Overview
How to be Somewhat Competent: A mess of tips I wrote for friends several years ago and never got around to publishing (until now, apparently).
Killing Floor Tactics with Ninja and Friends
(If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below. I still play this game in unhealthy amounts…)
0. Let’s get this out of the way; you’re probably going to die. A LOT. Don’t blame others. Don’t blame yourself. Learn from it and move on. What killed you? Were you surrounded? Were you reloading? Did you get stuck on a map set piece while backpedaling? Were you lost/separated from your team? There is always a way out of the vast majority of sticky situations.
1. If you don’t have a level 5/6 perk that spawns with a weapon, always start the game as a Sharpshooter. You will receive a pistol damage bonus with your 9mm and nothing too dangerous spawns in wave 1. Always go for that sweet sweet headshot. You know you want to.
2. DO NOT shoot Scrakes (chainsaw guys) or Fleshpounds (lightup guys with grinders for hands) with the 9mm handgun. You’ll just end up raging them for nothing and getting yourself hurt/killed. Make sure you are with your team and using your best guns when taking on these enemies.
3. Call out over text or voice chat if you see any Scrakes (SCs) or Fleshpounds (FPs) spawn.
4. DO NOT KILL the last 6-10 things so we can all get to the trader with time to spare. Below 6, they can despawn if you’re too far. Gorefasts (red sword guys) do this even if you’re standing near them.
5. Your kill count does NOT matter; as long as someone gets the kill, we can share money later. Save your ammo if you know 100% someone else will get the kill; you will run out of ammo on higher difficulties if you’re not careful. An experienced player with a level 0-4 perk can outplay an inexperienced level 5/6 player. Knowing the game > perk level.
6. Learn the keybinds; Q is to heal yourself (although you should be healing your teammates because you can do it twice in a row, and you get MONIES), V is for quickchat (V follow by two numbers), B is for throwing money, is for dropping the weapon you’re currently holding (you can’t drop your knife, single 9mm, healing syringe, or welder)
6 a. change the keybinds if you don’t like them.
6 b. If you need money ask for it, but at least be polite about it; keybind V 1 3.
7. Know your role. This partially involves the newbie’s “highest kill count mentality” because they think highest kills = best player, and because people don’t always share money in public servers. While your perk skill is determined by a leveling system, your actual skill as a player is not. By nature, Firebug, Support, Commando, and potentially Demo and Berserker will have the highest kill count. Medic and Sharp will have the lowest. Check out the “General Perk Notes” in the next section.
8. If you’re not 100% sure if your team is camping (OR you are LOST), always keep moving. Aim down sights (ADS) with right click to find the center of your screen, but don’t stay in ADS for too long; keep moving.
9. You run faster with your knife out. You bet that that’s true in real life.
10. If a competent Berserker is attacking an SC or FP, LEAVE IT to them to handle it and clear everything else around the Berserker as they will be moving backwards a lot if they have an FP. If you can, type or call out if you want to do an “all-in” strategy.
10 a. If you’re doing an “all-in” and there are any medics, let them tank the hits. They have more effective armour than any other perk.
10 b. SC chainsaw swing does A LOT more damage than when they just stab it into you. If you constantly move backwards they will always swing, but if you just stand still they will only swing once and then do their constant damage attack.
11. There are 2 general strategies: camping and kiting/circuiting. It really depends on the map, and who wants to play which perk that determines which approach you should take. Technically all perks can kite/circuit, but in higher difficulties, it’s usually Medic or Berserker.
11 a. Berserkers have the option of solo kiting, but this is only recommended if the player knows the map thoroughly and can run backwards through it without getting trapped.
12. If multiple SCs/FPs spawn together, only fire IF YOU KNOW YOU CAN KILL THEM. If you’re unsure if the gun you’re holding can kill them, don’t shoot. The best tactic is to run.
12 a. The ideal strategy would be to separate them. Slow burning a FP with 1 shot from the flare revolver works alright, but takes ages.
12 b. Scrakes will rage at 50% health and below on beginner – hard, and at 75% on Suicidal and HoE; save them for last (unless you know you can safely kill them).
13. Heal your medic. sometimes they’re too busy healing you to heal themselves. Not only that, but as I mentioned earlier, you get a little extra money from healing others.
13 a. Try to heal teammates from their sides (as opposed to heaing from behind); being able to backpedal at any given moment is much more useful than strafing sideways.
14. Every time you hear a Husk about to shoot a fireball, you fu cking jump. I don’t care how far away it is, or if it’s in the next room over. Get used to jumping at the sound of it or juking at the very last second. They get MLG deadly accurate on higher difficulties.
15. A note on settings: change you settings on the main menu. They will not save if you change them ingame.
15 a.
[i.imgur.com]
Regarding video settings: scope detail should be “textured” to alleviate screen shake when being yelled at by sirens while using the crossbow, dynamic lighting is for flashlights, and projectors is for the M14 EBR laser dot (and maybe other scope-related things, I forget). Everything else is up to you.
15 b.
[i.imgur.com]
Regarding audio settings: turn off the music unless you really like it; it’ll help to hear things sneaking up behind you, and it helps to hear the Patriarch when he is cloaked. Uncheck dampen game volume when using VOIP if you are using the ingame voice chat; this allows others to talk over you instead of you seemingly muting everyone when you speak; however, you will also need to turn down music and effects.
15 c.
[i.imgur.com]
Regarding HUD settings: for some reason a very important feature is turned off by default called “show kill counter”. This helps to confirm your kills (with some green text at the top left) as well as who killed the big things (applies only to SCs, FPs and the Patriarch/pat).
16. As a Sharpshooter or Commando, work on headshots without needing to right clicking/ADS. You’ll feel pro, you can move more quickly, and maybe even step up your game for Sharp with dual handguns. That being said, I can’t dual wield to save my life, unless it’s with flare revolvers. Recoil for Commando goes down as you level.
17. Try all the guns within every perk at least once; you never know what combination you’ll like.
17 a. DLC guns can be bought by those who own the DLC and shared/used by those that do not own said DLC.
17 b. Try not to buy off-perk weapons until you get a feel for the game and know what you’re doing. If you ask someone to buy a different perk gun for you, be polite and pay back their perk-discounted price.
17 c. Messages in text cannot be read while in the trader menu (push ` to read previous messages), but voice chat can be heard.
Killing Floor Tactics with Ninja and Friends (cont’d)
18. Don’t sell other people’s guns unless they say it’s okay. Using them and moving them closer to the trader during the wave is perfectly acceptable, as long as they are returned to their owners.
19. When you die, you drop the last thing you were holding, so if you know it’s going to happen, switch to your best/most expensive weapon or mash the drop weapon key
19 a. Out of courtesy, during the last 6 – 10 things, you can move your dead teammates’ guns closer to the trader so they don’t have to worry about retrieving them.
20. Shooting a few bullets at enemies attracts them/pulls their aggro to you. Use this to your advantage if you see a teammate with low health being chased.
21. If you’re going to buy dual handguns (including flare revolvers), always buy them one at a time. If you buy both at the same time, you only get half the ammo.
21 a. If you happen to pick up another handgun to make duals, then sell the second, it will refill the ammo pool for the first handgun
22. If you’re truly strapped for cash, always refill the weapon you are going to use the most, first. Don’t bother with the auto-fill button unless you’re sure you’re going to use everything, or you/your team has a surplus of money.
23. If you’re unfamiliar with a map, try to make a mental note of where you have been completely surrounded, or have died before.
General Perk Notes
Remember to play your role! Perks don’t truly feel different until you start to level them, so follow the leveling stats on the ESC menu page.
In order from where they appear in the ESC menu:
Field Medic – least kills; useful for keeping the team alive; your grenades heal teammates and hurt enemies; get used to alt/middle clicking with your guns because you’re going to be doing a lot of it; all medic guns and the syringe have separate charge rates, so don’t wait around for your gun to recharge, switch between guns for quick dart healing and save the healing syringe (Q) for yourself.
Support Specialist – most kills/”clearer”; useful for narrow hallways and dishing out pain in the form of the AA12. Very helpful in a pinch when dealing with raging SCs/FPs.
Sharpshooter – least kills; very useful for clearing out SCs/FPs and picking off priority targets (Husks, Sirens, Bloats, Crawlers for Berserkers [they’ll love you for it]); consistent headshots are crucial in harder difficulties; you’ll be shooting the least amount of bullets among the rest of your teammates, so make every shot count.
Commando – most kills/”clearer”, close to mid range; useful for calling out health of enemies, especially the Patriarch; can see enemy health through Firebug fire and Demolitionist smoke; headshots are important but you can get away with spray and pray on lower difficulties; don’t forget that every gun has the alt fire of switching to semi-auto to conserve ammo and reduce recoil, however, a good Commando can single/burst fires their favourite rifles while on full auto mode.
Berserker – close range and do whatever they want; most flexible for kiting/circuit and killing everything with minimal damaged (surprising, since it’s in-your-face melee); higher level Berserkers are able to kill SCs/FPs at close range without taking damage and can completely stop a raging SC; try to cover enemies that won’t already be dead by the time you run over to them, you’ll know what I mean when you constantly get pis sed off because someone behind you already shot what you were going to kill; it is not uncommon for a Berserker to run around the map while the rest of the team stays together.
Firebug – most kills/”clearer”, close to mid range; useful for clearing like it’s going out of style (I treat this perk like the better shotgun class; ez/OP/M1 to win); you get incendiary grenades at level 3; you can hurt yourself/set yourself on fire with your flamethrower until you’re level 5; Husks will do minimal to no fireball damage to you at lvl 3+, shoot at them to get their attention so they don’t shoot at your team; Husks are also 50% resistant to fire, so don’t waste your flamethrower on them unless it’s an emergency.
Demolition – mid to long range and will be completely fu cked at close range; most likely saving their small ammo pool for when enemies cluster together; useful for instantly clearing and FPs (they have a weakness against explosives), but leaves an opaque smoke cloud; this is the most expensive class, so don’t play it until you have more money later on, or your team is willing to pool money on you.
Advanced things you won’t need until you really need them
The rules change in higher difficulties. You need to change too.
– It’s okay to shoot SCs and FPs with a handgun for the sole purpose of pulling aggro/separating away so you can deal with the big guys while your team deals with the trash mobs
– Berserker can no longer flinchlock with katana in Suicidal and Hell on Earth; please stop trying
– if you’re going to kill a SC with a stunlock, make sure you are clear of trash enemies before doing so
– you can cancel any dual handgun reload by switching to your 9mm (this can only be done if you have only one set of any dual pistols [mk23, 44 magnum, handcannon, flare revolvers] and a single 9mm; dual 9mm cannot be cancelled with a single pistol); this does NOT reload them
– Relative to tactic #10, competent Berserkers can “flinchlock” or “stunlock” multiple Scrakes without taking any damage. Shooting while they do this will mess up their flinch/stun timing and cause them to get attacked. This is why I run away when people start shooting my Scrakes 🙁
– a flinchlock is when a Zerk continuously slices at the SC’s head, which causes them to not attack even though they can still walk around; this can only be done on Beginner, Normal, and Hard difficulties. Later on, a single flinch can be done with a middle/alt fire from a machete and katana (which can also be done offperk).
– a stunlock is when a Zerk uses the alt fire/middle click on the SC’s head, and the SC looks down in a daze for a few seconds; this can be done on any difficulty with a fireaxe, claymore, dwarfs axe, and scythe
– there’s a ton of other weapon combos that every perk can do to flinch or stun SCs, which deals with their damage thresholds; if you know you’re with a good team, it’s fun to try new things (or look up the plethora of youtube videos about it)
– I’m in the camp of “if you have a good team, you don’t need a medic”; with good team coordination and an understanding of the game, you will rarely ever have to heal yourself because your teammates will do it for you, and you will for them; knowing when to continue firing while a teammate runs around healing everyone, or when it’s okay to turn around and poke butts is one of those things that can either narrowly save or instantly wipe your team
– prioritizing enemies so you die less. Sirens and Husks are very important to eliminate, especially when they are standing behind a wave of enemies. Other than that, judging how quickly enemies will reach you will determine which ones you should kill first; Gorefasts and Crawlers are a higher priority than Clots and Bloats and SCs. FPs are a low priority, unless you cannot break line of sight within 10 seconds while kiting, or are camping
– learn to avoid MLG Husk shots, cancel Sirens (with and without fire), and the rage rules of the FP and SC
– in the event that multiple sirens spawn behind larger zeds, it is perfectly acceptable to puff a flamethrower a couple short times in an attempt to set them on fire (and hopefully cancel/kill them); 2-3 sirens are practically a death sentence if you find yourself right beside them after turning a corner.
– whipped up a quick chart for Spawn Weapon Price and Weight
– unless you’re a Medic, a Firebug (with utility grenades you can throw at your own feet), a Demo, or a Support (with regular frags), grenades are next to useless for their intended purpose in later difficulties; enemies will move away from them in a radius. With that in mind, you can throw them when you need to stall to reload. I’ve started to throw them in tandem (one further and one closer) so that the first sets off the second and there’s a larger blast radius, and hopefully zeds get trapped between the two and can’t move away.
– I don’t know fire mechanics; has to do with being able to deal an infinite amount of damage without causing rage and slow raging
– Ice Cave and below can be done on 4wave short for the achievement
– pipe hats :3
– blower thrower patty hat party
– friendly scs/fps
– super fast super fly super first aid; quick heal (hold switch to heal/release heals and switch weapon) and super quickheal (hold/release heals skips animation and switch weapon, can be messed up with wrong timing)
– dying once a round; do it at spawn; 10k no kill challenge – icebreaker 20k!
– flares/deagles/revolvers/mk23 to print; sometimes the first set glitches to discount price; drop and pickup again?
– spawn node memorization
– I read somewhere that lower hp and carry weight (e.g. 25kg leveled support) actually does affect run speed; just an observation :freeshrugs:
– bweffect
Deal with It (advanced tactics for crying and running away)
There’s a million and one combos, but here are the ones I use the most often when playing in a full/6 man game on Hell on Earth difficulty.
Crying is not mandatory, but is strongly encouraged.
– cry and run away in hopes that
< 6 have spawned
off-perk:
– ebr flinch lock
– hope that teammates dropped useful weapons
– rage/rage threshold? to m32 flinch lock
– kite and shoot every once in awhile
off-perk:
– alt fire with a melee weapon
– crossbow with a long alley/large distance, 8 weldable doors, hope for the best? (8 headshots maximum; less if already predamaged, 1man FP is 3 shots assuming your team has been snackrificed thanks, reventing! 😀.)
– predamage to threshold, then hunting alt fire either crouched, standing, or jumping
off-perk:
– machete*/fire axe/katana/dwarf’s axe/claymore/scythe/chainsaw flinch to hunting alt fire crouched or standing still
– predamage to flinch to any shotgun on head
– grenade to chest, then hunting alt fire, then 3 grenades to chest
off-perk:
– grenade and m32 then 3 grenade and m32 (m32 sets grenades off at your leisure)
– lar/musket stun lock
– predamange to dual handcannons/revolvers/mks to the face flinch lock (flinching can be done with a single hc/magnum/mk)
– ebr flinch lock
– crossbow stun lock
– 4 crossbow bolts, 10 ebr headshots
– same as medic
off-perk:
– predamage to machete* flinch, then dump strongest weapon (scar, fnfal) into face
– also predamage to m32 flinch lock
– hope that teammates dropped useful weapons
– 2 m32 headshots to flinch to scar/fnfal :c coffee, pls
– kite and shoot every once in awhile
– grenade to chest then shoot with any gun until raging then 3 grenades to chest
off-perk
– same as medic with crossbow
– same as demolitionist with m32
– alt fire fire axe/dwarf’s axe/claymore/scythe on head to stun lock
– buzzsaw bow stun lock
– alt fire and step back; can be done with any melee weapon except alt fire scythe (too much damage), and chainsaw (you do not receive movement bonus with it)
– predamage, then dual flares to the face flinch lock
– kite and slowly burn/same as medic
off-perk
– same as medic with crossbow
– predamage to rage threshold, then m32 headshot flinch lock
– grenade and m32 then 3 grenade and m32 (m32 sets grenades off at your leisure)
*disclaimer: they call it a ‘prochete’ for a reason; you actually need to practice this flinch beforehand, I think I can get it around 20% of the time if I don’t testmap beforehand 🙁
**FP rage threshold is 360 damage within 2 seconds
Loadouts I usually run, by weapon priority (just note that I haven’t played anything but level 6 perks in a very long time):
Medic – schneidzekk, m7a3, mp5m; ebr for SCs
Support – shotgun or hsg, hunting shotgun, fire axe; replace shotgun with HSG for lvl4
Sharp – ebr, lar or musket
Commando – ak47, scar, machete
Berserker – katana, dual flare revolvers, dwarfs axe or fire axe for wave 5+
Firebug – flamethrower, dual flare revolvers
Demo – m32, m79, pipebombs
kfo
steamland
– firebug
– berserker
– support
– support
– support
– demo
transit
– firebug
– firebug
– support
– berserker
– berserker
– demo
frightyard
– firebug
– berserker
– support
– support
– berserker
– berserker
– demo
a Windows 10 fix
C: > Program Files > Steam > steamapps > common > KillingFloor > System > right click KillingFloor.exe and select Properties
check “Disable display scaling on high DPI settings”
How to join on “Server is not responding.”
A note on joining non-responsive servers:
1) Click the drop down arrow next to the Steam Friend’s name.
2) Select the “View Game Info” option.
3) From the Game Info option, highlight the server IP (which you will see even if the server is “not responding”) and copy it. (Highlight, Right Click, and Copy)
4) Go into the Multiplayer Server Browser from the KF main menu.
5) Go to the Internet servers tab at the top.
6) Right click on the background, but NOT on a highlighted server.
7) Select the “Open IP” option from the small menu that now appears – paste the copied IP and select the Ok/Enter button. You will now attempt to connect to the server, and (player slot and ping permitting) you will join the game your friend is on.
The “No servers are appearing D:” fix
– change the parameters at the bottom to any difficulties and click refresh
– if nothing appears, hit ESC to the main menu and go back to the internet games tab
– change the parameters again, and hit refresh again
– ???
Perk Reset – warning: resets ALL perks
This will reset ALL of your perks. You will not lose any achievements you’ve already unlocked on steam.
[Engine.SteamStatsAndAchievementsBase]
bResetStats=true
Add to the bottom of killingfloor.ini file, start the game, then remove it (or else perks will reset every time you start the game). Check to make sure leveling is saving by starting the game, getting a few sharpshooter headshots, closing, then starting again.
Fresh install troubleshooting
– I didn’t like having a window around the game in windowed mode, and fullscreen means alt+tabbing; Borderless Gaming + game in “Widescreen” checked off
– fresh install means downloading a lot of serverside mods; don’t press F10 – give it a moment
– see section above for internet servers not loading
– rebind controls to your liking because they’re antiquated (e.g. melee is on 1, right click is a toggle ADS)
– change the settings from the guide (#15)
– antiquated engine means head hitboxes are approximations; enemies have to be targeting you to have accurate headshots; enable head hitboxes on a testmap to observe
– sometimes when you join a server, it says your perks are 0 even though you know they are leveled; just rejoin the server
– sometimes you can get a flashing red screen when your hp hits < 26; you either have to die in-game or rejoin; i don’t remember if healing actually fixes it
– you have to change your settings on the main menu; they will not save if they are changed in-game
General Troubleshooting
An extensive guide by Bigguns93 and Immortal Nub.
[link]