Tips and Strategies for Spies
Brought to you By:
Sir Weasel of the Knights Who Say Ni!

Spies are at their best when performing defense disruption.  Spies should forget going for the flag/key unless a wide opening presents itself.  Or, unless they are loitering around a dropped flag and it looks like their teammates won't make it back in time to keep it from timing out. When playing against an experienced defense, a Spy must assume he's going to get wasted if he grabs the flag.  A Spy must also assume the defense isn't going to let him get anywhere near the flag when it's at home base. When the flag is laying around, it is often very easy for the Spy to at least grab it even if he's likely to die before scoring with it.  Grabbing a dropped flag can be very important because it keeps it "in play" (prevents it from timing out).

A Spy has to try and balance the likelyhood that his own team won't get back in time to keep the flag from timing out, against the Spy blowing his own cover.  Much of this decision has to do with how difficult it is for the Spy to re-infiltrate the enemy base, in combination with how alert the enemy is to Spies.

Spies are at their most effective when the defense is not thinking that there are Spies running around.  If the defense is constantly encountering Spies, then they start watching for Spies.  If a Spy remains low-key and strikes with careful planning, the defense will not become overly paranoid about looking for Spies. One of the absolute most over-looked tricks a Spy has at his disposal is changing his skin while already disguised.  Most players just don't keep this in mind.  If you're on red team playing a Spy, and you're running around Blue Base looking like an Engineer, you are free to change your skin to Sniper or anything else while still remaining Blue. Playing a Spy is all about psychology and out-smarting your opponents. That is why I think invisible spies are stupid and only skinned spies are valid for play.  There is very little psychology involved with invisible spies.

If a blue defender sees a blue Engineer take out a blue sentry gun, that defender will likely start chasing the spy and try to kill him.  Wha texactly is that defender chasing?  That defender is chasing a blue engineer.  He's NOT chasing a blue sniper, demoman, pyro, or anything else. Changing skins on the fly is a trick which works time and time and time again for me when I play spy.  I'll stand across a room from a defender and grenade a sentry gun right next to the guy.  I'll then split down some twisty passage with the defender in hot pursuit.  But if I've got enough lead on the guy (split before the grenades explode), I can issue a skin change while running and my skin will probably change while I'm around a corner from the defender's view.  The second I get the "you're disguised" message, I immediately pull a 180 and run right past the guy going the other direction.

Just think this through for a second.  I am disguised as a blue engineer when the blue defender starts pursuing me.  As I run through some twisty passages I change to blue sniper.  I immediately spin a 180 when my skin changes and what the defender sees is a blue sniper run past him in the other direction.  He doesn't even wonder why the "blue sniper" didn't engage the blue engineer.  The reason is obvious.  The "blue sniper" wouldn't have known the blue engineer was actually a spy because the "blue sniper" didn't see the blue engineer do a no-no.

Also consider heavily what is an appropriate skin for different areas of a base.  Do engineers typically run around on the battlements of 2FortX?  Not on a regular basis.  Who is typically loitering around on the battlements? Snipers!  If you want to loiter around on the battlements, you PROBABLY want to look like a Sniper.  (Nothing is 100%.) What is the most common player class running the wrong direction inside his own base?  Engineer.  Engineer are always running around a base in crazy directions compared to most other player classes.  Engineer is one of the easiest player classes to use to infiltrate a base simply because an Engineer looks normal running down into the basement of a base.

Nothing is a 100% rule except PAY ATTENTION to what you see in the enemy base.  If the enemy has no engineers running around at all, do you really want to be running around as an engineer?  On a crazy open server you could probably get away with it.  In a clan match, you probably won't.

If the enemy is overloaded with Demomen or Pyros as their primary defense, then you probably want to be a Demoman or a Pyro.  But if the enemy has two demomen standing in a basement always in view of each other, and no otherdemomen on defense, it's probably a bad idea to try and infiltrate their basement as a demoman.  Most TF players can count high enough to figure out that you'll be one too many demoman.  So the rule is, pay attention to what you see when you're in the enemy base. Grenade jumping can be very useful for infiltrating an enemy base.  As a general (but not absolute) rule, if you get to the second story (past the ramp room) on 2FortX as a Spy, you've probably successfully infiltrated their defenses.  Just don't try running down the flag hall and be sure to put on a good act if you want to run through their basement.

If the enemy is staging a defense at the ramp room and not letting any spies slip past, then grenade jumping up onto the battlements or at other locations can be the trick.  If you appear in disguise on the second story behind their ramp defense, you can probably waltz around their base all you want.  Similar situations present themselves on other maps.

Always remember what you can and can't do as a Spy.  The Spy's most effective general purpose weapons are the grenades simply because he can use them without blowing his cover.  There was a comment made about the gas grenade giving yourself away.  This isn't 100% true.  Just be smart when you use it.  You can gas choke points inside an enemy base when nobody is looking, then split the scene.  The gas lasts a while.

Gassing resupply doorways and passages from reincarnation to resupply are very strategic.  Gassing reincarnation itself can be considered foul reincarnation camping, but gassing pathways through which reincarnating players want to run is base disruption.

Another overlooked trick is gassing choke points where defenders like to stand.  By tossing a gas grenade at some nasty location that a defender likes to use, you deny the defender from using that location.  Thereby hopefully making it easier for your own troops to invade.  Making it easier for your own troops to invade is the whole idea behind defense disruption.

Resupply is critical for spies.  Especially grenade resupply if possible. Never overlook an opportunity to follow a defender into his resupply rooms to get more goodies.  Never initiate an attack while in there.  You are much better off grabbing more supplies then wandering off to harass multiple areas elsewhere in the base.

While in the enemy resupply, always keep in mind what you can and can't do. Specifically, stay away from the door when it's closed or about to close. If you bump up against a closed resupply door, or a resupply door closes in your face, and a defender sees it, you've blown your cover.  If you get caught in a closed resupply room, always act like you're hanging around waiting for the rockets to come back or something.  Make it look good for anybody who reincarnates in there or comes running in.  Of course, as soon as that door opens, it's time to split.

Spies and their little green grenades are obviously excellent at taking out sentry guns.  However, the nailgun is an often overlooked but excellent sentry gun killer.  You just have to be very alert when using it.

A very popular defense on Rock is the placement of sentry guns up on the rails overlooking the central courtyard.  First rate placement of sentries on the rails can just about shut down any attack.  There is one critical exception.  Spies.

In most cases, engineers expect the Spies to go for the showers and get up onto the walls in order to grenade the sentry guns.  So the engineers work on preventing spies from coming onto the wall from the showers.  However, with good attention to detail, Spies can readily take out sentry guns from down in the courtyard.

The first step after infiltrating is to take a quick survey of the location of the sentry guns.  Then pick a tower under which you can hide so that no sentry gun close to you can shoot at you, but from which you can shoot at a sentry gun all the way across the courtyard from you.

Once you get your angle, open up with the nailgun and destroy the first sentry.  Then immediately return to enemy colors so you can run if you must without the other sentries shooting at you.

Always change colors first, then change skin.  If a human has spotted you, it won't matter much what you look like.  The important thing is to stop any remaining sentry guns from shooting at you while you try and evade any human who's coming after you.  If necessary, you can always change skinswhile on the run.

Always think about your timing for taking out a sentry gun.  Are you pressed for time?  Do you need to risk blowing your cover in order to get the gun destroyed pronto?  If not, wait until the engineer hopefully wanders off before you destroy his gun.  If he doesn't see you do it, he won't know who to blame and your cover remains intact.  You're free to do it again and again.

Be gutsy in order to look natural.  Want to stand around in the enemy's courtyard on Rock?  Try standing there right in the open as a Sniper. Don't necessarily hide underneath the towers in the dark.  Hiding in the dark looks suspicious.  It's just the thing a spy would do.  Stand right out in broad daylight where everyone can see you.  A spy wouldn't do that, would he?

If defending snipers shoot at you, at least keep in mind that your presence in the game as a spy is causing them to probably stand around shooting off the armor of their team mates also.  That's a bit of a victory in itself.

In some situations, well timed suicide attacks on sentry guns (and even humans) can break a defense.  Take for example a situation where your team has dragged the key in Rock1 almost over to the gas side.  The enemy has busily set up a sentry in the jail section to prevent your team from running the key past there.  Obviously the sentry gun needs to be destroyed.

The most important thing in this situation is timing.  Consider waiting until your team has returned, grabbed the dropped key, and is started for the jail section.  That's the time to grenade the sentries if you've got grenades.  Don't give the engineer time to respond and build a new one. Take the gun out just before your team mates arrive.

If you don't have any grenades left, go for the suicide run if the sentry is L3.  Wait for your teammates to start coming with the key, then run right up into the face of the sentry and open up with your nailgun. Typically you will inflict enough damage on the sentry that when it fires it's rocket point-blank into you, it'll destroy itself at the same time. Your team mates can then waltz through the wreakage and gas everyone. Similar tricks can be applied on other maps.

Finally, some comments about the obvious which spy playing newbies are forever overlooking.  DON'T CONFUSE YOUR OWN TEAM MATES!  AND DON'T GET MAD AT TEAM MATES WHO YOU'VE CONFUSED!

If you are on red team and standing around red base in a blue outfit, YOU'RE GOING TO GET FIRED AT!  Don't even think about getting mad at people who fire at you.  It's ENTIRELY your own fault!

On top of that, you're being stupid in more ways than just confusing your own team mates.  If you're on blue defense and you see a blue demoman running across the 2FortX bridge toward your base, what are you going to think?  I know I'm going to think "Spy!".

After you die and reincarnate, the sequence you want to use is very consistent.  Change your skin so you don't look like a spy anymore, but DO NOT change your color.  You can have on any skin you want and your own players won't shoot at you, just so long as you're the correct color. Also, you want to run over to the enemy base in your own colors but definitely in a non-spy skin.  What a blue defender then sees is a red demoman running over to his base.  You provide absolutely no reason for that defender to think that a spy is attempting to infiltrate his base.

Only once you start entering the enemy base, or you find some dark nook to use inside the base, then change your color to the enemy's color.  If you're inside the enemy base in the enemy colors, don't get mad if your own team starts shooting at you.  It's only normal.  How are they to know?

When you're playing spy, you're relying on your disguise and your wits. You are NOT relying on your armor or your ability to shoot it out with enemy players.  If your own players blast your armor down to zero, it just doesn't matter.  What matters is how well you out-wit the enemy defenders. If they uncover you, chances are the armor wouldn't help you anyway.