Anti-Scout strategy

“

Never send a boy to fight a man's war. Click to listen — The Soldier

”

The Scout is a very fast, maneuverable class that packs a high amount of firepower at close range, making him extremely effective in one-on-one combat. He excels in open environments, where his speed and double jump allow him to easily maneuver around a map, close long distances, and ambush the most vulnerable enemies. He can use his mobility to completely avoid damage, more than making up for his lack of health. Depending on his loadout, a Scout can bring along weapons with additional utility that help him pick off individual targets with even more ease. If you can restrict a Scout's maneuverability or keep him at range, he becomes far less of a threat.

General

Attributes	Anti-Scout strategy
Role	The Scout excels at taking alternate paths to avoid direct combat, ambushing vulnerable enemies, and accomplishing mission objectives. Keep an eye on routes he might take and report his location to teammates.
Health	The Scout is very frail and can usually be killed with two solid hits.
Speed	The Scout is extremely fast and can double jump. No class can outrun him without certain equipment, so always be prepared to fight. Predict his movements to ensure your attacks hit, particularly when using projectile weapons. If he is airborne, wait until he uses his double jump before trying to land airshots. His maneuverability allows him to easily chase after any other class, but is less powerful in areas where he has less room to dodge. Certain weapons, like the Engineer's Sentry Gun or Heavy's Natascha, can negate the Scout's speed advantage.
Power	The Scout’s weapons are devastating at close range but very weak at long range. Thus, he must put himself in danger and actively enter combat to have any chance at killing enemies.

Class-Specific

This section explains how to deal with Scouts as each individual class and which classes and loadouts are best for defeating those pesky Boston boys.

Classes which excel at fighting Scouts

Engineer

“

"Y'all gotta run a lot faster than that." Click to listen — The Engineer to the Scout trying to outrun Sentry bullets.

”

The Engineer class is hands down, clearly the best option to choose when dealing with Scouts. If there is a highly skilled Scout on the enemy team who is wrecking you and your teammates, picking Engineer is the best way to ruin their day and put a stop to their rein.

• Main advantage: Engineer as himself isn't good at fighting Scouts, but its rather his buildings, more specifically his Sentry Gun which are the main thing Scouts fear. As said above, the main weakness of the Scout is his low health pool and fragility, however, his main strength is his incredible mobility. This incredible mobility the Scout posses allows him to render himself extremely difficult to hit thus making it very hard to deliver those few shots which are required to kill him, if not impossible if the Scout your fighting is very skilled and has fully mastered the art of dodging. This is where the Sentry Gun comes in, the Sentry is basically equipped with an aimbot. This ensures that the Sentry can always track his targets and thus hit 100% of his shots, all the time. Since the Sentry Gun is guaranteed to hit everything it targets, it doesn't matter how much the Scout jumps, dodges, waves, strafes...he is always going to get hit by Sentry Guns bullets, the Sentry basically completely invalidates the Scout main advantage and quit honestly only advantage. To top that of, Sentry Guns are know for there very high damage and rate of fire. This means that even heavier classes with more health (such as Heavy) can be killed quit fast if they get caught out by a Sentry Gun, so you can imagine how fast a Scout will die to a machine which can hit 100% of its shots no matter how much you dodge and can deal anywhere from 71 to 118 damage per second. And we can't forget the fact that the Scout has practically no weapons which can effectively counter the Sentry Gun.

• Strategy: Now that you know why your so good at dealing with Scouts lets talk about how to gain the most from your advantage. Generally, you always want to have Sentry near you as the Sentry Gun is the thing which should do the fighting for you, you yourself are quit vulnerable and can be easily killed by the Scout who has the same health as you, but has more mobility and higher damage. So make sure that wherever you go there is an Sentry Gun watching your back.
  • Sentry placement: Simply choosing to play as the Engineer and constructing a Sentry in whatever spot you choose to, creates an already big enough obstacle to the Scout as that area is now effectively inaccessible to him. But if you want to completely ruin a Scouts day then you want to put that Sentry right in the path which the Scout is most likely to take. Scouts love to seek out flanking paths which they can use to get behind you and your team. If you are aware of these flanks you can place your Sentry Gun right on top of those routes to act as a roadblock to any Scouts who may wish to take this route. Not only that, but since the Sentry is sitting in a relatively ignored and calm area, you don't have to worry about some other class destroying it (such as a Soldier or a Demoman). Now, positioning the Sentry Gun in such a location does mean that it will usually not be able to target other opponents, however, this is the optimal position to put it in order to screw over Scouts.

• Optimal loadout: If you want to maximize your Scout killing potential then here are the weapons you want to take: Shotgun or Panic Attack for your primary slot, Pistol or the Short Circuit for the secondary slot and the Gunslinger as your melee. Lets explain why this loadout is so good at battling it out with the Scouts.
  • Gunslinger: The Gunslinger is useful because it replaces your regular Sentry Guns with Combat Mini Sentry Guns. These "Mini Sentry Guns" construct 150% faster then regular Sentry Guns. This means that if you ever find yourself in a situation where a Scout is attacking you while your without your Sentry Gun, you can quickly build a Mini Sentry and have it finish construction in no-time. Also, these Mini-Sentry Guns are quit disposable as they only cost 100 Metal to build compared to the regular Sentry Guns 130 Metal cost. The main disadvantage of Mini Sentry Guns (The fact that they can't be Upgraded and output less damage then regular Sentry Guns) are relatively small considering that if your going for a playstyle where you intentionally place your Sentry Guns on common flank routes to deter and kill enemy Scouts, you don't need a whole lot of firepower to kill a class with only 125 health. Additionally, the Gunslinger provides you with a passive attribute of 25 more max health, this buff to your health is in general pretty useful no matter in what situation you find yourself in, this includes the previously mentioned situation where an enemy Scout catches you out in the open without a Sentry on your side. Usually, in this situation, any competent Scout would be able to rather easily kill you, as your either worse or same as the Scout in every singe way, but now with that 25 more health, the fight becomes a bit more equal as you have an edge over the Scout in terms of health meaning that your chances of winning the duel increase.
  • Shotgun/Panic Attack: It doesn't really matter if you bring the Shotgun or the Panic Attack, its simply a matter of preference but you need to bring one of these two guns. The first reason for doing that is that your obviously equipping the Gunslinger on you, at which point it only becomes mandatory that you get yourself a Shotgun to defend yourselves. "Well if I need a Shotgun with me, why can't I bring the Frontier Justice?" you might ask. Well, you need to remember that were talking about dealing with Scouts here. As apart of our plan to beat the Scouts, we have to place our Sentry Guns in a lot more concealed side areas which the Scout is likely to use for flanking purposes. Since our Sentry Guns are in locations which usually get low traffic except the occasional Scouts and Spies these Sentry Guns are ment for, we won't be racking up a lot of kills with our Sentry Gun, which means that our Frontier Justice wont be getting a lot of Crits stored basically rendering it useless. Since we can't rely on the Pomson 6000 and the Rescue Ranger as we are using the Gunslinger, and our Frontier Justice won't be getting a lot of Crits, our only remaining options are the Panic Attack or the stock Shotgun which are now even more necessary then usual duo to the fact that most of the time when fighting Scouts, we won't have our Sentry in a location where it can support us against other classes.
  • Pistol/Short Circuit: Taking either one of these two there weapons is great as they boost your damage output and act as a great finish-off tools. Taking the Pistol is a good choice as it has great DPS (Damage per second) and can give you another source of reliable damage, which is a very good thing since as you can remember, our Sentry sitting in a corner waiting for a lone Scout to run into its trap won't be much use when dealing with other classes. Short Circuit offers an useful utility capability, it doesn't do a lot of damage but another aspect of it is that it offers a great finish-off tool, especially when dealing with Scouts. If you manage to score a good hit on the Scout with your Shotgun, chances are that they will start dodging even harder then before making it harder to hit them. So instead of trying to score another difficult hit on the Scout using the Shotgun or the Pistol, you can simply pull out the Short Circuit and use its very large projectile size to hit the Scout a lot more reliably.

Engineer is a good counter to the Scout, just don't get too confident with him. Picking Engineer doesn't make you automatically immune to a good Scout player who can find an opening to kill you. Its also important that you don't get to focused on killing the Scout. You might be Scouts best counter but that doesn't mean that your supposed to tunnel vision on him. You should still continue to support your teammates by building Dispensers and Teleporters and do your job as a support class.

Scout

“

"I am the Scout here!" Click to listen — The Scout to his rival losing a duel.

”

Scout is surprisingly enough, the second best class to chose when fighting the enemy Scout. Opposing Scouts will often stumble upon each other when trying to flank the enemy team resulting in lots of tense 1v1 duels which determine who gets sent back to the respawn room and who gets to flank the opposing team members and earn himself lots of kills.

• Main Advantage: Assuming that both of you are running the stock or nearly stock loadout, none of you will have any significant advantage over the other. This duel will come down to pure skill.

• Strategy: Although Scout duels usually boil down to who has more skill, there are some things which you can learn right now so that you know on what you need to improve on to come out alive from a Scout vs Scout battle.
  • Movement: Scout duels are all about the movement, when you got two of the most maneuverable classes in the game both facing off against each other, there's going to be a pretty big emphasis on how well and fluid your vertical and horizontal mobility can be. Perfecting your movement really just boils down to practice, but here are somethings to watch out for when battling it out with the other Scout. First, when your engaged in a Scout duel, you rarely, if ever want to jump. Contrary to the popular belief, jumping does not make you a harder target, it only makes you an easier one. This is duo to the fact that when your in the air, you can't really control your movement, your simply moving in a straight line in the direction you've jump towards, you only regain the control of your movement once you finally touch the ground. While your airborne for that brief period of time after you've jumped, your going in an extremely predictable direction, just as we said this before. This in general makes you a very easy target as every class, not just as a Scout. Now, you might say: "Well Scout has the Double Jump ability, he can control his movement in the air!" Now while it is true that the Scout has the double jump, its one use only. This means that once you expended your double jump, you will be once again moving in straight, easily predictable line since you won't have any more movement options to use and won't be able to do anything until your feet touch the ground. So try and not jump or double jump for that matter when your dueling someone, what you should actually be doing is strafing and tying to mirror the enemy Scouts movement. Strafing, in the this context atleast, is the act of quickly moving from right to left. Basically, the only keys you should be using when fighting another Scout are the A and D keys. The other important thing to do would be to try and mirror the enemy Scouts movement, if he strafes to the left, you go to the left (your right), if he strafes to the right, you too should head to the right (your left). The reason why you wan't to be constantly strafing and mirroring the enemy Scout is to make aiming easier, I will explain this below
  • Aiming: There are two ways you can "aim", they are called: tracking and predicting. Tracking is when you put your crosshair over someone and follow them with it. Wherever they go, you always keep your crosshair over them. Predicting is when you place your crosshair in position where you expect that enemy player will go and then fire when the enemy players "walks" into your crosshair, hence, the name predicting. Tracking a Scout is exceptionally hard duo to Scouts amazing mobility, for that reason, instead of tracking the Scout with your crosshair, you should try and predict the enemy Scouts movement and place you Crosshair in a position where he will appear next. This is why strafing and trying to mirror the enemy Scouts movement is the right thing to do, it allows you to predict better. Mimicking your enemy makes it some much more easier to both predict and even track his movement thus making it easier to win the duel.

• Optimal loadout: You might now know the basics of dueling, but you know the saying: "A skilled Soldier is nothing without his gun". Here is the best loadout for dealing with enemy Scouts: Scattergun for your primary slot, Pistol or the Mad Milk for your secondary and maybe the Wrap Assassin for your for your melee. There is a good reason why this items are the best for dealing with enemy Scouts
  • Scattergun: Scattergun is in general an overall good weapon in almost any combat situation you might encounter, but its especially useful when fighting hostile Scouts. The main selling point for this weapon is the fact that it holds 6 shots in its clip giving you plenty room for error. In a typical Scout duel, missing a lot of your shots is fairly common, remember, Scouts are very fast and hard to hit, so for that reason by the time you actually start landing some hits on the enemy Scout you would have probably burned through quit a lot of Ammo already. If your were holding any other primary such as the Soda Popper or the Force-A-Nature or maybe even the Back Scatter all of which have a reduced clip size, you would have ran out of ammo before the duel even started, which, suffice to say is very bad. Plus, all the benefits other primary weapons have are quit useless in a Scout vs Scout fight. The Soda Poppers ability to gain five more extra jumps is not good since jumping is a very bad thing to do when dueling, and then there is its clip size of only 2 which is also terrible. Force-A-Nature's 20% more bullets per shot still aren't enough to one-shot other Scouts and its reduced clip size also doesn't make it very appealing. Back Scatters ability to Mini-Crit from behind is extremely worthless considering that you will almost never get an opportunity to find yourself behind an enemy Scout. And duo to the downsides of it having a small clip and less accuracy it seems like a direct downgrade in a 1v1 combat. Shortstop also isn't particulary useful and neither is the Baby Face Blaster which loses its speed boost from just a slither of damage.
  • Pistol or the Mad Milk: Pistol is a very useful weapon when dueling other Scouts, it has decent damage and high fire rate which makes it a great finish-off tool when landing that last final Scattergun shot seem just too difficult. And this is the important thing to keep in mind, the Pistol should only be used as a finish-off tool. When you are dueling the enemy Scout, you want to do damage to him by using your Scattergun, only when you have done enough damage and have brought your opponent to low enough health, only then you can use the Pistol to quickly and easily finish them off. Mad Milk is also quit useful, if you manage to hit the enemy Scout with it, he will be at a significant disadvantage for the rest of the fight, just remember that by equipping the Mad Milk you won't have access to your Pistol.
  • Wrap Assassin: Using melee in a Scout duel is a very bad idea. Any experienced Scout won't let you get anywhere close enough to him in order for you to hit him with your melee weapon which does pitiful damage already. But there is a melee option which can be useful, and that is the Wrap Assassin. Wrap Assassin has the ability to launch baubles which when they hit opponents cause damage and Bleeding, this ability comes at a cost of doing even less melee damage which isn't important to us since we won't be using this weapon for melee but for its unique ability. With the Wrap Assassin at hand, next time you encounter a Scout you can quickly take out your Wrap Assassin an launch the bauble at him. If the bauble misses the Scout, no problem, you haven't lost anything by taking the shot with the Wrap Assassin so you can just close the distance to the opposing Scout and duel it out the normal way. However, if the bauble hits the Scout...Great! Baubles impact and bleed damage combined will reduce the enemy Scouts health low enough to the point where he can be one-shooted with your Scattergun. Important thing to keep in mind is that you want to use the Wrap Assassin exactly opposite of the way you would use the Pistol. You use the Pistol to finish-off opponents at the end of a fight, meanwhile, you use the Wrap Assassin as a initiator weapon, meaning that you use it at the start of the fight to try and soften up your enemy before the real duel begins.

Remember that beating other Scouts as a Scout yourself takes a lot of skill. If the enemy team has a very good Scout who you want to get rid of, only choose to play as the Scout if your confident enough in your dueling abilities.

Classes which are mediocre at fighting Scouts

Soldier

“

"Got anything funny to say about that, funny man?" Click to listen — The Soldier after blowing Scout to Giblets.

”

Soldier is a intresting case considering when it comes to enemy Scout interaction. He isn't a very good class at fighting Scouts per default, but he has quit a lot of unlockable weapons which can greatly aid him in his fight against those pesky Boston boys.

• Main Advantage: The first noticable advantage of the Soldier is his relatively high healtpool compared to the Scouts 125 health only. Although this is certainly useful it doesn't give that big of an advantage as it my seem. Despite his high health, Soldier can still , theoretically, ne two-shooted by a Scattergun at close range. His actual main advantage comes from his primary weapon, the Rocket Launcher The Rocket Launcher can deal more damage then the Scattergun and has Splash Damage. All of this turns the Soldier in one of the best close range combat classes in the game. If an opposing Scout and Soldier were to meet in a tight hallway, the Soldier would be the one coming alive from that encounter. This is due to the fact that when a Scout finds himself in a tight or an enclosed space, he losses his main advantage, his incredible mobility. In any kind of a small or claustrophobic location , a Scout doesn't have enough room to effectively dodge incoming fire leaving him quit vulnerable. But despite losing his main strength, Scout is still a formidable force when engaging in close range combat, for almost all of his primary weapons are some sort of a Shotgun, all featuring great close range damage. Since the Scout has a variety of powerful short range weapons, he can still successfully battle it out with the majority of other classes, even when in a close-quarters circumstances where his mobility is drastically limited. Except Soldiers, he may stand a chance against other classes when in a tight situations but not with Soldiers. As we already mentioned, stumbling upon a Solder while in a corridor, hallway, chokepoint or any other mobility-limiting location spells death for the Scout.

• Strategy: As you can see, Soldiers perform the best against the Scouts in a close-quarters situation for the reasons listed above, so a big part of fighting Scouts would be knowing better to not head out to an wide open area where the Scouts perform the best. Just like a Scout encountering you in an enclosed space is a death sentence to him, you encountering a Scout in a very open area usually spells death to you. When your in a much more spacious area (Eg. Anywhere outside a building) Scouts regain their excellent mobility back allowing them to dodge your rather slow moving projectiles easily while still pepering away at you using there primary weapon. Only engage a Scout in his territory when you have the height advantage, otherwise, try and lure the Scout out of his comfort zone to a much less open area where you can beat him a lot more easily and confidently now that he can't avoid your powerful rockets.

• Optimal loadout: Using only his stock weapons, Soldier will usually have a rather hard time beating Scouts, especially if the map he is playing on is quit open and spacious. the Soldier simply relies on finding himself in favourable circumstances to be able to defeat Scouts consistently. Luckily for him, there are a couple of weapons which when combined together, transform the Soldier from a mediocre to a quit good counter for Scout. Here are those weapons: Direct Hit for the primary slot, Panic Attack for the secondary slot (Although any kind of a Shotgun can work decently) and the Escape Plan for the melee.
  • Direct Hit': For starters, this Rocket Launcher deals 25% more damage then everything else Soldier has as his primary, this statistic alone is already a big enough reason to start using this weapon if your planning to go Scout-hunting. With the 25% damage bonus, you can now start one-shooting Scouts at close range which is a very, very powerful ability. Killing a Scout before he even knows what hit him can save you a lot of time and effort. The other important aspect of this weapon is that it comes with an 80% faster projectile. This statistic is extremely important, with the much faster projectile, a Soldier can now comfortably fight Scouts in open area where he otherwise couldn't. Why? Well lets repeat what we already mentioned, and that is the fact that hitting Scouts in an open and spacious location is pretty hard since Scouts have a lot bigger freedom of mobility when they aren't "trapped" in a tight room. This makes landing shots on them very difficult, its especially difficult if your using a projectile weapon which all of the Soldier's primaries are. But with the 80% faster projectile, hitting those one-shots on Scouts becomes a multitude times easier. This gives the Soldiers ability to move out of the enclosed spaces which were the only places where they could have confidently kill Scouts and to actually move outside for a bit and still be able to consistently hit and defeat enemy Scout despite them having a range of mobility options available to them. Ofcourse, with all these upsides, the Direct Hit must come with a downside, fortunately for the Soldier, this downside isn't really that important when we are talking about fighting Scouts. The downside is that the Direct Hit's rockets have a 70% smaller explosion radius. Considering that when your fighting in a small, claustrophobic room it doesn't really matter where you shot your almost guaranteed to hit something, and if your fighting in a wide open space, the Scout is probably going to be jumping around a lot, not giving you much of a chance to shoot your rockets at any kind of a surface so that your splash damage gets him, basically forcing you to go for exclusively direct hits, which is the exact thing the Direct Hit excels at. So for that reason, the only Direct Hit's downside is pretty meaningless when it comes to fighting Scouts, meanwhile two of its upsides greatly aid you in doing exactly that. For that reason, the Direct Hit is the best primary if you want to delete that Scout which has been getting on your nerve recently.
  • Panic Attack/any other Shotgun: However, if the Scout your fighting is so good that he manages to dodge all four of the rockets you had in store for him, then it would be a good time to pull out one of your trusty shotguns. The shotguns are excellent, as they provide another source of damage and are a good choice when hitting a Scout with a projectile just seems a bit too hard do. Although it doesn't matter what kind of a shogun you choose, the Panic Attack can be a slightly better option as it has a 50% faster deploy time, allowing you to start dishing out hitscan damage quicker. Shotguns should be used either as a finish-off tool or when your simply out of ammo for your Direct Hit.
  • Escape Plan: A melee isn't particulary useful in any kind of a fight, this is even more more when it comes to fighting enemy Scouts as they can just use their incredible speed to keep their distance away from you. But assuming that you managed to expend all of the ammunition from both your primary and secondary weapons and have nothing else to do except to try and go for a melee hit, well the Escape Plan is the weapon for you. It provides a hefty speed boost when your hurt allowing you to quickly catch up to the enemy Scouts.

Soldier can be quit powerful against the Scout but also very weak, depending on the circumstance. Its important to recognize situations where you have the advantage and the where the Scout has the advantage over you...Assuming you aren't using the "optional loadout", in which case it doesn't matter in what situation you are, those Scouts will be dropping like flies.

Heavy

“

"Go ahead and cry, baby." Click to listen — The Heavy to Scouts who complain about him using the Natascha.

”

At this point we are starting to reach classes which are fairly bad when dealing with Scouts, namely the Heavy. Many people would even argue that Heavy is terrible against the Scout. Although this may be true, our Russian friend still has a couple of weapons he can equip and some strategies to employ in order to shown those Scouts that he is no joke.

• Main (dis)advantage: The most noticeable advantage the Heavy has over the Scout is his large healtpool, in fact, the largest one in the game. Although this certainly is an advantage there is something which counter acts it, which I will explain further below. His main advantage is his insane damage provided by his primary, the Minigun. With Minigun firing every 0.1 seconds and each individual bullet being able to do up to 50 damage at close range, you get an DPS (Damage per second) of almost 500 damage per second (At close range). That's right, a Scout can die to the Minigun, in less then half of a second. "Clearly, the Heavy is simply a better Sentry Gun with more health and a lot higher damage, why isn't he the best class for fighting Scout?" You might ask. Well, unlike the Sentry Gun which has 100% accuracy and can immediately start firing at whatever threat it detects, the Heavy is controlled by a human, who are known to make mistakes, not only that but the heavy has to first rev up his gun in order to get it firing, something which is very bad as we see later on.

• Strategy: As a Heavy you need to remember one thing, you are not good against the Scout at close range combat. Your high healthpool and your ridiculously high DPS at point blank range might get you to believe the exact opposite but trust me, engaging a Scout in close-quarters combat is very bad. Let me show you an example of how your average Heavy vs Scout fight goes if the Scout manages to surprise a Heavy. Lets say that your a Heavy who is positioned in small enclosed room, there are two entrances to the room your in. Since you can't see through walls, you have no idea who is about to come into the room until you see them. Now, lets say that a Scout runs into the room, you notice each other at the same time and start fighting. The Scout fires his first shot, since he is very close to you and you have a giant hitbox, all 9 of his Scattergun pellets hit you doing about a 100 damage. Meanwhile, you don't fire anything...that's because you first have to wait for your Minigun to rev up, and this is where your big problem comes in, you can't start firing whenever you like, you first need to wait exactly 0.87 seconds for your Minigun to wind up before you can actually start firing it. So...your there, standing awkwardly not being able to do anything while the Scout can happily shot you without retaliation. Now, you might think that 0.87 second really isn't that much of a time, after all, the Scout has managed to only get one shot out, you'll soon be able to fire and kill that little bastard in a moments notice right? Well you would be wrong, lets see why... Anyway, the Scout shot you once and has reduced your health to about 2/3, since the Scout can fire his Scattergun every 0.62 seconds, he will be able to squeeze yet another shot out just a slither of a second before you can finally start firing your Minigun. Duo to the fact that the Scout shot you twice at point blank range, you now only have about 100 health remaining, but good news! Your Minigun is, at last, done with revving up meaning that you can finally unleash your monstrous DPS of more then 500 damage per second and hopefully kill the Scout with it. And oh boy, you need to kill that Scout fast! If he shots you one more time, he will kill you. And since the Scout can fire his Scattergun every 0.62 seconds, and he had just fired 0.2 second ago, by the time you're revved up and ready for action, you only have about 0.4 second to kill the Scout attacking you before he manages to get his third and final shot off. Now theoretically speaking, a you could kill a Scout in 0.4 seconds, with your 500 DPS it would only take about 0.2 seconds to kill the 125 health Scout attacking you, meaning that you still have a chance to win this fight, however, there is a small problem. You see, your Minigun has a hidden downside: after you rev up, your Minigun will start of with a 50% damage penalty which will only disappear after one second of firing. Unfortunantly, duo to this mechanic, you have no way to deal enough damage to the Scout in that short widow of time, which results in Scout managing to shot his Scattergun for the third time and kill you. What could have you done differently? Well in this situation nothing really, getting ambushed as a Heavy is basically a death sentence, especially if the class ambushing you is a Scout which can kill you in three clean shots before you even get a chance to deal meaningful damage. For that reason, you want to position yourself in location where you can't get ambushed, a position from which you can easily see anyone coming towards you from miles away. That's right, you want to position yourself in a wide open area. In such a position, a Scout can't just sneak up on you since you'll be able to spot him in advance and have plenty time to rev up your gun, so that by the time Scout comes close enough in order for his Scattergun to become lethal, you'll be able to greet him with a onslaught of bullets. You always want to fight the Scout in this position, going into small, cramped spaces leaves you vulnerable to ambushes from every class, not just Scout.

• Optimal loadout: Just like with the Soldier, there are certain weapons at your disposal which will greatly aid in your fight against the Scout. The best anti-Scout loadout for the heavy would be: Natascha for your primary slot, a Shotgun of choice for your secondary, and anything really for your the melee slot.
  • Natascha: The main upside of this weapon is its ability to slow down opponents on hit. This usually isn't that meaningful when fighting other classes but its very useful when your battling a Scout. Scout's main advantage is his amazing mobility, making it difficult to hit him. By hitting him with Natacha's bullets you not only deal damage to him but also greatly impair his ability to dodge your next salvo of bullets thus leaving him vulnerable to more damage. But this Minigun does come with its own set of downsides. The first downside is the fact that you do 25% less damage then you would do with the stock Minigun. This downside isn't that bad considering that the Scout already has a very low healthpool while and you already do a pretty hefty amount of damage to begin with, and lets also not forget that you slow down Scouts on hit, thus making it very hard for them to dodge meaning that you will be able to deal more damage to Scouts than you could with the other Miniguns simply because you can land more hits on them. The other drawback to the Natascha is its 30% slower rev up time. Now, this may seem like a serious drawback, after all, the sole reason why the Heavy is so bad at dealing with Scouts is the fact that he has to first rev up his gun to deal damage leaving him exposed for a hefty period of time, so by making his rev up time even longer he will surely be even worse against Scouts, right? Well, the truth is that the Heavy's need to wind up his gun is already such a big downside that increasing it even more makes no difference when fighting Scouts, at all. Chances are, if you position yourself in an open area where you can see incoming Scouts approaching you, 1 seconds of needed spin up time for your Natascha instead of the usual 0.87 seconds is still plenty of time to fully rev up your gun before the enemy Scouts can approach you close enough for the lethal distance of there Scatterguns. And if you are playing dumbly and get ambushed by a Scout while playing in tight, claustrophobic locations where there's no way to see incoming opponents, your slower rev up time doesn't matter as even if you were using a Minigun with a faster spin-up time you still couldn't get your gun firing fast enough to kill the Scout before he kills you.
  • Any Shotgun of choice: You can't always stay on the open ground, sometimes your going to traverse certain spaces where you won't be able to see opponets coming towards you until they are right up your face. As we already discussed earlier, trying to rev up your Minigun in this situations is no good at all as there is certainly not enough time to start ding meaningful damage before a Scout kills you. For that reason, equipping any kind of a Shotgun you have at your disposal is a very good idea. Now, you might be tempted to give up one of your Lunchbox items for a simple Shotgun which many professional Heavies regard as a bad weapon but trust me, in a fight against the Scouts, shotguns are a very useful weapon. If you ever happen to stumble upon a Scout who surprised you, instead of just dying duo to the fact that there is no chance of you managing to rev up your gun before the enemy Scout gets you, you can just simply pull out any of the 3 shotguns you have equipped, two-shot the Scout harassing you and be done with it. Obviously, you still want to use the Natascha as your primary source of damage, both against the Scouts and other classes, but a Shotgun is a really simple and an effective solution to a situation in which you would otherwise die.
  • Melee of choice: Melee really doesn't matter when it comes to fighting Scouts, they're so fast, they can just keep their distance from you while you hopelessly charge at the speed of a snail against them. Just don't even bother using melee, unless you managed to corner a Scout, in that case...

Fighting Scouts as a heavy can be quit frustrating, especially if you don't have a Medic backing you up, but its still possible to beat them. In general, the best way to beat enemy Scouts as a heavy is having good awareness. Scouts know that they can't engage you if your revved up and prepared, so they will almost always try and sneak up behind and attack you when you aren't ready. If you can spot a Scout flanking you, you'll be able to anticipate his future attack and prepare for it.

Classes which are relatively bad at fighting Scouts

Pyro

“

"Happy Laughter" Click to listen — The Pyro when a Scout enters his Airblast range.

”

At this point we've reached classes who are just plain bad against Scouts, and Pyro is the first on that list. Although a very good Pyro can beat a Scout of the same level (given that the circumstances are right), he will still usually lose out to him.

• Main (dis)advantage: The biggest advantage a Pyro can have over Scout (excluding Pyro's 50 more max heath) is the Pyro's Airblast ability. Scout lives and dies by his mobility. His incredible mobility is his "fuel" which keeps him running, its what allows Scout to survive in a hostile environment even with only 125 health, its what gives the Scout freedom of choosing his own battles, its the live saving ability which allows the Scout to make close escapes out of a situation most classes couldn't get out so easily. The Scouts amazing movement options are the precise thing which make him an extremely tough class, despite his low healthpool. If a Scout were to, oh I don't know, suddenly completely lose the control over his movement, he would be a sitting duck, just waiting for someone to kill him off. Now this is where the Airblast comes in. The Airblast is a mechanic which allows Pyro to change and dictate other players movement, basically, the Airblast gives the Pyro control over his enemies mobility for a short period of time. Now, you can image how destructive Airblast can be, to a class whose mobility plays a crucial role in its life. Just like the Sentry Gun, Airblast completely invalidates the Scouts main advantage he has over his foes. "So if the Pyro has such a destructive ability for the Scout, why is he ranked as a class which is bad at fighting enemy Scouts?" you might ask. Well, its true that Airblast is a particularly powerful ability, but it has a very big downside: it has very limited range. In fact, the drawback of having "limited range" is a recurring theme in almost all of Pyro's weapons. From his primaries to his secondaries, from his flamethrovers to his collection of Shotguns, basically all of Pyro's weapons either have short range, or have medium range but inadvertently depend on his close ranged weapons to deal meaningful damage. This is what holds Pyro back from truly being a Scout counter, he simply gets out ranged by the Scout who doesn't even need to step into Pyro's airblast range to do meaningful damage to him.

• Strategy: Now that you know what Pyro's main advantage is when it comes to fighting Scouts, we obviously want to use it as much as we can to beat him. Airblast should basically always be used when a Scout is attacking you. At "worst", randomly Airblasting a Scout can mess up his movement and send him flying in a semi-predictable pattern, but at best, Airblasting a Scout into a corner or a wall, can make him trapped thus forcing him in a duel against the second best close ranged class in the game. Unfortunately, only problem with Airblast is its limited range, this means that you can't fight Scouts in an open area, since neither your weapons nor your Airblast can be used against him, because a Scout can just keep his distance away from you. This leaves the close-range combat as your only option in beating Scouts, and even that is questionable. Although a Pyro is very good when it comes to close-quarters-combat, so is the Scout, who is armed with a Scattergun, a weapon which can deal very high burst damage at close range (up to 104), meaning that the Scout will be able to kill you in two clean shots if he gets the chance. Now this is where you should finally use your Airblast ability, in close-ranged combat. When you engage a Scout while both of you are in a enclosed and compact location, use your Airblast to push the Scout in a corner or up against the closest wall, doing this you achieve three things: 1. You close off the Scouts escape option thus forcing him to deal with you if he wants to get out alive. 2. You severely mess up his aim, preventing him from just two-shooting you with his Scattetgun. 3. You turn him into a sitting duck. When you airblast someone you either, lock them in place or send them flying in a predictable, both of those things are quit damaging to Scout who can't survive without his dodging ability. Anyway, once you airblast the Scout you'll put him onto a "stunned" status, allowing you to quickly use your secondary weapons in order to finish him off while he is unable to move. Now, we covered what do when you and the Scout are in a tight, "chokey" room where the Scout will be in range of your weapons and Airblast, but how to beat the Scout in a wide open area? Well...you can't do much in that situation. As we mentioned before, in a wide open area, Scout can just stay out of the range of your Airblast (And other weapons for that matter) and simply pepper away at you from distance, and even if a Scout was dumb enough to enter your Airblast range, you still couldn't do much with Airblasting him. There are no walls or corners you can push the Scout into in order to achieve the three desirable effect you would get when dueling a Scout in close-quarters combat. At best, you can just send the Scout flying away from you in a semi-predictable direction.

• Optimal loadout: Here is the best loadout for dealing with Scouts (As a Pyro ofcouse): Flamethrower or the Degreaser for your primary, Panic Attack or the Flare Gun for your secondary slot and a melee of choice.
  • Flamethrower/Degreaser: The Airblast is Pyro's strongest weapon for dealing with Scouts, this means that any primary weapons which either doesn't have Airblast or severly limit the use of Airblast (Dragon's Fury, Backburner, Phlogistinator) are immediately out of the question. This only leaves us with the Flamethrower and the Degreaser as the only viable weapons for anti-Scout combat, usually, the choice of which out of the two weapons to choose comes down to preference, but there are tactical usages for both flamethrowers. For starters, the Degreaser has a 25% more Airblast cost, meaning, that using Airblast when wielding the Degreaser will cost 25 ammo and only give you 8 uses of Airblast before you run out of ammunition, compare that to the Flamethrower's Airblast which only costs 20 ammo allowing you to use it 10 teams before you run dry. Judging by these two stats, Flamethrower does seem like a slightly better weapons when it comes to fighting Scouts, having less of Airblast does put you at a higher risk of running our of it when engaging in 1v1 battle with a Scout where Airblast is simply invaluable. To top that of, Degreaser has a downside of dealing 66% less afterburn damage, meaning that the Degreaser only does 1 damage per afterburn tick compared to the Flamethrower's 4 damage per tick. While afterburn isn't and never was Pyro's strongest ability, in a situation where your battling a Scout afterburn can be quit deadly. Most other classes can shrug of afterburn with ease as they have plenty of health to do so, however, classes with only 125 health such as the Scout can't do the same, this means that even a slightest puff of afterburn can prove lethal to the Scout, especially if he was already hurt. So far it isn't looking good for the Degreaser, he is lacking two important upsides the Flame Thrower posses, luckily for the Degreaser, he does have one thing the Flame Thrower doesn't, faster weapon switch. If you read the "strategy" section of the Pyro guide, you would know that the key to dealing with Scouts is to: 1. Airblast them, which will put them into a stunned state making them unable to move. 2. Quickly take out one of your secondary weapons and shot them with it while they're a sitting duck. Doing these two actions is a lot more easier when you have the 60% faster weapons switch speed bonus of the Degreaser. With the ability to switch between your primary and other weapons slots much faster, you can more confidently kill Scouts using the limited amount of time you have while the Scout is stunned by your Airblast. In fact, sometimes, the window of time you have to kill a Scout before he gets himself "unstunned" is so short, that the Degreaser's switch speed is the only way you can get out your secondary weapons in time to kill him. An important thing to remember when choosing whether you want to equip the Flame Thrower or the Degreaser is knowing your secondary weapons. If your going to equip the Flare Gun as your secondary, then the Deagreaser might be the better bet, considering that the Degreaser's downside of having almost no afterburn damage, can be negated by the fact that the Flare Gun can also set people on fire. However, if you want to bring the the Panic Attack to battle, then the Flame Thrower can be a preferable choice as the Flame Throwers drawback of having no switch speed bonus is partially negated by the Panic Attack's 50% faster deploy time. But in general, which of the two Flamethrowers you choose as your main anti-Scout weapon is simply up to your personal preference.
  • Flare Gun/Panic Attack: These are your two main options for fighting Scout. As was said a million times before, your supposed to combo these weapons with your primary and Airblast ability in order to quickly dispose of enemy Scouts by first stunning them (With the Airblast of ccourse), and then using either the Panic Attack or the Flare Gun to quickly finish them off while they're immobilized. Other than that, there is not much to be said when using these two weapons.
  • Melee of choice: Melee should never be used against the Scout as there is no way that you'll be able to catch up to the Scout and smack him with your melee, don't even bother.

Sniper

“

"That'll slow ya down, ya twitchy hooligan!" Click to listen — The Sniper when he Headshot's the fastest class in the game.

”

Sniper is also a bad class for fighting Scouts. Although, a really good Sniper who has perfected his aim can make relatively quick work out of enemy Scouts, if a Sniper and a Scout of the same skill level were to meet, 9 times out of 10, the Scout woulds win.

• Main (dis)advantage: Your biggest advantage is the fact that you can potentially one-shot a Scout. This is a very big advantage, one-shoting a Scout can only be achieved by a few other weapons which are mostly Projectiles. While this enormous power over Scouts is certainly good in theory, in practice, landing a headshot on a fast moving target which is Scout is not easy, especially when considering the fact that the Sniper Rifle also reduces your field of view making it even harder to land that necessary hit on Scout and take him out.

• Strategy: The strategy is simple, stay away as much as you can in order to make the Scouts life as difficult as it can be. While this strategy is applicable to dealing with any other class in general, its even more true when it comes to fighting Scouts. Scouts are on of the best close range classes, and you are on of the worst. So if you accidentally bump into a Scout, prepare to die, or have to put every single on of your skills on the test in order to score a successful Headshot on a fast moving target at close range. Its also helpful to learn how aim at Scouts. There are two main types of aiming: tracking and predicting. Tracking is when you put your crosshair "onto" an enemy player and move the crosshair with him, basically following him with your crosshair. Meanwhile, predicting is when you place your Crosshair where you expect the enemy to come, then you keep the crosshair in that position and wait for an enemy to come right "into it" before pulling the trigger. Both of these "ways to aim" have their own set of advantages and drawback, but in this case, predicting is the best way when it comes to targeting Scouts. Tracking a Scout is very hard, they're very fast and have a wide variety of movement options, this combined with your small field of vision makes tracking Scouts quit hard, especially in a close-ranged engagement. For that reason, predicting should be your main way of targeting Scouts.

• Optimal loadout: The best loadout to choose when fighting Scouts is to simply pick whatever you likes the most. Sniper has virtually infinite potential for improvement, if your good enough at Sniper, you'll make anything work, even against a class such as the Scout. But if you aren't the best Sniper, here is the most desirable combination of weapons to take with you when engaging an enemy Scout. They are as following: Huntsman for your primary weapon, SMG for the secondary, and a melee of choice.
  • Huntsman: A big upside of the Huntsman is the fact that it has now scope. This means that you can charge and fire this weapons without needing to drastically limit your field of view. This is very helpful when fighting fast moving targets such as a Scout, who can often go outside of your field of view when using a regular Sniper Rifle thus making him hard to either track or predict. The other big positive the Huntsman has is its ability to fully charge a shot very quickly. Generally, when you encounter a "hard to hit" target (such as the Scout) as a Sniper, you will want to go for a body-shot instead of a regular headshot since "body-shooting" an opponent is much easier then scoring a hit on their head, but there's a catch, body-shots do less damage then a Headshot, meaning that you will need to fully charge up your weapons in order to get the maximum potential damage for the body-shot you're trying to land . Now, you can go for body-shots with any of the Sniper rifles, but these usually take quit a while to charge (About 3.3 seconds), this means that while your trying to charge up that body-shot you will be a sitting duck to anyone, including the Scout your trying to hit. But the Huntsman doesn't have such a problem, it can fully charge in a single second. Because of all of this, the Huntsman is quit good at taking down Scouts as it doesn't shorten your field of view, and it also charges up super quick allowing you to go for much easier to hit body-shots. Plus, the Huntsman arrows are projectiles meaning that you can more easily hit your opponents with them duo to their larger size compared to bullets.
  • SMG: SMG is greatly used as a "finish-off" tool. You see, a fully charged Huntsman body-shot will only do 120 damage. This means that a healthy Scout with 125 health won't be immediately killed and will need just a tiny bit more of damage in order to kill. This is where the SMG comes in, with a high rate of fire and decent DPS, you can quickly use this tool to dispose of those Scouts who managed to survive an arrow to their chest with just a sliver of there health remaining. Even if your a bad gunner, hitting that one single bullet required with an SMG won't be too hard.
  • Melee of choice: The melee you use play's almost no factor in fighting Scouts, choose what you're comfortable with.

Medic

“

"Come over here. I promise I vill heal you!" Click to listen — The Medic just before showering a poor Scout with Needles.

”

Medic is a just a bad class for dealing with Scouts, if your a Medic and there is a good Scout on the enemy team, your basically going to have a bad time. But then again, you could say that the Medic is bad against every class when it comes to direct combat, which would be understandable considering that the Medic wasn't designed for combat in the first place. However, although Medic is bad against Scouts, he at least he has some tools which he can use semi-effectively to protect himself against them, this would be the reason why he is still better then some classes when it comes to fighting of Scouts.

• Main (dis)advantage: The only advantage you have over Scout is that you have slightly more health then him and that you also have an automatic health-regeneration. Excluding those things, your in most cases completely defenseless against a Scout. If he manages to catch you alone (Which he will since he is a flank class) you better not expect a fair fight, because your going to be in for a disappointment. Things are made worse by the fact that Scouts are really good at going around your team unnoticed and looking for high value targets in your team's backline, which is you, as a Medic your re the high value target.

• Strategy: So how does a Medic beat a Scout, well... you don't, not directly atleast. Instead of trying to fight an enemy Scout, you want to support your team so that they can do that job for you. So, this strategy section will be giving you guides on how to avoid the Scout and not let him kill you, and how to beat the Scout indirectly by helping your team kill him. So for that reason, first order of business should be communication. Your teammates will (hopefully) try and protect you, but they can't spot every single thing as they will be preoccupied with fighting the enemy team. So if they happen to not notice a Scout sneaking behind them in order to try and kill you, well notify them! Use either the text chat or the voice chat to alert your team that a Scout has managed to get into the backlines and is attempting to kill you, assuming that your teammates understand english, they should quickly come to your aid. Other thing to you can do to help your team in dealing with Scouts is to heal your own, friendly Scouts. If you've had read the Scout guide above for dealing with opposing Scouts, you would know that Scouts often bump into each other on there way to flank the enemy team, you would have also learnt that Scouts are the second best class when it comes to dealing with other Scouts. For all that reason, you should seriously consider overhealing friendly Scouts. When you overheal someone, you buff there max health up to 150% of they're normal health. This can be useful for every class, but in the context of anti-Scout action, overhealing a Scout is your best decision, as now with almost 185 health compared to their usual 125 health, your Scouts can confidently duel and kill opposing Scouts next time they engage them thus eliminating a huge danger to you. Not only that, but as an added bonus, now that your teammate Scout managed to kill the enemy Scout with your help, he will become a danger to the enemy Medic which is always good. And the last thing you can do to improve your survivability is to stick with the Engineer's Sentry Gun. Sentry Guns are Scouts worst nightmare, so being close to them kinda gives you an immunity against Scouts. Now, your don't want to sit right atop of your Engineer's Sentry Gun, you do have a job to do and can't just sit around whole day. But its still useful to keep in mind where the closest friendly Sentry is so that you know where to run if a Scout were to start chasing you.

• Optimal loadout: Now, you can use the small strategy guide above and apply it in a real game assuming that one specific condition is met: And that condition would be the assumption that your team is actually capable of protecting you. If your team doesn't have a Scout who can take advantage of you overhealing him or if your team doesn't have an Engineer which can provide you valuable Sentry Guns to hide behind or if your team is just simply bad and completely unable to protect you, your going to have to protect yourself, which is terrible, Luckily for you, fighting Scout directly as a Medic is still doable since at least some of your weaponry is effective against the Scout thus giving you a sliver of hope of beating him in a 1v1 situation (Key word: A Sliver). The "best" loadout agaisnt the Scout goes like this: Any kind of a Needle gun for the primary slot, Vaccinator as your secondary and it honestly it doesn't even matter what melee option do you choose for your third slot. Don't be fooled by the fact that "best" loadout even exits, it isn't very useful, especially against very skilled Scouts who will be able to easily beat you despite you using the "best" loadout. But hey, that's the reason the Medic is ranked so lowly when it comes to classes ability to fight Scouts.
  • The Needle Guns (The Syringe Gun, Blutsauger and the Overdose): Despite what many Professional Medics say about the Needle Guns, against a low health target such as the Scout, Needle Guns are actually useful, and all three have they're own specific use against the Scout.
    • The Syringe Gun is a deceptively good weapon, especially against a Scout. Its projectiles don't do much damage (only 12 at close range) but the Syringe Gun has a very good fire-rate and clip size meaning that those relatively harmless projectiles can quickly swarm the enemy in mass numbers. This weapon isn't very effective against other classes but it can be devastating to Scouts. Even with the relatively low damage, Scout can take only 11 hits from the Syringe Gun, this may give the impression that this weapon is bad since you need to hit a practically unhittable class so many times until you consider the fact that the Syringe Gun can store 40 needles in its clip and that it has an attack interval of 0.1 seconds. With so many Projectiles and such a high rate of fire, Scouts can be quickly overwhelmed by your needles. Overall, the Syringe Gun is a good weapon for dealing with Scouts, in theory. In practice, hitting all needles required to kill a Scout is an almost impossible task considering that your needles have an extremely low velocity and the Scout has incredible mobility.
    • The Blutsauger is basically indentical to the Syringe Gun, only difference is that upon hitting someone with its needles, you get 3 health returned to you in return of you having lower passive health regeneration. This is a slightly better weapon option when it comes to fighting Scouts as the "returned health on hit" can boost your combat effectiveness while inheriting all the good parts about the Syringe Gun, just be aware that it still has a very slow projectile speed meaning that hitting anything, especially Scouts is hard and frustrating.
    • The Overdoes is for people who are bad at aiming there needles and just want a weapon which gives the a good escape option. The Overdoes gives you a speed boost the more ÜberCharge you have. At its maximum, the Overdose can grant you a 20% increase in speed which doesn't quit make you faster then a Scout but it does make you almost fast as one. This weapon can be greatly used to outrun the Enemy Scouts trying to chase you, although the Scout can still catch up to you since he will be just slightly more faster, he will have to run in a straight line towards you in order to do so thus making him quit vulnerable to Overdose's needles
  • Vaccinator: The Vaccinator is an excellent Medi Gun to choose and is probably your best bet when it comes to beating Scouts, if there is a competent Scout on the enemy team targeting you while your teammates are incapable of protecting you, the Vaccinator will be your best friend. The Scout only has one way of dealing damage, with bullets. This makes the Vaccinator a good counter to him since you only need to worry about resisting one damage type (Unlike with Pyro who has two, hell even three damage types), and don't have to waste more charges vaccinating yourself from other potential damage types a class could posses. Plus, the Vaccinator has a 67% faster Übercharge build speed, this means that whenever a Scout tries to attack you, you will almost always be ready and have an Über to spare for your protection, thus ensuring that your never get "caught with your pants down". The Vaccinator also pairs nicely with the Overdose, duo to the Vaccinator's 67% faster build rate, you will almost always have an increased movement speed from the Overdose's ability which grants an increase in movement speed as your Übercharge percentage grows.
  • Melee of choice: It doesn't matter what you choose for your third weapon slot, noone of the Melee option really increase or decrease you chances of beating Scouts, either directly or indirectly.

Classes which are exceptionally inefficient at fighting Scouts

Demoman

“

"Grow some hair on yer face, and come and try me again, lad." Click to listen — The Demoman to an inexperienced Scout who falsely thinks that he is an easy kill.

”

At this point we've reached the bottom of the barrel. The remaining two classes here, indeed are very bad at killing with Scouts. We will start of with the Demoman who, at the very least, is still capable of semi-successfully capable of dealing with Scouts (Compared to the Spy).

• Main disadvantage: Scout is just to damm fast for the poor Demoman, he simply can't keep up with the Scout (And not just in the walk speed). Scout's speed allow hims to render Demoman's secondary weapons near useless while making it extremely hard to hit him even with the Demoman's primary. It also doesn't help that in almost all situations, Demoman is in some way handicapped when dealing with Scouts. In close-quarters combat, the Stickybomb Launcher is nearly worthless since the Stickies have no chance of arming in time before the Scout simply gets right up in the Demo's face. It also doesn't help that the Grenade Launcher also won't be of much help in these short-ranged situations, considering the fact that at this ranges, the Scout's Scattergun can do more damage then a Grenade Launcher, plus the Scout doesn't have to worry damaging himself when firing upon a target right in his face. In middle-ranged combat things aren't much brighter either. Your secondary weapons (The Stickybomb Launcher) is a bit more usable since the distances are larger giving the Stickies more time to arm, but your primary is almost useless. Hitting a fast moving target with plenty of movement options such as the Scout with grenades which have low velocity and are subject to gravity is a very difficult task to do. You will also need to go for direct hits only, simply because the grenades don't allow you to settle with hitting in-direct shots like a Soldier's Rockets would. On top of all of that, you will need to hit a Scout two times with your Grenade Launcher in order to guarantee a kill, keep in mind that hitting a good Scout once can already be considered an achievement. So basically, at close range, a Scout will be able to two-shot you with his Scattergun, all the while rendering your secondary weapons unusable duo to his speed and turning your Grenade Launcher against you (Since the explosions from your grenades is bound to reach you in such tight conditions). At medium range, your Stickybomb Launcher is somehow what usable and you don't have to worry about accidentally doing self-harm to yourself, however, hitting two, Direct Hit Grenade shots in a row becomes practically impossible making your primary weapon almost obsolete (Unless you're a Pipe Jesus) Because of all of these disadvantages, the Demoman is ranked so poorly when it comes to dealing with Scouts.

• Strategy: So, what can a Demo do to beat Scouts? Well, there is this very specific thing you can do in order to increase your chances of coming alive out of a Scout duel. Firstly, you want to engage a Scout at medium to long range. While Demoman isn't particularly effective against Scouts at either ranges (As we've seen above), fighting a Scout at a distance is still better then fighting him when his all over your face since: You don't have to worry about damaging yourself, you can actually give your Stickies time to arm themselves thus allowing you to use them, and to top that off, you don't have to worry about Scout two-shooting you while you can still two-shot him thanks to your weapons not having any damage fall off. As you can see, you are better at range then when your right up in the Scouts face, unfortunately, any competent or a skilled Scout will also quickly recognize that he has much better chances against you, if he can manage to force you in a close-quarters duel instead of a ranged one. For that reason, we obviously want to keep the Scout at bay and not allow him to close the distance, luckily for us, the Demoman is equipped with just the right tool necessary in doing that task, for he has the Stickybomb Launcher. With the SticklyBomb Launcher, you can quickly place a bunch of Stickies (Usually a single Sticky is completely fine) on the ground right in front of you, thus creating a sort of a barrier which the Scout cannot pass. Now that you ensured yourself from Scouts closing the distance on you and creating all sorts of problems, you may now comfortably sit behind you "mine field" and take your precious time dealing with enemy Scouts. Usually, the Scout will simply run away as soon as he saw the barrier you created in front of him and won't even bother attacking you.

• 'Optimal loadout: There are a few items which can make your life a whole lot easier when it comes to fighting Scouts. They are the following: Grenade Launcher of choice for your primary, Quickiebomb Launcher for your secondary, and anything for your melee option except the Pain Train.
  • Grenade Launcher: It doesn't matter what kind of a Grenade Launcher you choose, neither of them make it easier or harder to fight Scouts. But you can expect one thing from all of them, and that is the fact that using any of them against a Scout is rather tricky and hard.
  • Quickiebomb Launcher: The main reason why you should use this weapons instead of your reliable Stickybomb Launcher is simply duo to the fact that the stickies fired by the Quickiebomb Launcher arm 0.2 seconds faster then the ones launcher by the Stickybomb Launcher. This can greatly aid you in your fight against the Scout since you can set up that "barrier" of your's a lot more quicker hence make it even harder for an Scout to rush you. The main downside of the Quickiebomb Launcher is its -15% damage penalty. Although this might seem like a big downside it really isn't considering the fact that a Scout already has a relatively low healthpool which means that even with that 15% less damage downside, you will still be able to take him out with only two Stickies
  • Melee of choice (Except the Pain Train): Any melee can work as a last-resort style weapon against a Scout, but whatever you do, do not use the Pain Train against a Scout. With the Pain Train you'll take 10% more bullet damage, which is terrible against a bullet using class such as the Scout.

Spy

“

"Hard to stab a guy in the back when he's beatin' your frickin' head in, huh?" Click to listen — The Scout explaining to the Spy the reason why using melee against him doesn't really work.

”

And now we've reached the worst class for dealing with Scouts, the Spy.

• Main disadvantage: Spy's main way of dealing damage and his preferred way of attacking comes from his Knife, which can be used to backstab his opponents for an instant kill. As you can see, the Spy's Knife (Which is a melee weapon) is his primary damage output, and this is where we run into some problems concerning Spy's ability to beat Scouts. If you had read the "anti-Scout strategy guides" for other classes above, you would know that trying to use a melee weapons against a Scout is a very bad idea, in fact, you should never, ever try to melee a Scout. This is simply duo to the Scout's incredible mobility and his speed which allow him to easily outrun anyone trying to smack him with his melee. Of course, for other classes, the fact that you can't engage a Scout in melee combat is not a big problem, all other classes don't use their melee weapon as a main source of damage, for they have other means of dealing with Scouts. But when you have a class which completely revolves around a melee weapon (Such as the Spy), then you'll get quit a few problems when a Scout comes around. Because of all the previous reasons, Spy is a terrible class to fight a Scout with, his primary and sometimes only source of damage is entirely thrown out of the window by the Scout. As a Spy, with your speed you are never going to catch up to the in order to backstab him, and even you somehow manage to get close enough to him, you still need to remember one thing, an that is the fact that you can only backstab someone from a specific angle. It also doesn't help that the Scout is a pretty good close-range class, and that standing in close proximity to him as a Spy is a pretty dangerous thing to do. The Scout is equipped with the Scattergun, a very powerful Shotgun which at close range can deal upwards of 100 damage, meaning that the Scout can two-shot you whenever he wishes to, meanwhile, only thing you can do is to gently poke him with your Knife and do about 40 damage (Unless you can backstab him, which is even harder to pull of). "Well what about the Spy's Revolver, can it be of help against a Scout?" you might ask. Yes, the Revolver is certainly a much better way to deal with Scouts then to try and stab them with your Knife, but even it has its downsides. A positive thing about the Revolver is its ability to do up to 60 damage at close range, this allows you to reliably three shot Scouts at close range, unfortunately, its upsides end here. The Revolver has two major drawbacks when it comes to fighting Scouts: 1.You need to be at close range in order to achieve the maximum damage, and as we said earlier, standing near a Scout is not a good thing to do, especially as a Spy. 2.Hitting three, necessary Revolver shots in order to take down the Scout, a fast moving target with plenty of movement options is easier said then done. Sure, with a bit of skill and precision, landing those three hits is not that hard. But even all the skill in the world can't change something, and that would be the fact that if you meet a Scout with a similar skill level, you are not going to be the one coming alive out of that duel. That's simply because a Scout only has to two-shot you and your also an easier target for him then if he is for you.

• Strategy: It isn't looking good for the Spy, it would seem that no matter what he does, he just losses out to the Scout. And that would be the unfortunate truth, after all, there is a good reason why the Spy is ranked as the worst class for fighting Scouts. The best advice would to simply avoid Scouts and focus on other, more important targets (Such as Medics and Snipers) But if you really do insist on trying to beat a Scout as a Spy, here's a simple advice: Use your Revolver!. As if already wasn't clear, the Revolver is your only weapon which can help you stand a chance against the Scout.

• Optimal loadout: Any kind of a Revolver, except the L'Etranger, Sapper of choice, knife of choice and the Dead Ringer.
  • Revolver of choice (Except the L'Etranger): Anyone of your revolvers is useful against the Scout.
    • Stock Revolver is a trusty and a consistent source of damage, like we said earlier, your going to need three shots to kill a Scout with it from close range.
    • Enforcer can actually be better then the Stock Revolver. If you manage to hit a Scout with the Enforcer while disguised and at close range, you will do about 70 damage. This will bring the Scout to low enough health at which point only another shot will be necessary. And even when undisguised its still a pretty good Revolver duo to its downside not being to important to a Scout duel.
    • Ambassador is even better then the Enforcer (In theory at least). If you manage to score a Headshot on the enemy, you won't one shot him but you'll be able to also two-shot him, and that is without needing to be disguised. However, as if simply hitting a Scout wasn't already hard enough, scoring a headshot on him might be damm near impossible. So use the Ambassador only if you are very skilled
    • L'Etranger is bad for the reason of doing low damage and its upside not being important to a Scout duel.
  • Sapper of choice: You obviously can't use place a Sapper on a Scout so it doesn't matter what your bring into battle.
  • Knife of choice: You are rarely going to be given the opportunity of backstabbing a Scout, so you might as well take whatever you like.
  • Dead Ringer: The Dead Ringer can help you get you of out Scout duels easily if things were to go south.

Weapon-specific

Main article: Scout weapons

Primary weapons

Weapon	Anti-Scout strategy
Scattergun + reskins	The Scattergun deals immense damage at point-blank range and will allow a Scout to stay in combat for a modest amount of time. Although he is faster than you, do your best to stay at medium range to minimize the damage you take while trading blows. It takes a considerably long time for a Scout to reload his Scattergun; if he uses most of his six shots, keep pressuring him into firing so that he cannot fully reload.
Force-A-Nature + reskins	The Force-A-Nature deals even more damage than the Scattergun up close, but must be reloaded every two shots. If the Scout insists on staying nearby, pick him off during his frequent reloading periods. The Force-A-Nature's knock back effects let a Scout easily reposition himself or push you backwards for a follow-up shot, so avoid lingering near walls where you can quickly be cornered or hazards that you can be blasted into. The Force-A-Nature will also knock the Scout back if he is in mid-air. If he decides to attack while in midair, you can easily line up a counterattack.
Shortstop	The Shortstop has a tight bullet spread suited for medium range. By closing the distance, the Scout may find it more difficult to hit you. When the Scout has his Shortstop as his active weapon, he suffers extra vulnerability to knockback. Options to deal with him now include juggling him into the air or pushing him into an environmental hazard. Scouts with the Shortstop can also attack with a non-damaging shove which deals medium knockback at melee range. Don't position yourself near an environmental hazard for too long.
Soda Popper	The Soda Popper holds two shots that fire quickly and deal Scattergun-level damage. It must be reloaded frequently, which gives you opportunities to fight back. Scouts using this weapon usually make their second shot immediately after the first. Avoid being hit by both shots by changing direction after the first attack. If the Scout deals enough damage, he can activate his Hype charge, which gives him five mid-air jumps (for a total of six jumps). If you notice a bright purple glow, know that shooting the Scout in midair will be very difficult.
Baby Face's Blaster	The Baby Face's Blaster only holds 4 rounds per clip, giving it less raw offensive power. As the Scout deals damage, his movement speed will increase. It would be wise to lead your shots, even with hitscan weapons. Reduce the Scout's boost by dealing chip damage and forcing him to double jump. Each point of damage you land on the Scout will drain 4% of his boost - even a weak hit can slow him down to his base speed.
Back Scatter	The Back Scatter is 20% less accurate than the Scattergun and only holds 4 rounds per clip, making it less effective at offense without resorting to relying on making surprise attacks. Scouts tend to take alternate routes to catch you off-guard. Check your back often. Since the Back Scatter deals mini-crits from behind, keep facing the Scout so he can't get behind you.

Secondary weapons

Weapon	Anti-Scout strategy
Pistol + reskins	The Scout may switch to the Pistol to harass you from a distance or finish you off after firing all their Scattergun shots. Its ammunition pool is meager; if you avoid dying to the first few barrages, he will not have any remaining offensive pressure. The Pistol is the Scout's only option at long range.
Bonk! Atomic Punch + reskins	Bonk! Atomic Punch helps a Scout get past dangerous areas, such as chokepoints or Sentry Gun nests. He can’t fight while under its effects, so impede his movement by body blocking him or using knock back. If the Scout absorbs damage while invulnerable, he will be greatly slowed for up to 5 seconds once the effect wears off. Attack him during his invulnerability to prevent him from escaping once it ends - two solid hits will slow him to half-speed and allow you to easily kill him.
Crit-a-Cola	Although the Scout will deal guaranteed mini-crits, he will be Marked-For-Death for 5 seconds every time he fires a shot. Stay calm and fight back.
Mad Milk + reskins	The healing provided by Mad Milk lets an accurate Scout stay fighting for a prolonged period of time. If you’re covered by it, prevent him from healing by dodging his attacks. Taking Mad Milk means giving up the Pistol; dealing with the Scout's primary weapon appropriately leaves him with no other options.
Winger	The Winger functions similarly to the Pistol and should be treated the same way; keep a distance so it deals minor damage. This gun also gives the Scout a +25% bonus jump height when active, so be prepared to cover additional routes he can take.
Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol	The Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol fires faster and grants health-on-hit, but has a smaller clip size. If the Scout resorts to using this, his health may be low. Keep pressuring him - the healing the gun provides is barely enough to tide him over until he reaches a health pack and won’t save him from a solid hit.
Flying Guillotine	The Flying Guillotine is ideal for picking off weakened targets but recharges only every five seconds. Long-distance hits reduce the Guillotine's recharge time. Do your best to avoid getting hit.

Melee weapons

Weapon	Anti-Scout strategy
Bat + reskins	A Scout that insists on using the Bat could easily deal more damage at close range with any of his primary weapons, actually giving you a slight advantage in melee combat if you can keep your aim steady.
Sandman	Keep moving to avoid getting hit by the Sandman's stun ball. Being hit will slow you down, and the duration of the slow increases with range. If you are struck by the Sandman's baseball, retreat towards your teammates so that they can protect you. Keep your aim on the Scout as he may go in for close combat. The Sandman reduces the Scout's health by 15, making killing him significantly easier - a point-blank rocket can instantly kill him.
Holy Mackerel + reskins	The Holy Mackerel functions similarly to the Bat but announces each hit in the kill feed. Hit announcements can be used to determine the whereabouts of a Scout. If you are the Spy and fake your death using the Dead Ringer, the enemy team will not see "FISH KILL!" in the kill feed, a clear sign that you are not dead.
Candy Cane	A Scout who causes health packs to drop from your dead teammates has the Candy Cane in his loadout. He is 25% more vulnerable to explosions, so a direct hit from a rocket or grenade will often kill him instantly. Try to steal the small health kits dropped by teammates killed by the Scout, preventing him from using the benefit of the weapon.
Boston Basher + reskins	Evade a Scout that is attacking you with the Boston Basher so that he damages himself instead. A creative Scout might use the weapon's negative attribute to propel himself to high locations at the cost of a significant amount of health.
Sun-on-a-Stick	The Sun-on-a-Stick does increased damage to burning enemies. If you are set on fire, you should be trying to extinguish yourself, retreating from and repelling any Scout that tries to pick you off. The Sun-on-a-Stick grants a passive 25% resistance against fire damage. A burning Scout may deploy it to reduce damage as he retreats.
Fan O'War	If you are marked for death by the Fan O’War, the Scout will likely try to chase you down with his primary weapon. Adjust your one-on-one tactics to his chosen weapon and try to move to your teammates for help. A Scout may use the Fan O'War to identify which enemy his team should focus fire on; take cover until the mark wears off if there are too many enemies.
Atomizer	The Scout can triple jump when the Atomizer is deployed. Keep in mind alternate routes he can take. The Scout must have the Atomizer deployed to triple jump. When fighting him, you should only have to deal with his double jump. A Scout who deploys it in combat may be planning to retreat. The Atomizer can also mini-crit while airborne. This doesn’t deal much bonus damage - deal with the Scout as if he were fighting with the stock Bat.
Wrap Assassin	While a Scout will rarely use the Wrap Assassin as a melee weapon, the projectile it launches can inflict the bleed effect on you. Bleeding can be negated by any source of healing.

See also

• Double jumping
• Team strategy