the do-do, we can’t just simply block the Giant Medic off his Giant Buddy anymore. If you’re on a stage with them and you know what wave they spawn, Armour Penetration upgrade becomes a MUST. Even two points in it can be enough to help get rid of a Giant Medic.

To deal with this massive threat, you’re going to have to do a little dance NOT make a little love… unless you want to! You may want to get some Uber Canteens too. When the cost is clear, get right up behind the Giant Medic, and give it a prostate exam with the end of your knife. Most likely, it will pop its Quick Fix. The Giant it is paired with will turn around and try to shoot at you. If it’s a Heavy, the Giant Medic’s body will block the bullets, giving you time to prepare an escape. When the Uber is over, get back right behind that Giant Medic and stab the living crap out of it till it explodes in a joyous shower of SCREW YOU VALVE! That Uber Canteen just makes sure you get the job done if that Giant or anything else gets in your way of stabbing that bastard apart.


PREPARE FOR YOUR EXAMINATION!


I kill it on the second approach and manage to get away in time… sometimes I don’t. Those Deflector Heavies turn and shoot faster than they move! Notice he is still firing at me and I am well into my Dead Ringer phase. Some bots like to do this…

Snipers

The standard Sniper Bot spawns as support. They usually just spawn in pairs. If they don’t have a Razorback on, they are easy pickings for a Spy. It’s best that you deal with these if the team gets pushed back. These bastards LOVE to spawn camp. The Sydney Sleeper ones can spell doom to the team too if they are not dealt with fast enough. If they do have Razorbacks, then it can take a little more time to deal with them. This is why you have an Enforcer. Wait for the cost to be clear, and then shoot them apart. If you have attracted a high threat rating from the rest of the Sniper group, strife back and forth REALLY FAST. Tap A and D in quick succession or whatever your left and right strife is. They CAN’T lock on to you, and it’s a comical sight if the team can see it too! If they are close to you, then they take out their melee and chase after you. Just put a bullet into your head and don’t be afraid to prime the Dead Ringer if they are in a position to kill you.

The swarm Sniper is armed with the Huntsman, and they tend to be one of the the most pain in the butt swarms in MvM. They can be hard to sap and stab too, as their aim is rather… nasty when you have their attention. This is one of those scenarios of just sap them for your team to deal with!

Not so Giant, yet Giant looking Sniper of DEATH

This jerk is quite rare thankfully. It has a stupidly high chance to insta-kill a team mate with its Huntsman of Massive Cranial Damage. It appears Giant, but it dies to a single stab. If you know this is spawning, you get your butt up there and stab it!

Spies

These guys are strictly support waves. They do have a rare swarm form, but that’s only in two missions… the one missions being one of the most HELLISH waves ever invented. The Announcer will announce when they arrive, but not how many. The usual number is 3, but on Expert, they can spawn in mobs of around 10!

You have a special ability that reveals cloaked enemy Spies in a small radius around you. Its usefulness is questionable, but for you well… funnily enough, Spy Bots will give YOU more of a headache, not your team! It’s nice to see were those bastards are then because the Spy bot has an interesting behavior… once you have their attention; they WILL NOT leave you alone until your dead. They will follow you to hell and back. I have been pinned to the wall by Spy Bots so many times… it is one of the worst situations for you to be in. If you don’t have jump height upgrades, you’re stuck. You are then forced to attack and usually die because, lol stab mechanics. A lot of the times the team can’t even help you get out because you’re so far behind enemy lines. Even if you touch them while disguised, they will be drawn to your presence! They will call out Spy when this happens, so be prepared! So when you hear the Announcer announces that the Spy Bots are around, YOU should be the most cautious of all.


Pinned and stabbed to death! I put myself in this situation just to show you all what happens!


Your passive special ability reveals cloaked Spies. This can be hard to take a screenshot of…


It’s an odd bug were some Bots get blown up in size… yet funny!

You are one of the best classes to deal with these annoying bastards. If they are not shut down, they can teleport their allies to the front lines, and those high HP Teleporters give them a short Uber too. That Uber can be enough to wreck the teams defence. Nothing like 3 Giant Scouts getting teleported to your frontlines! The Announcer only announces teleporting Engineers. They can spawn in swarms too.

When the Engineer places buildings now, any player nearby with be knocked away by some kind of new voodo magic. Keep this in mind before attacking! Atleast you wont get stuck inside a building now!

While they are carrying a toolbox, they won’t put it away to try and kill you. In Decoy in particular, you can just chain stab them while they are in this state. Even when they are building their stuff, they tend to be too focused on what they are doing to attack you. You stab the Engineer once he is focused on building his gun. You then sap the Sentry before it turns around and shoots you. If the gun JUST started to build, knife it. With that out of the way, destroy the Teleporter while its building. Shoot it with your gun or stab it, as long as it goes down. Note that the Sapper can’t sap both the Engineer and the Sentry. It’s the bots or the buildings, not a mix of both!

At times, it’s not as easy if there’s a lot of action going on. If the Engineer builds around a high traffic Bot area, it’s going to take longer to get rid of that Teleporter. You will only have time to sap and stab the Engineer if his allies are around. Once you have gotten away, re prime your Dead Ringer and wait for your Sapper to charge. Then, get on that Teleporter right away, and hope no one teleports in. You need to have a primed Dead Ringer when dealing with an active Teleporter, in case you do get some surprise guests.



Step 1: Stab!



Step 2: Sap! (Dang, that Giant Scout is on a fishy rampage!)



Step 3: Get rid of Teleporter



I didn’t get to the Teleporter in time… this is bound to turn bad!



Yup… VERY BAD! The team is still up front! That duo teleported in and prevented me from destroying the Teleporter! Now I am delayed in dealing with it due to equipment recharge times…



Soon to be overrun… This is a failed wave. A good example on what happens if you don’t deal with Engineers in time!



Sometimes they get stuck in the dumbest places…



Just don’t let them build on top of you… you get stuck! (New knockback prevents this now)

These two are the special Bots and come with their own announcement when spawning. One requires the teams full focus, the other gives Engineers a headache! As special as these Bots are, there is not much in your arsenal to aid the team in destroying them.

Tank

Show the Tank whose boss by Spy Crab surfing on top of it. Amaze your team at with your amazing mad crab skills! Try seeing if your Sapper works on it… nope.

Spies can’t do much to Tanks.

While the team is dealing with tanks, you should be weakening any supporting Bot waves that pile in. This is the only time you would target swarm spawns like Scouts.

If there are no supporting Bots to deal with, might as well knife the Tank to death with the team!



While the team deals with that tank, weaken or kill anything that spawns behind it!



It’s not working! Why you no sap?!



Just supervising the burninating!



Sup team! I am helping by… standing on top of it!

Sentry Buster

The Sentry Buster is mostly the Engineers problem.

You can Sap it to slow it down, but the Engineer should know how to deal with these, and it should be the Engineer that tricks it into detonating early!

At times, the team can do enough DPS to kill a Sentry Buster.

The only thing you have to worry about is the explosion, which you can use the Dead Ringer to escape out of.



The smoke left behind from a Sentry Buster explosion can be rather anoying... it can block line of sight...



R.I.P Sentry...

These are the baddest of the bad! They fire out streams of crit death or punch you in the face with Fists of Steel. They have endless support waves following them in. How does a Spy help out against these?

Before the Spy Blocking was fixed, we just blocked them in a choke point. Sometimes they would get stuck, flip out and explode, granting an easy win.

Now, it’s a bit tricky. We can stall block, but it’s a bit of an annoying dance now. You can block and fire of Uber Canteen after Uber Canteen if the Boss won’t let you stab him anymore. Then die, buy back in and restock those Ubers. Rinse and Repeat. That’s the annoying dance here.

Backstabs do land some nice damage, until you become the highest threat and get blown to bits, or forced to use an Uber Canteen. Right there is how you can help now. If they are so focused on you, the team can land in more damage. Try running circles around him and try to keep him focused on you. Here is a small breakdown on each boss.

Captain Punch of Bone Shaker

This one is the most annoying out of the bunch, thanks to the Fists of Steel. Your primary attack is melee, which the Fists are weak against. Stab away!

Sargent Crits of Broken Parts

He rapid fires crit rockets at an alarming rate. This one tends to be easier since you have lots of time to kill him. Go for backstabs when you can, and slow him down with the Sappers and body blocking.

Major Bomber of Disintegration

It looks like he invented the Grenade Minigun. He fires a ridiculous stream of crit grenades! He has the heaviest backup of Engineer and Scout Bots. They are endless and you have no time to deal with these, it’s better to help the team stall the Boss with sapping and body blocking. Decoy is a small map, so you don’t have much time.



Sometimes you just get that crazy urge to jump on their heads and stab away!


Major Bomber's Teleporter support lights up the sky... this is why you must kill him quickly

Sir Nukesalot of Hamlet Hostility

KABEWWWWWM! This guy has a Loose Cannon on steroids! Those bombs explode like a Sentry Buster and can pretty much nuke anything in one hit! On top of that, it leaves a Smokey mess behind too! Due to how much smoke is generated, it’s best to let this guy pick the bomb up so you can actually SEE where he is! Also, he’s got a rather slow reload and those cannonballs can be dodged. As intimidating as this boss is, it’s not too hard to take down!


Well... crap!

The 3 Stooges of Bavarian Botbash

While they don’t have that Boss healthbar, I do consider these Giant Soldiers a miniboss. They spawn together and have one of the 3 banners each. You will want to take out the Battalions Backup Soldier first, due to the critical hit negation that banner provides!

Colonel Barrage and Major Crits

These two fire a slow crocket wall of DEATH! The only difference between the two is that Major Crits has a huge healthpool!

(Blarg, Wiki down...)

Meet the most deadly adversary to a Spy… the dreaded and all powerful lag monster. This nasty invisible force will cause your stabs to fail, slow your Dead Ringer arm and cause your Sapper to miss intended targets. It is more rage inducing then Mannworks on Expert! You just have to keep on grinding through. If all else fails, find another server and cross fingers, unless you really want to beat that mission. Lag will hinder your performance severely though, more so than other classes.



Spies can die so much that you wonder if they are undead…

I should bring this up a bit too, since I mentioned it in the Boss fights.

Before it was patched out, Spies could completely block almost all Giant types. Sometimes, the Giants would get stuck on terrain or the Spy, and explode. I think this self-destruct was a debug move in case they legitimately got stuck. Even a Mecha Engine Boss was not safe. If a Spy got them to get stuck and they debug self-destruct, it was an easy victory.

A Spy could halt the Giants and then let them go when the team has gathered themselves back up. This was how I used it. If I saw the team was having trouble I would go and stall any Giants incoming. You could even block a Giant from dropping the bomb.

Now, Valve patched in a counter to this. If A Spy is blocking a Bot for around more than 5 seconds, the blocked Bot and any Bots nearby will all target Spy. This caught me off guard when I first encountered it, and I had to play around to see how it was triggered.

Knowing this, you can still block, but only in short sessions. If they are focusing on a high threat target and you’re blocking them, you can block a little longer. Once that target is down, then they instantly focus on you. Blocking is balanced now, not broken.



A typical old Spy Block... everyone stuck together!



Just you and a Dead Ringer between the Giant and a Bomb hatch… sometimes it’s enough to steal victory from defeat!



This is a nice little hallway in Decoy I love to use as Spy. You can block Bots that try to run upstairs too. It stops them from flanking the team! I need to do a terrain section… I need recordings to do so…[/b]

Now the fun part begins. I may have laid everything down on paper, but oh it’s so much different on the battlefield. I make it sound easy, but in the chaos of the battlefield, things can change, things can go wrong. Fail stabs can be your bane. The AI may even pull some funny moves you can’t even predict. A team mate could get in the way. I could write another essay on all the random crap that happens to the poor Spy, but the only way to really learn is to experience it yourself. I hope that I have made the learning process a little easier for you. Do remember one thing, being a Spy and dying are like peas in a pod; sometimes you just can’t avoid it! It’s probably why it’s so fun, oh the randomness!



This is not a very classy way to go... lol

This section will be a lot of work. I need to plan time on a private server and let the game record for me, since my CPU can’t handle 3rd party recording while running a game…