Team Fortress 2: Mann vs Machine - Know Your Enemy

September 26th, 2012

Author: Steve “Skuax” George

The robots are invading! The Red and Blu mercenaries of Team Fortress 2 have had to call a temporary truce in order to stop these mechanical menaces. Their numbers are seemingly never-ending and their power can be devastating. But with this handy breakdown you can know your enemy and save Mann Co. from the android attackers!

Prepare to take on thousands of robotic invaders in Team Fortress 2’s new Mann vs Machine mode.

Scout Robots
Strengths: Often comes in large packs, very fast movement
Weaknesses: Only able to attack in melee range, low HP

Super Variants:
Major and Minor League Scouts: Armed with a sandman for ranged stuns and light-medium damage, additional HP
Giant Scout: Lots of HP and greatly increased move speed

Scouts are most threatening when they are carrying the bomb. Their ability to get past your front line with their fast move speed and large numbers can be very damaging. Keep an eye on the bomb at all times and try to destroy them whilst they are packed in together as they enter the battlefield using high-splash damage from soldiers, demomen and pyros. Giants should be shut down as fast as possible with high damage and/or slows as their insane speed and high HP means they can get very far with the bomb very quickly.

Soldier Robots
Strengths: Quite resilient, able to deal high splash damage, good at damaging engineer’s buildings
Weaknesses: Slow rockets are easy to dodge, relatively slow fire speed

Super Variants:
Rapid Fire Soldier: Higher HP, greatly increased firing speed
Giant Charged Soldier: High HP, every rocket is a crit

Normal soldiers have avoidable damage at range and can be taken out by most long range classes with relative ease. Barrages of rockets can be highly lethal when they come in great numbers, so stay mobile. Giant soldiers can do tons of damage if it is not properly avoided. Their ability to smash through engineer’s buildings and secure fast kills makes them a high priority target for everyone, using ubercharges on high-sustained damage classes being advisable.

Pyro Robots
Strengths: High damage, sustained burn damage
Weaknesses: Short range, low-to-medium HP

Super Variants:
Giant Pyro: Increased HP and damage
Giant Pyro with Sombrero: Shoots accurate flares with long burn damage

If you allow pyros to get close to you then expect to take massive fire damage. Some distance should be enough to keep you safe, but you should always be wary of their ability to air blast back projectiles. They are very accurate with air blasted rockets and if you are not expecting it, it can catch you off guard and kill you with ease. If you are playing safely, then the Giant Pyros can be the least threatening of all the giant robots.

All of the robots are clearly distinguishable from one another and bear a lot of resemblance to their human counterparts.

Heavy Robots
Strengths: Highly resilient, good sustained damage
Weaknesses: Slow moving, only melee range on some variants

Super Variants:
Steel Gauntlet and Heavyweight Champ: Resilient and strong melee attackers
Giant Deflector Heavy: Tons of HP, high sustained damage, ability to destroy airborne projectiles.
Giant Heavy: Same as above without the ability to destroy projectiles.

Heavies can be the biggest threat in this game mode. Whilst the melee variants can be cleared up with relative ease, the giant deflectors are a deadly target and can present a huge problem when they are paired with medics. Stay out of their line of sight where possible or attract their attention with an ubercharged target whilst your group deals as much damage as possible.

Demoman Robots
Advantages: Able to deal good splash damage, good at destroying buildings
Weaknesses: Not too resilient, easy to dodge grenades, one melee only variant

Super Variants:
Demoknights: Melee only, ability to charge long distances
Rapid Fire Demoman: Increased HP, greatly increased firing rate

The damage of demomen can be easy to avoid and the melee variant can be killed at range with relative ease, just be wary of the long range charges. The giant rapid fire demos present a large threat to buildings and should be treated with the same priority as all other giant robots.

If you succeed in beating back the robot hordes, then you can earn new and uncomfortable looking metal hats!

Sniper Robots
Strengths: Long range, highly accurate
Weaknesses: Low HP, standard snipers show where they are aiming via a coloured laser

Special Variants:
Bowmen: Uses a huntsman and attacks faster
Sydney Snipers: shots coat the target in jarate, causing mini crits on them

Snipers are breakable, but should be dealt with quickly before they have a chance to catch a party member off guard from a long range. Stay alert when they arrive, destroy them quickly and keep out of their line of sight if you are not immediately able to kill them.

Medic Robots
Strengths: Able to heal and ubercharge other robots
Weaknesses: Weak and easily breakable

Super Variants:
Quick Fix Medics: Faster healing but no ubercharge
Uber Nedics: Frequent ubercharges

Ubercharges on giant targets are horrible to deal with, avoid damage whilst targets are invulnerable and then attempt to kill the medics first before dealing with the giant itself. Medics should always be killed as a high priority target before moving onto the targets they are healing.

Other Robot Types

Spy Bots: These only spawn as support waves. They cloak, disguise themselves as members of your party and instantly kill people with back stabs. Stay vocal with your party to call out disguised targets and be aware that they will often go directly to engineer buildings to sap them.

Tanks: Tanks have high HP but deal no damage, they will detonate upon arrival at the bomb hatch. They are essentially just a damage race and should be killed with some haste, but due to their slow movement they can be temporarily neglected to kill other targets if you feel confident in your sustained damage. 

Tanks have a lot of HP, but move very slowly. Use your judgement to decide when it is best to focus your attention on them.

Sentry Busters: These are walking bombs that go directly for your sentry guns. They are quite resilient and deal no damage until they self-destruct for high splash damage. They best way to negate them is to have your engineer pack up his buildings once the bomb triggers itself. As soon as the bomb explodes the bot is gone, so other classes should focus their attention elsewhere rather than focusing too hard on killing them.

Now that you know your enemy you have nothing to fear, except your inevitable demise due to hoards of robots riddling your body with bullets, blowing you apart, stabbing you in your back and generally causing you extreme discomfort. Good luck out there troops!