While the Grenade Launcher won't act as your primary weapon for the Sticky Demoman playstyle, it can still be very useful. If you are saving your sticky trap(s) for something that hasn't arrived yet or hasn't reached the trap, you still have means of attacking. You won't be useless while waiting for your sticky traps' intended targets. Also, you can grenade jump between areas if your stickies are being saved. It isn't very useful for distance, but it does a decent job at height.



Same as the Stock Grenade Launcher, except grenade jumping is a little bit easier because of the small amount of roll/bounce. This comes at the cost of some radius though. Not devastating considering it's a backup weapon, but something to keep in mind.



This one is a little tricky to place. I would never put my teammates through it's dreadful knockback which forces them to adjust their aim, but it's a decent tool for jumping. Unlike other grenade launchers, it's jump mechanic can gain tons of distance and height. It takes a big chunk of health though. Personally speaking, it's more of a mobility tool than a weapon for MvM.



Since your Stickybomb Launcher is your primary source of damage, you may want to get rid of a reliable backup weapon altogether. The extra health and speed can be very nice additions. It also counteracts the Eyelander's health downside which I'll get into more later. For me, having a backup weapon is more useful, but that's not to say this can't be done.



I'm not sure why you would use this. Just making sure it's clear not to. It has no clear upsides (especially for beginners) and is completely outshined by the other primaries already mentioned.




While the Scottish Resistance is much better in the hands of a more experienced player, the Stock Stickybomb Launcher is still a very good weapon for anyone to use. Plus some people think the Scottish Resistance is cheap. It does good, reliable damage, a decent crowd control job, and is very easy to spam with once you're upgraded a bit.



14 stickies out at one time is a very signifigant damage increase compared to the Stock Stickybomb Launcher's 8. You also rarely come close to being out of ammo. It comes with extra firing speed so there's less of that upgrade you need to purchase. Lot of upsides to this weapon. However, since it's near impossible to spam because of the one downside it has of slower arm time, it's a bit harder to use for newer players. Its playstyle relies heavily on anticipation and wave experience. For beginners, I suggest learning the class roles with the Stock Stickybomb Launcher first and adjusting to the Scottish Resistance later on.



A damage penalty is no good considering the Demoman is debatably the best class for dealing damage in MvM. Also the devasting clip size penalty leaves you with a clip of 4 to put out 8 stickies. 8 weaker stickies at that.




Reliable I guess. You almost never use your melee as Demoman so it doesn't matter much anyways.



The health penalty can be annoying, but the heads can make up for it if you time yourself to get heads off of stray bots or bomb bots. Don't go full on Demoknight or anything, but keep in mind that there are benefits to meleeing every now and then. Any time I've tried to use it, I forget it's there so I stick with Stock, but it's definitely workable. Just remember it's there and you'll have an advantage a lot of the time.

This is the general order for how your upgrades should be purchased:

1. 3 (Full) Reload Speed (Secondary)
   
2. 1/4 (Full) Firing Speed (1/4 depends on if using Stock or Scottish Resistance) (Secondary)
   
3. 4 (Full) Damage (Secondary)
   
4. At least 1 tick of Health on Kill, you can add more later if you like (Secondary)
   
5. 1-2 ticks of Clip Size (Secondary)
   
6. Any amount of resistances that apply to the wave
   
7. Any extra cash can be spent on Crit/Uber canteens or Ammo Capacity (Secondary)

Early on, you don't have to max Reload Speed before getting any Firing Speed. You can mix between them until you have enough to max both of them. For example, if you have 800 credits, 2 Reload Speed and 1 Firing Speed may work better than 3 Reload Speed.

Having extra Clip Size is especially helpful for the Scottish Resistance. It makes it much easier to get all 14 stickies out in a timely manner.

Resistances are bought so much later than other classes because of how long Demoman can last as a glass cannon. He isn't forced to play as far forward as classes like Heavy and Pyro, therefore he isn't as exposed. This is also the reason for Health on Kill being later than other classes.

• Priority targets are any bots with Uber Medics attached to them. The sooner you take them out, the sooner your team can start shouting their healing target(s). To do this effectively, pay attention to the incoming robots. Lay your stickies down in a spread out manner to ensure you get all of them, if there are multiple of them of course. Being spread out in a large oval works for me most of the time. This is the main role of a Sticky Demoman and is a very important concept to understand. What makes it so important is that if they aren't taken out with burst damage, they'll pop their Uber and push through the front with ease. On top of that, some of them have almost instant Ubercharge rates. Ubered bots can carry the bomb unlike Ubered players in Capture the Flag, so taking them out quickly before they can get very far is essential.
  
  
• If using the Stock Stickybomb Launcher, crowds should be your next priority. They're very strong and deal considerable splash damage. If the crowds are in long, continuous streams, just spam your stickies. A good way to do this is by using the pile trick which I'll explain later. If they take time to arrive, set up a circle around where they'll drop similarly to what to do for Uber Medics (established in previous paragraph).If using the Scottish Resistance, Giants should be your next priority instead. This is because of the 6 extra stickies it can hold. If crit-charged, 14 stickies can one shot any Giant and deal a good chunk of damage to bosses. Lay them all out in a single spot if there are no attached Uber Medics rather than spreading them out to ensure maximum damage on the Giant(s).
  
  
• The most effective way to deal with continuous bot streams is to set up a single pile, not in all one place, but all in the same area. If all of your stickies are placed and you shoot another one out, the first one is detonated. This preserves the rest of the stickies so you don't have to use them all on just one bot. I call this the pile trick. It's especially useful if your stickies are crit-charged so you don't have to waste all of them at once on something small. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJXTZLD_pyA This clip I made does a decent job of showing how it works.
  
  
• There's a pretty common trend of the Soldier and Demoman chasing tanks. This is all wrong. The Soldier and Engineer works much better, especially if there are Uber Medics. Sticky Demoman should remain near the front line at all times unless the tank is dangerously close to the hatch. Stickies aren't even all that good at tank busting without mountains of credits. People are mislead to think they are by the burst damage of crit stickies. In short, don't chase tanks.
  
  
• If you're saving your sticky traps for something that's not on the field yet and you have a practical primary weapon for attacking (No Boots, Loose Cannon, etc), use it while you're waiting. No point in being useless while you're waiting for them to drop or walk over your trap(s).
  
  
• Killing Snipers is not your job. Let your Scout/Soldier/Engineer take them out. You need to stay near the front line with your Heavy almost all of the time. You're a major damage class, so being absent from the front for even just a few seconds could cause your hold to fail.
  
  
• If using the Scottish Resistance, Crit canteens can help you take out Giants very easily. The Kritzkrieg works as well, although you won't always have a Medic. Place them all in one spot how it was established earlier.
  
  
• Grenade jumping or sticky jumping can be an effective way to switch between areas or rollout if your teleporter is down.
  
  
• If you have a Medic using the Kritzkrieg, encourage them to give you crit stickies for the start of the wave. Most of the time using the pile trick from earlier is a good way to use these crit stickies before you have a chance to memorize the individual waves.

Set traps for Uber Medics. Use the pile trick. Crowd control for Stock Stickybomb Launcher; Giants for Scottish Resistance. Crit stickies can make a big difference but they aren't necessary. Under most circumstances, don't chase tanks. Sticky Demoman is one of the harder classes to get adjusted to, but it pays off once you learn it. He's one of the best carry classes in any tour. There are other ways to play Demoman, namely Nade Demo and Demoknight. I'm saving these for guides of their own since the playstyles are very different. Just know I didn't leave them out because I think they're bad or because I'm meta. Some stuff is pretty generalized in this guide so if you have something specific that's not in here, it may be too advanced or situational to be in it. Leave a comment about it regardless though if you like. I might've missed something important. Cheers.