Having recently gotten the Achievement for completing all of the Left 4 Dead campaigns on Expert difficulty with my gaming crew, I figured I’d share some tips while the game is still fresh on my mind. These tips will be useful on any difficulty, but I recommend studying them carefully if you want to tackle Expert.
I’ll break the tips up into various categories: General Tips, Dealing with the Special Infected, Weapons, and the Expert Finales.
General Tips
1. Prepare for the Long Haul
While playthroughs on Easy or Normal will take less than an hour to complete a campaign, on Expert it will generally take half an hour to complete one of the five acts in a campaign. For planning purposes, expect the finale to take about an hour, and give your team half an hour for each of the other four levels. That means three hours to complete a campaign on Expert. This is practically an MMORPG raid. Make sure everyone is on board because on Expert, the moment someone leaves, the run might be done.
2. Never go Idle
The moment you go Idle once throughout the Expert campaign, you will not get the Achievement. I’m not sure how long it takes to go Idle, but I’ve definitely gotten it a few times by accident. One of my friends says it’s about 30 seconds, and if you’re just opening up your friends menu to reply to a message, that may be all it takes to put you Idle and kill your Achievement. It sucks the way it was implemented, but there are certain benefits: everyone will always be paying attention all the time.
If you do need to take breaks to use the bathroom or get a drink of water, the best way is do it between stage loads or if you are dead. When you’re dead, you can’t go Idle. If you are alive and one of your teammates needs to take care of something in an Emergency, kill him yourself so he goes to the Death screen and you can just rescue him in the next closet when he’s ready to play again. *corrected by Frijolie – it looks like you can go idle at any time and still get the corresponding Achievements as long as you’re not idle when you finish the campaigns.
3. Turn on Closed Captioning
It is available from the options menu. Once you turn it on, you will often be alerted with text on the screen whenever there is a Special Infected in the area. No longer do you have to be like, “Was that a hunter I heard?” Now you’ll see text on your screen like “Hunter growling” or “Smoker coughing”. You’ll even see stuff like “Incoming attack”, which refers to a horde about to rush you or “Tank Death”. Apparently the Tank makes his own noise when he dies, and it’s useful to know the moment he dies so you can heal up/prepare for the next steps.
4. Designate the Group Leader
On Expert difficulty, it is imperative that your squad of four stick closely together. The easiest way for this to be adhered to is to have all of the players follow one member, who should be holding a shotgun. The shotgun player should be up front, and almost always crouching and off to the side in a path or tunnel to allow the other team members behind him to get shots in. Shotgun holders should never be behind SMG/Assault rifle holders.
If you have a particularly carefree bunch, threaten them that if they get in front of you as a shotgun holder, you will shoot them. You may have to follow through on your word once or twice, but they will stay behind you for the rest of the game. And remember – if you’re in front, crouch!
5. Look for Choke Points
If you play the levels enough times, you should start seeing the best places to fall back to when an incoming horde comes after you. The choke point is necessary for survival – especially on Expert difficulty, because with regular Infected doing 10 damage a hit, you’ll be killed fast if you’re stuck in the middle of an empty street and they swarm all around you from the forest (think Zerglings surrounding a Marine, if you’re a Starcraft fan). Look for doorways, dead-ends, etc. where you can be certain that the Infected can only get to you by the only entrance you’re guarding. Examples of this include the doorway in the garage room at the start in the last act of Death Toll (a horde always spawns as soon as you step onto the street) and the broken down car carrier not too long after getting out of the train safe room on the last act of Blood Harvest. In all four finales, the only way you’re going to survive on Expert is to hold out for the 10-15 minutes in a suitable choke point (while leaving to kill the Tanks and coming back to re-setup at the choke point).
6. Use First Aid Kits Effectively
On Expert difficulty, people will be downed a lot – so much that every player will basically see black and white in the game at some point (means you’ve been downed three times, and if you get downed once more, you will die). With supplies being as limited as they are in Expert, it’s recommended that first aid kits generally only be used once a player sees the black and white. Using a first aid kit when in black and white resets the counter, so you can be downed three more times again before dying for good. There are exceptions to this general rule, since if you’re almost dead you will be limping and slower. There may be points where you can’t afford to limp, and must use that first aid kit before you hit black and white.
7. When to Use/Give Pills
It’s better to use a first aid kit before pills, as pills are an instant use and can be used in combat if needed while the first aid kit can only be used when the coast is clear. Save pills for emergency in-combat situations. Also, you will come across pills more often than first aid kits on Expert, so when in doubt during a combat situation if it is an emergency or not, go ahead and down them as their use may actually save your team.
One thing to beware of is giving pills to another teammate. When you switch to your pills and hand them to a teammate without telling him, he may accidentally use them if he’s firing his weapon. This is because when the pills are handed to a new player, it automatically switches whatever he is holding to the pills, so if he thinks he’s about to fire his gun again, he’ll instead down the pills. So give him a heads up if you’re going to hand pills to someone.
8. Killing Teammates Before the Safehouse
If your team is near a safehouse and some members have barely any life left, consider killing them. This is because they automatically spawn with 50 health the next chapter once your team enters the safehouse. If one teammate is bleeding out at 15 health, it’s probably worth it to kill him since he’ll start with 50 health and not be stuck still bleeding out once the next chapter starts. By killing him before the safehouse, you allow him to get further in the next chapter before actually using his first aid kit.
The only reason you may not want to kill him is if he’s holding an upgraded weapon, like the assault rifle or auto-shotgun, or an item like pills/molotov/pipebomb/first aid kit. If it’s not possible for the remaining survivors to carry the killed guy’s gear into the safehouse, it might not be worth killing him off for. It just becomes a circumstantial decision – I think it’s worth it to kill off a dying teammate and losing his pipebomb, but I don’t think it’s worth it if he were to lose his assault rifle and we were in one of the earlier chapters. (On the final chapter of each campaign, upgraded weapons are available at the start and holdout safehouses so I would kill him then.)
Edit: Carlos notes in his comment below that it’s probably wisest to actually kill the dying teammates in the safehouse. That way, when they die and drop their items, the items will remain there when the next level loads so the killed teammates can simply pick them up again next level and nothing will be lost. I haven’t tried this myself, but it sounds like it would work. The closest I can say I have come to testing something like this is that I have carried gasoline tanks between levels. Apparently anything that is in that safe room by the end of one level will still be there at the start of the next, regardless of whether you are holding it or not. So yeah, consider killing the teammates once they enter the safehouse. Just make sure you do it before you close the safehouse door or the next level will load.
Weapons
1. Meleeing is a Must
At any choke point, your setup should be two guys at the front of the choke crouching and only meleeing, while the two guys behind them standing and shooting. After a few melee attacks on Expert difficult, the regular Infected will die but the main goal of doing that is really to prevent any of them from getting close enough to attack any of you. Two guys up front meleeing while two guys in back shooting at a chokepoint means no one on the team will take damage.
Meleeing also has many other benefits. You can reload while meleeing (hit the reload button, and just start meleeing and the gun will get reloaded automatically as you melee), and it does no friendly fire damage to your teammates. On Expert, friendly fire damage is turned up very high (one shotgun blast to a teammate and he will be downed) so whenever any Infected are amidst your group, it’s in everyone’s best interest to melee instead of trying to fire at them and hitting your teammates. To save a teammate from a Hunter, melee the Hunter off him instead of shooting him so you minimize friendly fire damage. You can even melee the tongue of a Smoker off a teammate!
2. Auto-shotgun versus Assault Rifle
While the auto-shotgun has some pretty good distance, its main benefit is a lot of damage at close range while the assault rifle’s main benefit is decent damage at medium range. This makes the auto-shotgun ideal for fighting Tanks, while the assault rifle is best with common Infected. (Their baby brothers, the shotgun and SMG, are the same way). When in doubt, balance your team with 1-2 auto shotguns, 1-2 assault rifles, and 0-1 hunting rifles for general play, but change it for more specific scenarios. If you’re going to fight long distance, ditch the auto-shotguns and kill the Infected at mid-range before they come close, and if you’ve decided to take down a Tank with weapons, have all four players equipped with auto-shotguns. The assault rifle does minuscule damage to the Tank.
3. The Hunting Rifle has its Time and Place
The hunting rifle’s role is pretty limited, as it only really shines in long distances. Keep that in mind: LONG DISTANCES. This means it should not be picked up in closed, indoor spaces, even though the bullets can penetrate multiple zombies at a time. Your rate of fire is just too slow compared to an assault rifle. The hunting rifle is ideal if you are setting up on the dock for the Death Toll finale, the roof of the No Mercy finale, or at a corner of the airport on the Dead Air finale where the Infected come at you from far away.
Your group should have one (if any) holding a hunting rifle at most. Realize that if one of your teammates is going hunting rifle, his main objective is attack the Smokers first and foremost, before they get within range to grab your teammates. Also, if you are setting up in a finale with a teammate holding the hunting rifle, make sure that the assault rifle holders focus first on the common Infected instead of trying to help pick off the special Infected in the distance. Not only does this defeat the purpose of having a player with the hunting rifle and his scope, but if the assault rifle player is shooting for distant targets, who is going to help hold the flood of common Infected running towards your party? Certainly not the guy with the hunting rifle.
4. Fire is Your New Best Friend
When I first started playing Left 4 Dead, I adored the Pipe Bomb. Back then, I didn’t understand what the Horde attacks were or how to effectively deal with a Boomer, so the Pipe Bomb was the easy solution. Just throw it and all common Infected problems are solved! Well, if you want to get through Expert, you will have to make the jump from Pipe Bomb to Molotov. With adequate choke point coverage, the Pipe Bomb becomes unnecessary, because even if you get vomited on by a Boomer, the choke point melee setup will ensure that you will be fine.
Molotovs become a necessity on Expert not just for the tanks, but because they themselves can help create choke points for you when you have none. If you’re stuck somewhere where you can’t set up at a choke point and have common Infected running at you from two sides, throw the Molotov on the ground in one direction and now you only have one side to defend.
This tip also means making use of the red gasoline tanks. Whenever you see one on Expert difficulty, always take it with you. On lengthier finale levels like Death Toll and Blood Harvest, it’s actually recommended to carry the gas tank all the way to the finale holdout to deal with the Tanks because often times (especially on Blood Harvest), when you get there, there’s nothing to light the Tank on fire with. I’m not a fan of the other canisters, as their damage is immediate and I can’t judge the damage distance effectively, but the red gasoline tank I will never leave behind since it can not only burn tanks, but create choke points.
Dealing with the Special Infected
1. Hold Your Fire if Vomited on by a Boomer
You’re blinded so if you start shooting, there is a high probability that you will friendly fire a teammate. On Expert difficulty, that may mean death for them. Your number one concern should not be to attack, but to move to a good choke point area so your squad can deal with the incoming horde effectively. If you must attack, use only melee while slowly sliding back in the direction that you came in so that your teammates can kill the horde that will come after you. After all, the horde of Infected are coming after you, not them, so they can get all the free shots in they want.
2. Evading the Witch
If I remember correctly, I think it’s possible to actually walk by the Witch if you don’t want to try to one shot her with the shotgun. Even if you’re close enough to attract her attention and she eventually gets up, if you’re gone from the scene before she’s fully up she will not know what to do and just run around doing nothing until provoked. Unfortunately, there’s sometimes a team member within eyesight of the witch when she’s fully up and will incur the Witch’s wrath. Just keep flashlights off and don’t fire and you will most likely be able to sneak by the witch even if she looks like she’s sitting right in your path. The key is to just be out of eyesight before she’s fully up.
On Expert, the Witch’s single melee swipe will instantly kill her target. But after that, she will not go for anyone else and simply run around and then run away. That’s all you need to remember. Don’t even bother trying to kill her after she’s taken down one of your teammates. In fact, on Expert, it’s actually preferable to come across a Witch instead of a Tank, because with the Witch, it’s a set “1 guy dies” trade-off versus the Tank, where it comes down to what you have to fight him with (and on Expert, it’s usually not much).
3. Slaying the Tank
There are two ways of dealing with the Tank: killing him through direct damage or lighting him on fire and letting him burn to death. One common error that players make is not realizing that the two should not be mixed. While it makes more common sense that if the Tank is on fire and you’re shooting at it, the damage from your weapons and him being on fire should stack. They don’t. In fact, when the Tank is on fire, he takes no damage from the burning at all. It simply puts him on a timer where once a certain number of seconds have elapsed, he will just die (the number of seconds is higher based on difficulty level).
Thus it’s key to decide whether you’re going to attempt to kill him (make sure you all have auto-shotguns at Expert level) or you’re going to light him on fire and everyone scatter to wait until he dies. The lighting him on fire and running is generally the more acceptable strategy on Expert difficulty, because on Expert, fighting him head on generally means he will kill 1-2 teammates. Keep in mind that the Tank will generally down a player, and follow up and kill that same player. Use this to your advantage. This means that once that teammate goes down, the other three need to get as close as possible to the Tank and unload their shotguns on the Tank while he pounds the downed player to death. With some luck (and accuracy), you should be able to kill the Tank on Expert difficulty before he kills off a second team member. Be careful to not stand directly opposite another player when you all go in to kill the Tank – auto-shotgun friendly fire will definitely occur.
Expert Finales
1. No Mercy – Rooftop Finale
I believe this one is the hardest of the four finales in the game since tanks can knock you off the buildings completely to your death. Consider any of the following areas to hold out in: underneath the ramp, in the closet right next to the gun rack, and on the rooftop of the highest part of the radio building. With the ramp or closet holdout, make sure you have guys constantly meleeing and with the rooftop, make sure to melee any zombies trying to climb up. When it’s time for the first Tank, light him on fire (there should be plenty of Molotovs on the rooftops of this finale) and run around until he dies. Then get back to the choke, fight the waves, burn the second Tank, and make your way up the ramp to the chopper. Throw a pipebomb on the way to the chopper and you should be home free.
I’m partial to the rooftop holdout more myself since it is an elevated position with a chokepoint (it’s in fact very similar to the dock holdout on the Death Toll finale). Get up on the rooftop above the chaingun platform and you can kill any Infected trying to get to you by the time they are on the chaingun platform. With gasoline tanks and Molotovs, it’s even easier as you can just light the whole chaingun platform on fire and nothing will be able to get up to you. Have one guy with one hunting rifle and the other three with assault rifles. The hunting rifle guy primarily watches for Smokers that try to leap to the rooftops of the distant buildings while the assault rifle guys shoot who they see and melee any Infected when they try to climb up the front. Wait up top for the tank to come up, burn him, jump down the building and run around until he dies and get back up to set back up for the second half and repeat until helicopter arrives.
2. Death Toll – Boathouse Finale
On this boathouse finale, I’m aware of two different places to make your “stand”: the bathroom and the dock. In the bathroom, you have two guys ducking and meleeing while the other two guys are on the sink and toilet shooting whoever they can. When it’s time for the first Tank, throw the Molotov in the front doorway (should be plenty around the house), and run around the house until he dies. Then set back up in the bathroom, burn the second Tank when he comes, and run to the dock for the boat pickup.
This was the finale that my crew and I played for several hours to get the “Untouchables” Achievement, and we basically used the same strategy to beat it on Expert. With this one we had one guy with the Hunting Rifle (make sure you grab it at the start of the level since there is not one in the boathouse), and the rest with assault rifles. All four are set up at the dock, with the guy holding the hunting rifle on the right (when your group is on the dock and facing land), two assault rifle guys on the steps, and the third assault rifle guy on the left. On the dock, the Infected pretty much either run down the dock towards the group, or climb up the left side of the dock. The assault rifle holder on the left side focuses on the ones trying to climb up, while the two assault rifle holders on the stairs focus on any Infected that try to run down the dock, and the hunting rifle holder on the right watches for all the Smokers that try to creep down the left side (while helping with the Infected on the dock as necessary). When the Tank comes, light him on fire before he gets onto the dock (by either shooting a red gasoline tank on land or pitching a perfect Molotov) and then have all four of you jump into the water and head for the boathouse. Once you get to the boathouse, you can quickly grab more ammo and run back to the dock. By the time you’re back at the dock, the Tank should be dead. Keep in mind that even if the Tank is lit and jumps in the water, it may look like the fire was put out but he will still burn to death. Repeat with the second half of finale and you’ll be aboard the boat in no time.
3. Dead Air – Runway Finale
The Dead Air finale was the first one we completed on Expert, and I believe it is the easiest. Because the area is so big, there are several areas to hold out in which allow you to safely take the Infected out from a distance. Some people like the corners of the airport but my preferred strategy is still the truckbed holdout, which worked just fine for us on Expert as it had on Advanced. Basically, all four of you get on the truckbed nearest the fire by the chaingun. Have two auto-shotgunners watching the back of the truck (where the four of you entered the truckbed). Their role is to simply melee anyone trying to climb onto the truck. The other two should be facing the front of the truck with assault rifles, killing any Infected that try to climb up the sides of the front of the truck. The Infected cannot climb up the sides of the truckbed, so they are forced to either climb up the back, where they will just get meleed off by the two shotgunners, or the front of the truck, where they will easily get picked off by the two guys holding assault rifles. Make sure that all four are crouched, so neither Hunters nor Smokers can get you. It’s pretty silly to see Hunters try to climb up the back of the truck, but that’s what they’re forced to do since they can’t physically jump and land on the truckbed. You should take no damage with this holdout strategy.
When it’s time for the first Tank, you should ideally make use of the plane that you are fueling to escape. Light him on fire, then run to the opposite side of that plane. Crouch and you can see his (burning) feet and if it looks like he’s going one way around the plane, just walk the other way. He cannot climb over the plane, so you can always keep the escape plane between him and your squad. Once he’s dead, go back to your corners on the truckbed and hold out for the second half and repeat for the second Tank before escaping.
4. Blood Harvest – Farmhouse Finale
Blood Harvest is probably the most difficult finale simply because you almost always have to fight a Tank on the way to the farmhouse and a horde while trying to go through the cropfield. That and there’s usually no Molotovs or gasoline cans to take on the Tanks so you have to sort of get lucky that you get to the barn and with two gas tanks or find Molotovs in the barn. There is often at least one red gasoline tank on the way to the farmhouse, and it is recommended that you kill the Tank with auto-shotguns so you can save the red gasoline tank for the holdout.
There are a few places to hold out in this finale. You can try one of the closets in the bedrooms or the bathroom in the house, but do not try to holdout in a bedroom itself since the windows can be broken into by the Infected. The other place to holdout is the second floor of the barn, which is how we ended up beating it.
For the second floor of the barn holdout, we had two guys meleeing at the hole on the side while the other two monitored the Infected trying to climb up the ladder area (those are the only two ways into the second floor of the barn). What’s funny is we actually beat Expert with an AI player this way, as it was able to come up to the second floor and do the holdout with us. That holdout setup should yield little to no damage, and when it’s time for the Tank, light him on fire and run into the house, go up to the second floor, jump out a window, and get back to the second floor of the barn. By the time you’re back the Tank should be dead. Repeat again for the second half and jump onboard the transport that arrives.
Leveling Down 
64 comments
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December 30, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Surviving Expert L4D « don’t tell me the ending
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December 30, 2008 at 11:30 pm
DEEP X
I’m looking forward to trying the Finale strategies. I’ve always been a firm believer in finding choke points and making those your little checkpoints as you progress. I didn’t know that setting Tank on fire and shooting didn’t compound the damage, or some of the witch avoidance techniques.
This has been extremely helpful.
July 22, 2009 at 12:01 am
Anonymous
as of the update they do stack up.
December 31, 2008 at 9:36 am
espion4ge
cool glad you liked the writeup. yeah it seems that a lot of people didn’t know that the fire damage and gun damage on the tank didn’t stack! it’s funny too because when I got the “Man vs Tank” Achievement for killing a Tank by myself, it was merely through lighting him on fire and we all ran for it. At the end of the level it showed the stats for who did the most damage to the Tank and the other three guys had 0, but I had 1. Made me laugh – so I guess it’s not “technically” true since the 1 damage from lightning him on fire does stack with the gun damage, but you won’t see any more from that.
January 1, 2009 at 9:27 am
healthtips
Yeah,, Nice.. Happy New Year to all..
January 1, 2009 at 11:05 am
Zoey!!!!
there’s a fun place that works against the tank effectively in the barn’s 2nd floor during the farmhouse finale: once the tank music starts playing, quickly get to the opposite side of the big window by walking on the wooden beams, crouch on the beam sticking parallel to the wall avoiding the intersection from which you just came. fire on the tank, watch him miserably fall over and over. There are times that he’ll try to climb up on the beam that you’re sitting on directly so just let that targeted player jump down immediately (upon seeing the tank directly climbing up), climb back up the ladder back to the same place to confuse the tank
January 1, 2009 at 11:10 am
Zoey!!!!
‘avoiding the intersection from which you just came’
i meant avoid crouching in front of a beam intersection
January 1, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Frijolie
Actually, your advice that you will not get credit for beating the map on expert if you–at any time–go idle is incorrect. I actually went idle (by mistake) when reading this article. It at first scared me because I thought all that was for nothing. However, I continued on–not going idle again–and wound up completing Death Toll. After beating it, I checked the “Achievements” on the main menu and it still gave me credit for completing it on expert (3/4)–where previously I was only 2/4. I don’t know if that will impact the final achievement for beating them all on expert maybe this is what you meant. I guess only time will tell. Now on to Blood Harvest and probably the most difficult of them all..
January 2, 2009 at 9:49 am
espion4ge
thanks for the tips Zoey!!!! and Frijolie.
Zoey!!!!, I’ve never tried the farmhouse finale strategy that you mentioned but maybe the readers can give it a chance if your strategy sounds appealing to them. After all, it’s probably the most difficult one so it’s good to share various tactics since not everything works for everyone.
Frijolie, you are most likely correct with what you’ve discovered so I’ve gone ahead and edited my post. I’ve always made sure that I wasn’t idle when going through campaigns to get Achievements, but more out of fear from what I read on forums, etc. where people complain they didn’t get Achievements when they beat their campaigns. What would drive a person to go through the rest of Expert after he went idle once just to test it? I’m glad you did though, as your experiment probably allowed a lot of Left 4 Dead players to breathe a sigh of relief that they can actually go to the bathroom now whenever they need to!
January 3, 2009 at 11:06 am
herwan
Hi…if im playing on singel player how??
need help ASAP’
if anyone can help email me at emo_master123@hotmail.com
January 3, 2009 at 11:49 pm
noodles
the tank damage suggestion just isn’t true. Sorry. Try playing versus sometime. When you’re on fire as the tank your health plummets with the gunfire.
January 4, 2009 at 1:05 am
jesse
did you know that you can also complete a level on expert without having to play the whole campaign? start a lobby set up the level to expert, choose the final chapter with your other 3 non AI players, start the campaign, do not let any one leave the safe room, start an xbox live party with your respective teammates, have them all go back to the dashboards via the xbox guide button then press Y, then the lobby leader invites them all back in to the game, it then registers the as though they have played the entire campaign including the lobby leader. IDK why it just does, now you can play together and get your achievement(s) for expert, or you can set it to easy, and you can get other achievements like not disturbing the witch or take no damage after contacting the rescue vehicle or not using a health pack etc. etc.
January 4, 2009 at 1:09 am
jesse
then of course if your playing expert generously apply espion4ges tips for the finales
January 5, 2009 at 9:15 am
espion4ge
noodles, the tank damage suggestion is true. i’m guessing you thought i meant he takes no damage from anything once he’s on fire, but what i meant was that he is always susceptible to gunfire damage, but if he’s on fire, the fire is not actually causing damage to him, but merely setting him on a death timer.
try it out in versus mode by yourself in split screen. pick no mercy rooftop finale, have 1 controller playing infected and 1 playing the survivors. get the survivors to the radio, kill off the 3 AI opponents, and hold out until the tank spawns. have the remaining survivor throw a molotov on the tank to light him on fire. the tank’s life will drop if he is standing in the molotov fire when it’s on the ground, but once that fire on the ground disappears (or the tank moves off of the area on fire) and he is still lit, his life bar no longer depletes yet he will still die anyway, indicating a timer. if you shoot him, obviously his life bar will continue to drop but the point of the tank suggestion is there’s no point in shooting him if you want to light him on fire and vice versa.
thanks jesse for your tip on the dashboard “glitch”. i was aware of this when writing the article, but because it was not what the developers intended, I did not include it in my write up (felt it was a little controversial). but i can confirm that what you are saying does work (although I’m not 100% sure on the host getting the achievements too if he invites everyone from the dashboard).
January 5, 2009 at 10:54 am
Tobold
“To save a teammate from a Hunter, melee the Hunter off him instead of shooting him so you minimize friendly fire damage. You can even melee the tongue of a Smoker off a teammate!”
You can’t take any friendly fire damage while being pounced/licked by a hunter/smoker
January 5, 2009 at 10:55 am
Tobold
also, six hours to completely a compaign on expert seems very very slow. It can easily be done it under half that time
January 5, 2009 at 11:03 am
JPKewl
Even if an expert campaign takes 3 hours, that is too long for people who need to work the next morning.
Also, Espion4ge’s analysis of hunter pins is correct: you don’t shoot at a hunter on a teammate so you don’t hit other teammates standing up nearby, not the pinned teammate. Especially with a shotgun, if one teammate is near the pinned teammate to help, if you fire at the hunter and hit the standing teammate you can do a lot of damage. You want to minimize friendly fire damage to the entire team, not just one player.
January 5, 2009 at 11:38 am
espion4ge
time spent in the campaign is obviously relative to the skill of the players and how quickly they can move through the level. if they’re awesome, sure they can probably knock out the campaign in record time but the general significance of the tip is to ensure you have enough time to complete the campaign. basically, don’t start an expert campaign if anyone in your group has a time constraint, whether it’s two or even four hours. the last thing you want is at four hours you’re on the finale and someone has to go. I agree that six hours is on the lengthy side, but i chose to give a more conservative time estimate.
January 6, 2009 at 1:50 pm
Kevin
yo espion4ge is this your gamertag i could use a pros hand at the expert run throughs people i team up with are stupid!!!
January 6, 2009 at 6:39 pm
Anonymous
Expert dont take that long. Longest one of the campaigns ever took me was 2 and a half hours. Others just a little over an hour. But yea hes right with almost everything on expert its mostly common sense though. Espion4ge u still play? Hit me up. My boy and i tear shit up all day on expert by ourselves.
January 6, 2009 at 6:40 pm
PuffinPiff
all day everyday
January 6, 2009 at 7:15 pm
jesse
i get why your saying the “glitch” is controversial… but almost everyone who owns a game either finds ways to exploit it or ways to overcome it, i do believe the developers were aware of such a thing just as they have MAY have been aware they built several chapters where you can completely avoid the horde, its just a personal opinion that these “secrets” actually come from developers by telling friends which trickle down to us as consumers, but thats an argument all its own, just stating my opinion though, and i have tested the lobby leaders achievement opportunities with my friends account since i am only five achievements away from having them all. it does work for the lobby leader also. just putting that out there.
January 7, 2009 at 2:28 am
Pyro
On death toll finale its best to actually hang out on the rock right of the dock.
You need to hug the wall and jump up onto the embarkmentment. Which is a bit difficult without any one who has done it before but once up there theres a large area to take out infected with. Also tanks can’t climb up so you can get you man v.s tank acheviement-using pistols (2 ppl can). Downside is some 1 will need to watch the back of the rocks since a smoker will usually come around the back of the docks and try to pull people off.
January 7, 2009 at 9:27 am
espion4ge
thanks for more tips everyone. I’ve revised my post a bit to change the time needed for expert to about 3 hours. I think that’s a happy medium as that probably seems more the average – some will spend more time, some will spend less. I’m guessing the Anonymous poster was ManiacMoss – I played with him and his friend a bit last night. I joined them in the middle of the second level on No Mercy, but then we proceeded to pretty much clear through to the finale on Expert in under an hour. These guys were obviously really experienced since nothing seemed to faze them. I guess if you run with some pros, you probably can beat an Expert campaign in an hour and a half even…but YMMV of course.
jesse, I do agree partially agree with what you’re saying, and that’s why i kept your tip on the dashboard glitch here. in fact, with yesterday’s update on the 360 not removing that “functionality”, it is more probably that the developers don’t care – at least on the 360 version. for those of you in a hurry that don’t have enough time to get through all of the expert campaign, consider the dashboard glitch that jesse suggested, which allows you to start at the finale of each campaign and still get the corresponding achievements!
Pyro – good tip. I had heard about that rock on the Death Toll finale but I had never tried it myself so I didn’t want to speak to it. glad you covered it though as it looks like several readers are contributing to make this tip list even more informative.
Kevin – yeah espion4ge is my 360 account…so feel free to add me and i’ll help you out if i have time.
January 7, 2009 at 7:57 pm
Francis Hates Everything
[…] (I’m told it deserves the capital ‘E’) I will definatly go back and read this article on tactics for surviving the campaigns. Unlike a lot of the general guides out there, this one has […]
January 8, 2009 at 9:45 am
Carlos
“8. Killing Teammates Before the Safehouse”
Why not kill the teammates inside the safe house?
so you wont’t loose guns, pipe, molot cause they will be on the ground when you start next level.
January 8, 2009 at 9:53 am
espion4ge
Carlos – that’s a great point. I have added your note into the list.
January 8, 2009 at 10:36 am
eeyore
btw the WoW raids now are winged now like scarlet monastery, or generally brief encounters, like onyxia. each can be completed in about an hour or so. now, who’s raiding:P
January 8, 2009 at 1:30 pm
J4RED
Espion4ge, your tips are extremely helpful, even though I’ve been able to figure most of your post out on my own the tank discussion definately was something I didn’t know and the endings was helpful thanks
January 8, 2009 at 1:34 pm
J4RED
By the way glitches are fun but if you do the “dashboard expert” bs, you really aren’t a gamer. That also goes for those of you who in versus mode moves crap in the way of doors when you’re playing as the special infected. Yes you CAN do it but its just rude.
January 8, 2009 at 5:49 pm
Gravemind
I have actually done the first three with my “zombie squad”. It took us about an hour and a half to complete the whole thing. We may occasionally use a glitch just to help us out. there are even some things you can do on dead air to help but they are just short-cuts.
January 8, 2009 at 5:53 pm
Gravemind
on the third no mercy level, instead of starting the lift just pistol-whip the metal door until it breaks. and on the finale you can use the jesus room and still get it
January 9, 2009 at 3:42 pm
Sacred Prodigy
Thanks, I had no idea about the Tank doesn’t stack fire and weapon damage. I’ve tryed multiple times to get my teamates to concentrate fire on the tank to bring it down and my team has died multiple times trying to gun it down. One question though, on all your attempts for each finale, roughly how many times did you have to restart?
January 12, 2009 at 10:00 am
espion4ge
Sacred Prodigy, from what I remember, here were our “restart counts” on the finales:
Dead Air: maybe like 2-3
Death Toll: 4-5 (but this is not counting the dozens of times we played it on easy until we got the Untouchables achievement. we used the same Dock holdout strategy there as we used for Untouchables)
No Mercy: 5-10
Blood Harvest: 10-15 – hardest one for us since we had the least experience on it. plus, we often found ourselves there without any gasoline tanks or molotovs until we decided to start carrying a gas tank there from the start.
January 10, 2009 at 1:08 am
jesse
For J4RED-
I agree with you about using the glitch and not being a real gamer, but i have played through two campaigns all the way through to the end and have made it to the finale and usually to the second tank, i have yet to finish them though, so when i am crunched for time and don’t have two hours to spare my friends are helpful in loading the glitch up for me knowing that i am capable of holding my own all the way through an expert campaign. Also on a second note for people still trying to get through Blood harvest on expert i have stumble across a vid on youtube, i can explain it but you can watch for yourselves. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4Q64yXjP-A
January 11, 2009 at 8:07 am
jesse
Just leaving a post that I am 3/4 of the way through with “What are you trying to prove” still need Blood Harvest if anyone is up for it my gamer tag is “jessdrop” hit me up anytime.
January 17, 2009 at 9:13 am
jesse
beat it, blood harvest, single player, expert, no joke. saw a vid on youtube and it worked fine. now by now you should all know that setting a tank on fire makes it run faster, i have tested it and it is true, so what you wanna do is use explosives only set them on the floor in the bedroom above the living room, you and your AI or 3 friends all stand on the roof of the front of the house, if your looking at the house make sure you only bust out the boards on the window to the left stand in front of that window so you can see both into the room and directly to your left, these are the only areas horde will come at you from, if using 4 people place two in front of the window and two facing the barn, DO NOT stand by the chimney. fight the horde till its time for the tank, then move over to the right side of the house watch out for smokers you have to be quick to shoot them if they grab you. the tank will jump up on the tiny ledge by the kids room and get stuck, shoot him with 2 full clips of the autoshotty and he’s done, repeat for the 2nd wave/tank, wait for the APC to pull up, don’t get down until the door is open, depending on how many AI you have left will depend on how easy you get into the APC
January 20, 2009 at 10:24 am
Jtee
Another way to beat Dead Airs finale, is if you go to the back of the level where the plane crashes. theres a caution tape that you crouch against with your back to it. and the infected come from the far right the middle where the fire is, and your far left (often looking like its form behind).
When its time for the tank run up to the airplane that you escape on and you crouch in the middle. (make sure you stay in the middle or the tank will raun around the plane). The tank will glitch and try to attack you through the plane, just shoot him from under it. repeat for 2nd tank.
Then just stay at the plane after you kill the second tank and voila. you should have it beat.
January 21, 2009 at 7:21 pm
SonOfaButcher
Hey I have found a couple of little glitches that are especially useful on expert. The big ones I know of are on No Mercy. The first one is on the second chapter. When you get to the lift, don’t bother using the lift, go to the door in the opposite corner and use the shove attack on the doors, aim towards the sides of the door or it won’t do anything. The next one is on the rooftop finale. Try not to kill all the infected and get on the rooftop in between the heli pad and the radio building. Stand on the roof above the stairs that lead to a door you can’t open. Let the infected crawl up at you and push them off before they get up. They will break down the door. Call in the radio and get in that room and turn off your flashlight. The infected won’t even go in the room and the tanks will eventually disappear. Have a couple pipe bombs ready for when the heli comes, trow them and run! I guess its kind of cheating but it sure is a lot less frustrating.
Thanks for all your tips!
January 21, 2009 at 9:21 pm
Me
on Deathtoll finale there is a rock on the farthest side away from the boathouse if you have good health you can get on that rock there is plenty of open spaces around it and the infected need to climb up onto the rock when tank comes light it on fire and run around the open space until it dies
January 22, 2009 at 10:03 am
espion4ge
thanks for more of the tips guys. looks like at this rate people checking out the article may find more tips in the comments than in the actual piece I wrote!
January 24, 2009 at 11:06 pm
Anonymous
your comments about the hunting rifle seem wrong, maybe you havn’t used it enough. it easily out dmgs any other weapon and even at close range it’s very very good. you may have it confused with sniper rifles from other games. i have played many times through on expert with all 4 players using the hunting rifle to amazing results. we can generally kill the tanks without running before they even get within melee range of us. everytime i’ve beaten dead air and no mercy it’s been with either 3 hunting rifles and a shotgun or 4 hunting rifles straight up.
February 19, 2009 at 4:50 pm
hes
in the rocks in the finale of death toll when i tried staying there, i didn’t even see the tank come out. NO tank came out. the music started playing for the tank and in 5 seconds it faded away.
February 19, 2009 at 5:15 pm
espion4ge
hes – sometimes you just get lucky when the tank gets caught somewhere and can’t get to you so he simply despawns =)
March 3, 2009 at 8:59 am
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April 2, 2009 at 1:56 am
Labrom
I beat the entire No mercy campaign on expert but diddent get the acheivement. my buddy did though.. I think its beacause i diddent make it to the chopper and he did.. correct me if im wrong
April 2, 2009 at 8:21 am
cmfl3x
Labrom – Yea, that’s why you didn’t get it. However, even if you die it counts towards the “What are you trying to prove?” achievement (beating all 4 campaigns on expert). As long as you survive one of those 4 you’ll get both achievements.
April 29, 2009 at 7:40 pm
Left 4 Dead-campigan on EXPERT-help (: - Xbox 360 Forum
[…] don’t understand some basic things about the game on expert, which I think are all addressed here: Left 4 Dead – Tips for Surviving Expert difficulty Leveling Down Most important of which should be the most obvious things like that it will take 3 hours or so and […]
May 31, 2009 at 11:02 pm
Jacky
Is it best if I do the expert campaigns with friends then with random people online? I could plan before hand with each of my friends who volunteers.
June 1, 2009 at 9:57 am
cmfl3x
I think Left 4 Dead is always better with friends, with random people you can’t predict whether you can find teammates you can trust. Plus teams that play together get better over time.
June 27, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Ashton
I’ve hidden out on the rooftop on the blood harvet finale. I got leverage of jumping off right when the truck comes. And it isn’t such a bad idea to holdout in the barn across from the house – you can just jump out the window right in back of the truck. And if you do manage to get a pipe bomb, it’ll be wise to throw it right when the truck’s back door opens up. That will give you enough time to get on without being stuck in the middle of a horde.
June 30, 2009 at 8:59 pm
Jeremy
When you get pounced by a hunter, you’re invincible to friendly fire, even for about a second and a half after it’s off of you. However, if you’ve been nabbed by a smoker, you’re only friendly-fire resistant when it physically grabs you with its arms.
I’ve seen people die when teammates searched for a smoker that has grabbed them, not thinking to melee the ensnared guy and free him. The use of the melee can not be overstated.
Also, don’t play with AIs at any point during the expert campaign. You will die. The AIs are built to survive easy, normal, and possibly advanced. They are ill-suited for expert, as they will place themselves at positions easily accessible by infected, they will heal you if your health is any point below 40 (wasting a medkit), and will NEVER pick up pipe bombs or molotov cocktails, let alone use them. They also can’t listen to you, and only work as a team among themselves. Communication is essential for Expert and AIs don’t have that.
If you encounter a tank, try and get back to the safe room. Even sacrifice a teammate if you have to. If you can get most of your team back to the safe room and at least one person crouching in front of the door, you’ll be fine. The tank won’t be able to come in due to the crouching guy, and you can auto-shotty his face all you want.
Pipe bombs aren’t all bad. They’re very useful for riding out a boomer attack, and they’re great time-savers for clearing out the stray infected when you go to a new area. Time is essential on expert, as every two minutes a horde will spawn and attack you. You can’t spend that time making sure the path is clear, so a pipe-bomb is almost essential.
If you ever need to make a dash for a choke-point, eat a pill and melee away any stray zombies in your way. When you get to the choke point, continue meleeing the zombies that followed you until the die of blunt-force trauma.
That’s pretty much all the advice I have now.
June 30, 2009 at 9:18 pm
Blood Harvest
FINALES, in order of easiest to hardest:
Death Toll – Get on the Rock to the far right (if you’re facing the dock). The Tank can get stuck trying to get up, and it’s an excellent choke point. You can look elsewhere for strategies on getting on the Rock. Have at least one person with each weapon. The shotgun can pick out the infected trying to get up easier, and is good if the Tank gets too close, and the hunting rifle can thin the horde before any other player sees them, and can weaken the Tank before it gets to the survivors. The assault rifle is essential, because it’s fairly good at both of these. Try and use pistols to full advantage, too. A dual-pistol shower close-to-medium range is devastating to the horde.
Dead Air – If you go up on the hill or in the closet, the Infected are easy to fend off (Special infected are easier on the hill, but the closet only has one opening). Both have wide-open spaces for the Tank. Just watch out for his super-accurate cement throw. Try and shoot the block out of the air (it’s possible).
Blood Harvest – Suprisingly, this one is easier than you expect if you hold out in the second story of the barn. There is only one place where Smokers/Boomers perch, and that is right on the top of the ladder. Infected mostly come from the small hole in the wall (the large hole is free, for some reason, even from Tanks and Smokers). Go out the large hole when fighting the Tanks, going back upstairs after killing the first one.
No Mercy – Hardest finale. There’s no great strategy for doing this (they fixed the Jesus Room glitch). The best way is to get in the stairway and have two people (one with Auto-shotty and one with assault rifle) on each door. Boomers make it tough, but with teamwork Smokers and Hunters should be a breeze. Only difficulty is getting to the chopper, so save a pipe bomb or two. Remember, only throw it when you can actually see the horde coming within range of an assault rifle. People often throw them too early.
June 30, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Witch Hunter
With the witch, you can easily sneak by her, even through a small hallway, if you hold down shift while moving. You’ll walk silently and disturb her less. It may take longer, and run your nerves a bit, but it’s worth it.
On Expert, don’t try and impress your friends. Crownd is an achievement for Easy difficulty. If you screw up even a tiny bit on Expert, miss her head with just one bullet out of the burst, you will die a horrible and painful death.
July 3, 2009 at 10:42 pm
Tank Dropper
Yo espion4ge thanks man, sadly i beat every campaign on expert and i know for a fact i did….but one of them didnt count….really dissappointing. The bad part now is that i dont remember which one it is XD lol. neways thanks for the great tips and for Mr/s. Blood Harvest….i played 2 days ago and the jesus room still worked….i had 3 friends bashing the door while i covered the stairway….took about 15-20 seconds and a bit of damage but it still is there =)
P.S.
I know how many are saying you have to go fast fast fast through the expert campaign but ive been playing alot lately and have come to the conclusion that taking your time is alot more effective…..At the end of most areas (excluding a tank with horrible timing) ive been able to reach the saferoom with my entire team at most missing one member.
July 15, 2009 at 3:47 am
I Chaosweaver I
Wow, I really never would have thought about some of these tips. Great job espion4ge, kudos to you my friend. By the way, I would love to do the expert campaigns some time, my gamertag is I Chaosweaver I as you see above. Once again, excellent tips.
July 15, 2009 at 7:57 am
espion4ge
cool thanks for the kind words! i dunno if i ever have time these days to get through an entire campaign on expert, but we can hope.
July 25, 2009 at 3:22 am
I Chaosweaver I
Lol, that’s cool anyways. Yes one can hope, because I’m having trouble finding a group that is actually good at this.
August 23, 2009 at 7:43 pm
Left 4 gamer
Thank you for the tips. With these strategies, beating Left 4 dead on Expert will be easy even with computers. Unfortunately, my Left 4 dead game has experienced the ring of death. although, with all hope, I will acquire a new one soon.
September 6, 2009 at 7:58 pm
I Chaosweaver I
All I know for sure to get Untouchables, DO NOT USE THE JESUS ROOM! It will fail, because all of the special infected wait outside for you, then there is a 1/1000 chance you won’t take damage getting to the chopper. It’s okay for beating it on expert, though.
September 1, 2011 at 2:55 pm
maxsword9
thanks this realy realy helped but it sucks for me cause i do not have good internet conection so i have to play with bots wich get powned by the thank pretty much always. got some tips for that?
February 28, 2014 at 9:35 pm
Anonymous
What if i dont have x box live
January 11, 2016 at 2:37 pm
BlooDLotuS
Replaying a bit of L4D1, is solo (AI only) on Expert possible? Or should I just give up my endeavor, beating a finale with bots seems impossible.
March 17, 2022 at 3:35 am
Anonymous
Thanks man. Needed this for some help tonight. Was reading the rest of your blog after this, wonder what you’re up to a whole 13 years in the future? It’s’ been a while.