THe nine class silhouettes

Silhouettes of the nine classes. Note the distinct character design that makes them still distinguishable.

Mechanics

Classes

There are nine playable classes in Team Fortress 2, which are categorized into three areas- "Offense", "Defense", and "Support", though these categorizations have no impact on gameplay. The abilities and stats of classes can change based on loadout.

BLU controlpoint on cp_coldfront

A control point on cp_coldfront that is currently owned by team BLU

Objectives

Maps are made based on a variety of game modes, which are used to determine the objectives for both teams. Teams may compete over the same goals (such as in Push Control Point and King of the Hill maps) or oppose each other in an offense vs. defense setup (such as in Attack/Defend Control Point and standard Payload maps).

Many game modes use control points. Control points begin to be captured when a player of a team not owning the point stands on the point. The capture time varies by map, and its speed is increased when more players stand on it (though each player beyond the first provides diminishing returns). Capture is halted when an opposing team member stands on it in defense, and capture progress is gradually undone when no capturing team mates stand on the point. Control points cannot be captured while "locked", and locked points are usually unlocked after preceding points are captured. Payload carts are pushed and halted the same way control points are captured, though instead of capturing a Payload cart, the pushing team tries to bring it to a checkpoint. Übercharged players cannot capture points or push carts, though they can defend them.

In all official maps with offense vs. defense game modes, BLU plays offense while RED plays defense. In such maps, BLU tends to have faster respawn times, but RED is given a setup time to prepare a robust defense.

Weapons

Each class has a unique set of weapons at their disposal occupying weapon slots 1, 2, and 3 (often referred to as primary, secondary, and melee, respectively). Some classes may have additional slots, such as the Engineer's PDA and Spy's Disguise Kit. The choices players make in choosing weapons and items constitutes their loadout.

Most non-melee weapons require Ammo for use. Weapons that use Ammo can be either reserve-based (having a limited clip size and requiring reloading from stored ammo, such as the Pistol) or fully-loaded (capable of using all ammo without reloading, such as the Minigun). Reserve-based weapons either use magazine-style reloading (reload fills loaded ammo in single, one-time animation, such as the Revolver) or sequential reloading (reloads ammo from reserve one at a time, such as the Shotgun). Reloading can be interrupted at any time by attacking or changing weapons, though time spent reloading (beyond the last carried ammo increment, in the case of sequential weapons) is wasted. When reloading a sequential reload weapon, a different animation and reload time is used for reloading the first ammo and subsequent ammo (for example, an emptied Grenade Launcher takes 1.24 seconds to reload 1 ammo, plus 0.6 seconds for each ammo after that).

Many weapons that don't use ammo must be recharged instead (such as Jarate). Recharging can usually be done by waiting for a set amount of time, going to the resupply cabinet, or respawning. Some weapons without ammo require manual refill based on specific requirements, such as the Medi Gun (which requires refill for ÜberCharge, though not for healing) and the Buff Banner.