survivor tips

my own version of left 4 dead tips for survivors

the main theme of my l4d tips is keep moving.. go go go...

first thing is a general philosophy here.. keep moving.. too often i am with teammates that become paralyzed once an "event" occurs and it takes several seconds to get back on track.. what i suggest after an event (getting boomed, pulled, pounced, a hoard) is look down at the health of your teammates.. if everyone is in the green then move.. go forward as fast as possible as a group.. if you need to heal speak up and do it quickly.. if you think someone needs to heal say so quickly.. the main point here is decide quickly.. do it or dont then get moving...

spawning.. all four finished loading the game? get your shit and go.. dont let the infected guys set up.. even the quietest non verbal group of infected will devise a plan if you give them enough time.. get your med pack and gun and say ready.. kill the zombies at the door, open the door and go.. hold your breath for whatever is gonna happen next and deal with it.. if you move fast enough nothing will happen.. stop dicking around in spawn for no reason.

run and gun.. you can run forward and shoot shit.. this isnt expert type play.. you dont have to be so careful about what you shoot and what damage you'll receive from the odd zombie.. one zombie here or there is not going to do much damage.. tiny bits of teamkill damage isnt going to hurt you all as well.. run forward and shoot whatever is in front of you.. melee when the zombies catch up to you.. hopefully your teammate behind you is also running and gunning and shooting the stuff you havent killed as well as the shit that keeps getting stuck on you.. if your team does this well you can blitz thru levels with the infected team scratching their heads.. keep moving.

when you are boomed you have a couple of seconds to do something smart.. find a room.. no room, find a corner, find a wall.. get out of the damn doorways..
back up out of the way entirely if possible and let your teammates shoot the zombies.. if there arent any zombies start moving.. the moment you begin to see more clearly start moving forward if nobody needs to heal...

when you are boomed you arent blind.. stop thinking you're blind.. you can see your teammates names.. if you cant then look for the names.. crouch and melee and inch towards them.. if one of you is pounced or pulled you will have a greater chance at helping one another if you are close.. you can also melee off more zombies if you are together..

if only one of your teammates is boomed take care of him.. dont always and ONLY shoot the zombies.. they are currently damaging your teammate.. run up to him and melee them off then shoot them.. many times when one guy is boomed the boomer gets a lot of damage because 3 guys are shooting zombies and one guy is meleeing all of the zombies off of himself..
conversely when all four are boomed many times no damage is done because everybody is meleeing and no zombies get thru to do damage..

stop meleeing IN doorways.. dont be a hero.. move backwards inside the room.. this gives everybody on your team a line of fire to the zombies without having to worry about shooting you.. and you dont take unnecessary damage...

use your pipe bombs whenever you can.. avoid the zombies whenever you can.. i dont save pipe bombs.. i get em i toss em.. you might just find another pipe bomb once all these zombies are cleared.. throw the pipe and move forward... "follow the pipe"...

molotovs.. use your brains.. stop damaging your teammates by throwing molotovs while under zombie pressure.. they always fuck up your toss and someone on your team must pay.. also stop throwing them directly in your path.. you're killing 20 seconds and allowing the infected time to spawn all four at the same time while they wait for the fire to go away.. this is bad.. molotovs should be used sparingly in my opinion.. save them for tanks or throw them way ahead to take care of zombies not in your immediate area..

witches.. the witch is always a wild card in dealing with them.. it doesnt have to be.. think smart.. if you have room everybody line up execution style in a row.. someone shoot the witch then everybody shoot it.. she should be dead before she gets to you.. you dont need a hero which every team seems to have.. the one guy that says "i got it" then proceeds to go down once he misses or miscalculates.. if everyone is in position and ready without crossfiring each other she will go down easily.. dont be a hero its kind of annoying when you heroes go down.. not to mention you waste a valuable health pack..

stop saying to your teammates "there is a hunter behind us"... there will always be a hunter behind you.. you're just inviting the chaser to hang back..

stop chasing or waiting for the hunter.. he will always pounce you.. move forward and let him pounce you.. if you slow down to try to shoot him you are slowing down your team because you have let them get further ahead than you.. you will probably get pounced anyway but now there is a distance between you and your teammates and they need to run back to help you.. if you keep going forward with your team and forget about the stupid hunter then he may still pounce you.. the difference here is that you are right next to all of your teammates and they can quickly shoot the hunter off of you..

when someone gets pounced decide quickly what you're gonna do and follow thru with it.. if you decide to shoot it (preferred) then shoot it until it is dead.. if you decide to melee it off then keep meleeing it until it is dead.. dont let him get a swipe in.. follow thru and keep at it until its dead.. if someone has meleed the hunter off someone else do not start shooting at it.. you'll be shooting at your teammate because he is still meleeing it until it is dead..

when the hoard is on your shit keep meleeing.. the more you shoot the more they are going to touch you.. only shoot when you have given yourself enough space between you and the zombies to shoot.. once they get close start meleeing again.. you should always be in between shooting and meleeing if you want to survive..

melee thru areas.. many times it doesnt even pay to bother shooting.. run thru the zombies meleeing.. turn backwards and forwards and side to side meleeing.. i sometimes spin in little circles to get all of them off of me.. while running the entire time.. shooting sometimes allows a couple of zombies to touch me.. you can run thru the cornfields and never fire a shot if everyone keeps meleeing...

be a leader.. this game is so much more fun when people are talking.. so help out and talk.. give direction.. remind the team to go go go.. even if someone else is the assumed leader believe me he wants you to help him out.. some of these guys that play need a kick in the ass to get moving.. the same guy always saying "let's go' gets tuned out.. if two or three guys are saying go go go it will sink in finally..

go go go!!

Whenever you know there's a boomer ahead, or perhaps behind, send ONE survivor to deal with it. One person being boomed is one of the easiest things to deal with in the game. Cooperation is everything.

As far as I'm concerned, the above by Nova reflects almost what I think.
HOWEVER, while I am very partila to the run-and-gun method...the take it slow and search every room has it's benefits as well...just be smart about it when you do it and don't let one person just wander off because he didn't know they were going to slow down and search stuff.
And if you're the Smoker...please, for god sakes, don't fucking just dick around in a terrible spot if you have nowhere to go because you don't want to get shot. If you're in a no-win situation, just go and get your shit killed, because then you or someone else can be Smoker and spawn in a better spot. In fact, it kind of applies to Boomer too...unless you are absolutely 100% sure you can recharge your puke, then don't bother running from hiding place to hiding place just to avoid the gunfire...assuming you survive the initial puke, wait for the Survivors to stop being purple, then try to get yourself blown up on them. You don't get bonus pts for living.
Also, VARY your tactics. Like, for example, I'm well known for ALWAYS dropping down immediately and going to the left on the No Mercy Subway map. That was recently cost us because Nova has a big mouth and said "Faith always does this", so my team got raped right at the beginning. He knew...HE KNEW what I was going to do.
And yeah, the whole stopping after an "event" drives me nutty too. I'm always the guy who says "Let's go, let's go" and I start to feel like an asshole (more than usual anyway)...needless to say, my impatience has led to many of my deaths. I understand stopping to gather your bearings, but also realize that after an "event" is usually the BEST time to get moving as you, more than likely, have killed all the special infected...and the last thing you want to do is give the infected time to spawn and fuck you up again.
And for fuck sakes, if a Hunter pounces a teammate, and you are a bit far away, don't bother running up and meleeing the Hunter, just shoot the fucker. Like Nova said, a few shots here and there aren't going to shit for damage to your teammate.
I'm starting to hate the molotovs and gas tanks for anything other than defending behind you...being the impatient type, having someone shoot a gas tank (especially right before you exit into the forest on that one map in Blood Harvest from the underground tunnels) aggravates me because you just have to wait for the fire to go away, and that is a PRIME spot for infected rapage.
Here's another tip that everyone should know. You can reload while you melee. Try it. It works. And it's essential for shotgun/autoshotgun users, especially if you leave one round in the chamber before you reload so you don't have to cock the shotgun when you're ready to fire. So, SO important.
Don't shoot the car. Don't melee the car. Don't even shoot in the direction of the car. Hell, don't even look funny at the car.

Stupid me...giving Infected tips in a Survivor tips thread! My puppy will be punished.

I do agree that you have to keep moving but you have to do so in a smart way. The run and gun method usually only works on infected when their team isn't coordinated and in a close quarters environment, where only one infected attacks the group.

I've seen way too many times of running and gunning that failed. Usually the survivors focus too much on moving forward, meeleeing, they get boomed and every zombie from behind swarms in for massive rapage. Running and gunning doesn't work on infected if they know what they're doing.

But it does work...most of the time.

DO NOT JUMP ON THE RED CAR - EVER!

Even if you don't shoot the car, or detonate a pipe near the car, simply hopping up on it's hood or trunk will set off the alarm. I did it once before not knowing, and Smuggler did it once on No Mercy in a VS game last week not knowing.

STAY THE FUCK AWAY BY ALL MEANS FROM THE CAR