Plantation Village — Left 4 Dead 2 eGuide

Not Dead by Dawn: Plantation Overview

Escaping this watery hellhole is now of paramount importance. Achieving this goal against the dawn’s early light involves methodical maneuvering through a small settlement of rotting houses and a homestead, before following a farmer’s tracked road into a tree-lined pathway of faded grandeur (Area 8).

The path heads up into a plantation mansion, which has two separate floors of wandering undead and items to scavenge.

Only then should you venture to the property’s rear balconies, which overlook a formal garden and gates leading to a wharf. After you contact Virgil on his boat, your ultimate task is to survive waves of the most ferocious and horrendous entities before the gates open and you make a final break for the river.

+ This entire stage takes place as dawn breaks, meaning it is easier to spot ambush attacks. Still listen for Special Infected, however.

+ The plantation mansion’s oak tree entrance is wide open, allowing easy strafing of almost all enemy types.

+ The finale is difficult, but once you realize you’re waiting to defeat the second Tank wave, you can manage your time accordingly.

- Don’t become overly eager to rush to the plantation mansion and risk your otherwise tight team formations and tactics.

- The Special Infected are out in force, but randomly appear, so watch for their ambushes and play to their weaknesses.

- Unless you gather supplies before radioing Virgil and have figured out a tactical fighting plan, don’t expect to escape.

Slaughter in the Shrubbery

Dawn breaks in the east (straight ahead of you). After completely tooling up in the Safe Room, swing the door open, and begin a methodical head removal of the shambling corpses in the low bushes, pond, shrubbery, and near the trees in the garden you can see.

Start

Keep a teammate inside the Safe Room so you can return and access additional ordnance. Highly accurate or scoped weaponry is advisable here so you can easily deal with any wandering threats as you edge forward.

Follow one of the paths, taking care not to overstretch your team’s positions, especially if Special Infected appear to tear into you (picture 2). Follow the gaps between the undergrowth to easily access the initial buildings in this small village, fanning out so you can attack foes from different directions.

Shea Valley Sundries

There are two ways to enter the village: the first is to simply dash through the open gate next to the warehouse marked “Shea Valley Sundries,” and the second is to encroach on the warehouse itself, leaping into the open window, and taking any cover opportunities while a couple of your teammates step around the corner and head into the main street between the two rows of shanty shacks. The Sundries building usually has one or two items of interest to plunder, as well as the added cover.

Shea Valley Village

Battling through the main village thoroughfare, or choosing any of the shacks to hide in as you progress—each method has benefits and shortcomings.

Staying on the main street is a great idea if you have a few Belt Items you want to throw to hinder the Infected masses; Pipe Bombs, Molotovs, and Bile all work well, as you can then enter any of the shacks and gather additional supplies. (Each of the five white shacks may have an item to gather.)

However, keeping out in the open allows Special Infected to home in on you, and crowds of Infected to mass around you if, for example, you’ve been vomited on by a Boomer. Your lack of cover can be problematic unless you’re watching for Special foes and watching each other’s backs.

Staying close to the small shacks (picture 2) allows you to uncover a possible hiding place for a Special Infected (in this example, a Smoker). The five shacks offer protection from the main street, although there’s one way in and out, so you need a colleague to guard the entrance. Try not to be overwhelmed if you execute a shack-to-shack search.

Farmstead Investigation

At the end of the street is a barn on your left and a red brick farmstead ahead of you, near a couple of parked vehicles and some outbuildings you can’t access. The barn may have a lurking foe or two, and a second floor that you can use to snipe up the road to Location 8F.

But the main area of interest is the farmstead itself. Clear this end of the road of foes, and while two of your team guard the entrance and fire toward the tractor, enter the building.

The farmstead is a favorite ambush spot for Special Infected (picture 2), so prepare to repel whatever unspeakable entity tries to savage you.

Check the interior rooms for items before heading upstairs to the bedroom and then out of the window to the porch roof, where additional supplies and an excellent vantage point can be obtained. You can thoroughly clear the road toward 8F from here, too.

Up the Tractor Trail

This picturesque track is marred somewhat by the frothing Infected ready to pounce along the hedgerow and tractor as you advance up the lane.

Spread out into a diamond pattern, with one of your team checking behind periodically for a sneak attack. Cull anything that isn’t weeping sorrowfully; you don’t want a Witch to impede your progress.

Mansion Entrance

Pass the tractor (picture 1) and hop the fence or enter the driveway with all of your teammates offering fire support while you cleanse the area. As the Infected don’t climb ladders, you could attempt a sprint to the mansion, but this may become problematic if you’re caught by a Special Infected.

If a number of foes present themselves, this wide and easily navigable area (picture 2) is the perfect place to stop a swarm with a thrown Pipe Bomb or other, similar Belt Item.

As you reach the entrance to the mansion itself (picture 3), ignore the doors or building containers nearby and look for the yellow ladder to the right of the main entrance, on the building exterior.

Ascend immediately, and (if you’re first), stand on the porch roof and offer covering fire for the rest of your team as they reach this point. Then hurry into the open window (top floor, far right of the central part of the mansion).

Effective Infected

Are the Survivors becoming careless and not searching every building or checking every alley or rooftop? Then you can leap from the shadows of a window, roof, or thicket (picture 1), and weaken a straggler significantly. As your foes progress through the shack village, attacking them from opposite angles, using the main thoroughfare for a charging Charger, or pulling humans into shacks, are all viable tactics.

At the Farmstead or barn, you can rely on staging an ambush in the confined darkness. You can also wait for your human enemies to pass you by, then saunter after them as they near the tractor. As the Survivors progress up the oak-lined entrance (picture 2), the open space and good visibility are a hindrance to your slaughter, so concentrate your attacks on them just before they reach the entrance, or at the mansion ladder itself.

As the drop into the mansion is a one-way access, grabbing a straggler and throttling them means they can’t be rescued by their teammates—a key tactic to try when your Spitter isn’t gobbing all over the open window.