The Spy is regarded as a bad class. 125 health, okay speed, insta-kills left and right, and other devious French trickery, the Spy is only good if YOU are good. Spy is one of those classes that takes skill, unlike Soldier, Heavy, and most ways to play Engineer. The Spy's main shtick is his melee; the knife. If you hit someone in the back, it will count (usually) as a backstab, and they will go sleepy. This is very nifty, but also means that unless you're sneaky or tricky, you are not going to be having much fun in this video game. The Spy is not only meant to take down big targets like Heavy with Medics, but also Engineer buildings with his Sapper. The Spy is a really tough class to play, since a team with almost any awareness will most certainly NOT tolerate your French misdeeds. He can go invisible, disguise as enemy team players, and get destroyed by a Direct Hit Soldier, Sniper, or crit stickies from a Demoman. Since the Spy is really complicated, instead of starting with the Primary weapons as usual, we'll start with his PDA's. WATCHES Invis-Watch This will allow the Spy to go invisible for a brief period of time. He cannot attack during invisibility, and the meter can be recharged with ammo packs. Cloak and Dagger The Cloak and Dagger lets you be invisible forever! Granted, only if you don't move. How it works is that the invisibility meter will only go down if you're moving, and regenerate when you aren't. Unlike the Invis-Watch, you aren't immediately revealed when you run out of cloak meter, but are instead revealed until you have literally ANY meter. Dead Ringer The Dead Ringer will not make you invisible until three conditions are met; A. You have 100% of your cloak meter full, B. You are actively holding it out, and C. You take damage. Once that happens, you create a fake dead you, get a small speed boost, full invisibility (since normally if you bump someone while invisible you get kind of Un-invisible'd), and seven different Pyro's all trying to vanquish you and only you. SAPPERS Sapper The basic Sapper, and one of two real options. Its main purpose is destroying Engineer buildings. Red-Tape Recorder The Red-Tape Recorder is less for straight destruction, because it slowly downgrades the buildings instead, eventually destroying them. HOWEVER... this is less for dealing with Engineer "nests" (a place where an Engineer has all his buildings in close proximity, usually several), and more for dealing with Engineers that leaves there buildings to go fight elsewhere. Since a Sapped building cannot be remotely destroyed, an Engineer will be left on his own until the building is either destroyed or he returns and removes the Sapper. This means the Engineer will be much easier to deal with since he's just on his own. The Red-Tape Recorder is best at buying you as much time as possible. MELEE Knife The knife is just stock. It can backstab, like any knife. Conniver's Kunai This weapon lowers your max health to 70, but when you backstab an enemy, you steal a big portion of their health into overheal. Your Eternal Reward Your disguises cost an entire cloak meter to use, but when you backstab someone, you instantly disguise as them for free. Perfect for if you need to infiltrate an Engineer nest, since if you can backstab the Engineer, the Sentry can't target you because you're disguised, leaving you to Sap them, do what you need to do, and get out. Big Earner The Big Earner is my favorite Spy weapon. You have 100 max health, but whenever you get a backstab, you get a short yet really substantial speed boost and +30% of your cloak meter back. Since it works differently than normal cloak regain, you can use it with the Dead Ringer. It's great for making a getaway, or just getting the inevitable over with and going out on your own terms. Spycicle The Spycicle is for use if you're having issues with Pyro's. Since you can be seen even when cloaked if you're on fire, Jarate'd, or Mad Milk'd (and Marked For Death), the Spycicle will let you negate afterburn and some fire damage if it's out when you start getting roasted. However, you can't use your melee for a while afterward. PRIMARY Revolver Stock. Good damage, 6 shots before you need to reload. Ambassador The Ambassador can land headshots like Sniper, one's that Critical hit, but there is significant damage fall off. It's still a good choice if you're just out of melee range in a one-on-one. Diamondback The Diamondback stores guaranteed critical hits for each backstab, and building Sapped you achieve. It does 15% less damage, but is still really good if you can Sap and stab effectively. L'Etranger This weapon gives you longer cloak duration, plus more cloak whenever you hit your target, at the cost of -25% damage. A perfect combo would be this, the Dead Ringer, and the Big Earner. Enforcer The Enforcer does more damage while disguised (something that is negated by attacking, period), and fires slightly slower. Boo.
Notes: The Dead Ringer does not get cloak back from ammo packs, unlike every other watch. The Big Earner and L'Etranger don't give cloak back in the same way, so the Dead Ringer can be combo'd with both of them (like I do) for the ultimate faker combo. The Spycicle will turn any enemy you backstab into an ice statue, which can help the enemy team know that there's a spy in their midst. My Loadout: I'm probably only going to put this in this one guide, since I'm a lazy person, but my loadout (the best frfr) is the L'Etranger, the Dead Ringer, and the Big Earner. I call it the Ultimate Twist.
