Playing Mann Up is basically serious business, you have the chance to pair up with competent
high-tour players who plays the game only for loot. They don't have time will to bare with Mann Up newcomers. The inexperience and lack of knowledge about the serious MvM often results in a votekick.

So it is up to you to learn how to approach the MvM meta from the right way. However, don't take it too seriously, trying to get everything perfect from the start will only make your game unenjoyable.

Boot Camp is your playground, learn limitations of every class and their roles. After you understand the gamemode itself, I think it's pretty safe to test out Mann Up mode.

There are several rules which will definetly help you in your average MvM mission.






I heavily recommend to go trough the easiest missions first. If you are completely new to MvM, start with Normal missions and Intermediate missions. Then, if you feel like you've played enough intermediate missions, you may try to get on Advanced missions, those are most common ones mainly because they offers the best loot.
Technically, if you fail a certain difficulty, stick to a lower level for a bit.

• Normal Difficulty - Easiest difficulty you can play. This is your playground, practice your basic MvM skills. It's only accessible in Boot Camp mode.
  
  
• Intermediate Difficulty - Requires a decent team cooperation to a certain point. Intermediate missions will often prepare you to advanced difficulty. Lowest difficulty in Mann Up mode.
  
  
• Advanced Difficulty - Whether playing Mann Up or not, the Advanced difficulty is well, for advanced players. You have to pair up with competent players in order to successfully complete these missions. You have also the chance for australium drop at the end of Advanced Tours.
  
  
• Nightmare Difficulty - Only accessible in Boot Camp as a Caliginous Caper mission which is basically one giant wave full of undead threats. I personally recommend playing this wave with friends. Queueing with random players often results in failing.
  
  
• Expert Difficulty - Expert missions are MUCH HARDER than Advanced missions and require all six team members to be strong contributors. I recommend all players to complete an Advanced Tour of Duty before attempting Expert mode.

Starting from the Normal and climbing all the way to the Advanced is the best way how to increase your performance in Mann vs. Machine.




Mann Up mode is known for it's toxic and unfriendly reputation. High-tour players love to boss you around and tell you what to do. It is pretty annoying to join the game and the first thing you hear is to switch to "x" class and equip "x" weapon.

It is important to keep your cool, especially when playing with bunch of toxic players. The disrespect based on your Tour number they can give you is pretty much stupid at this point, you gotta start somewhere.




Some people, if they get kicked from a MvM match, simply don't play MvM anymore because they are simply scared. However, not all players are so rude, which means next time you might get a match with polite competent players.

Thinking that you suck will, obviously, make you suck. Just stop thinking about it and you will do fine. If you're scared of getting votekicked, think about your mistakes and how to improve yourself. Not everyone tends to kick players without a word. Therefore you should listen to a textchat or voicechat.
However you choose what to play, what to equip and what to upgrade, not players on the other side of the country. Take notes when they try to give you a piece of advice but think about it, not everyone has the same mindset and some players can tell you things that may not be appropriate.





Most people, if they fail a mission ONCE, they simply leave the game. Doing so ruins the fun for everybody, especially if the ragequitting person is a good player. When one player leaves the server, it may happen that other will do it too. This usually starts to have effect on everyone not willing to wait on 2 players so most of them give up, leaving the mission unable to complete.




To reduce the negative look at the Mann Up mode, try not to be toxic and unfriendly towards players who doesn't understand the meta. Politely tell them, how to improve. Now of course this shouldn't take a steep turn to command players in a hard way.

If a player is doing badly, simply tell them where they're making mistakes and how to get things right. Do not try to kick him unless the whole team agrees so. Kicking inexperienced players is the most nooby way in the entire MvM universe.




Please, do not stack classes. If you already have a Scout, Heavy and Engineer but none of the other classes, the wisest thing to do is to go Soldier, Demoman, Sniper or Pyro etc. You will be able to cover more jobs / objectives and make things a whole lot easier.

When creating a team, you should have a decent idea of how the ideal team might look like, if someone took your favourite class, politely ask him if he could switch. If he won't agree, simply play something else, stacking classes is never a good idea. It's also not a good idea to have multiple support classes like Sniper AND Spy.
A perfect team composition is revolving around skill of team members and individuals waves.

I will talk about particular team composition later in this guide so stick around.




There is a very special skill that makes the game much more entertaining and fun - it's called communicating.

Mann vs. Machine is a co-op gamemode where six players must work together to stop hordes of robots. Communicating is almost crucial for beating Advanced (and higher) difficulties so don't ignore the textchat and the voicechat. Most of the time, you'll see texts in English language which, assuming you're reading this guide, is no problem for you.

If you don't have a microphone, use "Y" to open a textchat. Trough that, you can communicate with other teammates to go "x" class or to help each other. Lisen to your teammates and let the team know what's happening.

Speaking of listening to your teamates, if your team member is giving you advice, try to give some notice to them trying to help you. Refusing to listen to advice that people give you will never make you better at the game and you will remain at a horrible level of inteligence.

It's called Team Fortress 2 for a reason, play with a team, not like a lone wolf.

You need to understand here and now that no class is bad in MvM environment, only certain combinations. To form a good team, you will need following roles:




The guy in charge of grabbing the money. A team generally have one player dedicated to money collection.

• Scout
  
• Spy
  
• (Sniper)

Übercharge Medics are biggest threats for most teams as they can push you back with Übered Giant. Solution is to kill the Medic in one blow (150 health) before they can activate Übercharge.

• Sticky-based Demoman
  
• Sniper
  
• Gas Passer Pyro
  
• Spy

Tanks are a major danger in any mission that contains them, since they have a large health pool and their own bomb. Teams will generally have to assign one player on Tank busting to deal with them.

• Pyro
  
• Beggar's Bazooka Soldier

Instead of having one Tank buster, teams can also have multiple Semi-tank busters, classes that can't take out a Tank by themselves, but can with other Semi-Tank busters.

• Soldier
  
• Demoman
  
• Damage-Based Scout
  
• Bushwacka-Carbine Sniper
  
• Heavy
  
• Engineer's Sentry gun

Even with only 6 players and ammo packs in the map, ammo will be a pretty big issue really fast without a reliable ammo source. The only reliable ammo source right now is the Engineer's dispenser.

• Engineer

Dealing damage to robot is THE most needed role, but since most of the classes can do that, it's not really hard to have players dealing damages. Damages can be split between Crowd damage and Giant damage. Your team will generally need a mix of both to be able to deal with the smaller robots and the Giants.

• Damage-based Scout (pick)
  
• Soldier
  
• Pyro
  
• Demoman
  
• Heavy
  
• Engineer's Sentry gun
  
• Sniper (pick & crowd damage)
  
• Spy (pick)

There is an individual semi-role for supporting your team. Medic is a good example. He doesn't fit in any of the roles mentioned above, still however, can be a huge help because of his ability to block incoming damage, to give bonuses to his teammates in form of the overheal and quicker health regeneration, and last but not least - to revive teammates.

• Medic
  
• Engineer's Teleporter
  
• Scout's Mad Milk
  
• Soldier's Banner
  
• Sniper's Jarate
  
• Spy's Electro-Sapper

You can upgrade your guns and your character at Upgrade Station for collected credits.
Choose your Upgrades wisely though beacuse it can really affect your abilities and powers.












Here are few tips and loadouts for each class and what to upgrade:
I want to make clear that everything can work if used correctly, some weapon combianton can be more viable than other.




Loadout:
Scattergun / Soda Popper
Mad Milk
Fan o' War

Upgrades:

• Upgrade your movement speed and jump height to maximum.
  
• Upgrade Mad Milk to slow down robots.
  
• For spare credits, upgrade your Scattergun to take off lone targets.
  
• Upgrade explosive and bullet resistances and mainly crit resistances.

Strategy:
You are the credit guy. Try at max to don't lose any dollar, it will help you and all your team (don't forget that money heals your and gives you overheal). Milk hordes and when giants show up mark them with your Fan o' War.




Loadout:
Rocket Launcher / Beggar's Bazooka
Buff Banner
Escape Plan / Disciplinary Action

Upgrades:

• Upgrade your reload speed, clip size, damage, firing speed and rocket specialist.
  
• Upgrade your Buff Banner duration for spare credits.
  
• Upgrade resistances and If you're using Stock rocket launcher, I recommend upgrading Health on Kill.

Strategy:
Kill as much as you can. Use your Buff Banner when things gets serious. Buy Crit Canteens before hard waves. Fire specialized rockets at Super Scouts in order to slow them down or at large crowd of regular robots to deal extra splash damage.




Loadout:
Flame Thrower / Phlogistinator / Dragon's Fury
Gas Passer
Powerjack

Upgrades:

• Upgrade Resistances as you are the one who fight close to the robots.
  
• Upgrade your ammo capacity at least twice (or max it).
  
• Get health on kill and better damage output.
  
• Upgrade your Gas Passer.

Strategy:
Burn all you can, you're main damage dealer to Tanks. Airblast Giants to the pits, reset bombs, get rid of über medics with gas passer. Use Gas Passer on large groups of smaller robots.




Loadout:
Grenade Launcher
Stickybomb Launcher / Scottish Resistance
Bottle
Upgrades:

• Upgrade your firing speed, reload speed, clip size and damage on your secondary.
  
• Upgrade resistances.

Strategy:
Place your stickies before the wave starts. Try to kill übercharge robot Medics before they pop. If there is a Medic with Kritzkrieg make him use his übercharge to lay crit stickies. If there isn't a Medic, buy crit cantees for hard waves / tanks. Damage all you can, especially Giants.




Loadout:
Minigun / Brass Beast
Sandwich
G.R.U / Fists of Steel / K.G.B

Upgrades:

• Upgrade ammo capacity, HP on kill, penetration and mainly firing speed.
  
• Upgrade your primary so it can destroy projectiles (2 points).
  
• Upgrade your resistances and mainly movement speed.
  
• Max out your crit resistances.

Strategy:
Kill all the robots you can and protect the sentries from rockets / pipes. Tanks have 75% Minigun resistance so focus on destroying Giants instead of the Tank. Defend the bomb. Hard waves buy crit canteens.




Loadout:
Rescue Ranger
Wrangler
Wrench

Upgrades:

• Upgrade Dispenser Range, Metal Capacity and Building health
  
• Upgrade your Wrench swing speed
  
• Always buy Upgrade Canteens
  
• NEVER buy disposable mini-sentry.

Strategy:
Keep your Dispenser near your Heavy. Learn how to deal with Sentry Busters, Move your Sentry to shoot the Tanks. Choose Wrangler to take down bigger targets, Upgrade Canteens are your best friends.




Loadout:
Blutsauger / Crusader's Crossbow
Kritzkrieg
Ubersaw

Upgrades:

• Upgrade your Projectile Shield
  
• Upgrade your Healing Mastery
  
• Upgrade your Overheal Expert and Canteen Specialist
  
• Upgrade your milked syringes, your teammates will heal themselves

Strategy:
Heal, overheal, revive, get down big robots with übercharges. Pop shields when there are a lot of damage flying trough the air. Share Über Canteens when you're using Kritzkrieg. Your Milked Syringes makes your work easier plus they can fill your übercharge!




Loadout:
Hitman's Heatmaker / Bazaar Bargain
Jarate / Cleaner's Carbine
Bushwacka

Upgrades:

• Upgrade explosive headshots, reload speed, damage.
  
• Upgrade your jarate to slow targets.
  
• Upgrade ammo capacity and faster charge.

Strategy:
Click on heads, especially on giant ones. Kill medics with explosive headshots. Use jarate. When Tank shows up, use Cleaner's Carbine in combination with Bushwacka for semi-tank busting.




Loadout:
Revolver / Diamondback
Knife / Kunai / Big Earner
Dead Ringer

Upgrades:

• Upgrade your sapper to sap more robots and make them useless.
  
• Upgrade +2 second crits, penetration and health on kill on your knife.
  
• Resistances and speed are priority.
  
• Get faster swing speed on your Knife so you can kill Giants quickly.

Strategy:
When a wave has übercharge Medics sap them before they activate it. Backstab the giants when you have upgrades. You are amazing Giant damage dealer with upgraded Knife, use it. Collect money if you need to.

After your first mission, you'll recive Power Up Canteen of your own. You can fill the Canteen three times of one type of buff. Buff are personal and lasts for 5 seconds.

Crit Canteen
Gain full criticals for 5 seconds. Costs 100 credits.
Use them on harder waves or against Giants / Tanks.
This canteen is very powerfull with Minigun, Flamethrower or even Beggar's Bazooka








Übercharge Canteen
Gain personal invulerability for 5 seconds. Costs 75 credits.
When playing Medic and you have Kritzkrieg, purchase Übercharge Canteens along side with Canteen Specialist upgrade. Otherwise, Über is very rewarding when playing Pyro or Heavy.







Upgrade Canteen
Only for Engineers. When activated, upgrade your buildings to a level 3 instantly. Costs 50 credits.
I can really recommend using this Canteen when playing Engineer. If oyur Sentry goes down, just build another one and press "H". Also be sure you'll have one at any time.







Ammo Refill Canteen
Refills all your ammo capacity and clips. Costs 25 credits.
Playing Heavy and your team doesn't have a Dispenser? Use ammo refill Canteen. These are useful for Heavies, Pyros, Soldiers and Demomen. Yes, this canteen also refill Engineer's metal but you'd be better just using the Upgrade Canteen.








Return to base Canteen
Instantly teleports you to the base and gain a little bit of speed boost. Costs 10 credits.
These have pretty little use. They were designed to help your team if Giant Scout pass with the bomb. Otherwise it's practically useless.

Credits are pretty important thing in MvM. You should try at max (even if you're not collecting class) to not lose any pile of cash.
You are starting with certain amout of credits (usually 400$ or even more) to upgrade yourself at the Upgrade Station.
Each normal robot will drop usually 4$ while the Giants and the Tanks will drop more. Supportive robots such as Spy-bots, Sniper-bots or Sentry Busters won't drop any cash.


Collect money for the better grade! You can get bonus if you collect most of credits!



When you play Scout (or money Spy), your main job is to collect all piles of cash from the fallen robots. If you do the job correctly, your team will be rewarded with extra 100$ at the end of the wave for everyone!
And while collecting money is your job, it's not the only one. As a Scout, use your Mad Milk and Fan o' War against Giant robots. As a Spy, you're much weaker compared to Scout as you don't have money magnet and you don't get heals from picking up money. You can survive by backstabbing either your Kunai or with your regular Knife with Health on Kill upgrades.

Collecting money can be very challenging and sometimes - when under a pressure - can happen that you will fail in doing what you're supposed to do. Bossy players have in their favourite to kick a Scout if he didn't get A+ rating. These idiots don't realize that kicking a money collector will often result in ending the next wave with missing 200 credits.
Kicking money collector for not getting A+ is a mistake, he can be a good Scout overall and get all credits next wave.



The scenario when Scout get slammed by a critical grenade is, sadly, very common. While your Scout can't make it to the cash, you can help him by collecting the cash for him. Even if the Scout isn't dead, do not treat him like a vacuum cleaner, clean up after yourself.
The last reminder before I wrap up this section:

There are several mission difficulties such as Normal, Intermediate, Advanced and Expert. They all are seperated to two types.

• Invasion
  More, but shorter waves of robots.
  
• Endurance
  Less, but longer waves. Players starts with a lot of money. Bomb resets itself for a certain amout of time.

Each mission has it's specific waves of robots.
If you are curious about all missions, you can check TF2 wiki or clik here.


Decoy










Desert map, it's a fake Mann Co. headquarters designed and built by Soldier to confuse robots.
Gameplay: Bomb carrier has three paths to go. This map supports Tanks, Engineer-bots and Sniper-bots. One wave also includes boss called Major Bomber.
Missions: Doe's Drill, Doe's Doom, Day of Wreckening, Disk Deletion, Data Demolition, Disintegration, Desperation

Coaltown










Desert map, museum of history of coal mining, closely associated with the Hale family.
Gameplay: Bomb carrier has three paths to go. Coaltown supports Tanks, lot of Spy-bots and Sniper-bots. There are two death pits where you can reset the bomb.
Missions: Crash Course, Cave-In, Quarry, Ctrl+Alt+Destruction, CPU Slaughter, Cataclysm

Coal Town has a special Halloween version called Ghost Town with 1 massive wave called wave 666. The mission itself is named Caliginous Caper with a zombies instead of robots. It can be played only in Boot Camp so no rewards for completing.

Mannworks











Rainy map in Mountains, true headquarters of Mann Co.
Gameplay: Two main paths for bomb carrier. Mannworks supports Tanks (often multiple at once), Spy-bots and Sniper-bots.
Missions: Mann-euvers, Mean Machines, Mann Hunt, Machine Massacre, Mech Mutilation, Mannslaughter

Bigrock









Largest map in middle of nowhere. Mecha Engineer was introduced on this map.
Gameplay: Two main paths which splits into four. Bigrock supports Tanks, Engineer-bots, Spy-bots and Sniper-bots. There's one death pit in the mines. Two bosses called Sergeant Crits, Captain Punch are on this map.
Missions: Benign Infiltration, Broken Parts, Bone Shaker

Mannhattan









Dockyard map in a city. Robots are attacking on Mann Co's branch called Mhankö.
Gameplay: Robots can move their spawn positions by capturing the gates. Each capture will shut down robots for a while. It's the only map where Tanks doesn't appear.
Missions: Big Apple Barricade, Empire Escalation, Metro Malice

Rottenburg











Bavarian town located in Germany near mountains. Medic's native village.
Gameplay: Bomb carrier has two paths to go. Rottenburg supports Tanks, Engineer-bots, Sniper-bots and Spy-bots. When Tank reaches the wooden barrier, creates a shortcut for robots. One boss is creeping around Rottenburg, his name is Sir Nukesalot.
Missions:Village Vanguard, Hamlet Hostility, Bavarian Botbash

By the time you are reading this guide, you most likely know what the "ready up" button is and how to press it. However, there are several unspoken rules that you better understand.

When to press F4?

• When you and your teammates are upgraded and prepared.
  
• When you no longer need to wait for players.
  
• You should ready up after your Engineer and Medic.
  
• You might ready up after the Demoman places crit stickies.

Don't demand everyone to ready up
People saying "f4" or "all f4" are very common, and they are doing very bad. Demanding everyone to press f4 is not good!

Imagine that you are an Engineer, you just left the Upgrade Station, and you didn't even reach the point you want to place your sentry at but 5 other players in the server press f4 and spam the chat with "engie f4", "f4 or kick" etc. This is just wrong and those players should be patient.

Setup time between waves
During breaks between waves, it is good to check which path the bomb carrier will take. When you have Engineer and Medic on your team, the best way how to help them to prepare is just to give them time they need. Don't hesitate and press F4 after those classes.
As a Demoman, chat with your Medic at the start of the wave to place crit stickies in front of robots entrance.

Before the actual fight starts, think about what you're going to do, think ahead. I am going to present you a few simple tips how to get along without embarrassing yourself in front of your team.



Whether it's be ammo or health, robots will wreck the hell out of you without backup, team included. Make sure you have enough health, preferably above 2/3 of your max health. If not, look for any medics, dispensers or health packs nearby.




It is important to know your limitations! There's only so much one class can do themselves. Make sure you're near where your team is and call for help if you get in trouble. Jumping into a battle with many robots alone is like facing 15 Heavies whilst you're playing as Medic. It's just not possible.




Doing this is a surefire way to get killed. Giants have large power, enough to take down you, unless you're prepared. Before doing this you should check what giant robot you're up against. If it's a Giant Scout variant, you'll need 2 or 3 players to handle it. It's speed can get past your defenses in seconds. If it's a Giant Soldier, Charged Soldier or Rapid-Fire Soldier, you'll need 2-3 players to take it down.
A Giant Heavy can be taken down by around 4 players and a Giant Medic and it's pocket requires the full team's cooperation to take down.




Actually, do attack them. And only attack them if you've got something that can instantly kill them! Über Medics tend to be really annoying and can mess up near perfect games. Classes with the particular role can get rid of them pretty easily.
However if any of these aren't performed on an Über Medic, it's most likely he will activate his über.




Doing so only wastes ammo, and they can be easily avoided by not staying near them. The only exceptions is if you want to use them for utility, like getting uber with the ubersaw or getting a banner up as Soldier.
Slowing or even juggling a Sentry Buster in the air not ideal since you waste your Engineer's time. Most competent Engineers can deal with the buster by themselves without any help.




Knowing which robots are coming is crucial. It tells you whether three Scouts are coming or fifty Heavies are coming. Setup accordingly and buy upgrades accordingly. Be ready for explosives or bullets, buy resistances when you need them. If there's some Giant Soldiers, buy blast resistance. The level of which you should upgrade varies from class to class. With power classes needing less and more frail classes needing more. Devise a plan for your team if you have to!

After the robot attack begins, your primary goal is to eliminate a robot with small but powerful bomb on his back. Robots walk along the path marked with blue holographic arrows and their goal is your base.
Take down bomb-carrying robots quickly, though, because the longer they’re holding one, the more powerful they get. Worse yet, these upgrades stack.









First stage
Defensive buff, shared with all nearby robots.


Second stage
Health regeneration.


Third stage
Critical hits all the time.




Giant robots can be identified by the fact that they are giant, covered in thick, damage absorbing armor. They have a ton of health, they have big guns, they are big, but they are slow.
Not everyone of them are slow, for example Giant Robo-Scout is 2x faster than regular tiny Scout.

If you are damage class, Giants should be your main priority as they can easily overwhelm you when a Medic is on the end of their tail. There are many tipes of Giants and some may be more dangerous than others, don't let any type get behind you with the bomb, especially Super Scouts.

Giant Robots, like a mentioned earlier, are larger versions of robots that appear usually by themselves (some with normal Medics).

List of diffrences between Giants and regular robots:

• Giants have a red background on the HUD.
  
• They have much more health (usually 10x as much) than regular robots.
  
• Giants are much larger. However their head hitbox are small like regular robots.
  
• They usually move a lot slower than normal robots. Expection is Giant Scout.
  
• They cannot be one-hit killed by backstabs.
  
• They are not slowed down by the bomb and don't recieve buffs.
  
• If you hover over them, a health bar will appear.

As well as this, most Giants have different stats than regular robots, meaning that they are willing to put up a fight before they die.
Giants needs attention of most of the team.




Their arrival and destruction is announced by the Administrator, as well as by a large beam of light that appears where it spawns. They usually have 500 health. It's main role is to build Teleporter Exit so the robots can spawn closer to the bomb.

After their apperance, Engineer-bot immediately builds a Teleporter Exit and a Sentry Gun; players too close to the Engineer's appearance are knocked away instead of being telefragged. The Sentry Gun instantly upgrades itself to Level 3 upon completion, while the Teleporter, a Level 1 with doubled health, acts as a forward spawn point for entire groups of robots, giving them 5 seconds of invulnerability once they appear.

It is very important to eliminate this threat as it can prevent your team from walking untouched by Engineer-bot's Sentry gun and mainly - his Teleporter can summon a group of robots which can pick up the Bomb or capture a gate on Mannhattan. It's best to send at least one player to destroy Engineer-bot's nest. Ignoring this threat will make your team pay.




Essentially a bomb on legs, the Sentry Buster will detect any sentry that’s dealing sustained damage to the Robot Horde, then initiate its deviously complicated protocol: run at the offending sentry and explode. Thanks to a design flaw, it takes the Sentry Buster a couple of seconds to arm itself—giving quick-thinking Engineers a brief opportunity to hustle themselves and their belongings out of range.

Sentry Busters can be extremely difficult to deal with if people who don't know what to do against it, but attentive players do. They target sentries solely, and have no interest in other players. Some strategies can involve:

• Moving the sentry before the Sentry Buster blows up.
  
• Having you and your teammates destroy the Sentry Buster before it reaches the sentry (not recommended).
  
• Moving the sentry towards the Sentry Buster to blow it up early.

But be careful! Sentry Busters have a big explosion radius that can instantly kill nearby players, so warn your teammates when it is about to blow up. But use this to your advantage! Sentry Busters can also kill fellow robots when they explode, which can help out immensly in battle.




It does not attack at all, it is possible for players to blur an object. Slowly moves to the center of your base where, if not stopped, places the bomb.

The Administrator announces the entrance, progress, and destruction of each tank. Tanks have their own bomb inside them, and will deploy it if it manages to reach the bomb hatch. Tanks move quite slowly, but if not dealt with properly, they can generate a whole lot of trouble. This also means at times players will have to focus their fire on Tanks and bomb-carrying robots alike.

Tanks also have special attributes to them, which makes them harder to take out than other robots. They:

• Cannot be slowed down or stopped.
  
• Cannot burn, bleed or be covered in Mad Milk or Jarate.
  
• Do not give Über from the Ubersaw.
  
• Cannot be sapped, marked for death, headshot or backstabbed.
  
• Cannot give health to players with Health on Kill abilities.
  
• Take 75% less damage from Miniguns.

As a Heavy: You are weaker against Tanks. It's not ideal focusing the Tank like Pyro or Soldier.
Think like this: Shoot the Tanks while they passing you by, but don't chase them.
Focusing the Tank will result only breaking the front and getting pushed back by robots.

Tanks have a massive amount of health, and usually varies (depending on the mission) and can have anything from 10,000 to 60,000 HP!
Also, when there are Tanks active, a health bar will appear on the HUD which displays the Tanks health. A tank will also appear more damaged over time, along with the hits it has taken.

There are many strange threats lurking in each mission. Some robots requires entirely diffrent strategies than others.





Scouts are the most basic type of robot and usually appear in large numbers. They are very easy to deal with, and are usually seen carrying either the stock Scattergun or Bat. Another variant of this robot can carry a slower firing Scattergun, but since their weapons suffer from damage falloff, they do jack when you are further away.




Bat Scouts attacks in large groups and they aren't dangerous at all. Still, however can slip through and pick up the bomb.




A single Scout with Scattergun is not a threat to you. But if you encounter with a wave with 40 of these Scouts, you might consider upgrading Bullet Resistances as they can easily outdamage you when in groups.




When facing against League Scouts, try to not let them hit you constantly with their stunning Baseballs. There are three types of League Scouts:

• Minor League Scout - uses Sandman to stun players.
  
• Hyper League Scout - has 75% recharge time
  
• Jumping League Scout - has faster recharge time and higher jumps.

Bonk Scouts usually deploy their drink before they enter battle, making them invicible for a short period of time. If they are carrying the bomb when they do this, they will slow down and make their drink effect useless since they will not come into battle invincible, so they are not that bad to deal with.
However Giant version is much faster no matter if they carry a bomb. Solution is to keep them in front of you, perhaps body block them. If they pass you with the bomb, they can deploy the bomb while under the Bonk! effect.




Force-A-Nature Scouts are like the normal Scouts, but instead always have the Force-A-Nature equipped, making them capable of knocking players away easily, and more efficiently with their bonus knockback. Again, they should be not much trouble to deal with.

Giant Force-A-Nature Scouts are just an enlarged version of the Force-A-Nature Scout. However, due to their larger size and health, they should be treated with more caution. They have much more knockback power than the normal Force-A-Nature Scouts, easily knocking players back to pass by them and get the bomb to the hatch. Try to slow them down and kill them quickly.




Shorstop Scouts have more health than regular Scouts (more specifically 650 HP), so they take more hits to kill, but their primary goal is to carry the bomb further into battle. However, since they appear in small numbers, they should not pose too much of a threat. You can recognize them by the fact that they're 40% larger than average Scout. Shortstop Scout doesn't have Giant version.




The Super Scout is the fastest robot in the game, moving at a much faster pace than the regular Scout robots, which can outstrip any other robots or players. They are not dangerous in combat or particularly durable but they can very quickly deliver the bomb and end a round against unprepared teams. It is important to take them out as quickly as possible.
Be sure to slow it down using Jarate or Mad Milk, or use another slowing-down item like Natasha or the Rocket-Specialist to allow your teammates to take it out quickly.

Soldiers, unlike Scouts, are very dangerous when put together in large groups. When they are, their flurry of rockets can leave you very unprepared, dying in seconds. Soldiers are more primarily focused on doing damage rather than carrying the bomb.




Appears in large groups, quite simple to deal with if you are prepared. However if you approach without resistances and no clue whatsoever, be ready to get removed from the existence.




Far more dangerous type of Soldiers. These are equipped with the Direct Hit which means they shoot faster projectiles, they have bonus damage and they are super accurate! I recommend to draw their aggro by a Scout and let the other destroy them.




Soldiers equipped with Cow Mangler 5000 are basically no diffrent apart fron normal Soldiers. They can't fire charged shots so don't worry about your Sentry being disabled.




Soldiers with any type of banners are major problem when grouped. To make everything clear, there are three types of Banner Soldiers:

• Buff Banner Soldier - Provides nearby robots with mini-crit boost.
  
• Battalion's Backup Soldier - Protects nearby robots against critical damage and give resistances.
  
• Concheror Soldier - Grants nearby robots healths on hit.

Giant version of all three types is where the main trouble begins. Giant Banner Soldier surrounded with small Soldiers can push you back pretty easily. Watch out for Battalion's Backup version as the Kritzkrieg and Crit canteens would be waste. Do not let yourself damage from the Concheror Soldier and watch out for Buff Banner Soldier as he can execute you on sight.





Black Box Soldiers heals themselves much more on hit than Concheror Soldiers. Keep your distance, let the Scout draw their aggro. Giant version of this Soldier is much more dangerous and can push you back if you're unaware. Don't let them damage anyone or else they heal to full health. Black Box Soldiers fires their entire clip at once, which means if you get hit, the Giant gains a full health.




Equipped with the Original, Giant Charged Soldiers always fire critical rockets. The rockets move very slowly though, at half the speed of regular rockets, and can be easily dodged by wary players. Combined with the slower fire rate of its Rocket Launcher, it is just as tough as the regular Giant Soldier.

• Has 3800 Health.
  
• 50% slower projectile speed.
  
• 100% slower fire rate.
  
• Permanently crit-boosted.

Giant Rapid-Fire Soldiers fire rockets continuously, at a faster rate than regular Giant Soldiers. In their combined waves of rockets, they can easily kill players. Though their rockets move more slowly, be sure to try and avoid their rockets at all cost by dodging them and try to kill them efficiently. Use Über canteens if you need to.

• Has 3800 Health.
  
• 180% faster reload rate.
  
• 35% slower projectile speed.
  
• 50% faster fire rate.

The Burst Fire Soldier will shoot a flurry of rockets which can easily kill any player. You should be aware of when it's firing and when it's reloading; an unaware and unattentive player will likely be killed quickly.
There exists a second, more powerful version which is crit-boosted, has 4200 Health and should be faced with more caution. Try to take out these robots while they are reloading their clips, which is when they can't attack, but hide behind cover if you need to. Use Uber canteens as well in the face of fire.




Essentially, these giants are mini-bosses (even having their own unique name), having stronger airblast resistance and health regeneration, and have a crazy powerful rocket launcher as well. Their main method of fire is to shoot a barrage of 30 rockets at a time that have increased damage and are very close together, but move quite slowly. They can be very difficult to dodge, so be sure to use Uber canteens and shields if nessesary. Although this barrage can be devestating, the giant is extremely vunerable when reloading, which takes a while due to their huge clip. Take the same precautions as burst fire Soldiers.

• Has 4000 Health.
  
• Does not fire until fully reloaded.

Combining the terror of Giant Burst-Fire Soldiers and regular Blast Soldiers, Giant Blast Soldiers are the very VERY dangerous enemy! As well as having an decent damage output, these robots can also knock around players, making it almost impossible to hit. Combining that with it's crazy 80% faster reload rate, this robot can constantly knock around and kill players without hassle.
To deal with it, try using Über canteens to avoid getting hurt, attack it only when it is reloading (which is a small opportunity) or try taking it out at long range. This robot is horrifying to deal with, and is a major pain if you are not prepared.

Pyro Robots, like in normal gameplay, are close range fighters, and usually are very vulnerable against long range fighters. Some Pyros can reflect projectiles at players, making them extremely dangerous against Soldiers and Demomen, as they are able to reflect projectiles perfectly, and when in large groups, it's almost impossible to shoot a projectile in their faces.
Some Pyros will constantly fire their weapons at the player and never stop due to their unlimited ammo supply.




This is the most common Pyro-bot you can see. They attack in large groups. If you happen to cross upon a group of super reflectors, let your Sniper know and he'll deal with them pretty easily.

Giant version will constantly fire with his primary, watch out getting too close or else he'll toast you.



To make up for their close-range counterparts, there are also the long-range Flare Pyros. Equipped with various flare guns, these Pyros will target you and try to kill you at long range. Along with the standard Flare Pyros, there are also nuke-like Pyro Pushers and fast firing Fast Scorch Shots.

Robot Demomen, like Soldiers, are very powerful when combined in large groups and are able to deal large amounts of damage, as they are able to do, but at a smaller range. They can pose a great threat to anyone unlucky enough to be caught in their hail of grenades.




Appears in large groups, uses only his Grenade Launcher. You should be safe on some ramp far away. However, trying to fight them up close often results in failure.




Burst Fire Demoman are very well balanced, as their slower reload time counter's its abilities to fire all of its shots at once, so the should not be that hard to deal with. However if you're not mobile enough, they can remove you with all four grenades at once!




Demoknights can be easily dealt with, as long as your teamates are not within close range of their attacks, but they are still deadly as melee weapons cannot be resisted against, with no upgrades or weapons. Try not to be killed by one, otherwise they will gain crits and be able to continue their massacre.




A larger version known as the Samurai Demoknight has more health and jump charges randomly into battle, as well as be able to charge more efficiently. These Demoknights are very dangerous, as they can regain half their health upon killing a player, so be careful when facing them.

The Heavy robots in MvM are one of the most powerful regular robots. As well as having an enormous amount of firepower, their 300 health can easily get the bomb to the hatch. Usually appearing in small groups, these robots are the firepower of all the robots. However, due to their slow movement speed (especially when carrying the bomb) they can be easy targets for classes with one-hit kills.




Equipped with a powerful Minigun, These Heavies can be really pain when facing against an resistanceless player. All Miniguns from the group focusing one player can drive him back to the spawn in seconds.

Giant version is the most powerful giant when paired with Medic. Note to say that the Giant is shooting bullets from his face, not from his Minigun so he can shoot trough short walls, fences and other obstacles.




Heater Heavies trades damage output for the ring of fire around them which shouldn't be a problem. Spy can sap the group and backstab them anyway without getting on fire. Look out for approaching Pyro-bots as they can assist Heater Heavies and granting them +25% damage.

Giant version is the pain in the back for your Spy as he can't get rid of the fire.




The Deflector Heavy functions similarly to the regular Heavy robot, with the added benefit of being able to shoot down incoming projectiles that are in flight. It is different from the regular Heavy robot with its U-clank-a and green tracer firing effect rather than the usual yellowish orange.

Against a Giant Deflector, it is ideal to Scout to draw his aggro so projectile classes can deal damage.




Shotgun Heavies are more mobile varients of the regular Heavies, and are arguably more powerful terms of firepower, as their damage penalty does not counter their increased amount of pellets, so they are able to do decent mid-range damage.

Giant version shoots +400% pellets per shot meaning it can wreck up every class and the Engineer's Sentry gun respectively.




The Heavyweight Champ is a pure melee variant of the Heavy robot, and although it is restricted to melee range, these robots often come in large numbers. The Heavyweight Champ comes in two different types. The first type wields the KGB, and although they can be danegous if you're up close, they are not usually that tough.




The second variant wields the GRU, allowing them to move faster but receive mini-crits; effectively making them a slower bat Scout.




The Heavy Mittens is another pure melee variant which moves faster and wields a permanent crit-boosted Holiday Punch. Spawning in small groups, they are unable to deal any damage, however any hit from them will force players to stand still and laugh, making them easier targets for other robots. They have been known to "mob" players by ganging up on them, or to hang around a single laughing player and stun lock him. It is highly advised to get rid of them before they get in melee range. Having only 20% of a typical Heavy robot's HP, they are fairly easy to destroy.




The Steel Gauntlet is similar to the Heavyweight Champ in the fact that it is a pure melee variant. However, the Steel Gauntlet can take an incredible amount of damage from ranged weapons due to its Fists of Steel and increased HP. They often appear in large waves and are sometimes assisted by other types of robots. The Steel Gauntlet often does not pose a threat to the players directly but instead by being a potent and resilient bomb carrier, especially since that increased resistance and health regeneration make them increadibly hard to kill.

It is advised to kill these large robots immediately, as they pose a major threat. If you have a Spy or a Demoknight on your team, allow them to take it out, as Steel Gauntlets have increased melee vulnerability.

Medic robots, like they are in normal gameplay, are a supportive class that are usually paired with other robots (usually Giants). Their main focus is to keep their teammates alive (despite only pocketing one robot at a time). Their behaviour usually depends on the robot they are healing. When their buddy or itself becomes low on health (usually if their target is below 50% health, or the Medics themselves are on 54HP or lower), they then pop their Übercharge. If the robot they are healing is killed, it arms itself with its syringe gun and defends itself before finding another robot to heal.




One important strategy to remember when facing Über Medics is to allow one-shot classes (like Sniper, Demoman or Spy) to take out the Medics before killing whatever they are healing. If you try to kill the heal target, the Medics will deply their Über, allowing the bomb to further progress to the hatch.

It is very important to remember this when facing robots with Über Medic healers. As you can see, the Medics have a very fast Übercharge rate, which means that if they deploy their Übers once, they can quickly get it back. It is important to prioritise these Medics.




Quick-Fix Medics are not as dangerous as Über Medics, as they have very slow Übercharge rates for their weapons, but have massive heal rates. They can be focused without much hassle.

There's only one type of Giant Medic and that's the Giant Quick-Fix Medic, which, if he pops his Übercharge, makes the patient basically invincible and unable to slow or push back. I recommend to sap the Medic before dealing a final blow.

Sniper robots appear in small numbers and behave like human Snipers, offering support to their teammates from afar. A notification appears when Snipers spawn, and players may yell "Sniper!" to alert their team to the robot's presence.




Their aim is deadly accurate, so they will always hit a player in sight and not taking rapid evasive action, such as strafing quickly back and forth or moving quickly left after moving right for a short time. However, they can't deal headshot damage and will usually not wait to charge their rifle, giving players a chance to ambush the robot.




A second version robot, called the Sydney Sniper, wields the Sydney Sleeper, and will get the chance to cover players with Jarate for other robots to take out. Snipers and Sydney Snipers can appear with the Razorback equipped.


It is important to take these robots out, as if left unchecked, they can take out your teammates easily. Have a lone class go and take out the Snipers once they appear.




The Bowman is a special robot. It will attempt to pick up the bomb (surprisingly) and acts like other robots, going into close range combat. It is equipped with the Huntsman, allowing it to fight easily up close, but not from a distance. Bowmen will never use any other weapons, preferring to still use arrows at point blank range. Being special robots, they appear far less frequently than the regular Snipers.




This variant of the Sniper Robot fires arrows much faster than the average Bowman, and they appear in the advanced missions of Mannhattan. Their larger size and increase health makes them a lot harder to take out that normal robots, and are focused on progressing the bomb further into battle.

First appearing in the Mecha Engie update, Boss Robots are more massive and deadly robots with health that can match Tanks, and have super-powered weapons. A health bar appears when a boss is active (similarly to Tanks) which shows how much health it has left. Otherwise, they have the same attributes as giant robots. Let's take a look at these monsters.




Sergeant Crits is a Giant Boss Soldier that appears on the Broken Parts mission on Bigrock. His large health pool of 60 000 HP means that he can trudge his way along Bigrock, destroying any defenders that stand in his way with his crit-boosted burst-fire Rocket Launcher. Players will also have to constantly attack him since he regenerates 250 health a second, meaning that your going to have to deal constant damage to even affect him. However, Jarate and Mad Milk can slow him down, and gives your teammates an advantage against him. Medics with the projectile shield are also very good.

• Has 60 000 Health.
  
• Regenerates 250 Health every second.
  
• Does not fire until fully reloaded.
  
• Always Crits.
  
• 175% clip size bonus. (11 shots)
  
• 40% faster reload rate.
  
• 30% faster projectile speed.

Using the refund, if you max your your primary, buy full crit and blast resistance, as the Sergeant can kill any unweary players instantly. Also buy some Über canteens (or Crit Canteens if you can survive well) just in case.




Captain Punch is Bigrocks second local boss, appearing at the end of the second advanced mission. Although he does look more menacing than Sergeant Crits, he is less of a threat to deal with, as this particular boss robot is restricted to melee range, meaning that he has to get up close and personal in order to kill players.
However, this does not mean he is not a total pushover. Wielding the FIsts of Steel, Captain Punch takes 40% less damage from ranged sources, and topped up with his 60 000 HP health pool its not that hard for him to make it to the bomb hatch. Captain Punch is more vunerable to melee damage though, but with his overpowered one-hit kill fists, its very hard to get close without having your face pounded in.

• Has 60 000 Health.
  
• Regenerates 250 Health every second.
  
• 400% damage.

One strategy you can use to take care of him quickly is for someone to go Spy and max out the Knife. As Captain Punch takes more melee damage, each backstab does around 2000 damage! If you have your teammate distract him, you can get a couple of good backstabs done in.




Appearing at the end of the latest Decoy mission, Major Bomber is an extremely powerful and dangerous robot. While he is weaker than most bosses, he is no pushover.
Wielding a 12-shot crit-boosted Grenade Launcher, he fires a flurry of grenades in your face to kill you and your teammates. While they deal no more damage than regular grenades, they can be deadly as stray grenades can kill unweary players. He also can focus certain players, as his grenade launcher does not have a weapon spread penalty.

• Has 40 000 Health.
  
• Regenerates 200 HP every second.
  
• Shoots up to 12 critical grenades.
  
• Does not fire until fully reloaded
  
• 80% faster fire rate.

Whats interesting about Major Bomber is that he does not appear until 30 seconds into the wave, but instead has support Engineer bots build Sentry Guns to help kill the defending players. It is very important that players not only focus on Major Bomber, but the Engineer bots as well, as their sentry guns can aid the boss in killing players.




At the end of Hamlet Hostility's Wave 6 is Sir Nukesalot. As the name suggests, this robot has a habit of nuking everything in sight. Wielding a Loose Cannon with a 600% damage bonus and crit boost, this robot can make mince meat of players standing in this robot's path. Rather than relying on direct damage, this robot relies on indirect methods of stopping players, using its dangerous cannonballs of doom and the smokescreens it creates with said explosions. But other than that, this robot will just trudge along to the bomb hatch.

• Has 50 000 Health.
  
• Does not fire until fully reloaded.
  
• Fires two nuke cannonballs with large splash damage.

Essentially a boss version of Colonel Barrage, this robot sports a larger amount of health than its predessesor, as well as having more firepower in terms of a larger damage bonus and permanent crits. He fires a barrage of crit-boosted rockets at your team, which can kill if you are unprepared.
Look out as after 37 seconds, Giant Force-a-Nature Scouts will spawn to assist the Boss, pick the bomb and try to reach the hatch!

• Has 32000 Health.
  
• Regenerates 40 HP every second.
  
• Does not fire until fully reloaded.
  
• Always Crits.

While I did say that Blast Soldiers are one of the most annoying MvM enemies of all time, the Chief Blast Soldier is kinda wimpy for a boss. Appearing twice on Mannhattans missions, this boss shares its weapon attributes with the regular Giant Blast Soldiers, so it is kinda bad. It doesn't really deal any major damage, but it is proficient at knocking enemies around and being super annoying (like I mentioned before).

• Has 58 000 health (Metro Malice)
  
• Damage knocks back players.
  
• Fires 9 shots rapidly.
  
• Does not fire until fully reloaded.

Being the only MvM boss that wields a Minigun, this Warchief Heavy is definitely a threat. While he only has a 20% damage bonus on his Minigun, this boss has the most health out of anything in MvM, and can tank up to 70 000 damage, as well as having the ability to heal 8000 health on a successful kill, which makes this robot extremely bulky. However, outputting enough damage can easily kill this boss, so just consider it a tank with a Minigun. Use crit canteens and destroy it quickly, and be sure not to stand too close when you're low on HP.

• Has 70 000 Health.
  
• Heals 8000 HP on Kill.
  
• 20% damage bonus.
  
• Can shoot down projectiles like Deflectors.

This robot is also supported by Concherer Soldiers, which can help this boss recover even more health than it possibly can, so its important to take out the Soldiers as well as the boss. There is also a group of Giant Force-a-Nature Scouts that appear 42 seconds into the wave, so be sure to take those pests out before they can capture any gates.

I know many players out there including myself takes this game and the Mann vs. Machine way too seriously with all these meta tactic, upgrades and strategies. The MvM is well developed gamemode when every class is unique and useful. You can play what you want as long as it works, you can play Paratrooper, you can try out even Demoknight. Just play smartly and you should be fine in the world of Mann vs. Machine. Enjoy the game!

Thank you so much for reading and I hope you learnt something new here. This is, hands down, my longest guide so don't forget to rate it and write a comment, I read all of them and they really cheer me up.

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