Boathouse Finale

The Boathouse Finale is the fifth and final chapter of the second campaign, Death Toll. The Survivors must fight their way from the safe house to a boathouse on the riverside to call on the radio for a boat that is circling outside the city to come and pick them up. When they call for pickup, the Infected attack, as with every finale. The Survivors must stay alive until the boat comes to rescue them, fighting off multiple hordes and several Special Infected, including two or three Tanks. When the boat arrives, they must run on to the boat and board it, upon which the credits begin to roll.

Safe Room Method
Have everyone run to the boathouse and load up on pipe bombs and med kits. Once you are healed to max with a med kit and pain pills if possible, call in for the boat. Once the boat is called in everyone runs back to the start of the map right outside of the safe house door. If two people stand in the back with two crouching in front of the door you can kill all of the Common Infected before they even get inside. Continue this until you hear the boat horn, and your characters say rescue has arrived. Special Infected do not have time to use their attack when running in the door, and tanks can only put one player down (this has been changed by patch). Everyone can kill them before the player dies and then revive them. Sometimes the tank bugs at this point, and completely fails to appear—the Tank's theme will play, Infected will stop coming, but the Tank itself will never show up.

Once the boat arrives have everyone stay together and run back to the docks. This is where you will need the pipe bombs. There will be about 4 hordes of Common Infected as you run back. Pick an order to have everyone throw the pipe bomb if you feel you will be overwhelmed. If a Tank attacks again, have the person it attacks stray away from the group and try to outrun/dodge it using trees and houses. This usually results in 3 players always making it to safety with no ammunition or health problems. Sometimes you can get All 4 Back if you avoid the final Tank.
 * This data is based on a game played in expert mode, so all four players should be able to make it back to the boat on other difficulties.

Harry Potter Method
(NOTE: This WILL NOT WORK in Versus mode, due to Valve editing the map for "fairness") There is a cupboard under the stairs in the house. Have everyone get in there. Two crouching in the front, meleeing and shotgunning, two in the back. It's easy to take down the Hordes. You are also close to the ammo. When the Tank comes run out of the house. There are usually molotovs right out the back door on the right. Once you kill the tank get back in the room. Once you kill the second tank run for the dock. Molotov the entrance to the dock once you're on it and watch for Smokers. Get on the boat.

Balcony Method
Have everyone arm up with their weapons (Auto shotgun and Dual Pistols). One Survivor handles the Minigun while another covers him. The other two take the bottom floor until it cannot be protected further or is overrun, in which case they cover the stairs.

The cabin outside can be run to for resources but it is not advised to do so in the middle of the Horde. If you must, wait for the Tank to spawn and make a run for the cabin.

Wait For The Infected to calm when the boat comes, making sure the Special Infected are dead before running to the boat.

Dock Method
Have everyone stock up, then once the rescue has been called, run out to the dock where the boat arrives. The vast majority of the Infected will come from the front, with a few running around to the sides climbing up, but these are easy to deal with. For the Tanks, staying on the dock isn't advised due to a lack of room to run, and an abundance of water, rendering your Molotovs useless. When the Tank is present, have everyone move back onto the mainland to deal with it (this is also a good time to restock), and move back onto the dock as soon as it's been dispatched. Another obvious advantage to this tactic is at the very end, where you will hardly have to move to reach the boat, as it picks you up right where you've been holding out. There is also occasionally a Propane tank or Gas can on the dock that can be used.

Rock Method
To the left of the house there is a group of two rocks in the water. With a bit of practice you can jump to the top of the rocks. From here, Common Infected have a difficult time getting to you as there is only one place they can jump up at and if there is a Horde they will constantly be pushing each other out of position so they won't be able to climb up. Three of the Survivors are on Smoker protection while the fourth Survivor melees the Infected to conserve ammunition. The Tank usually cannot find the Survivors and will die after losing control, but should he successfully spot them, he likewise has difficulty climbing up, but he can still toss rocks and the surrounding water makes Molotovs impractical so it is advised to fight him on the mainland. If someone is pulled off or falls of the rock, have them go as far back into the water as they can. The Horde should focus mostly on the closer Survivors, allowing the far off Survivor to snipe in relative safety. The strategy is slightly more dangerous than the closet strategy on expert unless someone is a good shot with the hunting rifle.

Rock Method 2
Mostly the same as Tactic 4, except this one uses a glitch that causes The Director to spawn very few of the Infected until the boat comes. But make sure everyone has a pipe bomb if possible. On the way to the rock, make sure your team's flashlights are off AT ALL TIMES! If done correctly, VERY few Common Infected will come to attack your team until the boat comes. If a Tank comes, stay on the rock and gun him down. However, if using this tactic, the Tank will sometimes simply die by losing control before you can even see him. But, if you do have to get off the rock, get back on it immediately. Whatever you do, DO NOT TURN YOUR FLASHLIGHT ON! Eventually the boat will come and when this happens, get off the rock and into the water. Have a teammate throw a pipe bomb with your other teammates throwing their pipe bombs after each other. The only problems with this tactic are dealing with the Tanks, getting to the boat, and that the tactic is EXTREMELY anticlimactic until the boat comes. (You'd be surprised at how few of the Infected will come at you doing until the boat comes.)

Glitch Rock
There is also a rock to the far right of the house which can be climbed up on. If you shine your flashlight around the rock on the front side (not any of the sides in the water), you can just about jump on a surface to get onto the rock. Hordes can very rarely climb on this rock. The only things that the team will need to be aware of are Smokers that can pull you off, a Tank throwing rocks and an occasional Common Infected. The Tank can sometimes, although very rarely, climb the rock.

Roof Glitch

 * Notice, this is not possible anymore due to a recent update.**

If you jump on top of the Minigun and melee it in the direction of the roof, you will eventually be able to land on the roof by way of jumping onto the Minigun, and being launched; note that you may miss and receive lots of damage if you fall off the building. Once on the roof, as long as nobody hits or uses the minigun, you can quickly get back up there whenever you need to. The Infected only come from the river-side corners, and Special Infected won't attack without climbing up, including the Smoker, if you stand near the radar dish. When it comes time to fight the tank, you can simply jump down, kill the Tank, then go back up. When the boat comes, you can get to it easily by hanging onto a couple of pipe bombs, and throwing them when needed on the way to the boat.

Gazebo Roof Glitch
In the gazebo in front of the house there is a picnic table. Using the propane tank, or 3 people, move the table towards the rock to the left of the structure(when looking at it from the house). Align it pirpendicular to the wall, on the little hill leading to the rock. With proper positioning, you can get speed jumping from the rock and onto the table, and then jumping to the corner of the roof. Once on the roof, 2 people can crouch by the chimney with sniper rifles and remain there until they are tired of watching the timer run. Bring sniper rifles as you will have to kill a few smokers on either side in the first couple minutes, but after that, they stop spawning in places where they can see you and no enemies can get onto the roof. The other secret to this is staying still when crouched, and turning off your flashlight.

Tips
Note that the water isn't exactly deadly, but should still be avoided for a number of reasons.


 * 1) Molotovs are obviously useless.
 * 2) Your movement will be partially reduced here.
 * 3) Getting incapacitated in the water will kill you, no one will be able to rescue you once you drown, if a survivor is incapacitated in the water clear the Infected surrounding him and you are still able to revive him.

Versus
[[Category:]Rewrites] Now that you've been told how to play human, let's move on to the Infected, shall we? There are a few changes to the map from the original map that need to be pointed out:


 * The bathroom near the boathouse has been boarded off. No more of those silly survivors hiding there!


 * The Harry Potter room? Demolished replaced by a mere wall!


 * Bathroom in the Boathouse? Nope, just two zombie walls and an empty room in between!

Now, on to strategy.

To start off, here's some tips for each infected:

Smoker:


 * Get to a rooftop and wait. The Survivors will have to leave the safe room, and the longer they take, the more time you will get to find a good roof!


 * Rocks are your new best friend. Use them to hide behind and yank a survivor to you!


 * Hide in the water behind the boathouse and snag any Survivor who steps out onto the back deck. Not only are you hard to spot in the water despite getting a very clear shot, if you incapacitate a Survivor there the Survivor's allies need to revive them PRONTO or they'll drown!

Boomer:


 * Team up with the Smoker. When the snared Survivor's buddy comes to save him, Vomit on them both!


 * Stay away from the Tank. If you get hit or shot next to him, he gets knocked off balance, and gives the Survivors an opportunity to either run or kill him.
 * Sneak up behind the rock if the survivors are on it, boomer bill on them and run for cover and left the infected take care of the rest.

Hunter:


 * Find a hiding place fast. When the survivors walk past, pounce!


 * Coordinate with your Smoker and other Hunter teammates. With his or her three friends snared or pounced, he will have to make a choice: Which one to save? Even if he kills one or two of you, the third helpless Survivor might be dead!


 * Team up with the boomer, when he billes, pounce when they can't see.


 * team up with the Smoker.Incap survivors in the water after Smoker pulls them in, then the team will have to go out side to help.

More on our steroid-abusing friend the Tank later.

Just the general attack strategy at square one. Once the four humans cross the street (If you don't murder them all at the start!) They will enter a house. Now it's Boomer and Smoker's time to shine! Boomer need to vomit on them fast. Most likely they will run to the bedroom. Now the Smoker can snare one through the barred windows. He will probably be freed fast, but you can get away. Now comes the part where you hold your breath: Will there be a Tank? Yes there will sometimes be a Tank BEFORE the finale, PLUS the three in it! Now for Tank tips part 1:

Tank (pt1)


 * Odds are high that the group of humans will have a Molotov by now, so watch out!


 * Try to get them into the house. If they're crammed in there you can hit all four at once!


 * If you do get lit, don't stop attacking! Just more reason to beat them to death!

Now, if you killed them all, don't read further. If you failed or didn't get a Tank however, keep reading. Right past the now boarded-off restroom, there one of those aforementioned rocks. Smoker, go hide there. Now when what's left of the Survivors passes by, snare one! Boomer needs to go to the Smoker, hide, and prepare to get at least two pukes! Now if the Survivors get to the radio, it's not over yet. Keep attacking relentlessly until Finale Tank 1 appears! Time for...

Tank (pt2)


 * Try to keep them in the water, where they can't light you on fire!


 * If you do get lit on fire, run to the water!


 * Try to corner them.

If they don't die, repeat the process until victory!

Behind the Scenes
Originally, the finale took place near a houseboat that was docked at the edge of a river. An early photo of the area, seen in the folder /materials/console, shows this houseboat. The houseboat was such an memorable part of the map that this map's filename is "l4d_smalltown05_houseboat". It is unknown why the houseboat was removed, but based on the screenshot, it seems that the Houseboat would be too easy to defend, as the team would just need to camp the second floor until the rescue vehicle arrived.

Of note is that the image shows that there originally was no burning city in the background. Instead, a clear dark sky can be seen. It seems that the idea of adding a burning city across the river was added later, possibly to add some sort of connection between Death Toll and Dead Air.

Trivia

 * If you throw a Propane tank into the river, it will disappear and it can't be picked back up.
 * You can throw a Molotov from the balcony over the house and on to the dock. This can, of course, create a potentially fatal situation; imagine a panicking Survivor throwing a grenade at the docks as another Survivor is about to climb aboard the boat. Though this will keep the Infected at bay while the flames rage, the Survivor will also be burnt to a crisp in the fire. This can be especially catastrophic if the Survivor, or any other Survivors trying to get on board the boat, are low on health.
 * Look in the bathroom of the protected house after crossing the street from the safe room. A first-aid kit and pain pills usually spawns there, even on Expert.
 * John Slater, the man who spoke on the radio in the boathouse, is voiced by John Patrick Lowrie, who also voiced the Sniper in Team Fortress 2 and civilians in the Half-Life 2 series.
 * If a Tank is killed in the water, it will float.
 * This is a good place to get the Man vs. Tank achievement, as it provides enough closed space to survive the Horde on your own, and enough open space to easily deal with the Tank.
 * You can see the burning city of Newburg on the opposite side of the river.
 * There is a red coffee mug on a desk in a dark side room almost immediately after the beginning safehouse that says "Layoffs Anyone?" (this is an object from Counter-Strike Source, as are certain washing machine boxes).
 * At the beginning of the campaign near the safe house, you will pass through a room with a Van inside it, if you look at the garage door at the back of the Van, you will see "Jesus &lt;3's u" written on it.
 * There is a really odd and pointless box far behind the boathouse over the water- it is only accessible by noclip and is just a plain grey box on the inside that is not visible from the shore. If a Molotov is thrown in the box, the flames will be visible from the shore. Pipe bombs don't work in this box, presumably out of the Infected's targeting range.
 * As Infected, if you get set on fire, don't panic. You can simply jump into the water behind the boathouse and the fire will be extinguished. This is very handy as a Tank.
 * The grounds surrounding the dock are believed to have been inspired by Crystal Lake from the Friday the 13th franchise.
 * The pile of bodies laying outside the front of the boat house are placed in a position that might suggest they were killed by the minigun. Perhaps the boat house's former occupants were paranoid of any newcomers.
 * While browsing through the graffiti texture files in the L4D Authoring Tools; a piece of graffiti which states "They'll let you ON but they won't let you LEAVE" may allude to the true intentions of John and Amanda Slater. However, this is still highly debatable.
 * Due to a recent update, the bathroom and closet in the boathouse were removed. In addition, the supplies were moved to the deck of the boathouse.