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As a Spy, the watch that you use will determine how you play as they vary quite differently. The default watch is the Invisibility Watch, which is a simple timed cloak. You can be invisible for around ten seconds and it takes approximately thirty to recharge from empty. The advantage of the default watch over the other two is mobility. As the cloak is simply based on time, you can run, jump and travel quite a distance in ten seconds, on top of that you can pick up ammunition to replenish your charge on the go.

On a lot of the levels in TF2 you can travel from one end to the other cloaked due to ammo boxes. Small gives you 25% charge, medium 50% and large 100%. Knowing where ammo boxes are located is one of the skills you will need to develop as a Spy. On all the default maps I know where the ammo boxes are, so I can plan my routes accordingly.

Be warned that this watch is also the most luck-based watch. If someone picks up the ammo box you’re heading for or you run out of charge, you’re placed at a sudden disadvantage therefore I would say the default watch is probably the hardest for new players, but that’s not a bad thing. By having that uncertainty it forces you to learn the locations of ammo boxes and when to use the cloak.

Moving on to cloak usage, when you’re running around, equip a friendly disguise and run with your team. If you stumble upon the enemy, retreat immediately and let your teammates deal with the issue. They will be playing stronger classes and assuming both teams are of equal skill, they will keep each other occupied. This is the opportunity for you to cloak, change to an enemy disguise and flank. If the enemy is busy firing at your teammates and you flank them, you will be provided with ample backstabbing.

As a general rule, only use the cloak when you’re going into unknown or enemy territory.

Knowing when to use invisiblity is the key, because it takes 2.5 seconds to uncloak and fire a weapon. Ideally you need to visual the map in your head and split it into three sections, for the sake of simplicity I’ll use green, yellow and red. Green zones are the areas your team controls completely, yellow zones are where it’s contested and red zones are where the enemy definitely is.

You want to use invisibility in yellow zones, because this is where the combat is and the two sides engage in combat. Red zones are more dangerous as you have no help on your team, but the enemy is more relaxed so disguises are more likely to fool at a glance. As a quick note here, disguises are just to make the enemy think you’re another player doing something, so a bit of acting helps. Unfortunately because there isn’t friendly fire by default, spychecking costs nothing. If you think someone’s on to you, cloak and relocate.

You can see what the zones would be like for a blue spy. The spawn is safe, the first area is contested while the rest of the map is enemy territory.

Once the first point has been captured, the rooftop, back area and thin section of track become the contested area, so you’d use invisibility here.

After the third section has been captured, the contested zone moves to the cart and the corner, while the red is pushed back to the silo area.

There aren’t any hard and fast rules, but if you’re unsure, use the invisiblity. The Cloak & Dagger and Dead Ringer have made this a lot easier as invisiblity is less of a commodity than the default watch. The default watch is certainly the most mobile, but you have to memorise all the ammo locations and hope they’ve not been taken.

The pictures work in reverse for a red Spy. Red areas are the easiest to get kills because people assume the areas are safe. For the record, I got my personal best as a red Spy when the map was like the third picture, I was using Ambassador and the default watch for maximum mobility.

Once you can visualise the zones in your head, you’ll know when to use invisibility.