Team Fortress 2/Soldier

The Soldier is the main combat class in TF2. As long as he's not fighting the enemy in their element (attacking a sniper at long range, for example), the soldier will triumph in any fight. Although slow, his high health and high damage weapons mean a Soldier can be a threat to almost any class on any field.
 * Health: 200
 * Speed: 80%
 * Type: [[Image:TF2_achievement_nemesis.jpg||20px]] Offense
 * Special Ability: Rocket Jump

Weapons
Because the soldier has splash damage and a hitscan weapon, it is nearly impossible to kill a soldier without taking a fair bit of damage yourself.

Primary Weapons

 * Rocket Launcher
 * Damage
 * Point Blank: ~110
 * Medium Range: ~70
 * Long Range: ~52
 * Critical: 270
 * Attack Interval: 0.8
 * Clip Size: 4
 * Reserve Ammo: 16
 * Reload Time
 * First Rocket: ~0.8
 * Additional Rockets: ~0.92

The Rocket Launcher deals a lot of damage on direct hits and a lot of 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 fires slowly to make up for its 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.

The rocket launcher has a lot of knockback. Landing a direct hit on the feet of an enemy will send them flying into the air, which is incredibly useful. While they're in the air, you can hit them with another rocket (this is called an "airshot" or "middy"), which will not only deal more damage but also send them higher in the air, increasing the amount of fall damage they take. Launching ubered players into the air will delay them and if there's a friendly sentry nearby they can often be sent flying very far away, wasting the uber completely.

With the Rocket Launcher you can Rocket Jump by crouching, jumping and then firing. This allows you to get to high places that you couldn't normally reach or simply to get somewhere much faster. It is also very useful for getting to an ideal distance in combat, for instance, quickly getting close to a sniper.

Proper rocket jumping deals about 50 damage to you, but if you bungle it it can do up to 100 damage, so be careful. If you have a medic attached to you, rocketjump often as it helps build his uber and gets you moving faster.

The rocket launcher has a tendency to run out of ammo with heavy use. Find a dispenser or supply cabinet. If it's safe to do so, you can also pick up dropped weapons.

Secondary Weapons

 * Shotgun
 * Damage
 * Point Blank: ~85
 * Medium Range: ~20
 * Long Range: ~8
 * Critical: 180 (reduced at range due to bullet spread)
 * Attack Interval: 0.64
 * Clip Size: 6
 * Reserve Ammo: 32
 * Reload Time
 * First Shell: 1
 * Additional Shells: 0.58

The standard shotgun. While the rocket launcher deals superior damage, the shotgun is useful when you need to finish off an enemy quickly or if your rocket launcher is empty and reloading it is too slow. It is also effective against scouts, who can dodge your rockets at midrange and pistol you to death.

Melee Weapons

 * Shovel
 * Damage: ~65
 * Critical: 195
 * Attack Interval: ~0.8

The shovel is your basic melee weapon. 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. When your clip of rockets runs out during an ubercharge, you might be better off swapping to the shovel instead of the shotgun.

Using the Soldier
The Soldier has a lot of health which means he can take significant punishment before he goes down. This contributes to his rocket launcher primary weapon, which often requires him to be in the line of fire to get a clear shot and has a tendency to deal heavy damage to the soldier himself. Their rockets are also useful at range against mostly static targets, like Sentries and other buildings. Two to three direct hits from a rocket launcher will kill anything providing they're not being healed or repaired.

He is also surprisingly good at close range, since his health allows him 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 moving in and out of cover as much as possible is a good idea, and be vigilant about anybody who tries to get behind you. Soldiers make good teams with Medics because the extra health plus constant regeneration allows them to be even more reckless and make frequent use of rocketjumping.

The rocket jump is one other perks of 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 ../cp_gravelpit/ 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 are usually multiple Soldiers on a decent-sized team, so often you will have to deal with more than one Soldier at once. Staying mobile is important, but also make sure you dodge the rockets as opposed to moving randomly. With two or three Soldiers the number of rockets in flight can make you walk straight into one. The best way to reduce damage from rockets is to jump and crouch just before it hits, reducing the damage taken greatly.

Soldiers are best taken out at range since their rockets take time to travel distances, whereas a Sniper bullet travels 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. A demo is moderately well off against a soldier as some good aim and a few pipe bombs can take care of a soldier easily.

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. A Soldier/Medic team can be dealt with if you kill the Medic first. If they use an Übercharge, avoid them until it's over and ambush the Medic.


 * Scout: Scouts are fairly evenly matched versus Soldiers. An ambush is a good way of taking care of lone soldiers. When fighting directly, use your pistol at a range where you can dodge the rockets and the soldier will be forced to use his shotgun. When he switches, go in for a quick hit or two with your primary and he'll be forced to use his shotgun. Repeat.
 * Another Soldier: Without medic assistance, soldier vs soldier fights depend on who uses the terrain to their advantage. A soldier with the high ground will usually win against a soldier down low.
 * Pyro: Pyros have an interesting time versus the soldier and the usable tactics depend on the pyro's loadout. The easiest way is a backburner ambush; the criticals will make short work of the soldier. However, if you can't get the criticals, direct flame vs rocket combat is suicide. If you are a good shot with the flaregun you can try and snipe him from a distance. This takes a long time but there's not much he can do about it. On the other hand, a medic will completely ruin this strategy and you are very vulnerable during the 15-20 seconds it will take to kill the soldier. If you have the flamethrower and are good with the airblast you can try the risky strategy of staying midrange and bouncing his rockets back. Unfortunately, you can't bounce them all and the soldier will quickly swap to shotgun as soon as he catches on, so it's important to avoid damage and hit him with at least 2 rockets so that you can have a health advantage in the shotgun vs shotgun or shotgun vs flaregun fight.
 * Demoman: The demoman is a good counter for soldiers. At midrange the demoman deals much, much more damage than soldier, so as long as you can kill him before he gets close this fight shouldn't be too much of a problem.
 * Heavy: Heavies are very weak against soldiers without medic support. A soldier can simply pop in and out of cover, slowly wearing down your health while you are powerless to stop him.
 * Engineer: As long as you are actively repairing your sentry gun, a soldier cannot kill it without backup. Be careful though: He may use splash damage to kill either you or your dispenser, leaving your sentry vulnerable.
 * Medic: Medics are weak in direct combat, but if a patient survives the initial onslaught of rockets the medic's healing can often outpace the damage dealt by a constantly reloading soldier.
 * Sniper: Snipers are fairly good against soldiers as they tend to move slowly and rockets are easy to dodge from a distance. Beware of rocketjumps.
 * Spy: Soldiers move slowly, which makes them easy to backstab or headshot with the ambassador. In direct combat, however, soldiers are deadly against spies and are also good at finding you if you cloak.