Left 4 Dead Lighthouse guide

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GamesRadar's guide to lasting longer in Left 4 Dead's new Survival Mode

The living room is the most effective starting spot we’ve found so far, and requires the least amount of set up time. All four players should arm themselves with the shotgun and choose a corner in the living room. Because everyone’s covering each other’s back, it’s easy to keep regular infected at bay and it's tough for Smokers and Hunters to break up your team. Plus, since everyone’s huddled together with shotguns, Tanks can be taken down very quickly. With no elaborate schemes that involve gas canisters, fire damage is rare. The living room is also in a prime location, with lots of med kits, ammo, molotovs, pipe bombs, and pills just outside the entrance. There’s also a nice cache of molotovs and pills down the hallway – just past the bathroom.

As the density of the waves of infected increases, it becomes more and more difficult for everyone to focus their shotguns on the Tank whenever it respawns. Eventually, the living room becomes just as nightmarish as the other main areas around the lighthouse and your team will be inevitably overrun. But the biggest drawback to this strategy is its reliance on the power of the close-ranged shotgun. Four shotguns in a tiny room guarantees that everyone will take their fair share of friendly fire before the inevitable end of the round.

Here are a few stupid strategies that are doomed to fail, but are fun nevertheless.

“Closet camping” is when everyone huddles together in a small room. Usually, there are one or two people crouching just inside the entrance, blasting and shoving zombies away, while the rest of the team stands behind them, picking off Smokers and regular infected as they approach. If a Tank tries to break up the party, everyone exits the room to take care of him and returns as soon as possible. Closet camping works great in many areas in Left 4 Dead’s regular campaigns, so you’d think it would work well in the lighthouse’s bathroom.


Above: Closet camping in Survival Mode is a crappy idea. Yes, we totally went there

Unfortunately, regular infected will tear down the bathroom wall in an instant, and your group will likely be in deep trouble before the first Tank arrives. Still, huddling in a dark claustrophobic room with a dirty toilet is not without its charm.

Instead of finding someplace to hide, you can take the fight straight to the source by heading for the chain link fence that separates your team from the zombies’ major spawn points. Using the it’s-so-crazy-it-might-just-work school of thought, this strategy assumes that the developers figured no one would be this stupid, so there must be something to exploit.


Above: Launching an assault on the spawn point is certain to fail, but stupidly fun

Got a story about the time two Hunters, a Smoker, and a Tank walked into a bar and kicked your ass? Have you had great success with a strategy we haven’t seen? Post a comment or share your favorite strategies with us on our forums.

Apr 22, 2009

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