Submachine Gun

"Oh, man, this is just like Counter-Strike!"

- Louis

"...A machine gun!"

- Rochelle

The Submachine Gun deals light progressive damage. It holds 50 rounds with 480 (650 in Left 4 Dead 2) in reserve, and has enough accuracy to shoot at medium range. Although it is replaced by the Assault Rifle in tier 2, it still has the highest rate of fire. It also has noticeable stopping power. The main drawback to the Submachine Gun is the high rate of ammo expenditure; most Survivors using a Submachine Gun will run out of ammo partially through a level if they aren't conservative with their shooting. However, it is great for medium-ranged closed-quarters such as large warehouses and alleys. Its high rate of fire, penetration and accuracy make it a longer ranged alternative to the Pump Shotgun.

Tactics

 * Fire in small bursts. This keeps accuracy up and prevents you from shooting Infected when they are already dying.
 * Try to fire mostly while still and crouching. This produces better accuracy and an opportunity for your team to shoot over your head if an Infected comes into your blind spot.
 * Learn when not to shoot. Your ammo needs conservation because of this weapon's high rate of fire. Let someone with a shotgun take point and use the Submachine Gun to cover him.
 * When shooting, aim for your target's feet and move up the Infected's body. The Infected slows down from the leg damage and eventually gets headshot. This strategy also limits friendly fire.
 * When facing a horde attack, aim at the heads and fire short bursts. Head shots drop them instantly. Although damaging and often ultimately fatal, body shots allow many Infected to stay on their feet for a while thus tempting a player to waste precious ammo.
 * The Submachine Gun can shoot through damaged doors without risking further damage.
 * When an Infected attacks you, your accuracy drops. When you need to make an accurate shot you may need to knock the Infected off you first.
 * The accuracy of the Submachine Gun lets it hit enemies at a greater distance.
 * Save pounced or snared teammates at long range by shooting the Hunter, the Smoker, or the tongue.
 * Take out long range threats before the rest of the team pushes on.
 * Reload often. The high rate of fire on the Submachine Gun means that the 50 round magazine will run dry fairly quickly.
 * One advantage the Submachine Gun has over the Assault Rifle is its higher reserve capacity and higher rate of fire. This is particularly useful to more easily decimate a hallway of Infected, while the Assault Rifle is best shooting at longer ranges than in corridors. One player could use the Submachine Gun while the other with the Assault Rifle can conserve ammunition in close quarter hordes.
 * Good to use in conjunction with a melee weapon as a backup when surrounded by Common Infected.

Left 4 Dead 2
The Submachine Gun returns with new animations. It is much more efficient than its Left 4 Dead counterpart as its ammo reserve is now 650, compared to the original version's 480 reserve. However, the player should try to burst fire anyway, so as to preserve ammo, because the Submachine Gun still has a very high rate of fire.

The Submachine Gun is better than the Silenced Submachine Gun for long range work because it is more accurate when burst fired, even though it does less damage per bullet than the Silenced Submachine Gun.

Behind the Scenes
Originally, the Submachine Gun's flashlight was mounted directly under its handguard. In the final version, the flashlight is mounted on the right side of the gun.

The Submachine Gun is based on Counter-Strike ' s MP5N submachine gun. Its "price" in the gun's weapon file is the same as the MP5N's, and it references the MP5N in its "animation" listing. A scoped MP5 is also carried by the Survivors in some of the posters.

It also had a full reload animation of pulling the cocking handle after replacing the magazine. The cocking animation can still be observed in the final version of the game by means of pulling out the weapon after meleeing with the M1911 Pistol a few times.