The Barns

"Final evacuation is in the stadium."

- Nick

The Barns is the fourth chapter in Dark Carnival.

Walkthrough
Thanks to its Gauntlet Crescendo event, this chapter is widely regarded as one of the most difficult in the game. The importance of keeping at least one Pipe Bomb or Bile Jar in reserve for this event cannot be over-emphasized: refer the following walk through narrative.

At the start of the chapter The Director may or may not put up a fence between two food trucks; this does not matter as you will still end up at the same destination. You should check the area around closely, especially the tables area where there are usually various supplies and weapons to grab.



Just outside the bumper cars area is a Moustachio strength tester. Without the assistance of a Tank or a melee weapon while under the effects of an Adrenaline Shot, the bell cannot be rung. Ringing the bell will give you the Gong Show achievement (excluding the Tank if they hit it), but will release a horde, which is dangerous on higher difficulties, although an experienced team can use it to speed run through the next few segments. To the left of the Stache Whacker are two Port-a-Potties, which serve as the chapter's only Rescue Closets.



Proceed through the bumper car rooms. The Tank and Witch usually tend to spawn after this point, so be wary if one appears. Inspect the stadium entrance area carefully, as the Director is extremely fond of spawning a Tank or Witch anywhere along the path. If you ignore them and continue on your way, it can spell an easy reset for the Crescendo event later on, especially on harder difficulties.

There will also be a game in this area which is used for the STACHE WHACKER achievement. Start up the game and get a score of 42 (you can do multiple attempts, as you will not get this score on the first attempt). Once 42 points are obtained, the game will break and alert a horde. Search the area, including the small building across the barn for any supplies before entering.

When you enter the barn, make your way to the other side. The Tank and Witch can also spawn in this area, so put extreme caution if you hear one them lurking inside. In the last room is a large room that has two one-spawn weapons, throwables and other items if the team is doing poorly. Go outside and onto the rooftops; proceed carefully, as Chargers and Smokers can backtrack the team if they grab someone. On the last rooftop segment, wait for everyone before jumping down, as it is a one-way area and anyone caught on the rooftops will die if they get incapacitated.

Go to the Crescendo area and get ammo for your gun if you have to and place the gas cans strategically (if there are any) before starting the Crescendo.



Once the switch is activated, hordes will spawn from three areas; a fence near the scaffolding, the rooftops near the switch and through the fenced area. Light up gas cans and molotovs if needed to restrict the Infected from coming through that area for a period of time. Once the gates open, start running towards the saferoom. Light up any Special Infected that appear and get rid of the Infected with a Pipe or Bile bomb. Run towards the safe room. Usually in a last-ditch attempt to prevent the team from entering the safe room, the Director will spawn a horde in between the two paths leading to the safe room. If this happens, switch to your shotgun or melee weapon and hack at the Infected, where you should get many kills due to the small space. This is where killing the Witch early on is well worth it; if the Witch was not killed and the Director spawned a horde just outside the safe room, she will become startled and attack the player, which can be dangerous with the large horde pounding down on you. Once you get in the safe room, shut the door to finish the chapter.



Tactics

 * L4d2_0570.jpg you're on the top of the barns, watch out for Jockeys, Smokers, or Hunters. If your teammates make it down to open the gates, and you are still on the roof, you might be pulled back to where the Survivors can't see you, which means they CANNOT save you (unless they are equipped with a grenade or grenade launcher). This is because there is no way back onto the Roofs of the barns once you have dropped. So in Versus mode, it is really important to stick together on this part.
 * When playing Versus, if you're the Spitter and the Survivors just got to the Crescendo Event, wait until they climb on the ladder where the ammo is. Once they are distracted by Infected, spit on their path, and the Infected should hold the Survivors there so it will be harder for them to run to the safe room.
 * In Versus, if you are a Charger and the Survivors are coming up to the roofs above the barns before the crescendo event, if you are on the edge of the first roof and spawn, you can wait for the Survivors to walk on the roof, and charge one back down to the ground before the barns. If you can pull this off, it gives your team a fair amount of time to set up an attack, as the team will have to jump down and go through the barns again.
 * In Versus, if you are the Tank, you can punch the Moustachio strength test game and alert a horde.
 * In Versus, as the tank, try to avoid using your rock throw in the areas prior to the barns unless you are absolutely positive it will net you an incap or kill. This immobilizes you, giving survivors time to throw a molotov, reload, and use quick health items and run all the way back to the starting safe room, leaving you to die a fiery and humiliating death.
 * In Versus, if you are the Hunter you can pounce in the trees and almost any Survivor will ignore you and run past, even the AI.
 * A useful reminder when playing single player expert on this level is that, chances are having made it this far, your team will not have started in the safe room with full health and be able to keep the health kits. This is one of the, if not THE only level in the game itself where you may want to favor using health packs over using your pills instead. The reason being that if you get caught up in the gauntlet event and end up getting pounded down, the most time you can afford yourself is time to gobble down pills / adrenaline to boost your mobility. Conservation of your TEMPORARY health items is absolutely essential to surviving the crescendo on this level, especially with AI teammates.
 * A good practice on single player expert is upon departing the safe room, immediately button-hook to the left around the side of the building, dispatching any infected in the immediate path to the fence (this would be near the area where the entrance to the safehouse was from the previous map). If you look to the left of the fence, there is a big hedge, and a small nook the players can fit through (closest to the fence). The survivor AI will always follow the human player to that spot. There are no AI nodes that provide for spawning infected, so the player may safely hide back there and kill all infected coming through. Usually, the AI survivors will finish all of them off before the player has any need to worry about doing it themselves.
 * On solo expert, do not be so dependent on Molotovs to bring down the tank. The layout of the level is advantageous to the solo expert runthrough, because there are so many structures one can kite the tank around whilst dealing damage to him safely. Grab any pipe bomb you see first, and if you find another before the crescendo, it would behoove you to use it. Take heed, though, as the director seems to start taking it personally when you kill tanks and witches with ease in this level. The biggest point about saving the pipe bomb is that at the gates, before pressing the button, the player is highly likely to find a molotov (sometimes in a fairly defensible spot, like right before the stairs going to the plank area) or a gas tank. The molotov can be used to stave the initial horde off and allow your team some breathing room before making a mad dash to the gates. In addition, after the fire clears, the player is free to grab his pipe bomb (which he saved earlier) and use it closer to the entrance of the stadium, where the ridiculously large mob is spawning in. Please note that it takes about 60 seconds for the gates to open and allow passage after starting the event, so it may be helpful to try to thin the horde out and buy yourself precious time before throwing the molotov or igniting the gas tank.
 * Last but not least, on solo expert, upon entering the area where the stadium entrance / safehouse doors are FIRST visible (this is after the bumper cars), when passing through the hedge entrance, there is a green fence on the player's right, and similar other fences on the way to the barns. Blast through these with the combat shotgun when it is safe to do so. The director is particularly fond of hiding the tank there, only to have him come out at the worst possible time later, or shuffle him to another spot when the whole time the team could get an easy kill. If encountering the tank inside the bumper car arena, do NOT stay and fight him inside, as he can launch the cars at you. Rather, kite him to the ramps entering the bumper car area, and try to make him climb the wooden railings over. He will frequently get stuck trying to figure out how to negotiate them, giving you a great advantage in time to unload on him with shotguns and assault rifles.
 * It is possible, even if it takes weeks (or longer) to beat this on expert in single player mode. This is the single most frustrating level to play through in terms of restarts, but eventually success will come to you. Try any of the strategies above, with a 'mid-point goal' of getting ALL of your team to the Gauntlet event with at least 60 permanent health. The director will usually have a heart and spawn 1-4 Health Packs in the areas noted above. Take advantage of them sooner, rather than later. A good setup to start yourself off when you hit the button is to toss one fuel can in front of the barricade coming in, and one near the toilets by the gates. When you hit the button, ignite them once the horde swells, hide in the corner of the barricade closest to the toilets, and do your best to protect your team. When the gates open, you'll need to balance your melee weapon attacks with some very tricky maneuvering. If you do end up taking the heat and get to Near-Death status (black and white) pull out your melee weapon, hide in the corner on the LEFT of the gate (after it opens) and draw the horde in towards you, trying to buy your teammates time to catch up. Keep an eye peeled for special infected to come towards you or otherwise attack, especially Chargers. Once your teammates have your back, heal QUICKLY, then take off toward the stadium entrance. If you feel like you're going to be overwhelmed by the horde, jump onto one of the two dumpsters on the right side (with the stairs between them) to shake off any infected that are about to land a hit. Hide inside the corner made by the barricade and the retaining wall, using your melee weapon to thin the horde down a bit and try to take the load off your AI teammates. After you get enough time to advance further, you will see dead ahead a porta potty with a small nook in it. The biggest mistake a player can make here, is to assume that they will have enough time to try the 'Hail Mary' approach and just gun for the safehouse. This will lead to controller-shattering rage as The Director will casually spawn another 50 or so zombies split both ways (splitting around the dividing wall) to smack you and your team down, in any order. Instead, go hide in the corner by the portapotty and wait for the horde to come to you, once again dispatching them with your melee weapon. This time, when the horde has been dispersed, now you want to gun for it, as you will only get a few precious seconds time to get in and shut the safe room door behind you. Your teammates will almost certainly die in the process, but you will be free to advance to the finale. It should be noted that this strategy is at least as contingent on favorable circumstances as it is on the skill level required to pull it off. It is not guaranteed to work 100 (or even 50) percent of the time, but if your team is adequately prepared to handle the ridiculously large wave of zombies coming at you, you have a chance to finally beat this chapter. Good luck!