This guide is not a in-depth guide. Its aim is to gather info about little tricks you didn't know, general play strategies, and little tips on enhancing your playstyle.
If you want to know about subjects in particular, i suggest browing the guide page using the "Highest Noted" or whatever it's called option, and picking the sections related to your search.

Also check this out: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=175420886

• Don't always run in the same direction. Being predictable defeats the point of your class and makes you vulnerable to everything.
  
• You're pretty damn small, so it's easy to sneak around while crouching. Just don't do that when you have the bootie time equipped.
  
• You can perform your second jump at any time, even if you didn't jump in the first place. Jump before you hit the ground to avoid fall damage, jump when you reach your original height to go farther, jump at your apex for maximum height.
  
• It's possible to completely stop your momentum by doing a non-directional double jump. This is very useful against snipers.
  
• You can double-jump in any direction, even backwards if you want.
  
• Bunnyhopping (jumping every time you hit the floor) usually makes you harder to hit.
  
• You're the fastest class. Don't use teleporters, your team needs them.
  
• Bind your crouch key to a key close to your directional keys. Spam crouch whenever someone is taking potshots at you to avoid damage. Alternate between long/short crouches to throw them off further.
  
• Never, ever, ever have a pattern. Be as random as possible.

• Use your speed to reach capture points that aren't open yet while the previous one is being captured. That way, you can take advantadge of the distraction and start a capture easily.
  
• In CTF maps, let your allies push through the defense, then get the intel. If necessary, perform baton passes to tougher team members if you're too hurt to continue.
  
• In Payload, let your tougher allies push the cart. Pick off stragglers, spies, medics, and engies that try to setup in the meantime. Remember that the max cap speed is 3, and soldiers/demoes can count for 2 if they have a pain train.

• You're squishy. Killing you is very easy, so dodge everything.
  
• Close range is better for avoiding hitscans. Just don't get straight in their LOF.
  
• Soldiers are your natural counters. Competent snipers can kill you in one shot with some preparation. Watch for both.
  
• Soldiers and demoes need to lead their shots. Never run in the same direction for too long. Do not stay near corners or walls to avoid splash damage.
  
• You can outrun pyroes. Only approach if they aren't aware and you want to maximize damage output. If you're low on health and a pyro is chasing you, do not face him and backpedal. (Unless you can finish him off in one shot or two) Instead, turn around and go towards the nearest resupply drop spot. If they have a flare gun, use the anti-splash strategy.
  
• Heavies will murder you very quickly if you stay in their FOV. Don't be afraid to jump over them.
  
• Medics can kill you with half their syringe gun clip if you get too close. Remember that syringes arc down.
  
• Do NOT take on engineers with buildings. Let your team take care of that. If they're alone and building-less, go ahead.
  
• You can outrun normal sentries at close range. But you cannot outrun minisentries.
  
• Shotguns are your worst enemy in the hands of competent players. Even if yours is stronger, never underestimate shotguns.

= Shotgun with 150% Damage curve and slightly faster reload. Otherwise, it works the exact same way. Scattergun is one of your best weapons and is useful in all situations. Get up close for maximum damage.


= Super Shotgun from DOOM with an inferiority complex. Less damage per pellet, but more pellets, much stronger in close range. Useless at long range, really meh at medium, ridiculously good at point blank.

• FAN Knockback can be your worst enemy or your best friend. Don't knock enemies into their allies. Try to knock them off the map, or into a corner.
  
• Shooting with the FAN while in midair will screw up your momentum big time. Avoid that to prevent mistakes. Otherwise, it's a good triple jump.
  
• If you reload after only using one shell, you still need 2 to reload. Don't waste all your ammo.

= Scattergun with the FAN magazine system, damage of the scattergun, and quadruple jumping. No, that is not the best of both worlds, sadly.

• The 4 extra jumps can help you cross ridiculously long distances and do some seriously cool dodges but that's it. It's not great for killing anymore. Well, not as much.
  
• Better burst damage than the Scattergun, as it can unload two shells much faster. However, you have less DPS in the long run due to the small magazine. Easy to reload, though.

= QUADRUPLE SHOTGUN PISTOL HOLY CRAP. Excellent for survivability, Great range, uses pistol ammo, so don't be dumb and don't use pistol with it.

• Shortstop fires one ammo per shot, and unlike FAN, does not make you lose shells if you reload partially.
  
• As it works like a pistol, shortstop crits work on a 2-second period (which means you can get 2-3 crit shots) instead of a per-shot basis.
  
• All knockback is almost doubled when you use this weapon. While this may help you get out of danger, it can also screw up your escapes and dodges severely. Double jumping in mid-knockback can save your life.
  
• All healing sources grant you 1/4 more health when it's currently out. If you're using your melee or secondary, this won't happen, so make sure it's out before you grab healing items, or while your medic heals you.

= A scattergun that paid clip size to turn you into THE FRICKIN FLASH.

• Double-jumping reduces your boost by 25%. That means you can keep landsharking as long as you don't get too far off the ground.
  
• You only need 100 damage for max boost. Just shoot a few people at random and you're set.
  
• You'll be slightly slower than normal without boost. Fill it up so you don't stay too slow.
  
• Ammocap can bite you in the ass if you think this has as much ammo as the scattergun. It still has the same reload speed, so remember to use cover to reload.
  
• Extra speed can quickly throw off your aim if you aren't real careful. Poke around your mouse sensivity and find something that suits your fancy.

Pistol is good. Pistol is life. Pistol is love.

• Everyone underestimates it, but the pistol is VERY POWERFUL. At point blank, you can kill a soldier with 80% of your clip. That takes about 4 seconds.
  
• The pistol is extremely accurate and does 8 damage at long range. This is much better than ANY scattergun (except shortstop), so it's perfect to snipe runaway enemies.
  
• Remember that, unlike the engie, you only have 4 clips. Not 12.

Tiny baby gun hides lots of cool stuff.

• Great for survivability, it gives you 15 extra health (That's 140 total if you're wondering), and makes you invulnerable to fall damage! Who could ask for more? Well, it comes with its share of problems...
  
• +50% fire vulnerability. This is THE worst vulnerability debuff you can have. Run the hell away from pyroes, as they WILL kill you in about 2 seconds if you're close.
  
• Slow firing speed. While it still has the cool damage and accuracy of the pistol, this severely screw up the DPS.
  
• Pairs very well with the Face Blaster, as you won't need to double-jump to cushion falls anymore.

Antigrav hand cannon! YAY!

• The clip capacity is terrifyingly bad. While the damage boost makes it look like that you're gonna do more damage, the speed will be so low that the winger's DPS is actually pretty bad. So, only use it to finish off enemies.
  
• The jump boost is generally good for your dodging. Couple that with the FAN or Soda Popper to fly all over the place.

Throwing knives! Woo!

• Single-use, but recharges pretty fast.
  
• Hitting a stunned enemy performs an instant crit. This is really powerful when coupled with a sandman, but this also greatly limits your survivality and damage potential outside of combos. Also you gotta land both the knife and the ball.
  
• Guillotine is a great way to screw over players. The hit doesn't do a lot of damage, but the bleeding will definitely distract them. Fantastic against snipers.
  
• If you somehow manage to land a moon shot, the mini crit damage will severely amplify the output. Great against runaway enemies.

Does not turn you into an awesome lightweight boxer, but makes you intangible.

• Drinking a bonk takes a few seconds and completely freezes you. Make sure you have a margin of safety otherwise you'll get killed very fast.
  
• Bonk lasts 8 seconds. That is slightly shorter than a classic übercharge.
  
• The trail will make you easy to follow. Remember that you cannot defend yourself while using it, and enemies can catch up with you and kill you at the last second.

POWERTHIRST! IT'S LIKE CRYSTAL METH IN A CAN! IT'S CRYSTAL METH IN A CAN! (may contain Anna Kournikova)

• Critcola makes you faster and deal minicrits for 8 seconds. This is really good, but you get a 10% more damage taken debuff. So watch out.
  
• As with the babyface, speed boost can screw up your aim. If you feel funky, use both at the same time and become faster than Kenyans. (Nah, just joking, it doesn't stack.)
  
• Minicrits also remove your damage falloff! This makes all your weapons better at long range, especially the shortstop.

Now you can use the power of your radiation-infused semen! Or something.

• Enemies coated in milk give you 60% of your damage as health. That is enormous, two solid scattergun hits will fully heal you.
  
• Like the jarate, it extinguishes players, and yourself.
  
• The debuff helps all your allies as well. Throw this in desperate firefights for a quick and painless concheror-wannabe effect.
  
• Like the jarate, the debuff lasts 10 seconds and reveals spies. However, unlike jarate, it does NOT WARP VISION.
  
• Needs 20 Seconds to recharge.

Scout melee unlike all the other classes', is weaker, and tends to do around 35 damage per hit, 105 on crits.

Sandman

AKA Sisyphus' best friend. Time to rock n' roll!

• Sandman only stuns if it hits from far enough. Otherwise it deals piddly damage.
  
• Longer Distance = Longer stun. Moon shots completely stun enemies (instead of slowing them down), so go for those.
  
• Aiming a ball is like aiming a slightly lighter, smaller cannonball with no fuse.
  
• Removes 15 max health, so avoid the frontlines if you're not using the pocket pistol. Good for heckling, though.
  
• Takes 15 seconds to recharge.

Holy Mackerel

Ave Piscis Dei.

• Identical to stock bat, except for the absurdly cool FISH KILL! and the notifications.
  
• Hitting a dead ringer spy with the mackerel will trigger a Hit popup instead of a kill popup.

Candy Cane

Putting Pathos in People with Peppermint. (Oh god that was so bad)

• Identical to stock bat but makes you weaker to explosions. Use it with Pocket Pistol if you have a death wish.
  
• Any enemy that you kill (even with a different weapon) will drop small health kits. (the pills bottle that heal 25%) Good for you, but also everyone on your team... And enemies. So make sure it gets grabbed by friendlies.
  
• Triggering a dead ringer spy drops no healthkit, so it's a good way to spycheck.

Boston Basher

Like the bat, but with extra hardcore.

• Basically works like a tribalman shiv minus the damage penalty. However, if you miss, you get the bleeding effect instead.
  
• Fantastic if you can time your melees and hit every time. Otherwise, don't bother.
  
• Though there is a small trick: the bleed has a tiny amount of knockback, and using it in midair allows you to perform a stagger on yourself, which slows down your fall somewhat. If you use the Shortstop, the knockback actually makes you fly upwards. So if you have a medic handy or can reach healthkits at your destination, it's a good way to "levitate" all the way to it.
  
• Good for über buildings if there are no soldiers/demoes that are bothering.

Sun-On-A-Stick

Axtinguisher for the Scout! Whoo!

• Only useful if you cooperate a lot with pyroes. Otherwise, don't bother.

Fan-O-War

Wind Of Death
Sign Floats Over Martyr
Death Approaches

• Completely useless as a melee weapon, but causes a nasty debuff on enemies that turn all hits into minicrits. Basically a jarate minus the reveal, splash and view warping.
  
• The debuff lasts 15 seconds, that's 50% longer than the jarate!
  
• Good for tracking spies, the head remains above them for a bit before they go completely invisible.

Atomizer

Weaksauce Bat of Triple Jumping

• Weaker, slower, otherwise normal bat. Really bad at killing.
  
• Triple jump takes 10 hp. Don't kill yourself stupidly, only use it when you REALLY need it.

Wrap Assassin

Cleaver + Sandman = Roll of paper. #craftinglogic

• Second weakest melee weapon. Use the bauble.
  
• Bauble causes same bleed as the cleaver or basher. So don't pair it with the cleaver, because that's stupidly redundant.
  
• Bauble also does damage on hit, like sandman balls.
  
• Bauble flies slightly farther than the guillotine as it has less mass. It also has a smaller hitbox, though.
  
• Good if you still want bleed for spy/stragglers, but want to keep your pistol.

• Soldier is the second slowest class. Thus, dodging in general is pretty difficult. Use your tankyness, but don't abuse it!
  
• Soldier has the second highest mobility potential! Of course, you run slower than a scout, but you've got the almighty rocket jump. I'm not gonna explain the art of jumping, so look around for specialized guides.
  
• Try to reduce damage from your rocket jumps by jumping before you fire. But don't jump too high or fall damage will compensate. You can jump about 2.5 times your height without hurting yourself.
  
• Soldiers are pretty tall, but they're bent forwards when they use their rocket launcher. If you're running away from a sniper, don't use shotgun or melee, because you'll raise your head and become vulnerable.
  
• A crouched soldier is surprisingly compact. People rarely expect soldiers to pop up from hiding holes usually taken by scouts or spies.
  
• Since rocket jumping comes from Quake and so does bunnyhopping, don't be afraid to use both. Jumping before you fire rockets can help you avoid some of your splash damage if you fire towards the ground.
  
• If you have enough health, don't be afraid to rocket jump against a wall during another rocket jump to gain momentum or height.
  
• Again, if you have enough health, entering a battlefield from the top by rocket jumping is an excellent way to get the advantadge of surprise. Plus it looks awesome.

• Soldier is great for clearing out capturing forces or defense barricades.
  
• When capping, the Soldier serves as a tanky foothold for the rest of the capping force. If the scouts die, he'll still be alive, most of the time.
  
• Rocket-jump to reach capping points before everyone else!
  
• Soldier can be great in CTF if you have a scout to help you pass the baton. Have your team clear the briefcase room, make him take the briefcase for you, then have him give it to you in the middle area so you can rocket jump back to the base, and baton-pass the flag to one of your defenders for an easy capture.

• Soldier is the second tankiest class, but NOT invulnerable! Make sure you know where the healthkits are. Having a medic on your tail is good too, heavies aren't the only pockets.
  
• Only rocket jump when you have over 50 Health. You might survive a RJ at 50, but you might not survive the fall or reach health in time. Better safe than sorry.
  
• Battalion and Concheror can greatly improve your survivability, but don't take that for granted.
• Teams mostly focus on soldiers as they're one of the most dangerous classes. Attracting aggro is fine, but you must also let it cool off when you're low on ammo and health.
  
• While taking on engineers is one of your main jobs, don't overdo it. Buildings don't move and don't have damage falloff, so you can safely snipe them with your rockets.
  
• Fire rockets at long-range opponents like snipers to distract them and prevent them from landing shots safely. Even if you don't hit them, you're buying you and your team some time.
  
• Remember that you're slow, and thus getting back to the front can take some time. If you're low on health, retreating is a better way to spend your time.
  
• While you can kill scouts easily, they're still very dangerous. Letting them get close is a sure-fire way to hurt yourself.
  
• Juggled enemies aren't harmless, watch out for stray shots.
  
• Pyroes are your worst enemy. If you don't have a shotgun, get the hell out of there.
  
• Heavies are easy to kill, but it's just as easy for them to kill you.

Rocket Launcher

= Big, Bad, Full of Boom. This is hands down one of the best weapons in the game. Its biggest problem is its low clip capacity, but it's enormous damage, splash range, and knockback makes it a versatile, all-around useful weapon.

• Having Autoreload on (check advanced options) is a lifesaver. The rocket launcher has low clip capacity and reloads reeeeeally slowly. Never jump into a fight without a full clip.
  
• Splash damage can also hurt you. Duh. Don't kill yourself stupidly by shooting walls close to you. Use shotguns in CQC to save some health. It's just as powerful (if not more).
  
• Rockets come from the right side of the screen. This is really, really important. Your rockets will go slightly to the left at long ranges. It also makes the angle you're looking at when jumping very important, as your momentum will come with a right offset instead of being dead center.
  
• First reloaded rocket takes the most time, the next ones take less time.

= Hey, it's the same gun as in Saints Row 4! (I know, tf2 did it first.)

• The black box makes the magazine problem of the rocket launcher even worse by removing 1 rocket from the clip. That sounds minor but it's absolutely terrifying how many times that will come to bite you back in the ass.
  
• All hits, splash or direct, will give you 15 hp, which really gives you a nice survival boost. Best used by support sollies. Multiple hits on a single rocket also give you 15 hp each. Shoot into crowds to heal up quickly.
  
• Useful for finding spies. If you shoot them and get health, obvious spy.

Original

= Nostalgia!

• Completely identical to stock rocket launcher, except it looks cooler, sounds really retro, and the rockets come from the CENTER of the screen. The original, like in Quake, is centered, and the right offset of the other launchers is removed. This makes the original 100% accurate. Additionally, very good for jumping, as your momentum origin is always centered.

= Explode the enemies of freedom as fast as possible.

• First of all, the liberty launcher is excellent for rocket jumping, as it does a lot less self damage. But it also does less damage in general, so make your shots count!
  
• Liberty rockets fly 40% faster. That's about as fast as a car on the freeway, so you won't need to lead your targets as much as usual. Use this to make sure most of your hits are direct, as the lowered damage will make splash hits less effective.

= Sniper Rocket Launcher! Or something.

• Direct hit rockets fly absurdly fast, so leading your target requires less offsetting as usual. However, make sure your rockets, well, hit directly, as the splash range is about 25 centimeters and does hilariously crappy damage.
  
• This gun is excellent for single-unit elimination, but it doesn't allow you to take on multiple targets effectively. Focused targets will go down very fast if your accuracy is good enough.

Beggar's Bazooka

= Poor man's Macross Missile Massacre

• This launcher doesn't have a magazine per se, but you can load up 3 rockets and fire them all at once. The accuracy is horrible, but in close range this is almost always an instant kill.
  
• Excellent for wiping out crowds with a fully charged burst. Horrible for taking on lone, fast targets.
  
• You can't get ammo from dispensers. So make sure you know where the ammokits are.
  
• Putting a fourth rocket in the launcher will detonate that rocket and send you flying. When using gunboats, this is a nice way to jump. If you keep the reload button pressed, you will not add an additional rocket, but make the other, already loaded ones detonate.

Cow Mangler

= The closest thing you will get to a BFG9000.

• The cow mangler has infinite ammo! However, it does hilariously bad damage against buildings. Watch out, this hides why it's actually useful.
  
• Overcharging the weapon will empty the entire clip to shoot a blast with ignition damage on all enemies in the radius, and mini crit damage. This isn't really cost-effective, but it's good as a desperation attack. The main point, though, is the fact it disables buildings, which works exactly like the engineer's wrangler sentry reset, minus the shield, and the fact it affects all buildings.
  
• The Mangler will never, ever fire a crit blast. Ever. Even if you have kritzkrieg medic. This can screw up your damage potential, even on no-crits servers.

= Death from above, march of the valkyries, and so on

• Airstrike does a wee bit less damage and has less clip cap than stock, but it has a really nice feature: using it "properly" allows you to spam like there's no tomorrow.
  
• More kills = more ammo and more cap. it might be judicious to get a few kills before attempting an airstrike.
  
• Pick BASE Jumper for more airtime, gunboats for less vulnerability.
  
• Obviously, only attempt airstrikes in areas that are open enough.

Shotgun

Oh boy. This thing is good. Again, one of the best weapons in the game. Solly sure is lucky.

• Fires 10 Pellets. Damage is basically the same as the scattergun, but the damage ramp begins much lower. Still excellent at close range, and allows you to save precious rockets and health.
  
• A little protip: All the pellets are random except one, which is always 100% accurate. If you want, you can snipe people for 3 damage.
  
• Good ammo capacity in general, but the reloading is kind of slow.
  
• Max point blank damage is 90. You can kill most classes in 3 shots, so you can easily get 2-3 kills per full magazine.
  
• Critical hits do 180 damage and will kill anything but soldiers and heavies in one shot. The second shot will probably finish them off.

Reserve Shooter

Now you have your personal AA gun!

• Mini crits on airborne targets. Thus, better used on anyone that is too jumpy. Watch for the short window of crits, though.
  
• Low clip capacity. Make sure you get close enough, and it's always fully loaded before you engage anyone.
  
• The telltale sound will often make players stick to the ground. Get the initiative with the speedy switch.

Righteous Bison

Pocket Pomson! Minus the cool bits.

• Fires a single projectile that behaves like a rocket but doesn't explode. Instead, it passes through targets.
  
• Can hit a target multiple times. Much more powerful when used on backpedaling targets.
  
• Shoot a friendly sniper that uses the Huntsman to ignite his arrow.
  
• Like the Mangler, uses no ammo.
  
• Also like the mangler, really weak against buildings.
  
• Reloading one shot at a time is less effective than reloading the entire clip, as the first load takes 0.9 seconds, and all the others only take 0.4.
  
• Crit bison projectiles are affected by damage falloff!

My feet, they're made of steel!

• Perfect for rocket jumping without sacrificing too much of your firepower. If you really need to get somewhere in a hurry to blow stuff up, this is your best choice.
  
• Useless with rocket jumper.
  
• Really fun with Beggar's Bazooka if you overcharge it.

Put on shoe. Become Plumber.

• Deals three times your fall damage on whoever you happen to fall on, letting you fall down unscathed. Good to jump off buildings, but really, really hard to aim with.
  
• Greatly reduces enemy knockback so demoes and other soldiers can't toss you around as they please. May or may not help you, depending on the situation.

Banners

Buff Banner

Use the power of... uh... military music. Yeah.

• Requires 600 damage to charge. (That's two entire heavies or three entire soldiers.) That can be a lot if you don't run into groups.
  
• Allies that are about 20 feet away from you will get minicrits, which greatly ramps up damage at all range by removing fall off, and adds 30% damage on top. That's like reinvesting your damage with interest!
  
• All banners can be "held". Simply blow into it once it's ready and KEEP THE ATTACK BUTTON HELD. Until you release it, the buff won't be deployed, allowing you to time it more accurately. This works with all banners.
  
• Last ten seconds.
  
• Enemies having said banner deployed will have shiny weapons.

Flag of Shielding +1

• Also requires 600 damage to charge. Try not to get killed during chargeup, or your offense/defense might suffer.
  
• Makes your affected allies immune to crit and minicrit damage, instead taking normal damage in all cases. This makes it ridiculously useful against kritz medics.
  
• The damage reduction stacks with all damage increases/reductions as well, which means that targe demoes are almost invulnerable to explosives and fire, pain train users almost completely lose their weakness to bullets, GRU heavies take no extra damage, etc.
  
• Also lasts ten seconds.
  
• Good for making you and all your team tanky, which allows you to survive, but not deal, more damage.
  
• Enemies under the effect of this banner will have a large, pulsating circle around their legs.

Healing Seafood
Praise Holy Shell
Run Faster

• Gives you a 2 hp/ second regen. This is just under the medic's regen rate, but considering how much health you have, that's hardly noticeable. You'd need more than two minutes to heal to full health from 1 hp.
  
• Only needs 480 damage to charge up!
  
• Same area and duration as other banners.
  
• Allies under the effect of the conch will run faster as if struck by the Disciplinary Action, and heal based on damage as if all enemies were splashed with a (weaker) Mad Milk. (35% instead of 60, but still a good deal nonetheless.)
  
• Has the most discrete banner effect, affected enemies only have a "speed-lines" effect and healing particles when hitting people.

Shovel

A classic. Really.

• Stock melee. Stock damage. Stock speed. You got plenty of good alternatives, ditch it.

Hey remember when this was really awesome?

• Damage ramp is inversely proportional to your hp. Maxes out at 15-1 and mins out at 200-180. Having more than 80% hp will actually reduce damage!
  
• Medics can't heal you.
  
• Unlike the Escape Plan, it doesn't have any other debuffs. It doesn't make you faster anymore, either.
  
• Enemies will notice this weapons due to its obvious white/blood color, so try to get the initiative.
  
• It's sometimes better to engage with more than 50% health and finish a victor with less, than go for a suicide attack and miss.

Escape Plan

Critical damage sustained, engage turbo boost.

• More damage taken = Faster speed. At 40-1 hp you're almost as fast as a scout.
  
• Same damage as the shovel.
  
• Use for a quick runaway when wounded, but dodge as much as possible! Still no help from medics.
  
• Makes your highly noticeable due to the skull on your head. By the way, don't think distance will save you, mini crits remove damage falloff!

Disciplinary Action

Kinky.

• Does less damage than the shovel and picks, but has an absurdly large range. Hits 1.7 times farther than the normal melee distance (Eyelander is 1.5)!
  
• Any ally hit with this will become 25-40% faster depending on class (scouts get the least boost, Heavies/Soldiers get the most)
  
• You also get a speed bonus when a teammate is buffed.
  
• Boost lasts 4 seconds.

Pain Train

Actually the train is going to hit you.

• Identical to shovel, except you take more bullet damage.
  
• Makes you more potent for capping, but you need to use cover against heavies, scouts, snipers, and engineers.

OMFG MLG JUMP SMASHHIT DABES WEPON

• Stock shovel that has guaranteed crits when you hit someone during a rocket jump.
  
• In order to use it potently enough, you WILL need to get good at rocketjumping. Check out jumping-focused guides for tips.

Daikatana will make you soldier's ♥♥♥♥♥.

• When you pull it out, there's no putting it down. You kill or get killed.
  
• Only use when you are SURE that you will kill the enemy you're aiming at.
  
• Honorbinding only happens when it's fully pulled out, so you can quickswitch during the pull animation to prevent unecessary pain.
  
• Killing any enemy at all will fully heal you. Great for a runaway after a successful desperation attack.
  
• Remember: Katana + Katana = Instant Kill. (Uses backstab formula)

• Pyro is the only class with 100% movement speed and more than 125 hp. This means you can outrun all the slow classes and stick to everything else, except medics and scouts.
  
• Pyroes don't really have anything special to help their movement (except Scorch Jumping, but that isn't much). While projectiles won't be an issue, hitscans will definitely be a hurdle to dodge. Being twitchy can help a lot.
  
• Pyroes are wide, but a bit on the short side. Crouching can help you sneak around unnoticed, as long as you switch to your secondary, because your flamethrowers and melees are freaking huge.
  
• People usually find pyroes around corners, so try to surprise them by not being where they expect. The top/bottom is often a good option.
  
• Remember, not being able to move in any special way means nothing when you can make enemies move around.

Objectives

• Pyroes are best suited for supporting offenses and defenses. Directly attacking as a pyro is a good way to get yourself killed.
  
• There's a flag holder near you but you can't kill them? Push them away to slow them down and make them take a detour.
  
• Pushing enemies away from capture points is a good way to buy your team time to block the capture.
  
• Enemies on fire are always distracted and have their aim disrupted. Igniting an entire attack force, even if it doesn't do much damage, is a good way to disrupt the flow of an assault.

Survival

• You have 175 HP. This is good, but remember that you're not good at dodging hitscans, which are the strongest damage dealers (miniguns / sniper rifles are going to be your worst enemies.)
  
• You can't be lit on fire. But that doesn't mean that being submerged in napalm is going to leave you unscathed, because constant flamethrower attacks will still do a lot of damage.
  
• As long as you have ammo or access to ammo, projectiles aren't dangerous for you as long as your timing is good. Reflect is one of your most powerful weapons. Be careful, you can still be damaged by your own reflected projectiles.
  
• Pyroes are ridiculously good against soldiers and demoes as long as they can reflect or surprise them. However, Heavies and Snipers are horribly dangerous for them. Let your team take care of snipers, and only perform heckling on heavies unless you're sure that he doesn't care about you, or that he's weakened.
  
• Scouts can be either ridiculously easy to kill, or absolute banes, depending on their skill level.
  
• Always flank/back-attack enemies. It's one of the cornerstones of playing pyro. The more time they take to notice you, the more damage you can deal.
  
• Pyroes are surprisingly easy to kill, so don't be afraid to suicide attack if you believe it's going to be useful.
  
• Firing flames with a slight upwards angle can obscure your model and make you harder to aim at by snipers.
  
• Remember, you can also help others survive by extinguishing them by using your airblast.
  
• Help others help you. For an example, fire a puff of flame at a friendly bowman sniper to light his arrow on fire and ramp up his damage.
  
• SPY CHECK. SPY CHECK. SPY CHECK. It's easy, painless and mostly free. Fire a single puff at disguises spies, people you didn't notice before, people behaving strangely, etc. There is no friendly fire so don't be afraid. Remember, undisguised spies on your team cannot be disguised enemies spies.

I won't cover Pyrovision variants as they are identical to their stock origins.

• All flamethrowers have damage falloff! Burning people at point blank does more damage, as you lose around 40% of your damage at max range.
  
• Burn Particles will always have a tint of the player's team color. A burning blue spy will have bluish flames, while red spies will have redder flames. Use this to spycheck. A player on your team with the wrong burn color = spy.
  
• Critical flames still have damage falloff.

= I love the smell of napalm in the morning, etc.

• Flamethrower is pretty balanced. Normal damage. Normal airblast cost. All the capacities of a normal flamethrower. In general, it's good.
  
• As always, airblast allies on fire to put them out.
  
• 20 ammo user per airblast = 10 Airblast from a full ammo stock. Make sure you know where the ammo piles are.
  
• Reflect projectiles with airblast to turn them back against your enemies and make them turn into mini crits. (or with some luck, full crits)
  
• Reflecting projectiles makes them fly where you're aiming, not directly back to where they came from. Use this to lead your targets like soldiers would do.
  
• You can rocket jump using reflected rockets.
  
• Afterburn always deals 60 damage for a full period. 80 if crit/minicrit.
  
• If you're next to a dispenser, you can fire ad nauseam until you move away from its range.
  All flamethrowers have damage falloff! Burning people at point blank does more damage, as you lose around 40% of your damage at max range.

Backburner

= EYM A DRAGUN!!1oneleleven

• Remember, this weapon is the best for sneak attacks. On frontal attacks, it's only good if you circle enemies constantly, but the advantadge of surprise will always be your friend with this weapon.
  
• Larger airblast costs make this weapon unsuitable for reflecting and extinguishing allies. Only do those if you REALLY need to do so, or if you're going to die and have lots of ammo to spare.
  
• The "back" hitbox, is NOT the backstab hitbox. It's actually much, much smaller, and is only around 90 degrees from the center of the player's back. So make sure you're properly placed!

= I'm using my flame thrower, aaaaaand now i'm not!

• The really, really fast switch speed can truly ramp up your damage potential. Ignite an enemy, quickswitch to axtinguisher if in range, or flare gun if farther, bang, crit. Done.
  
• The lesser damage is there to make you use other weapons. It's not that good for killing by itself, but RIDICULOUSLY good with any of the "crit if on fire weapons".
  
• Afterburn also does less damage, so it's more useful as a tracking / Crit tool than real damage.

Phlogistinator

= y does evry1 haet my steampukn weapn? ((((((((

• If you're really selfish, use this. You can heal yourself. You can boost your damage. But you won't help anyone but yourself.
  
• No airblast = no reflect, no extinguishing. Kill everything before they can hurt your allies.
  
• Will not crit outside of MMMMMPHing. So don't go rushing in if you didn't charge before.
  
• Does the same damage as the degreaser.
  
• Charging your MMMMPH takes 225 damage. That's surprisingly low, as you only need to kill a soldier and do some other damage to fill up.
  
• Taunting in the middle of a huge firefight to trigge MMMMPH may not be a good idea, even with the heal and defense boost. It might be smarter to hide, trigger MMMMPH then charge in with full health and crits.
  
• Buff lasts 10 seconds and won't recharge with damage while it's on.

Pyro's Hadouken taunt is the second fastest tauntkill in the game. It's also one of the only TKs that can destroy buildings!

Great weapon, yadda yadda, do i need to do this for all the classes? :c

• Exactly the same as the soldier's. The animation is much nicer though.
  
• Good for finishing enemies outside your range, or if you want to save fuel.
  
• Pairs well with degreaser, as you have a quick way to deal 50+ damage at close range.

Reserve Shooter

Déja vu much?

• Again, identical to soldier's. However, this is much, much easier to use for you!
  
• Airblast enemies then switch to this to deal minicrits, rinse and repeat. Be careful of the small clip capacity.
  
• Pair with degreaser for hideously fast weapon switch.

Flare Gun

Pills for the pyro!

• One thing that's cool about this gun and all the other flareguns: They have no damage falloff. All damage is constant across range.
  
• Hitting an enemy on fire will always result in a crit. That's 90 damage, which is the same as a shotgun blast from up close.
  
• Excellent to heckle enemies at a range and disrupt snipers.
  
• Like arrows, flares arc, so aim higher than the enemy to hit them at a distance.
  
• Flare guns reload even when you're not using them. Quickswitching does not cancel reload time, however.

Detonator

Fireworks! Woo!

• Detonator can make its flare explode anywhere you want. This can compense for enemy movement.
  
• Hitting an enemy on fire will only deal mini crits. Thus, flaregun is better if your aim is true.
  
• You can perform midair jumps by blasting flares under your feet. However, it's a very minor boost, don't expect to go anywhere soldiers or scouts can go.
  
• Exploding flares can destroy enemy stickybombs!

Airblast at a distance. Or something.

• Less damage than the flares, but large ignite radius when it blows up. It also has large knockback and can throw enemies into pits or away from their allies.
  
• Flarejumping is less dangerous with this, but you can't jump as far.
  
• Can also remove stickybombs.
  
• Longer range hit = more knockback. you deal triple knockback at long ranges.
  
• Tauntkill only deals 400 damage at very close range. Otherwise it's just a cool way to fire flares.
  
• Doesn't deal vertical knockback. Shooting enemies from the bottom will not knock them upwards.

Manmelter

Laz0r gunn!1 pewpeewpewpewpepwepwpepepepe

• If you use phlog, you might want to use this to be able to extinguish allies.
  
• Can extinguish for free, so you can save that 20 fuel units for more damage.
  
• Manmelter bolts fly much faster, so you don't need to compensate for height as much as usual.
  
• Infinite ammo but never crits outside of "charged" hits. Also it's much slower.
  
• Exact same mechanics as the flaregun otherwise.
  
• You can store up to 35 crits.

Weaponry - Melee

Axe

Chop chop. Chop chop.

• It's really just a stock melee. There's nothing special about it, really.

Thermal Axe of Rocking

• Direct upgrade to the axe.
  
• Hitting anyone that is being healed by a medic, or a medic that is healing someone will hurt both, but also any consecutive healing/healee person in the network, if for some reason there's a lot of medics at once.
  
• Hitting a pocket heavy a couple times with it will probably not kill the heavy, but it will surely kill the medic(s).

Axtinguisher

I have a match to light. On you.

• Crappy on anything that isn't on fire. Ridiculously dangerous on anything that is.
  
• Only useful in combos. Thus, having quickswitch turned on is imperative. Degreaser helps a lot, and so do flareguns.
  
• Enemies that realize you're trying to axtinguish them will always try to knock you back, so get the initiative.

Homewrecker

Stop. Hammertime.

• Become an engie's best friend with this. You can instantly remove sappers from any buildings with a single hit.
  
• Uber Pyro + This + Engie nest = lots of scrap. This is surprisingly good against buildings if you can get to them without getting killed.
  
• Really cool looking, but sadly not really powerful in melee.

Back Scratcher

Unhealthy itches to scratch.

• This is like the Demoman's skullcutter, minus the speed penalty. Instead, medics can barely heal you, but healthkits give you much more health.
  
• Can be good if you have no medics or know exactly where the healthkits are.
  
• People will try to knock you back when they see this weapon, so again, get the initiative.

Neon Annhiliator

Reverse axtinguisher, yay!

• Instead of critting burning targets, this crits wet targets. This means anyone underwater, standing in water, or covered in jarate or milk.
  
• Can also remove sappers, but needs two hits instead of one.
  
• Only deals 20% less damage. So it's still slightly reliable as a normal melee.
  
• Turns into a bass guitar when you taunt.

Now that's highly metal.

• 20% less damage, but lights enemies on fire. It's basically like a tribalman's shiv. But with fire instead of bleed.
  
• Excellent for spychecking as you can light spies on fire without using ammo.

Jumping Jack Flash, it's gas, gas, gas!

• You walk 15% faster as long as it's out, making you the second fastest class.
  
• Killing any enemy gives you 75 health, which is half of your maximum.
  
• Getting hit by absolutely anything will make you take 20% more damage while it's out.
  
• Unlike the Zatoichi, the heal bonus can overheal you, up to 260 HP.

• Demomen have the highest movement potential thanks to stickyjumping. Learn how to use it effectively, and you're faster than anything.
  
• Demomen are bulky, but also surprisingly fast, you can reach 100% speed classes if you can cut corners effectively.
  
• Stickyjumping is just like rocket jumping, except the stickies must be placed beforehand. The timing is thus much different, but it works in a very similar way.
  
• You can control your momentum mid-stickyjump, much like when rocket jumping. it's generally easier, though.
  
• As a rule of thumb, you never need more than two stickies to jump. Crouch before jumping to get extra speed and height and save some health.
  
• Try to make your jumps long and not high. That way you'll save some health from potential falls.
  
• Maneuver from cover to cover to maximize your safety without sacrificing damage.

• You're mostly a defense/rush class, so put up traps in chokepoints to defend your allies. If an enemy engie shows up, it's your job to eliminate it while the spies assist you.
  
• In Payload, you're a good pusher if using pain train. Otherwise, stick in the front and fire grenades in order to make the area unsafe for your enemies.
  
• In CTF, your job is to defend chokepoints and your flag (and again, blow up engie nests.) However, if you have enough health and can reach spawn by jumping, having the flag passed to you can help greatly.

• The demo is a tough guy. He has 175 hp, just like the pyro. He also has the best resistance buffs of any class.
  
• Always, always use cover. Enemy cover is worthless against you, since your projectiles arc. Put stickies behind covers, shoot grenades around corners. The element of surprise is your best friend.
  
• Pyros are your natural counter. Be very careful, you MUST get direct hits or surprise attacks, competent pyros will always reflect your projectiles. (Though that may help reduce their ammo stocks.)
  
• Remember that all your weapons deal splash damage and that you must lead your shots.
  
• Heavies, engineers and sniper are weak against you. Your weapons are strong enough to take out the latter two in one hit, so if your aim is true, most classes will die very fast.
  
• Do not take needless risks against sentry nests. Get behind cover and rain stickies and grenades on it. Remember that engies can shoot your stickies; so put them in obfuscated places.
  
• A lot of weapons can sacrifice damage potential for resitances, but you can eventually turn into an extremely tough pusher. Targe + Paintrain limits your damage output, but you'll be much tougher against pyroes; soldiers and demoes. Throw in a medic with vaccinator, a soldier with battalion, and you're invulnerable.

Weaponry - Primary

Before we get started, something important to know about grenade mechanics:
Grenade launchers do NOT suffer from damage falloff. Stickybombs do.


= Pills!

• Grenades fly at about 1220 Hammer Units per second, which is about 52-54 MPH.
  
• Grenades don't fly straight but spin around, which makes bouncing unpredictable, try to go for direct hits.
  
• Of course, grenades bounce on solid objects. Shoot your enemies behind cover by bouncing your 'nades on the walls / ceiling.
  
• Grenades explode after ~3 Seconds.
  
• Try to reload more than one shot at a time: The first reloaded grenade takes 1.2 seconds, the next ones only 0.6!
  
• Damage is wildly unpredictable on this weapon, but it hovers around 80-120 damage per hit. That means you'll often need a second grenade if your target isn't softened up.
  
• The splash range is slightly over one meter.
  
• Even self-damage is unpredictable, but hitting yourself at point blank will deal 40-75 damage to you.
  
• Lead your targets when trying to hit them directly, grenades are slow and arc, so aim far and high.

Loch N' Load

= Luck N' Lolz, Direct Pills, etc.

• Grenades fly at about 2 MPH faster than the stock ones, so you don't need to lead as much.
  
• Hitting anything that isn't a player or a building will do absolutely no damage whatsoever. You must always hit directly. No bouncing allowed.
  
• The extra damage also applies to you, so be careful when close to enemies.
  
• Very useful against buildings due to its high damage and quick projectiles, but the ammo capacity severely limits you in extended combat.

= Give 'em the broadside!

• Cannonballs are MUCH faster than grenades. You won't need to lead as much as usual.
  
• Cannonballs have a fuse of ~1 second.
  
• Hitting anything that isn't a building or a player will halve the damage of the cannonball. And that sucks. Go for direct hits.
  
• Cannonballs deal a LOT of knockback. Use that to push enemies in holes, towards your allies, or other hazards. (But try not to push them into their friends.)
  
• Shortening the fuse in a way that you hit someone and the cannonball detonates just barely afterwards so that it damages them as well will make the explosion deal mini-crit damage (and give you the relatively cool "DOUBLE DONK!" popup.
  
• Shortening the fuse to 0 will make the cannonball explode in your face, but can be used for very powerful jumping.
  
• Self damage is NOT reduced after a bounce. You'll still take full damage.

Booties (Ali Baba and Bootlegger)

= My feet are augmented.

• Removes your best way to deal damage in order to enhance your survivability by 25 hp.
  
• Can be useful for sticky jumping and extended firefights using stickybombs. However, it's not that good for single combat, as GL is very useful in that scenario.
  
• Excellent when paired with one of the swords, as it removes the health penalty they give. Plus if you use a targe, you can go demoknight and make yourself much more mobile when charging.
  
• When charging, your turning window is not extended (you won't be able to move much when entering the crit phase), but you can turn much more sharply in the buildup phase. Good for readjusting yourself.

Don't shut your chute, or you'll get shut down

• Removes your best damage dealing tool in order to make airtime much easier to control. While it's relatively meh on demo since sticky jumping has excellent control in general, it's more useful on Soldier. However, you can use it to make a pseudo-airstrike using stickies.

All stickies can be removed by bullets, needles, and bison beams.
= Here's a spiky ball of doom. Aaaaand now you're dead.

• Stickies fly in a very similar way to grenades and deal damage in the same way. However, you can detonate them as soon as they blink which is about 0.9 seconds after you fire.
  
• Stickies fly much slower than grenades. (About 50% slower.) So don't try to bap people with them or something.
  
• Charge up your shot to fire farther. Only use that for traps though, you need 4 seconds to fully charge.
  
• Stickybombs aren't 100% accurate when they fly, keep that in mind when firing at long distances.
  
• Aim high to save up some charging time.
  
• Of course, use them to sticky jump. Again, you never need more than two. If you need to go farther, CROUCH after you jump, and before you detonate. Be wary that it's much more damaging than rocket jumping.
  
• If you place more than 8 stickies, the oldest one will detonate. You can make an explosive trail that way.

= More balls, MORE BALLS.

• Can place 6 more stickies, but that means you'll have to reload since the clip capacity is still 8.
  
• Excellent for area denial and traps because you can pick exactly what place to blow up. Good to set multiple areas of defense.
  
• If you have lots of time, set up traps on ever point, and simply look in the general direction of it and detonate if someone tries to cap it.
  
• You can destroy enemy stickies with your own stickies, but stickies detonated by firing more than 14 stickies will not.

= I'm flying! WHEEEEEEEEEE!

• You get a ton more ammo, but you can't put more than two stickies and you don't deal damage.
  
• Extremely useful if you need to get somewhere in a hurry. Can be excellent in CP, but mostly meh in CTF since you can't capture the intel.