Baseball Bat

Baseball Bat
Weapon type	Close Combat Weapon
Technical specifications
Rate of fire	0.85s per hit. 17s to kill a Tank.

"This brings back some good memories."

―Nick

"That's a home run!"

―Ellis

The Baseball Bat is a close combat weapon, introduced in Left 4 Dead 2. Originally, the Baseball Bat was a pre-order related item: if at least one player on a team pre-ordered the game, the Baseball Bat would appear in every safe room and the Baseball Bat would not disappear when picked up, allowing every member to pick it up. For players who have downloaded The Passing, the Baseball Bat is randomly found alongside the other melee weapons in all maps, and acts like a normal melee weapon.

Melee weapons replace Pistols in the secondary weapon slot. Unlike Pistols, close combat weapons never need to be reloaded and cannot run out of ammo (excluding the Chainsaw). They have two main drawbacks: a limited reach and (with a few exceptions) relatively long cooldown periods. Close combat weapons cause minimal friendly fire damage to the Survivors, even on Advanced and Expert difficulty levels (the Chainsaw is an exception).

These weapons are extremely effective. All melee weapons, on all difficulties, kill Common Infected and most Special Infected in one hit, aside from the Charger (which takes two—but see point below), the Witch (which takes four), and the Tank (which takes twenty, excluding the Chainsaw). Due to their death effects, it is generally advised to melee neither the Boomer (unless there is no choice) nor the Spitter (unless it is possible to move away immediately from the resulting acid splash).

The melee weapons appear to do more damage if an Infected's head or upper body is targeted. With the correct timing it is possible to kill a Charger with one hit while it is charging, allowing a Survivor to "level" a charge without first dealing damage to the Charger and to gain the achievement "Level a Charge".

The Baseball Bat is classified as a Bludgeoning weapon, and will splatter blood onto the screen. As a Bludgeoning weapon, it can knock an Infected's head off. Aside from causing this decapitation, it cannot cause any other gibbing (not counting the Boomer's explosion on death).

Achievements

	CONFEDERACY OF CRUNCHES	(30G)
	Finish a campaign using only melee weapons.

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	HEAD HONCHO	(15G)
	Decapitate 200 Infected with a melee weapon.

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	TANK BURGER	(30G)
	Kill a Tank with melee weapons.

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	BEAT THE RUSH	(15G)
	In a Survival round, get a medal only using melee weapons.

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	LEVEL A CHARGE	(15G)
	Kill a Charger with a melee weapon while they are charging.

Behind the Scenes

Judging by soundscripts (Player.Hit_BeatManWithClub), it seems a Baseball Bat was meant to be in the original Left 4 Dead as a bonus. It was eventually removed in an update from September 2005.

Notes

Nick holding the Baseball Bat.

• In the first Left 4 Dead 2 trailer, the attack sound uses the same sound effect used for the Scout's aluminum Baseball Bat from Team Fortress 2: a metal ding sound. The sound files have since been changed to fit the wooden properties of the bat.
• Prior to The Passing, the Baseball Bat was only available to players who preordered Left 4 Dead 2. To be fair to them, the Bat is not required to gain the Club Dead achievement.
• The Baseball Bat is not a single weapon like the other melee weapons; the entire team can grab one.
  • The Baseball Bat is no longer always found in the starting safe rooms for those who preorder Left 4 Dead 2 and downloaded The Passing, but they can still be found randomly in the game and in safe rooms, including the starting one. They now follow standard melee weapons' rules; there is only one instance of the weapon per spawn.
• As long as at least one player is signed in to a profile that downloaded The Passing DLC, and is playing on a system with it present, the Baseball Bat will be available to all players for the duration of that game.
• Early in development, the Baseball Bat was supposed to be made of metal, explaining its sound in the first trailer. Its old design can be seen in the Left 4 Dead 2 Strategy Guide and in the texture file "4meleeweapons".
• The Baseball Bat shares its animations with the Cricket Bat. This is because it is a reskin of the former, as both weapons share similar striking sounds, use similar animations and attack at the same speed.

External Links

• PAX 09: Baseball Bat