South Pine Stream

South Pine Stream is the second chapter in the customised Cold Stream campaign. A DLC beta version was released in March 2011.

On exiting the safe room, survivors find themselves in a broad tunnel filled with a fast flowing stream. The sun is quite low and shines directly into the player's eyes, making it difficult to see, but fortunately there are only a couple of passive Common Infected to deal with in here. A stock of Tier 2 weapons will be found in the tunnel on the right hand side. Moving forward with the water, the survivors emerge in a steep-sided creek bed, filled with large boulders, around and behind which lurk numerous Common Infected.

The trick is to keep moving forward at a steady pace, engaging and mopping up on an as-is, where-is basis. Special Infected will appear regularly, including Jockeys and Spitters, plus the occasional Smoker, Charger and - more rarely - a Hunter.

Players need to keep their eyes open when travelling through the creek bed, since supplies occasionally turn up under water.
 * Note that a glitch means that infected who are standing close to one of the many boulders in the creek cannot be shot (even though they are in plain sight), unless the shooter moves to a different angle.

After a while, the creek bed enters an area blocked by foliage, with a rickety wooden structure visible on the right. A clifftop section of road can also be seen. At this point, Tank music will come up, and before long, one of these fellows will make his appearance, up on the road, above from which he will throw at least one (easily evaded) rock, before clambering down to attack the survivors.

Once he has been dispatched, the survivors use the previously-mentioned wooden structure to climb up the cliff to the road, where supplies may be waiting. Moving on down the road, players will find it blocked, and the only way forward is to turn back down to the creek bed. This area is thickly populated with infected who must be dispatched as the survivors move on down the creek.

Ahead will be seen the burning wreckage of a downed helicopter, which blocks the creek. Players must turn right and climb a short flight of wooden steps, back up to the road. This area is crammed with vehicles and is filled with aggressive infected - a stiff fight will ensue, made all the more difficult by a nearby alarmed car. Once the area is clear, players should restock on ammo from the back of the white truck, before scrambling up onto the deck of an army truck, and proceeding onto the roof of a bus that has crashed into a security barrier, blocking the road.

The survivors then jump down over the security fence (which, again, forms a "non-return" gateway in the game). There are two breaks in the Armco safety barrier, allowing players access back down to the stream bed. (A trick is to move further down the clifftop road to the second break, indicated by a crashed military Humvee, in the bushes down below. Not only is the view more open here, but teams have less distance to travel down the stream bed.) A peek over the lip of the cliff reveals that the area below is densely populated with Common Infected who respond aggressively to the the Survivors' arrival in their domain. In response, players should lay down an initial blanket of fire as these Infected storm up the creek wall towards them, and then begin to move steadily down towards the creek bed, as they gain the upper hand in the fight.

Immediately in front, the survivors will spot a large bridge structure. Moving downstream towards this structure, the survivors will see a way out of the creek bed to the left. Turning up here, and taking out the Infected in this area is the next task. Once accomplished, players will have one of the few brief moments of peace in the chapter (and indeed in the entire campaign), so while everyone catches their breath, if they look around to the left, they will spot some health supplies on the ground.

Proceeding past a second Hummer brings the team up onto the bridge. It appears thar this was a combined police-military-CEDA facility, as the bridge is heavily barricaded, and a CEDA tent can be seen as the area is explored. A large CEDA mobile unit occupies the central area of the bridge, next to which is a four-barrel demolition charge that an on-screen announcement will instruct players to set off by shooting. Before doing so, players should explore the bridge and stock up on ammo from the pile provided.

Standing at a safe distance, one player should fire at the demolition charge until it explodes (this will take half a dozen or so shots). Once it goes off, a section of the bridge is destroyed, barricades are dropped, and a Crescendo horde is triggered. Survivors must shoot and club their way down into the stream bed, enter a tunnel featuring a fast-flowing water danger, enter a side tunnel on the right hand side (easily spotted by the exiting Common Infected), work their way down multiple flights of stairs, and finally enter a safe room, located at the end of a short passageway at the lowest level in the structure.

In this Crescendo Event, Common Infected hordes will be almost unbroken until teams enter the tunnel, whereafter their waves begin to subside somewhat, in the way they do in The Sewer.

Once in the tunnel, it is recommended that survivors stay near the right hand wall of the tunnel, to minimise the risk of being swept off their feet by the current.


 * Note that a careless or inexperienced player who gets caught in the current will be swept over the waterfall, where they will be left hanging in hope of rescue. If a player is incapacitated in the current, that player will still go over the waterfall, but instead of hanging on, they will fall to their death. AI Bots are seemingly immune from being taken over the waterfall.