Team Fortress 2 A TF2 Player’s Guide Against Bots

Introduction

 
(This is a draft for a guide against bots. I’m not the most experienced player in TF2, but I hate seeing these bots as much as you do. Perhaps this guide could be a source of inspiration. That said, if you have any additional advice, feel free to drop it in the comments!) 
 
When Valve made Team Fortress 2 free-to-play, it became available for any person wanting to get in on the action to get in on the action. The way it works is the player has the option to buy crates or taunts if they ever do wish. And since the gameplay is balanced overall and Valve was nice enough to let the TF2 community mod the game (under reasonable conditions) and make videos using their unique characters and models, the community has been able to thrive for almost 2 decades now. However, with a game that is free-to-play and is popular enough comes a side-effect players hate to see. Bots. 
 
These AI players can join servers (usually in groups) and track the locations of real players and themselves. This gives the Sniper class especially a bad reputation as the bots aim right for the head, dealing 150 damage to a player right when they see one, instantly killing most classes. A little later, there has been a rise in bots playing as the Heavy, primarily because they are slow, have the most health, and hold lots of bullets. The worst part is they have been designed to only kill actual players, so you would often see a collection of them at the objective, making it nearly impossible for either team to do anything. Because of this, you really want to know is how to destroy them. So let me throw you an inspirational speech first to get your blood really flowing. 
 
 

Prologue

 
For a while now, bots have taken away good things from us. Bots have spammed loud noises to make it impossible for players to hear each other, so as a result, Valve had to remove server-wide voice chat from casual games and stop free-to-play players from using voice-chat without a purchase. They even spam in the text chat, making it hard to be useful. Bots have killed us instantaneously from inhuman distances and in synchronized groups. They can vote F1 on players and F2 on themselves, and they can even call votes against players that dare to call against them. 
 
Valve has released an update recently that set bots home, but only for a couple days before they came back in stronger numbers and under different names. And it is all still the same. To this day, Snipers still spin, blow their horns, and shout “Nice shot” repeatedly, and leave both teams’ real players helpless. Let’s understand that it is hard to keep bots out without some kind of lawsuit, but if there was one, it would hinder how we’d be able to modify games legally, so in a way it makes sense that Valve doesn’t have a solution out just yet. Do you even have one? 
 
Well, I have one. And that is fighting the bots ourselves. It sounds cliche, and it is, but hear me out. It seems impossible at first, but all bots have one weakness: they are not human. We have brains and the power of strategy on our side. We have ways to make ourselves invincible, to distract them, and even to blast them. AI is too simple to know those luxuries, since it’d take too much time to develop a bot that complex, even after almost two decades. Even if they were, each class still has weaknesses. Are we going to have them banned forever and hurt our community as a result, or are we going to prove our strength and prove that they’re pointless, and shove that in their faces? 
 
These bots have been made by people that are ruining the gameplay for all of us. They do not deserve our charity nor do they deserve our trust, because they already demonstrated that they don’t care by doing this. If we want them to suck on ice and prove their effort was for nothing, it is up to us as real players to show them who’s boss! Send them home to their mama in a box. We don’t need lost privileges to keep them out when we got the power of MANN by our side. We are not like most men, we are gamers. We have the resources, and we must make them count. You want them to quit? Earn it. This is the real MANN vs MACHINE – find their weaknesses, and save TF2 one destroyed bot at a time! Are you with me? Then without further ado, let’s begin the advice. 
 
 

General Attacking Advice

 
Most of the things in this guide are stuff you probably already know, but you can utilize so much with what you have, and if everyone counters the bots at the same time, we’ll be an unstoppable force. So may these be reminders of what you can do: 
 

• Use blast damage to reach targets without showing your hitbox. I’d recommend Demoman for this because his projectiles can curve, but using Soldier could help as well at times. More about both later. 
   
• Distracting bots should be one of the most effective ways to absolutely annihilate them. From setting buildings in their line of sight, to setting sticky bombs where they can see them, or even just using a human shield, a distraction against a bot can allow your entire team to hit them all at once or one at a time. I’d recommend using Engineer to place stuff down, or a class that can take a lot of hits like the Heavy. More about all that later. 
   
• Invincibility is obviously effective against any enemy let alone bots, but the best part is that bots have little to no way of countering your invincibility; after all, they can’t airblast you or strategize against it otherwise. I’d recommend using Medic’s UberCharge to get you and even your team closer. More about that later. 
   
• There is a trick you could take advantage of with projectiles. By doing this, you can fire them from behind a wall without exposing your hitbox. Someone else made a video about this technique, and he talks about it a lot better than I ever would, so https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPBC5W1KHo. However, using this against bots is not recommended for any of you beginner players until you clearly see what to do. 
   
• STAY AS A GROUP; do an Area-51-esque raid and storm those bots, they can’t headshot you all at once. Tell your team to wait at spawn if they die, and stick together; invade at the same time. They have little to no counter against this if you have enough good real players. 
   
• Sometimes, taunting would make bots miss, or even not attack you at all. Which is strange considering bot developers don’t care about us. 
   
• There are some commands you could type in the chat to disable the bots from attacking. Only share them in the chat on the servers you play in; never EVER share the codes online, and censor them from any streams if possible, this way the bot developers won’t get any ideas. We don’t want any spies around here taking this ‘intelligence’ after all, so let’s keep it to ourselves. 
   
• There is one more piece of general advice, and that’s to memorize a bot’s playstyle and communicate it to the rest of your team. Even just saying where a bot is can be a blessing to your team. If you know what a bot does, then you know how to counter it. Know when it moves, flees, how and when it shoots, what targets it focuses on (more advice about that in the Engineer section), etc. Play chess with those pesky twerps, because they surely can’t. Use your team as the pieces, and have a plan and tell your team where to go and what to do. This game isn’t called “TEAM Fortress 2” for nothing, and that isn’t something bots are programmed to do – coordination and teamwork.

Other Advice

 
Remove Suspicion: 

• Use voice chat or text chat to confirm you are not a bot, and ask/answer specific questions that bots could not. 
   
• Try wearing cosmetics that bots don’t, or use weapons that bots aren’t using. 
   
• Changing to a different class or using a class that bots don’t can help remove you of suspicion. Also, pay attention to your teammates and their classes along with how they play in case one of them is a bot.

 
How to Tell if There Are Bots: 

• Some bots use the same profile picture. 
   
• Bots tend to have the same or similar usernames. Remember them, and keep track. 
   
• They play music or say the same things in voice chat. Or continuously spam loud noises through the microphone. 
   
• Some take the same path as each other, so they often phase through each other this way. 
   
• Bots tend to have the same class, same weapons, same cosmetics, and say the same things. 
   
• Their aim is beyond human. And they keep doing this. 
   
• They spam the same things in the chat, usually so big that you can’t see their names without scrolling. 
   
• They claim a real player is a bot, and without giving a real reason. They might even say that you are a bot. Check the chat, see who they are, and remember their names. 
   
• When a vote is called, bots vote immediately. 
   
• Bots tend to call votes on real players, including you. 
   
• Bots often invade in groups. 
   
• They usually spin, and often look up and move almost perfectly while doing so.

 
Finally: 

• NEVER, EVER, GO TO THEIR LINKS OR BUY IMMUNITY, even if it’s for a video. That’s exactly what they want. Like I said, whomever made them proved they don’t really care about you. Imagine you were casually walking down a sidewalk, when suddenly someone slaps you in the face for no reason, then proceeds to ask you for money. Or plays obnoxiously loud bass in their car, shaking the whole neighborhood. They are literally creating a problem and selling a solution. Where have we seen this before? Even if they say they will stop if you give them money, don’t trust that. What’s stopping that random person from slapping you again? If we want them to stop, we have to make them lose money, and we have control over that. 
   
• You already know the functions of each class along with their strengths and weaknesses, so there really isn’t much new to learn with bots. Just know that bots would usually be made to use one weapon and one weapon only, they can aim and kill like nobody’s business, their paths are usually set and precoded, and they don’t often kill other bots. 
   
• If a vote is called against a bot, vote slowly and NEVER vote immediately; it is set to automatically cancel the voting if done too fast, which was done to counter bots from taking advantage of this. Instead, vote more slowly or later, or vote sooner if you think everyone else votes later than you. Just never [F1] all at once. 
   
• To prove you are not a bot, try to have a conversation with other players, and ask/answer question bots probably wouldn’t. Prove you’re human by being a human. Maybe wear some cosmetics bots don’t, or have a unique profile picture on your Steam account. 
   
• If there aren’t enough real players, just leave the server and join another until you find one with a greater player-to-bot ratio. Leave their servers empty; can’t hit what ain’t there, right? Or they can easily be overpowered by multiple real players and get kicked from the server. It is your duty to let bots have little effect on your gameplay. If you don’t have the patience to do that, I don’t know what to tell you.

Scout

 
The Scout might not always be useful against bots, but if you need speed now, he’s ready. 

• Scout’s speed is able to keep real players busy or not keep up with him, so our weakness is his strength and opportunity to strike. Bots can easily counter this however, especially because the Scout has lower health. While I might not recommend the Scout against bots because of this, if you can distract the bots or you need to get somewhere fast, then the Scout could be a good choice after all. 
   
• You could use the BONK! to your advantage and gain brief invincibility from bullets. I don’t have that in my inventory so I can’t experiment with this, but give it a shot and see if it helps your team. Assuming it does help, you could use it as a distraction, a way to get close (lowly recommended), or even just to move past them. 
   
• The following scenario probably won’t happen, but this might be useful some day. Let me paint a picture. Imagine your team has a Medic near the point with almost full charge, but he is alone behind a wall, yet the only other thing stopping him is the enemy team filled entirely with countless Sniper bots on the point, and there is little time left before the bots win the round. All seems lost, but that’s when you hatch an idea. You main the Scout, and you think you can reach the Medic with some time left to spare, if only you can get there. So you tell the Medic to hang in there as the rest of your team becomes a Scout troop to escort you to the Medic with you in the middle. A few bots have scattered, and some Scouts have fallen because of this, but it was fortunate that the Scouts were faster. Your troop of Scouts pushes on until you soon find the Medic – now no longer alone. While the other Scouts do their best to defend you and the Medic, he charges his Medigun until it is finally fully charged. The Medic flips on the switch, and you rush into the scene first. The Medic is just able to keep up while you sprint to the objective, as the bots fire at you in unison to little effect. The bots now distracted, the rest of your Scouts take the opportunity to dash in and give you extra support. Some Scouts may fall, but at least you finally got to get close to the bots and knock them down one by one. In no time, the objective is finally cleaned of all that scum, letting you finally take it back. Meanwhile, your teammates that died during the escort have switched to another class and are already on their way to the objective faster than the dead bots can reach it. Soon, most of your team is now with you and fully equipped for when the bots come back, and your team defends the point or pushes on until the announcer says that magic word – Victory.

Soldier

 
Facing against multiple bots at the same time is always an issue, but if you want to destroy a group of them clustered into one area from a distance, the Soldier is your guy. You could rocket-jump to reach above the enemy to get a better aim for your rockets, but it isn’t recommended against Sniper bots. Just mind your health and keep track of what and how many bots you have to face, and you’re golden. God Bless America! Let freedom reign! 

• Soldier makes for a good class to use against bots, because of his high health and blast damage. He is especially effective on bots with lower health or if they are bunched up in a group – the reason being his thick and heavy Rocket Launcher. You can essentially counter Snipers since you can shoot targets from far away with decent accuracy, and if that doesn’t hit, the blast-damage can. The best part is that these bots are dumber then even the Soldier, meaning the bots have set paths built into their AI, and they can be memorized and predicted no matter how complex. They don’t hide when a rocket is heading for them, so if you know where they’re going, then you know where to fire one of your sweet, massive rockets. 
   
• There is just one problem. Groups of bots. One way to counter this is to do the thing I said about projectiles behind walls. In short, you could fire your rockets from behind a wall without exposing your hitbox by using the technique. Once again, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AUPBC5W1KHo. The problem is you need to see where the bots are first, but it’s usually at this point when it is too late. 
   
• But if being headshot isn’t too big of a deal (like against one Sniper bot or closer-ranged bots like the Heavy), then you could pair yourself with a Medic and get healed as you aim, fire, take cover, and repeat. Or get Ubered and go to town.

 
Trolldier: 
– Oh, the things you miss when you don’t look up, like a shovel. This can work well against real players as you use your speed to get close, but with bots it can become a challenge. But i’ve been thinking. Your body has a hitbox and your head has a hitbox, but if your body is covering your head’s hitbox, could a Sniper bot still headshot you from below? I’m not good enough to experiment with this, but if they can’t, look out below! But hey, if they can, funny ragdoll. 
 
 

Pyro

 
In short, use Pyro’s abilities to your advantage like you would against any player, but remember that while bots can automatically aim in your direction, they are simpler and more predictable than you think. Use this knowledge to your advantage, and either blast them away or burn them to a crisp. Mmm-hmm. 
 

• The Pyro is more of a close-range class, so this becomes an issue when facing bots. However, Pyro’s power makes the class all the more useful – the infamous afterburn. If you manage to get close to a bot and you die after hitting them with fire, the burning will continue to deal damage until it goes away or they die. You can take advantage of this by getting Ubered to get even closer, give a whole group of bots some hell, and continue to give them hell even after you die. Or just give them hell anyway even if you’re no match. Their paths are usually predictable, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to aim even if they stride, because even that can be predicted. 
   
• But if you can’t get close to them, there is another solution at your disposal – the flare gun, or such. Just like with any player, if you hit them, they burst into flames. If you hit them with it while they’re still burning, you get a crit. And boom, they’re gone. Just keep in mind Sniper bots will make this near impossible, but if you’re really good, you can do what Soldier does and get healed, peak, fire, get shot, hide, and repeat. 
   
• And finally, Pyro’s second-known power – airblast. Let’s pretend a group of Heavy bots are literally phasing through each other and near the edge of a cliff, if they can’t hit you, you could airblast them all at the same time to lead them to their downfall (just an idea). Or if they have a Medic bot for some reason, push them away if they have an Uber, but you might need to be Ubered first though if you want to get close enough. That said, if they ever have a Pyro bot somehow to push your Ubering-Medic away, still push the Medic first. But if both of you Pyros have an Ubering Medic, then it balances out, I guess; do push their Medic away though. If you’ve fallen helpless to the Pyro’s airblast, just try to bring as much hell as possible, or airblast them at just the right time. 
   
• If there ever comes a time where you have to face a Pyro bot mono y mono, you can fight fire with fire with the gas can. Throw it at them, and burn them. You might die even if you do this, but at least they burn more easily. If they flee after being soaked though, then it should be all the more easy. If they flee because they’re soaked and still try to burn you, you could burn them and let the afterburn damage do the rest. If they manage to get healed though, at least you kept a potential threat away. 
   
• Or if bots are somehow able to use, say, Demoman or Soldier and fire projectiles at you, you could airblast them back into their direction. Fortunately, they aren’t smart enough to ricochet their grenades or use blast damage to hit covered enemies, so you should have it a little easier.

Demoman

 
Basically, Demoman is like Soldier against bots, except you can use physics to your advantage – let gravity move your grenades to set them on a perfect voyage to havoc. Let it rain grenades from the sky, I don’t think they’ll see that one comin’. 

• This drunk Scottish man is my favorite class to use against bots because of his grenades. You can ricochet them off walls or ceilings to meet a close-by bot or group of bots; use the same projectile trick as with the Soldier (link to that video in the description); or just shoot over a wall and let gravity do the rest. If you ever play the map “Harvest,” try firing them into the hole on the top of the center, or through one of the entrances, because bots would just hang around there usually. Either that or they are upstairs in their house; keep in mind that they can see you. But if the bots are in a group and they can’t hit you, …you ready for this?… blast damage is your very best friend. 
   
• Don’t use sticky grenades to do this though. They will fire at that and destroy it before you can set it off. However, stickies could make for an excellent distraction, especially against Sniper bots because it takes time before they get to fire again. You can use this to move from one wall to another and avoid being hit by one. Now, if this doesn’t work for whatever reason, the stickies might be too far away for them to focus on. If they don’t have priority of players over stickies, however, you could use this to distract while your team fires at the bot(s) from behind the stickies. I’m just throwing some ideas for you to experiment. 
   
• It might be hard to hit a fast-moving object or player, but if there ever comes a time when Scout bots or rocket-jumping Soldier bots happen, it is possible to aim your grenades just right to hit them even while they are up in the air. This can be hard to master, but I’ve seen YouTuber “LazyPurple” do it before plenty of times, and while he was drunk (he did so for the sake of theming Demoman, what a dude). Because bots tend to be much more predictable than an average player, it is an option to try out if need be. 
   
• If there is ever a Pyro bot for whatever reason and giving your team a hard time, they might not be programmed to airblast your explosives, but if they can do that, you can deplete them of their ammo by spamming projectiles at them, leaving them helpless. Just be sure to avoid your own grenades.

 
Demoknight: 
– I’m not going to forget about this subclass anytime soon, but you might as well if you’re facing bots. All of the heads you’ve sliced, assuming you sliced any to begin with, will mean nothing when a bot auto-aims at your head and kills you in an instant. If you can avoid getting insta-killed though, then I suppose it’s okay. I guess you could keep Demoknighting your way through heads until a bot seems like too much for you to handle. 
 
 

Heavy

 
Heavy has the most health out of the whole team, comes equipped with a minigun, and moves the slowest out of all the classes. Being powerful in numbers and even more if they can auto-aim, it’s no question he’d be the second choice on which class to bot. Try wearing a cosmetic that bots happen to not wear or use a weapon that they aren’t to help remove you of suspicion. 
 

• Heavy bots automatically aim at close-range, so chances are if he’s in your range, he’ll think the same of you and will likely strike first (because bot speed). A Heavy’s boolets aren’t the most accurate, so it’s hard to tell exactly who’d win between a Heavy player and bot, but odds are higher that the bot will win. Have a Medic with you or counter them in greater numbers, because two is better than one, right? If there are multiple Heavy bots though, maybe get some aid from a player that can hit multiple targets at once, such as the blast-damaging Soldier or Demoman. 
   
• It takes an enemy Sniper two headshots to kill a Heavy, but with a Medic and some healing, a Heavy could take up to four headshots (headshot=150 damage, Heavy=300 Health, Heavy+Overheal=450 Health, so if the Heavy has maximum overheal then is shot at while still being healed, it takes four). This can work as a decent distraction against a hoard of Sniper bots, not to mention an UberCharge can go a long way. 
   
• Please have a Sandvich with you for when the going gets rough, because the going will definitely get rough with bots around. Give to another player if they need it by right-clicking.

 
Fat Scout: 
– No. Just like the Scout, but you have more health, and yet you are pretty slow. You probably couldn’t get very close to a bot. 
 
 

Engineer

 
The Engineer might not be the strongest card to play against bots, and he can’t actually do much to stall them. Perhaps setting a bunch of buildings in their path can keep them busy, but even then that’s a lot of metal for only a few seconds gained, but if those few second count, then by all means go the distance. But remember, you might be fine against one bot at a time, but with multiple bots at once, that’s probably a practical problem this Texan can’t solve. Sorry, man. 
 

• The Engineer’s helpfulness against bots is probably somewhere in the middle-ground. His sentries can already auto-aim, so you won’t have to worry about how you shoot. If a sentry encounters a bot from close-range, your odds of success mostly depend on the class of bot. Keep in mind though that bots can auto-aim as well, meaning they still have a higher success rate than normal players, especially Snipers from a long distance. To summarize, the chances of your sentries succeeding against bots depend on the range’s distance, the classes used, and how well their chosen class can aim from said distance, not to mention the status of you and your sentry affect those odds too. 
   
• Don’t try to set a building in front of a bot, because they’ll usually destroy it as soon as you place it down, but that’s assuming the bot isn’t shooting you first. But let’s first talk about how that CAN be worth it. Placing a building in front of a bot could work as a distraction to allow your team to get closer to the bots. For example, if you’re behind a wall, you could place a building where the bot can see it, and your team could rush in as the bot focuses on the building for at least one shot. I think this could work well against Sniper bots since it takes time before a Sniper can fire again. Keep in mind that a bot could be set to focus on a different target depending on the situation, but you wouldn’t know until you learn the hard way. But once you learn what they do, you can take advantage of their actions. More about that near the end of this guide. 
   
• Now let’s talk about how it’s NOT worth it. I’m not entirely sure how bots work exactly, but I can make an assumption. Now listen carefully. Obviously, a bot will aim and fire at an exposed hitbox from any direction instantaneously. But is it truly instantaneous? It takes time for a player to move their mouse, and it takes a lot longer for the player to turn, say, 180 degrees than it does turning slightly. As I’ve said though, in the case of a bot, they can aim in the blink of an eye. But even a machine takes time with all its code, even if it is quick. It might seem instant to us, but it still takes a bot a moment before all those ones and zeros to read a player’s position, notice they are exposed, have all those ones and zeros translate into numbers that count up or down just to change its angle, and then fire right at the spot it’s supposed to. Also, bots are never synced, even if it’s the same “species” of bot. If you ever find a group of those OneTrick spinning Sniper bots, you can tell their differences in position and rotation. What I’m saying is, if you expose yourself and a building in front of a bunch of Sniper bots, chances are some will be able to shoot and kill the building first, which will leave the rest of the bots to deviate mid-aim, find another target, find you, and boom you’re dead. Keep that in mind. 
   
• One more thing. It doesn’t hurt setting a teleporter to where a bot doesn’t go. Learn their paths if possible and use this to determine the best locations to set them.

 
Battle Engineer: 
– I’m starting to notice a pattern with the most popular sub-classes and wanting to get close to enemies. I hate to say it again, but good luck getting close to a bot. And it gets worse when your sentry is stuck at level 1, not that it would stand a chance anyway. 
 
 

Medic

 
Guess what? The Medic is crucial against bots! This German doctor might not stand a chance solo-ing any enemy let alone a bot, but he is a missing piece in this challenging puzzle. You can increase your team’s defense, you can heal players, and you can use your invincibility or crits to annihilate those overpowering “players.” Are you ready to do whatever it takes? Vondaful, let’s go practice medicine! 
 

• You could stay back at the base where the bots can’t get you. Do this with another player, and build your charge until it’s full. Once you’re fully charged, it is best to go in a group of at least four: you, the person you want to Uber, someone in the front, and someone in the back, but the more the merrier. You and the Uber-subject must remember their names, so that if one of them dies, you and the Ubered player know exactly where to aim. That, and you have a third player at your side to deal additional damage. Tell your team this plan, and victory could be yours. 
   
• Do the same as I just mentioned, but with another Medic. That way you have two UberCharges to use and twice the power. If the bots focus on the closest target or the first target they see, then this is perfect; use one charge at a time, and have the second Medic and Uber-partner stay back and not charge yet until the first one is used up. Or if they target anyone other than those Ubered, use both of them at the same time to get two powerhouses closer at once. Just make sure you have a bigger group surrounding you two Medics so that neither of you die and lose your the charges you took so long to get. 
   
• It might not be worth doing the following, but I think the Medic can move as fast as a Scout while he is healing one. Perhaps if you need to get a job done as soon as possible, then charging a Scout might not be a bad idea after all. Just remember why it’s almost always bad to charge a Scout in the first place, so that when the time does seem right, you’ll know what to do. But chances are low; they’re there, but low. 
   
• …Now that I think about it, even if Ubered players can’t capture a point, does their very presence on the point stall enemy capture? If so, this could buy some time for the rest of your team to catch up. Just throwing an idea out there if it’s true.

Sniper

 
Bots will pick the Sniper class because of his insta-kill headshots and slow movement speed. You could try being a Sniper too because other bots move very predictably, but remember you are no match against a Sniper bot. You can be excellent against closer-ranged bots though, like the Heavy, if they are at a distance. They can’t hit you, but you can hit them, and in two clean headshots at most (given there are no Medics with them). Wear a cosmetic the bots aren’t, strike up a conversation in the chat to prove you are human, and/or have a profile picture that they don’t use (maybe make one of your own) – any of those can help prove you’re not a bot. 
 

• If your team is distracting an enemy Heavy bot or multiple, these bots will move very slowly while shooting, so aiming will be a lot easier this way. 
   
• Bots are predictable and tend to move down a certain path or deviate under certain conditions, so study their movements to know exactly where to aim and when to fire. 
   
• They might know that you can see them. After all, they need to know this in order to properly play. Simply by being in their range, it might affect their paths, so know they might do as a response to your team’s advantage; even if they don’t now, they might later. If this is the case and the bots stay hidden, you can serve as a sort of barrier to keep them in one place. If they become even more advanced though, they might team up and send a bot to your location even if it’s just because you exist, so maybe watch out just in case, and don’t be surprised. Bot developers don’t care about you apart from you being a potential threat to their bots.

 
Huntsman: 
– Using a mid-range bow instead of a long-range weapon, you should be a good fight against a Heavy bot, so long as you remember to keep your distance from one. 
 
 

Spy

 
The Spy class was made to deceive real real players, but it definitely isn’t the greatest choice against bots since they can detect you no matter what you do. Just pray they don’t automatically move to your location or get distracted by the closest target in their range. Otherwise, you could try to headshot bots with your pistol, but that’s about it. 
 

• Spies and Scouts are similar for one reason, and that is to take advantage of any human weaknesses, although both classes do so differently. Scout does so with his overwhelming speed, and the Spy with his ability to disguise and cloak. But because bots can overcome all of these, I have bad news for Spy mains. They know who and where you are, even if you are invisible or disguised as one of them. So don’t try that unless you’re going for a sentry. Speaking of which… 
   
• If there are ever any Engineer bots, their sentries probably won’t hit you unless they are either cheating or using the Wrangler to aim for them. But if no one is around the buildings (and you can’t be hit by Sniper bots), then this is where the fun begins. Some bots might know your location at all times, but if you’re able to deal some damage, try it. 
   
• If by any chance bots get distracted by an UberCharged Medic, you could step in and help with a few back stabs. This could work well against Heavy bots as it takes a while to kill them anyway. However, this might not work well if they’re set to hit the closest target. 
   
• Your mother.

BOT FOCUS

 
Next, I’ll talk about some things I’d call a bot’s set “focuses.” If you’ve ever played tower defense games before, you might know what I’m talking about; there’s that mode you can set on towers to change which targets to take priority of, the most common one being set to ‘first.’ Something similar can be said with bots, but for now their “focuses” seem to be the same no matter who made the bot. But who knows, there may come a time when pigs fly and bots suddenly have varying focus modes. I want to give all the possibilities I can see so that if any arise for whatever reason, this guide would already have you covered. Remember, they could have multiple modes, but they are still no match to us mercenary gamers. 

• (1. First) If bots are set to focus only on the target they sees first until it’s dead, then going at them in multitudes shouldn’t be too much of a big deal so long as they don’t overpower you. An UberCharge can help as well. Maybe set a building in their view before your team charges in on them to buy a little time. 
   
• (2. Last) An unlikely scenario, but if bots are ever set to the last target in their range, this can be taken advantage of easily. This gives the weaker-against-bots classes an upperhand. 
   
• (3. Close) In this mode, bots would be set to hit a target at the closest range. This spells good news for any of you Snipers. Use a Heavy to distract the bot. 
• (3A. Seeking Closest) In this submode, a bot would target the closest player and even move to their location in order to do so. A fast Scout bot or even a Demoknight bot [although they are unlikely going to happen] could be dangerous in this case, so if you’re too slow to outrun a bot in this mode, don’t run, fight! Or next time eat a salad. 
   
• (4. Far) Assuming bots will aim at the furthest target before the closest, any close-range players would have an easier time with this one, mainly if this mode is set on a Sniper. However, ranges can be set to much less of a distance as can be seen with Heavy bots. I guess having multiple close-range players overpower bots at the same time would make who gets hit to be near random. Just don’t move in front of the bot. 
  (4A. Seeking Furthest) I doubt this would ever be a mode, but if it ever was, the bot would go for the player that is furthest from it, heading towards the player until they meet and gets killed. We wouldn’t have anything to worry about if this was ever the case, so long as the team is more scattered. 
   
• (5. Uber)If bots have their priority set to UberCharged players, their creator must be dumber than a box of rocks unless its a Pyro trying to airblast them away. If this mode doesn’t apply to to the Crit UberCharge, then ignore this. 
   
• (6. No-Uber)If bots take priority of players that aren’t UberCharged over those that are, that just means less knockback that Uber-pair has to endure, and no airblasts (by the bots anyway). 
   
• (7. Players) If a bot focuses on players first, you could have a charged Medic and someone else keep the bots busy while the rest of the team charges in. An Engineer could build a sentry while they’re doing their thing so that the sentry could add to the damage dealt. 
• (7A. Certain Players) Bots can call votes on specific players that dare try to vote them out, so who’s to question they’ll never dominate one on purpose instead? The player(s) better be ready with a body guard if this scenario ever happens. 
• (7B. Certain Classes)Some classes counter others, but what if bots knew this too? If you’re a class that they stand little chance against, have at them. 
   
• (8. Buildings) If bots are for some reason set to focus on buildings over players, distract the bots with a building first and let players move in right after. Multiple Engineers and loads of buildings would make this very easy for your team to destroy them, but if you have no buildings to start out with, building them might not be the greatest idea. If this mode ever becomes a thing, it would most likely be set to Spy bots. 
• (8A. Certain buildings) If bots take priority of one building over another building, take note of which one they go after first. You might use this to let your sentry kill while the bots are distracted by every other building. However, the most likely possibility is they go after the sentries first. 
   
• (9. Projectiles) It has been seen that Sniper bots definitely hit Sticky Bombs when in their range, but if for some reason bots actually take priority of them over anything else, then have a couple Demomen fire some explosives (I’d recommend Sticky Bombs) in their range to let your team get closer. Pyro bots could have this mode to airblast projectiles away, so you could deplete them of their ammo if you’re also careful. 
• (9A. Certain Projectiles) This would too stupid of a mode even for these bot developers to code, but who knows? This could be taken advantage of if different players fire different projectiles at once at the same target. 
   
• (10. Weak) Bots could one day know who the most helpless players are and hit them first. For the stronger classes, I have good news and bads news. The good news is they aren’t hitting you as much so long as you are high in health. The bad news is you have less of you team alive. Also if you have low health, start praying. 
   
• (11. Strong)To classes with less health, this would be a blessing since they’d be going for the full-health Heavy first. Their health would come to a good use and let the team close in. Even the Medic could have some fun for a bit.

Conclusion

 
We must remember that we are gamers in a multiplayer game that stood the test of time, and we must keep it going if we want to keep it alive. This game is still fun to us because we don’t ban players for calling someone a name (within reason), the Scout can say words like “moron” and “chucklenuts,” we have both blood and funny ragdolls, references of cultures, taunts that both teams can share as friendlies, and we literally have an achievement for when a player ragequits when we dominate them. We are strong, and our community is even stronger. That’s what made this game last so long. We’re not going to let these hell-spawned AI or their creators take our miracle of fun away from us! We have a dream to be free from their curse, and damn are we going to fight for it. Heck, the United States was created because its founding fathers thought basically the same thing, and managed to keep a freaking empire out until the end. If they can keep an empire out, what’s a few bots to us? This game is OUR game, not theirs, and if we want to show them it’s our Fortress, then we have to fight on it, fight FOR it, on our ground, and never give up until we free it ourselves. As a Team! 
 
It’s OUR Team’s Fortress! 
 
Mission begins now, good luck! 
 

Here we come to an end for Team Fortress 2 A TF2 Player’s Guide Against Bots hope you enjoy it. If you think we forget something to include or we should make an update to the post let us know via comment, and we will fix it asap! Thanks and have a great day!