is the fastest class around. He also has the weakest armor, and only light weapons. His special ability is a Scanner, which shows the nearest enemy. His grenade types are caltrops and concussion. Scout´s arsenal contains the axe, both shotguns and a nailgun. If you are a scout your only goal should be taking the flag and RUN. Better not get involved into any fire-fight, especially watch out for sentries. Your heavier teammates should pass the flag to you if possible of course.

has one of the most powerful weapons, the sniper rifle. Once fully loaded up you can gib any opponent with one hit. He is lightly armored, quite fast and uses handgrenades and flares to light up the environment. His other weapons are the axe, sniper-rifle-on-auto (not very powerful) and the nailgun. The sniper is neither a true defensive nor a real offensive class. Basically you should find a nice dark place to camp and kill as many enemies as possible without being noticed. If they notice you, you should get a better camping place.

is the standard fighter, the backbone of every attack. His main weapon is the rocket-launcher, but he also carries the CHOP-CHOP axe and both shotguns. Heavy armor makes him not very fast. If you are a newbie, use this class first. It probably needs less training and key binding than the other classes when playing TF for the first time.
 

is the human clusterbomb. He utilizes both grenades and pipebombs to wreak havoc among the opponent troops. The fall-back weapons are the shotgun and the axe. He also carries one detpack per life, which can be set to explode after x seconds. bOOm! Medium armor and medium speed. His grenades are the MIRV (spreads many other grenades after exploding) and handgrenades. Skilled demomen should have no problem taking out almost every other class in TF. You should know when to use pipes and when to use the normal grenades. Can be used as offensive and defensive class without problems.

can both heal players of your team and infect enemies with a deadly disease which can only be cured by another, enemy, combat medic. He carries the perforator, which can turn any lighter class into a bloody puddle in no time at all. Medics also hide handgrenades and concussion grenades, both shotguns and the healing axe/Bioweapon in their panties. Quite fast, with lesser armor than the Demoman. If you are playing as a medic your mates will appreciate it when you hit them with your axe one or two times, whether they called for your help or not. This also helps identifying that especially nasty spy.

has the toughest armor and the strongest weapon, the assault cannon. This makes him the slowest class, thus he is good for performing back-up or defending important places. He also carries both shotguns, the axe, MIRV grenades and hand grenades. You are a HWGuy? Then you really shouldn´t carry the enemy flag. Trust me. You are too slow. Better stick around the flagroom and wait for faster classes to arrive. If you are defending your base then find a nice place with your back facing a wall, so they cannot circle around you spamming you with grenades or nails.

torches anyone in his way. Using his incinerator rockets or the flame-thrower he can soften up the enemy until they are ready to be gibbed by heavier classes. About as fast as the Medic, he also has medium armor, the axe and the shotgun. Carries Napalm grenades and handgrenades.

is one mean class if played by a good player. Depending on the server´s settings, he turns invisble or can disguise as any other class and color. He is fast and lightly armored. His weapons are the knfe, which causes 6x the damage of the shotgun when back-stabbing someone and 2x the damage when hitting someone in the chest, the dart, which makes the opponent sleepy and fire with half the speed, the buckshot and the nailgun. He can toss gas grenades, which cause hallucinations on everyone that breathes the gas, and the usual handgrenades. Light armor and reasonably fast. Get into the enemy base, tell your mates about sentry locations and toss some gas grenades into the respawn rooms. And don´t get killed ;-)

can build ammo/armor dispensers and sentry guns. That makes him very important when defending the base, or when supplying your team with ammo on a flag run (e.g. thru a heavily defended enemy fort). His weapons are the spanner, the railgun and the buckshot. Grenade types are EMP (explodes ammo, that carried by enemies and other electrical devices) and handgrenade. Lightly armored and quite fast class. The engineer can produce ammo using scrap metal, which is especially useful in the above mentioned heavily defended fort or for your sentry gun.