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For the older class in TFC, see Spy (Classic).
"Gentlemen."
―The Spy addressing his team, and his most famous quote.
Spy
Spy
Icon Spy leaderboard icon TF2
Type Support
Health 125 /RED Medic emblem TF2185
Name Spy
Height 186 cm (6’1”)
Date Of Birth September 4th
Hometown Paris, France
Job Uncloak & Dagger
Speed 107%
Appears in Team Fortress 2
Voice Actor Dennis Bateman
Meet the Spy Meet the Spy TF2

The Spy, unlike any other class in the game, heavily relies on stealth. Using a unique array of cloaking watches, he can render himself completely invisible or even fake his own death, leaving unaware opponents off-guard. His Disguise Kit lets him take on the form of any class on either team, allowing him to blend in while behind enemy lines before stabbing his unsuspecting "teammates" in the back. In fact, a swift backstab with any of the Spy's knives will always kill an opponent in one hit - with the exception of those under the effects of any type of invulnerability (such as the Medic's ÜberCharge), or some other form of immense, nigh unattainable damage reduction.

In addition to being able to swiftly assassinate key enemies, the Spy possesses the ability to disable and destroy Engineer's buildings with his Sapper. Once attached to an enemy building, the Sapper disables and slowly drains health from the building. However, a Sapper can be removed by an Engineer's wrench, or a Pyro wielding the Homewrecker, Neon Annihilator, or Maul. The Spy is even able to utilize enemy teleporters to better infiltrate the opponent's team or perhaps even trick someone into getting telefragged.

Whereas most players can see the names and health of only their teammates, the Spy can observe the names and health of the enemy team as well, allowing him to relay useful intelligence. This passive ability is unique to only the Spy and a Medic carrying the Solemn Vow.

Weapons[]

Primary Weapons[]

Sappers[]

Melee Weapons[]

Invisibility Watches[]

Disguise Kits[]

Quotes[]

  • "Let's settle this like gentlemen!"
  • "Oh dear, i've made quite a mess."
  • "You got blood on my suit."
  • "Right behind you."
  • "I never really was on your side"
  • "I'm going to gut you like a Cornish game hen!"
  • "Well, off to visit your mother!" (dominating a Scout)
  • "At least you died for honor - and my amusement!" (dominating a Soldier)
  • "Burn in hell, you mumbling abomination!" (dominating a Pyro)
  • "Here's what I have that you don't: a functioning liver, depth perception, and a pulse!" (dominating a Demoman)
  • "Your precious sandwich can't save you now, fatty!" (dominating a Heavy)
  • "Did I throw a wrench into your plans? *laughter*" (dominating an Engineer)
  • "You disgust me, filthy jar man!" (dominating a Sniper)
  • "*while laughing* Laughter really IS the best medicine! *laughter*" (dominating a Medic)
  • "Go to hell, and take that cheap suit with you!" (dominating an enemy Spy)
  • "I murdered your toys as well." (sapping an Engineer's buildings shortly after killing them)
  • "Here lies scout, he ran fast and died a virgin." (dominating a Scout)
  • "May I make a suggestion? Run."
  • "You imbecile, you've doomed us all!"
  • "Surprise."
  • "Did you forget about me?"
  • "I appear to have burst into flames."
  • "You suck!"

Milestones[]

Milestone 1: After unlocking 5 Spy achievements, the player will automatically obtain the Ambassador, a replacement for the Revolver that deals critical damage on headshots at the cost of slower firing speed and less damage per shot.

Milestone 2: After unlocking 11 Spy achievements, you unlock the Cloak and Dagger, an invisibility watch. The watch has a shorter time spent cloaked if the player is moving, but if the player is standing still, they can stay cloaked forever. After running out of cloak, the player will look like he was bummed constantly until he is still, gets killed, or decloaks.

Milestone 3: After unlocking 16 Spy achievements, the Dead Ringer is given to the player. This is a different type of watch, as it cannot make the user cloaked by themselves. This can be pulled out instantly, and when the player takes any damage that doesn't kill the player, the player will be completely cloaked and dropping a fake Spy ragdoll faking death. An ammo box will also be dropped, though it contains no ammo. The player will be removed of all negative effect no matter, be it Jarate, Bleeding, Mad Milk, Afterburn, water, and other particle effects. While cloaked, the user has a 90% damage resistance to everything. The cloaking time is a lot longer than the one given by Cloak and Dagger.

Playing as the Spy[]

The Spy, as his primary weapon, is able to utilize a revolver. It's offensive capabilities are limited, so it is best used to pick off enemies who are low on health (made easier by the Spy's passive ability to view an enemy's health at will), or to defend yourself after being found out. The first shot from the revolver will always be 100% accurate, but successive shots without a notable pause in-between will have a slight deviation in their trajectory. While the revolver's offensive capabilities are nowhere near that of a Rocket Launcher, Minigun, or even a Shotgun, once one's aim has been honed enough that they can mostly hit their shots, the revolver can be shockingly effective. Use this to punish overconfident opponents who assume you're as defenseless as a Medic.

As a secondary weapon, the Spy uses his Electro-Sapper. This device can be attached to an Engineer's buildings to disable them and slowly sap their health away until either the Sapper is removed, or the building is destroyed, whatever comes first. Placing a Sapper on a teleporter will apply the Sapper to both ends. While this could potentially be of benefit to the Spy, allowing them to destroy both ends of a teleporter, something other classes cannot do easily, it could also be a hinderance as the enemy Engineer and any other teammates could remove the Sapper from either end. As previously mentioned, a Sapper can be removed by an Engineer's wrench, or a Pyro wielding the Homewrecker, Neon Annihilator, or Maul. Outside of Mann vs. Machine, the Sapper does not have a cooldown of any kind and can be used infinitely and indefinitely, allowing it to be attached and reattached to as many buildings as needed.

As a melee weapon, the Spy uses a knife. It will only do 40 damage, instead of the 65 of every other class (except Scout). This melee weapon is unique among those used by other classes in the fact that it can never randomly Critical Hit, but the knife more than makes up for this with its signature ability to backstab, allowing the Spy to almost always one-shot an opponent if the knife makes contact with the opponent's back. What Team Fortress 2 considers a player's back to be is sometimes quite volatile and unpredictable, but this can be used to the Spy's advantage to get out of difficult situations after being found out, allowing the Spy to backstab someone who already knows he is a Spy. This is known as a "trickstab".

Finally, the Spy has the disguise kit, a tool that allows them to assume the appearance of any mercenary on either team. As time has gone on, disguises have become less and less believable, not aided by how inconsistent and occasionally buggy the disguises can be. A disguise should never be your main form of stealth, it should be a back-up to not draw attention to yourself and to prevent sentries from firing at you. Disguising as anything other than a Scout, Medic, or another Spy will reduce your movement speed to match that of the class you're disguised as. Because of this, disguising as a Heavy or Soldier is not ideal (although oddly enough, due to the inefficiency they provide, Soldier and Heavy disguises can prove to be oddly effective due to how less people will expect them). A disguise is lost upon firing with your primary or swinging your melee (one can also bind a key to undisguise themselves instantly if they so wish).

The Spy also has the Invis-Watches that allow him to turn completely invisible for a certain amount of time. With the stock Invis-Watch, this amount of time can be increased by picking up ammo packs whilst invisible. For the Cloak and Dagger, the Spy can simply stand still and remain invisible for an infinite amount of time.

The Cloak and Dagger is one of the unlockable wrist watches for the Spy. The C&D (as it is commonly referred to by other players in-game) has the ability to recharge while you're standing still. It even recharges in half the time of the default watch. With the C&D it is very easy to get behind enemies undetected, you can use this to your advantage. Try to not stand directly in corners, as Pyros and other classes often randomly spycheck corners more often than walls.

A good thing to do on CTF maps is to use the Cloak and Dagger to sneak behind enemy lines, and do what a Spy is meant to do... spy. Hide somewhere near the enemy respawn and stay invisible, watching and waiting. Try to stay close to a wall, in the middle of it, as corners are a popular place for enemies to shoot at to check for spies (But almost nobody checks the middle of a wall!). Just wait and watch, giving info to your team when you see something unusual, like a large group of Heavies and Medics getting together.

Never yell "Medic!" repetitively, it draws enemy attention to you, something you do NOT want. Also, the enemy team can see in the chat the voice of who you are impersonating, which is something you do NOT want either.

Don't disguise out in the open.[]

If the enemy sees you, they'll alert the rest of the team to your disguise choice. Make sure to disguise after you cloak. If you disguise before you start cloaking, the smoke cloud from disguising will follow you and make you easily visible. Also, if you cloak and are in disguise and bump into someone or are shot by the other team, they'll see your outline so try to stay away from large crowds. Try to disguise yourself as a class that is used by a lot of people on the other team, since the game gives you a name of one of the enemy players at random using the class you chose, so if the other team has only one Scout, and you disguise yourself as a scout, you always have their name and the player you're impersonating will know you're a Spy once he spots you. A good habit with the Dead Ringer is disguising as an ally in spawn, but after your Dead Ringer has activated, switch your disguise to an enemy. This way people can hardly spot a Spy in your team by looking into your spawn.


Avoid running directly into enemies.[]

Teammates can pass through each other, but the same can't be done with enemies. Which obviously means that if you bump into an enemy when disguised, the enemy team will know you're a Spy if you haven't vanished within the next second. It should be noted that bots will always detect when you bump into them, even if they are facing away from you.


If you want to take out a sentry and an Engineer.[]

Put a sapper on the sentry and quickly backstab the Engineer as he tries to destroy the sapper, or sap the sentry and shoot it to destroy it before the Engineer can remove the sapper. (Be careful of other sentries and enemies in the area). Another, more risky, option is to backstab the engineer and then sap the sentry before it attacks you, making it safe to destroy. It is possible to continually set sappers on buildings and wear down the Engineer trying to repair them. If they do not concentrate on trying to damage or kill the Spy while repairing, continuous use of sappers will destroy the building or allow teammates the ability to charge in.


Avoid Pyros like the plague.[]

A Pyro's flamethrower is extremely effective against Spies and ideal for spy-checking. Staying away from Pyros whenever possible is a good rule of thumb. A Dead Ringer's feign will protect you from flames for 2 seconds at most but after that, it's easy for a stray flame to hit you. If it comes to a direct fight with a Pyro using a revolver most likely will be the best course of action.

Think before you disguise.[]

The Spy's disguise mechanic is incredibly powerful when used correctly. A disguise will make you appear as a teammate to the enemy team. The most important part of disguises is to remember to act your disguise and be patient. Acting your disguise will make you seem more believable, if you're disguised as a Sniper don't be in the front lines. If you are where you should be you're less likely to be spychecked. This is especially after your presence is noticed, once that happens people will be on the lookout for any usual teammates. Pick your disguise carefully. Patience is especially important, make your move when it fits you best. If a Pyro is spychecking then that's not the time to attempt to sap the nest. However, if the Engie is distracted and the Pyro is dead than it's much easier to take the nest down.

Use tools wisely[]

As a Spy, your knife is your best weapon as it can one shot any class (Excluding a Razorback). A revolver is best used as either an annoyance, to kill a Sniper with the Razorback, and as a last resort. An exception to this is with the L'Etranger to refill cloak. The Spy's Sapper is a powerful tool that can disable a Sentry, Dispenser, or Teleporter. Use it to either harass, destroy, or temporarily shut down a building. While a Sentry is being sapped it cannot shoot, leaving it vulnerable to attacks from your team.

Be careful when picking up Flags.[]

Some maps have objects that remove your disguise. For example, in Capture The Flag maps, if you grab the enemy Flag while you're disguised, your disguise will be lost, and you won't be able to re-disguise (or cloak) while carrying it.

Knife them in the back.[]

As previously stated, your knife's backstab will one shot any class except a Sniper with a Razorback. It will deal three times as much damage as your enemy's health. Take note that Übercharged enemies will not take damage from a backstab.

Out of sight, out of mind.[]

If you're about to kill a victim on the enemy team, and they find you trying to kill them, it's best to use your cloaking ability to flee, and if they think you're going to come back and take the kill, it will be a very easy to escape with the Cloak and Dagger or the Dead Ringer but be very aware of the damage output's DPS, even if the watch has a damage reduction, it will still kill you after high amounts of shells or explosives.

Trickstabs[]

Stair-Stab[]

Stair stabbing is one of the hardest tricks to master. To perform a stair stab you must be on a ramp or a flight of stairs. Make sure an enemy is chasing you. When an enemy is coming up the stairs you have a height advantage which allows you to jump above the enemy. When you are airborne make sure you are facing the enemy (who is coming up the stairs) then when you sail over him, quickly turn around and while in mid-air backstab his exposed back. This move works on beginner-immediate players but may not work on advanced players, as they probably will expect you to stair stab them and they may backpedal away from you.

Drop-Stab[]

Drop stabbing is inspired by the traditional assassination method of the best-selling franchise: 'Assassin's Creed'. To perform a drop stab you must be on an elevated platform of some kind, overlooking your target. When an enemy is moving under the player's elevated platform Eg. A bridge, you have to jump off the bridge and quickly drop down either behind him or on top of him. If you land ontop of him, quickly crouch and then your knife will go up, backstabbing the enemy. If you land behind him run forward and stab him. Tip: Make sure you are cloaked while standing on the elevated platform, otherwise people will see you.

This move works on most players.

 	Spy_Drop_Stab 	 			  

Under-Stab[]

This backstabbing technique involves hitting an enemy with the knife in a second that you are under them. It is typically used on pursuers of the Spy when the victim is falling from a height and the Spy can abuse this to strafe under the victim using the horizontal arrow keys and stab them for the brief moment the victim is exposed. The technique sometimes involves standing still before strafing to confuse an enemy and thereby generally forcing them to move in a predictible pattern and allow for an opportunity to get under the victim as they fall. The Understab is also known for being a risky counter to the above mentioned Overhead/Stairstab as the player is turning. The understab can also be used on unaware enemies in areas such as spawns where players drop from a height or other common paths that have drops that the Spy can use.

Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkE-84-sMLg (By Slurgi)

Matador-Stab[]

This backstabbing technique involves very good strafing. Strafe in one direction for a split second, so the enemy will try to move ahead to your direction, then quickly switch to the opposite direction and stab him as the enemy's back is free to you. This works on most occasions and even on professional players.

Strafe-Stab[]

This stab usually requires an enemy Soldier[1] (or Demo or Pyro or anything that can knock you back) to shoot at your feet. Crouch jump as if you were rocket jumping. It is very hard to master and usually you would get airshot, die of fall damage, or the enemy will leave. You basically have to strafe in the air and hit the enemy's back with your knife.

Face-Stab[]

Face-Stabs are essentially mistakes made by the server when determining a player's position. If you and the stabee have good internet, chances are the Face-Stab will rarely, if at all occur. However, if you or the stabee have poor internet (either one of you can), the server may mistake the stabee for being facing a different direction than the direction they may be facing visually (An example would be an Engineer visually facing west while the server may determine that the Engineer is facing a different direction.). As such, Face-Stabs can occur randomly, but in terms of mechanics, the game simply thinks the stabee is turned in the opposite direction when they may actually facing you, the Spy.

Trivia[]

  • Spy is Scout's father, having impregnated his mother. After finding out she was pregnant, he abandoned her but met her at least once after, when Scout was still a toddler.
  • In the Meet the Spy video, the RED Spy's voice seems to be raspier and deeper than the BLU Spy's voice.
  • The idea for the Spy came after a glitch in Quake fortress happened where enemies appeared to be on the opposing team.
  • The Your Eternal Reward knife is a reference to the Aladdin movie where the antagonist tries to stab Aladdin and says "Your Eternal Reward".
  • Spy has a grey beard, as seen in "Unhappy Returns".
  • The Spy of BLU and RED have Different cigarettes. The RED Spy's is a typical cigarette design, while the BLU Spy's has the white section recolored to a dark grey.
  • Spy is canonically french.
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