The Classes: Scout

As I touched on before, the Scout's main objective is to use his collection radius, movement advantages, and overheal to jump into combat, grab money, and jump back out, staying alive as long as possible.



Someone in the comments pointed out that I forgot to mention that the Scout respawns instantly. No buyback, no waiting. You die and you come back. Enjoy!



If you fail in your job of "not-dying", make sure you let your team know so that they can pick up money in your absence. Say it with me now: COMMUNICATION! (I heard all of you. Thanks for indulging me.)



Generally speaking, you don't want to be firing your primary weapon. The reason for this is that it draws the robots attention (aggro) towards you, forcing you to make a choice; take cover and risk losing money, or go for the money and fail at "not-dying." Neither of these is desirable, with one specific exception which I will cover in gear.



Stupid lists....

Soda Popper - The Soda Popper is my choice of primary weapon for the Scout because it has triggered mini-crits. I can hear you, yelling at your screen "YOU TOLD ME NOT TO SHOOT IT! WHY DO I CARE ABOUT MINI-CRITS??!!" I say to you "Stop yelling, I'm sitting right here. Also, I'm a guide." But I also say that there is one specific enemy that can't fire back where the mini-crits matter: the Tank. Just rememeber to keep moving to keep that thing charged, and switch to either the Milk or melee to retain the charge if a Tank is coming.



- The Soda Popper is my choice of primary weapon for the Scout because it has triggered mini-crits. I can hear you, yelling at your screen "YOU TOLD ME NOT TO SHOOT IT! WHY DO I CARE ABOUT MINI-CRITS??!!" I say to you "Stop yelling, I'm sitting right here. Also, I'm a guide." But I also say that there is one specific enemy that can't fire back where the mini-crits matter: the Tank. Just rememeber to keep moving to keep that thing charged, and switch to either the Milk or melee to retain the charge if a Tank is coming. Accepted Substitute - The Force-a-nature can be useful in an emergency to knock the bomb carrier back, though I find it to be too narrowly useful. This slot is open to personal preference.



- The Force-a-nature can be useful in an emergency to knock the bomb carrier back, though I find it to be too narrowly useful. This slot is open to personal preference. Mad Milk (Mann Juice) - This slot, however, is not open to preference. If you have the Mad Milk, you use it in Mann vs. Machine. It's that simple. It upgrades really to slow the enemies, and it needs to be upgraded by the second or third round. This is crucial in rounds with a lot of small Scouts, or Super Giant Scouts, as they can easily get through and drop the bomb before you realize you didn't kill him.



- This slot, however, is not open to preference. If you have the Mad Milk, you use it in Mann vs. Machine. It's that simple. It upgrades really to slow the enemies, and it needs to be upgraded by the second or third round. This is crucial in rounds with a lot of small Scouts, or Super Giant Scouts, as they can easily get through and drop the bomb before you realize you didn't kill him. (Possibly) Accepted Substitute - The increased movement speed Crit-a-cola gives you can get you in and out of hordes, and can give you that extra something-something you need to get to where the money is. Use what you have, though the Milk is preferred.



- The increased movement speed Crit-a-cola gives you can get you in and out of hordes, and can give you that extra something-something you need to get to where the money is. Use what you have, though the Milk is preferred. Fan O' War - The Fan O' War is incredibly useful against Giant robots. It marks them for death, meaning that all damage done to the marked enemy is mini-crits, including that done by your allies.



- The Fan O' War is incredibly useful against Giant robots. It marks them for death, meaning that all damage done to the marked enemy is mini-crits, including that done by your allies. Accepted Substitute - For 500 credits, you can upgrade the Sandman to mark your enemies for death, with the added bonus of doing it at range. What is little known (or widely known and I'm just a noob) is that it also triggers the mark on melee, which is unclear on the upgrade screen. The 500 is a little steep for me to make a weapon useful, so I go with the Fan. This one, like the primary, is open to personal preference.



- For 500 credits, you can upgrade the Sandman to mark your enemies for death, with the added bonus of doing it at range. What is little known (or widely known and I'm just a noob) is that it also triggers the mark on melee, which is unclear on the upgrade screen. The 500 is a little steep for me to make a weapon useful, so I go with the Fan. This one, like the primary, is open to personal preference. Lists - HOLY MOTHER OF MANN, I HATE THESE LISTS!

The scout is, in my opinion, the most fun class to play. (Do you care about my opinion? OF COURSE YOU DO! Why else would you click on this guide?) A combination of the fastest move speed in the game and the ever-popular double-jump means the Scout is going to be all over the place. The trade-off being that the Scout has the lowest health of any of the classes. What's a Scout to do? Add bonuses for Mann vs. Machine, that's what! The Scout has a large money-collecting radius and can overheal by gathering the money far above what is possible with a Medic. (My record is 749. I just missed out on the much-better-sounding 750.)The Scout BasicsSpeaking of gear, here's a screenshot!This is my preferred loadout, at least on the weapons side. (I'm sorely lacking in hats. It's depressing, really.) I have my reasons for each one, and now, you will too!One final note before moving on to upgrades. If all the money is collected at the end of the round, the whole team gets 100 credits as a bonus. Don't believe me?Also, in the bottom left of that screenshot, note the little black 0$ next to the total cash. During a round, that meter will tell you how much money is on the ground from destroyed robots. If the number is green, that means that none of the money has disappeared and it's all still available to collect. If that number ever turns black, that means that there is some money that's disappeared and is not available to collect. That doesn't mean you should give up on the money! If anything it means the opposite; you need to work harder to collect the rest of the money so that your team isn't too far behind.This first screenshot shows my preferred set of upgrades. I usually don't buy resistances unless I have lots of extra money and nothing else to spend it on. If you don't fire your weapon, the resistances aren't as important to your survivability, whereas the movement speed and jump height allow you to navigate the battlefield relatively harmlessly. Feel free to adjust this to your playstyle, though note that Crit Resistance is nearly useless in Intermediate difficulties as the enemies who crit are so rare. Also, Health Regen is useful against enemy Pyros, so long as you're quick enough to only get the initial burn and get out, as the Regen should mostly cancel out the afterburn.This shot is the all-important Mad Milk slow upgrade. I <3 Mad Milk, I don't think I need to go any further. I will, though. I also like the Recharge Time upgrade because I just toss Milk all the time.This last shot is my preferred Power-Up Canteen, the Ubercharge, a.k.a. "Yooooou caaaaaan't toooooouch meeeeeee!" I don't really see any reason to go with any of the other ones, but I'm open to suggestions.I think that about neatly wraps up the Scout. Run around, stay alive, grab the cash. Simple as pie, right?