Spy

The Spy is a playable class in the Team Fortress classic series of games. His primary role is to infiltrate the enemy's base and perform activities such as killing high value targets or slipping past enemy defenses and acquiring the enemy flag. To assist him with these tasks, the Spy has the ability to disguise himself as members of any team and feign death. In order to take out high value targets, the Spy is equipped with the Knife which kills an enemy in one hit if the target is backstabbed. He can also use the Tranquilizer Gun to slow down a potential victim in order to make a backstab easier.

In case of an emergency, the Spy is equipped with the Double-Barrel Shotgun and Nailgun. These weapons let the Spy fight back in case he is caught. He also has 100 points of Medium Armor in order to survive a few extra hits.

Basic strategy

 * Make a plan. Be prepared to run if discovered.


 * Choose your disguise well. Match your disguise to the place you are in. For example, if you are at the front lines, disguise as a Soldier or another class that would normally be seen at the front lines. If you are at the enemy base, disguise as an Engineer or Sniper depending on your location within the base.


 * Avoid Pyros at all cost; if they set you on fire through a Spy check, you will usually be killed swiftly by the enemy team.


 * Destroy Sentry Guns. The Spy is the ultimate Sentry killer as they can throw grenades without losing their disguise. A single Hand Grenade will do the job if you can aim well. Throw two if you are in a hurry and cannot take the time to line it up.


 * Your backstab is an instakill to any enemy. Use it on high priority targets.


 * Your Hallucination Grenades last a relatively long time and can cause a lot of mayhem to an enemy. You can either distract them for others to finish off or force them to wait out until they can operate properly again.


 * Hallucination Grenades are great for defending a dropped flag. Throw 3 or 4 Hallucination Grenades on the flag. The stacked knock back is great enough to make the flag unapproachable by strafe jumps and slow rocket jumps. This helps prevent the enemy team from suiciding to touch the flag and resetting the return timer.


 * An ability valuable to a Spy is Feign Death; you will appear to die but can still look around. This can be done silently or audibly (where your character will make a sound as if he was killed). Be careful as your corpse will rotate as you look around. Many will assume they killed you and move on. This ability can be used to get a second chance at a backstab if your target realized you the first time.


 * You can not get up while feigning death if someone is standing on top of you. Don't stay feigned in high traffic areas for too long or an enemy may spot you, stand on you, and Crowbar you to death, making you helpless.


 * To effectively use Feign Death, crouch with your back against a wall. This will force a specific animation that results in the body falling behind the wall. Only your feet will be visible.


 * If your cover was blown, use your Tranquilizer gun to stun your enemy and get away safely.

Special abilities
Class Skill: Opens up disguise menu.

Abilities: Quake Console Aliases:
 * Uncover an enemy Spy by touching him.
 * Disguise as any class on any team.
 * Feign your own death.

Update history
January 16, 2003 Patch (Classic)
 * Fixed Spies not being able to drop their cells.

Trivia

 * The Spy from Team Fortress was based on a glitch in which players would see enemies as members of their own team.
 * A Team Fortress server setting allowed the Spy to turn invisible instead of disguising. This is similar to the Team Fortress 2 Cloak mechanic.