While the folks atValvehave done a great job maintainingTeam Fortress 2through patches, fixes, and the occasional content update, the smartest move the developers made to ensure the game’s longevity and replay value was handing over some power to the players by allowing community servers.
Sure, official game modes and servers can be good fun, but at the end of the day, if you put a bunch of players with a lot of game time together, they can come up with some really creative game modes. If you want to check out the best community servers the TF2 playerbase has to offer, you’re in the right place.
8Zombie Escape Servers
These Zombies Just Don’t Stop
Zombie escape servers are fairly similar to what you’d find inHalo 3if you ever played the Infection gamemode; team-based PvP where one side plays as human survivors, while the other plays as zombies trying to kill and convert survivors to their side.
From map knowledge about breakable walls, secrets, and typical chokepoints, to team composition and class familiarity, there are plenty of variables that will determine whether you survive against your undead adversaries. Also, if you play Soldier, try not to accidentally blast your teammates intoa horde of zombies.
724/7 Trade Servers
There Are Always People Willing To Trade
If you’ve spent some time scrolling through TF2’s massive community server list, you might’ve noticed a fair number of servers entirely dedicated to trading, many of which go as far as allowing indefinite AFK timers if you’re really itching to sell or buy a specific item.
While you won’t be having fun in the expected or typical sense, these trade servers are often the best way to get the rare items you’re looking for. As always, though, be patient, skeptical, and well-read on the TF2 market; scamming is sadly always a possibility.
6DeathRun Servers
Will You Make It To The End?
If you’re unfamiliar with the Death Run game mode, it takes one team full of players that are trying to survive a custom-made map full of traps and lethal surprises, and typically a single player on the other team, who is able to control and activate the traps.
Much of the game mode comes down to map knowledge, movement mechanics, speed, and attempting to either fake out the trap controller, or allowing one of your less experienced teammates to get hit by a trap so you can proceed safely.
5Jailbreak Servers
Fight For Your Freedom
The Jailbreak game mode is fairly self-explanatory, but instead of slowly carving a tunnel with a metal spoon over the course of a few months, it pits one team (the prisoners) against the other team (the guards) with one guard being assigned as the warden, which has extra perks and authority.
Like something out of Squid Game, prisoners have to obey the orders of the warden, abide by prison rules unless they want to get beat up by guards, and most importantly, compete in minigames against fellow prisoners until one person is left. Hopefully, your experience won’t be as bad as what real Squid Game contestants had to go through.
4High Player Count Servers
The More The Merrier
Sometimes, the most impactful changes or solutions are small in scope, or more straightforward than what was previously expected. For high player count community servers, this is the main reason for their success; turns out, players find classic game modes fun again if you turn it into achaotic, PvP mess.
Just how many players can you cram into one game, you ask? While the number can vary depending on the server you join, you can find up to 50 versus 50 on certain game modes. If anything, it’s worth giving these servers a try just to see the biggest Engineer nest you’ll ever see.
3Jump Servers
Turns Out You Can Parkour With Rocket Launchers
If you have a particular fondness for TF2’s Soldier class, especially their ability to rocket jump and move around maps in unique ways, you’re practically guaranteed to enjoy community Jump servers, which effectively turn the game into an explosive parkour simulator.
If you spend enough time on Jump servers, each of which offer different custom maps for developing your mechanics, you’ll be well on your way towards mastering advanced rocket jump techniques, like flicking, pogo jumping, or crouchtapping, and clutching rounds when your team needs it the most.
2X10 Servers
This Is Getting Pretty Hectic
While the term “X10” might make you think of some kind of cyborg or robotics-related product, in brief, X10 servers simply run a plugin that multiplies all weapon attributes by a factor of ten, including positive and negative stats.
Aside from being absolutely hectic and naturally unbalanced at times, it can be a great time goofing off, figuring out powerful builds that otherwise aren’t possible in the game’s vanilla state, or playing as the Pyro class, infinitely pushing players and projectiles like a leaf blower with practically no airblast cost and incredibly low cooldowns.
1Saxton Hale Servers
Who Even Is This Guy?
Saxton Hale servers take the CEO of Mann Co., Saxton Hale, and make him a playable boss that one player controls, while the rest of the players in the lobby try to both survive and defeat him. While individual community servers might have their own unique tweaks and settings, this game mode generally offers the Saxton Hale player:
There are also certain benefits that you get by playing as standard classes, with permanent crit boosts to melee weapons being one example, but you’ll still need a fair amount of teamwork to win.
