Dark Carnival

Dark Carnival
Tagline	"You must be this tall...TO DIE!"
Creator	Valve Software
Chapters	The Highway The Fairgrounds The Coaster The Barns The Concert
Chronology
Previous	The Passing
Next	Swamp Fever

"Reach the concert and set up the rock show for a helicopter rescue."

Dark Carnival is the third campaign of Left 4 Dead 2. The campaign mainly takes place in Whispering Oaks Amusement Park in Griffin County, Georgia.

The Campaign starts off after The Passing, where the Survivors rode on to New Orleans with Jimmy Gibbs Jr's stock car, which they had taken from Liberty Mall. Their luck runs out when they reach a highway filled with "miles" of parked cars that are impossible to drive around, forcing them to proceed on foot. They later notice searchlights coming from Whispering Oaks Amusement Park while heading for the motel. After finding that the evacuation center has been deserted and overrun like in Liberty Mall, they continue to press forward to try to find other Survivors within the park. On the way, they find a helicopter searching for any survivors and manage to get the pilot's attention by setting off the Midnight Riders' concert finale at the Peach Pit stadium.

Walkthrough

• Part 1 (The Highway & The Fairgrounds)
• Part 2 (The Coaster & The Barns)
• Part 3 (The Concert)

Achievements

	MIDNIGHT RIDER	(20G)
	Survive the Dark Carnival campaign.

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	CL0WND	(15G)
	Honk the noses of 10 Clowns.

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	FRIED PIPER	(15G)
	Using a Molotov, burn a Clown leading at least 10 Common Infected.

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	STACHE WHACKER	(15G)
	Prove you are faster than Moustachio.

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	GONG SHOW	(15G)
	Prove you are stronger than Moustachio.

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	GUARDIN' GNOME	(30G)
	Rescue Gnome Chompski from the Carnival.

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	CRASS MENAGERIE	(20G)
	Kill one of each Uncommon Infected.

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	THE REAL DEAL	(35G)
	Survive a campaign on Expert skill with Realism mode enabled.

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	STILL SOMETHING TO PROVE	(35G)
	Survive all campaigns on Expert.

Behind the Scenes

Originally The Coaster was planned as a monorail. The Survivors were to climb to a roof and jump atop the monorail from there. There was also a plan to have a barricade somewhere in the map, but the idea was scrapped.

Notes

• According to many lines said by both Ellis and Coach as the Survivors travel through the carnival, they both greatly enjoyed visiting Whispering Oaks as children.
• Dark Carnival and The Passing are the only campaigns to have every chapter set in night and the only ones where the Magnum spawns in every chapter.
• Dark Carnival has the most chapters and the most Gauntlets (excluding the finale) of any campaign in Left 4 Dead 2.
• Dark Carnival is also the only campaign where the rescue vehicle can appear in different spots each time the finale is played.

Fireworks going off at the finale.

• Unlike other campaigns, Dark Carnival has high tank spawn chances on every chapter, even on Easy difficulty.
• Ellis states that he hates clowns several times after encountering Clown Infected. During The Concert Finale he may refer to this again, stating he has never been so scared of clowns.
• In The Concert, if Coach or Ellis walks up to the microphone before the finale starts, they will sing lines (albeit incorrectly) from the songs "One Bad Man" or "Midnight Ride", both of which are songs from a band they both adore greatly, The Midnight Riders.

  

  Blood Harvest poster hidden beneath Dark Carnival poster, and a Clown Infected between the A and R in "Dark".

• The campaign's poster is the first to feature Infected and the only to be shown in landscape position. The poster is apparently layered on top of both the Blood Harvest campaign poster and a Midnight Riders poster.
• The campaign's tagline located on the poster is in reference to the height check carnival operators often perform on people to assure they can ride certain attractions safely.
• The helicopter pilot that flies the rescue vehicle in the finale has the same model as the News Chopper 5 Pilot from the No Mercy campaign, and both share a similar fate.
• The name Gnome Chompski is a nod to famous American cognitive scientist, linguist, philosopher and political activist Noam Chomsky.

The Gnome on the Poster

• There is a Garden Gnome located in between Ellis's legs in the poster which is actually the infamous Gnome prop from another Valve title, Half-Life 2: Episode Two. It can be won at one of the carnival minigames, where it is given the name Gnome Chompski. It can be carried by any one of the Survivors, and if brought to the end of the map, all four players will be rewarded the achievement GUARDIN' GNOME, regardless of who carried it to the rescue vehicle.
• Though the campaign is ostensibly set in Griffin County, many vehicles possess DeKalb County license plates.

Gnome Chompski

• When playing as Ellis, he may make a reference to another Valve title, Half-Life while going through the air ducts in chapter three; "One thing video games have taught me, good shit always comes in vents."
• The campaign poster features two ferris wheels, yet one is only present in-game.
• There are three military Humvees seen in the first chapter, however there are no use of deadly force authorized signs seen attached on fences and walls, except The Parish campaign.
• When any sounds are played close enough to the microphone in The Concert, such as a Survivor speaking or the noise of the Infected, it will be amplified just like a real microphone.
• Gnome Chompski can be found as a prize in the shooting gallery mini-game located in The Fairgrounds and can be won by scoring at least 750 points.
• The black assault rifle Nick is holding in the Dark Carnival posters appears to be a AK-74M, but this assault rifle never appeared in gameplay; only AKMs can be found and used in gameplay.

• Bile Jar has a very low chance to spawn in this campaign (usually only found in the highway). However in the concert finale, one Bile Jar is guaranteed to spawn.