The Witch

The Witch is the only special Infected that is not controllable by players.

It is passive upon discovery by the Survivors, but reacts with hostility to flashlight beams, physical contact, nearby Survivors, and gunfire in the vicinity. The Witch is able to down a Survivor in one hit, making them one of the most dangerous of the infected.

A Witch has a resemblance to an average female Infected, but is found slumped on the ground and sobbing instead of standing or wandering around. Its crying can be heard long before it can be seen, which gives the players a chance to avoid or attack it. If it detects a Survivor, it screams wildly and attempts to attack the player who disturbed her first. After an initial knockdown punch, it will resort to regular attacks until the knockdown punch is recharged. During these attacks it slashes so viciously that the Survivor's blood spatters all over the adjacent area.

The Witch appears in all difficulty levels, but will only down a player before slashing at them on the ground on easy to advanced difficulty. The Witch is able to kill a player in one hit on expert.

After killing a player, the Witch begins to run around and scream. It still attacks any players in her way and cause Survivors to stumble if it runs into them. It can get away from Survivors, at which point she disappears.

It is a widely-held belief that it is never, ever worth it to start a fight with a witch. That said, everyone has fought one. The Director seems to like putting them in the way, particularly at the bottoms of ladders, or in front of an invitingly open door to a safe house, and realistically every group of Survivors finds they absolutely must come into conflict with the Witch.

Survivors
Avoid if possible. If sobbing is heard, turn off flashlights and give the area of the sound a wide berth. If seen, tell the other Survivors exactly where it is. It helps a great deal to know they cast a red glow on their surroundings. If there are ordinary Infected blocking your alternate path, try to snipe them from a distance or move through quickly using melee attacks, and avoid landing rounds anywhere near the Witch.

Inevitably, though, Witches will be provoked. If the Witch is obstructing a choke point (e.g. immediately in front of a safe house) and must be startled, set up a defensive line and throw explosives before opening fire. If the Witch is accidentally startled (for instance, when a Smoker is choking an ally and you must shoot), backpedal away from it while firing. The Witch pursues and may incapacitate (kill on expert difficulty) the Survivor who startled it.

One strategy for defeating the Witch relies on an AI exploit: Have a designated runner to disturb the Witch from afar while the other Survivors form a defensive line between the runner and the Witch. The runner should attack the Witch, preferably with a Molotov cocktail or a gas can detonated by gunfire to ignite the Witch. While the runner is being chased, all the other Survivors must concentrate fire on the Witch, who generally moves in a straight line towards her target. If the runner is sufficiently far away and the other Survivors are sufficiently competent at aiming, then the Witch would be unable to inflict any damage.

On easy difficulty, the Witch can be killed with one headshot from an auto shotgun from close range or a hunting rifle. The witch will also succumb to a point blank shotgun headshot on any difficulty. Another viable option is to have at least one Survivor armed with an auto shotgun to sneak up behind her. The initial shot startles the Witch but also pushes her back, making her a fairly easy kill.

Other witch killing tactics:
 * Use obstacles like subway cars, escalator ramps, office partitions, etc. to slow her down such that she never catches up with you
 * Use the awesome power of fire (e.g.: Molotov/gasoline can)
 * One survivor with a hunting rifle at a suitable distance empties their clip at the witch's head
 * All four survivors get in "firing squad" positions, then open fire simultaneously at the end of a countdown (requires suitable distance from the witch)
 * In close quarters, consider throwing a pipe-bomb and then making a run for it. The witch is only startled when the pipe-bomb goes off, so if the other survivors kill it while you bravely bravely run away, you live to see another day

Non-violent tactics:
 * Without touching the Witch, survivors file past her one-by-one, each waiting for her to go from growling back to the "safe" crying state before making their move
 * Startle the Witch then run behind a safe-room door and shut it tight

Witch tactics that fail:
 * Melee not only fails against a witch, it either gets you seriously injured/killed (if you are the witch's target) or melee'd yourself
 * Startling a Witch that from several roof tops away (such as on the Dead Air campaign) and expecting the Witch to have difficulty reaching you

What startles the witch?
 * Medium proximity with a flashlight pointed at the Witch
 * According to in-game cvars, see console wiki for details, one discovers that z_witch_personal_space 100 and z_witch_flashlight_range 400
 * In other words, a flashlight will startle the witch at exactly 4 times the distance mere proximity would
 * Staying within the Witch's proximity too long
 * Being within the Witch's "anger" proximity. In other words, if one survivor makes the Witch start growling, another survivor standing stock still and outside the Witch's usual personal space (read: totally innocent) may startle her
 * Touching the Witch (too close!)
 * Shooting/burning the Witch (if you don't actually hit the Witch, shots can land quite close to her without disturbing her)
 * Dropping any item near the Witch (such as a propane tank)

Infected
Although you cannot play as the Witch, you can "use" her:
 * Smoker's can drag survivors to the Witch
 * Hunters/Boomers can crouch in front of the Witch, obscuring her from the survivors sight

Do not attempt to make the Witch angry since if you hit her enough she'll get angry at you instead of the survivors.

Survivors

 * Cr0wnd
 * Kill a Witch with a single headshot.


 * Do Not Disturb
 * Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.


 * Witch Hunter
 * Kill a Witch without any Survivor taking damage from her.


 * Burn the Witch
 * Light a Witch on fire.

Infected
None