Travel all the way back to the year 1968 in the video game Team Fortress 2 and play as the Soldier, the crown prince of Cold War American patriotism! As the gravel war spreads across the badlands and more and more players join the ranks of red and blue, you ask yourself “How is the game of Team Fortress 2 played?”

Not to worry new recruits! Below you will find among the most optimal loadouts to dominate the enemies you're pitted against! Remember your training and you will live to fight another day!

1) Tryhard Roamer

Though it may seem unintuitive to shoot yourself with explosives in an FPS, sometimes you just gotta take off and fly. As the rest of your team slowly advances toward the enemy on the ground, the Soldier can soar his way across enemy lines and attack the weakest links from behind.

Yes, replacing a shotgun with a pair of metal boots might seem counterintuitive, but the ability to attack enemies from any direction with rocket-propelled grenades turns the Soldier into a perfect balance of strength and speed, like a deadly ambush predator.

Loadout:

• The Original: It’s almost exactly like the stock rocket launcher, but fires from the middle of the screen instead of off to the side
• The Gunboats: A pair of well-worn metal boots that allow you to take less than half normal damage from rocket jumps
• The Escape Plan: If all else fails, this pickaxe will grant you greatly increased movement speed when at low health, which makes escaping skirmishes even easier.

Playstyle:

• Where normal rocket jumps cost the Soldier 50 health, the gunboats decrease that number to 20. As long as you have more than that, you have access to powerful and instant mobility 
• Soldier is easily most powerful when he’s on the high ground and able to take advantage of rockets' splash damage. Because of this, it’s powerful to attack enemies from a high above rocket jump. The Original makes this even easier because the rockets move in a perfectly straight vertical line
• Because this requires being deep in enemy lines with no friendly Medic, memorize the location of health packs. Maintaining a strong offensive uptime is essential to being an effective roamer

2) Pub stomper

TF2’s bread and butter is it’s casual frantic 12v12 matches which means that team tend to be uncoordinated    and messy. A single Heavy/Medic combo can carry a team if they try hard enough. All they have to do is kill the enemy team before they reach the objective repeatedly with infinite health.

Luckily it’s not always doom and gloom for the Soldier as he was given many weapons that allow him to heal himself. Staying alive denies the enemy team from steamrolling yours and in the best of scenarios allows you to dominate entire servers. All without needing a medic.

Loadout:

• The Black Box: A rocket launcher with two simple differences from the stock; it has one less rocket in the clip and grants up to 20 health upon a hit from its explosive
• The Concherer: This backpack and shell heals the Soldier over time and has a special effect: When enough damage is dealt, the Soldier can blow the conch, granting him 35% lifesteal and a speed boost.
• The Disciplinary Action: If you need a speed boost, hitting an ally with this grants both you and the ally a burst of speed. It also has extra melee range at the cost of low damage

Playstyle:

• Rocket jumps should always be used to secure the high ground. Having only 3 rockets per clip means constant reloading and getting above your enemies gives you the chance to reload before engaging. Because you also get health on hit, you're able to hold the high ground longer as well.
• The one time you should take risks and push directly into the enemy is when you have the Concherer boost ready. The extra survivability makes up for the reload team usually needed for prolonged engagements.
• Aside from the utility of the speed boost, the Disciplinary Action’s extra range allows you to stay a safe distance away from enemies in a melee brawl. You can win 1v1s with it without taking any damage.

3) Trolldier

Though from a competitive standpoint, it’s dubious, there’s no doubt the Trolldier playstyle is the greatest mark of skill in all of TF2. Becoming an effective Trolldier takes hundreds of hours and months if not years of practice. But when everything is in place, you're able to terrify servers utterly. 

There’s nothing like it in any other video game. 

Loadout:

• The Rocket Jumper: Though it seems useless on account of it dealing zero damage, it can be used to rocket jump freely without chipping away at the health bar
• The Mantreads: Another pair of boots like the Gunboats, though these ones increase the air control of the Soldier, allowing him to make graceful movements flying through the air. If you land on an enemies’ head it also does a lot of damage
• The Market Gardener: Pretty straightforward, if you hit someone with it mid-rocket jump, you deal a 195 damage critical hit, able to instantly kill seven of the nine classes.

Playstyle:

• Generally, this loadout is played in a very similar way to the tryhard roamer; the focus should be on flanking the enemy and taking on vulnerable targets. However, this loadout has an advantage over the tryhard roamer since no damage is taken with the rocket jumper
• Chain your rocket jumps together and learn jump spots. Remember that chaining your jumps together significantly increases your speed. As long as you can fire a rocket at your feet before hitting the ground, you’ll take no damage
• Knowing how to air strafe is essential to playing trolldier effectively. In short, don’t hit your W or S key while rocket jumping, only use A, D, and the mouse for precise movements.

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