Here are a couple things to keep in mind as Survivor and Infected to make sure we do well (based on a true story):

1.

ommunication

!his one is pretty big. I know we don"t know each other or our surroundings well enough yet for that Immediate awareness about everyone else"s condition# but that"s why we playing together guys$ So# if you get caught by an SI or are hoarded# %ust say something so all of us can hear you (make a bind if you need to). If %ockeyed or smoked to somewhere out of your team"s range# try to say e&actly where you are ('%ockeyed off first ledge on barn' or 'pulled back by this tree ne&t to this big rock') whatever you can say to help get your team closer to you to clear will help us keep that health bonus we so desperately desire. (ast clears are good clears guys so let"s get them whenever possible. )lso call out SI when you see them# and try to keep a mental note of spawn timers and when you think SI will hit. *e should be as vocal as possible until the last seconds when the SI could come right at us. P.S. - When you are calling out si if you feel it is needed to, lets work on not overtalking the rest of the spawns we also really need to hear. I say this more for myself than anyone else :P )s we play together more we will find we gain the awareness in our positions as to what is coming and all hearing the spawn without talking as much# and we will be able to hopefully effortlessly take down some attacks that are rather obvious :) !hat will take time to learn though# so don"t ever get discouraged when playing. *e will only get better over time...

1a. !eamwork

'+ill ,# -./.' !his# as well as sticking together and running as a team# should be our motto for Survivor play. *e need to run as fast as possible while SI are down# clearing common as we go. Shotguns0melees up front killing common# S12s behind picking off stragglers and ones the Shotty0melee didn"t get. !ry not to go shopping at all# because the health gained by finding some pills could be completely useless if we get hit by SI for it. *hen SI are up# move back if you can. !his helps us funnel the SI into a more clearable area by US controlling where THEY go# and not the other way around. *atch each others backs# and if we get into a spot where we can"t move backwards (3ark arnival map three tunnels or similar)# %uke the SI and get your m4"s and melee"s ready.

Spawn Blocking - Spawn 5locking is one of the biggest parts of this game# whenever
you are getting close to that full new fresh attack# keep that time left logged into your

head. )lways be spawn blocking so that the SI have to commit from farther away. 6specially block the better boomer spots# so that it has less of a chance to get the %ump on your team.

4. -oles as weapon holders 77 This is an important one :P

2a.

Shotgun 7 as a shotgun player you are to have no fear# but lots of intelligence. !here are times when you should push to bait a spawn# and there are times where you should pull away to safety. It is a hell of a lot of %udgement and deciding in the heat of the moment# in these decisions you sometimes make the big plays for your team# and can sometimes make mistakes that cause seperation# ) very# very deadly thing. It will take more time than anything in this game to become a great shotgun player# but it is also very rewarding. (6ven as I write this# I am not a very good shotgun player) 8earning e9uals a lot of trial and error# there will be mistakes. :ou will never !T make mistakes# and you will sometimes make the big ones# once again like always# never get discouraged if this is what you want to learn :) Shotguns are essential for a team# because it is easier to play u;i than it is shotgun in my opinion (!hat may also %ust be because I have always played u;i since I started this game until recently &3) Shotguns Roles - Someone playing a shotgun will usually want to be where they most likely think the attack will be started from# as they will do the most damage in a single shot to the SI. !his way even if they don"t manage to self clear themselves# the u;i"s can then eliminate that threat SO much faster and move onto the ne&t target. !hey are the berserkers of their team that are afraid of nothing# they are great at being on the forefront and baiting spawns and shutting down the more essential SI (i.e. 5oomer) and are usually allowed to take the brunt of attacks in order to save the higher health bonus that will hopefully still be on their u;i teamates :) 2ood places for any shotgunner at least from my e&perience to stand0watch are:

1 77 Rushing before the attack? Stay to the front of the group, this is an easy one :P. Standing at the front of the group makes you not ever have to worry about '(('. Something that is impossible to avoid# but should be minimili;ed at all costs# because it only makes (ree 3amage for the opposing team and less work then they should need to do to ruin our round. !he other great advantage to standing in the front of the group is common clearing# 5: 2<3 does your shotgun slice through ;ombies# it can kill mingling groups all at once# and saves so much ammo for your teammates using u;i that will most definetly save your ass more than once in any given level.

4 77 Watching corridors and being more aware when in tight/small places. :ou"re the mother fuckin" 5oom annon and as such= %ust like what was stated above# you will

deal the most damage in a short amount of time at a closer range# so why not watch those pesky doorways and corridors as you pass by them# be aware of your surroundings in the bubble around yourself that you can protect %ust in case that boomer or the other initiator SI might waddle out from em" :>

? 77 5ackpedal once you hear spawns. !his one is also pretty damn important. 5eing the shotgun you may be in the front more often than not. It will be very beneficial in corridors when you know that the attack will most likely be coming from the front. *e know from earlier that you usually want to try and at least take a couple steps back to be in the safest place possible to take the attack and so you don"t draw more ;ombies to you. )s the shotgun one of your main %obs is to bait spawns when you can 77 Sometimes you will be forced to walk into an attack slow# especially in the beggining of maps with indoor hits (i.e. )lmost every Hard -ain 1ap) *hen making these very sluggish advances# %ust listen for the first SI to spawn. )s soon as that audio cue is heard 77 Back Up 77 :ou don"t want to get yourself seperated. !his works to your advantage very simply because the SI take longer to close the gap# even if it is only one second more 7 you can run and gun when moving back as the shotgun :3 <ne last tip# -eitterating once again 77 *hile back pedaling# always be listening for that 5oomer spawn from another angle :)

,a 77 In the case of a smoker that wants to pull you to him. Smokers are the bane of your e&istence... !hey say# 'always a smoker...' at the end of every smoker wipe for a reason. Shotguns have a harder time dealing with smokers then anything else. You need to play ore cautiously around a s oker than any other in!ected class. *hy is this@ 5ecause he never needs to come near you in order to immobili;e you. :ou want to stay as fucking far away from the smoker as possible with a shotgun. 8et your u;i"s help you out with this guy# while you listen for a more important spawn like the boomer. an I ever push the smoker@ !he answer is basically no# but at one time is it very necessary to push the smoker as a shotgun. If he is already very close to you# and it is a one on one situation# you can try to %uke and cave his face in. Auking is one of the smartest things a shotgun can know how to do effectively and should try to learned as fast as possible# but I will talk more about %uking in general later. If you are not very very close to the smoker# that smoker is standing far away for a very good reason$ He wants to seperate you from your teamates and your very effective way of shutting down the other SI and saving your teamates lives. If you can %uke behind cover and make his tounge miss then you may have a chance to back out of his tounges range# that will then force him to persue you. !his makes it many many times easier for your team to kill him when he is 1BBC ineffective until he shows himself again 7 !his will ruin the element of surprise that your enemy was hoping to have on you that attack and will have the added benefit of frustrating them ever so little D:E ,b 77 6ven when you know you"re not gonna %uke that smoker# this is an important thing to remember about smokers in critical situations# you have Ti e To React 77 )

second= maybe second and a half time period before you no longer have control of your gun. In these very brief moments you have two options in order of priority:

". If there is another spawn coming for your teamates that is of a higher priority#
and you are pretty close to that SI when you do get pulled 77 >lease for the love of god if you can shoot him# "! S!, do as much damage as you can in that one final blast. 3oing so could pop a very cruicial boomer or even %ust do more damage to another pinning SI# like that charger that really %ust wants to cap you for a spit charge# or you may be chipping the hell out of another SI that your teamates now need to take out on their own before saving you. *hy am I not shooting the smoker for them to clear me faster@ !he reason that you actually don"t want to shoot the smoker if there is something else ne&t to you that you can do some substantial damage to# is simply because the smoker is the least damaging SI and is of least priority. :es :es :es the smoker is one of the best support classes in the game and can set up some nasty spit charges or create good serperation# but more times than none you will be far enough away from the smoker that your one shot you got left is usually not going to be as effective as you might think. .sually# you are in fact #$R better off making another SI die off faster if you have the chance and making the clear on you that much 9uicker in return. :) There %s One Ti e you absolutely always want to focus the smoker. !hat is when he is trying to pull to set up something far greater than %ust damage by himself (i.e. 9uick spit charge# or %ust lining up a charger to get huge seperation or the death charge) Sometimes even more deadly for the team as a whole# is when the smoker tries to pull a survivor in the direction for an easy hit for a tanks car. ) sucessful capitali;ation on this for infected could set up the wipe for a whole team in the near future.

2. If you have no other targets that are in close pro&imity that you can 9uick
shoot# then obviously you want to pelt that smoker with as much buckshot as you can get into him. :ou will get more damage with your one shot you have left the closer you are to him# so if you wait %ust that e&tra little time# that could make the difference between you taking less damage because of a faster clear# or even a super se&y self clear. 6veryone on your team loves those :?

F 77 !here are two last fundamentals that I can think of that are very important to shotgunners new and old. !hey are short but sweet reminders to never forget your roots. (irst one is to always be reloading when given a break 7 .sing a shotgun means that you should almost never have to deal with the pesky empty clips that every u;i player has to think about in the back of his0her head. Instead= you get the opportunity to reload at any time you are given even a second or two break# %ust getting one single shell back into your chamber gives e&tra firepower in case of an emergency. /ever get caught off guard having an empty clip with a shotgun# %ust another one of many small intelligent thoughts that can sway a life or death situation in the direction you are hoping for. Second one is to always re9uest a melee if you want one 7 :ou will be in close 9uarters with everything you are dealing with# so why not have a trusty weapon for even faster

kills and clears. If you 14 a capping infected and need to eliminate it as fast as possible# pull out your a&e. *hen your team is chipping that charger on his way in# when you"ve got no other option in close 9uarters# have that a&e in hand and on the ready. ) bladed melee can cut smoker tongues when you can get the timings down. <ne of the most reliable uses for a melee in pesky common clearing# especially while boomed. :ou can swing in a smooth motion across your screen# and wipe out whole lines of ;ombies in front of you# effectively clearing a path for you to continue pressing forward# or towards one of your teamattes that is being pinned by another infected if the situation is dire enough. If you can learn to be comfortable carrying a melee weapon at all times as a shotgun it will make you a common clearing machine# and you can keep your shotgun full at almost all times for when you want to switch to it for being ready for the ne&t attack :)

2&.

U'i 7 )s an u;i you are a personal bodyguard and the main source of damage on most SI and the !ank. If you have not read on how to start playing the shotgun# >lease do so now$ Inside that portion on the guide it will teach you a lot of what you will want to do and the kind of teamate you will want to be to help out your fellow comrades the most. /ow having hoped you have taken my advice and read the above section 7 !hese Helpful Hints and !ips will not be nearly as long# for most of the information has already been covered.

1. *hen playing u;i# so eti es you need to !ocus a speci!ic S%= especially the one that is in tandem focusing only on you. )t other ti es if you want to play a very strategic u;i you ay want to split your &ullets &etween certain S%# this is especially important with any of the support classes (i.e. >opping the boomer or spitter# or killing that smoker before he can seperate your teamate to a very unwanted position) 4. :our shotgun player or shotgun player"s are your best friends# you need them in order to attain victory. !hey are going to try and take the attacks for you so that you do not have to worry as much# they put themselves on the line and pray to fucking god you are going to save them when the going gets tough... 3on"t ever try to let them down as you are their personal bodyguard. Sometimes they need us 7 even though they don"t like to admit it :? ?. Stand your ground. *henever possible keep your feet planted as an u;i# which is the opposite to the role of the shotgun player. +eeping yourself still keeps your crosshair as tight as possible# with the only more accurate position being crouching. You should not howe(er crouch as uch as you think. !imes where it may be appropriate to crouch is when you are clearing the last si# when you are forced to skeet a tank rock# and also when chipping tank from a distance. ,. !ime your reloads. -eloading with an u;i is %ust a tad trickier than with a

shotgun. !he reload time is still not all that long# but it can be enough that if the whole attack is not taken care of and somone else gets capped you will be giving free damage to the SI. 8earning when to reload is a very %udgement based skill# %t is di!!erent !or e(ery situation as to when ight &e a good - or so eti es needed time to reload. (or starters though# try to always have a full clip ready for when the attack comes in so that you will less likely need to reload in the middle of an SI attack. !his can sometimes even mean reloading a couple seconds early on certain choke points and asking for your shotgun player to slowly kill the straggling ;ombies they need to until the attack finally decides to pile in.

?.

harger focusing

If we can kill their charger before it lands a charge or gets more than one punch# the infected attack won"t do nearly as much damage as they want it do (e.g. Spit0charge)# so if possible everyone should shoot the charger as it comes in. !he only time we don"t want to shoot the charger is if a boomer spawns# and that brings us to the ne&t point:

,. 5oomer pops

If we can kill a boomer as it comes in before a boom or pro&y# we won"t be blind and our clears on the rest of the SI will be much 9uicker (which is what we need). So bringing back G4# focus the charger unless you hear a boomer# in which case pop the crap out of him. !hen hunters0%ockeys0smokers can be easily taken care of.

F. >ill usage

8et"s say an SI attack came in that left one of us with red health or downed once and bleeding (a rare occurrence# I know# but hypothetically it could happen). If you are slow and have pills most of the time it is alright to take them. !here are times when you should hold them# however. This is where #tank comes in. If a tank is really soon# don"t take your pills$ If you take your pills before a tank# all the tank has to do is throw rocks and bleed you or the team out. <nly take your pills when the tank is committing# so then we can %uke the tank and clear SI with style.

H. !ankplay as Survivors #ighting Tank Be!ore )o it ent

Ha. If the tank has not committed# this is the best time to spawn7block and block the tank from getting 8<S (line of sight). !his makes it harder for SI to spawn and when they do# easier for .S to clear them. If the tank is committing# get out of spawn7block mode and into shoot7the7hell7out7of7the7tank mode. 3o not worry about SI# keep shooting the tank. <nly when you hear the SI spawn do you move about IBC of your attention into clearing and the other 1BC into continuing to shoot the tank. )lso# when SI spawn# let everyone on the team know about it# so we can prepare ourselves.

Hb. It is best to 8<S once an attack has %ust been wiped out. It gives you ma&imum time to make the opposing tank lose their passes before the ne&t wave of infected spawns come in. :ou should still always be counting spawns# because you want ample time to move away from your cover when you need to start spawn blocking for the ne&t attack again.

Hc. Sometimes the tank will be in a position that it will want to simply watch us from afar. !anks sitting on a perch are trying to simply buy time for the ne&t SI hit to help him land a rock if he is on first pass# or possible get the right combination of SI to commit with if he is on second pass. If this is the case and you cannot %ust simply 8<S the tank where you are# you have one of two options 77

". -otate to another position 9uickly (meaning moving to a different point on the map to take cover) It may be a single person that is visible by the tank# or the whole team as a whole. *hat this will then do is allow you to keep tanks sight off the survivors# so that he then has to make the ne&t decision as to what he wishes to do. )ll the while ticking down his available time to keep you pinned in the same location. 2. hip tank and make him 8<S himself !ank wants to take as little damage as possible so that it will have a bigger health pool left when he wants to commit on the survivors. Sometimes it is better0needed to push the tank if he will have to drop down off of a ledge or building in order to stop taking chip. 5ecause the time it will take for him to climb the infected ladder and reach his perch once again for his ne&t rock# he will have lost percentage on his rage meter. !his tactic is the most useful when you will not be able to 8<S so easily because the tank has a height advantage over you# and you need him to drop off of somewhere to continue dropping his rage meter.
#ighting Tank $!ter )o it ent

Hd. *hen SI get cleared and tank is still up# push that tank as hard as possible# while at

all costs avoiding getting punched. 2etting punched by a supportless tank# at least out in the open# should never happen. So also don"t be afraid to keep your distance# that is what the u;i is made for$ :) *ithout support# we can easily bring the tank down another 4k H> or even kill him# so remember to push tank when he is without support and trying to make his escape$

He. If you have a melee weapon and think you will get (or are getting) cornered by the tank# pull that melee weapon out as fast as possible. !he damage that an a&e# bat# pan# etc. can do to a tank is huge compared to your other guns# and could mean the difference between a wipe and staying alive.

J. !ankplay as SI

Ja. If the survivors arent bleeding much before we get our tank# we need to do as much as possible to ensure that they will start bleeding 3.-I/2 the tank. !his means getting attacks in for the tank to land rock hits# and drawing this process out for as long as possible while trying to keep 8<S.

Jb. -otating works the same way for playing the tank as it does for survivors.

Jc. If we cannot play rocktank# for e&ample if they are managing to block the tank"s 8<S# we need to commit the tank with a plan. ) tri7cap is the best option but a boomer can suffice is spawn order doesn"t get us a third capping SI. *hen tank commits# the tank should try to corner someone and down them (make sure to time your punches and hold 11 )S :<. >./ H then let go Kgives a larger punch rangeE)# and then try immediately to rock or capture another survivor. If tank cannot corner a second survivor# or gets down to about ?.Fk7,k without cornering )/:</6# SI 1.S! go in to help tank secure a down. If we as SI land good hits during tank and the tank is still alive# a possible option for the tank is to escape and play with rocks and SI hits. If tank cannot escape# try to throw rocks at survivors if they are too far away to punch# or punch if they are close enough. If the tank manages to escape but has too low H> (less than FBB)# a good strategy is to let the tank pass to )I and go in with it. !he tank will probably get killed really 9uickly# but it gives us time to get another attack in for more damage.

L. SI >lay

La. )8*):S 2< I/ !<26!H6-$ If our hits land staggered# the survivors have time to think and clear whichever SI has landed. 2oing in at the same time means confused and nervous survivors# and the difference between F points of damage and FB or more. Spitters absolutely need to land spits# either on a charger or hunter# as this gives us spit damage both as the charger0hunter is pounding0scratching )/3 as the survivor is getting up.

Lb. 5oomers /663 to get people boomed$ If you are boomer and you see a boom which you know you can land while we are spawning or right before we are ready# absolutely go for that boom. It helps us as SI that much more by blinding survivors# and blind survivors mean harder7to7clear SI. <therwise# if no free7boom spots are available# one (%ockey0hunter# possibly even smoker) SI needs to spawn and distract (not e&actly 2< I/# %ust distract) so boomer can land a boom. )fter which# we go in and kill the survivors. If boomer misses a boom or gets popped# SI must still spawn up and hit the survivors to keep sac order going.

Lc. Sac order is everything. SI dying at the wrong time is not good# and will give us a 474 attack grouping# which nobody likes. So do everything you can to make sure support SI (boomer0spitter) die 8)S!. !he one case this should not be followed is if we )8-6)3: have a 474# in which case </6 support SI must die (I-S!# then the other support SI 8)S!. 3epending on where our ne&t attack point will be# we will decide then whether it will be 5oomer or Spitter dying last# but I think in most cases we should have the spitter die last to get us a 5oomer in our ne&t SI group (see Hb).

I. !eam 1orale

3on"t get upset. onfogl is very comeback friendly# so by no means is a game over if we are behind until the finale has actually finally ended. )t that point you lay down your 22"s :E 777 !hat"s all I can think of for now# and if you guys have any other input# send a message to me and I will put it into the main te&t. !o sum it up# be vocal as Survivor and hit together as SI.

'6n%oy 6very game# -espect the players' 7Infested Soul7