Joystiq.com has recently revealed that a planned demo release for Valve’s Left 4 Dead 2 will land on both Microsoft Xbox 360 and Windows PC platform. The award winning zombie survival game will be officially  released on November 17, 2009 and according to  Valve’s PR Doug Lombardi, the pre-order customers will be exclusively given advance access to download the multiplayer demo of Left 4 Dead. I’m not sure though if this multiplayer feature is for the local area network (LAN) or the Online Valve Steam services. Hopefully the Garena community will also be able to take advantage of this beta test as this sequel will be surely be left for dead if wont be compatible with our beloved Garena. While we are still waiting for this actual demo, check out our not too old comprehensive guide on Garena Online Multiplayer Guide for Left 4 Dead PC Game.

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The Blizzard Entertainment has officially announced that they are releasing a beta version of Star Craft 2 to the public very soon. But in order to download for a StarCraft II beta, you first need to register a Battle.net account and submit your system specification to be enable to qualify as one of potential beta testers. Here’s a comprehensive step by step visual guide on how to create a Battle.net Account and join the StarCraft 2 beta program after the jump.

1.) Register on Battle.net
Go to www.battle.net homepage, and click create or manage a Battle.net Account

2. If you already have a Blizzard Account, don’t worry since your account has already been automatically converted to Battle.net account you don’t need a new one. Just go to Step 6.
But if you are new user in Blizzard or Battle.net, click Sign up now! to proceed.

3. Then select your country/ territory of Residence. To be able to continue, you must read the terms of use agreement. If you are too lazy to read it, just make sure  you scroll down the whole page from top to bottom with your mouse or else the continue button will not work.

4. Set your username and password, as well as other required information being asked. Press continue.

5. Authenticate your account
If you have finalized your account information, just press the Create this Battle.net Account. An email authentication will be sent to you, so make sure to check your spam folders if you can’t find it in your inbox. Congratulations, you account has just been created.

6. Go to your Account Management Page to proceed. If you already have games purchased from Blizzard, you will see them listed under the Manage my Games section.
These are following games  supported at this time:

• StarCraft
• StarCraft Battle Chest
• StarCraft Anthology
• Warcraft III
• Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne
• Warcraft Battle Chest
• Diablo II, Diablo II: Lord of Destruction
• Diablo II Battle Chest

If you have any game listed above, you can jump to Step 11 to get started.

7.  Add games to your account
If you have retail copy (CD Key) of your boxed Blizzard games or the new 26-digit game key (Digital key). You can add them up to your account by clicking the big green button.

8. After you enter the Add Game link above you will come to a screen that looks like this. Just enter your CD key and then hit ADD GAME.

9. After you do that you will be taken to a screen that looks like this. You select your language and then hit ADD GAME which is under the drop box.

10. All the games you have added will be displayed. You can also Click on [Manage Game] of each game to retrieve the auto generated 26-digit game key.

11. To get started joining the Star Craft II beta program, simply click “Beta Profile Settings” under the Manage My Games.

12. Download Beta Opt-in Application
You will come to a page that gives you the choice of downloading a PC or Mac Beta Opt-in Application. Choose your platform and begin download.

It’s just over a MB in size, so should be quick. Just note where you saved it. Downloaded, it will look like this image below:

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13. Upload System Specs
After Running the SystemCheck_enGB.exe file,  just click I Agree when User Agreement prompts. Then a window with your system specs will come up on the screen. Press Send to send it to your Battle.net account.

14. Update Beta Preferences
Once you’ve successfully uploaded a beta profile, go back to “Beta Profile Settings” and you’ll see instead a list of Betta Test program you can opt-in for beta keys.

15. After choosing your preferred beta programs, your associated Battle.net account is queued to a pool of potential beta testers. If you are chosen, your main page will look like the Account Management page below. Good luck chief!

Source:
Some faqs and images are owned by the following sites:
How To Get Diablo 2 With No CDs
StarCraft II Beta Test Opt-in
Battle-Net Beta Update!
Starcraft 2 Beta Oppurtunity
How to Opt-in to the StarCraft II Beta

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The Killing Floor is a survival horror first-person shooter based game, with Co-op multiplayer action similar to Left 4 Dead Online Multiplayer Gametype. Learn to interact and cooperate with other Killing Floor mercenaries in other parts of the world. Experience fast and hack-free gaming with Garena! You can find the complete installation guide after the jump.

Index (Ctrl+F and find the code to reach your destination)

[GA101] Guide
[GA201] – Garena Settings: Set up Garena for Killing Floor.
[PA203] – Standalone Patch w/ Game update: Killing Floor updates and patch.
[GA407] – Joining Game: Join games in Killing Floor when playing on Garena.
[GA429] = via Find Servers: Using Multiplayer to join games.
[GA503] – Hosting Game: Hosting game and let your friends play.
[GA527] = via Create Server: Using Create Server to host games.
[GA505] – FAQ: Frequently Asked Questions
[PA203] – Downloads
[PA203] – Killing Floor History
[CE101] – Credits

Garena Installation Guide

Installing Patch [PA203]

1. Download Killing Floor patch (download links at [PA203])
2. Place everything in the same folder as killingfloor.exe (C:\Program Files\Killing Floor\System\)

Garena Settings [GA201]

1. On Garena, find and click Settings which located at top of Garena.

2. Once the Game Settings appear, find and click Killing Floor in LAN Games list on the left.

3. In Executable Settings, browse to your Patch executable
4. In Game Bootstrap Parameters, fill in-appid 1250 -launch killingfloor.exe -silent /help
5. Click OK button and you are done.
6. To start Killing Floor via Garena, click the Start Game button.

Joining Game [GA407]

via Play on Lan. [GA429]
1. Run your Killing Floor by pressing Start Game in Garena. When you are prompt with a message:
“The executable you set is not standard…”. Just press OK to continue.

2. Click Multiplayer

3. Once in Multiplayer screen, click the LAN tab

4. Choose a Server in the List. You can also click Refresh (once or more) if nothing comes out in the list.
5 .Double click the server or click Join Game to join in.

5. When you are successfully connected to the server, it will automatically download a few files from the server, then log you to the actual game.
Press F10 if you want to cancel or disconnect from the host.

Hosting Game [GA503]

via Create Server. [GA527]

1. Run your Killing Floor by pressing Start Game in Garena. When you are prompt with a message:
“The executable you set is not standard…”. Just press OK to continue.

2. Once reached the Menu Screen, click Host Game

3. The Create Server screen will appear
4. Choose your favorite map via Select Map Tab, eg: KF-Biotics Lab

5. You can change the Server Rules, type your new ServerName, Max. players, etc.

6. Click View Advanced Options for other settings. Password is optional. If you want your server to be private so no one can disturb your private session with your friends,
you must type your game password, as well as your admin name and password

7. Click Listen button below to start your game. The game will start loading and create your server.

8. Once you reach the Lobby, set up your desired settings via Options button for your game and wait for some players.
Just click Ready anyway to begin the actual game. Enjoy!

FAQ [GA505]

Does Killing Floor has the console window like Left 4 Dead PC Game?

You can bring up the console window anytime by pressing the [`] key, (it shares same key with tilde [~]). Then type in the desired code on the console window.

setgravity #
 Changes the gravity Ghost prevents players from being effected

Walk 
 Disables Noclip

Fly 
 Makes you Float

Allammo
 Maximum Ammunition

Ghost 
 Noclip/Fly Mode

Slomo #
 Sets Higher, the faster physics, (is disabled after zedtime)

god 
 Toggle god mode (Once for on, again for off)

Behindview
 1 Use (1) or (0) to enable/disable thirdperson

Why am I having trouble with the console commands of this Killing Floor?

You might be using a mod version. One thing you might want to try is opening a map using the console rather than the menus. The in-game menu always starts a listen server, which means a lot of the commands are disabled. Opening a map from the command line will get you into a standalone game where the UT engine allows you much more freedom to use console commands

DOWNLOADS [PA203]

You must have an original Killing Floor PC Game or licensed Steam copy before you can patch it. You can go to official website of Garena.com to download the patch. The Killing floor patch is already being used publicly by Garena.com servers but we have not confirmed if the patch is according to the  license agreement given by Tripwire Interactive. Also make sure patch downloading is legal according to your country’s laws. We will not provide this patch to public  until it’s officially and legally distributed by the parties involved.

KILLING FLOOR HISTORY [PA202]

Killing Floor was originally a total conversion mod for the game Unreal Tournament 2004. Since the first release in 2005, the mod version had its fifth and final official update in 2008. While there was still development work done for a next update on the mod version, on March 2009 an announcement for a retail version of the mod went live. With the help from the original mod-team, the developer company for this Steam-distributable game would be Tripwire Interactive, best known for their WWII simulation first-person shooter Red Orchestra: Ostfront 41-45, which also originates as a modification for Unreal Tournament 2004.

On 2008, mod leader Alex Quick contacted Tripwire in order to negotiate about porting his mod to Red Orchestra and distribute it via Steam, similarly how Tripwire had already done with another Red Orchestra mod, Mare Nostrum. Apparently staff of Tripwire found Killing Floor’s mod version so entertaining and close to a professional game that they offered to make it a stand-alone retail game.

Killing Floor was released on May 14, 2009.

CREDITS [CE101]

www.garena.com

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The Killing Floor  is a survival horror first-person shooter based game, with Co-op multiplayer action similar to Left 4 Dead Online Multiplayer Gametype. Here’s few cheat codes to make it easy for you guys in surviving the Killing Floor FPS PC Game after the jump.

Killing Floor PC Console Console Cheat Codes

You can bring up the console window anytime by pressing the [`] key, (it shares same key with tilde [~]). Then type in the desired code on the console window.

setgravity #
Changes the gravity Ghost prevents players from being effected

Walk
Disables Noclip

Fly
Makes you Float

Allammo
Maximum Ammunition

Ghost
Noclip/Fly Mode

Slomo #
Sets Higher, the faster physics, (is disabled after zedtime)

god
Toggle god mode (Once for on, again for off)

Behindview
1 Use (1) or (0) to enable/disable thirdperson

Killing Floor Unlockable Steam Achievement

To unlock certain achievements you must accomplish certain tasks

Alligator Farmer
Win a Long Game on Farm on Suicidal Difficulty.

Bitter Irony
Kill 2 Scrakes with a Chainsaw in a Single Wave.

Careful Spender
Kill 4 Specimens with a Single Shot from a Hunting Shotgun.

Cattle Farmer
Win a Long Game on Farm on Hard Difficulty.

Chicken Farmer
Win a Long Game on Farm on Normal Difficulty.

Death To The Mad Scientist
Defeat the Patriarch on Suicidal.

Dignity for the Dead
Kill 10 Specimens Feeding on Dead Teammates Corpses.

Duke of the Manor
Win a Long Game on Manor on Hard Difficulty.

Emperor of the Manor
Win a Long Game on Manor on Suicidal Difficulty.

Experimenticenticide
Kill 100 Specimens.

Experimentilottacide
Kill 10,000 Specimens.

Experimentimillicide
Kill 1,000 Specimens.

Fascist Dietitian
Kill 200 Bloats.

Hard Boss
Win a Long Game on Offices on Hard Difficulty.

Hard Pub
Crawl Win a Long Game on West London on Hard Difficulty.

Homer’s Heroes Kill 100 Sirens.
Hot Cross Fun Kill 25 Burning Specimens with a Crossbow.

I Like To Watch Aquire 5 Minutes of “Zed-Time”.
It’s Not Easy Being Greasy Cause a Specimen to Die by Luring them into Bloat Acid.

It’s What’s Inside That Counts
Turn 500 Specimens into Giblets.

Keep Those Sneakers Off the Floor!
Kill 20 Stalkers with Explosives.

Lab Assistant
Win a Long Game on Biotics Lab on Hard Difficulty.

Lab Cleaner
Win a Long Game on Biotics Lab on Normal Difficulty.

Lab Professor
Win a Long Game on Biotics Lab on Suicidal Difficulty.

Lord of the Manor
Win a Long Game on Manor on Normal Difficulty.

Mad Boss
Win a Long Game on Offices on Suicidal Difficulty.

Master Surgeon
As a Medic, Kill 8 Specimens using a Knife in a Single Wave.

Mr. Perky
Get All of your Perks up to Level 5.

Philanthropist
Give 1,000 Pounds to Teammates who have 50% of Your Cash or Less.

Pub Crawl
Win a Long Game on West London on Normal Difficulty.

Quarter Pounder
With Ease Turn 5 Fleshpounds into Giblets.

Random Axe of Kindness
Kill 15 Specimens with a Fire Axe in a Single Wave.

Self Medicator
In Co-op Mode, Use Syringe on Yourself 100 Times.

Social Outburst
Kill 8 Specimens with One Grenade.

Straight Rush
Kill the Patriarch Before he has a Chance to Heal.

Suicidal Pub
Crawl Win a Long Game on West London on Suicidal Difficulty.

The Boss
Win a Long Game on Offices on Normal Difficulty.

The Completely Suicidal War
Complete a Long Game on all 5 Core Maps on Suicidal Difficulty.

The Hard War
Complete a Long Game on all 5 Core Maps on Hard Difficulty.

The L.A.W. That Broke The Camel’s Back
Deliver the Killing Blow to the Patriarch with a L.A.W. Rocket.

The Long War
Complete a Long Game on all 5 Core Maps on Normal Difficulty.

Thin-Ice Pirouette
Complete 10 Waves when the Rest of your Team has Died.

Too Close For Comfort
Finish off a Fleshpound using a Melee Attack.

Source:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/computer/doswin/code/959897.html

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The StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty will be released this 4th Quarter of 2009, so that’s still a few months away. If you are into retro games, you can still revisit  the Zerg, Protoss, and Terrans with your old copy of StarCraft 1.  Like all the other Blizzard titles like Warcraft III can be played online just like playing local multiplayer network. Players can create free accounts in Garena.com, a third party online gateway which becomes the de facto standard for online play. Experience fast and hack-free gaming with Garena! You can find the complete installation guide after the jump.

Garena Installation Guide

Garena Settings

1. In the Garena Lobby, click on the StarCraft button found in the left “Games” panel (scroll down from the games if needed). Select a Region then join a room.

2. Inside the Room, click on the “Settings” button to configure the game path

3. In the “Settings” window, click on the “StarCraft” icon. In the executable settings field, click on “Browse” to locate and set StarCraft.exe as the game path. Click OK.

4. Click “Start Game” to launch StarCraft through Garena.

5. In the StarCraft lobby, click on “Multiplayer”

6. Click “StarCraft Broodwar Expansion”

7. Select “Local Area Network (UDP).” Click OK.

8. Enter your Name.

9. Click OK.

10. You may join games or create your own.

Installing Patch

11. The StarCraft version to be used in Garena is the latest which is 1.15.3
You may check the StarCraft version at the lower right side of the StarCraft lobby

You can download the official patches via bigdownload.com

Download StarCraft Original v1.15.3 Patch [Windows] (10 MB)

Download StarCraft Brood War v1.15.3 Patch [Windows] (25 MB)

Download StarCraft v1.15.3 Original Patch [Mac] (11 MB)

Download StarCraft v1.15.3 Brood War Patch [Mac] (25 MB)

*Mac users must read text file for special installation instructions.

Credits

Source: This StarCraft User Guide is created by berenoune, all credits goes to him – http://www.garena.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=378999&extra=page%3D1

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Defense of the Ancients (DOTA, also called Warcraft3 RPG) is a custom scenario for the real-time strategy video game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, based on the “Aeon of Strife” map for StarCraft. Like all the other Blizzard titles like StarCraft and Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, Warcraft RPG can be played online just like playing local multiplayer network. Players can create free accounts in Garena.com, a third party online gateway which becomes the de facto standard for online play. Experience fast and hack-free gaming with Garena! You can find the complete installation guide after the jump.

Garena Installation Guide

Garena Settings

1. After joining your channel( should be war3 RPG or DOTA channel), find and click Settings which located at top of Garena.

Note: There are two types ofv
Warcraft 3 games hosted in Garena which are:

• War3 TFT – War3 TFT or War3
  The Frozen Throne is an RTS(real-time strategy)
• War3 RPG. War3 RPG is the Warcraft 3 DOTA (Defense of the Ancients)

2. In  game setting, choose war3 RPG from lan games and click browse Once the Game Settings appear, find and click war3 RPG in LAN Games list on the left.

3. In Executable Settings, type the game path to war3.exe or by browsing the war3.exe, eg: C:\Program Files\Warcraft III\hl.exe

4. In Game Bootstrap Parameters, just leave it blank. But if you want to start warcraft 3 in windows mode for replay / ggtv purpose. you can put “ -window ” in the bootstrap parameter to launch war3 in windows mode.
5. Click OK button and you are done.
6. To start  the Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne, click the Start Game button.

Installing Patch

7.- You need to update your patch to 1.22. To make sure if its 1.22 you have to check the this…

8.  if you dont have 1.23 patch please download it from here Download [Link ][56MB]

Joining Game

9. Click Local Area Network

7. Once reached the Local Network Games, You can see the live games you can join as well as number of people joined and chat room limit. If you want to host your own game, you can simply press CREATE GAME and just follow the instructions and you are done. Enjoy your gaming!

Credits

Source: Based on Hellius.M’s Guide – http://www.garena.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=309115&extra=page%3D1

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Left 4 Dead is a first-person shooter (FPS) where it is one of the most played online multiplayer game in Garena. Left 4 Dead is all about cooperation and team play. This Left 4 Dead guide is focused on Versus mode where each team of four human players plays each chapter of the campaign as both survivor and infected, swapping sides once per chapter. The guide below tackles all tricks and strategies for both Survivor players and Infected players. If you haven’t yet installed the Garena client application, click here for the Garena download and Left 4 Dead Garena setup tutorial.

Thanks to Luminar for making this guide. All credit belongs to him.

INTRODUCTION (LX-INT)

Welcome to my second FAQ! I enjoyed writing my first (the Spore Archetypes Guide) so much I decided to have a second shot at helping people out. This time it’s for Left 4 Dead’s Versus Mode. Obviously.

This guide is intended as a collection of hints and strategies aimed at helping you play effectively in Versus Mode, the mode where two teams of
players compete to see who can get furthest. This guide covers strategy for both the Survivors and Infected teams.

This FAQ assumes you’re familiar with at least the basics of playing L4D. If not, go ahead and play a few campaign games with friends or on single player mode. This FAQ isn’t going anywhere, it can wait. No point reading on if it’s all going to be as clear as gibberish, right?

VERSUS MODE (LX-VSM)

So what’s Versus Mode all about then?
The premise is basically the same as Campaign Mode – Survivors are trying to do what their namesake implies, and the masses of Infected are trying to do them in before they can escape. There are five maps per campaign, four point to point maps and one finale where the Survivors must hold off against an Infected onslaught until rescue can arrive.

The difference is that there are now up to eight players instead of four. While four control the survivors and try to reach their goal as usual, four players control the Special Infected (the Hunter, Smoker, Boomer and Tank) and try to kill or otherwise stop the survivors from.. well, surviving. Once the survivors either reach their goal or are overwhelmed, the two teams switch places. The idea is to see which team can get the furthest and survive the best. Another main difference is that once a survivor dies, they’re out for the rest of the round – no getting locked in a cupboard to rescue. Some of the map layouts are also ever so slightly tweaked to tip the balance a little.

The difficulty in Versus Mode is locked to normal and cannot be changed. There was an exploit of sorts at one point where teams would vote the difficulty to easy when they were Survivors, and to expert when they were Infected in order to make the game very easy for themselves, which was an incredibly cheap and unfair tactic. Thankfully, Valve patched it out in the first game update.

At the end of each bout, scores are tallied up for the survivors. The score is multiplied several times if the survivors managed to get to the end. Good scores are usually around 2000 or more, poor scores are usually in the low hundreds since no multipliers are added if your team perishes.

The Distance Score is the base score – it’s basically just how far into the map you got, or in the cace of the finale maps how long you lasted.

The Health Bonus adds to your score for having higher health – note that Medkits in your possession actually count as part of the health bonus,
whether they’ve been used or not. Just having one adds to the bonus. If you got killed off, you obviously have no health at all, so no bonus is added. The Survivor Bonus multiplies by the amount of survivors who made it to the end of the map – x4 for a full team, no bonus if only one survived or if your team was wiped out altogether.

The Difficulty Bonus is decided by whoever designed the map – it’s a static multiplier which is supposed to be based on how hard the map creator thinks that particular map is to complete.

The Infected score points every round too, but it’s largely just for show since it isn’t added to the team’s score. You can see your score as an
infected by holding tab (default key) anytime during gameplay. It’s worth checking when you’re respawning to see who’s doing well and who needs help.

SURVIVOR STRATEGY (LX-SUR)

The Survivors play more or less as they normally do, having access to guns, explosives and medical equipment with the goal of reaching the safe room or rescue waiting for them at the end of each round. They must fight their way through the hordes of Infected zombies and avoid various hazards and of course the other team playing as the Special Infected.

The main thing to worry about in Versus Mode is that the special zombies are now much, much smarter and free-thinking, and are able to plan strategies with each other rather than just dumbly rushing in like the AI likes to. A good Infected team will plan their attacks and exploit various situations and terrain to gain an advantage over you – a good Survivor team has to be one step ahead and know when the other team is most likely to strike and in what way – you must always be ready to counter any attack if you can’t prevent it from happening altogether, which is rarely an option.

Always remember above all things:
“United we stand, divided we fall.”
It’s in the very basics of Left 4 Dead but it can’t be stated enough – do not EVER go off on your own or fail to support your teammates as much as you can! You simply cannot take on the infected by your lonesome; Hunters and Smokers are specifically designed to screw over loners or teams that don’t support each other. Get caught by one and you will NEED someone else to free you, there’s no getting out of it by yourself. If you try to go it alone and your teammates aren’t able to rescue you in time (or at all), it’s you to blame. And a team with one survivor dead can be taken down by a very well coordinated attack by the infected – they have access to two hunters and one smoker at any given time – if all three strike at once, that’s three team members unable to escape. Without that one fourth member, you become a lot more vulnerable.

Also, keep an eye on your teammates health and items; if another team member is struggling, then share the health – use your medkit on them or give them pills. As Survivors become more injured, they start to limp and struggle, slowing them down. A slowed down team member is essentially a liability; a good infected team will strike at the injured first and try to kill them off for good. If a Tank attacks, healthy survivors can stay out of its reach by running, but limping survivors have essentially no form of defense other than shooting it, which doesn’t do you a lot of good when it gives you a face full of fist and sends you reeling.

There’s also the issue that if a team member is knocked down three times without receiving health from a medkit, they die. Pills are no good, they
MUST be healed by a medkit to prevent them from dying. I’ve seen situations where the infected have used this to their advantage and repeatedly knocked down a survivor through harassment tactics, killing them even though the full team had medkits. So don’t let any injury accumulate – as soon as anyone gets into yellow health, heal them up. Medkits are best, but if you’re in the middle of a fight and have no time, just give them some pills to chug. Always remember pills are a temporary measure, though.

Some general tips for Survivor teams:

• Close doors behind you as you go. Infected cannot open them and must batter them down, giving you advance warning of their presence.
• Always be aware of your surroundings. If there are hazards present, the infected team will likely try to exploit them, so act accordingly.
• The infected team is waiting for you to make mistakes – doing so will give them a large advantage. Sticking together mitigates this risk.
• Always have the sound on and the music enabled. The special infected are noisy and have musical cues which give away their presence. Large hordes of zombies are also preceded by an ominous motif in the music.
• If you are able to, use voice chat. It is much more convenient than typing. Just make sure you speak clearly and can be heard easily. However, be aware of whether or not your server has alltalk enabled – using voice chat on an alltalk server will allow the infected team listen in to you.
• If you walk (shift), crouch-walk (ctrl) or stand still for a while without shooting or doing any voice commands, the infected will not be able to see your silhouette until you shoot, run, speak or use an item. You can use this to hide from the infected team members – regular zombies won’t be fooled by this, however. Large hordes will still home in on you. There’s also always the chance they’ll just find you the old fashioned way.
• Keep your pace even. Going too quickly may result in confusion or the team getting split up. Going too slowly will result in the AI director sending zombie hordes as a punishment, as well as allowing the infected team members to wear you down through attrition.
• Crouching improves the accuracy of automatic weapons, namely the Uzi and the Assault Rifle. Firing in short bursts also saves ammo and keeps your shots accurate. Also, if you are in front of your teammates then crouching allows them to shoot over you, minimizing friendly fire incidents.
• Most of the guns can fire through one wall. If you think a special infected is lurking behind a wall fire a few shots into it – this is an especially good tactic against fragile Boomers. Some bullets also penetrate through regular zombies, allowing you to save ammo if you line up shots well.
• Always remember to melee. You can reload weapons while using melee to push zombies away – special infected are also temporarily stunned by melee hits. This excludes the tank and witch. NEVER melee a Witch!

ITEMS (LX-S-ITM)

The Survivors rely on their items to fend off the infected and keep themselves alive. There are three kinds you keep in your inventory; guns,
grenades and medical supplies. There are also loose items that you must carry with both arms and cannot put in your inventory.

i) GUNS (LX-S-IT1)

PISTOL
Clip: 15 (30 with double pistols)
Total Ammo: Unlimited
Advantages: Never runs out of ammo, rapid fire, fairly accurate, upgradable
Disadvantages: Poor damage
The Pistol is a weak weapon in terms of hitting power, but its main advantage is that it will never run out of ammo. You still have to reload it when your clip of 15 bullets runs out, so make your shots count and don’t forget to melee if you’re being beaten on. You can obtain a second pistol by picking up a pistol lying around any of the maps – this increases your clip size to 30 and allows you to fire faster. It does take you slightly longer to reload, however.

TIER ONE
The two Tier One weapons are the Uzi and Shotgun. Tier One weapons are found at the start of a campaign, and in early safe rooms. You’ll generally always have access to them, along with the pistol. You had best hope a Tank doesn’t show up while you’re using these guns and have no molotovs. It’s best for the team to have at least one member using each weapon, so you can adapt to more situations. Ideally, have two using the Uzi and two with Shotguns. It’s up to you, though.

UZI
Clip: 50
Total Ammo: 480
Advantages: Long Range, Clears crowds well
Disadvantages: Not as much raw damage as shotgun
Of the two tier one weapons, Uzis are good for long-range shooting and for dealing with normal zombies – you can either take aim and headshot singular ones or open up on full auto and mow a mob of them down. They’re not so good at putting down Special Infected, however – Smokers sighted a long distance away can be taken out much more easily but aside from that Shotguns are better for taking down other Specials. The accuracy on this weapon can be improved by crouching and firing in short bursts. Being struck by anything also lowers your accuracy momentarily.

SHOTGUN
Clip: 8
Total Ammo: 128
Advantages: Good damage, Good accuracy at close range, interruptable reload
Disadvantages: Poor long-range accuracy, long time between shots, long reload
Shotguns fire a spray of bullets with each shot which spread out over a distance – this means they have a very powerful kick to them at close range, but as the target gets further away it’s more like a glancing blow. Shotguns are the best tier one weapon against special infected, who generally want to get in your face which is where can do the most damage. For long range threats while you’re using the shotgun, there’s always the pistol.

TIER TWO
These weapons are much more powerful, but you have to find them first. They’ll often be on the second map somewhere, most often on the path you’d normally follow, but not always. Try to find them as soon as you can.

ASSAULT RIFLE
Clip: 50
Total Ammo: 360
Advantages: Rapid fire, crowd clearing, can headshot regular zombies
Disadvantages: Not as much raw power as the others, limited ammo
The Assault Rifle is pretty much a straight upgrade of the Uzi. It is given more hitting power and can one-hit regular zombies if you aim for the head. Compared against the other two tier two weapons, this is essentially the weapon that does everything but excels at nothing. Keep an eye on your ammo when using these, it’s easy to go overboard and run out.

AUTOMATIC SHOTGUN
Clip: 10
Total Ammo: 128
Advantages: Rapid fire, high damage per shot, crowd clearing
Disadvantages: Poor at long range, awkward reload
When compared to the tier one shotgun this weapon is derived from, this weapon has a far higher rate of fire and actually has slightly more power behind each shot also. It retains the poor long-range capabilities of the regular shotgun, but this is somewhat alleviated by the fact you can more or less just spam bullets at anything off in the distance now.
As of the January 14th patch, Tanks now have innate resistance to Autoshotgun rounds, due to their prior weakness to shotgun spamming. It is still able to kill Tanks well enough, only now it cannot completely cream them in seconds.

HUNTING RIFLE
Clip: 15
Total Ammo: 180
Advantages: High shot power, long range, penetrates unlimited zombies
Disadvantages: Low rate of fire, requires high skill
This weapon seems to be very situational. It doesn’t have the power to mow down crowds or blow away special infected like the assault rifle or auto shotgun, but the hunting rifle IS superbly accurate and also has a scope for long-range sniping. The thing is, smart special infected will generally never expose themselves to long range fire (excluding smokers), so it’s a matter of taking opportunities when you see them.
One particular use of this weapon is to pick off Smokers who are trying to abuse car alarms or witches to their advantage, or to anger an unavoidable witch from a huge distance away so you have time to pick her off. It should be noticed that shots from this weapon pierce through an unlimited amount of regular zombies, so it can be good for mowing down crowds if you place your shots well.

MOUNTED MINIGUN
The Mounted Minigun isn’t a gun you can take with you in your inventory, but it’s a gun nonetheless. These are generally placed on finale maps and on some horde events. Press E (default) to use them – they have a limited cone of vision and take a while to spin up, but the rate of fire and power is great. They’re mainly used for mowing down crowds of regular zombies, but they’re quite effective against special infected too. Tanks will be slowed down if they try to run against the stream of fire, other special infected will likely just be killed instantly. It also has unlimited ammo. The drawback is that the gun heats up as it is fired continuously, and will begin to turn red and emit smoke. The smoke can obscure your vision somewhat; but if you continue to fire beyond this point, the minigun will jam and stop firing until it has fully spun down, which takes around 5 seconds or so. It is best to fire in bursts – you also need teammates to cover you, since you cannot defend yourself while using the minigun.

ii) GRENADES (LX-S-IT2)

PIPE BOMB
The Pipe Bomb attracts regular zombies to it and then explodes, vapourising them all into a red mist. It is more or less useless against special infected since they will just avoid them like the plague, though if you can get one to explode near a tank he will stagger for a few moments from the blast. This one’s mostly good as a “get out of horde free card” of sorts – for periodic zombie hordes, event hordes, or puke-attracted hordes. It can be a good idea to chuck one of these if a boomer pukes on everyone and there’s risk of death or incapacitation. They’re alright for pulling Witches too, since you get a head start to run.

MOLOTOV COCKTAIL
Molotov Cocktails set a large area of ground on fire for around 20 or so seconds. Regular zombies are apparently incapable of understanding how fire works and will happily run right into it and die, but generally player-controlled special infected are smarter than that and will avoid the flames. This one is good for blocking off a route and dealing with mobs. It should be noted that if a Hunter catches on fire, he gets incredibly angry and does TONS of extra damage when he pounces someone. He’ll die pretty soon one way or another, but if he pounces someone get him off ASAP, since fire makes him capable of causing incapacitation extremely quickly. If Tanks were vampires, Molotov Cocktails would be their holy water. When a Tank gets set on fire, it starts a 30-40 second timer. When the time is up, the Tank simply drops dead on the spot regardless of how much health he has. It’s almost a cheap strategy to just burn the tank then run like hell – you don’t even need to shoot at him since he’ll die anyway.

iii) MEDICAL (LX-S-IT3)

FIRST AID KIT
These are vital pieces of equipment you should try to never be without. That said, don’t be stingy with them – if someone drops into yellow, get them to heal themselves, or if they don’t have a kit then heal them yourself. Two survivors with no medkits is better than one survivor with a medkit. They bring you back up to 80% health, or if you’re already above that they top you off, but you shouldn’t use one unless it’s necessary.
If you come across an extra medkit and everyone has one, it’s probably worth topping off someone’s health and taking the spare if you have time to – it’s only going to get left behind otherwise. Keep in mind that a medkit takes a few seconds to use, so you should cover whoever’s using one and do it in a safe spot so you can’t easily get caught out by a special infected team member. Smart special infected will try to interrupt heals wherever they can.
Three incapacitations normally means death – the medkit resets the knockdown count, meaning a survivor can go on for longer. Generally you shouldn’t be getting incapacitated anyway, but if someone gets knocked down then heal them as soon as you possibly can with a medkit, not pills.

PAINKILLER PILLS
They’re not as hardline vital as medkits are, but they’re a nice boost to have. Painkillers will give you 50 temporary health (which shows up in your
health bar as stripes rather than a solid bar) which will slowly go away with time. The best use of these is if you are limping and need to be able
to run quickly (if a tank attacks for instance) and you don’t have time or proper cover to use a medkit. AI Bots tend to just chug them as soon as they get low on health, so bear that in mind.

iv) OBJECTS (LX-S-IT4)

These are loose objects that can be moved around but not taken into your inventory. Press E to pick them up, left click to throw them.

PROPANE TANK
These are round white tanks. They explode immediately when struck by gunfire or another explosion, and kill zombies and special infected instantly in the same manner as a pipebomb. The Tank and Witch are exceptions; the Tank will stumble for a few moments if hit by a blast, but the Witch won’t care. She’ll also be rather angry about it too, obviously.

GAS CANISTER
These are flat red bottles with an X-shaped indentation in the side. When shot they engulf the area in flame with the same effect as a molotov. These are good to use if there are no real molotovs around or if you have one and don’t want to use it.

OXYGEN CYLINDER
These are thin green cylinders that aren’t seen as commonly as the other two. When shot, they will emit a hissing noise for a moment and then explode in the same manner as the Propane Tank.

VS HUNTERS (LX-S-HUN)

Don’t be fooled by the seeming ineffectiveness of most pounces – Hunters are a very deadly and legitimate threat when used properly. They are highly mobile and can come at you from nearly any angle, are capable of causing nasty amounts of damage, and have a pounce attack which renders a survivor helpless until rescued by another. They are the most common kind of Special Infected you will encounter, and the Infected team can have up to two active at one time. Along with one Smoker, this can cause three renderings of helplessness onto survivors, though this requires great coordination.

Hunters give away their presence quite often, though not as badly as Boomers. While crouching they constantly emit low growls, which means they’re ready to use their pounce attack. When they use a pounce attack, they emit a sharp echoing scream. Sometimes Hunters will use their pounce to move around rather than make an attack – it is still an indication of their presence, however. When a Hunter sees a survivor he will automatically make a shrill and angry screaming noise – it is distinct from the pounce scream in that it does not echo, and sounds more like “WRAAAAIII!”. When Hunters are just running around on foot, they don’t make any noise other than quiet footsteps.

Good hunters are most likely to strike when there is a distraction. Their attack can come in one of two ways – the Hunter can run in on foot and start ripping you up with his claws, or he can pounce you and pin you. The pounce is incredibly obvious and is highlighted to survivors no matter where they are, unless they’re in a smoke cloud or blinded by vomit. Always listen out for the echoing scream signaling a hunter pounce – if you can knock or shoot a Hunter off your teammate quickly, they will more than likely take no damage at all and you can dispose of the Hunter. Claw attacks on the other hand are not as attention-drawing, but are significant as they do six damage per swipe and attack in an arc in front of the Hunter, meaning they can hit multiple targets with one swipe. Hunter claw attacks are distinct from normal zombie attacks in that you will hear a loud tearing sound rather than the usual dull thud of a zombie smacking you. The Hunter will also gibber and snarl madly.

The best defense against hunters is to stick together and be vigilant. Hunters absolutely love to pounce stragglers, since they will take off huge
amounts of health if not outright kill them, since no-one can help them quick enough to mitigate the damage. Melee attacks from hunters can be avoided if teammates watch each other’s backs carefully enough. Since Hunters can get to and come from just about anywhere, the main defense against them is to be vigilant and cautious, plain and simple.

Always be cautious when healing or helping up incapacitated survivors. Low health team members are like a giant magnet for hunters – if they can knock them down three times it’s death, and it’s not hard to do on a teammate who goes down with two claw attacks.

The January 14th patch took Hunter claw damage down from ten to six. However, they now do a minimum amount of damage on pounce, though it’s around one to three. They are also harder to melee out of the air now. The Hunter’s pin and shredding also now apparently does less damage per hit, but hits more often. It equalizes out to the same amount of damage overall, but now Hunters are much more capable of causing some damage before being killed, whereas before they could easily be killed before they could do any. Supposedly, flaming hunters are even more lethal now due to this.

VS SMOKERS (LX-S-SMO)

Smokers are the kings of disruption and separation. Their tongue attack drags a team member to the Smoker, who then proceeds to start beating or choking their victim until their hold is broken or the victim is freed. It is capable of killing or causing significant disruption by pulling the team apart, causing split-ups or distractions. It can even sometimes cause instant death or severe damage by pulling team members over certain edges.

Smokers constantly cough and hack, which gives away their presence. They make strange angry noises when they have line of sight to a survivor, from making a strange “SHAAPTH” spitting noise or just screaming “GAAAAHGH!”. When a Smoker fires his tongue to snare a survivor, a loud spitting noise can be heard whether the tongue connects or not.

Smokers are largely situational. Depending on which map you’re on, Smokers can be either a non-issue or lethal. Beware of drops and parts where you cannot backtrack – Smokers can do immense damage by making survivors fall off high ledges, and they can pull a survivor in places where no-one can rescue them, meaning a guaranteed kill for the Smoker. This usually requires excellent timing however, and can be negated by good teamwork and planning.

Smokers will also abuse hazards such as car alarms and Witches by pulling a Survivor to them hoping to be shot at, more often than not striking the hazard in the process and setting it off. In the case of witches it’s more dangerous due to the fact that if the survivor is dragged all the way to the Witch it will more than likely anger her and incapacitate the victim. The Hunting Rifle comes in very handy in these situations. Sharpshooters are the bane of the Smoker’s existence, so have someone on the Assault Rifle or Hunting Rifle ready to pick off the Smoker accurately and cleanly.

Things that break a Smoker’s grasp on one of your teammates are:

• Meleeing the Smoker
• Shooting the Smoker
• Shooting the extended tongue
• An explosion hitting the Smoker
• The Smoker dying for any reason
• Meleeing the Survivor once they have stopped being dragged

The January 14th patch took a lot of focus on buffing the Smoker, who up until then was seen as something of a weak link and too situational for most players to use effectively. It will now be much harder for you to counter the Smoker’s efforts to drag away Survivors, and will begin doing damage right away rather than when the Survivor stops moving.

VS BOOMERS (LX-S-BOO)

Ah yes, good old Mr. Spew. In the Developer Commentary, Valve states that they designed the Boomer because L4D is a game where you shoot everything; thus, to add to the challenge they put in the zombie you DON’T want to shoot. Boomers are pretty much impossible to miss – they constantly gurgle and groan disgustingly, and their obese appearance makes them stand right out in any crowd of zombies, or at a distance.

Avoid being puked on them by all costs – it holds your team up for a short while, in addition to temporarily blinding you. The blindness can vary in
severity depending on how dark the area you’re in is, but the main thing is that it doesn’t show your team member’s silhouettes while you’re puked. That means if someone gets pounced or snagged, you can’t see it and it’s likely that you may not hear it over the noise of the zombie mob. This is why using voice chat or even just typing a message is such a boon to the survivors; communication can go a long way to saving you.

If you get puked on, go into the nearest corner and melee repeatedly to knock away the attracted mob, while shooting them whenever you can. Try to keep an ear out for anything bad happening to your teammates. If your teammates get puked on, try to cover them somewhat. If the rest of the team excluding you gets puked, the other special infected in the area may try to come after you. Be on your guard, and hope your teammates are astute enough if anything goes wrong with fending off smokers and hunters. Puke coatings when a tank is present are VERY BAD. You should take extra care of boomers in the vicinity whenever there is a Tank active.

If you see a Boomer at long range, shoot him immediately if you can. If you encounter one at close range (which is far more likely), then it depends on how you’ve encountered him. Most of the time Boomers will be waiting around corners or in side rooms waiting for you to either blunder right into them or become distracted enough for them to sneak up on you. Tight groups are a big Boomer magnet, so while still staying together, try to keep an even distance from your comrades if a Boomer is around, so that he doesn’t manage to cause a giant vomit party by coating the lot of you in puke. Also beware of tall places, since Boomers love to jump off and land in the middle of your team suddenly, which is ideal positioning for them to cover everyone in puke. Falling Boomers will emit a loud burping noise, so keep an ear out.

If you think you know where a Boomer is lurking, fire a few shots in the general direction, remembering you can shoot through walls. Boomers are
pretty fragile compared to the other specials, and will explode after taking moderately light damage. If this doesn’t kill the Boomer, try quickly peeking into the suspected area and then back out, or fake them out by moving to peek without actually going all the way. It depends on the Boomer user’s reactions but they may fire off their puke; if no-one is caught in it, it basically renders them an ineffective kamikaze zombie for a few moments. Note that if a Boomer acquires line of sight with a survivor, he will automatically make a loud “URRGH!” groan. It is distinct from his usual groaning but only somewhat, so learn it with experience.

If you encounter a boomer who cannot puke, remember to always knock him away with melee and then shoot him once he is a good distance away. Don’t try to play hackey sack with Boomers or otherwise repeatedly melee them for whatever reason, enough melee strikes will cause them to explode, with you at point blank range. Boomers on fire are pretty rare by all accounts, but if you come across one in close quarters just run away. He’ll likely explode any moment.

VS TANKS (LX-S-TAN)

The supposed big bad of the infected masses, the Tank is actually fairly easy to deal with if you know what you’re doing, and have the right situation on hand to help you deal with him. Even very skilful and competent tanks are no match for a team of Survivors working together to bring him down.

For presence, the Tank could not possibly be more obvious if he had a giant 50 foot neon sign strapped to him blaring “I AM A TANK” over loudspeakers. Aside from the music changing to a very ominous and threatening tune, the ground shakes with the Tank’s footfalls and he constantly snarls, grunts and roars loudly. Every single thing he does pretty much loudly announces him.

The Tank can punch you and send you flying, dealing a huge amount of damage. He can also rip chunks of concrete out of the ground and lob them at you, these also do an absolute ton of damage. Needless to say, don’t EVER get hit by him or he’ll likely follow up with several more attacks and incap you. As long as you’re in green health, you run at the same speed as the Tank so if you can keep ahead of him you can dodge his attacks. If anyone is yellow or below however, they will limp and this will cause problems, because the Tank will likely go straight for them. If you have pain pills on hand, give them to yellowed or redded survivors as soon as the tank music starts up. Also on certain maps with deadly falls, the Tank can punch you straight off cliffs or edges, which can result in instant death. It is also able to punch large objects at you which will instantly incapacitate you if you are struck by them, so beware in areas with any large, loose objects, particularly cars.

The absolute best situation to deal with a tank is a wide open area, with all survivors in green health, with no other specials interfering with the fight. This situation obviously won’t always be on hand however. The other best option for dealing with the Tank is to set him on fire. As detailed in the Molotov section, the Tank will simply drop dead after cooking for around 40 seconds no matter how much health he has. Auto Shotguns used to be good for dealing with Tanks, but the Jan 14th patch gave them resistance to Auto Shotgun fire. Just take whichever weapon you think you will do best with.

Another weakness the Tank has is to explosions – whether from a Pipebomb, Propane/Oxygen tanks or from a Boomer. If the Tank is caught in an explosion, he will momentarily stagger and be unable to act – this is your cue to get in his face and blow it off as fast as possible while he is unable to defend himself. Just make sure not to linger too long, else the Tank will snap out of it and treat you to several knuckle sandwiches. Laying down gas cylinders as a trap for the Tank is a good strategy, though a good Tank may realize what you are up to and try to circumvent it. Don’t count on hitting a Tank with a pipebomb however, unless he’s REALLY stupid.

Beware of other special infected while the tank is around. Though the Tank pretty much commands all attention in the area, don’t forget to rescue any other survivors who are pinned or ensnared. If they’re incapped on the ground it is likely the tank will ignore them, but Hunters will possibly try to finish them off. Generally, you should judge how far away the Tank is while considering whether or not to revive teammates. The second the Tank notices you doing it he is likely to stop at nothing to prevent you from reviving them, so only do it if he is a large distance away, and not likely to pay attention anytime soon. Give the revived survivor pills if you have any on hand, otherwise they’re likely to just get punched down again.

Especially beware of zombies and boomers – fighting a tank while blind can be nasty, but being slowed down by zombies whacking you as a tank approaches amounts to a death sentence. Both at the same time? Worse than a big bag of worse things. Oddly, I don’t tend to notice Boomers around when a Tank is present very often. It doesn’t discount the possibility, though. However, if the Boomer is near the Tank for any reason, then shoot it if it presents no risk to your teammates – it acts like any other explosion for the Tank, causing him to stagger and allowing you a moment to blow him away.

Take note that apart from increasing how many Tanks will appear in a game, the Jan 14th patch also standardized Tanks across both teams. If you come across a Tank during one section of the map, you will get the Tank at that same spot too. This means the element of surprise is lost on the second team to play, but makes for a much more fair match.

VS WITCHES (LX-S-WIT)

If you can get a clear and quiet period away from the specials to deal with her, the Witch is easy to bring down. Aggroing a witch is pretty much one of the best times for special infected to attack, since they can either slow you down to let the Witch catch up to whoever angered her and incap them, or distract team members who should otherwise be shooting at the witch as she charges. This is all assuming you can’t avoid her altogether.

You will hear the Witch well ahead of actually encountering her, since her mournful sobbing and crying seems to travel quite a long distance. When you get closer to her, the music will change to an eerie choir, and when you’re very close you will also hear sharp piano chords. She will keep crying while undisturbed, but if anything begins to anger her she will rise to her feet and start shouting and growling. When she starts doing this, stop doing whatever it is you’re doing to anger her and back away. If she’s calming down then her growling will turn into snarled breathing.

Things that anger the Witch are:

• Shining a flashlight on her
• Standing too close to her
• Looking at her from too close range
• Firing guns or making other loud noises near her
• Punching her (instantly enrages her)
• Shooting her (instantly enrages her)
• Hitting her with an explosion or fire (instantly enrages her)

If you startle the Witch, she will emit a loud scream and the music will change to a very loud and frantic tune with a similar choir motif to it. She’ll come barreling at whoever startled her, ploughing through anything in the way to get to them. It is impossible to outrun her or prevent her from reaching you – if you startled her, the only way to stop her is to kill her. She doesn’t take too much firepower to put down, but it must be done quickly before she reaches her target, since she causes incapacitation instantly and then begins to violently shred the downed Survivor, killing them within a few seconds. If she manages to kill them, she will then simply run away and despawn, but hopefully it shouldn’t come to that. Sometimes, the Witch can glitch and will abruptly switch targets for no apparent reason. This may have something to do with her being unable to reach her current target for some reason, so she instead lurches at whoever is closest to her at the time. Beware of this by keeping your distance.

It is possible to kill a witch in one hit using a shotgun blast to the head, and there is an achievement for this (Cr0wned), but I don’t recommend doing this unless you’re very well-practiced in it and know how to do it. I myself don’t know how to do this and wouldn’t risk it in a multiplayer game. The shotgun blast needs to be delivered at point blank before she is startled, or while she is running towards another Survivor without having been shot. If you screw up the former she’ll promptly hand you your own head on a platter, so you must use a great amount of care in attempting to cr0wn her.

The best way to cr0wn the witch is to walk up behind her with your flashlight off, get very close but do not come into contact with her. She’ll go “Huh?” and stand up before she starts her angry growling – shoot her while she is in the process of standing up. The reason for most cr0wning failures is that all pellets from the shotgun blast need to strike her head – if you graze her arm or body with any of the pellets it will not work, and instead you will have an angry witch coming at you from point blank. While she is crying on the ground, her head is much less exposed since she is bowed down and partially covering her head with her arms, meaning you are much more likely to hit her in the arm than when she is standing up and has her head uncovered.

Remember this piece of advice: Don’t be a Witch toucher. Coming into physical contact with the witch when she is still inert will immediately anger her, as well using a melee attack on her. However, once she has been angered, using melee on her is still a pretty bad idea – it will not have any effect on her efforts to get to her target, and if you directly obstruct her with a melee attack she will knock you away and deal around 25 or so damage. I’ve also seen her glitch up and cause multiple knockdowns before – this appears to be related to meleeing her.

Witches are simple enough to deal with overall, the main problem in versus comes from the fact that the infected team members will likely try to use her in some way, either waiting until you anger her to strike, or forcing you to anger her if she can be sneaked past. The Witch absolutely MUST be put down as your first priority if she is angered, if this becomes impossible then be ready to peel her off the downed Survivor and then deal with any other threats that have appeared.

OTHER HAZARDS (LX-S-HAZ)

Certain cars (usually orange/red ones for some reason) are alarmed. If these cars are shot then the car alarm will go off and attract a particularly large mob of regular zombies. You can tell these cars from normal inert cars due to the fact that the windows will flash orange every so often, and if bullets hit near the car (but don’t actually hit the car) then the car’s indicators will flash briefly and it will beep. This also happens if an infected punches the car for whatever reason. Smokers and sometimes Boomers will often try to wait behind or near these cars in plain sight, hoping you will shoot at them and strike the car. NEVER shoot at them unless you have the hunting rifle or assault rifle, and can eliminate them without hitting the car.

If a Smoker hiding near one of these cars grabs someone, don’t shoot at him unless you have a hunting rifle. If you can’t free the survivor before they reach the car, simply run around and melee the Smoker until he dies. I’ve seen Boomer players try to hang around cars before with the hope of being shot, though this is much less successful than Smokers for several reasons.

There are usually a few horde events during every campaign. They generally involve manipulating some noisy object such as turning on a generator or triggering the alarm on a door, the noise from which attracts a large horde of regular zombies to the area. The horde’s size and consistency tends to vary some of the time, though there will be at least one period of intense fighting. Obviously, the special infected will try to abuse the hell out of this opportunity. Especially beware of Boomers, who can summon even more zombies and bolster the horde’s already considerable numbers. Smokers can pull survivors out into the horde requiring another survivor to risk their neck saving them, and Hunters can use the distraction to make several nasty claw attacks or pounces. Generally, tanks will never show up during these events, though there are some situations where one of these can be triggered while a tank is present, though it requires incredibly stupid team members for it to happen.

INFECTED STRATEGY (LX-INF)

The Infected still serve the same purpose, to disrupt and ultimately kill or otherwise overwhelm the Survivors. The difference is that now players are controlling up to four of them at a time, and can plan strategies together via team messages or voice chat. When the Infected work together well, it’s an absolute nightmare for the Survivors to deal with provided they aren’t one step ahead of you in thinking.

Since you can only control the special Infected in Versus Mode, that’s the only place you can really practice with them. Have patience for seemingly ineffective team members – they may just be inexperienced and will benefit from various hints and tips. You could even link them to this FAQ to help them improve, if needed.

Your game as Infected more or less relies on the Survivors making mistakes or creating opportunities for you to attack. Much like the Survivors, if you try to wade in on your own you’re just going to end up accomplishing nothing. Always bear in mind that you’re going to get killed one way or another – it’s what you do with each life you’re given that counts. Since your effectiveness relies on the ineffectiveness of the Survivor team, use the observation time between respawns to watch the Survivors and see what flaws the team has. Do they have someone who likes to go off on their own? Do they have someone who lags behind? Is one of them trigger happy? Do they fail to work with each other and support their team? All of these things can and must be exploited as much as possible in order for you to win.

Always try to take out the weakest in terms of health – if there are weak team members in terms of skill, try to finish them off last since leaving the effective Survivors alive for last will result in them being harder to pin down when pushed to desperation. Forcing the Survivors to use up their Medkits early is good – it’s down to chance whether or not they will receive more. If you strike fast and effectively enough, you can kill survivors before they even have a chance to use their medkits. Don’t bank on it happening, but if the opportunity presents itself then take it.

General tips for Infected:

• Use Climb and Break indicators to their best effect. You can get to many places the Survivors cannot, and come at them from angles that inexperienced players may not expect. Bear in mind that only the Tank can break certain walls down, such as concrete or metal walls.
• Don’t assume the Survivors will panic or be significantly disrupted in a bad situation. It’s entirely dependant on the skill of the players in the team – a bad team will panic and do reckless things, opening themselves up for attacks and pins/ensnares. Never assume a team is poorly skilled, however; arrogance and recklessness on YOUR part can make you much less effective.
• Whenever you think of a strategy, consider how likely it is that the Survivors will figure out what you’re doing, and how they will try to counteract it. If you hide behind a wall for example, you know they may hear you and try to shoot through it, so try to be careful about your positioning. They may also check around the corner to verify if you are there, so be ready to strike.
• Pay attention to the Survivor silhouettes, as well as the silhouettes of your teammates. Healthy survivors glow green, wounded ones glow yellow and red and they degenerate. Ones coated in Boomer vomit turn bright purple. If Survivors are moving slowly, not shooting and remaining quiet for whatever reason, their silhouette will disappear and you must find them manually. Pay attention to where your teammates are, highlighted in blue. Striking together as a team is a very effective strategy.
• You’re going to die repeatedly anyway, so do whatever you can with each life. If you bungle up what you intend to do and get discovered, try to wade in with melee attacks. It won’t do much, but it’s better than nothing. Hanging back for too long is generally wasting time, unless you’re a Smoker. Don’t get seen or otherwise alert the Survivors to your presence if you can help it. As long as they’re kept in the dark about where and when attacks will come, you can operate much more effectively. Don’t expect them to let their guard down completely though.
• If you stray too far from the Survivors, the game will prompt you to press E to “catch up” and choose where to spawn again. This can be used to your advantage if you have no way to get at the Survivors without being noticed. Simply run far enough away from them, hit E, and choose your new spawn location so that you can ambush them from an unexpected direction. It also allows you to pick a new spawn location without having to die and wait out your respawn time. In certain areas, using this will teleport you a large distance ahead of the survivors if they are currently inaccessible; the most notable for this is the No Mercy 4 elevator.
• You cannot select your spawn location during finale events. Be aware that you may get several bad spawns during this time that you can’t really do a great deal about. Just try your best.
• As of the Jan 14th patch, the Infected now have a new HUD which shows who has control of what, who is alive and dead, and if dead how long they have until they can play again. Use this to co-ordinate your attacks better. It was also full of buffs for the Infected in general, particularly the Smoker, though melee damage has been evened out somewhat.

THE HUNTER (LX-I-HUN)
Health: 250
Melee Damage: 6 per swipe

Of the three regular special infected you will control, the Hunter is essentially the bread and butter damage-dealing guy. He’s the most common one you will control, since there can be two hunters at any one time, though sometimes the game will spawn three hunters.

Hunters are extremely mobile and can get just about anywhere. This must be used to your advantage, since if you are seen at long ranges there’s a good chance you’ll just be shot down before you can do anything. If you are caught before you mean to be then use your pounce to escape. The Pounce, aside from being an attack, is a very fast and effective method of travel. You can also jump from wall to wall using it – pounce at a wall, quickly point at where you want to go and pounce again as soon as you hit the wall. You can do this as many times as you like and it is helpful for reaching taller buildings a single pounce is unable to reach. Hunters also run quite quickly on foot.

The Pounce is your primary attack, but it is situational and shouldn’t be used as standard. You need to crouch for a second to be able to use it, and while crouched you emit growls that give away your presence to survivors. The pounce should only be used on a Survivor who cannot be rescued quickly for whatever reason – if they’ve gone off too far from the rest of the team is the best instance, but with good Survivor teams this never happens. Another instance is if the Survivors are dropping down to a point where they cannot climb back up – if you quickly pounce the last one to go down, the Survivors will not be able to come back and rescue them, meaning a guaranteed kill for you and a team member down for them. Though the main damage from the Pounce comes from the shredding you do to the pinned survivor, the Pounce can also cause damage on impact if you did a particularly long pounce. This caps out at 25 damage, which is two and a half melee swipes worth – it’s worth doing if you can manage it, but getting the full 25 damage is very tricky and not always possible to accomplish. The Jan 14th patch added minimum damage to pounces, though it is very low, around one to three damage. However, they tweaked the shredding attack somewhat, so it now does less damage but faster. It comes out to roughly the same amount of damage overall, but means you’re more likely to cause damage at all, whereas before a lot of pounces simply got the Hunter killed before they could do anything.

If you see another Hunter has pounced a Survivor who cannot be rescued by his team members quickly, it is good if you join in and attack the Survivor with melee swipes. This causes their incapacitation and death MUCH faster than just the shredding from the pouncer, which will kill off a Survivor at best and hold the survivors back at worst, so it’s always a good thing to do. This also applies to Smokers who have captured a survivor with their tongue. Bear in mind that it is usually bad to pounce a survivor off the end of a Smoker’s tongue, but there are a few instances where it is actually good to do so. If the Smoker has pulled someone in a location where the victim cannot be rescued at all, it is worth pouncing – the Survivor will die faster and the Smoker can go back to disrupting the team and even possibly getting more unsavable kills. It is best to inform the Smoker of what you are doing if you aren’t buddies though, else it may make people who aren’t in the know of this tactic somewhat angry.

The claw swipes are your secondary attack, and before the Jan 14th patch did ten damage per swipe – this was reduced down to six, making the swipes much less effective. It takes seventeen swipes to put down a Survivor from full health, so it may only be worth doing this when they cannot fight back or won’t notice you beating on them. If they are blinded, it may be better to pounce rather than melee depending on how many Survivors are blind.

The claw swipes really come into their own when dealing with downed survivors and specifically their revival. An incapacitated survivor is revived with roughly 15 or so health – this means three swipes will put them back down. Three knockdowns with no medical aid means death, so if the opportunity to do this presents itself then it should be taken. A good team will cover the victim as they are healed, but sometimes this can’t be done, and this is when you should strike. Go straight for the injured survivor and put him down, then either retreat or attack anyone else in the area. It is not likely you will be able to pull off a hit and run attack twice on a good Survivor team, as they will guard survivors who are about to die very well.

As with all other infected, watch the silhouettes and try to predict their next move, especially if you think that next move will be one to counter your plan. Work with your teammates, especially Boomers who can cause enough of a distraction for you to get in and do more damage than usual.

If you get set on fire as a Hunter, you will soon die; however, your pounce shredding damage is increased massively. You can incapacitate a survivor from full health in roughly five seconds of shredding if you are on fire. It’s a risk to take on your part, but it’s a risk that might be worth taking if you feel you can pounce someone who will take longer than five seconds to be rescued by his team mates.

Ladders are your friend; if you can pounce a Survivor at the right time when he is climbing up a ladder, you will knock him all the way back down and also knock down anyone else who was climbing the ladder. On particularly tall ladders such as the No Mercy 3 sewer exit, you can also cause fall damage on top of your pounce and shred damage, forcing the Survivors to use up more medical supplies or stalling them for longer. This is even better if a Boomer pukes down the ladder first so none of the Survivors know what the hell. The pounce requires good timing, though – too early and you’ll simply smack into the edge of the hole and possibly fall in, too late and you’ll simply pin the survivor on top of the hole, becoming an easy target.

THE SMOKER (LX-I-SMO)
Health: 250
Melee Damage: 4 per swipe
Tongue Recharge: 15 seconds after paralyzing a Survivor, 3 otherwise

The Smoker is often dismissed as useless by quite a few people; this is why the Smoker was arguably the main focus of the Jan 14th patch, buffing him up. He has a tongue attack that ensnares and drags Survivors in towards you from a long distance, however it is extremely situational – if you’re not in the right kind of situation, you’re a nuisance. If you ARE, then you become very very dangerous to the Survivors. It’s all about timing and positioning.

Smokers don’t move particularly fast and aren’t anywhere near as agile as Hunters, but they can still use climb points to get to all sorts of areas. Their melee attack is also awful and should only be used for beating on survivors who are pinned by hunters, survivors who are on their last few points of health, or as a desperation move if you are discovered.

The Smoker’s primary attack is to launch his tongue at a Survivor, which then wraps around them, making them unable to act or free themselves. They will be dragged towards you – if they reach you, you will start smacking them around the head repeatedly. If they get caught on something or otherwise cannot be pulled all the way to you, they simply begin choking or hanging. The damage from this is lower than the hunter’s shredding, but it has the unique ability to forcibly separate the Survivor team members and pull them into various hazards, such as over edges so they take fall damage, or pulling them into Witches which will cause her to enrage and attack whoever you brought to her. There are even a few places on certain maps where a Smoker can pull a survivor over edges which result in instant death. The only way they can stop this from happening is to react quickly to you. Before the Jan 14th patch, Smokers would only begin doing damage once the Survivor had stopped moving. Now, the mere act of being dragged causes damage to a Survivor, as well as making the grab much harder to counter.

Since the Smoker is so situational, it is difficult to give general advice other than knowing when and from where to strike. Points where Smokers are effective will be covered in the Campaign Strategy section. Be aware that your constant coughing cannot be prevented and will continually betray your presence for as long as you are alive.

Though Smokers are poor at close range, if you grab a survivor with your tongue at point blank range it will immediately ensnare them, meaning
they will require a rescue from their teammates.

Good points for Smokers in the official campaigns are:

• NO MERCY 1
  Just before the subway station there is an alarm car you can drag survivors to, in hope that their teammates will shoot.
• NO MERCY 2
  During the horde event in the generator room, if the Survivors do not throw a molotov down the hole in the floor you can drag one of them down it by grabbing them from below, causing separation and delays.

There is an alarm car on the street approaching the safe room.

• NO MERCY 3
  There is a gas station you can drag Survivors to if they don’t blow it up intentionally ahead of reaching it. If Survivors fire at you to free their teammate they stand a good chance of blowing up both you and your victim.

During the lift horde event, as the survivors are running across the blue awning you can pull one off, causing separation and a fair chunk of fall damage, as well as causing regular zombies on the ground to have a target. If they hang around too close to the windows in the building they get to via the awning, you can pull them out to the same effect.

When the Survivors descend into the sewers from the pipe room, if you can quickly snag the last one to go down before he can, then the Survivors will not be able to rescue him from you.

There may be an alarm car for you to use after they exit the sewers.

• NO MERCY 4
  If you can pull a Survivor out of the elevator as it leaves, their team mates are powerless to rescue them.

It is possible in certain places to pull a Survivor over the edge in the area after the elevator, which will require a teammate to rescue them.

• NO MERCY 5
  At the end of the first long corridor, you can pull a Survivor into the elevator shaft, which causes them to require rescuing. Apparently, if this is done from certain angles it causes an instant kill.

When the Survivors climb the last ladder and emerge onto the roof, you can quickly snag the last one to jump down before he can, making the Survivors unable to rescue him without risking using a grenade.

Alternately, you can pull a Survivor off the first rooftop area and inflict a huge amount of fall damage.

Standing on the building with the satellite dish and pulling Survivors as they emerge from the ladder can result in instant death for them.

• BLOOD HARVEST 1
  There are sections behind the chainlink fence where you can pull a Survivor down and inflict grievous fall damage.
• BLOOD HARVEST 2
  In the warehouse near the beginning before the alarm door, you can pull a Survivor down from the gantries and inflict some fall damage to them.
• BLOOD HARVEST 3 is poor for Smokers.
• BLOOD HARVEST 4
  When the Survivors jump down the small cliff onto the train track, you can snag the last one to jump down for a guaranteed kill if the other Survivors don’t land on the white awning.

There is an alarm car after they leave the building mentioned above.

You can pull them out of the windows of the small house.

• BLOOD HARVEST 5
  Immediately left of the Safe Room right at the beginning of the map is a very thin ledge with several rocks on it. If you carefully walk as far as you can go on this ledge and then pull a survivor to it once you spawn, when they are freed they will fall off the cliff and instantly die.

When the Survivors are defending the house during the finale, you can pull them out of the windows if they get too close to them.

THE BOOMER (LX-I-BOO)
Health: 50
Melee Damage: 2 per swipe
Vomit Recharge: 30 seconds

Operating quite differently from the other two, the Boomer is less about attacking and more about causing distractions and opportunities for your teammates to attack. Against a good Survivor team, the vomit and blindness on their own mean nothing – you must operate with your team members to get the most use out of your pukey goodness.

The golden rule of Boomers is don’t get seen before you mean to be. This can be tricker than it sounds since the Boomer is probably the most noisy infected next to the Tank, constantly groaning and gurgling. Good survivors will usually try to predict where you are coming from and how you will strike so be ready to react before they do, or use terrain to sneak up on them.

Your vomit arcs downwards somewhat, so it actually goes further if aimed downwards off something. Be aware though that the range is not very long, perhaps only roughly four or five times normal melee range. There’s nothing worse than puking from too far away and getting safely detonated. You should always try to get as many as you can with the puke – hitting all four of them in one go is optimal performance and will create a fairly nasty situation.

Once you’ve puked on them (or perhaps used your puke and missed), it may be best to fall back and wait for your vomit to recharge. This takes thirty seconds, which is a fairly long time – generally if you’ve held them back with the puke at all it will cover just over half of that duration. If you can keep them locked in the same area with repeated puke attacks time and time again (very unlikely to happen), you will slowly grind them down through attrition and probably force them to use up whatever medical supplies they have on hand. It will also give your teammates a lot of opportunities to strike and do a lot of damage or disruption.

If you can vomit on enough survivors during a horde event of any kind, it actually creates MORE regular zombies for them to fight, which is bad for them in several ways but also creates a massive opportunity for Hunters and Smokers to get damage done. If you can puke on Survivors while a Tank is present, the blindness and any possible slowdown from the summoned mob will make them very easy Tank fodder.

If you miss with puke, the choice is yours of whether to retreat or kamikaze. Rushing into them hoping to be shot or for mistakes to be made is making an assumption of the Survivor’s skill and reactions, which is something you generally should try not to do. A good team will just bounce you away, and then keep their distance and shoot you. If possible, try to run out in front of them while they are already firing at something and walk into their stream of fire – this is tricky to do however, as usually the Survivors will be covering each other and at least one of them will probably see you.

If you happen across an incapacitated survivor or one snared by a Smoker’s tongue it might be worth puking on them if you don’t think you’ll be able to bag multiple team members. Attracting a mob to a Smoker victim will cause incapacitation and death far faster than the Smoker can on his own, and an incapacitated Survivor can only fight off zombies beating him to death mildly well. It might be the difference between rescue and death. If you come across an incapacitated survivor and your puke isn’t available, you can stand there and beat on them. They can’t melee you away and you do pitiful damage to them, but it’s damage nonetheless and forces the victim to choose between tolerating you beating on him or blowing you up and attracting a mob to swiftly tear him apart. There’s also the chance that another survivor might shoot you, coating their unfortunate team member in puke.

Be aware when a Tank is present you can aid him greatly by attracting a mob with your puke, which will slow the Survivors down or generally harass them enough for the Tank to catch up and deliver a beating. However, you should keep your distance from the Tank since if you explode near him, it will cause him to stagger for a few moments, making him very vulnerable.

The Boomer’s spawning mechanics appear to be slightly more lenient than those of the Hunter and Smoker with regards to the distance you can spawn from. If you can, it may be worth spawning behind a desk in the same room as the Survivors and quickly coating them all in puke – this overcomes one of the Boomer’s greatest weaknesses, that of how much attention he gives of his presence in advance. Just make sure your vomit doesn’t get blocked off by any debris on the obstacle you choose to hide behind.

A particularly amusing strategy is to find a Hunter and ask him to melee you three times – this will hurt you just enough so that a single melee strike will cause you to die and explode. Then if you can jump out on the Survivors at close enough range they will either melee you and get covered in puke, shoot you and get covered in puke, or leave you alone and get puked on.

THE TANK (LX-I-TAN)
Health: 6000
Melee Damage: 25 per punch
Stone Damage: 25 per thrown rock

A rare treat for players, the AI Director usually loans your team a Tank once per map, though they usually don’t appear on the first map of a campaign. During finales, you will get three – two during pauses in the mob attacks, and one as a “last ditch” tank when the rescue vehicle arrives. Bear in mind that the Tank spawns controlled by the AI and then begins running towards the Survivors from wherever it is placed – a random player is granted control shortly after. This means you can gain control of the Tank in some pretty odd situations – I once gained control of him while he was standing in a fire and I’ve seen the Tank die seconds after the player gained control of it due to the AI running it right up to the Survivors and being mowed down. This is less of a concern now since the Jan 14th patch, however. Also it should be noted that as of the same patch, Tanks have been evened out between teams – if one team encounters a Tank in a certain area, the other is guaranteed to find a tank there on their run.

As is implied by its name, the Tank can survive immense amounts of punishment and dish out enormous amounts of damage. As is to be expected, there are drawbacks – Tanks can be taken down very quickly by explosion staggering, are very weak to fire, and they have a Control Meter which must be kept topped up by attacking the Survivors constantly. For as long as you can’t see any Survivors, the Control Meter drains slowly. When it empties out, the Tank gets very mad and begins to stomp and thrash, which essentially amounts to a short stun the Survivors can exploit. Control will then be given to another player on the team – if their control meter runs out, the AI takes the Tank back and tries to kill the Survivors itself. A human player is always better than an AI player when it comes to special Infected, so this is bad.

If you get set on fire (by any source of fire, not just molotovs), it starts a 40 second timer. Once time is up, the Tank simply drops dead on the spot, regardless of how much health it had left. It is a VERY common Survivor strategy to simply immolate the Tank and then run away, conserving ammo. Avoid fire at all costs, but it is sometimes unavoidable as generally Survivors will try to aim the molotov bottle directly at you. If you are blocked off from the Survivors by fire, it may be worth simply waiting it out and forfeiting your turn with the Tank to another team member to ensure maximum damage can be done, and that the Survivors are fighting on the Tank’s terms, not their own.

Avoid explosives like the plague also. Pipebombs aren’t much of a threat, but it is a viable survivor strategy to hide a propane tank just around a corner then lead you into it, detonating it to stagger you, and filling your face full of lead. If you are in an area that is known to provide these items to the survivors, use extra caution to avoid being led into a trap. Even if you aren’t in one of these areas, Survivors can bring these items with them, so always be wary if you think the Survivors are trying to “herd” you.

The best situation for the Tank to appear in is when the Survivors are already struggling, since when they are all healthy they are capable of
staying out of the Tank’s reach and dodging thrown concrete chunks. When they are in yellow or red and limping however, the Tank can easily catch up to them and give them a good hiding, and it also makes them far less likely to avoid rock throws. Think of the Tank more as a “finishing move” than anything else; though this is not to say he is ineffective against a healthy team.

Against a team of fully healthy Survivors, you will have to rely on quick reactions, help from your teammates, and maybe a little luck too. Healthy Survivors run at the same pace you do, so chasing after one pretty much results in a Benny Hill situation where no-one really gets caught. If faced with healthy Survivors in an open area, lobbing rocks is probably your best bet. From full health, it takes four punches or rocks to incapacitate. Once you hit with one, the victim will go flying, giving you enough time to run up to them and deliver another punch, and so on until they go down. Never attack an incapacitated Survivor – you do negligible damage standing there pounding on them so it really isn’t worth it, especially when other Survivors are likely to be shooting you full of lead.

Your control meter may be limited, but it is not completely inflexible. Certain tactics may involve ducking out of sight of the Survivors for a short while to lull them into a false sense of security – you would be surprised how often this works given that every time you think Tank, you think a big monster getting up in your face and staying there until dead. Use the Survivor silhouettes to your best advantage – it may be worth incapacitating a Survivor and then running away just around the corner. If the Survivors are fooled by this, they may attempt to revive the downed teammate – either rush in during or after the revive, and get either the reviver or revive. Downing a guy and then allowing him to be revived, then downing him again may be a very viable strategy to permanently kill off a Survivor. Three knockdowns means death, and a badly injured Survivor pretty much cannot escape from you whatsoever with their slow and limping pace. This means they cannot heal or fight back against you; however, it depends on the actions of their teammates. If the teammates choose to leave the Survivor down on the ground to pursue you, this course of action isn’t available.

When working with teammates, try not to punch Survivors that are pinned by a Hunter – doing so instantly kills the Hunter, and if the Survivor is not incapacitated they have a chance of escaping. Since no bullets penetrate through a tank, it might be worth standing in front of the Hunter while he tears apart his victim, blocking any attempts to save their teammate. Throw rocks while doing this for added damage. If they attempt to set you on fire, dodge it – not only will you avoid immolation, but the Hunter will be set on fire and receive a huge damage boost on his victim before he dies.

Survivors that have been snared by a Smoker take a lot longer to die than Hunter victims unless they are surrounded by zombies – who normally aren’t around when a Tank is present unless a Boomer summoned them. It might be worth just smacking them out of the tongue snare if you can follow it up with enough attacks to incapacitate the victim – as long as the Smoker isn’t killed by your attack, he can snare another victim for you to incapacitate. The beauty of this is that not many will pay too much attention to a Smoker while the Tank is present. Another consideration though, is that if the snared victim cannot be rescued easily then he is effectively “out of the fight” until either killed or rescued. Dealing with three is easier than dealing with four.

You don’t really need to interact with Boomers as such. If they can get their vomit off on Survivors it will summon a small mob which hopefully will slow them down enough for you to catch them, but there’s nothing you can really do to help the Boomer pull this off other than provide a distraction, which you do with your mere presence. One thing to keep in mind however is that the Boomer is most well-known for his namesake, going boom. You’ll stagger from an exploding Boomer like you will from any other explosion, so you will need to keep your distance from them, and them from you. Make sure to notify each other of this.

In certain areas on certain maps, there are large loose objects that can be punched around. Striking a survivor with a sufficiently large object will
instantly incapacitate them. It is possible to even incapacitate all four in a single strike if you are lucky (or if the Survivor team is terrible), leading to an immediate loss for them. Note that the angle which you punch the object has quite a lot of bearing on how far the object will fly. Crouching down and angling upwards before you punch will send the object hurtling through the air – useful for moving an object you want to another area, but it gives the Survivors more time to react and dodge it.

These objects include:

• Cars (including alarm cars)
• Dumpsters
• Forklift Trucks
• Mobile Generators
• Logs (Blood Harvest)
• Hay Bales (Blood Harvest)

If you punch an Alarm Car, bizarrely enough it won’t trigger the alarm. However, the Survivors can still end up shooting the thing and triggering it for you instead. If you can, punch an alarm car into their firing line. It is possible to block certain areas with these objects. However, it is likely that Valve did not intend for this to happen, as certain objects will despawn if you attempt to do this with them. Having the Survivors immediately prevented from winning through no control of their own likely doesn’t fit into what they intended, so expect it to be patched out.

As of the January 14th patch, objects which can be bashed in this manner are highlighted with a red glow. Also, striking an alarm car will break the alarm on it, meaning one less major hazard for the Survivors. You will have to consider the situation and figure out whether it is worth the incapacitation or not to screw your team out of a free zombie mob. Finally, striking these objects as of the patch no longer refills your control meter – the only things that will do this are landing hits on Survivors, with either fist or rock. With this, Tanks are pretty much now compelled to charge in and stay on the offensive.

One more thing to note is that on certain maps, the massive knockback from your attacks can send Survivors flying off edges to an instant death. Do this whenever possible – bear in mind Survivors will be trying to avoid it however, so just take whatever opportunities you can get.

PATCH NOTES (LX-PAT)

This section contains patch notes from Left 4 Dead patches. I included this section due to the fact that the information in this FAQ may well change over time as Valve adds to or corrects the game. In addition to updating my own advice, I figure it’s best to include Valve’s list of changes in here also so that players can be advised on what has changed.

JANUARY 14, 2009
Left 4 Dead has been updated with a host of fixes, tweaks and new features, including enhancements to Versus mode for improved competitive play. The full change list is below. For PC users the update will be applied automatically via Steam. Meanwhile, the update will be made available to Xbox 360 players in the coming weeks.

General

• Fixed Survivors being able to climb surfaces marked for versus infected only
• Fixed a class of SurvivorBot bugs dealing with rescuing downed players
• Players can no longer grab ladders while flying through the air after a Tank punch
• Shooting near a car with an alarm that has already fired the alarm will no longer make chirping noises
• Improved loading time
• Fixed mini-gun physics exploit
• Fixed propane tanks (and other physics objects) causing players to fall through elevators
• Fixed rare achievement bug issues
• Fixed several map exploits
• Fixed various match making issues
• Fixed NAT traversal issues

Versus Changes

• Added HUD elements to show status of other infected players
• Changed color of infected player name in chat to red
• Fixed exploit where players could spawn infected bots
• Fixed instance where a Survivor changing to the infected team would be attacked by infected bots
• Normalized special infected melee damage
• Made the following client commands cheat protected: “Kill” and “explode”
• Fixed exploit where infected players could run away and teleport back to gain health
• Players can only change teams once per map
• Players can’t change teams while other players are still loading
• Tank spawns at the same % through the map for both teams in versus mode
• Made the Tank and Witch spawn directly on the escape route
• Increased chance of getting the Tank or Witch
• Fixed team swap issue

Hunter

• Easier to pounce a Survivor who is meleeing
• Increased Minimum damage a Hunter pounce does

Smoker

• Fixed Smoker tongue tolerance
• Smoker now has to be killed or the tongue destroyed for the tongue to break
• Survivor’s cannot bash someone off the tongue until the Survivor being pulled is paralyzed or hanging
• Tongue attacks that fail to paralyze or hang a Survivor will use the shorter ability delay timer
• Fixed cases where the ability timer was not using the correct time
• Fixed case where you could point at a Survivor but not register a tongue hit
• Fixed Smoker tongue not targeting and landing properly through PZ ghosts
• Smoker tongue does damage every second while dragging paralyzed Survivors

Tank

• Bashable objects now appear with a red glow
• Tanks hitting a car with an alarm disables the alarm permanently
• Tank frustration timer is only reset by hitting Survivors with rocks or fists
• Reduced autoshotgun damage against Tanks

Witch

• Witch spawns at the same % through the map for both teams
• Avoids spawning within a certain % of the tank
• Fixed an exploit where the Witch could be woken up and tricked into attacking Survivors

CONCLUSION (LX-CON)

I’d like to thank a few people for helping me improve the guide:

Thanks to Ian Hertel, for strategy in general, regarding tanks, and regarding how hunters and smokers should cooperate.

Thanks to Matt Baurac, for general strategy, infected strategy, and tips for certain map locations.

Thanks to Carl Celizic, for words on tanks with explosions, hunters with ladders, and moving witches with hunters.

Thanks to klip_twings, for advice on witch cr0wning, and smoker strategies.

Thanks to Dan Quick for map strategies.

Thanks to Matthew Halpin, for advice on witch cr0wning.

Thanks to Colin Gormley and Kyle Harris for general feedback.

Source: GameFAQs

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Red Alert 3 retains the core RTS mechanics of the Command & Conquer series. The “single-player” campaign is now fully co-operative. Each mission is played alongside an ally. Offline it is one of several computer-controlled characters. When played online, this is another human player.  Teams share income and generally start with the same forces. Now, to activate its online gaming, you can choose between connecting to the official server of Electronic Arts via Steam or you can utilize a third party server if you want, don’t worry it’s 100% legal.

I highly recommend you to use the Garena server as it’s very fast and hack-free gaming! You can find the complete installation guide after the jump.

Garena Installation Guide

	DOWNLOAD GAME CLIENT Click on the link to start downloading. Garena Client Installer English Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Zip Install Version(All language) Download (For Cafe/Limited Users) Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Chinese (Simplified) Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Chinese (Traditional) Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Spanish Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Russian Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Portuguese (Brazilian) Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Vietnamese Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3 Thai Version Download Mirror1 Mirror2 Mirror3
	DOWNLOAD COMPLETE Click “Run” to open the file “Garena_setup.EXE”..
	GAME-INSTALL OPTION Choose the directory where Garena will be installed.
	INSTALLATION COMPLETE Press “Finish” to end the InstallShield wizard.
	RUN GARENA FROM DESKTOP Double-click on the Garena icon on the desktop to start the game.

Eager to get started with Red Alert3? You’re just a few steps away!

1) In the Garena Lobby, click on the Red Alert 3 button found in the left “Games” panel. Select a region then join a room.

2) Inside the room, click on the “Settings” button to configure the game path.

3) In the “Settings” window, click on the “Red Alert 3″ icon. Then in the executable settings field, click on “Browse” to locate and set RA3.exe as the game path. Click OK.

4) Click “Start Game” to launch Red Alert 3 through Garena.

5) In the Red Alert 3 lobby, click on “Versus” then select “Network”.

6) Under “Local Network Lobby”, the list of games waiting in the lobby can be found in the top right corner of the interface. The players in the lobby will be shown in the left side.

Credits

Source: Courtesy of ScoOobY, all credits goes to him – http://www.garena.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=377734&extra=page%3D1

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There are 3 versions of Counter Strike being supported by Garena client, the old CS 1.5, the upgraded CS 1.6, and the complete remake Counter Strike Source using the Source Game Engine of Half Life 2. Below is the visual guide for the original CS 1.5. You can find the upgraded CS 1.6 Garena guide here.

Are you just leaving your old Half-Life or Counter Strike game CD scattered around your house and getting it dusty? Now is an ideal time to unleash again the sadistic animal within you! Learn to interact and cooperate with other Counter Strike immortals in other parts of the world. Experience fast and hack-free gaming with Garena! You can find the complete installation guide after the jump.

Index (Ctrl+F and find the code to reach your destination)

[GA101] Guide
[GA201] – Garena Settings: Set up Garena for Counter Strike 1.5.
[GA407] – Joining Game: Join games in Counter Strike 1.5 when playing on Garena.
[GA418] = via Console: Using console to join games.
[GA429] = via Find Servers: Using find servers/LAN to join games.
[GA503] – Hosting Game: Hosting game and let your friends play.
[GA527] = via Create Server: Using Create Server to host games.
[PA203] – Standalone Patch w/ Game update: Counter Strike 1.5 updates and patch.
[CE101] – Credits

Garena Installation Guide

Garena Settings [GA201]

1. On Garena, find and click Settings which located at top of Garena.

2. Once the Game Settings appear, find and click Counter Strike 1.5 in LAN Games list on the left.

3. In Executable Settings, browse to your hl.exe, eg: C:\Program Files\Half-Life\hl.exe
4. In Game Bootstrap Parameters, fill in -console -game cstrike
5. Click OK button and you are done.
6. To start Counter Strike 1.5 via Garena, click the Start Game button.

Installing Patch [GA309]

1. Download CS 1.5 official patch (download links at [PA203]) // If you have a newer version the better
2. Install the patch on the Valve folder (C:\Program files\Valve\)

Joining Game [GA407]
via Console. [GA418]
1. Find IP address, click on the user whom host room to find their Garena IP or find at the chat, eg: 192.168.29.xx

2. Run your Counter Strike 1.5 by pressing Start Game in Garena.
3. Once on the Menu, click Console

4. Type in connect[space][IP address] and wait until the game load.
If you were given a password, Type connect[space][IP address];password [space] [password] eg: connect 192.168.29.83;password beef

via Play on Lan. [GA429]
1. Run your Counter Strike 1.5 by pressing Start Game in Garena
2. Click Play CS, then choose Play on Lan

3. Choose a Server in the List. You can also click Refresh (once or more) if nothing comes out in the list.
4. Double click the server or click Join Game to join in.

5. When you are successfully connected to the server, it will automatically download a few files from the server, then log you to the actual game

Hosting Game [GA503]

via Create Server. [GA527]

1. Run your Counter Strike 1.5 by pressing Start Game in Garena
2. Once reached the Menu Screen, click Play CS, then choose Create

3. The Create Server screen will appear
4. Choose your favorite map via drop-down list, eg: cs_assault.bsp
5. You can change the Server Settings, type your Server Name, max. players, etc.

6. Password is optional. If you want your server to be private so no one can disturb your private session with your friends,
you must type your password, eg: beef
7. Click OK button to start your game. The game will start loading and create your server.
8. You will reach the Lobby, set up your desired settings for your game and wait for some players. Enjoy!

Standalone Patch Game update [PA203]

1.0. Installing the Correct Patch

a) If you have version of Counter Strike lower than version 1.5, you must upgrade to version 1.5 or else you won’t be able connect to Garena

Link #1 –Download the Official Counter-Strike v1.5 Full Retail Patch
The file will update the retail English version only of Half-Life: Counter-Strike from a fresh install to v1.5. Also within the update is the Ricochet Mod for Half-Life that changes the standard first-person style to a third-person game with TRON deadly disc-like game play.

b) Install the patch on the Half-Life folder (C:\Program Files\Half-Life\)

2.0. Patch Compability and Information

2.1. About the Patches

A patch is something like an update. They were released almost every month when CS 1.5 was still new. They mostly include bug fixes, small graphic updates,game balancing fixes, new console commands and etc. In most patches the updates are mostly for Valve online gaming, so you might not notice a big difference between them.

2.2. Compability Between Patches

Note: If you have a different patch then the server you are trying to join, you are most likely to not see the server at all.
I’m currently using CS 1.5 v46, i’ve not yet tried the higher versions or even the lower versions than version 46 of CS 1.5.
So just experiment by yourself, trial and error usually works!

If you have a newer patch installed, you cannot patch back to an older version, but instead, you will have to re-install CS 1.5, and then install the older patch.

The default patch for GG Gaming Client is v22. You can find it in the Download section.

3.0 FAQ

Q: I have installed CS 1.5 and the patch, but I still can’t see the games. What’s going on?
A: Probably there are no servers created, or you have no connection between the host.

Q: How do I gain connection to the host?
A: Find the host in the player’s list and GG Tunnel him. If you get a ping, then try refreshing the LAN on CS.

Q: I joined the game, but it’s too laggy and I can barely play. How can I fix this?
A: The only thing you can do is close all internet-consuming programs, such as MSN, Skype, Yahoo!, utorrent, dc++ and IE.

Q: What would be the proper latency to play CS 1.5?
A: If your latency with the host is between 0 to 150 you can still play normally, beyond that you will most likely get killed by lag.

Credits [CE101]

Based on Exglade’s guide: http://www.garena.com/forum/space.php?uid=2978207
FAQs: http://fps.garena.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=598849&extra=page%3D1

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Here’s a compiled detailed guide for the Warcraft 3 Version Switcher made by GG.SphinX in Garena Gaming Community. This will make easy for newbies who don’t have any idea of what it does since many of the Warcraft 3 TFT users have expressed difficulty in version switching. This Warcraft III version switcher app is legally distributed by Garena and you need an original license of Warcraft 3 to be able it to work correctly. Here’s the complete Warcraft 3 Version Switcher Complete Guide after the break.

WARCRAFT 3 VERSION SWITCHER (WVS) – COMPLETE GUIDE

1.20e to 1.21 and back :

• This is mainly for the Philippine and Indian gamers of GG Client, where predominantly 1.20e version games are played.

• Everybody else in the WORLD has 1.21.

If you want to play in the PH and Indian rooms with 1.20e but at the sametime you want to retain your 1.21 version as well. Then you need nothave 2 separate game versions installed in your Hard disk drive(HDD).
Instead you can use this simple tool. Its called the :

“Warcraft 3 : Version Switcher” : It is a simple tool which is used to switch between 2 versions of warcraft 3:

• 1.20e
• 1.21

Download the “Warcraft 3 : Version Switcher” from here :
LINK : http://download2.gg-game.com/Warcraft_Version_Switcher.zip
SIZE : 60.06MB

Alternative guides :

1. By ‘kidmango’ for the warcraft version switcher :
(Contains various download mirrors as well) :
http://gg-game.com/forum/viewthread.php?tid=43566

Backing up current version using wvs:

If you have an older version of warcraft say 1.07 and if you wish to have a back up of it so that you can switch to it just in case, then you can do it using wvs. Follow thefollowing steps:

Step 1 : Once you have downloaded “wvs” to your HDD extract the zip file using WINRAR or WINZIP
Winrar : LINK

Step 2 : Then double click on the “wvs” icon to run it

Step 2 : Then double click on the “wvs” icon to run it


Step 3: Presently if you’re having version 1.07(say) for backing it up : click on the “Store current version” button



Step 4: Select the version which you have from the drop down list box :

Step 5: After selecting the version number of your war3, click on the “Make zip Package” to make a back up copy of your current version.

Step 6: This helps you to switch back to the previous version, if in case you face any problems with the latest patches.

Patching war3 using wvs:

Step 1 : Click on the “Switch Version” button :
Step 2 : Then double click on the version to which you would like to switch :

Step 3 : Click on yes and the game will be patched :

Step 4 : Finally click on exit when its done.

NOTE : Do not run the game by clicking on the icons in the Warcraft version switcher and search for games in  LAN, for games hosted via GG client. You wont be able to see them. Make sure you start the game only from  GG client by clicking on the “Start game” button found in the room. You can check how to setup Garena for Warcraft 3 The Frozen Throne Online Multiplayer here.

I hope this guide can help our section viewers, some of whom find it difficult to switch between versions.
For detailed Info about the patching of your game, Visit this thread.
All the credits here belongs to  GG.SphinX in Garena Gaming Community

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