Disguise

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A Pyro, honest.
He could be in this very room! He could be you! He could be me! He could even be—
The BLU Spy speaking of the RED Spy, shortly before his head was obliterated by the BLU Soldier's shotgun

The Spy has the unique ability to disguise as an enemy. While wearing any disguise, the Spy would appear as another class from the other team's perspective, and to the Spy's teammates, he appears as a friendly Spy wearing a mask representing his current disguise.

Applying a disguise

The masks that the disguised Spy appears to be wearing to his teammates. The mask corresponds to the disguise.

A disguise can be applied by opening the Disguise Kit and pressing the number for the class the player wishes to disguise as (Scout = 1, Soldier = 2, etc. - the same numbers as on the standard class selection screen). Disguising as an enemy player is done by default, but the Spy can also disguise as one of his teammates to keep the enemy unaware of the fact that there is a Spy on the opposite team.

Disguise tips

  • To disguise as a teammate, a Spy must use the toggledisguiseteam with the Disguise Kit equipped (this is bound by default to -).
  • Using the lastdisguise command, bound by default to b, will automatically reapply the last worn disguise.
  • Using the Simple Disguise menu allows the player to be disguised as any class using only the 1, 2 or 3 keys, but with two keystrokes. This means that they can disguise as an enemy Spy without moving their hand across the keyboard.
  • With Your Eternal Reward equipped in the loadout, the Disguise function is disabled. The player is required to perform a Backstab on an enemy team member (normal, non-backstab kills do not count) in order to acquire their disguise.
  • While disguising, a Spy will produce glowing particles of his team's color and a cloud of smoke. After about two seconds, he will stop emitting these particles and be fully disguised.
  • The smoke and glowing particles will easily reveal the player's position to enemy players. This can be avoided by being cloaked to any degree before selecting a disguise. Once disguised, smoke particles begin forming which will not be hidden by cloaking, but disguising, while already cloaked, will produce no smoke.
  • Likewise, disquising creates a small amount of noise (also dependent on which watch is used) which can give away your location.
  • To help keep your disguise and not be revealed to the opposing team, try not to bump into any opposing team member from the front.

Additionally, there are console commands that can be used to disguise:

Class X Value Team Y Value
Scout 1 Enemy -1
Soldier 3 Friendly -2
Pyro 7 BLU 1
Demoman 4 RED 2
Heavy 6
Engineer 9
Medic 5
Sniper 2
Spy 8

Gameplay while disguised

HUD display showing current disguise, fake name, and weapon.

While disguised, the Spy's team will see him wearing a cut-out mask of the class he is disguised as, and when they aim at him, his health indicator will display the team and class he is disguised as below his name (e.g. "Disguised as enemy Demoman" or "Disguised as friendly Sniper"). Enemies will see him as the team and class he is disguised as, and when they aim at him, he will appear to have the identity of an allied or enemy player with his disguise. If the chosen team has at least one player of the chosen class the Spy disguised as, the Spy will take on the identity of one of those players randomly. If the selected team has no player of the selected class, the Spy will take on the identity of any random player on the selected team regardless of class. When a Spy copies a player's identity, he takes on the name, hit points, and weapon loadouts of that player unless the Spy disguises as a class that the chosen team has no players of. In that case, the Spy will have the vanilla loadout. If the chosen disguise class has a slower move speed than the Spy's, the Spy will reduce his speed to match that of his disguised class except when cloaked. His speed will not increase to match that of the Medic or Scout if disguised as either.

While disguised as an enemy, a Spy can be spotted when he picks up a Health Kit since the cross icon that appears above him will be his team's color and not the color of his disguise. Additionally, a Spy who is hurt may pick up a Health Kit while his disguise displays full Health or appears to be Overhealed.

Actions while disguised

Disguising as an enemy player:

  • Prevents defending control points or carts (on Payload/Payload Race maps).
  • Prevents capturing control points or pushing carts (on Payload/Payload Race maps).
  • Allows the use of enemy Teleporters (will produce teleport particles of the Spy's original team color, potentially blowing his cover).
  • Allows you to be healed by and receive ammo from the enemy cart and enemy Dispensers (this will not produce heal stream particles if cloaked).
  • Allows healing and ÜberCharge by enemy Medics.
  • Causes enemy Sentry Guns to not target the Spy as long as the opposite team color has not been shown to it (they have no vision while cloaked or behind surfaces/objects).

Disguising as a friendly player essentially causes all game mechanics to treat them as undisguised except, of course, for appearance as a different class to enemy team members.

There are several actions that can be taken that are specifically designed to make the disguise more convincing to enemy team members.

  • Changing disguise weapon - Changing to the primary, secondary, or melee weapon and pressing B will cause the disguise to change to make it appear to be using the weapon in the same slot for the class disguised as (ex: holding the Knife while disguised as a Scout lets you appear to equip the Bat or equivalent). If the person you are disguised as has equipped an unlockable weapon in the chosen slot, you will appear to be wielding the same weapon in your disguised state.
  • Reloading - If your disguise weapon is one that reloads a clip or shells (i.e. Shotgun, Rocket Launcher, Scattergun, SMG, etc.), reloading your Revolver will cause your disguise to reload their weapon. This does not apply to weapons like the Flare Gun or Sniper Rifle which load one shot at a time. You cannot fake a reload while your Revolver has all 6 shots loaded.
  • Voice commands - Any voice commands made while disguised will broadcast to your team as coming from you and to the enemy team as coming from the person you are disguised as. You can call for an enemy Medic to heal you in this way. This can, however, alert the person you are disguised as to your presence since they will see voice commands attributed to them but not coming from them, and they may tell their team.

Disguise removal

While disguised, the following actions will remove your disguise:

  • Dying.
  • Picking up the intelligence.
  • Attacking (shooting, stabbing).

Notes

File:Disguised spy hitbox.jpg
Disguises don't have matching hitboxes. You can use this to minimize risk of headshot.
A Spy disguised as a Sniper equipped with an impossible loadout for a Sniper.
  • Disguises do not change your actual hitbox sizes, shapes, or positions. Using certain disguises can therefore reduce the risk of Headshot.
  • If you pick up Health Kits or get healed, your disguise will appear to gain health accordingly. This allows you to pick up Health Kits even if your health is full so long as your disguise's health is not.
  • You cannot taunt while disguised.
  • You gain knockback immunity, regardless of disguise color.
  • Disguising does not change the fact that Spies can walk through teammates but not enemies.
  • The Electro Sapper will not remove the disguise if used.

Issues

  • A Spy disguised as a person wearing a hat with a particle effect (such as Unusual or Community hats) will have the appropriate hats, but with no particle effect.
  • It is possible for a disguised Spy to have the appearance of equipping two weapons that share the same slot. In the example above to the right, the Spy disguised as a Sniper is holding the Darwin's Danger Shield and the Submachine Gun, both secondary slot weapons.

Related Achievements

Achieved.png General

Master of Disguise
Master of Disguise
Trick an opposing Medic into healing you.


Pumpkin.png Scarechievements

[[File:Template:Dictionary/achievements/scarechievements/costume contest-icon|64px|center|alt=Template:Dictionary/achievements/scarechievements/costume contest-title]] Template:Dictionary/achievements/scarechievements/costume contest-title
Template:Dictionary/achievements/scarechievements/costume contest-desc


Leaderboard class pyro.png Pyro

I Fry
I Fry
Ignite 10 disguised Spies.


Leaderboard class engineer.png Engineer

The Wrench Connection
The Wrench Connection
Kill a disguised spy with your Wrench.


Leaderboard class medic.png Medic

FYI I am A Medic
FYI I am A Medic
Use your bonesaw to kill a spy who has been calling for 'Medic!'.


Hypocritical Oath
Hypocritical Oath
Kill an enemy Spy that you have been healing.


Leaderboard class spy.png Spy

Counter Espionage
Counter Espionage
Backstab a disguised Spy.


FYI I am a Spy
FYI I am a Spy
Backstab a Medic who has healed you in the last 5 seconds.
Identity Theft
Identity Theft
Backstab the enemy that you're currently disguised as.


Insurance Fraud
Insurance Fraud
Kill an enemy while you're being healed by an enemy Medic.

Update history

October 31, 2007 Patch

  • Medi Gun no longer continues to heal enemy Spies who have lost their disguise.

November 7, 2007 Patch

  • Fixed Spies exploit enabling them to attack while disguising, without losing disguise.

December 21, 2007 Patch

  • Fixed cloaked/disguised/disguising spy reporting his achievements to everyone else

April 29, 2008 Patch

  • Teleporter effect no longer shows up on invisible or disguised Spies.
  • Spies disguised as their own team can now capture control points.

May 21, 2008 Patch

  • Improved prediction of Spy's speed changes when disguising.

December 15, 2008 Patch

  • Fixed overheal particle effect showing up incorrectly on disguised or cloaked Spies.

March 5, 2009 Patch

  • When disguising, Spies now always start showing the primary weapon in their disguise, and can then switch it with the last-disguise key.

March 13, 2009 Patch

  • Fixed client crash when determining which disguise weapon to use for a Spy.

May 29, 2009 Patch

  • Fixed Spies disguised as their own team not drawing blood effects.

June 23, 2009 Patch

  • Fixed disguised Spies occasionally looking like they have invulnerability, instead of the correct fake Spy mask.
  • Disguised Spies will no longer lose their disguise weapon when they interact with a weapon locker.

August 13, 2009 Patch

  • Disguised Spies no longer trigger On-Hit effects (like the Blutsauger's heal).

October 14, 2009 Patch

  • Fixed disguised Spies not getting ammo from enemy Dispensers.

December 7, 2009 Patch

  • Fixed Spies being able to disguise while performing a taunt.

December 17, 2009 Patch

  • The Spy now pretends to be carrying the weapons & wearables of the target he's disguised as.
  • Alternative Spy disguise menu, which lets you choose disguises using just the 1-3 keys.
  • Players no longer see the wearables that are a part of a friendly Spy's disguise, fixing various graphical glitches

January 13, 2010 Patch

  • Disguise weapons copying weapons with special animation requirements (Sword, FaN) now look correct.

April 28, 2010 Patch

  • Fixed Spies disguised as Medics hearing the autocaller sound.
  • Fixed items that can be worn by any class having the wrong model when worn by a disguised Spy.
  • Fixed bug with disguised Spy sometimes seeing his own name in the disguise status HUD.

See also