The Crane

The Crane is the second chapter of the third campaign, Dead Air. The Survivors are in the View Harbor Hotel's kitchen. They get back to the rooftops, by passing through the hotel's upper floors, to then reach the crane. In the first Crescendo Event of the Campaign, they must activate the crane, that lowers a container, to get to another rooftop. The survivors are usually given two Gas cans to burn the Infected. Later, the survivors arrive in the upper floors of an office complex. They navigate down through the office, out the main entrance, to finally reach a safe house across the street. One of the cars has an alarm and can attract the horde.

Campaign
When starting from this chapter, the AI Survivors will grab:
 * Bill will grab a submachine gun.
 * Francis will grab a pump shotgun.
 * Louis will grab a submachine gun.
 * Zoey will grab a submachine gun.

When the Tier 2 weapons are found, they will grab:
 * Bill will grab a ...
 * Francis will grab a ...
 * Louis will grab a ...
 * Zoey will grab a ...

Otherwise, they will keep the weapons they had in the last chapter. (See The Greenhouse for a list of weapons they will grab there.)

The Survivors start out in an abandoned kitchen, with first-aid kits, Tier 1 weapons, and ammo sitting on a counter. If you're starting out here, grab some first aid and a weapon of your choice. If you started from the previous chapter, The Greenhouse, heal up and replenish your ammo. Also, you might notice a big hole in the wall next to the room's exit door. If you see any Infected outside, feel more than free to shoot at them. Once everyone is ready, open the door and head out.

Outside, you will be in a cargo room. Kill what zombies are there and any others beyond the grates. There's a fence blocking the other side, but you can use a pile of rubbish to climb over it. Jump on top of the pile of boxes at the end of the fire escape and go up the ladder, and the subsequent stairs. Caution: The Director seems to love to put a Hunter on the stairs. This will lead you into the bathroom of a hotel suite. The adjacent room has a fairly messy bed, but it's possible that weapons will spawn there, so keep an eye out! As you proceed through the empty halls of the hotel, look into every room you can; goodies (pills and grenades, for instance) can spawn inside of them. Make your way up the stairs at the end of the hall, take a quick look through the room to your right, and head out the window.

An ominous crane stands nearby. That's right, time for the first Crescendo Event of Dead Air! If you found any pipe bombs, those can help you and your teammates out a lot, obviously. Fortunately, if you didn't, there are still some gas cans near a corner of the fence. Set those up, and when everyone's set, hit the switch to lower a dumpster. This will serve as a platform to get up to the next roof...but it's also very noisy, which summons the horde.

There are a few different ways to go about this. You can either wait around inside of the fence, shooting the gas cans when you see fit, climb on top of a structure on the roof, or you can wait on top of the ladder—which is a basically invulnerable spot if everyone does their job. Just melee any of the Infected you see climbing up. They can't get you. Special Infected won't have a chance to break your defenses when you're so close together. Once that dumpster's down, climb on up and keep going.

After this next rooftop, you will enter an office building. Creepy, right? Again, look around for supplies. You never know what you can find. Continue through the building, and when you've entered a separate building via a bridge made of boards, go down the hall and look to your left. Chances are, some Tier 2 weapons will spawn here, and to the other side of the room is a First aid station. Get what you can, heal up if you can, and keep going. The stairs let out to the edge of an area with many cubicles, which actually make great hiding places for the Infected. Weave through the maze the two floors of cubicles form and you'll eventually make it out to the road. There's a storage building on the other side. Cross the street—be careful not to set off the car alarm!—and get inside! Good job, you made it through this chapter! Take a breath, and get ready for The Construction Site.

Tips

 * NOTE: This is considered an exploit! It is possible to skip the crane crescendo. To do it, you jump onto the vent to the right of the crane, then onto the fence around the crane. You follow it around until you reach the gap facing the next rooftop. You run and jump, and then land on an electrical box, (it should be noted that if you are low on health and your speed is impaired, you cannot make this jump. Trying to do so in this state will kill you) then up on the next roof. From the roof over you can jump into the tree, with a substantial health hit, then make it to the ground. This effectively skips the rest of the map.
 * This has been fixed in a recent patch for the PC and Xbox 360. There is now an "invisible wall" preventing the jump across to the electrical box.


 * Smokers are especially troublesome on this level, as they tend to spawn on higher rooftops, and are hard to shoot. The best tactic is to simply keep moving, and punch a survivor as soon as they are ensnared.


 * A horde will typically spawn as you're ascending the fire escape at the beginning of the level. When exiting the safe house, close the large metal door directly in front of you. Occasionally, hordes will spawn from inside the room behind it. Taking this small precaution will eliminate the threat. (The Infected can't break down metal doors!)


 * If you get a tank in the beginning of the level you can hide in the room behind the metal door because the tank can't break down the metal door.