Stuff you should know, but probably don’t.
I might be completely wrong, but I’m guessing you’re a moderately intelligent person, right? You know not to stab yourself with a knife, you know you should never eat yellow snow, and so on. It’s all basic stuff that you learn as a kid and never give a second thought to. But what about the stuff you really should know, but don’t? Like the fact you shouldn’t kill me in any video game ever, because I keep a list of people who do, so that so I can hunt them down and kill them in real life later? You may not think it, but there’s a TON of stuff like that, and a lot of examples of this can be found when you quite simply sit down at your computer and try to frag some n00bs on TF2. Yet never fear! I’m here to guide you down the path to enlightenment, and make you even better than you are now at staying alive and looking awesome in the process.
So let’s begin, shall we? Just one final word of warning; if you act smug and say you know all these already in the comments, you’re going to the top of my kill list.
Airblasting can put out fires!
Indeed, in a massive contradiction to the motto of the Pyro (“Hudda hudda Hu!”, which roughly translates to “BURN EVERYTHING”), it turns out the fire bringer can also be the one who takes fire away. It also turns out to be quite a vital tactic at times as well, especially when a bunch of allies have been caught off guard, and the only health kit has been taken by the one person who didn’t actually need it. In all seriousness, though, a quick airblast can be all it takes to keep an offensive push alive, save the only medic on the team, and much more besides, and it’s that sort of stuff that wins matches.
In that sense, it’s amazing more people don’t know about it… But as I’ve already noted, the general health and well-being of all those around you generally doesn’t turn out to be a big concern when you’ve got a big canister of propane on your back. It can also be slightly justified in the way the feature was just thrown out in an update without much fanfare or discussion, which is odd when it’s something that has the capability to change the whole dynamic of the game. Still, turns out this wasn’t the first time Valve would pull off this trick, as demonstrated by the next example of general ignorance…
Heavies can toss out sandviches for healing goodness!
Yes, another thing an update added with only a line or so to confirm its existence, but equally as useful for many of the same reasons as airblast healing is. In fact, couple this strategy with a Medic/Heavy combo, and you have a fairly easy way of saving the Medic and causing complete and utter chaos to the opposing team at the same time. And, whilst Sandviches do disappear over time, the concept of just tossing one in a safe area as a temporary health kit for someone to grab also seems fairly plausible. The possibilities are almost endless, but hardly any of them will get used because hardly anyone knows you can DO this. Which, to me, is a damn shame.
Press “L” to drop the intelligence!
As you’d expect, heavies are great for clearing rooms that contain the intelligence. They’ll make sentries and defences fall in the blink of an eye, and open the gate towards epic intelligence capturing… That it, of course, if they don’t grab it themselves and lumber out the door extremely slowly whilst bloodthirsty enemies easily catch up. I think there are two reasons for this – The first is that it’s yet another feature of the game that’s not made truly clear. It doesn’t appear anywhere in the game as a hint (Although I may be wrong in this regard), and it seems the only way to actually come across this feature is by chance, or by someone screaming it at you during a tirade of obscenities.
The second reason perhaps has a bit of a darker side to it, due to the fact this reason is that people are generally selfish jerks who want all the glory for themselves. Let’s face it, given the slightest chance we can win the game single-handedly invokes an urge to push forwards that’s hard to resist, even if you’re the biggest team player in the world. So people will cling to the intelligence until they die, for the mere purpose they may get a glorious yet completely pointless few points out of doing it. Perhaps that’s another thing you should know but perhaps don’t – Selfishness such as this generally doesn’t pay off. In fact, it just makes you look like an idiot. Which is bad!
More engineers equal quicker builds!
Now, steady on, by that I don’t mean you should all roll Engineer and turtle in the Intel room. What I actually mean is this – See that lone engineer struggling to get all his gear to a top-notch level during set-up time? Switching to Engineer yourself will help him, be incredibly beneficial, and cause no loss to yourself due to the fact you can just pop back into the spawn room when you’re done and switch classes once again. Likewise, if you spawn in the middle of a fight and see a level one teleporter desperately struggling to teleport the mass of people flocked around it, you can switch classes, get it to a position where the queues are non-existent, and then switch back. The fact this is not only helpful but can gain the admirations of your team means its surprising no-one actually does this, but there you go. Now you know to do it, and knowing is half the battle!
Anyway, this list could go on forever, but I doubt any of you want to read a 6,000 word monologue whilst rolling your eyes and calling me a n00b for stating what you think is the obvious. Still, nothing to stop you posting more useful hints that people do not generally know in the comments below! There’s also nothing stopping you from jamming a fork in your toaster, but I will advise you that one of these ideas is significantly better than the other…
supremesonic on January 9th 2010 in game classes, how to, rants, tactics, team fortress 2
Stumble it!
Dzamir responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 8:20 pm #
An “heavy” trick is to start spinning the weapon while jumping from a corner, to have the gun ready to shoot in a moment.
Kinrah responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 8:23 pm #
I remember another Engineer being greatly surprised when I switched and upgraded his teleporter at spawn.
Nicuvëo responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 9:02 pm #
You could add the still underused “right button rotates blueprints!” to this list.
AdvanceStrat responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 9:03 pm #
I actually didn’t know about the one for dropping the intel with the L button, I’ll have to remember that one for the future. I tend to only really play scout anymore on ctf maps, but it’s always good to know what options are out there.
Spy Guy responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 9:06 pm #
Great article.
Considering UC is as popular as it is, perhaps I won’t have to yell
“Airblast me! For the love of god airblast me now!” Then die because the Pyro asks:
“Why?”
Or the other way around, when I have to catch up to burning teammates, who die because they flee to the nearest (still too far away) healthkit.
Really nice tips there… but I knew these already
Bunni responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 9:43 pm #
I know all this already. :B
Also, no one seems to know about rotating blueprints with M2. Not that I ever use it myself, haw.
Aldrenean responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 10:32 pm #
The L to drop Intel is in the control configuration. I remember back in the day when we didn’t have no fancy tutorials, just a command list and we had to suss out for ourselves how to put it all together. Whippersnappers etc.
Tesla Tank responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 11:05 pm #
The press L thing was actually patched in later, IIRC. Still there’s quite a lot of people who don’t know how to, or just simply won’t, drop the intel for a quicker class, so well said.
Ant responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 11:28 pm #
I almost always throw flag for scouts (except in hard crossfire situations, because they have low health).
Unfortunately, some people take flag, but they don’t even know this (they never played CTF maps for objectives). They may run back into enemy base, etc.
About airblasting, I sometimes forget about this feature. But, if teammate run to me, and call for Medic, it may reming me. Also, they should not run from me, because it’s hard to airblast someone that way.
And people very rare ask for sandwich, and when I throw it to them, they don’t take it. So I throw them rarely, only on standing allies, or who ask for it (it never happened, however).
Thanks for engineer tip.
PMMJ responded on 09 Jan 2010 at 11:50 pm #
You know why Heavy keeps the intel? Because there is nothing more awesome than watching the fat man run with it. Seriously, it’s like an inspirational Disney movie. Go Heavy go!
Cola responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 1:02 am #
Very nice guide. I’m hoping to see more Sandviches for my Medic on UC servers in the future.
Also, I learned not to kill Sonic.
Dr. Mikard responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 1:57 am #
Yeah, thanks for writing about the dropping intel thing. Probably the only way to find it out is to notice it in the key config menu.
Oh, also, I jammed a metal fork in a toaster once. I survived. The sparks were pretty.
SirMax responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 2:06 am #
slightly less obvious point about the sandvich drop- you can get it back by picking up a health kit, so you can eat it to get to full health, drop it, and then pick up a tiny health, leaving a +50 health there for your team instead.
RC-1290'Dreadnought' responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 3:16 am #
@SirMax: now THAT I didn’t know.
BaconLegs responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 3:16 am #
@SirMax
This has the advantage of there being two healthkits in one area for a little while, when the medkit comes back after you grab it.
I see! I’ll be doing that more.
Helis responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 3:37 am #
Airblast iz stron
Spy Guy responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 3:47 am #
@SirMax
Not +50 health, is it? +50% health, don’t you mean?
+50 is when you kill a nomming Heavy and steal his sammich (the extra health lies in the plate, I think).
Mr. Shiny Object responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 4:18 am #
Airblast: always knew, always do, no one else ever comes to me though, no matter how many times i caps lock it in the chat
Sandvichs: knew, but never really utilized. I will try that more often though. Usually I just accidently throw it to the guy who killed me.
intel: knew, situation never really arose.
Engies: Always knew, always do, will often go engy specifically for this and just go and upgrade everyone else’s. Same feeling of success and teamwork without having to constantly repair your own sentry.
supremesonic responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 4:26 am #
“Right click rotates blueprints” is one that completely slipped my mind when writing this article, but yeah, it’s another tactic that people just seem ignorant to. Always been second nature to me, though, especially when it comes to making sure teleported people don’t end up facing a wall and looking confused.
Also, as a few people pointed out, I think sandvich dropping should be used far more, simply because it’s not just a means of saving one life. It can be a medkit, safety net, whatever, and that fact means that this humble meal cannot really be underestimated.
James responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 5:00 am #
So, how do you actually drop the sandvich?
Dan responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 5:07 am #
I launched a sandvich at someone yesterday and he looked at me, absolutely confused as to why his health just went up. I assume my heavy just grinned at him.
It’s alt-fire, by the way. And I don’t like that you have to go to resupply to get a new one.
Azul responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 5:13 am #
This is one of the best articles yet! These are the kind of hints that put the TEAM in Team Fortress. I actually made myself a hotkey to quickly switch to engie in the spawn just to be able to save sapped teleports and to upgrade. All of these hints are super useful but I think helping your engie and your whole team out by hanging in spawn and building is one of the best. Yes, you don’t get any points and no one may even notice. But your team might actually get 1 in the Win Column if you do this kind of thing. I’d rather the engie had his gun and dispenser up to level 3 than a lame level 1 sentry guarding his level 3 tele… so let me focus on the teleporter and you get it protected. Then scout can finally stop complaining about needing a teleporter here.
ArmsAreLoud responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 5:28 am #
As a Pyro main, nothing frustrates me more then seeing a Scout run frantically as he dies from fire JUST outside my airblast range. My guess is that most people, even if they know it can be done, assume I don’t.
For the Sandvich, the risks kind of outweigh the benefits, unfortunately just because people are dumb. Most don’t know they can pick it up, and it isn’t very obvious that it’s there, so my medic dies anyways and I’m short one sandvich.
The Engie one is one of those things everyone knows but nobody thinks about. I definately need to remember to do this more often.
Overall, it’s a good article, but I’m afraid you’re preaching to the choir since the people who visit this site are already quite aware of these things. Those who really need to know it aren’t going to be visiting a TF2 strategy site.
Spydra responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 5:44 am #
You can also drop the intel when you are running out and then screw with their minds accordingly. Works best with scout or demo,
SirMax responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 6:00 am #
@Dan: You do not. If you don’t have your sandvich, and you’re at full health, walking over a health kit gives you the sandvich back.
Chronomeister responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 7:01 am #
I was playing last night on 2fort and a scout was voice chatting asking a pyro to drop the intel and I voice chatted, “He probably doesn’t know about the L button.”
Pad See Ew responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 7:28 am #
Supremesonic, you should save the “right click turns blueprints” Engy tip for a separate post, complete with graphics. If not, I may take a crack at it.
I hate being spawned facing a wall!! Or, if not facing a wall, I get sent the wrong way on a map that I don’t know so well. I try to let engies know (very nicely) how to turn their buildings before placing them.
Occasionally I get the strange reply, “Yeah I know. Don’t care”. Engineer is not credit to team!
Soldier responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 8:32 am #
When you have the intel and your medic is 100%, if they deploy you will not become invulnerable. Drop the intel, mess shit up with your uber, then pick the intel up again. Great for exiting the intel room differently then you came (turbine: Vents then main exit)
UnrealCanine responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 8:39 am #
I’m smug and I knew these already
PS I’m Gordon Brown, prime minister of the UK
Smug smug
Jackal responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 8:39 am #
TF2 tips for the completely inept?
-=Pvt. Gomer Pyle=- responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 11:09 am #
Knew it all except the “L-drop”.
Also, airblast is amazing at zoning out the intel by dropping the carrier off a cliff (CTF_DOUBLECROSS)
Airblast reflects jarate, arrows, demospam, rockets and sentry rockets. (dunno about baseballs, needles or flares though)
A quick burst of flame and then an airblast will really piss off those annoying eyelander demos
Airblast can separate or negate the efficiency of an uber
Speaking of demos, use the targe until it gives you crit shimmer, then lob a ‘nade. It’ll be critzified!
ArmsAreLoud responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 12:04 pm #
@Gomer: You can reflect baseballs and flares, but I don’t think you can reflect needles (it would be pretty darn inefficient, too).
The Airblast is freaking amazing. It’s more important to a good Pyro then the primary fire, really.
orange!Gamer responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 2:05 pm #
Right Click Rotate blueprints.
DON’T BUILD THE TELEPORTERS FACING TO A WALL!!! DAMNIT!! THAT’S A SPY RECREATIVE ZONE!!
@Bunni: You moron…
Mutated responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 2:24 pm #
Airblasting I don’t find myself doing much. Whether I forget or just don’t have burning teammates, well that’s for you to decide.
Sandviches are kind of hard to aim. I find myself only healing people if I threw it “into” them or if they accidentally walk over it later. That said, it’s saved a few Medics.
I also never find myself needing to drop the intelligence, but then again I don’t really play CTF maps. Go figure. I did have prior knowledge, though.
The temporary-Engineer idea is something I heard about only recently. I was so used to playing TF2 on a console that the idea of upgrading and healing both sides of a teleporter is alien to me.
So, decent article. Though I guess I’ve submitted myself to being your latest victim.
Mr. Noobinator responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 4:22 pm #
F10 activates God Mode and noclip. anybody else notice this?
oogle responded on 10 Jan 2010 at 10:32 pm #
I know! I Tried the f10 yesterday and owned the other team.
randombaddie responded on 11 Jan 2010 at 3:33 am #
Re: sandvich. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4F1bft_A7M
@Gomer: You can most definitely reflect flares and arrows. Two most pro moments in a pyro’s life:
1) Reflect arrow headshotting a medic
2) Teaming up with another pyro to reflect a third, enemy pyro’s flare and crit axetinguishing him in the brief moment of time when he’s on fire
:]
Helis responded on 11 Jan 2010 at 2:25 pm #
Airblast > Eyelander
The more you know
Ninja Kow responded on 11 Jan 2010 at 5:23 pm #
You forgot to also tell the engineers about rotating their stuff, particularly teleporter exits. Yeah, see that little arrow on the corner of the exit’s blueprint? That’s the way they’ll be facing when they come out. Wanna know how pissed I’ll be when I find you faced that arrow towards the wall? Very.
General Goose (not being arsed to log in) responded on 11 Jan 2010 at 6:46 pm #
I knew this already, but still, article es wunderbar like Amerika.
Teri responded on 12 Jan 2010 at 4:25 am #
Please stop using “whilst” and use “while” instead. You aren’t Shakespeare. It’s not universally friendly because people outside of Australia and the UK don’t use that archaic and pointless word.
vwtifuljoe responded on 12 Jan 2010 at 10:24 pm #
while airblast is an amazing move, i think that there is something else people dont about it. while its great for reflecting, clearing stickies, putting out fires, blowing up marlyn monroe’s dress, it also defuses regular grenades!
thats right folks, if you see normal demoman gernades pooling around your feet, airblast em! not only will they scatter to the winds, but they will also switch sides! (meaning they act like a demo on your team fired them). i’ve used this move to save many a doctor who are seconds away from popping their uber. its also great when you are trying to get out of the gate.
it can be hard though. due to timing and general grenade placement, you can usually only hit 1 or 2 grenades per airblast
Mr. Noobinator responded on 14 Jan 2010 at 4:05 pm #
@vwtifuljoe: haven’t played TF2 for the last 2 months, but IIRC, those nades still hurt aren’t they?
vwtifuljoe responded on 16 Jan 2010 at 3:35 am #
nope. they act like nades from your side
imexy responded on 17 Jan 2010 at 4:28 am #
@vwtifuljoe: it still hurts the pyro that airblasted the nades, but not the other teammates.
Azy responded on 22 Feb 2010 at 4:24 am #
I know all of it, newbie, captain obviously