[TF2] Bad Weapon Academy: Your Eternal Reward

Have you ever looked at a weapon and wondered "How am I even supposed to use this piece of shit?" Don't worry. I'm here now.
Rebalance Servers: badweaponrehab.tf/
Twitter: / fsoas_
Patreon: / fishstickonastick
Main Channel: / @fishstickonastick
Discord - / discord
Music used:
TF2 OST - Magnum Force
Sly Cooper and the Thevius Raccoonus OST - A Cunning Disguise, Back Alley Heist, Prowling the Grounds, A Strange Reunion, Sinking Peril
Clips used:
Aladdin (1992)
Death Note (2006)

[@SomeRandomGoo]

For me this is the “The enemy team is stacking engis and I want to backstab in front of their sentries” knife.

[@nicholasdarrylh.9062]

i like using it to reliably chain medics in mvm

[@sa-xd1ts]

@@nicholasdarrylh.9062 in mvm there is a delay before you disguise after a kill so I don't know wtf you are talking about

[@BilboBaggMan]

@@nicholasdarrylh.9062 it works in mvm?

[@lance2580]

As someone who plays on Engineer Fortress Community Servers, I really want this knife.

[@Underworlder5]

@@BilboBaggMan there was a point where YER was the best knife in MVM due to the disguise on kill mechanic, but it got nerfed. now there is a delay between kill and disguise so you cannot chainstab entire waves

[@ThatGuyLachlan]

Ok, that opening joke actually got a good chuckle outta me. Also report Jafar for hacking for not immediately undisguising on a failed backstab attempt

[@TF2Legacy]

Even funnier is that the YER is literally based on that Jafar scene

[@redstonewarrior0152]

@@TF2Legacy Ok It seems to me that you missed the fact that everyone knew this already.

[@tonyawwwno3364]

@@redstonewarrior0152 he said that because the op said it as though that wasnt the case. Chill, bro. (Edit: typo)

[@raygav8045]

@@TF2Legacy ttty

[@redstonewarrior0152]

@@tonyawwwno3364 I am sure you can't make a your eternal reward joke using jafar without knowing that the weapon was inspired by that scene, ergo OP would very likely have known said bit of information.

[@mossysyyyy]

While it might technically be the worst, the YER is actually weirdly fun to use and is 100% my favorite way to play spy

[@sukruthsadventure1523]

If you know how to act like the class your disguised as, it's an actual s tier knife

[@coledoesyt7788]

@@sukruthsadventure1523 thats why i use it.. im a spy main and i hate it when people say the yer is bad. i main it

[@mdaniyal9349]

@@coledoesyt7788 bro fr. the yer + the deadringer is a really good combination that I use when playing spy, and it works insanely well. in order for this weapon to be good, you just have to be good at playing spy by itself.

[@ermisrafael5625]

I actually find it good, since you can keep being on the enemy team without undisguising although it does need some good acting skills and trickstabbing.

[@mono4338]

I like playing with this knife as it fixes one of spy's main problems, which is getting one backstab then dying instantly

[@keithbrannon251]

I find this knife amazing on the Uncletopia servers. Everyone flips around when they see a body, but I've gotten chainstabs and double kills a lot easier when using this knife cause I can easily blend into the crowd. I find this really odd considering the good communication the utopia servers have.

[@peterisawesomeplease]

Oh yea people overrate communication nerfing spy. At the highest levels of HL spy is actually really strong. Saying spy killed me and having your team react usually takes longer than the interval between chain stabs. And knowing which disguise a spy is using only really hurts the YER after the spy has made a kill and is honestly not a huge deal.

[@RoamingAdhocrat]

when I get eurotunnelled I kinda start rooting for the spy

[@TheMadRatKing]

Guarantee you I was one of your victims at one point

[@alex_zetsu]

As of May Uncletopia is sending bots to Valve server just to advertise themselves, which would be fine if they werne't also aimbots

[@Nate1010]

@@alex_zetsu those are almost definitely not endorsed by uncle Dane

[@mrspiffy8587]

The fact that he calls the L'etranger something different every single time kills me

[@crack4184]

As a french guy, it's always hilarious

[@sergeantkazotsky5616]

the le hordorodo

[@smoothbrain3814]

Omlet du fromage

[@daddymememaster5432]

The El Etraynger

[@REDNDEAD]

The Stranger

[@potato1341]

The "no death sound, no killfeed" is easily the best part, let's you chainstab in a way where even the most experienced players couldn't realise 3 of their teammates just died, where even the dummy thick health you get from the kunai doesn't stop a heavy from 180'ing and painting the floor with your blood

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

Yes they can. The deaths DO show up on the scoreboard on the top of your HUD, and the dropped weapons don't dissapear. Unless your opponents are complete morons, the upside might as well be cosmetic.

[@Your_Funky_DM]

@@joanaguayoplanell4912 It lets you see your kills but the enemy cannot

[@darkraven8103]

@@Your_Funky_DM I think what he means is that in the player counter at the top of the screen it will still show someone re-spawning. So if you happen to look at it and see that a teammate has just died but there is no kill in the kill feed then you know it was a spy with the YEW.

[@haydenhaslip2024]

@@darkraven8103 ya even though players arent gonna notice it until your gone and in general kill feed doesnt really give away spies so the silent backstab is amazing so victims arent screaming out

[@Your_Funky_DM]

@@darkraven8103 that is fair

[@BustyCatbot]

I feel like instead of depleting all of your cloak when disguising, there should be a loud disguise sound, which removes the absolutely disgusting downside of *no more cloak for you* and instead just gives the enemies more information to work with if you make a mistake, like the dead ringer decloak sound.

[@RdTrler]

Making the disguise louder would actually be amazing, because that'd be a tell-tale noise you could make while cloaked. All sound and no fumes means you could lead enemies on a pointless goose chase, be the support you were always supposed to be!

[@anafu-sankanashi8933]

@@RdTrler that will destroy this weapons one use. every time you backstab you disguise, so essentially the spy now is even more likely to be caught out since he is most definetly gonna go for chain stabs if he has the yer.

[@nofivefivesevenseven]

I think instead of needing a full cloak to disguise, it should just drain whatever is in your cloak meter. Maybe replace the faster cloak drain with slower cloak recharge?

[@geraldtucker6952]

I think Your Eternal Reward is based more along a strictly ambush predator style of game play. Like Cloak And Dagger ambush predator. With the cloak and dagger the moment you cloak your meter charges just enough that you're visible for maybe 1-2 ticks of in game time. However it's best used with the L'Etranger because it doesn't only counter the 33% cloak drain rate, but also boosts cloak duration by 7% I'll have to watch the video again, paying full attention this time to what he says, so I can better gauge this with my own experience and other peoples experience

[@anafu-sankanashi8933]

@@geraldtucker6952 as a yer spy, this idea is not good. The YER cloaks you after you backstab your prey and has a silent backstab, hence this knife is heavily in favor of chainstabs and picks. If we use the version from the top comment, every time you stab you re cloaked and make a loud noise, effectively cancelling out the silent backstab upside and making it even easier to counter.

[@mikethegoo]

When you called it "The Stranger", that was actually pretty accurate, since l' etranger is French for "The Foreigner"

[@sebastiangibson9671]

Really?

[@mikethegoo]

@@sebastiangibson9671 Apparently!

[@joedover302]

étranger means both “stranger” and “foreigner”

[@pot6577]

its both, stranger and foreigner

[@pot6577]

@@cartozzzTV nobody cares 💀

[@Magnum__Dong]

This weapon was hilarious when it first came out. Originally before they added backstab death animation, a backstab would send the corpse flying forward due to the amount of damage it would do. So when this knife first came out you would see someone corpse just fly past you while fading out of existence. Which would prompt you to turn around and kill the obvious spy.

[@Zmeeed01]

When you get backstabbed without the backstab death animation triggered your corpse will fly forward with great speed but only you get to see this. From others perspective, you won't fly nearly as far. So back in the day, everyone flew like how you do from your perspective?

[@zachlewis9751]

Sadly corpse rag dolls are pretty much client side.

[@nicolasrage1104]

Reminds me of the original Tomislav that was supposed to be silent but it made a super loud “CLICK” noise when reved.

[@modelvp2405]

4:22 can we just take a moment to appreciate this clip. Drawing the medic into the sentry gun was absolutely hilarious

[@XxguaxinimxX.]

ikr?

[@Power-xl8vh]

Lol

[@keterpatrol7527]

Yes

[@NeverZitrone]

this was a common once a match thing if u played a long time ago

[@InsertFunnyThingHere]

Should have undisguised and then laughed with that taunt i can't write

[@williammin8340]

This episode feels like it hinges on the entire idea that disguises don't fool good players. But when one actually knows how to use the disguise kit, like being aware of class behavior, replicating details of sight direction, weapon selection, and general location, this knife just become so much more effective and more skillful and satisfying than using cloak.

[@juanon_industries7256]

Well, you will never be in a place where you would be considered a spy, backstabbed a sniper?, now you are where he was, well, sniping your team, backstabbed a spy?, no one is suspicius of a spy going from the enemy side if they know there are spies in the team, etc...

[@yakobsoulstorm5187]

Fish does say he's not an especially good Spy player, but even then, the YER is really weak because it trades your cloak for greater proficiency in disguising. A knife that did the same thing the other way around would also suck (though probably less so) because both are essential parts of Spy's kit. Disguises are incredibly useful for getting in close to a target, while the cloak is immensely helpful for getting into position or getting the fuck out of dodge. Neither really supersedes the other in terms of how powerful they can be, they're different tools for different jobs, and the tradeoff doesn't work because they're designed to complement each other rather than compete.

[@jacobcampbell797]

@@yakobsoulstorm5187 I think the cloak drain is really awful, but when you use it with letranger it is still slightly more than what you would get with ju8st a stock loadout, so for me it helps me get used to having less cloak and forcing me to be more effect with cloaking in general

[@yakobsoulstorm5187]

@@jacobcampbell797 I’m not the biggest fan of weapons sucking to make people better at the mechanics.

[@richardlionerheart1945]

mfs disguise as a scout and walk directly into the enemy team get killed then go "MAN DISGUISES DON'T WORK WHAT THE HELL"

[@endgame7568]

13:12 “And because you’re essentially forced to run the *L’HOTOTO*!…”

[@Schnitzl_Gampa]

The best weapon in tf2

[@endgame7568]

@@Schnitzl_Gampa yeah

[@CLAYTONlC]

i think what the devs were going for was a playstyle which spy stays around the enemy base. to put it simply, the big earner gives you a choice on what to do after a backstab; run away, or go for a chain. the YER takes that away and forces you to stay near your enemies, along with the downsides of the knife itself.

[@davidhong1934]

I think the developers thought players would more easily be fooled by disguised Spies

[@ijmundi461]

@@davidhong1934 There are some players that use disguises effectively but it's really rare

[@thejuggercat]

@@davidhong1934 I think the problem is just how much source spagethi that fucks disguises in particular there is.

[@EthVortexShield]

What do you mean there are knives other than the kunai?

[@PeaShooterAutoHunter]

@@EthVortexShield yesh also known as the ambassador

[@thatonerobotfromshortcircut]

This is the BWA that hurts the most because the YER was one of my first drops that I to this day still use and love, but in my heart of hearts I know that all options are better.

[@InsertFunnyThingHere]

@@flandretek yeah, just that usually being a crap weapon makes it less fun

[@Yummerlicious]

@@InsertFunnyThingHere scorch shot disagrees with your statement

[@fromach]

This is the same experience I had.

[@ryllian1]

They are not all better options. YER is a situational pick. It is not meant to be the best option at all time.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

Same.

[@dansmith6300]

12:53 "The whole razorback neuters spy argument is stupid." Proceeds to die trying to gun one down.

[@blackhat1018]

In fairness, Fish killed another person and that Sniper saw it and went after him. If you sneak up on a scoped Sniper with the razorback and start shooting him, you’ll usually get the kill.

[@poozahnuts]

He was using the yer and let ranger which was his exact argument

[@shootymcshootfacekoff7972]

@@poozahnuts hate to be the correcter guy, but it’s l’etranger, god I hate Fr*nch

[@lolforlife2487]

Yes but he died cuz he missed all 3 shots

[@dansmith6300]

@@lolforlife2487 then he shouldn't have used that clip to support his claim of "Just shoot the razorback sniper, it's not that hard."

[@goodsirbear-7579]

if you want to keep the whole "disguise over cloak" thing then get rid of the cloak drain and the cost of disguises, and make it so while disguised your cloak turns into a sort of health bar. make it take hits for you, make it let you move through enemies. you can still cloak while disguised it just might leave you vulnerable later.

[@bombboy3427]

That's, actually a good idea for a watch. Instead of cloak, you become identical to opponents. No hitbox collision against enemy bodies, effects of jarate, milk, and fire don't show to enemies, fire deals less damage (say 60%) and isn't visible. This mode/deepcover is on a timer similar to cloak, and all at the cost of having to undeepcover/stop "enemy cloaking" to backstab/shoot. It would actually allow you to blend in instead of getting found out because a scout ran into you, a paranoid engie shooting any teammates, or a pyro misclicked.

[@jjprs3062]

@@bombboy3427 indeed! I always felt that the YEW punished you more for using cloak rather than rewarding you for using disguises.

[@dulguunjargal1199]

​@@bombboy3427Average Spy main

[@attibotgd4123]

Sounds a bit OP. At this point just add a disguise kit that completely turns you into the class with the same weapons and you just use its weapons for the rest of the game.

[@somedudeintheinterweb8665]

​@@attibotgd4123 well maybe the disguise could still be identifiable under certain effects, like scout's mad milk, sniper's jarate, pyro's after burn and etc.... It doesn't outright make you a perfect disguise but it does make it harder to find out. Counterplay's there but it's just more niche, requiring the enemy to put a conscious effort into countering the spy instead of being relatively passive

[@thechickenchuck8621]

When the world needed him most, he revealed his loving hands (knife) to us.

[@KyleLyre13]

Honestly this weapon suffers from a very specific stigma: their mechanics were made for a game that's vastly different than what it is today. It was made when there was literally no other alternative to the stock knife, with the silent decloak ability in mind. But as time went on, it got simultaneously nerfed and power crept, but the idea was unique enough that the dev's didn't want to entirely scrap it.

[@owenblount7334]

It would be perfectly fine if it just didn’t have the drain rate debuff the eating your cloak for a disguise is enough of a downside

[@peterisawesomeplease]

I love the current knife. To me its a weapon like the beggars or the loose cannon. Worse than stock with a super high skill cap but with the reward of being super fun once you get good at it.

[@spiceforspice3461]

@@peterisawesomeplease Except with enough skill the loose cannon can at least do better than stock at single target damage.

[@Eye_Of_Odin978]

@@peterisawesomeplease The BEGGARS is a weapon you have to "get good at"? Then I guess getting good won't be a long process, just repeatedly spam mouse1 in the general direction of the enemy spawn

[@peterisawesomeplease]

@@Eye_Of_Odin978 Look up some blind pyro videos from back in the day. Beggars rocket jumping is one of the most complex movement mechanics in the game. Its rocket jumping but with another layer of complexity on top.

[@BusterBuizel]

Can we just appreciate the soldier at 10:33 for his amazing melee name?

[@dexxenyrcosas]

LMAO

[@nwut]

💀

[@fallingloo9930]

*Stop that.*

[@dimsthedimwit600]

C U M E D Y

[@st7038]

I once found a guy with the same weapon named "black history month"

[@themphantom9138]

I still can't get enough of how he spells "The Stranger" in the Funniest kind of ways.

[@arkaua]

Fish, THANK YOU for suggesting that the YER should have the old set's silent decloak. It's the most obvious and fun way to fix it but no one seems to ever mention that. I still find it completely absurd that only some of the item sets had their bonuses translated into weapons from the set (like Pyro getting the speed boost from the set put into the Powerjack). I've been saying it for years that all the YER needs is for it to be reverted back to pre-JI (so no manual disguises or cloak penalty) and adding the Saharan Spy's upside, just those two things would keep it simple while still making it a completely viable and fun sidegrade.

[@borutoburrito6547]

Technically the spy was given the 40% increased cloak on the L'etranger as compensation for removing the set bonus, but I agree giving the knife the old silent decloak would be really fun.

[@hudsonk1racer]

@@borutoburrito6547 imo this. even if they refused to revert any of the other stats, the silent decloak would in itself almost make up for how nerfed the thing is.

[@joanaguayoplanell4912]

Frankly I say keep the current penalties, add the silent cloak, and then give the silent killer upside to all Spy melees because the class seriously needs some actual stealth mechanics. Being unable to disguise at all makes the weapon even more vulnerable to communication and makes you completely unable to approach sentries and aware opponents until after a backstab (that you will likely die after getting unless your opponents are really stupid).

[@fireblast8972]

Problem is that the old silent decloak was completely abusable with the dead ringer

[@Flpstrike]

And the Sidney Sleeper should let a Sniper survive a Quick-Scope headshot, so I can counter those annoying god-like Sniper (or Cheaters)

[@micro9084]

I once fooled my friend by disguising as a friendly heavy, that was hilarious.

[@user-uo8ny1kj4c]

mm yes we are engaging in some tomfoolery.

[@herpydepth3849]

12:48 That is a very common misconception. Spy's power comes from the fact that he can kill and run away all in the blink of an eye, but a razorback entirely invalidates that. Imagine you're next to a sniper and a sentry, usually you'd be able to stab the sniper and then sap the sentry or vice versa no problem (since neither of them have ears and sentries are relatively slow) but a sniper with a razorback makes that completely impossible. I've had shitloads of backstabs and chainstabs get ruined for me because a razorback sniper unintentionally slid between me and his teammates' backs. I've even had times where I did shoot and sometimes even kill the sniper only for some soldier or pyro or other guy take notice or come around a corner and instantly destroy me. Also, denying trickstabs (something that takes a lot of skill and game sense and is already janky enough) is just bad game design because it says "Oh you spent a lot of time learning this very specific stab? Well fuck you buddy because he clicked on something in a menu". Couple on the fact that good/lucky snipers can just instantly turn around and kill you as soon as you start shooting, not to mention revolver aim being absolute shit after the first shot, and realize that it's just not that simple. It's like telling a pyro to "just use melee" against a darwins danger shield sniper. The only people who say stuff like this are people who clearly do not play spy much which is apparently everybody since 9/10 people say it and I'd be lying if I said that it wasn't at least a little bit annoying.

[@sarahh08]

TOO LONG DIDNT READ

[@noychefuturista8551]

​@@sarahh08unnecesary

[@noychefuturista8551]

I understand your point

[@fink_rat]

I feel like the razorback isn't just a limiter to spies, i feel like it can be a good conditioner for them. Since Spy does have another good option for insta kills up close in the form of the Ambassador. Spies will swap to this after being caught by the Razorback and attempt to headshot the sniper point blank. Use this to your advantage, make the spy do that so you can destroy him with either the kukri or an SMG

[@dr.tacophd1239]

I’ve watched his videos, he’s a sniper main so he’s bias towards snipers. Snipers always hang around nests or people. Taking the time for two or 3 shots slows you down and leaves you open for other opponents or sentries. Not to mention every pro sniper I face some how headshots me before I even get a 3rd shot in. So really the only time you’re able to kill a razor back sniper as a spy is when they are alone. Even in this video alone he failed at killing the snipers not because the YER sucks but because of the reasons above, it’s literally countering spy lol. If razorback failed at its job, countering spy, then nobody would be using it lol.

[@claeab255]

As a spy main, i personally like using the eternal reward. It feels great when you get a chainstab, and the l'ensomethingorother is actually useful for defending yourself. On top of that, there are actually some situations where the dead ringer is actually quit good, like on the final point on dustbowl attack.

[@davidnaylor5737]

I never thought about this weapon being bad, my team use to get destroyed with this back in the day, and I still see people using it. But after seeing this I wonder how it ever gave me issues.

[@justarandomtechpriest1578]

Probably the set And the people now being better at seeing through disguises

[@FrozenOver0]

"Back in the day" probably before it drained your cloak like lightning, then. The lack of disguise without a stab hurt back then too (and you couldn't even trade cloak for a disguise), but at least the set bonus's silent decloak could sometimes mitigate that

[@honguitoesporado4857]

Once I saw a comment about Your Eternal Reward, before it was difficult to get the first costume and then it was easier, in my opinion although I didn't start playing tf2 before they nerfed it, I guess it was better than now, imagine the Stock but without being able to disguise, the one now changed for the worse, technically you still cannot disguise yourself since you need Cloak to do it (I know you can do it in the spawn, but we all know that this disguise will not last long) with the Stock watch you cant disguise when you're invisible and the drain greatly affects the amount of time you can be invisible (sooner or later you'll become visible in an inconvenient situation and you can't even disguise) it weakens you a lot, with Dead Ringer it's also a problem since reduces your cloak (it do the DR almost useless) and unlike Stock or CaD you can't reload your cloak with ammo packs, that weaken you a lot and with CAD (the only watch you can use it with) will not allow you to escape either due to the cloak drain, with all the watchs it does not leave you much chance to enter the enemy side, it is usable but terrible and its reward is not worth its disadvantages

[@iliakatster]

Bc most of the people using it were probably really good spies who wanted to give themselves a challenge

[@sarahh08]

Funny hard to pronounce extra cloak gun and stock watch pair super well with it if u know ammo locations, get behind the enemy then go ham. Go into hiding if u get noticed, then just continue.

[@ForwardStory]

I love the YER. It's easily my second most used knife these days because it actually DOES have believable disguises. Just think about it. You turn around, see a friendly teammate, walk a little, turn around, see the exact same friendly teammate with nothing in the killfeed, and nothing seems off. Pair that with my burning eternal hatred for Engineer and it makes it incredibly appealing for me. I've tried the kunai, and honestly, I've done well with it, but I never feel like the 200 health occasionally is benefitting me any more than a consistent 125.

[@BComet]

The thing is, the ragdolls and the knife hitting you still make quiet but very distinct sounds. If you are playing against a experienced player, the disguise doesn't do much. Well, at least in pubs where 50% of the players have tunnel vision and are completely deaf is still a viable choice.

[@OwO-vy2mg]

@@BComet The funny thing is, the victims of YER do not scream, but since the knife still does stabbing sound, you can easily hear it. And since nobody is screaming, the sound becomes pretty loud lol

[@haydenhaslip2024]

@@BComet if a player is experienced enough spy becomes useless anyway so that situation doesnt really matter

[@Orthax47]

I also love the pacing with this knife. I've switched between a lot of spy loadouts throughout my time in TF2 and I've found the "good pick-> cloak-> run and disguise" thing can get pretty monotonous. The YER makes me feel like I actually have to employ stealth and deception instead of right-clicking after a kill.

[@peterisawesomeplease]

@@haydenhaslip2024 This is just isn't true In HL at the top level spy is a top 4 fragging class on average with some utility outside of killing things and generally killing higher value targets. This is a newish development in the high level meta as spies have improved and the need to counter sniper has increased. But hate seeing this posted over and over. And disguises/acting do work even at the highest levels. No its not pretending to be some class that works. But spy checking is costly in the middle of fight. This means you can force a player to lose to your teammate by spy checking or die to you if you are believable in the quarter second they have to look at you.

[@omegabrat]

If they updated the weapon with "decloak makes less noise" I think it would be more viable, it would make you more aggressive and allow for more risky decloaking but keeping that 33%+ decloak rate would make it more balanced.

[@ghostlypenguin4417]

As a hardcore Your Eternal Reward user I just wanna say this. Using the Cloak and Dagger watch in tandem with Your Eternal Reward makes the experience SO MUCH BETTER. It almost feels like they were designed to be used together

[@AUS_Cyclops]

100% agreed. As a person who has used this combo quite a lot it almost allows you to negate the downsides of the YER. I was wondering when someone else was going to bring up this combo.

[@user-uz2hu2hg1q]

I'm quite new player (about 150 or so hours in tf2, and about 8 hours playing spy), but I can confirm it.

[@BartholomewTheIII]

I only have 10 hours on spy but over 9 of those hours was me using YER From my experience , using cloak and dagger with YER is pain since it doesn't let you regain cloak meter from ammo boxes. My loadout is L'Etranger, YER, Stock Invis Watch. YER feels like a knife thst caters to a specific playstyle of Stealth. - Kunai caters to a chainstab/kills while tanking attacks. - Big Earner caters to 2 playstyle: running away after stab, or a chainstab while dodging attacks. -YER caters to a playstyle of just pure stealth. Little-to-no noises. Instant disguise that even if people see the person that you backstabbed, as long as YOU don't get seen 100% on their viewpoint, you would be disguise and they see as though nothing just happened.

[@BartholomewTheIII]

Imo, ammo boxes are important but if you're in a map with ammo boxes that are a little too out of reach and you're in a fight, then I'd be fine with cloak and dagger, however I'd just go kunai at that point tbh.

[@ghostlypenguin4417]

@@BartholomewTheIII yeah the ammo box issue sucks, but I just uncloak for a split second to pick it up if nobody will see me. It can be a hassle, but you get used to it

[@REDNDEAD]

You weren't kidding when you called this knife "Spy: Hard Mode" in your Future of BWA video. I did not realize this thing was this punishing, and now I will continue to refuse using it as I always did. On a side note, the L'Etranger pronunciations slowly get more and more fucked with each video.

[@ludwigiapilosa508]

You are making a mistake in giving it up. It's amazing if you learn to use it properly.

[@angrydragonslayer]

@@ludwigiapilosa508 i use it as the training knife When i'm good with letranger/dr/yer, i can often switch to the kunai and get a few godlikes in a row

[@davidhong1934]

What's weird is that there's one instance where he pronounced the L'etranger correctly

[@turkishjanitor3666]

15:05 The best one

[@gamereroblox3444]

Hell mode is this thing with the dead ringer and the enforser

[@258thHiGuy]

I love that the keikaku joke is actually funnier when you put the translator's note on screen

[@wompstopm123]

Your spy game clips make me feel better about my average spy gameplay

[@voratheexplorer6442]

One argument to make here: The YER is great for training wall cover. Invisibility and Disguise are great, but the most important way to hide from your enemies is to be behind a wall. Also team wiping.

[@jaywerner8415]

I agree that maybe the "does not show up in kill feed" should probably be a UNIVERAL thing. It FITS with spies thing. Your ideas for fixes seems perfectly reasonable to me. Silent killer, Silent Decloak, say 25% clock duration, 50% clock drain for a disguise sounds good.

[@rost123lav]

I mean it will make YER more special

[@Gon-hx4df]

To be fair if all knives had the silent killer atribute, Spy would be grossly overpowered. Like, imagine a Spy using the stock knife, having the silent killer with no downsides. The Spy can make a massive chainstab with no downsides at all

[@jaywerner8415]

@@Gon-hx4df The STAB itself doesn't have to be silent, just not show up in the killfeed.

[@peachypet808]

@@Gon-hx4df Not showing in killfeed for all knives wouldn't be that much of a difference. They didn't talk about silent killer in general. If you just have it so no backstabs show up on the killfeed you would still have the crit sound and everything. Not grossly overpowered, merely a slight upgrade.

[@Clamitycannon]

You spelled cloak wrong sir.

[@YeetZmeN]

I’ve always thought about buffing it by muting someone’s voice and text chat for a few seconds, maybe even until respawn, once they’ve been stabbed by the YER. It helps eliminate the big issue of “if someone says they got stabbed by a YER spy you’re fucked”. However, I feel like this could very easily be an incredibly busted stat, so I don’t know if adding it would be a good idea. I just want to see this weapon be more than the “holy shit there’s too many engineers for me to sap all the sentries before dying” knife.

[@pillgrimm]

An in game weapon affecting non gameplay aspects of the game would be the most abused troll weapon ever.

[@suspecm6316]

-On kill: finds and uninstalls discord on the target's pc

[@doctorhealsgood5456]

Huh, briefly muting a backstabbed target sounds cool as hell. I want that now lol

[@KL53986]

This suggestion should apply to every single spy knife as its incredibly easy for someone shout your position or something when they die, which makes the effort of Spy's part meaningless, so voicechat abuse on backstabs was worse.

[@davisdf3064]

@@pillgrimm I can already see Spy mains calling their YER "shut the fuck up"

[@thesalad943]

2 years later and I still swear this is the most underrated weapon in the entire game

[@crthejediknightninja]

I think the YER is a great tool for forcing you to actually learn to act as the enemies you disguise as, like if you get stuck as a heavy, you can wait at chokes, you jump corners with your minigun out, anything to make your disguise more convincing.

[@PeacockLover127]

The your eternal reward is honestly my favorite spy knife. I love it a lot

[@kittymyths1208]

But you realise it's still a bad weapon, right?

[@PeacockLover127]

@@kittymyths1208 ratio

[@thisbox]

0:00 Intro 0:24 Skill Disclaimer 1:00 Why the YER used to be popular 1:38 Stats 2:14 Cloak Comparison 3:04 Disguises normally are Disposable 4:22 Strengths of Spy 5:10 Disguising after Spawn 6:19 Overly Punishing 7:02 Slow Classes suck with this 7:35 The C&D 8:32 Dead Ringer 9:28 Stock Watch 10:00 Stab and Sap 11:20 Target priority 12:28 Sniper and the Razorback Situation 14:08 Summary 14:20 Solution 15:46 and let me festivize it 16:28 Outro

[@koperekhabsburdzki43]

Nice comment mate!

[@levilongman272]

Good vid. With the added context of watching you practice spy in fish bites I reallly appreciate more than ever the effort that went into these clips

[@thequagsire3592]

Im honestly surprised he didn’t mention the combo of the yer and the enforcer. Its like a worse diamondback combo but its still kinda good

[@--Cat--]

Death Note really does go from a masterpiece to eh it's alright after L dies. And yeah, it does feel like they introduced smarter and smarterer for the express purpose of fucking over Light with something he couldn't have planned for. Also great video.

[@bruschetta7711]

I think L was smarter than Light, but having a tool as powerful as the Death Note can more than make up for it But yeah after L it seems they just wanted to put an end to Light to avoid having such a sour ending where the bad guy wins

[@BLZ231]

Personally I’m not a big fan of death note, though I do recognize that it’s a good show. Light just sort of suddenly becomes a massive prick with a god complex almost immediately after getting the death note, and remains a one dimensional character to the end without any real growth or introspection. Plus I think the show kind of chickened out when it didn’t really explore the true implications of what the existence of a death note would mean for the world and the geopolitical environment. They sort of hint at it, but avoid going into any great detail.

[@reagansido5823]

0:12 Perfect timing! now that you're totally a member of the red team, you're also a winner!

[@memeifyinc1119]

I think that a fairly simple change that could be interesting is to make it still require 100% cloak to disguise, but not have it consume the cloak. So you would be able to disguise freely, as long as you have full cloak meter

[@trymetrix857]

This is definitely not spies worst knife. Playing on attack on cp with the eternal reward and picking off people in the back then running around switching disguises finding ammo is extremely effective and got me my first seriously good match with spy. I got like 20-30 backstabs and I blame it on the eternal reward cause otherwise I would've just been killed instantly if I tried to keep that same agressive energy without a disguise.

[@nadernad_]

You can cheese the cloak drain if you cloak immediately after disguising, but you still need to have a full meter to disguise

[@fireboltchamploo7620]

Pretty sure this was my first Spy unlock. Which is probably why he's still my least played class at 3 1/2 hours...

[@BPKPhoenix]

At around 3:05, I just realized you added some OG Sly Cooper music in there. I absolutely love you for this :)

[@skylarken1184]

So I'm not sure how enemy disguising looks like but at 9:56 that goddamn sniper morphing into a scout is terrifying

[@toonilooni7484]

I think the only time I've used this is when the other team stacked engie so I took them out one by one, and they didn't notice throughout the whole thing. pretty fun weapon.

[@owenblount7334]

It is literally the bully engies knife

[@peterisawesomeplease]

Yea I love the knife for a bunch of reasons but dealing with engie stacking in pubs is probably its nicest attribute.

[@blacklight683]

0:01so that's where they got the name from

[@Proof_]

9:26 This Spy knows what's up.

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

My two cents: I think the YER should get its old "can't disguise" stat back, but be buffed in accordance to this to essentially become a whole different playstyle. Whether that's through silent decloaking and/or something more out there, like somehow notably buffing disguises. It would be really cool if it was a knife that gave you access to disguises with some sort of added functionality while making said disguises harder to access. Like not losing the disguise on a failed backstab attempt, being able to act out animations like shooting, or maybe getting stat changes or bonuses depending on the disguise. Or you could go all in on making it "the cloak knife," limiting your disguise capabilities but making your cloak stronger or more versatile. I dunno, I like weapons with really significant and interesting changes, and I like the idea of buffing spy's stealth and deception aspects. Also L'Etranger names lol

[@seva7500]

decloak? you mean disguise right?

[@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149]

@@seva7500 oh yeah, oops

[@SirVolt]

@@sirreginaldfishingtonxvii6149 It would be cool if It gave you a small boost based on class backstabbed, like health with medic and heavy and Speed with scout, etc.. i would also give the ability to disable voice chat for 3 seconds for the backstabbed player. Final small touch? For 1 second you can't backstab, but also you don't bump into enemies

[@Bubbble_Bear]

This used to be my main knife until valve nerfed the cloak rate, it was already clunky and unorthodox to use but having to compensate a straight nerf with virtually almost no upsides is what made me move out of spy and just main engineer

[@owenblount7334]

Me still using just to stab right in front of sentries

[@gemstonegynoid7475]

yeah i found it more challenging and fun when you flat out couldn't disguise on your own. now with it negatively impacting cloaking is harsh.

[@commitfelonyfeline]

that engineer was a spy!

[@ricedanan]

A potential buff idea I've had for the YER for a loge while now was to give the disguised spy a damage resistance depending on what the disguise was as a way to make the cloak drain downside more tolerable. Probably terrible but I'd like to see what others think.

[@joeyjonquantaviusjr9927]

Maybe

[@appelofdoom8211]

That feels like it’d end up turning the YER into a weird version of the kunai.

[@Teixas666]

the spy should NOt ever have damage reduction while visible. this would lopside about half the matchups he is normally bad at on his favor at no cost(particulary the sniper matchup). especially once the DR also gets involved.

[@DamnCyrus]

"All according to Keikaku" That's an old meme, but it checks out. And totally caught me off guard, ty

[@purplehaze2358]

That intro was such a perfect clip that I can't help but feel like the weapon's name is an intentional reference to that scene.

[@KRJ893]

It is

[@kokorikopi]

Alternate idea for this weapon: Disable manual disguising like it used to be, but you mimic more of your disguise's traits. If you can get a Scout backstab, you get Scout speed. You could get a very small DR for a Heavy disguise (like, just barely out of Direct Hit OHKO range).

[@starwarstg498]

Spy already gets classes speed when disguised as them

[@hattedmoron555]

@@starwarstg498 except scout's. He still moves at spy speed.

[@imaginaryedge60]

@@starwarstg498 dont think i remember seeing disguised spies running at mach 4

[@bigode9743]

That would be a buff without obvious visual communication so valve would never realisticly add it

[@btcbuster5556]

@@imaginaryedge60 thats the big earner

[@Xanman22512]

Aside from the great explanation and editing, the Sly 1 background tracks really send it

[@DarkDodgers]

Great video Fish. I literally watched this before sleeping and had a dream that I was chain stabbing with it...

[@Darkspace.]

The Your Eternal Reward serves as a friendly reminder that cloaking is a privilege.

[@amebee709]

13:37 that was absolutely a backstab

[@ODST_Buddy]

“Not good at spy” pulls multiple chain stabs

[@Archimedes.5000]

I always wanted YER to give you an "upgraded disguise" since it relies on it so much, like allow you to do fake attacks or maybe let you tank a hit or 2 (cloak consuming shield?)

[@gravitywave5348]

I was thinking that perhaps it could remove the visual effects that occur when debugged while disguised, so the flamethrowers and Jarate don't instantly out you anymore.

[@StarManMatt1]

This used to be my absolute favorite knife. I loved being forced to rely on my cloak, and as a player who rarely used his disguise kit, it fit my playstyle. But then they slapped on that cloak nerf for seemingly no reason. Killed the knife for me.

[@haydenhaslip2024]

If the nerf was the 33% cloak drain then just use the L'Etranger it negates it and is an excellent revolver in general

[@azurabbit12]

@@haydenhaslip2024 my guy, the l'etranger is an excellent revolver cus it gives you *more* cloak to work with, using it with the YER is literally just having normal cloak but with a worse revolver

[@manologamerss5801]

@@azurabbit12 And the ability to very easily have the entire enemy team just not notice when you backstab someone? And be able to keep them fooled for a pretty long time before you find your next victim? You're just talking as if the YER was a knife with no pros and it's only con is +33% cloak drain.

[@azurabbit12]

@@manologamerss5801 what are you even talking about? That's completely off topic, I'm talking about cloak duration here, not about the YER's perks, yes ofc using the YER gives you the upsides of using the fucking YER, I absolutely never implied otherwise But if we're talking cloak duration wise, using the l'etranger with the YER is just like having normal cloak with any other knife but with a worse revolver

[@Legend-Of-The-Sun]

@@azurabbit12 you still get more cloak though? Stock watch + YER + L'etranger = 12 second cloak time.

[@OlaftheGreat]

If you do use this, surprisingly the watch I find the most useful is the Cloak and Dagger, simply because you can sit and wait for a full cloak meter, disguise, and stay cloaked until you need to. It's better for hiding than for escapes, obviously, but it can work.

[@stan637]

yer + dr better because ppl will call you a crutch and pussy player

[@Teixas666]

he said it aswell but as said with the C&D you are gonna play a lot slower making this combo not usable in all game modes

[@destarker1340]

If they give the knife silent cloak or at least quieter cloak hiding will then actually be useful cause then you will already be in position to backstab the person you just fooled by standing in a single spot

[@vict632]

Honestly I preferred the old design, I had hundreds of hours of experiencie with it and I loved it. It forced you to play spy completely different. Relying on your cloak to get behind enemy lines, jumping on unsuspecting players from unorthodox places to get your first disguise and then proceed to strategically take out people going from spawn to the front lines while remaining undetected. (Or just die trying to accomplish step 1). The new design can still work with this playstile but it just cripples your cloak while disallowing stronger revolvers which really helped when you had no disguise 70% of the time. It's a straight nerf.

[@andrewmcgarry4519]

The original Sly Cooper 1 soundtrack album. That background music unlocked core memories I forgot I had. That was one of the first games i ever played

[@Brackets_Guy]

9:20

[@tezcanaslan2877]

I would also fix this weapon to work on MVM,since this weapon straight up doesnt function as intended in MvM (disguising by killing someone doesnt happen instantly and requires the same amount of time you would’ve spend if you disguised normally also the fact that robots can see through disguises)

[@nathanfivecoate5848]

It should at least have an upgrade to disguise faster

[@sword0115]

This knife is so underrated, it's so fun to use and is incredibly useful for dealing with engineers

[@whoisanarnb]

Thanks, Jafar! I have 20 of these but it’s still a kind offer!

[@the_rustydoornob1164]

Ill never see this as a bad weapon because of that one spy who’s name I always forget that was insane and cocky, he made great post commentary videos back in the day during the love and war era Edit: I think his name was Arlix?

[@koth_harvest_final]

Woolen?

[@dans3369]

that describes every spy main

[@the_rustydoornob1164]

@@koth_harvest_final no I think his name was arlix? He used the yer, dead ringer and the ambassador and sometimes diamondback, yes he was a douche but he was very self aware of it

[@ianjackson4721]

9:14 what map is this?

[@duckpersonlol444]

@@ianjackson4721 snowplow in the alternative gamemodes section

[@TheSeabornGaming]

This weapon is definitely tough, but I really like what you can do with it. I got the Wanga Prick which is just the reskin. I think the ability to immediately get a disguise is really helpful. I have seen a lot of scenarios where you blend in better as a person who was just there

[@imajedi576]

3:40 Meanwhile me most of the time: "That was a backstab, WHat the Fuck was that? That medic's back was looking right at me!"

[@vorpalweapon4814]

Your spy fail stream was hilarious. Im sorry you went through so much pain but it was pretty funny.

[@owenblount7334]

It’s because he’s using stock cloak the cloak and dagger+le tranger pretty much negate the downsides and you can pop in and out of cloak for a sec to pick up ammo like stock but you also have the +100% recharge rate

[@reagansido5823]

5:19 I'm dying right now, that is SUCH a good ragdoll!

[@maestrofeli4259]

yeah it's pretty funny

[@uttopielec]

crab spy dies

[@Wiseguy909]

I loved how you gave the le'tranger (or whatever it's called) a new name every time you mentioned it

[@SingularTicket]

I was waiting for this. For like, forever.

[@miloszpoblocki799]

Honestly this knife is really fun to use, when you are pretty good at using disguises (wich i modestly think I am). I also like the fact, that you still have disguise on after backstab. If you know some disguise tricks, like disguising as a certain class, going to the objective ignoring enemies at first, waiting for them to get into you etc., this is really fun weapon. Meybe other knifes are more reliable and efficient, but if you want to be efficient and consistant, then you shouldn't be playing Spy in the first place

[@Mr.Taco1111]

I love this weapon! Cant wait to see what you have to say about it.

[@mikehawk486]

It's only useful as training wheels for dealing with turtleing engines for players not yet fast enough to stab, switch to the dapper and place it on the sentry before it blows them to bits, since the instant disguise protects them from I loosing their disguise on stab.

[@cheapsmuck4209]

I watch the lives in my long insomniac depresion nights...so sweet

[@thespanishinquisition8443]

The amount of razorback snipers I have double backstabbed without them noticing is stupid, allowing me to essentially ignore the weakness the knife has

[@Snailing_Suika]

thats hillarious

[@demi-femme4821]

I mean, it's not like situationally aware Sniper mains tend to equip the Razorback.

[@Flpstrike]

YES!... I mean, YEEEEES! -Spy

[@texasbeefburgergiver9260]

Nice, FINALLY. THANK YOU, now I can start using it effectively

[@Skinned_fried_n_cut_up_potato]

I feel like a good middle ground change would be reverted to how it was but let you get one disguise kit use per life with no penalties attached (possibly free disguise can use in spawn unsure about that one though)

[@paull1248]

9:33 El et ranger

[@megahobbit5972]

The thing is before without the cloak 33% drain it used to be a great learning tool for spy to not overly rely on their disguise and practice cloak management. Now it is just sad and not worth it and as a learning tool its very very rough

[@user-vz5lw2pu8t]

it's not even REMOTELY close to a bad weapon. WHAT are you on

[@Dan-ze7hj]

15:03 YOU DID IT!!!! Everyone is very proud of you! :D

[@frostbite5081]

I've been having fun chainstabbing silently with this thing, hurts to see it on BWA even though it kinda is

[@he3004]

Disguises are shit, spy needs a little more control over how disguises look, imagine fake shooting with a disguise, you see your teams heavy walking revved up and even shooting, are you gonna spycheck him? Or your teams sniper scoped in at the very back, would you spycheck? Heck, a demoknight running and just swinging his sword around shouting "BLOODY SPY!!!" do you even spycheck this guy? Disguises do so little work that you could straight up play without them with YER, try it, don't even disguise at spawn just make your way to them with plain cloak and you will see that they either don't check their back or you are dead anyway, the disguise literally wouldn't change this fact

[@DragoonCenten]

Being able to shoot will change nothing when people already shoot everything with a pulse no matter the color.

[@isaiahsimmons5776]

sometimes it doesnt show ur damaged tho as diguised. idk when or how, but sometimes hurting diguised u see no blood. but it best to assume to keep shooting. but there is other effects that do apply to them.

[@kittymyths1208]

Couldn't agree more, why didn't they add fake shooting to Spy's disguises? That would make disguises a lot more effective! Cuz literally nobody is fooled by disguises anymore, not even newbies

[@froge4300]

i love the nicknames you gave the l'etranger

[@PrivateBooth]

God how much more can a TF2 video concept be milked

[@hans_von_zwissn]

as a spy who uses your eternal reward, i can say that i don't agree with you

[@backflips_7705]

Would giving temporary resistance to a spy once he backstabs an enemy help this weapon get better?

[@smallblackcoffee7340]

No. Resistance after backstab won't help you if you can't stab anyone.

[@Pancake_lover_niko]

How about gain some cloak on a backstab?

[@janskrzynski405]

Love that you used sly cooper music

[@adrianjsf]

Nice to see the old all according to keikaku meme,also I really wanted this bad weapon academy and it was worth ^^

[@hideyochest8964]

As someone with over 8,000 hours and highest play time on Spy, I really have to hard disagree with classifying this weapon as “bad”. While it’s usage is less generalized than stock, it very much has its niche and you’ll find it particularly useful in pubs with a noticeable amount of team play. Pub Spy has a very big problem, if opponents have ears you can stab one maybe two people before being forced to flee or attempt trick stabs if you want to be aggressive. If one of these competent players is Pyro you will die 100% of the time regardless of Kunai or Deadringer, there is simply no way around getting cornered by fire and airblast. The YER mitigates this issue immensely with its silent kill since in game callouts typically aren’t fast enough to alert opponents to your stab chain and no death scream plays for a competent player to be alerted to. This niche sounds simple, but it’s far more relevant in pubs than it seems. The overall spy paranoia of a pub is drastically and noticeably lower when opponents aren’t communicating your existence and can’t examine the effect you have via kill chat or death screams. The downsides are also far FAR more manageable than most seem to realize. With L’etranger, the reduced cloak time is completely irrelevant and losing cloak for redisguise is extremely negligible since you often lose your disguise when retreating after a stab which means you can go back to friendly controlled territory to just pick up an uncontested ammo crate. I very rarely ever die or lose momentum to losing cloak on re-disguise. I would say the *actual* downsides of the YER are just disguising as slow classes and being forced to run the L’etranger. I also think the notion that disguises don’t fool people is completely and utterly wrong. If you’ve never tried it, walk backwards into the enemy team in a pub and it works like 80% of the time. Disguises fool people the most when you act out playing the other team. Pathing for backstabs, looking at opponents, etc are all things people do that get them caught then immediately profess how bad disguises are. There’s also an extremely niche upside to the YER that literally everyone skips over that is way more important than they realize. Backstabbing a medic target forces the medic to attach his beam to you. This immediately gives you overheal you can use to escape or if the Medic was looking away you can attempt to fool them for a second which plays into the tempo of the enemy medic basically aiding your team instead of theirs which is far more powerful than one might realize. The final upside is that re-disguising let’s you ignore sentries while backstabbing which, once again, in pubs is a far more relevant upside than it seems. Overall, you’ll never see the YER in competitive and you’ll also never see it used well in the hands of a noob, but for semi-competent spies rocking pubs it has a couple pretty valuable upsides for picking out opponents amongst the pockets of space between better players. Honestly, when it comes to pubs I would rank the Big Earner lower than the YER since -25 health is a pretty ginormous downside for an upside that the Deadringer can already provide and better.

[@VagueCastle649]

Big earner doesn't slow you to an absolute crawl when you inevitably stab a heavy. In fact, it allows you to trickstab players easier since the speed boost messes with their muscle memory. (Also the massive chainstabs you can go on with it) While the big earner's -25 health penalty can be mitigated by simply right-clicking with any invis watch (since the damage resistances puts you back into the two-shotting threshold of stock), the yer essentially forces you to equip the weakest revolver combat-wise, and the disguise penalty denies you from ever the dead ringer effectively. To rank the big earner lower than the yer is absurd.

[@hideyochest8964]

Vague Castle649 it’s easy to stab trash with the Big Earner but then again it’s easy to stab trash in general. If you want chain stabs then you run the Kunai, it does everything Big Earner wants to do but better. The YER offers a solution for players who are never going to let you chain stab them. Stealth is about the only option your going to have against a Pyro who knows what the M2 button does.

[@VagueCastle649]

@@hideyochest8964 The big earner's speed boost is not to be underestimated, as it allows you to close the gap on distant enemies (i.e chainstabs) and outstrafe, dodge and stab a player who knows how to play around trickstabs. It also allows you to reach scouts and medics with the speed. While the kunai is better for clumped together chainstabs, the big earner is better for distant chainstabs. Stealth is never going to matter against a decent pyro, and the yer's soft forcing of the l'etranger, means you'll die to pyros more often than if you had stock (Although it is good for chainstabbing in a sentry nest, I'll give you that).

[@Johnny31323]

I kind of disagree with this whole video. Thw communication aspect, being a problem for the YER, isn't really a problem unless in competitive, and even then, people call out spy, so if someone in your team calls out spy, and he's dead, but you see him alive, you'll be looking around for the spy while he is actually the person that just died. In many aspects, the worst thing about spy is getting detected, as you have no chance again'st anyone who plays decently in a 1v1 from the front. But if they can't tell where you're at, who you are, nor hear your backstabs, then the whole game gets easier for you. No one would expect a spy disguising as a heavy/soldier/engineer or spy even, these classes are so often not used with the disguise kit, so when you stab these classes, and get insta-disguised as them, it is allot more believable that you're that class, and not amogus sus. So yeah, no cap on a stack you fell off + ratio + my mom owns the house now + my dad left for the milk + you're homeless + + .. you get the ideal..