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The Dead Ringer is a very interesting item, I would say it’s probably the most intruiging item in all of TF2 to date. Using the alternate fire button doesn’t turn you invisible, but simply brings a modern style hunter-case pocket watch into view. This stylish device appears not to do anything at first glance, but when it is in view on the player’s screen and they take damage, the Spy is immediately invisible, has 90% damage reduction and a fake corpse is spawned giving the illusion of the Spy’s death. The Spy then has roughly six seconds before the cloak wears out with a load zap sound.

This watch offers the potential for a new style of gameplay for the Spy. As you cannot go invisible at will, you will have to make better use of disguises. A brief note about the fake corpse, if you use a friendly disguise, it drops a corpse of that class. If your disguise is that of an enemy, it drops a Spy corpse.

It is best to think of the Dead Ringer as a second chance, excellent for making a getaway after stabbing someone. Using the Dead Ringer appropriately, you can fool the enemy into thinking you’re dead and relocate yourself. A common way to get into enemy territory is to adopt a friendly disguise, take some real damage, then use the Dead Ringer to make your way past their lines and equip an enemy disguise. One of the main benefits is a Spy can stab one enemy in a group, equip the Dead Ringer and escape unharmed. 90% damage reduction means a critical rocket to the face will do approximately 20 damage!

Hopefully now you should understand the basics of how this watch works and now I’ll describe where most Spies go wrong, so you don’t make the same mistakes. With 90% damage reduction, the Dead Ringer has become quite popular as a brute force method, so rather than try to get past the enemy undetected, a novice Spy will simply run at the enemy, watch in hand, so they apparently die from a single needle and appear somewhere nearby after the Dead Ringer zap alarm goes off. Unfortunately the corpse that gets spawned by the Dead Ringer doesn’t utilise the momentum or other physical properties of the player that used it, so the corpse itself is usually a massive giveaway.

In addition, the Spy cannot attack with the Dead Ringer out, so you might end up seeing an enemy not fighting back who suddenly dies from one shot. To experienced players, the Dead Ringer doesn’t fool and it becomes more of an annoyance. In my opinion, it’s simply better not to be seen in the first place rather than try to pretend you’re dead.

To make your death look more convincing, you’ll have to take real damage first, for example if against a Scout, let him hit you once with the Scattergun. You won’t die at full health, then
activate the Dead Ringer so the next shot triggers the watch. Ensure that you wait for one second of cloak to be used before you apply a new disguise otherwise the smoke trail will follow you.

Another unique ability the Dead Ringer has is it can extinguish fire. If you’re on fire and use the watch, a flaming corpse will be spawned, but you will be put out, allowing for a clean getaway. In my opinion, only use this watch for tunnel maps or Payload maps when you’re on the cart and movement is limited. The Dead Ringer won’t fool experienced players, especially enemy Spies who know how it works. I’m making the assumption you’ll be playing against skilled opponents, I strongly recommend this as it will force you to improve your skills. The average ‘pubber’ will easily be fooled by the Dead Ringer, but if you’re playing against an easy enemy, you’re not challenging yourself and won’t improve.

The majority of other Spies who play at a high level have moved to Dead Ringer because it allows you to pull off stupidly high kill to death ratios (I think my record is something like 20:0), but completely loses all stealth elements, turning the Spy into a Sniper (if the Ambassador is used) and they stick with public servers against easy opponents. If you really want to improve your skills, look for a clan server or groups that play in leagues. You will really have to think about how you play, but I guarantee you will improve.