Backstab

Spy 

 Victim

“

So, your deadly skill is jogging? Mine is murdering people. Click to listen — The Spy to the Scout

”

A Backstab is a context-sensitive attack with the Spy's Knife that results in a one-hit kill. A Spy may backstab an enemy as long as the enemy is close enough to be hit with a melee attack, and as long as the Spy is within a 180° range of the enemy's back. Backstabs deal damage equal to 600% of the target's current health. To indicate that a Spy is within the required range to perform a backstab, his Knife will become primed, with its tip facing downwards. The Knife will remain in this position until the target is no longer in reach, or the Spy attempts a backstab by attacking.

A backstab can be performed while you are disguised, although your disguise will be removed upon attacking, regardless of whether the attack connects with the enemy or not. A backstab cannot kill targets who have the Dead Ringer activated, Scouts using the Bonk! Atomic Punch or players who are being ÜberCharged. The Sniper's unlockable Secondary weapon, the Razorback, prevents one backstab per life and stuns the offending Spy momentarily. This weapon makes Snipers less susceptible to backstabs, and forces Spies to use other methods of attack.

Backstabbing with Your Eternal Reward does not cause the enemy to scream, and the body will be hidden. You will then disguise as that enemy almost instantly. If the emeny was being healed by a Medic, then the Medic's healing beam will automatically target you.

Killing a player with a backstab will sometimes cause a special death animation for that class. This animation has a 25% chance of occurring.

Backstabbing Techniques

• Stab-and-Sap: Stab a (turtling) Engineer, before switching to your Electro Sapper and sapping the Engineer’s Sentry Gun. This must be done fast enough that the Sentry Gun doesn't have time to turn around and kill you. Usually an experienced Spy will track the Sentry Gun's turning direction and move against it after he stabs (as it will follow him, this will buy him more time).
• Sap-and-Stab: Sap an Engineer's unattended building as bait, hide, then stab him when he returns to remove the Electro Sapper.
• Stairstab: Stand at the top of a set of stairs, facing down at an enemy approaching you. Run forward and jump, turning in mid-air to stab them in the back. This technique can be difficult to master, but it is also difficult to protect against, as the enemy has to turn almost completely around to avoid it.
• Spinstab: While an enemy is running towards you, let them run past you before spinning and stabbing their retreating back. This is one of the only reliable methods of backstabbing Scouts.
• The Matador Stab : This is an advanced Spy technique. The technique involves luring an enemy to a corner, then you immediately back out and stab the enemy as he turns in the way you did. Note that this will only work once or twice on an enemy, will not work against Heavies and is best used on pursuits with Pyros.
• The Headstab: Sometimes Engineers will place their Sentry Gun and Dispenser in a fashion that allows the Engineer to have his back to a corner, making him seemingly protected from backstabs. It is possible to jump on this Engineer's head and move your aim around his back until you get the "ready to backstab" animation from your knife, allowing you to score a backstab while standing on his head.

Approaching The Target

Sometimes it is difficult getting close enough to your victim without getting caught. Even some new players check their backs for spies. Pyros, especially defensive ones, check areas where Spies usually hide and blow fire on their teammates to see if they're not in disguise.

A good way to approach near your target is when the player feels that they are virtually safe. However, those situations are usually quiet enough for others to hear you decloak, and some astute players have a good ear for the decloaking sound.

A better way to approach is when your target is distracted. If they are currently busy with a task or there is too much background noise for them to hear you, then you will usually be able to land the stab without your target turning around to see you.

There are a few things to keep in mind when going in for the killing blow:

• Determine who your target is and what the player is currently doing before you decloak. A common mistake for new Spies is to roam around seconds after their cloak ran out to look for a target. The longer you stay decloaked, the higher the chances that someone will check you.
• Make sure to double-take at the routes behind you before decloaking, especially for Snipers. If a player catches you decloaking without you being aware, you will almost certainly end up dead.
• Your disguise protects from passing glances; it is not as safe as being cloaked. After decloaking, be sure to try to get your target as soon as possible.
• Be aware of the speed of your disguise. You will have a much harder time trying to hunt down your victim when disguised as a Heavy or Soldier.
• Don't panic. A common mistake for new Spies is to decloak out of the panic that their target is looking at them or going too far away from them. If you are running out of cloak and your target is looking towards you, go hide! If your target is out of your grasp, go hide and refill your cloak. Sometimes there are just some fish that don't even take the hook, so don't feel discouraged if your target got away!
• Be careful on approaching the same target too often. Even the most inexperienced player will start checking their back after being stabbed too frequently.
• When attempting to backstab an emeny rush, be sure to wait until the rush starts fighting your teammates. Most of the time, they will never see you approacing unless one of them is watching for their teammate's backs.

A Spy's weapons and gadgets can drastically change how a Spy has to approach his target. Keep these tips in mind when choosing your loadout:

• If you have the Dead Ringer, it is usually a good idea to refill the watch as much as possible before going for your target. It makes for great insurance in case you fail to catch your victim, and you start becoming the enemy's target. Make sure your death is convincing though or the area will be double-checked.
• With Your Eternal Reward, you will have to take more caution in approaching victims. You are not diguised with your inital stab; anyone that even glances at you will recognize you immediately. Moreover, attacking or missing with any other backstab leaves you withouth a disguise until you land another backstab.
• Be aware of the level of noise each of your cloaking devices make. A common mistake is to decloak too close to your target for him to hear you. The Saharan Spy Set nullifies your cloaking sound to near-nothing at the cost of waiting longer to fully decloak.

Issues

See also: Lag compensation

Due to an in-game glitch, a stab that has appeared to have occurred from the front can sometimes be rendered as a backstab. Known more commonly as a facestab, these kills are now mostly the result of lag compensation by the game engine itself. Prior to many game patches, facestabs were more common due to bugs in the way the game detects a backstab.

Another community-coined term, is the failstab, which refers to a backstab which should have succeeded but instead did only normal Knife damage, despite the backstab animation playing fully and the Knife connecting. These stabs are almost always linked to the latency conditions between the server and the player.

Servers with the command tf_weapon_criticals 0 enabled have reported issues with the backstab animation that normally plays when the player is in a prime position for a backstab, not playing at all.

Related Achievements

Soldier

War Crime Spybunal Kill a Spy who just backstabbed a teammate.

Sniper

Shock Treatment Kill a spy whose backstab attempt was blocked by your Razorback.

Consolation Prize Get backstabbed 50 times.

Spy

Agent Provocateur Backstab your Steam Community friends 10 times. Counter Espionage Backstab a disguised Spy. Dr. Nooooo Backstab a Medic that is ready to deploy an ÜberCharge. High Value Target Backstab an enemy who is dominating 3 or more of your teammates. Is It Safe? Backstab 50 enemies who are capturing control points. Sapsucker Sap an enemy building, then backstab the Engineer who built it within 5 seconds. Spymaster Backstab 1000 enemies. Triplecrossed Backstab 3 Snipers in a single life.

Come in From the Cold Get a Revenge kill with a backstab. Die Another Way Kill a Sniper after your backstab breaks his Razorback. FYI I am a Spy Backstab a Medic who has healed you in the last 5 seconds. Identity Theft Backstab the enemy that you're currently disguised as. May I Cut In? Backstab an enemy and the Medic healing him within 10 seconds of each other. Slash and Burn Backstab an enemy, who then switches to Pyro before they respawn. The Man with the Broken Guns Backstab an Engineer, then sap 3 of his buildings within 10 seconds. You Only Shiv Thrice Backstab 3 enemies within 10 seconds.

Trivia

• Originally the Spy's backstab animation was just over a second long and manifested as the current animation but slowed down. This was changed to the current, sped up version used today in the interests of balance.
• The 180° range is notoriously unreliable. This is likely due to occasional mismatches between the model and the hitboxes. These glitched attacks are known as Facestabs.
• If you're playing on a No-Crit Server, the Backstab Animation will not show on a successful backstab - instead, it will just be a normal attack, but has an effect of a backstab.

External links

• TF2 Backstab mechanics