Spy (Team Fortress 2)

"Gentlemen?"

- Spy to his teammate.

The Spy is one of the nine playable classes in Team Fortress 2. He hails from an indeterminate region of France and is a fan of sharp suits, knives, and shoes. The Spy relies heavily on stealth and trickery to assist his team. Using a unique array of cloaking watches, he can render himself invisible or even fake his own death, catching unaware opponents off-guard. His disguise kit lets him take on the form of any class on either side, allowing him to blend in while behind enemy lines before literally stabbing his unsuspecting "teammates" in the back. In fact, a swift backstab with any of the Spy's knives will kill any foe in a single hit - providing they aren't under the effects of an Ubercharge.

In addition to being able to assassinate key enemies quickly and efficiently, the Spy has advantages over the Engineer. His disguises prevent Sentry Guns from targeting him, and allow him to heal and recharge cloak from enemy dispensers. Using his sappers, he can disable the Engineer's buildings – slowly draining their health until they are destroyed unless removed by either an Engineer or a Pyro wielding the Homewrecker, Maul, or Neon Annihilator. He can also make use of enemy teleporters to surprise (and maybe even telefrag) his foes.

Three other common Spy targets are the Heavy, Medic, and Sniper. The Heavy is the slowest class to begin with, and is even slower when he has one of his Miniguns revved up – this slower moving speed, along with the distraction of combat and a high health pool, makes for an easy and valuable backstab. Medics are a valuable target since their healing and uber makes their entire team stronger, and are also usually behind their teammates leaving them vulnerable to backstabs. Snipers are obvious Spy targets due to their reduced movement speed and tunnel vision when scoped in with their Sniper Rifles. Snipers can use the Razorback to defend themselves from a single backstab and briefly preventing any Spy foolish enough to attempt it from attacking or switching weapons. However, the sniper can still be killed in three shots or less with the Spy's revolvers, making it almost useless against smarter spies.

The strongest counters to a Spy are the Scout and Pyro. With his fast movement speed, the Scout is very difficult to backstab, and he can use Mad Milk to reveal cloaked spies and the Holy Mackerel or Unarmed Combat to reveal if a Spy used their Dead Ringer to feign death (as they will show only a hit in the killfeed instead of a kill) . The Pyro can easily spycheck for disguised or cloaked spies with his flamethrower, and the afterburn will make them easy to track. They also have the Homewrecker, and Neon Annihilator to help engineers fight spies, removing sappers in one or two hits, respectively.

Whereas most players can only see the names and health of their teammates, the Spy can observe the names and health of the enemy team as well, allowing him to relay useful intelligence. Only a Medic carrying the Solemn Vow shares this ability.

Trivia

 * The Spy is voiced by Dennis Bateman, who also voices the Pyro.
 * The Spy is assumed to be the Scout's dad, due to a love relationship with Scout's mother.
 * In TF2 Comics #6 it is confirmed he is in fact the Scout's dad.
 * The Spy was buffed to have the second mastest movement speed in the game along with Medic at 107% in the Meet Your Match update. This made him more easily able to catch up with or escape enemies.
 * In competitive matches, The Spy is usually considered the weakest class due to his low damage output (excluding backstabs) as well as his average health and speed, and being less effective against skilled players who communicate with each other.