The Passing

"The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign."

- Doug Lombardi

The Passing is the first Downloadable Content (DLC) campaign for Left 4 Dead 2. It was released on April 22, 2010. It includes a new campaign and "new co-operative challenge modes of play." It also introduces a new firearm, the M60; the Golf Club, and a new Uncommon Common Infected called the Fallen Survivor.

The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival, in the suburban town of Rayford, Georgia. One of the main features of this campaign is a meet-up between the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors and three of the Survivors from Left 4 Dead. Note that the original Survivors are not playable. The original Survivors appear in the campaign's first chapter, where they meet up with the new Survivors. They appear once again near the end, to help Coach, Nick, Rochelle, and Ellis escape. The campaign is playable in all of the current game modes, as well as the newly featured ones. It is free for PC, and 560MSP on the Xbox 360.

The DLC is called "The Passing," which could be interpreted in several ways. It may simply be referring to the passing of the two parties. It could also refer to the idiom "The passing of the torch", which is referenced in the achievement unlocked upon completing the campaign. But it may refer to the death, or "passing", of Bill, who gave up his life to save the others. The death of Bill and the appearance of the Fallen Survivors are also why the tagline is "Nobody survives forever." To explain how this happened, Valve will be releasing DLC for Left 4 Dead, in which the players play through a new campaign, leading up to the event, ending with one player giving up their life to let the other three Survivors escape. A digital comic book will also come out to show what happens to the original Survivors after the events of Left 4 Dead.

Released in The Passing

 * The Fallen Survivor.
 * The M60 machine gun.
 * The Golf Club.
 * A new song by the Midnight Riders.
 * A new Bride Model for the Witch.
 * New Achievements.
 * 2 New Avatar Awards. (Left 4 Dead 2 baseball hat and Gnome Chompski prop. Xbox 360 only.)
 * New Common Infected Models: Midnight Riders fans and Wedding Guests.
 * New Survival Maps.
 * New Scavenge Maps.
 * New weekly game modes dubbed "Mutations".
 * Foot Lockers containing an infinite quantity of usually limited items (Molotovs, Pipe bombs, Bile bombs, pills, Adrenaline)
 * The Baseball Bat now randomly spawns within all maps alongside other melee weapons including inside safe rooms. Baseball Bats always being at the start of a campaign are still limited to people who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2.  However, they may still have a chance to randomly spawn in such locations.