Left 4 Dead Tips

Whats the purpose of these Left 4 Dead tips? For starters I'd like not punch a hole through my pretty new monitor. For the most part zombie attacks don't tickle, so feel free to help out a teammate in need. These tips will mostly deal with campaign mode. With any luck these tips will make noobs a thing of the past.

Follow the Leader

It's a good idea to pick a leader in the lobby. Preferably some one who has a mic and isn't scared of voice chat. Good aim and map knowledge is also a plus.

What does a good leader do? They set the pace of your game. Moving fast is key, the faster you move the fewer hordes and special infected you have to fight.

Having an acknowledged leader also helps cut down friendly fire. The leader should always be point-man. When you have more than one person trying to be point-man crossfire is inevitable.

Point-man-one stops to shoot, then point-man-two steps out in front to be the new leader and gets an ass full of lead, seen it happen hundreds of times. Pick a leader let them set the pace.

Left 4 Dead Tips Team Work

Four people isn't a whole lot considering you fight thousands of zombies. So every one needs to carry their own weight.

The leader should be carving a path killing only zombies blocking the direct route. He should have two people behind him watching the flanks taking out stray zombies the leader misses.

The person on the end should be shutting doors and making sure hordes/special infected don't sneak up from behind. Using voice chat makes this whole team work thing a lot easier.

Some times people don't notice a stray hunter attack. So screaming like a little girl on voice can save your health but destroy your ego.

Keep an eye on your teams aura. Each player has one. Green is happy clappy cakes, and pies. Yellow can mean a bunch of things. They either have medium health, have been covered in boomer bile or are being attacked by a smoker.

Red is the least happy color. It signals that they have less than 30 health, also if pounced by a hunter the hunters outline will appear red while the survivors is orange.

Left 4 Dead Tips Health

There are two forms of health. Health packs that increase your percentage, and pain pills that temporarily give you a boost. Health packs wont take you back to 100%.

The lower your health is the more they heal you. If your health is at 1% a pack will take you up to 80% so you get 79 health out of it. However if you use one when your at 40 health it will take you to 90%, which only gives you 50.

Always wait until your health is below 10 before using a pack. The lower your health is the slower you move in game. So the exception to this rule would be if you hear a tank near by and you have low enough health to be limping you should use the pack.

Pain pills give you a temporary health boost of 50%. Every 3 seconds you lost one percentage point so you get about two and a half minutes of health.

Always use pills before health packs. Health packs are scarce especially on expert. Don't use your pills until your character is severely limping and slowing down the team.

The reason for this is all attacks take away from your base health. If you have 20% health and use pills to get up to 70% and get attacked you lose your 20% health first and are left with all temporary health.

So now your all out of pills and your limping along... time to use that med pack yet? Theres still a few tricks you can use.

If you haven't gone down yet and your at 1% health get a team mate to team kill you. When you get revived you'll have 30% temporary health, dont do this if you have been incapacited before because it will put you in black and white.

Another good trick for getting extra health is to team kill outside the safe room (Dont do this in versus lol). Every one who died in the previous round spawns in the safe room with 50% health.

So if some one is on low or temporary health its usually better to team kill them so they come back with 50%. The only time I wouldn't recommend this is if you've picked up advanced weapons early in the game.

Weapon Strategy Tips

There's plenty of Left 4 Dead tips when it comes to weapon strategy. Starting with the pump shotgun and sub machinegun. The shotgun is better for a few reasons.

First its a one hit kill if you aim for the upper torso. Second you can reload one shell at a time, so its possible to keep a continuing steam of fire while using shove in between.

Another problem with the Sub Machingun is ammo, it's pretty common to run out. However balance is important, the SMG does have range and rate of fire over the shotgun.

One SMG and three shot guns is the best combination. Now on to advanced weapons, they all kick ass in their own way. I have no preferance here, I just choose the best gun to round out what my team mates didn't choose.

Its always good to have 2 auto shottys, one hunting rifle and one rifle. Its arguable but in my opinion shot guns are the best guns in Left 4 Dead. Some people don't like them because they take aim to use.

You are playing an FPS this game is all about aim. Not to mention the shot gun sprays buck shot every where... So don't be scared of the shot gun learn to use it and love it!

Last but not least we have pistols. Pistols are bad ass especialy when you pick up duals. Like the other guns head shots are a one hit kill on common infected.

The accuracy of these guns is very good when fired at the correct rate, putting them on par with some primary weapons. Don't forget FPS 101 its always faster to switch to pistol than it is to reload!

Left 4 Dead Tips Combat

Combat is what L4D is all about. One of the biggest distinctions between Left 4 Dead and other zombie games is the shove attack. It helps you do every thing from defending a corridor to pissing off team mates.

Melee by itself is almost useless. You have to use it in combination with your primary weapon or to achieve an objective. One example of this would be to knock a hunter out of mid air, just start spamming melee as soon as you hear him growling.

Another use is to get the tanks attention (Don't try this in versus). Hitting a tank in the back with shove will cause him to come after you which is desirable if he corners a team mate. Movement is the pit fall of many players.

This is one of the best Left 4 Dead tips I can give you. Most guns in L4D work while on the move. The only gun that sucks while moving is the hunting rifle.

Your movement decides what direction you get hit from. This is especially important when dealing with hordes. The best way to deal with a horde is to run up and meet them head on, fire a few shots hit them with shove then start back peddling.

This does two things, for one it keeps the zombies in front and keeps you from getting flanked. Secondly it causes the horde to form a single file line chasing you, easy pickings for a shotgun.

This strategy works best in open areas, if a horde attacks in close quarters its better to defend a doorway or rescue closet.

L4D Sounds

Left 4 Dead tips you off all the time with sound ques. Every single special infected produces a different and distinct noise. Familiarize yourself with these sounds.....

Hunter - Cat like growling.
Smoker - Hacks up a lung.
Boomer - Severe indigestion
Witch - Cry face emo chick, all QQ in some corner
Tank - Grunting fits of roid rage

On top of these sound effects valve even went so far as to use music as ques. When the AI director decides to spawn a random horde the horde theme song starts to play. The tank also has music.

When he is idle all you hear is his grunting. Once he sees a player and attacks his music starts playing. Make sure your music is not only enable but also is turned up loud enough to hear clearly!

Even the foot steps and growling of common infected will help you out. Especially on expert where a stray common infected can easily hit you for 30 damage in just a few seconds. Good head phones and a nice sound card are money well spent.



Left 4 Dead Tips - ProGaming Tips