this section is about pyro's primaries. I will rank them from least skillful(1) to most skillful (5), at least from my experience.

1. The Phlogistinator.

easiest weapon for pyro. but the 2nd most situational. yes, the crits are powerful and it's a great tool against tanks. though no airblast makes it terrible for combos, reinforces a bad playstyle, and is really not fun to play against, even if the person getting slain by this thing is a better pyro or a sniper with darwins danger shield. you can die easier to sentries and smart players even while you taunt for crits. it's a dopamine machine thats good for pushes, but you lose a lot just to get free crits every 300 damage.

2. The Back Burner

good for stealth, but its buggy as hell and you might get called the N-word for using it, same goes for phlog. and its not good for combos or airblasting teammates or projectiles. still good when trying to get behind unaware enemies and shred them. also the detection for what counts as the enemy's "back" is buggy as hell for flamethrowers. it can work but sometimes what seems like is right the game wont give you as crits. doesnt happen often but its still annoying when it occasionally does.

3. The Degreaser.

good weapon, but it's obsolete. does less damage and costs more to airblast, for a small switch and reload buff. its kinda good. but the default switch speed got buffed so you dont need this to combo. but it still comes in handy and best used to combo. its still a solid pick. aside from stock, this one is also a favorite of mine.

4. Stock Flamethrower and reskins

the most versatile primary for pyro. ol' reliable. good for combos, great DPS, and is the jack of all trades. it's my favorite. so dont ditch this one because it's stock. both this and the degreaser can be used interchangeably, but with stock you get slightly more damage and 2 more airblasts, so keep that in mind.

5. Dragon's Fury.

one of the hardest flamethrowers for noobs to master. turns pyro from a jack of all trades and good defender into an offensive powerhouse. good in mvm against tanks if you have crits, though the airblast penalty hinders some people, the damage bonus for chaining hits makes up for that, and it's great for pusing back enemy pushes and can be godlike if a medic ubercharges you.

I will list em by ranking them by usefulness and how much damage it does. I get the first one outta the way bc its the worst option for casual, and go down the list to #5. (DPS means Damage Per Second.)

1. The Gas Passer

Only good in MvM. not good in casual aside from maybe land sharking (using it to coat enemies then whack em with the Neon Annihilator), but it probably needs a rework. trading a secondary for a crappy area denial weapon with a minimal upside? no thanks, I'd rather deep throat a DB shotgun and pull the trigger.

2. The Reserve Shooter

good for taking care of flying soldiers/demomen explosive jumping. but, not very good anymore because you can't airblast people and pop em with a onetap mini crit kill after puffing them with fire. not good in MvM either. not its kinda situational, but kinda fun in a weird way.

3. The Thermal Thruster

good for gimmicks, sneaking past enemies that dont look up often, and is a good pair with the Back Burner so you can get behind people and then drop down and crit them to death. not good in MvM.

4. The Mann Melter

surprisingly good. you can extinguish teammates by pressing M2 and storing the flames captured by it for 1 crit shot each. firing speed bonus can also mess with the enemy's strafing and such. best paired with Phlog to negate no airblast with teammates and to complete the set, and also the Dragon's Fury so you can save airblasts for projectiles, and airblast teammates more often.

5. The Flare Gun

A good combo type secondary. best paired with stock or degreaser. plus you get respect for using it and hitting combos and long range shots. hard to aim and hit but you can be an absolute menace when you master it. versatile in MvM but there's better options

6. The Panic Attack

good reliable shotgun with fixed spread. great for quick switches but damage can be bad sometimes, and it gets less accurate with every shot hit. still pretty consistent tho. does some of THE highest secondary damage, and pairs very well with degreaser. though it does put a limit on your range because of the spread.

7. The Detonator

good flare gun for jumping around, think of it as the thermal thruster but you take damage and you can use it to dmg enemies. good for combos or jumping above enemies or into hard to reach spots. also if you play trolldier you can set some people on fire from a range, detonator jump, and market garden them with the Axetinguisher.

8. The Stock Shotgun

this is a very versatile weapon, but you can use anything you like. it's reliable, good damage, the whole shebang. its the most accurate but the randomized spread can absolutely ♥♥♥♥ your damage potential at some ranges and against some enemies. but it has more range than the panic attack so if you play on fixed spread community servers its very good.

9.The Scorch Shot

It's the most hated pyro secondary by everyone but this is also a very good versatile weapon. cant flare jump as well as the detonator, but its a small start. best used against snipers or to combo people close range if you cant do that well with the flare gun or detonator.

this section is based on Utility. which is mostly what pyros use their melee slots for. first few will be the worst or be good damage options with little to no utility.

1. Stock Fire Axe and reskins

the worst pyro melee, so switch off of it as soon as possible. no utility, no gimmick, and mostly used as a joke weapon. solid baseline damage but every other weapon does something that makes it better than the stock axe

2. The Hot Hand

not a good melee either, but it makes for funnier meme loadouts and it's just scout's fish melee but on pyro in a way. does the worst damage and isn't that fun to use. at least it has some funny factor.

3.The Third Degree

the only straight upgrade to stock in game so far. not very good in PvP, but its kinda busted against medics healing someone when you get a random crit or two, especially in MvM, against medic bots healing giants.

4. The Sharpened Volcano Fragment

not a good melee regularly, but great in medieval mode. its my favorite melee aesthetically, but practically, it needs reworking, which is why i dont use it. it just does the same thing the flamethrower does but not as well.

5. The Neon Annihilator

good in water heavy maps where people fall in water a lot, or if you are using the gas passer. fun melee, also you can bust sappers with this. good weapon, not the best though. this one I also love aesthetically.

6. The Axetinguisher/Postal Pummeler

good damage options if you can combo. same weapon, different skins so you can choose what you like. Postal Pummeler can be funny for making POSTAL franchise references and also see a cool kill icon that isnt just axetinguisher, also mail puns. but the normal axtinguisher is also cool because of how gnarly it looks.

7. The Homewrecker/Maul

again, another weapon with a cool reskin. good for busting down sappers and enemy engineer nests alike. it does extra damage against buildings, but not players. which I think is a fair trade. also people get pissed when they get finished off with it.

8. The Back Scratcher.

good for when there's no medic or engineer on the team, but also great uber building tool for medics. I use this sometimes in tougher matches or when flanking, since medics arent all that common, and dont always follow pyros on the flank. though chad medics will heal everyone except bots/hackers and thats the way it should be.

9. The Power Jack

The melee every pyro uses. good for getting to places fast and getting out fast. not my favorite, but it's good and versatile. good for beginners or pros. everyone and their mom uses this because of the 20% speed boost, despite the downside of the damage vulnerability

so this is a list, in no particular order, of good pairs. mostly notable ones if you have more ideas, comment below! :)

Casual Mode pairs

1. Dragon's Fury + Mann Melter + (utility melee or damage based melee).
good for offense or pushing a point/choke. makes pyro go from a jack of all trades into a offense powerhouse. it's very good for people familliar with the mann melter and people who can aim. the mann melter can extinguish teammates and deal damage from a range while using the Dragon's fury for close range death by hell fire. other flares work too, as long range ignition can really help with boosting DPS on incoming enemies

2. Stock flamethrower + stock shotgun/scorch shot/ flare + Homewrecker

The loadout of choice for PyBros. great against sap-happy spies and taking out enemy engineer's buildings like teleporters, sentries, dispensers, and mini sentries. each flare gun can help with locationg invisible spies or critting them after igniting them with a primary.

3. Neon Annihelator + any shotgun or gas passer + any flamethrower

a Pyro-shark's loadout of choice. best done on water heavy maps. (ex: 2fort, banana bay, doublecross,)

4. Stock flamethrower or degreaser + scorch shot + (Utility melee or Axetinguisher)

good loadout for combo pyros in training or pyros that have a quick switch heavy DOOM eternal like combo style attack pattern. also good for pyros not good with the normal flare gun but are working on accuracy with a flare

5. Phlogistinator +scorch shot/mann melter + (utility melee)

sweaty noob tryhard loadout of choice. if you use this after reading my guide, you are a failiure to me, but I wont judge on how you play. its an addictive choice, like smoking cigarettes or vaping.

6. Degreaser + Flare Gun/Detonator + Axtinguisher/Powerjack

very good combo loadout. degreaser can be swapped for stock if desired. versatile but can lack in defense. degreser + flare is a very high DPS combo, but swapping normal flare for for detonator can open the gates to be able to market garden burning players with the axtinguisher, and thats really cool to style on enemies with.

Mann Vs Machine (MvM) loadouts

1. Stock + Gas Passer + Powerjack/Utility Melee

good versatile loadout; gas passer with explode on ignite is great for clearing out large hordes of normal robots.

2. Phlogistinator + Gas Passer/shotgun + powerjack

good for Tank-Busting. just stick your arse infront of the tank, aim up to the big box, and unload your clip! add crit canteens for extra bursts of damage when you have no MMMPH meter full.

3. Back Burner + Detonator/Jetpack + axetingusher/Powerjack

Good for being behind the robots and getting behid them to crit them to death with backburner or hit them with the axetinguisher.

4. Stock + scorch shot/gas passer + back scratcher

versatile loadout for when you dont have a medic on your team or are in an area far from an engineer's dispenser.

woo hoo! if you read the whole guide, congratulations you graduated basic pyro training by Menacing Pyro, aka M.P. Firebrand (me)! now get out there, and kill some enemy-teamed bastards and melt some robots! you got this!