Scout

The Scout has the greatest mobility of all the TF2 classes; two jumps and an impressive 133% movement speed makes him extremely difficult to track down and even to kill once he is found. The Scout carries a Scattergun, which can deal tremendous damage to an opponent in close quarters. With such high movement speed, it isn't difficult to get close to people; the only trick is staying alive once at a close range. The Scout has only 125 base health, tied for the least out of all the classes along with the Engineer, Sniper and Spy.

6v6

Main article: Scout (6v6)

The Scout is a highly mobile "clean up" class, used to capture points and move in and out of fights to deal and avoid as much damage as possible. In the standard 6v6 play, a team will have 2 Scouts. When playing this class, one will be expected to successfully capture points, control the flank, and be able to clean up the damage put out by heavy classes (Soldier and Demoman). Generally speaking, a Scout will have a high number of kills and a moderate amount of damage - diving in to kill already damaged players is the primary cause of this. Scouts are also often the best candidates for off-classing, depending on the situation. The secret to the Scout class is going into a fight and catching enemies unaware. During a mid-fight, losing one scout is alright, but losing both the Scouts can be disastrous. The Scout should aim to die as little as possible, as a longer living scout has a higher impact.

Both of the scouts are almost always divided into two set roles, the Flank Scout and the Pocket Scout. The Flank Scout is a part of the flank is to call out information and assist the Roaming Soldier. It is their job to watch the flank to prevent classes from getting behind the combo. They also can try to get behind the enemy team and create distractions for their team to push. The Pocket Scout is a part of the combo and their job is to protect the combo and follow up on any damage from their Demoman or their Pocket Soldier. They have to deny enemy soldiers from jumping to kill their Medic, or "bombing soldiers". Their medic is usually the top priority for the Pocket Scout to protect.

Highlander

Main article: Scout (Highlander)

The Scout's role is severely diminished in Highlander, as his fragging capabilities are fairly limited by full-time high-damage per second classes, such as the Heavy or the Engineer. Because of this, the Scout is used often more as a utility class, helping the team by being on the flank, capturing points and objectives, and sometimes following up on damage dealt by the combo. A scout can also be used to focus classes, which can cause large problems for a team, such as a sniper. Most Payload and Attack/Defend maps can greatly limit the Scout's usefulness due to the map's tendency to lump everyone together, but on certain King of the Hill maps, a good scout can score a high amount of points, due to a large amount of flanking routes, which are available.

Highlander leagues allow a greater variety of scout unlocks than 6v6 leagues do, which allows for interesting strategies with unlocks, like Mad Milk and Bonk! Atomic Punch. The scout's role can be enhanced by any of these, leading to being a more supportive class that splashes Mad Milk during pushes, or a pick/harassment class that runs to enemy spawn with Bonk! As long as the Scout plays smart and stays alive, opportunities to flank and fight directly come up just like in 6v6.

Weapons

Primary

			Weapon				4v4	6v6		Highlander
							UGC	Global Whitelist	RGL	UGC	RGL	ETF2L
			Scattergun				Always	Always	align="center" height="5px"	Always	align="center" height="5px"	Always
							The stock Scattergun is by far the most widely used primary weapon for the scout in Competitive Play. Due to the weapon's high clip size and damage output at mid-close range, the Scattergun gives the user a high and reliable damage output.
			Force-A-Nature				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Force-A-Nature (often abbreviated to FaN) is sparsely used in most formats but can sometimes be seen in Highlander, where a scout's damage capability is less important to the team. The weapon's unique knockback ability can allow for more effective positioning, allowing the Scout to jump to higher places or push away enemies; but ultimately the weapon suffers from inconsistent damage because of its very small clip size, and because its knockback sends enemies out of the Scout's range.
			Shortstop				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Shortstop only has 4 shots per clip but reloads all shots at once, and has tighter weapon spread making it more accurate at long range. It also has a rarely useful melee-ranged knockback ability. While the Shortstop fires twice as fast as the default Scattergun, it takes thrice the time to reload. However, the weapon's biggest downfall is in its reduced pellet size (4 pellets per shot); resulting in marginally less damage at close ranges.
			Soda Popper				Banned	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Soda Popper is similar to the FaN with an increased fire rate and two shot clip, but it also gives five extra jumps upon activating its 'Hype' mechanic, and faster reloading. The additional mobility granted by Hype makes the scout extremely difficult to hit for projectile based classes (Soldier and Demoman), and the quicker shooting and reloading makes Scout deal more damage both in the short-term and long-term, so to give other classes a balanced chance to kill Scout, the Soda Popper remains banned.
			Baby Face's Blaster				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Baby Face's Blaster is arguably the weakest Scout primary. It allows the Scout to build a "Boost" meter when he deals damage in order to move much faster, in exchange for moving 10% slower by default and a smaller clip size. However, taking damage or double jumping lowers Boost, which forces the user to play extremely passively in order to make use of the weapon's only upside. This can make for a very difficult and overall less effective playstyle.
			Back Scatter				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Back Scatter is typically ignored by most players primarily due to its single strength, mini-crits from behind, not occurring enough to outweigh its weaknesses, lower clip size, and accuracy. The weapon is most useful when flanking the enemy, as it can one-shot all light classes from behind (without overheal).

Secondary

			Weapon				4v4	6v6		Highlander
							UGC	Global Whitelist	RGL	UGC	RGL	ETF2L
			Pistol				Always	Always	align="center" height="5px"	Always	align="center" height="5px"	Always
							The Pistol is the Scout's stock secondary. It holds 12 shots and reloads all 12 shots at once. It is used almost always in 6v6 as it is the best secondary for dispatching hurt enemies and doing damage. It is often considered the most reliable secondary in competitive play.
			Bonk! Atomic Punch				Allowed	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							Bonk! Atomic Punch is a Scout secondary that allows the user to go into an invincible state for a short amount of time. After the effects end the user is slowed for 5 seconds based on damage taken. It is most often used in Highlander (9v9) to flank or get behind the enemy team in situations where the scout would otherwise be having trouble doing work. Bonk can also be used to distract the enemy team and give the other members of a team an opening to push or get an advantage. Bonk is also great for distracting a sentry gun from the rest of a team when that team wishes to attack a point without uber, however, this is risky.
			Crit-a-Cola				Banned	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Banned
							Crit-a-Cola is a Scout secondary that allows a user to gain mini-crits on all weapons for 8 seconds, and are marked for death for 5 seconds after every attack while under the effects.
			Mad Milk				Banned	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Banned
							Mad Milk is a Scout secondary that allows 60% of damage done to enemies covered in it to be restored to the attacking player's health. It can often be used in Highlander on Koth maps, or maps in which players can easily get bunched together because the increased healing which it allows give a significant advantage over an opponent. Mad Milk can also be used to extinguish teammates. Doing so makes the jar charge 20% faster
			Winger				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Winger is a Scout secondary pistol that deals 15% more damage and has a 60% smaller clip size. The player gains 25% higher jumps when it is deployed. This makes it easier for scouts to get a height advantage and also dodge.
			Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol				Allowed	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol is a Scout pistol that grants +3 health per hit to the wearer as well as a +15% firing speed. This comes at a cost of 25% less clip, giving the user only 9 shots.
			Flying Guillotine				Allowed	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Flying Guillotine is a meat cleaver that when thrown at the enemy does around ~50 damage, and then continues to damage through bleed for 5 seconds. If thrown from a far enough distance it will increase the recharge by 1.5 seconds. It takes ~6 seconds to recharge.

Melee

			Weapon				4v4	6v6		Highlander
							UGC	Global Whitelist	RGL	UGC	RGL	ETF2L
			Bat				Always	Always	align="center" height="5px"	Always	align="center" height="5px"	Always
							The Bat is the default melee weapon for the Scout, doing 35 points of damage per hit.
			Sandman				Banned	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Sandman has the same stats as the default bat except upon clicking alt+fire it will launch a ball which will slow the enemy from 1-7 seconds depending on the distance. This item will grant -15 health to the wearer.
			Boston Basher				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Boston Basher is a bat that causes the enemy to bleed for 5 seconds upon landing a successful hit. If the hit is missed, it will cause self-bleed instead. However, this self-bleeding can be used to build up the Medic's charge, which is very useful, especially in 6v6 matches.
			Candy Cane				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Candy Cane does the same exact damage as the Bat, however, when an opponent is killed while this item is equipped they will drop a small health kit. Any explosive damage taken by the wearer will do an extra 25% damage.
			Fan O'War				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Fan O'War does 75% less damage than the default Bat. Upon hitting the opponent, it will mark them for death. (A skull icon will appear above their head.) This will cause all damage taken by the enemy to be mini-crits for 15 seconds. The weapon itself will crit instead of whenever it should normally mini-crit.
			Sun-on-a-Stick				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Sun-on-a-Stick gives you a 100% chance of dealing critical hits against burning players, but it only deals 25% base melee damage. Works well if a friendly Pyro applies afterburn to enemies, so the Scout can deliver the finishing blow. It deals 79 crit-damage. It also has a 25% resistance to fire damage while active.
			Atomizer				Allowed	Banned	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Atomizer grants a Scout a third jump that only takes effect when the weapon is out. It also has 15% reduced damage towards players but it mini-crits when airborne. The mini-crit damage will do 40 damage.
			Wrap Assassin				Allowed	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed	align="center" height="5px"	Allowed
							The Wrap Assassin will launch a glass ball upon clicking alt+fire. The glass ball will shatter and inflict bleed damage on the enemy for 5 seconds. This item takes 11.25 seconds to recharge. The weapon itself does 65% less damage than the default bat.

See Also

• Scout (6v6)
• Scout (Highlander)