Dead Center - 3/4: Mall

"Everybody, gather 'round. Let's pray. Dear Lord, see us safely through our time of trial in this mall. And please Lord... let the food court be okay."

- Coach

In The Mall the Survivors finally reach Liberty Mall, only to find that the evacuation center there has already been overrun by the Infected. This chapter contains a Crescendo Event in which the Survivors must either open alarmed emergency doors on the first floor or smash the windows of a barricaded toy store on the second floor, triggering a burglar alarm that attracts Infected hordes until the Survivors get to the security office on the third floor and shut it off. This chapter seems to have an increased amount of horde attacks, often running into them non-stop expert difficulty.

Campaign
This chapter is considerably the toughest in the campaign, as it seems Common and Special Infected are spawned at a much more frequent rate. Often, there can be multiple Special Infected at once. Just keep moving, and stay together. There is a good chance you can find a Molotov in the Kappel's clothing store, so hold on to it until you are faced with a Tank. Once you pass the food court, you must go upstairs into a hallway. This will lead to the crescendo event. Once at a two way path, you can only go either right, down stairs, and open an emergency door, OR you have to go left into a store and shoot out the window. This is better due to the fact the store is already on the 2nd floor, and you must turn off the alarm on the 3rd. Both ways contain the same items in the rooms, which contain melee, an ammo cache, and a med cabinet. Saving a bile bomb for Crescendo Event can buy the survivor's alot time. Keep in mind that you still might need to fight the horde after the bile bomb's effects wear off.

Survivors:
Basically, keep the same strategy in mind as in campaign mode. The very beginning could be the worst part of the level, as there are plenty of places for the infected to spawn. Be very wary when traversing up or down the escalators, as Chargers are likely waiting to charge through them. Half way through the level, after the survivors have gone back up to the 2nd floor for the second time, there is a one-way gate as you enter the service hallways (there is a desk in the way that you can't jump over once inside the hallway). Although it may seem that you can't get back over the desk, you actually can. But it will take you about 20 seconds to do so. Just head to the room on your right as you jump over, there will be an office chair. Melee it out of the room & then push it to the desk, then if you have done it right you can jump onto the chair & then over the desk. but this is only neccesary if any survivors are unfortunate enough to be incapped before they enter the hallway.

The service hallway takes two paths to the gauntlet crescendo event. Either it ends up in the back room of the Just 4 Kidz store (on the 2nd floor), or ends up in front of an emergency exit door (on the 1st floor). However it is much more likely that the Just 4 Kids store route will be open. When you reach the Just 4 Kids store, be very careful not to fire your weapon inside the store, as there is a high chance you will break the glass and prematurely activate the crescendo event before the other Survivors are ready to go. Once the crescendo event is started, take the escalator right in front of you up to the 3rd floor (watch out for Chargers), and run down the hallway right into the security room to deactivate the alarm.

After the security room, they have to run down, and back up to the 3rd floor into the safehouse.



Infected:
There are plenty of places to spawn inside Kappel's clothing store. Ideally you want to set up right outside the safe room door to cause a good amount of damage. Chargers are key in this level, as there are plenty of escalators the Survivors must traverse, which force them into a small area for a decent amount of time. Just make sure to properly line up your charge.

A good ambush spot is at the entrance to the service hallways on the second floor, as this is a one-way gate. Successfully pinning someone outside this gate, might lead to Survivors being unable to save them. When the survivors activate the crescendo event. Try to single out the loner of the group (this will usually be the first or last guy). Smokers can drag from separate floors, and there are plenty of straight hallways for Chargers. It might be a good idea for the Spitter to spit right in front of the entrance to the security room, as the delay will likely cause another wave of Common Infected to slow down the Survivors.