Health

"I need to find some Health!"

- Rochelle

Health is the hit point total that governs the survivability of the Survivors in Left 4 Dead. All Survivors begin with a total of 100 health at the start of every campaign, and when they complete a chapter their health at that point will be carried over to the start of the next chapter. In Versus the Survivors will always begin a chapter at full health.

As the Survivors receive damage, their health decreases. When a Survivor's total health is 39 or less, they begin limping and their walking movement speed decreases from 220 to 150. If a Survivor has been revived from incapacitation but has not been healed by a First aid kit, that character's health will decrease to zero (37 seconds after reaching 1 point of health) and that Survivor's walking movement speed degrades further to 85. Crouching movement speed is unaffected by any of these speed decreases.

Incapacitation
"Shit, I'm down!!"

- The Survivors

Once a Survivor's health has depleted to 0, that character is incapacitated and falls to the ground. At which point 300 temporary health is given and that person must be helped up by a teammate, failing which bleeding out and death will ensue.

Incapacitated Survivors only have access to a Pistol  (two if they were dual-wielding before incapacitation) for defense, regardless of any primary weapon. If an incapacitated player was using a melee weapon, it will be changed into a P220 Pistol. An incapacitated player's pistol will have degraded accuracy, rate of fire and reloading speed. No melee shove can be employed whilst incapacitated. However, friendly fire is disabled and targets can be engaged with no risk to teammates' health.

When incapacitated, Survivors will take reduced damage from Tank and Witch's attacks and Spitter goo, but the Hunter can inflict increased damage. Smokers, Chargers, and Jockeys cannot use their special attacks on an incapacitated Survivor, but Smokers and Chargers will not release an incapacitated Survivor if that person is already constricted or being pummeled. Boomers are a serious problem as they cannot be shoved back, and incapacitated Survivors covered in Boomer bile will be relatively hard to rescue before the bile effect runs out since human players attempting revival will have the process interrupted by attacking Infected.

Black/White Mode (Monochrome Vision)
When a Survivor has been incapacitated twice without being healed, the affected player's vision will turn black and white with a notable audio heartbeat and item glows will be red and more intense. This signals a dire health situation requiring urgent healing. Unless this player gets healed with a [[Healing items#First aid kit|First aid kit], they will instantly die if they fall a third time. Incapacitation can also happen when a Survivor hangs from a ledge - the same effects of reduced damage happen, but they do not count towards a black and white situation and they cannot use their Pistol(s) to defend themselves.

One method to utilize the ledge hang while in black and white mode is when you are extremely low on health (such as having only like 5 units of health remaining) and a horde is on its way. A Survivor can hang from the ledge so the horde cannot drain the last of their health as the incapacitation temporary health of 300 will take the damage. Ledge hanging can be used even in black and white mode without killing the player, as long as they are not the only Survivor still alive. Due to this, after the horde has subsided, chances are, the rescued player will be left with 1 unit of health, but better this than dying during it. Note that Survivor Bots will pull the hanging Survivor back up, thus exposing the remnants of their temporary health to the horde, so it is best to do this when there are human players only and/or the Bots are all dead. With human players, notify them not to try and help you during the horde to make this easier. Though remember you are not invulnerable and so if your teammates fail to do a satisfactory job of protecting you while you hang, you will find yourself plummeting rather than climbing back up. Also note that your team will have one gun less to fight the Infected, which on Expert, can be fatal to them. Only use the ledge hang method if the team is well coordinated on Expert and even Advanced. Doing this on Normal or Easy with a less coordinated team will be less of a problem due to the Infected's low damage attacks.

Death
"This is going to hell in a hand basket real fast!!!"

- Bill "Stay close, we're a party of two now."

- Coach Upon death, the deceased Survivor will drop all of their weapons and items and turn into a ragdoll. In Left 4 Dead 2, however the Survivor dies with their arms spread apart and lying on the back. Dying does not mean that the player has been eliminated from the game, they simply need to wait one minute until transferred to the nearest rescue closet, and then have another Survivor rescue them. In Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors can also be revived by using a Defibrillator rather than a closet. When death occurs in Left 4 Dead 2, the Survivor will drop all items except their secondary weapon, whether it be Pistols or a melee weapon. This was most likely done so that if a player is revived through a Defibrillator, the player will have something to defend themselves with as they get up and will also have something in case their main weapon was taken. In Versus and Realism mode, the Defibrillator is the only option for Survivors to return during a level, as they cannot come back to life inside rescue closets. Otherwise they will have to wait until the Survivors are defeated, finished the chapter, or have restarted the round.

If all Survivors perish during the course of the game in Campaign, Realism, or if the player dies in Single Player, then the level they were on will reload with everyone back at the last safe room, with their health, weapons and items restored to what they had when they first entered that particular safe room during the current game. In Versus, Realism Versus, Scavenge, control of the Survivors and Infected is switched between the two teams. In Survival, the Survivors simply start a new game with everyone alive and at full health with First aid kits and Pain pills.

However, there are several other ways to lose the game related to death:
 * Being fully overcome by the Infected, leaving the group unable to play. However, if one (or more) Survivors are incapacitated and the last is dominated by a Smoker, Hunter, Jockey, or Charger, the incapacitated Survivors can still save the other Survivor with their Pistols/Magnums and it won't count as a loss, if saved before the last Survivor is incapacitated.
 * When a Jockey incapacitates a Survivor, he will leap off, allowing the Survivor to use their sidearm to help teammates (if within range). This often happens when the Jockey rides on a Survivor with low health, incapacitating the Survivor faster and not be ridden away.
 * The game is only over when every Survivor is either dead or incapacitated. There are still things that can kill the Special Infected or force them to release the Survivor in this situation, such as an explosion (a exploding Boomer, an item that is already been shot or on fire, a thrown Pipe bomb, or a grenade that is already in the air.), a "friendly" attack from a Tank, or fire that is already burning on the Special Infected.
 * Hanging from a ledge counts as incapacitation. So if three Survivors are hanging from a ledge and the fourth Survivor's health reaches zero, incapacitating them, the game will end.
 * Dying in Single Player mode, leaving the Survivor Bots to play alone.
 * Dying in Campaign, Realism, Versus, Realism Versus, Scavenge and Survival with all the other Survivor human-controlled players, leaving only Survivor Bots alive.
 * However, this will not be the case if "sb_all_bot_team" is set to 1. If there are no human players alive, the Survivor Bots will run through the map on their own. If they find a human player in a closet, or reach a safe room, the game will continue as normal with the human player leading the Survivor Bots again. Note that Bots struggle to trigger Crescendo Events and effectively run through a Rolling Crescendo on their own.

Healing
"Stop moving... I don't want to mess this up."

- Rochelle

Health can be restored in various ways:
 * Using a First aid kit removes all temporary health, and then restores 80% of the player's current missing health as permanent health.
 * In other words, if you have $$x$$ permanent health, using a first-aid kit grants you $$0.8(100-x)$$ additional health.
 * No matter how much your health is, when you heal your health will ALWAYS be either at 80 or above.
 * This can technically reduce your health total if you have enough temporary health. For example, if you have 50 permanent health and 50 temporary health, your total would be 100. If you then use a first-aid kit, then all of your temporary health is removed, and 40 of the 50 remaining points are healed, leaving you with a total of 90 permanent health, less than the original 100.
 * Using Pain pills grants 50 temporary health, which will slowly decrease to normal health as time passes.
 * Using an Adrenaline Shot grants 25 temporary health. The Adrenaline also makes you immune to melee fatigue and the horde's slowing melee attacks and allows the player to perform actions faster for a short period of time.
 * All forms of temporary health reduce at one point per 5 seconds.
 * When you take damage, your permanent health drains before your temporary health.
 * The Defibrillator can be used to bring a dead Survivor back to life. The Defibrillator will take the space of the First aid kit. It is a good idea for a Survivor with the least health to carry it:
 * 1) Because they have no health pack to drop
 * 2) Because if they die, another Survivor can pick it up and use it on them.
 * The defibrillator looks like a lightning bolt when you are carrying it. When you are revived with the defibrillator, you will be given 50 permanent health points, similar to how you'd be given 50 permanent health points after being taken out of a rescue closet.


 * Being revived from incapacitation grants the Survivor 1 permanent health and 29 temporary health (giving a total of 30). Incapacitating a teammate in order to do this is not recommended as a form of healing, of course.
 * Being rescued from a rescue closet grants the Survivor 50 permanent health and Tier 1 Weapons. The type of weapon depends on what the Survivor was carrying when they were killed. For instance, if the Survivor had an Assault Rifle, that Survivor will get a Submachine Gun when they are rescued. This will not occur if the survivors are overwhelmed and restart the chapter.

Achievements

 * See Main Article: Achievements

Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead 2