Left 4 Dead Campaign Guide - Blood Harvest: The Woods and the Warehouse

Left 4 Dead Campaign Guide - Blood Harvest: The Woods and the Warehouse
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Stage 1: The Woods

The first stage of Blood Harvest takes place in a wooded area called the Woods, surprisingly enough. Like all of the first stages, this one is relatively simple. There is a clear path to follow and it is mercifully short. If you move quickly and efficiently, this should give you no problem. Through the entire level though, you need to keep your eyes and ears open and watch the woods to either side of the path. Special infected can hang out here relatively undetected, and while there aren’t any rooftops to leap on you from or pull you off of, it is still possible for a crafty smoker or hunter to trap you in the woods so that they can gnaw on your brains at their leisure.

As soon as you grab your weapons and health kits, leave the campsite and head down the path. Stick close together and there should be no problem. If you get swarmed, kneel down back to back – don’t go into the woods looking for a safe corner. Stop briefly at the picnic table and look for pills or explosives, but don’t wait too long. It’s a great spot for an ambush.

Cross the bridge quickly, and watch for smokers. You don’t have to enter the house at the other end, but you should – it always has ammo, and usually has explosives. Head back to the path and stay on it. Stay clear of the fence, it’s possible to get pulled down. Stay to the middle of the path all the way to the safe room door and you should be able to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Stage 2: The Warehouse

The Warehouse

Exit the safe room quickly so you can check the nearby rooms for pills and explosives. Waste no time heading down the stairs and into the first room on the left – this room sometimes has advanced weapons and the side rooms will have a molotov or two. Head out on to the catwalk, but move quickly – competent smokers will try and pull you off, which is unpleasant, if not devastating. You can also drop directly down to check the rooms below for consumables, but you are probably better off just moving to the emergency door. Grab ammo, set up some gas cans and propane tanks outside the door, and fire a few bullets through the wall just in case. (Note: You may encounter a tank during or after the crescendo event, so you might want to hang on to one of those gas cans if you don’t have any molotovs).

Open the door, and an alarm will sound, triggering the horde. The safest place to be is in one of the corners of the room, stacked up or spread out. The infected will come through both doors and a vent in the ceiling, but it shouldn’t be too much of a problem with the ammo you have available. Head through the emergency door and up the stairs immediately to your right. Stay on the catwalk and stay clear of the edges and windows – again, you don’t want to be smoker bait.

After you pass in between the two rooms with machinery, shoot out a window and exit on to the roof. You need to get through the tunnels – you can stay on the ground or stick to the tops of the trains. They both take you the same place so don’t worry overmuch about it. It’s easy to get swarmed in the cramped spaces, but if anyone on your team picked up an auto-shotgun, you should do fine in the tunnels. Stay close and move quickly and you’ll get to the safe room in no time.

Stage 3: The Bridge

The Bridge

Exit the safe room and enter the tunnels. Take the time to check around corners and in the side rooms – there will probably be health and explosives lying around. Wait and collect yourselves before you exit the tunnel – it is a great place to get ambushed, so you’ll want to move as fast as you can out of the clearing and on to the path. Stay near the middle, as before, and watch for hunters and smokers lurking in the underbrush.There may also be goodies lying around, so keep your eyes open, but don’t wait too long.

At the end of the path there will be a building in the side of the hill. Check quickly for consumables, then go inside. Once down the stairs, check the side rooms for more health and explosives – this is a good place to stock up. You will exit the building into another train tunnel. Follow the tracks out, and check the big tin building on your right for ammo and weapons. Keep following the train tracks. There is just the right of amount of open space and blind corners to make this a special infested feasting zone, so don’t stop moving unless you have to.

After you pass under the bridge, enter the house on the left – there will be health and possibly ammo there. This is a fairly safe place to heal up if you need to. Head to the end of the tracks and trigger the event. Fight with you back against a train car and you should have no problem – the infected will come running across a lot of open space so you have time to kill them. Once the event is finished, hurry back to the bridge, on to the now familiar forest path, and into the safe house. Stay together and you should have no problems.

Stage 4: The Train Station

The Train Station

This safe house is one of the ones you want to move out of quickly – special infected may lurk on the roof. The farmhouse a little ways down the path may look like a great place to search for goodies (and it is) – but it can be a death trap in versus mode and can be nightmarishly hard to defend. Look around, grab what you need, and move on.

A little further and you will find a building and the train tracks. Ideally you want to leap from the embankment across to the roof – this is a good vantage point and helps you avoid a possibly unpleasant ambush. Take out some of the infected down below before hopping down to the tracks. Watch your fire here, as there is a car that can be set off. Move quickly down the tracks, stopping briefly at the first house to look for supplies.

Enter the side door on the next house and check it as well. You will likely encounter a tank here – evade it outside the house to minimize damage. Also, near the door where you entered, you can jump over the railing, behind the fence, and circumvent the house entirely. The tank will be hard pressed to follow. This is undoubtedly a cheap and unintended tactic, but it can help you avoid the tank completely. From here it is a straight shot to the train car where the safe room is.

Stage 5: Farmhouse Finale

The Farmhouse Finale

Once again, hit the ground running after leaving the safe house. You want to be far away as soon as possible. Keep your eyes upwards and watch out for hunters and smokers on the sides of the embankment and on the tops of the train cars. Follow the tracks to where you can climb on to a train car and over a small hill. You will find yourself facing a large open field. Make sure your team drops down all at once or special infected will be able to pick stragglers off.

This part is unpleasant for everyone involved, so as long as you are not being swarmed, you need to be moving. Find the tractor, get your bearings, then head toward the farmhouse. There are several buildings nearby, so take the time to check them for whatever you might need before you start the finale, but stay together. This is one of the harder finales, so do whatever you need to do to get prepared.

In terms of defensible positions, the farmhouse leaves much to be desired because many of the walls can be broken through, but downstairs in the room with the radio is a decent place to stand your ground. When the tanks come, head outside and fight a running battle. Stay on your toes, watch for the tanks and stay away from the windows and you just might make it till the army arrives. When they do, jump in the back of the truck and you’re done. Congratulations! You survived. For now…