L4D Tips for Noobs

There are many Left 4 Dead players out there who keep saying that they don't care if someone is new as long as that person is cooperative. I have seen and heard this many many many times, and to be frank, I am pretty sick of it. Why? The reason is simple: saying that someone is ok even though he's new as long as he's cooperative is the same as saying that it is ok if I shoot you in the head as long as you don't die. Don't know what I mean? Of course, I meant it figuratively, but the thing is, most newbies don't cooperate, or at least they don't cooperate in our way. I know I am trying to write a little set of tips here, but I don't mean anything personal. They just don't know the game well enough to be that cooperative. So here I am, writing a few little tips for anyone who's interested.

      Communicate with others

Do some talking. The "y" button isn't there for nothing. I don't mean it by typing long sentences such as "Hey guys, there's a Molotov here. Who wants it?" A simple word like "go?" or "stop" or "wait" can be very effected in most occasions.Or simply use the "z" or "x" button voice commands. Get used to those voice commands such as "yes" "no" "let's go" and etc. They're useful, especially when they're normally translated into the other player's language on their own screen in the captions (more on this later). Of course, if you have hands free, go ahead and use your mic. But don't abuse it, because some people won't like it and you'll most likely get muted. So what happens if you've said or typed something but the message isn't getting across to the other players? Don't bother playing with them. Normal players won't ignore you.

     Have Captions on

Switch full captions on in the options menu (It's somewhere in the audio). It's simple, most of the times the audios will fail you, especially special infected/Tank voices. It's easier to detect them with captions. Another thing is that it will "literalize" the z and x voice commands, regardless of the vocal volume. Pretty useful in most times. But then what happens if the caption fails you? Good luck ...

     Keep in Pace

Keep up or slow down so that you are with your team at most times. Try not to run too far ahead of your team or lag behind in all occasions. The reason is simple: if you run into some kind of trouble, such as being restrained by special infecteds, or suddenly facing a large amount of hordes, you can have your teammates to help you. Keep in mind that you need another player's help if you want to free yourself from special infected.

     Keep your Health in Check

Before anything, make sure you understand how does a first aid kit works. When you use a first aid kit, your health points will change to the number in the follow equation: (80 + (hp before use / 5)). This means that your hp will be (80 + (80/5)) = 96 if you used a kit when you have 80 hp. Likewise, you will have (80 + (0/5)) = 80 hp when you use a kit with no hp (as in all your hp are temporary health points). Remembering that you will only get one first aid kit in each saferoom (unless you steal other's), it is better to heal when your health is lower than 20, or if you are near saferoom, just bare with it.
Apart from first aid kits, another healing item will be the pain pills. They give you up to 50 temporary health points, and these heal points will degenerate as time pass. They can help you to get past troubled times because it takes less than a second to consume a bottle of pills, and you can regain your speed right after that, but, again, remember to keep your health in check.
Two other health related items will be adrenaline and defibrillator. The adrenaline gives you only 25 temporary health points, but you will run faster, shoot faster, heal faster and use items faster when under adrenaline's effect (which lasts for something like 10 seconds). I personally prefer pain pills, but adrenaline is useful if you're on a spot which requires you to run at full speed. As for defibrillator, I won't recommend it because it takes up a first aid space and you can simply open closet doors to save your peers. But then and again, if you have nothing on your first aid slot, and you see a defibrillator lying around, just take it.

     Know Your Position

Every map is unique, and every map has their best defensive spots. It takes time to understand which spot is better for defending panic events in which map. I won't be going into detail about each and every map, but, considering that you don't know the map well, there are a few things you can keep in mind while defending zombies in a panic event.
One very basic concept in almost all zombie games is that, one fort is always better than two. It's always easier to fight with zombies coming from one side than zombies coming for two sides (front and back or left and right), or, worse still, zombies coming from all directions. The reason is simple, you can focus on your firing.
When you want to face zombies only from the front, one good way is to pin yourself up against a wall, or better still a wall corner. But that only solves half the problem, because there will be quite a large angle for zombies to come in (180 if you're up against the wall or 90 if u are up against a corner). Another good way to narrow down the inflow of zombies will be to make use of the doors. Most doors are the width of only one to two zombies and the zombies will have to squeeze in to get to you. It will be easier to kill the zombies, be it with a blade or a gun.
One other thing about zombie defending in panic event is to climb high. Scale high a bit, like on a table or a bookshelf. The reason is simple: it's easier to aim for their heads. Of course, it takes some extra time for them to reach you as well, as they might be climbing the table or shelf or whatever.
Of course, it is important to be familiar with the maps. You won't want to get lost that often, right?

     Know your sidearm.

The main weapon is important, and I won't touch on that. Some people like AK, some like military sniper, and some are better with auto shotguns. It's up for you to decide what you want to use. But the thing I want to talk about is side arm. There are two types of side arms: pistols and melee. For pistols, and for most new players, I will recommend the magnum, or desert eagle depending on what you want to call it. The reason being is that the desert eagle can kill a normal infected with one shot in most cases (except for police) and it has 8 bullets. Though with a slower firing speed, it has more kill per reload and kill per hit ratio when compared to glock or dual glock. For glock, you'll only be better off if you can get head shots for more than half of your shots, and it's very clear that most people can't. So just use a magnum and its a trustworthy side arm. As for melee weapons, I'll recommend those with blades, such as machete, Katana and (less preferably) fire axe. Machetes and katanas have the fastest swinging speed of all melee weapons. They can kill normal infecteds with one hit, of which this applies to the fire axe as well. Although they don't have push back capabilities, unlike other melee weapons, they are the only melee weapons which can kill zombies with just one hit at a wide angle. So what I'm trying to say is, if you can get a magnum, go for it. If not, grab one of those melee weapons with a blade.

     Reload!
Like all shooters, it is important to keep your ammunition count in check, especially side arm. Most people often forgets to reload their side arm when they are done using them for clearing off zombies in panic events.

     Special infected got your teammate? Shoot!

I have seen countless of people chasing another person who has been grabbed by a charger or jockey or smoker with a melee weapon (and that person being grabbed is usually me ...). Do you have any idea how much it hurts when some special infected grabs a survivor? The health points are ticking away like the clock and you're still chasing after the survivor, pushing away infecteds along the way. Come on, you have a gun, so shoot it!!!

These little tips should be enough for new players. I got all work up thinking about idiots chasing a jocky-mounted survivor with a baseball bat. Anyway, that's it, for now.