Complete loadout guide

This guide is supposed to cover all of the most optimal loadouts for each perk and provide some trivial and not so trivial contextual information that could hint at why particular recommendations were made.

Introduction

This guide covers:

• Perk specific loadouts;
  
• Character weapon preferences (exclusive lines of dialog);
  
• General and some of weapon specific trivia;
  
• Class specific player behavior observations and generalizations;
  
• Conclusions on reload cancelling based on weapon characteristics and statistics;
  
• Thoughts on how to build your own loadout.

Factors that contribute towards presenting a loadout as optimal are as follows:

• Self-sustainability (box and Support interaction refilling rates, ammo prices);
  
• 6 player HoE scrake takedown viability;
  
• Versatility;
  
• Specializations and their gimmicks;
  
• Total cost;
  
• Fun.

Structurally this guide is considered complete, although corrections on things I've got wrong or have overlooked are considered on the basis of them coming up and being relevant enough to warrant a change (meta affecting updates for example). Everything I have constructed in this guide is based upon:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1434499736
If you have any requests relating to the guide, to the subject of the guide or to any of the relevant topics - please consider either leaving a comment or even contacting me directly through steam.

If you are not interested in any of the details skip directly to the Hall of Shame.

General trivia

Rule of thumb - some perk and weapon choices are more controversial than you think they are, the other - not so much.

Upgrading and weapon tiers

      Never upgrade if you don't know how much good it will do to you. This is especially true for t5 upgrades. For example, t3 and t4 weapons damage upgrades average at 15%. Thus it's safe to assume that anything that is higher than 15% is a worthwhile upgrade, while anything that is lower - is not. However there are exceptions in the form of explosion and Medic weapons, the former get an equal boost to their blast radius while the latter get an upgrade to their dart recharge rate, which is a different arbitrary value that you have to look up separately from the damage upgrade one.
tx₁->t5 is never better than tx₂->t5 where x₁<x₂<4, but in most cases they can practically perform the same, in other words, most weapons are now potentially capable to kill a 6P Scrake within a reasonable timeframe if the weapon is fully upgraded, you are using it onperk and a right selection of perks was made.
t1->t2 has benefits over t2 weapons in a form of usually cheaper ammo and higher sustainability (better support interaction rates and damage efficiency), while t2s are initially cheaper and deal slightly higher damage.

Number of weapons in your loadout

      You always need a weapon that is at least potentially capable of disposing off big zeds quickly.
For a total weapon amount 3 and 1 are the most optimal options. As long as 9mm or HM101 are not upgraded they don't count towards the total amount, while a single additional melee weapon applies for this caveat only past a total count of 2.

• 1 is best for team economy and perfect for reckless gameplay, because as long as you give away most of your money - you literally will not lose anything on death, however for that to work you need a self-sustaining weapon.
  
• 2 is suboptimal, because it’s neither here nor there, but can work if you utilize 9mm, HM101 or your starter knife as a secondary.
  
• 3 is the default option where you have 2 main weapons with a single secondary. It’s the best for box and Support interaction ammo refills, and you are also never more than 2 button presses away from a target weapon.
  
• Starting from 4 and onwards your ammo box and Support interaction return rates will have diminishing returns, since your loadout will more likely become unnecessarily complicated making it hard or even counterproductive to keep all of your weapons underfilled.

Flame-, microwave- and freeze- throwers

      Stream based weapons have an ammo gain rate penalties, identical RoF and a minimum burst limit of 4 (3 for Microwave gun), however the stream persists for around a third of a second (which equates to 5 free ammo) after the ammo consuming burst ends. They are also always guaranteed to have splash damage and to, as long as conditions are met, create ground fires.

Akimbo

      Upgrade to dual pistols lowers your initial magazine count, meaning that you get less ammo from Support interactions and you get a minuscule penalty to your max ammo count when taking a perk that boosts total ammo capacity. Loses usually equal to a single magazine and a few bullets to the corresponding area affected respectfully.
Upgrade doesn't guarantee an x2 multiplication of RoF as you would assume initially, moreover, in most cases, it's not the case at all, and, including increased reload times, increase of the real firerate is even lower than you would expect with the previous point in mind. While increase in bullets held does increase the real firerate more than akimbo RoF boosts or the increased reload decreases it’s still not enough of a compensation. The worst offender is .500s having only a 27% increase in firerate while gaining “the slowest reload time in the entire game” title next to stoner LMG (which would actually be faster to reload on perk due to Commandos passive).
While I don’t have any statistical data to prove this, I believe that magazine based pistols wielded akimbo also have the slowest reload time out of all weapons if you leave exactly one round left.

Fun fact: completing the bashing animation during v1068 beta (during which and as a result of which changes to reload cancel were made and applied) took less time than it now takes to wait out the introduced delay in tactical dual pistol reload cancel.

Identifying player skill

Bad player

Good player

Spawns as survivalist; Dies often; Ends up using “light” or even “heavy” high tier weapons on trash ZEDs early into the game; Has hard time deciding what to buy; If haven't joined mid game - asks for inappropriate amounts of money; Has useless (inactive for the loadout) or objectively inferior perks (tactical movement), excluding ZED time ones; Takes offperk “heavy” weapons that are not designed for slaying FPs and Scrakes; Bottoms the scoreboard.

Spawns as SWAT or Medic; Dies last out of all non-kiters; Sticks with light low tier weapons for as long as possible; Rarely ever seen at the trader area; If ever asks for money – states the required sum which’s usually below 200 (gets T3 on his 1st or T4\T5 on his 2nd wave); Makes his perk selections depending specifically on a loadout he has picked, a situation at hand or on a loadout that was picked specifically for the situation at hand; Is on top of weapon selection meta when you are not ; Tops the scoreboard even when playing pocket Medic.

Weapon specific trivia

Weight and OHKOs

HM101 - is the only weapon that weighs 1 unit, which, on top of that can also heal.
HM201 - is the lightest weapon that’s not a pistol, that has the minimum damage required to OHSKO a Clot type enemy and on top of everything can also heal.
AR15 - is the lightest weapon that’s not a pistol, a shotgun or a lever action rifle, which has the minimum damage required to OHKO a Stalker type enemy (hollow points and the t2 upgrade are required).
UMP, FN FAL and SCAR-H - OHKO trash type enemies on t5 and if an appropriate perk level has been reached (22, 25/20 and 20 respectfully), however Stalkers are resistant against the SMG damage type which restricts UMP from oneshotting them.
Tommy Gun - OHKO trash type enemies on t5, but exclusively on commando, and like UMP it excludes Stalkers.
Husk Cannon - can be used as an efficient weapon for dealing with smaller ZEDs (i.e. it can OHKO), but explosion damage type is inconsistent, weapon is projectile based and without binds or tool assists its fire rate is inconsistent.
.500 - in base configuration has enough damage to OHSKO Gorefiends and Rioters off-perk.

Things you might've not known

Grenades - deal damage based on the bonus applied to your currently equipped weapon.
Eviscerator - gets Survivalist t2 perk bonuses.
AK12 - unlike any other weapon has a significantly higher firerate in its secondary firemode and it has higher base damage than a t5 HM401. That and its decent damage upgrades combined with its intrinsic AR damage type make it a beast against anything that isn’t a Fleshpound.
DBB and DS - have a knockback force on their secondary all out shot. While shotgun jumping is an obvious element in reaching out of bonds or ZEDinaccessible areas, the more important strategy they offer is dash dodge kiting bigger ZEDs. Their obviously high stumble power reinforces this point even further.
UMP and MP5 - upgraded to t5 perform equal to t4 Kriss SMG.
FNFAL and HRG Nailgun - on Commando and SWAT respectively trump all of their onperk weapons, especially for dealing with Fleshpounds and Scrakes, due to having a more reliable dmg type and dealing more damage in general.
Railgun - deals more damage in the manual aiming mode (has rifle damage type).
Hemoglobin - is not a projectile based weapon (also has rifle damage type), well, it is, but only in ZEDtime, other than that functions exactly the same as any other hitscan weapon.
S6 - shoots faster in the homing mode even if you don't home in.
AF2011 - it can't shoot if there is literally a single bullet left in the gun (That can happen after an online server eats 1 bullet after you succesfully reload and switch to a different gun(?)).

Firebugs special economy

CnB - with a max level FB you can recover most of the weapons ammo via repurchasing the gun for 50$ (say hi to the original KF DBB strat).
Spitfire - has the biggest magazine amount gain per Support interaction, it's so high that it makes up for all the drawbacks the weapon has. It also has the 2nd best fire DoT, which makes it perfect for Bloats and Rioters.

Shotgun specifics

Nailgun - shots ricochet from surfaces making it perfect for Support use against Crawlers and Stalkers.
Anti-neglection series of buffs made M4 CSG able to kill Big ZEDs offperk within a single volley, however the only perks that would benefit from that after an inevitable nerf would be Survivalist and Support, everyone else either would have better options or wouldn’t be able to afford to be left defenseless reloading entire tube after they run out of shells to shoot. If you still don't understand what that means - buy the gun, dum dum, it's OP.

Tough realities of a Demolitionist

M16M203 - Demolitionist damage bonuses do not apply to its bullets, but Commando and Survivalist DO get the damage boost both for bullets and shells shot. However, due to it being a double weapon – it has a better economy than any other weapon of its weight category regardless of who has it equipped.
Pulverizer - is a very interesting weapon for Demo since it offers an always ready (and the only onperk) self defense tool that could also do some damage against Fleshpounds/Quarter Pounds (that is if you are brave enough to go for some stylish points) and can buy your team some time against raging Scrakes.
C4s do passively gain total ammo from reaching higher Demo level thresholds, but don't from the dedicated perk. Having in mind that you can't spam C4s due to ZEDs gaining 75% resistance after the initial explosion and that the weapon doesn't function as a proximity mine as it did in KF1 - under normal circumstances it's undesirable to ever have them in your inventory, since even an HX25 could do more damage in the time it takes for C4 debuff to wear off and it also has a much bigger variety of applications than c4 has, even though HX25 is currently garbage. However C4s paired with Dynamite sticks and RPG are your only option if you want to simultaneously deal with several unenraged Fleshpounds, but, under normal conditions, the application of that is very limited both by the ammo reserve limits and in general practical terms.

Uncategorized

9mm berretta – for the exception of the elite reload, weapon switch speed and ammo reserve increase the weapon is not affected by any onperk weapon specific perks or passives that are not part of Survivalist, Sharpshooter or Gunslinger class. The weapon also has unique (i.e. not weapon damage type tied) meaningfully higher damage modifiers against Bloats. (Unlike unique generally unimportant damage modifiers against some other ZED types or of other weapons, for the exception of the x4 damage modifier of the RPG ballistic impact against Scrakes.)
XBow/Bow – compared to all other weapons it deals obscene amounts of stun damage per shot and its bolts are / should be always recoverable.
Stoner LMG - has the biggest total ammo pool out of all the weapons meaning that as a single gun it could potentially yield the most amount of kills per wave, on top of that it has the highest rate of bullets gained per box pickup (doesn't mean it is the most effective/efficient weapon though, only that you are less likely to run out of ammo).

Reloading behavior and reload cancelling

      For elite reloads (perk affected reloads that are not flat % speed increase) and reload cancelling - dry reloads are faster or almost equal to tactical reloads (when a gun isn’t empty, for the exception of the dual pistols that specifically require at least two bullets). In general, elite reloads are faster than normal reloads. Next is an approximate interpretational summary for weapons with reload cancel times that are exceptions to the rules (which to recap are: dry>tactical, elite>normal):

• Tactical=dry, normal=elite: Railgun, S6, Stream weapons;
  
• Tactical=dry: 1858 revolver dual, .500 magnum revolver, .500 magnum revolver dual, Doomstick, DBB;
  
• Tactical=dry, normal: HM301, 9mm pistol, M1911, Spitfire dual;
  
• Tactical=dry, elite: P90, M16, MP7, M14 EBR.
  
  
• Tactical>dry: Mac10, MP5, UMP;
  
• Tactical>dry, normal: - ;
  
• Tactical>dry, elite: M14 EBR;
  
  
• Dry>elite dry: VLAD-1000 Nailgun;
  
• Dry>elite tactical: Magazine based pistols.

      M14 is simultaneously represented in several categories, because of how precise on the bullets left (less than 4) its reload has to be performed at to substantially gain any time saved over dry reloads, MP5 and UMP have way bigger room for error (over 5, without magazine extend) and MAC10 is somewhere in the middle (4 with extended magazines).

In summary:

• SWAT weapons (except for Kriss), dual Pistols, stream based weapons, SSGs, and 9mm, .500m, M1911, HM301, M14 EBR, Railgun, S6, Stoner LMG (it has faster reload when you have between 0 and 14 bullets left, but there is no reload cancel data for me to be able to put the gun in any of the categories), M16, VLAD-1000 Nailgun – are in one way or another abnormal in their behavior when reload cancelling;
  
• You can’t reload cancel Husk cannon, M203, Pulverizer, single Spitfire, M4, Lever action rifles and Pump action shotguns. For the three of the latter ones you also can’t interrupt casing eject animations;
  
• Husk Cannon and Spitfire don’t care if you tac or dry reload them without the perk;
  
• Single shot weapons (including SSGs) have a delay before the automatic reload which can be cut short by spamming LMB;
  
• For lever action and pump action weapons you want to avoid emptying your weapon and reloading less than the maximum amount of bullets or shells that you can possibly reload (however if situation requires it it's possible to reload just up to 6 bullets from either 0 or 1 to be efficient with your reload);
  
• Assuming ones reaction time is at least 250ms (and any amount of time saved considered as beneficial) – it’s beneficial to reload cancel with most weapons. Past 400ms there is an extremely steep drop of weapons that can save time, peaking at 1,25s at which point you can’t save any time on any weapon.

Hall of Shame

However, before we go any further, let us venture down the Hall of Shame, to understand the burden of required performance carried on shoulders of every weapon in the game. Everything featured is the worst in one way or the other. And even if a weapon from this list is used, then it's most certainly used out of desperation rather than out of free choice.

Hall of Lame

Hall of Fame

Basic equipment

	Your body armor will absorb some of the incoming damage, all, if your class has a Heavy armor trait (SWAT, Survivalist). Due to how the damage absorption works the only optimal ways of having your armor is either full or none at all, thus try to avoid buying it until later waves.
	Covered in the specific weapon trivia section, general purpose of this weapon is dispatching Crawlers (when upgraded to OHKO) and Bloats.
	Ignore light attacks. Stabs, heavy overhead slashes and parries are your bread and butter with this one. Note: Stabbing does not interrupt attacks the same way bashing does. For all intents and purposes assume it doesn't interrupt at all.
Buttstock.jpg	Bashing is one of the most important tools in anyones arsenal, not only is it used for emergency situations and reload cancelling, it can also interrupt most ZED attacks including the ones from Scrakes and Fleshpounds (as long as the latter one is not enraged).
	This is your main healing tool, but no matter what, use it on others first, since self healing forces it to recharge twice as long.
	Don’t touch the welder unless you understand what you are doing and why you are doing it. Inappropriately welded door may cause more harm than it could potentially circumvent. Support can repair broken down doors with this tool.
	Night vision goggles are superior alternative to the flashlight (Commando and berserker only) - offers increased visibility in dimly lit areas and it doesn't trigger ZED evasive actions when you are looking in their general direction with this thing on. Past a certain update is no longer draining battery charge at an increased rate.

Good at inflicting	Grenade
Stun
Damage
Depression

DLC

DPS equivalent: Unknown;
Mechanical equivalent: HM501;
Fundamental difference: Not a coupled weapon, indefinetely delayable AoE, non-lingering AoE;
MHO: While I only have a rough idea about DPS of weapons with toxic damage type, I'd say it's enough for me to state that "Mine Reconstructor" is primarily an utility weapon designed for map control. However, due to spawn mechanics triggering off proximity and general state of teamplay in public matches - it's hard for me to definitively recommend this weapon for everyone.
Is it worth it: Probably yes.

|

	DPS equivalent: Stonerx1; The difference: Can't ADS, player is essentially stationary while shooting, no weird belt reloading mechanics, miniscule penetration ability; MHO: Minigun goes brrrrrrt . Is it worth it: Maybe.
	DPS equivalent: Crossbowx2; The difference: No scope, has charge levels, can freeze; MHO: This is the only weapon that fits the original statement about DLC weapons where they would give no advantage and are supposed to provide just an alternative experience. It's literally just a t4 crossbow which's more finnicky to use and to build a loadout around that for all the hassle offers some additional utility. Is it worth it: If you absolutely adore the XBow specifically in its t4 configuration and search for any (like literally any, bottom of the barrel any) excuse to use the right side of the Sharpshooter perk tree - then definetely yes.
	DPS equivalent: Kriss SMG; The difference: +-2 units, abysmal recoil control in full auto, no scope; MHO: While definetely strong, poor stability of the weapon and massive weight for a pistol limits its practical applicability down to a single class and that class is already quite strong to begin with. Due to the weapons nature efficient takedowns are performed at closer distance than that of regular pistol ones, however the stumble rate is actually surprisingly low meaning that it's a less reliable and more risky option. Is it worth it: If all you ever wanted is an onperk non-triple firemode HRG Nailgun for Gunslinger then there you have it, otherwise the novelty of the weapon precedes its usefulness.
	DPS equivalent: VLAD/S6; The difference: smaller magazine but more damage per shot, inaccurate/unwieldy; MHO: UT Flak Cannon reskin with firing modes switched in their practical usefulness and overall scew of preference of using one mode over the other. If I had to describe it - it's a gimped M32, that handles like a Seal Squeal, but is as useful or even slightly better than Seeker Six. Is it worth it: You might think that this weapon sucks due to all the competition, but once the thought of it being on perk for support clicks in your head your opinion could just make a sudden 180.
	DPS equivalent: SPX (single SW.500 is 50% better); The difference: No scope, Can't bash, Clot OHKO melee, Can block and parry, 1 tier higher; MHO: The only reason why this piece of history can warrant a place in your loadout is making lvl5 right perk option of the SS perks semiviable. Before any of the bigger ZED spawns (if you are decently skilled ofcourse) - kiting is a breeze, but once they come not only you would have to switch out of it (meaning that the immidiate shortcut to damage mitigation and trash despensing would become unavailable) your backup weapons and additional perk options tied to them would be respectively extremely limited (M14, XBow, FN FAL) and won't work well with kiting in general. Is it worth it: Maybe.
	DPS equivalent: Krissx1; The difference: No scope, Higher spread, Stronger damage type, Strong bash, Blocks while aiming, 1 unit heavier; MHO: While I can't speak on the utility of the strong bash in full detail, if it wasn't for the damage type, every other aspect would be either marginally worse or inconvinient in every way. The spread is harder to control, it's heavy, its bash is two times stronger than a regular one (meaning that you are more likely to pass the enrage threshold when diving past scrakes and fleshpounds), and unless you are using hold to aim - block on demand doesn't work as good. However it has handgun damage type, which fairs better against fleshpounds and if you were not to upgrade it, the weapon is just light enough to fit a decent secondary (Krissx1, UMPx2). Is it worth it: Maybe.
	DPS equivalent: M1911; The difference: Higher initial damage, Lower mag capacity, Revolver type reload cancel (i.e. slower reload), Scope, Shrapnel ricoche, Lower spare count, Not a hitscan weapon; MHO: M1911 is by no means a "must have" in any of the possible loadouts and since Rhino is (outside of the shrapnel mechanic) overall even less practical I don't think it's a viable alternative to anything. Yes, its damage potential allows it to OHKO gorefasts on lvl 20 Survivalist (112% dmg mod), but with the precision required you could as well just aim for the head with more consistent results. Is it worth it: No.
	DPS equivalent: Katana; The difference: Bigger parry window, Bash instead of piercing thrust, 1 unit heavier; MHO: Since the weight nerf, Katana isn't very good and RR is 1 unit heavier, thus while katana isn't great, the weapon isn't an equivalent to the katana, and hemoclobber exists - it's not going to be a viable weapon in any particular way; Is it worth it: Road Redemption is decent if you are a fan of Road Rash games (Jailbreak in particular), besides that - definetely not.
	DPS equivalent: Battleaxe; The difference: Weaker block (equivalent parry), 3 units lighter, No knockdown nor pushback, Higher RoA; MHO: The game doesn't feature neither the Grass Crescent Shield nor a mechanic to replenish your humanity (from losing it through playing the berserker class) to make use of the Chaos +5 damage boost; Is it worth it: Yes, plus you get a character on top of that.
	DPS equivalent: Fire Axex3/Crovel Survival Toolx4; The difference: Piercing thrust instead of bash, Bigger parry window, Higher melee range, Additional burn damage, High stumble and knockdown affliction value on a special charge attack; MHO: Without the charge attack the weapons performance is unremarkable, and I don't think the charge attack is consistent enough to be relied on in a tense situation especially on higher difficulties. One could use the weapon as a tool to knockdown any of the bosses once or maybe even twice per fight, but past that it's going to be useless while taking up the essential weight slots that could be spent on weapons that, unlike the gimmick light saber sword, could actually deal damage. Is it worth it: I don't think so.

Beta changes

This section covers changes to the guide that are likely to happen after beta updates go live, assuming they remain the same on transition.

[update preparations in progress...]

Legend/Glossary

12345 - lvl 5/10/15/20/25 perk;
R/L - right/left side perk;
✱ - choice of preference;
? - perk choice is based on weapons selected from a table below;
★☆ - T3 weapon upgraded once;
☆ - T4 weapon not upgraded;
"No stars" – omission of indication that the weapon is either not upgraded or that it has weightless upgrades (like the first upgrade for HM101 or Flaregun which don't add any weight to your loadout);
“Notes:” - supposed to give just enough information so you could have a reference for the loadout and some idea of what it is supposed to be;
{} - signifies tags that are native to the nature of the class.


Some "tags" in the notes section are also reoccurring:

Varied	offers different target class weapon options, generally such a loadout would consist of primary, secondary and a backup weapon
Level restricted (soft/hard n) [x]	the loadout in question requires a certain level of the class to perform correctly, if it's soft, then it's not an absolute requirement for the loadout to work
Assisting	makes use of teamplay by relying on healing or on different types of ZED incapacitation as primary means of contribution (the alternative, the default way of contributing is by not being bad at the game)
Demolition	makes use of destructive explosion AoE, effective at very long distances, but is likely to enrage tougher enemies, likely decent against FPs and awful against Scrakes
AoE	makes use of extremely effective trash clearing AoE, usually isn't even capable of long range, but is also very unlikely to accidentally enrage tougher enemies
Clot/Stalker OHKO/OHSKO	features a weapon of a "light" type that can OHKO/OHSKO (meaning One Hit/HeadShot Knock Out) weaker ZED types (with the exception of UMP and Tommy Gun against stalkers, since they have incredibly high SMG dmg type resistance), indicates high ammo efficiency
Type .500 /.50/9mm	loadout featuring coincidentally multipurpose an anti-gorefiend, anti-rioter, Stalker OHKO and anti-EDAR tool where dmg modifiers allow it to be that
Spray'n'pray	very lax or even encouraging indiscriminative fire type of gameplay
Supported	benefits greatly from getting supplied by the Support class
Roaming	benefits greatly from collecting ammo caches around a stage
Kiting	grants ability to roam stages freely
Punch up	may deal with targets or situations that are harder than what's expected
Punch down	loadout designed with an ability to deal with weaker targets in such a way that it wouldn’t be an overkill considering specifics of the class
Special [x]	the use is outside of either conventional strategies or can't be adequately framed by the tag system, though the closest ones are picked if possible
Scrake [x]	tag is limited exclusively in regards to dealing with Scrakes
n₁-n₂ FS	exclusive to Gunslinger and Support, signifies available free slots
	indicator for discerning between the original weapon versions and the newer additions that reuse assets to the point of indistinguishability

Field Medic

      The archetypes for this class are: typical mmo support, accidental battle Medic (experience farmer) or an absolute madman, which has actually decided to change his class due to you and your teammates failing hard at what you are supposed to do. Performance ranges from deadweight to being the sole reason why the game is still going.

      Advice: try keeping in mind that (as long as you are playing the base game with no particular challenges or restrictions) no one owes you or your team to play this perk and you should be better than to rely on it for your survival. The moment FM becomes crucial to your teams survival - is the moment when your team loses, because one good player babysitting is one less good player dealing with Fleshpounds and bosses. If you see people getting hurt a lot and not being able to refill their health themselves – as long as it’s not too late into the game, think about building your loadout around a XPerk Medic weapon to claim that uncontested XP and extra income.


{Assisting}

                           ↑ Is interchangeable with ↓

????L

LL✱✱ or RR✱✱

✱R✱R

RRRR or L✱L✱

LL✱✱

Notes: …
Spray'n'pray AoE/Punch up/Assisting/Demolition

RR✱✱L

Notes: Special [AoE, Assisting]
Upgrading Ft is an idea depending on how much you are intending to use the gun.

✱RRRR

Notes: Level restricted (soft 20) Special [Assisting] Kiting Type .500
Tagging to the chest any low to mid tier ZED is more than enough to inflict considerable poison damage.

✱RLR✱

Notes: Special [Punch up, Assisting]
Buff yourself to unleash the HM301 beast and deal with big guys yourself, or buff your allies when you are out of ammo.

Character              

Special lines for

Commando 20+

      Dedicated zed time extender and cloaked enemy spotter (can also call out remaining enemy HP, but that’s probably not going to happen in a public match). Having one in your team (and letting him accomplish all of his tasks properly) is more than enough. Commando players with enough skill could kill Scrakes with no problem at all, but if they run out of grenades and don't have M203/FN FAL in their loadout – Fleshpounds become a threat. Usually only good players pick this class because its benefits to the team over other perks are subtle and experience of playing it online with random players is excruciating.

      Advice: as long as you are in the same lane as Commando - let him do his ZED time extensions properly by focusing on bigger ZEDs yourself.

{Level restricted (hard 20) [Special [Varied]]}

↑ Is interchangeable with ↓ until level 24 where the Bullpup becomes superior.

LR?LL

R

✱

20+

L

Notes: Varied Demolition
Special [Punch up]/Clot OHKO/Assisting

R✱?L?

✱

R

Notes: Stalker OHKO
Roaming Spray'n'pray/Varied Punch up

R??LR

R

L

Notes: Clot OHKO
Punch up/Varied Stalker OHKO Type .500

24-	25
RRRLR	?RRRR

L

✱

R

Notes: Varied Punch up Clot OHKO Special [Roaming, Supported]
Special [Punch up]/Demolition/Supported Spray'n'pray

R?RLR

✱

L

R

Notes: Supported Roaming Spray'n'pray Clot OHKO
Stalker OHKO/Special [Assisting] Type .500/Scrake [Assisting]
As long as there is at least 1 Support in the team you can play with just a single Tommy Gun in your loadout.

Commando 19-

R✱✱L✱

Notes: Roaming Spray'n'pray

✱L✱LR

Notes: Varied Roaming Type .500

?RRL✱

✱

R

Notes: Assisting Spray'n'pray
AoE/Special [Punch up]

Special lines for

Character

Firebug

      Due to the “on-perk” weapon variety this class could be considered a bootleg SWAT, Support, Demolitionist, Gunslinger or ultimately a worse Survivalist, but out of all of them the most truthful descriptor would be – it’s a bootleg berserker. Requires a Field Medic to heal burns caused by heat received from covering too many lanes at once and fired up, flaming teammates, that don't understand the burning passion for fiery gameplay. But who can blame them, what was the last time they saw a person that would pick the Firebug class for its unlimited ammo strategies instead of its flashy weapons? More importantly, how many even know that these strategies even exist? 1 Firebug is more than enough.

      Advice: if you have a spitfire Firebug in your team consider switching to the Support class. On the other hand, if you get a clueless one instead and you are not particularly bothered by (interacting with and) educating strangers online – try explaining them the groundfire mechanic and informing about the ammo conservation strategies (same thing goes for a freezethrower player of any class), or, in simpler terms, tell them to look 60 degrees down and tap the fire button occasionally within specified intervals.

{AoE, Assisting}

✱RRR✱

Notes: Level restricted (soft 25) [Special[]]

LRLL✱

Notes: Special [AoE, Assisting]





Notes: Scrake [Assisting]

RLRL✱

Notes: Level restricted (hard 5, soft 25) [Supported] Spray'n'pray

R??L✱

RL / LR

RL

R✱

L✱

Notes: Varied Level restricted (hard 25) [Supported] Punch up
Demo Roaming/Spray'n'pray Supported/Spray'n'pray Supported Kiting/Spray'n'pray Type .500

Special lines for

Character

SWAT

      It’s meta to use this as the default starting class regardless of the wave number one is joining or spawning on (if you do everything correctly, you won’t be restricted from changing the class immediately after). If you’ve only just started playing or just prestiged on all of your perks, SWAT is THE perk you should get to lvl 20 ASAP. Free 9mms and 100 armor equal to more than 3 times the starting equipment value. The only competition to that would be Demolitionist, with his (utterly disappointing) HX25. Minmaxing aside, SWAT is one of the better classes for earlier waves while being one of the worst for the latter ones. Surprisingly enough most SWAT players understand that and do switch to a more appropriate class as waves go on. And even the ones that stay, by themselves are not much of a hindrance to the team if all the key roles have already been taken – heavy armor, stun grenades and great economy of the class serve well for fulfilling general player goal of not dying and being able to pull your own weight.

      Advice: if SWAT players don’t already, urge them to get HM201 or UMPx2 (latter only on 22+) as their secondary and if needed remind them to make use of their grenades. Alternatively, as long as the positions are vacant, ask if they are willing to switch to a class that could actually contribute towards teams success or at the very least point out that they could potentially cover Sharpshooter and Demo.

{Spray'n'pray Punch up}

LRRR✱

Notes: Supported Roaming





Notes: Level restricted (hard 22) [Clot OHKO]

LRLR✱

Notes: Spray'n'pray Roaming Assisting

Special lines for

Character

Sharpshooter

      Sharpshooter players either snipe big ZEDs before those even have a chance to get enraged or get swarmed and die miserably, because the one who was supposed to be covering him is instead busy enraging said Scrakes and Fleshpounds. Unless they have a FN FAL and/or M14 of course, then they think that mag dumping with freeze grenades equals skill - this kind of Sharpshooter either becomes useless, dies or even becomes an outright detriment to teams success the moment grenade supply goes dry.

      Advice: keep in mind the position of your Sharpshooter, so that when the time comes you could provide cover fire against trash ZEDs, which in return will likely insure protection for your entire team from being swarmed and overrun by packs of Scrakes and Fleshpounds (dealing with Quarterpounds, though, isn’t specialty of the class).

{Punch up}

LL✱LL

L

✱

R

Notes: Varied Type .500
Supported/Special [Roaming]/Supported Spray'n'pray

LLLLR

Notes: Varied Assisting Type .500





Notes: Roaming Punch down Clot OHKO

RRR✱R

Notes: Kiting Scrake[Assisting]

Special lines for

Character

Demolitionist

      As long as RPG is not a part of the loadout - you never really want more than one of these freeloaders in your team, especially if they get a clear view and a perfect position for covering leeching off from all of the lanes your team is covering, that’s especially true when your team has SWATs or Commandos. But, in all honesty, people that play the class like that usually do understand the importance of limiting their own numbers, though more than anything that’s because of the mutual interference that they start causing to each other. And similarly to the Sharpshooter class - Demolitionists are also helpless in close range.

      Advice: for RPG Demolitionists it’s the same as for any of the Sharpshooter types, otherwise, however, if it’s a trash ZED kill hoarder - covering them would hold them back from learning the importance of not being a hindrance to your team, especially since they probably already have troubles with understanding of and empathizing with players of other classes.

LLLL✱

Notes: Punch up Level restricted (hard 20) [Special [Punch up]] Type .50

LL✱L✱

Notes: Punch up Special [Varied]
Level restricted (hard 20) [Special [Punch up]]/Type .500/Assisting

?????

✱RRR✱

✱?RRL (L - HoE)

LLRL✱

Notes: Demolition Special [Assisting, Kiting]
_/Roaming Punch up/Special[]

LLLRL

Notes: Punch down Special [Assisting, Kiting]

Special lines for

Character

Support

      What’s good about this class is that no matter the number of players taking it - it’s never going to be enough or too much. Supports are great for your economy and the damage type of its weapons is great against pretty much every ZED type. Not everything is sunshine and rainbows though, people that are playing the class usually don’t know themselves how to manage their own economy, additionally they spend most of the trader time browsing what to spend their money on, locking your team out of strategic ammo refills. When things go south, they are also one of the first ones to die, wasting your opportunity of resupply at the end of the wave.

      Advice: as long as your team hasn’t reached the state of maxed out economy, tell Support players, that, while being on the frontline, as tempting as it is, is not worth overextending risking death that comparatively to them not dying – is a huge detriment to teams growth. If they have trouble dealing with Crawlers and Cloakers enlighten them on the wonders of the VLAD shotgun, however dispatching off of those ZED types yourself isn’t a bad idea either. If you see Support player welding a door in an inappropriate place (requires understanding of pathfinding and wave progression dynamics for each particular map) don’t refrain from scolding them, reminding/educating that their specialty is rebuilding doors instead.

{Special [Varied] Assisting Punch up Special [Clot OHKO]}

RRRRR

Notes: Special [Kiting] 4-9 FS





Notes: Special [Kiting] Special [Scrake[Punch up]] Level restricted (hard 10) 0-3 FS
Will OHSKO scrakes if your aim is on point.





Notes: Level restricted (hard 25) Special [Kiting] Special [Scrake[Punch up]]

LR✱LR

Notes: Roaming 4-9 FS





Notes: Roaming 0-6 FS

✱R✱✱R

Notes: Roaming 0-3 FS

Units	Guns
Type	Universal (L✱✱✱✱ or R✱✱✱✱)	Magazine based (L✱✱✱✱)
9
8
7
6
Type	Reload based (R✱✱✱✱)	Magazine based (L✱✱✱✱)
5
Type	Reload based (R✱✱✱✱)	Universal (L✱✱✱✱ or R✱✱✱✱)
4
3
2
1

|

Special lines for

Character

Berserker

      The “cookie cutter” class, the more advanced weapons have insane incapacitation powers and several perks offer exclusive outright overpowered benefits like damage resistance, health regeneration and faster running speed, all potentially active at the same time. I liked it more as a dedicated door class. The only valid use of berserker, I would say, is for “off-perking”, but even then, if in-conjunction high tier on-perk weapons are still going to be used, then there isn’t going to be much of a difference. But in general, players that choose this class as their main turn out to be either obnoxious minmaxers (the irony), that confuse teamplay with being able to solo 6p waves, or are average players that naturally get attracted to the most powerful or even outright overpowered things a game has to offer. In either of the cases neither of them (unlike Medics or SWATs to an extent) would ever intentionally body-block Fleshpounds to prevent their team from getting harmed.

      Advice: imagine it doesn’t exist, people playing this class are past the point of no return.

{Kiting Roaming Assisting Spray'n'pray Varied Level restricted (soft 20) [Special [Punch up]]}

RRRL✱

<- Anything melee onperk T3+
      Who cares.
Anything ranged and hard hitting ->



                                               Why do we even need Martial Artist, again?

Gunslinger

      If M14/FNFAL Sharpshooter was actually able to kite (in other words, if it didn’t have movement constraining perks) it would be the Gunslinger class. Basically, as long as one doesn’t mind the trade in effective range and is able to squeeze max RoF out of semi-auto weapons (can be done, for example, by binding the shooting action to the mouse wheel) Gunslinger is overall superior to Sharpshooter, if not to most other classes also. When it comes to an average player characteristic - take a little bit from the berserker and Sharpshooter descriptions.

      Advice: following the notion that this class is an amalgamation of an overpowered beast and a glass cannon, covering Gunslinger during a Fleshpound takedown – wouldn’t be that bad of an idea, that is of course as long as there won't anything better to do at the moment.

{Varied Kiting Punch up Clot OHKO}

RLRL✱

Notes: Punch up 9 FS





Notes: Special [] 9 FS

RLRR✱

Notes: Roaming Level restricted (hard 20) [Special [Assisting]] 3+3/4+2 FS

1st priority weapons

Units	Guns
8
6
4
3
2
1

2nd priority weapons

Units	Guns
6
5
4
3
2

Special priority weapons

Units	Guns
4
2
1

|

RRRRL

Notes: Varied Punch down Assisting

RRLRL

Notes: Varied Punch down Supported
Spray'n'pray Clot OHKO/Kiting





Notes: Varied Punch down Supported Type .500





Notes: Varied Punch down Supported





Notes: Varied Punch down Supported

Special lines for

Character

Survivalist

      The berst class in the game. The reasons why this class is disliked in general are as follows:

1. It’s harder to get a grasp on (fundamental knowledge of the game);
   
2. It requires skill (execution);
   
3. It's actually not an all-rounder class that it is presented as to be, which obviously creates confusion and misuse (false image);
   
4. Most people are garbage, both the ones judging a Survivalist and the ones playing Survivalist (stigma).

      What’s the purpose of this class then, well, in short, its ability and specialization lies somewhere in-between the ones of Sharpshooters, Supports and AoE Demolitionists which in transition, like the one of going from Sharpshooter to Gunslinger class, gains the ability to reload faster in ZED time, run faster (i.e. gains the ability to actually kite) and on top of that also gains access to the Heavy armor trait paired with some general passive damage resistance. Due to the nature of this class affecting so many weapons – in the earlier waves it has better economy through utilizing weapons that spawn on the map (however that is set back later on by the requirement of buying a strong melee weapon). The class fairs almost the same way as its first on-perk weapon, the freezethrower – lower difficulties get absolutely demolished by it, where playing on the higher ones would require of you skill (more so situational awareness than anything else), creativity (not really, since this guide solves that problem for you) and preparation.

      Advice: You. Yes, You! The person that is reading this section being absolutely sure that you are ready to criticize the class for lacking purpose and claim everyone who uses it as uneducated. You should know better than to make a premature judgment on a class you don’t have enough experience of (required for understanding and utilizing it properly).
      Everyone else – consult the section where I explain how to discern a good player from a bad one and DO approach the subject matter in the most civil manner possible. Deal with a bad Survivalist player as you would approach a player of any other class except berserker. (You may be thinking that I am promoting hatred towards the class. I am not. Just kick all the people playing berserker on sight, no need to cause any unnecessary conflicts.).

{Level restricted (hard 10) [Kiting] Level restricted (hard 15) Special [Varied]}

LR---

Notes: AoE Special [Level restricted (hard 0-14)]
Varied Assisting/Type .50

LRRRL

Notes: Varied Assisting Spray’n’pray

Notes: Scrake [Punch up] Type .50
AoE/Demolition/Assisting

?R?R✱

L_L

L_R

R_R

Notes: Kiting Roaming
Type .500/AoE/Punch up

RRRR?

L

R

Notes: Punch up Scrake [Assisting] Assisting
Roaming/Scrake [Assisting]

RRRR✱

Notes: Level restricted (soft 23) [Punch up] Special [Assisting, AoE] Scrake [Assisting]

|

Notes: Assisting Special [Assisting, AoE]





Notes: Level restricted (soft 23) [Punch up] Roaming Type .500







Notes: Punch up Roaming Scrake [Assisting] Type .500







Notes: Roaming Scrake [Punch up] Punch up Special [Kiting]





Notes: Special [Assisting, AoE]





Notes: Scrake [Punch up]

15+

✱

20+

Punch up/Roaming Punch up Demolition/Demolition
…/Supported

RRRRR

Notes: Demolition Scrake [Assisting]

Special lines for

Character

Objective mode

Field Medic

LLLLL

Commando

Loadouts featuring

R

L

AR15 loadouts have an option of switching HM101 and AR15 upgrade for dual 9mms(t4) with fallback.

Firebug

RLRLL

24-

25

LRRL✱

Sharpshooter

LLLRR

SWAT

LRR✱✱

________________________________________________________________

Support

LR✱LR

Units	Guns
9
8
7
6

Gunslinger

RRR✱L

*

15+

23+

If 9mms don't OHKO crawlers then you should either upgrade them to t4 or reach lvl 17.

Survivalist

Featuring

Not featuring

Dedicated character roles

This table covers the selection of characters from which you could pick if you were craving to hear the most possible amount of weapon specific voicelines given your perk choice. The selections were made primarily by comparing the onperk weapon voiceline count for each character, where elimination in case of ties was decided by the comparison of usefulness of said weapon sets (i.e. by the likeliness of you ever having several of them at the same time or any at all).

Perk	Primary character	Secondary character
Medic
Commando
Firebug
SWAT
Sharpshooter
Demolitionist
Support
Gunslinger
Survivalist
berserker

Character

Have voicelines for the same set of weapons

Making your own loadout

      Are you unsatisfied with my selection? Well now you can make your own personal loadout!
First you grab my spreadsheet. Paste a nice loadout shaped weapon selection into the loadout module. Put the spreadsheet away. And let a bunch of daily objectives ruin your thing.

      Anyway, when creating a loadout imagine that it gains traits depending on its characteristics, thus your job narrows down to maximizing the amount of positive traits, while keeping negatives low. Here is an extensive list of such traits:

Positive	Negative	Description
ZEDname OHKO ZEDname OHSKO Effective against ZEDname	Weak to packs Weak to brutes Weak to hulks Ineffective against ZEDname	OHKO – one hit knock out (overrides effectiveness); OHSKO – same but with headshots thus less valuable; Weak to group – ineffective against several ZEDs from a group (there is no positive version of this trait because being effective against scrakes or fleshpounds is more important than anything else, overrides ineffectiveness); Packs - from clots to cloakers, low real fire rate; Brutes - from gorefiends to EDARs, inappropriate cartridge; Hulks - scrakes and fleshpounds, no way to reasonably contribute to slaying either of the threats. No weakness implies versatility. OHKO manifests straightforwardness.
High total ammo gains from box collection High total ammo gains from Support interaction Cheap ammo refills High ammo reserves Equal ammo reserves	Low total ammo gains from box collection No cheap way of refilling your ammo Low ammo reserves Uneven ammo reserves	It’s not possible to have low Support interaction ammo gain rate, because it’s always at least a mag high, meaning that it having a lower rate than from boxes wouldn’t make any sense. Cheap ammo refill trait can be achieved by having at least one weapon related (that’s not 9mm), but it doesn’t really contribute to anything, where the opposite one means that you don’t have any conventional ways of preparing yourself/maintaining your supplies at a reasonable level for an upcoming wave (Railgun+RPG would be a fine example of that). Overrides low ammo gains from box collection. High and low ammo reserves are usually achieved automatically when you have more than enough and not enough weapons respectfully. Equality of ammo reserves contributes to how complicated your loadout is.
Cheap Completely safe to die with	Expensive Risky to die with	If in death you lose a ton of value, which is the case for equally expensive main and backup weapons or t5 9mms (which you have to be absolutely naked for them to drop) then your loadout is risky to die with. On the other hand if you are running a single weapon loadout or a t1 garbage collector then there is nothing to be afraid of. Do note however that current weapon drop system doesn’t yet distinct value between upgraded and non-upgraded weapons and is kind of finicky, so as long as you are not absolutely sure that you’ll drop your most expensive gun on death – your loadout is not insured. Affects fun.
Economically natural to construct	Economically unnatural to construct	Consistent economic expense strategy between games, easy to obtain all the components in just a few waves and inconsistent economic expense strategy between games, inability to obtain all the components in just a few waves. Each trait contributes towards straightforwardness and complication respectively.
Versatile	Rigid	Positive one achieved when your weapons are effective against most of the ZEDs or excel at many tasks without any glaring flaws. If your loadout has one of these traits then it is more likely to gain the opposite one in the Straightforward/Complicated category.
Team heals Devastating AoE High block/parry ability High status effect powers Heavy armor Fast running speed Lane control	No backup weapon	Each particular trait in this category doesn’t directly contribute to any other, one way or the other.
Straightforward	Complicated	Your weapon count should be below 5 (exceptions to this rule are 9mm and 9mm dualies, a single melee weapon, and to some extent HM101), and the purpose of each weapon should be clear as day. As long as both of those conditions are met then your loadout can safely be called straightforward, if it’s the opposite, then the opposite trait applies. Affects irritation.
Fun	Irritating	While this is for the most part subjective category, whatever a particular loadout is fun or irritating can be objectively measured to some extent. For example, if you are running a complicated loadout with Sharpshooter, it’s probably also irritating, due to this class having pacing problems. On the other hand if your loadout has an overwhelming amount of positive traits, but you also have some options that grant you an ability to stack even more on top of that and you are not particularly pressured going one way or the other, then it’s safe to say that you are more than satisfied with what you already have.

Legend:
Basic trait
Composite trait
Composing trait
Traits are mutually exclusive when they are mutually exclusive, i.e. apply common sense.

Example

      While that obviously was just an abstraction on how I have constructed most of the loadouts in this guide, it’s not out of realm of possibility that this could be used as groundwork for a system that could objectively measure quality of any KF2 loadouts. However pinpointing the exact value or an average of values that would grant loadout a trait is a complicated subject that I’m struggling currently with while creating my grading systems that are planned to be released with one of my future spreadsheet updates.

      But as a proof of concept example we could take a weapon that is generally used for killing fleshpounds (or for something equally important), add a .500/.50x1/.50/9mmx4 and a hemoclobber some onperk t1 or t2 weapon to it, and it will probably make for a decent loadout, due to it checking most of the boxes we need (3 weapons, versatility, straightforwardness, good economy and low risks). Case in point:

[saucey]

i think when i wrote my previous comment it was when i read your feelings on beserker, lol

[Bravo]

That was true even before I've made the guide so I don't think it's relevant, and honestly, replying to someone inquiring about general state of things is less bothersome than tolerating someone shitting on what you do\did like its a matter of fact.
Even as things are, I'm still interested in knowing how new weapons fit into the framework of what I already know, so I could utilize it when playing zedternal for example (if that still works).

[saucey]

i wouldn't even bother dude, kf2 is a monkey game. it saddens me to think about the direction tripwire took (didn't they go on a fucking cruise when the game wasn't even finished?). if people heckle you for deciding not to update your guide, who cares?

[Bravo]

Factors that could increase the likelyhood of the major guide update happening:
1. Someone decides to help me out updating the spreadsheet;
2. TWi announces that there will be no major updates anymore;
3. DLC weapon pack gets a massive discount in the steam store.
4. Due to arbitrary unrelated cicrumstances I decide that I want to play KF2 regularly again.

[Bravo]

My spreadsheet from which I base my conclusions off requires updating and every base weapon stat in it fact checked, and that's not happening any time soon since this is a solo project and I'm currently burned out on the subject matter and in general. As much as I've been able to keep up, on a condition that newer (past update 1111) HRG and DLC weapons are not taken in to consideration - what is stated in the guide stays mostly true (even when including things like the hemoclobber nerf).
Whats currently lacking:
HRG/DLC weapon evaluation and inclusion - which poses a significant problem due to inherently esoteric and unconventional mechanics behind them;
Berserker/Survivalist sections overhaul;
Minor but very important corrections like SWAT perk selection.

[Impelstiltskin]

Any intention on coming back to this?

[saucey]

your guide sucks ass

[.Angel❌Hope.]

wow you put a lot of energy into this well done rating this up :3

[Bravo]

Minor corrections.

[Bravo]

Added DLC weapons that were missing, updated Hall rankings, added one support and one sharpshooter loadout.