The primary of the heavy is the reason heavy is feared in combat, the immense close range damage is dangerous and can drag another heavy down in under a second.

The Stock Minigun.


The Stock Minigun is available for all to use and is often people's favourite as it is simple and easy to understand, the damage out put is the second highest (excluding the huo-long heaters flames and second to the brass beast's damage output) and has immense power from point blank to medium range. The weapon is a favourite of many heavy mains as it is very powerful and deadly.

The Tomislav


The Tomislav with it's recent buff from the gun mettle update has become a close second to the stock minigun on the favourites list, Before the update the stats were an small increase in spin up speed and had no sound while spun up, at the cost of firing speed, but when the update arrived, the tomislav had a 20% decrease in spin up time and became 20% more accurate meaning it could reach a small bit further.
One of the greatest perks of the silent spin up is that you can hide in nooks and crannies, lying in wait for your enemies to pass and take them out by surprize, an effective spot for this is in the alley on cp_steel between the control points B and C.

The Brass Beast


The Brass Beast isn't a bad weapon, it is just overlooked and underused due to it's debuffs.
The Brass Beast has a powerful weapon as it has an increase of 20% damage output and 20% damage taken reduced while spun up, unfortunately the debuffs limit this weapon greatly as they are a major decrease in mobility while spun up and an increase in the spin up time, causing it to be prepared for combat first, but an easy way to compensate for this is to remove the movement altogether and take advantage of the damage taken reduction, what I mean to say is to stay by a dispencer near a point. This makes it much harder to take you down as you have a damage taken reduction and it helps defend control points much more effectively. The map I use this tactic on is cp_dustbowl on the second fraction of the map defending the 4th control point, I would ask an engineer to place a dispencer by the sign and I'd sit ontop of the sign, beleive me when I say this technique is VERY effective while defending.

The Natascha


The Natascha is the ultimate weapon against those who escape your minigun before you finish them off, this beauty of a weapon has a slow on hit buff making it perfect for scout combat, along with 20% damage resistance while spun up, similarly to the Brass Beast. But that's not the only thing it has in common with the Brass Beast as the Natascha has a 20% slower spin up speed aswell, it also has a minor damage dealt reduction which isn't a problem but just because it has statistics similar to the Brass Beast doesn't mean you should use the same tactic as the Brass Beast, infact using the tactic I introduced before is a terrible idea with this weapon as the players can be on the point already and just makes taking them down a hassle. I would use this similarly to the Minigun but just spin it up a small bit sooner for good measure.

The Huo-Long Heater


The Huo-Long Heater is a VERY situational weapon as it has a ring of fire surrounding while spun up, adding on extra damage at the cost of an extra 6 ammunition spent per second spun up. This means the Huo-Long Heater only lasts about 15 seconds shooting meaning it can leave you defenceles. I would use a similar tactic as the Brass Beast by sticking around a dispencer with your Huo-Long Heater spun up at all times, practically becoming a pybro with a 180 degree flamethrower and a minigun that share the same ammunition pool. If you're going out agressive with this weapon I suggest using a Shotgun or The Family Business incase you run out of ammunition.

Speaking of Shotguns and The Family Business...

Your secondary, a slot to be filled up by either your back up or your buffing snack, it's a choice between brawn and brains, and by brains I mean brain food.

The Stock Shotgun


Your Shotgun is your backup weapon, it is perfect for defending yourself quickly while you're off guard and don't have your minigun spun up or you've run out of ammunition in your primary, which can happen alot as heavy. You may want to note that this weapon is often called the Shotty.

The Sandvich


The Sandvich, a very commonly used tool for all heavies, the weapon heals up to 300 health which is your whole health pool and as a team player you may use it to extinguish a team mate or heal them of half their health pool by right clicking and throwing a sandvich, as a penalty it takes 30 seconds to regenerate, or you may grab any size of health pack at full health to instantly regenerate it for later. The two ungiven downsides are that it takes a moment to eat your sandvich, leaving you defenceless for a good while and that it leaves you defenceless if you run out of primary ammunition. It is best to run to a safe hiding spot and eat it up rather than out in the middle of the battlefeild.

The Family Business


The Family Business is an alteration of the stock Shotgun but in my eyes it is superior as the weapon has an increased clip size meaning you can fire more shots before reloading is required and that it has a 20% faster firing speed, the downside is that it has a small 20% damage penalty. Think of it as tiny Tomislav that instead of spinning up it requires reloading soon enough, but I suggest you don't rely upon it in all situations.

The Buffalo Steak Sandvich


The Buffalo Steak Sandvich, it's a rather fun weapon and I suggest only using it when in a silly mood as this weapon has a major debuff, when eaten, the weapon restricts you to your melee weapon and increases taken damage by 25%, but the upsides are that you get a small speed boost, causing you to be faster than most classes yet just a bit slower than a regular medic and your hits deal minicrits, this weapon is great fun but I wouldn't play it on a server where people are attempting to be serious, MVM for example. And don't forget you can throw this item for health aswell.

Dalokohs Bar/Fishcake


These two items act identically to each other and they are very, very nice weapons to have. When eaten, these items will grant you a slightly larger health pool up to 350 and overhealing for 400 health for 30 seconds, heals 100 health per taunt, when thrown, it acts as a small health pack, and instead of having to wait a whole 30 seconds for it to regenerate, you only have to wait 10 seconds, or 6 after the taunt. The reason these are amazing weapons are because the extra 50 health can save you in certain situations and the small health pack is perfect for extinguishing team mates from afterburn. An upside that is not show but given is the extra health healed when picking up a health pack with the larger health pool, granting 74 instead of 60 with a small health pack, 175 over 150 with a medium and all 350 with a full.

Your melee weapon isn't just a weapon for combat in some cases, in those cases it can be to get to the front lines sooner or get past an open area, it depends on what you choose.

The Stock Fists/Apoco-Fists


The basic fists, these are generally seen as the worst heavy melee as they are designed for combat with no real perks, I personally don't mind them and have a pair of strange apoco-fists myself, but I do normally go for the next option.





The Gloves of Running Urgently/Bread Bite


These gloves or g-loaves are a very commonly used pair of weapons as they increase the users speed up to the same as while under the effects of the Buffalo Steak Sandvich at the cost of a 25% damage penalty and taking minicrits while active and for a second or so after putting them away, why these are so commonly used is because the heavy normally moves very slow so the quick boost in speed can get the user to the front lines alot faster. And do not think that because the gloves of running urgently and the buffalo steak sandvich both inducing a speed boost means they'll add up, all you'll be doing is taking extra damage and dealing a tiny bit more than a normal pair of fists would.



The Killing Gloves of Boxing


These boxing gloves are the original pair that were first to be introduced into tf2, these gloves have an odd upside and downside, the upside is that when you score a kill with these they grant critical hits with all weapons for five seconds and the downside is they have a very small decrease in firing speed, when paired with a Shotgun or Family Business they are incredibly effective as you can rapidly spray crits onto the enemy team.

The Fists of Steel


The Fists of Steel are often overlooked because they have have a bad pair of downsides but in reality they are very effective, they decrease most types of taken damage by 40%, but with melee damage, you will take two times as much damage from it, along with that they have a small increase in weapon switching time. But these are most definitely not useless, it means snipers deal a under 100 damage from a quick headshot and can't kill you in a single shot while you have full overheal, so it makes getting from one side of an open area a walk in the park.

The Eviction Notice


The Eviction Notice is very odd pair of spiked brass knuckles that strangely deal less damage than normal fists, they have a 60% damage penalty unfortunately, but in compensation it has a 50% faster firing speed and grants a speed boost on hit, and unlike with the Gloves of Running Urgently, the speed boost stacks with the Buffalo Steak Sandvich.

The Holiday Punch


The Holiday Punch was originally a festive item introduced during smissmas a few years ago but is very fun to play with at any time of year, on a critical hit instead of dealing 3x the damage, these tickle mittens cause the victim to taunt a taunt known as the schadenfruede, a laughing taunt, doing so causes the enemy to fall defenceless and immobile, leaving them wide open for an attack, which also means you can taunt kill them easily. The critical hit does no damage normally unless you're fighting another heavy running around with a pair of these, in that case unless you land a random crit they'll take damage and laugh but if you hit each other in the small time frame you both will laugh. You can also hit them from behind to make them laugh and take no damage.

The Warrior's Spirit


The Warriors Spirit is a very overlooked weapon as it has a decrease in the maximum health pool by 20 health, but it does also have a very powerfull buff giving it extra damage against enemies and recently received an extra buff of regenerating 10 health per hit landed which is a wonderful compensation for the reduced health pool. The most efficient way to use this weapon is to grab any lunchbox (Sandvich, Buffalo Steak Sandvich or Dalokohs Bar) and be sneaky with where you eat it.

Some things I haven't listed in the 3 Stages as they are not in the same category as the others.

I had not listed the Robo-sandvich as it was a very exclusive promotional item released in a comic convention along with a sandvich toy and now currently goes for almost $50 alone nowadays, you must be quite rich to afford it.

I had not mentioned qualities as they were not heavy alone factors, but if you must know qualities have their own definition of how the item came to be or what is has added on, normals are items that you are granted with the game itself, they are the stock items, unique items are cheaper items that are easily obtainable and are the way you should experience an item for the first time, vintages were items that existed before the uber update a few years back, genuines came as promotional items such as the Robo-Sandvich and started off from pre-ordering a game or by buying a toy or collectable from the website, collector's items were forged from a total of 200 items being put together in a chemistry set, stranges are weapons that count kills and rank up as you earn more, with certain items such as the sandvich, holiday punch or cosmetics run off their own systems, and lastly unusuals are very rare items that are granted from unboxings and have a 1 in around 1000 chance of receiving, but as a reward they come with an effect on them.

Festives, Australiums, Botkillers and Skins.
Festives are unboxed from naughty crates in december and after december ends the crates are unopenable, meaning the items grow in value over time.
Botkiller Weapons are granted through tours in MVM, and every so often someone will receive an botkiller with a special head such as a blood, gold or diamond head.
Australiums are weapons that, similarly to unusuals, have a very rare chance of being found and are only found in an MVM tour known as Two Cities, I would not suggest attempting to do so as you have around the same chance as an unusual to find one.
Skins are unimportant, the skins are generally regular stock weapons with a texture coating it, and unless it's factory new it will come with a few scratches.

Multi-class melee weapons I didn't cover as they work identically to the stock melee but as a heavy, they cannot taunt. It is best you stick with your stock fists or apoco-fists.

Cosmetics, these items are your sense of fashion in this game and are often what defines your skill within the game, hats such as the gibus, pyrovision goggles and other acheivement items give others a sense of that you are new to the game, yet this can work in your advantage as you can fool the enemy, all class cosmetics give a sense of not average quite just yet, individual cosmetics that work well give a sense of under to at average, paints give a sense of a bit more closer to average and unusuals give a sense of immense skill, but these are just looks so do not be fooled. Choosing your own cosmetics is a job I cannot do for you.

With the items listed earlier, building your own loadout is your decision but I may give some tips on what weapons to use with what primaries.

Minigun Combinations

Miniguns are, as mentioned before, a weapon of many people's favourites as it combines well with most of other weapons.

The Tank.

A loadout perfect to use with the minigun is the Dalokohs bar/Fishcake and Fists of Steel, it is perfect if you are constantly barraged by snipers, otherwise it still works well as the extra health will provide more time to attack and the fists of steel will provide a safer retreat or advance, the only things your should watch out for are puff and sting pyros and spies, pyros are the direct threat as they may pull out their melee to attack you, dealing over a hundred damage per hit, so you'd best stick to a minigun in pyro combat.

The Competitive Heavy.

The loadout of overused weapons, but for a good reason, this loadout consists of the Minigun, Sandvich and Gloves of Running Urgently/Bread Bite, the loadout just makes getting to the frontlines faster yet more risky and increases the damage output you can create in a single life, it is straight forward and is used often for good reason.

Tomislav Combinations.

Tomislavs have the same factor as the miniguns as they combine easily with most weapons, but it does have a few variations.

The One Man Army

The one man army consists of the Tomislav, Family Business and Killing Gloves of Boxing, the melee and secondary pair perfectly together as when combined, you can spray out 8 shots of critical hit shells into the enemy, but doing this is difficult as the heavy cannot outrun any classes without a speed boost, so the tomislav to eliminate enemies as they attempt to attack you before you find a weak target to finish off with your melee.

The rest of this section is in progress of being written, please be patient.

I hope you could figure out what you would like to use as a heavy player, every team needs a heavy and a medic. Actually, maybe that should be my next guide? Maybe follow me for more weapon loadout guides and such but it is your choice to do so or otherwise. May your experience grow my good sir.