This is the second of my guides for Mann vs Machine and this time we are looking at the fast talking and faster moving Scout.

The Scout has a little bit of a different roll in MvsM than the other players. While other classes are focuses in one way or the other in destroying the robots, the Scout has the task of preparing the rest of the team to survive the next Wave. And how does the Scout prepare the team?

Simple

THEY GET THE MONEY!!!!

Yes, that is the Scout’s most important role in the Team. Without the money the Scout collects the Team will be unable to buy the upgrades it needs for upcoming Waves. Now this would seem to be obvious to anyone who plays attention, but some people don’t seem to have a clue. Recently I played on Coaltown and there were TWO Scouts that spent most of the Wave sitting on top of a building shooting at the Robots below as they went past. As you guess, the Robots won handily. I’m not saying that Scouts shouldn’t fight. Scouts can and should play and important part in fighting, but that combat is not their MAIN purpose.

Primary Weapons

The Scout’s choice Primary Weapon for the most part a matter of taste and should reflect how you want to play. The Scatter Gun is a good all around weapon. The Force-a-Nature may not do as much damage over time, but it has a knock back effect on what it hits which can be helpful in forcing the Bomb carrier back from the direction of the hatch. The Shortstop can do a little knock back, but needs to be reloaded often. The Back Scatter mini crits what it hits from the rear at close range. And a proper Scout will have little problem getting on the back of the slower moving robots.

There are two weapons that probably would not work well for most Scouts. These are the Soda Popper and Baby Face's Blaster. While the extra jumps from the Souda Popper might be nice they don’t have nearly the importance as they do in multi player. To me it’s not worth it, but some people think it is. Baby Face's Blaster might seem like a good idea, but it’s not. Unless the Boost Meter filled the Scout moves slower than normal. And taking damage and jumping subtracts from the Boost Meter. Given the Scout is right in the enemies’s metal faces to take damage continually and jumping is necessary for a Scout’s survival, it’s going to be hard to keep that Boost Meter anywhere near full.

Secondary Weapon

The Scouts secondary weapons fall into two general classifications. Either it’s to cause more damage or avoid taking damage. First off is Bonk! Atomic Punch. With Bonk! the Scout has 8 seconds of invulnerability, but is unable to attack during that time. But while Bonk! is in effect the Scout can collect money safely. Crit-a-Cola lives up to it’s name as when activated the Scout inflicts mini crits. Mad Milk and Mutated Milk are useful in two different ways. While Milk helps heal the Scout and his teammates, the upgrade for it causes the target to move 35% slower. And slowing down a Giant Robot is always a good thing. The Winger can be a good choice in some instances since it does more damage and increases the Scouts Jump by 25% when it’s active. Pretty Boy's Pocket Pistol is likely a poor choice since when it’s active the Scout takes 20% more damage though healing 5 points for every hit can offset that liability. The Flying Guillotine can be useful against Giant Robots, but otherwise is rather limited in utility. Most of the good Scouts I have seen use Mad Milk.

Melee

The Scout has a very large variety of Melee weapons that can be used, though most are just cosmetic changes and don’t influence game play. However there are several melee weapons that can be a huge help to a team. The first of these is the Fan O’War. A robot hit by one of these is “Marked for Death”, which means any hit on it are minicrits and damage that would inflict a minicrit becomes a full critical hit. This means that it’s possible to kill a Giant Robot MUCH faster than it would be normally. It is hard to overstate the importance of this. Quite literally a couple hits with the Fan can mean the difference between winning and losing. The Ball from the Sandman has a similar effect and has the advantage of being able to hit a target you may want to keep some distance from, such as a Giant Pyro. If you want to get in close a Pyro (or rather HAVE to get close to a Pyro), the Sun-on-a-Stick gives 25% resistence to fire and autocrits a target that is on fire. Of course you need someone else to set the target on fire first.

The Candy Cane can be useful as it drops a small Health Pack with every kill. Or it should be. But the Scout should be picking up money which heals them and since the Scout is in the middle of the enemy there isn’t going to be anyone around to pick up the Health Pack. So this does not seem worth it to me. In fact I can’t even remember seening anyone use a Candy Cane in MvsM. The Boston Basher and Three Rune Blade are bad ideas. The chances of missing don’t make up for the extra damage you might do. The Atomizer gives the ability to Triple Jump and that can be useful, just don’t expect to do much damage with this weapon. The Wrap Assassin is something have seen very rarely used even in multiplayer and never in MvsM. A melee weapon that shoots something is a bit anti intuitive and the amount of damage it does seems rather low. Technically this might be of some use, but if it was, I would think I would see it a lot more often.

As I stated above the main purpose of the Scout is to collect money. Not only so the Team has funds to Upgrade, but picking up money heals the Scout and can overheal a Scout hundreds of points. I personally have gotten up over 800 health. How one gets money is where skill is important. You need to be right in among the enemy robots and the only way to survive is keep moving. This means you will be running and jumping all over the place to avoid enemy fire. Of course all this running and jumping often puts the Scout on the back of a robot. This gives the Scout a good chance to attack without the robot being able to strike back. This is very important with the Giant Robots as they tend to react very slowly. All the running and jumping has another bonus for the Team. With the robots trying to shoot the Scout, the other team members will not being taking fire. This means they can concentrate on killing the robots. Of course more dead robots means more money for the Scout to pick up.

And this brings up a core concept in Mann vs Machine. Cooperation. A Team NEEDS to work together to win. People that want to play a certain way because they like it or think “it’s cool” usually are a detriment and could very well cause a Team to loose a match. A Heavy using a shotgun as his main weapon is little help to a Team. A Demoknight might be “cool” and get individual kills, but a stock Demoman can get 5 times as many kills by proper use of a Sticky Bomb launcher. (Note. I have seen a few Demoknights be very useful, but most are not.) So Scouts, don’t be like a Soldier running around with a Half-Zatoichi the entire game, collect all the money you can.

Now there is one time the Scout really should not be jumping all over the place. And that’s when there is a Tank arrives. Many of the Scouts Primary Weapons do a great deal of damage at close range and going and standing in front of a Tank or standing on TOP of the Tank allows the Scout to do maximum damage. Of course if robots start showing up the Scout might have to disengage to help deal with them or collect money. And people need to understand this: A Tank CANNOT run over a player. A player can stand in front of it and it will just push them along. The only thing to worry about is being crushed against a wall or some object. When the Tank is about to die, the Scout should move to help finish off the Tank and collect all the money as they can do it much faster than anyone else and not miss any.

The Scout also needs to help his teammates in a Wave. There are times when a Scout is the only team member that is able to engage an enemy robot effectively. A Heavy beset by two or three Robot Scouts can be in trouble. A few shots from the Scout can be a huge help. Sometimes the only member of a team that can kill a Robot Sniper is the Scout. A Team cannot win if they keep being picked off at long range. But a Scout with his speed usually avoid the Robot Snipers fire and then quickly kill it. As the old saying goes “There is no “I” in Team.” For a Team to win they MUST work together.

Upgrades

Of course the Scout's first upgrades should be to Movement Speed and Jump Height to get the Scout around quickly and Jump to get the Scout over the heads of the robots. If low on money, make sure to get some jump and cut down on Speed. A Scout NEEDS to be able to jump over the robot's heads in order to keep from being boxed in and killed. With more money come more Upgrades. Look at what types of Robots you will be facing in the next mission and adjust the Scouts damage resistance. Facing a lot of Soldier Robots? Get Blast Resistance. Pyros, Fire Resistance and so on. If there are funds left over weapon damage or Health Regen can be chosen.

Don’t be afraid to Refund money to get reset the Scouts Upgrades to what is best for the incoming Wave of robots. In fact, don’t be afraid to change the Scout's any parts of the load out or even all of it. In one Wave a Sun-on-a-Stick might be a good choice because the Wave is made up of Pyro robots while the next Wave a Fan O'War would be better. And don’t forget the Power Up Canteen. It can give the Scout an important Power Up at a critical moment.


Threats

Some types of robots the Scout (and all other players for that fact) need to keep some distance from. These or the Pyro robots and any with a strong melee attack such as Demoknight robots or Steel Gauntlet Heavies. When Melee Robots are around it best to have a little Health Regen and Upgrade the Scouts weapons. When facing Pyro Robots Fire Resistance is a must.

Something else the Scout has to watch out for is the Sentry constructed by the Engineer Robots. These Sentries can kill a Scout faster than some Giant Robots are able. In fact any robots with a gun can be a problem for the Scout as bullets are very hard to dodge. This is when getting behind the robots is a good idea. Just remember though, if you are on the back of the robots, there is a chance robots can get on the back to the Scout.

Another robot that is a threat to the Scout is the Robot Spy. One backstab and it's all over for the Scoutm no matter how much Health they have. Fortunately since Scouts are always on the move they make poor targets for a Spy. But the Scout still needs to be careful.

Another threat is the other members of the Team. While it can be unintentional, the other Team members can cause problems for a Scout. Say there is some money and the Scout is about to pick it up. A fellow “team member” sees the Scout going to get the money, but still goes and gets it for himself. This robs the Scout of some Health. I know a Scout cannot collect all the money, and it is good if a teammate picks up money when the Scout cannot see it or is not around, but stealing it from right in front of them hurts the Scout and so hurts the whole Team. A lack of support can also be a problem. A Scout has seven Soldier robots chucking missiles at him and the other members of the team don’t bother to shoot that the distracted robots. Eventually the Scout ends up getting killed and soon after, some of the other Team members will likely follow.