Left 4 Dead/Weapons

The weapon selection in Left 4 Dead is a set of available firearms. You initially have weak weaponry, but can obtain better weapons you progress through each campaign (aka "movie").

Each survivor has a total of five item slots - the primary weapon, the secondary pistol, a grenade, a first-aid kit, and pain pills. As always, you can fire or use these weapons - but you can also make a melee attack with all these items.

At the beginning of each campaign, you have a choice of an Uzi or Shotgun, and can pickup a health pack for the level. You may also find weapon and ammo caches randomly scattered throughout the levels to refill any ammo you are carrying - the ammo supply from these caches is unlimited, and thus you don't need to conserve ammunition when near these caches.

Melee
The melee attack is a quick method to clear away approaching enemies. It doesn't inflict much damage, but pushes away individual infected and boomers to a safer distance. In addition, melee attacks do not interfere with reloading.

Firearms
Firearms serve as one of the original point-and-click interfaces for dealing with trouble. The most basic weaponry is available at the beginning of the game, with the advanced weapons appearing in the later chapters or in random positions.

Most bullets fired can hit up to two targets, and have the ability to penetrate some walls.

Some weapons, such as shotguns, take longer to reload if you completely empty a magazine.

Pistols
Each survivor starts the game with a Springfield Armory M1911 pistol. An important thing to remember with the pistols is that they have infinite ammo; this makes the pistol a great weapon to turn to when you are low on ammo for your main guns.

You will generally find a second pistol as you progress through the campaign. When you do, all party members can pick it up and dual-wield them. This effectivly doubles your firing rate at the cost of a slightly increased reload rate.

Dual pistols are accurate enough to pull off headshots at a moderate distance (especially when crouching) and are very useful for drawing the attention of non-swarming Horde Infected to pick off while conserving your ammo for the swarms and special Infected. The pistols' small spray zone means you are less likely to hit another survivor when fighting at close quarters.

If you are knocked down, you will automatically switch to pistols.

Uzi
The Uzi is a sub-machinegun with weak power. While it is good at close range, it's spread makes it difficult to use for longer engagements.

It holds 50 rounds per clip, and you can carry 480 spare bullets.

Pump Shotgun
The Remington 870 pump-action shotgun is a primary weapon that can easily kill infected. It is meant for close quarter combat and is quite good at penetrating infected, but it's disavantage is the slow firing rate and reload time.

It is possible to fire a partially reloaded shotgun. If you do, you stop the reloading sequence and fire your weapon. If you need to attack while reloading, try swinging your shotgun at the enemy.

You can carry 8 rounds in the shotgun, with 128 spare shells.

Assault Rifle
The M16A3 is an assault rifle that is better at medium ranges. It inflicts more damage per shot and maintains more damage at longer ranges.

This weapon is available later in the game. It takes a 50 round clip, and you can carry 360 spare bullets.

Auto shotgun
The benelli M4 Super 90 shotgun is an semi-automatic shotgun that can easily shread the incoming swarms. You can hold down the fire button for a regular firing rate, or you can rapidly click to unload shells as quickly as possible. As with the pump-shotgun, it's pellets will penetrate infected with ease.

This weapon is available later in the game. You can carry 10 shells in this shotgun, with 128 spare shells.

Note: In versus mode, the auto shotgun inflicts 25% less damage against a tank.

Hunting rifle
The Ruger Mini-14 rifle is a scoped rifle meant for killing game at long distances. In this case, it can be used to take out infected at long distances. Hitting a regular infected anywhere with the rifle will instantly kill it, and it can inflict severe damage on special infected types.

It is the only weapon in the game to have a scope attached. Using the scope reduces your field of view, but gives you a better chance of making accurrate shots. You can line up several infected and take them all out with a single shot - in addition, the bullet from the hunting rifle is better at penetrating walls.

This weapon is available later in the game. It takes a 15 rounds clip, with 180 spare bullets.

Grenades
Throughout a level you may also find Pipebombs and Molotov Cocktails. The Pipebombs are best used to distract incoming horde rushes or lure out Infected in hiding, as all zombies are attracted to the bright flashing light and beeping sound that the Pipebomb emits before it explodes. Molotov cocktails do not attract zombies, but are great for creating areas of intense fire to burn incoming zombies in a large area, as well as for quickly killing Boss Infected such as the Tank.

In some places, you may see a Kerosene tank (which has the same effect as a molotov cocktail after being shot) or a Gasoline tank, which explodes (which has the same effect as a pipe bomb minus the attraction of the horde). These two object can be picked up and carried around. When picked up, the player can not use any other weapon until the tank is dropped. The player may also melee with these tanks and eventually throw them out against unsuspecting zombies.

An oxygen tank may sometimes appear as well - it explodes in the same manner as the kerosene tank, but has a slight delay before the detonation.

Mounted Turrets
In certain places you will find stationary turrets. These emplacements are rare never placed randomly - you can usually find them in regions where fighting may be intense, such as campaign finales. Their high rate of fire and stopping power are great for driving back hordes of zombies or dealing massive damage to Tanks, but they can be flanked from the side from attackers.

Healing items
These aren't exactly weapons, but it is possible to swing them at infected.

First aid kits, when used, restore a player's health to at least 80. Additional health may be given if the player is already high on health (and this should only be done if there is plenty of spare kits around.)

Pain pills give a temporary health boost to the player using them, which slowly decays over time.