Overview:
The Rocket Launcher is Soldier's stock primary, meaning it is accessable right from the very beginning of the game. It has high damage and decent range with somewhat fast-moving projectiles. It has a clip of a maximum of 4 rockets with an extra 20 rockets for when you need to reload. It also has splash damage, allowing it to potentially damage several enemies at once, though can also risk hurting you as well.

Positives:
The rocket launcher is a high damage weapon that can deal with most classes with only 2 or 3 rockets. At close ranges the rockets can even deal over 100 damage each, allowing them to finish off weakened classes somewhat easily. It does pretty consistant damage which is only further helped by it's splash damage, allowing it to be used to deal with groups of enemies or the splash could also be used to shoot at the enemies' feet, meaning the rockets don't even have to be as carefully aimed for good damage as well as potentially knocking your foes into the air when at the right angles. The rocket launcher can also be used for mobility due to rocket jumping, giving more experienced soldiers more mobility than any other class.

Negatives:
There are not too many negatives with the rocket launcher. The main one, however, would be the two ways of self-damage, being both splash damage from close-range rockets or pyros deflecting now mini-crit rockets back at you for high damage. It also take a while to reload and quickly uses up it's clip in a lot of cases, like firefights or rocket jumping.

Mann vs Machine:
The rocket launcher is a great weapon to use in MvM. It has consistant damage and multiple upgrades like damage boosts, reload and firing speed increases and rocket specialist, allowing rockets to potentially stun robots as well as move faster. However, the rocket launcher's biggest setback in MvM is the fact that most of it's upgrades are quite expensive, being from between 200 to 400 credits, meaning it can easily eat up all of your earnings.

Variants:
-Normal (Stock)
-Unique (Due to a small bug unique versions can be obtained)
-Strange (Found in crates)
-Festive/ Strange Festive (Found in certain festive crates)
-Botkiller (MvM tour drops)
-Australium (MvM tour drops)

Overview:
The original is essentially a reskin of the rocket launcher, though with a small and somewhat neglectable difference: It fires it's rockets from the centre of the screen instead of from the side. This difference can occasionally come into play but more often than not the differences are miniscule and almost unnoticable.

Positives:
All of it's positives are essentially the same as the stock rocket launchers, except that it fires from the centre of the screen instead of from the side.

Negatives:
All of the negatives are the same as the stock rocket launcher's, too

Mann vs Machine:
Once again, outside of the difference in where the rocket is fired there isn't much of a difference between this one and stock in MvM.

Qualities:
-Unique (Random drop, craft, etc.)
-Strange (Inside certain crates)
-Genuine (Quake promo item)

Overview:
The direct hit is a strange rocket launcher that often takes more skill to use than most of the other ones to be effective. It swaps it's splash damage for more damage, faster rockets and the ability to mini-crit foes sent airborne by it's attacks. The -70% blast radius means that, like the name implies, direct hits are almost 100% necessary for this thing to even hit the foe. However, the blast radius is not reduced for the user, meaning they can still do normal rocket jumps but also that they can be hit by splash damage from close-up foes. It is overall best for people who have very good aim, otherwise it is almost a complete downgrade to stock otherwise.

Positives:
The increased damage is one of the most obvious buffs, along with it's ability to mini-crit airborne targets. This means that if the soldier was good they could blast a foe into the air and almost certainly finish them off with a second rocket. The projectile speed increase is also very useful, making your rockets move almost twice as fast as normal and become almost impossible to airblast due to their speed.

Negatives:
The only negative this rocket launcher has is the decreased blast radius. This may not seem too bad on paper, considering the other 75% of it's buffs are positive, but this buff makes a lot of difference as it takes away almost all of the rockets' splash damage, meaning you will need to be getting direct hits or very, very close to even hit the foes.

Mann vs Machine:
Currently in Mann vs Machine the direct hit is almost a total downgrade from stock due to it's colossal debuff and extra, hidden attribute that only appears in MvM (it may be a bug). The direct hit's damage buff essentially disappears with every damage upgrade you recieve, dealing the same damage as stock by the time it has max damage. The blast radius is also crucial for MvM due to the amount of robots, making it overall a bad choise for MvM (possibly the worst of all the rocket launchers excluding the rocket jumper)

Qualities:
-Unique (Drops, crafting, achievements, etc.)
-Strange (Certain crates)
-Vintage (Before the pyromania update)

Overview:
Cow manglers are very interesting, and personally some of my favourite, rocket launchers. They have infinite ammo, a charge shot and overall have very futuristic and space-age-like designs. The charge shot is activated by pressing the attack 2 button (right click is the base attack 2 but can be changed in the settings). The soldier charges up a shot, moving slowly, before firing off a large blast that does mini-crits and sets foes alight. The mini-crit can 1-shot light classes on a direct hit and the afterburn can deal with medics, certain demomen and previously-weakened soldiers and heavies. However, the charge shot uses up the whole clip, forcing you to re-load after using it.

Positives:
Firstly, it is a rocket launcher that has essentially infinite ammo, meaning the player does not ever have to worry about going and searching for ammo packs to re-visit the resupply locker constantly. The second big positive is the aforementioned charge shot which can deal heavy damage to anyone who is caught by it, even if they are only hit by a bit of splash damage the damage and afterburn can still go above 70 even if they were barely scraped by it.

Negatives:
The cow mangler has a few unique negative effects as well as a few of the ones most other rocket launchers have. Firstly the projectiles, including the charge shot, can be deflected by a pyro's airblast, which can be a major problem particuarly in the case of a charge shot. The ammo consumption isn't such a problem with the cow mangler but the reload speeds still come into play during more intense fights. The two exclusive problems the cow mangler has are as follows: less damage to buildings and no crits. The first one is a big problem when tackling sentry nests as the damage against buildings is reduced drastically, though the charge shot can disable buildings temporarily. The second problem is that this weapon cannot, under any circumstances outside of hacks, crit: it cannot recieve random critical hits and cannot be crit-boosted in any way, not with the kritzkrieg, not an intel cap, nor even a round end.

Mann vs Machine:
Luckily the damage reduction against buildings does not affect damage against robots, making the cow mangler a very strong contender for a Mann vs Machine weapon. It does not use ammo so you do not need to hang around ammo boxes and potentially steal it from someone else, keeping you in the fight. The upgrades are all also the same in MvM as with the other damage-dealing rocket launchers. The charge shot is only really useful for dealing with mecha engies but even then this is rare so it is suggested that you do not use them as a proper tactic. Finally the lack of crits is quite a big problem as kritzkrieg medics cannot ubercharge you nor can you use the crit canteens, though this can in turn lea to them being used on people who could potentially use them both better, though it is still a downside in the long-run

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Certain crates)

Overview:
The black box can be considered as a side-grade to the stock rocket launcher, favouring in defence and survivability over offense and aggression. The weapon's ability is that it heals you when you damage foes (anything up to 20 currently but used to be a stable 15 pre-change) for the cost of 1 rocket. This means that you will need to reload often, potentially putting you in danger, though you will heal ~12 health for every time you hit foes. This means you will have to leave firefights more often to reload, forcing you to play more defensively as to not get caught out without any rockets in your clip.

Positives:
The physical positive of this weapon is the health gained after damaging enemies, capping out at 20 health back per rocket. The rockets will only heal around 12 on average, however, as getting full damage with a rocket is hard and risky for the soldier. This 12 health can still be the difference between life and death in some cases, however. The psychological positive is that you will want to play more defensively due to the health bonuses and the 3 rocket clip as opposed to the 4 rocket clip of the stock rocket launcher, keeping you alive even longer.

Negatives:
The main negative of the black box is the reduced clip size. This may seem small but this can also play a big difference despite the difference quite literally being '1'. The reduced clip means you will have to reload more often and potentially play more carefully and defensively to avoid being caught with an empty clip, allowing some enemies to take advantage of this by ambushing you as you reload of by forcing you to stop progressing as much by playing very offensively.

Mann vs Machine:
In Mann vs Machine this weapon can be considered a straight upgrade of stock with 400 credits. The credits, if put into clip size, almost completely negate the debuff the weapon has. By the time the rocket launcher is fully upgraded it will be a rapid-firing, rapid-healing rocket launcher capable of making the user almost unkillable due to it's high fire rate after upgrades.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Crate unboxing)
-Festive/ Strange Festive (Unboxing certain naughty winter crates)
-Australium (MvM tour completion)

Overview:
The liberty launcher is a rocket launcher that provides a range of small buffs in exchange for a bit of damage. Firstly the rockets move faster, making it easier to hit moving targets and making them harder to airblast. They also do less damage to you, allowing you to rocket jump with less self-damage. Finally, the most recent addition was adding a 5th rocket to the clip, giving you a larger clip than any of the other rocket launchers*. The downside is a 25% damage reduction, making it harder to kill certain classes as well as taking longer to do so and potentially using more ammo. The downside can come into play, often with the intended target either escaping or killing the user first.

*The air strike gets a larger clip after kills and in MvM rockets can get clip upgrades that go higher than the liberty launcher's +25% clip size base.

Positives:
The positives for the liberty launcher are fairly simple, being the three buffs they are shown with. The increased projectile speed makes it slightly easier to directly hit people and deal more damage as well as being harder to airblast as mentioned previously. The increased clip size is very very helpful, allowing the player to rocket jump more and have more rockets left over for quick battles when there's little time to reload. The extra rocket also means you can stay in fights longer before having to retreat and reload, allowing you to play more offensively. The reduced damage taken from blast jumps, both through the damage reduction and the blast damage reduction, allow you to blast jump with minimal damage so you have more health when you get to your destination or for any fights you may get into.

Negatives:
The negative of the liberty launcher is the reduced damage, meaning that foes can survive attacks that they may have otherwise not survived due to them taking less damage. This makes fights last longer, putting the player in more danger and so therefore making the chances of dying in a firefight slightly higher.

Mann vs Machine:
In MvM the liberty launcher is not a good weapon, though not a truly bad one either. The 25% damage reduction plays the biggest role in deciding whether or not to use it as a max-upgraded one's critcal hits still struggle to 1-shot a heavy, making it overall worse than stock. Plus the buffs the liberty launcher has can be easily obtained through upgrades anyways, except for the reduced rocket jump damage (which shouldn't be too much of a problem anyways on smaller maps or with 2-way teleporters)

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Crate unboxing)

Overview:
The rocket jumper is not even technically a weapon, more of a tool for both mobility and for rocket jump practice. It cannot get random crits or deal any damage of any kind so that the user can practice rocket jumping without the problem of damage from your rockets. They also have twice as much ammo as stock, though this is still useless for combat. The wearer cannot pick up the intelegence or the PASS time jack, meaning it is a hindrance on PASS time and CTF maps more than anything, outside of rocket jump practice or trolldiers for the most part.

Positives:
The rocket launcher does no damage so practicing rocket jumping is easier as you do not have to worry about taking anywhere near as much damage as you would when using other rocket launchers. The larger ammo capacity is also helpful for practice as it means you have more rockets to work with and you will not need to go and re-stock ammo as much as you would with other launchers. The lack of damage also gave rise to the 'trolldier' sub-class, where they use this due to them not wanting to take much damage and also for the fact they do not use their rocket launchers for damage anyways, instead using the market gardener for their damage output.

Negatives:
The lack of damage also comes back as a double-edged sword as it means this weapon cannot be used as a weapon outside of one exception: pyros can airblast them back to do damage due to a bug. The wearer cannot pick up any kind of portable 'goals' like the intelegence or the PASS time jack either, meaning it cannot be used to quickly cap before the other team can properly prepair. It also does not randomly crit, though this is more for aesthetic as critical hits with this weapon still do 0 damage.

Mann vs Machine:
One of the worst weapons for MvM ever due to it removing soldier's primary means of damage, his rocket launcher, in exchange for more mobility. Mobility isn't too important in MvM outside of robot pursuit, dodging, upgrades and re-stocking health or ammo which can all be done in much easier and less 'harmful' ways.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)

Overview:
The beggar's bazooka is an interesting weapon due to it's unusual and unique ability: Instead of holding rockets in a clip they are loaded in (up to 3 at a time) before rapidly firing them all off. This allows the soldier to potentially deal ~300 damage at close-range if all 3 rockets get direct hits on the targets, allowing for potential 1-shots. The downsides are that each of the rockets is fired at an angle, making them inaccurate, and a recently-added explosion radius decrease, decreasing the range of the rockets' splash damage and therefore making them less likely to hit.

Positives:
When firing you have a much faster firing speed than almost every other rocket launcher, only beaten by the air strike during rocket jumps and weapons upgraded in MvM. This gives this weapon massive DPS when fully-loaded. The damage is also very good due to the rapid-fire rockets potentially allowing you to 1-shot classes up to heavies and overhealed soldiers without crits or mini-crits, making it very dangerous, particularly at close-range. There is also a tactic called 'overload jumping' where as you overload it you will be able to rocket jump before firing off the remaining rockets in the clip at whatever your target is.

Negatives:
Firstly there is the blast radius decrease, making it less likely for you to hit targets, particularly at longer ranges. The projectile offset is also a problem, making this weapon partially luck-based at certain ranges as well as unpredictable as the projectile angles are almost completely random. Finally there is the fact that, if you load more than 3 rockets at once, that you will cause misfires, dealing damage to yourself, though more advanced players have used this to their advantage and developed a tactic previously mentioned as 'overload jumping'.

Mann vs Machine:
This weapon, once upgraded, becomes a massive threat in MvM. It allows the player to fire off massive barrages of rockets at groups of robots that, if boosted with critical hits after being fully upgraded, can deal over 5000 damage in one 'clip'. At earlier waves, however, this weapon is only just above-average due to it not having the upgrades yet which is only further worsened by the prices of the rocket launcher upgrades. A suggested strategy for earlier waves or for when you have less currency to work with is to upgrade reload speed and rapid-click the attack button (left click in most cases) which causes the BB to fire around the speed of a normal rocket launcher while never having to spend ages on reloading.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Crate unboxing)

Overview:
The air strike is the newest rocket launcher in the soldier's arsenal. It's ability is mainly based around rocket jumping, providing unique effects that only happen while you are rocket jumping. Firstly the weapon has slightly decreased damage and smaller blast radii for the rockets, lowering it's overall damage slightly. However, it has two major upsides that almost entirely counterract the upsides: firstly, every kill you get increases the clip size, from a minimum of 4 to a maximum of 8 after only a few kills. Secondly, the main ability is that while rocket jumping this weapon gets a majorly increased firing speed, allowing the player to bombard opponents from above with a flurry of rockets after getting only a few kills.

Positives:
Firstly, the increased clip on kill allows the soldier to obtain a maximum clip size of 8, which is more than any other rocket launchers outside of MvM as well as being double that of most of the other launchers. It also only takes a few kills to do this, which is not particularly hard to do while playing a heavy DPS class like the soldier. The main ability, however, is the aforementioned increased firing speed while rocket jumping that allows you to rain down rockets on groups of foes easily, dealing colossal amounts of damage that can pass 500 damage quite easily with some skill and assistance from the B.A.S.E. jumper, making you a formidable foe once you start getting kills.

Negatives:
There are only four small negatives with this weapon that are almost completely nullified by it's other abilities. Firstly and secondly there are the reductions to blast radii and damage for all of the rockets, lowering your damage output slightly which can be crucial during firefights or 1v1s where you have to either win or get killed. The third negative is that you start with only half the clip of the stock rocket launcher, forcing you to play quite defensively at first to try to reduce as much risk as possible with having a very small clip upon spawning. Finally, if you die the clip size is instantly taken back down to 4, meaning you will have to re-start the counter again if you die which can be a problem if using the B.A.S.E. jumper as it leaves you an easy target to direct hit soldiers and snipers.

Mann vs Machine:
This weapon is very good in MvM, though the choise of secondary can make a lot of difference. If you pick the B.A.S.E. jumper then you have more time to bombard foes with waves of rockets though you are also losing the ability to use the banners, which are amazing for MvM. However, if you pick the banners you yourself become instantly less effective due to the reduced air time from blast jumps meaning you will not be able to rapid-fire as much.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drops, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox from crate)

Overview:
The shotgun is the stock primary for the soldier, meaning it is accessable as soon as you start the game. It had a clip of 6 individually-loaded shots with 32 ammo for reloading. It does good damage and fires and reloads faster than most of soldier's primaries as well as lacking the splash damage, making it good for close encounters. However, the bullets it shoots have a fairly large radius, making the damage inconsistent at longer ranges while potentially devastating at close-range and point-blank.

Positives:
The shotgun has no particular buffs or debuffs attatched to itself as it is stock, so instead I shall talk about what the shotgun itself can do. The shotgun, as mentioned earlier, does some fairly high damage from close range, potentially getting to ~90 which can be used to pick off wounded foes you've already hit with rockets. It is also best at close-range, making it less risky than trying to use the rocket launcher. It also reloads fairly fast, allowing you to get a full clip quicker than a rocket launcher can despite having a larger clip. It also fires quite fast, allowing you to quickly deal large amounts of damage to nearby opponents with little time for themselves to react and counter, if any at all.

Negatives:
The main problem for the shotgun is inconsistency. This is because the damage is spread amongst several bullets, meaning the full damage can only be done if all of them hit the desired target. It isn't very hard to get lots to connect from close range but at longer ranges this weapon is almost useless as almost none of the bullets will connect with the desired target, leading to minimal damage.

Mann vs Machine:
This weapon is almost never used in MvM simply because there are many better alternatives for all the classes with a shotgun: Soldiers have the many banners, particularly the buff banner; the engineer has the rescue ranger and potentially could use the frontier justice; the pyro has an assortment of flare guns and the heavy has sandviches to give to injured teammates. This doesn't mean, however, it is useless; only outclassed. The shotgun has decent damage output and gets a few good upgrades, like projectile penetration and reload and firing speed increases, potentially making it a pretty big threat.

Qualities:
-Normal (Stock weapon)
-Unique (Naming a stock weapon makes a unique one)
-Strange (Crates)
-Festive/Strange Festive (Winter crates)

Overview:
The buff banner is the first of the 3 banners given to soldier. It's main purpose is an offense-based banner that inflicts a unique buff onto nearby players when deployed. After dealing ~600 damage to foes the soldier can use the banner, giving all teammates nearby mini-crits for a few seconds. This banner, unlike the concheror and the battalion's backup, provides no passive effects for the soldier.

Positives:
The positive is very simple: it provides mini-crits to you and all nearby teammates for a few seconds upon use. This allows your team to go on the attack, being able to deal much higher damage and potentially break through enemy defences or push back enemy attacks if they are playing more offensively as well.

Negatives:
There are a few small negatives to the banners in general which are as follows: firstly it means you cannot have a secondary weapon of any kind, meaning the rocket launcher and melee weapons you choose will be responsible for all of your damage which can be a problem due to splash damage and melee hit registration problems. They also take a while to charge considering the buff only lasting a few seconds, though in most cases this small amount of time is still more than enough to finish the push.

Mann vs Machine:
The buff banner is essentially a go-to weapon in MvM due to it's usefulness. Being able to provide all of your nearby teammates with mini-crits allows you to increase your team's damage output against the onslaught of robots which particularly handy against things like healing robots, tanks, giants or large groups. It's only upgrade increases the duration of the buff, allowing it's effects to last a lot longer. The downside of damage for activation is almost nullified in MvM due to the amound of robots you'll be facing and due to the amount of damage an upgraded rocket launcher can do.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, achievement, etc.)
-Strange (Crates)
-Feative/ Strange Festive (Naughty winter crates)
-Vintage (Pyromania update)

Overview:
The concheror is the second of soldier's 3 banners, providing more of a support buff as opposed to the offense and defense buffs of the other two. It's buff, after dealing ~600 damage, grants all nearby players a speed boost as well as a heal-on-damage effect to keep them alive longer. This is especially helpful for heavies as it lets them get to places faster as well as sponge more damage as that is a heavy's job. It also provides a passive health regeneration effect, similar to the one the medic has, going from 1 HP per second up to 4 HP per second after a while of not taking damage.

Positives:
Firstly there is the positive of a very helpful and mostly reliable passive effect that can be used to keep the soldier alive for longer, especially when health sources like health packs, medics and dispensers are scarce. This can be partnered with the black box for even further increased healing abilities that make the soldier very hard to kill. The buff's effects of heal-on-damage and speed boost are helpful for essentially all classes as a speed boost means that they can get from point A to point B (possibly even literally on some maps) faster as well as heal damage, which is very helpful for classes like soldier, heavy, pyro and demoman/demoknight.

Negatives:
The exact same negatives apply as with the buff banner, with the lack of a secondary weapon being the main one and the buff taking longer to charge and wearing off quickly as other more mild downsides.

Mann vs Machine:
In MvM the concheror can be quite helpful for your team, particularly on larger maps with lots of movement necessary or when there are high-damage robots in the waves. It is stil somewhat overshadowed by the buff banner, however, as medics and dispensers can deal with healing while the disciplinary action, a soldier melee, and teleporters can be used for mobility. Though despite there being other things to do it's job it's still a decent pick if survivability is more important than overall damage in waves.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)
-Genuine (TW:S pre-order exclusive)

Overview:
The battalion's backup is soldier's final banner of the three. It provides a more defence-oriented buff than offense and support ones like the other two banners do. After dealing ~600 damage the banner can be used, providing three key buffs to all nearby teammates: firstly, they get full* crit resistance, meaning they cannot be headshot and are essentially immune to a kritzkrieg's ubercharge's effect if used right. It also gives players a 35% damage resistance, allowing them to take much more damage without dying which can be very helpful with teammates like heavies or any class that can potentially heal themselves. Finally it provides 50% sentry resistance in order for pushes that involve breaking through sentry nests to be a lot easier. The banner also provides an extra 20 health passively to the wearer, giving the soldier 220 health and a maximum overheal of 330 health.

*Does not stop backstabs, they still crit and deal full damage so watch out

Positives:
The extra 20 health can be the difference between life and death in some situations, particularly when overhealed as it allows the soldier to survive a direct hit from a critical pipe bomb and potentially a crit-boosted rocket. The buffs granted by the banner are also amazing, giving the user and anyone nearby a large defensive buff that turns some classes into almost unstoppable tanks when deployed correctly.

Negatives:
The negatives are the same as the other two banners, being the lack of a secondary weapon, the amount of damage needed for the banner to become deployable and the time that the buffs last for.

Mann vs Machine:
The battalion's backup is the rarest banner to be seen in MvM despite how useful it is. This banner technically means that it can almost completely nullify the needs for resistances for some classes, saving them money and potentially time as well. Though it is only temporary and cannot be relied on perminently. The damage resistance allows your team to survive longer as well as get rid of potential sentry nests made by mecha engies that slipped past or teleported in.

Quality:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)

Overview:
The reserve shooter is an interesting soldier weapon, mainly because it started out unique to soldier but then got given to the pyro as well later on. It deploys faster than most other solder weapons, having a 20% faster holster time. It also mini-crits airborne targets like the direct hit, making it more of a combo weapon than a standalone one. The downside is a 34% smaller clip size, meaning you only have 4 shots instead of 6 in the clip.

Positives:
The weapon has two overall positives when compared to other shotgun weapons, which are the increased deploy speed and the mini-crits. The deploy speed increase means this weapon will be ready to use slightly faster than a stock shotgun would. The mini-crits while airborne mean this weapon can be used as a combo weapon, allowing you to mini-crit foes you have sent airborne with a rocket to finish them off.

Negatives:
The main negative with this weapon is a simple one, which is that you have 2 less shots in your clip. This downside is somewhat lackluster due to how the weapon is used, however, as a combo weapon rather than a main, reliable secondary.

Mann vs Machine:
This weapon is not the greatest weapon in MvM, though it isn't the overall worst either. It can be used to finish off robots sent airborne by attacks, though there are three major negatives. Firstly, tanks and giants, the main threats, are essentially impossible to blast airborne, making this weapon almost a straight downgrade against them. Secondly, the rocket launcher will still, with even a few upgrades, out-damage this weapon and make it more of a hassle than it should be. Thirdly there are just overall better weapons for MvM, like the banners for team support.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Uncrate)

Overview:
The panic attack is quite a unique shotgun due to it's strange abilities that differ from all of soldier's other weapons except the beggar's bazooka. When you hold in the fire button you can load up to 4 shells, which are then fired off when the fire button is released. The weapon fires faster when you are lower on health with the downside of the bullet spread increasing as health lowers as well, staying true to the name.

Positives:
Firstly, the main positive is that this weapon deploys 50% faster than average, making it the fastest deploying soldier weapon in his arsenal. It also reloads 50% faster than other shotgun weapons, meaning it can load 4 shots in the time the stock shotgun loads 2. The weapon's main upside, however, is the ability to load and fire a barrage of shotgun shots at foes, up to 4 at a time, with a firing speed that increases as the soldier's health decreases, allowing you to do large amounts of damage to foes, especially at close range, in minimal time.

Negatives:
The main negatives of this weapon are the weapon spread's increase and the inability to remain loaded when switched. The weapon spread is a problem because it makes it hard to hit targets at lower health which may end up with you dying due to being unable to finish off foes. The second downside is counter-intuative as, despite it being a fast-switch weapon, it takes time to ready up every time it's switched in. This means that by the time it's ready the stock would have also been ready and possibly been able to fire off at least 1 shot at this time. This is very impractical as secondaries for soldier are usually used as a back-up so it starting out unready often allows you to be caught off-guard and often pay the price for this.

Mann vs Machine:
This weapon, like most of soldier's other weapons in MvM outside of the banners, is not an often used one due to how outclassed it is. Stock shotguns are more reliable overall as they're ready from the switch, the banners are great team support and heck, even the gunboats' damage reduction and the bison's piercing projectiles often end up more useful.

Qualities:
-Unique (Drop, craft, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)

Overview:
The BASE jumper is a newly added weapon that actually works as a tool rather than an actual weapon. It allows the user to slow their descent by pressing 'jump' while airborne. The parachute can also be put away by pressing 'jump' again to descend at normal speed again. Slow descents mean that you do not take fall damage, making it pretty good for rocket jump practice or on maps where attacks from above are effective.

Positives:
The positives of the BASE jumper are for the most part fairly obvious. Your descent is slowed, meaning you take fall damage and any weapons where blast jumping is important are made easier to use, like the market gardener and the air strike. It also allows you to move more freely while falling, potentially allowing you to avoid falling into deathtraps like pits or occasionally some enemy attacks.

Negatives:
The obvious negative of this weapon is basically the same as it's positives. Falling slowly, especially on more open maps, leaves you a sitting duck to most enemies, like snipers, direct hit soldiers, heavies and sentry guns. It also takes up a slot, meaning you will not be able to have any shotguns or banners while it is being used.

Mann vs Machine:
The BASE jumper, while not outright bad, is easily overshined by most other secondaries. The ability to spam the air strike and make it a mini beggar's bazooka is nice, but it leaves you both a sitting duck to robots and also means that you cannot use banners to support your team.

Qualities:
-Unique (Drop, Craft, etc.)

Overview:
The gunboats are one of the 2 pairs of soldier boots used for a reason outside of cosmetic reasons. They provide 1 buff, but it is a useful one: 60% less damage it taken from rocket jumping. This means the soldier can minimise rocket jump damage taken, increasing his mobility with minimal risk to himself. They provide no other buffs but this one alone is enough to make it a very common item for more competetive players.

Positives:
60% less damage is taken from rocket jumps, meaning the soldier's mobility is higher with even less risk to himself. This means the soldier can get from point A to point B quicker and pop up in unexpected places with much higher health, making him much harder to counter.

Negatives:
The main negative of this weapons are the same as a lot of other secondaries soldier has: It takes up a weapon slot for a mobility-exclusive buff. This means that when the soldier isn't rocket jumping or doesn't need to he has limited himself greatly by only having a primary and a melee to use. The blast damage also isn't reduced if a foe is hit, meaning if a spy followed you he'd accidentally negate this weapon entirely.

Mann vs Machine:
The negatives are strong in Mann vs Machine, even stronger than most of the other potential secondaries soldier could have. You rarely need to rocket jump in MvM due to engineer's teleporters, meaning you have simply wasted a slot. It also means that you cannot have any of the other weapons or banners he could have had, meaning the buff banner, concheror, battalion's backup or even a shotgun/laser pistol cannot be used for an incredibly situational upside.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Vintage (Pre-Pyromania update)

Overview:
The second of the boot-based secondaries soldier has. The mantreads allow the soldier to land on opponents and deal damage to them equal to 3 times the fall damage the soldier would have recieved. It also reduces knockback taken from attacks, making landing on people easier as well as making it easier to evade being trapped by sentries or minigun fire.

Positives:
The offense-based positive is the ability to crush people you land on, dealing 3 times the fall damage you would have recieved to them. When combined with rocket jumps it can allow you to potentially 1-shot light classes from a high enough place, though more often than not it would be a sniper as they are often the least mobile of the light classes that isn't next to a sentry half the time. The decreased knockback is also useful as it means being trapped or locked in place is a lot harder, which is good when fighting sentries, heavies or force-a-nature scouts.

Negatives:
Like other soldier weapons having this equipped means you cannot use any banners or shotguns as it takes up the secondary slot. This means that you are, like the gunboats, replacing a versatile or team-supporting weapon with something situational and somewhat gimmicky. Landing on people is also very hard to do and can more often than not lead to you missing moving targets and get yourself revenge-killed by them. It also leaves you with no real ways of fighting the vast majority of pyros as they can airblast your rockets and meleeing them is a death sentense most of the time, unless you roll a random crit.

Mann vs Machine:
In MvM it has the same problems as the gunboats do: replacing a solid secondary with something situational and, in this case, very risky. Landing on robots is not often a smart idea as they often come in groups, leaving you in point-blank range of the other members of the group, even after a sucessful mantread. It also does next to nothing against giants except putting you in unnecessary danger. Finally, blast soldiers can basically nullify this item completely due to their ability to spam rockets with massive knockback.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drops, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)

Overview:
The righteous bison, despite it's un-called for and unnecessary nerfs, is still an interesting and somewhat unique weapon the soldier has avaliable. It fires slow-moving piercing projectiles and has infinite ammo with the downsides of the projectiles getting weaker as they pass through enemies and the reduced damage against buildings.

Positives:
The main upside of the bison is the fact it has piercing projectiles that can be good against groups of foes, like teams capturing the control point or pushing the cart, as well as against retreating enemies. The bison also has infinite ammo and a slightly faster reload speed than most shotguns, so ammo isn't much of a concern for it. The slow-moving projectiles actually work in this weapon's favour as they allow it to potentially hit the same foe multiple times, like spun-up heavies.

Negatives:
The bison has a few downsides that have slowly make it less and less desirable and useful throughout the years. Firstly there is the 33% smaller clip which means more reloading is necessary,

Overview:
The pocket shotgun was a shotgun that is exclusive to the team fortress 2 beta as it was never fully implemented into the game. It's function was that it would deal extra damage if you had a medic healing you in one version and in the other versions would deal more damage if the medic healing you was damaged or killed. I thought it was an interesting concept so I wanted to talk about it more.

Positives:
The pocket shotgun version 1 would have essentially allowed soldiers to use their shotguns as a pseudo-primary as long as they were being healed. This meant that their damage would be very high and so it was changed to where the medic would have to be damaged or killed. In the case of version 2 and beyond it could be used as a way to 'avenge' your medic after they died by dealing more damage and potentially getting you out of a risky situation with the temporary damage boost.

Negatives:
The negative attribute both of these shotguns share is the simple fact that you would essentially need to be pocketed for them to work, meaning if the medic didn't then they would both potentially be worse versions of stock. The damage reduction for when you weren't healed was quite a lot and so it would probably, unless the soldier in question had a perminent pocket medic that healed nobody but him, never be used and possibly encourage more selfish medics, which is possibly also why it wasn't implemented.

Mann vs Machine:
In MvM this shotgun could be both a blessing and a curse depending on team composition, though overall would still probably not be as good as the buff banner in most scenarios. The increased damage could be partnered with a kritzkrieg medic to deal massive damage to giants and tanks. However, if you did not have a medic or you had a team that would be complemented by the banners more (like heavies, demomen and other soldiers) then it would still be considered worse than the banners.

Qualities:
-Unique (Team Fortress 2 Beta Exclusive, Unobtainable In-Game Currently)

Overview:
The shovel is the stock melee weapon for the soldier. It deals a base of 65 damage with critical damage reaching 195. It takes 0.8 seconds to finish a whole swing, though damages just before the swing is over. Despite it sounding somewhat decent, 2-shotting lighter classes and being able to 1-shot all but 2 non-overhealed classes with a crit, it is a somewhat pathetic weapon. Firstly it gets outdamaged by all of soldier's other weapons, the shotgun doing ~80 from point-blank and the rocket launcher doing around the same as the shotgun. There is also the problem of melee hit registration in TF2 being somewhat unpredictable and unreliable, meaning that you may not even hit foes even when the hitsound is made. Also going into a foe's melee range is essentially a death sentense anyways, so using the shovel is overall a bad idea.

Positives:
There are few positives here, mainly being the damage being consistent and the shovel not requiring ammo or reloads. There are few other reasons to ever use the shovel outside of trying not to hurt yourself with a rocket launcher's splash or having no ammo left.

Negatives:
Firstly the damage is lower than literally every other damaging soldier weapon from the same range, even being outdamaged by the liberty launcher. Secondly the hit detection is unreliable, making melee a risky play when it comes to even DAMAGING the opponent.

Mann vs Machine:
This weapon is once again, like in regular play, bad for MvM. There should essentially be no reason to ever use a shovel for this gamemode (or any really) for the above reasons as well as a few others. Firstly you cannot upgrade the damage at all, only firing speed and heal on kill, meaning any other weapons you have will outshine it almost instantly. Secondly any bots you go up against could very easily out-DPS you, especially giants or crit-boosted robots. These reasons make the shovel an awful choice for MvM.

Quality:
-Normal (Stock)
-Unique (Renamed)
-Strange (Uncrate)
-Festive/ Strange Festive (Uncrate winter crates)

Overview:
Now some people will instantly assume that the frying pan is here as a joke, which is actually both true and untrue. The frying pan can be cleverly used under the right circumstances as a form of utility, though it will often by ineffective against more experienced or aggressive players. The frying pan is considered a joke weapon: A weapon used by people who don't take the game seriously. This factor can actually be used as a tool for sneaky kills. The frying pan's loud collision sound can also be used to lure unsuspecting foes into a trap by baiting them to follow the pan sounds.

Positives:
If you are starting a match you can pretend to be friendly, bringing out your frying pan and crouching near the enemies. If they do not suspect this to be a trap, nor go out of their way to kill friendlies, it can let you pass their front lines easily and cap points, grab intel or just get a couple of cheap kills. However, this will only work once, and only if you haven't been killing people already as they may suspect it as a trap. The second strategy is the 'fisherman' strategy, where you use the loud sounds of the pan to get people to chase you before leaving them into a trap of some kind, like a sentry, an ambush or just your rocket launcher. Pans also seem to have a higher critical strike chance than other shovels, though this could just be a coincidence. It shares any other positives with the shovel.

Negatives:
All the negatives are the same as the shovel, except for one: it's noise. Pans are loud and can occasionally attract unwanted attention if used, meaning if you want to use it you best be ready for a 2nd foe to turn that corner at all times.

Mann vs Machine:
Look under 'Shovel' as there are no differences between the two in MvM as the robots do not pick up on sound, only on damage.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, promotion, etc.)
-Strange (Strangifier)
-Australium (Golden frying pan)

Overview:
Now the first assumption upon seeing this heading will probably be something about my shovel sub-classes and then me making sub-classes of sub-classes; however there are still noteworthy differences between them that allow them to have different headings to discuss them. The Golden Frying Pan, as well as the Saxxy, are two of the most sought-after weapons in TF2 due to their rarity. The Pan is an extremely rare drop from MvM while the Saxxy is only awarded to people who helped in making saxxy award-winning SFMs. Both of these weapons are usually signs of an experienced player, as well as having a special effect of turning foes to gold when they're killed. There are 2 reactions generally given to these weapons: respect and target. Respect means the player will often ignore you unless you attack them first as a sign of respect while target means the player will go out of their way to kill you just because of your rare weapon.

Positives:
Golden Pan: Firstly the positives are all the same as the pan, but with the added bonus of some people out-right ignoring you or making you the lowest-priority target, allowing you to increase your survivability.
Saxxy: Same as shovel, except for the but with the added bonus of some people out-right ignoring you or making you the lowest-priority target, allowing you to increase your survivability.

Negatives:
Golden Pan: All the same as the pan, except the gold statues now give audiable and visible cues as to your location instead of just audiable as well as the people I listed as 'targeters' going out of their way to hunt you down.
Saxxy: Same as the shovel except it also gives visual cues to your location and 'targeters' actively trying to hunt you down.

Mann vs Machine:
Golden Pan: Identical to the pan except it reduces the likelihood of you being kicked as it is taken as a sign of a veteran MvM player.
Saxxy: Same as shovel except less likely to get kicked as it is taken as a sign of a good TF2 player (despite the fact it's obtained from making animations, not for playing the game)

Qualities:
-Strange (Australium and Professional killstreak) (MvM drop) - Golden Pan
-Unique (Reward) - Saxxy

Overview:
The pain train is a strange weapon in the soldier's arsenal. It isn't particularly good but it is also not particularly bad either, just that the thing it is used for isn't usually the soldier's role. The pain train provides the user with a +1 capture rate as long as they have the weapon equipped, meaning they can cap as fast as a scout while having the soldier's mobility, damage and tankiness*. The downside is a 10% bullet damage vulnerability on the wearer which is actually rather minor, adding 1-2 more damage per bullet normally or up to +5 with crits (but taking a load of 45 damage crit bullets will be the end of you anyways in most cases). This leaves this weapon as an anomaly: It's downside is miniscule while it's upside is somewhat small and isn't the soldier's role anyways. This has lead to this weapon being almost forgotten by the community, except by a few odd people.

Postives:
The capture rate bonus is a passive effect on the wearer, meaning the soldier can get to a point and keep using his rocket launcher while he caps at scout speed. This is good on Control Point and King of the Hill maps as well as going Blu on Attack/Defend as those maps feature capping as their objectives. The downside of these weapons is also very miniscule, adding neglegable damage to bullets that damage you.

Negatives:
All the shovel's negatives apply here too, though there are 2 exclusive ones to this weapon. Firstly on maps with no capture points, like CTF and PASS time, it is a straight downgrade from the already-bad stock shovel. The bonus of this weapon is also somewhat undesired too, as capping points is a scout's job, not soldier's. It can come in handy when you have no scouts on the team though this is rare on any maps this weapon would be useful on.

Mann vs Machine:
The worst melee weapon for soldier in MvM by a small margin, though this is only because it is essentially a stock shovel with bullet damage vulnerability in MvM as there are no points for you to capture at all.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)
-Vintage (Pre-Pyromania)

Overview:
The other weapon Soldier shares with Demoman is the Half-Zatoichi, a katana which is quite different from a lot of other melee weapons soldier has. This weapon is all about survivability, rather than some kind of extra support, making it the only Soldier melee "weapon" for survivability as the Escape Plan is more of a tool. It is also the only Soldier weapon that falls in the 'sword' category, meaning it has longer holster and deploy times but also longer range as well. It heals the soldier 50% of his max HP on kill, being able to overheal, with the downsides of no random crits and being 'honourbound'. This means that if the soldier puts it away without getting a kill with it he will take 50 damage.

Positives:
Firstly, the healing attribute this weapon has is great for survivability if health packs and ammo are scarce as the soldier can use it to quickly ambush and kill a light class to re-gain 100 HP, though this can sometimes be tricky to do. The longer range makes killing people with this weapon easier as well as giving it the status of the soldier weapon with the 2nd longest range, only being beaten by the somewhat rediculous Disciplinary Action. The honourbound 'debuff' can also be used to help medics build Ubercharge faster by damaging yourself in a safe environment without having to waste valuble ammo.

Negatives:
The first negative of this weapon is the lack of random crits, though this does not often get in the way of using this weapon. The honourbound debuff can also be a problem if it is hard to get melee kills, forcing the soldier to harm himself to put back the sword and therefore be more vulnerable. The sword also takes longer to take out and holster, leaving you open to attacks while doing so.

Mann vs Machine:
Possibly Soldier's 3rd best melee weapon for MvM due to it's healing ability. If the soldier is damaged he can quickly get a kill on a lone robot and re-enter the fight with 100 more health, allowing him to last longer than other soldier may do and therefore keep up the pressure more. It is still only suggested for getting the odd kill on the lone robot as trying to use this against giants and groups will more often than not get you killed instead and against tanks this weapon is essentially useless as you cannot get a heal-on-kill bonus off of them.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)
-Genuine (Pre-order 'Total War: Shogun')

Overview:
The disciplinary action is a somewhat strange soldier weapon as it has a mixture of hidden attributes as well as having a 'team support' theme rather than anything solo, somewhat like a banner. For the cost of 25% of your melee damage (~49 damage with ~146 crit damage) you get the ability to speed up teammates and yourself for a few seconds by hitting them. This weapon also features ludacris range, even allowing you to hit people outside of the zatoichi's range and even people right behind you. This makes it a great support tool, though without teammates to accompany you it's just a low-damage shovel with more range.

Positives:
Firstly the range on this weapon is something special. It has more range than swords, meaning you could hit a demoknight while out of his range if you played smart. It also means hitting teammates is a lot easier, allowing you all to keep up the pace. The speed boosts granted are also very useful, speeding up slower classes so they can get to the frontlines faster while also speeding up faster classes for them to get there before anyone else does. It is a great support tool when it comes to mobility for the team.

Negatives:
The only real downside of this weapon is the 25% reduced damage, though this weapon's role of team support rather than damage makes this downside somewhat neglegable. There is also the problem of the necessity to have teammates nearby for it to be used, as lone soldiers cannot get anything out of it nor help anyone out if nobody is around.

Mann vs Machine:
Theoretically the 2nd best MvM soldier melee weapon, due to it's ability to get people back to the frontlines faster. However there are 2 problems: Firstly your team should have a teleporter there already, meaning the speed buff is almost useless and secondly you shouldn't be waiting around to speed people up as a soldier as you are one of the hardest-hitting classes in MvM and the frontlines probably would like your help as soon as possible.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)

Overview:
The escape plan is a very commonly used soldier weapon and for good reason: it provides a way of retreating that does not force you to lose lots of health. This can be good for when you are too low on health to rocket jump away or if there is something stopping you from rocket jumping, like a low roof. The weapon's downsides are a 90% decrease in healing from medic sources and marking you for death while it's active and for a short while after it is put away. It is designed for a mildly risky option for survivability, allowing you to pull yourself out of fights to go and get more health or more ammo. The speed increase is also dependant on damage taken, going from unnoticable to almost scout speed, depending on damage taken.

Positives:
The main positive is that this weapon provides a safer retreat alternative than rocket jumping away, as it does not necessarily always cost lots of health. The speed increase can also be used to get from point A to point B in situations other than just retreating, like getting yourself to a well-hidden spot quickly for an ambush. The reduced heal rate can also be good for building medic Ubers as it builds faster on lower-healthed allies, meaning the 90% decreased heal rate can turn 10% Uber to 100% at the cost of a bit more time taken for healing and a bit more time out of the fight.

Negatives:
Firstly the heal rate decrease can also be a burden, meaning the healing you may need may not be very easily given if retreating. The mark for death also leaves you a sitting duck against fast-pursuing foes and to anyone else you may run into due to the fact all damage taken becomes mini-crits.

Mann vs Machine:
Arguably the best soldier melee in MvM as it allows him to get out of the fight quickly, restock, and re-join the fight without having to go and re-spawn and potentially waste time and/or credits. It is also not teammate-dependant like the Disciplinary Action and the speed boost lasts indefinately rather than a few short seconds.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)

Overview:
The post-split equalizer is a weapon rarely ever used anymore due to it's riskiness often not paying off. The lower health you have the more damage the weapon does, though this means you have to rely on not only finishing the fight quick but also being low enough health for said quick kill as well as hoping you catch them off-guard to avoid being obliterated. It also shares the reduced medic healing debuff the Escape Plan has, though not the mark for death.

Positives:
The damage that can be done with the equalizer can become very high, potentially making it into the hundreds and critting with enough damage to 1-shot non-overhealed heavies. The reduced medic healing can be used just as it was for the escape plan.

Negatives:
Firstly the healing deduction can occasionally bite you in the butt like it did for the escape plan. Secondly the damage dealt by this weapon while it high health makes it an almost straight downgrade from stock and thirdly this weapon forces you to rely on both off-guard kills and hit detection working to avoid being obliterated as meleeing a foe at low health is almost always a death wish.

Mann vs Machine:
Almost useless in MvM as the positives and negatives apply here too. Meleeing anything important, like a giant, will be the death of you and the only real use is low-health meleeing a tank or giant medic, which even then there are much better alternatives.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)
-Strange (Unbox)
-Vintage (Pre-Pyromania)

Overview:
The pre-split equalizer was a powerful and dangerous weapon in the right hands. Originally, the equalizer had both the buffs of the escape plan and new equalizer, allowing the player to gain speed AND damage when on low health, with the downsides being the death mark and the complete inability to be healed by medics. When the Pyromania update it the weapon was split in two, the new equalizer and the escape plan, to stop it being so overpowered.

Positives:
You were very fast when on low health, moving at almost scout speed. Combined with the increased damage on low health you were able to run around and 1 or 2-shot anything you came across, giving them little time to fight back in most cases.

Negatives:
Firstly being unhealable by medics meant that the supply cabinet, sandviches, health kits and dispensers were the only forms of healing avaliable to you. It also meant you couldn't be ubered as medics could not even target you to begin with, leaving you preminently vulnerable. The death mark leaves you even more vulnerable, meaning a foe who knows your location could finish you off before you finished them off.

Mann vs Machine:
Would probably be like the Escape plan is today, though slightly better for self-defence and slightly more annoying for medics on your team.

Qualities:
-Unique (Craft, drop, etc.)

Tier 1: Top-Tier

These three rocket launchers are probably overall the best in Soldier's arsenal. They deal consistent, high damage without the need for gimmicks. They get the job done without too much of a hassle.

-The Rocket Launcher has high damage, the average rocket launcher clip size and few downsides to deal with
-The Original is the same as the Rocket Launcher, though the rockets come from the middle of the crosshair instead of the side
-The Cow Mangler is essentially a Rocket Launcher with infinite ammo and an alt-fire. The loss of crits isn't too big since that just means intel captures, kritzkriegs and round wins won't crit-boost you. The 'no random crits' feature isn't too bad as relying on crits isn't usually a good thing to do. The reduction on building damage can be a problem, though is situational and can be technically bypassed through the mini-critting, building-disabling alt-fire. Even though it can't easily deal with a nest it can easily be used to harrass the engineer building it.

Tier 2: Mid-Tier

These three rocket launchers are not quite top-tier, though they all still pack a punch. The reasons they didn't get in the top tier may be partially due to learning curves or gimmicks that make them harder to use.

-The Black Box's healing is useful, though sacrificing a rocket to heal back ~45 health is still a large risk to take
-The Beggar's Bazooka has a learning curve with overload jumps and random projectile trajectory. Though, when used well, it can be devastating
-The Direct Hit also features a learning curve, forcing players to be accurate with their shots. When a player becomes skilled at using this weapon though it can become quite scary to face off against.

Tier 3: Bottom-Tier

The three overall worst or hardest to use rocket launchers in the game. They can be good, though they are outshined by almost all the other ones a soldier has at his disposal.

-The Liberty Launcher's damage reduction is actually very noteworthy in a lot of cases, making it take longer to kill foes and therefore putting you in more danger. Sadly the extra rocket, increased projectile speed and decreased blast jump damage don't make up for the loss in power.
-The Rocket Jumper is only really for either rocket jump practice or trolldiering and not for serious play. This is due to the fact that it deals 0 damage, which is bad considering this is meant to be the soldier's main source of damage.
-The Air Strike is a rocket-jump oriented rocket launcher that can be used to bombard foes below with flurries of rockets at a time. Sadly when doing so the rockets have smaller blast radii on top of their already decreased damage and blast radii. It also only starts with 2 rockets in the clip and resets on death, meaning leaving yourself as a sitting duck in the sky, ready to be airshot, is even worse than it already appears.

Weapons in order of how difficult it is to pick it up and use it without much practice.


#1: Rocket Launcher
-High damage, 300 damage crits, average clip and few downsides


#2: Original
-Rockets coming from the centre of the crosshair would take a bit of getting used to, otherwise same as stock


#3: Cow Mangler
-Easier to use than expected, infinite ammo, alt-fire can either 1-shot classes outright or make them burn to death in some cases. Nothing too complex to learn


#4: Black Box
-Rocket launcher essentially designed to keep you alive longer. The 25% decreased clip size may take a bit of getting used to as you have to reload more often and cannot stay in fights for as long because of the clip.


#5: Liberty Launcher
-Extra rocket is nice, so is the reduced rocket jump damage. The projectile speed and decreased damage will take a bit of getting used to.


#6: Direct Hit
-Aim the rockets at the foes, not the floor near them. Damage is nice, so is the airshot bonus, though the projectile speed increased and blast radius decrease will take a lot of getting used to.


#7: Rocket Jumper
-Once you get your head around the 'no damage' this weapon can be used for mobility or practice. Both, however, often involve some slightly more complex rocket jumping for effective use.


#8: Air Strike
-Being able to rain hell upon foes is nice, but you have to play both somewhat aggressively yet also defensively as to not lose the increased clip.


#9: Beggar's Bazooka
-Probably the hardest rocket launcher to master due to it discarding a lot of normal rocket launcher things or twisting them on their heads. You have beggar's jumping rather than normal rocket jumping, unpredictable rocket bursts rather than aimed individual rockets and more.

Offense:


Defence:


Mobility:


Support:

Top-Tier:

These are debatably the three strongest or most useful soldier secondaries. Either they provide your team a powerful buff that makes either offense or defence a lot easier or they make you a lot more mobile by reducing the health cost of rocket jumping

-The Gunboats remove 60% of the damage you recieve from rocket jumping, allowing you to either get to places with higher health or to go further through rocket jumping without 'cratering' as you land. It is the go-to secondary for a lot of competetive soldiers.
-The Buff Banner provides you and your team with mini-crits for a few seconds once used. It doesn't take too long to charge and the mini-crit buffs can make pushes a lot more effective.
-The Battalion's Backup, when used, provides your team with 35% damage resistance to most types of damage as well as crit immunity and 50% sentry resistance as well. Crit immunity means you almost completely nullify Kritzkriegs as well as headshots while it is active. The defence either makes hard pushes or defending easier. The additional 20 HP given is also helpful, increasing your health to 220 and 330 when overhealed.

Mid-Tier:

These weapons are not quite as useful as the top-tier ones, though can still pack a punch under the right conditions.

-The Concheror provides your team with heal-on-damage and speed boosts when used. It is not quite as useful as other banners though can still come in handy. The passive health regeneration is also nice if there are few health kits around.
-The Shotgun is a reliable secondary for close-up combat. It can be a good alternative to a rocket launcher if you want to avoid hitting yourself with splash damage as well as being solid damage in general, dealing ~70-80 at closer ranges. Sadly it lacks range as the bullet spread means that from longer distances most of your bullets will miss
-The Reserve Shooter is another shotgun-like weapon the soldier has access to. It provides mini-crits on airborne targets and has a faster switch-to speed. It provides a mild learning curve as it challenges soldiers to knock foes into the air with rockets rather than simply just bombarding them

Bottom-Tier:

The overall worst secondaries for soldier. They can be good, though the circumstances for these are few and far between.

-The Panic Attack is overall soldier's worst 'shotgun'. It loads up bullets by holding fire and releases them rapidly once fire is let go. However, since a soldier's shotgun is usually meant to be there as backup, ready to go from pressing 2, the loading time can lead to your death very quickly if caught off-guard by a foe
-The BASE Jumper allows you to parachute down by pressing jump, decreasing falling speed and negating fall damage in most circumstances. However, while in the air, you are essentially a sitting duck to things like direct hit soldiers, snipers, heavies and sentries. Most other secondaries would provide overall more desired effects
-The Mantreads are another soldier weapon with few desirable effects. You take less knockback and can damage foes you land on, though this is it. The knockback reduction can be nice, so can killing people with that is essentially a 'goomba stomp', though sadly the upsides aren't as desirable as other passive secondaries the soldier has.
-The Righteous Bison is probably currently the worst soldier weapon after the unnecessary nerfs a while ago. It does low damage, has a slow firing speed and the projectile penetration is somewhat useless now as you cannot hit the same foe multiple times anymore.

#1: Gunboats
-The effect is entirely passive, making it the easiest soldier secondary to use


#2: BASE Jumper
-Pressing 'jump' while airborne is not a hard thing to do either, making it very easy to use.


#3: Concheror
-Passive healing bonus is very good, also pressing primary fire for a buff isn't hard. Charges faster than the other banners, too.


#4: Battalion's Backup
-Extra 20 HP when equipped as well as the fact pressing primary fire with a full rage meter isn't hard to do. The buff given is also one designed to keep you alive as well.


#5: Buff Banner
-Same as other banners in 'pressing primary fire with full rage is easy', though has no passive effects like the others.


#6: Shotgun
-Somewhat easy to use. Requires players to be accurate and enemies to be quite close, however.


#7: Righteous Bison
-No projectile spread like other damage-dealing secondaries. However, the projectiles are fairly noticable and not too hard to dodge when people are aware of them. Also not a good weapon in general, so getting kills with it is hard.


#8: Panic Attack
-Releasing a burst of shots out at once may take a bit of getting used to. Also cannot be pulled out ready-to-use, requiring a bit of setup time each use.


#9: Mantreads
-The damage-dealing side of landing on people to hurt them, if it were the only buff, would make this the hardest soldier weapon to use. However, the passive knockback resistance as well as the amount of oblivious players on some servers make this weapon easier to use.


#10: Reserve Shooter
-Requires players to play smart, knocking foes into the air and comboing them with the reserve shooter. This has a fairly noticable learning curve to it, unlike a lot of other soldier secondaries.

Offense:


Defence:


Mobility:


Support:

Top-Tier:

Overall the three best soldier weapons. All three are somehow based on team support or keeping you alive simply because a soldier shouldn't really every have to rely on melee with a rocket launcher and a secondary at his disposal.

-The Half Zatoichi can be used for building faster ubercharges without wasting rockets, or can be used to get 100 HP back with help from it's increased range
-The Disciplinary Action is a great team support weapon, allowing you and allies to reach the front lines a lot faster which is very helpful for classes like heavies
-The Escape Plan is great for retreating due to the very noteworthy speed increase as your health goes down, keeping you alive longer than you would probably do otherwise.

Middle-Tier:

These weapons are more situational than the top-tier weapons, though can still occasionally find their uses to keep them out of the bottom tier.

-The Market Gardener's ability to deal crits (195 damage) to anything you hit just by rocket jumping makes it a great weapon to use to get rid of oblivious classes. However, the likelihood of it working on someone who knows where you are is very unlikely, stopping it being top-tier.
-The Golden Pan's (and the Saxxy's) accidental abilities of making people friendlies is quite useful under some circumstances, however it can also make some people target you more and is also a visual giveaway as to where you might be.
-The Pain Train's passive +1 capture rate and almost neglegable downside make it better than stock in a lot of scenarios. It can help on maps like Control Point and Payload due to the constant need to cap combined with the soldier's mobility, making it situational but still somewhat useful.

Bottom-Tier:

Overall the worst soldier melees in the game. It is often not a smart idea to equip them due to their very limited usefulness and inferiority to essentially any other soldier weapon.

-The Equalizer's gimmick of more damage on low health isn't as useful as it might appear due to the fact that if you're on low health you'd want to retreat, not go into a foe's face to get obliterated. The upside of this weapon uber-building wise is matched by the escape plan and beaten by the half-zatoichi
-The stock Shovel has no upsides except for consistent damage. It has no use as a tool, no buffs to make it good and since the soldier's primaries and secondaries do more damage it is not worth using a melee for damage. Also since TF2's hit reg is still unreliable meleeing is still not smart.
-The Frying Pan is essentially the same as a shovel, though also providing audio cues as to your location as well.

#1: Disciplinary Action
-Since it's a tool more than a weapon all you really have to know is to hit allies for more speed. The amazing melee range is also good if you ever have to use it as an actual weapon.


#2: Pain Train
-Passive bonus, negligable downside and essentially a slightly better stock shovel


#3: Shovel
-Easy to use as you just have to hit people when close to them. It has no gimmicks to master.


#4: Golden Pan
-Making foes passive is useful and making people idiotically overextend can be good too in some cases, though the audio and visual cues combined with the overextending can occasionally become a problem


#5: Frying Pan
-A stock shovel that makes a loud noise on hit. That's all.


#6: Equalizer
-Stock shovel with the added gimmick of more damage on low health, though less damage on high health


#7: Half-Zatoichi
-Long range and heal-on kill effects, though has the sword's holster and deploy speed decreases. The honourbound debuff will take some getting used to, though when used properly can be great for assisting medics at building uber


#8: Escape Plan
-Mild learning curve due to the death mark recieved for even pulling it out, though when mastered it is an amazing tool for retreating for more health.


#9: Market Gardener
-Possible soldier's hardest to use weapon due to the fact you need to get right in the foe's face and then hope hit reg works properly. The difficulty of pulling off a 'market garden' makes it enjoyable when you actually manage to do it, creating the sub-class of 'trolldier'

Offense:


Defence:


Mobility:


Support: