Engineer match-ups

Class			Strategy
Engineer	vs	Scout	A Scout is a more threatening opponent when you are on your own. A Scout is much like you in many regards: same hit points, similar weapons, similar hit box, except Scouts are fast, agile, can jump high, and are hard to hit; you're not. Try and keep your distance and blast them with your Pistol at mid-range. If you are using the Gunslinger, placing a Mini-Sentry can provide you with a firepower boost or distraction, either forcing him to kill or be killed by the mini-sentry or cause him to flee. It is better to avoid direct combat with an experienced Scout as their Scattergun can do much more damage than your Shotgun. When with a Sentry Gun, you can relax, as it will mow down any Scout with ease -- one of the Engineer's particular talents. While Scouts cannot dodge or outrun the bullets of a Sentry Gun (as Meet the Scout can lead you to believe), at certain ranges they may be able to run to cover before the Sentry Gun can turn to face them. Rarely a problem with a level two or three, but highly skilled Scouts can abuse the slower turning speed of a level one sentry to avoid damage, destroying it and or killing you, the Engineer. This can often be avoided by placing the Sentry Gun so that its normal 90° sweep covers the right area, or by Wrangling. If put into small rooms and around corners (like the Intelligence room in 2Fort) you can rack up easy Scout kills, who will be forced to get help from another Class. Scouts using the Bonk! Atomic Punch can be a threat. They can either use it and run behind you or your Dispenser, either making your Sentry Gun kill you or preventing it from shooting if the Dispenser is blocking its line of sight. Just pay attention and kill the Scout as soon as he isn't invulnerable. Scouts can also be a distraction, forcing your Sentry Gun to turn around and allowing the other team to get an easy kill on your Sentry Gun. If you have the Wrangler, you can redirect your Sentry Gun fire onto other players attacking your Sentry Gun, rendering the distraction useless -- but don't forget about the Scout! Once the invulnerability wears off, the Scout will be able to attack you again.
Engineer	vs	Soldier	For lone encounters with a Soldier, don't try to fight unless he is severely weakened or you know you can safely take him out with your Shotgun. It is safer to run, or lead him into your Sentry Gun. Be wary when guarding your Sentry Gun, as Soldiers can use their Rocket Launchers to destroy an Engineer's equipment with a volley of successive shots. Their rockets can even destroy your Sentry Gun from very long range. In situations such as this, you can use the Wrangler to fire right back. Keep your Sentry Gun well repaired, and be sure to place yourself behind it to minimize taking splash damage from rockets. If you can, help your Sentry Gun do its job by firing on the Soldier with your Shotgun or Pistol. With the Direct Hit, the Soldier becomes a larger threat to your Sentry Gun, being able to take out a fully upgraded Sentry Gun with two shots. It is almost impossible for a Sentry Gun to survive bombardment from two Direct Hit Soldiers unless it is being Wrangled. In the case of a Soldier bombarding your Sentry Gun with the Direct Hit, your best bet is to ask your teammates to take out the offending Soldier while you either repair or make a tactical retreat carrying your Sentry Gun. Good Soldiers will often attempt to target you first, attempting to take you out with splash damage. With the help of Critical rockets, they can easily succeed. If you die, your Buildings will quickly follow, so try not to repair your Sentry Gun at the expense of your life. Remember that you don't get revenge Crits from the Frontier Justice if your Sentry Gun is destroyed whilst you are dead.
Engineer	vs	Pyro	When on your own, stay out of range of a Pyro's Flamethrower and blast away with your Shotgun, or, at longer distances, your Pistol. However, if you have a Sentry Gun, it should be able to mow them down quickly before they can get within effective range. Try not to place your Sentry Gun so it hugs a corner, as this allows the Pyro to take it out without entering its line of sight. Bear in mind that a skilled Pyro can circle strafe to easily take out a level 3 Sentry Gun. As long as the Pyro isn't allowed to get your Sentry Gun into the range of its Flamethrower, it won't be a threat. Also take note that if your Sentry Gun is close to a corner, but too far to edge, remember that a Pyro's high damage output can occasionally allow him to charge towards the Sentry Gun and take it out, though he'll be heavily damaged. Also watch out for Pyros attempting to reflect the rockets of your Level 3 Sentry Gun back -- while you will rarely encounter this, if the rockets do land near you the Mini-Crit damage will likely be fatal to you. Both the Wrangler's shield and the ability to manually aim can help you counter any or all of these tactics. Keep an eye on your health if you catch fire, and retreat to a health source such as your Dispenser if your life is in danger. The Homewrecker does twice as much damage to Buildings than any other standard melee weapon. It can destroy any non-shielded Building with only 2 swings.
Engineer	vs	Demoman	Like Soldiers, Demomen are a very dangerous class for an Engineer and his Sentry Gun. They can lay down Stickybombs and grenades while staying out of your line of sight, which can take both you and your Sentry Gun down quickly, particularly if you are not aware of them. Stickybombs are especially deadly to your Buildings; to remedy this, try avoid placing your Sentry Gun right around a corner or in a vulnerable position. Breaking the Stickies, though possible, is not recommended, as the Demoman will usually detonate them before you can remove a sufficient amount. If a Demoman is about to sticky your Sentry Gun, take the fight to him with your Shotgun, or switch to the Wrangler to allow your Sentry to survive a detonation of stickies or even blast away a cluster of stickies with the Level 3 Sentry rockets. Both of the Demoman's ranged weapons damage himself at point-blank, so getting into his face can be an option as a last resort. In terms of game strategy, the best way to keep your Buildings safe from Demomen is to build in good positions on the map: look for high ground, and avoid tight spaces with no room to dodge stickies and grenades. In a one-on-one fight, stay at medium range while firing your Pistol. Alternately, if you're not in a position to remove the stickies or fight the Demoman, pick up your Sentry Gun and retreat with it. As with the Soldier, the worst case scenario is to allow yourself to die from the explosions -- this is a lose/lose scenario as without you, your Buildings won't stand a chance. Even if you lose every last Building to a Demo, if you are alive at the end and he is not, you win.
Engineer	vs	Heavy	A Heavy can use the high rate of fire from his Minigun to destroy a level one Sentry Gun, and even take out higher level Sentry Guns when paired up with a Medic. To remedy this, stick with your Sentry Gun and keep it well repaired until it takes out the Heavy, and hopefully his Medic partner as well. Some Heavies may try to shoot at your Sentry Gun while remaining safely around a corner, if this is the case, just keep it repaired with the help of your Dispenser or use the Wrangler to manually shoot back. If a Heavy retreats after becoming wounded you can then go for a finishing blow, but experienced Heavies often expect this so be careful. If they are ÜberCharged, do your best to keep your Sentry Gun repaired until the charge wears off. One option is to use your Sentry Gun as a shield as you repair it with a nearby supply of Metal. Unless the Heavy is very close so that all the bullets hit, a Level 3 Sentry Gun being repaired usually survives a single Minigun-wielding Heavy. Consider using the Wrangler to allow your Sentry Gun to do even more damage to the Heavy and to survive better. Due to the Heavy's slow movement speed, it will take him a while to move back, giving you more time to repair. If it is clear that you cannot save your Sentry Gun, it's better to run, and live to fight another day. In a one-on-one encounter without your Sentry Gun, it is usually best to flee, as a Heavy will likely mow you down before you can take him out with your Shotgun. On the other hand you can finish off a wounded Heavy after losing your Sentry Gun if you have the Frontier Justice equipped and have Revenge Crits ready to unload.
Engineer	vs	Engineer	Usually taking out other Engineers is a job for your other teammates. It is very rare to find yourself in a one-on-one encounter with an enemy Engineer, though it can happen in Sudden Death or Arena mode. You can try to blast him with your Shotgun before he can take you down with his, but more often than not you will both have Sentry Guns and also Dispensers up that prevent this sort of quick resolution. Usually this matchup comes down to how well you place and manage your buildings. Try to have your Sentry Gun in a more important strategic part of the map, such as guarding a final Control Point or covering a large Health pickup, and make sure you get set up at that location before your opponent. If your Sentry Gun is destroyed and the enemy's is still functional, you're at a big disadvantage. Try to use a corner creeping Pistol strategy on your enemy's Sentry Gun if it is unattended. Your enemy will respond by either repairing it, using metal from his Dispenser, or attacking your Sentry Gun in turn. If the latter, then it's a race! If he repairs, it might be possible to continue shooting until he runs out of metal from his Dispenser, but this might take awhile. If this doesn't seem to be working, consider picking up and moving your Sentry Gun to a position where it can surprise your foe or even hit him while he repairs his own Sentry Gun. Since this match-up is often a stalemate, be as proactive and unpredictable as possible to try to force your opponent to make a mistake, but be careful of losing patience and making one yourself! The various Engineer unlockable weapons can add a lot of variation to this scenario. Revenge Crits from the Frontier Justice can be used to quickly finish an enemy Engineer even if he is being guarded by a Sentry Gun -- remember: if your enemy is the last person left alive on his team in Arena or Sudden Death, killing him will end the round and shut down his Sentry Gun. If your opponent is using Combat Mini-Sentry Guns, try moving your Level 2 or 3 Sentry Gun and unloading it in range of the mini-Sentry and then tanking it a little with yourself and repairing as needed. Due to its low damage, you can beat a mini-Sentry with a regular Sentry Gun in this way, forcing your opponent back or even killing him. Going up against Wrangler users can be tough, as they can often prevent you from killing their Sentry Guns through "corner creeping" however there are some weaknesses you can exploit. The lack of auto-targeting means you might be able to sneak into range of the Engineer himself without him noticing you. If you can get close enough, finish him with your Shotgun. Finally, always remember to pay attention to what weapons the opponent is using. Don't get caught by surprise!
Engineer	vs	Medic	Medics, alone, are fodder for your Sentry Gun, but when using an ÜberCharge, they can be one of the biggest worries for an Engineer. Try to keep your Sentry Gun repaired until the charge wears off and it will hopefully take out the Medic. Sentry Guns have very high pushing power, but a Medic can go in front of his patient to take up the knockback and allow his patient to finish the Sentry Gun off. While you can, use the Wrangler to intelligently target your Sentry Gun, be prepared to become the target should you do so. Should the Über-pair come close enough to put you or your Sentry Gun in terminal danger, bail out immediately and prepare to rebuild when the action dies down. If you have Revenge Crits, now is the time to let them loose. See Engineer Strategy for more information on how to deal with Medics and their Übercharges.
Engineer	vs	Sniper	It should be rare that a Sniper is within close enough range of your Sentry Gun to be killed by it, and on maps where it is more difficult for a Sniper to reach your position, you can expect to see very few of them. On more open maps, however, a Sniper is more dangerous as he can stay out of range while damaging your Sentry Gun with charged Sniper Rifle shots (or by simply killing you). To solve this, stay with your Sentry Gun and keep it repaired. At close range, blast the Sniper with your Shotgun, while avoiding his Kukri and Submachine Gun shots. The Level 3 Sentry Gun provides modest cover from headshots, but at times you benefit most from setting up in a spot safe from Sniper fire. Be sure to alert your team when a Sniper targets your Sentry Gun. You can use your Pistol to mess up his shots if you're not under any other threat. If a Sniper attempts to target you, a single fully charged bodyshot or any headshot can kill you instantly (provided you are not overhealed), even if you have the Gunslinger equipped. As of the Engineer Update, the Sniper has become a much greater potential threat to the Engineer, due to their ability to instantly destroy Combat Mini-Sentry Guns with a fully charged Rifle shot, and also the fact that an Engineer will usually have to use the same lines of sight as the Sniper to utilize their Wrangler effectively.
Engineer	vs	Spy	The Spy is the natural predator of the Engineer. A skilled Spy in disguise and his Electro Sappers can act to counter you, but as long as your teammates are around you and you're alert, they shouldn't pose as great a threat as they might otherwise. Spy-check anyone coming within range of your Sentry Gun, and listen carefully for the decloaking sound that Spies make. If a Spy places Sappers on your equipment, your top priority is to remove the Spy, either by yelling to your teammates for help or blasting him a few times with the Shotgun. When he saps your Sentry Gun, you can expect he'll attempt to backstab, shoot you, or continue to place more Sappers, preventing you from repairing the sentry because they can sap faster than you can remove them. Try to position yourself so that you can see the Spy as you are whacking the Electro Sapper. Try to keep him in the middle of your screen as they can score a successful Backstab from the side. When the Spy is no longer a threat, remove the Electro Sapper immediately (by hitting it with your Wrench) to prevent further damage and repair. To prevent surprise stab-saps, it's useful to glance over your shoulder between Wrench-swings as you build or repair one of your buildings. If a Spy saps a structure when you're too far to save it, inform your teammates and keep your guard. Remember that the Spy is much less effective when your team is actively pursuing him. Never stand on, or even near your Teleporters, even when you need to whack off an Electro Sapper, Spies can telefrag you and sap the rest of your stuff. Ask a Pyro to protect your Buildings as the Pyro is the best Spy Checker you can have. A Pyro can also knock off Sappers with one hit of the Homewrecker. See Engineer Strategy for more information on how to deal with Spies.

See also

• Team strategy