Orchard

"The C-130 Landed in small rural airstrip, avoided planes on the runway and plowed through some buildings"

- Turtle Rock Studios Development Notes

Orchard is the first chapter of the Dam It campaign.

The Survivors start off in the back of the C-130 Airplane that they boarded at the end of Dead Air.

The Survivors must fight through four areas: the civilian airfield's base installations; a misty apple orchard; an elevated stretch of railroad and a shallow muddy river; and an open meadow which is subject to a never-ending spawn of Infected. The safe room is upstairs in a farmhouse located on the far side of the meadow.

The Airfield: This features a close-set environment of 'gray box' airplane hangers and exploding barrels. It is well supplied with weapons upgrades, grenades and pills. All species of Special Infected are likely to be encountered.

The Orchard: A large walled enclosure with poor visibility on account of an obscuring blanket of mist, this area is located on a hillside which dips down to an apple packing shed and storage facility. The area is heavily populated with enemies and will generate at least one hurry-up horde which swarms over the walls to attack. A useful tactic is to hand-rail one of the walls and in this way avoid a 360-degree attack.

The Railroad: Another gray-box area with many semi-complete artifacts, players follow an elevated stretch of railroad track to a shallow muddy river which they then wade across and climb a slope to the farmland beyond. Although numerous, enemies are generally dispersed on either side of the tracks and provide good sniping opportunities.

The Meadow: An wide-open undulating field with a cluster of trees and rusting car in the center. The safe room is located upstairs in the farmhouse on the opposite side. Entering the field triggers a crescendo event involving never-ending streams of Infected attacking from multiple directions. The Survivors must sprint and fight across the meadow to safety. Infected will pursue their quarry right up to the safe room door.

Campaign
At the beginning, the Bot Survivors will grab:
 * Bill will grab a Pump Shotgun.
 * Francis will grab a Pump Shotgun.
 * Louis will grab a Submachine Gun.
 * Zoey will grab a Submachine Gun.

The Survivors
Now that humans are controlling the Special Infected, things can only get harder. However, they can't spawn until you leave the safe room. That doesn't mean that you should let them have a good chance to find just the right spot, though! Hurry up and get your supplies, and get running!

Throughout the level, remember that you are playing against human players. They will not wait for you to come to them, and if they do, it's because they have an ambush location that could be deadly to you and your team. With this in mind, you need to keep moving. However, moving blindly could be your downfall. Move quickly, but with caution. Also, under all circumstances: stick close to your team.

Remember that in Versus, your melee is limited so you cannot properly use corner melee-spamming tactics. However, having the entire team together will be helpful as you can generally see the Special Infected and you'll be able to kill most of them before they reach you. Other than in the orchard itself, you can see quite far, so avoiding Boomers shouldn't be a problem, provided you don't get split up and bogged down in the orchard.

In the orchard itself, the Smokers and the Boomers are your primary concern. A Smoker can split up the team without anyone spotting him and it's fairly easy for a Boomer to sneak up on teams by hiding in the bushes and trees.

Remain vigilant for the Witch's cries. If you spot a Boomer not moving in the distance and staring you down while the Witch can be heard ― don't shoot! If he moves away or towards you, then you can safely assume he's not concealing a Witch. Witches, although avoidable, can be the fatal blow to the Survivors especially if there are competent Special Infected lying in wait.

As with all levels, when you know you're near the safe room, make sure you are with your teammates before you make a dash for it. If you make a break for it alone, it is not unlikely that a Hunter or a Smoker will be waiting for your arrival and possibly kill you before the others can reach you. No one can survive the infection alone. Teamwork is essential.

The Infected
Boomers: ?

Hunters: ?

Smokers: ?

Tanks: ?

Witches: ?

Behind the Scenes
The Survivors start in the back of the C-130 Airplane from Dead Air because this campaign was originally supposed to bridge that campaign with Blood Harvest. Despite this, there's no indication as to what happened to the pilot himself.

Additionally, the Infected were originally supposed to crawl through the thick orchard, as noted by the developers who listed it as a glitch that they do not currently do so. This would create a special area in which all Common Infected would move similarly to a mud man from the Left 4 Dead 2 campaign, Swamp Fever.