Team Fortress 2 Buyer’s Tips for Beginners

Team Fortress 2 Buyer’s Tips for Beginners by Tom the Bot

Disclaimer: This thread was designed to help new players who don’t know what is worth buying in the Mann Co. Store which is a occasional question on the forum. Also serve as price comparison in U.S. dollars in the store and TF2 Metal in trading. Please Note the community made prices for items are fickle and isn’t set in stone.

(Keys): $2.49/2 refines
*The official function of keys is to unlock the content of a Mann Co. Supply Crate which may include Regular weapons, Strange Weapons, Tags, Paints, Hats, and the ultra rare Unusual hat which has a 1% chance of obtaining.

*The unofficial functions of keys are to sell at a fraction of the Mann Co. Store price via Pay Pal for real life money, use it to unlock a unusual to sell for a ridiculous amount of money, trade fodder for highly valued promotion items(I.E. Bills Hat and etc..) or refined metal ( average price is 2 refined).

*Should I buy or not?
– As a gamer of leisure the answer is No.
– If you need cash go ahead with this money making scheme.
– If you want to obtain a certain nice looking promotional item only available by trading then the answer is a uncomfortable yes.
– If you want a certain hat in a crate by a certain price; Be very careful since opening crates is like gambling and you could end up wasting more money that it took to open crates than to buy the item directly from the store or a item that cost less than a keys’ price.

(Weapons): $0.49 to $9.99/ 1 weapon to a reclaim metal
*The difference between store bought and free drop weapons is the store bought are permanently lock to your account and can’t trade or craft it, while free drop weapons are flexible in owner exchange and uses along with being given to you randomly as game time progress.

*Should I buy or not?
– If you lack the patients to wait for them to drop or trade for them then go ahead and buy it, but I recommend just buying weapons that actually suite your play style. The store bought weapons are permanent and you don’t have to worry about trading or crafting away your weapon. Plus any duplicate you get in drop can be crafted which give you an advantage in having more metal if you are not worried about item conservation.
– If you feel it beneath you to buy game changing element due to available by other means than don’t buy.

Hats and Misc:$0.99 to 12.99 or greater/ Amount of metal to obtained varies.
* Hats and Misc are nice trinkets that appear through a 2nd person or 3rd person perspective to customize your mercenary and show off your personal perception of the class you play. Hats can be obtained by a lucky random item drop, crafting 3 to 4 refine metals, or trading somewhere between 1 refine to 8 refine metal depending on the seller.

*Should I buy or not?
– If you have difficulty getting a certain hat via trading or crafting so you can get back to just playing the game then go ahead. What I recommend is getting Misc items instead since misc items are rarer than hats, more expensive in metal to obtained, and they look amazing on your favorite class with about almost every hat combination there is. I.E. Lord ♥♥♥♥ swains mutton chops and pipe with various hat combos.