Tictacs

[Tonster]

Anyone worked out any decent tactics yet (for Survivors natch)? I've played through the demo online a number of times so far and have completed it several times comfortably on Advanced, but any time we crank up the difficulty to Expert we get utterly utterly annihilated.

First, foremost and most obviously would be sticking together, on random PuG games people inevitably wander off and then get biatched by a Hunter/Smoker/whatever before anyone can get to them, then the remaining group splits up as one goes to the rescue while others are fighting off a horde. I implore sticking together!

Then there's pipe bombs, they should only be used during a zombie rush IMO as zombies swarm to them, so it's easy to kill 20+ in one go. They're also good if you get vomited on, just chuck on of those and avoid 90% of the zombies that want to chew on your backside.

Molotov's and petrol cans are good during rushes where there's a bottleneck like a doorway. ie on the demo at the end of the second part there are two petrol cans. Put one over the hole behind the machine gun and hold the other one so you can throw it left or right (standing my the machine gun) depending on where the rush comes from . Then flick the switch and light the cans at the appropriate time.

Backing into a wall can have mixed results, it obviously means you can't be attacked from behind but you can get pinned in.

So, anyone else got any tips, basic, advanced or otherwise?

[SteveP]

Moving quite fast I find can be benficial in places, rather than hanging about and end up getting grabbed by one of them smokers. Obviously that doesn't mean you run into an hoard of Zombie's :P

I'm finding useing the shove very effective, esp whilst you reload. Not really seeing others use this to great effect though. You can tend to shove the zombie off and use less ammo to finish em off, as ammo can be of concern on Expert.

Playing with the bots on your side is often better than a lot of people you get to play alongside on the server mind.

If you fancy a game maybe pop into #wpl4d tonight as i'm sure i'll be after one before the demo expires, then i gotta wait for the DVD delivered.

[Tonster]

I'm not sure (well I was until I started to write this, now I have doubts :P ) but I think turning while you shove can knock more zombies down.

I wanted the whole Steam community integration thing so the game should unlock at the right time. I may well be around tonight and tomorrow for a bash, I've been reading the threads for how to activate the server browser so I'll defo add the WP servers and stuff on.

Over the weekend before they patched the problem with connecting to servers I hosted a game for about 6 rounds without anyone complaining about ping. Sky (Easynet) 8mb connection. Just might be useful for people to know.

[Wannabeuk]

I host all my games locally ( Virgin FiberOptic 20Mb ) and rarely get connection or latency issues.

Also, the shove currently is WAY overpowered, if you back yourself into a corner, and spam right click, you can hold off 20+ zombies without breaking a sweat.

As for tactics, i find playing with someone you have good communication with works well, so far its been my werti0 and my housemate who have been most sucessful having completed expert more times than i can count now.

I find also, make clever use of your grenades, dont waste your ammo if your pistol will do ( for example, at the top of the escalators, to many people waste there ammo there.

Dont be overly affriad to die, as long as one person is alive, you can get your whole team back. Often on more health than they had before ( although at a loss of there guns )

make sure when your upgrade, someone takes the auto shotty, without it taking down a tank can cost you the entire team.

Kill the witch, too often we have tried and failed to sneak around the witch, now we just get close, and time all out shots so we can take her down before she can do any damage.

Remember, only one needs to survive to get into the saferoom, and the door opens alot faster than most people seem to realise, also make use of the petrol tanks that are around, basically a free molotov.

[JamesBPK]

I agree with all of these. I'm up for a game later Steve.. I also agree that at the moment, the shove is ridiculous. The only things it dosen't work against are the bosses..

[SteveP]

You have to remember the game is only the first couple of stages, so it might perhaps be a bit too soon to judge if the shove is too powerfull.

[Nagash]

shove will work on Hunter, as it's an achivement that you yourself listed. knocking back a hunter in mid air :D. so stands to reason that a smoker would work this way also, but it's not very often that you'll get close to one. Your also supposed to knock back the Boomer before you kill it, if it gets to close, so works on the Boomer as well. So thats 3 out of 5 bosses :D... doesn't work on Witches or Tanks though, all i remember is i saw them coming towards me (on different occasions obviously) and i tried to push em back before getting ripped a new one :D

[ssmmdd]

When he says bosses, he means the Tank and Witch...

[Nagash]

all are considered bosses i thought, just some appear less than others

[ssmmdd]

Afaik, the 'Bosses' are the Tank & the Witch.

[Tonster]

Shoving a Hunter off a prone survivor is by far the best way of dealing with them so you don't catch the survivor with stray shots.

I'm not sure but if a Smoker misses with his tongue and you can get close I don't think they can attack you, they seem to want to run away. It happened to me last night in the subway, his tongue missed me as I went behind a wall, so I ran at him, he just kept running away from me not attacking. Sounds like something that would be key in versus mode or whatever it's called.

L4D has unlocked (Steam) \o/

[Tonster]

Some more tips of mine mixed with others I've found.

The scenario that ends in the farmhouse (Blood Harvest?), a good tactic here is for everyone to grab the auto shotty, then activate the rescue, then go up the stairs and into the room straight ahead and shut the door. You then have 1 person guarding the left window, one guarding the right, and one person guarding the door. The last person is a floater and supports the other 3 wherever it's needed. A lot of infected will come up the stairs and break a hole in the door, this makes them easy pickings until the door gives up totally. The only real fly in the ointment is the tank, you're all in a small space with him. That said 4 auto shotguns at point blank range do him some serious damage too. The tactic may not be viable at harder levels.

On the scenario that ends on the rooftop of Mercy hospital (No Mercy) there is a small room to the right of the weapons cupboard. It can be a really good tactic to make your stand there. Have 2 eople at the front crouching, and 2 and the back standing. You are only a couple of steps from the ammo supply so can spam your main weapons continually. All the zombies will attack you from the front, the doorway is a total bottleneck. Just beware of Boomers and get out when the Tank comes, then go back in when he's dead. Even if you get vomited on the zombie rush is still all front on so you just keep blasting away.

At the higher difficulty settings, on a zombie rush it can be highly effective to all stand with your backs to a wall.

Been vomited on? Can't see friend from foe? Back yourself into a corner and use shove until you can be sure what you're shooting.

If you're at the front in a firefight, crouch.

You will continue reloading even while spamming shove.

The very last achievement (OUTBREAK - Catch a rare strain of infection, then pass it on to someone else) can only be gained in versus mode, and you can only get it by being vomited on by someone who already has the achievement. That may sound silly but what happened was Valve employees started as the only people with the achievement, and people who played with them got the achievement, and they passed it on and so on. It's a viral achievement in more ways than 1 :)

When you're the tank you can hit cars and dumpsters at the survivors and it immediately incapacitates them.

Hunters can wall jump

Once injured as a hunter/ smoker/ boomer you merely walk away from the survivors until you get the message "Press E to move closer to the Survivors" This refills your health entering spawn mode again. Also it's good if you're being outrun as a boomer. It also resets your special move gauge so can be a good tactic for that alone.

Set the tank on fire ASAP as it will burn him until he dies. You can literally set him alight and then just run until he burns to death.

Meleeing a tank does nothing.

Its great fun being a boomer and standing on a car with an alarm or right next to the witch. If they shoot you the alarm/ witch go off.

If you're going to shoot the gas station, be a long way from it. Shooting it will give you a ramp to a room, though there are huge wooden spools you can jump on to get in there. It's also advisable to have a guy hit the skyjack lift and run over there to meet you. hold that room, typically ammo, pills, and bombs there. This is practically a must on expert. If you do blow that gas station up, it makes a ramp of debris right up to the windows, allow zombies easy access to you, instead of having to climb, if you chose to hold that spot until the horde's are done.

Close doors, zombies can't open them and have to break them down.

[JamesBPK]

Good stuff there m8. Nice finds.

[flex1970]

Any tips for the closing scene where your picked up in the chopper would be handy, I keep getting my ass creamed above n00b setting :frown: I always manage to keep them away till the chopper arrives, then my ass is toast trying to make it home.

[Wannabeuk]

I dont really do this on coop that often, but its always useful to keep a pipebomb or molo available, as soon as you kill the second tank, run to the helipad and throw the pipe back towards the house.

[Shirley_Crabtree]

My advice is,if you are using the auto shotty,learn to round-count.

If you use up a full clip,reloading takes a lot longer than reloading with 3 or 4 shells left.So make sure you reload after shooting 6 or 7 shells.

Good comms is essential.

If you are playing with bots let them do the hard work.

[flex1970]

Thankyou, single player I work around the outside lower levels first killing off as many zombies as I can, does his have any affect other than target practice? Also, the petrol canisters that appear to the right of the mini gun sometimes, are they always in the level but in different locations?

[Bury]

Flying into doors as a hunter also works at destroying them, i think they are distant/damage relative also

[Nagash]

when the horde is coming for you, be it the finale or any other time, the best tactic is to limit the access they have to you. So hide in a closet, or room with only 1 doorway. This way, all infected have to go through the doorway to get to you, so you and other players only have 1 direction to point your weapons and basically have 4 players shooting the same infected at the same time. Done correctly, nothing gets through apart from specials, in which case it's always best to have people trying to melee when reloading, as it keeps people back and frees you from the smoker and knocks back the hunter and boomer.

On the no mercy finale, it's hard to find decent areas for this, however, when you go down the main ramp on the roof, to your right will be a building that if you go around the back of it, is a room you can hide in. When in a room it is best to be far back so boomers don't get you and at an angle so smokers can't pull you out, and this room offers that. Sometimes it takes a little to find the entrance and you have to break down the door, but it's there :D. Little advice though, when it's time for the tank, get the *uck out of there :D.

[flex1970]

Practice makes perfect eh! Does shooting the lower level zombies have any affect at all? (pre radio contact). When myself and a couple of others played we found it helpfull to camp 3 different rooftop spaces with one as a sniper holding back on the top roof and the minigun online. We also tried moving the petrol canisters on the approach to the ramp and escaped via side routes. This doesn't always work though, thats the brilliance of L4D a full proof plan is not a reality :)