L4D - What does a newbie need to know?

[Jabbs]

Ok, so I've followed the threads about L4D, how to join server, teamwork, voice comms, staying together etc. But....

What does a newbie need to know?

Any special keyboard commands?

Any to do's and not to do's?

Cheers

[Anonymous]

Biggest thing is to stick together as a team and don't split up/get split up unless by agreement (i.e., should the last man standing try to make a run for the safe room if there is a tank on loose?)

Once you are split it is MUCH easier for the infected to pick you off.

As infected again it helps if you work together - a smoker can drag a victim past a doorway where a boomer hides who can then puke on him, etc. two infected can work much more productively together than they can apart.

For the rest, keep your gun reloaded

[T-Bag]

Helthpack is button 4 - Left click to use yourself - right click to heal someone else.

Other than that it's all fairly straigh forward. You don't have to kill every zombie, don't go rummaging through every room to find them or you'll get left behind. There are sometimes useful things tucked away in them, and if your team has been pinned back for a while by all means check them out, but if the coast is clear and you have plenty of ammo it's often not worth it.
Safe House. If you're near it go inside. There is nothing worse than 3/4 of the team waiting for one guy who has to kill a few more zombies. He'll enevitably get vomited on or pounced and complain that nobody was there fast enough. Don't be that guy. There is everything you need in there. Trying to boost your kill count is selfish.

Killing the witch in one shot is ONLY possible with the upgrade shotgun at VERY close range. Trying with anything else will likely get you hurt. It's hard to do anyway, Flashlight off walk slowly and shoot. Be ready to keep on shooting. Once you have that achievement I recommend avoiding witches as they are nasty.

Tanks, close range auto shotgun again is your best bet. Don't get punched though...it hurts.

Smokers, shot them as soon as you can, you get a short amount of time after you're grabbed to go for it...it's better than waiting for your team to do it.

Hunters, if you must shot them off a teammate try not to hit the team mate. Stood next to them I'd recommend punching first, but at range the risk of hitting your team mate is worth it to stop them being ripped to shreds. If you do hit them, be sure to appologise through pills of a health kit.

Right thats my comprehensive guide to L4D. The most important advice is my first point, heal yourself and your team. If someone goes down they need picking up, if you've given them some pills they don't drop in the first place.

[Liberator]

Special infected have their own special attacks, these can only be used when the gauge on the bottom left of the screen shows a full red circle.

For the main three classes the secondary attack is a clawing attack, which can be used all the time and the primary is as follows

Smoker
Has a very large tongue, when the gauge is full and you have a red targeting sight, you can fire and wrap your tongue around a victim. When you pull them against an object of hang them from a hight, their health will steadily drop.

Boomer
Has the brilliant vomiting attack, get close and vomit all over the survivors, this causes a zombie hoard rush against the sprayed. This also has the bonus of temporarily blinding the victim. Recharge time for the vomit attack is quite long, so if you want to attack again quickly, to get the ones you missed, try and run right into the middle of them and get them to shoot you. I like to call this the gut-buster, you will explode and cover the surrounding area in vomit. Wait until their pink outline has gone before attempting to attack again.

Hunter
Holding down the crouch button will charge the pounce attack, releasing it will reset it to 0, so get into position and when they are close, crouch and press fire when ready. The higher the pounce, the more immediate damage you cause, face up into the air to get a good hight. Keep holding down the crouch button during the attack to be charged as quickly as possible.

Then we come to the best special infected of them all, the TANK. Occasionally the game will spawn a tank and one of the infected will get to control it. The attacks are swapped over on the tank and it is the secondary attack which is bound to the charging bar, although it charges very quickly.

Tank
Primary attack is the swipe, you can knock the survivors right across the map with a good wallop.
Secondary attack is the throw, the tank will dig into the ground and pull up a large chuck of rock, once started it will automatically throw the rock once in position, so keep aiming at your victim.
You can only outrun the survivors that are yellow or read, green health survivors can easily run away, so use the throw to take down green players.

As a tank you should move on once you have incapacitated a player as they are out of the battle except for pistols and the other player need to be slapped around.

[Sn00ks]

If you've got a shot gun then use your pistol or pistols for ranged attacks, to save your shells. In fact use the pistols whichever gun you have and keep your main weapon for hordes and Infected players.
 
Tanks can also throw cars, one hit with a car will kill/down a Survivor.
 
Try to save your health packs. To get maximum benefit wait for as long as you dare. You can go looking for more but you can never be sure where they are and the longer you are out there the more times the Infected can attack you.
 
To get maximum points as Survivors you need to get all four in the safe room with maximum health, So if you're in there and have the time heal up the lowest.
 
Talk to your team mates, tell them what you're doing.
 
As Infected taunt and make fun of the Survivors. Wind them up tell them lies. Co-ordinated attacks are good but repeated staggered attacks will also wear them down, never giving them a chance to heal in safety, it takes some time to heal and while they are doing that they can't move or shoot.
 
Other than that and all teh above and what-ever comes below it is just a fun game. Winning is good but having fun is better.

[kregoron]

Survivors should stay clear of:

Witches: Hurts like hell
Car alarms: Alerts a horde of dead dudes if the alarm is triggered

[Sn00ks]

Just get on and play. Stop this voyeuristic forum lurking!:boxing:

[Jabbs]

Just get on and play. Stop this voyeuristic forum lurking!:boxing:

I'm no longer a virgin :yahoo:

Things I've learnt:

1) Don't believe your dMw colleagues when they say: "We'll take it easy on you as it's your first time" :g:

2) Follow your leader. Definition of 'Leader' "He who speaks loudest" (Be careful here as All Talk is 'on')

3) Seriously: As a Survivor, try and be aware of likely spawn times and locations. :boxing:

4) Seriously: Learn the maps :eyebrow:

Cheers guys for a good hour or so 'induction' (Duvel; Liberator; Benny; Snooks; Boon; DarkAngel; Toxteth  ..who else was on?) :angry:

[DuVeL]

You can only play 4vs4 so you have them all.
 
And the tricks like hiding behind a car and such which alarms can go off or behind a witch. :flirty:

[FrEnZy]

http://www.gameshark.com/cheats-guides/2421/Left-4-Dead-Survivor%E2%80%99s-Handbook.htm

- nice little primer

[Jabbs]

http://www.gameshark.com/cheats-guides/2421/Left-4-Dead-Survivor%E2%80%99s-Handbook.htm

- nice little primer

I'll have a good read of that tomorrow looks useful to me anyway.

[da_Ricci]

Hello Guys,
 
What systeem does this game need to run ?
Maybe i can play it also.

[Jabbs]

Hello Guys,
 
What systeem does this game need to run ?
Maybe i can play it also.

Mines an

AMD Athlon XP 3000 (1.75Ghz)
1.5Gb RAM
GeForce 6800 graphics card

[kregoron]

well my old mediacenter is running it nice and smooth

AMD x2 5000+
4Gig DDR2
8800GTS

So are the rest of the rigs.

If your unsure, try //www.systemrequirementslab.com and test what they say about your puter its perfectly safe

[DuVeL]

Hello Guys,
 
What systeem does this game need to run ?
Maybe i can play it also.

Use this link to see if your comp can handle it bro; http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest