Left 4 Dead Guide: Showing No Mercy

Posted Dec 4th 2008 3:00PM by James Murff
Filed under: Features, FPS, Multiplayer, Survival horror, Left 4 Dead

So you've bought Left 4 Dead, installed it, booted it up, and began a game with three of your best friends. But you are getting your ass kicked by the hordes of bloodthirsty zombies on the easiest difficulty setting. Not to fear! With our guide to the art (and zen) of zombie killing, you and your friends will be breakdancing through Hordes and dancing on cars with alarms in no time! Just try not to Take too long on your way through this guide. You wouldn't want a horde of zombies or a Tank to attack you out of nowhere, now would you?

The first campaign in Left 4 Dead is the easiest, and for good reason. It's the introduction to the rest of the game and the most played campaign, thanks to being the one most people played in the demo. It has a variety of environments, almost all of which are incredibly claustrophobic, and really lends itself well to massacring zombies in large quantities. So why would a guide be needed? Well, like any of the other, less familiar campaigns, you need to know where the good places are to succeed, even though it's a relatively easy campaign.

Gallery: Left 4 Dead

General things to know

Better weapons spawn in one random area per level after the first. They also spawn in gun closets, which are found in specific rooms. Same goes for ammo, grenades, and pills.
As the campaign is claustrophobic to the extreme, Witches will often be in places where you have to fight them. When you run across one like this, just buckle down and kill her.
Open streets are a theme for this campaign alongside the enclosed areas, as in the first three levels you will end up on the streets quite often. The fourth and fifth levels have no streets whatsoever, thankfully.
Bathrooms tend to have grenades and medical supplies, so search them thoroughly. It seems silly, but those supplies can save lives.

Stage 1: The Streets

Walkthrough: Here we are, the start of our very first campaign! Take your time to familiarize yourself with your environment and controls before setting off. You have to descend three stories form the top to the bottom. Once you reach the ground floor, take the alley out into the street. You can go through the store or through the street as it doesn't really matter which direction you go. The first safehouse (wow, that was fast!) is in the subway terminal behind the car with an activated alarm.

Horde Choke Points

In the apartment complex, on the stairs from the third to second floor. It's very narrow and small, and with two people per door, you can escape a Horde with no damage whatsoever.
In the apartment complex, on the far side of the hole to the ground level. Infected coming from the stairs have to drop down to reach you, it gives a good vantage point for the room below, and zombies have to climb up to reach you. Perfect for fighting off an incoming Horde!
In the apartment complex alley, in the warehouse on the left side. There's only one entrance, and it usually has a door, making it a great spot to weather a Horde. There's also a closet in there for easy respawns.
In the store, behind the desk. Infected have to break through stuff and climb over the desk, giving the team plenty of time to pick them off, as long as they watch each other's back.

Tips and Tricks

On cars in the alley and street, there will be another pistol, giving any survivor that uses it akimbo pistols. Find it and grab it! It seems to appear most often on the cop car right after exiting the alley.
A first aid kit (the first one you find in the game) is in the store. It's to the left after entering from the side entrance. It always contains one bottle of pills.
Your first grenades will be found in the store. They spawn in the two rooms that flank the main entrance (the double doors), and include both Molotovs to pipe bombs.
There is an infinite Molotov spawn near the safehouse door every once in a while. It is between two shelves to the left of the door.
There is a car with an alarm in the street. Don't shoot it or bash it. It'll set it off, which summons another Horde.

Stage 2: The Subway

Walkthrough: Oh boy. This place kinda sucks. You start off by dropping into a subway terminal and making your way up the stairs to the tracks. Going between the rubble and through wrecked cars, you eventually make your way into a generator room. Holding off a Horde, you then proceed through some offices and back out onto the streets, where you run into a storefront and the next safehouse. It's longer than it sounds like, trust me.

Horde Choke Points

The vents across from the safehouse. Infected are funneled into a tight space where it is impossible to get by, making picking them off extremely easy.
The subway cars in the subway. All three open subway cars funnel zombies very effectively, letting you manage their numbers easily.
The hallway at the bottom of the office stairs. Since one of the bottom rooms is a closet, there are only two paths the zombies can come from, which is easily guarded by two people each.

Tips and Tricks

Starting with this level, you will always find a Witch and a Tank in the level. If you take too long, there may even be more than one!
The generator room is your first encounter with the minigun. It leaves the user extremely vulnerable to Smokers, Hunters, and attacks from the rear, and it overheats, but it's very fun to use.
Grenades and pills can often be found inside the terminal booths and on the waiting benches in the subway, so look for them before continuing.
The advanced weapons spawn on tables throughout the level up until the generator fight. The table it chooses is random. The tables are located in the terminal, the subway, the entrance to the basement, and the exit from the basement.
Immediately after the generator sequence, there is a room with ammo and a gun cabinet. The gun cabinet has all of the advanced weapons, guaranteed!
There are sometimes extra kits in the bathrooms of the office building, so make sure to check!
There is a car with an alarm near the safehouse, mimicking the previous level. Unlike the last level, a Witch often spawns next to it. Try to sneak past her, if at all possible.
The Tank will get stuck in the vents near the starting safe house. He moves extremely slowly and is hunched over, making him the perfect target! If he spawned in the subway area, this is a great place to kill him off.

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