Spy match-ups

Class			Strategy
Spy	vs	Scout	A typical Scout rarely stands still and is difficult to hit with any of your weapons. With his speed, he can simply bump into you to Spy-check and easily chase you down. The Force-A-Nature’s knockback, Mad Milk, and the Boston Basher’s bleed effect can aid in revealing you further, so it may be best to avoid him whenever possible. If you end up directly fighting a Scout, backpedal erratically while firing your Revolver at his chest; you don’t want to fight him at close range.
Spy	vs	Soldier	A Soldier who is in the thick of battle is unlikely to notice you until you backstab him. As long as he isn’t rocket jumping, his slow speed makes him a relatively easy target. However, should your backstab fail or he discover you, flee immediately; at close range, his Rocket Launcher can deal heavy damage over a wide area. At medium to long range, you can easily dodge his rockets while retaliating with your accurate Revolver. If he rocket jumps toward you, it’s best to simply retreat and let your more bulky teammates cover for you.
Spy	vs	Pyro	The Pyro is your nightmare. He can use his Flamethrower to easily Spy-check all of his teammates, nullifying your Cloak and disguise. Additionally, he can use his compression blast to keep you pinned in a corner once discovered, so avoid him whenever possible. If you are set on fire, uncloak immediately and run for the nearest body of water or source of Health. If you must directly fight a Pyro, backpedal while firing your Revolver. Even in the midst of combat, his Flamethrower’s large spread may inadvertently reveal you, making him a suboptimal choice to try to backstab. Careful use of the Dead Ringer can let you extinguish his flames once, giving you some immunity to his routine Spy-checks.
Spy	vs	Demoman	A Demoman will often be too focused on combat or laying Sticky traps to pay attention to you. He moves relatively slowly, allowing you to easily catch up for a backstab. Your Cloak and disguise can be used to pass over his Sticky traps with some degree of safety. In a one-on-one encounter, the Demoman holds the advantage at almost all ranges, so it is best to simply retreat. However, if you can stay within medium range but outside melee range, the Demoman will have difficulty aiming and will still be unable to use his melee weapons.
Spy	vs	Heavy	A Heavy is a large, slow target who provides a lot of firepower for his team. He will often be too focused on combat at the frontlines to pay attention to you and thus is your natural prey. Killing him should take much of the pressure off from you as you retreat back to your team. However, if your backstab fails and you are discovered, retreat immediately; his Minigun’s wide spread will easily track your Cloak if the sheer damage doesn’t kill you first.
Spy	vs	Engineer	The Engineer is in many ways the Spies' number one target. Though he is very often a difficult class to tackle, due to his (thoroughly justified) Spy paranoia, the Spy is at his most helpful when he successfully takes down Engineers and their creations. Do not shirk your Spy duties by backstabbing other players in direct view of Sentries; this will get you killed even if you do manage to Cloak in time, as the Engineer will certainly try to hunt your injured self down. A lone Engineer should be a reasonably easy backstab/Revolver kill, as long as you avoid their Shotgun blasts. Unfortunately, the Engineer will almost always be next to or near his Sentry Gun. There will be probably be other Sentry Guns and their Engineers as well. If there is one Engineer with his Sentry Gun, a good technique for the quick Spy is to backstab the Engineer, then immediately sap his Sentry Gun before it can attack you. This is an effective but difficult strategy and only works if the Sentry Gun in question is facing in the opposite direction. Provided you're close enough, even if it is facing you, you can survive Level 1 Sentry fire and, with some luck, Level 2 Sentry fire long enough to place an Electro Sapper. However, Level 3 Sentry Guns will finish you off almost instantly. The best tactic in this situation is to stand so the Sentry pivots to the right or left so it is facing completely the other way, then stab the Engineer, and run the opposite direction to the turning Sentry (regardless of which direction is shorter, it will continue to pivot in the same direction as it turns to target you) giving you just long enough to place an Electro Sapper before you enter its line of fire. Another easier but less graceful strategy is to continually sap the Engineer's buildings while dodging fire. The Engineer will be torn between whether to remove the Sappers or kill you. If he decides to take you out, put his Sentry Gun between you and him, and try to take him out with your Revolver. If he decides to remove your Sappers then continue sapping his buildings; you can sap them faster than he can repair. Eventually, if you are uninterrupted by his team-mates the Sentry Gun should go down and you can either finish off the Engineer or Cloak and make a run for it. With multiple Engineers and Sentry Guns the 'stab then sap' strategy will not work, so try to cause chaos by choosing an Engineer with Wrench disguise and sapping as many buildings as you can. This is especially effective in a tightly built Sentry Gun nest, and/or in combination with an strong assault from your own team. A particularly nasty tactic you can adopt against Engineers is to simply not face them at all. Travel to his spawn, sap his teleport entrance, and wait above it. If and when he repairs it at the other end, you will travel through and, unless he was very careful, telefrag him. Your Eternal Reward is a good choice because you can backstab the Engineer without get spotted by his Sentry Gun, but you need to backstab an other enemy first. Stabbing while the sentry is upgrading gives you a window of time before it turns around to kill you. The normal Invisibility Watch is probably the best anti-Engie device; you can use metal from enemy Engie's own Dispensers and destroyed buildings to power it, and it does not have the loud noise the Dead Ringer makes which will certainly alert the Engineer to your presence. A great weapon against camping Engineers who have wedged themselves into inaccessible corners behind their Sentry Gun is the Ambassador. Simply get a safe distance behind enemy lines, then snipe him without even coming into range of his Sentry Gun. Two headshots, or one headshot and a normal shot, will be enough. Watch out for Wrenches. With the kills Engineers can rack up they Crit often. A Crit-Wrench will kill you in one hit, and the close quarters and need for repair around a Sentry Gun make it an effective and common weapon. Whilst the Gunslinger and the Southern Hospitality can't randomly Crit, the latter can cause bleeding which can in someway nullify your Cloak. A final tactic that is very difficult to employ does allow you to kill Sentry Guns without disguising, which can be a great boon to Spies using the Saharan Spy Set (or simply Your Eternal Reward). Whilst cloaked, by jumping and then crouching in midair, it is possible to stand on top of an enemy Level 1 or 2 Sentry Gun. When you uncloak, the Sentry will detect you, but will be unable to shoot you and will instead pivot round uselessly, giving you plenty of time to plant an Electro Sapper or even kill the sentry with your other weapons. Be warned, however that the tops of Mini-Sentry Guns are small enough that they provide no "cover" from the gun's own fire, meaning this tactic is mostly ineffective against these smaller models (although uncloaking on top of them does stop their fire knocking you back out of Electro Sapper range). Level 3 Sentry Guns, meanwhile, are simply too tall to jump onto unless their rockets are reloading or you approach them from a high vantage point. One last point to note about this tactic is that it is best employed whilst the Engineer is not present - if he is working on his Sentry Gun, he will most likely kill you with his Shotgun or Wrench as you decloak, although few Engineers expect an undisguised Spy to appear on top of their Sentry Gun, allowing a quick, accurate Revolver attack to play on the element of surprise and take out slower Engineers before they can defend themselves. With the Your Eternal Reward, you can use the Sap-n-Stab tactic when the Engineer is away for an easy disguise. If the Sentry is facing away from you and the Engineer is busy working on it, you can use the Stab-n-Sap. By standing behind the Engy and his Sentry Gun, you can get a quick backstab, which will earn you a disguise if you don't already have one. The Sentry will then ignore you if you didn't have a disguise before. If you have a disguise and you backstab an Engineer in plain sight of the Sentry Gun, it will not notice you either, resulting in an easy Stab-n-Sap. This also applies to any other player that you backstab in the presence of a Sentry Gun.
Spy	vs	Medic	A Medic’s ability to heal his teammates makes him one of your most important targets. He will often be looking behind his allies to check for threats when healing, so you may have to rely on appearing unsuspicious as you approach. Do your best to act like a member of the enemy team as you prepare to backstab the Medic. To avoid retaliation, it is best to backstab him, then his patient. If your backstab fails, it is best to retreat, as even the Medic outshines you in close range combat. If you are particularly devious and the Medic is particularly unaware, you can disguise as a viable Medic buddy and trick him into following you into a trap or wasting an ÜberCharge on you.
Spy	vs	Sniper	A Sniper will typically be focused on aiming at targets that are far away and will not notice that you’re behind him. If he is wearing the Razorback, simply gun him down with your Revolver. However, should the Sniper discover you, he can use Jarate or the bleed effect from the Tribalman's Shiv to nullify your Cloak and disguise, leaving you vulnerable to all nearby enemies. Even with his weak close range weapons, a Sniper is capable of defeating you in a one-on-one encounter, especially if he inflicts one of his debuffs on you. If your backstab fails, keep a modest distance while firing your Revolver or simply retreat and try again later.
Spy	vs	Spy	Although it is rare for you to backstab another Spy, you can Spy-check by approaching the backs of teammates with the Knife equipped; if you automatically raise it as if to backstab someone, that "teammate" is a Spy. If you’re in enemy territory, you may have the opportunity to see if an enemy Spy changes his disguise; if you are not in a position to attack him, simply report this information to your team and continue about your usual business. If you end up directly fighting an enemy Spy, dodge his attacks while retaliating with the Revolver.

See also

• Team strategy