Team Fortress 2 is one of the most classic online first-person shooters, featuring many different game modes, maps, weapons and classes, each with distinct gameplay and arsenal. Team Fortress 2 was actually one of the first games on Steam to feature trading and inventories, making it a groundbreaking title, with thousands of items added throughout the years to the game.
With so many features and weapons to choose from, it can be difficult to wrap your head around it, if you’re new to the game. If you’re one of new players looking for some tips to get you started, look no further. Here’s our guide on how to get better at Team Fortress 2!
- Try The Practice Mode
Team Fortress 2 offers two training modes to beginners: offline practice and target practice. These two modes allow you to safely practice and train your Team Fortress 2 abilities and master all the classes in a safe environment.
Offline practice is a simple practice mode, which allows you to play quick bot matches, where you can practice different maps and weapons. Offline practice is the best way to try the different maps available in the game. This mode is a great way to see for yourself how difficult it can be to capture a control point or push a payload, when the other team is shooting at you. At the moment players taking part in offline practice can try their hand at the following maps:
- Dustbowl
- Gorge
- Viaduct
- Badlands
- Nucleus
- Lakeside
- Sawmill
- Upward
- Thunder Mountain
- Hoodoo, Gold Rush
- Badwater Basin
- Barnblitz
Players can play with bots on different difficulty levels, with 16 to 24 players. Offline practice offers a versatile training game mode, where you can try out different classes and weapons. Since this is a bot practice mode, all the achievements are disabled.
Besides offline practice, TF 2 also offers another training mode, known as the target practice. The mode features only a single map, tr_target, and allows you to try out some of the most basic features of the game, featuring a quick TF 2 guide for the Soldier, Spy, Demoman, and Engineer. These four classes were selected due to them having some of the most unique mechanics. In target practice you can try sapping buildings, building turrets, or rocket jumping. After you’re done with the target practice, you will be able to play a couple of rounds in the Dustbowl training, where you’ll be told how to capture points. The map features only one control point, after capturing which you’ll graduate and get an achievement.
Although most new players want to jump into the game immediately, before jumping into multiplayer games, try your luck at some of the practice modes. You’ll find that training offline with bots will greatly help you improve your TF 2 skills.
- Master Different Classes
There are many different classes available in the game, with each of them having a unique set of skills. Team Fortress 2 also allows players to switch classes during a match, allowing you to dynamically change your team’s composition to counter whatever other players might throw at you. If you want to master the game and dominate other players in the matchmaking, you will have to master different classes, in order to react to the enemy team.
Although there are so many different classes in the game, some are more difficult than others. Spy, Scour, or Engineer require a broader knowledge of the game mechanics and maps, meaning that in order to master these classes you must practice a little bit more. If you want to start mastering TF2 classes, your first step should be the Soldier.
Soldier is one of the classes, that has simple mechanics, many of them similar to other traditional FPS games, while at the same time providing immense firepower, capable of countering other classes such as Heavy or Engineer. In addition, Soldier is one of the heavier classes, capable of taking a beating, while at the same time dishing out some serious hurt at long range using his signature TF2 rocket launcher. If you need to practice different classes, play Soldier first, and master this basic class. Also, be sure to check out our TF2 all classes guide!
- Learn The Current Meta
One of the features that make Team Fortress 2 popular is the amount of weapons available for gamers to choose from. Outside of the default loadout for every class, the game offers a wide selection of different ways to play every class by changing their weapons. In some cases, like the Spy’s Dead Ringer or the Demoman’s Claidheamh Mòr, the weapons can completely change how you play the class, by switching its core mechanics to something completely different.
With so many different weapons to choose from, making up your mind can be tough, and one issue that has been with Team Fortress 2 since the start is sadly a complete lack of balance between different weapons. While you can use the weapon that you like the most, some guns in TF 2 are simply strictly better than other choices. Because of this, if you don’t use them, you will be losing out on the possible damage, and sadly, you can become a liability to your team. To avoid this, make sure to research the Team Fortress 2 meta, especially before purchasing new items. Learn how much damage every weapon deals, and how to become the most effective player you can/
- Pay Attention To Your Surroundings
Since the game features intensive, high-speed competitive gunfights, most players fail to pay attention to their surroundings. This is an obvious error since there are many important elements of your surroundings, which you can overlook, which will lead to a quick death. You might miss Demoman stickies, or a Sniper scope pointed at your enemies.
By paying attention to your surroundings, you can stay one step ahead of the enemy trying to ambush you and take out your team. You can find the enemy spy or blow away stickies that would obliterate your entire team. Instead of just rushing forward, make sure to look around and listen carefully, and you might effectively thwart your enemy’s plans.
- Tweak Around With The Game Settings
Besides training your TF 2 skills, you can improve your performance by going back to the very basics, the game settings. Changing your game settings to more optimal ones can give you a slight advantage, with different crosshair settings, FoV, more visible character models, and even ViewModel settings. Team Fortress 2 uses the Source engine, and just like CS:GO, it has a wide selection of different console commands, that players can use to modify the game to their liking.
Although the default settings are good enough to play the game, there are more optimal setting choices that you can modify with the console commands, in order to improve your performance and get the most out of the game. For beginners, we suggest checking out our TF 2 best settings guide for the most optimal choices.
In Conclusion
Here are some steps you can take, in order to become a better Team Fortress 2 player. Remember, TF 2 is a highly skill-dependent game, and getting to the top of the leaderboards requires a lot of practice. If you’re looking for more guides on how to become a better TF2 player, be sure to check out the rest of our blog! Also, if you want to trade TF2 items for best prices possible, be sure to visit Skinsmonkey as well!
A true gaming enthusiast, especially Counter-Strike: Global Offensive and Rust. At SkinsMonkey, he is involved in creating game guides based on his own experience.
