Spy is not just about getting mlg420blazeit backstabs and ambassador snipes. You have to know what the enemy is going to do next, so that you can position yourself for the kill. Most of the backstab is not even getting it. That's the easy part. The hard part is getting yourself into a position where you can get one. Something that I notice newer spies doing, is uncloaking right behind their target. This is not a good idea. You may not know it, but the invisi watch actually makes a sound when you cloak or decloak. Sure, less experienced players may let you get away with this, but the more experienced players usually keep an ear out for such sounds.
Try to uncloak in a place where the enemy will not see you. This is called a blindspot. Always uncloak in blind spots when behind enemy lines. This will save you a lot of grief. Before you uncloak to get a stab, make sure that no one is behind you. Always go from the back of a group of people while stabbing and either pull out, or work your way up. When you don't pull out, this is called a chainstab. While these can be satisfying, they can be risky and get you killed. A dead spy is a useless one. Don't get greedy.

The Invis watch

The stock invis watch is the most versitile and reliable cloak. You have this as soon as you start the game. This watch promotes a cautious and conservative playstyle. (This is my favorite watch)
It will be useful in almost every situation you face and has no drawbacks or advantages over the other watches. I recommend sticking with this one for your first 50+ hrs of spy, to help you get a grasp on playing spy. This watch helps you position yourself for picks on important targets. This watch along with the cloak and dagger, gives you a 20% damage resistance while cloaked.

The Cloak and Dagger

The Cloak and Dagger is similar to the invis watch in that you can cloak manually when ever you want. It promotes a patient playstyle. It's cloak drains with movement. Standing still replenishes your cloak. While under cloak, you can't pick up ammo boxes which replenish the invis watch. A mistake every new spy makes is that they never uncloak. You may as well be a spectator. For that reason, I usually call this the cloak and do jack. All jokes aside, it can be a powerful tool. Maybe, you want to wait for the perfect moment to sap the engineer's nest, or you are protecting one area.

The Dead Ringer

The new spy's favorie watch. This is the most misued spy watch in the game. It allows you to play aggresively and make mistakes unlike the other watches. This watch is useful for experienced spies. The main mistake I see from spies using this watch is that it makes them completely careless. This watch is more of an escape tool. It does not let you cloak manually and makes a very loud and distinct sound when uncloaking. To cloak with this watch, you must take non-lethal damage. This means, that it won't protect you from a critical rocket, backstab, or headshot. The main use for this watch is to get as many picks aas you can and then escaping alive. One of the most important parts of using this watch is good positioning, since you cannot cloak by alt firing.
When the cloak is activated, you drop a fake corpse. There are many ways to tell if you have feigned death, but this will fool the newer players.

Invis Watch
Alt-Fire: Turn invisible. Cannot attack while invisible. Bumping in to enemies will make you slightly visible to enemies



Cloak and Dagger
Cloak Type: Motion Sensitive
Alt-Fire: Turn invisible. Cannot attack while invisible. Bumping in to enemies will make you slightly visible to enemies.
Cloak drain rate based on movement speed
+100% cloak regen rate
No cloak meter from ammo boxes when invisible
-35% cloak meter from ammo boxes


Dead Ringer
Cloak Type: Feign Death
Leave a fake corpse on taking damage and temporarily gain invisibility, speed and damage resistance
+50% cloak regen rate
+40% cloak duration
-50% cloak meter when Feign Death is activated
No cloak meter from ammo boxes when invisible
-35% cloak meter from ammo boxes

As a spy, your knife is a key feature that seperates you from the 8 other classes. It is the only weapon in the game that can kill an enemy in one shot, save for the sniper rifle. All knives are capable of instantly killing an enemy in a 180 degree radius from their back, as long as you are slightly behind them.

The Stock Knife

The stock knife is the all-around best knife in the game. It will never fail you and is dependable and reliable in any given situation. Nothing special about this knife. It'll get the job done.

The Connivor's Kunai

The Kunai is a special knife, as it will reward better players and punish worse ones. Don't use this if you are new to the spy. On backstab, if your victim's hp is below 75, you get 75 hp. If it is above, you will absorb all, if not most of their hp. You can get up to 210 hp. That's more than a soldier. This knife is exceptionally good at chainstabs and getting away, since it gives you added survivability with each backstab. Use this knife if you are confident that you will be able to keep your health above 125 most of the time. If not, then this knife is going to hurt you more than help you.

The Big Earner

The Big Earner is another great knife for chainstabs and get - aways. On backstab, this knife rewards you with a speed boost, almost as fast as the scout, for 3 seconds. It also refills part of you cloak meter. Beware however, that you lose 1/5 of your hp, leaving you with 100. This means that a close range scattergun shot, a direct pill, or rocket, will kill you instantly.

The Spycicle
The Spycicle is the most similar knife in terms of stats and limitations to the stock knife. This knife is supposed to be used primarily when the enemy team has a few pyros that are giving you some trouble. When hit with fire damage, the Spycicle, if active, will melt, making you invulnerable to direct fire damage for one second, and after burn for 10 seconds. It takes 15 seconds to be able to use it again after melting. One of the listed downsides is that on backstab, you create an ice sculpture of your victim. In some cases, this is a downside as it reveals that a spy is in the area. In most cases however, it causes immense paranoia, drawing the enemies' attention away from your team and objective. When it melts, you automatically pull out your sapper.You can't sap people Pull out your revolver! You have one for Pete's sake.

Your Eternal Reward

This knife lets you destroy the enemy team undetected. On backstab, you instantly disguise as the person you just killed. The kill-feed won't report their death, they don't scream, and their body cloaks, so you essentially replace them. You can go on crazy killing sprees. The only downside, is that you cannot disguise manually. You know those payload games, where there are 4+ turtle engies wacking their sentries with their wrench and you hear that horrid "Clank! Clank! Clank!"? Well, this knife is your answer! No more instant gibbing when you stab one engineer as the sentries lock on to you. If you already have a disguise, you can sneak up on an engie and backstab him, instantly disguising as him, with the sentries none the smarter, you could destroy the huge nest from the inside-out.

An unfortunate thing new spies do is not use their revolver. Do not neglect your revolver.
The stock revolver is capable of doing 60 damage at point blank. This is devastating to lighter classes such as spy, scout, engineer, and sniper. It is also incredibly useful for picking off weakened enemies who are retreating. In this section, I'm going to go over which revolver to use and when.

Stock
O'l reliable. The revolver is a great tool at the spy's disposal. It's the most consistant revolver in the game damage wise. Use this if your aim is average and you want to kill those silly w+m1 pyros with ease. Its also great for cleaning up weak enemies. Use this to escape bad situations such as fail-stabs.

Ambassador
ATTENTION GIBUSVISION SPIES

Do not use this revolver if your accuracy is subpar. You will only hurt your damage output. That said, if you are skilled at aiming, use this as it is nearly a direct upgrade to stock. Everytime you headshot someone with the ambassador, you deal 102 damage. That's enough to put any class save for heavy, in the red. With this weapon, do not be afraid to bodyshot. I know you want those sexy headshots, but if an enemy is already low, don't waste your energy or time lining up a headshot.

The Enforcer
The Enforcer boasts a whopping 70 damage if shot while disguised. If you aren't disguised, you will deal the same damage as the stock revolver, albeit with a slower firing rate. All of it's attacks pierce bullet resistant effects and/or weapons. This means the darwin's danger shield, the Natascha, the Brass Beast, and the Vaccinator if it is set to bullet resistance mode. Use this when any of these weapons are being used by the enemy team, or if you really want the extra firepower.

L'Etranger
The L'tranger is for the spy who relies heavily on his cloak and knife. I consider this a crutch, since it does hurt your cloak management skills while still providing a reward. This revolver deals less damage than the stock in exchange for more cloak time and cloak on hit. Use this on maps without many ammo boxes and avoid this if you have freshly installed this game.

The Diamondback
It brings a tear to my eye everytime I see a spy using this unholy weapon. It rewards the spy for doing what he is supposed to be doing anyway. The Diamondback gives you a crit for every backstab or sap. It deals the same base damage as the ambassador and thus deals the same crit damage. That's 102 damage per crit bodyshot. Use this revolver if you can't aim well with the ambassador or if you have no moral compass

The spy only has two sappers in his arsenal. The stock one and the Red Tape Recorder. Both have their own functions and uses. This section will cover them and when they are to be used.

The Sapper

The stock sapper is the basic sapper. Once placed on an engineer's building, it will deactivat it and will slowly damage it over time until the building's eventual destruction. Sap buildings in coordination with your team's pushes, since more experienced engineers will have no issue killing you and removing your sapper. This is even easier with a pyro guarding the nest. You will want to have this equipped at least 90% of the time.

The Red Tape Recorder

The Red Tape Recorder is the only other sapper choice. When you place it on an engineer's building, it will deactivate, and slowly downgrade it until it is nothing but a tool box. While not being nearly as useful as the stock sapper, it has a powerful psychological effect on engineers. They spend so much time getting their buildings to level 3, (600 metal per building) only to watch them deconstruct right before their eyes. Use the Red Tape Recorder when you encounter a massive nest of engineers and your team simply cannot push in,Or if you want to be a troll and ruin someone's day.

As a spy, you have an ability that is only shared by one other class, the ability to instantly kill. With this ability, you can control what classes the enemy team has. Your team will love you if you can be an effective spy. It feels great to be cheered on. I'm going to tell you your stab priority and why each class here is necessary to have removed from the battlefield.

1. Medics
Medics have the ability to heal their team, making your team's damage almost useless. Eliminating the medic means that injured enemies will have lasting damage and must find a health pack to get back into the fray or risk being killed off easily by your team. The medic has four different ubers that he can use with his four mediguns. They each provide a powerful buff if they reach 100%. The medic is one of the most, if not the most important players to have alive. It's your job to make sure that he isn't.

2. Engineers and Their Buildings.

Enginners, can provide support for their team, with dispensers and teleporters and area denial with their sentries. In some cases, the teleporters can be more valuable targets than sentries since they can deliver thier team to the battle in mere seconds. In Team Fortress 2, time is important, and thus, you must make sure these are destroyed as soon as possible. Sentries can be a pain in the neck for your team tha tis trying to capture a point it is guarding. It is necessary that these are destroyed so that your team can push onwards. At higher levels, you shouldn't be taking on an engineers nest by your self. You should time the sap with the push. Sapping a sentry while your team is pushing, makes it very vulnerable and the engineer has to take time to remove the sappers. This is time he does not have if your team is pushing. Dispensers should be destroyed if you cannot take out the engineers entire nest. Destroying this will remove most of the engineers repair speed and power.

3. Demomen and Soldiers
Demomen and Soldiers have the ability to deal massive splash damage. They are what many people call power classes. They will usually be found at the front lines. They tend to create chaos and control the battlefield. Eliminating them is key to your team's survival. Demomen can make areas unaccesible by your team by laying sticky traps. Don't try to shoot the trap with your revolver. The demo usually notice that his sticky counter in his heads up display is decreasing and will detonate the rest of the stickies remotely to kill you. Instead try to get the stab on the demo. This will help your team push and remove a lot of the enemy team's damage capability. The soldier is a versitile class that can lay down some serious damage on your team. Killing him can often be the difference between a succesful push or a failed one. He will usually be seen near the medic.

4. Heavies
Heavies have the highest dps in out of any calss in the game. That is to say, damage per second. The heavy's main job is to aid with pushes and soak up damage for his team. You may have noticed that I placed him below soldier and demoman. This is because, even though he can deal more damage, he is quite slow, not very versitile, and will usually be taking the brunt of your team's damage output. He's essentially a living shield. Taking down this 'Shield' will ensure that your team will do more damage to the enemy team. Not to mention, that he deals so much damage. Heavies are probably the easiest class to kill as spy due to their their poor movement speed and tunnel vision. What I mean by tunnel vision is that heavies will tend to focus on one target at a time, and approaching him from behind will almost guarantee a kill.

5. Snipers
Snipers can kill any player that is not ubercharged in one click. This trait is shared only by the spy. Snipers should be taken out as soon as you can to make sure he is not a danger to your team. They almost always found behind their team, making them a tricky target for yours. They are among the easiest classes to kill as they are usually scoped in and distracted. Snipers however, are ususally more vigilant than their team is for spies. This is why you musn't uncloak behind them. At the first shout for spy, their teammates will turn around and kill you very easily, so make sure you aren't within earshot of the sniper before cloaking.

6.Any other class
The other classes are not as important to kill as the ones above. Scout, spy and pyro, are support classes and thus do not stop your team if they are aware of their surroundings.


This is Just a Guideline Not a Law

You should not follow this as if it it is written in stone. Whover is giving your team the most trouble, should be your main priority!

Every class in Team Fortress 2 counters at least one class and is countered by at least one class. The spy is no exception. In this section, I will go over classes that the spy counters and classes that counter him. I will also tell you how to deal with the counters to spy. Spy counters Heavy and Sniper. Notice, how both are classes that must focus on one target at a time in order to kill them. As long as spy is out of the spotlight, he can be useful. Sniper has many items that counter spy, heavy only has one.


Heavy

Remember how I said that Heavy must have focus on his target? Well, this puts you at an advantage. Aside from this, Heavy is the slowest class in the whole game. Since you are such a counter to Heavy, he has a minigun that is supposed to counter your backstab ability. This is called the Huo-Long-Heater. While spun up with this weapon, the Heavy will have a pulsating ring of fire around him on the floor. To avoid cathing on fire, simply jump over it. If you want to make sure that there is almost no chance of you catching fire, you can hold ctrl along with the spacebar to get even further off the ground.

Sniper

Sniper can be hard to backstab because he has various items that he can equip to make sure you cannot backstab him. The Sniper has an unlock which is a jar of a mysterious yellow liquid. If you are under the effects of this fluid known as Jarate It's pee, you will take minicrits, meaning 35% more damage than usual from any source. He also can equip a tribal shield on his back with a car battery attatched to it. This is called a Razor Back. It blocks a single backstab attempt and stuns you for about 2 seconds, so you cannot attack. To counter this unlock, either gun him down, or headshot him and then bodyshot with the ambassador. It should be an easy shot considering, he moves slower while scoped in. Don't get the Darwins Danger Shield confused with this item, since that does not block backstabs. Sniper has a melee called the Tribalman's Shiv, which will make you take bleed damage. Bleed makes you visible even under cloak, and unlike fire, it cannot be stopped by jumping into water. Your only choice against this, is to not be seen, since the only way to stop bleed is to get a health kit.

Engineer

Engineer is a tricky one. You don't hard counter him, meaning you won't be killing him as easily as you will a heavy or sniper. Engineers will often be blocking your team from pushing. It is important that you sap his buildings to allow your team to proceed to the objective. A more experienced engineer will have no problem defending his nest from you, especially if he is using the Southern Hospitality, a wrench that will make you bleed and in turn reveal you to his team even if you cloak. Engineers are usually vigilant. A good way to destroy his nest is to wait for him to run for some metal. When he leaves, zap his crap and shoot at it until it becomes little more than a bunch of rubble. Here's a nice tip. If you wanna stay cloaked while you watch the engineer, disguise as an enemy while cloaked and stand next to his dispensor. You will regain health and cloak indefinitely. If you are having trouble with the engineer, wait for your team to push and then sap. He won't have enought time to remove the sapper and repair his buildings while he's being spammed down.

Thanks for reading my guide!

My name's dedC and I'm an aspiring spy main with 600+ hours. Hope I helped y'all out! Now get out there and do some stabbing! I covered a bit in this guide, its not very advanced, but it'll get you newbies on your feet :D

Until next time,
Cya Later!



Any feedback or criticism will be greatly appreciated!