Spy is a giant killer. He can kill Uber Medics. He can collect money. He can even sap robots. But Spy is primarily a giant killer, and one of the most highly specialized classes in the game.

Many players see Spy as a "replacement" (emphasis on quotes) for either a Scout or Demoman. These views display a lack of understanding of all 3 classes. One focuses on Spy and Demo's ability to drop Uber Medics without upgrades without acknowledging what they're actually good at in general combat, and one assumes that there will always be a player on the server who gets to focus on collecting money without ever being expected to do anything else. Basically, MvM for underachievers.

Spy can, of course, be the primary money collector on a team, and even the primary Medic-killer in some instances, if there are even Uber Medics in the mission in question. However, it is important to never equate one class with another. Every class is different, with different capabilities and weaknesses.

The main disadvantage Spy has over classes like Sniper, Soldier, Demo, and Pyro (not Heavy) is the inability to shamelessly spawncamp robots by mowing them down without prejudice. The main advantage Spy has is the ability to kill giants early-game or in other difficult situations.

Spy is very different from all other classes in MvM. Here are some basics you need to know going in:

• Your melee is your most important weapon. You should use it almost exclusively.
  
• Robots will fall for any disguise as long as they don't see you choose it. You essentially get to choose when robots shoot at you.
  
• Since Spy would be overpowered otherwise, robots are programmed to prioritize Spies over all other classes. Whenever you stab, nearby robots will turn and attack you.
  
• Sapping common robots will cause them to temporarily deactivate and allow you to backstab them from any angle. Sapping giants will slow them down if your Sapper is upgraded.
  
• You are the worst class when it comes to killing tanks.

My preferred loadout is:

Diamondback
Sapper/Snack Attack
Big Earner
Dead Ringer

Your choice of primary is just a matter of preference. All options except for L'Etranger provide slight advantages over the stock Revolver, but you will use your primary so little it won't usually matter.

The Red Tape Recorder is actually slightly better that stock Sapper in most situations where it actually matters, but RTR is an overpowered piece of trash and you shouldn't own one.

The Big Earner grants you free cloak on kill, allowing you to play more aggressively than with the stock Knife. The health penalty is of little relevance. The Conniver's Kunai is supposedly comparable to the Big Earner due to to fact that it overheals you with a similar mechanic, but I've never used it and cannot say just how good it is. Really, any knife is useable except Your Eternal Reward.

The Dead Ringer is a must. Not really, but it is peerless in terms of watches. Every other watch is almostuseless in MvM. Not that you need a watch to begin with. The Dead Ringer provides a massive defensive buff on-demand and lets you disguise quickly without needing to find cover every time.

The exact order you should upgrade things is dependent on the mission you're playing and how competent your team is. Here are some pointers.

Armor Penetration is your most important upgrade as Spy. Your backstabs will OHKO any robot that isn't a giant, but they only do 187.5 damage a pop against giants to start off. Armor Penetration increases your damage by 25% of 750 per tick, topping off at 937.5 damage per stab and making you a giant-killing machine. You should maximize your Armor Penetration ASAP.

Swing Speed is the only other upgrade that matters for your raw DPS. It allows you to chainstab groups of sapped robots faster a bit faster and to get an extra stab or two in against giants. It should also be maximized eventually, but it may be helpful to get some utility upgrades first.

Movement Speed is probably your second most important upgrade. As a melee-based class, it is essential for getting you where you need to be quickly. It also helps you to dodge fire and even strafe-stab giants as they turn to attack you.

Health on Kill is a very useful upgrade since it prevents your health from dropping during cycles of stabbing/deadringing/uncloaking. One tick is great when you can afford it. When you have extra money, extra ticks will increase your survivability.

Sapper Power is the last upgrade you need that really matters. It increases your ability to fight non-giant robots by allowing you to sap more than one at a time. It also lets you slow down Super Scouts. Each tick increases radius and duration. This upgrade is not really necessary to play Spy (contrary to popular belief) but, if your team is having trouble killing battalions of common robots, you may want to get a tick before you finish upgrading Armor Penetration and Movement Speed. You should have all of the above upgrades except Health on Kill maxed out before you invest more in this upgrade.

Resistances are never necessary, but they can back up your Dead Ringer's defensive buff and allow room for error and bad luck. They might be worth it when you have extra money, but you’re often just better off buying Ubercharge canteens with your extra money. Crit Resistance is the most useful, where applicable, probably followed by Blast.

Spy can collect money, but having a Spy on your team doesn't actually preclude having a Scout as well. Having a Spy and Scout together allows the Spy to focus more on damage, and the only disadvantage with having both in most instances is that they may inadvertently draw fire at one another. It may also be a problem because most players suck at both Spy AND Scout, and you may find yourself lacking in damage output as a result.

If you only want to play with EITHER Spy OR Scout, consider the following: Scout is better for money-collecting, support. and tank-killing, but Spy is better at damage until late-game.

Since many players are so bad at Scout, assuming they need only get an A+ and they're an asset to the team, people often think Spy is a straight upgrade to Scout because they can easily collect money while being a crutch against Giant Medics and other formidable robots. Spy seems to them to be so much more powerful than Scout because people are more likely to take things into their own hands as Spy than they would be as Scout, where they are often content to collect money and put their fate completely in the hands of their teammates. However, Scout is a very powerful class when played well. You need to be doing a lot more damage than the typical Scout to be earning your keep as Spy. A bad Scout can throw milk at everything and still be basically useful. A Spy has little Support ability besides drawing fire away from teammates (which he doesn't get points for), so he must make up the difference by clicking on backs.

Ah, the Refund. One of the many concessions Valve made in the Two Cities Update to players who wanted to get loot without getting good. Although more balanced now, it is still an easy way for players to change class to beat the last wave in the cheapest way possible, for veterans to ensure they're always playing the most important class for any given wave, and for people to just generally ignore the need for a balanced, well-rounded team where everyone does their job. At its most innocent, it provides the means to pull off hilarious shenanigans like playing the few waves of a mission as all Scouts. But I digress.

The Refund is a good way for you to switch to or from Spy as needed. Spy's main disadvantage is that he is extremely specialized, and playing Spy only for waves where he is overpowered can be quite a cheap tactic to win and/or annoy your teammates by doing way more damage than them.

If you don't want to feel like a b**** (or just want to save your Refund), you can use more ethical methods of not playing Spy the whole time. A common example would be to play as an upgrade-free Scout for a wave or two.There are multiple other instances in MvM where a class can be highly effective with little to no upgrades, so use them as needed.

A lot of Spy supporters say that the reason Spy is under-appreciated is because:
A) Most Spies are terrible.
I disagree. Most people are terrible at all classes. The true reason is that:
B) Most people have no idea what Spy should actually be doing in MvM.
Not only does this heavily contribute to the truth behind A, but some players can be highly critical of even Spies that are carrying a server. As with Pyro or Sniper, players will be eager to blame you for everything that goes wrong and only notice your screw-ups and no the massive amount of damage you’re doing or the suspicious absence of Giant Medics. It's a shame players can only see their own killfeeds in MvM.

A lot of players assume that Spy is a "replacement" for Scout because he is the “same thing” as Scout. Obviously they cannot play either class correctly. Similarly, a lot of players assume that, since Spies can backstab Medics, they are a replacement for a Demomen. This is simply untrue. No two classes are the same. Spies and Scouts can both collect money, but they fight in different ways. And they SHOULD be fighting. Too many Spies and Scouts have a bad habit of not doing anything. Scout is the class with the lowest damage potential after Medic. Many players assume that this is an excuse to not do any appreciable damage at all, and many Spies try to mimic these bad Scouts.

Demoman is a class that specializes in blowing up battalions of robots with splash damage from medium range, often while behind cover. He is very effective against massed robots, but rather underwhelming against giants and tanks unless he has the time to set up a full sticky trap in advance. But, due to the fact that Demoman and Spy are the two classes that can easily drop Uber Medics with no upgrades, people have a nasty habit of equating the two. Demo is usually better than Spy at killing Uber Medics, anyway.

You will probably have a lot of idiots telling you to sap robots more often when you play Spy. Do not listen to them. Sap only when it’s worth it. And NEVER sap giants that aren’t Scouts. It’s about as useful a Soldier charging at robots with the Escape Plan.

The Spy is a squishy class that fights with melee, but he has his disguise kit and his Dead Ringer to protect him. Thus, he doesn't really care how powerful robots are, but only their number. More robots mean more AIs that might notice him, more directions he might get shot from, and more random factors to worry about. To a Spy, a gaggle of Scout bots is more threatening than a single Giant Deflector Heavy. This is the greatest weakest of an inexperienced Spy, and the greatest strength of a skilled one.

Scout is slightly better at collecting money than a Spy, but the main reason for this is his speed, which simply allows him to run down that $10 that dropped in a really random place, and his fast-respawn, which allows him to bounce back faster from an embarrassing death. His other "advantages" aren't actually advantages at all. The whole money-healing thing is simply his equivalent of a disguise and Dead Ringer. As for the "money magnet" effect, while helpful getting a bit of money that might've gotten stuck off the map or on top of some tall object, it's really just compensation for the fact that it would be really hard to pick up money otherwise as the fastest class in the game. . Spy, meanwhile, has the advantage that he almost automatically picks up money from any robots he kills himself, many of which are giants and medics, which tend to drop the biggest piles. Additionally, he can sneak behind enemy lines to get money that the Scout would be stonewalled out of. The main difficulty with most other non-Scout classes collecting money is not that it's physically out of their reach, it's just that they would expose themselves unnecessarily to fire. Picking up money by just walking around is quite easy to do with a disguise.

If you find yourself as the primary money collector on your team, just do your other jobs as Spy and walk over any money nearby. You'll do fine. But make sure to reprimand your teammates if they're not smart enough (or at least lacking confidence in your abilities as Spy enough) to pick up money that drops at their own feet, or if they banzai charge into the fray to pick up money you could have easily gotten yourself.

Most Spies have figured out that the Dead Ringer's massive defensive buff can allow you to wade through hordes of robots like a Scout while picking up cash. This is a valid tactic, but if the robots will be dead in a few seconds, just wait and save your charge.

Remember how I said how awesome Movement Speed was? Here's all the things that Movement Speed helps you do:

Get to where you're needed faster.
Collect money better.
Dodge fire more easily.
Chase down/chainstab robots more easily.
Stab Giant Scouts more easily.
Grab ammo more quickly.
Grab health more quickly.
Make it really hard for robot Spies to backstab you, even if you don't know they're there.

Your main method of attack is melee. Literally everything you do becomes easier with maximum Movement Speed.

Theoretically, a Spy disguises while cloaked. In practice, there's absolutely nothing wrong with disguising before you pop your Dead Ringer, if at all. As far as the robots are concerned, you are not a Spy once you feign death, so just get in the habit of disguising immediately after stabbing, or do it with scripts. If you disguise right in front of robots and do not DR, they will know you are a Spy and will keep an eye out for you for a short time even after you hide. Wait a second or two until they lose interest. It is perfectly safe to decloak in front of robots, except for the fact that you lose your defensive buff against errant sources of damage directed at teammates.

Get in the habit of disguising as a Scout. Those Movement Speed upgrades won't help much if you disguise as a Heavy. You take any loss in speed as long as you don't disguise as a class that is naturally slower than a Spy, and Pyro is just as easy a key combination to hit, but you don't get useful voice cues like "Robots are attackin' the gate!" like you would if you were disguised as a Scout. The other alternatives would be Engineer or Medic because you'll get notifications of teammates' deaths. "Pyro's a goner!" Those disguises are harder key combinations to hit, though, and you'll want to use auto-disguise scripts for them. Scripts that you'll want to make sure are not active when playing Spy in PvP.

If you get covered in Jarate, take cover until it wears off. Robots will recognize you if you're covered in Jarate by Sydney Snipers, and they can see you while you are cloaked, just like in PvP. There isn't really anything special you can do to avoid it. As long as you’re constantly moving, you shouldn’t be hit by Snipers except from bad luck.

Like most other classes, Spy does not need canteens, but they can be helpful at times when he can afford them.

Ubercharge canteens are a great way to get an (almost) guaranteed kill on a Giant Medic in clutch situations, once you have enough upgrades. Just be careful that you don't become one of those noobs that needlessly spams them anytime you decide to actually stab something.

Ammo canteens are also decent. They are cheap and can be used to refill your Sapper charge in an emergency, usually involving catching Super Scouts (the one time sapping giants is useful), taking down Engie nests quickly, and sapping Uber Medics before someone blunders into them. I will warn, however, that they seem to glitch sometimes, not actually charging your Sapper.

Teleport to Spawn canteens can be used to catch Super Scouts making a break for the hatch or to escape when your Dead Ringer is not enough. Only situationally useful, but cheap enough that it doesn’t matter. You can even use them to get back to the upgrade station between waves. It is worth noting that they grant a temporary speed boost.

Crit Canteens can be vaguely useful when you’re rolling in money and want to help kill a tank by shooting it with your primary on the last wave. They will not work on your knife. The only time I could ever see you buying these is Wave 666, and Spy is probably the worst class for that mission, anyway.

Remember, use canteens sparingly until you have a surplus of money.

Not entirely accurate, but it may as well be.

There are a lot of rumors in MvM concerning Your Eternal Reward, some favorable, and some not. Most intelligent people accept that it is bad, and players bold enough to go against the meta are rare enough, so nobody ever really gives it a shot. I was curious enough to try it out in cheat mode to verify its exact mechanics. Here is the full scoop.

In spite of its weapon description, Your Eternal Reward will give you a disguise upon a successful backstab kill of a robot. However, it will be rather difficult to gain your first disguise for every life, and this will require an entirely different playstyle and upgrade path. Robots are fooled by the "instant" disguises. Sort of. They will still detect the backstab, will probably turn around, may shoot in your general direction, and you may die. Chainstabbing isn't really any easier than with any other knife. In fact, it's riskier, because if a robot turns around at the last second, you will failstab and lose your disguise. In fact, due to the high quality of Valve servers, it is actually possible to failstab on a sapped robot standing right in front of you. A minor annoyance with any other knife sends you back to Square One with YER.

Your disguise will fool Sentries just like in PvP. Yay.

But doesn't that mean YER is just harder to use, not a bad weapon? NO! Firstly, in order for a more difficult-to-use weapon to be good, it must have benefits that outweigh the downsides, like the Scottish Resistance, which offers higher damage potential, more versatility, and a head start on upgrades in exchange for being slightly more difficult to use. Right now, YER is looking like the Spy's version of the Direct S*** in MvM. So far, all we really got for our trouble was getting rid of the need (aka ability) to disguise after every stab, which can easily be accomplished with any other knife through the use of scripts or the magic of human reflexes. You gain the ability to disguise right in front of the robots, but you lose the ability to disguise at any other time. Maybe you're a little safer after successful backstabs, but that's it, and we haven't even delved into the weapon's other downsides yet.

Like GIANTS.

If you're using Your Eternal Reward, you are next to useless against giant robots. I tried, and you do NOT get a disguise from backstabbing giants unless you land the death blow (I was worried it wouldn't even do that, since it doesn't give you Diamondback crits). Every time you go after one of these suckers, you have to wait until they're a stab or two away from death or pop your watch and waste time finding another disguise. You are literally half of a Spy.

Finally, you can't choose your disguise. So, unless you completely avoid stabbing Heavies, Demomen, and Soldiers (so useful!) you'll be taking some hits in your movement speed. Moreover, it just seems like you're more likely to get smothered to death by robots who think you're the bomb carrier.

So, the only question left is: these people who advocate the use of this weapon, are they a case of "Gee, it sounds good in theory, so I bet it works just fine even though I've never tried it." or a case of "Golly, I have a positive K/D ratio! I'm an MvM master!"

Spy is the best giant killer in the game when it comes to solitary targets, and his advantages are even more pronounced on early waves when nobody has maximum upgrades. Spy is particularly effective against Giant Medics. A lot of people actually know this, enough so that they may attempt to play Spy on difficult missions without any previous experience in hopes of making it easier. It usually doesn't work.

The Spy is most effective against giants when his teammates get its attention first, usually getting off a solid 2-3 backstabs (up to 2700 damage) before needing to cloak or hide, depending on Swing Speed. This way, not only do YOU do more damage, but you draw fire away from your teammates. Keep in mind it doesn't matter how close your teammates are. A Giant Soldier shooting across the map at other players will still take 3 or 4 stabs before turning. Attacking a giant while it's all alone usually results in only 1 or 2 backstabs before the giant turns around and retaliates, forcing you to retreat. Attempting to strafe-stab a giant as it turns can sometimes work, but it is an expert technique. Beginners will want to stand directly behind a giant, make a few stabs, and run. You can play it safe and only take the stabs you know you can make, or you can be aggressive and keep stabbing until you get your first butterknife. Then run.

How you want to approach a giant depends on the type of giant it is. If there are no teammates around drawing aggro, it is usually best to attack when the giant is relatively isolated or at the back of a pack. Be mindful of nearby smaller robots, and assume that they will retaliate quickly or maybe pick them off first, if you have time.

Types of Giants

Giant Medics are the most harmless, since they will not normally attack you and always face their patient. The patient is also slower to react to stabs against its healer than against itself, sometimes allowing you to pull of all 5 stabs needed to destroy the Medic at once (when fully upgraded). As Spy, Giant Medics should make your mouth water. Although almost all classes have means of killing them effectively and all classes have means of contributing to their demise, very few players actually have any idea how to do so, and even those who do may have difficulty if the rest of the team isn't on the same page or is dead. Any remotely competent Spy, on the other hand, kills them with fairly consistent ease under almost all circumstances. The very presence of these pub-stomping giants alone is usually enough to justify the presence of a Spy on your team. Here, have a video.

Hacked Exhale's "Mystery of the Giant Medics"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9I6YT7kcyY

There is a second variety of Giant Medic that can't pop a charge but has considerable health regeneration. They wear the Surgeon's Stahlhelm, and I think they only show up Mannhattan. They're kind of a pushover, really. But don't worry about it. If you just treat every Giant Medic like it's the real deal, you'll be fine.

Giant Heavies have the most health, taking 6 stabs. In addition, they have aimbot that will follow you even after cloaking. Make sure there is cover to strafe behind when attacking these robots. Be careful of Huo-Long Heavies' fire.

Projectile-firing giants and Demoknights can be tricky, since often a single, sudden hit will kill you without your Dead Ringer. As a rule of thumb, make as many backstabs as you feel you can get away with, then begin moving backward to better prepare yourself for dodging. Your average giant crit-boosted Soldier is fairly easy to dodge. Rapid-fire Demomen less so, because they will attack very suddenly. Back up and strafe, maybe weave a bit to make it harder for them to target you. You'll probably want to always whip out your Dead Ringer immediately against anything rapid-fire, regardless of nearby cover, though it is possible to completely dodge entire barrages from either either Soldiers or Demos without taking damage just by strafing out in the open. These guys have less health than Heavies and Medics. Demos will go down in 4 maxxed-out stabs. Soldiers still take 5 from full health, 4 if your team does a few hundred damage first. Against Giant Black Box Soldiers, it can be helpful to wait until your teammates get them within a couple stabs of death before then taking them down. However, contrary to popular believe, it doesn't usually matter if you get hit by these things. The have a considerably long reload cycle, and a Heavy can take them down from full health before they reload. Spy can only take out a few thousand health before they turn to face him, but it can still be a huge help, especially if you don't have a Heavy on your team.

Giant Pyros, unlike their smaller cousins, are actually not any more dangerous to you than other giants. They're rather slow and dumb, and their fire is much more predictable and easy to avoid. But it is still fire. If you get ignited, just slip away to extinguish yourself; these suckers won't catch you, although Giant Crit Pyros will kill you faster than you can escape if you gett hit. Giant Pyros just barely survive 3 stabs.

You can sap Super Scouts if teammates are nearby to finish them off, or you can try to kill them with backstabs, since they have much less health than other giants but move much more quickly and erratically. You can also body-block them at corners with your disguise and Dead Ringer. Your choice, based on the situation. Armored Sandman Scouts have the same health as Giant Pyros. 2 stabs is more than enough to kill any other variety.

Bosses can be kind of tricky. The Two Cities ones seem to be just as dumb as any other giant, but the Mecha Engine ones respond very quickly to backstabs. They are a challenge worthy of a skilled Spy. It doesn't help that your team will probably follow behind them instead of shooting them from the front, but you can handle it. Sergeant Crits is just a smarter, fatter version of your Giant Soldier. Captain Punch receives double damage from melee, and I've personally dealt 55,000 damage to Captain Punch in a single wave. But watch out! His fists will one-shot anything that isn't ubered. Spy can also deal massive damage to Major Bomber, but he's not quite as good as an Uber-blocking Heavy. I like to make two stabs at a time against the Mecha Engine bosses before retreating.



There are other robots that are somewhat tall and have up to 1400 health that are commonly mistaken for giants. Remember, if it's not listed with a red background on the Wave Summary, it's not a giant. Your Sapper will disable it, and your knife will OHKO it. Steel Gauntlet Heavies are the most notorious of this group because of their resistance to ranged damage. These guys are a priority for you because a Wave 1 Spy kills them about as easily as a fully upgraded Heavy does.

Like any other class, prioritizing targets is one of the most important things you can do to be successful. For Spy, this usually means backstabbing giants above all else because it results in the most damage per stab. Occasionally, you will also want to pick off Uber Medics or Engineers if nobody else is doing so. Finally, closely bunched robot squads are a great target for your Sapper if you have it upgraded.

If there are no especially juicy targets for you to kill, just chip away at the squads of common robots as much as possible. You'll do some damage, and you'll draw fire away from your teammates.

The Dead Ringer is essential to a Spy's viability in MvM. That is precisely why you should not always use it. Like your Sapper, it is a resource that needs charging. Don't always pop it against slow-firing or low-damage robots if you can duck behind cover while taking little to no damage. Then you can redisguise and already have a full charge.

Speaking of which...

Your Dead Ringer loses charge when you uncloak, so uncloak BEFORE picking up ammo packs for for maximum efficiency. These are more important than health packs because your knife should keep you overhealed much of the time. Your Big Earner and Dispensers are also efficient ways to gain cloak. I don't really think L'Etranger is. Not only does it only give you half the cloak of and do way less damage than a Big Earner stab would, I also literally never find myself in a position where I actually need cloak and shooting something would be a safe/reliable/fast way to get it.


L'Etranger: A better way to gain cloak than the Big Earner if you're far away - oh, crap, you don't need cloak when you're far away from the robots. Why ARE you far away from the robots, anyway?.

The only other way to gain cloak is to pick up weapons dropped by your dead teammates. Usually, that's the most help you'll get from them the entire mission.

One of the reasons that Spy is so fun to play is that you are constantly in motion, like the Scout.

The Spy is a very hands-on class. He needs to physically be at the scene of the crime. Thus, his positioning and movement is critical for efficient operation. A HUGE part of this is instincts and the ability to think on your feet, gained from experience. However, I'll throw some ideas out there to put you on the right path... hopefully you've started to pick up on some of this already, if you've played Spy before.

• Moving makes it harder to robots to shoot you.
  
• If you get out of sight of a robot, they will forget about you.
  
• If a robot sees you but you remain out of attacking distance, it will quickly forget about you after you disguise.
  
• Robots might start to follow you around if you disguise as the bomb carrier or draw aggro. This can be useful in taking pressure off your team, but don't get stuck in a pressing throng! The robots will recognize you and attack after about 2 seconds. Additionally, body-blocking many types of robots while disguised is safe for short periods of time that can be lengthened with the Dead Ringer.
  
• Cover can include jumping off of things or climbing onto them as well as running behind them.
  
• You can run about as fast as Super Scouts and can almost kill them with a single backstab. Consider chasing them down and stabbing them without sapping to avoid making them turn.
  
• Rhythm is important when chainstabbing. A bobbing motion can help you to avoid overshooting targets as well help you evade fire.
  
• Heavies will aimbot you for a bit after you pop your Dead Ringer. Strafe to minimize the damage that gets through.
  
• Be mindful of splash damage from rockets fired past you, especially if you don't want to waste cloak.
  
• Many Giant Soldiers fire very slow-moving rockets that are insanely easy to dodge.
  
• Many Giant Robots have noticeable fire/reload cycles. Trying to time your attacks so that you get noticed during the reload phase can extend your window of safety before needing to pop the Dead Ringer.
  
• Try to grab cash mainly on the way from one target to another or while cloaked and re-disguising.
  
• When not wearing the Razorback, Snipers are usually free kills while you move from one place to another. It doesn't matter too much if you're disguised or not.

There's not really that much to say here. Objects exist that you can hide behind, mostly rocks and walls. Additionally, small obstacles that you have to jump over are a great way to escape from non-jumping robots. Cover is just as important as your Dead Ringer to your survival. Not only does it shield you from damage, but robots will forget about you if they can't see you.

There are a few neat things to note, though. First, robots don't seem to be able to see through most mesh fences even though you can see them. The game's coding treats them as solid walls. Second, robot Heavies, like human Heavies, shoot bullets from their head the same way a Sniper does. If a giant Heavy can see you, it can shoot you. If you can't see its eyes, you're safe. Those guys are tall. If you're already behind a short obstacle, sometimes crouching is the difference between life and death.

Sapping serves 4 purposes:

1. Disabling squads of robots so you can chainstab them.
2. Slowing Super Scouts that you can't comfortably backstab so your teammates can destroy them.
3. Reducing the probability of a failstab.
4. Destroying Engineer buildings.

Upgrading your Sapper is helpful but not a priority, especially since it only really helps with 1 and 2. Remember, you are a giant killer, and your Sapper doesn't help you fulfill that role. Remember: Sapping giants does not disable them. It just slows them slightly and draws attention to you. Better to do damage.

Many players are under the assumption that Spy is the best class to deal with Engineers in PvP. This assumption seems to largely carry over into MvM. And it's partially true, actually. You are very well-equipped to deal with isolated Engineers due to your disguise, but, if your team has somehow let 5 Engineers set up across the map, your Sapper has a cooldown, and taking them down one by one is a humongous waste of your time.

Anyway, the best way to take down Engineer nests is to Stab and Sap. Usually the Sentry first, because then it's easier for you or a teammate to finish off the teleporter. Remember: Robots can still come through a sapped tele unless you're using the RTR.

Engineers can remove Sappers just as easily as in PvP, whereas you can't place them as easily, so don't try to sap first. Also, be careful that there aren't any robots too close when you sap, or the Sapper might get placed on them and not the building. Yet another reason to stab first.

As for how high-priority Engineer bots actually are, it really depends. You definitely don't want an Engineer bot next to spawn in Rottenburg (although you should probably just leave if that happens), but it's often most effective to just focus on killing the Wave than taking out these support bots, especially if there are too many of them to deal with or they are in relatively non-threatening locations.

Don't do it.





Seriously. Some "experienced" Spies (It's not the most played class, so any experience at all makes you pretty much an Expert on a comparative scale.) will tell you that sapping the Giant Medics prevents them from popping their Quick-Fix. This is not true. The only basis for this rumor I can think of is that Giant Medics are much less likely to pop period when a Spy is on the map, and the ritual of sapping the Medic before stabbing it got perpetuated like some sort of lucky handshake.

Giant Medics are already really slow. Slowing them down does not help anything. What it does do is take time and draw attention to you, making it harder to get that last stab or two in.

Here's a picture of me popping a sapped Medic with my Diamondback, if you don't believe me. I am in Buddha mode and the only one on the server.


OOPSY DOOPSY.

Also, speaking of dumb myths, Crit canteens do NOT affect backstab damage. Like all really weird ideas people get, I even gave it a try just to make sure. Backstabs are already full critical hits.

Spy is not at his most efficient against Uber Medics, seeing as killing them reduces his damage to a measly 175 per stab. Still, Spy can kill small numbers of them easily and is especially helpful for offing them before they get within sight of an incompetent team that has been pushed back. They always face their patient, so they are very easy to chainstab without sapping.

Aggro is a term used to describe when an enemy AI has its attention on you. Spy has basically the highest aggro priority of any class in the game. Robots hate Spies; any other class can wantonly shoot robots in the back as long as their attention is on something else. While Spies can get a couple extra stabs in this situation, robots will always eventually react to a nearby backstab. Giants can even begin to chase you backwards across the map if you hit them with Ambassador or Diamondback crits. Non-crit shots? I'm not really sure.

At any rate, use this knowledge to your advantage. Don't unnecessarily draw fire at Backburner Pyros slagging giants. You don't like it when Heavies wander behind enemy lines and draw fire at you while you're disguised, do you? Instead, attack the robots while they're near your teammates so that you take some pressure off of them. As an added bonus, you get more backstabs in before you have to cloak. You get 1-2 stabs on a giant before drawing aggro if it isn't already shooting at something else. You get 3-4 in if it is. You do more damage, your teammates take less fire... everybody wins!

That's a good question! The way the Armor Pentration upgrade is worded is rather confusing, and knowing exactly how much damage you're dealing will make you a better Spy.

A Spy's knife will always deal 100% of the remaining health of any non-giant robot upon a successful backstab, no questions asked. In addition, butterknifing any robot, giant or otherwise, is a melee attack with an average base damage of about 40. It is not affected by the Armor Penetration upgrade.

So, now the important part: backstabbing giants. Without any upgrades, you knife does a measly 187.5 (188 in HUD) damage per stab. The Armor Penetration upgrade grants an extra 25% damage... out of 750. The amount of damage done to giants per stab based on the number of Armor Penetration upgrades is as follows:
0: 187.5
1: 375
2: 562.5
3: 750
4: 937.5 (1875 against Captain Punch!)

I have no idea why it works like this. At first I thought that maybe the knife does 750 damage, but giants are resistant to backstabs by -562.5 damage, but an un-upgraded Spy can still OHKO Rapid Fire Bowman, which have 1200 health and are not weak to melee like Steel Gauntlets are. The important part is how this affects your upgrade path. Fully upgrading Armor Penetration exactly quintuples your damage against giants for 1600 credits. Do it as early in the mission as possible.

As Spy, you will sometimes die. As the primary money collector on your team, you need to get back to the front lines. Fast! Because you are not as fast as a Scout, you rely more on the Engineer's Teleporter to get you where you need to go. This is both a strength and a weakness. Not only is it a bummer when the Teleporter goes down, but it's also very convenient when the robots overrun your initial defensive position without finding the Tele. Thanks to your disguises, you can still safely use the Teleporter to get back behind enemy lines.

Don't let less mobile teammates do the same and make the robots shoot backwards, killing you both. Dummies.

Robots have squad-based AI. Robots that decide to form a squad with the bomb carrier will follow the bomb carrier. However, other robot squads may decide to chase players. This is where Spy is unique.

Robots will follow Spy, but won't attack right away if he's disguised. If they touch him for too long, however, they will realize he is a Spy and attack. This is because Spy used to be ridiculously overpowered as a body-blocker.

This phenomenon can be both an advantage and a disadvantage. If robots start crowding you, attacking safely will be difficult. HOWEVER, you can also abuse the mechanic to have a bunch of robots follow you around like mother ducklings while ignoring the objective, a tactic that can be helpful against foes that Spy is ill-equipped to deal with on his own, like large crowds, especially on large maps where the bomb may get very far from the robot spawn.

Being set on fire sucks. Not only can those spazzy little Pyros set you ablaze, but those Giant Heater Heavies are annoying as well, with the disadvantage that they're far too slow to chase you down while you extinguish yourself.

A lot of players use the Spycicle to counter robot Pyros. However, when it works, you lose your knife and have to wait for it to come back, which is kind of a bummer. (Also, since both your Sapper AND your knife have a charge meter, you get annoyingly stuck on your gun or worse, your Disguise Kit, until one comes back.

The Movement Speed upgrade is your best friend for escaping Pyros if you accidentally get set on fire. With it, you can outrun them. Once out of range, cloak to extinguish yourself.

Spies suck against tanks. In case you didn't notice. In fact, Spy is THE WORST class against tanks because tanks do not have backs.

What you should do while they are on the map depends on the situation. If there are absolutely no robots are the map, go ahead and butterknife it. If there are other significant threats on the map, you should definitely go address those first. If there are minor threats like a few stray Scouts, Spies, or Snipers, use your discretion. I usually choose to err on the safe side and weed out these stragglers to keep my team safe from "accidents" and get a few free Diamondback crits in the bargain, which can casually be fired across the map at the tank for 102 damage apiece.

Which leads us to the Diamondback. While Spy is still not good against tanks and should never have to actually help kill them if everyone does their job, the Diamondback can temporarily boost your tank-killing capability (slightly) if you rack up a significant number of crits. Nothing to write home about, but it doesn't hurt and it works at any range. The Enforcer and stock Revolver offer better sustained DPS, but it's not your job and the difference is negligible so don't worry about it. I don't even know why I wrote this section.

Believe it or not, the best class choice depends on a lot of things. Maps. Missions. Skill level. And teammates. When is a good time to have a Spy based on the other classes on the server? How does Spy match up with each class.

Scout: Both classes have SOMEWHAT lower damage potential than most "damage" classes (but the difference is greatly exaggerated), and both can collect money. Not really a problem, but they'll tend to draw fire at one another. No serious problems, though.
Soldier: Jack of all trades. Synergy is great.
Pyro: Pyro likes to attack from behind like Spy, so you might end up getting a Pyro killed a few times, but nothing too bad.
Demoman: Demoman is great at crowd-killing, one of Spy's weak points. Good synergy.
Heavy: Another class that's good with giants and bad with tanks... just make sure you have enough tank killers on the team. Also, Heavy is a lot less powerful without Mad Milk or a Medic.
Engineer: Every class is better with an Engineer.
Medic: Another specialty class. Just make sure you already have all your bases covered.
Sniper: Sniper is great at crowd-killing, one of Spy's weak points.
Spy: Two Spies? Terrible idea. But fun.

What do I mean, make sure you have enough DPS against tanks? Spy is pretty much the worst class against tanks, hands down. If your team consists of an Engie, two Heavies, a Medics, and a Sniper, you might want to pick a better tank-killing class like Scout. Unless you're playing on Mannhattan, in which case a lack of tanks and the whole gate thing lets you pull all kinds of dumb crap.

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=312990781
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=315766323
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=315876577

There aren't reallly any bad Spy maps, but Mannhattan and Bigrock are exceptionally Spy-friendly, in my opinion. What actually matters more is the robot composition of the mission.

From my experience, the following missions are all demonstrably easier to beat with a Spy, often due to a large number of Giant Medics, which tend steamroll your average meta pub. Additionally, although it is usually best to not have a Spy and Scout at the same time, Spy is so good on many of these you can easily play with 2 Spies.

• Metro Malice (Two Cities - Mannhattan) - Large numbers of Giants and no tanks. Spy can infiltrate behind enemy lines and preemptively kill Giant Medics if an incompetent team loses the front to Engie bots.
  
• Bavarian Botbash (Two Cities - Rottenburg) - Spy is a great help getting past those first few giants. After Wave 4, Spy shouldn't get many kills because other classes should be shamelessly spawncamping the robots, but there's still a lot of Giant Medics and Spy will still act as a safety net for bad teams.
  
• Broken Parts (Mecha Engine - Bigrock) - It's arguably easier for a Spy to collect money than a Scout due to all the spam on this mission. Spy is a huge help getting past the Giant Medics on waves 2 and 6.
  
• Bone Shaker (Mecha Engine - Bigrock) - Similar to Broken Parts, but not quite as much for Spy to kill. Except a boss that takes nearly 2000 damage from a single backstab.
  
• Cataclysm (Gear Grinder - Coal Town) - Spy can help a lot with the Steel Gauntlets on the first wave and the Giant Heavies on the second. Plus he makes the hardest wave a cakewalk.
  
• Desperation (Gear Grinder - Decoy) - Same thing. Spy helps with early giants and makes the hardest wave a gimme

But Metro Malice is probably the best mission for Spy and the for new players to learn Spy.

Metro Malice: Damage stats after 4 waves as Heavy.

Metro Malice: Damage stats after 2 waves as Spy. We failed Wave 5 twice, which prompted me to make the switch. I got some grief for it, even after we won. The truth is, I was suffering from lag and was not performing well at all.

Doesn't matter. Still top-scored.

Yep. Metro Malice is a good Spy mission. I mean, Sweet Celestia, I did more damage in two waves as a sloppy, lag-plagued Spy than the Soldier, Medic, or Scout/Heavy did the entire mission! Incidentally, this is a classic example of a server where players might automatically blame everything that goes wrong during a wave on the Spy, without checking to see which of the more meta classes have dismally low scores. It's also a classic example of Two Cities being so easy that players with 9 and 12 completed tours get handily outscored by a 0-tour newb (not noob, by definition) in spite of playing powerful classes and having the best ping on the server. In any other Tour of Duty, having 10 tours means you're expected to be able to lead a server full of less-experienced players to victory. In Two Cities, having more tours just means you bought more tickets. I've seen highly skilled hundred-tour players who have literally memorized the missions and could probably beat them in their sleep, but I've also seen hundred-tour players who complain about the first guy's tactics, all while personally putting up really underwhelming numbers as Heavy.

Finally, one more thing, and I can't stress this enough: It is completely impossible to play Spy in MvM without pony mods. Every day, you see Soldiers without banners, and you see Spies without pony mods. Why handicap yourself? How can you expect to eviscerate giant robots without a unicorn silhouette flashing across your screen every time you disguise? If you've been trying to play Spy all this time without being properly equipped, go fix it right now. Valve has disabled links or something, but Google exists, so go find some. Sprays are highly recommended, as long as they're not porn, but it's not that big of an issue since they don't work reliably on Mann Up servers, anyway.

That entire last paragraph was a joke. Given the average intelligence of internet users, I feel the need to include this disclaimer. Please do not be offended.

*This HUD is partially overridden by the 3D player icons and doesn't work on Pure servers, which most Valve servers now are. Oh well.

CAR_ (aka leadfoot9x on Youtube and other places) is a guy with no life an experienced MvM player, with double-digit tours in Gear Grinder, Mecha Engine, and that new one that made noobs think Medic is good Two Cities. He will readily admit that there are many players far better than him, but you're probably not one of them but can comfortably play any class except Medic at or above Gear Grinder level.

His fancy digital items include:
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2767054817
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2850801872
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2832924126
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_3002413297
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2987243729
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2951736930
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2784544930
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2942052409
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2983363427
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_2559644944
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/profiles/76561198059887323/inventory/#440_2_3023554870

And yes, before you ask, he's the same a****** who built that stupid Sentry on pl_borneo during the Tip of the Hats Charity:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TX3uu3CL-PU

Notable MvM Achievements

• One-Lifing Empire Escalation once as Engineer (247 killstreak) and twice as Demoman (297 and 309 killstreaks)
  
• Completing an entire Gear Grinder tour in one day on Randoms servers playing solely as Spy
  
• MVP of Randoms servers that completed Mannslaughter or Desperation with an A+ rank 3 times and counting
  
• Oh, and one of those times involved playing 5 different classes without ever using the Refund
  
• Completing Caliginous Caper (and other missions) as Soldier with over 40% of the damage on the server.
  
• Successfully convincing Boot Camp noobs that their Sentry placement is terrible and everything would suddenly be really easy if they just moved it*

*That's a lie. Nobody can do that.

All images are mine.

Mystery of the Giant Medics by Hacked Exhale. If you were too lazy to watch the video on your first read-through, go back and watch it. MvM pubs would be way easier if it was mandatory watching for all players. I should also mention that the video inspired me to do a lot of the cheat-mode dabbling I did to research some of the more obscure information that comprises this guide.

To everyone who's in my screenshots: sorry, I don't censor names. People could just look them up on my Steam page, anyway.

Further Reading

http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=255962006
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=265956030
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=289059169