Cloak

This article is about the cloak ability. For other uses, see Cloak (disambiguation).

An enemy Spy cloaking.

“

Peek-a-boo! Click to listen — The Spy on sneaking up on people

”

Cloak, or cloaking, is an inherent ability of the Spy that is influenced by the Invisibility Watch, Cloak and Dagger, and Dead Ringer. Cloaking allows the Spy to become invisible for short periods of time, depending on the watch he is wearing, allowing him to move unnoticed through enemy lines or make a quick escape when attacked. While cloaked, the Spy is unable to attack for the duration of the Cloak. During the process of cloaking or uncloaking, the Spy transitions to or from transparency, creating a whooshing noise in the process.

General attributes

A cloaked BLU Spy bumping into a RED Sniper.

While cloaking disables attacking, the player may still use the Disguise Kit and see their active weapon. Disguising while cloaked removes the team tinted smoke particle effect, allowing seamless disguise changing. Be aware that this is only true if the Spy is completely invisible when the Disguise Kit is used. While cloaked, the Spy is completely invisible to all enemies. The Spy's teammates are able to see him as a semi-transparent silhouette tinted in their team color. This allows players to determine if an area is being surveyed by a friendly Spy and to structure future movements around him. While cloaked, the Spy cannot do most objectives. This includes capturing or defending a point, pushing or stopping a Payload, and carrying the intelligence.

Harming or bumping into a cloaked Spy causes the team-colored silhouette to become visible to all players regardless of team. While under the Dead Ringer's damage reduction effect, being injured or bumped into does not produce a silhouette.

Cloaked Spies stop making most sounds, such as automatic voice responses (e.g., screams when being shot). Voice commands can be used uninhibited, and certain responses also occur anyway. Natural special effects, such as cosmetic particles, are also hidden. When a cloaked Spy is hit with weapons that produce visual effects, such as Jarate, Mad Milk, bleeding, and fire, the effects are applied normally, rendering the Cloak ineffective. Similarly, emerging from water causes the Spy to drip water droplets even when cloaked, and falling from a certain height also produces a blood particle effect and an audible crack. Cloak also prevents the Medic's secondary weapons from being able to heal the Spy, but the Crusader's Crossbow and Amputator can still heal a cloaked Spy.

Upon cloaking, the Spy makes a brief whooshing noise and briefly transitioning from a team-colored silhouette in the process of turning invisible, regardless of disguise. On the player’s view, the cloaked Spy holds up his watch with his left hand, indicating that the Spy is operating it. Competent Spies try to conceal the act of cloaking from the enemy to avoid arousing suspicion.

Upon decloaking, the Spy makes a long whooshing noise and briefly appears in a team-colored silhouette, regardless of disguise, before becoming visible. Because of this, care should be taken to decloak out of sight and hearing range of enemies. The Spy also must be fully decloaked before he may use any of his weapons or change disguises. In order to recloak, the Spy must have at least 10% cloak.

Each watch displays its Cloak meter on the weapon model viewed by the player. The meter is also visible in the HUD.

While Cloaked, even when standing in a valid backstab position, the Spy does not raise his Knife.

The Spy cannot activate Cloak within 0.5 seconds after attempting to backstab; however, the Spy can immediately use Cloak after using a Sapper or firing his weapon.

Cloaking using the Dead Ringer is instantaneous; the other watches require approximately one second to turn the Spy fully invisible. Decloaking requires approximately two seconds for all watches.

Cloaking grants the Spy 20% damage resistance and reduced timer in debuffs (Jarate, Mad Milk, afterburn, etc.).

Duration

Weapons	Duration
	Running	Backwards	Crouching	Swimming
Invis Watch	10 seconds
Invis Watch with the L'Etranger equipped.	14 seconds
Invis Watch with the Your Eternal Reward equipped.	7.5 seconds
Invis Watch with the Your Eternal Reward and L'Etranger equipped.	12 seconds
Dead Ringer	7 seconds
Dead Ringer with the L'Etranger equipped.	8.2 seconds
Dead Ringer with the Your Eternal Reward equipped.	6 seconds
Dead Ringer with the Your Eternal Reward and L'Etranger equipped.	7.6 seconds
Cloak and Dagger	6.6 seconds	7.7 seconds	10.4 seconds	58.8 seconds
Cloak and Dagger with the L'Etranger equipped.	9.3 seconds	10.7 seconds	14.6 seconds	82.3 seconds
Cloak and Dagger with the Your Eternal Reward equipped.	5 seconds	5.8 seconds	7.8 seconds	44.2 seconds
Cloak and Dagger with the Your Eternal Reward and L'Etranger equipped.	8 seconds	9.2 seconds	12.6 seconds	70.7 seconds

Strategy

See also: Basic Spy strategy

The nature and strategy for cloaking depends on the type of watch the Spy uses in battle. Additionally, the enemy team may alter their behavior in order to protect themselves against a certain type of watch. A Spy should therefore be proficient in all Cloak types to be able to adapt to any opposing force.

Invis Watch

The Invis Watch is the Spy's default watch.

Main article: Invis Watch

With the Invis Watch, the default watch in the Spy loadout, along with the Enthusiast's Timepiece and Quäckenbirdt, both promotional variations, a Spy can Cloak for a maximum of 9 seconds, during which they can move through enemy lines, across Sentry Gun paths, or away from attackers while remaining completely invisible. Picking up ammo in the form of boxes replenishes the Cloak at the default rate. Map layout and location of various ammo points, therefore, are important to players who wish to remain cloaked for a longer period of time. Dispensers on either team can also fill the Cloak meter even when the Spy is cloaked. Be advised, however, that using an enemy Dispenser requires the correct disguise, and that the Spy may be discovered if bumped into by Engineers collecting their metal or any other class whom are healing themselves at the Dispenser.

Uncloaking produces a quiet 'whooshing' sound that can be heard by other players in the immediate vicinity. Experienced Spies should therefore uncloak in an isolated location, preferably with an appropriate disguise, in order to avoid enemies who may start searching the area upon hearing the noise.

While cloaked, the Spy moves at his normal movement rate regardless of what class he is disguised as.

The direct counter of the Cloak is the Pyro. If set on fire while cloaked, the Spy is rendered visible and burns with a team-colored ambiance. Spies should avoid Pyros when cloaked; if bumped into, a Pyro may begin to Spycheck the vicinity, in which case it can prove difficult to escape unharmed.

• 

  The Enthusiast's Timepiece, a reskin of the Invis Watch

• 

  The Quäckenbirdt, another Invis Watch reskin

Cloak and Dagger

The Cloak and Dagger's battery can be recharged by remaining still or decloaking.

Main article: Cloak and Dagger

The Cloak and Dagger watch serves as an alternative to the default watch. Its Cloak lasts for 6.2 seconds when the Spy is running, and has penalties for replenishing cloak outside recharging: it cannot be replenished by ammo boxes while invisible, and when not invisible, ammo boxes replenish 35% less cloak compared to the default Invisibility Watch. The Cloak recharges automatically when the Spy stands still or remains decloaked.

Due to the nature of the recharge, a Cloak and Dagger Spy mostly conducts his espionage standing still. Objects in the map, such as boxes or corners, therefore provide strategic points from which to crouch and relay enemy movement to the team through chat or microphone. Additionally, these areas provide points from which players can backstab slow moving classes or sap buildings. Once the Spy performs these quick assassinations, they can return to their vantage point for the next unsuspecting victim. This can effectively cut off high traffic areas, as the enemy becomes wary of using the route. Alternatively, they may send in a Pyro to flush out the Spy; should this happen, the player may want to seek a different place to hide.

Once the Cloak meter is drained, the Spy does not put the watch away and decloak; instead the Spy remains cloaked with a clear visible outline, similar to being bumped into by an enemy. Coming to a halt resumes full invisibility, but any enemy players nearby can see the outline and attack.

A crouch-walking Spy drains the Cloak at a much slower rate. While this means he travels more slowly, it also means he can travel longer distances; the Cloak lasts an entire minute (10 times as long) when crouch-walking, which can be a useful tradeoff considering crouch-walking only divides your movement speed by 3. In total, crouch-walking for the entire duration of the Cloak allows the player to move 3.33 times as far, which can be vital if there is nowhere to stop and recharge on their path.

Dead Ringer

The Dead Ringer allows the Spy to feign his own death.

Main article: Dead Ringer

The Dead Ringer watch is unique in terms of cloaking. The watch does not produce a Cloak when it is flipped open, but rather held up in the player's view in a ready position. Instead, when the watch is out as the Spy is dealt damage, either from enemy fire or environmental damage, the Spy drops a fake corpse, takes 75% less damage from the initial attack, sends a fake death to the 'kill list', gains a temporary speed boost, and immediately becomes cloaked for 7 seconds. During the first 3 seconds of the Cloak, any damage received by the player is reduced by up to 60% (potentially averting death from normally fatal attacks such as headshots or Critical hits), and does not shimmer if attacked or bumped into by enemies. After this period, the Spy is under standard cloak conditions (20% damage reduction, reduced timer on debuffs).

The corpse dropped is dependent on the disguise the player was using at the time. Dropping a friendly disguise as a corpse, therefore, may allow the Spy to move into enemy territory without arousing suspicion. Furthermore, activating the Dead Ringer upon being attacked with a weak attack (such as a single Pistol shot) may arouse suspicion. Players should therefore wait a couple of seconds if under continuous fire before cloaking to provide a more convincing fake death. This should not apply to competent Snipers, stickybomb traps, or forms of critical attacks.

Spies with the Dead Ringer cannot collect ammo and use Dispensers to replenish the Cloak, so the distance a Spy can travel is reduced to the cloak time. Spies must be aware of their surrounding when they decloak, and not be caught in the open due to the shortened time. Additionally, ammo pickups give no additional cloak time, so a Spy must wait longer for a cloak to be ready for use. Attempting to rush to the backlines is not a reliable strategy with the Dead Ringer, even with its temporary speed boost.

The main disadvantage with using the watch is the loud and distinctive decloaking sound. Players should utilize cover or keep a distance from the enemy before uncloaking. Should the Dead Ringer be heard, enemies may begin searching the area for the Spy. Since the Cloak takes a long time to recharge without a nearby ammo source, uncloaking far from enemies is a priority if the player wishes to remain alive.

After the first 3 seconds of cloak, the Dead Ringer can be inflicted with afterburn. Attentive Pyros may continue to chase the Spy once lit, making escape more difficult. Leading the Pyro into a friendly Sentry Gun or experienced teammate may prove a successful way to escape. If the Spy is being pre-Jarated or Mad Milk-ed before the feign, he would be visible even when the feign is triggered.

The length of the initial Cloak by the Dead Ringer can be valuable to teammates as a way of defending them from incoming projectiles, or blocking enemies. With a 75% reduction in damage, the player can prevent an ÜberCharged couple from advancing, or absorbing damage for a teammate of vital importance.

Aside from providing normal Cloak espionage, the Dead Ringer can serve as a paranoia tool. Making an obvious fake death can lead to enemies spending more time spychecking, possibly even causing Medics to deploy their ÜberCharge early in anticipation of being backstabbed. This can allow teammates an opportunity to advance on an objective under the Spy's command, or wait for the enemy ÜberCharge to end before activating their own.

Related achievements

 Pyro

Spontaneous Combustion Ignite 10 cloaked Spies.

 Demoman

Shorn Connery Decapitate a cloaked Spy.

 Heavy

Spyalectical Materialism Kill or assist in killing 10 cloaked Spies.

 Engineer

Search Engine Kill 3 cloaked Spies with a sentry gun under control of your Wrangler.

 Sniper

Jarring Transition Use Jarate to reveal a cloaked Spy.

Shoot the Breeze Kill a fully invisible Spy in a single hit.

 Spy

Burn Notice Survive 30 seconds after being ignited while cloaked.

Spies Like Us While cloaked, bump into an enemy cloaked Spy.

Update history

October 9, 2007 Patch

• Spies can no longer reload their Revolver while cloaked.

October 25, 2007 Patch

• Fixed flailing at the low end of the Cloak meter when the player gets uncloaked automatically.

December 20, 2007 Patch

• Fixed first person spectator view of the Spy watch not showing the correct Cloak value.

December 21, 2007 Patch

• Fixed cloaked/disguised/disguising Spy reporting his achievements to everyone else.

December 31, 2007 Patch

• Removed an obscure rendering setting that would allow players to make cloaked Spies appear fully black.

April 29, 2008 Patch (Gold Rush Update)

• Teleporter effect no longer shows up on invisible or disguised Spies.

December 11, 2008 Patch

• Spies will be able to recharge their Cloak by picking up ammo off of the ground or visiting health cabinets.

December 15, 2008 Patch

• Fixed overheal particle effect showing up incorrectly on disguised or cloaked Spies.

January 28, 2009 Patch

• Fixed cloaked Spies having a particle-beam effect while standing next to a Dispenser that's healing them.

February 2, 2009 Patch

• Cloaked Spies are no longer able to pick up the intelligence.

June 8, 2009 Patch

• Fixed Spies being able to automatically Cloak after uncloaking at the moment of a weapon switch.

August 13, 2009 Patch

• Cloaked Spies standing in valid backstab positions no longer raise their knife.

May 7, 2010 Patch

• Fixed players seeing cloaked Spies when they should be fully cloaked.

May 19, 2010 Patch

• Fixed a case where the Spy could start taunting and Cloak at the same time.

June 11, 2012 Patch

• Fixed the Spy's Cloak effect not working properly for The Texas Half-Pants and the Something Special For Someone Special.

December 23, 2014 Patch

• Fixed the Regen powerup preventing players from picking up ammo packs.

July 2, 2015 Patch #1 (Gun Mettle Update)

• While invisible, Spy receives 20% less damage from all damage sources.
• While invisible, Spy has reduced timer on debuffs (fire, Jarate, milk, bleed).

July 15, 2015 Patch #1

• Fixed an issue with Unusual Revolvers where the unusual effect would sometimes not disappear when the Spy would feign death, disugise, cloak, etc.
• Fixed the Spy-cicle causing a fire-immune bubble to be displayed when the Spy is cloaked.
• Fixed speed particles on the Spy not disappearing when cloaking.

December 17, 2015 Patch (Tough Break Update)

• The HUD 'Cloak' meter now displays 'MOTION' and 'FEIGN' when Cloak and Dagger and Dead Ringer are equipped respectively.

July 28, 2016 Patch

• Fixed Spy cloak causing the HUD 3D Character to cloak for the player the Spy is disguised as.

December 3, 2020 Patch (Smissmas 2020)

• Updated Spy invis materials with community fixes from Liam Stone (boba)

December 9, 2020 Patch

• Updated Spy invis materials with community fixes from Liam Stone (boba)

December 11, 2020 Patch

• Fixed the Spy's arms not cloaking

September 16, 2021 Patch

• Updated Spy invis materials with community fixes from Liam Stone (boba)

August 13, 2024 Patch

• Fixed record/stop .dem file exploit that was used to reveal cloaked Spies.

Bugs

• When a Spy is invisible and disguised, the inspect key (default key: F) can still be used to view the disguise's loadout.

Trivia

• Cloaking was developed by the Australians sometime before 1850.
• As a result of the October 29, 2013 Patch, any class has the ability to become invisible for 8 seconds by using the Invisibility spell. Unlike the Spy's normal Cloak however, the caster can still attack but cannot push carts or capture points.

See also

• Disguise Kit
• Basic Spy strategy