L4D VERSUS MODE SURVIVAL GUIDE! (Good for campaign as well) INFECTED!

Changes since last revision will be marked in THIS COLOR

Basically, I wanted to make an "ultimate survivors guide" for L4D, as some people may have questions or concerns as to what to do for certain parts or whatever. And this would help get [GF] a bit more consistent. I know that some people don't like doing a couple things that I have listed here (like Derek and his apparent fear of corner stacking) but I just listed some of the most successful techniques. I realize corner stacking is "n00bish" but hey, results don't lie.

Hunter (OFFENSE, OFFENSE, defense....)
1. If at all possible, light yourself on fire before you pounce on any survivor. The fire kills you faster, but if you pounce on a survivor, you inflict double the damage in half the time.
2. Hunters can either wait for a boomer to blind the survivors, or they can serve as a distraction so the boomer can successfully vomit on as many survivors as possible.
3. Use the hunters as visual distractions. If there's a car with an alarm, stay near it, as they may hit the car while trying to shoot you.
4. Another distraction: jump in circles around the survivors, but do not pounce on any of them, as you will be INCREDIBLY hard to hit, and they'll all be watching you, providing enough time for teammates to attack.
5. Some defensive rolls of the hunter: When the smoker grabs a survivor, at least one hunter needs to stay near the smoker to pounce any survivors that come to help the "Smoked" survivor. Also, when the survivors attempt to cr0wn a witch, once they're close enough to piss her off, the hunter can pouce on them, preventing them from running away and letting the witch have her way with them.
6. If the survivors are near a ledge (top level of hospital or on top of the train yard in Blood Harvest) you can pounce on a survivor. This will knock the survivors back and can push them off of the edge.

Smoker (Long range lynching)
1. Smoker is almost ALWAYS defensive.
2. 75% of the time, the smoker should always spawn BEHIND the survivors to pick off any that aren't keeping up with the group. The main point to this is to keep pulling the survivors BACK. Distance = points, and we don't want the opposing team to gain points (duh).
3. Smoker as an offensive player: If the survivors throw a molotov to fight off the horde and are waiting for it to die down before moving forward, grab a survivor and pull him into the fire. Not only will you inflict damage, but the fire will also inflict damage.
4. If at all possible, pull the survivor down holes, off of buildings, or if there is a spot where the survivors have to drop down a hole, try to grab the last one before he can jump down. This separates him from the group and gets you an easy kill. The survivors cannot jump back up to help their teammate. If you pull him off a building, he will receive smoker damage AND fall damage, a double whammy.
5. If the survivors are near a ledge (top level of hospital or on top of the train yard in Blood Harvest) you can move below them or around a corner and drag the survivors off of the edge.
6. Use your lengthy recharge time to run and hide if you can. You can try to drag the survivors more than once in a lifetime.
7. Try to stand near the witch and drag survivors over to her. Even if they are able to kill you, your drag will get them close enough to piss off the witch.
8. Along with #7, stand near, on, or behind the "alarm" cars. They may try to shoot you, and in the process, they end up shooting the car and alerting the horde.

Boomer (Guerilla Warfare)
1. Boomers are to be heard and not seen. The low health, slow movements, and large size of the boomer means that if you're seen - you're dead. Stay out of sight and try to vomit on the survivors from around a corner, from a distance, on top of a building, or below them in a hole.
2. If all else fails and you're seen, try to jump into the middle of the survivors and claw at them, they will try to push you away, but a few inexperienced players will simply shoot the boomer, covering their whole team in boomer bile, attracting the horde.
3. If there is an incapacitated survivor, and the other survivors are close by, try to vomit on the incapped survivor (and any others you can get). This will prevent them from helping their teammate up and lead to their death faster.
4. Another tactic: If there is an incapacitated survivor, and the other survivors are nowhere near, but running to him to help, try to vomit on the survivors that are trying to help (and any others you can get). This will slow them down and can possibly incapacitate one of them and prevent them from helping their teammate up and lead to their death faster.
5. CAUTION: Boomers, try to stay away from survivors that have been pounced by hunters. The survivors can kill the boomer, causing him to explode, which can knock a hunter OFF of a survivor. The same is true for a survivor that has been grabbed by a smoker.
6. If the survivors are near a ledge (top level of hospital or on top of the train yard in Blood Harvest) you can move closer to them, and if you're killed, the resulting explosion can knock the survivors off of the edge.
7. Use your lengthy recharge time to run and hide if you can. You can try to vomit on the survivors more than once in a lifetime.

Strategies involving the Witch (Bait and tackle, bitches)
Granted, you can't PLAY as the witch, but you can still use her as a bitch-tastic weapon.
1. As a smoker, you should try to pull the survivors onto the witch. Stand by the witch and as soon as a survivor walks near, try to grab them and drag them into the witch, this will piss her off and she will attack.
2. As a hunter, try to draw the survivor's attention towards the witch. Jump up and down around her, and use her as a shield if they try to shoot you. It just takes one stray bullet to piss her off, use her temper as a powerful weapon.
3. As a boomer, again, try to stand near her and draw attention. You can also vomit on the survivors and cause them to accidentally stumble into her, although the best method to use as a boomer is to simply have them shoot you while you're right on top of the witch. The explosion will piss her off and she will attack at random.
4. As a tank, one of the best (and only) methods I know of using the witch as a tool as you're a tank is to park the tank NEAR the witch (see TANK AS DEFENSE) for a guide about parking the tank), but out of the survivor's sight. As they go near the witch, they may activate the tank as well, then they'll have two bad motherfuckers beating them down.
5. AS ANY INFECTED: You can wait until the witch gets annoyed (all she has to do is start growling) and you, as an infected, can walk up and scratch her, and this will set her off, and she will attack the last person to come near her. Even if the survivors are halfway across the map at this point, as long as she's still growling, you can smack her and she will attack.

Tank (Shock and awe)
There are a couple different ways to play the tank, here are some general rules.
1. If you see a gas can or a survivor with a molotov, HIDE. Fire is bad. Not only does it deal constant damage, but it slows you down - a lot.
2. Use cars, tree trunks, forklifts, and columns to your advantage. They're there for a reason. A single car or tree trunk can take out an entire team with one hit, if it's well placed. Anything that glows red can be used as a weapon as a tank.
3. Don't just hit a survivor and try go after another one. Hit one until he's incapped, THEN proceed to maul another one. Remember, health can be restored, a dead survivor cannot.
4. Try to climb above the survivors and drop down on them. You'll get awesome "OMFG" points, but more seriously, you'll catch them off their guard, as they won't be expecting it.
5. If the survivors are near a ledge (top level of hospital or on top of the train yard in Blood Harvest) you can actually knock the survivors off of the edge. Or better yet, off the building entirely. This is a fast and easy way to kill them, take advantage of it.
6. If a special infected has pounced on or grabbed a survivor, for the love of everything good in the world DO NOT ATTACK THAT SURVIVOR. Not only will you be killing your teammate and preventing his chance to incap or kill a survivor, but he'll be very mad at you and may take you off his friends list, or worse - rage quit.
7. Stay away from propane tanks and boomers. Both of which, when exploded, can knock of a huge amount of health, but they can also stun you and knock you back for several seconds, allowing the survivors ample time to unload on you.
8. If you're in the sewers in No Mercy or near the lake in Death Toll and you're on fire, here's a hint: step into the water to extinguish the flames and save yourself from dying from the fire.

Tanks and small areas
If the survivors aren't complete dumbasses, they'll most likely craw into vents, under stairs, or into the elevator shaft if they hear a tank coming. DO NOT, I repeat DO NOT try to crawl into the vents after them. If you're on my team and you do this, I WILL call a vote to kick you. Not only is the hole too small, but you'll get stuck and you won't be able to move, and you'll be a sitting duck while the enemy team shoots all your health away in a matter of seconds. When the survivors do this, it means you, as a tank, need to go into immediate DEFENSE mode.
1. Stand near, but not close to, the survivors and throw rocks to keep them pinned down inside the hole and allow your teammates a chance to pick them off a little at a time.
2. Just about ALL the tight spaces that survivors can hide during a tank attack, there is a way that you can clip (and punch) THROUGH the walls around them. Here are some examples.
A. If they hide in the vents in the SUBWAY in NO MERCY (2/5): You can punch/throw rocks through the wall right beside the stairs (immediately beside the vent) and around the corner to the right of the vent. This is the hardest spot to hit the survivors, so some trial/error practicing would do good here... This is the only place where the tank CANNOT squeeze through. The other areas, the tank can manage with loss of health, but not here. This is a death trap for the tank.
B. If they hide in the stairwell in the HOSPITAL in NO MERCY (4/5): This is easy and funny. Go around to the other side of the stairwell and hit them through the wall. You can see their silhouettes so you'll always know when they're moving around. Again, practice makes perfect. But also, this is a deathtrap for the tank, do NOT try to follow them under the stairs.
C. If they hide in the elevator shaft at the top of the HOSPITAL in NO MERCY (4/5): Go into the elevator and clip into the wall and throw rocks at the survivors THROUGH the wall. They have a lot of room back there to move around, so you can't punch them unless they're in certain areas, so throw rocks. This is the ONE area that it's probably OK for a tank to crawl through the opening. You will lose some health, but depending on the situation, it may be worth it to go back there with the survivors, do it quickly and don't hesitate. Try to get your teammates to create a distraction so you can crawl in there easier. Be warned though, the survivors can shoot through the elevator, so teamwork is imperative here.

TANK AS DEFENSE:
A. Stay back and just hurl rocks at the survivors. You'll keep your control and you'll provide and AWESOME distraction for your teammates to slow pick away at the survivors.
a. When the tank comes, almost 100% of the survivors attention will be on you, the tank. Use this to your advantage and become a distraction.
B. "Parking" the tank: just go back to a closed-in area or easily defendable space, and don't move. The control meter will run down and control will be given to a teammate. Teammate: you do just the same, don't move. After control is lost again, the AI will take control of the tank and will not activate until the survivors come near him.
b. This essentially creates a "fifth team member". Even though the AI sucks at controlling the tank, he's still an awesome distraction, and the 4 special infected have a greater chance at killing the survivors.
c. BEWARE, the tank may attack a survivor that you've pounced on or have smoked, breaking your attack. All else fails, rage quit (just kidding, don't do that).

For more information on TANKS and TANK strategies, refer to Derek's posts regarding PANZER!
They can be found here: https://theproudgforce.forumotion.com/welcome-f1/panzer-guide-t7.htm
and here: https://theproudgforce.forumotion.com/welcome-f1/achtung-panzer-t8.htm

Please see part two for SURVIVOR strategies...

Great strategy guide but since the new update.. a lot of these strategies either don't work or the ones that didn't work in the first place have more life (Tanks crawling in vents).

i know, i haven't gotten around to updating it, that might be a task for me to do today...