Dark Carnival - 4/5: Barns

"Final evacuation is in the stadium."

- Nick

The Barns is the fourth chapter in Dark Carnival.

Walkthrough
This chapter is widely regarded as one of the most difficult in the whole game, thanks to its Gauntlet Crescendo. As you start off, two things can happen: there will be a barricade across the shorter route that passes by the strength test, or there will be no barricade. If there is a barricade, go to the right and explore the tent, which usually contains a Melee Weapon, a Pistol, or very rarely, Adrenaline. In the next area is a strength machine that grants an achievement (Gong Show). Head through the bumper cars into the next segment. Occasionally, a Tank will spawn here and, more than likely, a Witch, who can often easily be avoided. The Stache Wacker game in the next area grants the achievement 'Stache Wacker' after getting 42 points on the machine. Check the office room right before the approching barn for useful items before continuing through. In the third barn, there will usually be a health kit, two or so Tier 2 weapons, or Pipe bombs on the table, so heal up and grab a weapon if you need to. Exit into the darkness, and to your right there will be some boxes stacked up on top of each other. Jump on top of them, onto the barn roofs, then run up the conveniently placed ladders to get to a very merciless Gauntlet Event. Scrounge around for gas cans, and put them near the portable toilets near the gate. Save any Bile bombs, Pipe bombs, or Chainsaws you may have found earlier for this Crescendo Event. Activate the consle and climb on the scaffolding. When the horde comes, light the gas cans and wait until the gates open. The moment of truth is upon you! Begin your mad dash using any bile jars first, throwing it over the fence to your right. When it wears off, throw Pipe bombs in the same place as the Bile, and use the Chainsaw, if you found one, to pick off any stragglers. Quickly get into the safe room before the horde respawns.

Campaign
The Survivors must pass through Whispering Oaks' exhibition barns and livestock pens to get to the next safe house, located inside the stadium. Before that, they must activate the gates, which causes a crescendo event holding out near the entrance. Then when the gates open, they must run for the safe room through more hordes of Infected.

In this chapter, The Survivors can win the two Moustachio achievements. To get "Gong Show", the player must break the strength tester sideshow near the beginning. The player's health has to be green and must use an Adrenaline injector. Hit the red block with a melee weapon until the machine explodes at the top. Only the player who makes the winning hit gets the achievement. To get 'Stache Whacker', find the whack-a-mole like sideshow. Press the button and hit or shoot every Moustachio that pops. If time runs out, hit the button again. At 42 points the machine will malfunction, start ringing, and everyone who has hit a Moustachio will get the achievement. Both achievements will activate a horde.

Melee weapons can often be found in the small picnic area that can be accessed be going to the left after leaving the saferoom, or entering by going forward then left. If adreniline doesn't spawn in there along with the melee weapon, go into the Stache Whacker area, there will be a melee weapon (Or perhaps a Magnum) on a bench and adrenaline should be found around that area.

There is only ONE respawn closet in this chapter, which is the portapotties near the Strength Tester.

The final Crescendo Event is less of a horde of zombies and more of a tide of zombies, each horde automatically being respawned until you take the LEFT gate and duck into the safe room. This event is widely considered to be much more difficult then the Finale, and much planning is required just to pass this Crescendo. (In Expert mode this can take several retries) A good tactic is to save as many Bile bombs and Pipe bombs as possible prior to crescendo, and then use them to distract the horde without killing them (as there is a limit of how many Infected may be alive on the map). The one who leads the group should carry chainsaw or heavy automatic weaponry (the AKM works well for this). Chainsaws throughout the campaign should be kept just for this crescendo. A Grenade Launcher should be treated as precious gold, as well. As you approach the Safe House, all the Common Infected will spawn behind the pillar. Lob a grenade near there, and dash into the safe house to prevent them from spawning in your path, or you can try to max out the zombie limit on the map by having 3 Survivors hide in a corner near the saferoom (Near the portapotties) and having one Survivor in the saferoom atracting all the zombies he can. Once there is a huge mob at the saferoom, have the three leave and continue to level, (Bots will not work on this glitch) If done correctly, the zombie limit will all be at the saferoom and so no zombies can spawn during the crescendo event.

This is probably the most difficult crescendo event in the game. Although a chainsaw or Grenade Launcher would be good, they're too rare to count on.

Here's a step-by-step method that usually ensures at least one Survivor getting through. It's based off SPEED. Going slowly or poor communication (people getting left behind) will cripple the plan.

Before the crescendo: When you're progressing through the carnival and you can see through a fence the exit, pay attention. The Director, with his nasty sense of humor, can sometimes spawn a Witch or a Tank right at the end. Here's a tip: Go to options then make all subtitles on. You can obviously hear a Witch, but there have been some reports of a Tank. If this happens, the music won't play, but in the subtitles it will say "Tank growls". If you can even see an arm, shoot it or throw a Molotov. It will then attack you and the music will play, but this is much better than discovering it at the very end of the Crescendo.


 * 1) Stand on the planks near the ammo before the gate opens, leave a gas tank on the floor in the center but don't shoot it. If you have an extra one or two place them on the steps leading down or in the corner behind the scaffolding platform to burn zombies spawning in.
 * 2) As soon as the gate opens EVERYONE should drop down and run through the gate, the last one through shooting the gas tank to prevent extra damage to the team if they get stuck on a Special Infected.
 * 3) Make sure to use the right hand door on the gate; Special Infected tend to hide in the left hand blind spot, if this is a Boomer then most of the team will get slimed. Enter from the right and use automatic shotgun fire to waste anything lying in wait.
 * 4) As you run up the passageway ONE player should throw a Pipe Bomb to the far end, careful that it doesn't bounce off anything and hit the team. The idea of this bomb is not to wait until it kills anything, it's just a distraction. The rest of the team should be using Melee - the volume of zombies means there's no time to reload and the close confines means shooting will just kill your team mates.
 * 5) Upon reaching the open area before the entrance to the Safe Room there's two things that you should do - throw a Molotov at the right hand entrance (which you don't want to use) and jab an Adrenaline. Here you can also switch from melee to auto shotgun which can help take down Special Infected blocking the way.
 * 6) If you've taken Adrenaline then jump over the fence and charge into the Safe Room, leaving anyone stuck on a Special Infected to their fate. Grim, but it works.

Other tips:

The end molotov is very useful, but also dangerous. If it bounces off something then it can spell doom for the attempt and is quite capable of killing the whole team if badly thrown.

A Spitter is lethal here, able to stop the team from advancing and allow a fresh wave of Infected to spawn. If you absolutely have to advance, are sure you can make it with the health you have, and there is space beyond any pool of acid then simply charge / jump through it. As long as there are no zombies on the other side you can pass through quick enough not to take too much damage.

Sometimes a Witch can spawn in the entrance to the safe room - this is a cruel spot in that she seems to spawn after all the Survivors have dropped down from the barn, meaning you must kill her during the Crescendo.

Rescuing Gnome Chompski is difficult to say the least. One way to make it easier is to throw him over the fence (the same one from which Witches can be killed, described above) which will allow you to complete half the map without having to carry the piece of useless plastic. You still have to scoop him up when nearing the open area though, so throw the Molotov / take Adrenaline before doing that.

This place is good for getting certain achievements (Such as HEAD HONCHO) as you can just stay in the saferoom entrance (Bots will stay behind you) and attack until you run out of bullets or your achievement is satisfied.

When you enter the first barn, there is a ladder to your right. Climb it and there is usually some item up there.

Auto shotguns are, surprisingly enough, of limited use during the crescendo. While it is true that during the final rush to the safe room it's the best firearm you can have, since for the majority of the "running" part of the event the Infected are coming at you from a distance, the shotgun user would be better off simply covering the team's back or side while the players with long ranged weapons (The G3 with its large magazine size, damage, and extremely high penetration is a good choice for this, although having a melee weapon with it is a must during this Gauntlet Crescendo) take them out from a distance.

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. This is because there is no way back onto the Roofs of the barns once you have dropped. So in Versus mode, is it 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.