Backstab
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A backstab is a context-sensitive attack that a Spy can perform with any of his melee weapons. When a Spy uses any one of his knives to hit an enemy from behind, a successful backstab is performed resulting in a one-hit kill.
Contents
Mechanism
A Spy may backstab an enemy as long as the enemy is close within standard melee attack range, and the Spy is within a 180° range behind the enemy. Backstabs deal damage equal to 600% of the target's current health and always deal critical hits, unless otherwise prevented by a Battalion's Backup. However, a Battalion's Backup 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. When the Knife is pointed downward, the Spy simply needs to attack for an instant kill to occur.
A backstab can be performed while the Spy has a disguise active, although the disguise will be removed upon attacking, regardless of whether or not the attack connects with the enemy. A backstab cannot kill a Scout made invulnerable with Bonk! Atomic Punch, a player who is under the effects of an ÜberCharge, or a Spy with the Dead Ringer active who has more than 3 health points. The Razorback, an unlockable secondary weapon usable by the Sniper class, blocks a single backstab attempt. The Razorback also causes a temporary inability to attack in the offending Spy momentarily. Thus, the Razorback makes Snipers less susceptible to backstabs, and forces Spies to use other methods of attack.
Backstabbing with the Your Eternal Reward causes silent death. Your victims will not scream, their body will vanish, and no killfeed notification is given to the victim's teammates. The attacking Spy will disguise as the fallen enemy almost instantly.
Backstabbing with the Conniver's Kunai will take the victim's remaining health and give it to the Spy, up to a maximum of 180. This is offset by a lowered base health.
Backstabbing with the Big Earner will fill the Spy's Cloak meter by 30%, regardless of which cloaking device is equipped.
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.
- More experienced players will either avoid climbing or back up out of range when they see a Spy at the top of the stairs. Instead of advertising your intent, you can perform the stab without having to wait at the top. While retreating up the stairs, jump up and hold back. Most players will continue to run forward, passing underneath you. Backstab them as you land.
- 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 Circle-strafe 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. Most of what the recipient sees as a facestab is usually either a cornerstab or a sidestab, where on the Spy's screen, he sees it as attacking the targets back, but due to lag the targets sees the Spy attacking from the front. 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.
- Rarely, during taunts, the player's 'back' changes position; it becomes directly behind the player's 3rd-person camera, which means that players can avoid backstabs by moving the camera away from the Spy. This generally occurs by accident, for example, when you position the camera infront of you to watch the taunt yourself, making your back into your front. Facestabs can also rarely occur this way.
- Disabling random critical hits with
tf_weapon_criticals 0can cause backstabs to use a regular attack animation instead of the backstab animation, and may cause the backstab not to crit, dealing only 2x the target's health.
- The angle required for a backstab is based on the direction the victim is looking, however, all player's have models whose normal stance has their backs rotated to the left slightly, due to the way they carry their respective weapons (This is most prominent with Heavies). This means that at certain angles you appear to be stabbing your target in the back, when in fact you are not inside the 180 degree angle for backstabs. Equally, there are valid backstab positions which appear to have you stabbing slightly into the front of your victim.
- Crouching and backstabbing an enemy while standing on their head causes the Spy to fall instantly to the ground and take minor fall damage.
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.
- Fixed Spy backstab exploit.
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.
May 21, 2009 Patch (Sniper vs. Spy Update)
- 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.
August 13, 2009 Patch (Classless Update)
- 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, Demoman, 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.
- Despite dealing no damage, backstabbing an enemy who cannot be killed (Scout under the effects of Bonk! Atomic Punch, Ubercharged enemies or Spies, cloaked with Dead Ringer) deals a great amount of knockback that can easily be used to push the enemy into environmental hazards such as off the side of DeGroot Keep, causing him to die while invincible.
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