Basic Heavy strategy

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Let us fight; man versus tiny baby man. Click to listen — The Heavy

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The Heavy is the toughest, but slowest class in the game. His vast firepower and health pool will almost ensure that he'll be found at the front lines as a shock trooper, where his Minigun dominates at close range. The Heavy acts as a beacon for his team to rally behind and is often a designated Medic buddy. However, his large size and slow speed make him a juicy target, especially for enemy Snipers or Spies, and his general loudness makes him subpar at ambushing. A good Heavy will coordinate with his team to tackle mission objectives together.

Primary weapons

Minigun + reskins

Think of the Minigun as a rapid-fire Shotgun; it can shred anyone at close range, but is much less effective over distances. Although the Minigun possesses a lot of firepower, it has a moderate wind-up time and revving it brings your speed to a crawl. Thus, you'll either want to have it as your active weapon at all times or simply use a different weapon when moving between areas. You can rev it while in midair, allowing you to catch enemies by surprise as you jump around corners.

Natascha

Natascha's bullets come with a unique slowdown effect that forces enemies to stop and face you in combat. This, combined with the 20% damage resistance while the gun is spun up, puts you firmly in the role of an attention-grabbing tank. While Natascha still deals a lot of damage at close range, it deals 25% less damage and is 30% slower to spin up, giving enemies ample time to react if you aren't already revved up. These factors significantly cut your offense against bulky classes like the Soldier and Demoman. In particular, you will be at a disadvantage when facing an enemy Heavy with the normal Minigun or Brass Beast, weapons that do not sacrifice damage for a secondary effect.

Brass Beast

The Brass Beast is the strongest weapon in the game in terms of damage per second, but has a 50% slower spin up time and slows you to a crawl when deployed. The long spin-up time makes it unsuitable for ambushing or constantly moving around, but the 20% damage resistance while spun up is amazing in defensive situations. If you do not have ample time to spin up the Brass Beast, you are vulnerable to even frontal attacks. Be very careful to not overexpose yourself, as your glacial movement speed while this weapon is active makes you an even easier target for enemy Snipers and Spies.

Tomislav + reskins

The Tomislav has a faster spin-up time and revs up silently, but fires 20% slower than the Minigun. The sound of your Minigun is a signal for the enemy to stay clear. However, the Tomislav's silent spin-up and superior accuracy makes it an excellent choice for ambushing enemies offensively or concealing your presence when guarding a location. With the element of surprise, the Tomislav can deal enough damage to your target before its firepower disadvantage becomes significant in a full scale battle.

Huo-Long Heater

The Huo-Long Heater is statistically similar to the Minigun. However, when revved up, it creates a surrounding ring of fire that ignites nearby enemies. The fire ring doesn't deal much damage, but will reveal and deter enemy Spies that want to backstab you: if you hear a Spy being ignited, you will need to react quickly to take him out. Simply keeping your gun revved up will continuously consume ammunition, so ammo can become a problem when compared to your other primary weapons. Overall, this makes the Huo-Long Heater a strong choice for defensive play near Dispensers or the Payload cart, which will automatically refill your ammunition.

Secondary weapons

Shotgun + reskins

Although the Shotgun is a secondary weapon and weaker than the Minigun, it can still deal plenty of damage. Notably, it gives you a firepower option where you can still remain mobile. Use it when moving between areas, when slowing down to fire your Minigun would be inefficient.

Sandvich + reskins

The Sandvich lets you replace a source of mobile firepower, the Shotgun, with the ability to heal yourself. Use the Sandvich to patch yourself up in between fights. Make sure to begin your meal somewhere peaceful, as you are helpless during its long consumption time. Use alternate fire to throw the Sandvich on the ground to heal allies, particularly any Medic you may work with. Picking up any type of health kit when the Sandvich is consumed will instantly recharge it; make a small health kit more effective by recharging the Sandvich, which acts as a medium health kit when thrown.

Dalokohs Bar + reskins

The Dalokohs Bar cannot heal you as quickly as the Sandvich and only heals for a small health pack if dropped for allies. However, you can eat it to heal minor wounds and overheal yourself to 400 health without a friendly Medic. The Dalokohs Bar can be beneficial if your team lacks a Medic but does have a constant source of healing from either a Dispenser or medkits.

Buffalo Steak Sandvich

The Buffalo Steak Sandvich doesn't heal you like your other lunchbox items, but gives a special buff that locks you to your melee weapon while granting increased speed, mini-crit swings, and damage vulnerability while active. If you seldom use your melee weapons, it is best used to move towards the frontlines quickly within the safely of your teammates; consider using it alongside the Fists of Steel to mitigate the increased damage you take from ranged attacks. If you prefer to use the buff to improve your melee combat ability, take advantage of your increased movement speed to avoid attacks, and synergize your stronger punches with the Killing Gloves of Boxing to chain multiple critical swings together. Like the Sandvich, it can be thrown onto the ground to heal injured teammates.

Family Business

The Family Business acts as a faster, weaker Shotgun with a larger magazine size. While the Shotgun deals more immediate damage, the Family Business deals more overall damage than the Shotgun if all shots hit; this makes the Family Business more viable for prolonged combat when compared to the Shotgun, and can also be used to pester opponents at a distance due to its high magazine size and fire rate. Do note, however, that due to its magazine size, it takes a significant amount of time to fully reload the gun.

Panic Attack

The Panic Attack works differently than the other Shotguns; upon holding the fire button, you load up to four shells. Releasing the fire button will cause all stored shots to fire one-by-one. As your health lowers, fire rate and bullet spread increases, making you significantly stronger at close range, although it makes ranged combat more difficult and can get you killed very easily. It is less effective than the Shotgun as a backup weapon, as the time taken to load bullets can be comparable to winding up your Minigun. A Heavy who retreats is sometimes assumed to be finding a safe place to eat a Sandvich or heal. You can load the Panic Attack while a foe is pursuing you, then turn the tables; unlike the Minigun, enemies won't hear you preparing the weapon.

Melee weapons

Fists + reskins

If an enemy takes you by surprise at close range, it may still be worth it to just spin up your Minigun instead of switching to your Fists; you are slow and will probably be unable to get within melee range of your foe. Still, your large health pool does give you an advantage in a melee fight against single opponents.

Killing Gloves of Boxing

Obtaining a kill with the Killing Gloves of Boxing will grant guaranteed critical hits for five seconds. You're still as slow as ever, so use this weapon when you have the enemy in a corner and can easily land your punches. Once you've obtained the critical hit boost, make the best use of it by switching to the Shotgun or just continue swinging, since switching to your primary weapon will waste a significant portion of the boost. You can still use the Minigun for a good three seconds should you earn the crit boost and immediately switch to it, letting you shred a bunch of nearby enemies so long as you aim well.

Gloves of Running Urgently + reskins

Because you rarely engage in melee combat, you can use the Gloves of Running Urgently solely for its speed boost. This speed boost is useful for reaching the front lines or positioning yourself for an ambush, but not for retreating, since taking the Gloves out will mark you for death and cause all damage taken to be mini-crits. Switching to and from the Gloves will also take 50% longer, so keep yourself out of trouble before switching away from the Gloves, as enemies will be able to deal free mini-crit hits against you before you can even take out your Minigun and rev up. For combat situations, switch back to your primary weapon early to allow the debuff to time out.

Fists of Steel

The Fists of Steel make you very difficult to kill with ranged weaponry, but significantly increase your vulnerability to melee attacks. They are particularly useful when you need to cross through open areas or retreat from a firefight, and can be used to approach opponents to punch them while being protected by the weapon's ranged resistance. However, it takes a very long time to put the Fists of Steel away, so preemptively switch to your Minigun if an enemy decides to run at you with a melee weapon; a single critical hit from any stock melee weapon apart from the Bat will instantly kill you even at full health.

Warrior's Spirit

The Warrior's Spirit causes you to deal and receive 30% more damage, allowing you to defeat certain enemies in two punches rather than three, but makes your survivability weaker as well. The 50 health restored on kill compensates for the increased damage taken in a melee duel, provided you win, so ambush opponents to make the best of this weapon. In particular, critical hits from this weapon deal 254 damage, more than enough to take down a full-health Soldier in a single hit. The Warrior's Spirit synergizes with the Buffalo Steak Sandvich for a risky playstyle: while you will become very vulnerable to damage, each swing will do 115 damage, allowing you to take down most classes very quickly at melee range.

Eviction Notice

The Eviction Notice makes you slightly faster and more vulnerable to damage while active. It also swings twice as fast as the Fists and grants a speed boost on hit, but deals 60% reduced damage. The increased attack speed does not fully make up for the reduced damage, but the ability to actually keep up with an enemy in melee combat can allow you to outlast them. Outside of combat, the Eviction Notice can be used as a lower-risk, lower movement speed version of the Gloves of Running Urgently, as it grants half the movement speed granted by the Gloves, and only makes you 20% more vulnerable to damage while it is active compared to the Gloves of Running Urgently's mini-crit vulnerability while active and 3 seconds upon switching out.

Holiday Punch

Instead of damaging critical hits, the Holiday Punch forces opponents to laugh on a critical hit or if they are hit on the back. Like when using the default Fists, the Holiday Punch is inefficient in standard combat due to your slow movement speed. If you do, however, catch a foe off-guard and force him to laugh, you can finish him off with almost any method of your choosing, including the Showdown taunt kill. Getting behind high-profile targets such as an Ubercharged enemy can allow you to cripple them at a crucial moment with a laugh, if you manage to pull it off. Note that targets cannot be affected by the laugh unless they are grounded, so try not to sneak up against a swimming or jumping enemy.