Soldier Guide - Courtesy of Minimoose

A class which although labelled as offensive, can fill almost any position in a team; whether you need to defend or decimate the soldier can easily be the player for the job. He’s easy to pick up and pretty straight forward from there on out. There are some difficult skills to learn if you want to master the class. The guide is a bit long but I think there are a few useful points :D

Weapons

• Primary: Rocket Launcher Ammo loaded: 4 Ammo carried: 16 Damage: up to 112 Critical: up to 270 The main weapon for the soldier, the rockets fly straight until they hit something, which means there is not much tactical aiming. The damage is high per rocket since you will kill most classes in 2 direct shots and criticals will destroy any group of enemies, except a heavy (If he’s on full health or has a medic buddy). The small clip size means you can only spam when you are safe, otherwise you might have to reload in dangerous areas, many times where the shotgun is not adequate. Splash damage is very useful, since your aim is often slightly off due to the slow flight of rockets, so you can damage even with bad shots.
• Secondary: Shotgun Ammo loaded: 6 Ammo carried: 32 Damage: up to 90 Critical: up to 180 The max damage at point blank is high, but most of the time you won’t be pressed right up to your enemy as a soldier, if you are then this is definitely a viable option instead of rockets which will damage you as well. It is also very useful if you’ve damaged an enemy and you want to finish them off without wasting a rocket or they will be too hard to hit with a rocket. I use it as a last resort most of the time, such as when I’ve ran out of rocket ammo with a Kritzkrieg I’ll swap out my shotgun to deal out some large damage to fleeing enemies.
• Melee: Spade Damage: up to 87 Critical: up to 195 The weapon that I hardly ever use, it is more of a comedy weapon than it is useful. If you don’t trust yourself with the shotgun then you can use it to take down some classes but normally this will just be suicidal. I would only use it if you’re completely out of ammo or if you want to gloat at the enemy if you manage to kill them.

Aiming

Aiming is of course important with any class, with soldier you have to get used to the slow travelling rockets, judge the distance of the enemy and aim accordingly. When the enemy is close, you can choose to hit them directly or juggle them (which is when your rockets hit them into the air by hitting them around their feet). Adapt to different enemies, also remember that it’s easier hitting the floor near them rather than the actual body. For example, pyros are dangerous if they get near you, so juggle them and they should die in 2 or 3 hits. Once you get good at aiming you will sometimes be able to hit other soldiers and demomen jumping with your rockets, which normally will make them drop down to the ground (a lot of the time they will die from the fall).

Rocket Jumping

My favourite part of playing soldier, air assaults! Great for surprising enemies such as snipers and medics who think they are safe hiding behind high areas of ground. Also you can use it to jump round corners so enemies don’t see you coming. You have to be careful when doing it if a medic is your buddy, warn them you’re going to do it so they can run off to a safer area. Fire a rocket at the ground, crouch and jump simultaneously. Changing the angle of the rocket hitting the ground either gives a high jump or a long distance jump, you should get used to judging them as you do more. Also if you’re against a pyro (or any class, often it will be a pyro) and they are pressed against you, you can sometimes do a little rocket jump off them to gain a small distance between him and you. It is also great for escaping dangerous areas, if there is a ubercharge coming you can just rocket jump way.

Hopping

Pressing jump all the time when your firing and being fired at is useful as soldier. Hopping as you attack gives you better firing angle for rockets, if fired at the top of your jump (especially for juggling); it also makes it hard for others to hit you.

Sentries

Sentries are relatively easy to destroy as a soldier, if an engineer is constantly repairing the sentry spamming rockets straight at it won’t work. The best tactic for long range, in my opinion, is to fire as near to the engineer you can, so in 4 rockets or so he should die and you can destroy everything easily. If this doesn’t work, see if you can destroy the dispenser (since it’s normally the thing keeping him alive), then try and use splash damage to kill the engineer or wait until he’s out of metal and he can’t repair it. If you are given an ubercharge then make sure the medic runs at the sentry as you do to draw some fire, and then kill the sentry after the engineer is dead.

Useful miscellaneous stuff

Your rockets actually fire a little from the right of your screen, so if you know a sentry is round a corner you can fire round the wall without the sentry detecting you. This is also useful for enemies round a corner, as they will find it harder to hit just a little bit of you than your full body running straight into a gap. You can juggle ubercharged pyros; this means that they waste the ubercharge. You won’t be able to juggle them as well as non ubercharged enemies but you will knock them back enough to let your teammates retreat.

Dangerous Classes

Snipers – Not really much you can do against them at long range, you can spam them if you want but if they are good they will headshot you anyway. I would just stay out of any open areas and also get used to places where snipers cover, so you can avoid them like the plague.

Heavy – If you are against a lone heavy then you will most likely win by just firing round a corner so they can’t hit you. If they are with a medic, try and kill the medic, but if not then just retreat.

Demomen – If they use stickies against you then they can predict where you will go and trap you, the best way of killing them is to get close, then kill them with rockets or shotgun depending on your health. If you have enough health then you can just rocket jump away.

Scouts – If they are good then they can be very annoying, they will jump around you and keep close whittling down your health. If you can hit them with a rocket they will be on very low health so just kill them with your shotgun.

Spies – I advise you to be paranoid, if not then spies will slaughter you. Since you are a slow class who is often on his own, you will be a prime target for a backstab, not much you can do about it either.