Back pedaling works because the enemy team expects a spy to run at someone, teammates are more likely to move around and back pedal to take less damage and get cover. Being patient and not stabbing the first person to run in front of you works too for the same reason
As a YER spy player (At least before dead ringer got gutted), this 100%. Backpedaling is one of the most IMPORTANT aspects of playing your disguise, just jumping backwards looking behind you like you are checking for a spy, gets you by SO many players, also just sitting on a sniping spot as a sniper, people will walk by you all day long.
The better you are at pretending to be on the other team the more effective you are at spy really. Disguising as a sniper and standing in sniper spots letting a few “teammates” go to the frontline for you, jumping around obnoxiously and running towards flanks disguised as scout, etc Extra tip: if you mash spacebar when disguised as scout, your running animation keeps interrupting and thus makes it less noticable that you’re running slower than a scout
Finally, someone recognises how OP backpedalling is! Acting like a teammate is an enormously powerful and underutilised part of playing Spy. Excellent vid!
This is the great thing about spy, and demoknight, even. Even a mediocre player has the ability to go on a killing spree every once in awhile if they play their cards right.
I have not used spy since the start of my game time. And when I played It I immediately bought kunai and cloak n dagger. I got 7 kills for my 2nd time using it. Pog
Not only is this a pub spy cheat code, but also explains trickstab theory. I also greatly appreciate that you created a definition for exposure time since you managed to invent a quantitative property for playing spy.
yeah several times i killed spys who where hiding in corners because i could see them, also however you could let you be seen depending of the class, could go on higj ground and diguise as sniper for exemple
You'd be surprised on how much stabs you could get away from camping their spawn doors with no disguise. A lot of people got used to being safe because they know the team vision will alert them immediately if there's a spy around.
Spy is one of my favorite classes, but i can rarely play him since my internet is so bad. Like just yesterday I tried to backstab a soldier, but then he disappeared right when I swung, and then I died because he shot me from behind.
Yeah, it sucks, but with enough practice you can actually compensate it. There was this video of Starykrow abusing the latency command (make yourself to be laggy) to do "facetabs", but what I saw is that anyone can be a good spy even with lag.
I've been doing the backpedal as spy trick a lot and it's really hilarious how many times where I do it so obnoxiously they fall for it, it's especially useful with the deadringer if you dont want to waste it just to get behind the enemy.
I think part of the negative aura it has is just assumpion. People only notice a player using the C&D if they're using it badly and letting it flicker. However if you kill an invis spy for some other reason, you just assume the normal invis watch.
Hey good work! I’ve been trying to play more spy recently, but it always devolves to me just trying to cloak and call people spy or bump into them and see their reaction. So this was well timed and seems like it’ll work well for me.
Ngl, I was working on a similar video for my main channel. So i'll leave my fav tips. The more you learn to use invis watch, the more your effectiveness will be. Gives you awareness, focus and denies ammoboxes for engies. Another thing I like to do is walk straight to an enemy and right when they walk next to me, I turn quickly and stab them. Another thing is stab then go to a far away location. Newbies tend to stick around the same place they got the stab, skyrocketing enemy paranoia. Best tip I can do is, dont be afraid of literally STOP MOVING. many spies try to outsmart too much enemies. If you stop moving, enemies will start to try and find you
holy shit I tried out your tips (especially picking small environmental objects to decloak behind and backpedaling) and I had several absolutly amazing games, and I'm a trash spy! I can't wait to keep playing and improving, thank you
as a spy with almost 2600 hours on the class i agree with most of the things you said in here, a few of them were a bit obvious but you went into more detail about them. i generally play an aggressive kunai and dr because getting the first stab will basically make you unstoppable as long as you steer clear of any pyros who airblast you and scouts who know how to counter you. also good editing
Honestly this is a truly unique spy tutorial/tip video that really covers some fundamentals I've honestly never thought about before. So many other videos I've seen focus on some basic techniques and then further on fall into the trap of talking about different discrete types of trickstab rather than exploring the underlying principle that makes trickstabs work.
I'm stuck in a sort of a loop playing spy right now. I start up TF2, do the same thing i've done the other sixty times and quit. and honestly your vids are the thing i've been looking for
sometimes as spy I’ll be acting for a disguise but get so caught up in acting that I forget what team I’m on, and then only remember when I go to shoot at my own team and then realize that I have a knife instead of a rocket launcher. TBH acting as spy is fun and surprisingly effective when you're good at it.
4:43 for the newer spies, actually doing this is scarily effective especially disguised as a sniper or demo. I discovered it once on accident where I literally back-pedalled to their spawn room lmao
You randomly started showing up in my recommended and made me want to play TF2 again. Thanks for these guys because I'm enjoying the game so much now lol
Here’s a tip that has increased my sneakiness almost ten fold. (Sorry if this is in the video and i didn’t understand) If you can find a tiny elevated spot (and i mean tiny like half your size) such as the yellow poles outside of the main doorway on doublecross. If you climb on top of them you are almost 100% safe and invisible i have preyed on so many snipers there. Good luck if you try this and if you dont have fun with it dont keep trying.
thanks for the tips! i just started getting better at spy and i started uploading some clips compilations. i think i was pretty much doing the thing where i pick the trickstabs of a list instead of going for whats more efficient.
I'm not very good at Spy, but as someone who plays quite a bit of TF2 an encounters a fair amount of frenchmen, not making your trickstabs predictable is KEY. Most of the time I play Spy, the few trickstabs I get is from messing with the enemy and not pulling a specific stab out of the book. On the flipside, if I had a nickel for every time a Kunai Spy tried to stairstab me around an elevation, I could buy an Australium Eyelander. Point is: Just because there's a slope doesn't mean you should stairstab. If anything, competent players are ready for that trick every time they see a Spy jumping down stairs and most often will press S.
I already knew all of those things, but, they only seemed to appear, after a lot of time of playing spy, they're basically game sense as spy. But, when i thought about the fact that, i took me many hours to know these things. You're teaching them, to new players, and spies that know how to play, but aren't very efficient, which is amazing, you're helping them a LOT, those tips are, actually really good to know. Sincerely, keep up the good job, those are amazing things to new spies to learn. Loved the vídeo too, really nice editing, everything is so, so well made. I love your channel, new sub. :D
This is a beautifully done guide video! I think the tip on ToE has really opened my mind and will be a huge catalyst for improvement in my performance! Thanks!
Durrbill, thanks for this video. Tangent inbound, but I started playing TF2 in 2009 and was instantly drawn to the spy. I had a terrible PC and so revolver wasn't an option, and I got really good at mind games and trick stabs. I remember the video that really informed my playstyle was SubtleArt's "Visual Spy Guide" (originally uploaded in 2008 or 2009, but a reupload is on RU-vid if you're curious). Your video gave me a solid nostalgia kick. I remember coming to some of these conclusions myself (ESPECIALLY moving everywhere as fast as possible), so it was very validating to watch this. You're a super knowledgeable pub spy player, I can't wait to see more of your content. Makes me want to pick up spy again. Thank you
This is an excellent video man! Only thing i wish was different was for you to put a small section at the end where you summarize all the tips in just one sentence for the sake of repetition. There's a lot of great knowledge in this vid which is all very well explained, but so much that i feel like i need the repetition for it to stick properly. Seriously. I have almost 3'800 hours in TF2 and i feel like this was a very useful vid to watch. Keep it up
4:47 I can definitely relate. Whenever I run spy, I always use the your eternal reward, and I found out about this tip around half a year ago, and I was just as surprised as you were!
Disguising as a enemy hoovy is also a great deception tactic in casual games, as a good chunk of people are less likely to see them as a threat and can either give you the perfect escape or the best time to get the drop on someone. Be warned about using the latter though, as it probably won’t work again in the same match after a while.
An addendum to your backpedaling point: keep tabs on who you’re disguised as / what health your disguise target has. It’s a little less suspicious to backpedal as a damaged sniper at the front lines than to back up as a full health pyro. Calling for medic while backpedaling helps as well, makes you look like a vulnerable teammate.
Most of my hours in TF2 are on Spy. I would HIGHLY recommend sticking with stock everything until you learn the basics of the stock watch. I see so many new Spy's finding the Dead Ringer, equipping it, not understanding how it works, and just get steamrolled because of it. The stock watch is one of the most powerful items in the game and should never be underestimated.
As someone with a little over 600ish hours in the class, all of this stuff is common sense to me, but if I were still starting out it would have been so helpful to know this stuff. Really well thought out and edited video. It goes over some really important and integral information in a relatively concise way that's engaging to watch. Overall, really good video :) hope more beginner spy mains will get to see this and learn more about the most fun and rewarding class in the game!
As a spy main who plays comp and pubs I can say your videos are really informative for those new people trying to play spy. Keep up the great work and nice editing, you got yourself a new sub :)
This was a very helpful video. Something I think is worth adding to the tip about spy watches at the end, and is probably more prevalent for newer players, is to know how to use the stock watch. The dead ringer is great for escaping unfavourable situations but does not teach how to get into those situations less often, and can become an ineffective solution to lacking a core part of playing spy that ultimately limits what a player is capable of. Likewise, the Cloak and Dagger allows for more freedom in choosing exactly when to strike, but if a player does not know when a situation is good enough to uncloak, they will be stuck waiting for a perfect situation that will never come, rendering them almost useless.
Beautiful video, and extremely underrated. It's difficult to find a good video that explains efficient spy gameplay, and this one definitely the best I found, thank you so much.
On the back pedal thing, that just goes towards acting as a whole. Wacky way to work on your acting is to ONLY act for a round or a life, and see how far you can get. When you disguise, literally play as that class, with an alibi regarding why you arent rocket jumping or healing. As medic, switch to your melee, and call out spy. As soldier, run away while bunny hopping, and call for medic. If you have a banner, see if you can pull it out. The heavy is running away, sandwich in hand and looking for cover. If they have a shotgun, it is time to fat scout! The sniper is looking down a sightline, the engineer is grabbing metal, the clueless engineer is sitting behind a nest, the list goes on. Backpedaling is something you always do as any class, as it let's you keep tabs on the battlefield and have your trigger finger ready. The same applies to other behaviors.
This was a really good video. Most spy mains just show you trickstab montages, and then say "haha this guy is SO stupid, these stabs work because everyone is too stupid to avoid them." Obviously this isn't how they work, and that results in any average person playing spy being incredibly predictable. This was even true for a time where I was being spawncamped and dominated by a deadringer/ letranger spy. It was hard for me to do anything about getting rushed by an interp abuser that just uses dr for the speed boost, but they were incredibly predictable after I noticed a pattern, and I could at least track them while they were invisible. Another point on the cloak and dagger, the best way to play it is to find some hiding spot near paths enemies take to the battlefield, then follow for a second and decloak to make sure your hiding spot is never found out. Don't disguise and get killed to the respawn wallhacks, as you'll be close enough to quickly die if they notice you and spycheck anyways. Conceal your decloak not only visually, but audibly as well, by listening for gunfire in the field that your decloak can blend in with. Something that I thought was overlooked in this video is probably respawn outlines. As a spy, you have to keep a careful eye on the enemy team and keep track of who's dead and who's recently not dead, and be as far away as possible if you disguise in that time. Even if they can't reach you to hunt you down before you act and lose the disguise, they could still tell your team and you'll be found out.
Good video! Honestly WAY too many videos of this kind focus on competitive play only so getting something focused on casual is a nice breath of fresh air
As someone that can instill absolute paranoia into a team as spy, I still found a lot of helpful things here to keep in mind. 10/10, looking forward to seeing you get up there with the OGs.
I haven't really played spy for ages, as I used to be bad at it, but not long ago out of boredom I played him with a no-disguise/no-cloak challenge. I actually ended up doing surprisingly well, as it forced me into aggressive and active play to stay alive and score good. I also learned just how intimidated most players are of the spy. Tbh it was a good way to learn the class and my spy play got noticably better, I think cloaks and disguises easily becomes crutches for people who're not used to the class. Those are just side tools though, it's the gun, knife and gamesense that does the heavy lifting.
Yooo I didn’t expect to see myself on youtube! I was Professor Intercourse at 3:34! That was a fucking insane stab dude! I still remember the moment I realized I walked right into it
Thank you for addressing making Backstabs less predictable, especially Trickstabs. The amount of spies nowadays that try to get me to chase them into Stairstabs and such have been ridiculous.
As a competitive player for many seasons I can say that your first point about time exposure is a major point and the biggest thing that makes the jump from pubs to competitive harder for a lot of spy mains. People are just more aware. Things like the walking backwards trick doesn't work as often and if just one player sees you they call you out. Aggressive decloaks are important but I also think having a wall for a barrier is really good as well as it muffles the sound of the decloak which experienced players can hear. Cover isn't always necessary though as long as you know the sightlines and where enemy gamers can and cannot spot you from. I might add one more point to the video for any spies out there. Look at what your teammates are doing. If you see one of your soldiers bombing in for example, there's a good chance enemy gamers will be distracted and spend their time looking forward or up at him. This is a much better time to go for a stab than when there's nothing going on and they're sitting there spy checking. Overall a very nice video!
Interesting tip with trickstabs is to combine two movements into one. It’s hard to master, but really rewarding as it works on more people than you probably think. Another part to maybe add onto being “less predictable”
as someone who has been involved in the community for years my egotistical ass thought I would know everything in this video. Damn I was wrong! Did not expect to learn this much. Great vid!
Hello highlander spy here. Everythign you said in this vid was valid, especially backpedaling at enemies while disguised(however it takes a lot of map knowlege to fully backpedal while you are so be careful with it). Another thing to note is that you should expand your aresenal and use all of spies weapons. All of them are situational and can make or break your game. The enforcer is an example as it helps aid your team against sentry guns. Also the 4k you got was all strafe and snaps / they are strafing a certain way that allows you to get to the space behind their back. Good video
oh and also, take advantage of disguises, behave as your disguise (pyros will actviely turn around and spy check). Also if you see a class is down, disguise as that class
The point about trick stabs is right on. I can’t say how many times I’ve willingly flowed spys up stairs knowing that they are going to try to stair stab me. And I got them every time
I wanna also mention pretending to briefly go afk while disguised literally always works. Nobody tends to spy checks you, and you can just watch the team and pick a moment to strike.
Amazing work as always! For a future video, have you considered covering trickstab variation and movement theory? (Types of movement, circlestrafes, backpedals, "facestab" explanations, weird source movement tech (leapfrogging, strafing into hitboxes, etc))? I think it might be interesting cause as far as I know most spy movement tutorials are about as solid as limp noodles
Fantastic video man! Even as a spy who has a couple hundred hours under his belt I still learned something! Here's a video idea mate: How and when you should use the Dead Ringer. I've seen many spies struggle to use this thing properly and I have trouble sometimes with it too
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