Difficulty

The difficulty level can be changed in Left 4 Dead. It refers to the overall difficulty of a campaign and each level has drastic differences over the next. For example, on Easy difficulty you'll rarely see a Horde of zombies outside of Crescendo Events, while on Expert you'll be attacked by a Horde around almost every corner. The differences between difficulty levels are listed below.

Easy
As the name suggests, this difficulty is very easy. This mode would be recommended for beginners and experienced players who simply want to relax. This is also a good (but somewhat cheap) way of getting some Achievements.


 * The Tank has 3000 health points.
 * The Witch has 500 health points.
 * Friendly fire does not inflict damage, but friendly fire incidents will still register and disqualify players from earning the Safety First achievement.
 * Common Infected inflict 1 point of damage per hit, 0.5 if attacking a survivor's back.

Normal
Normal mode is fairly balanced, as far as the difficulties go. It's harder than easy, but not something that will quickly decimate an inexperienced player, such as in Advanced or Expert. However, The Director's evident sadism will begin to show more often here, especially if the players are doing well.

Normal is also the set difficulty for versus mode.


 * The Tank has 4000 health points.
 * The Witch has 1000 health points.
 * Friendly fire inflicts 1 point of damage per hit to the survivors.
 * Common Infected inflict 2 damage per hit from the front, and 1 from the back.

Advanced
Advanced is, of course, for slightly more experienced players, though it's not as devastating as Expert. If the player is not careful, they should be ready for multiple tries per map, as things can get pretty hard—and friendly fire incidents are the bane of a serious player, as they take off quite a bit of health here, and the fact that first aid kits don't spawn very often, it only serves to exacerbate the problem.


 * The Tank has 6000 health points.
 * The Witch has 1000 health points.
 * Non-headshots get no bonus damage
 * Common Infected inflict 5 damage per hit from the front, and 2.5 from the back.
 * Friendly fire inflicts 50% damage per hit to the Survivors.

Expert
Expert mode is, obviously, the toughest difficulty of the four. It is not at all recommended for the inexperienced or impatient, as it may take many tries for the player to complete a single chapter. The AI seems slightly watered down in this mode, perhaps to make it so that the player will not rely on them too heavily. In this case alone, it's understandable to sacrifice one of the Survivor AI, especially if it's in the greater good of those who make it.

In this mode, never fear death, and always be on the move. Standing still is an almost guaranteed way to get killed here. But then, even moving has its down sides. The player must be ready for anything, anticipate everything. However, they must remember that in the end, it is very likely that they will die. If it saves a (human, not AI) teammate, or holds off the horde for just a little while, it was worth it, and you've done right. Just hope that the one you saved will come back for you if you respawn in a closet, or at least get to the safe room soon.

Though it can get incredibly frustrating at times, with practice and a great deal of patience, it is possible to get through.

This is a mostly complete list, extracted in part from the exposed cvar interface. See Console commands for information on the cvars.
 * The main attack of the Witch is a one-hit kill that bypasses incapacitation.
 * The Witch has 1000 health points.
 * The Tank has 8000 health points.
 * The Tank takes longer to burn when set on fire.
 * Fire inflicts more damage to the Survivors.
 * Friendly fire inflicts full damage to the Survivors. AVOID FRIENDLY FIRE AT ALL COSTS.
 * Common Infected inflict 20 damage per hit from the front, and 10 from the back.
 * First-aid kits are replaced by pain pills.
 * It is possible to find First-aid kits outside of Safe rooms and finales, but it is incredibly rare.
 * Minimum interval between Horde attacks is much shorter.
 * Hunter attacks deal 40 damage.
 * Grown men have shed tears over how difficult this is.