"The Sniper" is Australian. His main weapon is a sniper rifle. He often stays in one area away from the main battlefield and shoots enemies from a distance using careful aim. He also has a sword and a sub-machine gun he can use in close combat. The Sniper is very good at killing the enemy Medics, Heavies, and Engineers. An uncharged shot to the head does 150 damage. Only Pyros, Demomen, Soldiers, and Heavies can survive this without an overheal. A fully charged shot to the head deals 450 damage, enough to kill even an overhealed Heavy.
"The Spy" is a French man. His main asset is stealth. He has a watch which makes him invisible for short periods of time, and a cigarette case with disguises in it. He can disguise as any member of the other team to trick them into not hurting him. This disguise also tricks Sentry Guns built by Engineers. The Spy can also place 'sappers' on enemy buildings, hurting them and turning them off until an Engineer can remove the sapper. For fighting, he has a revolver and a knife. The knife allows the Spy to kill an enemy instantly if he stabs them in the back. He is useful for killing Medics, Heavies, Engineers, and Snipers. The Pyro is able to easily stop him, as even when he turns invisible or is disguised, players can still see the fire on him. The Spy is considered a "pick class", meaning he is very dispensable but also very useful to get certain kills.
There are several different ways the game can be played, each with different goals for the two opposing teams. For all games, players are split into the RED and BLU teams. RED stands for Reliable Excavation and Demolition. Players on this team have red uniforms. Buildings owned by the RED team are also usually red and made of wood. BLU stands for Builders League United. Players on this team wear blue uniforms. Buildings owned by the BLU team are usually blue and made of concrete.
The Payload game mode has the offensive team pushing a cart with a bomb on it along a track while the defending team tries to stop them. If the offensive team cannot get the cart to the end of the track before the time limit runs out, they lose. If they are successful, the defending team's base is blown up. Along the track are Checkpoints. Each Checkpoint the offensive team pushes the cart over will give them extra time to get the cart to the end of the track.
Valve later added a race mode to Payload maps, where both teams push a cart along a track to the other team's base. The team that gets the cart to the other team's base first wins.
Control Point maps involve both teams attacking and defending the opposing team's Control Points. A Control Point is a circle on the ground that glows the color of the team that has captured it. Control Points are captured by standing on them for a certain length of time. There are three kinds of Control Point maps.
Standard Control Point, or Linear Control Point, maps play symmetrically. Both teams start with two controlled points, and a central point starts out neutral. The team that captures all control points wins. Traditional Control Point maps will go into Sudden Death (or Stalemate) if no team captures all the control points before times runs out. Control points closer to a team's spawn point are captured more quickly by the enemy team.
Attack/Defend maps play asymmetrically. RED begins with all the points in their control. BLU wins if it captures all of RED's points, but RED wins if the timer runs out before BLU can capture them all. Points may only be captured in a set order (though some maps, such as Gravel Pit and Steel, may make exceptions). RED wins if it prevents BLU from capturing all points before the timer expires. Points captured by BLU are typically locked and cannot be captured again by RED.
In Territorial Control, the goal is to take over the entire map by capturing "territories". Each game is randomly selected from the six available layouts in a 'point against point' game where both teams must capture the opposite point while defending their own. After a team successfully captures the opposite point, the next round takes place in a different area of the map which is also randomly selected. After a team captures all four territories, that team must capture the enemy team's base. If the base point is captured (in Hydro, the Radar Dish for RED, the Power Plant for BLU), the attacking team wins the game. When the next round begins, territories are reset and a new random layout is selected. The Territorial Control game mode is not very popular amongst players.
In Domination Control Point, maps play symmetrically. Both teams start with no controlled points, and all points start out neutral. The team that captures all control points wins. Traditional Control Point maps will go into Sudden Death (or Stalemate) if no team captures all the control points before times runs out. Unlike Standard Control Point, once a team has all three points they win regardless of how much capture progress the other team has. There is currently only one
In Capture the Flag mode, the map is split into two nearly identical bases; one for each team. Both bases have a briefcase in them. The goal is for one team to grab the other team's briefcase and bring it back to their own base, while defending their own briefcase. You must capture the enemy intelligence 3 times in order to win the game, but server modifications can alter the number. When a player carrying the briefcase is killed, the intelligence is on the ground and returns to its base after a 60 second time period. The player who dropped the intelligence or his team can pick up the briefcase before it returns and still capture it. If a player drops the intelligence by falling into a bottomless pit, it automatically returns to its base. The briefcase can also be manually dropped.
In King of the Hill mode, two teams fight to gain control over one point which is in the center of the map. When one team captures the point, they must defend it for three minutes to win. During this time, the enemy team can attack and capture the point too. This happens over and over again until one team successfully holds the point for three minutes in total. It is not needed to hold the point for three minutes at one time.
In Arena mode, two teams fight to the death. Once a team is completely wiped out, the other team wins. There is no respawning in Arena mode. Another way to win is to capture the control point that activates until one minute in the match. Once this point is captured by a team, that team wins.
Medieval Mode is just like Attack/Defend except that there are no guns allowed in Medieval mode. Players can use melee weapons and weapons that don't have firepower but cannot use guns, rocket launchers, flame throwers, stickybomb launchers, or grenade launchers. So far, there is only one official Medieval Mode map, which is DeGroot Keep.
Special Delivery is a Game Mode released as part of the Pyromania Update. In this game mode, an initially neutral briefcase of Australium must be transported to Poopy Joe's rocket before the opposing team can do the same. If a player picks up the Australium and is killed while holding it, only players from the same team as the dead briefcase carrier can pick it up again. If the team fails to do so within a few seconds, the briefcase is sent back to its original position. The player who has hold of the Australium must be on the platform that is raised to the compartment at the head of the rocket and must stay on the platform as the Australium is placed into the compartment, launching the rocket and winning the round. There is currently only one official Special Delivery map, and that is Doomsday.