Play a Pyro in Team Fortress 2

Pyros are the fire starters of Team Fortress 2. Shrouded in mystery, Pyros play an important offensive role. Boasting a flamethrower, shotgun, and axe, the Pyro's basic loadout is capable of inflicting greater DPS (damage per second) than any other in the game, next to the heavy. On top of this, his/her suit is fireproof and is thus invulnerable to any residual fire damage. The Pyro can even blow people away with his/her flamethrower's Compression Blast, flinging Ubered enemies away and repelling objects such as rockets, grenades and arrows. See Step 1 below to start learning how to play as a Pyro.

Steps

Learning Basic Pyro Combat Skills

  1. Know the Pyro's basic loadout. Without any upgrades or optional gear, Pyros start with a 200 fuel Flame Thrower for close or medium range as their primary weapon, a 6/32 medium ranged Shotgun as their secondary, and a fire axe for melee.
  2. Use the flamethrower at short-range.The Pyro's flamethrower is most dangerous up close. At point-blank range, it's almost guaranteed to be fatal. Get as close to your enemy as you can before you use your flamethrower for massive damage.
  3. Use the flamethrower to deal burning damage over time. The flamethrower is the only base weapon that causes additional lingering damage after the initial damage has been dealt. Any enemies (besides enemy Pyros) who are hit with the flamethrower are set on fire and receive gradual damage over time. Because of this, even if a burned enemy runs away, he may still die, so it is not always necessary to chase your enemies down.
  4. Use the compression blast to reflect projectiles and push enemies. The flamethrower has a useful secondary fire (right mouse button) called the compression blast (or air blast) which has a variety of uses. Upon pressing the right mouse button, the flamethrower emits a blast of air that can blast enemies backwards through the air, though it won't damage them. It can also reflect slow moving projectiles such as the Demoman's bombs, the sniper's arrows and the Soldier's rockets. Soldiers in particular are very vulnerable to their rockets being reflected back at their team, as reflected explosives mini-crit against their own team.
    • The compression blast can also remove flames from a team-mate.
    • A sniper's jarate along with the crusader's crossbow arrows can be reflected as well. Use reflected jarate for a quick mini-crit kill!
    • Note that the air blast is expensive in terms of ammo, using 20 ammunition per blast. The air blast uses the same ammo as your flamethrower, so use it with caution!
  5. Use the shotgun at medium-to-long ranges. The shotgun is weaker than the flamethrower, but much longer-ranged. Use this to your advantage. If an enemy is rushing toward you from a distance, it can help to switch to your shotgun and start shooting to inflict some damage before he or she is within the range of your flamethrower. This is especially true when you are about to enter combat with another Pyro because the burning damage of your flamethrower is negated.
    • It's also smart to use your shotgun to pick off retreating enemies that are otherwise out of the range of your flamethrower. Try to ignite a player with your flamethrower and finish them off with the shotgun as he runs away.
  6. Use the axe as a last resort. Using the axe is a lot of fun, but be careful. It can be very satisfying to score a melee kill with the axe, but, until you run out of ammo, it's better to use the flamethrower at melee ranges, as it almost always deals higher DPS.
    • Some of the unlockable axes have more versatile uses (see below).

Playing Your Role on a Team as a Pyro

  1. Take your enemies by surprise. Your flamethrower does massive damage, but it's very short-ranged, so you must use it carefully. Don't charge at your opponents head-on while blasting your flamethrower. It's intimidating, but you'll probably be gunned down before you can even singe another player. Instead, try to sneak up behind a group of enemies, get up as close as you can, and then let your flamethrower rip!
  2. Disrupt the enemy team's coordination. As a Pyro, fear is essentially your middle name. You generally live to cause chaos and confusion in other players. Apart from an oncoming Heavy, nothing is more intimidating to an enemy than a set of flames that continues to damage him or her after you are out of the way. As such, you'll find that players tend to scatter and run from you, which helps to keep the enemy team from executing cohesive strategies.
  3. Reveal spies with your flamethrower. As a Pyro, Spies fear you more than any other class. If you see the brief silhouette of a player flicker before you, immediately let loose with your flamethrower to reveal any cloaked Spies near you. Even spies in disguises can be set on fire by a vigilant pyro, instantly blowing their cover.
  4. Use the compression blast to break ubercharges. The Pyro is the only class that can effectively break an ubercharge. You can use the flamethrower's compression blast to separate a medic from his uber-ed companion. If you separate the two by enough distance, the medic will no longer be able to share his uber with his buddy and your teammates will be able to gang up to finish both off. Do this when the uber players don't see you coming, as an uber-ed Heavy will make short work of an oncoming Pyro.

Unlocking the Pyro's Alternate Gear

  1. Unlock the flare gun by completing 10 Pyro achievements. The Flare Gun, which replaces the shotgun, shoots flares that can set enemies on fire from a distance. A flare fired arcs down when travelling through a long distance, and flies pretty slowly through the air, so hitting anything that is moving may be quite difficult. This is useful for hitting stationary or slow targets like Snipers or Heavies. Most enemies though, when seeing a Pyro with a little flare gun trying to hit them, assumes low threat towards the Pyro, as opposed to him using the Flamethrower. The flare gun also has a 100% critical chance against burning opponents. A critical flare deals 90 damage, which can be devastating to any class.
  2. Use the flare gun at long ranges to take out sentries. One of the biggest advantages of the flare gun is that it allows the Pyro - traditionally one of of the shortest-ranged classes - to attack from long ranges. This allows a cautious, accurate Pyro to take out sentries that aren't accompanied by an engineer, which the Pyro would otherwise have no way of doing. Level 1 sentries will take about 5 hits from the flare gun to hit, while higher-level sentries will take more hits.
    • Watch out for spies. Taking a sentry out with flares can take a relatively long time, during which you'll be vulnerable to a well-placed back stab.
  3. Unlock the Backburner by completing 16 Pyro achievements. The Backburner, which replaces the flamethrower, does constant critical damage when shooting someone in the back. The tradeoff for this is a huge increase in the cost of your air compression blast (From 20 to 50), so you may want to use it more frugally. If you're using this weapon, you ideally want to attack your enemies from behind, so this weapon encourages a stealthy style of play.
  4. Unlock the Axtinguisher by completing 22 Pyro achievements. The Axtinguisher, which replaces the basic axe, does half the damage of the regular axe if the enemy isn't burning but has a 100% critical hit chance if the enemy is on fire. This can also be useful in some situations, like if you manage to approach a firing Heavy from behind without him seeing you, you can give him a quick puff from the Flamethrower, whip out your Axtinguisher, and hack into him. This should usually kill him in about two swings, whereas the normal ax would take much longer.
  5. Switch back to your original equipment at any time by accessing the TF2 menu (i.e. hit Escape). The "m" key will also take you straight to the "loadout" screen, where you can change all your weapon options.



Tips

  • Your flamethrower is shorter when running forwards, longer when stopped, and longer again when running backwards. Practice running forwards towards an enemy then backstepping to extend your flame, you can reach some surprising distances with this method, and it works very well when you know there's a group waiting to ambush you around a corner. poke your nose out, then backpedal and hit fire at the same time! This works especially well against other pyros that try to chase you with their flamethrowers blaring.
  • Although it goes without saying, don't attempt to use your flamethrower while underwater. Switch to your shotgun or axe if you need to fight.
  • Your flame thrower can be used on corners where the sentry sticks out of cover to destroy them without being hurt.
  • Unless you are within damaging range, avoid chasing players with your flamethrower. You may look like a huge threat with an oncoming flamethrower, but remember that most players will rocket or gun you down before you can even reach them.
  • Don't get too comfortable with using only your flamethrower. An effective Pyro will burn individuals up close and then pick them off with the shotgun as they try to run away.
  • When flaming a group of other players, flame as many as you can for about five seconds and run! Then find an alternative route to them and finish them off. This is a good tip because they will still be looking for you the way you left, not expecting for you to come another way.
  • Your flamethrower requires a fairly substantial lead when strafing, and the lead changes according to your distance and speed. Don't forget that the sizzling sound is your sign that you're hitting your target.
  • When camping around corners, don't forget that your flamethrower can stick out if you are too close to the edge. That will give your position away, and ruin your ambush.
  • One of the Pyro's greatest strengths lies in being able to deal out a lot of damage, provided that you ambush effectively and get as close to the enemy as possible. If you can sneak up on a player and shoot off your flamethrower at point blank range, he or she will probably be dead before even having a chance to react. This makes hiding around corners very effective, as you can quickly deal a huge amount of damage in a short amount of time.
  • Stealth is very important as a pyro, almost as important as it is to a spy, so use visual cover as much as possible. if you catch a glimpse of an enemy player, hide behind a rock or building, listen for footsteps or other telltale signs an enemy is near, and avoid giving away your position. surprise is a far more effective weapon than brute force (i believe this is true for any class, including soldier and heavy).
  • Be both offensive and defensive. You can switch between the battleground to the central base (CTF) to protect your things. If you get other pyros to protect, you may be hard to kill because of your fearsome mob.
  • Of all the classes, the pyro is probably the most reliant on weapon switching, flamethrower is useful for igniting your enemies, but shotgun and axe are excellent for wearing them down so they die from the burning quicker. Especially useful against medics who may regenerate the damage of the fire before it wears off. If they run at you again, switch back to flamethrower for an extra dose of the burning, or to axe for the coup de grace
  • An excellent combo is to flame an enemy, airblast them into the air then extinguish them. This works well on fleeing enemies allowing you to juggle enemies. This work very well in small indoor area because the enemy has very little air control once air-blasted up (except scouts with a double jump). This combo works well even on heavies with a medic healing them. A simple ignite, blast and 2-3 axe hits and they are dead.
  • Prepare counters for all your opposing classes. For example, if you see a soldier its best to get as close as possible so that they damage themselves in trying to kill you. Alternatively, you may reflect their rockets with your air compression blast as you approach so they will hit themselves instead, if your timing is precise enough.
  • Whenever you burn an enemy with your flamethrower, they will glow either red or blue, depending on what actual team they are on. This is very useful in rooting out disguised Spies among your team: Remember to spy-check suspicious individuals, and do alert your teammates if you've caught a Spy.
  • A popular misconception is that it is impossible to crit other enemy Pyro's with the Axtinguisher. It is possible to do so as long as you are quick enough and the Hit-registration Gods are in your favour.
  • Learn the powerful skill that is side-strafing! Ideally, you want to circle-strafe the opponent, but in practice, the moment your opponent sees you coming as a Pyro, they will immediately run backwards and drop whatever rocks, bombs, and shotgun blasts they can between you and him. Learn to run up alongside them with a side-strafing so you can burn them to a crisp while avoiding most of the damage.
  • Although a pyro's flamethrower has 200 ammo it can go down very fast,so always check your ammo before going in.
  • Try not to switch weapons or airblast. This can be deadly to both you and the opposing members who you are shooting at.
  • Don't forget about spies! As a pyro it is your duty to keep the spies out of hiding. Sometimes your best bet is to pair with a friendly engineer who has a dispenser set up. Dispensers mean infinite ammunition for pyros, as well as heavys. Go on active spy duty by staying near the dispenser and holding down fire. This may give your position away (noisy flamethrower) but there won't be any spies sneaking past since one step through your flames will give them away in an instant. This is not always the best action to take, however, in some cases it can make a ton, if not all, the difference. In any event, whenever you are near a dispenser take a moment to spray for spies! Your engineer(s) will surely thank you! Strategic Example: Dust bowl Stage 3 Command Point 1 A dispenser set up around the first corner to the right (from the attackers view) with a pyro constantly spraying fire across the path. This means no spies sneaking to take the last command point once the first point falls. This works well until your team can no longer hold the gates.
  • As a pyro, you are invulnerable to afterburn, so when fighting other pyro's, use a shotgun, but only in midrange.

Warnings

  • Take extra care when battling other enemy Pyros. You are fire resistant and cannot take burning damage over time, although you will still take contact damage from the flamethrower. Most of the time, the outcome of a Pyro vs Pyro duel will consist on which one of the two kept their crosshair on the opponent for the longest.

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