If you've made it this far playing TF2 that you feel like you can take on expert, you probably already know that on TF2 you cannot aford to have redundant classes on the same team - especially in small teams, like the 6-player team you have in MVM. That means, many times, that you don't get to play the class you want, or else your whole team is going to lose.

Having that in mind, you may wanna ask yourself which classes are the most effective ones to get the job done. From my personal experience, and from many conversations I had with players who are more experienced than me, this is the easiest and most effective team setup that can beat an expert map: a scout, a pyro, a demoman, 2 heavies and an engineer. This does not mean that you shouldn't play soldier, sniper, medic or spy, but it means that, if you're inexperienced, you probably should consider using this setup for it's more effective and it makes things easier for everyone. With time, you will be able to change it and include any class you want, as long as you keep it balanced.

This basic setup works very well because each class develops a very important function that can't be replaced too easily. I will explain more about them in details later, and even more details on separate guides; however, this is what you should know about them for now:

a- the Scout
His basic function is to get all the money. On expert, you can't afford to lose the bonus money from at least the first 2-3 waves, or else you will most likely get stuck on a later wave for not having enough upgrades. Scout is great on that job because he gets ridiculous health boosts from collected money and because he attracts money directly to him, unlike other classes. A team without a scout will hardly win, because it will most likely lose a lot of money, making the last waves impossible to beat. Also, scout's secondary function is to milk giants / critical robots and mark for death important robots that have to be dealt quickly. A good scout will efficiently do all those tasks making everything for the rest of the team much easier. He is one of the hardest classes to play on expert because of the money pressure and the constant damage he takes being in the battlefield. I don't recommend him for an expert starter, but if you're really good with him, go for it.

b- the Pyro
Pyro is the most versatile class in MVM. His basic function is to reset the bomb by throwing it down on pits, dealing high damage per secont to tanks and dealing damage to giants while under the effects of the ubber canteen or even circling them while they FF someone else. Also, pyros can spycheck and remove sappers from buildings, helping the engineer keep his base up in front and in good standing. A bad pyro can give his team a hard time defending the hatch, but it's not impossible; pyro is a replaceable class, maybe for a third heavy, a soldier with buff banner or a medic to boost the heavy(ies).

c- the Demoman
Demoman's main job is to explode ubber medics before their ubbers pop out. Demomen can just sit there and do nothing except for that and still get a win; however, a demoman who does everything but killing medics will most certainly (95% chance) lead his team to defeat on expert. That means demoman is the most crucial class on expert since ubber medics are present on every map and on most waves of each map. Of course, he can do a lot more, like taking down a bunch of robots at once with stickies, helping his team get them, or dealing loads of damage to tanks (especially with crit canteens). Killing the medics can also be done by a good spy with sapper + backstab or a very experienced sniper with full charged bodyshots (headshooting tham may pop ubbers - I'll get to that later. Once again, I don't recommend playing sniper if you're just starting). At least one of these classes is obligatory on your team, or else ubber medics will easily push through your defenses and reach the hatch. Demoman is very vulnerable and has to be in front all the time, so I don't recommend playing him if you're starting now.

d - the Heavies
Heavy is a slow, high-damage tank class, meaning it's almost essential to have at least one on your team. His function is to deal a lot of damage and take a lot of damage so weaker teammates don't take it for him. Heavy can easily take down giant demomen and giant soldiers, since he can destroy in-flight projectiles with a rate up to about 80% of them. Also, his rage is very useful for pushing enemy lines back and protecting your friends from devastating robots like the giant deflectors. Also, heavy deals 55-70 damage per bullet on giants up close, so he can also use ubber canteens to kill them solo and avoid them from getting to your team. Having 2 heavies on your team means double high damage to giants and tanks, which is very helpful. Also, heavies can defend engineer's nest from projectiles, helping the team keep the front. It is the easiest class to play and highly recommended for starting players.

e - the Engineer
The engineer has many functions on MVM. Contrary to popular belief, his main function is NOT having a sentry gun kill robots, but instead having a well-placed dispenser that keeps heavies filled with ammo and health and that helps other classes that also need it. His dispenser is the most valuable thing he can build, and when it gets destroyed the team is most likely to be pushed back, if not rebuilt quickly. Because of that, the sentry gun's job is to help protect the dispenser and deal some damage to robots that get too close to your team. Also, he should have a teleporter placed in the most further safe position as possible, to help demoman reach the frontlines quickly to kill medics before they pop their ubber. Engie can also use the wrangler to shield his sentry while shooting giants from a safe distance, or to kill snipers that are annoying his fellow heavies with that weapon. Engineer is not too hard to play, so you can give it a shot if you want, even if you're inexperienced.

So, this is the basic, most popular setup, for which many people will argue that it's the only one possible. Don't listen to them. Every single class is doable on expert. However, you do have to know how to balance them. I'll have a brief comment about the other classes, so you are not completely lost in case your team has a different balance.

f - the Soldier
Usually, the soldier can replace the second Heavy or the Pyro. If the team can manage to live without the bomb resetting, then the soldier is a very good choice: with a buff banner near the heavies (or the pyro), he will do wonders to tanks. He's also very useful on taking engineer's nests down from safe distances in mecha, as you've probably already noted; however, you don't have engineers on expert, but the soldier can stillbe very useful if the buffs are timed properly. Also, his blast damage, with proper upgrades, can be useful in crowd control.

g - the Sniper
If you've played a lot on intermediate and advanced, you may have noticed that sniper is not very appreciated there. The reason for this is, first, because many snipers have terrible aim; second, they don't know how to upgrade the rifle; and third, sniper is the highest dps against giants, and you don't get as many giants on advanced as you do on expert, so sniper is not that effective on lower difficulties. The sniper can act as an anti-giant class (his main function) on expert, and he'll be much better than a second heavy if he knows what to do. Also, he can substitute demoman if he's careful enough not to randomly explosive headshot ubber medics, causing them to pop ubbers instead of killing them. Charged bodyshots are the safe way here, which most snipers don't know. Finally, if your team can't hold the frontline very well, sniper is useless. So I don't recommend him for begginers, especially because they will get a lot of hatred.

h - the Spy
Like demoman and sniper, this guy can also act as anti-ubber medics, since he does one-hil-KO with his backstabs. Also, as long as he doesn't undisguise, he can freely walk through the map grabbing money, making him not a good auxiliar to the scout but also possible to be his substitute! I have played in teams without scout where the spy got A+ on at least 3 waves, which was very powerful. The spy must be really skilled, though, and the team has to help him. Another great use for the spy is the anti-giant function, since he can sap them making them slower, and his backstabs (with penetration) deal very high damage before he's noticed by the enemy. Also, spy is a great against those steel gauntlets, most heavies and buff soldiers. Usually, the spy is best substituting the demoman, but you can give it a shot on the scout, on a heavy or even on a pyro (in case of a pyro, a buff banner soldier is probably better than the second heavy, to deal with tanks).

i - the Medic
Hands down to the most underrated playable class in MVM. If you ever see a team winning a match with a medic, you are very lucky - either the medic is awesome or the team carried him, making it a 5-people win. The medic doesn't require a lot of practice to learn his tricks, but you HAVE to know what upgrades to get. 99% of all people don't. While most of the other class seem to be obvious on which things you should upgrade, the medic isn't because he doesn't directly deal damage. Should you upgrade health buffs, ubbercharge or get canteens with share power-ups? Also, if you are going to use an ubbercharge canteen, when should you use it? Well, I will make a guide to the medic later, but I can tell you for now: the medic is a very good partner for the heavy, the demoman and the pyro. With Kritzkrieg, he can always give the demoman some crit stikies, multiplying his damage. With the heavy, you spare him from the necessity of buying too many resists, and also you can make him invulnerable so he doesn't die in critical times, while also giving him crits. You can also help the pyro on destroying giants, by giving him invulnerabilty. Also, since the medic is relatively fast, he can help a bit on grabing the cash. Finally, doing melee on giants can be quite easy and rewarding, so it's easy to build ubbercharge quickly with the ubbersaw. After you get used to the medic, you'll start to love him. But let's keep ourselves to the basics for now.

"That soldier is a spy!"

If you don't have a mic yet, go buy a new one right now.

If you ever played on a server where no one ever said anything, and then played on a server where people would warn you about spies, would tell you what their plan and tactics were, would give you tips on how to improve your skills and other stuff, and listen to yours, then you KNOW that you need communication. If you are beggining expert, you are going to hear a lot from more experienced players. Remember, even if you're there just for fun, many of them are there for rare items and weapons, so they badly want to win and they need you to do things right. And, since you don't have a lot of experience, you will need their help, which means that either you show that you are willing to help and to learn from them, or you will get kicked out (or people will quit on your face and you will be left with few players or just bad players who don't care and who can't help at all).

Some people will be arrogant, some will tell you to go practice on pub servers, some will try to insult you. The best way to deal with them is not to argue with them, but to just try to calm them down and show them that you are there to help them and not to get in their way. Remember, you are at a big disadvantage, since mann co servers are very disputed and you can easily be replaced if you get kicked, so no one will care about you leaving - you will be the only one who loses by not learning something new.

Having that in mind, be polite. Don't tell people what do to, but ask them to do it instead and explain why you think they should do it. Keep a good conversation, don't talk too much about unnecessary things, don't be afraid to ask for tips. If you're nice to people, you will meet people who are willing to play with you again, and you will get friends and eventually teams who you can gather to play with and that will make things much easier than if you were to go find a server on your own.

Now, to class specific communication:

If you're a scout, let people know when you're dead so they help you grabing the money. If you can't find some cash, ask everyone if they know where it is, if they've seen it. Be alert to when they need your help milking giants and / or marking them with fan o' war. They will ask you to do so many times during your experience, especially if you keep forgeting to do it. Since you're a class who is constantly in the battlefield, alert them if you see something dangerous like a giant heavy or a group of ubber medics so they get ready for it.

If you're a soldier, alert people when you have your buff ready, so they come near you and take advantage of it. Also, go near them everytime you can, especially if they need help, when you have the buff meter filled. Alert your teammates if you see a spy, especially if you have a pyro on the team. Let them know if you're leaving the main battlefield to do a secondary job, like killing engineers or damaging a tank that no one is dealing with. They should know that they will have less firepower by the time you go away, so they will be more careful.

As a pyro, you should alert people from spies, deal with them yourself and ask them to help you reset the bomb when you feel that you can. This is easy, all they need to do is let one small robot get the bomb so you can airblast him back with it -- if you don't warn them you wanna do that, they'll just keep killing every robot they see. Also, listen carefully for when scouts ask help to get money - since you're a fast moving class and you're constantly inside the battlefield, you can be very useful helping him get the money.

As a demoman, you should always warn your team if you let an ubber medic slip by. They need to get ready to deal with them. Also, if you see they're about to shoot one and you think you can kill them, ask them to wait so you blow the medics and you will avoid a triggered ubber unnecessarily. Also, ask for help if a sniper pins you down - that happens a lot more often than you might think.

As heavy, you should let the other heavy know when you use your rage so you two time your rages separately and you don't waste two of them at the same time. Also, let him know if you are going to protect his back from spies, so one of you focus on spies and the other one focuses on the bomb. If both are focusing on the spies, you might get killed from incoming robots - on the other side, if both don't worry about spies, you may be devastated by them.

As engie, you will probably do the most of the talking. Ask people where they want the dispenser, let them know when you have it built, tell them when you get killed and can't avoid sentry busters, ask for help with spies if you see one of them. Engineer plays the most supporting role on MVM, which means he needs the most communication. Don't be afraid of putting the dispenser in a place you don't like - it's important that you adapt to your team's style of gameplay. If they play better with the dispenser that way, it means they will help you more like that and that you get to be more efficient.

As a medic, tell your healed partner when you're about to deploy ubbers so they don't use canteens at the same time. Also, since you will be a bit retreated, you can spycheck with the primary weapon and alert them to watch out if you can't kill them in time.

As a sniper, you play a very similar role as the demoman, so alert your team when you are going to kill ubber medics or when you let one of them slip through. The same rule applies for the spy.

80% of the times I played MVM on expert in a team with bad communication, we lost, even though we had experienced players. It's important that you try your best at using your mic and, not only because of winning a game, but also for meeting new people who can become future partners who you trust and have some empathy, making gameplay much easier and more fun.

Let me stress this: this guide is intended to be a BASIC guide, so I'll give you the easiest choices for each class. This doesn't mean you shouldn't try other loadouts, but it means that you should start with these.


a - the Scout
Since scout won't be firing much, his secondary and melee are more important than the primary. There's little discussion here: Mad Milk and Fan o War. If you don't have both of them, rent them from the store, buy them from a scrap each on a trade server, or just don't play scout. Milk helps heavies staying alive in battles against giants (which happen frequently on expert), and Fan will make them go down in instants. They're obligatory. Sandman is too expensive to upgrade, I don't recommend it unless you're in bigrock (because there's lots of spare cash), but there's no bigrock on expert, so just don't use it.

The primary weapon is mostly from personal preference. While the force-a-nature can help pushing the bomb back, it lacks in firepower when you have giants or tanks to be taken care of (in critical moments, even the scout may be necessary on dealing damage, but it's not the focus at all). On the other side, the default scattergun won't be able to push enemies back, but it can help with firepower whenever you need to. Soda Popper could be useful in some situations for it is very easy to fill it up, because you will be running a lot; however, don't let those minicrits take your attention away from the money and the milk-n-mark. Most of the minicrits you will need till come from the mark-for-death, however, tanks can't be marked, so it can be useful against tanks. Also, since you run fast, scout is a useful anti-sniper class - soda popper can be very handy to get those snipers quickly, although they are very easy to kill either way. The shortstop is not bad if you really need to use it, but scattergun seems to outclass it with the 6 clip size.


b - the Pyro
You have two choices: either use the stock flamethrower through the whole game, or swap between the FT and the phlog during the waves. The flamethrower is the best weapon for bomb resetting and killing mobs, while the phlog does wonders to tanks and giants (when charged). You should never use only the phlog all the time, for the lack of airblast will drag you down. The phlog is only useful against tanks and on waves where you have too many giants and you can't airblast them (they're too heavy), so the phlog will do more damage to them, being most effective. As for tanks, if you buy crit canteens, you fill the rage meter really fast with them, and you will deal very high damage on tanks, making you able to destroy them by yourself! This is crucial to your team, since sometimes it's hard to focus on bomb and tanks at the same time. However, costing more crit canteens, a properly upgraded FT will be able to destroy tanks by itself too. It's really up to you.

Since you won't be using meele too much, the only use you'll have for it is for sapper removing. Use the homewrecker or neon anihilator. Don't be foolish to think that the axtinguisher is a good choice: the upgraded flamethrower (or phlog) will deal much more damage than those crits from the axe; also, since you have to circlestrafe giants, it's very hard to aim at them with the melee, while it isn't with FT. Also, the lack of a sapper removing gun can be vital to your team. Remember, pyro's job is also to get rid of spies and protect the engie's nest.

The secondary is not that important, you may use anyone you like. I personally prefer the scorch shot, since I can keep pushing the bomb back from a safe distance while I need to refill ammo or health by the dispenser. Flare gun may also be useful to deal some damage to giants from safe distances, but it's hardly enough. Also, you don't want to be upgrading anything else than the primary and your body resists, so don't rely too much on the secondary.


c - the Demoman
Here it's either stock stickylauncher or scottish resistance. If you're thinking about the shields, maybe you should consider smacking yourself in the head a few times! Really, the most important thing the demo can do is kill ubber medics with traps, and you are going to give up on them? Just don't. While the granade launcher can do some damage to mobs, it's useless against medics. You can't rely on it. I personally like the scottish better because it's cheaper to upgrade (it already has firing speed bonus), and because I can lay down 2 sets of traps, in case of emergency. I may also protect myself from incoming enemies by laying 1 or 2 stickies near me, in case a few of them pass by the defenses. The only bad thing about it is setup time, meaning that you will have to be more predictant on the time you should setup & blow the traps and with the stock weapon. Still, with practice, I believe the scottish will be more efficient than the stock.

If you have good aiming, just use the loch 'n load to deal with spies or just shoot at other things while you're waiting for medics to step on the sticky traps. If you don't trust your aim so much, the grenade launcher is still a viable choice for dealing with spies that come near you. However, either one you choose, always aim for direct hits. The Loose Canon isn't very recommended unless you're very experienced with it. While it is cool to use its knockback, it doesn't help that much since you'll be standing by the top flank most of the time. It can help on bomb resetting sometimes, but that's about it. Very situational. The Bootlegger is cool if you feel like you aren't using the primary weapon at all. Also situational.

Don't go for extravagant things on the meele. The bottle is the most reliable, solid choice for a weapon that you'll rarely use. You can give the eyelander a try if you want to face spies head-on, but remember that they come in 4-7 at once, and each time they successfully attack you from the front they deal 47-55 damage, meaning that 4 hits will most likely kill you. You don't want to die that easily, since you're crucial on avoiding uber medics, so don't risck yourself too much.

d - the Heavy
You should only use your primary here. You may pick the Brass Beast for reliable damage, but you will be slower if you want to approach giants with ubber canteens. The stock Minigun (aka Sasha) is also a good choice if you feel like you need to be faster on the spin time. I personally prefer the Brass Beast since 90% of the time you will be standing by the dispenser, but it doesn't really make too much difference. Natasha is not half as useful as it may look like, just don't use it. You will be bullied for doing that. The Huo Long may be an option if your pyro is awful and you keep getting backstabbed, but I don't recommend it since, if the dispenser is destroyed, you won't last for too long without it. Because of that, you may need to upgrade max ammo to 300 when you go for the tanks, which can be a waste of valuable money you may need later. Finally, the fire circle does not do extra damage to tanks, so don't waste your time on it if you're thinking of using it for that. Remember, pyros should be the ones to deal with tanks. As for the Tomislav, just don't.

The secondary should never be a weapon, because you should never shoot anything but the minigun. You may want the health boost from the Dalokohs Bar, but it's not that useful and usually you won't have time to eat it again during the wave, so it'll be only for the first 30 seconds. The sandwich may be more useful if you don't have a dispenser, but it can also be dropped on the battlefield to save a dying friendly pyro or scout. It's not too common to happen, so both secondaries are not that important. I usually cycle through both of them and see not much of a difference. If you have a medic on the team, the Dalokohs is useless, while a dropped sandwich can save him several times.

The fists of steel may look tempting to equip alongside a minigun, so you can use it to get close to the enemy without taking too much damage, then using ubber canteen, and then shooting him at point blank. The problem is, you can easily do that without the fists of steel, if you just ambush them droping from above or showing up in a corner! Also, the weapon switch + spin time takes too long. You're better off with the Gloves of Running Urgently, because they'll help you on running across the map in case of emergency (like when a major league scout passes through the defenses and runs for the hatch). Also, sometimes it's important for you to move from a spot to another one for multiple reasons, so the gloves will help you. Since you don't want to melee robots at all, all other weapons are useless here.


e - the Engineer
Here, your secondary is the most important weapon, again: the Wrangler. Don't use anything else, don't think about anything else, don't waste your time on anything else. On expert, pistol can't do any damage at all. The short-circuit will be useless after you've been mutilated by the giants with blast damage and their huge weapons that shoot through the sentry's hitbox and hit you, so forget about it. Only the wrangler is useful here. Not only it lets you shoot enemies from a distance, it also shields the sentry while shooting giants (you can take out giants by yourself with this trick!). Another great thing about it: since it controls the sentry fire, you may stop sentry from shooting ubber medics, causing them to pop before the demoman kills them. If you've been pushed back to the hatch, a badly triggered ubber will be deadly, since the robots can drop the bomb even while invulnerable. So wrangler is the best choice overall.

The primary weapon is not as important as the secondary, but it's still nice to have a good pick on your arsenal. While the Rescue Ranger is the safe choice against sentry busters, or even when you need to pickup the sentry from a safe distance while there's a lot of gunfire near it, it's simply terrible against spies. Also, since you have low health and there are about 4-6 spies at once attacking you, you don't wanna melee them (the knife does 50 dmg per hit, so 3 hits will kill you - IF you don't get backstabbed first). Since they'll quickly sap your sentry, wrangler also won't be enough to deal with them. So, if the pyro is not helping you, you may want to think twice about using the Rescue Ranger. Here, the Widowmaker is a good pick, since reload isn't necessary and you get full damage from close hits. It's a perfect anti-spy weapon, especially since you will have a lot of metal in your hands and you won't even waste it if you don't miss the shots. However, if you want to be more offensive, you can use the Frontier Justice. Since you get many sentry kills, this weapon is devastating! You may even want to upgrade it on clip size once or twice, so you shoot robots and tanks more often (as long as you don't have giants shooting at your sentry). However, you can't just sit and wait for the robots to destroy your sentry, since they'll instantly kill you after this. The trick here is to destroy your sentry when it's safe to do so and getting those revenge shots, and then rebuilding it with an upgrade canteen.

The melee weapon is pretty much useless since you don't want to melee spies and you will be using upgrade canteens to rebuilg your stuff. I recommend using the jag for faster rebuild if you run out of canteens, but that won't happen too often. As for Eureka Effect, it's absolutely pointless because you will need to move your sentry all the time away from the busters. Finally, don't use the Gunslinger (do I really need to tell you why?).


f - the Soldier
The secondary weapon here is the most important one: the Buff Banner. It fills up quickly, it lasts for long, it helps everyone. Don't use anything else.

As for primary, pretty much any weapon is fine. I don't recommend the Black Box or the Direct Hit; the BB because you can upgrade for health on kill (and even if you couldn't, you don't really need it at all), and the DireHit because the splash radius cannot be upgraded, while the damage and projectile speed can, so other weapons can be used just like they were the Direct Hit, while DH can't be used like other weapons. I have to say, Direct Hit is pretty useful against tanks and giants, so I wouldn't tell you to discard it completely if you have good aiming (it doesn't have to be great, it's pretty easy shooting big slow moving things), since you will get a lot of giants and tanks on expert. But, for a starter, just use Original / stock, Beggar's Bazooca, Liberty Launcher or the Cow Mangler. The Cow Mangler can be fun and it's not too bad since you don't get engineers on expert; but that 5th rocket doesn't make that much of a difference when you have reload speed maxed out.

You don't use melee as soldier on expert, ever. So Escape Plan is the best choice here for quick escapes, while you can also try the Disciplinary Action but you won't be able to rely on it since you'll need to whip someone else to run fast, and you don't always have someone else near you.

g - the Sniper
Whatever you do, don't use the Huntsman. You have to rely on headshots here, so that weapon is useless. I strongly recommend using the Bazaar Bargain, since it will 100% charge very quickly and it's not too hard to get consecutive headshots when you have a lot of giants going on. Also, when it's fully charged and upgraded, it deals 900 damage per headshot. This is the highest DPS weapon on the whole game.

Jarate and Bushwacka are the best combo for expert. Upgrade Jarate so it slows down enemies, helping the scout with his milking thing. Although you'll be headshooting most of the time, this combo can be a life saver against spies. Also, don't be worried about the fire vulnerability, because if pyros get too close to you you'll just die anyways. You don't need the Razorback since you'll be warned of spies when they come, so you will only die to them if you're too distracted, which you should never be. Also, the +50HP from Danger Shield is not half as useful as the Jarate is.


(I know, I need a new hat for this guy.)
h - the Spy
Dead Ringer will pretty much make you invincible here. Red-Tape and stock Sapper do the same thing on MVM, so either one is fine. Spy-cicle is the safe choice for dealing with pyros, but you may prefer the regular knife. Kunai leaves you too exposed, Eternal Reward is useless because they only detect backstabs, and the disguise won't save you. Also, not being able to disguise in the beggining of the wave will be awful. Finally, headshooting robots is not too hard, and HS on giants is very useful, so I strongly recommend the Ambassador.


i - the Medic
Overdose, Kritzkrieg and Ubbersaw. Overdose because you won't need the damage from this weapon at all, and you will need to run fast most of the times. Kritzkrieg because it's the best deffensive medigun in the game. And ubbersaw because you want to hit some robots from time to time and fill up the charge faster. Other loadouts are possible, but this one is the most simple and efficient.

To get the best experience of gameplay, you MUST know what to do with your upgrades. While you can afford to waste money on silly things on other difficulties, proper upgrading is a must on expert. This is what you should know about each class.

a - the Heavy

On the first wave, the Heavy is ridiculously vulnerable. Without being able to buy Destroy Projectiles, he's not only vulnerable to the whole bunch of spies and snipers coming from everywhere, but he also can't counter giants very well. A good way to counter this is to start with the Rage +1 upgrade - however, it takes too long to fill up, and you will probably get killed before you can fill it. The best thing you can do here is to have Projectile Penetration +1 for dealing with mobs, and the scout should be milk-n-marking the giants so you regenerate health from shooting them, making it harder for you to die. Ask him nicely to do so, it will help you a lot more than having rage on the first wave.
For the second wave, don't even think about anything else - Destroy Projectiles is the upgrade to be done. If you had the money, you should start with it; however, only on 2nd wave you'll get $600. If your team failed to get an A+ here, restart the map. You don't want to go through without this upgrade.
After that, you may get +1 rage and then firing speed untill the end, or you may get multiple rages at the cost of not getting maxed out firing speed. It really depends on the map and the team you are playing. Start with rage +1, upgrade firing speed and see how it goes. If giants are getting too close to you, and rage is not ready on time, then go for it; however, it's better if you just use ubber canteens instead. Usually +1 rage is enough for the whole game.

b - the Engineer

ALWAYS max out dispenser range first. It's cheap ($300) and you still get spare cash for more stuff. It's usually a good idea to buy 2 building upgrade canteens for a start, unless you're very confident that your team won't be pushed back (this won't happen too often). For the next waves, get +1 on max metal capacity (since with 300 metal you can instantly build dispenser and sentry without resupplying), then max out building health, then sentry firing speed. You don't need to upgrade wrench firing speed, since the canteens will do the job much better than staying behind the sentry wrenching it. If you really want to and have spare cash, fine, do it, but don't rely on them. Wrangler and Canteens are much better and safer than the usual repairing behing the sentry method. Always max out the number of canteens you have, unless you're very confident that you won't need all of them. They're cheap, don't be afraid of wasting the money.

Some people still like the mini-sentry even after seeing how useless it is on Mecha. If you have already done all of the other upgrades, I'd recomment you to up your resistances, NOT the minisentry! It is way too weak for expert, it only works as a support weapon for killing spies - never as a weapon to shoot the incoming robots. Still, you shouldn't be the one dealing with spies, so just don't waste $500 on this useless upgrade! As cool as it may be having 2 sentries, you will have wasted money on something useless. You will be mocked and probably even kicked for that. Same goes for the 2-way-tele.

c - the Demoman

Many times, you won't have health packs around. It's highly recommended having health on kill right from the start. Also, max out firing speed as soon as possible. Since you start with 400, these are the two upgrade you are going to want to do. Then, max out reload speed and finally go for damage, in that order. Buy crit canteens whenever you need to help the pyro with the tanks. If you have spare money after all that, buy whatever helps you with the grenade launcher - projectile speed, reload speed or damage. It's useful to deal with easy targets like tanks, spies or giants.

a - Scout
If you play scout properly, following the tips on grabbing the money safely, you will not need any kind of resistance - the health boosts will be enough most of the time, especially because you won't be drawing any attention to yourself. You should aim to getting these upgrades:



Movement speed and jump height are crucial for the money grabbing; Slow Enemies on milk and recharge rate are not top priority, but also important. It's arguable which upgrades you should get for the first wave, but you should definently get at least one movement speed upgrade. With the remaining 200, I'd recommend you to get another speed upgrade or 2 Jump Heights if you are having trouble on circling around the battlefield. If your team is getting overrun too fast, it may be a better idea to get the slow enemies on the milk upgrade.

For second wave, you should focus on maxing out speed and jump, and getting the slow on milk if you already haven't. By third wave you should have all these stats maxed out, so you can start upgrading recharge rate on the milk; then, after all of this is maxed out, you may upgrade resistances according to wave's necessity.

Also, buy ubber canteens everytime you feel like you can't stay alive in critical moments on the battlefield.

This is all I can tell you about scout in a basic guide. I strongly recommend you reading Upsilon's guide about scout, for you'll see many more advanced tips (including advanced ones) about this little tank guy! Upsilon's guides are very informative and detailed, and he's a very experienced guy. If you like playing scout, you'll feel way more confident about playing him on expert with his guide, so go out there and keep up the learning about the classes you love!

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=150296100

b - Pyro
Here, it depends on if you're swapping weapons (FT to Phlog) or just using the stock FT. In case of swap, you should only upgrade airblast force on FT, and max out damage and get some ammo for the phlog (to deal with tanks. Movement speed is also important to help you circle the giants. Get ubber canteens to deal with giants or crit canteens to deal with tanks. Rresists will help, but only buy them when you have spare cash. You should focus on ubber canteens to keep you alive, they're cheaper and you don't have enough money to be resistant to everything.







For the first wave, max out airblast force. On second wave, if you have tanks, get damage (on phlog) and crits; if you don't, go for movement speed. On third wave you will have tanks (if you haven't had already), so get damage and ammo (1 on ammo is enough) (on phlog in case of swapping or on FT case else). After that, focus on damage and canteens and you should be fine.

Wanna know more about Pyro? Here, take a look at this guide!
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=150849187&tscn=1370734530

c - the Soldier



Start with +2 firing speed. You don't need more than that, don't worry about it anymore. On second wave, Try to max out reload speed. By third wave, +1 buff duration and more reload speed (if not complete). Then, go for +1 projectile speed, and alternate between damage, one more projectile speed and maxing out the buff duration. There isn't much more to do. You just have to know that upgrading clip size and ammo is useless since soldier should be on high ground near ammo and health, except when he goes for buffing the team (which by then he should be supplied). Also, +2 projectile speed has the same speed as the liberty launcher - if you really want to upgrade one more time, it will be 75%, which is only 5% less than the direct hit - however, you don't really need to. If you're REALLY confortable, you may even not upgrade projectile speed at all, but you'll have to rely on the server's ping and on your prediction skills a lot more when facing giants from a medium to long distance. Don't worry about canteens, you don't need them.

a - the Sniper

Start with explosive headshots +1. On second wave, upgrade it again to +2. If you still have money left, boost charge speed once or twice. If your team is having trouble with tanks, you should max out reload speed and unscope shoot them. If not, you can wait before you do that, focusing on the jarate slow upgrade and damage. Finally, try to balance between damage and explosive headshots (focus damage if you have many giants, or explosive headshots if you have big mobs). Finally, if you reeeealy want to, you can buy teleport to spawn canteens to get out of harm's way if necessary. Still, since sniper's upgrades are quite expensive, you may want to keep that money even though it's only $10.

If you're interested in learning more about the Sniper on MvM, I strongly recommend a much better guide specifically about the sniper. I could never give better tips about this guy than Psycho (the author) did on that guide. Go check it out!
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=143652016

b - the Spy


Start with sapper power +1. Then, go for +1 health on kill and armor penetration for the knife; keep on going while balancing between armor penetration and firing speed until they're both maxed out. Dead Ringer and Spycicle should keep you alive here, so no ubber canteens. Also, you don't need crits to backstab or headshot anyone, so don't waste money on that. You don't need more than +1 on sapper range, and it's also pretty expensive, so don't upgrade it. If you get spare cash, upgrade the Ambassador damage.

Once again, this is a basic guide only, so if you want to learn more about advanced classes, I recommend a more specific guide about them. Upsilon's guide is my favorite about this french fellow, so, again, go check it out!

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=148119190

c - the Medic

Start with +2 max overheal (heavies will go up to 600HP!). On 2nd wave, get +2 ubbercharge rate. By 3rd wave, share power-ups and some ubber canteens. Then, max out ubbercharge rate, then duration, and finally max overheal time if there's money left. From 3rd wave and foward you should always be getting ubber canteens. You can use the canteens for yourself to get close and melee the robots with ubbersaw, or for a pyro or heavy, for them to do point-blank damage to giants safely while you build the Kritzkrieg ubber.

I understand that most people believe that playing medic on expet is inviable. I haven't found any guide for playing medic on expert, so we also have that. I understand that Medic is still a taboo for MvM, but I'm hoping to change that. I have some gameplays being recorded, I'm working on a medic guide and when I'm done with it I'll be linking the new guide here, for people who want to learn more about out favorite german guy. If you are looking foward to see this guide, please, be patient. It may take a while, but it will come out!

Once again, this is not a detailed guide. It's meant for begginers and I don't recommend you to use the support classes for a starter. However, sometimes people willl ask you to play one of these, so you should have at least an idea on what you have to do. Ask them what strategy they have in mind, for they may want different upgrades for you or even loadouts. If they are willing to teach you, go for it - at the very least, you will get some experience and hopefully will learn from it.

First things first: the engie's nest. The dispenser should always be in ground level. First, because the Heavy will be shooting nearby it, and, since Heavy has Bullet Penetration, the more paralel to the ground he shoots, the more enemies the bullets penetrate. Angled shooting from above will not be half as effective, since bullets won't penetrate enemies. Here, have an incredible high-detail drawing I've made to illustrate this:


As you can see, the ground heavy's bullets can easily penetrate through multiple enemies, while the high-ground heavy will have much more trouble doing so (the higher he is, the less penetration he gets - no "that's what she said" pun intended). So, if you want Heavy to get as much damage as possible (and he's the most important class on dealing damage of the game, so you do want that), you should have at least the dispenser on ground level.

Another thing many players don't know is that heavy is much more deadly from upclose than he is from a distance. While at long distances he will deal around 5-6 damage per bullet, from 1.25 to 0 meters, he will deal around 50-70 demage per bullet! This means insta-kill for most classes, except heavies, giants and steel gauntlets. So, if you need to protect a critical spot, that's where the heavy should be! The closer the enemy gets to that critical spot, the more deadly it will be for him. Because of that, if Heavy is shooting from above, he will be more distant and therefore less efficient than he'd be if he was shooting near the bomb. The best idea is, therefore, to have a dispenser keeping him alive and supplied in a location that is part of the bomb path, but where the dispenser can be safe from harm and Heavy can still do a lot of damage. Here's another high-quality image:

*dpb = damage per bullet

Again, the higher he is, the most distant he will be from the target, and the less effective he'll be.

Another important trick you should know: by wave 2, Heavy should have destroy projectiles upgrade. With that, not only he protects himself from harm, but he also deflects projectiles coming towards the sentry. This means that, as a general rule, you want the sentry near the heavy(ies). Also, the sentry and the heavy(ies) act as a wall on stopping major league scouts from getting through, if they're lined up. Whenever you are having trouble in a major scout wave, experienced people will ask you to wall the scouts. you should line up in front of them, right where their path is, so that they can't get through you. It's also recommended that a pyro helps on the wall since he can airblast them, putting heavies to safety from their melee attacks while they kill it.

Another thing: remember that pyros will consume a lot of ammo on airblasts and flaming the enemies. They'll need constant resupply and the dispenser should be easily accessed by them, or else they'll have to spend too much money on ammo upgrades, which is unnecesary if the engie is not a complete idiot. Usually, +1 ammo upgrade is more than enough for the pyro.

Finally, the teleporter: it's best to leave it on high grounds. Since players who take it will be unaware of what's going on on the battlefield, it's better if they're above by the time they reach the exit, so they have a better view of what's going on. Also, ALWAYS face the teleporter exit away from walls, and preferrably aim it to face the main incoming enemies. Rotate it with MOUSE2 to do so. You don't have to cover the exit so much when it's on high grounds, because the enemy will rarely see it. Also, it's best that it's separated from the sentry nest, since nests are the robots' main target for most of the time.

Here are some sentry nests and teleporter locations:
(remember, you only fall back with sentry and dispenser if you REALLY HAVE TO. Otherwise, the nest should always be as close to the frontline as possible!)

Coaltown:


Decoy:


Mannworks:

The easiest anti-giant class to play is by far the Heavy. If you want tips on how to deal with giants using sniper or spy, then please go to another guide, since I don't intend to teach more than the basics here. It's not that it's impossible, but it's because it requires more practice and it usually more complex for begginers.

Heavies: even though this is the most recommended class for newbies, it's not as simple as it may look at first. If you don't know how to effectively play him, you will just keep dying to giants way too soon. So here are some tips for playing this lovely guy.

The most important thing you should know about Destroy Projectiles is that your bullets spread way too much the further they go, making it unlikely for one of them to hit a rocket or a granade. This means that most of the projectiles will only be destroyed when they are really close to you, so just don't panic!

Another important trick is to know where the projectiles are coming from. Soldiers will shoot rockets at your feet, so the best way to deal with them is by crouching and aiming low (for a reference, you can aim at the soldier's legs and feet). The granades, however, will be shot above you, so you have to aim high. The most efficient way I use to destroy granades is to center the aim cursor a little bit over the giant demoman's head, which is where the granades will be most of the time. This works very well on destroying granades, but it also means that you won't get as many hits on the demoman as you would if you were aiming directly at him, like you do with the soldier. It's OK, though; with help from the other teammates, it still should be enough to take him down without getting you killed! With this tactic, you should be able to destroy around 80% of the projectiles coming your way. This will also help your engie A LOT on keeping his sentry up, as long as you are near it.

As for giant heavies, they can be more troublesome since their bullets go through yours without a problem. For them, you have 2 resources: you can either rage against them, pushing them back and away from you (remember, they also deal much higher DPS on you when they're upclose!), giving everyone more time to kill them. If you don't have rage, then it's time for you to either use an ubber canteen or a crit one. It's really up to you, but I think the ubber canteen is the safe option (it's only effective when he's too close to you). With this, you should be able to kill any giant.

The scout also plays a very important role on dealing with giants. The upgraded Mad Milk will not only slow them down (giving you more time to shoot them), but also will give you health for every bullet you hit them with! This means that, as a Heavy, it will be almost impossible for them to kill you, because you'll regenerate health very quickly. Also, the scout should mark-for-death them with the fan o' war, making them go down in 4-8 seconds at most. It is VERY important that the scout does so, because giants easily overrun the frontline if they're not dealt with quickly.

Engineers can attack one giant at a time if their buildings' health is maxed out. With the wrangler, shoot them at a safe distance while they try to destroy your sentry - most of the times, they will go down before your sentry does. Don't try to stand behind the sentry hitting it with a wrench, for it won't work - the Wrangler's shield is much more efficient at this. It's essential that engies do that to help the other classes surviving.

Pyros can also kill giants if necessary. As a pyro, you should ambush them, get point-blank close to them and circle around them while they're unable to hit you (if you're fast enough). It's highly recommended to use an ubber canteen here, since there will me many other robots around the giant shooting at the pyro. If the giant is alone, milked and market, then the pyro shouldn't even need to use the canteen.

Soldier are also pretty good against giants. Direct rocket hits from mid distance to them are very deadly, especially if those hits are from the DH. Also, soldiers can buff everyone around, helping taking the giants down.

From a long distance, a Sniper can destroy pretty much any giant with 3-5 full-charged headshots, while also doing damage to robots around him with explosive HS. Spies usually can't kill giants on their own, but they can do something else: they may sap giants and backstab them 2-3 times (dealing 2-3x750 damage to them), then running to safety and shooting with the Ambassador, dealing 105 damage per bullet. By doing that, the spy also gets the Focus Fire from them, leaving the Heavies and Pyros with the easy job of finishing them.

Golden rule: no one shoots ubber medics (or their patients) until the medics are down. It doesn't matter whose responsability is it to kill the medics - Demoman's, Spy's or Sniper's. Everyone HAS TO LET THEM KILL THEM BEFORE SHOOTING. Engineers must use the wrangler to control where the sentry fire goes/ heavies must aim at non-healing robots; pyros must focus on airblasting the medics back in case they're not killed by the traps; and so goes on.

If the anti-medic player is dead and he can't make it back to the front in time, then you should play the opposite way: pop the ubbers ASAP, cover from the invulnerable units, wait for the ubber to be over, and then kill everything that's left. This is VERY risky and you should never use it if the robots are too close to the hatch. If you see the demo is ready to blow the traps, DON'T DO THIS. You will regret it.

It shouldn't be too hard for the demoman to kill the medics. The traps should be placed exactly where the robots usually land on or, if that's not possible, they should be on the robots's path. It's very useful to set 2 lines of stickies as a trap, since sometimes you have more than 2 medics and some of them get smaller splash damage, causing them to pop ubber instead of dying. Also, the stickies shouldn't be too spread, or else the splash damage again won't be enough.

Demoman should be on a safe spot shooting from high ground position where he can't be seen. By removing the line of sight, robots won't ever target him, so he shouldn't need health - just ammo is enough. When he's pushed back, there are still a few spots where he can safely deploy stickytraps. Here are some possible locations for him:



What if demo / sniper / spy fails to kill the ubber medics?

Although we all love the theory, reality is much different. You will rarely have a perfect demoman who can kill ALL the ubber medics. So, when that happens what should you do?

First of all: rage. Especially if your team has 2 heavies, you have to time the raging so you both don't waste it at the same time. It's VERY important that rage is only used in critical moments, like when a giant deflector heavy with ubber is about to overrun the engie's nest and kill everyone else. Rage will push long enough so he lets ubber go to waste. If they get too close, use ubber canteens to survive long enough!

Second thing: airblasting. If everything else fails, and if the pyro is quick enough, he can blow the medics away from the giant, and if everyone is really quick, the giant will go down before the medics make if back to him! To manage that, the giant must be milk 'n marked. Scout must help in this situation.

If everything else fails, then you'll probably get pushed back. Hopefully, it won't be enough for the bomb to reach the hatch - keep calm and rebuild the nest, get demoman in position and be ready for more! Ubber medics are not the end of the world and, remember, getting rid of them is not exclusive to demoman/sniper/spy. Don't overload a single class with such an important function, taking responsabilities for others always help!

This is a very simple concept, but worth noting: there are a few spots on each map where the pyro (and maybe a force-a-nature scout) should focus on pushing the bomb to. On these pits, the enemy will become an easy target and he'll have to circle around to restart his path again. In coaltown, you can even throw them in bottomless pits, forcing them to start all over again.

When you go for a critical bomb resetting where you have a lot of enemies on the battefield and you don't have time to kill them, you may want to have an ubbercharge canteen so you assure that you won't die before resetting the bomb. Regular robots are easily pushed; major league scouts take a few more tries; and giants may take up to 7-10 airblasts (usually it's best if you just go for the kill).

These are the bomb resetting locations:

Coaltown (full reset):


Decoy (partial reset):


Mannworks (partial resets):

As a Scout, you won't always have the health boosts from the money. When you are low on health, you can't just jump on the battlefield hoping to get money before getting killed; instead, you'll want to circle around, go to higher ground, drop down when their attention is on other teammates and do a double-jump so you don't take fall damage, grabbing the cash from behind. If you need to, jump through the enemies. The money will follow you on the air.

The less you shoot, the less attention you will draw to yourself. Avoid doing that. You want to keep the health boosts as big as possible, so avoid getting shot. You only want to shoot tanks or giants that are too close to critical spots, after you've already milked and marked them, helping your teammates taking them down.

Also, ask your teammates (especially the pyro and the spy) not to grab money unless you're dead or it's on a spot they think you won't see. The health boosts are essential on keeping you alive, you need them. Furthermore, your whole team should be grabbing any money that's too far from you or the battlefield, because you shouldn't go too far from it - you're needed there for the milk and the fan o war. I've played with heavies that couldn't get the money that was right beside them, it was the most annoying thing in the world. Grabbing the money is not only the scout's job.

Also, if the team is not holding a frontline, the money will spread all around the map, making it more likely for you to lose it. You don't want that. If this start to happen, ask them to rebuild the sentry nest in a good spot and hold it there. If a demoman is in an advanced outpost killing robots, ask him to tell you whenever there's money there for you to grab there, because you'll need to focus on two locations and that's really hard to do.

Don't forget to congratulate and thank the team when you get an A+, even if you're a scout: remember that a team that never loses the front, for example, will frequently get A+, since the money won't be spread. Also, communication helps a lot. And you don't get all the money, sometimes someone else has to do so. So A+ may be 95% scout's job, but the other 5% from your team should be appreciated. Keep that in mind, it will stimulate them to play better.

You don't want to have the entire team desperately shooting at the tank! If you do that, the robots will manage to sneak through with the bomb and it will all be lost. Pyros should be the ones to get the tanks, and everyone else should only help when there's no other robots on the battlefield or when the tanks are dangerously too close to the hatch.

Pyros can easily destroy tanks with the phlogistinator. With 1 or 2 crit canteens, they fill the "mmph" charge really quickly, allowing them to activate even more crits, which will last for a while - after that, resupply if necessary, go back to the tank and crit it again. 1 crit canteen is usually enough for a tank, but 2 will take it down faster. You may need to use 2 when you have 3-5 tanks in a row, so pyro will constantly be going back to spawn to buy more canteens.

Pyros should circle the tanks to avoid getting backstabbed or shot from behind. When phloging a tank, check out the surroundings and see if it's safe to be at it alone. You don't want to die with a charged mmph bar! Ask for help if you need to.

Here's a series of screenshots I took while taking a tank down with a max damage & ammo phlog plus 3 crit canteens (I only needed to use mmph twice):


You don't need to have a fully upgraded phlog to solo a tank; usually, +1 ammo upgrade and +1 damage +2 crits will do the trick, because your team will shoot at it while they don't have other stuff to focus. However, since you want to destroy it fast to go back and help your team with bomb resetting & stuff like that, I strongly advise you to upgrade phlog at least up to +2 damage.

Heavies and engineers can also help with the tanks, if necessary. Heavies should be at point-blank to max out damage (on tanks, they'll do 12-13 damage per bullet, instead of the 60-70 they do on giants). Engies, on the other side, can wrangle them at distance or simply let the sentry autofire at them. They may also help by meleeing with the wrench in critical situations, or the frontier when you have revenge shots. In that case, shooting from closer distances will deal more damage than from far distances. If the engineer doesn't have the frontier, he'll do more DPS with melee weapons.

Soldiers are also great for taking care of tanks. The buff banner will increase damage done by pyros, heavies and the engineer, not to mention the damage himself will deal with the rocket launcher.

Demoman is also good anti-tank, and he can destroy them if there are no ubber medics to be taken care of. With crit canteens, 8 or 14 stickies will do from around 6% to 19% damage on the tank per blow, which is a lot.

Medics can also help with the tanks: they should ubbercharge the demoman with crits, since he's the one that does more damage with this power-up. Whenever the demo is out of ammo, the medic should ubbercrit the heavies instead. Don't ubbercrit pyros unless you're sure they don't have any more canteens! If they're out, they will be top priority on ubbers.

Snipers can deal some tank damage with unscoped shots, if reload speed is at least +2. Again, it's not their priority to do so and they should only do it if there's nothing else for them to focus on.

Spies can also melee the tanks since they have attack speed upgraded, but they'll only deal about 50 dmg per hit

Golden rule is: you always use the most upgraded weapon you have. You never melee for being out of ammo (unless you're the spy); instead, resupply and come back. It's not worth it using melee because in long-term the damage will be too low compared to the primarily used weapon.

On coaltown wave 4, there are 4 tanks. It's a good thing to have the sentry and dispenser up ahead to deal with them, since the dispenser will resupply the heavies being pushed back by the tank. This way, they won't have to go all the way back up to grab ammo, and this time they'll save will be critical for success. It's very common to use this trick of moving up the sentry nest here. Also, the rescue ranger is a great weapon on this wave, since you'll be able to literally rescue the nest from harm's way while you're in safety when the robots start to drop (probably after the 3rd or 4th tank).

You may have gotten lucky on easier missions while fighting those guys, but here luck won't save you: there will be plenty of them to deal with.

First of all, you have to set up a wall to deal with them. Find a choke point, set up a sentry nest by it, have the Heavy stand beside the sentry and if you have a second heavy, let him line up with the other two. A pyro with airblast will also help a lot on the wall. No one moves until the major league scouts are gone!

This tricked is popularly refered to as to "doing the wall". You have to cover the robot's path and the players composing the wall can't afford to die at all, or else the scouts will slip past them and drop the bomb in instants! Because of that, ubber canteens are essential here. Rage will also help, but not much - it takes longer for it to charge than for a second scout to come by. You have to combine ubber canteens, wrangler on sentry, airblasting and rage to make it work. Also, it's important that the scout milk-n-mark the major league buddies as soon as possible, slowing them down and making them vulnerable. Jarate with slow upgrade will also help, since it's almost impossible to headshot all of those bloody giants. Sapper can help too, but since recharge is slow, don't rely on it too much. The main trick is the wall by the choke point. If you have it, you should do fine.

Unfortunently, the most popular team setup (scout-pyro-demo-heavy-heavy-engie) has a huge drawback on supermedics waves: it's not the most efficient at killing giant medics.

While you may get lucky and kill some of the medics before they pop their ubber, shooting with crit canteens or at point-blank heavies, it's very risky because you don't want bullet penetration to hit the heavies, or else the ubber will pop. You don't want the ubber to pop for 3 major reasons:

1 - It has ~19000hp healed per second, which is the same as making the pair invulnerable.
2 - Quick-fix resists knockback from rage and airblast;
3 - Poping an ubber will force you to kill the giants twice, since they will regain health (unlike ubber medics, who only make their patiens invulnerable).

The only really effective classes against those guys are the sniper and the spy. Sniper with the Bazaar properly upgraded can easily deal 900 damage per headshot on these guys, killing them in a matter of 4-5 seconds; on the other side, spies can sap them and backstab them for 750 damage per hit, and they won't be able to deploy ubbercharge while sapped, giving his team a chance to kill it.

The other option, without snipers or spies, is to time a stickytrap in a way that they get destroyed with a single blow - however, since their health is too high, they must be at 40% health or less, and stickies must be blown at once (preferrably 14 at once). Another alternative is using crit canteens to blow them at 100% HP, but this is very riscky for they sometimes dodge the stickies.

Heavies with crit canteens do a nice job here, but they must flank the medics so they don't hit the heavy. Remember that crits compensate damage distance falloff, so you can shoot them down at a safe distance easily. Also, with milk from scout, heavies will regain health while shooting them, and that helps a lot since the giant heavies will be shooting back constantly.

Engineers must wrangle the medics since the sentry on autofire will shoot what's closer to it (meaning the heavy). You don't want that to happen for the medics will pop their ubbers. I'm not sure about what health percentage the heavies must be for medics to pop their ubber, but appearently they will pop it right before they die even if the heavy has only taken like 5% of total health damaged. So be aware, avoid shooting the heavies with medics at all costs!

Sometimes, you will find yourself shooting a huge load of bullets into a little scout carrying the bomb and he won't die. You will see them deplying the bomb and you will think to yourself: "what the hell just happened? Did it glitch?" Well, I have very bad news: it didn't. When the bomb carrier has been holding the bomb for too long, he and nearby units will get boosted for doing so. This is called the bomb stages, and there are 3 of them.


The first stage happens after 5 seconds of someone holding the bomb; he and nearby units will get a 35% resistance to all damage buff, alongside with full crit resistance. Although this buff doesn't take long to charge, it really isn't that much of a big deal. Remember that those buffs will last until each buffed unit is dead, so be quick on finishing them off, for the next buffs will be a huge problem, and they stack!


The second stage has a 15 seconds interval. It will be a health regenerating buff, with 45 health regenerated per second. This is more than the rate of the stock medigun's healing on recently injured alies, so watch out! Combined with the first stage buff, it can be very dangerous. Combine the firepower here to finish them off before they heal!


The third stage also has a 15sec interval. When the bomb carrier reaches it, he and nearby units will get full crits for every single bullet they shoot! If a giant reaches such advanced stage, the game is most likely to be lost, so deal with the bomb carrier before they reach this stage.

How can you tell if the bomb carrier has reached any state, you ask? Well, first, on every stage they reach, they will taunt while the other units remain still around them, shooting whoever gets too close. Also, a low-pitch sound will play everytime they do so. Third, you can see above their heads what kind of stage they have: a shield represents first stage, a cross represents secondn stage and a "K" represents the final stage. Finally, the HUD by the bottom center tells you how far the boost has gone.

While the first waves will test your basic skills and knowledge, the ragequit wave is going to be a much bigger challenge. If you have lost a lot of money, if you had to spend too much on canteens on earlier waves or if teamwork is not going very well, this is where everything goes to hell. RQ waves will have all of the difficult stuff coming at the same time - tanks, giants, ubber medics, major league scouts, etc. You won't have time to catch your breath. Here, you almost have to do it 'perfectly': if you fail to do your job more than twice, it's very likely that everyone will lose, no matter which class you are. You will need some practice to get used to it, so don't expect to win just because you did well on the previous waves.

The Ragequit waves are:
- Wave 6/7 in Coaltown
- Wave 7/7 in Decoy
- Wave 3/5 in Mannworks

And this is why they indulce ragequits:
- Wave 6/7 in coaltown has 4 giant quick-fix medics alongside 4 giant heavies. Since that doesn't seem to be enough, you have 5 major league scouts who easily pass you by when you are taking care of the medic-heavies. Also, it seems like the heavies and the sentry gun go down very easily to the packs of soldiers and scouts that spawn from times to times (they usually come 12-15 at a time, which is a lot of bullets and rockets) and people underestimate them a lot. The medics spawn with ubber fully charged, and they usually pop it when they are about to die or when the heavy is about 50% health. What most people do wrong is shooting at the heavy and at the medic at the same time; by doing that, the medic will pop the ubber. And, since quick-fix has knockback resistance, rage and airblast can't do a thing to these. You have to deal with those first 3 medics very quickly, by flanking them with a heavy who has crit canteens - medics go down with a single canteen. A sniper or a spy also deal a lot of damage to the medics, but that takes more skill and teammates must be willing to accept one of these classes, which doesn't happen a lot. This wave usually takes around 4 tries before succeeding, from my experience, and many people ragequit blaming the scout, the pyro, the heavy, the engineer and the demoman when mostly it's their fault themselves. Also, remember here that you can't shoot the heavies before the medics are dead, so engineers have to wrangle down the medics, avoiding the sentry from shooting heavies. One last thing: the sydney snipers will completely destroy you if the scout doesn't deal with them. Most usual functional team here is:
- Scout milk-n-marking the medics, and then the heavies; and killing the snipers;
- Pyro using ubber canteens to get closer to giants and killing them (medics first, always); also, airblasting the major league scouts;
- Demoman has to destroy the packs of small robots before they reach the frontline, or else they'll overrun the heavies and the engie;
- Heavies must fill rage very quickly with ubber canteens by using them on the giants - and use them on the robot mobs and on superscouts; here, it's good to have a resistance heavy and a minigun heavy (resistance heavy have most of resists upgraded at the cost of not having a good minigun / minigun heavy doesn't have many resists but his minigun is very strong);
- Engineers must direct the sentry fire towards the medics and not let the sentry pop their ubbers by shooting at the healed heavies.


- Wave 7/7 in Decoy has lots of giant rapid fire soldiers, major league scouts, giant heavies, 2 tanks and plenty of small ubber medics to screw everything up. Also, sydney snipers can easily pin the team down by the hatch, making it impossible to move up. On this map, it's recommended that both heavies have their resistances upgraded at least to 50%; they also must be very good with dealing with the rockets, because there will be a lot of them. Engineer will have to shield his gun many times with wrangler, and rebuild everything quickly for his nests are going to get crushed. Pyros have to be dealt with by heavies, before they reach the nest. Giant scouts must be airblasted and pushed by rage asap. It also helps pushing the giant heavies back for they are deadly upclose. Other than that, how to beat this wave has already been studied here - you just have to do your job, but you don't have time to fail on doing it. It takes some practice. Many people will ragequit on this wave.

- Wave 3/5 in Mannworks is possibly the most feared by players. 2 tanks, 12 superscouts, 4 giant heavies, 24 ubber medics, support snipers and scouts. The major problem people have here is with blocking the superscouts while the tanks are going through the front! Since you can't make a wall while they're passing, all you gotta do is wall the gaps between the tanks and then recreate the wall when the tank is gone. 6 scouts will come without the tank and the other 6 are coming with the tanks, so be prepared! Sentry and Heavy(ies) must block them. It can also be useful not destroying the tank before they pass, for the tank itself acts as a wall for them - if you are almost destroying it, then leave it with ~1% health, deal with the scouts, and then finish it, just to make sure. It works like a charm, especially because you don't want all the tank smoke on the frontline stopping the heavies from seeing the superscouts coming. Also, it's very important that the Demoman is ready to kill the ubbermedics by the end of the wave, or else you have to start all over again. Heavies must be prepared to rage them back too. Lastly, you don't wanna underestimate support scouts - their bullets are deadly when they're too close to you. Finish them off quickly. Heavies and engie can't afford to die too many times here.

Reading is important, but what better way to learn than actually practicing? This section is under development, but soon enough you'll be able to check some of my gameplays through expert missions. To see more about those gameplays, go on youtube and read the description.

For a starter, here, take a look at my pyro gameplay:


Also, I already have an Engineer gameplay. Those are both in low quality because their upload is kind of recent, but you can still see me applying the basics here.


Here's a cool heavy gameplay where you can see some of the tips I gave (deflecting projectiles, filling rage, increasing damage by shooting closer to targets and blocking scouts with rage):

If you like this guide and you feel like it has helped you, please rate it up and maybe favorite it for future references, for I'll be adding new information whenever I feel like it's necessary. If you think the info here is useful, rating it up helps the info reach more people, which means a higher chance of getting good players on your team whenever you join a pub. Also, if you disargee with something, or feel like I missed some information, I'd love to hear it! This guide is obviously not perfect, and learning is not a straight line. I always learn something new from other people's opinions and I'd love if you gave me some feedback on the comments, too. Also, if you like my writing style, if you agree with many things that I've said and you feel like you'd like more guides, please, subscribe to me! I'm planning on adding more guides on specific classes, both for MvM and for PvP. You will get news about them as soon as I release them, if you're subscribed, and it will help me a lot on reaching more people with those guides - hopefully making TF2 community a more well-informed group of players, who are willing to team play, to learn more about the game and to play with the best they've got. I really appreciate any help you can give me!

Furthermore, there aren't many other things I can say to help you. Reading this guide won't instantly get you ready to play on expert: you will need to practice quite a bit before you get your first tour. If you're interested in knowing more about any class, find guides that specialize in it! Search on the community guides, go for wikipedia, youtube, forums, etc. But remember: the most important thing on MVM is learning to think by yourself. All of this may seem like a lot of info, but when you think about it and it makes sense on your head, everything will become automatic for you. So, go grab some water, have a snack, straighten up and get yourself ready to mann up!