Basic Heavy strategy

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Let us fight; man versus tiny baby man. Click to listen — The Heavy

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The Heavy is the toughest, but slowest class in the game. His vast firepower and health pool will almost ensure that he'll be found at the frontlines as a shock trooper, where his Minigun dominates at close range. The Heavy acts as a beacon for his team to rally behind and is often a designated Medic buddy. However, his large size and slow speed make him a juicy target, especially for enemy Snipers or Spies, and his general loudness makes him subpar at ambushing. A good Heavy will coordinate with his team to tackle mission objectives together.

Primary weapons

Minigun + reskins

Think of the Minigun as a rapid-fire Shotgun; it is extremely powerful, but less effective over distances. Although the Minigun possesses a lot of firepower, it has a moderate wind-up time and revving it brings your speed to a crawl. Thus, you'll either want to have it as your active weapon at all times or simply use a different weapon when moving between areas. You can rev it while in midair, allowing you to catch enemies by surprise as you jump around corners.

Natascha

Natascha comes with 50% more ammo and will slow enemies, promoting a playstyle that emphasizes attrition and control. Slowing enemies forces them to stop and face you in combat. Additionally, the effects of slowdown will interrupt any nearby enemy's approach, retreat, taunts, and the consumption of lunchbox items. However, Nastascha deals 25% less damage and is 30% slower to spin up, making it less effective against bulky classes like the Soldier and Demoman. In particular, you will be at a significant disadvantage when facing an enemy Heavy with the normal Minigun or Brass Beast.

Brass Beast

While the Brass Beast is the strongest weapon in the game in terms of damage per second, you are virtually immobile while using it. The long spin-up time makes it unsuitable for ambushing or constantly moving around. If you haven't already revved it up, you are very vulnerable to even frontal attacks. Use it alongside the Shotgun in defensive situations where you will move around less.

Tomislav + reskins

The Tomislav has a slightly faster spin-up time and revs up silently, but fires 20% slower than the Minigun. The sound of your Minigun is a signal for the enemy to stay clear. However, the Tomislav's silent spin-up makes it an excellent choice for ambushing enemies offensively or concealing your presence when guarding a location. With the element of surprise, the Tomislav can deal enough damage to your target before its firepower disadvantage becomes significant in a full scale battle.

Huo-Long Heater

The Huo-Long Heater deals the same amount of damage as the Minigun. When revved up, it creates a surrounding ring of fire that ignites nearby enemies. However, deploying the fire ring continuously consumes ammunition. Because you already deal much damage at close range, the fire ring is best used to reveal and deter enemy Spies that want to backstab you. The fire ring doesn't deal much damage; if you hear a Spy being ignited, you will need to react quickly to take him out. Overall, this makes the Huo-Long Heater a strong choice for defensive play near Dispensers or the Payload cart.

Secondary weapons

Shotgun + reskins

Although the Shotgun is a secondary weapon and weaker than the Minigun, it can still deal plenty of damage. Use it when moving between areas, when slowing down to fire your Minigun would be inefficient.

Sandvich + reskins

The Sandvich lets you replace a source of mobile firepower, the Shotgun, with the ability to heal yourself. Use the Sandvich to patch yourself up in between fights. Make sure to begin your meal somewhere peaceful, as you are helpless during its long consumption time. Use alternate fire to throw the Sandvich on the ground to heal allies, particularly any Medic you may work with.

Dalokohs Bar + reskins

The Dalokohs Bar cannot heal you as quickly as the Sandvich and cannot be dropped for allies. However, because it has no cooldown, you can eat it at any time to heal minor wounds and continuously keep your increased maximum health. The Dalokohs Bar can be beneficial if your team lacks a Medic but does have a constant source of healing from either a Dispenser or medkits.

Buffalo Steak Sandvich

The Buffalo Steak Sandvich is best used to move around the battlefield quickly. Avoid engaging enemies while under its effects, as you will take increased damage and be restricted to melee weapons only. Consider using it alongside the Fists of Steel to mitigate the increased damage you take from ranged attacks. Like the Sandvich, it can be thrown onto the ground to heal injured teammates.

Family Business

The increased magazine size of the Family Business is balanced by its reduced damage, allowing it to be used for the same purposes as the Shotgun.

Panic Attack

The Panic Attack is similar to the Shotgun; upon holding the fire button, you load up to four shells. Releasing the fire button will cause all stored shots to fire one-by-one. It is less effective than the Shotgun as a backup weapon, as the time taken to load bullets can be comparable to winding up your Minigun. A Heavy who retreats is sometimes assumed to be finding a safe place to eat a Sandvich or heal. You can load the Panic Attack while a foe is pursuing you, then turn the tables; unlike the Minigun, enemies won't hear you preparing the weapon.

Melee weapons

Fists + reskins

If an enemy takes you by surprise at close range, it may still be worth it to just spin up your Minigun instead of switching to your Fists; you are slow and will probably be unable to get within melee range of your foe. Still, your large health pool does give you an advantage in a melee fight against single opponents.

Killing Gloves of Boxing

Take out the Killing Gloves of Boxing when you have the enemy in a corner and can easily land your punches. Once you've obtained the critical hit boost, make the best use of it by switching to the Shotgun or simply continue swinging, since switching to your primary weapon will waste a significant portion of the boost.

Gloves of Running Urgently + reskins

Because you rarely engage in melee combat, you can use the Gloves of Running Urgently solely for its speed boost. This speed boost is useful for reaching the front lines or positioning yourself for an ambush, but not for retreating, since taking the Gloves out will mark you for death and cause all damage taken to be mini-crits. For dangerous combat situations, switch back to your primary weapon early to allow the debuff to time out.

Fists of Steel

The Fists of Steel make you very difficult to kill with ranged weaponry and are particularly useful when you need to cross through open areas or retreat from a firefight. If an enemy tries to melee you, you can switch to one of your powerful ranged weapons and shred them.

Warrior's Spirit

The Warrior's Spirit deals more damage than your Fists, but comes with a small health penalty. While the damage increase does aid in killing enemies to an extent, melee combat is rare as a Heavy and the missing 20 health can mean the difference between life and death.

Eviction Notice

The increased attack speed of the Eviction Notice does not fully make up for the reduced damage, so other melee weapons may be more efficient for their utility.

Holiday Punch

Like when using the default Fists, the Holiday Punch is inefficient in standard combat due to your slow movespeed. If you do, however, catch a foe off-guard and force him to laugh, you can finish him off with almost any method of your choosing, including the Showdown taunt kill.