Basic Spy strategy

The Spy is a fragile class specializing in sneak attacks. He can backstab, Cloak, disguise, and sap buildings. His role is to eliminate dangerous or important targets, ruin Engineer nests, and pick off targets of opportunity.

General

• Your Cloak and Disguises takes one second to become fully effective. A common error is to step into an enemy's line of sight before the change is complete.

• Disguises matter, but the exact disguise isn't very important. How long you spend in view matters most, but you want to avoid disguises that are out of place, such as a Engineer on the front lines.

• After uncloaking, there is a cooldown period where you cannot use any equipment. Always take this into consideration before uncloaking to start a sap or attack.

• Any source of ammunition, including metal from destroyed buildings, will recharge Cloak time for the default Invisibility Watch and the Dead Ringer, even if they are active.

• Only your Cloak keeps you safe. Disguises are temporary - never count on them because Spy-checking is easy and everyone does it constantly.

• Your most dangerous counter-class is the Pyro. Avoid them at all costs.

• It's easiest to stab enemies distracted by a fight with your teammates. Don't approach idle players who'll take the opportunity to Spy check you.

• Spies can see enemy names and health when they are disguised.

Weapon Specifics

A list of useful tidbits about the Spy's tools.

Revolver / Big Kill

• The Revolver is the Spy's primary weapon. While not as useful as the Knife, it's an integral part of the Spy's arsenal. Most hits do similar damage to the Shotgun, and Critical hits are 120 damage.

• Use the Revolver for killing damaged enemies when backstabs are not easy or possible.

• A good scenario for using the Revolver is to sap a lone building, then shoot the Engineer when he comes to save his Building.

• Remember that the Revolver is always 100% accurate (as accurate as a Sniper Rifle bullet) when putting a delay of 1.25 seconds between shots. Use this feature to snipe at foes.

Ambassador

• The Ambassador makes the Razorback almost entirely useless. Assuming that the Sniper is not overhealed, a single headshot followed by a regular shot is enough to kill him.

• The ability to see enemy health is invaluable with the Ambassador. When it drops below half of its base value, the health meter is shown in red. Against all classes except Heavy, this is a guaranteed headshot kill.

• A lonely Engineer building a Sentry Gun can be easily killed by the Ambassador. Shooting him first in the head and then on any body part will kill him; afterward, you simply sap the building.

• A similar tactic is to find an enemy building outside of the Sentry Gun's field of vision and sap that, then pull out the Ambassador and wait.

L'Etranger

• L'Etranger converts fire-power into potential fleeing power.

• The +15% Cloak per hit is applied regardless of the amount of damage you do to the opponent or your distance from him. A clever Spy can recharge his Cloak safely from a distance.

• Don't get too greedy. Three shots is more than enough as it gives almost half your Cloak back.

• As the Cloak and Dagger cannot be recharged by sources of ammo, the L'Etranger can be very useful in providing another source of Cloak.

• The L'Etranger pairs well with the Dead Ringer as another source to refill the Cloak quickly.

Knife

• Always remember the Knife does pitiful damage and cannot Crit outside of backstabs and critboosts. In most scenarios, you should switch to the Revolver to fight enemies once you've been discovered.

• While you can use disguises or binds to remove an enemy disguise, a quick swipe of the Knife into thin air is usually the fastest way to silently drop your disguise.

Your Eternal Reward

• The lack of easy disguises while using this weapon means a greater reliance upon cloaking efficiently and choosing good hiding places.

• This weapon is extremely well-suited for taking out Sentry Gun placements when you already have a disguise. You can backstab the Engineer and the Sentry Gun won't detect your presence between disguises.

• If you do not have the full Polycount set, it is a good idea to use the original default Cloak, because it produces less noise than the Cloak & Dagger. However, if you have the full Polycount set, it is a good idea to use Cloak & Dagger or Dead Ringer.

• Prior to obtaining your first disguise, look for enemies who are separated from the rest of their team. Once you stab them and obtain their identity, approach their front lines from behind.

• If you are stuck with a slower disguise (Soldier, Heavy, Demoman), remember that you can Cloak at any time to move at normal walking speed. Your disguised speed will resume when you uncloak.

• The Cloak and Dagger works well with this knife, since you can search for people to backstab and disguise without having fear of being exposed.

Disguise Kit

• The Disguise Kit is the Spy's major infiltration tool. See the Disguise page for more details on its use.

Electro Sapper

• The Electro Sapper is a tool used to take down an Engineer's buildings. There is an unlimited supply of these Sappers, and there is no "reload" delay between placing them. Place them as quickly as necessary.

• The Electro Sapper has a significant vertical range in addition to its horizontal range. In many instances, you may be able to sap a building from well below or above it, allowing you to confuse its Engineer.

• The Homewrecker allows Pyros to remove Electro Sappers from Engineer buildings. This, combined with their Flamethrower's Spy-checking ability, will make your job much harder.

• When sneaking up on an Engineer using the Wrangler, stab first, then sap. Killing the Engineer will cause his Sentry Gun to become disabled for a few precious seconds, which will be more than enough time to place an Electro Sapper.

Invisibility Watch

• Compared with the Dead Ringer and the Cloak and Dagger, the Invisibility Watch uses the least amount of energy and allows the furthest amount of distance while invisible.

• The margin of error with the Invisibility Watch is small given that you cannot feign your demise as with the Dead Ringer nor hide in plain sight as with the Cloak and Dagger.

• Maintain movement to decrease the likelihood of being detected and cornered.

• When detected, attempt to feign the direction in which you will retreat.

• Grab metal where you can, when you can while cloaked. More observant enemies may detect an ammo box inexplicably disappearing but more often than not they will be too preoccupied to notice.

• Among the Spy's three watches, the Invisibility Watch creates the least amount of noise when decloaking.

Cloak and Dagger

• Despite being less focused on movement, the Cloak and Dagger can be preferable to take on maps with not enough ammo boxes to get you past a large enemy front.

• The Cloak drain is based on how fast you are moving.

• Don't haunt the same area too long. It encourages Pyros to spycheck the area.

Dead Ringer

• The Dead Ringer makes a distinctive sound that lets all the enemies in the vicinity know that you are using the item. Try to uncloak in a safe location, then move in for the kill.

• While cloaked with the Dead Ringer, you take 90% less damage, and you do not flicker from enemy shots. Use this to your advantage when crossing chokepoints with a large amount of enemy fire.

• You can recharge your Cloak with ammo, even while cloaked. However, after 5 seconds you no longer take a reduced 90% damage.

• When on fire, don't immediately pull out the Dead Ringer. Unless you were at extremely low health, an immediate death due to fire will look suspicious.

• When you're bleeding with the Dead Ringer active, you won't flicker from the damage. However, the bleeding effect will still show, revealing your location to enemies.

Saharan Spy Set

• The uncloak volume reduction this set grants you is invaluable when using the Dead Ringer.

• If an enemy sees you undisguised with the Familiar Fez equipped, they may assume you are using the Dead Ringer or Your Eternal Reward.

• When using the Dead Ringer in conjunction with the Saharan Spy Set an easy way to get behind enemy lines is take fall damage to activate the Dead Ringer, then move from ammo box to ammo box until a suitable backstab target can be found.

• When approaching a group of targets from behind, try to stab a faster moving class such as a Pyro, Demoman, Medic, or Sniper first. This will maintain your speed.

See also

• Spy match-ups
• How to play the Spy
• Spy Ninja Tutorial (OMFGNinja)
• In-Depth Spy Guide: by sR+Orca
• Great Spy Guide Video: by sR+Orca