All the information here is written by Alien however Weissberv helped with some of it, especially the Dead Air campaign.
Left 4 Dead
Campaign Brief Summaries:
Characters:
Bill - Old war veteran.
Francis - Biker crazy maniac.
Louis - Business man.
Zoey - School student who learned about zombies.
Hints & Tips:
Horde - Mass amount of zombies all at once
How to fight them: Use melee quite a lot if you are in front and also duck which will allow team mates to shoot over your head at the zombies being knocked back. Any zombies behind also melee by spinning. Shotgun generally works best for this situation. If two players both duck in a corner and melee it is almost guranteed to work, almost...
Boomer - Obese zombie that pukes zombie bile, attracts other zombies and also severely blinds the survivor with the bile
How to fight it: Take out from a distance with pistol or long ranged weapon. If it gets too close try melee it and then shooting it but be careful of it's vomit. Shotgun at a distance may work but is more liable to miss than any of the other weapons.
Hunter - Leaping zombie that can pin you or your team mate down and slash your guts out
How to fight it: A well timed melee can stop a hunter from pinning you (the actual best time to do it is literally just before he leaps, not whilst hes leaping as the back end of the melee will still work). If you melee a hunter whilst he is attacking your team mate it will instantly knock him off and give you and your team mate chance to shoot him. If you can not melee the hunter then just shoot it off your team mate till it dies (your team mate can not take damage during a hunter attack).
Smoker - Lanky zombie that uses it's tonuge to drag you in and slash you to death or hang you from a ledge and strangle you to death
How to fight it: Use pistol if the smoker is at a distance, duck if necessary for aim but just try stop the smoker from ever making your team mate lose life as it will be instant recovery with no life lost. If you get grabbed by the smoker and you kill it before you 'lose your footing' you will be free like it never happened. Another method is to melee your team mate causing the smokers tounge to break. You can also shoot the tounge causing the tounge to break.
Tank - Armoured zombie that will stop at nothing except for being shot by 50 dozen rounds of weaponry or killing all the survivors
How to fight it: Do 4 way split and make him be in the middle so he chases one of you and gets distracted by another (preferably high health). If you are low on health run but whilst running shoot him (Do not just run in other words). Oh and watch out for flying bricks, these tanks are deadly shots. If the tank is set on fire he will not go out (applies to versus mode too).
Witch - Female zombie that sobs her eyes out until she feels threatend in which case she rips a survivor limb from limb
How to avoid it: Flashlights off. Do not shoot at her near her etc. Do not look at her. If she growls just stop doing whatever you are doing and move back. If she is completely in the way get the team mate with the lowest health to shoot her and watch him/her probably die :).
How to fight it: Only to be used if she is in the way. Advanced planning amongst all members deciding on how exactly to fight her. Try set her on fire and use every second of potential killing time (i.e. after she is set off) to kill her.
Medpack - 1 each for each player, 4 in total, repairs health up to 90%
How to use it effectively: Use these after your SECOND, yes SECOND knock down. This is the most effective way as you get all your life and 2 more knock downs. The only other time you use it if it is a must situation as in you are all on red then 1 of you should use it to get the others up (unless you and/or your team really suck then 2 of you use it).
Weapons:
Auto Shotgun - 10 shotgun shells per reload. Fast shooting shotgun that you can hold click. Awesome against hordes and tanks. Awful against smokers and sometimes hunters because of distance. Overall rating: 5/5
Assault Rifle - 50 rounds per clip. Excellent at shooting close and distance. Quite powerful and damaging. Good against whole range of zombies. Overall rating: 4/5
Hunter's rifle - 15 rounds per clip. Designed for more experienced players who can aim well. Great for long distance shots and effective with close too. Does 1 hit kills on most parts of the zombies. Not as effective as shotguns against hordes but extremely effective against witches. Overall rating: 4.5/5
Pistol(s) - 15 rounds per clip (15x2 if 2 pistols). Sidearm weaponary good for both close and distance if you are accurate with them. Headshots can kill zombies in 1 and can be used effectively against 2 bosses of which being the boomer and smoker. Overall rating: 3/5
Shotgun - 8 shotgun shells per reaload. Slow shooting shotgun that you must press to fire. Good for normal zombies and hordes. Has effective firepower and damage but it is let down by it's speed and close distance. Overall rating: 3.5/5
Uzi - 40 rounds per clip. This gun is good for precision unlike the shotgun. It's clip size means it has a faster reload than shotgun. It has a fast firing rate. It is let down by it's power but can be useful when combined with a player with a shotgun. Overall rating: 3.5/5
Versus:
Versus brings a whole new dynamic gameplay to L4D. No longer are 4 players stuck with just AI... In versus 4 players take the role of the survivors and 4 players take the role of special infected. Every 5 - 10 - 15 - 20 seconds after a player dies as the infected they respawn either with the same infected or another. There can be 2 hunters 1 smoker 1 boomer but only 1 tank per level. Each infected can see one another through the walls aswell as the survivors.
Tips:
- Special infected are most effective when all of them combine. If all players work together there is much more chance of taking out all of the survivors.
- The smoker is especially good for slowing down the survivors as he can pull the team backwards so all the survivors must come back for him/her.
- The hunters are good for distraction with their leap ability as well as being the infected that does the most damage. They can leap off of walls if the player aims the opposite way to the wall they pounced at and presses pounce/leap again.
- The boomer is best when only 1 survivor is vomitted on and the other survivors can not help as the 1 survivor gets the same amount of zombies as 4 would.
- The tank can take out an entire team by himself if used correctly (see scenario 3 tank tips).
How to work effectively:
Scenario 1:
Requires: All infected
1 suvivor is away from the rest. Get 1 hunter to take the bait, then another hunter gets the survivor that tries to save him/her. A smoker then goes for 1 of the remaining 2 and a boomer vomits on just 1 to attract heaps of zombies. As the vomit is wearing off get killed by the vomitted survivor near him.
If Successful: Will most likely kill at least 1, severely damage another 2 and leave 1 to save them all.
If Fails: If the situation fails and each infected is killed off one by one then you must have very good organisational skills and not rush into combat to setup another situation.
Scenario 2:
Requires: Smoker & both hunters
All 4 survivors are packed closely together and keeping that way. Use the smoker to drag one of them away and try not be easy to see. As the survivor is getting dragged away the hunters must go for the back 2 survivors without being noticed. If the smokers tounge is shot or the survivor hits the other survivor try distract them away from the hunters.
If Successful: If the situation is successful half amount of damage or more can be done depending upon the map. It is a useful tactic to split them all up aswell giving the special infected time to recover.
If Fails: All infected die almost together anyways so setup will still be fairly easy.
Scenario 3:
Requires: Tank, smoker
Tank Tips: The tank can kill all 4 survivors on his own given the correct usage. Rocks do come in a lot more handy than people think. As a tank keep hitting one survivor until he is down, then go for the others. Use rocks to hit from far off distances as the tank can throw fast and far. A rock also does not knock the player back unlike the tank's fist does. It makes the survivor easy to catch up to.
Now to the scenario. The smoker can drag a survivor in close to let the tank attack him/her. Once the tank attacks the smoker will lose grip of the survivor but not be hurt as long as the tank does not hit the smoker himself. If this is repeated with the tank being able to keep control and stay near survivors all survivors can easily be killed.
If Successful: All survivors end up dying.
If Fails: Lose tank.