Note: This guide will be periodically updated. So check for updates frequently!

As a veteran Left 4 Dead 2 player I frequently encounter noobs that can be described as being no less than being on pain of utter incompetence when it comes to the application of the fundamental skills required to be a half-decent teammate. Now, by the word "noob", I don't necessarily mean to refer to a new player (though they may or may not be included in this definition depending on their skill set), rather by using this term I mean to refer to those teammates that are generally uncooperative and lack common sense. This strategy guide is intended to illuminate common noob behavior with the hope that players reading this might rid themselves of these annoying habits or else get rid of players that do exemplify these fallacies, and while this list is by no means exhaustive and perhaps deserves some revision in the near future), still, I think this guide is sufficient in a general sense.

Failing to kill attacking enemies *consistently* while a teammate attempts to revive you results in a resetted revive meter resulting in a slowing down of your team and this gives the infected a greater opportunity to overwhelm you. Having your revive meter reset is especially annoying when the incapped player had relatively few common infected to kill. Being incapped is not an excuse to stop pulling your weight.

You wouldn't be leaving doors open behind you in a real zombie apocalypse, now would you? So why would you do it in here? Every door left unattended to is another opportunity for infected to attack your team and for you to take otherwise unnecessary damage. If you're the last person through a door, close the door behind you!

In my mind, this is the single greatest problem with the L4D community. Unlike your typical Deathmatch-Based First-Person Shooter which is balanced such that a few decent players can carry an entire team, Left 4 Dead 2's versus mode instead places it's margin of success much higher by placing it much more radically upon the ability each individual team member to work in conjunction. To give one common example of the player error we're considering, it's not uncommon that I see a team on the Atrium of Dead Center be separated such that three survivors are on one floor and one survivor is by his/herself on another trying being some sort of vigilante. Separating from your team almost always guarantees an easy and speedy kill for the opposition. Crudely put, don't be that guy that causes your team to lose through your dereliction of them. One should always be approximately between 10-30 feet away from their teammates.

Defending your teams rear is arguably the most difficult job a survivor can do for several reasons; Not only must this player clear any and all infected that his/her teammates merely shoved/avoided, but this player must also deal with the infected that their teammates failed to see altogether. This is in addition to also having to deal with infected approaching your teams front. For these reasons the player defending the rear is usually the most vulnerable out of all the survivors. Therefore, the welfare of this player needs to be attended to frequently, more so than any other player.

Shopping and Scavenging aren't the same thing. Shopping occurs when one searches for items in such a way that the momentum of ones team is slowed down whereas scavenging occurs when a person looks for items without slowing down their team. The best way to avoid shopping is to lead your teams front so that you are not the last player looking for items. What needs to be understood here is that keeping a consistent, forward, pace is critical because it is the primary way that you accumulate points and it also makes it more difficult for the opposing team to catch you. Every second wasted on shopping is another second of spawn time that you've given to the opposing team to choreoograph an attack, so make the most of your time.

There are at least six things every survivor should be cognizant of regarding in-game auditory cues. A word on each.

(I.) Every time a special infected spawns, it's summoning is accompanied by a theme song which corresponds to the disposition of the infected in question. This not only alerts survivors that a special infected hides somewhere within their general location, but it also discloses which particular infected they will be engaging. Here's a short video illustrating the point:
(II.) Aside from the Hunter when it is standing upright, every spawned special infected gives a distinct growl approximately every five seconds. These distinct growls alert the survivors which particular infected they will be engaging thus providing a second buttress for (I). At this point it should be painfully obvious which special infected you should anticipate.

(III.)If you're using ear/headphones. The growling of each spawned special infected is panned between speakers consequently disclosing the general direction of the already spawned special infected. To recap, so far the game has not only revealed to you what you will be fighting, but also where you will be fighting it.

(IV.) When within earshot, a survivor will automatically say that they hear said special infected after it growls. This provides triple confirmation of (I.).

(V.) Special infected make verbal noise as they attack. The charger and hunter are the most obvious while the spitter and smoker are more subtle. Notwithstanding, the survivors have already been given three independent confirmations of what special infected to anticipate. At this point, one saying “I didn't know you were pounced” seems to lose it's veracity as a valid excuse for player inattentiveness.

(VI.) Survivors alert their teammates specifically which special infected are attacking them as they are being attacked by the special infected's primary attack. Keep in mind this is wholly apart from any potential human communication.

All things considered, while this exhortation to take the auditory cues seruously is by no means fool-proof or is it designed to eliminate player inattentivenss altogether since there are sometimes instances which can override some these cue's (i.e. a tank spawning, starting an event, etc.), this at the very least should reduce it. So no more "I didn't know you were smoked even though I was right by you" as a copout for absent-mindedness.

The necessary and sufficient conditions for checking to see if your team is ready to proceed in a level or event includes (1) Asking all of your teammates if they are ready and (2) receiving an affirmative response from every teammate that they are ready. Anything short of this simply does not count as a ready check. Common reasons for performing ready checks include: accommodating players who may load in to the level slowly, players needing to go afk, killing remaining common infected, needing to heal, etc. Needless to say that a player starting a level or event without their teams prior consent often bares deleterious consequences in both of the before mentioned scenarios where ready checks are relevant, so be sure to get the okay from your team prior to starting levels and events.

Just as the bad habit of a parent conceding to the demands of their temperamental toddler can give rise to the bad habit of the child itself complaining in order to get it's way. In similar fashion, the bad player habit of failing to consistently perform ready check's (From hereon RC) can generate the bad habit of ones teammates neglecting to respond to them altogether or else failing to respond to them promptly. If you're guilty of either not responding to a RC or not responding to them promptly enough, know first that this probably isn't entirely your fault. A great deal of the Left 4 Dead community simply neglects performing RC's or else doesn't perform it correctly (for a delineation on how to correctly perform a RC correctly see #7) and so it very well may be the case that the reason so many players don't respond to RC's or don't respond to them quickly enough is because they've grown accustomed to player negligence and so the players who don't respond to RC's don't know any better. Some reasons for responding to RC's and responding them quickly include but are not limited to: avoiding confusion with regards to whether or not ones team is ready to proceed, deterring the bad player habit of other players starting levels and crescendo events without the consent of their entire team, and keeping an overall consistent momentum. All things being equal, wholly apart from one being able to communicate in game through microphone or text chat, the game developers have also included a radial menu for in-game communication which one can access using the “z” and “x” button.

Have you ever played a map where it just seemed like you had to kill more zombies than usual? Well, sometimes this is the result of player hacks and mods, but more often than not it is the result of teammates shoving and dodging more zombies than they are actually killing. Every zombie that a survivor fails to kill is another zombie that their teammate has to deal with. Not killing zombies increases the likelihood that his other teammates will take otherwise unnecessary damage or, worst case scenario, be incapped or killedd. To avoid this its important that as players we don't be shy in using the ammo given to us in-game. The Left 4 Dead creators have been quite generous in distributing ammo pretty liberally throughout each level.

Often, when a player is scolded by their teammates for playing horribly, that same person will often retort back, "I'm here to have fun!", as if saying that somehow exonerates that person from playing as badly as they do . Of course you're here to have fun otherwise you wouldn't be playing this game! The person who uses this excuse needs to appreciate is the fact that no ones definition of fun includes losing horribly like this:

Games like the ones above almost always result in mass rage-quitting and server shutdowns since no one wants to play with teammates this unskilled. What the person who uses "fun" as an excuse for playing badly is really saying is that "I'm unwilling to improve by taking the advice of better players". Good players will be able to take criticism from players that know what they're doing and will adjust their playstyle accordingly just as any good athlete would do.

While it's probably true that virtually every gaming community has its share of tryhards. This derogatory term tends to be used incorrectly as a term that is used to denote any type of player that is genuinely good at this game. A tryhard, properly understood, is someone who takes the game to seriously and usually fails at it.

Now, there are a number of possible explanations as to why players could be abusing this term as they do, however, one possible explanation that I find quite plausible is that certain players are actually using this insult as a sort of coping mechanism to compensate for the fact that they are losing. In other words, instead of these players acknowledging the fact that they need to improve in certain areas of play, blinded by their own pride, they instead take out their frustrations on the winning team by hurling insults. The fact of the matter is that you will never improve at this game if you are insensitive to your own deficiencies. Just as any athlete must be critical of themselves in order to improve their own set of skills, so we must do the same.