The Charger

The Charger can be most dangerous when the survivors are standing in front of a deadly area that they can be thrown into. The Charger will scatter them, launching any of them unfortunate enough to be hit after the Charger picks up his first victim either backwards into the horde, where the survivor faces a swift and unpleasant death, or into the deadly zone, killing them instantly. The Charger will then proceed to stomp the victim into oblivion. A good example of this is the dock section of The Parish. A Charger may spawn directly in front of the dock's exit, and when the survivors come to it, the Charger can send any survivors not grabbed flying into the river, killing them. In area's like Dead Center's tower, it can also carry a survivor over a fatal drop.

In terms of appearance, the Charger is a large Infected, roughly the height of the Tank, and about half as wide. Unlike the Tank however, only one of its arms have been mutated while the other is small and presumably useless. The Charger does not use its arms for movement, as its legs are still capable of supporting it. The Charger seems to prefer using the arm as a shield. Like the Tank, though, it charges through crowds of Common Infected to get to the Survivors. It also sports blue-overalls, meaning one could assume the Charger was once a farmer.

In the first campaign, Dead Center, Nick refers to Chargers as "One-Arms", "Hillbillies", "Overalls", and "Big-Arm".

Like most other Special Infected, the Charger has a distinctive sound. It does not shake the ground as the Tank does, but itself does seem to be loud, growling and moaning at enemies distinctively.



Note: The following damage is calculated on normal difficulty.

While charging, the Charger will run like a Tank, using its mutated arm to grab a survivor. It will run faster than a Survivor with full health, and will grab the first Survivor it charges into, holding the survivor out in front of itself while continuing to run through anything (including other Survivors, doing about 8 damage.) until he slams the Survivor into a wall, doing about 10 damage upon impact. The charger itself also appears to receive damage when it hits a solid object, although it will receive less if it has a survivor, and more if it misses and hits a wall. After that, it slams the Survivor in a pinned like style until the Survivor is dead or the Charger is killed. This attack does 15 damage per slam. In a recent gameplay video of the new Scavenge mode, it only takes the Charger 9 seconds to incapacitate Coach, who at the time was in green health. The video can be found here. On the Expert difficulty a survivor can be downed in 3 - 5 slams to the ground making the charger one of the most dangerous new infected due to its ferocious ability to incapacitate survivors in a matter of seconds. In some gameplay videos, the Charger is shown not only pummeling a survivor into the ground, but throwing the survivor up into the air, causing them to crash into the ceiling or slamming them into walls.

Infected

 * The good thing about being a Charger is that Survivors can't shove you off of your victim, you have a powerful claw that does 10 damage per hit, and you have 600 HP. Use these factors to your advantage.
 * Try to catch the Survivors in either an extremely narrow or extremely open space. A narrow space - such as a hallway - will allow you to knock over all the Survivors at once. An open area - such as the park - lets you snatch a Survivor and drag them far away from the group. This can be combined with the Jockey to split the Survivor team quickly and efficiently.
 * Chargers can be good for suprises, for instance if a horde is coming and the survivors attempt to run, the charger can slow them down giving the horde a chance to catch up.
 * In the first level of The Parish, a Charger can instantly kill a survivor by running into them on the gangplank, sending them flying off and killing them.
 * A similar tactic is possible on the first level of Dead Center, a Charger can run off and kill survivors by running into them on the ledges outside of windows.
 * Chargers work well in ambush situations, as they can instantly take one survivor far from the group and delay their saviors.
 * Chargers have one of the most useful abilities of the playable special infected: immunity from (push) melee attacks. Melee attacks will neither stun you nor cause you to release a pinned survivor.
 * A charger will survive more than one hit from a melee weapon, as most melee weapons do 250 damage a hit.
 * Be careful while charging a survivor in a narrow space, any static objects will stop you etc. Trash piles, piles of wood, walls.
 * As a Charger push for the survivor with the most health and try to reach a high distance with your charge as it will take longer for the weaker survivors to help him due to lack of speed.

Survivors

 * Try to spot the Charger before he charges.
 * Try not to get into situations where the charger can knock you off a ledge or roof or any height if possible.
 * If a firearm is unavailable, sidestep his charge and melee him as he passes you, or when he hits an obstacle. Remember, he could still grab you if your not directly in his path. So, a weapon with a longer reach may be necessary. Note that the sidestep tactic will only work if the Charger is at a reasonable distance.
 * Pan out if you hear a Charger. (But don't separate too far or else the infected can easily pick you guys off fast) It's ability to scatter close-knit survivors will hinder their ability to quickly save the Charger's victim that's being pummeled.
 * Chargers are immune to shove attacks.

Extent of Mutations
The Charger has been heavily mutated by a strain of the Infection. It appears to be halfway into the transformation to a Tank. While not quite as hulking as a Tank, it has an enlarged torso and right arm and an abnormally shaped head. Its left arm is shriveled and hangs oddly off the side of its hunched back. It wears a pair of blue overalls that have slightly burst due to its malformations. While pounding a Survivor, the Charger's useless arm flops around comically. Possibly due to its choice of attack, the Charger appears severely damaged; the creature's scalp and face appear smashed or caved in. Along with this, half of its face is missing, revealing the skull, and the nose has been torn off clean. These damages are most likely from charging and slamming it's head into walls. As well as this, it's large arm seems baddly burnt and scarred, possibly damage from survivor attacks.

Even though it seems like the Charger is half way into a Tank, at the same time it also seems to be turning into an Infected all of its own. The intro scene of Left 4 Dead 2 shows that its left leg is much larger in size than the other, meaning its legs are starting to lose support on it, similar to the Tank, and that the right leg is under much more weight because of its large, mutated arm. This occasion is closely related to how the Jockey resembles the Hunter, except that the Jockey is half-way through transformation and isn't fully crouching. The arm also appears to be formed of tumors and scabs, as opposed to pure muscle that the Tank has, forming a protective layer around much of the Charger's arm and back. Because of this, the Charger is probably undergoing an entirely different mutation.

The Charger could be a Tank that underwent difficulties during its development. In addition, the Tank's lower jaw is consumed by its upper muscle. However, in terms of the Charger, the jaw appears to be largely unharmed and fully functional in comparison to the Tank's, (however it's face is not, as already stated.) In addition, the Tank possesses two muscular and bulky arms unlike the Charger which sports only one overdeveloped arm accompanied by a undeveloped/limp second arm which could have been drained of most of its nutrients and transferred them to its opposite arm due to unknown development difficulties.

Survivors

 * Shoot the Charger before he charges to weaken him, thus allowing you to kill him in one swing.
 * This is easiest to obtain on the Parish in the section when you leave the trailer and the alarm sounds. Right before you shut it off on the top of the scafolding, wait for the charger. When it shows up have one friend shoot it once or twice depending on difficulty, and when it charges said friend, hit it will a melee weapon and it should unlock.
 * The guitar is actually really effective for this on low difficulties, as it has longer range than other melee weapons and it can kill with one hit.

Infected

 * Aim for the group when they are close together and in a narrow hallway so they are unable to avoid your charge.


 * Try to find a lone almost full heath survivor to pummel. This will give you the highest chance to reach 15 seconds.


 * Aim to Charge someone at the beginning of an open area at the beginning of your charge.

Trivia

 * When the Charger has pinned a survivor under a low roof, the first smash will be into the ground normally; the other smashes will be the charger throwing the survivor into the roof.
 * The Charger will also drag a survivor across the ground into a wall, probably when near a fence or a wall.
 * Concept art shows that the developers had planned for the Charger to be either a large zombie with an armored upper skull yet tiny 'T-rex arms' or a 'tripod' dog-like animal.
 * Originally, the Charger would stop immediately when it had grabbed the closest Survivor; now, it continues charging for a short time, either until it hits a wall or goes a short distance and then ultimately does stop before going too far.
 * Sounds used by the Charger at Comic Con are re-used ambient sounds from various sections of Ravenholm in Half-Life 2. In addition, the Charger's roars and grunts seem to be remixed or altered versions of Half-Life 2's Poison Headcrab Zombie.
 * The Charger's model appears to have been changed again, now more closely resembling its skeletal-faced concept art. Its ramming arm now seems to have become not just bigger, but rock-hard as well, however, this could just be one of the few skins the Charger will use. It can be seen here.
 * Though unconfirmed The Charger may have increased health dependent on difficulty, in the early demo it appears on easy the charger can withstand two shotgun blows, whilst on advanced and expert three.
 * On the image of the Meat Tenderizer achievement the Charger's left arm is mutated and big instead of the right arm.
 * When slamming Survivors into the ground, the survivor will struggle when brought up. When they are incapacitated, however, they will be limp when brought up.
 * Charger: music cue
 * The Charger can be seen hung up by his extremities in the first chapter, Plank Country, of the Swamp Fever campaign. This is to take the shape of the "Lambda" easter egg, found in all Valve games
 * The Charger has had many different series of attacks and has gone through multiple versions and with different twists on his charge attack. In one version of his build, his charge attack caused him to trample over survivors rather than grab them, and his melee attack was replaced with an over-head strike that smashed the survivor to the floor before the Charger started pounding them. This behaviour can be seen here: http://www.gametrailers.com/video/sdcc-09-left-4-dead/53095
 * The Charger is the only Infected that has more than one smashing animation depending on his surroundings.
 * If you are in an open area, he will just slam you against the ground repeatedly.
 * If you are next to a wall, he will alternate between slamming you into the ground and ramming you into the wall.
 * If you are in a building, he will alternate between slamming you into the ground and slamming you into the ceiling.

Behind the Scenes
Before the Charger's design was finalized, it used a reskinned Hunter model so that the team could test out how the Charger would play while the art team was designing it.