The Witch

The Witch is a member of the hordes of the Infected, and the only one initially passive to the Survivors. It is also the only non-playable Special Infected, deemed to be "too dangerous" by Valve. It resembles the average female Common Infected, but instead of standing around and idling, it is usually slumped on the ground and making loud noises which resemble sobbing, which can be heard long before it's ever seen, allowing the player a chance to prepare a plan to deal with it.

Meet the Witch


A Witch will only attack upon being Startled, which is easy to do. There is a long list of things that she does not appreciate.
 * Bright lights
 * Being too close
 * Shooting
 * Setting her on fire
 * Explosions near her
 * Staring at her for too long

Notice the first two will cause her to growl threateningly and stand; if left alone she will eventually return to kneeling and sobbing. If any of the rest occur, or failure to leave her alone, she will become "Startled," homing in on specifically the character who startled her.

She can and will appear on every difficulty and level, sometimes even twice or more. Her first strike on any Survivor will incapacitate the character which is followed up by tearing them to shreds, except for on Expert where she instantly kills instead. Needless to say, great care is vital on expert.

After it has killed its target, the Witch begins to run around and scream, seeming to try to escape further hostility. It will still attack anything in her way, pushing Survivors back if they run into her. Eventually, it can get away from the Survivors, mysteriously disappearing once she's completely out of sight.

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.

Extent of Mutations
The Witch has been heavily mutated by a strain of the Infection. Though resembling a typical female infected, it has gained a massive increase in strength, though this is not visible via muscle growth. Its fingers have developed sharp claws, making its hits even deadlier. It is known to cry when not aware of the Survivors, though the exact reasoning behind it is unknown. It's possible that the Witch may also have some memory or real emotions, unlike what the other Infected seem to portray. For example, she is sometimes found near a dead body, making it a possibility that she perhaps knew this person, giving her a reason to cry, or that the infection causes extreme pain in the infected, which would explain why the common infected are sometimes seen sitting down holding their heads and leaning against walls holding their heads. Even though its mentality is largely similar to that of the typical Infected, it's not distracted by things like the flashing lights and beeps of a pipe bomb, nor is it apparently attracted by things such as car alarms going off, though this will alert her of the Survivors' presence.

Survivors
Avoid confrontations with Witches whenever possible, especially on expert difficulty. If you are skilled at cr0wning, you might want to kill her that way, as it will save you the trouble if you wander off near her previous location when under attack by a Tank or special infected (sometimes even common infected).

If sobbing is heard, it means a Witch is around, but this does not mean you should switch off your flashlights yet. Only until you hear the distinct Witch music does it mean she is very near by, and this music will get louder the closer you get to her. You should alert your team once you hear crying, then again when you hear the music, so turn up your volume. 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 Common 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. Should the Witch be inside a room, the best solution is to shut the door and notify your teammates to not open that door.

Inevitably, though, Witches will be provoked. The Director loves to put a Witch at choke points, such as outside the doorway of a safe house or underneath a Panic Event trigger, and it often places them in areas where Hordes arrive due to Panic Events. If the Witch is obstructing a choke point and must (exception for cr0wning which doesn't result in startling nor counts against the "Do Not Disturb" achievement) 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, or during a Horde attack), backpedal away from it while firing. The Witch pursues and will incapacitate (kill on expert difficulty) the Survivor who startled it if she reaches him/her.

The Witch, unlike the Tank, can't break down the safe house door after it's been opened and closed again, so of course, there are a few tactics to exploit this fact. One tactic, if the Witch is close to the beginning of the level, would be for three Survivors to hide in the safe house with the door open and for the Survivor with the most health to startle the Witch and get inside the safe house before the Witch incapacitates/kills them and close the door. The Witch will run away after a few seconds, and as soon as she does, it is safe (relatively) to leave the safe house again.

Tip: Normal doors can slow the Witch down, it will claw a hole in the door that you can shoot through for a short period of time, as shown in the Intro Scene.

Preparing for a Witch

 * It is smart to have at least one person on the survivor side armed with an Auto Shotgun or at least a Pump shotgun. That way, if you have no way of sneaking past her, you will have a better fighting chance against her. Shotguns have the remarkable ability to "cr0wn" witches—kill in one headshot—whereas the other weapons cannot. Contrary to popular belief, even the Hunting rifle cannot instantly kill witches. However, their long range can prove useful in striking the witch from a further distance - especially if there are several terrain impediments the witch must cross. This gives your team more time to eliminate her.
 * Potentially dangerous, but useful, it is smart to locate the witch first, that way, if you are retreating or need a place to hide during a Crescendo Event, you will know where not to go.
 * Turn off your flashlight, this way she is less likely to be startled.
 * Even without the flashlight, she can still be seen; watch out for her glowing red eyes!
 * Make sure you are reloaded and stocked with ammo, you don't want to upset her and have nothing to back you up.

What startles the Witch?

 * 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, but you have to be far away; if you are too close and shoot, she will by startled immediately).
 * Staying within the Witch's proximity too long.
 * 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.



Hit & Run
One strategy for defeating the Witch relies on her established tendency to attack ONLY the person who startled her. 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. Keep in mind, however, that the Witch can switch targets if a survivor other than her initial victim blocks her movement for too long (i.e. she shoves you back but you are on a narrow catwalk and continue to block her path).

Cr0wn the Witch
(Also see achievement)

The achievement is surprisingly "easy" (if nerve-racking) to do if you have a Pump shotgun, and even easier with an Auto Shotgun.

Approach the Witch, preferably quickly to give you a chance to do something while she starts moving to get up. Aim your shotgun at her head when you are in extremely close proximity. If you fire your shotgun and miss with the weapon's spray, the witch will be startled and attack you. To get the achievement, you need to make sure every pellet from the shotgun's blast impacts her head. Some things to remember include:
 * Keep your Flashlight turned off.
 * The feat is impossible with any other weapon but the Pump shotgun or Auto Shotgun.
 * To get the Cr0wnd achievement you have to kill her in one shot. With a mere shotgun you can get in two shots if you are hasty, but you'll want to be sure your teammates are still there to get her off of you before you try this, unless it's Expert difficulty in which case you'll be instantly killed.
 * Don't hesitate. If you approach her and hesitate to fire, you may find she'll be startled before you attack her. If she's startled, It will be extremely hard to get the achievement. However, if you try to kill her too quickly you are likely going to miss and loose, take your time and preferably wait for her to stand up to get a clear shot at the head.
 * Practice will easily teach you when to shoot and when not to. This can be achieved in "Commentary Mode" under "Extras" on the level The Sewer. At the very end of the level, in front of Mercy Hospital's entrance, there's a commentary node that when activated, will spawn a witch. The witch can be killed and respawned for an infinite amount of times. This way, you can practice killing her in one shot. However, the achievement itself cannot be unlocked in "Commentary Mode". It is only useful for practice.
 * Notice that killing her in one head shot doesn't "startle" the Witch. This is most likely because she's dead before she can go crazy.

Other Witch killing tactics

 * Fire makes the Witch very slow. She will slowly walk to you and scream from the heat, but can still attack you unlike normal zombies.
 * Line up your team like a firing squad. Using the Hunting Rifle, a well placed headshot will stun the witch and knock her back before she is startled. During these few seconds of startled time, have everyone open fire on her and she will die surprisingly fast.
 * Use obstacles like subway cars, escalator ramps, office partitions, etc. to slow her down such that she never catches up with you.
 * 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 run away, you live to see another day.
 * On Expert difficulty, it is possible to avoid the Witch's instant-kill attack by being incapacitated by a teammate. The Witch will try to shred the incapacitated survivor, allowing the others a chance to kill her before she kills someone. Only attempt this if the Witch has already been startled.
 * Throw a Molotov at the witch from as far away as you can, then run back towards the beginning safe room while your allies open fire on the Witch. If you are near the beginning of the level, make sure you close the safe room door behind you.
 * Using machine guns if they're nearby. They have the power to kill a witch so quickly that it may not even be startled. This is rare, however.
 * Explosions can stun the witch, startled or not. A good tactic that involves minimal risk is to throw a propane tank or oxygen tank next to her, and stunning her with a headshot from the Hunting Rifle. When the initial stun has worn off, blow the tank next to her for a double stun and finish her off.
 * If you're fortunate enough to find her at the top of a ladder that has a space survivors can use, use it by having the person who startled her climb a ladder and make the witch follow, you can trap her under or above the survivor and she can be easily picked off with any weapon (though you should be very careful with the shotgun, to avoid harming the bait).

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.
 * Alternatively, you can simply abandon the poor soul who startled the Witch to his fate. A very viable solution, particularly when the team is near the end of the level on Expert.
 * In rare situations, the witch will spawn in an open doorway. If you can run up and close the door on her body without startling her, thereby jamming her in the doorway, she will get up and runaway without a fight. Confirmed on Normal and Expert modes.



Witch tactics that fail

 * No weapon except the shotgun will or even can kill the witch instantly. Attempting to use the assault rifle in narrow space with little means of escape will get you incapicitated.
 * Melee usually fails against a Witch, but if you're backing away and she's closing fast, it's worth a try. Do it earlier than you think you should; she has a long reach.
 * Startling a Witch from several roof tops away (such as on the Dead Air campaign) and expecting the Witch to have difficulty reaching you.
 * If the survivor who attacked the Witch is dead, DO NOT SHOOT AT HER IF SHE IS FLEEING! This will just waste ammo, and it IS possible to startle the same Witch multiple times, especially if you use molotovs.
 * Closing a door on her won't work if she's chasing you; she just tears it down in one or two hits.

Infected
Although you cannot play as the Witch, you can "use" her:
 * Smokers can drag Survivors to the Witch
 * Hunters and Boomers can crouch in front of the Witch, obscuring her from the Survivors sight. Alternately, if a Boomer is killed while the Survivors are relatively close to the Witch, the explosion will startle her, sending her after the person who killed the Boomer.
 * Experienced Hunter players normally crouch just out of sight near the witch waiting until a player runs up to attack the witch pouncing them just before they get a chance to fire as this gives the witch the potential to do the most damage possibly even killing the survivor if timed properly.
 * Most experienced Survivor teams will have three players take up defensive positions while one goes up to crown the witch. As a Smoker, you can strangle the player who was tasked with Witch killing just as he/she is about to crown the witch. The witch will be startled, and the Survivor is basically a sitting duck.

Cr0wnd

 * Kill a Witch with a single head shot.

- Contrary to popular belief, this achievement CANNOT be earned with a Hunting Rifle. Thus, the weapon to use is a shotgun, preferably an automatic. With this weapon in hand, several tactics may be used, all of which require dousing your lamp. With flashlight off, it is possible to close within arm's reach of the Witch without startling her, provided one steps softly. If the Witch is approached from behind, she will even present her face as a prime target by looking over her shoulder. From there, a single blast from the shotgun will defeat her (though as a cautionary measure, always shoot more than once). If feeling particularly audacious, another tactic involves running at the Witch and shooting straight downward into her face while jumping over her. Make sure the Witch is still kneeling before attempting this, however, because if she is standing, the only thing this tactic yields is a freshly-opened chest cavity. Also note that this will not count against Do Not Disturb as she will die before becoming startled.

Do Not Disturb

 * Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.

This can be difficult if trying to achieve by yourself. e.g. A witch occupies a bottleneck corridor you get pass but your bot teammates do not and upset the witch. Alternately you can cr0wn her with a shotgun before she becomes startled.

Witch Hunter

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

- This is more difficult than Tankbusters (a similar achievement for the Tank), but the easiest way is to do it in levels with platforms, like No Mercy. Just try to get above the Witch, then have everyone unleash hell on her. It'll take her a while to reach you. Likewise, you may also single-handedly kill the witch by arming yourself with a semi-auto shotgun and unleashing all Hell on her. This requires long open space behind you, however; you will wish you hadn't attempted such a stunt if you hit the back of a train, or a gate, or wall. This achievement can be automatically awarded upon achieving Cr0wnd.

Burn the Witch

 * Light a Witch on fire with a Molotov.

- Just like Witch Hunter, try to get onto a platform above the Witch, just for the easiest shot, since she'll be immobile, and you can take aim. If there's no platforms, just get at the closest range you can without her reacting, and Hail Mary. - Although the achievement tells you to light her with a molotov, you still get the achievement if you do it with gasoline. Something to bear in mind. Same thing applies to the towering inferno achievement.

Infected
There aren't exactly that many tactics to use with the Witch, especially considering that she's on your side, but you can help in making the Survivors rile up the Witch. For instance, standing incredibly close to her, especially if you conceal her from sight, might cause a trigger-happy Survivor to shoot at you, thus startling the Witch.

Trivia

 * It's possible to kill a Witch—and startle her without her chasing anybody down—by closing a door on her.
 * Witches have a quite a long reach due to their long arms and claws that have been known to incapacitate survivors in mid-air leaving them flying through the air on their back until they land. This can cause witch victims to find themselves incapacitated in hard to reach areas unable to be picked up by fellow survivors.
 * Witches occasionally glitch and freeze on ladders; if she incapacitates a Survivor on a ladder, she will climb down to attack them on the ground, but may freeze and not be able to move off the ladder for the aforementioned reason, setting up an easy 'Cr0wnd' Achievement
 * Music Cue: The Witch
 * Sometimes on No Mercy, if the witch spawns around the elevator, you can startle her, and run right into a small group of common infected. Then the normal infected most likely won't attack you, and the Witch will attack you instead, but she will not be capable of killing you.
 * In one campaign, writing on a wall states "Watch out for the ones that cry; I saw one RIP APART 10 people; listen for their crying and WALK AROUND!"
 * On any difficulty, though this is more useful on Expert, it is possible to funnel a startled Witch into a small hallway, trap it using one or two players (not the one who startled it), and this should slow it down enough for the Survivors to shoot her to death, nullifying the threat she poses. However, if the hallway is too narrow and the Witch has absolutely no room in which to move in at all, not even enough to shove the other Survivors out of the way, she'll lash out at those responsible, killing them instantly or incapacitating them, depending on the difficulty.
 * It is possible for a Witch to spawn on top of the crane's container in the second level of Dead Air after the Crescendo Event associated with it has finished.
 * Several odd places for the witch have been noticed. Some of which are on top of hand rails and places you could not reach otherwise.
 * Even when The Witch dies, her eyes still glow.
 * The Witch, although rarely, can appear on the main menu, on the street, but it seems to be a normal infected because of the dark, and she doesn't cry.
 * It is speculated that the reason for the Witches strange mutation is that she was pregnant at the time of her infection. This would provide sufficient biomass for her increased strength, claws and may also be the reason she is crying, as the infection would have more than likely killed her unborn child.