Class Guide: Spy

[PHISH]

Weapons
slot1: Knife
slot2: Tranq
slot3: Super Shotgun
slot4: Nailgun

Grenades
Grenade 1: Frag
Grenade 2: Gas

Health 90
Armor 100

Combat

The Spy is the assassin and saboteur of Fortress Forever. He has a wide variety of special abilities at his disposal that help him excel at infiltration and sabotage. Stealth and subterfuge are the Spy's best friends. The Spy's Knife can instantly kill an enemy player if they are stabbed from behind. Backstab kills are silent. The Spy's Tranq allows them to slow down enemies and reduce their vision. Gas grenades can induce hallucinagenic effects on enemies, confusing teamcolors and reducing their awareness on the battlefield.

Special Abilities

The Spy's special command (+attack2, right mouse button by default) brings up the spy Quick Menu.

• Disguise
  Spies can disguise themselves as any other class and team that is available on the current map. If there are two teams on the map, the disguises will be listed as either "Friendly" or "Enemy". If there are three or four teams on the map, the disguises will be listed by team color.
  A Spy's disguise is removed whenever they attack with one of their weapons. (Spies are still able to prime grenades and throw them while disguised.) There is one exception to this rule (see "ID Theft" below).
  A Spy's currently equipped weapon is reflected in their disguise, so if a Spy disguised as an Engineer has his Knife out the disguise will show the Spanner out.
  
  Tip: running backwards while disguised towards the enemy base will be more subtle to the opposing team, as they may think you are teammate simply retreating.
  
• ID Theft
  Normally, when the Spy attacks with a weapon they lose their disguise. However, if the Spy successfully backstabs an enemy from behind with their Knife on the first hit (which is an instant kill), they assume the team color and class of the enemy as a disguise.
  
  
• Cloaking
  There are two options for cloaking: Cloak and Silent Cloak. If a Spy cloaks normally, a Corpse showing their model (be it the Spy themselves or their cloak) falls as if it had died. This is a functional and useful replacement for feigning death, and can be done on the move.
  
  If a Spy cloaks silently, the Spy simply fades into their cloaked form, but it must be performed while standing still. Friendly players will see a partially cloaked Spy by their icon over their head, but enemies will have to rely on keen eyesight. A Spy moves slower when cloaked, and any increases in speed (such as being hit by a Concussion Grenade and subsquently being pushed away) will remove the cloak.
  
  The other aspect to keep in mind is that the cloak effect will become more "turbulent" and visible while moving, and be less visible while standing still.
  Use this to your advantage by taking care to make your cloaked movements while enemies are distracted or looking the other way. Hunting your prey is fun :P
  
  Sentryguns will detect and shoot any cloaked spy, so the use of a disguise in conjunction with cloak is necessary to penetrate the enemy base.
  
  
• Reduced Falling Damage
  Spies must fall 50% as far as other classes to receive fall damage, and they receive 50% less damage than other classes when they sustain fall damage.
  
  
  
• Sabotage
  Spies can sabotage enemy Sentry Guns and Dispensers and turn them against the enemy team. The Spy must stand next to and face a Sentry Gun or Dispenser while disguised. Sabotaging a Sentry Gun or Dispenser takes 3 seconds.
  
  Once you have sabotaged the sentrygun or dispenser it doesn't immediately "Activate". When the time is right pull up the spy quickmenu (+attack2 or right mouse button by default) and select Sabotage Sentry/Dispenser.
  
  When activated, then Sentry Gun will fire on its own team, giving all kills to the Spy. When the activated Sabotage ends, the Sentrygun will explode.
  
  Multiple guns can be sabotaged and turned in succession. Keep this in mind the next time you run into a team with 4 sentry guns in one room :P.
  
  Sabotaged Buildables can not be detonated or dismantled. (However, they can still be destroyed by weapons fire as usual.) The Sabotage effect is removed after the Spy is killed.
  
  "Activating" a Dispenser sabotage will cause the dispenser explode.
  
  
• Stealth
  Spies do not make footstep sounds like the other classes do. However, they will make footsteps while disguised so as to not ruin the illusion of the disguise.
  
  If a Spy is crouching when he lands from a fall, he will make less noise.

[DrFire]

Also, cloak and water go very well together. And I staying near walls is effective as well.

[psycos1s]

FYI i was playing spy just goofing around i was disguised as enemy engy on monkey and cloaked the sg will shoot oyu no matter what when cloaked it knocks off cloak then stops when it sees your disguised duno if its supposed to though but it did.

[Thunderknight]

PROTIP: Part of being a spy is not only knowing how to infiltrate an enemy base, but also knowing how to get out of one safely:

1) Know the routes in and out of the base

This is a given. Know where you're going and don't get lost. Otherwise, you may find yourself on the wrong end of a well-placed SG while trying to escape with the flag!

2) Use secondary routes as opposed to main ones

Also a given. Marching out the front door with the flag is usually a bad idea seeing as how the enemy team is more than likely to be using that route as well.

3) Make it a pain in the ass to follow you

Grabbing the enemy flag is like smacking a hornet's nest with a stick. You're going to get swarmed unless you run the fuck away. Do whatever it takes to slow down any pursers that are chasing you: Shoot them with a tranq to slow them down, throw down grenades/gas grenades to deal damage and disorent them, whatever. Just run and slow them down.

[TwoTired]

Protip : Whatever weapon you're holding right now as a spy while disguised, will be the same weapon in that slot.

To rephrase : You're a sneaky spy who's disguised as a soldier, having just migrated from TFC you know that the weapon you're using right now has no effect, right? After all, you'll be holding the default weapon amirite????

RONG!

in FF, your disguise will "change weapons" too!

Ex. : Disguised as soldier, if you hold the nailgun, they see you as holding the RPG. etc.r

Hence, for best effects and least suspicion, use the weapon that most people of that class use.

No soldier is going to be walking around with a friggen' crowbar!

Protip #2 : Non-silent cloaking is best used right before entering water or falling off a ledge.

Especially in maps like aardvark where there's usually a sniper looking around in the middle or maps like well where you can cloak right before falling in the water to throw most people off your tail.

Protip #3 : Silent cloak can extend your career in the enemy base, if you ever get shot at and are able to outrun said shooter then do find a nice, unsuspectable corner where you can stop for a second, cloak silently and watch them pass away!

Disclaimer : won't work against an alert guy who's not too far off your tail.

Protip #4 : The tranq is a wep that's worth to master, it's effects are nice and are best in situations such as "rival spy steals flag which is in the water right now".

And now, time for captain obvious :

#1 : Don't spam the knife, make sure you're going to hit 100% and then backstab, this allows you to steal the enemy's clothes, extending your career if the recently-deceased is a class which the enemy has plenty of.

Note : only works when you're disguised in the first place - whether enemy or friendly disguise, hence the 100% part.

#2 : Take the backdoor. The front door will get you killed by a 300 pound fatty with an exposed bellybutton wielding a gigantic gun.

#3 : Act like the class you're playing. A soldier waiting in the flag room is a repeatedly occurring scene. A medic waiting in the flag room is not.

#4 : For the love of god, don't uncloak when somebody's around.

And finally :

If you intend to play spy, do stock up on patience.

[PorkChopVII]

No soldier is going to be walking around with a friggen' crowbar!

Thats really funny because i was playing well last night and the spy, im not goin to name any names because hes been with tfc sense the beginning like i was. Would run around with his crowbar, i didnt have the heart to tell him how i could tell it was him everytime

[NoComply]

Wow, I'm so gonna be a bigger pain the butt now. I was running around with a crow bar all the time as a soldier! Haha, good to know!

[Desyphur]

What if I'm holding a weapon that they don't have (a weapon slot.)

Like with the Pyro, what if I'm holding the SS?

[dirkniblick]

I'm a long time TFC spy and I like the spy menu. I've always used the number keys to switch disguises and do so on FF. I notice that I have to hold down the right click to make choices in the spy menu. I can't move the mouse until I finally select one the options and the let go of the button. Can I replicate the single click of TFC to bring up the spy menu?

[IvaQuaL]

Spy is pure sex on FF enabled servers, the enemy team doesn't want to risk a teamkill to spycheck you so they leave you be most of the time.

[TwoTired]

Originally Posted by Desyphur

What if I'm holding a weapon that they don't have (a weapon slot.)

Like with the Pyro, what if I'm holding the SS?

SS is slot 3, Flamer is Slot 3 too IIRC?

Edit : Scratch that - Don't know.

Test it out with a friend :P.

[jarek]

pretty much been playing spy exclusively since release, found a few nice tricks to help out against certain classes. i love how creative you can get with your deceptions and the nice little tricks you can do.

hw: pretty much if he sees u first, tranq him asap then do normal cloak right after you hear it hit and strafe out of his LOF. blurry vision + fake dying spy with no death messages visible = instant win.

engy: best way to hack a gun versus one of the engies smart enough to spy check is as easy as 1 nade hack and run away. i disguise as an engy on most maps and run around with shotty/knife out accordingly.

everywhere else i'm usually soldier so i have my tranq available readily (shows as rpg). tranqs are very useful for getting away quickly, simply tranq and round a corner and disappear.

elevators: on well in particular, you can own the attic since most soldiers have a hard time RJing to it right now. simply cloak above the ele and walk onto anyone who chases you's head

also, if you need to disappear (well comes to mind) jump into the nearest water (ie flagroom floor) and scloak

[Circuitous]

Tranq is single-shotty on Soldiers. Nailgun is RPG.

[jarek]

foot in mouth, /retires from giving spy advice

[Circuitous]

rofl.

Nah you did good, I just forgot to applaud you.

[GotSniperorTurretProblems]

I will say.. here is a few tips I have picked up over a long time of playing TFC and now playing FF as well.

General Tips-

1. As a Spy, when entering a base, don't block the enemy leaving the base if you have no intention on killing them, due to the fact people get impatient, out of the annoyance of being blocked, they will shoot at you and then by luck will figure out you are in fact a Spy.

2. Do not spam Gas Grenades in the enemy base unless they already know you are there. Spamming those grenades around will raise a flag for any smart player, especially on a map like Well, they will just go up to the Attic looking for you.

3. If you happen to get into any enemy spawn and are hiding at the exit door, waiting for it to be opened (counting the fact you are out of a Spawn Protector Gun's range and you are disguised and waiting to piggy back out of there), do yourself a favor. Cloak. Anyone will wonder why the door has not opened for you if you are the same color as them. Watch who you piggy back though, getting behind a Spy or a Scout is not good, they might randomly turn around and touch you. Medics are not good either because they may try to heal you.

4. When sabotaging the enemies Sentry Guns, especially if you only have sabotaged one Sentry Gun, make sure there are no HW's near by, if they are near, kill them before, or right after you initialize the sabotage. I figured out the hard way that this: Lvl 3 SG < HW Guy

5. I have seen this with all the novice Spies on the pubs I have seen. Cloaking everywhere you go is not a good idea. When you are moving while Cloaked, you are obvious. You stand a better chance disguised as a bunny hopping HW on speed with his crowbar out. Also, if you cloak everywhere, the other team will start to look for you cloaked, so it will just make it harder on yourself to get inside.

I can't think of any more tips right now, I am too tired, but I will post some more later tomorrow

[pWEN]

I'm having a hard time getting near enemy SGs, anyone got any tips?

Edit:
I just found out that you can disguise as an enemy, then silent cloak, and you'll stay disguised. Now that's handy!

[fidy]

Originally Posted by pWEN

I'm having a hard time getting near enemy SGs, anyone got any tips?

Edit:
I just found out that you can disguise as an enemy, then silent cloak, and you'll stay disguised. Now that's handy!

Basically, any competent engineer will blast you to kingdom come with grenades and buckshot if you go near his sentry. Try to wait untill he is away from his gun (resupplying, getting bored or whatever) and then move in.

[Shadow_Echo]

Excellent Spy Awesomeness Technique: Silent Cloak and sabatoge a dispenser. Wait for someone to show up and try to use it. Blow it up. KILL with absolutely NO loss of cloaking or disguise. Even better, that damn Engi will show up again to rebuild. Backstab as soon as he's done, and now it's YOUR dispenser . Enjoy.

EDIT:
On FF_Aardvark, when you jump off the platform, go to the LEFT and push back on the wall. You will NOT lose your cloak if you do this, helping to not get sniped to hell and back. Again: Cloak in respawn, jump sideways, and hold backwards to slide down the wall. No loss of cloak = More awesome spyness. Get into the enemy base, uncloak, and wreak havoc.

[Skanky Butterpuss]

Originally Posted by Desyphur

What if I'm holding a weapon that they don't have (a weapon slot.)

Like with the Pyro, what if I'm holding the SS?

its not just the exact weapon slot, it also works with comparable slots.

so with pyro, since flamer is 4 and IC is 5, supershotty acts as the flamer and nailgun as the IC. basically it just jumps up a slot. and since no classes have more than 4 weapons (detpacks, sgs, and dispensers dont count), you can always have a weapon that the class your disguised as has.