Human One-Shot Unlocks

Left 4 Dead Achievement Guide

Welcome to Section 3, where we will cover human one-shot achievement unlocks for Left 4 Dead. We will cover the easy way, for the carefree gamer; the hard way, for the gamers that have to do everything the difficult way; and the fun way, for the normal (hah) gamers.

Since achievements are the perfect addition to any game for all the OCD gamers out there, as I know, it's hard to move on to a new game until one is beat. I mean fully beat, 100% no messing around beat. Because, as we all know, no game is actually beat until 100% of everything has been played, seen, and unlocked. Right? This guide is here to help you on your way to satisfying that nagging sense of incompleteness that tugs at your nerves every time you boot up the game.

So, here we go!

HUNTER PUNTER
Shove a Hunter off of a pinned and helpless Survivor.
DEAD STOP
Punch a Hunter as he is pouncing.
JUMP SHOT
Headshot a Hunter while he's leaping.

The easy way: Play versus with a buddy (or a couple). Get on a voice program or have an all-talk enabled server. Get your hunter buddies to pin a survivor. Shove the hunter. Get a hunter to pounce at you while you are spamming melee. Finally, get your buddy(ies) to leap about and if you have decent aim take your shot(s). If you don't, spam spam spam in their general direction.

The hard way: Nothing hard here. In fact, you'll probably unlock these the first or second time you play versus. Even if you don't have good headshot aim, by law of averages you'll eventually accidentally get Jump Shot.

The fun way: Play versus and earn these achievements. They're not difficult, and knocking human controlled infected around like deflated love puppets is wholly satisfying!
DRAG AND DROP
Rescue a Survivor from a Smoker's tongue before he takes damage.
TONGUE TWISTER
Kill a Smoker who has grabbed you with his tongue.

The easy way: You will get these after your first couple versus matches. If you really gotta have 'em, like some sort of zombified Pokemon fanatic, do some teamwork with buddies in versus mode or play on the easy skill and set yourself up to easily unlock these.

The hard way: Even on expert you'll unlock these by accident even if you're not trying. The hardest way would be in versus mode against a team of skilled infected. But the odds of running in to that are about the same as being struck by lightning... twice... in the same day. :p

The fun way: Play in versus mode and slay some infected. Of course, do everything in your power to deny other human players the achievements once the roles are reversed.
BLIND LUCK
You or another Survivor take no damage after being vomited on by a Boomer.
CLEAN KILL
Shove a Boomer and then kill him without him splashing on anyone.

The easy way: Since Boomer is not the most common spawn in versus, it would probably be more trouble than it's worth to bother trying to get this with friends in a hack way. These are very simple unlocks, especially if you are aware of what conditions you need to meet to unlock them.

The hard way: Playing in versus against skilled infected is the only challenging thing about this. Of course, on the flipside, complete nooblings can also make this difficult if they spawn and hide at the end or wander around the survivor's rear, never actually catching up and engaging them. Alas, it usually seems to be the unskilled players that end up spawning as the boomer, so this could end up being the more likely scenario.

The fun way: Feel all macho and earn these by ruining some human-controlled infected's fun. Pump up your gaming self esteem at the expense of someone else's!
TOWERING INFERNO
Light a Tank with a Molotov.
TANKBUSTERS
Kill a Tank without it dealing any damage to a Survivor.
MAN VS TANK
Single-handedly kill a Tank.

The easy way: If you can't hit a target as large as a Tank with a Molotov, achievement hunting may not be something up your alley. Getting a Tank down with no damage is easy in either of two ways; Play on easy mode and blast down the first tank you encounter. It'll have so few hitpoints it won't even be able to reach you. Or, play in versus and odds are you will get this easily if you are playing against unskilled opponents. For Man vs Tank, play with friends, light up a Tank with a Molotov and make sure your buddies don't fire on him.

The hard way: Get these in an expert campaign. If you're going for Man vs Tank and don't have any friends to control their fire, it will be difficult to kill off your NPC teammates (can't be on easy mode) and survive to a Tank without getting ensnared and incapacitated by a special infected.

The fun way: There's a plethora of strategies that humans can use against Tanks to take them down fast, or that humans can use as Tanks to really thwomp the survivors. In any case, human controlled or not, a Tank encounter is a blast. Happy hunting.
BURN THE WITCH
Light a Witch with a Molotov.
WITCH HUNTER
Kill a Witch without any Survivor taking damage from her.
CR0WND
Kill a Witch with a single headshot.
DO NOT DISTURB
Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.

The easy way: Since a Witch starts stationary, hitting her with a Molotov is rather easy. To kill one without taking damage, play on easy, light her up, and blast her with a shotgun; she'll drop before she even gets close to you. To headshot one is very easy, all you need is the auto shotgun and an approach on the Witch from behind. Walk, keep your aim over her right shoulder. As you near, she'll start making angry sounds and turn her head to look up at you. When you see her eyes, give her one right between them. There's a chance it may take two shots, but if that is the case you will still get the unlock as long as they both become her newly applied makeup. Sneaking past all Witches is easy with HUMAN players. NPCs seem to have a knack at setting them off by getting too close or accidentally shooting them. Run through a campaign on easy with human players, and be very diligent about not setting any off. Unfortunately, there are some instances in campaigns where the Witches completely block advancement by sitting right in a doorway or a narrow walkway. Try and try again until you get a lucky draw of Witch placement.

The hard way: Earn them on expert. Asides from Witch Hunter, the rest of them are quite easy no matter what the difficulty. If all four humans can take down a Witch on expert without getting damaged, you damn well deserve the unlock. And a steak dinner.

The fun way: Collaborating with buddies in a campaign is one of the more fun things about the game. Working together to tackle a difficultly placed Witch will either be a ton of fun or a disaster. The anxiety of a potentially hazardous situation is the thrill of the hunt, and makes the unlocks that much more rewarding.
HERO CLOSET
Rescue a Survivor trapped in a closet.
AKIMBO ASSASSIN
Survive an entire campaign using only pistols.
DEAD GIVEAWAY
Heal a fellow Survivor when your own health is below 10.

The easy way: Play on easy with some buddies. You can grab all three of these in one go. Firstly, use only pistols, don't even bother picking up any other weapons, on easy you won't even really need them. Secondly, take turns with the other two. One person gets beaten up savagely by the infected, then kills them once he's under 10 health. Once there he (or she) heals a teammate with a medkit. Then gets them self killed. Then a player rescues him from a closet. Repeat with another person until you all have the achievements!

The hard way: Beat a campaign on expert mode using only pistols. A hero closet rescue is an easy thing to obtain, however healing a teammate when your own health is below 10 and trying to survive to the next cluster of medkits could definitely cause some difficulties.

The fun way: Play a campaign with some friends, use a skill appropriate setting, and stay alive (I know that's what the game's about, but it's easy for some people to forget that). If you're on an appropriate skill, you'll run in to a few opportunities to get Hero Closet, especially if you're only using pistols. Good luck civilians!
GROUND COVER
Save another Survivor from a Special Infected while on the ground.
BACK 2 HELP
Leave a safe room to save an incapped teammate and bring them back safely.

The easy way: The opportunities presented for Ground Cover are aplenty in versus mode. When you're incapped, odds are a Hunter will pounce one of your teammates. Simply blast away until he's mist and bone chip. To get Back 2 Help, you can play on a campaign on easy with a friend, take turns getting it. One person enters the safe room while the other gets knocked around by an infected. Once down, hero comes out to save him and delivers him to safety. In versus mode however, the chance to unlock this will pop up occasionally... if you screw up though, you'll just be giving the infected the hardest achievement unlock of all. So play your cards wisely, and don't be a hero unless you have a wheelbarrow to cart your 'junk' around in.

The hard way: Play in versus mode. If the infected team is any good, you're bound to be in for some hard times. Either you'll be slain while incapped before you get a chance to help a teammate, or the infected will wait near a downed player in hopes that you foolishly leave the safe room to help him.

The fun way: If you're in a versus mode match with two skilled teams, the game will feel like a morbid cat-and-mouse game with the intensity of very careful dependent chess-like movement. Outsmarting a clever opponent is deeply satisfying. Equally if not more satisfying if that opponent is a friend that you can rag on later.
SPINAL TAP
Kill an Infected with a single blow from behind.

The easy way: Sneak up behind an infected. Whack it in the back of the head with melee before it notices you. Rejoice. If you just can't seem to get it, whack every zombie you encounter for the first one or two levels until it unlocks, playing on the law of probabilities again.

The hard way: Nothing too hard about this. Most likely after a few play throughs you'll unlock it without even realizing you did it. Most likely a zombie will run in front of you towards another player while you're in the midst of spamming melee.

The fun way: Charge a mob with melee. Laughing maniacally does nothing to make this easier, but will make the experience more zombie-movie like... As if perhaps this was to be the Bruce Campbell Achievement. You may also have a problem with getting too 'in to' your games.

If you want to compare your achievement list with the rest of the Steam community and to see the percentage of steam users that have each individual achievement unlocked, visit this link.