so, you're a new pyro huh? welcome to the club. here's the basics. by the way, this is gonna be real blunt, I'm not sugar coating anything.

Before we get started, just incase you are literally 4 years old and have no idea how to work an FPS game besides walking forward, looking and firing, here are..
THE BASIC CONTROLS:
WASD- walk, SPACE BAR- Jump, yadda yadda MOUSE1- attack MOUSE2- airblast/secondary attack option. MOUSE WHEEL/NUMBER PAD- select which weapon to use quickly.

the controls on pyro are simple and easy. most new gibus pyros opt for the ol' W+M1 strat that we are notoriously known for being unskilled for using. its effective, but only using your flames only gets you so far. so, airblasting and choosing a good secondary and melee helps. so, you wanna choose a good secondary to assist, and a melee that serves a UTILITY because you rearely use it and dont want a wasted melee slot, or something that BOOSTS DAMAGE for finishing off enemies. GIMMICK-BASED weapons are also fun, but not effective, like the Hot Hand for example.
chapter 2 will cover how to airblast. we'll get to secondaries and melees later.

other people would make different guide discussing every single aspect of Pyro, but I'm not other people, I'm Menacing Pyro. I dont waste your time. it may be a lot but its good, I know this class like the back of my hand. read away!

airblast is a hard thing to do, surprisingly. but with hard work and dedication, you can get really good at it. even I still have trouble airblasting projectiles, pipes and direct hit rockets especially. so you need to know timing. airblast timing in TF2 is quite forgiving, but its still hard. if you reflect a rocket or pipe or arrow, it will deflect to where your crosshair is, for minicrit (or crit if its a random crit projectile). you can use this to take down other enemies like medics, or crowds of enemies. most rockets have a similar speed with the exception of Direct hit and Liberty Launcher.

which weapon should I use?

#1. stock Flamethrower.
ol' reliable. reskins of stock are good too, except the rainblower since it takes up ridiculous amounts of the screen.

#2 Degreaser.
(even tho its mostly a stock downgrade because pyro's switch speed has been buffed by default, still great!) though it takes more ammo to airblast. but it's great for combos and can be used interchangeably with stock if you want to. the switch speed buff paired with the unique acting particles lets you perform combos faster, at the cost of being terrible for a W+M1 playstyle. it's good for normal yet hyper-aggressive combo pyro playstyle, letting the secondary be the damage dealer, such as the flare gun.

#3. Backburner.
this is THE flank pyro flamethrower. flank enemies, get behind em, blast away. only holds up to 4 airblast charges if you have max ammo, so be careful. best used when there's fewer soldiers to take care of so you can focus on burning your enemies and getting the jump on people for sweet crits. like being a sneaky? this is for you. go, do a crime.

#4. Dragon's Fury.
it's not good for airblasting team mates to extinguish them or airblasting projectiles, but you can airblast more than 4 times before you run out of ammo. main downside is that the long cooldown after you airblast preventing you from firing it.its great for other funtions like mowing down enemies and singke target eliminations, but its terrible at crowd control. scout mains and sniper mains will love using this weapon.

Phlogistinator. has not been counted due to the fact that it cannot airblast.
despite this, its great for dopamine and getting massive kills, but it kinda forces you to W+M1 and be brainless. despite giving you guaranteed crits, you're left very weak and vulnerable without airblast.(except if you have anything but a kritzkrieg medic up your ass). But it is great in MvM, gives you free crit canteens. for non-offense W+M1 pyro pushing, DO NOT RECOMMEND

Reflecting is a great part of your kit. be sure to train reflecting and build muscle memory. airblast rockets, grenades/pills, huntsman arrows, and other projectiles. keep in mind wherever you airblast, the projectile will go. use this to your advantage, hell even with enough practice you can use enemy rockets to rocket jump at the enemy. also keep in mind airblast can be used to push around enemies, whether that be into a spot to combo them, off ledges, or into environmental hazards. and dont forget to use airblast to extinguish teammates.

A good way to practice reflecting projectiles (I.E. Rockets, Flares, Grenades, Sticky Bomb) is to go to on training maps on community servers, or to get a friend to shoot in your general direction on a private server.

so, there are multiple ways to combo. its quite complex for many players, especially newer ones. the best way to combo (in my opinion) is to use the degreaser. ignite your enemies by flooding them with flames, and then hit them with your secondary or melee. but you can also use stock, personal preference, really.

so here is a breakdown of all the secondaries. shotguns first, flare guns second, and miscs 3rd

Stock Shotgun
baseline for new/fresh install players. it's a great start, giving pyro a 2nd damage type and a decent fallback weapon. only problem is the random bullet spread, but it doesnt matter at close ranges all too much since its rather consistent, with 6 shots before a need to reload.

Panic Attack
Another great secondary, but fails at longer ranges. quite good for comboing with stock flamethrower, but also with the degreaser, giving you a really high heavy shredding DPS if you're constantly swapping between it and the degreaser, but imo just use it how it feels best. just keep in mind the spread is wider than stock by a LOT.

Reserve Shooter
used to be a god's weapon, but it got nerfed into the ground, still good on soldier, but absolute ♥♥♥♥ for pyro. it's good for dealing with trolldiers, but the 4 shot clip makes it feel inconsistent and lackluster, even with minicrit damage on blast propelled airborne enemies. but the switch speed buff can make it kinda good for combos.

Flare Gun
A decent high damage secondary. might have 1 shot and a hard to aim projectile thats kinda finnicky at first, but once you get the hang of it you can quickly become an absolute menace with this.

Scorch Shot
the most unbalanced and broken Pyro secondary, uded to make farming MMMPH meter on phlog a breeze. use it if you cant aim with flare gun or kill stickies in its blast radius but I wouldnt suggest using it for combos since its not very good at giant burst damage like the flare gun.

Detonator
"The scorch shot, but COOLER."
people say its not good for combos, but in my experience its quite good. It can be used for combos and mobility. the detonation mechanic is finnicky but can be used quite well. you get a lot of control and multi-usage from the jumps, like rocket jumping as soldier. the damage is a decent burst and pairs well with basically any flamethrower except the phlogistonator. and you can get onto ledges you wouldn't normally be able to so you can surprise enemies.

Mann Melter
A forgettable and cool looking flare gun, it actually pair quite well with the phlog and dragon's fury, letting you help your teammates by putting out their flames for crits, kinda like the diamondback but you actually help your team in a better way. the faster projectile speed lets you ignite enemies from a distance faster. but it can feel inconsistent, and there's no clear reload besides a weird click sound and spark.

Gas Passer
lackluster molotov wannabe secondary on pyro. only good in MvM until valve buffs it. not much to be said, it's a fart joke gas can with a crap area debnal mechanic that doesnt even function all that well. doesnt even combo too well with anything.
UPDATE: now is good for landsharking gimmick when paired with the neon annihilator. that is this thing's only good use outside of contracts and MvM now i guess

Thermal Thruster
remember Phara from overwatch? no? me neither. anyway this is kinda her jetpack but tweak and slapped on pyro, if you're ♥♥♥♥ at detonator jumping, sure it's good, but it only has 2 ♥♥♥♥♥♥ charges with a long cool charges and slow recharge rate, but at least its faster than the gas passer. it's handy for flanking, but you get less control with your jumps despite going higher. but is is good for divebombing, I'll give it that.


along with a secondary, you need a melee, so here's all the melees broken down:

Stock and reskins
usually I'd say stock is good, but in this case, no. unless it's the golden frying pan or Saxxy, I dont think you should use stock fire axe or any reskin of it listed on the pyro wiki page. it doesn't provide any benefit. use it as a fresh install, but swap it for a utility or damage dealer. at least its better than the Sharpened Volcano Fragment.

Sharpened Volcano Fragment
honestly it looks amazing but it's absolute crap. it could use a buff if I'm honest. its only somewhat good in medieval mode.even a gimmick or making it a melee version of the Flare Gun would make it kinda good. doesnt pair well or combo well with really anything. at least it looks cool.

Third Degree
it exists. not that good tho. strangely the only actual upgrade to stock in the game, literally. there is no downside listed on this sucker.

Axetinguisher
really good damage based option. best combos with the degreaser to negate the switch speed penalty. if you use the detonator, you can ignite people from a range, detonator jump, and market garden them with this. if you use the Postal Pummeler, (reskin of this), you are based.

Homewrecker
has a reskin called the Maul that's good with space loadouts if you lookin' for aesthetics
good for defense and helping out engineers. use this to be a good friend of engineers on defense since it one shot destroys sappers, but dont forget yer main job, slaughtering enemies and spies with your flamethrower so they cant sap your engie's buildings. BUT this has a secondary use! the extra damage against buildings makes you a MENACE to enemy engineers. one swing instantly kills mini sentries, a few more swings takes out a whole level 3 sentry, and consistently takes out enemy buildings in a lot less swings than other melees. it's honestly quite good but ppl who aren'[t engineers on your team kinda hate it.

Backscratcher
No medic or dispenser? no problem. just memorize where health packs spawn. also quite good in medieval mode. that's about it, its a very handy thing to get extra HP from health packs, and the damage buff make it quite good for combos, but only as a last resort. plus its good in medieval mode or when lonewolfing on flanks as say a backburner pyro

Hot Hand
Holy Mackerel, but for stupid people. it doesn't even function that well as a gimmick or pair well with anything.

Neon Annihilator
good gimmick weapon thats fun to use, even tho it rarely comes into play, and can be a diet homewrecker if you want, but otherwise its's meh. still fun though and it looks very nice, the design is immaculate.

Powerjack
everyone and their mom uses this weapon, ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ its good. the bonus and downside may seem like they cancel each-other out, but it's great at zipping around and closing the gap, and the health on kill by default make it a good finisher.

Combos are quite simple, but a good example is the puff n' sting. where you "puff" some flames at your enemies then airblast them into the air (preferably into a wall, and don't forget to aim for the feet!) then hit them with your secondary or melee as the "sting". it's simple and reliable.

but you can also cut out the puff part and just swap to your secondary and melee and sting them that way. thats essentially it. there are other combos too, like lighting an enemy on fire with your Detonator then flare jumping to that enemy and market gardening them with the Axetinguisher. I dont know all of them, but there's tutorials on youtube.

a good way to learn combos is by using the degreaser. sure you can combo with basically every flamethrower now since the switch speed buff but this one has the fastest swap to and swap from speed.

good weapon loadouts are INTEGRAL to playing pyro. so here are some of my favorite and reliable ways to play pyro.

Py-Bro
-Stock Flamethrower
-Stock Shotgun, Flare Gun, or Scorch Shot
-Homewrecker
best used to help your fellow engineers. also homewrecker one-shots mini-sentries, so use that to screw over enemy gunslinger engineers to help your scouts.

Ol' one-two combo
-Degreaser
-Flare Gun, Detonator, Panic Attack, or stock Shotgun
-Powerjack or Axetinguisher
really good for the more aggressive players who have quick reaction times or just want to get dopamine F A S T

Pyromaniacal spy
-Backburner
-Detonator or Thermal Thruster (detonator is better imo but i wont judge if you have no skill)
-Powerjack or Axetinguisher
wanna be sneaky? wanna be a flanking menace or a funny spy? use this. surprise your enemies. bravo 6, going dark.

RAGING DRAGON
-Dragon's Fury
-any flare gun type secondary (yes, even mannmelter works somehow.)
-any utility melee
you tired of normal pyro? wanna learn to aim? wanna get an easy first killstreak? wanna go ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥? use this loadout. best used for head on attacking. this loadout can even quickly kill heavies under the right circumstances. dont use on defense, its not the best all-rounder.

meet The Noob
-phlogistonator
-scorch shot
-powerjack
for when you wanna be a brainless annoyance. this is your baby loadout. when you get better at the game, use anything else.

Tacobot Torturer
-stock Flamethrower or Phlogistonator
-Gas Passer
-Third Degree
only really viable in Mann Vs Machine. people in the MvM community with the "tacobot" tag in their name will hate you for using this and i dont know why. really good though.

Pyro Shark
-flamethrower of your choice
-shotgun of your choice
-Neon Annihilator
bit of a gimmick loadout but its fun.

these are only a few examples of loadouts, but try experimenting. change out weapons, whatever fits your play style and game mode. you may be playing a specialist class, but you are kind of a jack of all trades, and adapting is essential.

its just tr_walkway community servers, offline practice mode, or just go into casual or community server and play normally. thats it.

thank you for reading my guide. there's a lot to playing pyro, and everyone has a favorite playstyle, find what fits you! experiment, get creative! thgats what TF2 is about! but this will start you off and give you an idea of what pyro can do. just remember to have fun, and dont pay attention to the haters, just have fun and get good, never stop improving! I've been playing this game for years and I've gotten vervally abused for playing pyro, and did I stop? no! but before you go, I have one last piece of advice..

REMEMBER: NEVER GIVE UP!
I believe in you. :)