Anti-Spy guide: How to create a spy free zone

This guide is meant to help inform players and help make their base a spy free zone. This could also be a good guide to help spies be better spies. I am writing this through my experience, although not years of it since TF2 recently released as a beta, and hope others will learn and not make the same mistakes i have made. This is meant to help both newbies and improve those who've already played

Note: If I have any grammar or factual errors, please let me know. Or if you want to add anything, I would appreciate trying to make this a better guide. There's a lot of things I would like to say but sometimes I forget to add something so I will be adding things sometimes.


Facts:
First off, i'll start off with facts. Sort of like rules and boundaries.

Disguised Spies CAN:
-Cloak (Invisiblity)
-instant kill with a strike to the back but will be revealed, and sometimes get you on the side too. (assassination)
-Sap buildings as many times as they want without un-disguising. Sappers will disable and do damage over time unless removed.
-Disguise as a different class on their own team
-Disguised name will be someone on the other team of the same class. If none, it will be random
-Switch disguises while cloaked. ex. medic -> cloak -> uncloak as heavy
-Call for enemy Medics
-Disguises will always start with half health
-Be healed by the enemy medic, this includes being Ubercharged
-Use enemy dispensers
-Can be hurt by the enemy
-Be Burned
-Be blown up if touched by an enemy demoman non sticky grenades.
-Still stay disguised even if they are damaged. They can stay disguised until they die.
-Adjust their speed according to their disguise, except for the scout. ie. as slow as a heavy, but as a scout, a spy will move faster but just not as fast as a scout.

Disguised Spies CANNOT:
-Attack without being undisguised, except for sapping
-Switch Weapons and will always hold the main weapons of their respective disguised class
-Reload when disguised
-Taunt when disguised (pressing G)
-Enter enemy spawns
-Walk through enemies or buildings.
-Use enemy teleporters
-Communicate through enemy Team Talk
-Have 'Masks' on them. (enemy spies)
-Attack right out of a cloak, there is a delay before they can attack.
-Attack while cloaked

What YOU can do to keep your base a Spy Free Zone:

If you remember all of the facts above, it will make life easier and you don't have to shoot every single person you see in base. ex. You see a pyro shooting a fireball (shotty taunt), definitely not a spy. Those facts limit are the rules of the game and limit what they can and cannot do but there are tons of things that YOU can do to even further limit the damage they can do.

1. Finding your spy

Most of the time, there won't be many spies on the other team, if any, but it is best to be always prepared in case someone decides to change classes.

-One of the most important things many people forget to do is check their team roster and look at the classes. Check it every now and then and remember what classes are there and what classes are not there. in 2fort, I can't tell you how many times that there was a sniper on the deck and pretending to snipe while so many of my teammates just ran past and jumped off. I remembered we had no sniper and so i killed him with one slice of my medic saw.

-Remember, the only way a spy can come in is from their base so check your entrances whenever you have the chance.

-Spies try to be like one of you but they can only do so much. Check the names if you have groups of the same class and che

Awesome, thanks for making that its common sense stuff but still some great material i didnt realise!

10/10

damnnnn, nice guide, but we don't need so many anti-spy guides, they're hard enough to play as it is now

Quote:

lol! But not everyone checks out forums so you're bound to find some ignorant people

Spies are really easy to spot, and now even easier D:

(great job on the guide)

thanks m8!

Awesome! Makes me want to try a spy.

I'm a spy right now...lol

so if a spy can't taunt a good way to check if your teammate is a spy is to taunt and the other person taunt.  This is especially good if they get some FF servers up.

Aw, I was going to do one of these. But nice job... you have all the information I would and more.

Except, I'd also add that if you're defending an area, try to stick around any sentries that may be set up. Spies can't backstab around a sentry, so if all of your defenders are around a sentry, it'll be nearly impossible to backstab people OR sap the sentry. A Pyro is very effective with that.

I really hate to be giving anti-spy information, but I'll be completely honest and say that it's your best bet for ruining a spy's day.

The other tip about sentries as an anti-Spy tactic on 2Fort is to place them so they have a line of sight to both entrances to the flag. Even if they can cloak past the stairs with the ledge, they can't get out cloaked or disguised, so sentries will tear them apart. BUT I've been able to get out multiple times through the other stairway and drop down through the grate by the base entrance. One near there [preferably pointing down the stairway] along with one by the ledge are sure to stop any Spy flag runs.

Sentries are Spy bane, especially with one or two people other than the engineer to defend them, especially Pyros.