First of all : the thanks !

• The Speeddemosarchive.com team, especially mikwuyma, Nate, and the verifiers : thanks for your job !
• Marshmallow
• Normand Nubcake
• Ivilkee
• Lazylen
• Demon Strate
• Nihilus
• All the players on youtube who discovered glitches and tricks.
• Myself, 'cause even if there were lots of runners probing the game, I discovered some glitches and tricks alone.

Now, let's talk about the runs !

I'd like to explain why those left 4 dead -independent levels ; single player- runs are different than some other speed runs :

First, the game has a huge part of randomness : the places where items and infected appear are never the same. That makes runs depending on... luck.

Then, even if I said that the game was quite random, there are some tactics to make luck happen every time : infected's spawn can be modified by exploiting the "zombie limit" ; and special infected's spawn can be regulated by letting some team mates alive...

In addition, the team mates have to die before I enter the safe room : a strategy is required concerning the team to avoid infected. Team mates can occupy them, but they rend "zombie limit" unusable (they kill zombies, and new ones spawn on the way)

To finish, one of the most important requirement is the perfect knowledge of the map, exactly like in any other run.

To summarize, these runs depend on luck, strategy, knowledge ... but not really on talent. Finally, I'm not the world's best player... Just the faster one.

Enjoy !

Detailed Runs :

I) No Mercy

1)The Apartments
That is the shorter part of the run. Due to this, I absolutely wanted to perform a double-incapacitating. That level is known for his jump from the roof to the ventilator, but I preferred falling down to the pipes : that makes more damages, but it saves around 2 seconds. Then, I just had to run to the safe room.

2)The Subways
Keeping a survivor alive were useful concerning special infected ; the horde is not dangerous at all here. In the panic event's room, I used a glitch on the switch to jump over the barrier. If a tank spawned here ... the run was finished (I couldn't drop a Molotov cocktail on the ground, it burned me). I used the switch, because even if I didn't need it, I wanted the road just ahead to be clean. I won a second by scarifying some health while I jumped from the window, and then I ran to the safe room. (what a sadist laugh, Zoey !)

3)The Sewer
There is a very known "glitch" here : breaking the iron-door with melee attacks, but that glitch is totally ugly, and the way to safe room is full of stupid zombies... So, I used the elevator and I called the horde. There's nothing left to say about the end of that run (except a fantastic tank dodge)

4)The Hospital
That was maybe the most boring part of the game : a crescendo event that couldn't be skipped and where I had to perform a perfect timing concerning team mate-genocidal , then I had to wait around 40 seconds in a empty lift with twenty-five acute "tûûût" to enrage me as much as possible, and to finish, a very hard zone where the horde, and sometimes a tank, spawns. (excuse me if I preferred playing with easy mode, but that level were ... hard)

5)Rooftops Finale :
The goal of finale's levels is always the same : run to the radio, shoot the horde, kill the first tank, shoot the horde again, eliminate the second tank, kill all the team mates, and enter the vehicle... as fast as possible of course.
I played with easy mode for two main reasons :
- There are some secured spots on the level, but it forbids the brutal high-speed horde's shooting... and that tactic is not safe at all.
- Easy mode lowers tank's health points.
Expert mode is just required to exterminate the team before entering the helicopter.

II) Death Toll

1)The Turnpike
That is a level where I'm not really proud of myself, but crossing that zone perfectly is nearly impossible (Normand Nubcake did it, but he kept the survivors alive and performed a -more or less working- zombie limit). That was possible to use the zombie limit at the beginning : the presence of a survivor (other than the player) could call the horde. But, even if this survivor got hurt, he couldn't die early enough. I tried the wood's strategy, but finally, my best time is this one.

2)The Drains
That time, my team mates had to distract zombies during the event, and had to die during it too. As soon as the player crosses the metallic bridge, two random special infected spawn ... and it made me fail hundred and hundred run. Here, the infected were on a pipe, I just passed through the other pipe. Finally, I used the pipe bomb (taken during the crescendo event) before entering the wagon and closing the door.

3)The Church
At the beginning of the level, I had to wait a second : the whole team had to take a weapon to kill the tank (I wanted them to rejoin me near the church as soon as possible) ; and they killed it faster with easy mode. I'll notice the small jump from the valve to the wagon that made me save some precious seconds. My strategy concerning the church : using two gas tanks to protect my back, killing infected who were climbing the wall, and letting the other survivors take care about the rest of the graveyard. I finally had to switch to expert mode, kill the team, open the door, kill the special infected, and close the door.

4)The Town
There are two tricks in that level : the walk on the wall at the beginning and the exploit on the barricade. There's nothing other to say, except that the level was extremely hard ...

5)Boathouse Finale
Read "Rooftops finale", it's quite the same story ...
I just used the infinite grenade glitch, I let you read the basics to understand how it works.

III ) Dead Air

1)The Greenhouse
In that campaign, Molotov cocktails are available at the beginning, I used one to help my team mates to die ... After that morbid and happy barbecue, I used a pipe bomb to put the horde out of my way. The rest of the level is just a run to the safe room.

2)The Crane
That level is full of tricks :
-two little ones : the run on the barrier at the beginning and the window over the ladder.
-two huge ones : The jump avoiding the crescendo event and the fall from the roof to the tree ... to the ground.
Except practice and luck, that was not hard that much ... contrary to the following level.

3)The Construction Site
There is a crescendo event just at the beginning of that level, and it was not hard to jump over the barricade, but I had to call the horde to clean the way ahead, as usual. I used the exploit on the crashed plane's reactor, then I ran to the safe room.

4)The Terminal
Automatic shotgun is now available ! Sure man, but I didn't used it that much here except for shooting my team ... I'd just like to notice that the trick of the gate during the crescendo event is none an exploit, and none a glitch neither : the "physical" gate disappears some frames before the truck hits him, that's why I didn't die crushed ...

5)Runway Finale
Read "Boathouse Finale"
(of course, I could have used the known spot on the plane : that's a nice trick but it goes so sloooooow !)

IV) Blood Harvest

1)The Woods
I hear some guys saying "what a noob ! Zombies touched him several times !". It doesn't matter : I had to wait for my team-slugs for 2 linked reasons :
-I couldn't cross that part of the woods alone
-The level is short and they had to die quickly
So, the best solution was attracting the horde while waiting for the team mates, then incapacitating them to create a "human defence", and letting common infected finish them.
I finally just had to run ...

2)The Tunnel
A short and easy level : incapacitating team mates, run, run, and run ... the crescendo event couldn't really be skipped, but how can the undead kill someone they can't catch ?

3)The Bridge
That run is not easy as the previous one was : a long one, with large places and zombies everywhere : I had to look out everywhere at the same time. In addition, due to the large places, I was a doll for the different special infected. Fortunately, my team mates were here to be attacked, but as if the level wasn't hard enough, they sometimes survived while they had to die ! The run is not perfect (excuse me ...) but I did it !

4)The Train Station
The main difficulty here was to cross the first place, with zombies hidden behind the trees. After that, the road is nicely empty, there is just the jump between the wall and the wagon that could make me fail the run, but it just needed practice.

5)Farmhouse Finale
One more time, a level where I have to look everywhere to stay alive. The corn field was a real nightmare : no visibility and some f***ing ravens who call the horde, I had to shoot randomly threw the corn and pray... Another difficulty : I Sometimes had to wait for my team mates, quick as snails, if there was a witch or a tank on the way (the whole team have to be near the farmhouse to be able to call some help). To finish, the level ends with a large place where the infinite grenade glitch is unusable, the horde had to make a compact group easily eliminable. In this run, the second common infected's spawn was unlucky : all the zombies were dispatched ! But I can't have luck every time ...

The Basics :

Cancelled-Attack : shove, switch weapon, shove, switch weapon ... that reduces time recovery between two melee attacks.

Knock'n'Fly : you just have to hit some items like turrets, or switches (No Mercy - the subway) with melee attacks, and jump on it : that glitch will make you perform a jump that depends on the number of hits given. Cancelled-attacks are of course required here.

Zombie limit : the number of present infected on the map is limited : letting them alive (by shoving) will result in an "empty" end of level.

Infinite grenade glitch : when you throw a grenade (Molotov cocktail or pipe bomb, it doesn't matter) the hand of the character disappears for about a second. If you take another grenade during THAT second, the thrown grenade will re-appear on the ground. That glitch can be repeated as much as necessary.

Runner's best friend : The shotgun is the perfect weapon for speed runs : accuracy doesn't fall while running, and reloading while firing is pretty useful. Nevertheless, damages are random if the distance "player-target" is too long : that is a problem concerning team mates incapacitating.

Other comments and special thanks :

Additional comments for the verifiers :

One of the verifier rejected most of my runs because I didn't use luck manipulation well. He has to know that having an incredible luck during the whole level is rare, and that having such a luck AND performing a perfect run is nearly impossible.

Furthermore, some panic events (the sewer and the drains) could be skipped, I agree. I let you read the comment concerning the sewers to understand why I did not skip it. Concerning the drains, there were a solution to climb on the pipe : Normand Nubcake did it, but he did it without the infected. Performing a so precise move is too hard when the player is attacked by the horde.

To finish, even if one of the verifiers didn't wanted my runs (especially the final one) to be accepted, I'd like to thank him for his job, because -even if he has been a bit picky- he saw some things that can make me save time... Due to it, I'll maybe try to improve my times.

Caution : reading the following lines is totally useless.

- Thanks to Zoey who has been sexy... it helped me a lot during my recordings
- Louis, Francis, Bill ... Excuse me guys, I killed you an incalculable number of times, in this game where help between players is a need.
- I'll remove left 4 dead from my PC as soon as my runs will be on Speeddemosarchive.com, I can't stand this game anymore (speed runs can bring undesirable effects concerning gaming experience ...).
- No add-ons for left 4 dead = No more speed runs ! YES !!!