Fireaxe

"Axe me a question, I dare ya!"

- Rochelle

"Alright, I've always wanted to be an axe murderer!"

- Ellis

The Axe is a new close combat weapon introduced in Left 4 Dead 2.

The axe, along with all other new melee weapons introduced in Left 4 Dead 2 will be carried in the same slot that the pistols would, adding yet another tactical choice to make in the game.

The axe can be used indefinitely like other melee weapons (excluding the Chainsaw) and as any melee weapon, shares the same range, but not the same arc. It kills all Common Infected in one hit, along with all Special Infected minus the Tank and the Charger.

The axe should not be used against Boomers, for obvious reasons. It should also not be used for chasing Special Infected, despite the one-hit-kill. The axe is a slashing weapon, and has the ability to sever limbs. As with all Close Combat weapons, it can cause friendly fire damage to The Survivors.

When using the secondary attack the player will grab both ends of the axe and shove the wooden handle at infected making them stumble back.

Every time it is used on a common infected, a large splatter of blood will appear on-screen. Great for clearing out crowds of infected, this handy lumberjack-approved melee weapon will have you stacking up the zombies like cordwood.

Trivia

 * The axe, like all other melee weapons, seems to gather blood as it is used more. It starts as a normal looking red fire axe, but after a fair amount of usage, it shines with splattered blood.
 * There seems to be a minor glitch with the coding on the axe. If you accidentally hit the reload key while wielding the axe, it will switch to your primary weapon and reload.