A Professional's Expert MVM Guide 

Very decent guide! I think it would've been beneficial to answer some of the stuff about glitched upgrades or stuff like doing more damage to tanks as pyro when aiming at the top. Some notable Upgrade "Glitches" and tidbits: Heavy's second firing speed doesn't do anything, except on the Tomislav, where the first upgrade instead does nothing. Also, the percentage given is actually wrong. First/second increases it by 14%, the third by 29% and the fourth by 43%. Tomislav is slightly different and maxes at 38%. Engineer's Sentries don't benefit from the second or third upgrades of firing speed in a normal server. However if the server's simulation tick timing is slightly off then the first tick will not work, and the second one will be required. Using hitsounds is the best way to judge if the first tick upgrade worked at all, as its usually impossible to tell otherwise. Canteens also work on the Engi's sentry. Crit canteens max your sentry's firing speed (which you can't achieve normally), Uber canteens make your sentry invulnerable. Recall canteens don't do anything. and refill ammo canteens refill your sentry's ammo and rockets. (Having a strange PDA is hell for mvm, just dont have one if you play MVM.) Soldier's Rocket Specialist only works on the first tick. The other ticks only slightly increase blast radius on direct hit and projectile speed. Not worth the 200 spent per level. Spy's 3rd sapper upgrade does NOT make it affect more robots. It only increases the amount of time robots are sapped for. as mentioned before, since Jungle Inferno, Pyro's flamethrower does more damage to the tank when aiming towards the top. With max damage phlog it does about 25ish per tick and 75 with crits. Along with this, the airblast knockback upgrades can be incredibly increased by flicking up or down when you airblast. Greatly altering how and where the airblast sends enemies. Unconfirmed but i've heard rumors of sniper's 3rd and 4th charge speed not giving correct amounts of charge speed. Unconfirmed and needs testing. Medic's canteen specialist only applies after you buy the upgrade and leave the upgrade menu, and go back into it. Canteen specialist also doesn't work with recall canteens.

The sniper bots from mvm are so scary they joined casual mode

0:27 "Your team loses on wave 1 and when they spawn their first thought is MEeEeEeEeEDIC" Whenever my team loses on wave 1, 4 out of 6 people leave without saying a word

The beggars bazooka actually is the best weapon for soldier in mvm. Because it already has a extremely fast firing speed, it frees up the need for max firing speed, allowing you save roughly 800 credits.

This is the closest thing to "how it feels to play MVM" that we can get

Great video! It's been years since I've given anything other than Two Cities a go, mainly because I've just gotten used to those maps and I generally play MvM to zone out and shoot stuff. But your video definitely makes it seem like a slightly more demanding experience, but with the same vibe. And I never even considered that it costs less to complete. Entertaining and informative video, and the fact that you learned how to use SFM just to give this video more flair is super respectable. Again, great job... I hope more people eventually see this!

11:27 we got a lazypurple reference amazing.

i like how you took inspiration from how it feels to play heavy at 11:22 to 12:03

The most important thing to remember is to have fun. Not ever game has to be 100% serious and sometimes running meme classes or doing sub optimal things work, and that is a big reason why mvm is still super fun

“You need more damage” “Gas passer is too much damage”

Damn, Gas Passer never gets a break It's so bad in normal play that everyone hates it but it's so unbelievably GOOD in MvM that everyone STILL hates it

Upgrades Scout 3:02 Soldier (kind of) 7:13 Pyro 9:53 Demoman 10:50 Heavy 13:00 Engineer 14:24 Medic 19:11 Sniper 20:19 Spy 21:20

Something that keeps me coming back to this video is the phenomenal music choice. This is especially noticeable in the Engineer section, where all the songs are from Pokémon HeartGold/SoulSilver - Dane's choice of music (which is another great layer to the homage). But it's not just that. Sonic music for Scout, American™music for Soldier, Spoopy for Pyro, Russian for Heavy... It really shows how much you care about and appreciate music choice, and coming back from the fact that you took inspiration from EmpLemon; I can absolutely see the influence.

“You won’t get kicked for low tour” Tacobot: *Reeeeing in the distance

I had the luck to play my first expert mvm tour with this guy, and he is a saint. I fucked up left and right and this man was super patient.

The soldier costs can be alleviated slightly thanks to the beggars, since that thing has the 70% faster firing speed with most of the downtime going to loading rockets, so maxing just reload speed actually gives a faster fire rate than stick with max fire rate and reload speed. That saves you 800 credits that can go right into the damage upgrades, which brings him about on par with the costs for scout and heavy

10:15 can we all just take a moment to appreciate that Demo rag doll?

I like how the Obama Administration is trying to fix the teleporter.

Fun fact: using sydney sleeper in mvm is actually decent since it automatically apllies slow.

You are partially wrong with spy. If you are a giant killer, armour Penetration and Movement Speed should be maxxed first. Combining them allows you to circle strafe and get backstabs far more efficiently. Armour penetration is far more efficient than swing speed as just one point of it will double your backstab damage and maxxing it will quintuple your backstab damage. Movement speed will allow you to make tighter turns faster and strafe around the giants in order to reach their back and get stabbing again. Afterwards, you should get swing speed and resists along with HoK and/or health regen (since giant killer spies won't be killing regular robots much, healing will be helped out better than you think with health regen). Afterwards, you decide what. Jump height can be useful, recall canteens can get you out of a jam or allow you to kill that one giant scout who slipped by, uber canteens can increase your survivability, revolver upgrades could help out with tanks if your team sucks ass. Just get what you feel will be useful and try to have fun trickstabbing those giants. Money spy will also benefit from health regen, perhaps at an even higher level since you wont be stabbing giants who are probably coated in mad milk as much. Resistances will be your friend and thus should be upgraded as soon as your speed is acceptable. You should still get armour penetration before swing speed as stabbing giants will simply net you more damage even if it feels like you are doing less. Jump height is more important here as dodging as much as possible while collecting money is paramount, and the extra mobility can get you to places with dropped money far easier. If you enjoy playing scout but want to try something different, you can try this. (But seriously just try upgrading your gun instead of resistances and unnecessary milk recharge its so much better and you actually help the team)

4:08, playing Scout myself for a bit in MvM (I'm usually a Heavy kind of guy), typically the only reason I ever miss money is because one of my teammates killed a bot god knows where and decided NOT to pick up the money, or I ended up dying because either a sentry buster exploded by me because I thought the Engie had it handled, or I get targeted by a million crit heavies.

18:59 "Or the medic could just use a shield" He says as the medic goes into the stratosphere and the heavy becomes soup

Wow, this is a switch, conventional wisdom was "Spy and Sniper are useless, no medic means the team is screwed" so this video did a lot to show some more practical knowledge.

I think it would be helpful to be clarified that the Sandman is really good, there is a 500 credit upgrade that makes the Ball, AND the bat itself to cause minicrits, letting you stay safe, and slow super scouts to the speed of a heavy. Although, those 500 credits are rather expensive early game, this is still a wonderful alternatinve to the Fan O War.

I’d take a gas passer pyro over a high tour demo or sniper any day. Those are the players that actually trivialize the game and make it feel boring.

This is the FIRST time ive ever heard why people genuinely disliked gas passer without calling me a loser and putting my name on tacobot.

Can we all agree that the real way to play scout is the equip the fish and beat robots to death

I used to be a heavy main in mvm but then I got an Aussie scattergun and have been maining scout ever since. At first it was just to flex the scattergun but I came to realize that scout is really fun and it comes with the unintended effect of making my aim better

6:13 *meanwhile on wave 666* Ive basically always seen soldier having more damage done than basically all the other classes, even heavys and snipers sometimes

A sniper: hits 1 shot The other 8 snipers on 2fort: 1:56

Great vid! Def making me want to give Gear Grinder a go. I've never loved Manhattan or Rottenburg, but didn't realize you could get australiums from other missions.

I always wondered why the other pieces of the meta are looked at positively, but pyro with gas is seen as absolutely horrendous.

This video is a bloody lifesaver. Ive been stuck on how to get better in mvm for so long, thank you :)

Me: *misses a single dollar as scout* The rest of my team: *GIVE ME HIS TOES*

Dude, these videos are like, HELLA TOP NOTCH! Keep it up, man!

i miss when the medics crossbow acted as an instant delete against giants. it would fire all your shots at once and usually crit twice

I thought about going into MvM and this video is very helpful, also the editing/sfm bits is impeccable, gj

When he said "three heavies" i was instantly sold

"I won't kick anybody for using it (gas passer)" - 9:41 *TacoBot: RRREEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

I loved this, first video I've ever seen of yours and I can't wait for more!

This video is so rewatchable. I could watch it over and over and still get something out of it.

This is a really solid video, reminds me of lazypurple’s “how it feels” series in terms of comedy, quality, and helpful info

Gas Passer in normal TF2: So bad it's annoying Gas Passer in MvM: So op it's annoying

Great guide! Really inspired me to buy my three tickets and go play expert mode again. Only to get three servers with low tours who insisted on the two cities meta, I was the highest tour with only 8. I just ended up buying another ticket and playing two cities. Honestly it is a really good video and guide and eventually I completed another tour, I just need a few of my competent friends in the lobby. I do really love expert mode but it is so frustrating to play when many servers can’t get past wave one.

9:16 what I have found with Pyro, is that you need to get 2 ticks of the jump height upgrade. This one upgrade allows you to just dodge everything for 200 credits.

"don't treat this video as a bible or force people to play it your way" You know there will be people who do

This is an amazing guide and still stays true to this day, amazing commentary and great humour.

2 years later and this video is still the best MVM video. Good work Pride_

"You know what this team could use?" "5 more snipers"

So the actual way to play Pyro in the Australium Farming game mode is to not make him use his most powerful unlock for the game mode? Seems like a TF2 thing to me lol

Honestly this helped me prepare for doing my first expert mode run through. I main heavy for MVM so this helped me figure out upgrades as I had memorized some positions with the lower difficulties. I cleared my first expert mission without a single failed wave. So thanks for the help!

i found this video funny and informative. the effort for jokes was nice too. i appreciated the visuals on engie placements and the suggestions for upgrades. thanks 👍

That feeling when he doesn’t talk about the best demo loadout: Quickiebomb Launcher Booties Ulapool Caber

Tries expert MVM Mannworks. Sees soldiers on the first wave. Cries.

Something left out of the video: You can go soldier a wave earlier if you use the Beggar's Bazooka since with that you only really need reload speed and damage to be effective (along with a point of health on kill ofc). It's the best rocket launcher already since it can output a more consistent stream of damage but you need to practice and get used to it.

Havent seen this much effort go into a tf2 video in a very long while this gave me the tinglies thank you for making this

"sniper bots" where have i heard that from?

What's this? A video that explains advanced mechanics in non-base TF2?!?! Absurd! But really though, you did a great job with this video. I've not really played upper tier missions too much, but just simply seeing someone explain MVM (be it upper or lower tier missions) is such a refreshing change of pace. Honestly wish that more TF2ubers gave MVM the time of day that you did here. And the actual composition of the video is ace as well. Like you said there are still a couple rough edges, but all-in-all, this is a heck of an introduction, and the 5 months you put into it were well worth it. Wishing you the best with any future videos!

thanks to this guide i completed my first advanced mvm tour (had never played an advance tour before) with the highest damage as heavy, so yeah, thanks a lot dude!

The cutscenes killed me. Thanks for the tips!! I got the itch to play again after MANY years. This was helpful :)!

Some toxic players kicked me from a two cities mission on my first tour for playing beggars soldier. Jokes on them though, as I got an Australium on my 2nd tour.

I've already watched this video more times than I can remember. This is really well done like Lazy Purple's work while also including a reference to him in the video. Goes to show how well done sfm animations can be.

A really good Edutainment video for MvM. I've haven't genuinely laughed out loud on a video in a while

Dude your work is awesome! holy moly im impressed and gonna try MvM

Man i remember when first MvM came out its funny how different it is from how your video describes it now, it was soldiers everywhere and any sniper picker got kicked

How it FEELS to play MvM

I've never tried Expert but my favourite MvM class is Heavy so I feel like I maybe oughta give it a shot after seeing this! Cool video and funny stuff too.

This video taught me ALOT about mvm that i didnt even consider before. I assumed high ground was the best position for heavy as its where hes safest, but its also where he gets the least done. I also didnt know about soldier lacking earlygame and sniper being one of the best damage classes. Good video.

Love the Sonic Adventure soundtrack on the background, thank you!

Honestly, its insane that a game almost 15 years old has such complexity and skill requirements in multiplayer modes. Its so rare to see anything like this today.

I loved this guide it was entertaining and easy to follow.

This guide is great. I'm trying to get back into tf2 and mvm so this is a big help.

Timestamps: Upgrade page for each class Scout: 3:02 Soldier: 7:13 Pyro: 9:55 Demoman: 10:49 Heavy: 13:00 Engineer: 14:23 Medic: 19:05 Sniper: 20:16 Giant Killer Spy: 21:24 Money Spy: 21:39

17:21 I'm the heavy weapons guy on the left :) Nice video though, hope to see more people playing expert (with a brain)

I like the lazypurple reference you did on the heavy part

Love the lazypurple reference with positioning the heavy

This video was honestly incredible, I definitely wasn't expecting something of this caliber when clicking on this. Love learning more MvM stuff too. I do have a few things I wanna ask, in regards to gas passer, though. I mostly play Two Cities myself. Whenever I see the unfounded disdain for the gas passer, I had always just found it to be completely illogical. Disliking a tool that makes completing the objective easier? Absurd! But I can sort of get your reasoning that you mentioned in the video, the idea of it kind of negating the need for half the team. My question comes in a few forms. First, I'm curious about why the idea of "skill" matters, as you mentioned when clarifying the difference between Sniper and Pyro. I feel like the amount of skill one has to put shouldn't really matter when everyone is working together to the same goal. Especially if it makes it easier for newer players to hop in and still be useful. Second, what truly are the differences between gas passer and Sniper, in terms of the fun for everyone else? Perhaps there are just some key differences between Two Cities and Gear Grinder that answer this for me, but as it stands I feel like Pyro is more of just a Sniper replacement, rather than a TEAM replacement. He doesn't constantly have gas passer available, and it's honestly not that useful for giants. Seems like it's just good for killing medics and crowd control, like Sniper is, at about the same pace, if not slower at times, even. Finally, I feel like your experiences, and thus disdains for the gas passer branch from abuse for extremely new players, based on your description of the Pyro player being dead for 90% of the round. Do you think this is a gas passer issue that can't be avoided, or do you think the gas passer can function at a more tame level if used by a more competent player who mostly uses it against medics and occasionally crowd control, and focuses more on just normal flamethrower damage, clutch airblasts, other silly Pyro things. I know it'd be more optimal to pick other classes to do those things, but we're always talking about the suboptimal fun times when mentioning Pyro, I'd imagine. Again, your video was really spectacularly made, I really hope to see more be made with even more information in them. MvM has been a super fun game mode to play, but I put off joining for so long because I was worried I wouldn't even be able to learn how to play without getting kicked constantly. I think that's kind of where my worry with the gas passer disdain comes from, as it's an item I enjoy deploying in Two Cities sometimes when I'm sick of Scout or Heavy or Engineer.

Ah yes the classic MvM reaction "Why is everyone playing engineer or heavy"

17:55 how mad milk is made

Thank you so so much for this! this got me into TF2 and a whole great community!

This is a great guide! I really appreciate you making it clear that "THE META" isn't something that's set in stone, as well as explaining common misconceptions. I've been playing MvM since it came out (in spite of the ungodly-long queue times back in the day) but still don't have a completed tour. I couldn't begin to guess the number of times I've been kicked/raged at for doing something even slightly off-meta, even though I can play every class reasonably well in MvM. I hope more people watch this and can learn to be more accepting, because expert mode is fun stuff.

4:42 Well that took a dark turn lol.

-Almost tied him -4000 damage difference

its 2023, and i find this to be helpful. thanks! also, you were right about beginners getting kicked all the time. it happened to me on expert 2 days ago. in a way, this video opened my eyes. now i understand how to play correctly. thank you again! please anyone, give me some good tips and/or another video tutorial. thanks

11:21 i like that this segment is a lazypurple reference

underrated. if you carry on with this effort, the quality will improve exponentially overtime(it is already great now) ,and I expect for your channel to blow up in the future, if the algorithm allows it.

Love it, this perfect for beginners to build off of thanks for your help.

Honestly, I have no idea why the Recall canteen is so much overlooked. This is insanely good tool for escaping inevitable death, which is especially good for Spy.

I like to run eyelander demoknight with max upgrades on the sword, usually kill heal first. The bots are easy to kill for heads and you can easily kill more after at least one head.

15:05 "you were the chosen one! you were supposed to destroy them, not join them!"

I just finished my first tour on 2 cities thank you this guide helped so much

After a long time having this video being recommended I finally watch it

2:50 “Now let’s hop right into” Then I get an ad for skin care

As a soldier main I feel heart broken.

Awesome video, got me grounded for half of my summer break. Worth

Low Budget LazyPurple SFMs and a lovely guide, well done.

19:32 the best sound to ever exist. Also thank you for this lol.

I played expert mode once before, since I was so new including my friend who had extra tickets I actually asked what I should play since I was decent at medic. The other guy in the team using VC actually explained how to play engie effectively after a certain wave, god bless you man for helping the newbie medic/engie in expert! I’ve only been kicked once before by these tacobot asshats but also with an apparently very high tour MVM regular whom me and my friend had never heard from but enjoyed playing with, Is It Winter Yet had fun with ya man if you’re reading this! Thanks for sticking around us two noobs for so long to waste the Tacobots time!

It was hard. But I got my first tour thanks to you with my friends! Really nice video!!!

ive been trying to get into mvm recently (i have under 50 hours on tf2 total), and omg this video is such a big help. i know its been over two years since its creation but its still helping a lot of people like myself :)