Anti-Engineer strategy

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The Engineer is a defensive class. He is has mediocre weapons and low health, relying on his Sentry Gun for firepower and his Dispenser and Teleporter to aid his teammates.

General

Attributes	Anti-Engineer Strategy
Role	Engineers are high priority targets. A team without a Sentry Gun or Dispenser is at a disadvantage. His Sentry Gun is quite vulnerable when you stay out of its range and the Engineer is not there to protect it. A lone Engineer is not credit to his team, so if you take one down away from the main front, the enemy is probably trying to keep his buildings alive. Use this weakness to target them.
Health	The Engineer is a fragile class with a very short stature. Using this fact, aiming direct damages into him can take him down in a couple of seconds.
Speed	The Engineer runs at an average pace, but he is restricted in a certain distance away from his buildings in order to keep them safe. So, if you see him running away, you can guess that he is running toward the nearest buildings.
Power	The Engineer is an average fighter even without his Sentry Gun, but if you work as a team, he could be outmatched in no time.

Weapon Specific

A list of useful tidbits about the Engineer's tools, and how to counter them.

Primary Weapons

Weapon	Anti-Engineer Strategy
Shotgun	Shotguns have a very wide spread the farther away you are, so aggravating an Engineer could cause him to try to chase you down. Use this to your advantage and kill him when he is disconnected from his buildings
Frontier Justice	An Engineer that dies before his Sentry Gun is destroyed will not receive his Revenge Crits.

Secondary Weapons

Weapon	Anti-Engineer Strategy
Pistol / Lugermorph	The Engineer will probably use this only when he is far away from you, so closing the distance will make him pull out his primary weapon. The Engineer is capable of spamming this weapon many times since he holds an additional 200 bullets when he's filled up.
Wrangler	The Wrangler shield provides the Sentry Gun with 66% damage reduction. Killing the Engineer will remove the shield and disable the Sentry Gun for a few seconds, making it vulnerable to attacks. Engineers using the Wrangler suffer from tunnel-vision. This makes them vulnerable to attacks from the side and rear.

Melee Weapons

Weapon	Anti-Engineer Strategy
Wrench / Golden Wrench	This weapon is primarily used if the Engineer is off guard when you attack him while he's occupied; the average Engineer will then attempt to chase you down with it and its (perceived) high Critical hit rate. Let him follow you to where your allies are to finish him off safely.
Gunslinger	The Gunslinger must chain hits rapidly for the three-punch combo to take effect. Try to avoid getting hit too often to negate the combo.
Southern Hospitality	Engineers are more susceptible to burn damage when using the Southern Hospitality.
Jag	The Jag has reduced melee damage, but is still capable of critical damage.

Buildings

Set	Anti-Engineer Strategy
Sentry Guns	Sentry Guns are the highest priority when deciding which building to destroy. An Engineer behind his Sentry Gun is protected from splash damage at the front, but can easily be damaged by splash damage to the side. Sentry Guns can be damaged from around corners without having a chance to (fully) lock on to the attacker. Engineers that switch to their Shotgun or Pistol to dispose of Stickies placed at the base of their buildings leave them vulnerable to damage. Sentry Guns are slow to turn. If approached from a blind spot, the enemy can run around the gun while meleeing it without taking damage. A full-health level 3 Sentry Gun cannot be destroyed in one hit by anything other than a cluster of stickybombs. Coordinate your attacks with your teammates' to destroy it faster than it can be repaired.
Dispenser	Dispensers are vulnerable to being destroyed, as Engineers are often preoccupied with repairing their Sentry Guns. This slows building maintenance. Dispensers are the second highest priority when facing a defensive team, as Teleporters aren't as useful due to the proximity of the spawn.
Teleporter	Teleporters that won't go down are most likely being repaired from the other side. Out-damage the repair rate to successfully destroy them. Alternatively, if there seems to be no risk, wait for a few seconds to bait the Engineer into doing something else, then destroy it. Teleporters are the second highest priority when facing an offensive team, as they keep the opponents' respawning players at the front lines. Beware of telefrags when attacking a teleporter exit. On some maps, Engineers like to use "dummy" Teleporters as an early warning system. If you see a teleporter in an unusual place (especially if it is inactive), you may want to leave it alone to avoid dropping the element of surprise.

See also

• Engineer strategy
• Community Engineer strategy
• Sentry Gun
• Engineer match-ups
• Team strategy