One thing that spies do often is leave their base disguised as your team's color. Keep an eye on who leaves the enemy's base if you are in the battlements and warn your team of the suspected incoming spy. There are many ways to tell whether a player is a spy or not. Read further to find out how to tell a spy apart from your teammates. These are the tricks that I use to leave spies thinking "How does she always know that I'm a spy?"

The very first thing to look for if you are suspecting a player to be a spy is the most obvious- his diguised class. Get to know which classes your team consists of. If you see a demoman coming to your base that is your color and there are no demomen on your team, you know for sure that he is a spy.

The second thing to look at is the weapon that he is holding. A spy always holds the gun that his disguised class respawns with. Here is a list of each each class's primary weapon:

• Scout- Nail Gun
• Sniper- Sniper Rifle
• Soldier- Rocket Launcher
• Demoman- Grenade Launcher
• Medic- Super Nail Gun
• HW Guy- Assualt Cannon
• Pyro- Flame Thrower
• Spy- Tranq Gun
• Engineer- Rail Gun

The third thing to look for is the name of your suspect. The important things to look for in a name that show he is a spy are:

• He has your name
• He has the name of a player who is already standing next to you
• He is a soldier and he has the name of an engineer on your team (or any other class)
• You already know where the person who has his name is located (ex. he is in the enemy's base or your teams flag room)
• He has the name of someone who just got a kill
• He has the name of someone who just got killed
• He has the name of a player who is carrying a flag

Another thing to look for is movement and behavior. Look for a class's speed, location, and his behavior around his teammates:

• Scout- Too slow; is in the flag room; is hanging around the battlements
• Sniper- Holds his sniper rifle like a nail gun (see pictures below); is looking toward the enemy battlements without looking through his scope
• Soldier- Too fast; on your battlements but not shooting toward the enemy battlements or bridge
• Demoman- Running away from the action or a fight; kind of hard to tell
• Medic- Is in the flag room without healing his teammates; running toward you without a medkit; does not heal his teammates who are calling for a medic; very hard to tell apart
• HW Guy- Too fast
• Pyro- Hard to tell apart but pyros usually fire while walking; on your battlements but not shooting toward the enemy battlements or bridge
• Spy- Shoot all spies with your auto rifle or nail gun if they are coming towards you, he shouldn't be there anyway; is in the flag room
• Engineer- Is standing by a sentry gun without his wrench out; does not give his teammates armor when they call for it; hit any engineers who are holding out their rail guns, hardly any of them keep that gun out do to its poor damage

These pictures show the spy as a sniper. He holds his gun like it is a nail gun or shot gun and never looks like he is charging his rifle. Be sure to know the difference between a real sniper and a spy. It will save your life many times.

If you do suspect a teammate of being a spy, give him a small shot with your auto rifle or nail gun. Unless you are positive the player is a spy do not hit him with a full charge. You do not want to piss off your teammates. If you do hit a teammate, be sure you let them know it was a mistake and a spy check. Do not become your own team's enemy.

Never Trust a dead body. I know this sounds kind of ridiculous , but remember that spies can fake death. Be especially alert of this after a spy kills you. Make sure to be aware whether or not another teammate killed the spy; if not, stay alert! If a dead body is moving in any way or if you just suspect that a dead body is a spy, stand on top of it and shoot it. By standing on top of the spy, you are preventing him from getting back up. I always find it fun to crowbar feigned spies to death- it's sort of like revenge for knifing me in the back.

Make sure you are always alert if the other team has spies. A spies first target are usually enemy snipers (aside from sentry guns and getting the flag) because killing snipers can be very easy to them. If you show a spy that he cannot trick you, then he may stop bothering you.

Here are some binds that will help you warn your team of incoming spies. Just place these in your config.cfg file. Change the keys to your liking and convenience. These keys are easy to remember since they correspond with the number you choose a class with.

bind "F10" "say_team Warning: Spy in Base disguised as:"
bind "F11" "say_team Incoming Spy disguised as:"
bind "F12" "say_team There is a Spy in the Battlements disguised as:"
bind "F1" "say_team Scout"
bind "F2" "say_team Sniper"
bind "F3" "say_team Soldier"
bind "F4" "say_team Demoman"
bind "F5" "say_team Medic"
bind "F6" "say_team HW Guy"
bind "F7" "say_team Pyro"
bind "F8" "say_team Friendly Spy"
bind "F9" "say_team Engineer"