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The Basics of How to MvM for Every Class

By Hafif

I've seen a lot of people in the Normal and Intermediate difficulties that don't seem to know what they're doing-- and worse, they're absolutely convinced that they do. In an effort to improve gaming experiences for everyone trying to kill robots, here are some suggestions on how to handle each class.
EDIT: For still more tips on gameplay, including variants and more advanced tactics, check out all the great suggestions folks are making in the comments!

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Created by

Hafif
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Category: Characters, Classes, Co-op, Game Modes, Gameplay Basics, Maps or Levels, Multiplayer, Walkthroughs, Weapons

Languages: English

Class: Demoman, Engineer, Heavy, Medic, Pyro, Scout, Sniper, Soldier, Spy

Posted

20 Dec, 2014 @ 1:28pm

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Guide Index

Overview

Scout

Soldier

Pyro

Demoman

Heavy

Engineer

Medic

Sniper

Spy

Choosing a Class

Comments

Scout

You are the team's main money maker. You have an extended money pickup range, and you gain health up to and over your maximum just from picking it up.
Stay mobile, pick off enemies when they stray from the packs, and when you have a good buffer of health, start spraying the packs with shot.
Most primary weapons for the scout are good-- the classic Scattergun works well, but the Force-a-Nature and the Soda Popper are both devastating when upgraded with an extended clip, and each has its own bonuses that extend well to MvM.
Good upgrades can be target penetration, extra damage, and especially increased clip size with the FaN. Some damage reduction upgrades can be good if you're about to face a lot of one kind of damage, like a huge wave of heavies or sollies/demos.
Mad Milk can be very helpful when upgraded with the slow bonus.
For melee, the Sandman can mark opponents for death with the either the range attack or its melee once upgraded, meaning everyone gets mini-crits on them-- a huge help for taking down super robots. It does make you more fragile, however, and some people prefer the Fan o' War, as it can be easy enough to get in melee range of most opponents and it allows you more health.
Every team can benefit from having a scout. If you enjoy it, play it all the time. Two scouts are less effective, but doable. More than two should be avoided.

Soldier

You are an excellent AoE robot killer. With the right weapon, you can obliterate the majority of the front lines before anyone else can deal significant damage.
Choose vantage points where you will be elevated over your opponents and focus on blasting the crowds. Make sure you know where the nearest ammo pickups are. You are most effective on Decoy, somewhat effective on Coaltown, and not so effective on Mannworks, for lack of good vantage points and choke points to clump up enemies.
The single best weapon for the Soldier is the Beggar's Bazooka. When you can already upgrade your weapon to heal on kills and propel rockets faster, the major bonuses of the other rocket launchers pale before the distinguishing property of the Begzooka: its pure damage output when upgraded with reload speed and clip size. Station yourself near a full ammo upgrade that nobody else is using, and you can time out your reloads pretty well with each clump of enemies to consistently blast each one with five+ rockets in a matter of 1-2 seconds.
Upgrade priority for the Soldier is to increase your clip size and reload speed for pure damage output. A point or two in healing on kills can help a lot with your survivability, and damage bonuses are obviously good once you're comfortable with the size of your payloads. Make sure to upgrade clip size and reload in parallel-- too much of one, and you're stuck reloading forever; too much of the other, and you don't have enough downtime to run back to your ammo pickup.
The Buff Banner is an excellent secondary item, especially when you find yourself surrounded by allies trying to take down a tough Super Robot or a Tank. It also fills obscenely quickly in MvM, allowing you and your team a great deal of critting. The shotgun is a weak alternative, for if you intend to spend a lot of time away from your team and need an emergency weapon.
Your melee weapon is a matter of personal preference. The Escape Plan is a good choice for when things get hairy, and the Disciplinary Action can be mildly useful.
Soldiers are very useful, solid damage dealers. One to two Soldiers will be a big help, as long as you aren't ignoring a gaping hole in the team's needs (see Class Priority at the bottom).

Pyro

You are a versatile close-combat robot killer. Your airblast can make or break the team in tough waves, and the area damage from your flamethrower is a massive boon to taking down big groups.
Try to find a good "nest" right near the spawn area for the robots-- somewhere you can take cover against ranged attacks and lash out when enemies come within range. Standing ready behind where the enemy drops down can also be effective-- but it can also trap and kill you easily if a larger crowd drops.
It is absolutely essential as a Pyro to be able to airblast. You can hold Super Scouts in place with consecutive blasts, turning one of the most humiliating defeats possible in the game into a simple game of Shoot the Birdy. You can airblast the bomb carrier to push him back-- even Super Robots if you have sufficiently upgraded your airblast. Push them into ditches to buy your team an extra 30 seconds, or on Coaltown, blow them into the bottomless pits to reset the bomb entirely! The Phlogistinator's and Backburner's damage output are marginal and can be made up with a few upgrades-- airblasting can't be made up, and is essential to your team's victory when things get tough. The classic Flamethrower may actually be best, as you shouldn't be needing to switch weapons enough to get much use from the Degreaser.
Upgrades for the Pyro should usually start with one extra ammo upgrade, followed by regular damage buffs. If you're facing a lot of flammable enemies, extra burn damage can be effective, and you should take one or two upgrades to damage on kills as soon as you can for survivability. Extra move speed can also be a big help for catching crowds and dodging fire.
The Detonator is probably the best secondary for the Pyro, so that you can set crowds on fire even when you aren't in range. The regular Flare Gun also works for picking off Snipers and pinging Super Robots that you can't get too close to. The Shotgun may be helpful for combating enemy Pyros, but the best tactic is generally to just get out of their way and let the ranged classes pick them apart.
You have several options for melee depending on your playstyle. No, the Homewrecker doesn't do bonus damage. To anything. But it may be helpful against spybots when you're helping out your Engineer. The Axtinguisher can be effective, but with one exception, you should have enough damage upgrades on your Flamethrower that it's better to just stick with it. The exception is when fighting Fist of Steel Heavies, which can otherwise overwhelm a team, but fall easily to the Axtinguisher. And finally, the Third Degree, a weapon of otherwise questionable use, can be very effective --especially in combination with a Crit canteen-- against Super Robots with a large following of Medics.
One pyro is a boon to any team, on any map. Two Pyros will be significantly less effective, as the robots will only take burn damage from one of you at a time.

Demoman

You are an unforgiving robot killer perfect for guarding the bomb from the spawn all the way to the drop point. A little preparation on your part can hold most robots in check almost indefinitely.
Demomen are most effective guarding the bomb. Lay a sticky trap stretching out a little before and a ways after wherever the bomb is lying and reload. If you don't have anything to do, pull out the grenade launcher and start pelting at whatever is coming your way. When the next robot grabs the bomb, you should be able to blast it, and the entire cluster that's following it, to smithereens with just a little timing.
The best weapon for the Demoman is generally the classic Stickybomb Launcher. You may prefer the Scottish Resistance for the ability to lay multiple trap points, but the quick damage of the regular Launcher can be critical when you're losing ground and need to blow up a group of robots as quickly as possible.
Reload speed for the Stickybomb Launcher is essential to keeping plenty of bombs on the ground as a Demoman. One upgrade to clip size should help as well, and one or two health on kill upgrades should render you damn near immortal. Damage and firing speed upgrades will make you an unstoppable bot killer in the later waves.
The classic Grenade Launcher works well for the Demoman in MvM. You may prefer the Loch-n-Load, but the fact is, spamming a bunch of grenades is pretty likely to get you tons of damage even if you miss-- or even if you can't see what you're shooting at.
For melee, it's more a matter of what not to equip. Don't equip anything that reduces your max health or speed, and never, ever equip a Half-Zatoichi. A plain old pan or bottle works well, or if you'd like to suicide clusters if you ever find yourself trapped, the Ullapool Caber works decently enough.
A Demoman isn't really necessary to a team's victory, but they're always helpful, especially when dealing with Super Scouts. Two Demomen is generally one Scotsman too many. There can be only one, after all.
Please don't play a demoknight. There are already three melee range classes, and they're all better than you.

Heavy

You are a relentless, crowd-hosing robot killer. You won't tend to get as many kills as other classes, but you can spray down groups to soften them up considerably, and you can be an excellent Tank killer.
Try to station yourself either directly next to a Dispenser or very close to an ammo pickup, preferably near some cover as well. You're best at hosing groups, or occasionally picking off a lone bomb carrier trying to slip by.
The classic Minigun is very effective in MvM. The Huo-Long Heater uses up ammo too quickly, but you may still prefer it if you're especially paranoid about Spies. And the Brass Beast may be tempting, but what little maneuverability you have can actually be important to duck behind cover and respond quickly to threats. Strangely enough, you may find Natascha useful-- its unique ability to slow enemies can give the entire team more time to kill robots before they can get out of the choke point. Especially useful against Scouts, Super and otherwise.
Extra ammo and a couple upgrades to health on kills can go a long way improving a Heavy. Target penetration can net you tons of extra damage, especially if you're down on the ground level with the robots, and past that, firing speed can fill out your damage while a few damage resistance upgrades help make up for all the rockets and bullets you'll inevitably eat for lack of mobility. A couple crit canteens can be very helpful for annihilating a Super Robot or chewing through a Tank. The Rage Pushback upgrade can be useful, especially in a pinch if your team doesn't already have a Pyro on pushing duty. You activate it with the taunt key, but it doesn't actually taunt-- it activates instantly.
For a secondary, the Sandvich can be helpful in a pinch-- you should never, ever let yourself run out of ammo, so you should be more likely to need a health pickup when you're too fragile to engage the enemy. The Family Business can be effective if you'd prefer a backup weapon, though.
For a Heavy, the Gloves of Running Urgently can be a huge help catching a runaway bomb carrier, or getting to the front lines if you don't have a Teleporter for some reason. If you aren't concerned, however, you might consider the Killing Gloves of Boxing-- they can be rather effective at mowing down a small crowd in a pinch if you're out of options.
A group on MvM can get by just fine without a Heavy. That said, one or two heavies can be a fine way to deal damage as long as you aren't ignoring any holes in the group.

Engineer

You are arguably the most important man on the team. Your Sentry can devastate hordes of robots, your Teleporter is absolutely essential to maintaining a strong front line, and your Dispenser is a necessity for Heavies and Pyros to stay alive on the front lines.
Try to place your Teleporter exit somewhere roughly in the middle, a little toward the back of the main killing ground-- usually the chokepoint closest to the robot spawn point. Your Sentry placement depends on if you have a Wrangler: a Wrangled Sentry should be set back, facing the spawn point from a decent distance so that you can shoot down priority targets all down the choke point and have as much time as possible to kill approaching crowds. A non-Wrangled Sentry should go closer to the robot spawn so that you can wear down all targets as they pass, while you whack on it almost constantly to keep it at full health. Try to put your Sentry on a raised surface, so that you aren't immediately available to the swarms if they make it to you, and try to put your Sentry somewhere close to a full ammo pickup-- you should be absolutely set to keep it in repair. And Your dispenser is most useful placed just behind a piece of cover likely to be used by any Heavies or other ranged classes on the team.
The regular Wrench, the Southern Hospitality, or the Jag are best for an Engineer. Moving your Sentry to react to situations, escape Sentry Busters, or keep up with the Tank is absolutely essential, so the Eureka Effect should never be equipped for MvM. The Gunslinger is also a terrible choice, as it replaces your unstoppable damage machine with a pea shooter. One has rockets. The other doesn't. It's as simple as that.
Wrench attack speed is a very good early upgrade-- it allows you to repair and restock your Sentry with surprising speed. Similarly, you should upgrade your metal capacity once or twice early on so that you aren't too dependent on that ammo pack, and can keep your Sentry at 100%. Keep an eye on the upcoming waves, and the first time you're facing Soldiers/Demomen, make sure you have your building health and blast damage resistance upgraded at least once. Past that, wrench attack speed and Sentry attack speed are generally the most helpful upgrades, though you may add dispenser range at your discretion. The two-way teleporter upgrade can be helpful if you have to get to the drop point quickly, like if your team has a lot of trouble holding a front line or if you're facing Super Scouts. The extra Mini-Sentry generally isn't too helpful, but if you have the extra cash, it can make a fine goalkeeper at the drop point to keep the player spawn clear of hostiles.
For your primary weapon, the regular Shotgun and the Widowmaker can be fine choices, but the Frontier Justice is the real powerhouse in this slot. You can destroy and rebuild your Sentry at no cost between waves, and this will often instantly max out your revenge crits at 35-- that's 35 guaranteed crits for any spy or bomb carrier foolish enough to look at you cross-eyed. It shouldn't come up much, but in a pinch, it can be very powerful. And if you like blasting robots yourself, you can easily upgrade the clip size.
The Engineer's secondary weapon should almost always be the Wrangler. It turns your Sentry from a spray machine like the Heavy into a focused killing machine, perfect for destroying Super Robots. It is also often essential to blasting a Tank apart-- the bonus to firing speed means you can practically tear it down on your own if you have some metal nearby, and it guarantees you're killing the Tank rather than letting your Sentry get distracted by any random Scout running by.
Every single game of Mann vs. Machine should have at least one Engineer. In a way, you are the main damage output for the team, Wrangler or no, and your buildings make a world of difference for the entire team's effectiveness. Two Engineers are also very effective-- one can Wrangle while the other sets up close to the spawn and sprays everything that passes. Three Engineers should only be attempted in very specific circumstances-- tons and tons of scouts, or a Tank that just won't die. It should never be the permanent class of three players.

Medic

You are the team's lifeline. It should be noted, however, that if your team isn't dying overmuch, you are probably going to be the most useless member of your team.
The essence of the Medic is mobility. Run constantly, stay behind cover wherever possible, and keep your eyes open for threats. You should always be healing, but never the same person for too long. Try Kritzing a Demoman before the round starts so he can set a particularly nasty trap, as your charge builds very quickly during preparation time.
The Kritzkrieg is generally the most useful Medi Gun. Critting crowds of enemies or a nasty Super Robot or Tank can make a big difference, and your teammates should survive well enough without Ubers. The Quick-Fix is underwhelming, but it can be upgraded to provide overheal.
Upgrading as a Medic is mostly a matter of your personal playstyle. Upgrading speed early on is a pretty good idea to help you stay evasive as well as get to your next heal target as quickly as possible. Overheal duration can be very handy for running between teammates keeping everyone at plus-health, and heal speed can be great for keeping the Heavy up under heavy fire. If you feel vulnerable, consider a little health regeneration or damage resistance. Canteens can be a huge help once you upgrade to share with your heal target-- you can keep your team dealing heavy damage nearly every time it's needed with crit canteens, or back up your Kritzkrieg with the cheaper Uber canteens. In either case, you can release the heal after starting the canteen so you can both take advantage-- whipping out the ubersaw when you're both ubered this way can be very effective.
For your Needle Gun, the classic version can be good enough for what little self-defense you might need, but the Overdose can be helpful for keeping you mobile since you shouldn't be shooting too much. For the same reason, the Blutsauger can be more harm than help until you take a point in health regen-- at that point, it can be pretty helpful in keeping you alive on the run. The Crusader's Crossbow is weak on defense, which should be your primary concern, but you may prefer taking pot shots at the enemy when they're too far away for your heals to help anything yet.
Your melee weapon is a matter of preference, though the Ubersaw can be helpful in getting charged quickly in a pinch. The regular Bonesaw or the Amputator can be better if you end up with no better option than trying to kill the Tank yourself, though.
The Medic is arguably the least valuable class in MvM, a peculiar opposite to regular gameplay. Damage output is the final factor in winning most games of Mann vs. Machine, especially on the lower difficulties, and the Medic just doesn't do much damage-- even Kritzing only doubles one other person's damage, effectively making it as effective as if you were the same class as them for about ten seconds. If you are on a team with several Heavies, Soldiers, and Demomen, a Medic may be a good idea. But if your team is leaning more toward Engineers, Snipers, Scouts and Spies, you're really just making things worse. There is no reason to ever run more than one Medic on a team.

Sniper

You are an intensely focused robot kiler. With the right weapon and upgrades, you can kill off Super Robots in a few seconds and keep waves of Heavies at bay. Your weakness is fast enemies and large groups-- which comes up a lot in MvM.
Choose a vantage point where you can stare right down the chokepoint at your opponents, preferably close to an ammo pickup. You're most effective on Coaltown, pretty effective on Decoy, and kind of screwed on Mannworks.
The single best weapon for the Sniper is the Hitman's Heatmaker. The Huntsman may allow you to get closer to the enemies, but that just gets you killed when there should already be melee range classes picking up money. The Machina's best features are easily replaced with an upgrade (and not that helpful anyway). The Heatmaker gains focus rapidly with a few shots, and lets you enter a state of shameless, bloody carnage that is only enhanced to devilish proportions with the right upgrades.
The most important upgrade for the Sniper is the headshot explosion. It allows you to turn a class that is embarrassingly ill-suited to fighting hordes of enemies into an AoE attacker, at least on the side. Reload speed is important after that, and a little extra damage now and then as the money rolls in. One upgrade to health regeneration helps a good deal with survivability, and you should upgrade your Jarate to slow enemies by halfway into the game-- and add some recharge if you really like it.
The best secondary for the Sniper is the Jarate. Anything you can't kill with a couple headshots, you can hose down with piss as it tries to pass you, and run in for the melee or take a couple no-scopes at it quickly as it tries to escape. This is a great way to kill stubborn, powerful Super Robots, and you can be a big help stopping Super Scouts with the slowdown upgrade.
Your melee is a matter of preference. The Tribalman's Shiv is always useful against Spies, however, as they can't even escape by cloaking.
No team specifically needs a Sniper. A game facing large amounts of Super Soldiers can go a deal easier with a Sniper, but the class is weak against every other kind of threat. If there is already a Sniper on the team, you should never, ever go Sniper yourself. You will be taking a very significant step to guarantee your own team's failure.

Spy

You are the team's problem specialist. With the right upgrades, you can render a mob of Heavies nothing more than target practice, and dispatch Super Robots with even greater ease than the Sniper.
Playing Spy is a game of anticipating the opponent, which is thankfully much easier with Robots. Pay attention to where your allies station themselves, and move to be in place opposite the way the enemy will turn first to counterattack. Use your upgraded sapper to subdue a group when they close together, stab through as many of them as you can, and immediately disguise and activate your Dead Ringer to try to avoid the counter attack. With the right timing, you can shave off a good handful of enemies with every pass while stringing the waves out to make them easier for your teammates to take care of. The key is to always stay alive-- don't take risks, focus on pulling out of every attack alive so that you can go right back in for another when opportunity strikes or your Sapper is ready. If you're doing your job right, your teammates won't see what you're doing for half the game, but all the toughest opponents --heavies, demomen, soldiers, snipers-- just never seem to show up at the final holding point for some reason.
Your knife is mostly a matter of preference. The Your Eternal Reward should never be used, as enemies will still turn around and shoot you for several seconds after stabbing-- they have a chance to detect the occurrence of a stab behind them each and every time, disguise or no. Knives that reduce your health should generally be avoided, though the Big Earner may potentially increase your survivability if you're making rapid guerrilla attacks without the Sapper.
Your first upgrade should always be to the Sapper. Sapping groups is essential, especially against early waves, rendering a small crowd a standing mass that can be backstabbed from any side. Your second should be to speed and health regeneration-- you should be able to regain most of your health from a minor blunder in between strikes with one point in regen, and speed helps you strike and escape quickly, which is essential since 95% of your work is in melee range. Stab speed is also very helpful, both to chew through big hordes once you've sapped them and to pour ridiculous damage into the larger targets. When you start seeing Super Robots, go ahead and upgrade your Armor Penetration, though usually you don't need more than 75% to kill most any robot in a few hits.
Your gun is a matter of personal preference. The Diamondback doesn't do anything special, but you shouldn't be using your gun for much more than helping kill the tank-- and that only until you have your stab speed upgraded enough.
Your cloak should always, always be the Dead Ringer. Anything else will just see you slaughtered time and time again, and disguise works just as well for approaching the enemy anyway.
Sappers don't appear to make any big difference-- the Red-Tape Recorder seems to be identical in function to the classic. Note that your sapper renders any normal robot in range of the first one you hit stunned, and allows them to backstabbed from any direction!
No team particularly needs a Spy. However, if you don't have a Scout on the team, you can actually become the principal money maker, especially as you can weave through the dangerous waves and pick up behind them as they disintegrate with minimal danger. Two spies are critically counter-productive. You will only get in each other's way and leave the team lacking in straightforward damage output and front-line defense.

Choosing a Class

There are two main principles to choosing a class that will benefit the team, and consequently win you the game and make you feel like a pretty swell guy.

Balance your close- and long- range classes. You should try to have about two players that are Pyros, Scouts, or Spies. Fewer, and you'll lose money whenever your lone front-line guy dies. More, and you risk having half your team wiped out if there's a particularly devastating clump of robots, not to mention problems that arise from Scouts or Spies with having too much competition down there.
Make sure you have your priorities filled. If nobody's filling out the more important classes, you're probably going to help the robots deliver a lot of bombs.

The Class Priority List
1. Engineer. You always need one.
2. Scout. If you don't have one, make sure your close-range guys know they need to step up the money-grabbing.
3. Soldier, Demoman, Heavy, Pyro. The meat and potatoes. The damage dealers.
4. Sniper, Spy. Helpful for big, bossy robots. Optional.
5. Medic. Only helpful in very specific circumstances.

56 Comments

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Ballbreaker 1 Jan, 2015 @ 9:48pm

When I play as soldier in MVM, I've found a loadout I think is pretty good. Use the airstrike, B.A.S.E. jumper, and Market gardener. First, upgrade the clip size for the airstrike for obvious reasons. Then, upgrade it's ammo capacity to fuel the output of increased rockets. Then, upgrade the reload speed to get back to full rockets ASAP. Lastly, I would reccomend increasing your health regeneration to heal from the rocket jumps or jump height to get higher when you rocket jump to stay in the air longer. Hope this helped ;)

RainingMetal 27 Dec, 2014 @ 3:49pm

May want to mention the Rescue Ranger to the Engineer's shotgun list. And for the medic, you should mention the projectile shield as it is VERY important.

Jersee 27 Dec, 2014 @ 5:22am

Spy main purpose is to kill Giants. Sapper early on shouldn't be needed except for the occasional Super Scout that can easily be stopped by an unupgraded sapper or even other means that your team should provide. Knife upgrades have priorities over sapper.

Luna Chungus 27 Dec, 2014 @ 3:30am

Guys, whats your opinion on the Babyface Blsr.....I see alot of people disliking it for Mvm

R.Mop™ 26 Dec, 2014 @ 10:30pm

JerC, you should get a point on your sapper first, because I'm pretty sure without any upgrades, it only saps one robot at a time. (I could be wrong, I haven't used it without upgrades in a while)

Snek 26 Dec, 2014 @ 10:05pm

Pyro isn't ABSOLUTELY neccesary for airblast. In waves where a sapper can't quite get all of the bots at once, he can work wonders with health on kill and backburner (see: rottenburg backburner/phlog experts), and need I remind the epic tank killing properties of the phlog?

Jersee 26 Dec, 2014 @ 1:29pm

No..a good Spy never upgrade his sapper first. Also don't do barrages with beggar, don't buy clip sizes on it; max reload and constantly tap M1 for better results.

Chicken 25 Dec, 2014 @ 10:02pm

Pyro are useful? Hm, funny, first game I played of Mvm I went Pyro and was 2nd best on the team in terms of score and all that shit, but was kicked after the first round by a guy who joined late and became Demoman #2 because "Pyros are useless in Mvm"

Anthocyanin 25 Dec, 2014 @ 8:10pm

The part saying the heavy is a tank killer is wrong. Minigun does less dmg to tank.

Stick EJ 25 Dec, 2014 @ 6:11pm

Well this guide IS outdated, so Bread of Justice is correct. However, it's already been said.

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