Cash spending guide for new COOP players.

I've been playing MGFTW server for a while and not quite sure what should I spend my cash on at the beginning so I decided to write this to give some rough guideline for other players who just started. I'm also a new player myself. 74 hours of playtime in L4D2 and level 55 on MGFTW server. So I hope veteran player would correct me if I'm wrong. I've never played VS or Hidden Infected before so this guide is for COOP mode only. For players who don't know what cash is, cash is like stat/skill points for players on MGFTW server, players can spend it to make themselves stronger. Things you can spend cash on [AFAIK] - Upgrades - Skills - Buffs - Pills Upgrades Just upgrades everything other than Hanging Resistance and Unstoppable. Upgrades costs of other skills are so cheap that the reason you can't upgrade any further would be the level restriction, not the cost of upgrades. Unstoppable, according to the description, only works in VS mode so it's useless here. Hanging Resistance wouldn't help you much. If there's teammates around they'd pull you up in no time. If you're too far behind alone and fell down, you're as good as dead anyway. Don't ignore Team Helper and Helping Hand just because they wouldn't affect you directly, it's really helpful, especially when most of your teammates down during the Tank fight because it's Grenadier Tank or cars exploded. Skills Same as upgrades, just upgrades everything, they are cheap. As I'm writing this, I'm level 55 and have tens of thousands cash with nothing to spend it on. Buffs Some may think that this isn't even a guide, how can saying "Just ugprades everything" considered as a guide? Well, true. But at the beginning I'm afraid of spending cash on anything because I don't know how much higher level upgrades will cost and how fast can I make. Also, with buffs, you can't just buy everything because your buff slots are limited. I haven't tried every buffs yet, some buffs has high level restriction and some buffs description made me don't wanna buy it. I'll categorize buffs into 5 category. Very good, good, not bad, not so useful, useless. Very useful ***** Crawl - Description in doesn't tell you that it cost 30 health to crawl but it's still very useful when you got incapacitated near a Tank that wouldn't move away, in high places that your teammates can't reach, or on Spitter's spit. Knife - In PR-COOP, Special Infected almost never comes alone. So, when you use it, make make sure that there aren't any other Special Infected around ( Use Knife to free yourself from Smoker while Hunter is around is never a good idea, unless you have many Knives. Electrified Knife should be able to prevent you from being ganged by a group Special Infected alone, but I haven't tried, not enough level. ) And since you can't use it very often, don't use it while your teammates are around, it's better to wait for other players to help you than wasting it and have nothing left to use when you really need it. Adrenaline Run - Some pro players may not think that it's useful because they can avoid Tanks easily without it. But to me, it saved my life many times. It also let you know that Tank is around even before you see it too. Speedy Water - As the description says, it let you moves faster instead of slower while you're in water. Maps with large water area is a pain, especially when there's a Tank there too. It's so difficult to fight against tank in Water area, you can't burn it, you run much slower that you can't avoid the Tank. With this buff, Tanks appeared in water would become free toasters ( Except Metalized Tank, but this buff also let you ignore it and run away to Saferoom ) Useful **** Anger Fire Ball - 1% seems small, but when you're alone and pinned down by Charger or Hunter, it can kill them. On Fire - Again, 1% seems small, but it's useful for igniting a Tank ( Especially, Metalized Tank ) who appeared early on the map while nobody has molotov or bounty to buy it. Not so bad *** Morphine Injector - It's useful because it heals you overtime, too bad it heals very slowly. Not so useful ** Vomit Revenge - chance is so low and you won't get vomit on that often. Shoving Expert - I don't know about others but I don't use shove in COOP very often. Double Projectile - It throws two projectile not so far away from each other and they are exploded at almost the same time so it's not much different from single projectile. Death Bait - It would give other players harder time to defib you. Hidden Magnum - Heard that it removes your melee weapon when other players help you up, I haven't tried. Deadly Shove - Again, I didn't shove that often. Extra Powder - Would be good when working with Mesmerizing Pipe Bomb, too bad I can't seem to find that buff in !cp Saferoom Infirmary - It's rare for a player to die in Saferoom, and once you proceed to the next chapter, you'll be fully healed. Survival Payment - You can never have too much bounty. But the rate is so low, you'd only get 1-4 extra bounty per chapter. Doesn't really worth 15000 cash for me. Bomber Protection - You can normally avoid the explosion easily. Health Dispenser - It increases cost of health items by 300%, not recommended. Quick Arm and Ninja - Just Expert Swinger upgrades seems to gives me fast enough swing speed. Cooling Down - There aren't many place to use Machine guns, its accuracy is quite low, normal secondary weapons with Bullet Carrier and Fast Reflex upgrades seems to be able to do a better job. Not to mention that Tanks seems to love running towards a person who's manning a machine gun. Huge Shove - Just melee it. Big Check - Quest rewards aren't the main source of income but you lost nothing be getting some extra bonus. Useless * Fall of Faith - How often would you fall? And how often that it'd be a place that's safe to let it go? Floral Grenade Launch - Grenade Launcher isn't that useful, and this only works on the first shot. Maybe it'll be useful with Heat Missile but it requires quite high level and I also never see any high level player use it too. Cheap Goggles - It doesn't work, some players said it only works in Swamp Fever map. It doesn't even work in Swamp Fever map for me. Chainsaw Refill - Chainsaw isn't that useful in my opinion. Counter Slap - Again, seems that you are rarely slapped. Rich but Lonely - You're almost as good as dead if all other teammates are dead. And if you're good enough to make through it alone, you wouldn't need those bounty much. Buffs I'm not really sure about because I gave up on them as soon as I saw the description. Here are my opinions Grenade Trap - Would it gives that much different from throwing it? Cold Heart - It wouldn't be good to stay in black and white for 50% chance of freezing enemies. Shaman Handler and Knight Handler - do those Tanks really exist? I have never seen one. [razor has a comment about this, I'd just link to it because I still don't know how these buffs work.] Rescue Me - Well, I never play VS here so... Moribund Farming - Again, it doesn't seem to be a good idea to stay in black and white. Witch Peacemaker - People rarely startled a witch accidentally anyway, right? One of Them - I'm not sure if this works on Special Infected or not, if it is, it'd become Very Useful buff. But if it only works with normal infected, who'd have problem with normal infected? Tank Lure - Maybe good for players who are farming? Hyperactive - 30% rate for 15 seconds seems short. Special First Aid - I never even noticed what Paralyzed and Broken Leg status are. I've only encountered Frozen and Poisoned, poison can be removed with pain pills. Finale Dominator - Never tried, sounds ok but I don't have enough buff slot for this. Witch Eater - Again, 15 seconds seems a bit too short. You won't meet witch that often too. No Rescue for You - Same as Tank Lure, it may be useful for players who are farming. Pills ( seems to be called as FR-Pills in !cp menu sometimes ) It requires $500 to craft a pill, $650 for auto craft. It's not 100% success. Pills are required to upgrades some skills and you can also trade 75 pills for a gem if I remembered correctly. But I haven't seen many skill that requires Pills so far so let's leave that until you become a bit more veteran-ish. Notes Buffs, skills, and upgrades names are underlined, buff I haven't mentioned are buffs I have no idea how they works. For new players who use this thread, you should read comments too, they are useful. Edits 23/07/14 - Change Very good and Good buffs to Very useful and Useful for wording consistency. - Moves Knife buff to Very useful according to veteran players' comments. - Add links to razor's comment about Tank buffs. 27/07/14 - Added Survival Payment buff

 

I'm just passing and haven't had chance to read this thoroughly but wow. What a fantastic contribution of time and effort from a player so new

It's people like you that keep communities strong great work and I look forward to reading this when I have more time.

 

Very good write up!

I always tell anyone new to upgrade anything having to do with health/healing/incap first. I also tell them don't bother with upgrading your infected characters until a higher level.

I would put knife over speedy water only because you are bound to need knife on every map.

Don't bother crafting pills early on. Focus on stockpiling your cash for necessary upgrades.