The end of 2021 - the beginning of 2022. Another Christmas sale. It would seem, who needs a 12-year-old game without an interesting plot, amazing graphics, and even about zombies? However, people do take it. They play it. New players appear on Expert. No, they have always been there, it's just that now there are more of them again than usual. At the same time, there are still those who come in for achievements, nostalgia with friends, etc.

Experienced players are welcome in any team, and there is a problem even if there is only one inexperienced player in any team. After all, he or she doesn't bring any benefit in itself and harms the rest. There was a time when people were kicked out of Expert difficulty just because they "played badly" (running away from the team when it was worth waiting; taking too much, etc.) Now they are usually kicked only for friendly fire. Although I repeat: an inexperienced player doesn't bring any benefit in itself and harms the rest.

I suggest not to return to what was before but to explain to these people what and how to do: shoot, throw, heal, wait, run, etc. Those who don't perceive this are not needed. Kick them out to free a slot for an adequate player. Compliance with the rules = respect for teammates. Learning to play, of course, is not as fun and enjoyable as just playing. But once you learned, you'd really enjoy the game on high difficulty. And it's worth it.

There are difficulty levels in many games. 3 levels, 5, 6... It depends on the imagination of the developers. The most common thing that changes when moving from one difficulty to another is numbers: damage from enemies and their accuracy, friendly fire damage, number of useful items on the map, etc. Let's take two classic shooters: Call of Duty and Battlefield. I don’t know how it's now, but a few years ago what changed there when changing the difficulty in the Campaign mode? Yes, only a few values, of which the main ones are the same accuracy of enemies and their damage done to you. The game turns into a tedious running from trench to trench and shooting opponents from afar, because close combat, even with two opponents, is very dangerous. You just go through the game more slowly. On the highest difficulty in L4D2, the situation is different. Yes, the changes are also generally only numerical, but even on Expert, the player can run around and kill enemies left and right. If you know how to play, then the action doesn't become less. It gets even bigger, because you can still run, but now everyone around you (including teammates) is able to inflict much more damage to you. You have to be more careful, but the game doesn't turn into something dull and monotonous. Those who saw it often stay here for a long time. Because by no means every shooter will allow you to rush like that, even on the highest difficulty, throwing opponents left and right. That's what is very attractive in this game.

I am writing this guide because it's supposed to be here. I mean, not specifically mine, but in general. It's exactly with that title. It's complete, has a clear logical structure and describes at least everything you really need to know to play on Expert difficulty. Read it like a book, because it is a book, not a collection of tips/recommendations. Almost everyone will find here something new for himself or herself, because I even write about what will not catch your eye if you just go through the game. Something you don't usually think about every time during a campaign. Even for several thousand hours. And also... because I met people who wanted to learn how to play on Expert; they calmly accepted advice and didn't pretend to be a know-it-all, despite their sometimes impressive experience; I promised them that I would write a guide in which I'd tell what I know myself, and now I'm fulfilling my promise.

ATTENTION! THE TITLE OF THE GUIDE IS NOT "HOW TO PLAY LEFT 4 DEAD 2"

Those who are reading these lines right now thinking "Come on, surprise me"... please close the manual and do not open it again. It was not written to surprise, but to help; to tell how, why, what for, etc. For the sake of people who are interested in learning something new about the game, learning something, or just testing themselves. Smart people are always open to new things. The foolish ones will say that they don't need it, because they already know everything.

I will immediately touch on the topic of using the game’s flaws (including bugs) so that there are no misunderstandings here: in fact, no one has the right to decide how you must play. This is your game. You bought it, so you can play it the way you want: honestly or not - it's up to you. And if you are not gonna play on the Expert difficulty, but you are interested in the guide, then just skip the rest of this section and read the following ones. And if you are going to, then firstly try to answer the question "why do games have difficulty levels at all?"

There are many reasons, I will give only one. Levels exist so that players can find a convenient one for themselves. Not too difficult, not too easy or just one that will not be boring. Everyone has his or her own requests. However, everyone always goes to any level voluntarily. Therefore, people go to the Expert level also voluntarily, which means that they themselves want to have difficulties. They might not be ready for difficulties, but they definitely want them. And they get tremendous pleasure when they feel like strong players without reservations.

So why make it easier for yourself to play by exploiting game's weaknesses? There are rules specifically designated by the game developers - game mechanics and conventions. For example, behavior patterns of special infected or the horde spawn timer, map borders, after all. All this is deliberately written and created. And the weaknesses of the game are flaws in its code: scripting errors, algorithmic incompatibilities, etc. (I won’t try to pretend to know - I don’t understand this at a sufficient level). Other game mechanics emerge from them. They just appear as a result of flaws. As a side effect, and not as a desired result of conscious purposeful creation. What's the point of setting the difficulty to high and then going through the map while minimizing the difficulty the game creates?

You met a Witch on the way. Well, just carefully bypass her or kill her in one of the many difficult, but honest and effective ways (more about this in the following sections). Instead of, for example, throwing a molotov and going idle, and then staring at it as if it were the eighth wonder of the world. Yes, just set her on fire and run away. This is not creating a problem for oneself from scratch. This is just a specially designed game mechanic: the need to take risks in order to get further on the map. And its observance will bring more pleasure than its violation, because you did everything according to the rules and didn't suffer in any way.

Being in special places where the infected cannot see you or where it's difficult for them to get you is the same thing: forget about such places. Yes, no one has the right to punish you for this. But you are punishing yourself, thus admitting your own weakness and depriving yourself of more pleasure than you could get by going through the same thing without any indulgences.

As for the rushers: Speedrunners get the joy of what they are doing. This is a separate category of people, who unlike the majority don't enter the game for the sake of the game itself. They train special techniques and learn their own, for which they should be respected no less than other players should. You cannot achieve this with a simple rush.

You (the person reading this now) hardly always or quite rarely start the game solely for the sake of a speed run (if I am mistaken, I will only be glad to know that even such people found something interesting in this guide). So just play for the team. If you pass this way, you will be of great benefit to her - you will be a role model and a reliable player. If you do not pass, then there is something to strive for. No more, no less.

One of the most common mistakes here is choosing a high difficulty level, simply because you want to have difficulties. Because you're used to play hard everywhere, etc.

When you choose Expert difficulty in L4D2, then by this you say that you are ready for all sorts of situations. You know the places of frequent spawning of useful items, the working schemes for passing "events", the actions during the attack of the horde, etc. And when you go to Realism, you claim that you also feel the game; that you know how to see and listen, because the game will not point a finger at "take this" or "shoot that one."

It's absurd to think of yourself as a good Expert player (or an Expert player in general) just because you are wielding an auto shotgun as a Campaign Expert and smashing paper Infected. The same case is when you play on Realism, took a magnum (which kills the same ordinary infected with one hit to any part of the body) and hit the left mouse button as hell. I have nothing against any weapon, really, but you need to understand why you do it this way and not otherwise.

A good player differs from other players in that he can act on his own when necessary and is able to make smart decisions in difficult situations. It is not enough just to learn the patterns, because this game has a generator of random outcomes. You need to be able to think a little so as not to get lost if something suddenly goes wrong (although this is just a zombie shooter, not a puzzle).

This can be called the essence of the game. You go through a path consisting of different sections: buildings, open spaces, fields, swamps, urban landscape, countryside, etc. Each location generates certain situations. Everything has its own characteristics. Let's go in order.

When there are solid fences nearby, you feel calmer. Always keep them in sight, if there are any. The wall will not hit. There is no need to worry about this side, so turn your full attention to others. Sometimes you need to turn your head not only horizontally, but also vertically.

Entering a room full of infected? Don't rush and don't shoot. The Expert level does not encourage such carelessness. You will be surrounded on all sides and laid down in seconds. Quickly assess the situation. You will not notice one or two, but they will run up to you and hit you. You kill one running towards, the other on the left, the third is already standing behind and causing damage. -10 hp if from the back, and -20 if from the front. These are serious numbers, considering that you have a maximum of not 100 permanent hp all game, but only 80. In addition, the behavior of single infected is such that they try to hit you from the front. To overtake and deal as much damage as possible.

Get close to walls and other solid textures that protect you from attacks from all directions. This may include the borders of the map.

On realism, if you fell - blink your flashlight, shoot, use vocalizer (when it’s hard to find you). Write your location in the chat, after all, or use the microphone.

A little more about the flashlight: it will often help to distinguish a partner from an infected one. No one expects to see a zombie that blinds with a bright beam in the eyes. In the dark, it is easy to mistake a player without a lantern for an infected one. You will shoot one or two at the first one and incapacitate him. Problems out of nowhere. Once you turn on the flashlight, don't turn it off again.

It's very unpleasant to catch teammates' bullets on expert difficulty. Their damage is very high.
Three basic rules:

• don't walk through other players (you never know when they will start shooting, and if the player has already started, he will not have time to react in time);
  
• don't shoot over the teammate’s shoulder (and in general near him; the bot’s reaction is predictable, but the reaction of the other person is not; you can’t guess in which direction his character will run);
• don't cross the ally's firing path (he is focused on the target, helping the team; either go around him from behind, or hit him with the butt, asking to clear the way, or wait for the shooting to end).

Some players at the beginning of the chapter open the safe door, stand in the passage and start shooting, forgetting about the others. Go out and stand behind the iron door, covering yourself with it on one side, or wait for everyone to leave, and then take any position convenient for you.
The situation is similar, but reversed: when in a hurry, players run into the safe room, close the door, and then open it right in front of the last player, who is limping, pursued by a horde. He or she already saw that the door was closed and pressed the button to open it. As a result, they closed the open door and fell because the infected overtake the character. Believe me: it's not difficult for the player to press the "use" button. But it will be much more difficult if you also press it. It's better to come forward a little and help him or her by pushing away the infected with the butt. You will bring much more benefits.

Ever since Counter Strike, it so happened that shooting while crouching is more accurate than shooting while standing. In L4D, such physics migrated from there. No, I don't report it. I just had to bring to the next important point:

DON'T SHOOT OVER A CROUCHED TEAMMATE

Although at first glance it seems that shooting in the same direction with two weapons is a good idea, there are at least two serious arguments against:

• you don’t know when the teammate will stand up, and he or she will stand up quickly and at any moment, which means they can easily get a bullet in the back;
  
• you limit his or her maneuverability (they see bullets flying over their head and are afraid to get up, and when a charger runs at you, a comrade, moving on his haunches, may not have time to move away and be caught). Therefore, give your teammates the freedom to maneuver, but do not lose sight of them.

Do not run away if the team is moving slowly. In any case, the chapter will change only when all the survivors are in the safe room. There are different opinions about whether you should always be with the team. I will say this: with a good team, it is worth it. Unfortunately, the ability to distinguish a good team from a mediocre one comes only when you begin to understand the game yourself but no other way.

The only thing I can say about this is that you should not run after the team if the infected are attacking from behind, and the growl of a tank is heard from behind the turn, blocking the path with its carcass. Stop, fight off the attack first. Clear an area for yourself to run and maneuver calmly.

ALWAYS WAIT FOR OTHERS BEFORE STARTING THE EVENTS

Until they take a position and heal themselves (if necessary), etc. It also depends on their readiness whether you reach the end of the chapter alive.

The Horde (Mass Attack of the Infected) has always been a major problem on Expert. It attacks even if you're not moving forward, and is constantly coming from somewhere, except from the front (not counting events where you need to fight, run, refuel or turn on something). A crowd of 20-30 bodies. Keep in mind its appearance and don't let them incapacitate the team.

If someone has been vomited, don't get close to them right away. The player has a dark green spot in full screen; he or she cannot understand who is standing in front of them. They will shoot/use melee and damage you, and only you are to blame.

If the horde caught you in an open area, find a way out of it. Literally. They run behind, but not in a chain; there are gaps between them. Somewhere more, somewhere less. Do you see them surrounding you? Run towards a larger gap, simultaneously pushing / shooting near ones. You need to break out of the ring, otherwise you will get into trouble.

The attack of the horde on a timer (when it comes from behind; the interval is about one and a half minutes) is announced by a special musical theme. Each campaign has its own theme. You just need to remember by ear. When such a theme starts, the team has only a few seconds to get into defensive positions, and here we come to another important rule of the Expert difficulty:

NO OTHER SOUNDS

The best decision is to use headphones. Forget about music while playing. You can listen to it as much as you like on other difficulty levels, but not here. Even more so for Realism. Sounds help to determine from which side and who is moving towards you; how far is a special infected from you, etc.

Take cover in safe places. All shelters in the game can be divided into 3 types:

• rooms
• high places
• and others (corners, natural borders...)

You see a teammate is in trouble? Help, if he generally looks adequate (doesn't shoot at you all the time and doesn't make abrupt, unreasonable actions). Left is a game about co-op. About the team. Here is a team like this:
You cannot be alone here, and only those three who run nearby will support. Everyone else will try to kill you, and they will do it if you forget about the team, and the team forgets about you. It will be as terrible as possible if someone in the team also begins to deliberately reduce the health of others. There is no place for such people on Expert. Kill and/or kick out of the game. Calmly, without verbal skirmishes. That's not what you three are here for.

We are talking about such moments where you need to get to a certain place and do something to stop the horde spawning: turn off / close, etc. Everything here is about the same as when simply moving forward. The main thing is to constantly move so that you cannot be surrounded: shoot, hit, blow up, burn, etc. I will talk about separate situations later.

Doors are your best friends on Expert. This's not a joke. They can delay anyone, though usually only for a few seconds. The trailing player closes them behind him, and the one in front is in no hurry to open them if he hears the sounds of the infected from there. Few people do this now, but you can extend the "life" of a partially broken door by pushing the infected away from it. For example, if you need to reload.

I remember how I was once impressed by the moment when the player fought off the horde, heard the jockey, quickly ran into the respawn room, closed the door and shot him through it. There is always a risk of not repulsing an attack with a butt, and the door in any situation will give a few important seconds.

More about the respawn rooms: on Campaign Expert, those located right in front of the events can be used for respawning many times; moreover, they work even without doors.

Since this's not a guide to the game as a whole, I'm not writing here about "basic" things like what respawn rooms are or how to counter Special Infected. Readers are assumed to be aware of repulsion, and even more so of how Specials behave. You will see damage numbers in game. It is enough to say that Smoker and Hunter can kill a full-health survivor in 6-8 seconds.
Therefore, I will write only a few tips:

• Try to catch a Hunter at the corners until he appears completely for the jump (partially lean out and shoot);
  
• When you hear a Charger, jump on some hill (it will take him much longer to get you), and if it took a run and is about to crash into what you are standing on (and if there is a small height between you and it), jump so that you are not repelled by the shock wave;
  
• It's convenient to catch a Smoker on barriers, that is, you run up to some object that you can hide behind, look out, wait for the moment when its tongue stretches in your direction, and immediately hide;
  
• On a Campaign expert, the silhouettes of the Special ones who grabbed the players are highlighted in red through the walls, so it is often possible to free a comrade with piercing;
  
• Spitter becomes extremely dangerous when you are low on health. If you hear her in this situation, hide behind the door or jump on something small. In this way you will either shoot it before the attack, or you will be out of range of the acid;
  
• Don't shoot a Charger who has grabbed a teammate but hasn't started to charge yet; the mechanics is such that until then, the Survivor takes damage, even if they no longer control their body. More than once I observed a situation when, in an attempt to save a comrade as quickly as possible, the players, shooting at the charger, themselves incapacitated their teammate, and then the Charger simply beat the already wounded;
  
• Do you hear the Boomer or the Spitter around the corner? Shoot through that wall. Most likely, you will kill them;
  
• In all situations, try to deal with special ones from a distance, because even a Smoker at a certain distance isn't a danger.

ON CAMPAIGN EXPERT, SHE KILLS IN ONE HIT. ON REALISM OF ALL LEVELS, EXCEPT EASY, TOO

According to the developers, they created this character so that players don't shoot at everything, but shoot more carefully, knowing what the consequences will be otherwise.

Do you know what the first thing a player does when they first come from a Campaign Expert to Expert Realism and sees a Witch? That is right, they make a mistake. They take a shotgun and try to kill her. Yes, this method doesn't work, because on Realism the crybaby does not receive additional damage from the shotgun. Here you need to shoot at point-blank range at least 7 times (whoever gets less - write in the comments) to put her down, and this, of course, is not an option.

There are many ways to kill a Witch (even on Realism). Some are more risky, complex and spectacular, others are less, but they are all guaranteed to work and, if necessary, will help you to remove a dangerous crying creature from the path.
These methods are described in this guide: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2739301652

I will only talk about one. If burning was the first method in the history of realism, then the next one was probably discovered after it: you scare her and hide behind the door, while
teammates shoot her. Just move away from the doorway at this point, because the damage from the claws passes through the damaged door completely. In addition, you better not do this if there are bots in the team, because they can follow you and ruin everything.

ON EASY DIFFICULTY, IT HAS 3000 HP. 4000 ON MEDIUM, 8000 ON ADVANCED AND EXPERT. ONE HIT INCAPACITATES THE PLAYER. THE SAME APPLIES TO STONE AND OTHER THROWABLE OBJECTS. TWO MORE HITS WILL BE DEATH TO THE CHARACTER

His program of behavior is simple, somewhat similar to the behavior of a hamster, which is why I call it like that. If there is no water nearby, immediately set it on fire. Otherwise, lure the tank to dry land first. Always look for a circle to run around and shoot at it. As a rule, these circles are large immovable objects that it cannot climb over, but there are exceptions, for example, billiard tables, store shelves, etc.

In some Campaigns, there are trucks and wagons standing in parallel and close to each other. You jump from one to another, lead him back and forth, and shoot. Improvise but smartly.

In the first chapter of Dark Carnival, the Tank occasionally appears in the swampy lowlands. You went down the cliff, and it is right there. Someone will offer to rush. Remember: this is the last thing you should do on Expert. Because there will be infected who will slow you down if they don't incapacitate you. Do not think about luck. You are not near the shelter and there is water nearby, you will not be able to run back. How to be?
It's simple: run up to the tree. I'm talking about this tree:It is not so convenient to run around other trees because of the bushes. The closer you run to the trunk, the easier it is to control the situation.

THE MAIN THING IS TO LOOK FOR THE CIRCLE AND KEEP THE DISTANCE. IF THERE IS NO CIRCLE, RUN BACK. ALWAYS ONE OF THESE TWO WAYS WORKS

The Hamster cuts corners, moving along the shortest trajectory, so don't try to get away from him in open space by abruptly changing direction. It slows down, rounding the corners of tangible objects. Using these corners, you can increase the distance between you and it.

Don't run with the tank near the incapacitated teammate and do not shoot the first one when it's near your fallen comrade because in both cases the tank deals serious damage to the incapacitated survivor.

There are cases when the Director turns on the "reverse" gear of this giant. Rarely, but there are. In the first chapter of Swamp Fever especially. It's about spawning a tank behind the team. There is no need to be afraid, because it is still the same Hamster. Just give it a warm welcome. A hot welcome. Literally.

If the Hamster throws a stone at someone, and you have melee, get closer to him from behind and after the throw (by no means before) start hitting. Safely with a machete, katana and tonfa you can hit 6 times. That is 2400 damage over a few seconds. Then immediately run away because it turns and hits. The slower the melee weapon, the fewer times you can hit without risking yourself. The axe allows you to deal 4.

There's a way to deal with the Hamster with melee weapons alone. You can read about this here: https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2716960006
It is risky, but spectacularly and effectively.

I will not analyze all the weapons in details here, cause everyone has their own best weapon. Moreover, in different situations, changing it will help you to be a more useful player.

Chainsaw and grenade launcher. These are very unusual weapons. The first is absence for most of infected of ability to attack a player in front of a short period, and the second is simply single-shot and causes explosions. We are talking about friendly damage again. Learn how to use these two before you use it on Expert: always keep your distance from your teammates with the chainsaw; feel the area affected by the explosion from the grenade launcher. Sometimes you seem to shoot safely... and a teammate with 40 hp lost only one because of this and is already lame. An insignificant trifle, but it can spoil the mood.

Good aim? Try sniper rifles. Do you rarely fall? Look at the magnum. By the way, it is still worth using if the ping is high. Because a melee attack requires a good connection to the server.
In general, I think it is better to master melee weapons first, and leave the magnum for last. As I wrote above, nowadays, people play with it on Expert too often. Simply because it is convenient: you go and one-shot right and left. Speaking about some more difficult situations, the players are not ready. They are constantly falling and spending many resources on healing.

In realism mode, there are no respawn rooms at all, so without a defibrillator, you will quickly become a spectator and stay there until the end of the chapter. Learn to stand firmly on your feet and remember the places where medicines often appear. Do not hurry to take the magnum.

All weapons in the game are divided into primary and secondary. It certainly is and even on Campaign Expert, players often go ahead with the main weapon in their hands. However, if you are going for Realism, then be prepared for exactly the opposite situation.

It's easy to see that in Realism mode without headshots any primary weapon is ineffective against common infected, except for shotguns at close range. On Expert, with the frequent appearance of the horde, you always should have something that will allow you to spend minimum resources and time to kill one common infected. That is why Expert Realism players always clear the path not with a primary weapon (even if with a primary one, it is most likely a shotgun), but with a secondary one (melee or magnum), which allows you not to use several tens of bullets to kill only several common infected.

There is nothing stupid about using a magnum much more often here than a primary weapon, but it would be stupid if, for example, a player doesn't switch to a shotgun or any other weapon when shooting at a tank, because it deals more quantitative damage at the same time.

Another thing about the magnum: there is one thing that few people notice, even after hundreds and thousands of hours. This weapon can be reloaded faster when not empty. Just like the auto shotgun in the first part, huh. Check for yourself: it does not matter if there are seven rounds left or one; it is always faster than reloading after emptying the clip completely. Therefore, fans of this weapon can develop a useful habit of counting to seven, then reloading. After a couple of hundred shots, you will be reloading with one bullet in reserve without any problems and without any calculation.

As for the choice of weapons, I will also say this: do it according to the situation. The same magnum is considered unbalanced by some people. Although practice shows that with a horde in an open area, many players cannot provide the necessary resistance.

I never understood people who, in the fourth chapter of Dark Carnival, without taking vomit, come to the event without melee weapons. What are they hoping for? There is always a horde going on, and it will not end until the door closes behind the last survivor. An endless dense stream in the corridor, which also expands towards the end. It has always been difficult here, even with melee weapons. Without a vomit jar, it is difficult for all four survivors to get to the safe house. This does not mean there is no other way. This means that you need to be prepared and know what to do if your team finds itself in such a situation. I will tell you more in the “throwables” paragraph.

Here the result is this: look for a weapon for yourself and according to the situation. Shoot, hit and master everything because different weapons can often be found in the same places, but prioritize. This will help to become stronger and bring more value to the team.

Sometimes mounted weapons can be found in the game. This is, which is installed on a special machine for greater stability while shooting. It might look like this:

and this:
Both types can overheat, but the second cools faster, and the first can be fired without overheating at all. Just do not hold the fire button, but press it like "one press - one shot".
The minigun is more often in such a position that a team is running in its reach. On Expert, this weapon will incapacitate a survivor in a couple of seconds, no matter how much health they had. In addition, it will take a couple of seconds to kill the character.

There is such a thing as the accuracy of fire. The minigun is far from being an accurate weapon, but its accuracy of fire allows you not to think about it. It looks like this:

On a more distant object, it looks like this:
Each of these two real circles resulted from holding down the fire button while aiming at the same spot and waiting twice for the weapon to overheat. On my screen, the radius of the circle is 1-1.5 cm. Yours may be different. Now look at the second screen again and mentally move this circle to the right. It will take up a third of the total space above the helipad. That is why you shouldn't use it to cover teammates. You will kill them faster than cover them. If the survivor was grabbed by a Special one, and there is no one from the teammates nearby, feel free to shoot. Don't shoot from the minigun before the capture.

There is another important point regarding easel weapons. The fact is that a character sitting behind a machine gun is always the number one target for a Tank. That is why often this is worth using to take the Hamster "under control".

Example: a fat man vomited an incapacitated teammate; a pile of meat with fists will immediately rush towards the poor survivor and beat him to death with a couple of blows. You can save him by sitting behind a machine gun. The Tank will forget about an incapacitated character and go to you. There will be time for someone to save the player or if the teammate is laming and the Hamster is following him. You also sit behind the turret and switch the Tank to yourself. Therefore, sometimes it's more important not even to shoot, but simply to sit down at the machine gun.

It has only 2 purposes: to clear the nearby area quickly and to distract the horde.
With the clearing everything is more or less obvious – it's used when there's a large crowd ahead, the players don't want to shoot each infected individually and the team has more than enough resources. In the case of the horde, the pipe is often thrown somewhere far away. As the result, the infected simply don’t have enough time to reach it and run back to the survivors, or they don’t react at all, continuing to surround and damage the team. Throw the bomb so that it doesn’t land on the path where you are moving (if you need to run forward); closer to the infected, so that they have enough time to run up to it and to explode. At the same time, don't forget about the alarm cars and the Witches, which will create a serious threat to at least one player, if the explosion hits them.

In the 4th chapter of Dark Carnival, get at least 2 pipes before the event. The 1st pipe must be thrown behind the gate, when it’s open. The 2nd goes at the end of the hallway immediately after the first one explodes, because the horde comes now towards the survivors.

It always has one purpose – to distract. Well… or to hold. The essence is the same. There is no point in throwing bile just because you don’t know what else to do with it, as you are summoning the horde. Even if there are many infected nearby, remember that the amount of them will only increase. They will do some boxing a bit and calm down. Then they will switch their attention to you. And this can really be called creating problems for yourself out of nothing.

Therefore, the players on Expert carry bile with them for the special occasions. For instance, to successfully pass the event – Death Toll, Blood Harvest, Dark Carnival, Dead Air etc. All of these panic events require full attention and concentration of the entire team.

Throw vomit away from the path of survivors. The duration is 20 seconds. You can mentally count for the first time… Then you will get used to it and feel when the time comes to the end. Arrange in advance who throws it first, who second etc., if there’s more than 1 bile in team. Don’t kill the infected, which are attracted to it, because the Director will spawn new ones, that will come now from the front side and prevent you from moving forward. Just forget about them. They will stay somewhere behind and do some boxing with themselves. At one moment they will stop, reconcile and disappear.

Another example is Tank. On the Expert difficulty, you can always hear “don’t throw bile at Tank”. Well, because the infected will stick around him, perhaps scratch him a bit and switch to you. As the result, there will be both the horde and the Tank. And this is already a serious problem. In fact, there are not rare cases when it's worth throwing a bile at a Tank. There are 3 of them:

The first one: there's a shortage of medical supplies in the team, everyone is limping, and the Tank has been spawned near the safe house. Depends on the map, but if there's enough space for maneuvering, then throw it, run around him and up to the safe house. You can give the only med kit / painkiller / shot (if there are any) to the player, who has molotov (if there is one). The rest of the team will go back, and the healed one will set the tank afire and distract him from the others. He will run to the safe house at the end, when everyone is safe, or he can run around and wait until the Hamster falls dead, but this really depends on the situation.

The second: if the Boomer vomited on someone near the Tank. Some people will say, “bile doesn’t work against bile”. And they will be right – the infected who surrounded the survivor won’t change their target. Then why doing it? The fact is that when you throw vomit at the Tank in such situation, you thereby divide the horde in two parts: infected that were closer to the vomited player will attack him, but those that were closer to the Tank will stick around him. This is a proven fact that can be verified empirically without any problems. Everyone can make sure it works by doing this in game.

The third case: when the Tank and the horde appear at the same time. There is a map where this is always happening, and I’m not talking about finale (container in The Sacrifice). And if you don’t have fire, then you should again properly discuss throwing a bile at a Tank in the team (and the order of throwing) in order to prevent restarts. This doesn’t happen very often, as many players know how important the fire in such situations is and therefore always save it till this moment, but just in case… you know what to do. If no one has bile, then you have to run around, look for CEDA agents, who may carry it, kill them and throw vomit at the Tank immediately. Difficult, but passable. Again: you get pleasure when you cope with such a situation.

In the capable hands, it will be more effective than a pipe, because its duration is much longer. With it, you can shield the entire team from the horde and have enough time to revive teammates. You have to learn to feel the area affected by the fire, because in the inept hand, molotov is a very-very fast restart. On the expert difficulty, fire deals 40 hp damage per second. Almost always the survivor, who falls into a freshly lit flame, will burn down till death.

I have been trying to save teammates for many times by going into the fire with almost full health using adrenaline shot, but I didn’t have enough time to get myself out and burnt down. This is actually possible without adrenaline, but only in one case: when the survivor lies on the edge of the burning area. You should approach him and mustn’t touch the fire. Then begin to revive a teammate immediately. Without adrenaline, and provided that he just fell into the fire, you will have time to get him up 1-2 seconds before he dies. Using adrenaline in the same conditions – 3-4 seconds before the death. Anyway… the sooner you react – the higher is a chance of reviving.

P.S. While typing this text, I tried a few more times. I could finally revive the player by going into the fire using adrenaline and with 100 hp, but, firstly, you need a flash-fast reaction, and secondly, even if you get the teammate up, you will definitely fall down and lose almost all your hp in fallen state. There will be more than a couple of seconds left before the death, but you will still lose a lot. In general, this case is extremely rare. Almost impossible, without any exaggerations. It’s not worth it; objectively, the chance is too little.

Another great topic for the discussions: when the healing is necessary, when not necessary, etc. I’m writing the way I did it myself, while learning how to play on Expert. The understanding of when or what should be used or saved comes with time.

Classic situation – to save the med kit for the rainy day. Well, more precisely, for the black and white day. Levels from Easy to Advanced involve random spawning of med kits in different places. On the Expert difficulty they can only be in safe houses, finales, and where the developers “said they should be” (ambulance near the hospital, CEDA truck etc.). You will simply remember such places with time – there are very few of them. There’s practically no random spawn. In the places on the lower levels where you can find a kit - you will find painkiller in the same place on Expert instead. If you are used to healing with med kits quite often, now you will have to get used to heal yourself with this temporary stuff – with waning hp. There’s nothing catastrophic in this. It’s an everyday occurrence on Expert. Moreover, there are only 2 differences: you can only fall 1 time till the black & white screen and the health must be maintained from time to time. I repeat: there’s nothing terrible in this. The main thing is always to have something with you that will help you not to limp.

It doesn’t make any sense to memorize the spawn locations of painkillers for one simple reason: any corner can be such a place. Well, not literally any, but the regulars from Expert will say, that there is a plenty of them. If you need pills, just look around, in the corners, in the rooms, in the bushes. Most likely, you will find them.

In the paragraph about movement, I wrote about 80 permanent hp instead of 100. Well, since usually only the first steps of the Campaign, you are completely healthy. Returning to the reasons for which the players were previously kicked out of a game on Expert – I want to remind you of “taking what isn’t yours”. There are 4 kits in each safe house (except The Parish finale). If the circumstances allow (for example everyone has a lot of health and med kits), you can take more, but initially only 1 kit belongs to you.

Is someone limping / black & white, and your hp-line is green, and you have medical supplies? Share or heal him. This player will share with you then. Or he could stay on his feet and revive you if you fall. Don’t sleep while being healed. Make sure the infected don’t hurt your teammate, who shares his or her med kit with you.

Are you too close to them? Use right mouse click and don’t shoot. Sometimes with the intention of healing “in the field” it’s better to stand on the side of the wall so that you don’t limit the player in shooting. When you use the med kit you should understand, whether you are disturbing your teammate, because during the healing process the characters stand still.

Defibrillator or just def. I will not describe everything, because, again, I am not writing the basic “How to play l4d2” guide. On Realism, this is the only way to get your teammate out of hell till the end of the chapter. Sometimes it’s better for someone to take it instead of the kit. Moreover, if everyone has a kit and is healthy, except you, then heal yourself and take def.

It takes time to use the defibrillator, as well as to raise for the character after resurrection. During this period, there shouldn’t be any threats for the fallen guy. You have to cover him, because a few seconds after he has returned he can neither shoot nor push away.

A painkiller allows you not to limp longer, and an adrenaline shot gives you a speed boost for a few seconds. That’s the main difference. The cases of their use vary greatly. The pills are best used when you need to stop limping as quickly as possible or stay on your feet longer.

The shot will come in handy when you are reviving your teammates, using med kit / defibrillator, filling up the generator / car (has anyone ever wondered why the speed of filling increases while using a shot? The answer “the devs decided” is unacceptable) or when you must make as much distance as possible in the short period of time (for example, run through the water, which slows the character down).

If you are limping in the water with the Tank on your back, the land is far away, and you have pills, don’t use them – they won’t help. He will still catch you up and knock down. You will only waste them. Only adrenaline shot helps in this case.

When I find pain pills in the 1st chapter of No Mercy, I leave it for the next one, because you can barely find them in the beginning of the 2nd chapter. In this case, you will have to limp quite a long distance.

Yes, it increases the accuracy of all the weapons, allowing you to shoot with the same accuracy while standing (but it doesn’t remove the recoil). There’s nothing special to add here. The only nuance is using it with shotguns. I don’t put a laser on the shotgun, because its effectiveness is in scatter. You shoot, releasing lots of pellets. The further the target is, the less damage it will receive. One pellet goes in the middle and the rest – into the surrounding area of the target. You also hurt those who stand near the target.

With a laser sight, the pellets “fly” more accurately, but then the fire goes more linearly. The difference is especially noticeable when you are repelling the horde attack.

I often didn’t use the first ones, because they aren’t that helpful in practice. Shoot not at the bodies, but at the feet to hit several infected per shot. The explosive ammo deals often more damage than brings help, because, again, friendly fire harms a lot on Expert. The number of situations where you can painlessly use this type of ammo is severely limited. I won’t even talk about the shotguns with such ammo.

It’s a quite different situation, when you have “fire” ammo. Even if you shoot the whole clip with such bullets at the alarm car – the alarm won’t go off. It’s convenient to use them in the 3rd chapter of The Parish, where you can find lots of these cars in one place. The shotgun becomes more effective. The Witch can be burned with the use of only one fire bullet. The Tank burns for a few seconds and then asks for more. If you have the gun with the capacity of the clip 30 or more bullets, then shoot only one bullet at a time when the fire goes out – keep him warm so to speak. It is enough to burn him. By the way, with a grenade launcher, only 1 charge will enough. He will light up, like with a molotov or gas can, and will burn till the end.

The first two simply explode, but in the second one the pressure is equalizing for a few seconds, attracting the infected. With the propane and oxygen tank the Hamster can be stunned with a knock back. A little more and he would fall head over heels. And again, they deal high damage (up to 22 hp + shock wave). The gas can is Molotov, but there isn’t any slot for it. You can only take it in your hands and place when you need to shoot. It withstands the explosion of both above-mentioned things and also of a pipe.

I wrote this paragraph separately, because it deserves special attention.

No one will argue, that from the perspective of team play a full squad is better than an incomplete one. But for some reason no one, to my knowledge, has considered a view of this from the side of the system itself. There is at least one important point here. Changing the amount of survivors affects the game itself. Almost every experienced player in Versus knows about this, but it exists in all game modes. This is called Spawn Zone.

THE POINT IS, THAT THE SYSTEM (TECHNICAL NAME – “AI DIRECTOR”) USUALLY SPAWNS INFECTED NOT NEAR TO THE PLAYERS (MESSES HAPPEN, SO I WON’T DISPUTE). EACH SURVIVOR IS A CIRCLE – A ZONE IN WHICH THE DIRECTOR CAN’T SPAWN ANY INFECTED. ADD TO THIS ALL THE PLACES WHERE THE PLAYER LOOKS. THE INFECTED CAN’T BE SPAWNED THERE TOO

And now, if to compare one survivor against two: 1 circle + 1 look against 2 circles and 2 looks. There's a difference either way you look at it.

The first example is below: as long as the player hasn’t left the kitchen, the system can spawn infected at the different positions in the hall. Another survivor on the second screenshot prevents the director from spawning infected at the same positions as mentioned above. They can only be spawned in the closed rooms further or behind the path of moving.

The second example: everything is the same. The survivor entered the room, which means that the director can spawn infected behind the walls. If the second player is standing there, then he controls the area outside the room. He prevents the infected from spawning too close, as on the first screenshot.

Now imagine how big the “no spawn zone” is, when there are 4 survivors alive, and they are dispersed throughout the location.

I will give a few more examples of how important it is to make certain decisions in the different cases.

a) The player presses the elevator button in the hospital and falls far away from the team. In this location, you can often see CEDA agents with bile jars. If someone of your team has it, or it was dropped from the infected, then take it to revive the teammate. You mustn’t continue sitting and listening to the cries for help with indifference. You three can fall down too and this guy will no longer be able to help you.

In fact, it’s even possible to save the player without throwable items, if you appreciate the teammates no less than yourself. After all, every fallen person always hopes to be saved, even if the situation is quite difficult. Then he rises to his feet, rejoicing at the opportunity to continue the game as an active player. Show that you really are a team – a strong team, where everyone is ready to reasonably risk themselves for the sake of others. This is a price of a good game.

I confess – I was in a such situation, when I asked a teammate to use bile in order to revive another guy. He held the jar in his hands, but didn’t use it and continued sitting (although the chances of saving a teammate’s life in solo were high). As a result, he was “watching” our game and not playing anymore. I don’t argue, that was rough. A heightened sense of justice? Call it what you want. But at the moment when a player decides to bail on the team (not to help if it’s possible), he turns from a player into a problem. After that, L4D2 becomes a third-rate clichéd horror-film where the main characters decide to split up and die one by one. The result of this is a restart and the spoiled mood.

b) In the same chapter, the Tank can sometimes be spawned on the stairs and begins chasing when the players are just starting to go up. If you are slow here, it’s fraught with a restart, so you have to run immediately to the hall. He comes from the floor above the hall, so the team has enough time to run out. There will be only a few infected or none at all. This is the first convenient place for running from the Hamster.

c) If there is/are only 1/2 player(s) left, and you have the crescendo ahead, where you have to defend or if there are any problems with the health – always look for an opportunity to go back.

GAME LOCATIONS AND THE AI DIRECTOR ARE MADE IN SUCH WAY, THAT THE HORDE APPEARS NEAR TO THE ZONE OF PANIC EVENT. THEREFORE, IF YOU MOVE TO THE BEGINNING OF THE MAP, YOU WILL SEE THAT PRACTICALLY THE WHOLE HORDE ATTACKS ONLY FROM THE SIDE OF THIS EVENT. IT MEANS IT WILL BE EASIER TO DEFEND

I will just write a couple of recommendations in order to transform the game, both visually and from a practical point of view.

1) Take a look into the workshop. There are really lots of interesting and noteworthy add-ons for almost all stuff (weapons, characters, objects, textures, sounds, interface etc.)
For example, such a thematic selection. There are three mods inside that greatly transform the main menu: icons, a dynamic background and music in the same style:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2077749999

Add-on for jockey, which I installed almost in the beginning and never changed it:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1147115367

This Centered HUD, which displays the ammo directly under the crosshair:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2602247674

Replacements for the chrome and pump shotguns (as in the second “Terminator” movie):
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2430643518
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1179909697

Nice AK-47 add-on with the reloading animation, aka John Wick:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2658576158

Skins for the survivors:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=892842954
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=248080659

And so on. But please, don’t install the mods that greatly change the appearance of the survivors or infected. Otherwise, it will be inconvenient to cover the first ones and to shoot at the second ones.

2) Several console commands that will also allow you to customize the game:
• cl_viewmodelfovsurvivor x (instead of “x” enter the number 10 to 180) – to change the field of view for the weapons;
• net_graph x (instead of “x” enter the number 0 to 4) – displays the data about the connection to the server;
• fov_desired x (instead of “x” enter the number 75 to 120) – to change the field of view of your screen;
• cl_crosshair_thickness x (instead of “x” enter any number) – to change the thickness of the crosshair;
• cl_crosshair_alpha x (instead of “x” enter the number 0 to 255) – to change the visibility of the crosshair. 0 – invisible;
• cl_crosshair_dynamic x (instead of “x” enter the number 0 or 1) – static or dynamic crosshair;
• cl_crosshair_red x (instead of “x” enter the number 0 to 255) – to increase the shade of the red color. 255 – maximum;
• cl_crosshair_green x (instead of “x” enter the number 0 to 255) – to increase the shade of the green color. 255 – maximum;
• cl_crosshair_blue x (instead of “x” enter the number 0 to 255) – to increase the shade of the blue color. 255 – maximum;

Tiny bonus
The workshop contains hundreds of co-op maps created by the ordinary users: from «nothing interesting» and unremarkable to enormous (a lot bigger than official campaigns) and thematic. Using this opportunity, I'm sharing a link to my collection of more than 400 maps with you. On the one hand, this is an “ad”, on the other hand – to save your time for searching, since all the maps I have selected work in cooperative mode.
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2285034488

Thanks to everyone, who read this to the end. It doesn’t matter whether you liked the guide or not – this all wasn’t written for the sake of awards but for the sake of the game itself; so that in the future, while playing on Expert, you’d get that pleasure, that is mentioned at the beginning of this guide. I hope that the amount of experienced and adequate players will increase in the community.

Separately, I appeal to the regular Expert-players: if this guide was useful for you, please add it to your favorites and share it with less experienced people in order to make things better in the community of the game.

Please don’t write the comments like “I didn’t get it”, “I already knew it” etc. These comments will quickly disappear because they are useless.

All the guides contain different specific advice, but not everything that is written stands the test of time because the game is still being updated and finalized. Something is removed from the game, something is added. Some people like these changes, some people – don’t, but after The Last Stand update, the online has grown and is still above the level of the previous years. If something that is written here is no longer relevant, please let me know – I will update the information.

Suggestions and comments are welcome :)