What Not to Do in Left 4 Dead

By Dan Birlew | Posted December 3, 2008 in Tips and Tricks | Comments Off

Left 4 Dead is a unique game where 4 players truly have to work together to survive. As popular as zombie-blasting games have been for the last several decades, it’s really surprising to me just how few people seem to understand squad combat and the concepts of teaming up to survive. I mean team-based multiplayer has been around for what, fifteen years? At least. In the last few days online I think I’ve been killed more often by my teammates than by the enemies.

I’ve put together a set of solid strategies everyone playing this amazing game needs to read and practice. This isn’t me griping, I just want us all to have a good time. After a few days of multiplayer, I can see that many players out there need some help. With all the complaints about rage-quitting at the L4D community forums affecting multiplayer, I thought maybe I could offer some tips. Hopefully all the books I’ve published about zombie killing will cause someone to take me seriously. =)

1. Watch Your Friendly Fire: If you can see your teammates, then you’re facing the wrong direction and possibly standing in the wrong place. Stay near your fellow survivors, but spread out in a diamond shape: one man in front, two behind him to either side, and one person taking up the rear. The man in back needs to turn around frequently to make sure a horde, smoker, or hunter isn’t charging from behind.

2. No Blind Fire!: Boomers vomit bile onto characters to blind them and attract the horde. I was in a game last night where I watched another player get covered with it. And even though he was blind, he started shooting! He shot the Boomer, for one thing, which caused it to blow us all up. Then he fired blindly into the horde. He hit me several times, and I was only trying to cover him. I had to restrain the urge to throw a Molotov at him. When you’re blinded by bile, the best thing to do is start swinging. On the PC version, just keep clicking your right mouse button to perform melee punches. This will keep the horde off you, and you won’t hurt your fellow teammates. Next time you fire blindly, someone like me might just light you on fire…

3. Use Pipe-bombs!: Those hordes are scary, huh? Best way to deal with them, hands down, is to toss a pipe bomb behind the horde. The beeping device attracts the entire horde, who gather around it and get blown to grizzly bits. I took out an entire small horde with one, and one of other players started texting how amazed he was, and how did I know to do that. The answer is simple: I watched the opening movie, which shows this exact tactic.

4. Avoid Witches: I admit to leaving a game because the other players insisted on startling a Witch. Witches are tough enemies who can down a character with 1-2 hits. They’re meant to be avoided. Last night in the train yard, three of us went into a station house for ammo while the guy playing Francis went on his own around the train and startled the Witch. This was a boxcar without a ladder, so we had to run around the entire train to get to him. By the time we got there, he was dead and the Witch was long gone. Startling a Witch accidentally is understandable, especially since the AI Director sometimes puts them in a doorway you must go through. But going after a Witch just to start a fight, lame the game, or get some Xbox Achievement isn’t cute, especially when your squadmates already said not to.

5. Keep Moving!: I’m not sure what fun there is in sniping lone zombies with the hunter rifle. Well, I do, but I don’t want to stand around while you have your fun. The game generates a horde to attack out of nowhere if you stay in one place too long. If you want to snipe dormant zombies, please do so offline. I don’t want to keep getting horde-attacked because you want to stand just outside the safe room and snipe.