Heavy Machine Gun

Heavy Machine Gun
Weapon type	Other
Technical specifications
Magazine size	Infinite
Ammunition	Infinite
Damage per shot	50
Rate of fire	~8 bullets each second (sporatic fire)
Damage per second	400
Damage per magazine	Infinite
Total damage	Infinite

The Heavy Machine Gun is a mounted weapon in Left 4 Dead 2. It is new in the sense that it replaces the Minigun from Left 4 Dead. It fires extremely powerful bullets accurately and operates with a slower rate of fire relative to the Minigun. Ammunition is unlimited. Unlike the Minigun there is no wind-up time and it fires the instant the trigger is operated.

The Heavy Machine Gun takes a long time (around a minute) to cool down if overheated through continuous fire. It should thus be operated only in short bursts.

Tactics

• Firing short bursts (rather than holding the trigger down) gives a steady rate of fire and will delay, if not prevent, overheating. Short bursts on demand are possible because there is no windup time like the Minigun found in Left 4 Dead.
• The Heavy Machine Gun uses the crosshair of whatever weapon (melee, gun, or items) the operator was using previously. In gameplay, this seamless transition makes aiming the Heavy Machine Gun easy and instinctive. The weapon's crosshair expands and contracts infinitely and automatically thus coping perfectly with targets at all ranges.
• AI Tanks are programmed to attack the player operating the Heavy Machine Gun. This feature can be used to advantage in two ways. Firstly, AI Tanks can be drawn into a "killing zone" whereby they are coned by concentrated interlocking fire from the gun and team mates. Secondly, AI Tanks can be drawn off threatened team mates by a player using the Heavy Machine Gun.
• The Heavy Machine Gun is in a favorable position in the finale of The Sacrifice. It is placed on the bridge, allowing the gunner to cover the entire intersection plus the generator area, possibly allowing a Survivor to live long enough to restart the generator. The gun's location is also out of reach for most Infected.
• In The Port, the Heavy Machine Gun manned by Louis, is the most helpful when trying to achieve KITE LIKE A MAN.
• In The Plantation, the gun is on a balcony overlooking a hedged garden. However very few (if any) Common Infected attack from that direction and from angles covered by the gun. Players choosing to defend from this position can try to improve their chances by throwing Bile bombs down into the area covered by the gun and hope that the Tanks will spawn in the same area.
• In The Bridge, the gun appears once the Survivors have accessed the bridge and the end-of-finale phase has begun. The only other instance in which it may prove useful is during a Survival game.

Locations

• The Plantation - Located at the center of the top floor overlooking the garden at the rear of the plantation house.
• The Bridge - Just before the drop-off to the helipad, the Heavy Machine Gun is located on a truck directly opposite the drop down.
• The Port - Used by Louis on the bridge during the finale. It can only be used by glitching or modding.
• Port Finale - Located on the bridge during the finale. It is usable in both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2.

Notes

• The Heavy Machine Gun appears to be modeled after the Browning M2HB .50cal heavy machine gun.
• It is unknown why the DPS of the Heavy Machine Gun is lower than the Minigun when the real-life minigun uses the 7.62x51 NATO round which is inferior in this respect to the real-life heavy machine gun's bigger 50 caliber projectile. Even so, the Heavy Machine Gun delivers a one-shot, one-kill capability versus Common Infected.
• The absence of a visible bullet belt / ejection feed animation when firing could be the cause to put a yellow/black cover over the ammo box and feed port on the gun.
• The Heavy Machine Gun was originally going to have limited ammo but this limitation was given to the portable M60 machine gun instead.
• The Heavy Machine Gun replaces the Minigun featured in Left 4 Dead.
• The Machine Gun is mistakenly listed as "Minigun" in the stats.
• Unlike the Minigun, there is never a chance to Cr0wn a Witch because no Witches spawn in areas covered by the Heavy Machine Gun.
• There is a Heavy Machine Gun present in the beta version of the Waterfront + Park level, located on a tower just before the CEDA checkpoint and the Gauntlet Crescendo. Whether this was going to be a placement in the final game, or simply used to test the weapon's use is unknown. The latter is suggested, due to the presence of many newer weapons/items in this test level.
• Louis uses a Heavy Machine Gun to defend the new Survivors in The Passing. However, his stance resembles him using a Minigun due to the lack of new animations made for him in Left 4 Dead 2.
  • If Louis is removed using the console then a player can take his place on this Heavy Machine Gun.
• The Heavy Machine Gun appears in the finale of The Sacrifice in Port Finale, which is also the same area for the finale of The Passing. The Heavy Machine Gun also appears in the Left 4 Dead version of the The Sacrifice even though it is not used anywhere else in the same game; presumably this was done to help with storyline continuity and the overall job of tying both campaigns together.
• The Heavy Machine Gun takes over the Minigun's entity and properties in Left 4 Dead 2 and uses both prop_mounted_machine_gun and prop_minigun (One difference however is that the prop_minigun makes it appear as if the user is crouching).

Gallery

The Heavy Machine Gun seen from Rochelle's perspective in a Survival level from The Parish campaign.

Rochelle using the Heavy Mounted Gun in the Zombie Survival Guide trailer.

Louis using the Heavy Machine Gun as seen in The Passing.

External Links

• CVG video on the Parish Bridge finale, featuring the Heavy Machine Gun. Although it cannot clearly be seen, the long barrel is visible, and the rate of fire can be seen. A tooltip comes up clearly saying 'Heavy Machine Gun'
• IGN Preview of Swamp Fever campaign which mentions "a more powerful, mounted machine gun" but also that "these more powerful weapons have limited ammo".
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1zj3bUqs50 - L4D2 - Zombie Survival Guide.
• http://www.l4d-game.de/2009/10/30/uncut/ - the Feature Video on the German L4D page shows the Heavy Machine Gun from first person view at 3:20.

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