The Lighthouse

The Lighthouse is a map featured exclusively in Survival Mode. It is the only map in The Last Stand campaign. The layout of the map is centered around a small group of connected buildings, with the largest being a two-story lighthouse. The buildings consist of a small storage shed, behind which is the first of the two rooms of the main lighthouse building. A stairwell in the larger room allows the players to reach the top level of the lighthouse, which can also be accessed through a system of ladders around the buildings. The machine used to start the map is located in a separate garage-type room, and is a large fuel pump. There is an obscenely large number of gas cans and propane tanks on this map. The ammo pile and other weapons are inconveniently located on the outside of the house which means you may not have a chance to change weapons or grab ammo when the horde attacks.

Tactics

 * Since the map is placed in a forest area, use the various fuel and propane tanks given to you to create a perimeter around the buildings. You won't last long anyway, but it should help keep a large amount of the horde off of your backs. Just remember to use the hunting rifles to shoot propane tanks, gas tanks, and oxygen tanks from far away.
 * The stairwell, while being a cramped location, can give the advantage of a sort of choke point, and the high ground defense tactic. Infected can jump through the windows above the stairwell, negating some of the high ground advantage; however, it is also more difficult for Special Infected to reach you.
 * It is ill-advised to stay within the rooms during a Tank attack, as there is not much room to move around. However, sticking close together may help your team focus their gunfire.
 * Be careful about how close you are to the edge at the top of the lighthouse when there is a Tank or Smoker; Survivors can easily be knocked or pulled off.


 * Smokers are especially dangerous to the Survivors if they plan on using the roof as a defensible position. Because the Survivors are exposed, the Smokers can drag them out of reach of the other Survivors, and they can be killed quite quickly.
 * A good place to set up is in the generator room. Set up several gas cans around the room for the initial few minutes, have two molotovs and two pipe bombs, and have all four Survivors have auto shotguns. Using the bump on the water heater, get two Survivors in each space between the pipes. Start the generator, and use only pistols until the Tank music starts. When the Tank begins to climb the water heater, unload on him. He should die before being able to do any damage. Once the Tank is dead, pull your pistols out again and repeat. A good time to get ammo is at about 9 minutes. This is at a time when there is a break of spawns. Just beware of Special Infected hiding around. Good luck!


 * Another great spot to fight is the chimney on the lighthouse. You must be all humans, as this does not work with bots. All four Survivors either grab an assault rifle or a hunting rifle. Then, trigger the swarms and go to the chimney. All four Survivors must be on the chimney, or else it won't work. Now that you are on the chimney, Infected will just stand and they will never try to attack your team. This is because this spot isn't "nav marked", so AI think it's outside the world. The Tank, normal Infected and Boomers won't get you. Rarely, a Smoker or a Hunter will attack, so keep an eye on each other.
 * An alternative to an all-human team would be to kill the AI bots prior to starting the lighthouse generator.


 * A good place to fight is the fireplace room. Have everyone grab auto shotguns and dual pistols then station themselves in the corners. Have someone activate the fuel pump, then run inside. The wall to the left of the fireplace will come down, allowing Infected and Special Infected to come into the room and attack you. Make sure you man the doors and the broken down wall after the attack comes, as you will have your hands full by the time the doors are destroyed and the wall is demolished. You will almost have no breaks (hence the name "Survival Mode"), but it is a convenient place to fight, since you are close to the ammo and supplies outside.
 * If you are going to head inside the house, watch out for the walls. They can easily be broken down, and the last thing you would want is a Smoker dragging you to outside. Remember, Left 4 Dead is a game based around teamwork; have someone go with you for safety.
 * There is another ammo pile located on the roof of the fuel pump room, if you manage to survive long enough to need more ammo; this pile is safer than going all the way to the ground.
 * Almost every room (and the lighthouse tower) have a decent sized pile of pipe bombs and molotovs; use these to your advantage.
 * Try to avoid being on the ground outside the house. Infected will swarm around you making movement to safety almost impossible.

Trivia

 * Although a foghorn can be heard before summoning the horde, a visual inspection around the water below will reveal multiple half sunken ships. The Lighthouse is also the only scenario in which no promise of evacuation is expressly stated.
 * On the 360 version of Left 4 Dead, the chapter description for the Lighthouse is a file name, called L4D_HOLDOUT_LIGHTHOUSE
 * If you run to the end of the road where the car is, there will be a fence. Jump in the very corner where the fence meets rock. Doing this right means you will float in mid air for a few seconds, hear your character scream, hear a loud crack and die instantly. This is a glitch in the map. If you look off the cliff after you have started the generator, you will notice many figures rushing across the beach, these are Infected which can climb up certain spots on the rock to get to the survivors, this includes special infected like the Smoker.


 * Very rarely, the Last Stand will appear in the offline co-op list. When you play the level, the loading screen has no title and is different than the Last Stand loading screen. When you spawn you appear on the other side of the fence at the car. The map keeps going until it reaches a sheer drop. Starting the generator will sound a loud foghorn and turn on the lighthouse light, but no hordes will spawn. It is speculated that The Last Stand was meant to be a finale for a DLC version and this glitch takes you to the start of it.
 * If you run all the way to the fence, turn left, fall off and hang on to the side of the cliff, none of your team will help you, but in order for this to work, you must be as close as possible to the fence.
 * If you get punched by a Tank and you hit one of the trees near the river, then you will still be floating.




 * Before this map was released, a video showed that instead of turning on the generator, you were supposed to use a radio to call for help instead. This was cut in the final version.