Backstab
| “ | So, your deadly skill is jogging? Mine is murdering people.
Click to listen
— The Spy to the Scout
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A Backstab is a context-sensitive attack which can be done by using the Spy's Knife, Your Eternal Reward, or the Conniver's Kunai which results in a one-hit kill. A Spy may backstab an enemy as long as the enemy is close enough to be hit with a melee attack, and the Spy is within a 180° range of the enemy's back. Backstabs deal damage equal to 600% of the target's current health and always critically hit (unless otherwise prevented by a Battalion's Backup, although it will not cause a damage reduction). Due to the mechanics of the Spy's melees, unlike most melee weapons, backstabs connect instantly upon activation; there is no delay between the moment the player fires and the moment the backstab is executed. To indicate that a Spy is within the required range to perform a backstab, he will turn his Knife downward, primed for a kill. The Knife will remain in this position until the target is no longer in reach, or the Spy attempts a backstab by attacking. The Knife also turns downward if positioned behind a disguised or cloaked enemy Spy.
A backstab can be performed while disguised, although the disguise will be removed upon attacking, regardless of whether the attack connects with the enemy or not. A backstab cannot kill Scouts using the Bonk! Atomic Punch, players who are being ÜberCharged or a Dead Ringer Spy who has more than 3 health points. The Sniper's unlockable Secondary weapon, the Razorback, blocks a single backstab and stuns the offending Spy momentarily. This weapon makes Snipers less susceptible to backstabs, and forces Spies to use other methods of attack.
Backstabbing with Your Eternal Reward does not cause the enemy to scream; the body will disappear, and no killfeed notification is given to the victim's teammates. The Spy will also disguise as that enemy almost instantly.
Contents
Backstabbing Techniques
- Stab-and-Sap: Stab a (turtling) Engineer, before switching to your Electro Sapper and sapping the Engineer’s Sentry Gun; this must be done fast enough that the Sentry Gun doesn't have time to turn around and kill you. An experienced Spy may track the Sentry Gun's turning direction and move against it after he stabs (as it will follow him, this will buy him more time); using Your Eternal Reward can be useful in this approach, as you instantly disguise upon stabbing, preventing the Sentry Gun from detecting you and retaliating; a Spy without a prior disguise must rely on cover to avoid the Sentry Gun's attention, as the Sentry will not be fooled by your instant disguise once it has already begun firing. This tactic is easier on Engineers using the Wrangler, because the Sentry Gun is disabled for three seconds after the Engineer's death.
- Sap-and-Stab: Sap an Engineer's unattended building as bait, hide, then stab him when he returns to remove the Electro Sapper.
- Stairstab: Stand at the top of a set of stairs, facing down at an enemy approaching you. Run forward and jump, turning in mid-air to stab them in the back. This technique can be difficult to master, but it is also difficult to protect against, as the enemy has to turn almost completely around to avoid it.
- Spinstab: While an enemy is running towards you, let them run past you before spinning and stabbing their retreating back. This is one of the only reliable methods of backstabbing Scouts.
- The Matador Stab (or corner stab): This is an advanced Spy technique. The technique involves luring an enemy to a corner, then you immediately back out and stab the enemy as he turns in the way you did. Note that this will only work once or twice on an enemy, will not work against Heavies and is best used on pursuits with Pyros.
- The Headstab: Sometimes Engineers will place their Sentry Gun and Dispenser in a fashion that allows the Engineer to have his back to a corner, making him seemingly protected from backstabs. It is possible to jump on this Engineer's head and move your aim around his back until you get the "ready to backstab" animation from your knife, allowing you to score a backstab while standing on his head.
- The Ninja-stab (or leaping stab): this is a similar to a stairstab, but instead it focuses on striking enemies from the least awaited angle (usually from ground above the opponent - bridges and similar above main paths on several maps are ideal for this purpose) and is best used with either Cloak and Dagger or Dead Ringer. Cloak on a bridge/high place (or hide if you're using Dead Ringer) and as the enemy passes beneath the spot jump after them and stab them in the back. Doing the stab itself is easier with the Cloak and Dagger, but getting away is easier with the Dead Ringer (especially against multiple opponents). Attempting to ninja-stab the same opponent at the exact same spot twice is always a bad idea (doing it again elsewhere is more secure, though he might be paranoid) - this tactic may also be used as a distraction, just do a ninja-stab somewhere, go somewhere else and change tactics. The result is quite often that your opponent will extensively Spy-check the area he got backstabbed in.
- The Circlestrafe Stab: This is an advanced Spy technique and a difficult one to master. To perform it, you must be facing a single enemy, who is facing you. Either run towards him or let him approach you, then, just before he is in melee reach, strafe in one direction (left or right) for a split second, before quickly changing direction and strafing to the opposite side. This will reveal the enemy's back for a very short moment as he follows your first strafe, and you should stab him promptly during this brief gap. This is useful for those players that dismiss Spies and try to melee them, such as some Scout players. Should this technique fail, and you miss the stab, you will be extremely vulnerable in close-range and will almost certainly die, but when performed correctly, this technique enables you to stab an enemy in a potentially fatal situation. Great for Dead Ringer Spies. Not recommended to try this on Pyros, the technique might still work, but unless the Pyro wants to melee you, you will probably be set alight and dealt a fair share of damage.
Issues
Due to an in-game glitch, a stab that has appeared to have occurred from the front can sometimes be rendered as a backstab. Known more commonly as a facestab, these kills are now mostly the result of lag compensation by the game engine itself. Prior to many game patches, facestabs were more common due to bugs in the way the game detects a backstab. Facestabs take two forms: the "valid" stab and the "true" facestab. A valid facestab is usually a sidestab, during which the Spy sees himself attacking the enemy's back while the enemy, due to lag, still sees the Spy in front of him. A valid facestab works as intended by the developers, making correct use of lag compensation. In a true facestab, the Spy appears to be attacking an enemy from the front on both players' screens, but lag compensation results in it being registered as a backstab. This is considered a bug.
Another community-coined term, is the failstab, which refers to a backstab which should have succeeded but instead did only normal Knife damage, despite the backstab animation playing fully and the Knife connecting. These stabs are almost always linked to the latency conditions between the server and the player.
Servers with the command tf_weapon_criticals 0 enabled have reported issues with the backstab animation that normally plays when the player is in a prime position for a backstab, not playing at all.
Related Achievements
Soldier
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Sniper
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Spy
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Update history
- Fixed a Spy backstab exploit where you could stab a player who was not facing away from you.
- Fixed a case where a Spy stabbing from the front of a player would score a backstab.
February 24, 2009 Patch (Scout Update)
- Changed backstab handling to fix facestabs
- [Undocumented] Reduced stab radius to 160 degrees. Removed quickbackstabs and thus reduced the Spy's backstab range (Has since been reverted). Made backstabs quicker.
- Increased backstab check so that Spies can side-stab again.
- The Heavy and Sniper now have new custom death animations.
- Added a backstab custom death animation to the Heavy.
- Fixed a couple of cases where viable backstabs would fail.
- Cloaked Spies standing in valid backstab positions no longer raise their Knife.
December 17, 2009 Patch (WAR! Update)
- Added more backstab animations.
- Added backstab death animations for Scout, Spy, Medic, Demo, Engineer, and Pyro. All death animations have a 25% chance to play.
Trivia
- Originally the Spy's backstab animation was just over a second long and manifested as the current animation, but was slowed down. This was changed to the current, sped up version used today in the interests of balance. Before this change, skilled Spies would "quick-stab". This involved staying out of backstab range of the victim, and then swinging the Knife just before entering backstab range, thereby bypassing the backstab animation but still rewarding an instant kill.
- Killing a player with a backstab will sometimes cause a special backstab death animation. This animation has a 25% chance of occurring, and varies from class to class.
- The Sniper's backstab animation was first seen in Trailer 2 before any backstab animations were integrated into the game.
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