You've clicked on this guide, that either means:
-You want to learn a new way of playing as Scout in MvM.
-Already know the playstyle, but you don't do it right.
-You play it right, but want to see how some random person on the internet describes it.
-Or you want to insult me because there isn't such a thing as Damage Scout.

Only take this playstyle into consideration if you have some experience as Scout in MvM. If you barely do any damage and keep dying, you're much better off with going resistance Scout and aid your team with milking and marking giant threats.

So you might ask yourself: "Why on earth should I be playing as Damage Scout?"
It's a fairly reasonable question to ask. Why should Scout be doing damage, when he already is decent at letting teammates dealing more damage by increasing their survivability and damage output by milking and marking? As I said before. Damage Scout is a good way to spice up the way you're playing. It isn't necessary, but it brings a good amount of fun. Atleast in my opinion. And it's also satisfying to carry people as a Scout, which is something that you don't see every day.

So when is Damage Scout effective? It depends on the team really. If you have an experienced team, it's obvious you won't be dealing as much damage as when you're paired with an inexperienced team. Robots and tanks are going to be destroyed at a much faster pace, leaving you with less time to deal damage. The lower the skill goes, the more time robots will be spending on the battlefield, meaning that you can shoot more and thus dealing more damage. Simple as that.

It's important to know that Damage Scout keeps every benefit the Support Scout has. He will still be collecting money, which is the main role of the Scout. Maybe he will still milk and mark, depending on his choice of weapons. In my eyes, it's a straight upgrade from resistance Scout, but as I mentioned in the introduction, it's harder to be a good Damage Scout than to be a good Support Scout. Hence why the meta favours a Scout that purely focusses on resistances, milk and mark.

As Damage Scout, it's important that you spend more money in your primary than in your class upgrades, but before we come to your class upgrades, let's discuss the better options out there for dealing damage.

Primaries:

The Scattergun is a very good weapon if you want to deal damage. It already packs the punch with its 105 damage up close and 6 clip. Let alone when you upgrade it. Upgrades you want to prioritize with this weapon are reload speed, (fire speed), damage, penetration and clip size. Not in a specific order, although it is better to upgrade reload speed before anything else, but that depends mostly on preference and playstyle.

Some people like to drop the reload speed and firing speed since they're more comfortable with upgrading damage and clip while reloading between subwaves. Due its single shell reload, buying clip size, also means longer reload times. One thing you might want to note is that the Scattergun benefits the most out of crit canteens due how the weapon reloads and its large clip size.



I wouldn't really suggest on using this weapon when going Damage Scout. The Force-a-Nature hinders you more then you would think. Its knockback sends robots flying, making it harder to pull off consistent meatshots.

The self knockback in the air messes up your aim quite immensively, not to mention it also sends you further away from the robot. Annd the knockback will also annoy your teammates. Don't use this weapon.


The Shortstop is kind of neat. Its niche lies in its reload mechanic and healing bonus. You reload your clip in one go, which comes in handy when you want to deal as much damage as possible. And since you can hold a maximum of 12 pellets per clip, this saves quite the hassle. And yes, the Shortstop does give you extra health from collecting money, but only when you have the weapon out.

The problems this weapon has, however, is that it reloads somewhat slow and it has weaker shots. You have to pump in quite some cash in it before the Shortstop starts allowing you to wreck some robots' arses. Not saying it's bad, it's definetly one of the better options out there, but it just starts out weaker than the rest. I don't really play a lot with the Shortstop, so yeah...


Theoretically, the Soda Popper has the highest possible DPS of all the Scatterguns. In practice, however, it isn't always the case. Sometimes the Scattergun outdamages it, the other time the Soda Popper is the best. It comes down to, again, preferences and playstyles. Soda Popper already starts with a high firing and reload rate, meaning you can't upgrade these anymore on the upgrade station, same goes for the reload speed of the Shortstop.

Thus meaning it's the cheapest of the bunch to maximize damage output. You only need to upgrade clip and damage and you're done. Maybe ammo capacity if you run out of ammo, but that one isn't necessary. To get the most out the Soda Popper, you will need to get 2 ticks in clip, then 4 in damage, then 2 in clip again. I, personally, don't bother with this and just go my own way with it. The weapon also has the perk of granting free jumps, free mobility is always a plus point to have as Scout. I suggest on turning off auto-reload for this weapon, though. Otherwise you'll run out of ammo fast.


I don't recommend this weapon, at all. MvM is well known for its spam, so you won't be able to dodge everything. It used to be sort of good before the Gun Mettle update, but now it sucks. Punishing double jumping that greatly is a huge no no. Avoid using this one.





While not as good as the Scattergun, Popper or Shortstop, the Backscatter can still be used for dealing quite some damage. Sure, you can use the Fan o' War as well for the mini-crits, but that forces you to switch weapons, swing the gunbai, switch back to your primary and then start dealing damage. This weapon does just that by shooting at the backs.

The larger spread isn't really that noticeable, you're going be up close anyway. The clip penalty does hurt, though. Regarding upgrades, just buy the same things as you would do with the Scattergun.



Secondaries:

Since this weapon caused such a drama in the comment section, I'm going to fully explain this. Mad Milk is a great weapon to use with Damage Scout. It doesn't only increase your team's survivability, but also yours. Just remember that the upgrades on this weapon are highly situational. The slowdown is only effective on Super Scouts and the faster recharge is useless most of the time.



This weapon gives you free minicrits at the cost of a pitiful 10% damage vulnerability, which is completetly negated with all the overheal you get from money. The difference between this and the Fan o' War is that it spreads out over multiple bots and can actually be used against tanks. Great weapon.




Melee weapons:

Let's be honest here, you're not getting any downsides for using this weapon. In my eyes, it's still the best melee choice there.






What's this? Why am I posting the Candy Cane here? What kind of sorcery is this? In all honesty, this weapon doesn't have any relevant downsides either. Sure, the 25% explosion damage vulnerability might seem much, but it becomes redundant with 1 blast resistance and with the massive amount of overheal you have. Besides, you're going to kill a lot of robots, right? So you'll drop a lot of healthkits.

There are only 2 major upgrades you should be investing in when going Damage Scout. Those are movement speed and crit resistances. You should fully upgrade them no matter what. Ofcourse, the crit resistances depends on the wave. Not saying you can't buy the other resistances, just making it clear that they're not necessary. Your dodging capabilities and overheal should be enough to keep you alive. If you want to be eased into Damage Scout, I would recommend to slowly spend less and less money into resistances as times goes on. And more and more money into your primary. This is how I did it and I must say, it's quite a good method on learning.

So why is movement speed important, why do I still need to buy it? Well, movement speed is great on Scout, you can get to places faster, thus allowing you to pick up money easier and getting that overheal faster. It aids you massively in avoiding incoming fire. Robots have a max turn rate cap. This means if you run around around them at a certain speed within a certain radius, they will keep resetting their turn because they can't keep up with you, making it impossible for them to shoot their weapons. This only becomes easier if you have max speed. It's actually such a powerful "exploit" that it allows you to solo giant Heavies and what not. Although it's harder to pull off on giant Soldiers, because they have their weapon ready at any time and splash damage can ruin circle strafing. So be careful when trying to master that.

Also, you're not invincible. You're more fragile compared to the Support Scout, but the reward is bigger. See it as a high risk, high reward playstyle. Hope this explains a lot.

If there's anything you don't agree with, please post it in the comments.
I hope this guide teached you a little bit more about Scout in MvM.
And sorry that it is a short guide, didn't had anything productive to do...

Here are a couple of pics when I was playing Damage Scout.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=598534278
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=574406188
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=534223156
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=527358788

These are some pictures/videos on runs with 6 Scouts:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=590301615
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=590302417

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IE2M5IOzX0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CY8q4qTarKA



Also check out my other MvM guide:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=373426890
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=479191501
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=535582566

Have a good one.