How do the Spy’s masks work

team-fortress-2tf2-spy

I have not played Team Fortress 2 (so forgive me if I've missed any details), but I couldn't help but notice that the Spy uses masks to disguise himself. To his teammates, he looks like he's just wearing a mask, but to the enemy team, he looks like whoever is on his mask. How do the masks fool the other team (from the point of view of the actual team and not the players)?

Was this ever explained anywhere?

Best Answer

If you're taking the Spy-masks (or really, anything in Team Fortress 2) at face value (bah-dum-tiss), then you really shouldn't. TF2 is a game that prides itself on over-the-top, tongue-in-cheek, absurdist humour:

Surreal humour (also known as absurdist humour) is a form of humour predicated on deliberate violations of causal reasoning, producing events and behaviours that are obviously illogical. Constructions of surreal humour tend to involve bizarre juxtapositions, non-sequiturs, irrational or absurd situations and expressions of nonsense.

Wikipedia (Emphasis mine).

The masks are just a bit of hilarious flavor for a team to know which class a friendly Spy disguised as. It's supposed to be a joke, either aimed at the Spy's 'terrible' attempts to disguise himself, or at the enemy team for falling for such a ridiculous disguise (or both).

However the Spy does in fact disguise himself well: pretty much identical to a member of the other team, (from their perspective). Therefore, the masks themselves do not portray an accurate representation of the Spy's skill at disguising.

Comparison table

        Base (Max)  Disguise  Backstab  
         Hitpoints    Kit       Icon    On backstab

Knife    125 (185)    Yes       Yes     Disguise drops
                                        Enemy screams (crit-death)
Icicle   125 (185)    Yes        No     Disguise drops
                                        Leaves behind ice statue (crit-death)
YER      125 (185)     No        No     Disguise as the enemy, silently
                                        Corpse cloaks
Kunai     70 (180)    Yes       Yes     Disguise drops
                                        Enemy screams (crit-death)
                                        Health is stolen from enemy
Earner   100 (150)    Yes       Yes     Disguise drops
                                        Enemy screams (crit-death)
                                        Cloak is restored

Knife / Sharp Dresser

The normal knife and Sharp Dresser are the most balanced of the knives.

They are the easiest knives to use when you need to sap enemy sentry guns. Not only can you choose your disguise, but you can sometimes take up to 3 non-crit hits from an Engineer's wrench before dying... more if they're using the Jag.

Icicle

The icicle works mostly like the normal knife, except that it leaves behind ice statues instead of regular ragdolls, alerting enemies to the presence of a spy. If a spy holding the icicle is hit by a flame attack, or pulls out the icicle while on fire, they will not burn, extinguish any flames they have, and become immune to fire damage for 2 seconds. This disables the icicle for 5 seconds, but not the spy's other weapons, allowing them to escape or to pull out a revolver to take down the enemy who set them on fire. Usually it's best to use this item if you know there will be at least one pyro spychecking for the other team, so you can make a hasty retreat. Clever pryos, however, will equip a shotgun and kill you anyway, so best to keep running.

Your Eternal Reward / Wanga Prick

The Eternal Reward and Wanga Prick are very good for killing several enemies in succession, such as those pushing a cart that are not looking behind them.

It also makes a Stab and Sap on an Engineer and his sentry gun considerably easier, provided you already have a disguise.

Be aware that you cannot disguise as your own team with these knives!

Note: You disguise only if the enemy dies from the backstab. This means you will not disguise if they: turn when you kill them and die a normal death, are ubered, have a Razorback, or are using a Dead Ringer.

Conniver's Kunai

With 70 health, you are a one-hit kill to any non-Scout melee weapon. Most ranged weapons will also kill you in one hit.

Because the health you gain is capped at 180, you actually have less health than a fully overhealed Spy with the Knife or YER (they would have 185).

The Kunai may be good for escaping due to the extra health, but it requires that you get a backstab first.

Big Earner

With 100 health, your survivability is a bit higher than with the Kunai, but a single rocket, grenade, or scattergun/shotgun shot may kill you if their pellet spread is right.

The 30% cloak you gain from using this knife is not a lot in the grand scheme of things. For the Invisibility Watch, collecting a small ammo box restores 25% cloak, a medium ammo box restores 50%, and a large ammo box 100%. For the Dead Ringer, collecting a small ammo box restores 25% cloak, a medium ammo or large ammo box restores 45%.

The Cloak and Dagger would be the watch that gains the most from this, but it's also the watch that recharges if you stand still while cloaked...

What I use

I use the Knife or Your Eternal Reward as appropriate to the situation:

CP push/PL defense (RED): Start with YER (Saharan Spy Set) and Cloak & Dagger. Switch to Knife and Dead Ringer as appropriate.
CP push/PL offense (BLU): Start with Knife and Dead Ringer, disguised as BLU's Soldier or Heavy. This is to draw the enemy Sniper's fire, or set off the demoman's sticky trap. Switch to YER and C&D as appropriate.
PLR: Varies. Usually YER and C&D.
CP symmetric / koth: Varies. Usually Knife and DR.
Arena: That's a trick question. I rarely play Spy in arena.

Can a spy reach the shack outside the second spawn point in CP Granary

You need to crouch jump to reach the ledge from the tires.

I believe Transall wasn't referring to this area when he mentioned the ramp, as there are no container boxes on which you can stand here — you can only stand on the ones around the central control point.