The Long Guide to Killing Floor 2 (OUTDATED)

This guide will aim to give you a broad understanding of all Killing Floor 2 mechanics as of Early Access. It will also address a lot of things not touched upon by class guides like team tactics and map movement

Introduction to Zed Killing

Welcome to the Long Guide to Killing Floor 2. In this guide, I'll attempt to run through all gameplay basics and get you ready to tackle the harder difficulties and handle lower difficulties more easily

This guide will be cut into multiple categories to allow you to quickly navigate through it. However, I would recommend at least giving a quick look to all categories. I will also try to keep "gameplay basics" out of the perk categories, even if they fit (thus melee basics will be covered in the Basic Combat section, and advanced melee techniques will be covered in Advanced Combat)

Note that a full game on Normal (6 players) should be relatively easy to tackle even if you are Level 0 in all perks, however any other difficulty will require either a large investment in perks (a Level 0 Support lacks the punch of a Level 10 Support) or significant teamwork and individual skill

A final thing, this guide is very long-winded (although I avoid dumping statistics, because I do not believe it helps anyone get better at the game and is only useful for extremely advanced fine-tuning) and it does not have images, no, seriously. I have done my absolute best to format this guide to quickly highlight things of interest, there's a copious amount of lists to quickly organize important points and you won't have to chew through paragraphs dozens and dozens of lines long with terrible punctuation to boot. I swear.

With this in mind, let's begin and cover some of the more "miscellaneous" topics, but still critical ones to grasp to fight at top efficiency (or if you prefer, to not fight with peashooters at Wave 4)

Leg It - Movement Basics

Moving around. What more can there be about it than swinging your legs in one particular direction and hoping you aren't stopped by a wall, or a raging Fleshpound ? Not much really, unless you want to put all odds on your side.

We will keep to the bare minimum. I won't teach you what key you need to hit to go backwards, but we'll keep more complicated stuff like kiting for the advanced section (along with all the more strategic thought. Just running works at a basic level). First of all, a few important things :

• You are not on the moon (unlike the zeds at least). Jumping will allow you to barely clear some overhangs and mount on cars, and that's about it. It will also not give you any significant speed boost. Don't jump unless you are dodging something or trying to clear an obstacle.
  
• You can sprint in all directions and cannot sprint while reloading, firing or performing actions. The later shouldn't be a surprise, but the former is extremely important. If you wish to put as much distance between you and something else as possible while keeping them in view, start walking backwards and sprint, it will work ! This also works while strafing.
  
• Stay mobile unless you are taking a shot. You aren't a turret, every second you aren't moving is a second the specimens are moving on you. Obviously, stopping to take a shot is a very good idea, but if you aren't doing anything learn to do some idle movement.
  
• You cannot outrun everything. A precise list of things you can't reliably outrun will be in the Zeds section, but if something is rushing at you, you should turn around, back up and start firing as precisely as you can manage while on the move. Dropping everything and legging it only works when done correctly.
  
• Teammates and trash specimens will seriously hinder your mobility. Teammates can get in your way, and you can get in the way of teammates. If the only way you can move is by moving towards the specimens, it's time to open the chat window and leave a notice to your team. As for trash specimens (and specimens in general), they will cause you problems. Also important to know, Clot, Cysts and Slashers will latch on you when they get in melee range and block you until you stagger them. Don't let that happen !

With all of this in mind, let's review how to move around. You can stand still (not recommended unless you are waiting for the zeds or taking potshots from a safe location), move towards the zeds (recommended if you have a close range weapon, otherwise a trade-off between damage output and risk of being damaged), strafe (useful to line up your shots and circle around a zed group, especially if you are getting surrounded) or move away from the zeds (recommended if you are getting overwhelmed, if you are dying or if a boss zed is moving on you and you can't deal with it currently)

Sprinting gives a fair mobility boost, but the obvious trade-off is that you cannot reload or fire (thus, whenever you stop sprinting you will have to deal with whatever is currently in your face with the weapon you had when you started sprinting, including their current ammo counts). Don't sprint if you have nowhere to go, moving backwards allows you to pop heads and reload, sprinting backwards doesn't.

To close this section (using the map to your advantage and using movement tactics will be covered in the advanced section of the guide), remember that walking or sprinting in any direction but forwards allows you to shoot at things while putting distance between you and them, but does not allow you to see what you are moving towards. Obviously, you don't want to run into a wall, but you certainly don't want to back up into a Fleshpound either. Backing up is not a lasting strategy and will literally bite you in the ass if done incorrectly.

Blood And Cash - Combat and Money Basics

Moving is one thing, but the specimens are restless, and only bullets (or blades) will put them to rest. With that in mind, it's important to know how to use your weaponry. You likely have already found the trigger and the sights by now, but if you want to use your weapon optimally, you should bother with a few more things :

• Make every bullet count. Ammo pools are fairly generous, money will be plenty if you are careful (although you'll want to put every last pound on your side, especially in early waves) and spare ammo is laying almost everywhere, but when you need to reload, you need to reload. That bullet spray you just wasted on a single Clot could have been used to headcap the three Gorefasts that are currently busy turning you into cutlets.
  
• You're not going to be killing anything with zero bullets left in your magazine, learn to time your reloads. Do not reload if you are facing dangerous enemies, but reload if you are facing enemies you can maneuver away from. Do not reload if you are being surrounded or cannot tell if you are being flanked or not, but reload if you are in a lull. Do not reload every time your screen is empty, do a quick check behind you to avoid losing a pocket's worth of blood.
  
• Learn what alt-fire does with your weapon. Alt-fire is the button that is neither fire nor aiming down your sights (and isn't the weapon bash button, but this will be covered in the advanced section). It's important for all classes, and critical for the Support and Berserker classes. Usually, it will change fire-rate on all automatic weapons, trigger your block with melee weapons and trigger an alternative attack on single-shot or special weapons.
  
• Not all guns have flashlights and it runs on a battery when actively held. Tips on how to properly deal with darkness will be given in the advanced sections of this guide, but trying to toggle your flashlight on a weapon not mounted with one will switch you to one that has a flashlight (generally your pistol, or in some cases your starting weapon). I would recommend enabling the flashlight on your pistol for quick, vital enemy highlighting and moving on with your primary. Worthy of notice, your team can also see your flashlight, so light the way !
  
• Your sights are vital for precision shooting. On a whim firing from the hip works wonders (and is obviously recommended with weapons that do not benefit from precision like shotguns or fully automatic weapons), but when you really need to zero in your shots, the sights beat everything else. Basic guns have iron sights, and high-tier guns will likely be mounted with Reflex sights or even scopes. Do not rely too much on the crosshairs, turn them off and learn to guess where your shots converge, you won't always have them.
  
• Your weapons have a lot of kick, don't be trigger-happy. We're not just talking vertical recoil, holding down the trigger will send your gun flying in all directions. If you aren't being mobbed and your enemy is more than five meters from you, single shots and controlled bursts beat holding down the trigger at all times. Remember to set the fire-rate of your weapon to your liking, especially on burst weapons.

I will not be doing very thorough economics, but as far as money goes, here's a few basics :

• You get money for the following : Joining late (fairly lackluster, but enough to stay in the race), killing zeds (depends on difficulty and type of zeds), healing teammates and at round end (shared). You also get experience for killing zeds (all classes), killing certain zeds in certain ways (Berserker and Commando), welding doors (Support) or healing teammates (Medic)
  
• All starters weapons are currently worth 100 pounds and a full armor is 300 pounds. Selling your starter weapon will give you barely anything, and armor is expensive, especially if you are getting a new pair. Other guns cost the same to everyone (unlike Killing Floor 1) and sell at a fair loss (you lose 25 % of the gun's value when selling). Ammo is currently not very costly, but wasting all your ammo will delay getting the better guns by one or two waves and being very economic might allow you to get your hands on a perfect loadout early.
  
• Once you are fully decked out, or in case of a disaster, lend some money. Use TAB to get an idea of how much money everyone has, and if someone appears to be in a tight spot, give them a cash infusion. This is very important with classes that are cheap to sustain like Berserker (minimal ammo use, more risk and thus more cash) and Medic (less ammo use, doesn't even need to upgrade that much since he picks on trash Zeds most of the time)
  
• The boss wave is the wave where everyone should be decked out. Period. If anyone is short on the best gun they could get, shower them in money. If everyone is short on money, you're going to have a bad time. Once the trading pod closes and the boss spawns in, the money you collected is only useful for bragging rights, so make sure it's been useful before that !

This guide does not cover every single gun in detail. Most perk weapons play alike and will be covered broadly, the Katana can be treated as a basic melee weapon and the Flamethrower will not be covered for the time being (it is obviously intended to be used by the Firebug at a later date). As for more complex melee moves (which are extremely important on higher difficulties levels and critical at all times for the Berserker), you should check out the Advanced Combat section.

All For One - Teamwork Basics

Odds are that your first game will be spent with up to five other armed blokes running around shooting specimens (unless you decide to start out in Solo, no-one will blame you for it). If that is the case, you'll quickly realize that teamwork is fairly important, and that's only on Normal. Every man for himself simply doesn't work on Suicidal difficulty.

Most guides will recommend setting up a group or a clan and using the microphone until you go completely mute, but in public games you can't afford to hope everyone uses a microphone, or even that they'll stick around past the first game. Instead of teaching clan tactics, I will thus teach how to handle pub teams and have them work with you. It all boils down to a few things :

• A dead teammate is a waste of money and one less gun, don't let people die ! This counts as much for the person in risk of dying as for anyone in a position to help him. Unless that teammate simply isn't trying at all, you should drop everything to clear the zeds off him and needle him, and if you are a Medic, by all means drop anything you are doing and fire every single healing dart you have towards him (along with bullets if he's getting swarmed) to keep him alive. In a pinch, a healing grenade can save lives too.
  
• The above also counts if you are the teammate in risk of dying. You aren't Rambo, if you stray from your team and aren't ready to take the heat, you're good as dead. If a boss zed is aggroed on you, it isn't all your fault (although you should at least heal yourself, empty your gun in the boss zed and retreat), but if you go down a hallway to search for ammo and get mobbed, it's all on you.
  
• Use a basic setup when covering your teammates. You don't need five people pouring fire into a doorway (unless multiple Fleshpounds are about to come raging down that doorway, or there really is some serious ♥♥♥♥ going down), have at least one teammate at every entrance (manholes and drops count as entrances as they certainly are for zeds) and all the remaining teammates supporting (usually the Medic)
  
• Don't block your teammates and don't try to steal kills. Assists exist and are perfectly balanced, don't pick on trash zeds just for the experience and money if another teammate has them pinned down (especially as a Support or Berserker, the Commando should be the one cleaning up, not the Support with the AA12 when a Fleshpound is inbound). As for blocking, just don't stand in the way. If people are trying to go through a doorway, move it, if there's zeds on the other side, either get others to back up or slip forwards and let them take the heat.
  
• Call out serious threats, even if you don't have a mic. You don't need to write an expose for your teammates, a few shorthands will allow competent teammates to react before the serious threat in question is right up in your face. "FP" means a Fleshpound is coming, "SC" means a Scrake is coming, "Help" means either someone tried to solo it or an entrance is being flooded, "Run" means you are in trouble, "Need Cash" means someone is short and it's time to rebind and use that "Drop Money" key you selfish prick (Hit Tab to see everyone's cash levels). If you have spare time between rounds, discuss some strategy and make sure everyone is updated on the situation.
  
• Have even the most basic thought about where to set up. Don't waste time at the Trader and make sure everyone is together at the next holdout point before the slaughter begins. Having to fight through the beginning of the wave just to get to the correct spot is a bad idea, and leaving people behind or scattering will end badly on higher difficulties.

Every teammate counts. Everyone should be taking their share of zeds, you won't be able to take on hundreds of zeds at once by yourself you big damn hero.

Folded a Thousand Times - The Berserker Perk

Welcome to the first perk section. The Berserker is specialized in melee weaponry (although he has two perk weapons with ranged capability) and all of his weapons compliment this ability. If you haven't thought about it by now, this puts him in a dangerous situation. All specimens save for Husks and Hans Volter use melee to kill you, and all specimens will do some serious hurt in melee range. Thus, you will need some decent game knowledge to pull through.

The Berserker gets the following perk bonuses as he levels up :

• + 1 % Melee Damage per level (+ 25 % Melee Damage at Level 25)
  
• + 5 % Attack Speed and + 0.8 % per level (+ 25 % Attack Speed at Level 25)
  
• + 10 % Movement Speed and + 0.6 % per level (+ 25 % Movement Speed at Level 25)
  
• + 25 % Damage Resistance to Bloat Bile (not affected by level)
  
• + 5 % Resistance to all Damage (not affected by level)
  
• + 25 % Damage Resistance to Siren Screams (not affected by level)

The Berserker gets to choose between the following abilities :

• Level 5 : Bulk Ammo (20 % extra starting ammo for Berserker perk weaponry, only useful for weapons that use ammo and are assigned to the Berserker) or Night Vision (Allows you to see perfectly even in complete darkness, making you more flexible)
  
• Level 10 : Frenzy (Increase in melee damage for every 15 % of your health lost, significant risk-reward trade-off) or Fake Out (You cannot be grabbed, giving you more breathing room when engaging trash zeds)
  
• Level 15 : Furious Defender (+ 5 % chance to stumble specimens on hit for every 15 % of your health lost, capped at + 25 % after losing 75 % of your health, again a risk-reward trade-off) or Formidable (Specimens you hit with melee weapons deal 15 % less attack damage, very useful to reduce overall damage)
  
• Level 20 : Take Cover (15 % increase in Movement Speed when your health is under 20 % of maximum health, useful when you are running to the maximum of Frenzy and Furious Defender and are now in a tight spot) or Intimidate (10 % of light (primary) attacks deal double damage and 15 % of hard attacks (alternative) are more likely to knock down zeds, very useful to clean powerful zeds and pick targets)
  
• Level 25 : Menace (While in ZED Time, + 30 % Attack Speed with melee weapons, + 15 % Stun Chance with melee weapons, + 25 % Resistance to Bloat Bile and Siren Screams for nearby crew members) or Attack Strenght (While in ZED Time, + 20 % Weapon Damage, + 10 % Max Health, alternative melee attacks cause massive knockback for zeds)

The left branch of the tree specializes on increasing the Berserker's ability to take the bulk of the zeds head-on. It gives him extra ammo for his perk's ranged abilities (needles and saw blades), making him do better when he's damaged and giving him an escape plan when near death.

The right branch of the tree specializes on increasing the Berkserker's ability to take on dangerous zeds and pick targets. He can see in the dark to easily acquire important targets, cannot be bothered by trash zeds as he can't be grabbed, weakens the zeds he hits, which is important for boss zeds, and is able to deal more damage and knock down his targets consistently.

A few hints for Berserker players :

• Single trash specimens aren't your job to pick. Ignore them until there's a bunch of them (you can line up melee swings to cut multiple heads at once). Boss zeds are your job if you specialized in the right hand of the tree, and zed mobs are your job if you specialized in the left hand of the tree. Oh, and you will learn to hate Crawlers with a burning passion.
  
• Learn to block and parry, especially against boss zeds. Check out the Advanced Combat section to know how it is done, but let's get it straight. You will not last a single wave on harder difficulties if you just run in swinging like a madman and hope you won't be hit too hard.
  
• Remember you can perform combos and alternative attacks. Every direction has a primary combo with up to three consecutive hits when holding down (forwards is best to hack up single targets, strafing slashes in a way perfect to remove some heads and backwards is good if a dangerous zed is all up in your face). Alternative attacks deal more damage and can trigger passive abilities.
  
• Get a Medic and some armor on you. Even with 25 % resistance to attacks that would be otherwise devastating to you (Bloat Bile and Siren Screams), 5 % resistance to everything and skillful parrying, you will need a little topping every once in a while. As for armor, it will give you a breather, but don't believe it will make you invincible, it won't, it will merely make you last longer.
  
• Stay on the move and dodge. You are the only class with a reasonable ability to outrun specimens and perform flanking maneuvers. This counts double for Husks and Hans Volter, and helps against Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Circle them, they can miss, and they will miss if you put some heart into it.
  
• Don't spit on your perk's ranged weapons. You can either get the Eviscerator (and sadly only it, it's that heavy) or the Pulverizer with the Nailgun to use against trash zeds. Sometimes it's helpful to thin the crowd before running in with your big blade, saw, hammer or other.

Taking Out The Trash - The Commando Perk

The Commando perk shines in its ability to wield automatic weaponry, which itself is best suited in taking on trash zeds. Yes, your job is to clear the small enemies. It's not a bad job however, and you need to do it. Resist the urge to empty that Bullup into a Scrake's chest unless you are in a hurry to figure out what he uses those chainsaws for.

The Commando gets the following perk bonuses as he levels up :

• + 1 % Weapon Damage per level (+ 25 % at Level 25)
  
• Detect cloaked enemies from + 2 meters per level (50 meters at Level 25)
  
• Detect all specimen's health from + 2 meters per level (50 meters at Level 25)
  
• Extend Zed Times you trigger by 1 second + 1 second per 5 levels (+ 6 seconds at Level 25)
  
• + 2 % Max Health per level (+ 50 % Max Health at Level 25)

The Commando gets to choose between the following abilities :

• Level 5 : Night Vision (Allows you to see perfectly in the dark, useful to pick trash zeds in dark areas) or Call Out (Your ability to see cloaked enemies is shared will all nearby teammates, niche but still extremely useful as it makes Stalkers a non-problem at higher levels)
  
• Level 10 : Large Mags (Your Commando weapon magazine size is increased by 50 %. Very, very helpul, 30 bullets in the AR-15 or the SCAR, 45 bullets in the AK, etc.) or Backup (Your pistol and knife deal + 40 % damage. Packs a serious punch and makes those weapons actually useful when your primary is dry)
  
• Level 15 : Single Fire (When fire-rate is on single on Commando weapons, + 20 % damage. Marginally useful for precision shooting, not applicable for the AK, fire-rate must be set to single) or Tactical Reload (Reload all your perk weapons faster, with a pro animation to boost. Useful when your magazine ends up dry)
  
• Level 20 : Impact (+ 30 % chance to stumble zeds with all perk weapons) or Autofire (When fire-rate is on automatic or burst on Commando weapons, + 20 % damage. Works with all weapons, rewards bursts even though using it with single shots is possible, fire-rate must be set to automatic or burst)
  
• Level 25 : Rapid Fire (While in ZED Time, deal + 3 % damage with perk weapons and fire 3 times faster with all weapons) or Professional (While in ZED Time, reload and switch all weapons twice as fast)

The left branch of the tree specializes on turning the Commando into a force of his lonesome (or a real commando, if one may say so). You can handle yourself in the dark, your magazines are larger, you get rewarded for picking your targets with single fire and you are able to disable large targets more easily with stumbling and stopping power

The right branch of the tree specializes on turning the Commando into the perfect trash clearer. You let your allies see cloaked enemies when they are nearby, negating the Stalker's main strength, can switch to pistols and even knives to keep picking trash zeds efficiently if your primary is dry, reload faster to constantly keep pressure on the trash zeds, get rewarded for just firing into groups with the trigger jammed down until everyone drops and end up reloading and switching at lighting speed to quickly mow down groups

A few hints for Commando players :

• In case you didn't get it by now, you pick trash zeds and nothing else. The only time you should be shooting boss zeds (also known as Scrakes, Fleshpounds and naturally the bosses such as Hans Volter) is when they are raging and the whole team is pouring on them, and when you wouldn't benefit the team by continuing to pick trash zeds. And those Crawlers, they better be on the top of your hit list, your high-tier weapons kills them in one bodyshot.
  
• The only time you shoud consider shooting a calm Scrake is to carefully put him down just above half health if you can see his health bar. Then, a teammate gets up in his face and finishes the job for you while you pick the trash zeds around the group to make sure people picking the boss zeds don't get blocked, grabbed or swarmed in general.
  
• If you picked an ability that triggers with fire-rate, use it. The automatic and burst one is basically automatic, but the single fire one needs you to correctly set your weapon. If you don't, you are wasting an ability. And no, you can't set the AK on single fire for some reason, either skip the tier or forfeit the + 20 % damage.
  
• You are not a Sharpshooter, but at least try to aim for the head. Your guns are suited for medium range, so stand behind the group and headcap trash zeds. This clears up the field of view and is an ammo-efficient way of clearing groups if you can aim (it is also extremely important for stronger trash zeds like Husks, Bloats or Sirens). However, don't go out of your way to get headshots. This isn't Call of Duty or Battlefield, if you have to empty your magazine in a bunch of rushing trash zeds to avoid being swarmed, do it and back up.
  
• Keep your weapons firing. Your two stronger rifles have a total ammo capacity of 300 rounds, that's a lot of rounds. This is why you are assigned to pick trash zeds, shotgun shells and saw blades are costly, rifle ammo isn't. Don't ever think about ammo conservation, if it moves and it isn't a Scrake or Fleshpound (that isn't raging, that is), light it up. Do make sure you are managing your reloads correctly though.
  
• Don't let the rifles get to your head. You aren't a superhero, and while you get a boost to health, you aren't actually outfitted to run away and fight on your own. You'll let your team be swarmed with trash zeds and get murdered by a Scrake or a Fleshpound in some maintenance closet on the other side of the map.
  
• Some of your perks and abilties work with all weapons. You should be using assault rifles, but if you really want to use a medic rifle or an AA12, all the power to you.

Double Penetration - The Support Guide

The Support is the person in charge of supporting the team, no, seriously. He also acts as both an Engineer and a Boss Killer at times. He is, in fact, currently one of the most competent teammates to take on boss zeds head-on (along with very skilled Berserkers). Eventually, his shotgun allows him to stay versatile in all situations, either clearing bosses with a well-placed magazine dump or using a single shoot to clear off an entire group of trash zeds.

The Support gets the following perk bonuses as he levels up :

• + 2 % Welding Profficiency per level (+ 50 % Welding Profficiency at Level 25)
  
• + 1 % Shotgun Damage per level (+ 25 % Shotgun Damage at Level 25)
  
• + 25 % Shotgun Penetration per level (+ 625 % Shotgun Penetration at Level 25)
  
• + 2 % Grenade Damage per level (+ 50 % Grenade Damage at Level 25)

The Support gets to choose between the following abilities :

• Level 5 : Ammo (Increases both your starting and total ammo capacity by 20 %. Support weapons are prone to running dry, especially the AA12, this helps to prevent that) or Supplier (All players can grab one ammo pack each from you per round. This does not affect your own ammo, you're literally carrying a spare pack on your back. Helps your teammates not run dry. Ammo is a plentiful drop, but sometimes you can't afford to look for it)
  
• Level 10 : Fortitude (+ 50 % Maximum Health. Equivalent to the boost to a Level 25 Commando. Significant boost, needlessly to say) or Regeneration (Your health regenerates. Useful if your Medic is lazy or you are on your own, useless or even counterproductive if you have a dedicated Medic)
  
• Level 15 : Bombard (+ 15 % chance to stumble zeds with your perk weapons, makes sure what isn't killed by your shotguns is out of the fight for a bit) or Tactical Reload (Reload all your perk weaons quicker with a pro animation to boot. Support weapons have the longest reload times ingame, especially if reloaded from a dry clip. The AA12 uses a magazine but it burns through ammo easily)
  
• Level 20 : Strength (+ 5 Carry Capacity. This basically allows you to use much more advanced shotgun combos for harder waves or the boss, very useful) or Tenacity (+ 10 % Damage with all perk weapons, allows you to hit harder with what you have)
  
• Level 25 : Safeguard (While in ZED Time, you and your nearby allies get + 5 % bonus armor. Acts as a cheap shield to make sure you don't get a scratch, although the Medic already gets to boost player's armor, so this is a pretty bad pick) or Barrage (While in ZED Time, + 15 % Damage for you and your nearby allies. This ensures any zed caught in the ZED TIme will come out of it deader than dead, or for the boss zeds almost done)

The left branch of the tree specializes the Support in standing power. The zeds are up against the wall, and you are the wall. You get more ammo to put straight into the zed's skulls, get a large boost to your health to keep you fighting, cause the few zeds that survive your buckshot to stumble helplessly while you feed some new shells into your shotgun, get to carry a full arsenal on your person, and when it gets intense, end up shielding everyone behind temporary armor.

The right branch of the tree specializes the Support in team support. You are the Support after all. Lend some fresh magazines to your team when the going gets though, regenerate your own health to let the Field Medic focus on the rest of your team, reload quickly to make sure you never end up in a significant downtime, hit the boss zeds hard with a + 10 % damage boost, and when the time is right, grant yourself and everyone a devastating + 15 % damage boost to easily chew through the entire wave.

A few tips for Support players :

• Unless you are Level 0, you have no excuse for not lining up your shots on trash zeds. Shotguns have a significant range, and while one pellet won't do miracles, you can bag a significant amount of zeds in one shot, even if they aren't in one ultra-tight group. See that swarm of Clots ? All gone in one well-placed shot, the Demolitionist would be proud. 625 % Penetration is more than enough to burn through anything the game throws at you, two times over.
  
• You can alt-fire your sawn-off to clear both barrels. If you are facing a strong trash zed (Husk or Siren), run up to them and fire both barrels. The trash zed is now gone.
  
• Automatic shotguns are an upgrade to the pump-action one. While they do the same damage as the pump-action one, and in the case of the automatic shotgun have 2 less shells in the magazine, they can clear a swarm in a second where a pump-action would take multiple seconds and as much clear hits from the Zeds.
  
• The AA-12 is super-efficient at killing boss zeds. If you can get a competent Commando to whittle down a Scrake to half health, aim at its head and open fire, and he'll be gone. Fleshpounds have more health and are much harder to control, but they are rare, just expect to spend a lot of ammo on them.
  
• You should be the one welding doors and thinning groups. Weld doors to funnel the zeds and use your grenades and penetrative shots to clear all the trash zeds around the real boss zeds. In a pickle, you are perfectly able to shoot through a Scrake to clear the Siren behind him, while damaging both.
  
• Do not underestimate the automatic shotgun and double-barrel combo, especially if you did not pick the Strength ability. Empty the automatic into a boss, and finish off with both barrels, or pick the trash carefully with single shots from the automatic and pick the tougher meat like Sirens and Husks with both barrels.

A Little Prick - The Field Medic Guide

Ah, the Field Medic. The hero of the team, he heals those who are busy fighting. But unlike other games, he also fights, a lot. That's why they call him a Field Medic. At the end of the day, he's as good at giving death than he is at preventing it. And when his teammates are healthy, he's far from useless.

The Field Medic gets the following perk bonuses as he levels up :

• + 8 % Syringe Recharge Rate per level (+ 200 % Syringe Recharge Rate at Level 25)
  
• + 2 % Syringe Potency per level (+ 50 % Syringe Potency at Level 25)
  
• + 3 % Bloat Bile Resistance per level (+ 75 % Bloat Bile Resistance at Level 25)
  
• + 1 % Movement Speed per level (+ 25 % Movement Speed at Level 25)
  
• + 3 % Armor Bonus per level (+ 75 % Armor Bonus at Level 25)

The Field Medic gets to choose between the following abilities :

• Level 5 : Healing Surge (+ 20 % Max Health. You'll be sticking with your team to heal them, and this helps make sure the heat you take won't be your demise) or Enforcer (+ 20 % ammo capacity for all perk and backup weapons. Sometimes you need to shoot it through, and having lots of spare ammo is critical)
  
• Level 10 : Combatant (Start with free armor and get a 60 % discount on all armor purchases. Extremely strong as armor is costly and your perk bonuses emphasize the active use of armor) or Armament (- 10 % Healing Effectiveness, but + 2 % Armor per heal. You'll be healing less, but instead you will give your teammates free armor for every heal. Pretty strong due to how rare spare armor is, even if it's just a scratch of armor per heal)
  
• Level 15 : Regeneration (Free health regeneration. Sometimes you are so focused on saving lives you forget to save your own, and having a spare Medic is not always a given) or Lacerate (Zeds bleed more for every hit with perk weapons. Since Medic weapons generally hit a lot for little damage, this boosts damage output sensibly)
  
• Level 20 : Vaccination (Healing people will give a temporary boost to their max armor and their bloat bile resistance. Helps teammates resist all the hurt and thus helps them stay in the fight longer before they need another heal) or Acidic Compound (You can now use your darts as an offensive weapon and both them and your grenades can cause the zeds to panic, disabling them. Useful against stronger zeds and gives a sensible efficiency boost to the healing grenade's gas cloud, otherwise dubious unless your team is that good at avoiding damage that you are sitting on a mountain of spare needles)
  
• Level 25 : Airborne Agent (While in ZED Time, any healing dart that hits generate a healing cloud akin to your grenades. Allows you to heal all your teammates at once) or Sedative (While in ZED Time, healing darts and healing gas sedates all zeds affected by it, effectively freezing them for the duration of ZED Time. This can effectively save the lives of everyone, especially if aimed at a particularly troublesome boss zed or swarm)

The left branch of the tree specializes the Field Medic to turn him into a dedicated team healer and a potential tanker. You no longer have to care too much for your own safety thanks to a health boost, free starting armor with discounts to get new pairs, regenerative health and the ability to make teammates you heal more resistant to damage and then mass-heal everyone when most needed.

The right branch of the tree specializes the Field Medic to allow him to inflict buffs on teammates and debuffs on enemies as he desires. You have more ammo to spare and a special ability to make zeds bleed their health out when you hit them, you can not only heal your teammates but also buff their armor, you can use your darts and gas grenades offensively to massively debuff the swarms of zeds, and when the time is right a single well-placed sedative dart can turn a dangerous boss into an easy pick.

A few tips for Field Medic players :

• Heal, heal, heal and heal some more. If someone is hurt, it is your duty to save them, not only by sending some healing darts their way, but also by sending some bullets at whatever is hunting them down. If you can heal to buff teammates or give them armor, do so liberally. Your dart recharge is extremely quick, it'll be hard for you to get in downtime
  
• Don't neglect your own safety. Help the Commando pick trash when the big game hunters are safe to make sure you aren't grabbed or mobbed when a missed healing dart can do or undo a round. When you have spare time, use your Auto-Heal bind (which you should really set to an easy key for all classes, try "H") to heal yourself. You heal others, but no-one is going to be healing you (unless you have more than one Medic, which is currently very possible with 4 perks for 6 players)
  
• Prioritize armor over everything else. If you picked the perk that makes you start with a spare set and gives you a discount, you have no excuse, otherwise you have to realize the armor vest is your special health bar. You depend on it, get it up and running quickly. Forego buying a new gun or even spare ammo if you really have to.
  
• Your healing darts home in on teammates. The reticle on all your weapons equipped with healing darts will give a visual and auditive confirmation, this means you no longer have to get sniper precision to heal literally anyone. Note however that it won't aim for you and takes a bit to lock in.
  
• Your gas grenade is the strongest area buff ingame. While no class should neglect their grenade, you have no excuse whatsoever. Drop one in a swarmed doorway and thin the ranks, or drop one in the middle of the group to give everyone a well-needed heal. This is especially interesting during the boss round.
  
• Focus on the Berserker whenever possible. His thing is using his own health pool to tank attacks, and you are the best at healing people. Put two and two together. Stay at a distance and give him a topping while he goes ninja on the zeds.

Money On Legs - The Trash Zeds

Most of the waves thrown at you will be composed of a variety of zeds. These are the weaker ones, they have the same base health and about any weapon applied correctly will quickly mow them down. However, on harder difficulties they start turning into glass cannons, and being unable to dispatch them correctly will lead to your team being swarmed, and a team wipe occuring near instantly.

It's time to meet the zeds !

The Clot :

A tall humanoid, he is one of the three zeds that can latch on you. He is averagely fast and can keep up with a walking human, and gains an ability to sprint towards players when close on harder difficulties.

The best way to deal with them is to pop their heads and let them bleed out. They can be annoying in big groups, but they only pose a threat if ignored (or on harder difficulties, if improperly dealt with). Starts on Wave 1

The Cyst :

The weaker and slower cousin of the Clot. Relatively slow (although he does get faster as difficulty increases), notably lacks eyes and will fall over if he fails to latch on you. This is by a large stretch the best zed to kite and keep alive to farm map drops.

Pop their heads and let them bleed out. Try to keep a handful to extend the wave safely. You need those map drops. Starts on Wave 1

The Slasher :

The weaker but much faster and much more insane cousin of the Clot. He stands out for his ability to close in quickly with a rather menacing trot that will significantly scale in speed with difficulty, moving him from a serious annoyance to a danger on higher difficulties. His weird face should warn you of the fact he's the more dangerous of the three.

Pop their heads before they latch onto you. On higher difficulties, learn to distinguish them and treat them like Gorefasts. Starts on Wave 1

The Gorefast :

A big muscle man with a blade for an arm. What else is there to be said ? He will waddle along with Clots (although he is significantly taller than them, and has a clear red tint) until he's close enough, at which point he will rush towards you until he reaches you or is taken out

When they rush, you will hear their blade rustle and swing. Check your surroundings, a headshot with almost every weapon will easily clear them. They are allowed to spawn in groups of 3 or 4, so keep a good weapon handy if you hear blades swinging. Starts on Wave 1

The Bloat :

A tall and very fat sack of bile. Gets close to people and pukes corrosive bile all over them. Can also cut them up with cleavers in a pinch. Stay away from him, the Bloat Bile is mostly stopped by armor but will blind you for a bit and damage you seriously if you have no armor.

He has a surprising amount of health and will explode into a shower of corrosive and blinding bile if shot to death. Instead, pop his head and let him bleed out. He can shield zeds with his body, but this is a minor annoyance compared to the major annoyance of having your face covered in corrosive bile while you try to figure out where the other zeds are hitting you from. Starts on Wave 1

The Crawler :

This is the crawling bugger everyone hates. Along with Slashers, he will spawn in all sort of crooked places, from manholes to air vents. He's way below chest-level, so you'll have to aim downwards to shoot him unless you catch him coming from a distance. Weak, but a serious distraction, and he will leap at you to get your attention if you ignore him

Do not underestimate them, as they do significant damage, jam up your movement and in dark areas blend in perfectly due to their low stature and dark body. They should be the prime target for trash hunters and make telltale bug noises, keep an ear out for those. Starts on Wave 2 (Long Setting)

The Stalker :

The only enemy that can currently be invisible. They have a very faint shimmering outline at a distance, and only drop their cloak to attack. They can be a dangerous distraction, although they tend to be easy to tell out from the rest of the wave if you look carefully. They are also known for being extremely good at dodging, so try to pick them off before they attack.

If you have a Commando on your team, he will be able to see them from a distance in a red outline, making them very easy to dispatch for him. With the right perks, you'll be able to see all the Stalkers he can see, turning them into nothing more than a Slasher that cannot grab you. Aim for the head while they are running in a straight line towards you instead of dodging your shots. Starts on Wave 2 (Long)

The Siren :

The infamous Siren. Her job is to act as a repellant, and when coupled with more dangerous zeds, or simply thrown into a mob, can easily ruin your day. Her main ability lets her emit an ear-shattering scream, causing the sound to cut out for a bit and damaging your health directly, along with destroying any thrown grenade (do not ever try to use grenades near a Siren, you're wasting them). Worthy to note is that she will become extremely fast on higher difficulties. Think roller skates on Hell on Earth.

Her head is surprisingly resistant, you should thus either aim for the chest if you have a strong weapon, or still aim for the head if you have a precise weapon. Destroying her head will kill her. Starts on Wave 3 (Long Setting)

The Husk :

Stands out for being the only zed that isn't a boss zed (Hans Volter can use ranged weaponry) that is able to attack at a range. He can fire an arm-mounted cannon that causes significant damage, can knock back players and cause afterburn. A nasty piece of work that works terrifyingly well in closed spaces, when you have your back to a wall or when he has the height advantage on you, and works ridiculously badly when you have the height advantage on him, you are in an open area or there is nothing solid behind you. Note that on the highest difficulties levels, he will not hesitate to fire near-perfect shots from any distance, and any close-range combat will quickly be closed with copious and indiscriminate use of a flamethrower. Yes, a flamethrower.

Shoot his head out, do not underestimate his health pool. He's not an urgent pick, but if ignored can put players in a dangerous situation. If shot to low health (the definition of low health moving to slightly damaged when reaching the highest difficulties), he will stop firing and rush up to you, jam his arm-mounted cannon into the ground right next to you and blow himself up. This attack does extreme amounts of damage on higher difficulties, evade it or finish the Husk off. Starts on Wave 4 (Long Setting)

These are all the trash zeds you will have to deal with. You should be careful when dealing with them, they'll win by sheer numbers if you don't prioritize your targets and dispatch efficiently.

Big Game Hunting - The Boss Zeds

Only two specimens can really be called "boss zeds", but they both wear this name for a good reason. Their health scales with difficulty and the number of players in the team (unlike all trash zeds) and their spawning is indicated by a distant but extremely obvious audio cue (at least obvious if you don't have music blaring in your ears)

Whenever one spawns, careful handling will be needed. Just opening fire onto one of them, let alone a group on them on harder difficulties, is the quickest and most efficient way of generating a team wipe. Both can be categorized by having a "calm" and "rage" state, and benefit greatly from strategic handling with tactics like kiting or alpha strikes (basically a fancier way to say "mag dump", just empty everything you have in the boss zed's face)

The Scrake :

The first of the two boss zeds. He's a huge, bulky man with surgery scrubs and a chainsaw for an arm (no, seriously, someone at Horzine thought this was a good idea). Instead of trying to patch up zeds with his chainsaw, he is fond of using it to cut your team up. He can also spawn in numbers, higher difficulties on late waves can yield almost a dozen !

His spawning will be signalled by a distant, deep scream along with a rev-up sound (that would be his chainsaw). Then, he will slowly waddle towards the team. In this state, he goes extremely slowly but will go for a surprinsingly rapid circling chainsaw attack if he comes too close.

The Scrake rages when his health dips under 50 % of his maximum health pool (increases up to 70 % of his maximum health pool on Suicidal). At this point, he will stop waddling and will raise his chainsaw, sprinting at a speed much greater than any player's. When he reaches his target, he will perform a series of chainsaw attacks that will cause a great amount of damage if allowed to go through

The best way to deal with a Scrake is to ignore it when it is not beneficial to pick it off (do not pick off Scrakes until the coast is clear, even Fleshpounds should be picked before Scrakes). Try to avoid getting cornered, kiting it is important, use your pistol to get him on you and lead him away. Then, carefully blast him to about 55 % HP (dedicating a Commando is highly recommended). Once that is done, unite the team around the Scrake and empty the magaazines. He should go down before he can do significant damage. Starts on Wave 5 (Long Setting)

The Fleshpound :

The second boss zed, and the most emblematic. To give you an idea of how nasty he is, he has meat grinders for arms. Welp. He spawns by spinning up his meat grinders and screaming (this can also be heard across the map, and his scream is somewhat deeper than the Scrake)

He's even bulkier than the Scrake and there's a glowing device in his chest, an adrenaline pump. When yellow he is calm, when glowing danger red, he's raging. While he can do damage when calm if allowed to, it's when he is raging that he becomes an indscriminate machine of pure pain.

Unlike the Scrake, it is extremely hard to avoid him raging (he can even rage before you get a visual on him, leading to a nasty rush). He seems to rage at random intervals, or when hit, and will only calm down after a long bit or after getting a hit on someone. Thus, he will do constant and very active damage until put down.

It is highly recommended to immediately fire on him and drop everything else if he comes in raging, as he won't calm down once he has a visual. If he is calm, you have a spare few seconds to clear the trash zeds and reload. Grenades can be a good starter, but focused fire will be needed to bring Fleshpounds down. A tank should also focus on taking the hurt, a Berserker is best as he can parry the Fleshpound's hits, but a Field Medic can do in a pinch if he's in good condition.

Note that there will be dual Fleshpounds even on Solo Normal at Wave 10, and there can be more than one Fleshpound at any given time. Either way, you don't want multiple Fleshounds alive at once, dispatch them quickly before they become a serious danger. Starts at Wave 7 (Long Setting)

Let's Try Some Gas - Hans Volter

Hans Volter is a 100-year old Nazi, sustaining himself on Horzine technology, and very fond of grenades, gas grenades and dual-wielded assault rifles. If that isn't enough to get you to understand you are in for a ride, I don't know what will be.

Hans Volter spawns on the boss wave (Wave 5, 8 and 11 on Short, Normal and Long respectively), he is the only enemy on that wave (although trash zeds can appear on certain events) and packs a huge amount of health that scales with difficulty and team size. He also has a lot of tricks up his sleeves, and the damage from his attacks also seem to scale not only with difficulty, but also with team size (the gas will only scratch your armor on Solo, but will demolish it with 6 players, both on Normal). He's easy to handle if you know how to, but he can be dangerous if you don't know what you are doing.

• Set up in an open area with cover. Cramped areas will allow him to trap people in gas clouds and later explosives and make full use of all his attacks. If he can't hit you, you can't hit him, don't be an idiot.
  
• Weld sensibly. Hans Volter won't run away, but you might. Not welding at all is a sensible option, too.
  
• Don't get close to him unless you are a Support. The more distance between him and you, the more occasions of dodging his grenades and the more chances of avoiding his rifle shots. At later stages, this avoids getting cut up with melee attacks.
  
• Do not get up in his face as a Berserker unless you can edge him. By edging him, I mean running around a corner, hitting him and getting back in cover. Run if he tries to gas or blow you up, parry if he tries to slash you up.
  
• Spare the more damaging weaponry for his later stages. You can easily deal with him when he throws a few gas grenades and shoots at you, not so much when he's lobbing explosives and gas everywhere while running around slashing up teammates.

He can be divided into three stages, and has specific transitions where he heals. Stage transitions happen when he hits 35 % HP. At that point, he will get a massive 80 % Damage Resistance (to give you an idea of how much that is, if exactly at 35 % HP it acts like a health pool of 175 % Base HP) and will lob a large amount of smoke grenades in his general vinicity before starting to rush towards the nearest player at extreme celerity (faster than your sprinting speed). Once he reaches a player, he will grab him and drain his health, healing him fully and lowering the player's health sensibly. At later stages, he might use a sucker attack to punish players trying to alpha strike him (dropping gas or even explosives at nearby players)

• Do not bother to hit him while he is rushing around unless you are going to commit to it. He will heal all the damage and will be a huge pain to kill. You are basically fighting almost two times the boss's regular health pool, while he rushes around at lighting speed and threatens to grapple and drain a player's health, undoing all the damage.
  
• Do not hit him while he is draining a player, but shortly after when he taunts. Cook grenades to hit at that instant, heal the player being drained and keep your distance to avoid sucker attacks. Once you hear his taunt, fire away and you'll save yourself a serious amount of hurt. He is basically invincible when actively draining the player, do not waste your ammo or uncooked grenades on him at that point and prepare for an alpha strike instead.
  
• If you have low health and he's clearly going for you, auto-heal to avoid getting killed. Reloading can wait until he's lobbing grenades around and you have cover.
  
• Trash Zeds will spawn as a distraction. You should obviously kill them, but at least try to focus on the boss while he's static and helpless. Then, get some potshots on the trash zeds. Do remember that they spawn in however, getting grabbed when the boss lobs grenades at you is a rather nasty experience.

After those general tips, here is the rundown of all three stages. He always appears to gain the same abilties, so use it against him :

Stage 1 - Green :

The stage at which you encounter him. He is surprisingly unnagressive and will slowly stroll around dual-wielding STG44s and shooting at anything that moves. They don't shoot peas, but you have to fire back anwyays, so consider dealing with it quickly to get a bit of armor for the next stage. He will randomly cook two gas grenades (potato mashers, he will call out the attack and they will have a visible green-ish gas trail). Get out of the way even if you have to completely leave cover, they actually damage pretty badly and will blind you while in the cloud.

Stage 2 - Orange :

Once you hit him enough, his chest will glow an omnious orange and he will grab someone to heal. Once that is done, he will unlock two attacks (melee slash and explosive grenades) and will now throw three grenades of both types instead of two. He will be much more aggresive and will prefer going close and personal and spamming grenades instead of shooting unless the team puts a serious distance between him and them. Get mobile, and get the Berserker ready to parry him (you should also parry him yourself with your knife if not caught off guard, those attacks really hurt and he calls them out). If he throws grenades with a red trace, those are explosives grenades, leg it !

Stage 3 - Red :

The last stage. At this point he drops most of his actions and goes up close and personal with whoever happens to still be alive, along with some occasional grenade spam to make sure the team doesn't bunch up and whittle him down. He now throws four grenades per volley and parrying is vital to avoid a wipe (he will attack multiple times if you let him get in melee range, with devastating results). He is down to his last stage, and once all of his health pool is done with, he will blow into bits in a satisfying ZED Time killcam, shortly followed by a cash shower and the title screen

Congratulations on beating the boss. You should consider doing a few more games on that difficulty until your act is nearly flawless (and until you get a few perk levels, they're important) and then move on to higher difficulties. The advanced sections below will help you with that.

Here's Some Kevlar - Advanced Movement and Strategic Thought

Running around is fun, but running around purposefully is even better. Sometimes, running around can get you in trouble, but if you are careful staying on the move is easily the best tactic in the game (at least for now, the game lacking the static stopping power of the Sharpshooter or the area denial of the Demolitionist)

You already know what to do and not do with your movement keys and your sprint button, so let's review strategies. They also span teamwork and combat, but most strategies for situations, waves or even the whole game boil down to how much you'll be moving and how (the shooting part is relatively straightforward, although what you should be shooting it and how has hopefully been covered in the perk guides and will be covered a bit more in the Advanced Combat section)

Note that there are a significant amount of drops around the map. Moving around to pick them up, especially on the first wave, will save you a lot of money and allow you to get high-tier weapons very quickly. Powerful on lower difficulties, and critical on higher difficulties.

Without further a due, let's have a look at most basic strategies, from things you can do yourself in a pinch to team-wide strategies to handle the entire wave :

Camping : The most basic strategy there is, allowing you to fortify a position and carefully decide where the zeds come from to deal with them efficiently. Three things are key here. Identify all entrances (not only those you enter through, but those zeds will use such as manholes, overhangs or vents), identify all entrances that can be fortified (if you can weld it closed, it can be fortified) and identify all natural bottlenecks (this allows you to focus fire in a particular location to easily take on most of the wave, and works best for the Support and his penetration bonuses)

Starting from the Trader (you should not waste time), leg it to your camping spot. You should use the closest camping post to the Trader, so remember to stay flexible. Do a quick analysis to know where zeds will be coming from, and weld thoughfully to funnel zeds through entrances that multiple players can easily cover without too much risk. Natural bottlenecks are stairwells (especially open and long-winded ones), tunnels and long and narrow hallways, large and linear open spaces with minimal cover and to an extent any doorway.

The main upside of camping is that it allows you to focus your firepower in a controlled manner and easily and safely set up your guns to hit precisely without the danger of standing still in the middle of nowhere to take a shot.

The main downside of camping is that if you end up overrun, you will be hit extremely hard and might even end up with a team wipe, which becomes more likely as the waves progress and the boss zeds start spawning in. You can mitigate that by focusing fire, but you'll usually have very little elbow room. A trade-off can be made where "larger areas" are used for camping at the cost of relative safety. You are also dependant on the state of the area being camped, blown lights and destroyed doors will never respawn and make camping spots less appealing.

Roaming : The polar opposite of camping. Never stand still except to take a shot, and keep moving to dilute the zeds and pick your encounters. This can be done with the whole team, or in split groups from two groups of three to individual players each going their own way. This can be started at any time and is the best strategy for earlier waves, although it will get much tougher in later waves unless some cohesion can be kept.

The advantages of this tactic are multiple. It allows you to refuse to face large groups of zeds, or simply pick some of them and leg it. You are much more likely to find drops which will yield a significant monetary advantage, especially if you are lucky enough to find spare armor or basic weapons you can carry. Finally, it splits the main zed group, which means a few focused groups can each effectively pick their share of zeds and a merge can happen when a boss zed appears or the going gets really tough.

The main disavantage is that it makes Field Medics less efficient and that it dilutes the group's firepower dangerously if the group is split. Furthermore, it can lead to groups being sandwiched between an amount of zeds multiple times their worth, putting them at a risk of a wipe. Only competent players will be able to pull it off on higher difficulties, especially when running out on their own.

Kiting : One man roams around while leading a boss zed of a significant chunk of the zeds away from the main group, allowing that group to either easily deal with the remaining specimens or take solid potshots at the pursuing zeds. This is extremely useful with bosses if done consistently, and is best done with the Berserker due to his speed boost and his ability to parry attacks

On higher difficulties, it is critical to deal with boss onslaughts and can be pulled even when camping in a cramped space with copious use of parries. It is obviously a good tactic to use against the boss as simply standing still and shooting him out isn't an option.

Tactical Retreat : Also known as "We're screwed, leg it !". Anyone with a bit of sensibility can tell when things are going terribly, and especially when camping there's a time where you should drop whatever you were doing and run.

Note that zeds respawn very aggresively, and thus you'll need a lot of firepower when in a cramped space (hallways, metro, etc...) to pull through without getting swarmed and sandwiched.

On higher difficulties, this is a very sensitive way to deal with a large amount of Scrakes or even Fleshpounds bearing down on your location, although the later will pursuit very quickly if their rage triggers.

To retreat correctly, you should sprint backwards and periodically either spot sprinting to shoot or turn around to see where you are going. If you are entering a new area or rounding a corner, turn around for even half a second to check, no matter what. You'll regret it dearly if you back up into a patch of Clots.

Two Bloody Handfulls - Advanced Combat and Money Management

Firing guns isn't hard, but even all the tips shown in Basic Combat aren't hard to master. Advanced Combat is about a few tricks that will get you out of trouble when just firing won't do.

• You can bash with all guns, bind that key somewhere easy to reach. On melee weapons, this will do a regular attack, but on guns it will allow you to use your weapon butt to smack whatever is on the receiving end. If it is a Clot, Cyst or Slasher, it will knock them away sensibly and allow you to maneuver. If you are being mobbed by Clots, Cysts or Slashers on any difficulty, this will save your life, and there's no such thing as melee fatigue, so spare your loaded magazine and bash away.
  
• Alternative fire on all melee weapons will block. This will sensibly reduce the damage from all melee attacks (and thus all attacks except for ranged attacks from Hans Volter and the Husk). If you start blocking within a second of any hit, before the block looks completely raised, it will perform a perfect parry within that second timeframe. This will block anything, even the spinning meatgrinder attacks, and negate all damage no matter what. This is absolutely critical to playing Berserker and saving your ass from raging Fleshpounds and Hans Volter on higher difficulties, so train to do it !
  
• The Pulverizer secondary attack will trigger a power attack and costs ammo. This attack is ridiculously powerful and will stagger Scrakes reliably and allow you to be the perfect boss killer. Note that the primary attack is still available if you don't want to waste precious ammo on trash zeds. Attacks that stun and stagger zeds are powerful in general, which includes a succesful parry.
  
• Circle-strafing is a critical technique to learn for harder difficulties. Simply put, some zeds and enraged bosses in general are extremely good at closing in and slashing for a lot of damage, but they are ridiculously bad at dealing with targets circling them. When circling a Scrake, if not interrupted by trash zeds, a Berserker can take down a 6-man Suicidal Scrake by himself, with his starter lawnmower blade.
  
• For 200 pounds, you can acquire the Medic Pistol, and should. It fires healing darts, recharges quickly, and doesn't weigh much (thus only a few select loadouts will be unable to use it). What else is there to be said ? Sometimes you can't afford to wait for the Field Medic.
  
• Darkness is not your friend unless you have Night Vision. Flashlights only light a small portion of your screen and need to be held in awkward manners when sprinting or reloading, and darkness is otherwise really dark. If you are anxious when you enter a pitch dark tunnel, you should be, all the zeds see perfectly in the dark.

Now, knowing how to use your fancy weaponry to its best is a good thing, but knowing how to get that fancy weapony as soon as possible is another. Dosh is really the nerve of the war on the zeds, and you'll need every single quid you can spare on higher difficulties.

• There are random drops on all maps. While they can look pretty underwhelming, this is literally cash just waiting to be grabbed. You can find ammo packs (one spare magazine for all weapons and a free grenade), starting weapons (fairly useless since you'll likely want to level your perk and they are never better than what you start with, but sell for 100 pounds a piece) and even kevlar vests (rare drop, 100 % armor, so 300 pounds saved up and a free shield to duck behind on early waves)
  
• You could potentially be rocking with Tier 2 and Tier 3 by Wave 2 on Long. A Kevlar Vest saves you up 300 pounds, picking up all ammo you can find will remove all ammo resupply costs and picking up spare weapons give you 100 pounds a piece (and you'll usually get to carry two). You could end up easily saving up to 700-800 pounds and enter Wave 2 with a Tier 2 weapon full of ammo, an armor piece and full ammo for your backup weapons. And you can do it every wave ! (Although the armor is less important unless your current one is destroyed, and it's harder to carry spare guns with a high tier weapon)
  
• Don't fill your ammo back up if you can help it. Ammo is literally everywhere, and every single pound adds up on higher difficulties. Only if you main and only gun is almost dry should you get a few magazines, given that you can sprint around for almost half a minute to get free left-over ammo. Armor is always worth filling up however, unless it would get you short on the next tier of weapons, since it's a very rare drop and hard to get outside of the trader pods.
  
• You can get an extra 50 pounds from selling starter weapons and pickups by dropping them and picking them up again. The reason for this is unknown and is most likely either a major developer oversight or just a placeholder for perk discounts or the like. In the meantime, this can be considered as an exploit. Use at your own discretion.

And remember, always keep two. bloody. handfulls !

Army Of One - Advanced Teamwork and Solo Basics

Your team is all you've got backing you up, and while you should expect to at least be a bit more robust, you really need to co-operate with your team. After reading this whole guide, you might even be tempted to try it Solo, in which case we will cover it here.

A few extra tips on how to struggle with your teammates :

• There's no such things as friendly fire, and you can even penetrate through your teammates. If you are a Support and someone nearby is getting mobbed, jam down that trigger, being mobbed is the quickest way to eat the dirt.
  
• Co-ordinate your grenades. Support grenades use fragmentation to take out zeds more easily, Medic grenades heal teammates and hurt the zeds forced to move through it and Berserker grenades will stun all trash zeds caught into it for a short time, allowing you to get easy kills or focus on boss zeds.
  
• Duck under your team's fire. Only Support weapons penetrate, no-one wants to see their shots harmlessly bounce off your back. Only a Support or a Berserker should consciously get in their teammate's line of fire.
  
• In a pinch, grenade spam solves everything. Medic grenades are always usable to protect your teammates, and all other grenades should be aimed in a way that ensures you don't get caught into the blast.
  
• Head towards the Trader when she notifies only a few zeds remain, and be there when the wave ends. Self-explanatory, every second you spend moving to the Trader is a second you could have spent setting up a camping spot or looking for spare ammo, or just getting out of the spot where the trading post lies if it's that bad.

Now, for those of you who wish to tackle this game solo, difficulty scales much more harshly, some things are more dangerous than others and you can only count on yourself. However, this gives you an idea of what happens when you roam alone on a 6-man crew.

• Waves are short and extremely brutal. Zeds are in the dozens, but they will all be spawned near-instantly and will come for you no sooner. Get your most powerful weapon ready at the start of every wave, and check every direction until you make contact.
  
• Getting cornered or mobbed is an automatic death sentence. If you are surrounded on all sides by zeds and your magazine is dry, just drop a few grenades under your feet and take the experience with you as you see your death in slow motion
  
• You cannot level Field Medic and Berserker as efficiently, but still can. Support is the best perk to level as once there is only a Cyst left you can easily weld, unweld and reweld every single door on the map.
  
• Kiting a last Cyst to get all drops is critical on higher difficulties. Waves are short and brutal, and you want everything on your side. Prepare to run around for five minutes dodging the same last teleporting Cyst.
  
• Zeds respawn very aggresively on Solo, watch your back. Nothing forbids that mob you just left through a lone, linear path from respawning partly or even fully straight in your face. They will do it, they will do it very often. Don't run just for the sake of running, thin their numbers at all times or you will have a bad surprise.

Solo is brutal, but it's the best way to train your personal skills. Sometimes, you let yourself be carried by more skilled players, and end up treated to a rude awakening when you think it's time to move to a Hard or even a Suicidal lobby, with a single-digit perk level, and so little skill to justify.

The Conclusion

I hope this guide has been helpful to you. I tried to compile as much information as I could, and while I completely ignored precise weapon and zed stats in favor of the greater picture (knowing that said rifle does 21 damage and that zed has 52 HP on Hard will only help so much) I hope it was also informative. I also hope the formatting was good enough as I, pretty glaringly, omitted to put any image or video. More of a lazy choice, but hopefully the text makes up for it.

Remember to like if this guide helped you to make sure others can read it, and happy zed hunting.

[Compadre_Goyo]

Amazingly detailed guide, without the use of unnecessary numerical information. It helped me and my roommate a bunch to not get destroyed by Hans' rape grab. Although it'd be pretty dope if there would be an update for The Patriarch, and the rest of the classes any time soon, or at least when the game fully launches on November!

[dylanstrategie]

Oh excuse me, Tripwire indeed

I expect to be able to update this guide soon, at the very least the perk trees and whatever comments might be obsolete. Otherwise the new perks might take a bit of time to write down, and I need to see how they play out exactly

[ScЯubbles™]

u mean tripwire not overkill?

[dylanstrategie]

The basic info still stands (unless otherwise tweaked by Overkill. I haven't checked everything in depth, but things like abusing ammo spawns by dragging on waves forever has certainly been addressed at least partly)

As for updating it, I will likely do so once I get more free time. First make sure the information I already give is still correct (perk decks were notably shuffled, and my Hans info is slightly incorrect) and then add new perks and the Patriach

[mustaxo]

This is an amazing guide, any plans on updating it? Though the basic info still stands... Cheers!

[Melvin Mindwright]

great guide

[Zar Ethos]

Loved your tip sections. Looking forward to your views on the new content, especially the 'area denial' of the demo. I always figured firebug to be that.

[Blasbo Bibbins]

Sounds great, I look forward to more content from you.

[dylanstrategie]

I'm aware that this guide is outdated, I will update it once I can get some experience with the new classes and the balance changes that were shipped along with the update

[H U G E]

*sensibility intensifies*