Editing Team Fortress 2 (section)

==Gamemodes==
Team Fortress 2 has four main gamemodes (Payload, King of the Hill, Control Points, Capture the Flag), each of which is a team-based objective centered around capturing points or advancing through a map. This also applies to the alternate gamemodes, of which there are several.

===Payload===

There's a big fucking bomb on rails and a big fucking bomb slot in the middle of RED's base. BLU wants to get the bomb there and shove it into their hole, RED wants to avoid getting that bomb jammed up their ass. The attacking team has to cluster around the bomb to 'push' it forward and capture multiple control points, with the exact speed at which it moves varying depending on the number of people riding the cart. If the cart isn’t pushed for a while, it will move backwards to the last captured point. If it’s on a slope when it’s not being pushed, then gravity does it for you.

Some maps like Goldrush, Hoodoo, or Thunder Mountain will span 3 stages across a single large map, while others like Badwater Basin, Frontier, or Upward will be one long map with multiple points. Frontier gets a special mention because its payload is a train with a set of teeth at the front called Lil' Chew Chew that you send to blow up in RED’s Base, and as long as anyone on BLU is on the payload while it moves, those teeth ''will'' kill anyone in the way.

====Payload Race====
Payload, but there's two holes and RED also has a payload to push. The first one to get their payload to its detonation point wins the game, so expect to see everyone running off to impede their enemy's payload while the cart sits on its own. Most games played will take place in '''High Tower,''' which is considered one of the more fun maps by the community’s standpoint.

===King of the Hill===
There's a single control point in the middle of the map. Both teams have a 3:00 minute timer that only decreases when they own the point; whoever holds the point when their clock hits zero wins.

===Control Point (A.K.A.: 5CP) ===
Both teams fight over the same 5 control points in a single map, with the victor being declared by who captured all of them in a game. 2 points will lead to each team’s base while the final one is dead center for everyone to fight over. Typically these games are symmetrical for both sides as players need to know when to start grabbing points, or defending a contested one. The more captured points a team has, the faster they can take the next one. Playing a Scout or a soldier/demoman with a Pain Train equipped will count as 2 players capturing, allowing for quicker captures and risky plays. While most games have 5 control points, Powerhouse may be the only map to have 3 points instead.

====Attack/Defend====
Both teams take turns playing the role of Attacker (BLU) and Defender (RED). The objective of the game is to defend all of the Control Points from BLU before they can occupy the point long enough to declare their capture. Once both teams have taken their turn, the winner is declared based on the points you captured before loading into a similar map to do it again.

The first and final control point will always be near the spawn of the BLU and RED teams, respectively. The reason behind this is pretty simple: the terrain initially plays heavily to RED's advantage by giving them all of the strong defensive positions to camp their sentries, high ground for mid-long range classes to exploit, and few to no barriers into essentially spawncamping BLU's base. BLU players must fight back against all odds before they gain the upper hand, with the final point almost always being RED's last stand. 

(For example, Dustbowl's third section features a pre-built bunker for RED's sentries and no barriers on the way into BLU's starting area, meaning that a powerful assault can [[Anal Circumference|drive BLU all the way back to their spawn and keep them locked in there]] if there's good coordination between the RED members. By contrast, the final point has very little cover for RED to hide behind and a set of buildings around a blind bend which BLU can set up sentries and teleporters in, along with an ambush route that lets the BLU team bypass the only bridge across to the point.)

Some games will have just one set of points in a large map to capture (Steel, Gravel Pit, Gorge, etc.) while others take place over a set of 3 parts (Egypt, Dustbowl, Erebus, etc). There is also a medieval version that removes most guns (spare the primitive ranged weaponry like crossbows or bows and arrows) in favour of storming a castle with your melee.

====Arena====

Arena is a combat-oriented gamemode where both teams fight to the death, with a single capture point that has to be taken to also win the game. The catch is that it only unlocks after one minute and anyone dead is left to spectate until the game ends. This is for the players who want a more tactical, teamwork-focused version of KOTH/CP with rules similar to Counter Strike, another game by Valve. Coincidentally, when CSGO was released, Arena servers slowly evaporated... 

...but unlike Territory Control, the community was able to salvage this game mode with various community mods; like one where Blu team is a single player controlling a powerful opponent like Saxton Hale, and the Red team has to work together to defeat him before they’re all killed. There is also one where everyone is a spy looking for a murderer in the midst, or the mod where one team is a bunch of harmless props that have to hide from a team of hunters in a version of hide and seek.

===Capture the Flag===

The enemy team has a briefcase full of intel in their base. Your job is to get that fucking briefcase, then haul it back to your base and deposit it in your intel room while the other team simultaneously tries to take yours. If you can't get it back in time, it returns to the original base. First team to three captures wins.

While it's a good gamemode overall, the most popular of the maps (2Fort) is also kinda notorious among hardcore players for hours-long, bloody stalemates and causing new players to embrace the worst parts of their class (Snipers camping battlements, Engineers setting up nests and never moving from them, etc.) There's also no protection against outright spawncamping of the "Station a Heavy and three sentry guns outside the only door" kind on many of the CtF maps, so you'd better hope [[That Guy]] isn't on your enemies' side.

===PASS Time===

[[What|Football, hockey, and basketball meet bloodsports.]] You're meant to carry a ball known as the JACK across the map and score at the opposing goal, but barely anyone plays this fucking thing.

===Medieval Mode===
You ever wanted to know what it'd be like if TF2 was a medieval fantasy rather than a hat collection simulator? If you do, welcome to Medieval Mode and its attendant map, Degroot Keep. The basic gimmick is that the classes aren't allowed any 'modern' tech, only 'medieval' stuff like melee weapons, crossbows, or shields; the attackers also have near-instant respawn to compensate for the defenders' heavy terrain advantage. One side has to attack and capture two control points to the side of the big ol' castle, then get past the main gate to capture the last central control point in the castle's keep itself. If they can take this last point within 60 seconds, the attackers win; if not, the gate closes and they have to recapture the other two points before trying again. 
 
Thanks to the above restrictions, this means it's an absolute paradise for Demoknights, Spies, and Huntsman-equipped Snipers, with plenty of [[Rip and Tear]] to go around on all fronts; it's also probably where you'll pull off your first trimp-jump, thanks to the rocks there being designed specifically to facilitate long charge-jumps up onto the walls. The final control point in particular is a great place to experience what being a [[Khorne Berzerkers|Khornate Berserker]] is like up close and personal, as it inevitably devolves into a mosh pit whenever the gate opens up.

===Mann vs. Machine===

The only proper "Cooperative" mode, in which a team of six players is pitted against several waves of AI-controlled robots. The bots want to try and bring a bomb across the map to the Control Point you're defending; defeating them makes them drop cash, which can then be used to upgrade your abilities and weapons. You also have to fight powerful "Boss" robots with unique gimmicks at the end of each level as well as facing mid-wave minibosses like Tanks (durable but slow bombs on tracks,) meaning that team cohesion and good loadouts are crucial to this mode.

This mode also has a rather different meta to the main game due to the upgrades system and enemies, with otherwise mediocre weapons becoming robot-mulching superweapons and the potential for every class to play its part. (That said, Wrangler-Frontier Justice Engineers and Mad Milk/Fan-o-War/Force-A-Nature Scouts are pretty much auto-includes for MvM competitive courtesy of their sheer utility to the team in taking out/slowing down bomb carriers.) Completing Tours of Duty by spending RL money on one-use tickets also ensure you get a random Strange-quality "Botkiller" stock weapon, with a very small chance for the coveted Australium weapons to drop from the highest-difficulty campaigns.

Unfortunately, like any game of TF2, there are [[That Guy|tryhards]] that will ruin your day if you even slightly deviate from meta. Though those tryhards have a point with their aversion to people using the Gas Passer, given how braindead OP it is in this mode.

===Miscellaneous===
These poor bastards are the game modes that never really got out of beta or just aren't popular enough to justify their own options on the gamemode choice menu.
	
====Special Delivery====

Capture the Flag meets Payload. BLU needs to capture a neutral briefcase and drag it to a control point on a platform, which will slowly rise to the top of a rocket. If it reaches the top and the rocket launches, BLU win; if the timer runs out without the platform reaching the rocket's top, RED wins.

====Territorial Control====
	
The much-maligned meeting of Control Point, Attack/Defend, and KOTH, Territory Control's gimmick is that the game takes place in several different "territories" of a map known as Hydro. Each territory has only one control point, and capturing it captures the territory. Once a territory is capped, the map's layout is changed slightly (so unlike Dustbowl, you won't be fighting in the same order of environments every match) and the fight moves on to the next territory. Rinse and repeat until the final point is captured by BLU or a successful defence is made by RED.

Despite being a pretty cool concept and one of the first six maps ''ever'', a mixture of badly-explained rules, confusing layouts that led to rounds becoming steamrolls or stalemates (seriously, people got lost here even after the devs put in labelled signs; it was entirely possible to find and cap the point ''by accident'' within seconds of the round start), and the Control Points gamemode being "Territory Control, but without the flaws and more maps to play" pretty much resulted in Hydro being abandoned by developer and player alike mere months into TF2's launch, beyond the occasional achievement hunter or curious player. An ironic fate, for a gamemode intended to be infinitely replayable by the devs.

====Player Destruction====
 
Kill people and pick up the gubbinz they drop, then drop these gubbinz in a central collection point. Which the other side also uses, so be ready to get killed mid-deposit and have your points stolen.
 
====Robot Destruction====

Basically Player Destruction, but with NPC robots and the chance to steal briefcases containing enemy points. Can you tell why these never really caught on yet?

===Fanmade Modes===
These are the gamemodes cooked up by the community. While they're limited to unofficial community servers and the like, they're still pretty damned cool and are definitely worth a try.

====Zombie Fortress====
A zombie-survival fan mode where players try to run away through a map whilst other players are zombies and try to kill them. Those killed join the Zombie team and try to kill their former teammates.

==== Zombie Escape ====
Similar to Zombie Fortress, only you can't fight back, so it's more like a combination of Zombie Fortress and Deathrun, trying to escape across platforming obstacle filled maps from Zombie players, with everyone killed joining the fast-approaching horde. Many maps also include bossfights since just getting chased by zombies can get stale.

====Balloon Race====
A fan variation map for capture the flag featuring two flying ships with hot air balloons, similar to the ones the Horde used between Orgrimmar and Undercity in World of Warcraft. The players shoot at each other whilst riding the balloons, and try to capture the flag at specific stops. Recent leaks reveal that Valve was considering making an official map version.

====Deathrun====
A fan gamemode where players try to rush through a death course with only one life, while a single member of the opposite team controls traps throughout the course.

====Slender Fortress====
A fan gamemode where the living team is in a Multi-player version of Slender, with multiple monsters from either other franchises or tailor-made for Slender Fortress controlled by AI hunts them. Those who are killed can watch as ghosts to try and help the living, or go to the opposite team in a separate area that's supposed to be a safe place near where the monster lurks. One map is based off of Brutal [[Doom]], and features the Icon of Sin with a cyborg body as the end boss, which summons skeletons from the TF2 Halloween maps as minions.

====VS Saxton Hale/Freak Fortress====
A fan gamemode where an entire team of mercs goes against one player granted a super-powerful boss form, usually inspired by recurring GMod or Source Filmmaker TF2 characters, with the mercs given balance changes so they aren't hopelessly outmatched. The game ends when all the mercs are dead (no respawning in this mode, good luck) or when the boss is killed. The original boss was Saxton Hale, hence the name for the original version of this gamemode - Freak Fortress is a fork with different balance changes. Expect some weird and wacky big foes if you go on a random VSH/FF server.

Some notable protips:
*Bosses will (usually) oneshot you if they get a melee in. Keep your distance if possible, otherwise weave like your life depends on it (since it does).
*Spy's backstabs are even more risk-and-reward than normal gameplay - they deal massive damage to the boss, but put you in a position where the boss can easily kill you. Only go for them if the boss is distracted, or low enough a backstab would kill.
**This also applies to Soldier getting a Market Garden crit.
*Every boss has special abilities, though most of them share a super jump. [[Star Wars|The high ground will not save you]]. 
**Try to memorize what abilities do for common bosses (or if you're frequenting one specific VSH/FF server, all the bosses on that server).
*Doing a full taunt without Hale or whoever [[Anal circumference|shoving their fist up your ass]] gives you free minicrits. Useful for attacking at a distance while the boss is distracted.