Thread: L4D2 New players training!

OK guys so Blitz and I sat down and penned out a basic guide for beginners (read Thorsens great "10 commandments" too). We also want to offer up a night or two of in game VS training, that means we'll man each side and walk through the basics, and let some new to L4D2 guys learn the vs techniques without the pressure of regular L4D2 players bearing down on you. If you are interested simply put your name down in here and if enough people wish to partake we'll set up some dates...

Here's the basic guide that you should read prior to heading into a L4D2 vs game!




This guide is a broad starting point for anyone new to L4D2. You’ll discover that this game is very complex, strategy and team-play will trump snapshot skills every-time. I’ve split the guide up into 3 segments: Weapons and objects, Survivor skills, and last but definitely not least the Special infected!

Weapons and objects.
Basically you can hold 3 different weapons, and 2 special pickups. Your keys would look like:
1. Pistol / Pistols / Magnum / Melee
2. Shotguns / SMGs / Rifles / Assault rifles / Special Limited Ammo Weapons
3. Throwables
4. Special Pick Ups (Medkits, Spec-Ammo, Defibs, Laser sights)
5. Pills / Epi-pen

I’ll address each one briefly, find your favourite weapons and practice makes perfect.

1. Pistols are your base weapon, very low damage, these little suckers are your only choice to start with, you can get a second pistol to make your life slightly easier or upgrade the pistols to a Desert Eagle (AKA Deagle, Magnum, Hand Cannon) This pistol is a great weapon. What it lacks in clip size it makes up for in power. More than once have I seen downed survivors kill off tanks with these puppies! Pistols are all nice and dandy, but for crowd control you need something with a bit less finesse. That’s where melee weapons come in. Powerful and wide swinging, these weapons can reduce hordes to nothing and if used correctly they are the most powerful weapon against a tank. There are different weapons, which all vary in width of swing arc and speed but essentially they are all very similar. Your choices of zombie head battery are: Baseball bats, Cricket bats, Machetes, Katanas, Frying pans, Golf Clubs, Fire ax and Police riot sticks. Melee weapons are essential to some to survive, so make sure your team is ALWAYS comfortable with their base weapons, too many times I see people who know they can’t crowd control with pistols die because they get horded and they can’t do anything to help themselves (or the team too!), speak up for your right to bash the zombie noggins or die a brutal death... Melee holders should always be at the front clearing horde with gusto, pistol holders job is to calm the SI attacks and support Melee survivors.

2. These weapons are separated into 2 “tiers”. Tier 1 weapons (SMG, Silenced Mac 10, Chrome Shotgun, Brown Shotgun) and Tier 2 weapons (Assault shotgun, auto shotty, hunting rifle, sniper rifle, Ak, M4, Scar, M60*, Grenade launcher*) all have different firing rates and damage rates I’m not going to go into detail with them - I’m sure if you look hard enough through the teamplayergaming forums you’ll find damage charts and all that jazz... I however just want to gloss over and give you a quick rundown of the TYPES of weapons. Shotguns are low ammo and huge clearing ability. You should avoid close shooting with these guns as friendly fire happens quickly and can reduce teammates to squealing kiddies in seconds. I always suggest the shotgunners up front to help Melee clear the hordes... Shotguns are the ONLY way to kill a witch (Get extremely close, basically touch her, aim for the back of the neck/head and fire, try it out on your own before you do it in an actual game where it counts). If there are any skilled snipers on the team, however, a far headshot can knock the witch back for a few seconds while the team guns her down. This is an alternative for no shotgun or no one with witch killing abilities. Machine guns support very well, lots of ammo, these are the favoured of many. The sniper rifles are the most precise. The hunting rifle has superb on the run accuracy, the military sniper has 15 more bullets per clip. These weapons are fantastic SI killers and can royally irritate tanks. *The M60 and Grenade Launcher are limited ammo, so make sure you aren’t relying on these to get you through long sections with little to no ammo points. The M60 is only available on a few campaigns, the launcher on all - word of caution from someone who’s taken the time to really understand the ‘nade launcher, get ready for splash damage to hurt your team, you have to learn to assess the probable damage and figure on up to 10 damage from your nades... Oh and be prepared to be shouted at quite often, as many people dislike the unpredictability of that bad boy.

3. Molotov (molly), Pipebombs, and bile bombs are simply fantastic. Here’s a few tips: Save Mollys for tanks and dire emergencies (such as uber hordes, you can toss a molly at your feet to save a lot of your bullets and/or life). Never throw them without letting people know, in fact always let people know your intentions of lobbing a gas filled bottle PERIOD. The safest way to light up a tank is waiting for him to throw a rock, and when he does, lob in to land just in front of him. Always call it, and set a sequence to throwing, that way you dont waste 4 badly thrown molotovs (Stop laughing I’ve seen it too many times from very good players). Pipe out when you’re horded or into a big horde. Try and throw the pipe close to where the horde actually is instead of a far distance away; this will kill more of the horde off instead of just making them run away for a short time. Throwing these will attract a ton of attention, you most likely will have stragglers to kill off too. When Boomed, wait a few seconds to “hear” the horde, then lob it. An early pipe will fail. Bile bombs are useless if you are boomed, they’ll go for the boomed SV’s first. Bile an unlit tank (Bile puts out the fire), if its AI dont bother. Bile bombs are great, but you still need to kill off those pesky zoms, or leg it.

4. Laser sights increase accuracy, simply great. Explosive and flammable ammo are great to add ammo to your weapon (they basically give another free clip of ammo, just be careful with explosive ammo if your team is low on health). Medkits: Use carefully. I like to suggest only B/W people heal, or if you face an “event” (An event is when the players “set off” something to attract a ton of zoms to your immediate location.

5. Pills / Adrenaline, use these wisely, to keep you alive or speed you up. These are temp health so don’t hang around after getting these into you. Adrenaline (Epi-pen) is great because it speeds up the pick up time of downed friends and deploys ammo or heals FAST!

Surviving in this apocalypse isn’t easy but it is very fun! Make sure you read the 10 commandments of L4D2. I won’t really comment further on SV tactics as I’ll end up repeating a lot of what’s there here. Stick together, survive together. The SI will be splitting you up, it’s your job not to. Tell people your location and don’t be afraid to pipe up and say “hey you you’re too far ahead!” we all do it, run off thinking people are straight behind you, it doesn’t always work that way... Communicate well and you’ll be fine!

Zombies! As a zombie the basics are: Left click special attack, right click scratch. To spawn you must be a minimum distance from the SV’s and be out of view. LOS (Line of sight) will prevent you from spawning, so a good idea is to hug the item you are spawning behind (such as a pole or column.. a 500 pound boomer can spawn behind a skinny light pole if you do it right!). Spawn ahead of the SV’s and work with your fellow SI’s. I repeat the line from the 10COL because it’s so important to a great SI team: 4 in 4 out. You all attack at the same time then rush in to die. It sounds counter-intuitive but it WORKS. Since I’ve said this, I don’t expect you to be that lone slinger spitter or smoker now do I? BlitzKrieg and I often use the count down technique, counting backwards from 3 to attack, that brings me onto my number one piece of advice for the SI team. Spawn points. Get into a spawn point instantly, don’t stand around and wait, keep a constant eye on the SV team and circle them constantly scouting spawn points, that means when you all attack at the same time we wont hear “I can’t spawn”. Be aware there are some tricky buggers out there that will block your spawn points, but they cannot block all of them, be creative!

Thats a basic intro to L4D2! Happy hunting! Yours zombily MaximusBoomus & Blitzkrieg

Good guide, I would also volunteer to lead some training teams if Max or Blitz are busy.

Originally Posted by Thorsen

Good guide, I would also volunteer to lead some training teams if Max or Blitz are busy.

Same

Also, you don't have to be completely new to the game. People that just want a refresher course or just need some help with the game are also free to come in. Might learn a thing or two

But Blitz, how can max be a teacher AND a student at the same time??

So why am I writing guides again?

Le sigh...

Originally Posted by Walkerxes

But Blitz, how can max be a teacher AND a student at the same time??

He can always learn from you, mighty one.

Originally Posted by Adretheon

So why am I writing guides again?

Le sigh...

To show up Max and Thorsen, obviously!

Originally Posted by Adretheon

So why am I writing guides again?

Le sigh...

Because written guides are always useful, but others might need a more hands-on approach to learning.

Further, the guides will be read by more than just TPG regs

Yay for reading