The Underground

"It's a hole! Oh, excuse me, a historic hole."

- Nick

"Aw man, this tour is bullshit."

- Coach


 * For the actual in-game underground tour, see Rayford Historic Underground Tour.

"The Underground" is the second chapter in Left 4 Dead 2 "The Passing" campaign.

Players exit the safe room and head through Rayford's streets and buildings until they encounter a main thoroughfare featuring a bar with a jukebox. The entrance to Rayford's seedy "historic under-the-river tour" is located in this bar's basement.

The chapter's second phase takes players through a sewer with two alarmed gates and obliges them to run to the safe room whilst hampered by knee-deep sewage and hordes of Infected.

Campaign


After leaving the saferoom, look to your left; a Fallen Survivor is most likely lurking around. Kill him before he runs, grab any items of interest and move forward after clearing the area of Infected.

There is a small alley on the right of the stairway; both areas take you to the main road and it is optional, although recommended to take the alley as less Infected are likely to spot you if you take this route. Go to the right and you will find a small clothing shop to your left; you can enter to look for supplies. After searching the clothes shop, jump down into a small yard and move forward to find a backdoor into the nearby pool hall. The pool hall does carry various supplies which can be grabbed.

Poke out the window to find a construction zone that was stopped due to the Infection. A Tank/Witch is most likely to spawn in this area; if a Witch spawns, players can force her to retreat by standing on the bulldozer. Once all threats are cleared, go into the bar nearby and search for supplies; a small pile of supplies can be found at the pool table nearby. Go up to the third floor (you can use staircases inside the building, or the emergency staircases outside the building); there will be a room with more weapons, and usually an M60.

Walk across the plank to enter an incomplete building. Break the windows above the portapotties and land down on them; if you break the other windows and jump off those, you will take fall damage which can be easily avoided by simply landing on the portapotties. Go across the road into another bar where the "scenic" tour is; keep moving through the construction zone until you reach a spiral staircase at the end.

At the staircase, move down cautiously as Special Infected can spawn below you. You will eventually find that the staircase has broken and leads to a large sewer area where plenty of Infected are waiting in the waters below. Grab their attention with your presence, or throw a Pipe Bomb. Be wary that a Tank can spawn here; if it does, immediately head for the ladder on the right when you land to get back to solid ground, as you will be sitting ducks for the Tank if you fight it on water.

Search the area quickly for supplies and regroup at the emergency exit, which serves as the chapter's "Crescendo Event". This is a moving crescendo, so you will need to make your way to the saferoom against endless hordes. Open the gate and drop into the water; you will be unable to jump onto the platform. Wade towards exclamation point the game provides, as you will find a ladder there to climb back up into the platform.

Move until you reach another gate; activate the panel to open the gate. Keep moving and you will find that the platform has broken off, forcing the team to jump into the waters again. Enter the pipe and mow down the charging Infected as they appear with your weapons. When you reach the end, there are supplies on solid ground, and the horde will start spawning from the direction you came in. Go up the ladder, quickly grab any supplies of interest, and run up the stairs. If the horde has gained ground, have someone stay behind to fend them off (all of the Infected are funneled into the staircase, making them easy targets). Run towards the nearby saferoom; you should be careful of any Special Infected the Director may spawn, as they will spawn in front of the team and not from behind if the whole team is in the saferoom yet!

The Survivors
With humans controlling the Special Infected, things can only get harder. However, they can't spawn until you leave the safe room. That doesn't mean that you should let them have a good chance to find just the right spot, though! Hurry up and get your supplies, and get running! Tips In the Pool Hall, be sure to check those windows and clear out some of the Infected ambling around the Construction Site. And, when you and your team move through the Site, be sure to climb on top of the parked construction machine so that you can get out of the movement-hindering water and snipe some of the Infected in the Bar.
 * Stick Together! If you try and rush off, you'll be easily wiped out by any of the Special Infected.
 * Keep your eyes open, and be sure to check your corners. You never know if a Charger might come roaring down on you the second your team rushes around blindly, so peek your head around the corner to make sure they aren't waiting for you.
 * Watch the rooftops. A common problem of Special Infected is their tendency to prowl the rooftops and then try to get the drop on you. If you watch those roofs, you'll most likely be able to snipe more than a few Smokers waiting to snatch you.
 * Turn your speakers up. Sometimes, your teammates won't hear the Special Infected themselves, so if you report them to the bark of a Charger or the growl of a Hunter it can keep them on the lookout and not have them surprised.

Through the Bar, you'll have to ascend the stairs and then cross to the adjacent building using a fire escape and a narrow plank. Here is where the Special Infected can easily trip you up the most. Keep a sharp eye on the alley, on the windows of the building, and behind you so that no Jockeys can get the jump on you and pull you over the edge. If one of you fall off the plank and hang from the edge, that could give the Infected the opportunity they need to take out the rest of your team.

In the large underground chambers, be sure to keep your eyes at the pillars. Smokers are often hanging around there waiting to drag your friends into the dark. For the Crescendo Event, try to make sure everyone has adrenaline, so that you can take the shots and then sprint down. Be careful on the stairs, as that is a prime opportunity for Chargers to get in their hits.

The Infected
Try to deal as much damage as you can before the Survivors make it through the bar and into the sewers. The reason for this is because if they are moving slowly, you will be able to pick them off in the massive underground chambers easily. Have Smokers just behind the large stone pillars so that he can just barely see the Survivors, and have Hunters at the ready. If you are a Boomer, simply rush ahead and wait at the tunnels as the chambers are much too large for you to be effective.
 * This map is mostly close-quarters, though about partway through it opens up to massive, expansive areas.
 * Partway through, the Survivors must cross a small plank from one building to another- if you can find a way to knock them off, then you'll have an easy way of hindering their progress.
 * Be sure to camp those weapon and health kit locations! Whenever Survivors see good weapons, they are always going to go get them, giving a perfect opportunity for a hiding Boomer or Spitter to get in some damage.

When your Smokers snatch the first Survivor and pull him back, be sure to have a Hunter or Charger hit the Survivor or Survivors that go to save them. If you can't wipe the Survivors out in the chambers, have a Charger waiting at the top of the steps to bowl all of them down when they get there. If that is pulled off correctly, it should damage them greatly and allow the rest of the Infected Team to knock them out.

A great strategy to do is have a Charger waiting just below the gate that activates the Crescendo Event. From there, if you wait for the Survivors to drop in front of you, you can charge one of them and take them a long ways across the chamber. That should get you at least two or three slams in, maybe enough to incapacitate.

Survival
There is a glitch in Survival whereas the player can reach an invisible ladder leading to a balcony.

To get to this balcony, the player must travel towards the underground tunnel area. This will be blocked-off in Survival. There should be a neon-light sign hanging above the closed-off entrance to the tunnel; next to this sign is the Jesus-room balcony. The player should travel to the right of this balcony, next to the ivy. The player party should approach the ivy from the parallel brick wall. This will take a few attempts, but the players should discover an invisible ladder that leads to the balcony.

The team will be safe from most of the Infected, the only threats being Spitters and Smokers. Tanks can also be somewhat dangerous with their rock throws.

The Survival version of The Underground covers the part of the shopping district all the way to the club entrance. There are some ladders at the construction site area for players to climb up and down.

Easter Eggs

 * Most of the graffiti in the bar are references to other zombie games and movies, such as:
 * Dead Rising, "Otis, out of film. No helicopters. Zombies too fast. Not going to make it.—Frank West"
 * Plants vs. Zombies, "Need an M60? Come see me!—Crazy Dave"
 * 28 Days Later, "Repent! The end is extremely fucking nigh"
 * Shaun of the Dead, "Ed is king of the zombies"
 * Dawn of the Dead (1978), "Roger, went to the mall, Francine"
 * Dawn of the Dead (2004) "Went to save my dog. If not back in 15 minutes, drop everything and come save me.—Nicole"
 * The Venture Bros, "Hey MOL. Meet me in town we'll have some fun!—Brock"
 * There is also a reference to the infamous Chicago Ted in the bathroom where it states "NO TOILET IS SAFE FROM TOILET POOPING KEVIN".
 * Sometimes you can see the Midnight Riders tour bus leaving. Which could mean that the band members are in it, probably heading to Whispering Oaks for the next concert on their list, although it is possible other Survivors are just using it as a mode of transportation. However, in "Dark Carnival"'s finale, they are not present. Graffiti states they got evacuated by helicopter.
 * In the jazz club just before the gauntlet, there is a small stage set up with Midnight Riders equipment on the stage.
 * There is a poster in a bus stop advertising Mercy Hospital blood transfusions.
 * There is an easter egg in this level, a suitcase full of pistols and money. The lyrics from the song "One Bad Man" by the Midnight Riders is referenced by this. All of the Survivors comment on this. Coach sings that part of the song, Nick says he likes how this guy packs, and Ellis will say "Hell yeah!", and Rochelle will jokingly ask if it's Nick's suitcase.
 * Rochelle might mention that the tour is worse than the Seattle Underground Tour, in reference to Valve being near Seattle.
 * Nick curses Jimmy Gibbs' name many times in this map, often calling him "Jimmy Goddamn Gibbs".
 * If you look closely at the back of one of the biker Common Infected, you can see that it says "Zombies MC".