Nightstick

Nightstick
Weapon type	Close Combat Weapon
Technical specifications
Rate of fire	0.65s per hit. 13s to kill a Tank.

"♪ Gonna beat me a zombie to death with a nightstick~ ♪"

―Ellis

"I'm gonna smack some shit with this."

―Coach

The Nightstick (also known as the Tonfa) is a close combat weapon in Left 4 Dead 2. It can be either found lying around in maps or dropped by Riot Infected and/or police officer Common Infected upon death.

It can be found in the following campaigns:

• The Parish
• No Mercy (Left 4 Dead 2 only)
• Crash Course (Left 4 Dead 2 only)
• Death Toll (Left 4 Dead 2 only)
• Dead Air (Left 4 Dead 2 PC version only)
• Blood Harvest (Left 4 Dead 2 PC version only)
• The Sacrifice (Left 4 Dead 2 PC version only)
• Cold Stream

Melee Mechanics

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 Nightstick is classified as a blunt weapon, and will splatter blood onto the screen, but it will never dismantles or mutilates the Infected. It also sends the Infected's body flying a small distance.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Has the fastest attack rate of all melee weapons.
• Can be randomly dropped by defeated Riot Infected (and Infected police officers in the ported versions of Left 4 Dead campaigns).

Cons

• Poor range and hit detection.
• Not recommended for killing Boomers due to bile showering the attacker and any nearby Survivors.

Achievements

Main article: Achievements

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

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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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	CLUB DEAD	(15G)
	Use every melee weapon to kill Common Infected.

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

Notes

Nightstick in "The Parish"

• The Infected police officers from Left 4 Dead have Nightsticks hanging from their belts, though in that game they are merely aesthetic.
  • The Riot Infected in Left 4 Dead 2, however, have their Nightsticks horizontally and can be used.
  • Since the Last Stand update for the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2, Infected police officers in the ported campaigns now drop their Nightsticks, and they can be used.
• The in-game Nightstick is based on the side-handle baton variant of the Monadnock PR-24 police baton, itself modeled after a traditional weapon from Okinawa, Japan known as the tonfa.
• As of December 16, 2011, the Nightstick no longer appears exclusively in The Parish, now spawning in the Left 4 Dead 2 ports of No Mercy, Crash Course, and Death Toll. "Cold Stream" also has the Nightstick because the Memorial Bridge chapter has Riot Infected.
  • Since the September 24, 2020 update, the Nightstick also appears in Dead Air, Blood Harvest, and The Sacrifice; the inclusion of this weapon in the first two campaigns was for the purpose of accommodating the presence of Infected police officers in the ported campaigns. This is only for the PC version.
• Excluding Cold Stream, The Parish is the only official Left 4 Dead 2 campaign where the Nightstick can spawn.
• The Nightstick, the Frying Pan, and the Shovel are the only melee weapons that cannot cause any physical deformities to Common Infected, meaning no decapitations or dismemberment. They are also the only melee weapons that can send Infected (excluding the Tank) flying when hit. It should be noted that despite their weapon classification, Nightsticks are actually meant to merely subdue targets without inflicting serious harm to them.
• Thrusting a nightstick baton like a bayoneted rifle is more effective than swinging it as a bludgeoning weapon, but this melee attack is not available to players, even though this weapon features the projecting handle that makes it possible to do so.
• Due to the relatively lower effectiveness compared to other melee weapons, Nightstick was voted the least favorite melee weapon in a blog post by players in both the PC and Xbox versions.
• It is the fastest melee weapon in the game.
  • Due to its speed, the Nightstick, with 20 continuous swings, can kill a Tank faster than any melee weapon save for a Chainsaw (13 seconds vs 3-8 seconds depending on difficulty). However, it is outclassed by the chainsaw due to its very short range and the chainsaw's higher DPS.
• In the Achievement "CLUB DEAD", the Nightstick is referred to as a Tonfa, while all the Survivors refer to the "Tonfas" as Nightsticks. This is likely a mistake on the developers' part.
• As mentioned before, the Nightstick's hit detection is disastrous - it can register a hit when no damage has been dealt or vice versa, greatly diminishing its effectiveness.

Console Commands

There are two console commands for the Nightstick:

sv_infected_riot_control_tonfa_probability XX and sv_infected_police_tonfa_probability XX (where XX is a floating point variable)

The variables above will determine the probability for the Nightstick to be dropped by Riot Infected and Police Officers when killed respectively. The value is a floating point number, meaning it can be a number with a decimal. This specific command restricts it to any number between 0 and 1 inclusive. The default for the Riot Infected is 0.1, therefore all Riot Infected would have a 10% chance of dropping a Nightstick on death, while the default for the Police Officers is 0.03, meaning that they have a 3% chance of dropping Nightsticks on death.

Gallery

A Riot Infected with a Nightstick on his belt.

A Nightstick dropped by a dead Riot Infected.

Zoey holding a Nightstick in "Death Toll".

Police Officer with a Nightstick on his belt.

A Nightstick dropped by a dead Police Officer.

External Links

• Police Baton Gameplay