Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Codex Diversity Squad (Steam Multiplayer Group)

Self-Ejected

Ulminati

Kamelåså!
Patron
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
20,317
Location
DiNMRK
Dropbox is quite good for what it is :M
But some people will immediately be turned off by the fact they have to install a program and make an account.
 

TripJack

Hedonist
Joined
Aug 9, 2008
Messages
5,132
Bros. I was always planning on playing with the 7 Seas Edition of solium, I guess I didn't make that clear before. Anyways gragt and I just did a little test and legit and yarr work just fine together.

So roxor or anyone else who hasn't bought it can play.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
It's a free-to-play -- there's an item shop but I'm told it isn't very inconsequential.
 

Bruticis

Guest
Interesting, anyone trying it? Also, it looks like Payday is going on sale at Amazon (steam key) in the next week. I haven't seen anyone playing it lately but might pick it up for 5 bucks.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
I played it for about an hour -- it's basically a persistent bullet shooter with permadeath on your characters. The RPG elements aren't in-depth. You have to unlock classes, though, which might suck for a group just starting out. First character you have to play is a wizard, at level 5 you unlock a priest, etc. etc. I got to level 16 in the hour-ish I played with the max level being 20. A fun time waster but probably nothing you'd play for more than an hour at a time. I tried to look at the market/nexus thing but it was just a huge cluster fuck.
 

Metro

Arcane
Beg Auditor
Joined
Aug 27, 2009
Messages
27,792
Seems pointless to kick people unless they're intentionally being a douche bag. So what if a person isn't active. Not like it has any detrimental effect just sitting there in the group.
 

Konjad

Patron
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
Messages
3,932
Location
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
you are able to see who is playing what in the chat room no matter how many members the group has
 

Gragt

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Nov 1, 2007
Messages
1,864,860
Location
Dans Ton Cul
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin
Right, after playing KF with you guys for a bit, I can see that there are some areas that cause problem. It isn't terribly surprising as the game as a steep learning curve, which is rather rare these days and especially for a FPS. For the most part these are common errors that pretty much every new player will do and most KF veterans have done, myself included. I do not see these mistakes in each of you, but I see them often shared among our group. I figured I should post this here instead of starting a new thread, but if needed I guess we could always start a thread about that.

First, I'd like to mention the existence of the KF wiki (http://kf-wiki.com/) which holds many facts and tactics and is very useful. Some of the stuff I'll write here will be redundant with the information you may find there, but that's mainly the basic things I think you guys should have in mind when playing KF.

People are sometimes confused about the role of each perk, so I'll detail them here. As a side-note, perks only give you advantages and no inconvenients, which is different from many class-based system where picking a class will allow you to perform better in some areas and worse in others. A perk will improve some areas, mainly tied about weapon and equipment use, and leave the rest at the basic. This means that a perk will define your role by encouraging you to use a certain type of equipment. You can still use the rest but won't get any bonus for it. Because you can use every piece of equipment available to you, many think that it allows you to fill any role independently of the chosen perk, but reality is far more restrictive and for the good of the group you will need to assume a specialised role and stick to it for the rest of the game. But keep in mind that you may still use the rest of the equipment as this flexibility can work to your advantage but only if an off-perk weapon complements a certain strategy — just getting a weapon because it's cool isn't very effective.

Commando: this guy uses assault rifles and has the unique bonus of being able to see health bars above zeds as well as spotting cloaked stalkers — an ability which also extends to the patriarch. Because he uses assault rifles, people who come from other FPS are lead to believe that the commando can kill everything. This is wrong, because assault rifles lack the punch for taking the stronger zeds like scrakes and fleshpound, and unleashing your clip on them will do more harm than good. On the other hand, the commando excels at killing smaller zeds, like clots, gorefasts, stalkers and the omnipresent crawlers. The latters are a major pain for everyone because of the small bodies, speed and dark colour which can make them hard to notice, and while they do not deal much damage, they can steadily bring your health down and disorient you, and many a player on low health trying to heal met his end at their claws. It turns out that they are easy to spot when you can see their health bar above them, and assault rifle fire is both cheap and powerful enough to kill them fast. While many dismiss the commando for his lack of power, I always find a good one to be a solid asset to the team as he'll make sure that no one will be bothered by the smaller trash, which will allow the rest to focus on the bigger threats.

It should also be noted that being able to feed the team with the current health state of a larger zed is very useful, and so you should communicate as much as possible with the team to prioritise targets. While some perks are bad at killing scrakes or fleshpounds, like the commando, it can be useful to focus fire on them if the team lacks firepower, and a commando will be able to pick the order or call when a scrake is about to rage. But while you should coordinate attacks on larger specimens, you'd ideally deal no damage to them and focus instead on the smaller threats. I don't consider it a success to kill a few fleshpounds and scrakes only to be overrun by clots, crawlers and gorefasts.

Assault rifles are your tools, and while many will unload burst fire in the body, switching to single fire mode and targetting the heads is much more efficient. Burst fire in the body will take several shots before the zeds die, you'll need to reload often, and you run the risk of running out of ammo. A single bullet to the head is often lethal for smaller zeds and with practice this allows you to quickly kill a group. Burst fire should only be used when zeds are too close to you to allow you the comfort of aiming. Aiming for the head also deals increased damage, which in turns makes you level up faster. You should start with a bullup but it lacks cruelly in firepower despite sporting a large ammo capacity and good accuracy, so try to switch to tier 2 as fast as possible. There you have the choice between the AK47 (high damage but low accuracy) or the M4 (high accuracy but damage slightly higher than the bullup); I favour the AK47 as I'm now used to its iron sights but the choice is yours. In any event, you should aim to buy a SCAR as soon as possible, as it sports superior accuracy and power to the other assault rifles. Even when you reach it, it's still a good idea to keep your tier 2 assault rifle with you as a backup weapon in case you run out of ammo for the SCAR.

While the commando uses mainly assault rifles, it should be noted that his reloading speed bonus applies to all weapons, not just those tied to his perk. This means that some powerful weapons that have a long reload time can have a substantial DPS bonus in his hands. One of the best exemples of this is the M32 grenade-launcher, which deals awesome damage even off-perk but has an annoyingly long reload time. While it shouldn't be your main weapon, it can come useful for these times when you need a bigger punc than you usually have, but still remember your perk role. Of course the M32 is horribly expensive at £2500 so if possible you should ask a demolition to buy one for you at a discount. Likewise, assault rifles are popular side-arms of many perks, like medics, berserker or demolitions, so you should always offer to use your perk discount to buy one for them.

Support specialist: an important part of a team and a popular perk. The shotguns he uses are powerful and their high penetration damage makes it easy to kill a wave of advancing enemies in only a few shots. His drawback is that he has a hard time picking up targets at a distance and must let them come close to be effective, but anything that gets in range is not likely to survive. The support is effective against smaller zeds but needs to line them up in order to to take a large number down with very few shots, else he'll run out of ammo fast. In some situations it may be better to ignore smaller threats and leave them to perks better suited for their elimination, like the commando or firebug. But the support will shine when a group of smaller zeds will reach the group, and also when the bigger threats appear.

An overlooked aspect of the support is his ability to weld faster than other perks, which makes him the best suited to keeping some doors closed. Granted, it's not as exciting as shooting down stuff, but keeping a door from breaking can be invaluable for the team and often the difference between a wipe and a win. If you pick this perk, be ready to be asked to spend most of your time on door duty. Actually, be proactive and check the doors without even being asked to, since they are after all your specialty. You may not win much money that way, but if your team is good they'll share their ressources with you and allow you to buy your best equipment. A good trick to use is to be able to unweld a door when only a few zeds are banging on it on the other side, kill them and then weld the door again. This will give you a bit of a breather and make sure that the zeds won't pile up too fast, to a point where you'll be unable to maintain the door because it'll sustain too much damage.

You should buy the basic shotgun ASAP, and it'll serve you well. It's also one of the few weapons to have a flashlight, apart from the 9mm and the combat shotgun, and that is always helpful to the team in dark places, especially when there are crawlers around. Do take note that the pump action gives a slight delay between shots. The combat shotgun is a nice new alternative to the shotgun. It deals the same damage but only holds 6 shells instead of 8 and the reload time per shell is slightly higher, but it is semi-automatic and has no pump action, which can be incredibly useful for doing burst damage. Buy the regular shotgun first and then decide later if you like the combat shotgun enough to replace it with, else keep the regular shotgun as it's good enough to last you until the patriarch.

The hunting shotgun is interesting, because its double-shot mode is one of the most devastating attacks in the game but the long reload will leave you a sitting duck. I personally avoid it for that reason but many people built strategies around it. If anything, it can be great to deliver very high damage to a scrake or fleshpound, but be sure that doing so won't bring your demise, so have a commando tell you when to use it.

Last is the AA12. It deals less damage per shot than the shotgun/combat shotgun but holds 20 shell and features both full automatic and semi-automatic mode, which lets you deal formidable burst damage to scrakes and fleshpound, making the support one of the better (but maybe not best) perks against these specimens. In a pinch, it can also easily clean a large group of smaller zeds, but beware the somewhat lenghty reload time. You also need to time your attack well and coordinate it with the group, because you'll look rather silly if you jump in front of a scrake or fleshpound, unload your full AA12 magazine in them, and leave them barely alive but still standing and now enraged and about to retaliate on you. Again a commando might tell you when a scrake is about to rage, which is your cue for unloading your weapon on them, and you can stack 2-3 grenades at a fleshpound's feet and wait until they detonate before you attack. This last strategy is useful for many perks, because the fleshpound takes 4 times the damage from explosive and this will trigger his rage animation, which will leave him immobile and harmless for a second; take this opportunity to finish him off. It takes practice but if you can master this strategy you can easily deal with fleshpounds alone, and the increased grenade capacity of the support specialist helps it. Of course it means your team needs some trigger discipline and won't mindlessly shoot the bigger threats when they appear, making your job harder. If you can, it is very common and adviseable to work with other perks like sharpshooters and/or demolitions and let them deal the initial damage on these specimens and then have you move in for the kill when they rage.

I never really found the need to get an off-perk weapon when playing the support specialist. I buy the shotgun and then move to the AA12 as soon as I can, still using the regular shotgun for normal target and keeping the AA12 ammo for bigger threats. Since its addition, I sell the shotgun and switch to the combat shotgun after I purchase the AA12, but that's a question of preference. Being an expensive perk, your team should support you, so do not hesitate to ask for money.

Sharpshooter: another key member of the team, but good sharpies are actually rare. It is easily possible for him to have a large bodycount of smaller zeds because he uses mostly cheap weapons with cheap ammo, but his main priority is the removal of high threat targets. That means husks, sirens, scrakes and fleshpounds. He can do a good job against clots, gorefasts, stalkers and bloats, but should always be ready for the appearance of a more dangerous specimen and kill it fast.

The sharpshooter will get a significant increase to damage with his perk weapons, but this damage only applies to headshots, making it imperative to take your time to aim instead of unloading your clip as fast as possible, because you get no bonus whatsoever on bodyshots. You also get rewarded for this by perk progression, and in truth most perks can learn from this behaviour as careful aiming for the head can save ammo.

One of the common mistakes of new sharpies is to buy guns before anything else (they are perk weapons after all) and dual-wield them. Guns, even the handcannon, will deal less damage than the Lever-Action Rifle, have a shorter range, and dual-wielding them means you eschew accuracy as aiming down the sights is impossible. The only reason I see to buy dual guns would be to have a close range backup weapon in case enemies get close, but even then I prefer to have a single one and be able to aim down the sights. Unloading your guns in the body will give you no bonus damage, and you might be able to kill a couple of zeds before you get stuck in the lenghty reload animation and the rest moves in for the kill. If anything, your team should also be there to take care of closer threats, like commandos, supports, berserker or firebugs, giving you the peace to aim carefully at distant threats. Also if you must buy a gun, I'd say to forget the magnum and go for the handcannon: the HC is more powerful and not too much expensive with a discount, while the magnum holds less ammo per clip, deals less damage and takes longer to reload. The only incentive to get a magnum for a sharpshooter would be the weight but if you already hold a LAR, crossbow or M14EBR this shouldn't be a concern. Of all the recently added weapon, I'm still sceptic about the magnum's use, and figure it should be more useful for other perks due to its lower weight compared to the HC.

Also, never ever dual the 9mm, and that goes for every perk. The 9mm you start with and can't get rid of is a weak weapon but it has the advantage of dealing decent headshot damage, still making it a reliable weapon to fall back to. But since dual-wielding removes the accuracy, that means you get 2 guns that deal ridiculously low damage and will likely not get any headshots. The only time I dual-wield the 9mm is when I find another one lying around and will sell it to the trader at the end of the wave. Using dual 9mm as your main weapon is a sign that you are a very new KF player, or a total n00b.

Instead favour the LAR. It is one of the cheapest and best weapons in the game, even off-perk, and becomes even more powerful in the hands of a sharpie. It's accurate with very good iron sights and the lenghty reload can be interrupted any time, though it's worth mentionning you'll get a speed bonus as you level the perk. Headshots will deal massive damage to pretty much everything, and a body shot will kill those annoying crawlers, though an experience sharpie will be able to headshot them too. It's only drawbacks are the short magazine, lenghty reload and the lever action between each shot. Also of note is the fact that a lvl 6 sharpshooter can stun a scrake with a LAR headshot. The M14EBR is the logical upgrade over it with its large clip size and semi-auto mode, but its iron sights are unfortunately not as good as those featured on the LAR and it deals less damage per shot, although the faster firing rate allows to deal more damage if you can keep doing headshots. On the other hand, you can activate the laser sight (and there really is no reason not to) to help you with aiming, and it can even allow you to fire from the hip. Using the M14EBR may be harder than the LAR, but stick to it and you'll be lining up headshots in no time to the amazement of your team. Shooting a fleshpound with it will cause it to rage, but if you can line a couple more shots during his rage animation you'll be able to kill it without any damage done to the team.

The crossbow is another popular weapon, although not as versatile as the M14EBR. Its scope makes it easy to use, and each bolt deals massive headshot damage (4x multiplier, while rifles have 2x), with the bonus that it'll keep going and decapitate more enemies if you can line up a bolt through their heads. It'll also stun scrakes if they aren't killed right away, letting you easily reload for the killing shot. Fleshpounds on the other hands have a 50% headshot protection against the crossbow, further bumped to 65% in Suicidal and Hell on Earth difficulties, and while it is possible to kill them with this weapon, you'll require a very steady hand due to the long reload time, as a miss will be devastating. In addition to the long reload, it has a small reserve of very expensive ammo, which doesn't make it efficient against smaller threats unless you can lime up several headshots with one crossbow. I personally avoid it when I play sharpshooter, but I can see it is useful. It is also an excellent off-perk weapon, popular with medics, berserkers and commandos, the latter, being able to use his universal reload time bonus to good effect with this weapon, allowing those perks to easily take down scrakes and other threats like husks and siren. Note however that the crossbow is nerfed on Hell on Earth difficulty and will only get a 2x multiplier instead of its massive 4x.

Berserker: an interesting and powerful perk but it requires a fair deal of practice. This is the melee specialist of the group, and he enjoys increased damage from melee weapons, faster running speed with a melee weapon equipped, and reduced damage from all sources, as well as a useful resistance to bloat bile. Playing him well requires practice as you'll need to move in to deal damage but retreat as soon as it's done to avoid retaliation. Being surrounded is also one of the worst things to happen to you and you need to stay mobile. Crawlers, while not very dangerous, are very hard to hit for a berserker and it is often preferable to use a gun to dispose of them. Husks will be your bane as they can easily launch fireballs at you before you can even reach them, and the sirens are even more dangerous, dealing damage bypassing your armour, so they should also be dealt with from a distance, or left to the rest of the team. Scrakes are easy targets for you, providing your team doesn't interfere, and fleshpounds are dangerous but can be taken down with advanced tactics.

The basic knife doesn't deal much damage but is efficient in the hands of a zerker for the first few waves. It's actually a popular tactic to spawn as a zerker on wave 1 or 2 and then switch to another perk when you have enough money to purchase your tier 1 weapon; this is especially useful for demolitions. The machete is a minor upgrade over the knife and should be avoided, unless you find it lying around, and even then you should sell it at the end of the wave. The axe on the other hand is very cheap and powerful with its headshot multiplier of 1.25, although slow. The katana is more expensive but attacks faster, and will have generally the same DPS as the axe though it kill more zeds with its fast speed.

Experienced zerkers will buy both the axe and the katana, easily mowing through hordes of smaller zeds with the katana and taking down scrakes and fleshpounds with the axe. One headshot of the axe alt-fire will stun a scrake, leaving it open to another blow. However it is very easy to miss and get hit by the scrake, so move in to deliver the blow and instantly move out to avoid the damage, whether the attack was successful or not. An easier tactic against scrakes is to get in close and spam the primary hit of the katana on their heads, which will effectively stunlock them. Beware though that as soon as you stop attacking, the scrake will attack you, and if any other teammate shoots at the scrake during that time, it will break the stun. Many newbies are unaware of that fact and will open fire, leading zerkers to take damage they could otherwise avoid. If you a zerker doing that, instead kill the zeds around him, so he can eliminate the scrake without taking damage from the clots and crawlers that will gang around him.

For fleshpounds, it is more time consumming. The idea is that you have to get close to it, hit it on the head with the alt-fire while retreating so you avoid its damage. Just one hit won't make it rage, and if you wait 3 seconds you can repeat this to slowly but steadily take down its health, assuming no other zed or teammate will interfere. You also need to be aware that the fleshpound will rage on its own after 8 to 10 seconds if it cannot reach you, but breaking line of sight will reset that timer. It's a game of cat and mouse but with practice a berserker can easily kill a fleshpound.

The LAR or crossbow are good side-arms for the zerker, allowing him to take threats like sirens and husks at a distance. In addition to being much cheaper, the LAR also weight less, allowing a zerker to carry the katana and axe.

Another alternative to consider since the release of the weapon pack is the claymore. It is now the most powerful melee weapon available in KF, more than the axe, but it also very slow and weighty, meaning that you can't carry the katana and a LAR with you as if you picked the axe. I personally do not mind those drawbacks too much and happily carry the claymore with the LAR, its sheer power making up for the slow speed and inability to carry another weapon. It also sports a longer range than bother the katana and the axe, making it easier to take down scrakes and fleshpounds than if you used an axe. Again it is a weapon that requires training and to adapt and rethink old tactics, but it shouldn't be dismissed.

Lastly, remember that it is a team game. Because of your speed, it is tempting to go rambo on your own, and if you are adept at kiting you can do well enough, but your team may need you, and medics may be tempted to go after you if you need help, leaving the team without his care. It is one thing to distract the zeds so a significant part of them won't attack the group right away, and it is another to just play on your own. Also as you can imagine, the berserker is another cheap perk to maintain, using pretty much no ammo per wave and mostly needed to spend money on body armour once his weapons are purchased. Use this fact to help higher maintenance perks reach their weapons faster.

Firebug: as the name implies, deals with fire. It's a rather straightforward perk, and while not as important as sharpshooter, support or commando, he can be a good a good addition to the team for taking down small but numerous threats. There aren't many weapons to play around, and you'll want to ge the flamethrower before anything else. Doesn't require much explaination I think, really, except that it's better to throw a fireball or two rather than old down the fire button. Let the zeds burn and you'll save a lot of ammo, and it's interesting to note that zeds will take increased damaged from all sources once they are burned to a crisp. One thing you need to be aware of though is that it is very easy to obstruct the field of vision with your flames, and you'll make sharpshooters angry if you do not take care. Ignore larger specimens like the scrake or fleshpound, as you won't be able to deal enough damage to them. Just like the commando, leave these to your team and concentrate on keep the smaller stuff away.

The MAC-10 is a good backup weapon and should be your next purchase after the flamethrower. Unlike the flamethrower, you can get critical headshots with its bullets, and in the hands of a fireebug it will be loaded with incendiary ammo, allowing you to deal flame damage. It is also far easier to hit enemies at a long distance with the MAC-10 than the flamethrower. It is also a better weapon against husks since they are highly resistant to fire damage (and so are you). Get the MAC-10 out and aim for the head.

The general concensus though is that the firebug loses his usefulness in the later waves when larger specimens become more numerous. That's where the Husk Fireball Launcher comes in. It's a good alternative to the flamethrower, although much more expensive even with the discount. It's the only weapon in the game that can charge its shots, and it doesn't require to be reloaded, partially alleviating the risk of being surrounded at the wrong time. A fully charged shot can also stun scrakes, finally giving the firebug a chance against those enemies.

Apart from the expensive husk launcher, the firebug is a cheap perk to maintain and should share his ressources with his team once he got his equipment.

Medic: the interesting part about the medic is that while they are expected to heal people, they can still deal decent damage themselves and are expected to act as tanks for the team. The only weapons classified under the medic perk are the 2 healing guns, which aren't very powerful but can shoot healing darts at other people, removing the need to run after them with your syringe to heal them. In terms of offensive power, these should be mostly seen as backup weapons, a mean to defend yourself while you are trying to heal someone without having to switch weapons as is the case with the syringe. Instead you should try to get another weapon, and shotguns, LARs or crossbows are popular choices. You can ask other perks to buy one for you for a discount.

The presence of a medic can actually pose certain problems. One is that people won't bother to heal each other or even themselves, assuming the medic will do it. Actually it's not too unreasonable to expect to be healed by the medic, but when the action gets chaotic, the medic may be too busy to heal all at the same time, so using your own syringe is never a bad idea. And remember that using your syringe on someone else will use only half the charge and heal for twice as much than if you healed yourself with it, making it more effective for two players to heal each other twice than each using the syringe on himself once. There is also situations where the group splits in half and the medic won't be able to reach everyone.

And then you got the other situation where the medic simply won't heal anyone and be too busy trying to top the kill counter. Seriously, don't do that.

The body armour that everyone can (and should) buy is actually a medic item, and as such will be more efficient when used by one. For starters is the heavy discount, and then it will absorb much more damage, making the medic highly resilient to all damage even at low level. Advanced tactics for medics is to take a proactive stance and instead of waiting for people to take damage and then heal it, they will prevent people to take damage in the first place. One way to do it is to stand between a raging fleshpound and its target, keeping it in one place for the team while receiving less damage than others would. This tactics also works to block the patriarch when he tries to flee, and while you'll receive massive melee damage from him, your armour will protect you and your team should be busy finishing him off. A smart medic can make the fight against the patriarch a very short one. Some say that the main point of picking the medic perk is not to have better healing capacities, as anyone can already heal, but to enjoy the extended protection of the improved body armour. The main drawback of this though is that as soon as his body armour is down, the medic becomes extremely vulnerable.

Again, this is a cheap perk to maintain, and it can make money from both killing zeds and healing people. Use that fact to help the more expensive perks to get their equipment once you got your own.

Demolitions: this is probably the most expensive perk to equip, and one that when used properly will add a lot of value to the team. As the name implies, the demo will deal with explosives and excell at gibbing groups of small enemies and taking down, or at least seriously weakening, the larger threats. His main problem though is that he needs distance and performs poorly at close range, where he is likely to kill himself, and thus needs the protection of the team.

This is a perk that will need the help of teammates to purchase even its most basic weapon, the M79. A popular strategy is to play another, cheaper, perk for the first few waves (typically berserker or sharpshooter) and switch to demolitions when he got enough dosh to purchase his equipment. The M79 is a good and useful weapon, throwing grenades in groups of smaller zeds, but its long reload time make it poorly effective against larger ones. The M32, capable of holding and throwing 6 grenades at once, is much better for dealing with fleshpounds and the patriarch, although beware the very long reloaded time if you emptied it completely.

If the team is good at protecting you, you may want to carry both the M79 and M32 to deal maximum explosive damage, using the M79 to attack groups of weaker zeds and the M32 when the big things appear. An important fact to know is that explosives have a 4x multiplier against fleshpounds, and regular hand grenades will deal 50% more damage to them, making the demo one of the best asset of the team to deal with them. The popular tactic is to drop a pipe bomb on their path and then retreat, wait until the fleshpound detonates it and then unload the M32 while they start they rage animation. You can even stack a few grenades at their feet before doing that, for increased damage. An important property of the demo is that he can detonate any grenades, his or his teammates', but shooting his launcher at them, thus creating a big explosion. This strategy may be useful but overkill on fleshpounds, but important for the patriarch. A good time to do that is when he kneels from the pain after taking some damage, then have everyone stack 2 or 3 grenades at his feet and let the demo detonate them all at once with a single shot. Care should of course be taken to not blow yourself up in the process.

If you need some defense for close quarter, the AK47 is a very popular choice, though you'll need to ditch one of your grenade launchers, preferable the M79. The last weapon pack update added the M4 203 to the demo arsenal. It is the same weapon as the M4 of the commando, except it loses the scope and the ability to fire in semi-auto mode and is instead equipped with a grenade launcher. It holds only 12 grenades instead of the M79 24, but allows you to shoot smaller threats like clots, crawler and gorefasts if they get close to you, and then quickly launch a grenade at a group of enemies. Its price makes it one of the most expensive weapons in the game while it is only a backup weapon, but it can be immensely useful in the right situation. Holding both the M79 and M32 is preferable in most situations, but if you often need to switch to another weapon to defend yourself from a threat at close distance, this one will not disapoint you.

Pipe bombs are also a staple of the demo perk. Anyone can purchase them, but their high price can make that hard. The demo can purchase them at a heavy discount and is able to hold up to 8 of them at lvl 6, opposed to 2 for every other perk. Pipe bombs will detonate when 4 smaller specimen will walk on it, or a large one will. A fleshpound will take massive damage from it, but a bloat will be a waste. Note that headless specimen wandering on a pipe bomb will stil detonate it, making it even more of a waste. Sirens have also the ability to destroy pipe bombs and grenades, so they should be eliminated before they can do so. Stacking grenades when a siren is present is also risky since you may end up wasting your ressource for absolutely nothing in return.

The las weapon in the demo arsenal is the LAW, and while powerful its use is debatable. First, it is very expensive, but considering it's a demo weapon it shouldn't come at a surprise. Second, it's very heavy, so heavy you won't be able to carry anything else but pipe bombs. Third, it has a high reload time and doesn't hold too much ammo. Fourth, sirens can easily destroy the rocket before it is detonated. And fifth, it is dangerous against the patriarch because he can detonate the rocket with his chaingun the moment you shoot it, seriously injuring you or killing you in the process. I personally never use it but some are very fond of it, so the best would be for you to experiment with it.

Important detail: if the demo shines at fleshpound killing, scrakes are another thing. They have a huge amount of health and no vulnerability to explosive (though no resistance either, despite a widespread rumour). It simply isn't effective for a demo to attack scrakes, as they'll likely survive his M32 barrage and emerge from the smoke enraged. Sharpshooters, support specialists and berserkers are better suited to take care of those.

Also while not aimed at demo, this look like the right time to say it. Try to not strafe too much with a demo around, else he might shoot the grenade at you, which will detonate prematurely and injure him. If possible pick a spot and do not move too much to avoid that kind of incident. Sharpshooters will also be grateful as their job can be difficult enough without people blocking their vision right before they line up a headshot. It is also customary to leave the ammo boxes to demo as their ammo is the most expensive of the game, and they may have a chance to recover a pipe bomb from them. Unless you are desperately starved for ammo, leave the boxes to them and just purchase it at the next trader stop. You may also want to give them your excess money even if they do not ask for it, as they always need some, unless they make it clear they do not need it and it should be spent on someone else.

And last, I want to have a few words about 2 zeds that make the harder waves difficult and often are the cause of a wipe: the scrake and the fleshpound. These two have massive amounts of health and can equally deal a massive amount of damage, and attacking them as soon as they appear without thinking will often do more harm than good. I already gave out facts about these in the perks and weapons descriptions, but I feel it wouldn't hurt to repeat them here. You can also consult their articles on the wiki for more info.

The scrake: one thing to remember about the scrake is that he will initially walk slowly and will never rage on his own. It's therefore possible to have someone kite it around and as long as no one hurts him he won't move his attention away from his current target and won't rage. He will rage only when his health drops below a certain threshold, which is 50% on normal and rise with the difficulty level. A commando can thus easily tell how much more damage a scrake can take before he will rage, allowing for other classes, including the commando, to take his health down while still keeping it safe, only to unload full power on him when he reaches the rage point. Explosives aren't the best way to deal with him, but they'll still hurt him. If you need to use them, then drop a pipe bomb and wait for it to walk on it before opening fire. If you enrage him before that, he will simply charge over the pipe bomb and take minimal damage from it. The same applies if you throw grenades.

Some perks are better equipped to take care of these guys. The sharpshooter can easily kill him with a few headshots of his LAR or M14EBR, although he will rage in the process and will need to be eliminated before he can reach you. Still, if you have a steady hand it works, though mind the delay between the LAR shots. The crossbow works better on this as it will kill them in one hit, and if it doesn't it'll stun them. Other perks may also use the crossbow off-perk, though not everyone should carry one. The berserker can easily stunlock them with the primary fire of the katana if he aims for the head, but he will be vulnerable to other zeds during that time and will need to be protected. Another person attacking the scrake will also break the stun and result in the berserker taking damage. The alt-fire of the axe and claymore can also stun and behead the scrake without much danger, but requires more practice. The support specialist can also deal massive damage with his AA12 or even hunting shotgun, but ideally should only open fire after other people inflicted significant damage on it.

The fleshpound: probably the biggest threat in the game aside from the patriarch. The fleshpound has different rage mechanics from the scrake. First, he will rage whenever he takes too much damage in a short amount of time. Some perks and weapons will do that in one hit, others may be fired safely once or twice, then let to rest for a couple of seconds to reset his pain counter before opening fire again. That way his health can be slowly taken down, and even kill him, without him ever raging. However that means having room to move as he'll try to reach you during that time and getting his health down that way takes time. Secondly, he will rage on his own if he sets his eye on someone but cannot reach that person for 8 or 10 seconds. Breaking line of sight will instantly reset this counter, and will likely cause him to select another target. If he enrages, it is possible to have him calm down if he hits his current target and doesn't take further damage. Let him hit you but do not retaliate and he'll calm down. Also note that he will gib anything in his path when he becomes enraged.

Generally, the best way to take the fleshpound down is to do it before he rages. Have some perk open with initial damage and then the others follow through to eliminate it quickly. Like the scrake, if you put a pipe bomb on the ground, wait until it walks and detonate it before attacking, else in his enraged state he'll simply charge over the bomb, and it'll detonate when he is already gone, dealing only minimal damage. Let him detonate the bomb and then open fire. It bears repeating but stacking grenades at his feet before he enrages is also a good way to deal massive initial damage. Then have the support unload his AA12 and the demo his M32. The sharpshooter should try to headshot him if possible, and even the firebug may use full charged fireball, and the medic can try to tank the fleshpound for mininal damage to the team. Remember though that someone will need to keep an eye on the rest of the zeds, because they'll keep advancing and defeating a fleshpound only to be killed by an onslaught of clots, crawlers and gorefast is frustrating.

The bottom-line is that when you pick a perk, you should know the role you are supposed to fill. While the perk system is flexible and lets you use any weapon in the game, it also assume that you'll understand you'll need to specialise yourself to take full advantage of your perk bonus. If you and your teammates do that, you'll live longer, deal more damage and thus level up faster. Also forget about the kill counter, because while they still count as 1 unit, there is a difference between killing a clot and a fleshpound. Some perks like the sharpshooter may also have a low killcount but their targets are mainly high threat targets, seving the team better than killing all the clots and crawlers while ignoring the husks and sirens. Lastly, the bounty you get when a zed dies depends on the amount of damage you dealth to it, not whoe got the killing blow. But money shouldn't be much of a consideration when a main part of the game is that sharing ressources is the way to go. Don't hesitate to give money to someone who needs if you think that person will use it well, but also think about your own upgrades, as it is sometimes better to upgrade yourself and then help the others to do it. Likewise, don't hesitate to ask for money if you need it, as the others will help you if they can. A good rule is that the first 2 or 3 waves aren't especially dangerous so no one should need special equipment, but by wave 3 or 4 do not hesitate to ask for it.

Oh and while I think about it: do not unload your 9mm in a few seconds but take time to score headshots. Seriously.

Right, I guess that's it for now. Hopefully you guys will read it and find it interesting. I tried my best to give some information that will be useful. Again I didn't see any of you doing all the mistakes one can do, but I see little things here and there, and sometimes a lack of understanding of the purpose of a particular perk. And sometimes I just get questions like these several times from different people. So there.
 

Menckenstein

Lunacy of Caen: Todd Reaver
Joined
Aug 2, 2011
Messages
16,089
Location
Remulak
Another Killing Floor protip. Don't start any chat with the word EXIT. Anus Pounder was having an issue with his perk not leveling and I suggested "Exit and rejoin?" and as soon as I hit enter it quits from the entire game.

Fucking Tripwire...
 

Bruticis

Guest
Menck, that wouldn't happen if you'd get a damn MIC!! Nice tips, Gragt, I need to get in a game with you so you can school me on KF (the proper way).
 

Bruticis

Guest
If anyone (i.e. all of you, weeping and gnashing your teeth) wonders why I'm not in CDS chat for the next week or so, it's because my motherboard turned out to be defective and needs to be returned. I'm sure butters and skyway will greet this turn of events with no little satisfaction. :cool:
HAHAHAHA!!!!! Good thing you had a "professional" company build your over priced desktop for you! Scrap it all and go back to building and we'll help you, you putz.
 

Oriebam

Formerly M4AE1BR0-something
Joined
Jul 6, 2011
Messages
6,193
If anyone (i.e. all of you, weeping and gnashing your teeth) wonders why I'm not in CDS chat for the next week or so, it's because my motherboard turned out to be defective and needs to be returned. I'm sure butters and skyway will greet this turn of events with no little satisfaction. :cool:
This is important. How did you found out your motherboard was defective?
 

Humppaleka

Cipher
Joined
May 21, 2011
Messages
863
I'd like to join the group, I'm almost always online on steam. ID is Cenilix. Have KF, Dota 2, Defcon, Borderlands, EUIII, HOIIII, Space Marine, DoW 2, all kinds of shit to fizzle your nizzle fo shizzle. Though I haven't played HOI III... :oops: I'm scared to start it. Other games take priority. AI War is something that I haven't played much either, seems like a co-op game at it's best.
 

Mangoose

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 5, 2009
Messages
24,725
Location
I'm a Banana
Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity
Any of you folks want to get your decline on and play Modern Warfare 2 special ops with me? I've got achievements to get, dammit.
Ed will

Bitch plz, MW2 is practically 19th century, and I already uninstalled MW3 because only whytegamer was willing to play with meh.

Anyone with SR3 is welcome to engage in some BRO-op once I get my pewter back, though.
Here's a tip:

Nobody's going to buy SR3 until it goes down in price.
 

Bruticis

Guest
I would have paid money to be on the support call with Ed. How on earth did that guy/gal have the patience to walk you through removing the side panel much less swapping/removing RAM sticks? I'm quite surprised you didn't put your eye out or cut your wrists open by mistake. Little Edders, he's growing up so fast.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom