Team Fortress 2 How to play battle engineer Guide

Misconceptions.

 
The purpose of this section is to get rid of any misconceptions you may have about battle engie. I suggest you atleast brush through this section, to make sure you are clear on what he’s all about. 
The battle engie is never JUST about your sentry. Keep and manage a teleporter and dispenser aswell to support your team. Dispenser always gets upgrade priority over the teleporter when you are playing battle engie – this gets metal out to you, and ammo and health to your teammates. Build priorities should look something like this; Entrance, go to resupply cabinet, sentry, dispenser, exit. Aforementioned build priorities are in that order in order to ensure that you are well defended, while also getting other buildings up. 
Going into playing battle engie, I knew none of these things, and I want you to begin your journey with these things in your back pocket to ensure smooth sailing. 
 
 

Knowing your counters.

 
You are usually the ideal organism, and usually, everything cowers in fear when they see you with your shotgun in hand and a mini sentry building behind you. Sometimes, that isn’t the case. 
I’m going to go over a list of your counters with your minisentry, without your minisentry, and just your minisentries counters.. Note that this is in a 1v1 scenario, assuming you, nor their teammates can step in. 
WITH mini sentry: 
– Demoman. 
– Soldier. (Especially those that use the direct hit.) 
– Snipers. (Can snipe you and your mini sentry at long range. Best to keep you and your mini sentry in places without open sightlines. Most often the least significant counter.) 
– Heavies. (300 health can easily kill you and your minisentry.) 
WITHOUT mini sentry: 
– Scouts. (Assuming they can hit their shots and you can’t. Panic attack is sometimes enough to stop them.) 
– Soldiers. 
– Snipers. (A bit less of a counter to you as you won’t be glued to your buildings and your sentry.) 
– Heavies. (Okay, it was bad back when you had a mini sentry, but back with the mini sentry, atleast there was a distraction to help you get away or go in for lethal meatshots.) 
Mini sentry alone: 
– Spies (Saps without you being able to stop it.) 
– Literately anything (Assuming there’s a corner nearby to peek and shoot.) 
 
 

Preventing your counters.

 
Now, lets get into the prevention of your counters. 
Demoman – Duck and weave. Get a mini up. Go in as close as you can and pray to gaben you either get a random crit or deal enough damage to kill him. If all works out, you will be able to finish him off, and might tank a pipe. Don’t worry about him if he’s a demoknight, demoknights can’t really do anything against a minisentry and a madman shooting him with a shotgun. 
Heavy – Minisentry. Make him target it, go behind him and start shooting him relentlessly. If all works out, once he chews through the mini, he won’t be able to track you fast enough and you’ll be able to overwhelm him. 
Soldier – Same thing with heavy. 
Scout – Minisentry. A minisentry will stop them dead in their tracks. If they try to rush you even with the mini sentry down, try to hit shotguns on him. 
Sniper – Not a very big counter. Choose spots that are away from long sightlines. NEVER try to long-range with wrangler/pistol. If you find yourself face-to-face with one, don’t even bother putting down a mini. Hold W and keep hitting shotgun shots. 
Spy – A big counter to normal engies. Combat engies only have to worry about their teleporter going down. Spycheck with pistol/wrangler. If you feel like somebody’s a spy, put in enough shotgun shots to kill a kunai spy who just killed a fully overhealed heavy. If you REALLY feel like somebody’s a spy, but they aren’t reacting to being shot, keep shooting them until you are 100% sure no spy could survive that. Try to take sappers off all your buildings, if you can only make it to 2 of them, leave the sentry to die. Build another one to kill the spy if he backstabs you. 
 
 

Weapons.

 
A very important choice. Weapons can decide how you play. I’m going to go through different weapons and their usages. If these compliment your playstyle, use them. 
Pistol – Does more DPS then a level 2 sentry. A great sidearm for range. Allows you to pick off weakened targets or continue lashing out damage if your shotgun clip runs dry mid-fight. 
Wrangler – Makes your mini sentry have a WHOPPING 300 health, makes it deal more damage then a level 2 sentry, and allows you to choose who to shoot. Turns off mini sentry autoaim and makes it so you can’t split the damage between you and it, and you must fully dedicate yourself to aiming it. Not suggested if you try to make the damage between you and your mini 50/50. 
Short circuit – Good if your being attacked by lots of demomen or soldiers. A bad choice for combat, as it costs alot of metal that you could be using to upgrade your dispensers or teleporters or even building another minisentry. Can save your life but also decreases the quality of life. 
Stock shotty – A good mid-range option. Deals quite a bit of damage and is more powerful then people think it is. Jack of all trades deal. Can’t really go wrong with it. 
Widowmaker – Stock shotty but you need to hit your shots better. Allows you to regain metal while you shoot in order to upgrade your buildings. Only useful if you can hit your shots. 
Rescue ranger – Just- don’t. By far the worst battle engie primary weapon. 
Pomson 6000 – Comes in a close second to rescue ranger as worst battle engie primary weapon. 
Panic attack – My shotgun of choice. Does 30% extra damage at point blank range, the better weapon if you like getting in people’s faces. This bad boy lets you win in 1v1s with certain scouts. Not suggested if you aren’t VERY aggressive. If you play a more passive role, I would suggest the shotgun, as it would deal more damage from a range. 
Not going to go over the melee options, as you aren’t playing battle engineer if you are using a different melee. 
 
 

Applying yourself in head-on combat situations.

 
Mini is destroyed. The chips are down. You have only one option to save yourself and try to make a recovery. Your shotgun, and the secondary that accompanies it. 
I have significantly less knowledge on weapons I don’t use. 
Weapons that are not mentioned here aren’t good for 1 on 1 combat. 
I’m going to go over good combat strategies for a couple of key 1v1 weapons. 
Stock shotty. – Best bet is to keep some distance to approaching enemies, especially those that are dangerous at close range. Pop off shots while dodging as many ranged attacks as you can. 
NOT SUGGESTED: Panic attack strategy. It will work sometimes but it will succeed less then the panic attack. Try to vary your panic attack strategy from your stock shotty strategy. 
Panic attack. – Feel the souls of the fallen minisentries. Feel the pain of your fallen teammates. You are the only thing that they fear. Your best bet is to charge at the closest enemy. Try to single them out. Spam A and D while holding W. Crouch every time you shoot, and also at random intervals. Make your movement unpredictable while delivering meatshots as close to point blank as possible. 
Pistol – Click at short intervals for more accuracy at longer range. Use only if your shotgun clip runs out, you want to embarrass somebody for dying to a pistol, your enemy is on low health, or they are too far away for a shotgun to be viable. 
 
 

Sentry placement.

 
One of the more simple parts about playing battle engineer. There are 5 variations of a mini sentry placement. 
Cheeky: Not a defendable spot. Will die quickly. Will most likely catch some people off guard and get a couple of quick kills before it goes down. Only suggested if you have a level 2+ teleporter and dispenser in a more secure location. 
Defensive: In a further back position. Should have view of your dispenser and your teleporter. This ensures teammates have a line of defence when using dispensers or coming out of the teleporter. Best used for starting a base. Gives you time to upgrade. 
Offensive: A mix of cheeky and defensive. In a somewhat defendable spot, in an area where it can support your teammates on the frontlines. It acts as a line of offensive support to retreating teammates, making it harder for enemies to finish them off as they go to a nearby healthkit/dispenser 
Cannon fodder: It’s only purpose is to deal a bit of extra damage and allow you to retreat. Place if being pursued by a counter, or on low health. It usually won’t even be finished building before it dies. Your life is more valuable then your sentry. 
Combative: Plop it down in battle to split your damage, Spot doesn’t matter, as long as it has sightlines to whatever your currently fighting. Sometimes is cannon fodder, but it will hopefully get built and help you finish them off. 
 
 

Strategies.

 
Now that you know the ropes, time to get into the strategical part of things. 
Team support: Lives strictly to support their team with their buildings on the battlefield. Still supports occasionally with shotgun to kill stray scouts/spies, or help get rid of a push. Best used in long maps maps to help teams get to the frontlines faster. Defensive/offensive mini sentries primarily used. 
Offensive: Pushes the limits. Goes into the frontlines and relies on shotgun and minisentry to carry his own weight as a teammate. Uses his offensive nature to get minisentries and teleporters deep into enemy lines. Usually a big problem for the enemy team. Cheeky, offensive, combative, cannon fodder sentries primarily used. Best used in large maps to make his base a bit harder to find. 
50/50: The usual battle engie gameplay. A healthy mix between offensive and defensive. Uses minisentries as a friendly teammate with aimbot to support them in a combative situation alot. Try to turn every 1v1 into a 2v1. Sentries are usually defensive, cheeky, or combative. Good in any map where close-range 1v1 matches are common. 
 
 

Extra tips.

 
Just to end it off, I’ve decided to include some extra tips just to make sure you can topscore as battle engie. 
Never underestimate your shotgun – it deals alot more damage then you think, and can drop a heavy if he’s distracted. 
Never underestimate your mini sentry – it’s very effective at what it does. 
Use your minisentry to establish a safe area for you and your team to sit – a minisentry provides great cover. 
Hunt down scouts, never go too far away from your sentry, they’ll get overconfident that your just an engineer – use that to pop in a couple of meatshots and maybe just kill him yourself, or lure him to your sentry to SURELY finish him off. 
Don’t be afraid to change classes. Sometimes, battle engie can get countered, and there isn’t anything you can do about it. If you still want to play battle engie if you’ve been countered by either somebody really good, or multiple people, join another server or wait for class composition to change. 
 
 

Conclusion!

 
Congratulations! You’ve learnt how to play battle engineer! 
I hope you understanded this guide, and I hope this helps your battle engineer gameplay! 
If I didn’t cover something important, or made some sort of grammatical mistake, please inform me in the comments below! I strive to help other battle engineers on their road to victory in the realm of the combative engineer! 
 

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