Minigun

On occasion, a mounted Minigun is available for defending intense, stand-off areas. It has a small windup time but once it starts firing, it becomes one of the best support weapons of the game. The gun is very powerful but can lose its accuracy at longer ranges. It is bolted to the floor so it cannot be moved, only swiveled in an 180 degree arc in front of the gun. It has infinite ammo but can overheat; this is shown as the minigun's barrel quickly glows red, as well as the emission of smoke. This smoke also impairs your vision, causing you to have a harder time shooting accurately. However, this is not an imminent signal of the minigun jamming, as it takes 20 seconds of continuous firing before overheating. The duration of the time it takes the minigun to cool down is the same as it takes the gun to turn completely into a halt.

Tactics

 * Always have a buddy covering your back, because without being able to rotate the weapon 360°, you are vulnerable from behind while using it.


 * Aim for the masses or the mini-bosses. Don't bother shooting at the one or two infected stragglers if, for example, there is a hunter in clear sight.  Your gun can take out enemies the fastest in close quarters.  Use it to trim their numbers or take out the big guys.  Let your non-mini-gun wielding friends take down the stragglers.


 * When shooting into masses of infected, keep an eye on where your fellow survivors are by looking for their colored outlines. There's nothing worse than getting gunned down by your own ally.


 * When fighting a tank, aim for the concrete that he throws at either you or the other survivors, as it can be destroyed before it lands.


 * Even when no infected are present, you should constantly tap the fire button. This will keep the barrel spinning, and eliminate the long wind-up time when a horde suddenly comes at you.


 * The minigun also acts as a bait for tanks in co-op mode, allowing someone to distract the tank with the minigun while his teammates pour lead into the tank.


 * The minigun does not have vehicular properties, meaning you still can be dragged by a smoker or pounced on.

Trivia

 * The minigun takes roughly 20 seconds to overheat, despite the fact that it fires massive amounts of bullets. A regular minigun would overheat at this rate in less than 10 seconds.
 * The minigun appears to be based on the XM214 minigun. This is because it is used by the US Army, who set up the firing areas.
 * The weapon is sometimes called a mounted machine gun, despite the fact that it has multiple rotational barrels.