The Passing

The Passing
Tagline	"Nobody survives forever."
Creator	Valve Software
Chapters	The Riverbank The Underground The Port
Chronology
Previous	Dead Center
Next	Dark Carnival

"The Passing will become the most important campaign in the Left 4 Dead story, as all the Survivors are being called together in one campaign."

―Doug Lombardi

"Get through a port city to clear a way for the car. Remember - you look after your own..."

The Passing is the first DLC campaign in Left 4 Dead 2, which includes a new campaign and "new co-operative challenge modes of play" and introduces a new firearm, the M60; the Golf Club, and a new Uncommon Infected called the Fallen Survivor. It was released April 22, 2010.

The Passing takes place between Dead Center and Dark Carnival and is set in the suburban town of Rayford, Georgia.

One of the most highly advertised features of this campaign is a meet-up between the Left 4 Dead 2 Survivors and three of the Survivors from Left 4 Dead. However, the original Survivors are not playable and have only very minor cameo roles at the beginning and end of the campaign.

The campaign is playable in all of the current game modes, as well as the newly featured ones. It is free for PC, and costs 560 MSP ($7.00) on the Xbox 360. On Xbox 360, the download size is 284.04 MB.

The campaign is called "The Passing," which could be interpreted in several ways. It may simply be referring to a brief, chance meeting as each party of Survivors pursues its own survival strategy, in which sense it may be a play on the old sayings "two ships passing in the night" and "two strangers on a bridge". It could also be idiomatic in the sense of denoting a "passing of the torch" from one set of Survivors to the other (i.e. the depleted and worn-down Left 4 Dead Survivors pass from the player's sight and control, leaving the Left 4 Dead 2 group to continue the struggle), a hypothesis which is reinforced by an Achievement unlocked upon completing the campaign. Finally, it may also refer to the "passing" of Bill who gave up his life to save the others. Bill's death and the appearance of the Fallen Survivors could also explain why the campaign's tagline is "Nobody survives forever."

By way of explanation, Valve released a DLC for Left 4 Dead called The Sacrifice in which the players work through a new campaign featuring a bridge with a failed generator scenario that demands one player give up, or "sacrifice," their life to let the other three Survivors escape.

A digital comic book released by Valve at the start of the fourth quarter of 2010 shows what happened to the original Survivors before and after the events of Left 4 Dead.

Released in The Passing

Nick wielding the Golf Club.

Available inside the campaign only

• The Fallen Survivor.
• The Golf Club.
• A new Midnight Riders Song: "Save Me Some Sugar," which can be played on the Juke Box.
• A new Bride model for the Witch.
• New Common Infected models: Midnight Riders fans and Wedding Guests.
• Foot Lockers containing a nigh-infinite quantity of usually limited items (Molotovs, Pipe bombs, Pills, Adrenaline)
• New dialogue for all eight playable Survivors.
• 10 New Achievements
• 1 New Avatar Award (Left 4 Dead 2 baseball hat)

Available outside the campaign

• 1 New Avatar Award. (Left 4 Dead 2 Gnome Chompski prop.)
• 1 New achievement (Mutant overlord)
• The M60.
• New Survival maps.
• New Scavenge maps.
• New weekly game modes dubbed "Mutations".
• The Baseball Bat now randomly spawns within all maps alongside other melee weapons including at the start of campaigns and inside safe rooms. Baseball Bats used to always spawn at the start of a campaign for people who pre-ordered Left 4 Dead 2, but no longer appear at the start.
• Weekly blog posts by Valve

Achievements

See Main Article: Achievements

	TORCH BEARER	(20G)
	Survive The Passing campaign.

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	MUTANT OVERLORD	(30G)
	Play 6 Mutations.

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	PORT OF SCAVENGE	(30G)
	Play 5 full games of Scavenge on The Port.

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	WEDDING CRASHER	(30G)
	As the Charger, grab a Survivor and crash them through 8 chairs at the wedding.

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	FORE!	(25G)
	Knock off the heads of 18 infected with the golf club.

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	TIL IT GOES CLICK	(20G)
	Using the M60, kill 25 infected without letting go of the trigger.

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	KILLING THEM SWIFTLY TO THIS SONG	(20G)
	Play the new Midnight Riders song on a jukebox.

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	KITE LIKE A MAN	(30G)
	Kill a Tank only with damage from the original Survivors.

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	GRAVE ROBBER	(25G)
	Collect 10 items dropped by a Fallen Survivor.

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	CACHE GRAB	(20G)
	Open 5 foot lockers.

Notes

The group looking down on a street from a construction pipe in the second chapter.

• An easter egg in the campaign can be found in the Underground level. It contains graffiti that says "Looking for an M60? Come see me. — Crazy Dave". This is a reference to Plants vs Zombies, where Crazy Dave sells the player various items to enhance their defenses against the zombies. However, in that game, there's no equivalent to the M60.
• There other different graffiti in the same room of the level referencing several other zombie movies and games.
• The silhouettes of the original Survivors in the background of the poster are a mirroring of their poses from the Death Toll poster.

Infected and the new Survivors at the wedding.

• The Passing, alongside Swamp Fever and Dark Carnival, have unique Common Infected; these are Infected who seem to be dressed in Midnight Riders attire, and wedding guests, dressed in tuxedos, dresses, and other formal wear. They have no special characteristics, acting just like any Common Infected in the Left 4 Dead series.
• If played in Versus, the original Survivors will not show up, yet the dialogue that is spoken in response to them will still be used. This was most likely done so that the Survivors wouldn't appear in the finale, making it fair for the Infected team. The original Survivors also do not appear in the Scavenge version of The Port, likely for the same reason. They also do not appear in Survival, so holding out will be just as difficult as on any other map. Nor do they spawn (apart from Bill's body) in the mutation Last Man on Earth.
• The original Survivors who appear at the beginning of the campaign (Francis and/or Zoey) do not use the models they usually do, and therefore majority of the custom skins applied on them will not change their appearance. Bill's body will not display during the finale.
• The Midnight Riders' tour bus may be seen speeding down a road during the second chapter, as seen here.
  • This hints that the band were able to escape or another group of unidentified Survivors have taken control of the bus. Notably, a bus horn is heard and there is no crash.
• Francis may confuse Jimmy Gibbs Jr. with "the taco dog," referencing Gidget, the Taco Bell Chihuahua from the late '90s.
• Since the release of The Passing, at the end of finales of other campaigns, the Survivors may shout "Get to the car," "Run to the Jimmy Gibbs Jr." or "The bridge is down"; lines used during the finale of The Passing. This has been fixed on the PC version, but still remains in the Xbox 360 version.
• On the bus stop, an advertisement for blood donations is present. On the bottom of this ad, the small wording says, "Mercy Hospital" which is the hospital from the campaign No Mercy.
• The Passing is the first DLC to release additional community lines recorded by the voice actors of the Survivors apparently by request or themed for present and future Custom Campaigns. Not only were lines recorded for the new Survivors, three of the original Survivors also received community lines. There are lines recorded which reference the cold, trains, mountains, military bases, and others.
• The Passing is the only campaign in Left 4 Dead: Survivors where the original Survivors (L4D1 Survivors) were present and interact with each other as Survivors in every campaign in both Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 were replaced by the original characters (Sara, Blake, Haruka, and Yusuke) made exclusively by Taito for the arcade release.
• During the second chapter in the building adjacent to the jazz club- there is a room containing a suitcase, inside are several bundles of money and a handful of pistols. when you come across this suitcase coach will sing "A suitcase full of pistols and money"- a reference to a Midnight riders song that can be heard during the concert

External Links

• Steam news announcing the DLC.
• DLC The Passing update "They Live"
• screenshots for Kotaku
• Rooster Teeth's Achievement Hunters interview Chet Faliszek
• The official promo for The Passing

Gallery

A horde rushing at the Survivors.

Coach holding the M60.

A view of a street.

The Survivors' view of the construction site by the pool hall.

The Fallen Survivor.

Witch Bride encounter (Crescendo Event).

The new 'Bride' model for the Witch.

First person view of new meele weapon, the Golf Club, during The Riverbank

Bill's dead body.

Francis and Zoey guarding the generator.

Louis on the bridge's turret gun.

Zoey during the intro of the campaign.

The old Survivors together before you take the lift.

The Midnight Riders Tour bus

Video Walkthrough