Hard Rain - 2/5: Sugar Mill

"Nick, you ever seen so many Witches? Ho-lee shit!"

- Ellis

"Dang. Bitches must like sugar."

- Coach

The Sugar Mill is the second chapter in the Hard Rain campaign. Once you exit the safe room you see the Ducatel Mill right in front of you. You go in and head through a mill full of Witches. The abundance of Witches is due to the fact that the Witch has a strong attraction to the smell of sugar. Also, according to a recent online poll, it's one of the most difficult levels, and one of the most common places to use health kits and pain pills.

The Crescendo event in this chapter is calling the elevator to take you down to a sugar cane field (similar to the corn fields in Blood Harvest of Left 4 Dead).

Campaign
In the safe room, there are some Tier 2 weapons sitting on the table, along with health packs, grenades, and temporary health items scattered around the room, and most of the time, defibrillators. Grab what you like, and head down the stairs and out of the safe room. Follow the hallway and turn outside in the parking lot. Deal with any Common Infected here and head into the outskirts of the sugar mill. Keep on heading around the scaffolding, avoiding any Witches that may be around. It is not uncommon for several Special Infected, including Tanks to spawn here, so stay on your toes. Keep on going, and soon there will be a small trailer in front of you that houses either Tier 1 or Tier 2 weapons and usually pills. Advance farther past that, and there will be a larger trailer, which contains first aid kits, Tier 1 or Tier 2 weapons, and on occasion, defibrillators. This is also a possible spawn location for a Tank, so if you haven't encountered one so far, be ready if one does come. Next you will head into the sugar mill itself. Enter on the ground floor, and simply head up the stairs. Watch out though, Hunters and Chargers like to camp at the top of the staircases and wait for you. Head up to the top level, be sure to clear the area before you activate the elevator.

Skipping the crescendo

This requires at least ONE bot alive (you can ask your teammate to go idle) or someone with 89 life and above. Stand next to the elevator looking out into the cane field. Take a step back, press and hold the jump button and run off the building. Try to land in the middle of the roof of the rescue closet below you. You will get incapacitated on the roof with your friends still at the elevator. You can not be limping (under 40 health) to do this or you will drop short and die. Trying to jump off will also kill you. If a bot is present it will run against the elevator to try and revive you. The game will think it is stuck and teleport it on you and it will revive you. (If you have several bots without any humans left they will teleport to you eventually). If you have 4 human players and no one wants to go idle, you can still incapacitate yourself on the roof of the rescue closet, and another person with at least 83 health has to jump and land on you. Directly before he lands he has to start reviving you. He will fall and take 82 damage instead of dying. The other two would then have to run off like you did.

Not skipping the crescendo

After you call the horde, the overall most effective way to fight it is in an "L" shape. One person covers the small left passage, another one is in the corner behind them with a long range weapon (the Combat Rifle works very well for this) taking care of any Infected coming at long range from the right side, another (preferably with a shotgun or melee weapon) occupies the right flank from close range, and the last one (also with a ranged weapon) covers the far side of the floor, to make sure no Smokers pull anyone away.

Good job, you have survived the Crescendo Event. After you exit the elevator and before you enter the cane field, turn right. There will be a small shed that houses medkits, pills, oxygen tanks, and pipe bombs. Continue through the field-but be careful not to run into any Witches-and the gas station will be right in front of you. Head into the safe room, regroup, and prepare for the Mill Escape.

Tactics

 * Be aware that "full of Witches" does not mean 3-4 Witches. The level can contain up to 20 Witches, often more than one in a single area and even lurking around in the sugar cane fields where you can't see them until you've spooked them.
 * Its HIGHLY recommended that at least someone has a shotgun, that way if a Witch is causing problems for the Survivors, they have a way of killing her (cr0wning).
 * Unfortunately, the Witch music usually gets glitched in this level if you are not in a Versus match, making it a lot harder to tell the location of the witch easily.
 * Since this chapter takes place during the day, you will have to try your best to sneak around the Witches as they wander around instead of being stationary. Bots do a terrible job of this, however, meaning it may be necessary to wait for it to pass before moving on or a Bot may startle her.
 * One tactic you can use to get across the sugar fields is to head all the way to the right or left of the field where the water levels are lower than in the middle so you don't slow down through the field. Another method is to jump constantly through the field looking for any nearby Witches, but be wary, as you may hit a Witch or two.
 * Another tactic is to walk on the large pipe going through the field; there aren't many sugar canes near it and it gives you a higher ground, two useful things that can help you spot a Witch.
 * Because you should focus on the Witches, it is VERY easy to forget a Tank may spawn in the area. A good idea is to turn the subtitles on to full captions, and wander through the sugar mill carefully.
 * A riskier method is just to walk as fast as possible through the campaign. If a Witch is in the way, let it pass and keep moving.
 * If you want to kill the Witches, it is recommended that you have plenty of cr0wning skills. Hunting and Sniper rifles are also good if nobody on your team can cr0wn a Witch, as a headshot should stumble her very easily. As soon as she has been stumbled, don't stop shooting until the Witch is dead, and make sure you're very far away for a chance at survival.
 * Because of all the Witches in this chapter, it is not worth throwing a pipe bomb into the distance to clear out common infected or shooting with a grenade launcher, as the chances are that you will inadvertently startle one, and this can prove to be a problem, PARTICULARLY on Expert or Realism.
 * The sugar cane field can contain around 5-10 witches. It would be wise to avoid using Molotovs and pipe bombs here.
 * Witches in the cane field can climb up to where you must start the elevator to finish the level. Throwing a Molotov and just letting them die, won't work.
 * On Realism or Expert it is a good idea to have at least one Survivor with a Defibrillator just in the case the Witches manage to kill someone.
 * On the next level no matter how many Witches you didn't startle there will only be 1-2 Witches.