Arguably the most difficult class to master, the Demoman's weapons are a challenge to use, but in the hands of a skilled player, this class can single-handedly annihilate the other team. The Demoman's primary tool is the grenade launcher. This weapon can hold up to 6 grenades, which behave differently from the game's regular grenades. Rather than relying on simple fuse detonation, the Demoman's grenades arm nearly as soon as they are launched, and explode on contact with another player or one of the Engineer's buildable objects, or after a few seconds. The Demoman can also choose to fire pipebombs from this weapon (a maximum of 8 at a time), which do not detonate on impact, but rather are triggered either by the Demoman's "special skill," or two minutes after being deployed. They also detonate if the player is killed, or if they are within the blast radius of an Engineer's EMP grenade.
Similar to the Soldier class, the Demoman can perform a special type of jump with his pipebombs. By placing a pipebomb on the ground, then jumping over it while detonating it, the Demoman can perform a jump greater in height than a Soldier's rocket jump. The downside is that any more than two pipebombs will severely damage the Demoman.
The ability of a Demoman to deliver a large volume of explosive death nearly anywhere makes this class very valuable on defense, as well as clear enemy fortifications, or temporarily deny an area to aid the offense. In fact, certain maps require a Demoman to use his detpack (a large, extremely powerful, timed bomb that instantly kills anyone in the area) to open (and sometimes close) alternate entryways, or destroy key map objectives. The detpack can also be set to explode at timed intervals of 5, 20, and 50 seconds.
The main weakness of this class is its inability to deal with long-range threats. Additionally, there is a degree of unpredictability with the grenade launcher, as the grenades sometimes bounce unpredictably, and the launcher's relatively slow reload time can leave the Demoman inadequately armed.
Another important component of the Demoman's arsenal is the MIRV grenade. These potent grenades explode twice, the first explosion sends out 4 submunitions, which explode again to devastate a wide radius. Armed with 2 MIRV grenades, up to 4 normal grenades, the single-barreled shotgun, and the crowbar, this class is fairly fast and wears better than average armor, making it capable on defense or in an offensive support role.