The Sugar Mill

"Nick, you ever seen this many Witches? Ho-lee shit."

- Ellis

"Dang. Bitches must like sugar."

- Coach


 * For the actual in-game sugar mill, see Ducatel Sugar Company.

The Sugar Mill is the second chapter in the Hard Rain campaign. Once you exit the safe room, you see the Ducatel Sugar Mill right in front of you. You go in and head through a mill full of Witches. The abundance of Witches is due to the fact that the Witch has a strong attraction to the smell of sugar. Also, according to a recent online poll, it's one of the most difficult levels, and one of the most common places to use health kits and pain pills.

The Crescendo event in this chapter is calling the elevator to take you down to a sugar cane field.

Campaign
In the safe room, there are some Tier 2 weapons sitting on the table, along with health packs, grenades, and temporary health items scattered around the room, and most of the time, defibrillators. Grab what you like, and head down the stairs and out of the safe room. Follow the hallway and turn outside in the parking lot. Deal with any Common Infected here and head into the outskirts of the sugar mill. Keep on heading around the scaffolding, avoiding any Witches that may be around. It is not uncommon for several Special Infected, including Tanks to spawn here, so stay on your toes. Keep on going, and soon there will be a small trailer in front of you that houses either Tier 1 or Tier 2 weapons and usually pills. Advance farther past that, and there will be a larger trailer, which contains first aid kits, Tier 1 or Tier 2 weapons, and on occasion, defibrillators, throwable items, etc. This is also a possible spawn location for a Tank, so if you haven't encountered one so far, be ready if one does come. To gain higher ground on the Infected, you can climb the bricks to get on the pipe, forcing the Infected who see you to climb up, making it easy for your other allies to shoot them in the back Next, you will head into the sugar mill itself. Enter on the ground floor, and simply head up the stairs. Watch out, though; Hunters and Chargers like to camp at the top of the staircases and wait for you. Head up to the top level, be sure to clear the area before you activate the elevator. A good idea to clean out trouble in the cane field is either to toss a Pipe Bomb out into the cane field below or snipe from from next to the elevator. Witches in the cane field can also be dealt to by sniping them and then shooting them as they attempt to climb up the side of the sugar mill. However, you will probably see only 2 Witches inside, and if you can't kill them before they climb up, you'll get incapacitated. No Panic Events or Special Infected will be activated when in the building. You can use the broken trailer for ammo replenishment or get a new gun (which varies), but doing so will cause a Panic Event and a random Special Infected to respawn. Keep an eye on ammo reserves though as you will need these to handle the Elevator Crescendo (refer the following section).

Skipping the crescendo

This requires at least ONE bot alive (you can ask your teammate to go idle) or someone with 89 life and above. Stand next to the elevator looking out into the cane field. Take a step back, press and hold the jump button and run off the building. Try to land in the middle of the roof of the rescue closet below you. You will get incapacitated on the roof with your friends still at the elevator. You can not be limping (under 40 health) to do this or you will drop short and die. Trying to jump off will also kill you. If a bot is present it will run against the elevator to try and revive you. The game will think it is stuck and teleport it on you and it will revive you. (If you have several bots without any humans left they will teleport to you eventually). If you have four human players and no one wants to go idle, you can still incapacitate yourself on the roof of the rescue closet, and another person with at least 83 health has to jump and land on you. Directly before he lands he has to start reviving you. He will fall and take 82 damage instead of dying. The other two would then have to run off like you did. This is similar to the glitch playable on The Crane in Survival Mode in Left 4 Dead.

On Versus, this is not recommended, since if the Survivors are grouped together, the Charger will charge at all of you, killing almost all of them, and start the crescendo right away. However, the person playing as the Charger can get the Long Distance Carrier achievement this way.

Not skipping the crescendo

After you call the horde, the overall most effective way to fight it is in an "L" shape. One person covers the small left passage, another one is in the corner behind them with a long range weapon (the Combat Rifle works very well for this) taking care of any Infected coming at long range from the right side, another (preferably with a shotgun or melee weapon) occupies the right flank from close range, and the last one (also with a ranged weapon) covers the far side of the floor, to make sure no Smokers pull anyone away. Prepositioning a Propane or Oxygen Tank (if available) at the head of the stairs opposite or down a passage way is a good idea to thin your enemy's ranks.

Good job, you have survived the Crescendo Event. After you exit the elevator and before you enter the cane field, turn right. There will be a small shed that houses med kits, pills, oxygen tanks, and pipe bombs. This also counts as a Rescue Closet, so if anyone died before the crescendo, they will end up there. Continue through the field― but be careful not to run into any Witches―and the gas station will be right in front of you. A tip is to jump up on the pipe extending into the cane field to speed up your journey whilst giving you improved lines of sight. Beware that the roadway and gas station will be heavily infested with loitering Infected of various kinds. Head into the safe room, regroup, and prepare for the Mill Escape.

Tactics

 * Be aware that "full of Witches" does not mean 3-4 Witches. The level can contain up to 20 Witches, often more than one in a single area and even lurking around in the sugar cane fields where you can't see them until you've spooked them. However, the Wandering Witch's music and crying increases as you get closer to her.
 * It is highly recommended that at least one person has a shotgun; that way, if a Witch is causing problems for the Survivors, they have a way of killing her (cr0wning).
 * Unfortunately, the Witch music usually gets glitched in this level if you are not in a Versus match, making it a lot harder to tell the location of the witch easily, unless one human player has a Hunting or Sniper Rifle.
 * Extremely rare, it is possible to encounter 2 Witches in a specific spot, or even 3 of them in a key place.
 * Since this chapter takes place during the day, you will have to try your best to sneak around the Witches as they wander around instead of being stationary. Bots do a terrible job of this, however, meaning it may be necessary to wait for it to pass before moving on or a Bot may startle her.
 * One tactic you can use to get across the sugar fields is to head all the way to the right or left of the field where the water levels are lower than in the middle so you don't slow down through the field. Another method is to jump constantly through the field looking for any nearby Witches, but be wary, as you may hit a Witch or two by touching, and startle them, unless you can hear the intensity of the music.
 * Another tactic is to walk on the large pipe going through the field; there aren't many sugar canes near it and it gives you a higher ground, two useful things that can help you spot a Witch.
 * Because you should focus on the Witches, it is VERY easy to forget a Tank may spawn in the area. A good idea is to turn the subtitles on to full captions, and wander through the sugar mill carefully.
 * A riskier method is just to walk as fast as possible through the campaign. If a Witch is in the way, let it pass and keep moving, though if a Charger/Jockey/Smoker gets you will get attacked by the Witch if you hit them.
 * If you want to kill the Witches, it is recommended that you have plenty of cr0wning skills. Hunting and Sniper rifles are also good if nobody on your team can cr0wn a Witch, as a headshot should stumble her very easily. As soon as she has been stumbled, don't stop shooting until the Witch is dead, and make sure you're very far away for a chance at survival.
 * Because of all the Witches in this chapter, it is not worth throwing a pipe bomb into the distance to clear out common infected or shooting with a grenade launcher, as the chances are that you will inadvertently startle one, and this can prove to be a problem, particularly on Expert or Realism.
 * The sugar cane field can contain around 5-10 witches. It would be wise to avoid using Molotovs and pipe bombs here. However, when at the Sugar Mill, you can only see 2 Witches.
 * Witches in the cane field can climb up to where you must start the elevator to finish the level. Throwing a Molotov and just letting them die, won't work.
 * However, if four survivors focus their fire on one witch, they still have a chance to kill the witch before she climbs up. (Tier 2 weapon is highly recommended.), unless if the Witches must climb a huge way, players can block their movements.
 * Ladders in this area could be useful, the one who startled the witch can stay at the middle of the ladder (needs to be beyond her attack range ), while the rest of teammates can shoot her. Just be careful to avoid nasty friendly fire if using shotguns (other weapons/pistols can do)
 * On Realism or Expert, it is a good idea to have at least one Survivor with a Defibrillator just in the case the Witches manage to kill someone.
 * Killing Witches on this level does not affect the number of Witches on the next stage.
 * If you want to get the achievement Sob Story, it is recommended to play with other players as bots may kill the Witch before she can incapacitate or kill her incapacitated victim. If a player should startle her, let her kill the player and make sure someone has a Defibrillator or have them spawn in a nearby Rescue Closet, as Witches run away after killing a Survivor, though the "running away" makes her spawn somewhere else where she wouldn't want you to be in (like near the ruined building near the elevator that causes you to panic and melee her)
 * The main problem in getting Sob Story is the amount of Witches and their programmed paths. Since every Witch is a Wandering Witch, hiding in spots such as the trailer right before the Crescendo can cause a Witch to enter and forcing you to kill it. Along with that, going up the stairs to call the elevator sometimes has a Witch, or having a Witch on the Crescendo floor can cause problems.
 * Bots are not recommended in this level for getting the achievement, since if a Boomer gets close to the Witch, the bots will shoot the Boomer, causing the Witch to attack the bot who killed the Boomer, making it impossible to get the Sob Story Achievement.
 * Try not to use shortcuts if using bots; the bots will not know how to use them, and attempt to follow you, and will invariably startle a Witch or two.
 * If players start this part without doing The Milltown, they can find an ammo upgrade in the room with the propane tank with it.

Achievements

 * See Main Article: Achievements