The First Episode

**Multiplayer options** allow a player to customize their gameplay experience to their liking. As part of the options dialog, Multiplayer options are accessible from the main menu. By default, the icon is a white cog wheel, while the Advanced Options icon is the same, but with a plus(+) sign in the bottom right corner

**Advanced multiplayer options** are found in two places: either the gear button with a plus sign on the main menu or via the *Advanced...* button on the Options > Multiplayer tab. They enable the player to control various visual and gameplay-related details, in addition to minor technical tweaks. Below is the full list of options and their default values

**Automatically Reload Weapons** is a useful command while you’re still getting to grips of what each class does. You might find you’ll want to turn it off later for some classes or keep it on for others, for example, you might want to turn it off when playing Scout because you often end up wasting ammo, but you might want to keep it on for slower classes.

**Fast Weapon Switch** is THE MOST IMPORTANT  option here. Without a doubt. Everything else is optional. TURN ON FAST WEAPON SWITCH. This means you can just press 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and immediately switch to a weapon, same with using the scroll wheel to change weapons. It makes your life so much easier.

**Hit sounds** are also a godsend. Some people don’t like them, many customize the sound into something else. But I would recommend turning them on, as it allows you to know whether you’re actually hurting anyone or if you’re always missing. It’s also particularly useful if you’re shooting around corners or in hard-to-see terrain. I’d also recommend altering the pitch for high and low damage. Which one you choose (high damage is high pitched or vice versa) is up to you, but gives an audio indication for whether you landed a direct hit with a rocket or just caught them with splash damage.

Last hit sounds are another optional thing. It plays a sound whenever you kill someone, and has the same pitch changing as normal hitsounds. I personally don’t need them, I keep an eye on the kill feed, but it’s nice to have.

**Display Damage Done as Text** is another really awesome option, I recommend it 100%. It shows the exact amount of damage you do to someone. All competitive players use this as it enables them to call out weak targets. You might not be playing competitive, but it’s always good knowing that you did 90 damage to a Scout and another rocket will kill them.

**Accumulate damage** (also known as batching) is for when you do lots of damage in a stream, mostly when you’re playing Heavy or Pyro. Rather than seeing lots of little numbers, you see the total damage of your fire or minigun bullets and gives you a more accurate reading. Definitely recommended.

Damage doesn’t prevent overhead text isn’t always needed if you’re an expert at TF2, but for a newbie, it can help explain why an attack did extra damage, for example if you suddenly do 270 damage with a rocket, the CRIT text says you got a crit, while doing extra damage via Jarate shows MINI-CRIT text. Can be handy, I’d recommend trying it at least.

**Remember the Active Weapon** between lives means that, when you die, you’ll respawn holding the weapon you died with. This is especially useful on Medics, who normally die holding the Medi Gun. Remember the Previous weapon does the same thing, but with the weapon before the weapon you were holding before you died, i.e. whatever quickswitch (Q) would change your weapon to. Some people might not want this though, as they’ll want to go back to their main weapon more quickly.

Play a Sound when the Sniper Rifle is charged depends on how much you note the icon on your screen. It can be handy to have an audio cue when your eyes are concentrating elsewhere, but it’s personal preference.

The Sniper and Spy options listed here are all optional. The Concise Spy Menu is alright for learning Spy or if you have little tiny fingers that can’t easily reach the 8 and 9 keys.

Personally, I don’t like either of the Sniper options. Hiding the crosshair makes long distance shots harder to take, especially on BLU when the pale blue Sniper dot can be harder to see. It’s worth testing the Re-Zoom option and seeing if you like it before committing to it entirely.

The Medic options are all very good. **Injured Team Mates Automatically Call Out** is an amazing option which helps you locate injured players without them calling for you. I’ve always had mine set to 99 (with a bind that allows me to toggle between 99 and 150 so I can see all friendly players – a trick known as Medic radar).

Display Marker is a small option, not really necessary, but useful when in crowded areas. Continue Healing Without Holding Fire is a personal preference one. There was a very small delay when it comes to switching targets, and it can make stopping healing a bit harder, but the delay was apparently fixed? (Thanks, d4m0) I toggle this option on and off as I need it, in MvM and when playing longer game modes, it can save a lot of stress on your fingers. But leaving it off is perfectly fine.

Draw Viewmodels is one you should have turned on if you’re new and/or easily confused. Unticking it means that you don’t see what weapon you’re holding, although everyone else still can. Most people disable this and enable the 3d player models (mentioned above), in order to maximize the amount you can see on your screen. Flip View Models is another personal preference.

**Disable sprays.** You don’t need sprays. They just clog up your TF2 folder.

Close the Server Browser does what it says. It’s another personal preference thing, and means you can get straight to other menus when you pause the game while connected to a server.

Turn off Synchronize with the Steam Cloud unless you’re changing computers/locations/whatever you want. It can be more a hindrance than a help.

Save Screenshots to Steam means your screenshots are automatically available in Steam’s Screenshots thing. Good to have on.

Popups are optional. If you don’t want to be distracted, turn them off completely. You can disable community market info if you’re free to play, but if you want to sell leftover guns from contracts, it’s worth having on.

Alright, I think that’s everything. Some of you more experienced players may disagree with my assessment, but when it comes to new players, it’s best to at least know that these quality of life options are available to you and can make playing TF2 a far easier and smoother experience.

## References

1. ↑ There are no "best" settings, just settings that you like