Uchiha Obito

Feel free to use this thread to toss around strategies and/or tips for survivor mode. I will go ahead and get the ball rolling on some strategies I have picked up or noticed in my time in Survival. A bit of a caveat before starting, I've only logged about 2 hours so far in survival, but I have managed to get to about 15 minutes in each No Mercy level and the Blood Harvest Finale.

somewhat obvious tips:

Whatever you decide to do; take stock of what you have near you and try and grab a "rare" explosive for the map you are on, that way if you have easy access to a more common explosive you can go through those first and you will have the more rare type nearby.

If you are simply trying to hit silver or gold then do not be afraid to use up consumables at a quicker rate than you would be used to doing in versus or campaign.

Autoshotty is still king, so far for me this has not even been situational, use the autoshotty.

If you are making a stand on a weapons cache do not forget that those weapons are there and feel free to use them to swap out as needed or for a quick reload (if you play that way).

Just because you are burning through your explosives and any "traps" doesn't mean you should waste them, try to save the fire for a tank w/ horde and propane-type explosives for a tank stun.

Kind of less obvious:

If you are making a stand away from a weapons cache use your pistols until a tank arrives. Also try to vary your firing rate so that you are not reloading at the same moment as everyone else.

Hunter pounces HURT in survival. I am not sure about the exact stun time but it feels like 2 - 3 times longer than in versus and campaign. To counter this either try to hold up somewhere that is difficult to be pounced at or be spread out enough to avoid pounce stun.

Boomers are almost no threat at all, in every instance where a boomer has gotten near enough to me to do anything they seem to freeze up and vomit a good second or two slower than usual.

The director may be spawning large numbers of special infected but that doesn't mean they are going to all descend upon you. I have noticed that if you are making a stand that is a good distance out of a special infected's line of sight you can force them to park themselves. This seems to work a lot like it did with tank parking before the patch that fixed it; when you move into a parked special's line of sight he will reactivate and come after you again. This obviously is not the case for a tank, although tanks will occassionally park and then immediately snap out of it and continue on towards your group. (This is a bit of speculation on my part based on what I can hear and what I have seen). If you have survived the wall of text on this tip I will give you a warning: Special infected seem to start to idle in the same general area, so if you are trying to head back for something do not go alone or even in pairs as you may be walking into 4 or 5 smokers and several hunters.

Don't be afraid to be tank bait! I tend to offer myself up for kiting a tank as I tend to have an autoshotty and I can get in extra damage up close. It also offers up the added benefit that if you put enough damage into him he will likely focus on you allowing your teammates to focus on him. I put down several tanks this morning using this tactic and the tank dropped after only 1 swing. There is also the added benefit that even if you get thrashed there is only 1 person in need of healing instead of a whole team.

Not sure if this is 100%, but I seemed to get a double tank spawn every time I hit 6 minutes.

Strategies I used in specific maps:

All of the following strategies netted me a gold for the map

Blood Harvest Finale: This one was fairly easy and straightforward, everyone heads up to the barn and holds out on the top floor. 2 people to the left of the haystack near the ammo and 2 to the right. Those on the side nearest the ladder watch the ladder and the hole in the wall, be especially careful because nearly all of the smoker will attempt to climb the ladder to get to you so keep an eye on that direction. Those on the other side of the haystack watch the hole in the wall and help clear any smokers that climb up if needed. You are right on top of the ammo so don't be afraid to unload on the infected.

No Mercy, The Shutter event (sorry I don't know the map names): Head downstairs and pack into the far corner of the wall that is nearest to the ammo dump. You are not right on the ammo so you have to be a little conservative with it, when you are running out everyone should try to move together during a lull. Be warned, any idling hunters and smokers will be in the far corner where the closet normally is so anyone going for ammo alone is dead meat.

No Mercy, The lift event: My group went ahead and took the lift at the start of the round and dropped down the hole in the warehouse. The room is pretty easy to hold with pistols as infected only have 2 entry points and one of them requires all of the common to climb the pipe. If you have someone baiting the tanks as they appear then you should be able to do most if not all of the tank spawns and take 0 damage or only 1 swipe. My team managed to hit the 10 minute mark before needing to head back to the ammo dump. I would offer up a strategy from there, but we wiped once we got outside because we were down to 0 ammo in our main weapons and were swarmed by about 8 hunters/smokers. One warning, when in the room it is possible for a tank to get on the roof of the warehouse and drop directly on to the pipe instead of climbing it. This allows him to run straight in to the room and is even more troublesome if you have recently cleared several smokers in the spot that he dropped.

No Mercy Finale: Not sure about this, but it was the best I could come up with... My group huddled under the pipe in the room with the radio while I watched the side door. Handle everything as it shows up and you should be able to scrape along to a 10 minute mark. In watching the side door I was able to call out about 90% of all tank spawns and you get a clear shot into a common spawn point for common and special infected. You also get an added bonus in that if the tank tries to go through a window it will crawl along incredibly slowly and will be a sitting duck. The side door also affords you first dibs on any tanks climbing the ledge adjacent to it.

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WhiskeySix

good stuff! I've been super busy this last week and only got a few rounds of survival in - looking forward to getting some more play time in this week!

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Uchiha Obito

thanks, I see AVS and Morganan have been busy spreading their survival wisdom, anyone else have some general tips? I don't think anything is not worth mentioning, have to help the new people as well.

Something I thought I had put in the original post:

When looking for a spot to hold out in here are some good guidelines.

Try to minimize points of entry for the horde, the fewer directions that you have to cover the better.

Try to get into a building! A room with a low ceiling makes it very difficult for a hunter to pounce in one shot, and you typically do not have to worry about horde coming in from above.

Look for a "medium-sized room", a small room is one where the tank will be on you in a split second. A room that is too big may provide too many smoker pulls. This is entirely situational but hopefully you get the idea.

Proximity to your weapons/ammo cache does not HAVE to be a priority, but it certainly doesn't hurt.

Don't be afraid to try new or interesting spots that is how they are discovered.

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Zephyr

I haven't tested this, but I'm surprised no one has thought of it yet.

Have players cover each other based on their character model.

Zoey > Francis > Bill > Louis > Zoey

This way everyone knows that, in theory, someone's got their back, and if their backup goes down, someone's ALSO got THEIR back. Its a little less anarchic and is a good teambuilding exercise.

Survival mode made me think of it, but it probably works for every mode in L4D pretty well.

-Zephyr

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Avs

Some other Survival tips for this general thread:

Throwables

This has already been said, but when you plan your strategy to survival, make sure you guys grab throwables furthest away from your hold out position(s). For example, if there are A, B, and C areas to defend. And your plan consists of staying at A then moving to B. Grab everything you can from C first instead of the nearest consumables at A or B.

Weapons

Because the tank is still the make or break variable for most survival, shotguns are generally the most common weapon used. This is simply because on the survival difficulty (which is a hybrid mix of normal/advanced), tanks can be shotgunned down very quickly in 5 seconds (or less). Tanks generally disrupt the survivors, and deal major damage to the survivors comparatively against other infected. Also, tanks suck up most of the ammo which is probably the single most defeating factor of survival. The hunting rifle is a decent weapon in the right hands, but only in dealing with special infected at long ranges (preferably head shots as well). The problem with the HR is that its not very good against multiple tanks. While a clip of it will deal plenty of damage, its long reload time and other infected interfering generally makes it a rare choice. Assault rifles are better because of its all around power, but ammo becomes an issue unless conserved very carefully. But if you are conserving, an autoshotty becomes even better because you can kill more tanks per full load of auto shottie shells compared to an AR.

Ammo

Ammo piles are probably the most important thing to consider when planning. No ammo means Tanks of death, and smokers of doom. This also affects weapon choice, as Assault rifle should only be used when near ammo piles, and only against special infected. As a rule, ammo should be conserved in most cases unless your team has planned ammo runs. Either way, conservation of ammo is a good rule of thumb so that you are always prepared for the worst.

Gas Tanks and Propane and N-tanks

Most people are afraid of stock piling these as one wrong move and BOOM. However, its very useful against tanks as they will either stun, or give you breathing room by creating a wall of flame that will kill any normal infected running your way. Just find a good spot to stock a few (dependent on location).

Positioning

The best areas have a height advantage. This allows you to shoot down at infected climbing up to you. Tanks don't stand a chance either. And you can usually use pistols at ease. The next best area is a wide open space so you can see tanks coming from afar, and funnel common infected to your team with good positioning. The only problem here is that you will need to shoot hunters/smokers from afar. Wide open spaces allow you to maneuver around tanks and kill things with your pistol from far away (this is dependent on skill). Objects that make tanks climb over (such as upper generator soda machine) are a bonus. Railings are also a bonus as they prevent smokers from doing much of anything.

Tanks

The key concept with Tanks is:

1. Shoot the tank with your shotguns. Every shot is critical and counts towards whether your team gets to 10 minutes, 15 minutes, or 20 minutes. (20 minutes is like the new Gold).
2. If you are reloading your shotgun or trying to keep it at >1, you should calculate how many shots have gone into it and decide whether your next shot will either bring it to the brink of death (so a teammate who still has ammo can finish it), or keep reloading because your teammates are either being hit, down, or cannot assist (or reloading as well). The reason is, the less hits and trouble a tank is to your team, the chances of survival increase greatly during the later rounds. Most 12 minute + teams die because their health whittles away so that their teammates can no longer hold their spots or fight off horde effectively.
3. Use fire to give your team breathing time when engaging a tank. I generally have the group I am with hold off on using any items until at least 3-4 minutes in, and only when a tank is engaging the group with a large horde. Molotovs beat pipe bombs as they provide longer gaps, but pipe bombs are essential in moving strategies, ammo runs, and emergency situations.
4. Shoot tanks as they climb up to you. I see many good players sit there like a deer in headlights when tanks climb up to them. The fact of the matter is that tanks have a 70% of dying without hurting the team, if a single player is able to shoot 7-9 rounds of shotgun into the tank as he climbs within a distance of 10 feet. If you have two players doing it, then the tank should be down without even touching your team.
5. Bait and lure. If you are up to the challenge, have a single person unload on the tank and then kite it around for the rest of the team. This generally minimizes the damage to one hit.
6. If a tank is able to trap a player and start pounding on him in the corner, gang up and shove your shotgun up its arse. This will make him sit down obediently.
7. If a tank starts pounding on your incapped teammate, repeat #6, as the tank will kill your teammate in several hits (which means you have to do this fast).

Other stuff regarding tanks:

The more firepower you unload into the tank, the slower it moves. So 4 autoshotties at medium close range = tank falls over dead on top of you guys without moving. Also, it is unnecessary to use fire against survival tanks unless to screen your team from distractions.

Uchiha Obito

Something new I learned recently but had not posted before: You can move your throwable explosives (pipe bombs and molotovs). Here's how it works from what I can tell having set up a few maps.

1) There is a sort of radius around explosive "spawn points" where if you grab another explosive from near to that spot it will "respawn" back in its original spot.

2) I believe some of the explosives are linked sets, this of course applies for explosives that spawn in the same spot, but also some other explosives but I cannot determine any sort of pattern.

With those 2 rules in mind here is what you do: Grab an explosive from one point on the map, then head over to another area with explosives. As you grab the new explosive back away from the spawn point. Hopefully you backed up far enough and the explosive rolled far enough away that it is out of its respawn radius. If you have done this correctly you can now freely cycle these 2 explosives and swap them out all the way back to wherever you are going to hold out. Be sure to keep track of which explosive actually came from the spawn point because if you swap the same one out it will put it back in its original spot. In this way, you can grab all of the explosives on the map and "carry" them to your hold out spot.

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billko

To add to this thought:
1) Explosives dropped in this manner become actual objects in the game, meaning you can punch/shoot them and they move. Therefore just punch/shoot the object until it is a fair distance away from the spawn point and then do what was mentioned above. In fact, you can make a mini-game out of this, punching the Molotovs (they're a lot easier to move than the pipe bombs) kind of like golf. Actually, this becomes an important skill to have because...

2) The spawn points are actually spawn COLUMNS that extend all the way from the top of the map to the bottom, and if your hold out spot is over/under the spawn point (or you have to pass over/under the spawn point to get to your favorite hidey-hole), at some point you'll be swapping your explosives only to be frustrated when the explosive you worked so hard to move suddenly re-spawns instead of drops to the ground. Just a simple chip shot onto the green and you're good to go.

WhiskeySix

woah, really? how far from the spawn do they have to be to become physics objects?


(and welcome to TG billko!)

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Reflexes are for mistakes only. Reaction implies surprise. Be surprised less.

billko

Thanks for the welcome!

I don't have a tape measure, but I would say about 10 to 15 ft. If you can punch/shoot the explosive beyond that, you can play the swap game, picking one up and dropping the other, all the way to your hideout. If you get good at punching them, you can even chip them up onto rooftops and stuff. If you get absurdly adept you can even punch them through windows, but that's showboating.

It's easiest to do if you swap different explosives - i.e., swap a mollie for a pipe bomb, or vice versa. Using that method at the lighthouse, i was able to collect 5 mollies and 5 pipe bombs before i ran out of patience.

Note: Since they are subject to the laws of "physics" now, try not to blow up anything near them (Boomers, included) because it tends to scatter them and you don't wanna have to grope for them in a firefight. [Louis: Francis! That's NOT the pipe bomb you just grabbed!]

To "swap" your explosives from their spawn point to a place of your liking, follow this procedure:
1. Obtain a explosive (i.e. pipe bomb or mollie) from one explosive spawning point.
2. Move to the another explosive spawning point and grab another explosive.

a. To increase the chances of it working, try to swap for the opposite explosive when possible.
b. If the swapped explosive disappears instead of falling to the ground, the previous spawning point is too close or you unwittingly swapped an explosive from the same point – easy to do when you’re doing several swaps.

3. Assuming the swapped explosive has fallen to the ground:

a. The dropped explosive is now a physical object in the world and you can move it by punching it or shooting it (thankfully they don’t detonate, but the mollie will show glass cracks when shot – which makes you wonder how they explode at all if they’re that tough to break… but that’s another story).
b. Move the explosive by crouching and punching/shooting it, until it is far enough away from the spawn point that it won’t re-spawn.
c. Facing AWAY from your eventual destination, grab the explosive on the ground; you will grab it and the one you were holding will drop to the ground, a little further along the path to your destination than the explosive that was on the ground.
d. Lather, rinse, repeat until you get to your final destination.

Tips:
1. Get good at punching the explosives. As mentioned before, explosive spawn points are actually spawn columns that run from the ceiling if the map to the very bottom, so if there are explosive spawn points are near or en route to your destination, even if they are above/below you, you’ll have to punch the explosive instead of grab it, until you get out of range of the explosive spawn point. Besides it’s fun! Or at least I think so… for the first two minutes, at least.
2. Even if your objective is to transport a pipe bomb, bring a molly as your alternate so you can drop the mollie and punch it when you have to. Mollies are MUCH easier to move than pipe bombs (probably due to weight diffs).
3. Don’t blow up anything near your new stockpile of explosives! Being that the explosives are now “physical” objects, they WILL scatter!