Can you manually change your health as a disguised spy

team-fortress-2tf2-spy

I just got the Dead Ringer, and one of its effects is that you cannot cloak on demand.

What I like to do to get behind enemy lines and start backstabbing my way forward is to run screaming medic, in an effort to justify my returning from the other team side.

I know that you can toggle which weapon your disguise is holding (by pressing B), so I was wondering if you could also lower your health in some fashion as to make this tactic seem more believable (screaming for medic when you're at full health is not)

Best Answer

Health cannot be set manually.

When you disguise, what happens depends on certain factors:

  1. If the team you're disguising as has a person playing that class:
    • You take on one of their names
    • You take on that player's current health, including any overheal, or 100% health if they're dead (this is most noticable when using the YER)
    • You take on that player's weapon loadout
      • Exceptions: Bonk! Atomic Punch, Crit-a-Cola, and Mad Milk show as Pistol, Mantreads or Gunboats show as Shotgun, Ali Baba's Wee Booties or Bootlegger show as Grenade Launcher, Chargin' Targe or Splendid Screen show as Stickybomb Launcher, and Jarate, Razorback, or Darwin's Danger Shield show as SMG). The Build Tool, Destruction Tool, Sapper, and Disguise Kit can not be faked at all when disguised as an enemy Engineer or Spy.
  2. If the team you're disguising as does not have a person playing that class:
    • You take on a random name from that team
    • You take on a random amount of health
    • You take on that class's stock weapons.

Note: It takes a few seconds for the game to update what classes players are playing, so it is possible to disguise as a class that has players, but still get a random name, health, and stock weapons. Disguising again will fix this problem. This is most obvious when disguising as your own team in spawn.

You can recharge your fake health via medkits, Medic, or dispensers (this was added earlier this year), but not the Resupply Cabinet.