Team Fortress 2/Soldier

Health: 200 Type: Offense Special Ability: Rocket Jump Description: The Soldier excels in being the best in combat. Although slow, his high health and high damage weapons mean a Soldier can be a threat to almost any class on any field.


 * Primary Weapon: Rocket Launcher - Max Ammo: 36 - Max Clip: 4 - Reloaded one at a time

The Rocket Launcher deals a lot of damage on direct hits, but also deals splash damage to nearby enemies. A direct critical hit will kill most classes, even with a medic, in one hit. The rocket launcher is strong, but it's a slow weapon to make up for it's power. Rockets from long range are easy to dodge and reloading is time consuming. Whenever you aren't in combat, reload your rocket launcher. Always be ready for combat. With the Rocket Launcher you can Rocket Jump by simultaneously jumping and firing at your feet. This allows you to get to high places that other classes couldn't normally reach or get to a higher place faster, it can also be a tactic to surprise the enemy in combat. Rocket jumping deals about 50 damage to you, so be careful after doing so.


 * Secondary Weapon: Shotgun - Max Ammo: 32 - Max Clip: 6 - Reloaded one at a time

Your standard shotgun. While the rocket launcher is a superior weapon, the shotgun is useful when you need to deal that last bit of damage quickly or when you are in the heat of combat and don't have time to reload your rocket launcher.


 * Melee Weapon: Shovel

Like other melee weapons, the Shovel will deal about 60-70 damage a hit. Generally you will want to use your rocket launcher in close combat, but killing someone with a shovel is always good for a laugh and humiliation.

Using the Soldier
The Soldier has a lot of health which means they can take significant punishment before they go down. This contributes to their rocket launcher primary weapon, which often requires them to be in the line of fire to get a clear shot. Their rockets are also useful at range against mostly static targets, like Snipers (providing they don't kill you first), Sentries and other buildings. Two, at most three, direct hits from a rocket will kill anything providing they're not being healed or repaired.

They are also surprisingly good at close range, since their health allows them to be reckless with the rocket launcher, dealing with low-health enemies quickly by firing a rocket when they're pretty much toe-to-toe with someone and soaking up the splash damage whilst they fly away in small bloody bits.

However, Soldiers are quite slow and susceptible to Snipers and Spies, so remaining behind cover as much as possible is a good idea, and be vigilant about anybody who tries to get behind you (although this is a problem for any class that moves slower than a Spy). Unless a Heavy is nearby, Soldiers make good teams with Medics, allowing them to be even more reckless.

The rocket jump is one other perk about being a Soldier, since a correctly-performed rocket jump can propel a Soldier ridiculous distances (i.e. from the front entrance to Cap C of Gravel Pit all the way up to the top of the tower where the control point is) at the cost of losing a chunk of health. Since this opens up a lot of potential shortcuts to a skilled Soldier, this can greatly make up for his lack of speed, allowing him to reach places as fast as a Scout would. It can also be exploited to start battles before time, for example in Well, where a Soldier can rocket-jump over the cargo containers separating the two sides in the middle and start firing rockets at enemies waiting to be let into the central control point (although this also has the downside of pitting the Soldier against three or four enemies at once, which might be too much to handle).

Defeating Soldiers
There is usually multiple Soldiers on a decent-sized team, so often you will have to deal with more than Soldier at once. Staying mobile is important, but also make sure you dodge the rockets as opposed to moving randomly since especially against two or three Soldiers the number of rockets in flight can make you walk straight into one. Soldiers are best taken out at range since their rockets take time to travel distances, whereas a Sniper bullet travels almost instantly and has a much larger effective range. Failing that, surprising them with a Pyro, another Soldier or a Heavy/Medic combo is also effective at dealing lots of damage to multiple Soldiers in small spaces, especially since they can fire rockets around and wind up killing themselves with the blasts.

Rocket jumping carries the downside of health loss, so if a Soldier manages to take a particularly big shortcut with one such jump, they'll be a little easier to deal with. Also since Medics will often attach themselves to Soldiers if a Heavy is not available, a Soldier/Medic team can be dealt with if you kill the Medic first. If they use an Übercharge, then avoid them until it's over, then ambush the Medic.