The pyro is an offensive-support class designed to confuse enemies with flames and cause as much chaos as possible. Although not the most powerful fighter when it comes to weaponry, the pyro can get light classes to slip by and heavy classes to destroy with his assistance. The pyro has medium health and medium armor (a lot of medium armor and medium health) and is all about fire. The pyro although is not a super short ranged class is better off not fighting at long distances. Also the pyro is not a good combatant in the water. Feel the burn!

Speed: Medium
Health: 100
Armor: 150 (Medium)


Strengths of the Pyro:

-Minimal reloading
-Damage over time (slight)
-Confusion
-Moderate health and armor
-Somewhat versatile (both offensive and defensive)
-Good speed when compared to other high health classes
-Immune to fire

Weaknesses of the Pyro:

-Small damage
-Flamethrower is not the easiest weapon to hit with.
-Limited flamethrower range.
-Nearly useless in the water.

The Pyro's Role:

Offensive Support/Defense Disruption: Confusing enemies to help teammates out. An example of this is burning a HWGuy while letting a scout slip past him to get the flag.

Defensive Support/Spy Checker: You can confuse enemies to help your defenders do a better job. Use napalm grenades for area denial. You can also blow spy cover with your flame weapons.

The Flamethrower:
This fuel-powered flame gun right here is what you're going to be using a lot. Now, one big mistakes pyros make when using this weapon is try to get as up close and personal as possible. It DOES have a limited range, but it actually stretches pretty far and it would probably be more accurate if you are attacking at long range. At point-blank, you're pretty much never going to miss though. Although, for safety and strafing, try it at longer ranges. It does moderate damage and sets enemies on fire with afterburn. Afterburn is weak. 8 damage total. So what's so special about it? It will hamper the vision of your enemies. Which is a lot more effective than you think. Especially towards snipers. It's better to use this as a tool for backpedaling and strafing around rather than charging up close and personal because the reach on this is incredible. It is indeed a projectile as well so if your enemy is strafing, shoot flames in the direction they're strafing, but not directly on them.

The Incendiary RPG:
Although the flamethrower has incredible reach for a flamethrower, you have more ranged back up. This flaming anti-tank weapon is a great tool to have in some situations. Attacking enemies when hitting them with your flamethrower won't be as easy and long ranges. What's the difference between this and soldier's RPG? This thing shoots a weaker and slower projectile, but it requires no reloading, has a huge splash radius, and sets enemies on fire. Contrary to popular belief, it does not do more damage than the flamethrower. You'll only be dishing out more damage with this if you're direct hitting 100% of the time. A direct hit is not easy to perform with such a slow projectile though. Also, heat travels through thin walls. You can also do mini rocket jumps with this, but they are better for going to small horizontal places rather than large vertical places.

The Shotgun:
You have a weak, single-barreled shotgun as a sidearm along with your primary weapons. When should you use this? This is a better tool utilized against enemy pyros as they cannot be set on fire, scouts since they move very quickly, or low health targets. Shotguns in this game do not have fall off so feel free to use it at any range. There's not much to it.

The Crowbar:
This hilarious little tool. When would you be using it? It's pretty much straight up pure silliness. You already have a flamethrower and incendiary rocket launcher. You can use it to quickly pull it out on a target that has like 1 health and smack them. That's about it.

The Fragmentation Grenade:
Kaboom! Prime it, throw it, watch the gibs. A simple standard frag grenade for every other class (except scout of course). It works well in about any situation. Especially emergencies. The grenade can also be used for mobility.

The Napalm Grenade:
This is the pyro's ultimate weapon. The napalm grenade happens to be your most powerful flame-based weapon in your inventory. Any class that walks into a burst of all 4 thrown on the ground will most likely die in 2 seconds. The napalm grenades have a few uses. One thing I like to do with these is use them for area denial. Throw them down in your base entrance and as people walk in, they burn to death. They are also good at taking out sentry guns. One napalm is actually pretty harmful to a level 3 sentry gun. Once you throw it, it explodes, and it still damages sentry guns with the extra flames. The napalm grenade can also be used in conjunction with the incendiary cannon to perform a high rocket jump.

As a pyro, when it comes to fighting, you may not have the most damaging weapons, but you are able to take down strong enemies if you're wise enough. There's a different strategy you can use for going against each class. As a pyro, moving while you're fighting is important. Strafe a lot while shooting your weapons because in order to kill enemies with your weapons, you have to avoid being hit. If you hurt an enemy enough, but still die you may have a chance to kill them with afterburn although it doesn't happen often. You have the upper hand against spies and snipers while you are a bit weaker against soldiers, engineers, snipers, other pyros, and demomen.
Scouts: When you're going against scouts, it's better to stay in front of them and not let them pass you. If they pass you, they most likely will escape and grab your flag. It's better to confront scouts in closed spaces so they cannot move away from you or your flames as much. Backpedal while fighting scouts. If they get past you, you should try to use your shotgun to kill them. They get one shotted by frag grenades and napalm grenades are very effective against them.

Snipers: Snipers are a bit tricky. While you do have the ability to confuse them with your fire weapons, you are poor at longer ranges so it's better to try and bombard them with your incendiary RPG or stay out of their sight. Once you get past the sniper, get close with your flamethrower and burn them. If the sniper's scoped in with a charged shot, sometimes they'll turn around and hit you anyway. That's why you should most likely move as you're burning them. If you DON'T kill them, you can at least annoy them to the point where your teammates can go by.

Soldiers: These guys are tough. They're in my opinion the hardest class to combat as a pyro. They have a lot of health and armor like a HWGuy yet they move faster than them. They have what counters a pyro good. Mobility, power, and health. Frag grenades counter them pretty well. A lot of times, you can keep your distance between them and use your incendiary rocket launcher against them as you dodge their rockets. Your flamethrower can be used the same way, but if you wanna keep your distance to an extreme degree go with the incendiary rocket launcher.

Demomen: Demomen are capable of bouncing you back so you can't hit them. Their spam will kill you quickly as well. That 100 health and 150 armor can deplete very quickly when fighting one of these guys, but there is a way. I primarily go with the incendiary cannon for fighting these guys due to how difficult it can be to get closer with the flamethrower. If your flamethrower can reach them, it makes a good tool. Demomen will have trouble aiming pipes and grenades with flames all over their face.

Medics: When using your flamethrower on them, you can get infected pretty darn easily. If you're using your flamethrower on them, make sure you backpedal and hit consistently. The incendiary cannon on them is nice because it allows you to keep your distance. If the medic is using their gun as normal, use basic strategies. Hitting them with your flamethrower and incendiary cannon.

Heavy Weapons Guys: These guys may seem hard, but they're actually pretty easy. You can strafe them, as you burn them. They won't know what's going on. A lot of times I burn HWGuys, they end up shooting into random places that I'm not even in. The best way to take these guys out is to circle strafe them with your flamethrower. Grenades are also very effective. I don't recommend the incendiary cannon as much on them. You need to hit consistently, and they are not hard to hit which makes the flamethrower better.

Pyros: When going up against other pyros, flame weapons can be ineffective. I recommend using your shotgun and frag grenades to take them on as they cannot be set on fire. They're not only immune to afterburn, but they take less damage from the flamethrower. If you are using a flame weapon, go with the incendiary cannon.

Spies: Generally a spy does NOT use his gun. It's rare to find spies that use their guns. Spies can be discovered with your flame weapons. Use this to your advantage. You basically can see through their disguise. When burning them, use your flamethrower and backpedal as they try to shank you or use the incendiary rocket launcher. Don't let them get too close because their knife is pretty damaging. Also, you can burn corpses to see if a spy is feigned somewhere. If a spy uses his gun, use basic strategies like with medic.

Engineers: Engineers can be quite a challenge. Although they die very quickly, they have EMP grenades that can one shot you if you have 200 fuel on your flamethrower and sentry guns. When going against sentry guns, you're better off using frag grenades and napalm grenades. You can try circle-strafing it with your flamethrower, but that's a bit risky. When going against the engineer by himself, be careful. Use the incendiary RPG to shoot him from distances or you can use the flamethrower to kill him quickly. Beware! If he dies, he likely was priming a grenade. Do not walk on his corpse unless you see the explosion or you wait a while and see no explosion.

Defensive Pyro: Pyro makes a good roaming defensive class rather than a stationary defensive class. The stationary defending should be left more to HWGuys and soldiers. Run around, find spies, and throw napalms in entrances for area denial purposes. Since you're going to be more of a roaming defensive unit, it can be an idea to report what hostiles enter your base and where they're going. If you are being more of a stationary defensive pyro, I recommend defending in a closed straight line. That way enemies cannot avoid you as easily and will most likely die.

Offensive Pyro: On the offensive front, confuse enemies. When you're on defense, your priority target to take out is spies. However, if you're on offense, you should go for the snipers. Pyro can burn snipers and hamper their vision and most likely kill them. This can help your team move forward. You can also throw napalms into areas with a lot of enemies to confuse a huge group of people or even burn them all to their deaths. Take the flag if it's a great opportunity, but mostly leave that to the faster classes. Also, you can be a bit offensive from your own base by bombarding snipers with your RPG for confusion purposes.

1. Stay away from water sources as much as possible.
2. Go for splash damage with the incendiary cannon if you can't land direct hits.
3. Flames have a long reach from the flamethrower. Use this to your advantage, and try to keep yourself in a good position when burning an enemy.
4. You can sort of stack afterburn damage by using different flame weapons. It's not necessary all the time though.
5. Play both offensively and defensively depending on the situation.
6. Use napalm grenades for area denial and defense.
7. Confuse the enemies! You don't always have to kill to be effective.
8. Use the single-barreled shotgun as a last resort weapon.

The pyro is an offensive-support class that revolves around confusion and disrupting bases. The pyro has damage over time, a good amount of health and armor, and you do not have to reload as often as other classes. Your weapons are not the strongest tools in the game, you're not the best long range fighter, and you're helpless underwater. You counter spies well when you're on defense and you counter snipers well when you're on offense.