South Pine Stream

South Pine Stream is the second chapter in the customised Cold Stream campaign. A DLC beta version was released in March 2011.

On exiting the safe room, teams find themselves in a broad tunnel filled with a fast flowing stream. The sun is quite low and shines directly into the team's eyes making it difficult to see, but fortunately there are only a couple of passive Common Infected to deal with in here. A stock of Tier 2 weapons will be found in the tunnel on the right hand side. Moving forward with the water, teams emerge in a steep sided creek bed filled with large boulders around and behind which lurk numerous Common Infected.

The trick is to keep moving forward at a steady pace, engaging and mopping up on an as-is, where-is basis. Special Infected will appear regularly, these threats include Jockeys and Spitters plus the occasional Smoker, Charger and - more rarely - a Hunter.

Note that a glitch means that enemies who are standing close to hard cover in the form of one of the many boulders in the creek cannot be shot (even though they are in plain sight) unless the shooter moves laterally to open out the angle.

Teams need to keep a good lookout in the creek bed since supplies occasionally turn up under water.

After a while, the creek bed enters an area in which it is blocked by foliage with a rickety wooden structure visible on the right and a clifftop section of road is in view. At this point, Tank music will come up and before long one of these fellows will make his appearance up in the road above from whence he will throw at least one (easily evaded) rocks before clambering down to attack the team.

Once he has been dispatched, the team use the aforesaid structure to climb up the cliff to the road where supplies may be waiting. Moving on down the road, the team will find it blocked and the only way forward is to turn back down to the creek bed. This area is thickly populated with enemies who must be dispatched as the team moves on down the creek.

Ahead will be seen the burning wreckage of a downed helicopter since this blocks the creek, teams must turn right and climb a short flight of wooden steps back up to the road. This area is crammed with vehicles and is filled with aggressive enemies - a stiff fight will ensue made all the more difficult by a nearby alarmed car. Once the area is pacified, the team should restock on ammo from the back of a white painted truck before scrambling up onto the deck of an army truck and proceeding up onto the roof of a bus that has crashed into a security barrier barring the road.

The team then jumps down over the security fence (which self-evidently forms a "non-return" gateway in the game). There are two breaks in the Armco safety barrier allowing teams access back down to the stream bed. (A hint is to move further down the clifftop road to second break denoted by a crashed military Humvee in the bushes down below. Not only is the vista more open here, but teams have less distance to travel down the stream bed.)  A peek over the lip of the cliff reveals that the area below is densely populated with Common Infected who respond aggressively to the the Survivors' arrival in their domain. In response, the team should lay down an initial blanket of fire as these Infected storm up the creek wall towards them and then begin to move steadily down towards the creek bed as they gain the upper hand in the fight.

Immediately in front of them the team will see a large bridge structure. Moving downstream towards this structure, the team will see a way out of the creek bed to the left. Turning up here and taking out the Infected in this area is the next task. Once accomplished, the team will have one of the few brief moments of peace in the chapter (and indeed in the entire campaign) so while everyone catches their breath, if they look around to the left they will spot some health supplies on the ground.

Proceeding past a second Hummer brings the team up onto the bridge. Evidently this was a combined police-military-CEDA facility since the bridge is heavily barricaded and a CEDA tent can be seen as the area is mopped up and explored. A large CEDA mobile unit occupies the central area of the bridge, next to which is a four-barrel demolition charge that an on-screen announcement will instruct players to set off by shooting. Before doing so, teams should explore the bridge and stock up on ammo from the pile provided. Ammo restocking is essential as firing the demolition charge will trigger a Crescendo Event featuring a never-ending horde of the type experienced in the penultimate chapter of Left 4 Dead 2, Dark Carnival.

Standing at a safe distance, a team member should fire at the demolition charge until it explodes (this will take half a dozen or so shots). Once it goes off, a section of the bridge is destroyed, barricades are dropped - and a Crescendo horde is triggered. This is an exciting event as it challenges the team's ability to lay down a carpet of fire on a horde at relatively close ranges. Teams must shoot and club their way down into the stream bed, enter a tunnel featuring a fast-flowing water danger, enter a side tunnel on the right hand side (easily denoted by exiting Common Infected), work their way down multiple flights of stairs and finally enter a safe room located at the end of a short passageway at the lowest level in the structure.

In this Crescendo Event, Common Infected hordes will be almost unbroken until teams enter the tunnel, whereafter their waves begin to subside somewhat in the way they do in Left 4 Dead 2, The Passing, The Sewer.

Once in the tunnel, it is recommended that teams hug the right hand wall of the tunnel so that they minimise the risk of being swept off their feet by the current and down over a waterfall. (A warning will flash up on the screen and a death's head will materialize at the end of the tunnel.)

Note that a careless or inexperienced player who gets caught in the current will be swept over the waterfall where they will be left hanging in hope of rescue. If a player is incapacitated in the current, that person will still go over the waterfall but instead of hanging on, they will fall to their death. AI Bots are seemingly immune from being taken over the waterfall.