This is a guide aimed at a slightly more experienced player making the move from hard to suicidal, or suicidal to HOE. First let me just define some of the words I use-

• Trash- clots, gorefasts, crawlers, bloats, sirens, husks and stalkers.
  
• Flinch- When a zed hesitates for a second or shorter, interrupting his attack (for example melee weapons like the axe and katanas's alt fire both on and offperk on scrakes)
  
• Miniflinch- An extrememly short flinch (for example M14EBR headshots both on and offperk on scrakes)
  
• Stun- When a zed is left helpless for a fairly long period of time without attacking (for example by a level 6 sharp's lever action rifle headshot on a scrake, and an offperk LAR headshot on a husk)
  
• Kite- when you or a group of people run around the map, usually in a circle, instead of camping in one place.

The support specialist is in many ways a jack of all trades in killing floor as it can handle trash, scrakes and fleshpounds very effectively. It also has the ability to weld doors up very quickly and keep them closed for long periods of time, if not indefinitely.

But first let's just have a look at the benefits of being a level 6 support specialist, for this you need to have 370k welding points and 5.5 million damage with support specialist weapons:
1) 60% more damage with shotguns
2) 90% better shotgun penetration- fun ;)
3) 30% extra shotgun ammo
4) 50% more damage with grenades
5) 120% increase in grenade capacity
6) 60% increased carry weight
7) 150% faster welding
8) 70% shotgun discount
+spawning with a hunting shotgun

It is very important to understand how you can use these benefits to their full advantage, so now I'm going to attempt to explain some of the ways you can do so.


*disclaimer* I would love to have videos that I made myself in this guide but there are already so many out there that have the same content that me adding more would be pointless. All of these videos are not mine, I am merely using them for the educational purposes for which they were originally made. Also I have only used videos from people that I am subscribed to on youtube, and I suggest you subscribe to them as well for some amazing content :)

Don't think that if you want to play support then you have to spawn as a support; depending on your intended strategy and the map you can spawn as pretty much any perk you wish. Personally, I like to go sharpshooter for wave one as it lets me practice my headshots and generally helps me prepare for the rest of the game. But everyone has their own strategy; here are some main points to consider when choosing which perk to spawn as:

• First, if you spawn as a level six support then you will spawn with a hunting shotgun. This means that if you use a lot of your hunting shotgun ammunition in the first wave, you will need to re-purchase all of the ammo you use; hunting shotgun shells are some of the most expensive forms of ammunition in the game. However if you spawn as something else then you will have a cheaper and often more effective weapon to tackle wave one with.
  
• Second, some perks are better for wave one than others. The support is unfortunately rather slow, and therefore it is not an ideal perk for wave one, which can often be one of the most hectic waves of the game if the team is unprepared. As a result you may consider going bezerker or firebug as these are very good at surviving the first wave, particularly the bezerker since it cannot be grabbed by clots. Also, the firebug has the bonus of spawning with armor so if you don't lose it all then that is one less thing to spend your hard earned dosh on.
  
• Third, depending on how you intend to play the support, you may wish to have an offperk secondary or tertiary weapon. Therefore it will be cheaper to either spawn with your intended weapon, or to purchse it using that perk's discount and go support later on in the game.
  
• Finally, in the event that you are spawning after wave one, depending on which wave you spawn on you may not want to go support immediately. I would not recommend going support right away on any wave past five unless you are sure the team will have money to give you. Just play as whatever perk will help the team, and change later if you still want to. But remember that by joining a game late you will often be a large inconvenience to the team, so think carefully about joining any game later than wave 5.

Here is a list of the weapons which the support specialist can purchase, and a few ideas as to what they are good for (if anything):
Regular shotgun
This is the cheapest support gun at only £149 and another £95 to max out ammo (£155 from empty). It is a pump-action shotgun with an undermounted flashlight that holds 8 shells which are individually loaded, and you can carry 62 shells over all. This shotgun weighs 8 blocks and is very good as it is about average at everything, however I wouldn't suggest trying to take on anything but trash with this shotgun unless you really know what you are doing, due to it's relatively slow rate of fire.

HSG-1 shotgun
Shotgun added in summer 2012 originally from the IJC weapons pack (a mod) which TWI added to the game. It costs £374 and £95 to max out ammo (£155 from empty). This weapon is also pump action but insead uses a magasine which holds 12 shells (carrying capacity 62). It is very effective at long range (for a shotgun) because of it's small spread, but once again this gun isn't effective at killing anything bigger than trash. The alt fire of this shotgun switches between wide and tight spread modes, which can be good for bigger groups or longer ranges. It works well as a side grade of the regular shotgun however, and as it only weighs six blocks, you can carry 3 shotguns together if you feel so inclined(combat, regular and the HSG-1/vlad).

Hunting shotgun
A double barreled shotgun which costs £224 and another £228 to max ammo (£465 from empty). This shotgun is very powerful in close quarters combat situations but has a very large spread leading to a shorter range. You can shoot one shell at a time or both at once which can be very devestating to everything within range. The ammo is very expensive so be wary of using the auto fill button. One thing I would like to say is that supports tend to use a double-shot to quickly get rid of husks/sirens or to clear a big group of trash. If you are going to do this then consider using only one shell: sometimes one shell does enough damage for the job and using two is overkill and a waste of ammo. You can jump shot husks to kill them, which only uses one shot. This weapon is only really good as a secondary for use against sc/fp in combos, quickly finishing sirens/husks or for use against big clumps of trash. However, to save ammo in your primary weapon, I suggest using the hs for trash when it is safe, just to avoid using all your primary ammo.

AA12
The auto shotgun which costs £1199 plus an extra £88 to max ammo (£208 from empty). It uses a drum magazine which holds 20 shells and you can carry 104 total shells. This shotgun is endlessly misused by people who assume that the auto function is for general use- it isn't. Saving ammo is key to survival, so try to either control your fire or use semi-auto, spamming is not the answer to everything. The increased ammo capacity in my mind makes up for the slightly reduced power and range that this gun has, but you can also use full-auto in an emergency and during the patriarch fight. It weighs ten blocks, so I tend to use it in conjunction with the hunting shotgun.

Combat shotgun
A semi-auto shotgun which costs £741 plus £126 for full ammo (£206 from empty). It can hold 6 shells and you can carry 62 with you at any one time. It also weighs only 8 blocks and has a flashlight attatchment. Now many people argue that this is a bad gun, as the slow reload time and small ammo capacity means that you spend more time reloading than shooting. However I know many people who really like this weapon and think that the increased power and firing speed make up for it. Really it's you own preference, and how much time you are willing to put in to learning how to use it, rather like the M14EBR. However, if I can afford it I like to use it for the patty fight in conjunction with the aa12; this is because the combat shotgun has very high damage per second, and is good at clearing trash as you can reload one shot at a time.

Vlad the impaler
A nail firing, magazine fed shotgun which costs £449 plus £190 to max out ammo (£310 from empty). It carries 6 shells (presumably home-made nail filled cartriges) and you can carry 62 shells at a time. It is one of the three shotguns to have a torch attatched, and weighs 8 blocks. This weapon was added in the haloween event of 2012 (hillbilly horror) and seemed to have a lot of potential. The nails bounce off walls so you can shoot round corners and it has a rate of fire that is better than that of the HSG-1, regular shotgun and the hunting shotgun. However the range is extremely limited, almost as bad as the hunting shotgun's. The reload time is just under that of the hsg, but I can't really reccomend this weapon as a primary, or even a secondary. It will just slow your dosh earning down, as it will just add another expensive step to reaching the aa12. If you want a fast, 6 shelled shotgun with a flashlight, take the combat shotgun.

Multi-chambered-ZED-thrower.
A fully auto, steam powered, magazine fed shotgun which costs £599 plus £105 to max out ammo (£195 from empty) which carries 65 shells at a time with 10 shells to a magazine. It has spread similar to the HSG-1 in wide spread mode, a medium rate of fire (just faster than the vlad), and a fairly slow reload time (just slower than the HSG-1). The alternate fire is a blast of steam which knocks back zeds (not the patty of course) and can be used every couple of seconds. This has a fairly limited use in HOE, but here are some potential uses-
- It can be used to kite fp if this is needed e.g if there are two fp and they must be seperated.
- To knock back decapped zeds.
- To keep the last zed busy while you get to the trader.
- To free yourself from being grabbed by clots.
As this weapon weighs ten blocks it is trying to be a cheap aa12 replacement it seems, but it fails to do this well due to it's limited ammo capacity, magazine size, damage, and range. My advice is to give it a try so you can have a laugh with the air blast for five seconds, but other than that, play it safe with something else.

Side arms and other offperk weapons

Some people use offperk weapons to give themselves a bit more firepower on the floor, some examples include:

• MK23/44 magnum/handcannon- can be very useful to save ammo as these pistols are very good at trash kill and scream canceling. They also make up for the supp's lack of range.
  
• Flare revolver- some use this when kiting to burn the mob which is behind them, but personally I am averse to this because of the possiblilty of burning fp/sc which can be fatal to the team.
  
• Katana/axe- some use melee weapons which again can save you a lot of ammo, but these weapons can also be used in conjunction with shotguns to kill scrakes, which is something I will get in to later.
  
• M79/M32- explosives can be useful if the team is relying on you to be the main trash killer, but don't expect to be as effective as a demolitions with either of these- and don't forget, you don't have the explosion resistance they have, so be careful!
  
• M14EBR- as you will see in a later video, this can be used to kill scrakes, and is also pretty good at trash killing as long as you can handle the huge recoil, and the long reload time.
  
• Husk fireball launcher- another wild card, but this weapon can stun scrakes with a fully charged shot. It can also detonate your grenades if this is needed. It has some trash killing ability as well, and if you are interested then I suggest looking at puppy's channel as they have a video on it (channel link at the end).

The only real flaw with the support is it's lack of range (which can be made up for with an mk23 sidearm). Some weapons have this more than others (hsg1 and combat shotguns are great for long range). But if you are camping in an area with only one entrance, you will generally want to be somewhere at the front, to maximise the effectiveness of your weapons. And if at the front try to crouch to make sure you aren't blocking anyone's line of sight, as well as staying still for medic heals. Also, if at all possible it is very important to line up your shots in order to get as many kills per shell as possible and to make use of all that brilliant penetration ;). One thing you can do with crawlers is to crouch so that you can kill several of them at a time as they tend to crawl in a single file line (how nice of them).

As a jack of all trades the support can be suited to most tasks, but you will always want to be killing as many zeds you can per shot, of course whilst always conserving ammo. When dealing with trash, only take a shot if you think it will either get a kill/assist , and don't try to take on everything- remember you have a team. But one useful thing you can do is to scream cancel sirens to stop them from hurting you and your team. To do this you must simply shoot the siren just as her head bobs down to scream with any weapon (most use 9mm or mk23). If you do this every time she tries to scream then she can't hurt you (unless she bites you of course). Here is a vid by MRU to show you-

The support can also be very effective at killing the bigger guys- scrakes and fleshpounds- which I will get to in a later section. But just remember that communication is essential for deciding who will take care of what and what the plan is for if you get swarmed. Don't forget that killing floor is a coop game, so here are a few things to remember which should aid this concept:

• Call out any potential threats like fleshpounds and scrakes to then team, so that they can respond quickly and effectively. I suggest either using a mic or keybindings.
  
• Cover your team mates- if your friends are reloading or are focusing on something which stops them from being able to defend themselves e.g killing sc/fp, then definitely clear a path for them to let them kill with ease. A sharp who is aiming down sights can't see cralwers attacking him.
  
• When shooting long range with a shotgun, aiming slightly above the specimin's head with give you an increased decap range.
  
• Heal your teamates- it's more effective and you get money from it. However don't do this if you will end up blocking them, or leaving somewhere that you are meant to be covering open for zeds to walk through and take you from behind (unless you're into that kind of thing ;).
  
• If you have spare dosh, give it out to your team.
  
• When holding somewhere, make sure to listen for your teamates' reloads so you can cover them if they need it.
  
• Don't try and kill everything. In these higher difficulties, letting other people kill things for you is great, it just means you will save ammo. Kills no longer matter in sui/HOE (not that they ever did).
  
• Try to get rid of husks and sirens before they can hurt anyone, or destroy any pipes.
  
• When kiting (running in circles around the map), try to stay together to avoid being spread out too far across the map, as this can lead to people being cut off by bad spawns.
  
• Don't try to lone wolf, you will die probably and this will kill your team.
  
• Call out pick ups and ammo boxes to your team if they need them, but don't be afraid to take them yourself if you need it more.
  
• If anyone dies, try to take their weapon to the trader (but tell them that you did).
  
• If a door needs to be welded, don't be selfish, weld it.
  
• I can't stress this one enough- don't kill the last zed until everyone is at the trader (unless it's going to kill you). Being late to the trader means you may not get to your camp spot on time- this kills people and can lead to wipes.

General mechanics
Now the scrake is almost a non-threat before it rages- it moves very slowly and will only rage when attacked (when at 50% health on hard and below and when at 70% health on suicidal and HOE). For the support the best way to kill a scrake is to uppercut it using either a flinch, miniflinch or a stun (you can uppercut without these but it's very difficult to do consistently). There are also jump shots which can be just as effective but generally take more practice (using a test map). BEWARE the scrake hitbox differs between listen and dedicated servers, so make sure you know the difference when training.

Uppercuts
The general principle of this is to crouch and then quickly shoot the scrake in the head. This can be made easier with stunning and fliching. The most basic way to kill a scrake with a flinch is to use either a katana or an axe alt fire to flinch him and then quickly crouch and shoot his head. Here's a video to explain, perhaps better than I can with words-

This method can also be done with the aa12 and the combat shotgun, but using the hunting shotgun is the easiest method. Also mini-flinches can be provided by other weapons, such as the M14 EBR, to do this combo but these are more difficult to master. This is a video displaying the M14 combo in action, as well as an offperk m14 flinch lock combo which I'm not going to in to because it is more for veterans.

Jump shots
As you can imagine, the jump shot involves jumping and shooting (with the hunting shotgun). It is possible to do a jump shot and insta-kill a scrake, but there are few that can do it consistently. The most effective way to do jump shots is with pre-damage, but I mostly use it for attacking scrakes when someone has failed a kill and one is charging at me or someone in the team. Here is a video to give you can idea of where to aim-

Or rather, combo for fleshpounds. There is only really one method of dealing with a fleshpound, and most other combos follow this same structure- grenade, rage, grenades, shoot. As usual the most basic form of this combo uses the hunting shotgun. You make use of the support's increased grenade capacity and damage with grenades, as well as the fleshpounds weakness against grenades (100% more damage). First you throw a single grenade to his feet, then quickly rage him, throw two more grenades at his feet, and then shoot him if he survives. Now the basis for the effectiveness of this combo is that the grenades are directly at his feet; the first grenade is important as it detonates the other two grenades (this is all based on HOE). So here is another video to help explain a bit better (the first combo)-


When faced with a double fleshpound it's hard to solo them without using many grenades, so I suggest either having a team kill the second one, or find a way to stall the second one so you can take them out one at a time.

Also another thing to beware of is the fleshpound's rage timer. If he has line of sight of someone for 10-15 seconds then he will rage. This can be reset by having him take a swing at someone (this is how beserkers kite fleshpounds without them raging) but I don't recommend trying this as a support as you are no way near fast enough. Just make sure to kill him as quickly as possible, and when kiting, try to either clear a path to him so you can kill him or just avoid him seeing you until it is safe for someone to kill him.

The support can be very effective against the patty, provided you can get close enough to do sufficient damage. The patriarch can heal three times and you can tell how many heals he has left by which trash zeds are spawning-

• After his first heal he summons clots
  
• After his second he summons clots and crawlers
  
• And after his last heal he will summon clots, crawlers and stalkers

Something else which I feel is important to mention is his radial attack. This is a spinning attack which was added to stop people from just surrounding him with chainsaws to kill him, which at the time was an effective way to kill him. To trigger this attack you need 3+ people to surround him and at least one of them to be attacking him. This attack is SERIOUSLY dangerous and can kill most classes outright, so be aware of how close everyone is to him, especially with multiple beserkers or supports attacking him in close quarters conditions.

The loadout you use will be based on how much money you have at the wave 10 trader time; if people need money then try to buy only what you need and give the rest to those who require dosh. The model that I use for building a loadout consists of the aa12, coupled with either the hunting shotgun or combat shotgun (depending on funds and preference) as well as maxed out grenades. On top of this, if you have enough dosh then you can buy extra tools to aid you and your team:

• Flare revolvers- These are good for burn damage as well as locating the patty. Also they have the added bonus of being able to detonate your grenades so you can have them detonate right at his feet.
  
• M79- Good for detonating your own grenades and quickly clearing away trash at range.
  
• Pipes- A decent early warning system, but I rarely bother as if you have enough money for pipes then you have enough money for someone to go demolitions and use on-perk pipes.
  
• Medic gun- Can be useful for heals but most of the time you're better of giving the money away as you want to be shooting the patty 100% of the time that you can see him.

Here are some things to think about when you're fighting the patriarch-

• Do damage- this may sound silly, but many people do not realise that the most important part of fighting the patty is your damage per second. Attack him whenever you get the chance, to send him running for his next heal, or into the abyss.
  
• Stay near/behind cover at all times- you don't want him to chaingun or rocket you before you can do any damage to him.
  
• Don't draw his fire to your friend's pipes- try not to trigger him shooting a rocket which could blow up any pipes your team has set up, this could kill people and ruin your team's chances.
  
• Use your grenades- if you maxed out your grenades like a good support then you can use them to do huge damage to the patriarch. Try throwing them at his feet when he enters his chaingun/rocket animation- he will be standing still so you can get them all as close to him as possible for maximum damage. Also it's possible to detonate your own 'nades with certain weapons for maximum precision.
  
• Stay with your team- you must all be together to do the maximum ammount of damage at a time.
  
• Keep an eye out for trash zeds, especially if you have teammates who cannot handle trash at close range effectively i.e. demos.
  
• Keep everyone in your team healed up- heal others and they should heal you.
  
• Welding doors- don't weld a door that has pipes near it as if he hits the door it will destroy them. Also if he is charging at you then you can weld a door which is between you both to put him back into his idle state- lifesaver (this also works with raged fleshpounds, but not scrakes).

I used videos from the following people, sub them and stuff-

• crazedtofu (DarkFalz on steam)- great kf youtuber who has also done many great steam guides.
  
• ArmoredPuppy- hilarious youtuber with many interesting loadout ideas for you veterans
  
• Amber Lamps- another great kf commentator with interesting loadout ideas
  
• Catastrof (C.se)- Good youtuber
  
• 3MRU (MRU)- great youtuber, and a bro

I also had some help from my friends Ryder [U-E], MRU and [WRM] Warhawk 141, all of whom proof read this for me and suggested some additions. Thanks bros \m/