Team Fortress 2 Walkthrough

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Team Fortress 2 – Engineer Guide.
By Xander77 (Xander77@gmail.com)
http://steamcommunity.com/id/Xander77/stats/TF2
Version 0.6 (09.04.08. Beta. Testing, testing......)
Version History
0.5 (The very first edition. Kinda crap)
0.6 (Did some spellchecking and some minor formatting)
Table of contents (ctrl+f to skip to a certain section):
Section 1 – The introduction. Self explanatory.
Section 2 – Weapons breakdown. Includes mechanics, uses, and all sorts of info
about the buildings, including both technical stuff and useful advice.
Section 3 – General Overview. How to play engie.
Section 4 – Engie matchups. The engie vs. another class - analysis and advice.
Section 5 – Map specific strategies
Section 6 – FAQ
Section 7 – Thanks for all the fish.
Section 1
The engie is an interesting class. Well, that much is obvious, otherwise I
wouldn’t be writing this guide, right?
All classes are in TF2 are interesting in one way or another, none being a
straight up generic fps class…
Ok, let’s try this one again. Except for the spy, the engie is the class
that requires the most thought to play properly.
For the most part, engie play is less about reflexes than it is about
strategic planning, adjusting to the situation and utilizing all your
resources.You are your teams main support character (literally, you support
the team. Sorry if someone has a different definition of what the term means).
Your buildings stop enemy advances, heal, replenish ammo, and bring
reinforcements to the battlefield. If the medic has the frequently thankless
but vital job of keeping the team alive,you have the safer, more comfortable,
and often more rewarding job of taking care of all the teams needs – and if
you do it right, you can get quite a few points in the process as well -
after the medic, the engie is the easiest class to tally up points with.
This is not an “elite” strategy guide. I’m certain there are engies out
there who are perfectly capable of destroying medic/heavy combos with
the pistol and get 30 kills per sentry placement. If you are one of
these engies, and feel the need to ridicule my conservative strategies…
well, don’t.If you have genuinely decent tips and tricks however, feel
free to email me,and I’ll update this guide.
However, if you follow the guide you can be an engineer that is far better
than most wannabees out there, as well as a valuable asset to your team.
I'll assume you have some basic knowledge of the game, and I don’t need to
explain what “metal” “damage” or "weapon slot" are.
Section 2
The engie has 5 weapon slots. Let’s see what each does.
1. The shotgun. Damage output:
• Point Blank: 80-90
o Critical Hit: 180
• Medium Range: 10-30
• Long Range: 3-10
Holds 6 shells, has a 32 shell reserve.
Quite frankly, the shotgun is arguably the worst primary weapon in the game.
It fires slowly, reloads slowly, the damage drops off dramatically over
range and it’s not very accurate. ANYONE that isn’t already weakened and/or
ambushed by you can and will outgun you.
A spy's revolver is slightly weaker at point blank range
(though still a lot faster,so it evens out) but outclasses the shotgun by far
atmedium range and farther. Revolvers also crit regularly, while the shotguns
critratio is just depressing, and since the slugs scatter at range, is unlikely
to pack the same punch. In short, Valve has given you a sentry for a reason.
Using the shotgun as your main way to kill people is not the smart thing to do.
2. The pistol. Damage:
• Point Blank: 20-22
o Critical Hit: 45
• Medium Range: 10-15
• Long Range: 8-9
12 shots in a clip 200 (!) in reserve.
As you can see, it will take some luck and patience to kill anyone
with the pistol. However, due to the fact that you have so many shots,
it’s a prime spamming weapon, particularly over long distances.
If no snipers are around to spoil your fun, you can chip away at any enemy's
health – it will distract them from your other teammates, it will make them
easier to kill, and you may get some sweet assist points. If no enemies are
around, spam your teammates.
The shotgun is just too slow to spycheck EVERYONE, so you should wait until
someone approaches your gear/acts suspiciously before unloading with it.
A few pistol rounds can make a spy easier to kill, kill him
(if you’re very lucky) or cause him to panic.
You can even uncover the occasional cloaked spy with a pistol shot.
3. The wrench. Primarily used to whack your buildings so that they construct
faster,repair damage to buildings and knock off sappers, it also doubles as
a melee weapon.
Damage:
• Point Blank: 45-85
o Critical Hit: 195
It’s decent at killing spies who are sapping your stuff when you’re out of
ammo. Note that the game gives a priority to fixing your buildings over
hitting people, so if the spy is reasonably close to a buildings/crouching on
one, your swings may not go where you want them to. Also, there's the ever
present danger of running into a face stab.
4. The construction pad. As I’ve pointed out above, your “main” weapons
aren’t all that good.
You don’t have a lot of outright damage potential, and with your 125 health,
you’re very squishy.
So why is a good engie more of a threat to the enemy /help to the team
than a single heavy,demo or soldier?
Because of his buildings.
The sentry is your sword, the dispenser is your armor, and the teleport is
your horn, which (if you're not stupid enough to ignore your teammates
"build a tp plz, engies" request three times) will bring a pissed-off pyro
into your enemies midst.
Each building is vital, and you would do well to neglect none of them.
Dispensers take 20 seconds to build. Sentries and teleports take 10.
All construction time is cut in half if you hit the building with a wrench
as it is being constructed. If more than one engie is working on the same
building,the effects on building speed stack. A dispenser takes 100 metal
to place,a teleport 125 metal, and a sentry takes 130. A destroyed building
leaves behind 60 metal, except for the dispenser, which leaves 50.
Every building can be rotated while in the “planning” stage by right
clicking. Useful for wedging buildings into corners and making sure people
don’t face walls when they step out of teleporters. As buildings are initially
placed, they have very little health, and they get sturdier as they near
completion. Teammates can pass through buildings, but you and enemies can't.
Useful for building stuff to stand on, or to block certain places. Less useful
when you barricade yourself behind your stuff and find that you're unable to
move out of your spot.
Remember that dispensers can and will block a sentries view of an enemy.
Under certain circumstances you can stand on a dispenser and jump with the
teleporter exit blueprints ready to place a teleporter in a normally
inaccaessable location. This is useful to get to the top of B in gravelpit
and the back of C in the same. I'm aware of no other useful places
at the moment.
The first thing you should note about placing a sentry is that there’s an
overlay over the world around when you bring up the sentry set up
schematic. The sentry will not be able to see beyond the point where the
overlay ends. You should try to place a sentry in such a position that there
are no spots from which an enemy can shoot your sentry, without the sentry
shooting back at him.
The next thing you should note when you place a sentry, is that it’s freaking
weak.
A level 1 sentry has 150 health, and the damage it does is essentially
like concentrated pistol fire – not quite enough to kill combat oriented
class before the class kills it. The level 1 turning speed is atrocious –
a scout can easily circle-strafe it with a bat.
It takes 200 metal and 10 seconds to update the sentry to level 2.
A level 2 sentry has 180 health and is fairly capable of defending itself and
the engie.The turning speed still isn’t very good – a pyro can circle-strafe
the sentry if he surprises it and a spy can backstab the engie and sap the
sentry long before it turns. Another 10 seconds and 200 metal, and you get
the level 3 sentry – which should be able to deal with pretty much anything
other than an uber / spy. It also turns fast enough to kill a spy that
backstabbed you, unless that spy is particularly skilled. When fixing your
sentry, or having to pass in front of it for ANY reason, remember that your
sentry's shots harm you (and a level 3 sentry's rockets harm your teammates,
but there’s little you can do about that).
The things to remember about sentries are: placement. Ok, placementS.
For the sentry, and for you. Ideally, your sentry should be placed
in a location where anyone who is able to damage it will be damaged
in return, there are no blind spots or easy corners to strafe in and out of,
and even spies will have
trouble getting to the sentry without being detected. Oh – and the location
the sentry overlooks needs to be of importance to your team, and subject to
attacks by the enemy. I shudder at the mere thought of how many useless
engies decide to defend the first cap point in a defense map or their
own spawn.
Also, the sentry's location should allow you to place a dispenser nearby,
out of the line of direct fire, and let you get ammo from the dispenser and
whack at the sentry to repair it while being protected from harm by the
sentry absorbing all the nasty damage the enemies throw your way. (provided
that the sentry is likely to be under fairly constant attack. If not, a
dispenser may be moved to another location - see 2fort and Dusbowl 3 for
examples) The ideal sentry location is a long narrow tunnel, the end of
which the sentry can JUSTsee, with not alternate entrances. The sentry
should be placed against a wallif the enemy will come from the left, the
sentry should be place against the left ditto for the right.
Makes it less easy to duck in and out while shooting at it. I will discuss
sentry placement on certain popular maps latter, and hopefully, you’ll be
able toextrapolate the principles involved to custom maps.
Unless you have a supply of metal nearby and setting up a sentry is a prime
priority, a dispenser should be the first thing you build. It will provide you
with metal and health. This is important and stuff. Allows you to build and
upgrade buildings. The full dispenser holds 400 metal, and regenerates 40
metalper 10 seconds. This means that you can build and upgrade all the
buildingsyou as fast as you could possibly build and upgrade with a full
dispenser’sreserves. A dispenser has only 100 health, which means that a fully
charged sniper shot, a couple of rockets, or a funny look by the enemy will
destroy it. Keep your dispenser out of harms way. Note that enemy dispensers
replenish your metal – take advantage of this, and don’t blow up the enemy's
dispenser right away (though some eager teammate will surely do it for you).
Dispensers can be used to block low/narrow spaces (like doors) to stop
spies/enemies from getting through unless they destroy the dispenser.
Also, you can stand on them to build/maintain stuff at different heights /
be certain of blocking spies from entering certain locations.
Teleports. A lot of bad, bad, horrible engies don’t bother to build teleports.
They have the sentry for killing people, and the dispenser for health and
metal, and can conceive of no use for things that are more complicated in
their usefulness than "hurt bad guy, heal me". Those engies are selfishly
stupid,and are actively making their team perform worse than it should.
Teleports bring in reinforcements. Reinforcements that allow the team to
press on the attack, not lose any ground, and may very well save your ass
from a determined coordinated assault. In certain cases, the engies MAIN
contribution to the team is a teleporter, followed by a dispenser,
followed by the sentry.
A functioning teleporter entrance (one that has a matching exit) points
towards the exit. The exit points in the direction a player exiting the
teleporterwill face. A teleporter takes 10 seconds to recharge between
teleports.
The generally established teleporter protocol (i.e., who has first right to
the teleporter if the team has not communicated other arrangements) is:
Engie (with the understanding that the engie will only use the teleporter
if it is crucial he gets to his nest as fast as possible)
Medic (as players will die if the medic is not on the front lines to heal them)
Heavy, Soldier, Demo, Sniper, Pyro. Spies and scouts should generally NOT use
the teleporter. A pyro should occasionally take the long way to the battle,
to spycheck along the route.
Uses for teleporters when the front lines are really too close to the spawn
for the teleporter to do any good? For one thing, you could try to sneak
a teleporter behind the enemy lines (if on a map like 2fort or ctf well).
Or you could just place a teleporter in a hidden spot while defending the first
point on a defense map. Both cases provide ample opportunity for sudden strikes
from behind against unsuspecting enemies. However, you'll need a
coordinated team if you don't want your teleporter found after the very first
use, as a person using the teleporter has a sparkly trail indicating this
fact behind him for 13 seconds. Ironically, though spies generally shouldn't
use teleporters for this reason, hidden teleports make getting behind the
enemy lines easy, and a spy who arrived behind the enemy lines and patiently
waited for the sparkles to disappear does not indicate a teleporter, provoking
no search for one – making spies the perfect class to use such teleporters.
The teleporter can be placed in certain isolated places to be sapped by
impatient spies, thus revealing the spies exact location to the team.
Lastly, it can function as speed bump – making enemies (and friends)
jump over it or destroy it before they can advance.
Section 3: How to play the engie.
In general:
Know the level you're playing. Pay attention to your team and the enemy
team disposition and methods of attack. This is nearly as important for a good
engie as it is for a good spy. Knowing the good sentry placements, the hidden
places the put teleporters, the metal stashes and the routes to every point
will seriously help improve your game. If your team's attacks are scattered,
every guy going by a different route and not caring about the others, the safe
place to build your nest is a bit farther behind the action than if your team
was highly coordinated and the chances of massive enemy presence behind the
main line were slim. If the enemy has a lot of demos, sentry gun placements
should be scattered. If the enemy prefers to use ubers to deal with sentries,
sentry farms are the way to go. If the "ideal" sentry spot is in fact ideal,
guard it at all costs. If the enemy coordinates, improvises and pushes, moving
the sentry around to confuse them may be a good idea. Overall, I'd advice
"stick to a well built nest" on defense and ctf maps and be read to run back
andforth, building and rebuilding on point contest maps. CP maps force you to
improvise on the fly, but defense maps give you time to think.
Generally speaking, when under heavy/constant attack (say, guarding a key
defensive position on dustbowl) you should be behind your sentry, watching for
spies, ready to wrench it at a moments notice (however, do pay attention.
Spies LOVE it when you're constantly crouched behind the sentry, wrenching it
without bothering to look around. Gives them a chance to jump on your head,
sap and backstab). If the attacks on your location are more sporadic, you
shouldbe patrolling the general area around your sentry, ready to fend off
trouble, or fall back.
Cooperate with your fellow engies. Fix stuff for the other engie when he's dead
un-sap affected buildings, have one guy hunt a sap-spamming spy while the other
un-saps the buildings… and most importantly, work together to erect vital
buildings quicker. Two engies cooperating on a single sentry can erect a
level 3 in the time each one would only manage to halfway upgrade his level 1.
Vital when a defense level starts. Also, swap nests. Have each engie tend
the others nest, as the buildings are no longer an obstacle. Nothing miffs a
spy more than to see an engie barricaded behind his sentry pass THROUGH that
sentry to wrench him in the face. Oh and NEVER, EVER, EVER be the dick that
uses another engies dispenser to build his stuff, without ever bothering to
erect a dispenser on his own. That's just stupid. Also, don't be the dick that
runs and grabs desperately needed metal from under another engies nose while
ignoring metal you have right near you.
Mind the metal/resource management. Let's say you have 200 metal on you,
a 200 metal ammo spawn and a 40 metal ammo spawn.
To start a nest, you should build a dispenser, take the 40 ammo, build a sentry
take the 200 ammo, build a teleporter exit (or upgrade the sentry, if you're
anticipating an attack). Most economic and fast way of doing things. Learn to
make these sorts of calculations rapidly, and learn the locations
of ammo spawns/etc. Getting your sentry to level 2 10 seconds earlier can
sometimes prevent you from losing a match.One thing to remember about engie
cooperation – you don't need a twin. Two soldiers standing at the same place,
spamming rockets, are twice as effective.
Ditto heavies, ditto demos, ditto whatnot (except for spies, who need a lot of
practice to work in tandem). But building all your shit as a siamese twin
to another engies buildings is bloody stupid. The only possible benefit you
get from it is ruining certain ubers days with the combined knockback effect.
On the other hand, you'll make some demomen VERY happy. So, simple rule of
thumb, all sentries must be at least 3 meters apart.
Combat strategies:
Generally speaking, there are two BAD ways to play the engie. One is to
build your stuff in a location nowhere near the front of the battlelines,
wedge yourself between the dispenser and the sentry, and hump your sentry
while ignoring everything around you.
For extra points, don't build teleporters.
The other is neglecting ALL your buildings and simply running forth and
engaging the enemy with your trusty shotgun. This is just as stupid as being
a "combat medic" and far less enertaining. In fact, by doing this, you're a
ctively hurting your team, taking up a place that could have been filled by
someone useful.
If your nest is as close to the front lines as it can be and you have another
engie tendingit / no one has bothered it for a while, you MAY go out looking for
trouble.
Just, don't be too enthusiastic about it – nothing is more annoying than
seeing a single spy demolish all you've created as you wait for a respawn after
a single crit grenade. BTW, if you don't have an established nest yet you can
drop the sentry behind the corner in the middle of a fight, and either lure
the enemy into an ambush, or force them to choose between shooting you and
shooting the sentry.
Overall, due to your squishiness and crappy weaponry, you should use scout
tactics – distract people from more threatening classes, harass them, flank
(even you can be deadly when attacking from behind while a combat class
occupies their attention) deal some damage and run away when they turn to
you. Remember – you're SQUISHY.
Flank with your sentry – lure
enemies into it, and make them choose between dealing with the sentry and
killing you. Learn to identify those situations where flanking is the wrong
strategy, and the best thing to do is alert people to the threat incoming,
then dodge behind your sentry and wrench away at it.
Oh, yeah – major point that applies to all classes – you REALLY need a
microphone to enchance combat communication.
Telling your team what enemies are coming in from where is a lifesaver for
you and for the team. You get a +20 k/d % just by buying a mic (totally made
up stat, natch, but the point is true)
Section 4 – Engie matchups.
I don't really like the various "how to deal with class x when playing class y"
guides – too many variables for dogmatic approaches to work, and you rarely
fight a 1-1 duel anyway. Nevertheless, such class breakdowns emphasize certain
strengths, weaknesses' and general strategies.
Here are some suggestions on how to deal with each class. A is if you encounter
the class in the middle of nowhere. B is if class is trying to assault you while
you're near your sentry.
Scout:
A. You have a major problem. The scout has the same weapons as you (well,
the scattergun is probably more decent), the same health, and a LOT more speed.
Running away will NEVER work, as the kill hungry bastard is sure to follow
(and luring them into sentries is fun as well as useful). Panic is your worst
enemy – there's nothing a scout loves more than a panicking engie unloading 6
shotgun shells into the thin air as the scout dodges frantically, then closes
in to boink the engie to death and taunt his corpse. Try to choose your
battlefield – narrow tunnels will even the odds, as the scouts dodging will
do himlittle good. Then, it's a matter of a sure and steady finger on the
trigger.
B. No problem whatsoever. The sentry is nature's way of telling a scout to
go back to spawn and choose a better class.
Soldier:
A. Stay AWAY. Use cover and harass him with the pistol. Over long distances,
you have the advantage, as the rockets are relatively easy to avoid.
He should either retreat, or try to close in. Give him a few pistol clips
while retreating, and ambush him by the nearest health drop with the shotgun.
Never get too close, and jump around to make rocket aiming harder.
B. Good soldiers will try to use the rocket's area damage to kill you,
or the sentry without exposing themselves. Try to avoid placing a sentry in a
position that will allow them to do so. An uber is really wasted on a soldier -
he still has the 4 missiles, after which he's essentially useless.
Pyro:
A. Ack. Solitary engies are a pyro's favorite prey, right after spies and
snipers. If caught unawares at close quarters... take out your wrench, sidestep
the flame and hope for a crit. You're unlikely to survive either way. If you see
him coming, you might use the pistol – the pyro doesn't have any decent long
range weapons. Once he's in range, switch to the shotgun. He'll either try to
flame, which will allow you to take him apart as he closes
(as long as you don't panic) or switch to shotgun, which will put you on equal
terms.
B. Unlike other weapons, the flame goes beyond the sentry to hit you, so if a
pyro actually gets close enough to flame the sentry, you'll die in a hurry.
Therefore, moving the hell out of the way when an ubered pyro is coming at
you is a good idea. Unubered, a pyro may still successfully circle-strafe a
level1-2 sentry if it doesn't see him coming, and his flames can deal damage
around corners/through gates, so pay attention to that when placing a sentry.
Demo:
A. Ack. Just run away. Those bastards can fling grenades to places where you
imagine yourself safe and set up traps behind themselves with stickies.
Unless flanking, you really can't deal with a competent demo.
B. Double ack. Competent demomen can take out most sentry placements unless
interrupted. General grenade spam will often wreak havoc with attempts to build
stuff near the front lines, crit grenades not even aimed at you will kill you
outright, and 4 stickies will take out a sentry nest without ever exposing
the demo to harm. Despite what you may have heard, trying to shotgun/pistol the
stickies away is a waste of time. Call for help and either engage the demo
to distract him, or fall back and rebuild latter, depending on the
circumstances.
Heavy:
A. Actually easier than they seem. A moment's burst from Sasha at close range
will tear you apart, but you can use scout tactics to harass one or kill when
flanking quite easily. If a heavy knows you're there, and focuses on you, thing
get more difficult, but no hopeless. Use your mobility to pop in and out of
cover, alternating the places you come from, chipping away at his health,
Circle behind him whenever possible. If he switches to the shotgun, he's able
to give chase, but you get a chance to make mistakes without getting torn apart
B. Even though an unbuffed heavy can duel a level 2 sentry and win, they're
not actually very good when dealing with fully upgraded sentries protected by
you. Heavies have no options besides a slugging contest, which the sentry is
likely to win. Even when ubered, a heavy needs to close his distance to the
sentry in order to damage it faster than you can heal it, which few actually
manage for whatever reason. Overall, it takes a very smart heavy to
successfully deal with a sentry, much less a nest.
Medic:
A. Are faster than you, have a weapon that's great for spamming, regenerate
slowly, and are usually accompanied by a guardian. However, when caught all
alone, a medic can (and should – taking the trouble to kill medics is a
greatercontribution to the team than killing anyone else) be killed relatively
easily. A single syringe doesn't do much damage, so if you both strafe like
crazy and you're careful about your shots landing, you'll outgun him, as the
syringe gun is really not accurate when strafing.
Be readywith the pistol for the moment when he tries to run.
B. While theoretically syringes can be used like demo grenades, arching over
obstacles to hit sentries with impunity, I rarely see this done. The main
danger medics pose to sentries is the uber, and we've discussed this in the
class entries for the most likely uber targets.
Sniper:
A. DON'T count on a sniper being utter crap and allowing you to pistol him from
the distance / strafe to close in over open space while he's scoped.
Alert your teammates to his location, and let someone else deal with him.
However, when caught at short range/flanked, the non-elite sniper
(elite's can just scope and headshot your at point blank) will lose, badly -
the smg is utter crap compared even to most secondaries, much less the shotgun.
Just don't give him a chance to retreat and scope.
B. You shouldn't place your sentries in a position where a sniper can take
potshots at them, but if you must, at least make sure the sentry faces the
likely line of fire and covers your entire body from the direction the sniper
will be shooting. Even the "holes" in the sentry will count for stopping
bullets, but as it turns, it may leave you exposed for a second –
BOOM, headshot. Then the sniper can simply snipe the sentry apart.
Spy:
Ah, the spy. Every engies traditional nemesis. Sneaky bastards will sap all
that you create if you look away for a moment, backstab you if you ever stop in
the middle of nowhere and ever so rarely coordinate attacks so that a single
attack class can march right in and demolish your stuff as a spy saps it over
and over. How do we deal with them?
:Soldier voice: In order to fight the spy, we must UNDERSTAND the spy! Watch
the "how to play the spy" video on youtube. Spend some time as a spy.
Learn how they act and think. Also, learn the basics – teammates you can't go
through, teammates that can't go through your buildings,
people with exactly 50% health, people running into your base backwards
(advice that people give noob spies specifically to make them easier to spot),
people (or empty spaces) with smoke hanging around them, people of your color
running with the enemy, spies on "your side" who don't have a mask
and flash the wrong color when they uncloak... spies, all of them.
Shoot to kill.
Your best bet for dealing with a spy, is finding him as he goes in or out of
cloak state. He can't attack for two seconds, leaving you free to unload.
Get in close, unload your shotgun, and don't miss. If you give him a chance,
the revolver will tear your apart. So - identify spy, unload at close range,
make sure all your shots land, try not to get ambushed. Simple.
Of course, a spy is more likely to trouble you when he's trying to break
your to