KF2 Freezethrower: Shots-to-Kill Tables and Freeze Combos

This guide collects test data for the Freezethrower, the Survivalist's ice weapon in Killing Floor 2, plus a few freeze-grenade comparisons. It is a testing log by one player, with some sections explicitly marked outdated after balance patches (v1078, v1079, v1080 and v1110), so treat old numbers as historical. See also the KF2 weapon tier list and damage calculation.

Abbreviations

CL clot, CR crawler, ST stalker, GF gorefast, SI siren, GF2 gorefiend, BL bloat, HU husk, RI rioter, EDAR (chest), QP Quarter Pound, SC Scrake, FP Fleshpound. T1-T5 are weapon upgrade tiers. Figures assume +15% weapon damage, and level 10 Melee Expert (+50% melee damage) where stated.

Shots-to-kill tables

Freezethrower alt-fire hits (v1109, Freeze damage type):

ZED	Hits
CL, CR, ST, GF, SI, GF2, BL, HU	1
RI (leg)	2, or 1 at T4
EDAR (chest)	2, or 1 at T5
QP	5, or 4 at T4
SC	6, or 5 at T4, 4 at T5
FP	6, or 5 at T5

Other weapons from the same test set, for comparison:

Weapon	Quick notes
Killerwatt	1 hit for CL, CR, BD, ST, GF; 2 for GF2; 3 for SI and EDAR chest; 5 for BL; 6 for HU and RI leg; SC takes 26 or 2 full-charged alts; QP 32 or 1 full-charged alt; FP 56 or 3 full-charged alts
9mm pistol	1 hit for CL, CR, ST; 2 for GF (1 at T3); 5 for BL, GF2, EDAR chest; 8 for HU; 11 for RI leg; QP 54, SC 66, FP 75 at base, dropping to 27, 32 and 37 at T5
Gore Shiv (heavy swings)	CL, CR, ST, GF 1; SI and EDAR chest 2; GF2 3 (2 with Melee Expert); BL and HU 4; RI leg 5; SC 20 (14 with ME); QP 25 (18); FP 43 (30)
HRG Arc Generator (beta)	2 ammo per tap fire, alt costs 15; CL, CR, ST 2 (or 1 alt); SC 62 (or 7 alts); FP 94 (or 4 alts)

Freeze grenade versus flashbang

Using the console command SetNadeRadiusDebug 1 shows the blast radius as colored wireframes, and SpawnZedGroup Sc 6 6 spawns 36 Scrakes in a 6x6 grid. The orange wireframe is the theoretical maximum range of the freeze grenade; a more realistic limit was 11 calm Scrakes kited close together. In the test, the Sharpshooter freeze grenade froze 48 Fleshpounds, while the SWAT flashbang stunned 32, with 4 in the corners unaffected.

The orange wireframe is the largest range the freeze grenade can cover.

A more realistic limit: 11 calm Scrakes kited close together.

Sharp Freeze: 48 frozen Fleshpounds.

SWAT flashbang: 32 stunned Fleshpounds; four in the corners were not.

Balance history

• v1079: alt-fire ice blast spread increased by 300%, shards raised from 7 to 12, penetration of 4 added (pierces up to 4 undeveloped clots), freeze affliction removed from shards and stumble added, ground ice gained freeze and its damage rose from 5 to 7 per tick.
• v1080: unequip animation 23% faster, spare ammo raised from 400 to 500, upgrade-1 shard damage cut from 28 to 23 and upgrade-2 from 36 to 26, and a bug where shards applied freeze was fixed. A previous bug had made shards clump rather than disperse.
• v1110: default fire rate down 30%, minimum ammo use down from 4 to 3, alt-fire damage type changed from Freeze to Ballistic_Shotgun, alt base damage up from 20 to 35 per shard, shards cut from 12 to 9, spread down 20%, default-fire horizontal recoil down 30% and alt vertical recoil up 50%.

The author marks the alt-fire freeze and takedown sections below as outdated after v1110.

Freeze stuns for bosses and large ZEDs (pre-v1110)

Ammo numbers are the minimum under optimal conditions. Left-click tap cost 4 ammo, held fire 1 to 100 ammo, alt 10 ammo (v1078). Ending a freeze with alt takes longer to swap weapon.

• Scrake, unraged Quarter Pound or Fleshpound: 1 held left click (5 ammo offline, 9 online), or 2 taps (8 ammo), or 1 tap plus 1 alt (14 ammo).
• Headshot-oriented freezes: 1 alt plus 1 tap (14 ammo), or 2 alts (20 ammo).
• Hans and Patriarch: 4 alts (40 ammo) online and offline; offline also 2 taps plus 1 alt (18 ammo).
• Abomination (offline tests): 2 taps plus 1 alt, three times (54 ammo); aim for legs if you also want damage.
• King Fleshpound: 2 taps plus 1 alt twice (36 ammo) offline or three times (54 ammo) online, de-raging it first. The author thinks freezing it is mostly not worth it since it is raged constantly.
• Raged Quarter Pound or Fleshpound: not advised; letting it hit you to de-rage makes freezing faster.

Two left-click taps freeze a Quarter Pound, Scrake or Fleshpound.

Shots-to-kill table with upgrades for alt-fire versus large ZEDs (v1065 to v1078).

Hans and Patriarch freeze with 2 taps plus 1 alt (offline).

A four-alt freeze on Hans or Patriarch.

Fleshpound or Scrake takedown with two alts to freeze, then follow-up alts.

Quarter Pound and Scrake takedown combining one headshot alt and a left click.

Shots-to-kill formula

Head HP divided by (damage per pellet times pellets per shot), rounded up. Example: a Fleshpound head has 1716 HP against a Survivalist with level 2 upgrade: 1716 / (45 x 7) = 5.45, rounded up to 6 alts.

Ammo efficiency and damage

• Freeze as any perk, double tap: 500 ammo gives 62.5 stuns of QP, SC or FP; 560 ammo (Survivalist ammo vest skill) gives 70.
• Survivalist with Tier 5 alt-fire decap: 500 ammo is 12.5 QP or 8.3 SC/FP kills; 560 ammo is 14 QP or 9.3 SC/FP kills.
• Pellet damage: base alt is 20, with a x1.1 headshot multiplier (x1.001 for EDARs, x1.0001 for Bloats, x1 for Patriarch, x1.2 for Hans) and x1 freeze resistance for all ZEDs.
• Stock weapon per pellet: 22, 30 and 39 by upgrade (154, 210 and 273 per shot); Survivalist: 25, 35 and 45 (175, 245 and 315 per shot).