Weapons

"Long as we still got guns, we gonna' fight."

- Coach



The main weapons in Left 4 Dead are divided into two tiers. The first is available to every Survivor when the scenario starts. Weapons in the second tier can be found throughout the maps and at the end of the scenario, just before the finale. All weapons can be used to melee Infected within close combat, pushing them back.

There is currently no way to distribute weapons or ammunition among teammates. All weapons have an attached flashlight with an unlimited battery; however, the light emitted from the flashlight is only visible to player wielding it.

Picking up either tier of weapon from a table or other location holding new weapons (not from a dead Survivor) provides a full ammo refill of that weapon, equivalent to interaction with an ammo pile.

Weapons will continue reloading despite the lack of reloading animation during melee attacks, provided that reloading starts before the melee attacks. This is extremely useful if out of ammo, or both primary and pistol need to be reloaded as it allows the player to shove back attacking Infected while their weapon reloads in the background. When it is fully reloaded (after 2-3 melees' time) it can be used to kill the staggering Infected.

Tier 1
Each of the Survivors has the choice of starting with one of either of the first tier weapons, but they can switch or restock ammo on checkpoints. Tier one weapons are never found outside of safe rooms.

Tier 2
Each of the Survivors have the choice of switching their first tier weapons to one of these on later checkpoints. Picking a Tier 2 weapon up will automatically fill the reserve ammo.

Left 4 Dead 2
These weapons have been seen in the Left 4 Dead 2 footage, according to Valve there will be lower versions of Tier 2 weapons such as a Tier 1 Hunting rifle.

The Left 4 Dead weapons will make an appearance in Left 4 Dead 2, based on their appearances in Left 4 Dead media and some of them have a new reload animation.

Weapon Upgrades


The Laser sight will appear in Left 4 Dead 2 as a tool used to enhance the targeting on all weapons. The laser is the concept of the LLM01 Laser Sight. The laser can be attached to any weapon of choice.

Ammunition Upgrades are special type of ammo that can be found in Left 4 Dead 2 randomly throughout the campaigns. It appears they can be picked up from special ammo caches, or deployed by team-mates. There are currently two types of upgrades available: Incendiary and Explosive.

Sidearm
Each of the Survivors starts with a pistol.
 * Pistol
 * Dual Pistols (Acquired when a second pistol is picked up.)
 * Magnum (Cannot be dual-wielded)
 * P220 Pistol (Can be dual-wielded)

Grenades
Each of the Survivors can carry either one molotov cocktail, one pipe bomb, or one bile bomb.
 * Molotov cocktail
 * Pipe bomb
 * Bile bomb

Close Combat Weapons
Close combat weapons are introduced in Left 4 Dead 2. The weapons are found at random points in the game (Any weapon can be found in any level and obtained by any Survivor), you cannot use your pistols until you drop the close combat weapon. On Special Infected, melee weapons are a one hit kill. These weapons can kill Common Infected in one hit, and can even kill multiple Infected in a single swing. According to Game Informer magazines the Witch can be killed with a single shot from the axe if placed in the back of her head. As seen in Dark Carnival footage at PAX, when picked up, the close combat weapon takes the place of a pistol. This means you must choose between infinite ammo in ranged pistols that do not kill as fast as a melee weapon, or a melee weapon that is not ranged but is instant kill. Melee weapons have a main function, which is the attack, and also a secondary push similar to the one that can be used with guns. Similar to using melee with guns, it can be used to push back Infected. When a Survivor is incapacitated they drop whatever melee weapon they were carrying a pull out a single pistol, allowing the Survivor a chance to help teammates while they are down. The Chainsaw lasts for a limited time before it runs out of fuel.
 * Axe
 * Baseball Bat
 * Chainsaw
 * Cricket Bat
 * Crowbar
 * Electric Guitar
 * Frying Pan
 * Katana
 * Machete
 * Nightstick

Usable Items
These items are found in various places in campaigns and can be carried. When they are being carried, the character cannot use any other weapon until it is thrown or dropped. You can also use this weapon to push back infected.
 * Gas can
 * Oxygen tank
 * Propane tank

Fixed Weapons
Over the course of the campaigns, the Survivors find fixed gun emplacements left behind by the military in their failed attempt to contain the Infection. They appear at certain finales and crescendo events and have their own supply of ammo (which is infinite for the Minigun). When a Survivor uses a mounted gun, they cannot move and can only fire in a fixed arc.
 * Minigun
 * Heavy Machine Gun

Counter-Strike: Source weapons
Those that have the censored version of Left 4 Dead 2 will be able to find certain Counter-Strike: Source weapons in the game. The weapons they can find are the MP5N, SIG 552, Scout, AWP/AWM and the Knife. If a person that doesn't have the censored version plays with someone that does have it, there is a 50% chance that the non-censored player will be able to find the Counter-Strike: Source weapons in a level.

Reload
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Reloading (default "R" on computer and "B" on the Xbox360) is the in-game action of moving ammo from your reserve ammo count to your usable loaded ammo. When you reload, your character will usually yell, "Reloading!" or something similar.

The pump shotgun and auto shotgun have the slowest reload time from an empty magazine, as each individual shell must be reloaded, so make reloading the shotgun after shooting a habit.

The submachine gun and assault rifle have the fastest reload times, which complements their high magazine capacities to make reloading nearly trivial.

The hunting rifle takes longer to reload than the other two magazine-fed weapons, but the person using it should have the least close quarters contact of all other Survivors anyway.

Pistols have a similar reload time to the submachine gun, but have a much smaller magazine capacity. Dual pistols make reloading take slightly longer, and incapacitated players take twice as long as normal to reload their pistols.

It is best to always reload before a finale or when a Tank is drawing near. While reloading in the heat of battle, it is best to run away when you are almost out of ammo and use your melee attack while reloading. Listen closely when a teammate yells "Reloading," and offer cover fire, especially if they are using shotguns.

If you melee while you are reloading, this will not interrupt your action. You will continue to reload until you are finished or attacked by a Special Infected that pins, shoves, constricts, pummels, or rides you such as the Hunter, Tank, Smoker, Charger, or Jockey, respectively. This is extremely helpful against horde attacks, as it allows you to push them away from you to finish reloading you weapon.

Glitches

 * If you start to reload and then pause your game, the reload will still continue. However, when you unpause the game you will have to reload again. This works best on an auto shotgun. If you use all of the bullets, pause and then reload the game at the eighth bullet. It will reload the other two. Unpausing the game will cause it to reload all 10 bullets. However, it will still say eight bullets until the ninth and 10th are entered into the gun. This glitch is only effective on the PC version.

Behind the Scenes

 * In the game_sounds_weapons.txt file, listings for a flare gun and a LAW rocket launcher can be found. It is likely that these weapons were scrapped early in development, as none of the pre-release footage shows either of these weapons.


 * All of the weapons in Left 4 Dead are based on the programming used for Counter-Strike: Source's weapons. Most of the weapons are based on either weapons usable by both teams or Counter-Terrorist-exclusive weapons, with the only exception being the Dual Pistols, which is based on the Dualies, a Terrorist-exclusive weapon.


 * Weapons originally did not have flashlights on them, as seen in pre-release pictures. In addition, their world models had blood on them.


 * All weapons originally had two reload animations; when the magazine is empty and when the magazine is not. The animation that played when the magazine was empty is longer than the other animation because the player need to cock the gun in order to load a new round. Most of the "empty" animations were removed from the game, but can still be seen in the Left 4 Dead Authoring Tools. The only weapons that still use their empty reload animations are the pump and auto shotgun.


 * It appears that the animations relating to the other 3 weapons (Uzi, Assault Rifle, and Hunting Rifle) were removed shortly before release, as they can be last seen in gameplay footage dated September 2nd, 2008, but are gone by the time footage is released on October 15th, 2008.

Trivia

 * The posters before each level sometimes show characters with scoped MP5s, but they are not usable in the actual game.
 * In Left 4 Dead (with the exception of one area each in the 3rd and 4th chapters of Death Toll and in Crash Course), all tier 2 weaponry spawns in groups; allowing players to choose which weapon they want to wield against the Infected.
 * The flashlight is mounted on each gun and is sensitive to how the player moves it. It scatters with players' movements when they reload part of a magazine, reload the entire magazine, melee or switch weapons.
 * An interesting thing to note is that the pistol is the only weapon that actually has a reason to stay attached to you. Weapons put on your back don't have a strap keeping them on, and molotovs, pipe Bombs and pills also seem to float on the player's waist.
 * If you spawn a useable item while you're still holding one, the one you dropped will be ineffective, meaning it wont get set off no matter what. Picking it up and throwing it solves this.
 * It is odd that the "Cooldown" bar comes up when you melee with guns but fighting with a melee weapon, there comes no "Cooldown", even though in reality the use of melee weapons would exhaust you much quicker than hitting with the backside of a gun.
 * In Left 4 Dead 2, not all weapons have a full stock of ammunition. When you approach a weapon close enough, it will say if the weapon is fully loaded or not.
 * In Left 4 Dead 2 Demo, it should be noted that upon picking up a melee weapon, Survivors drop their pistol (if they are dual wielding, they will drop both pistols). However, when they are incapped, they still pull out a pistol, and once revived, the pistol is no longer part of their inventory and the melee weapon is still in the pistol slot. This is most likely a bug, since it would be illogical for Survivors to drop their only useable weapon when down.
 * Also in the L4D2 Demo, all Melee weapons have a blur effect when swung. This includes both the primary fire (swinging the weapon) and the secondary fire (pushing with the weapon).
 * When Picking up ammo from a stock pile in Left 4 Dead, it would only fill the reserve ammunition to its maximum capacity. In Left 4 Dead 2, picking up ammo from a stock pile would fill the reserve past its usual limit, to the point that if you were reload after, your weapon would be fully loaded.
 * In Left 4 Dead 2 Demo, typing "give melee" in console will give you a glitched melee weapon. When taken out it appears to be glitch arms flying all over the place. It has no HUD icon, either. If traded for a different melee weapon or a pistol, the world model will appear as a Hunter's arms.
 * In the Left 4 Dead 2 Demo, typing "give hi_claw" in console (replacing "hi" with the name of a Special Infected) will cause an apparent glitch. The "infected_claw"s are most likely supposed to be the weapons that Infected players use while playing a Versus game. However, when spawning is attempted, a P228 will drop on the floor that you cannot pick up.