KF2 Commando Perk Guide (The Dodo): Weapons, Skills, Zed Time

The Dodo's Commando guide (written for early Killing Floor 2 patches, around 2017) covers the Commando's role, every perk weapon, the skill tree, loadouts for multiplayer, solo and the boss wave, and an explanation of how Zed Time extension really works. Numbers come from that era, so verify them in game. Related pages: Commando perk, Commando Zed Time loadouts and the same author's SWAT guide.

The Commando role

The Commando is the only perk that sees ZED health bars, extends Zed Time and lets teammates see cloaked ZEDs. Your job is to remove every low and medium ZED that would disturb teammates fighting the big ones. Scrakes and Fleshpounds are not your priority targets. Use the range of your rifles, aim for the head, kill trash and communicate.

Perk weapons

AR-15 Varmint Rifle

• AR-15 Varmint Rifle (weight 4, price 200, damage 30, magazine 20, reserve 240): starting weapon with twice the damage of the 9mm and an obstructive iron sight. Always use semi-auto; burst has the same rate of fire and wastes ammo.

SA80 L85A2 Bullpup

• SA80 L85A2 Bullpup (weight 6, price 650, damage 30, magazine 30, reserve 270): low recoil, bigger magazine, a real sight. Single fire for trash, auto for medium ZEDs; fine to keep for a long time at low levels.

Kalashnikov AK-12

• AK-12 (weight 6, price 1100, damage 40, magazine 30, reserve 300): more damage and a very fast burst mode that kills medium ZEDs and can decap Scrakes; high recoil, so do not hold the trigger in auto.

SCAR-H

• SCAR-H (weight 6, price 1500, damage 55, magazine 20, reserve 340): highest damage, low recoil, only a small magazine as a drawback. A skilled Commando can decap a 6-player HoE Scrake with less than one magazine. Single fire for single ZEDs, auto for big ZEDs and groups.

Stoner 63A LMG

• Stoner 63A LMG (weight 9, price 1500, damage 30, magazine 75, reserve 500): the largest magazine and top DPS among rifles, but huge recoil and spread, low stumble power and heavy ammo use. It behaves like a tier 3 weapon and needs survivability-sacrificing skills; it offers crowd control similar to a SWAT SMG.

HE grenade

• High Explosive Grenade (explosion damage 300, radius 6.5 m, fuse 1 s): wipes groups of low ZEDs and saves surrounded teammates, with no friendly fire. Turn around before throwing instead of dropping it at your feet, and never throw it at a calm Fleshpound (5 grenades will not kill a 6-player HoE one).

Multiperk weapons

M16 M203

• M16 M203 (weight 6, price 1200; rifle damage 30, magazine 30, reserve 210; grenade damage 225, radius 5 m, 11 grenades): strong against groups, Sirens and Fleshpounds but slow to reload and short on ammo; the author recommends it only for solo. The grenade flies straight and must travel a minimum distance to explode.

401 HMTech Medic Assault Rifle

• 401 HMTech Assault Rifle (weight 7, price 1500, damage 40, magazine 30, reserve 390; darts recharge 3 s, 3.33 capacity): similar to the AK-12 but with the highest stumble power of all rifles and healing darts. Excellent for a "Secret Medic" build.

Multiperk weapons give XP to the perk you are using.

Bonuses and skills

Passive bonuses at level 25: +25% perk weapon damage, cloaked ZED and health bar detection at 60 m (10 m + 2 m per level), Zed Time extension of 6 resets, +10% reload speed, night vision (hold the flashlight key), and Call Out, which lets teammates see every cloaked ZED you can see. You gain extra XP for Stalker kills.

• Level 5: Tactical Reload (faster reload) or High Capacity Mags (+50% magazine). Take Tactical Reload early and High Capacity Mags once you own your weapons.
• Level 10: Fallback (+110% 9mm and knife damage, +50% weapon switch speed) or Impact Rounds (+150% stumble power). Fallback is almost always better and speeds up your early economy.
• Level 15: Tenacious (+25% health and armor) or Prepared (+20% ammo). Tenacious normally, Prepared for the boss wave. Trick: take Prepared during trader time, buy weapons and ammo but not armor, drop the weapons, switch to Tenacious, pick the weapons up and then buy armor.
• Level 20: Hollow Point Rounds (+25% damage, -50% recoil) or Eat Lead (+100% magazine). Always take Hollow Point Rounds.
• Level 25 (Zed Time only): Tactician (full-speed reload and double weapon switch speed) or Machine Gunner (+3% damage and triple fire rate). Pair Tactician with Tactical Reload and Machine Gunner with High Capacity Mags.

Loadouts

• The Commando (multiplayer): High Capacity Mags, Fallback, Tenacious, Hollow Point Rounds, Machine Gunner; SCAR-H, AK-12, plus a 101 Medic pistol or a Katana. SCAR-H for single and big ZEDs, AK-12 for groups. Skip the 201 Medic SMG.
• The Secret Medic: same skills; SCAR-H or AK-12 plus the 401 HMTech rifle. More stumble power (a solo Scrake takedown becomes possible, but is risky) at the cost of a free slot.
• Light Machine Gunner: High Capacity Mags, Fallback or Impact Rounds, Prepared, Hollow Point Rounds, Machine Gunner; Stoner 63A plus SCAR-H or AK-12. Works only when the team lacks crowd control and is well coordinated.
• Solo: Tactical Reload, Fallback, Tenacious, Hollow Point Rounds, Tactician; SCAR-H, M16 M203, Katana. Against a Fleshpound, throw an HE grenade and an M203 grenade so they explode together, then finish it with the rifle.
• Boss wave: High Capacity Mags, Fallback, Prepared, Hollow Point Rounds, Machine Gunner; SCAR-H, AK-12, Katana. Kill trash with the AK-12 and use the SCAR-H on the boss only when no trash is around. Your Call Out shows the Patriarch when cloaked.

Zed Time explained

The perk text says Zed Time is extended, but it is actually reset. Each Zed Time lasts 3 seconds; every kill resets the timer to 3 seconds, and the level 25 bonus of 6 means up to 6 resets. Time left over when you reset is lost. To get the longest Zed Time kill one trash ZED about every 3 seconds: killing every 1 second yields only about 9 seconds in total, killing every 3 seconds yields about 21. Zed Time in slow motion is roughly one third as long in real time. Tactician is worth taking if you reload-cancel, because you can reload and shoot again before the reset runs out.

Tips

• Cancel reloads: hold fire and press bash when the magazine refills.
• Tell the team when a big ZED is low on health; teammates see cloaked ZEDs through Call Out but not health bars.
• Use short taps rather than holding fire and crouch to reduce recoil.
• Do not fight big ZEDs alone unless forced; call Sc and Fp and fire together.
• Think before welding; ZEDs can teleport and a door may be an escape route.
• Healing halves burn damage and duration; low health slows you up to 15% and weight up to 8%.
• If teammates die, leave the last low ZED alive and throw their dropped weapons to the trader; weapons vanish after 5 minutes unless picked up again. Share spare Dosh.

Impact Rounds details

Stumbling Bosses, Scrakes, Husks and Bloats takes roughly 20-30 bullets in quick succession, so you must spam or hold the trigger. Husks must be hit in the body (head or backpack shots kill them first), a Scrake stumbles once at best, and bosses need nearly two magazines between stumbles. Only the 401 HMTech can stumble without the skill. Eat Lead when spawning is not advised because without Hollow Point Rounds you cannot decap a Gorefast in one shot.