Hi!

I main Spy in Team Fortress 2, with hundreds of hours as Spy. The Spy, to me, has been the most intriguing, as it is the weakest, and yet the most deadly, requiring the player to constantly be thinking and adapting to any given position. Also, personally it is the most fun class.

This guide is me trying to share some of my experience of the spy, to hopefully help the newer rising spies. I will be going over some mistakes that new Spy Players do and how to use each knife to its highest potential.

If there is anything missing, or you want to ask a question, please notify me in the comments
All help is accepted

The knife is a weapon exclusive to the Spy. The knife is held with the blade of the knife pointing away from the Player.
When the player attacks with the knife, a slashing action takes place, deducting 40 health from the enemy. This of course is not what the knife is intended for, and thus renders itself more useful when striking from the back.
A Backstab is the sole reason you see pyros checking everyone. A single swipe of the knife to the back deals 6 times the enemy's health, killing any class with a single blow. If the Spy is capable of doing a backstab, the Spy raises the knife, an indication of a possible backstab.

Also referred to as the Vanilla Knife, and favoured by many Veteran spies, the Stock Knife has no good or bad attributes. 40 Damage a hit and 6 times the victims health as damage from a backstab.

Note: The Saxxy Award, Sharp Dresser, Festive Knife and Black Rose are all re-skins of the Stock Knife, with a different kill icon. All these weapons behave exactly like the Stock Knife with the exception of the Saxxy Award, turning the victim into a Solid Statue of Australium.

This video belongs to OfficialTF2wiki

Tips:

• Since the Stock Knife has no special attributes such as health regeneration, it is always a good idea to be careful when going for a backstab, as if your cover is blown, you are pretty much dead.
  
  
• Pick your targets wisely. Most new spies go for the amazing 'chain stabs': Stabbing multiple enemies in a row, usually 3 or more. This again is dangerous as if an enemy behind you with a pair of eyes see's you, its highly likely that that player will kill you. Missing the backstab in a chain stab is also dangerous. This has happened to me a lot in a chain stab, alerting the enemies of my presence before gunning me down.
  
  
• Prioritise your targets. Here are the enemies you should be going for if you are given a choice. After locating the enemy, it is sometimes better to kill 1 of them, before pulling out, as your role of the Spy anyway is to be undetected and to create fear and paranoia. Smile when you see 3 pyros come out of their base. This indicates you did your job well
  
  • 1.) Engineers and Medics
    
  • 2.) Heavies, Soldiers and Demomen
    
  • 3.) Snipers, Pyros and Scouts
    
  • 4.) Spies
  This is in order of how much of an impact these classes have towards a victory or defeat. There will be times when their Spy should be prioritised over a medic, but that tends not to happen often, or until you finish reading this guide.
  
  
  
• If you are on low health or cloak(if using the Dead Ringer or cloak and dagger), don't go in for the kill, as if you die, you will be putting your team at a disadvantage of 1 player. Your presence alone is helping your team win, as players have to constantly be on the lookout for YOU, hindering their ability to progress.

Your Eternal Reward: one of the most dangerous knives in the spy's arsenal of deadly weapons, IF, and only IF, in the right hands. The Your Eternal Reward steals the disguise of the Player you backstabbed. Your disguise is applied immediately, with a very short delay and no smoke to give yourself away. The catch: you cannot use your disguise kit, meaning you have to find a poor soul to backstab before you can safely walk past a sentry nest.

The Your Eternal Reward is a Silent Killer, meaning your victims will not make a sound when dying. The kill icon will not appear for the enemy team, meaning they will have no idea their Sniper has been replaced.

Note: The Wanga Prick is a re-skin of the Your Eternal Reward, behaving the same in all manners with the exception of completing the Saharan Spy item set.( Hate Steam censoring)

This Demonstration belongs to OfficialTF2Wiki

Tips:

• When finding a disguise, the best approach is to find an isolated enemy. The most common is the sniper.
  
  
• A clever way to get a disguise is to use the environment, such as hiding behind barrels or standing above the enemy. You will be surprised how oblivious the enemy can be. If you are standing say on a cliff, they will most probably not pay attention to you, allowing you to do an "air stab".
  
  
• Be very sure that when you are going for a backstab, that it will work, as a simple miss of the backstab will drop your disguise, and finding another one will set you back from destroying the enemy team.
  
  
• I wouldn't recommend the Dead Ringer with the Your Eternal Reward as the silent decloak bonus from the item set has been removed, and a loud decloak behind an enemy will increase your difficulty with finding a disguise.
  
  
• Do not stab everyone! This is the biggest mistake players make with this weapon. Backstabbing a Sniper, and then a Heavy may not be such a good idea, as you will be stuck with the Heavy disguise. "Why would a Heavy be walking towards a Sniper" will be the question ringing through the enemy team's head when they see you going for another backstab.
  
  
  • With this knife, stabbing the Heavy is a no no, unless you know what you are doing. This is the only exception on targets you should prioritise. You become slow, and when you don't start shooting everything, your disguise is blown.

Note: On high level play, this weapon falls under the worst, as players will be too alert to let you slip by.

The Big Earner has an attribute that all Spies love, the gain of their cloak meter upon a kill. This allows the Spy to get in, kill and get out much more easily than that of a regular knife...

or so you thought!

The only downside of this knife is the deduction of 25 max health, which may sound like nothing, but is enough to get you killed more often than you'd think. It's pretty much up to personal preference.

This video belongs to OfficialTF2wiki

Tips:

• This is most certainly the knife you never want to use when getting into a group of enemies. You'd be surprised how quickly you die compared to the other knives, and the extra cloak will not stop a rocket from damaging you - Except the Dead Ringer.
  
  
• This knife synergises well with the Cloak and Dagger, along with the Dead Ringer. It's kind of wasted on the normal Invis Watch as you are able to pick up ammo boxes and the weapon dropped from your enemy.
  
  
• A kill pattern with this knife with the Dead Ringer is to go in, backstab 2 enemies, Dead Ringer out. Rinse and repeat. This and the Dead Ringer is the best 'suicide' setup. The speed boost gained from a kill will increase your chance of escape or enable you to catch up to foes for a chain-stab(Do not do this with the other 2 watches unless you know you will get away).
  
  
• Know where the health kits are on every map you play on, as you will be needing them more often than you'd think. You might feel that your health meter is nearly full, but with 25 health deducted from it, its not much.

Note: Personally I find that this knife is the 2nd most practical knife, after the Stock Knife, as the stats do not hinder the Spy enough to stop him from doing what he was intended to do

Remember when I said that the Your Eternal Reward was great for chain stabs? You didn't read it?
Well this knife is on par or even better with chain stabs.

The Kunai Deducts 55 max health from the Spy. You thought the Big Earner's 25 health deduction was bad, wait until a Demoman can 1 shot you. This knife can be the most frustrating but also the most rewarding. Upon a successful backstab, the Spy absorbs health, depending on how much the player he killed had, up to a maximum of 180 health. 180 health on a spy is scary business, especially if this Spy can just stab you and get it again.

The degeneration of the over-heal from the knife is slower than the degeneration of over-heal from an Ubercharge.

This demonstration belongs to OfficialTF2Wiki

Tips:

• Never get into a team fight if you are not over healed.
  
  
• Don't stick with your teammates. Your teammates will attract unwanted attention. They may have 150-200 health, whereas you have 70. They don't understand the position you are in, nor do they care.
  
  
• Your over-heal grants a lot of health; use this to your advantage, e.g. Stabbing a Medic while standing in front of a sentry gun. You will have enough health to get behind cover or pull out the Dead Ringer, allowing you to make a get-away.
  
  
• Never go for a backstab if you don't have 70 health or are unsure of the outcome
  
  
• Again Prioritise targets. The risk you run from dying is not worth the death of their scout. pay special consideration to Engineers, Medics and Heavies.
  
  
• Avoid Pyros, because if they get a slither of fire on you, your chance of getting away is almost zero

Note: This knife is very situational and again is not that good at high level play, as a stray rocket or grenade launcher bomb is enough to kill you.

The health gained from the Kunai will remove after burn or bleed. Getting lit in fire while overheated is a problem Because you won't be able to pick up a health pack to remove it.

This knife is best used with the Dead Ringer, for easy escapes and a second chance at life

Easily one of the most fun knives to use as the spy. It burns? No problem! Just whip out this bad boy and watch as that Pyro's flames fly straight past you.

This knife is the perfect knife... apart from one thing.
It leaves behind ice sculptures of your victims, a calling card that Spy was here.

Note: The Spy-cicle is no longer a Silent Killer, meaning they make the same screaming sound as though you were using a regular knife.

This demonstration belongs to OfficialTF2Wiki

Tips:

• Avoid Pyros. Although the knife allows you to become fire proof, letting your knife melt for 15 seconds means that that Engie nest keeping your team in base is going to be there for another 15 seconds!. Be careful of nearby pyros
  
  
• Try not to kill too many enemies in a given area, as the ice sculptures will surely notify them of your presence
  
  
• Dead Ringer- When you are on fire, or being followed by a pyro do the following
  1.) Pull out the Dead Ringer
  • This removes the fire, without losing your knife. Do this if a pyro is W + M1 or if you are just on fire in general
    
  • Update: This is now more useful to reduce the damage from the Pyro, as the no afterburn from the spy-cicle lasts for 10 seconds
  2.) Pull out the Spy-cicle
  
  • This is only necessary if the pyro is still following you. You need to identify if the Pyro is intending to follow you because you will need to pull out the knife as soon as the Dead Ringer triggers, allowing for an easy getaway

Note: This knife works as well as the Stock Knife, meaning that both of them are viable in more situations than the other knives listed.
Note: You now take fire damage, but do not burn, just like the PYRO! No afterburn lasts for 10 seconds, so this is quite strong at the moment. Plus you are not revealed!

Aggressive

This set of items is for the spy who wants to make many kills and play very aggressively. The 3 items are...

• The Ambassador
  
• The Stock Knife
  
• The Dead Ringer
  
• Stock Sapper

I recommend this setup to advanced Spy players, as the skill and quick thinking, as well as the understanding of the limitations of the Spy and other characters is crucial when playing with this role.

• Ambassador: Allows the spy to do 102 damage for a headshot. The ambassador is very accurate, allowing the spy to take down a heavy that is not over-healed with 3 headhshots, or snipe a low health Engineer in his nest.
  
• Stock Knife: The best overall knife. With this setup you will be very mobile, and will be using your gun as much as your knife. This means your knife needs to do 1 thing only: kill. + You can't go wrong with a Stock Knife
  
• Dead Ringer: This allows you to escape sticky situations, such as a Heavy coming out of nowhere after you got a beautiful headshot on his beloved Medic. The Dead Ringer allows you to keep moving, and keep the enemies guessing. This induces paranoia and the production of angry Pyros.

Vanilla

This set in theory is the best of the best. You can do everything that a spy needs and therefore can do the most damage.

• Revolver
  
• Stock Knife
  
• Invis Watch
  
• Stock Sapper

This setup, as stated before, is the most efficient for the Spy, allowing you to do everything(apart from the headshot thing, but you have a knife!). I recommend this setup for EVERY new Spy player, as this teaches them the fundamental basics of a spy.

• Revolver: This is the standard gun for the spy, dealing decent damage to enemy players. This is more of a backup, rather than a fundamental weapon. The revolver should be used to pick off far away enemies, or to gun down your pursuers
  
• Stock Knife: You just can't go wrong with this.
  
• Invis Watch: This is by far the best watch in the game. It keeps you invisible for the longest duration (when moving) and you are able to resupply the meter with ammo boxes and the weapons of fallen enemies.

Engineer's Nightmare

This setup is situational and therefore do not recommend it as something you should be using on a regular basis. This is more of a fun class, requiring no special ability at playing the Spy.

• Diamondback
  
• Conniver's Kunai
  
• Dead Ringer
  
• Red-Tape Recorder

This setup is one I came across when I found 3 engineers with sentries and dispensers camping in a corner by the 3rd control point on Badwater. The objective is to run/jump in(depending on the map), stab and engineer, sap one of his buildings and pull out the Dead Ringer.

• Diamondback: This enables you to gain guaranteed critical shots when getting a backstab or destroying a building. You gain 1 guaranteed critical shot for each backstab or building destroyed. When you kill the engineer and destroy their buildings, you gain critical hits, which you can use to pick off the other engineers and destroy their buildings. This enables you to weaken their defence
  
• Conniver's Kunai: After getting a backstab on the engineer, your health will shoot to 180. This is enough health to pull out the Dead Ringer before the sentry gun kills you, allowing you to make an escape.
  
• Dead Ringer: Primarily used as an escape.

Infinite Cloak

This setup allows the Spy to make kills and always have enough cloak in his meter to get away with the Dead Ringer, no matter what.

• L'Etranger
  
• Big Earner
  
• Dead Ringer
  
• Stock Sapper

The idea behind this is after decloaking with the Dead Ringer, a backstab and picking up your victim's weapon should be enough to refill your cloak meter. If it is not, then shooting your pursuers with the L'Etranger will grant you more cloak, allowing you to pull up the Dead Ringer and make an escape.

• L'Etranger: Shooting enemies will increase your cloak meter, allowing you to bring up the Dead Ringer sooner.
  
• Big Earner: Allows you to increase your cloak meter after a kill, allowing you to bring up the Dead Ringer sooner.
  
• Dead Ringer: Used as an escape
  
  
  
  

I hope that I have been able to share some of my knowledge of the Spy with you, and more importantly, that I got it across in a way that will aid you in your journey to self improvement.

If you have any questions or can point out any flaws in this guide, please do so

If you are able to upload a short clip(less than a minute) of using one of the combinations I suggested, please do so and send me the link. I will credit you, and you will be helping others.

Please rate, comment and favourite, so that I know if my guides are helping you and whether to post others

Thankyou!


Thanks Trowell200 for grammatical checks!

Here is the guide relating to the Revolvers:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=285901030

Here is the guide relating to the Watches and Sappers:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=286378045