How to Get Good at L4D2 Versus Mode

Since this game is on sale yet again, I just want to offer some basic tips on what i've learned after playing L4D2 for over 2,000 hours (between accounts, of course). This guide is meant to be a guide for the wave of new players that are about to hop into versus for the first time or for those players who are already familiar with how to play but just want to get better. Below I offer some tips from the top of my head on how to get better at versus mode on L4D2.

Survivor Tips

1. Move quickly throughout the map. Don't spend any time shopping for things, or at least try to keep it at a minimum. Are those pills really worth you and your teammates losing 30 extra HP?
2. Help shoot commons. Nothing will anger your teammates more than you rushing through a map without killing any commons.
3. Cover your teammates. You have no idea how annoying it is when i'm trying to pick a teammate up and my other teammates are just standing there without covering. Always cover your teammates, especially when you see a horde around them.
4. Try and predict where a special infected (SI) will spawn. Whenever I play, I always try and remember where people usually spawn specific SI. For example, I know that in the first chapter of No Mercy people will usually spawn their smoker behind that car with the alarm, or in the first chapter of Dead Center people will spawn a charger in areas where they know they can death charge you. Remembering where players spawn specific SI will save you and your teammates a lot of stress.
5. Learn to deadstop. Ever face players who are extremely hard to jockey/hunt because they've mastered the m2 button? Getting better at using the m2 button in order to stop a jockey/hunter from pouncing you will definitely make your L4D experience a lot better.
6. Learn how to cut a smoker tongue. There are many guides out there showing you how to do it. This is also an essential skill you should master if you want to be able to play competitively.
7. Always be aware of your surroundings. You cannot imagine how annoying it is to have a teammate who is completely unaware of his surroundings and gets all of us killed because of it. I think this is one of the most important tips I can offer. Always be aware of your surroundings and always play smart.
8. Don't heal when you don't need to! If you're at green health and above 50 HP, there's no reason to heal. Only use pills when you're orange and only heal when you are in the red. Of course, each circumstance is different, but you get my point. Be smart when you heal!
9. Make your crosshair static. This is a preference thing, but to me this helps a lot with my aiming. Basically, open up the console (see below in the "Other Useful Tips" sections to see how to enable the console) and enter this command: cl_crosshair_dynamic 0. This will make it to where your crosshair will not move based on the weapon and will remain static for all weapons. If you don’t like it, just enter “cl_crosshair_dynamic 1” in the console and it will return it back to normal. I won’t get too much into detail on crosshair settings and adjustments because there are already a lot of guides on this that you can check out.

Special Infected Tips

1. Always attack as a team. This is the most important tip I can offer. Never attack alone. What's the point of attacking alone as a spitter and spitting at a survivor that is moving? Don't attack alone and follow the flow of the team.
2. Commons are your best friend. I don't see many people mention this when they offer tips on how to get better at L4D. Always keep this tip in mind. For example, if you see Ellis being swarmed with zombies and Coach next to him with no zombies around him at all, then attack Coach. It would not be wise to attack Ellis because Coach can easily clear the horde off of him. Also just attacking as a team during a horde in general is the smart thing to do. If you're a tank and you see the survivors being swarmed by zombies, then that's a great time to go in to attack. This is just a "common sense" tip, and unfortunately many people fail to take advantage of commons and hordes.
3. Study your opponents! You thought when you die as a SI those 20 or so seconds is the time to message your friends and go on Instagram? Think again. Know which survivor is the best player on the team and which is the worst. I always study my opponents, and if I know one survivor is good and the rest of the others are below average, I will attack the better player and constantly aim for him since the others aren't that good at clearing/covering. If I attack the less experienced players, then the experienced/good player will easily kill me. This wins games people!
4. Be smart/use common sense when you spawn your SI. What help would it be to spawn as a boomer 50 feet behind all of the survivors? How smart would it be to spawn your charger just before a corner where you can death charge them at? Again, use common sense and know/memorize where the best places to spawn your SI are.
5. As a tank, do not attack alone. You think tanks are unstoppable? Try rushing in against experienced players and see how long you last. It's not that hard to be a tank. I don't know why so many people hate being tank. Yes, it's a lot of pressure on you because tanks ultimately decide games, but if you're doing all the correct things, you shouldn't worry about anything else. Always be aware of your surroundings, know which survivor has a molotov, use commons to your advantage, and attack as a team! Do not rush in alone as a tank or else you will instantly get creamed, and possibly kicked by your teammates.
6. Use one of the downed survivors as bait when you can. For example, if you're a tank and you incapacitate a survivor that separated from his team, use that survivor as bait for the other survivors to come to you. This ultimately can be a game decider if you play things smart.
7. If a survivor is trying to pick up another survivor and they're both alone, it would be smart to scratch/punch that survivor in order to keep him from picking his teammate up. Once I was a jockey and this guy who ran out of ammo was trying to pick up his teammate, and so I just hid behind a car and scratched every time he tried to pick up his teammate. It ultimately led to him chasing me around the car and getting himself killed by a hunter.
8. Play rock tank whenever you can. Ever see a tank that goes on top of a high spot above the survivors and just keeps throwing rocks at them? That's what i'm talking about. If you can get on a high spot above the survivors and throw rocks at them until their HP slowly keeps getting chipped away by the commons, your rocks, and the SI, then do it! Whenever I get the chance to play rock tank I always do. Once I played rock tank against a very good team for about 15 minutes before I died. Never commit/rush in unless you're 100% sure you can incap them.
9. When you try to hit a survivor as a tank by pressing the left click button, try and aim for the survivor's head. For some reason the hitbox isn't what it seems and generally if you aim for their waist and the survivor jumps around to try to dodge it, you will miss the hit. Always try and im for their head, so if they do jump to try to dodge it will actually hit them at their waist.

Other Useful Tips

1. Turn on spectating free look. Go to Options, then hit Multiplayer, and click enable on Spectating free look. What this allows you to do when you’re playing the special infected is roam the map as a spectator and not just spectate a single survivor. You can also use this as a survivor when you’re completely dead. You use this by pressing the space bar twice when you’re dead. This is beneficial in many situations. For example, if I’m dead as a survivor, I use it to roam around the map to look for a defibrillator so I can inform my teammates to get it and use it on me. Or, if I’m dead and my teammates are approaching a choke point, I’ll let them know which special infected are spawned in and what they should expect. If I’m playing on the infected side, when I die I use it to just glance over all the survivors and be better aware of what’s happening to each of them. Remember, awareness is everything in this game!
2. Turn on the console. This will enable you to enter console commands of your choice. There are many guides on this, so I won’t get too much into detail on the console commands you can enter to adjust different settings. However, to open it, simply go to Options, click on Keyboard/Mouse and click enable on Developer console. Then to use it in game, simply press the “~” key.

Conclusion

These are just a few tips off the top of my head. There are, of course, other more advanced tips/tricks/recommendations that I have, but they are complicated to explain in one guide, so i'll leave those tips out. All I can say is that the most important tip I can offer is to play smart. Treat this game as a mental game where you're trying to be five steps ahead of your opponent. Overall, with practice and by following these tips, I can assure you that you will get better in no time. Don't get discouraged if you constantly get kicked from games. Everyone has been in that position, no matter how good they are now. Just think about why they might have kicked you and remember to not repeat the same mistakes. Remember, failure is the greatest teacher you can ever have. Don't give up on this game. It will all be worth it when you get better! I hope you found this guide useful! I will update this guide as I think of more useful tips that's easy for new players to get a grasp of. Don't forget to give this guide a thumbs up! Thanks for reading.

[DocFur_07]

Thanks for the guide, it helps alot.

[.Tyrant.]

I have multiple accounts because I like making surf accounts when the game is on sale. But yes, go ahead and assume I have vac bans on them.

[P P永远在生气❤]

可以

[D0DG3R]

Probably has vac bans on his other accounts, regardless though of your stupid comment Tyrant, I did read the first line about you saying you have thousands of hours split accross multiple accounts, the question to you is - Why would you have multiple accounts for L4D2.

[Tea's Holly]

say, mind giving a link to the other accounts

[.Tyrant.]

Read the first line of the guide before saying something moron

[D0DG3R]

A guide from someone with under 200 hours about being good.

[AllDeezBriches]

Its not about getting good its about having the ability to know whats going on around you n being able to react

[.Tyrant.]

@ Neuro that’s because you’re facing teams who aren’t playing competitively. Face a competitive team who is serious and they won’t leave him behind

[Neuromaniac]

Use one of the downed survivors as bait
can't remember when I played versus last time, but one thing I remember for sure:
each time I incapacitate and isolate someone, the poor bait not just left behind but even got kicked
oh well