The Mall

"Everybody, gather 'round. Let's pray. Dear Lord, see us safely through our time of trial in this mall. And please Lord... let the food court be okay."

- Coach

In The Mall the Survivors finally reach Liberty Mall, only to find that the evacuation center there has already been overrun by the Infected. This chapter contains a Crescendo Event in which the Survivors must either open alarmed emergency doors on the first floor or smash the windows of a barricaded toy store on the second floor, triggering a burglar alarm that attracts Infected hordes until the Survivors get to the security office on the third floor and shut it off. This chapter seems to have an increased amount of horde attacks, often running into them non-stop expert difficulty.

Campaign
This chapter is considered to be the toughest in the campaign, as it seems Common and Special Infected spawn much more frequently than other chapters, often with multiple Special Infected spawning together.

It is advisable that teams stay withing close proximity to each other and avoid lingering in areas unnecessarily as continually spaning Specials and Hordes will deplete resources quickly, most particularly on harder difficulties.

There is a good chance you can find a Molotov in the Kappel's clothing store, so hold on to it until you are faced with a Tank. The building layout (most particularly the upper level can be regarded as being condusive for very easily dealing with Tanks as the large, square paths dictate the paths the Tank can take, making it easy for survivors to distance themselves from it and remain out of range of thrown rocks. The area is condusive to using long range capable weapons (Sniper Rifles, M16) to deal direct damage to the tank if no one posesses a Molotov. Like the Tank, the Witch may show up in the cramped, narrow areas which, obviously, will ruin your day. An even worse scenario is when you begin the Gauntlet Crescendo, a Tank or a Witch might show up, which is dangerous, and almost guarantees your death.

Within the clothing store, just before being forced to re-descend into the mall's lower level, is a shelf that sits with it's back to the security screen which didn't close completely (often a Magnum or second pistol can be found under the opening). Tanks often spawn at this point in the chapter, however, if all survivors move to the very back of the shelf with their backs to the fence over the display case, the Tank often becomes stuck attempting to reach survivors and can easily be shot down without anyone suffereing any damage.

The escalator you must then descend leads into the food court area. Between the two escalators, on the lower level, often a new primary weapon can often be found.

Once you pass the food court, you must go back upstairs and over a broken down door, making a ramp into the next area. Ordinarily, this area cannot be revisited once you drop down off the edge of the door, however you may melee or shoot a chair from the adjacent office into position under it so as to jump on it and gain the height necessary to jump back onto the door and into the previous area. It is strongly advised players familiarize themselves with this technique as a tank in this area can easily incapacitate all players as the corridor is rather narrow, leaving players with little room to maneuver or even flee. Being able to exit back into the former area will enable all members of the group to easily deal with the tank by kiting it around the upper floor.

This hallway will lead to the gauntlet crescendo event for this chapter, of which there are two variations. The first occurrs when you reach a two-way path, you can go either right, down stairs, and open an emergency door, or the second, you have to go left into a store and shoot out the store window leading back into the mall area. Either event (opening the door or breaking the glass) will initate an alarm, thus commencing the event. It is worth noting that Special Infected will spawn outside the window, awaiting the survivors to exit. Attempting to shoot them will initiate the event as the bullets will break the glass. Due to the proximity the Special Infected are forced to share, they often attack and kill each other. Survivors should be aware that a molotov is of great use just prior to starting this event, the molotov can be thrown at the ground in between the two windows and the flames will pass beyond the boundaries of the glass without breaking it, thus immolating all infected on the other side. Be aware that there is a ventilation duct that leads to the ceiling of this room and infected and even special infected can (albeit rarely) drop on you from above. Extreme caution must be exercised when confronting them so as not to inadvertantly shoot out the window and begin the event. A good method for passing this event is to throw a molotov at the foot of the windows; once you have exited the window, throw a bile bomb to misdirect the horde. Melee weapons are advised at least for the player in the lead position. Players should remain close together until safe in the next room as Smokers are easily able to pull survivors over edges, incapacitating them.

Both ways contain the same items in the encountered rooms, which contain melee weapons, an ammo cache, and a medicine cabinet. Saving a Bile bomb or Pipe bomb for the gauntlet crescendo event can buy the Survivors a lot of time as you will need to keep moving upstairs to find the alarm to cease the event. Keep in mind that you still might need to fight the horde after the Bile bomb's effects wear off, or if Common Infected do not reach the Pipe bomb in time before it depletes.

After completing the crescendo event the survivors must descend a stairwell and emerge into the final atrium. This room, which appears to have stocked with construction equipment, often contains pills, adrenaline or throwing items, so search along the perimiter before re-entering the mall proper.

Finally, players ascend an escalator at the end of which is the saferoom. It is imperative that survivors not lower their guard and remember to maintain cohesion and remain in close proximity to one another as by this point health bars may be extremely low, and it is easy for Special Infected to incapacitate or even kill survivors if they are too speard out. Remain cautious of Special Infected lurking in or near the saferoom. A well placed charger can easily incapacitate an entire team due to low health.

Survivors:
Basically, keep the same strategy in mind as in campaign mode. The very beginning could be the worst part of the level, as there are plenty of places for the Infected to spawn. Be very wary when traversing up or down the escalators, as Chargers are likely waiting to charge through them. Half way through the level, after the Survivors have gone back up to the 2nd floor for the second time, there is a one-way gate as you enter the service hallways (there is a desk in the way that you can't jump over once inside the hallway). Although it may seem that you can't get back over the desk, you actually can. But it will take you about 20 seconds to do so. Just head to the room on your right as you jump over, there will be an office chair. Melee it out of the room & then push it to the desk, then if you have done it right you can jump onto the chair & then over the desk. but this is only neccesary if any Survivors are unfortunate enough to be incapped before they enter the hallway.

The service hallway takes two paths to the gauntlet crescendo event. Either it ends up in the back room of the Just 4 Kidz store (on the 2nd floor), or ends up in front of an emergency exit door (on the 1st floor). However it is much more likely that the Just 4 Kids store route will be open. When you reach the Just 4 Kids store, be very careful not to fire your weapon inside the store, as there is a high chance you will break the glass and prematurely activate the crescendo event before the other Survivors are ready to go. Once the crescendo event is started, take the escalator right in front of you up to the 3rd floor (watch out for Chargers), and run down the hallway right into the security room to deactivate the alarm.

After the security room, they have to run down, and back up to the 3rd floor into the safehouse.

Infected:
There are plenty of places to spawn inside Kappel's clothing store. Ideally you want to set up right outside the safe room door to cause a good amount of damage. Chargers are key in this level, as there are plenty of escalators the Survivors must traverse, which force them into a small area for a decent amount of time. Just make sure to properly line up your charge.

A good ambush spot is at the entrance to the service hallways on the second floor, as this is a one-way gate. Successfully pinning someone outside this gate, might lead to Survivors being unable to save them. When the Survivors activate the crescendo event. Try to single out the loner of the group (this will usually be the first or last guy). Smokers can drag from separate floors, and there are plenty of straight hallways for Chargers. It might be a good idea for the Spitter to spit right in front of the entrance to the security room, as the delay will likely cause another wave of Common Infected to slow down the Survivors

During the Crescendo Event where the survivors have to turn off a burgler alarm, a Jockey can be useful here. While a Survivor is still on the second floor, it is possible to ride him/her over the escalator or the planters down to the first floor making the Survivor useless. This is because there is no possible way to the first floor without being downed as well as no way to get back on the second floor.

Easter Eggs

 * Just For Kidz, the children's store in the mall that starts one of the crescendo events, is likely another parody of the game's name (Just 4 Kidz).
 * The design and architecture of the mall's interior is roughly based off of the mall from the original Dawn of the Dead.
 * The fact this and the next level are in a mall, may be a reference to malls in zombie invasions, such as Dawn of the Dead movies and the game Dead Rising.
 * There is a reference to The Blues Brothers movie in the form of a shop called 'Disco Pants and Haircuts.' When the party walk past the shop and if Nick looks at it, he might say "Lots of space in this mall", which is a nod to mall car-chase scene from the movie. This line however typically requires the alarm to be turned off first to be heard, as the store is in the area that you must set off the alarm to reach.