Gnome Chompski

Gnome Chompski
Weapon type	Other

Gnome Chompski is a garden gnome and improvised weapon exclusive to the Dark Carnival campaign. He made his debut in Valve's Half-Life 2: Episode Two as the Garden Gnome and is infamous for earning you the achievement "Little Rocket Man".

In Left 4 Dead 2, he can be picked up by scoring over 750 points in the shooting gallery minigame at The Fairgrounds and must be taken all the way to the Rescue vehicle in The Concert to unlock the GUARDIN' GNOME achievement. All players within the entire Dark Carnival campaign play-through will attain the achievement, dead or alive, so long as one Survivor makes it into the rescue chopper with Gnome Chompski in hand. He also has his own mutation known as "Last Gnome on Earth" where you start off with the Gnome in the beginning and bring him to every safe house and eventually the rescue vehicle.

Gnome Chompski also makes a non-canon appearance in the Suicide Blitz 2 campaign. By bringing him from the first chapter all the way to the end, he can be used to unlock a special Easter Egg.

Tactics

• Players cannot shoot while holding Gnome Chompski but can still melee. However, the fatigue timer will still act regularly whenever you push away too many times and the melee is very weak, requiring multiple hits to bring down Infected.
• When held, the Gnome takes up around 35% of the screen, blocking the holder's right side in near-entirety. You can (probably) circumvent this via the "thirdpersonshoulder" console command.
• Gnome Chompski is affected by weapon knock-back. If he is dropped under a ramp or on top of a roof and cannot be reached (for example, on the merry-go-round), Survivors may shoot him at an angle to push him back. A Grenade Launcher is effective for this.

Chompski hidden behind Ellis

• Gnome Chompski is not a lethal weapon when thrown. Players should not throw him with the intent to kill with him; He'll simply pass straight through Infected.
  • However, like a Molotov, a proper throw can break a rock thrown by a Tank, if necessary.
• A useful tactic when carrying Gnome Chompski is to throw (Primary fire, Left Mouse Button & RT button by default/drop (USE key, E & X button by default) him during hectic moments, allowing use of your guns, and then pick him up after. Just be especially careful not to lose him in the fight, or toss him somewhere unreachable. To help keep track of Chompski, you can drop him at your feet instead of throwing him if needed.
• There are two spots where having Gnome Chompski could be your downfall: the Crescendo event at the roller coaster, and the Crescendo event at the barns. To make things easier, throw Gnome Chompski over the fence of the coaster so you can cover half the coaster without him blocking your view, and should you drop him, it is a shorter trip to getting him than if he was back at the entrance. In the barns, as soon as you see the stadium, simply throw him over the railing so he can wait lying just outside the safe room door.
• Survivors can pass Gnome Chompski back and forth between each other and take turns shooting. The free-handed teammates can then guard the carrier.
• In Versus, Special Infected can hit Gnome Chompski out of his box without playing the shooting gallery game. Survivors can then pick it up and carry it to the end of the level, but will not get the achievement because it's impossible to keep it until the finale.
  • Similarly, on any online campaign (Campaign, Realism) if the player has poor connection, they may be able to walk straight up to the closed box containing Gnome Chompski and grab it without playing the game.
  • In very rare cases if you hit the heart-shaped hole on the box with an Axe, Gnome Chompski will have a clipping glitch and may fall through the bottom of the box to be easily obtained.
• Gnome Chompski can be used to kill Infected, but is ill-advised; it takes roughly 4 hits to kill Common Infected on the easiest setting and fatigues the Survivor. More advisable is to drop him and pick back up when done.
• Make sure you actually hold Gnome Chompski while entering the helicopter at the finale. Just dropping it will end up with no achievement, therefore you need to start all over again.
• If the Survivor holding the Gnome presses the elevator button on part one of Dead Center with "Last Gnome on Earth" mutation, the Gnome will disappear through the elevator and out of sight, effectively making the level unbeatable. If this happens, you must restart the level.
  • Similar, if the Gnome falls to an unreachable area, such as off a ledge on Dead Center (during the "Last Gnome on Earth" mutation), the level will be unbeatable.
• Once you have gotten Gnome Chompski to a safe room, if you restart from that safe room he'll be with you. So if you lose him somehow while progressing between chapters, you may be better off letting everyone die and respawn than restarting the whole campaign.

Achievements

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

Notes

• Gnome Chompski also makes a cameo on Valve's Portal website, ApertureScience.com, during the Christmas holidays.
• Gnome Chompski is visible on the campaign poster for the Dark Carnival campaign, on the ground behind Ellis.
• Gnome Chompski may be a reference to the traveling gnome prank, where people steal garden gnomes often with the intention of taking pictures with/of it to send back to the owner. This became popular because of the French film Le Fabuleux Destin D'Amélie Poulain.
• The name Gnome Chompski is a reference to political activist, author and linguist Noam Chomsky.
• The model for Gnome Chompski is based on the "Jim with Hands in Pockets" garden gnome.
• For some reason, a Gnome Chompski will spawn in a prototype version of a The Waterfront + The Park level (accessible only through the console command).
• Rescuing Gnome Chompski will also unlock Rochelle's shirt for Xbox 360 Avatars.
• Gnome Chompski is an Xbox 360 Avatar award for players who have played 6 Mutations.
• Gnome Chompski also appeared in a Mutation titled "Last Gnome on Earth", in which the Survivors start with Gnome Chompski (on any campaign map), and were required to take it to the end of the campaign. The Infected will target the Survivor holding Gnome Chompski.
  • By playing the shooting gallery in Dark Carnival while playing Last Gnome On Earth, it is possible to get two Gnome Chompskis, making him actually not the "last gnome on earth".
• Similarly, Gnome Chompski appears in the Mutation VIP Target, which is a Versus variant of Last Gnome on Earth.
  • One annoying grieving action people employed during this Mutation was for someone to grab the gnome, and then throw him into inaccessible areas, such as off of the balconies of the hotel in Dead Center, or to wait until the Survivors have made it past a point of no return, and to then double back to the starting safe room, making the game impossible.
• Just like in the Last Gnome on Earth Mutation, a second gnome can be obtained in Dark Carnival while playing the Mutation Healing Gnome. Due to an oversight, the gnome obtained from the shooting gallery also has the ability to heal players while held, thus, two people can heal at the same time, reducing time spent healing the group.

Gallery

Gnome Chompski's home

Player's view of Gnome Chompski

"Last Gnome on Earth" in Dark Carnival allows you to save not one, but two gnomes.

Gnome Chompski as an Avatar Award on Xbox.