KF2 Solo Berserker on Hell on Earth: Wave-by-Wave Guide

This is a translated and paraphrased Russian-language Killing Floor 2 guide. The author marked it as outdated, since balance and perk skills have changed since. The core idea: the best way to learn the game is solo as Berserker. With no team it is easier to understand your mistakes, and Berserker is the most mobile, durable and tough perk. Melee forces you to control the situation more actively: watch your health, change cover more often and learn the maps, Zed behavior and spawn points faster. See also the Berserker build page.

Preparation

1. Set gamma to maximum so you can spot Zeds in dark rooms.
2. Turn music to minimum. It drowns out the sound of a horde spawning, and you will not know where it comes from.
3. Wear headphones to locate new hordes by sound.
4. Set mouse sensitivity so you can turn 360 degrees easily, so you can spin around before getting sandwiched.

Recommended perk level

Difficulty	Level
Normal	0-10
Hard	5-10
Suicidal	10-15
Hell on Earth	15 for veterans, 25 recommended

Key skills

• From level 5: Sonic Resistance (2nd skill), 40% resistance to Siren screams. Very useful, since screams hurt at long range.
• From level 10: Resilience (2nd skill), +100 health. Especially valuable on Suicidal and above, where the boss drains up to 75% of your health bar when healing off you.
• From level 15: the 1st skill giving +10% attack speed and +20% damage.
• From level 20: the 2nd skill that adds +100% damage to right-click heavy attacks. Perfect for the Pulverizer. Fleshpounds die to 3 body hits, Scrakes to 4 and the Patriarch is sent to heal after 6. A headshot knocks all three down for 2 seconds, giving time to finish them, heal or prepare for the next hit.
• From level 25: Zed Time skills. It makes little difference which you take; Zed Time is rare and random, so do not rely on it.

Economy (Hell on Earth)

Money is similar on every difficulty: you cannot afford the Pulverizer after wave 1, only after wave 2, and only if you did not buy armor.

• After wave 1: save. Expect roughly 500-532 dosh.
• After wave 2: 1000-1180. If you have 1100 or more, sell the shovel for 100 and buy the Pulverizer for 1200; if less, keep saving.
• After wave 3: full armor, ammo and grenades if you bought the Pulverizer; if not, buy it first.
• After wave 4: full restock of everything, then anything you fancy with the rest.

Wave 1

No special tactics. Chop heads with the shovel and look behind you after every kill so you are not trapped. Hold a roomy area with space to maneuver. Five types appear: three kinds of Clot, Gorefast and Bloat (in solo the author never saw a Bloat in wave 1).

• Clots come in three kinds that differ only in movement speed, attack speed and sounds. Health is the same. Slow ones have charred black eyes and mouths and moan. Medium ones have an ordinary face with bulging eyes and shout. Fast ones sprint, jump and roll, slashing claws with a blade-like sound. All die to a single accurate shovel headshot; to the body, only heavy right-click hits.
• Gorefasts (red) are quiet but scrape the blade sewn to their right arm on the ground; metal scraping means one is near. More health than a Clot, but one accurate shovel headshot still kills. Do not let them close. If one gets too near, jump back, hit before the wind-up, or parry.
• Bloats are single units, 1-2 per wave, with heavy bubbling footsteps and vomit at close range. One shovel headshot kills, but the fat belly gets in the way, so hits often land on the body. Kill them when nobody is around, or with several pistol headshots from range.

Preparing for the next wave

Do this near the end of every wave. When the Zed counter drops below five, watch the trader compass at the top left. The red line in the center is you; the white marker is the trader. If it sits below the line, the shop is on a lower level. When levels match, the marker becomes a big square on the red line. If the square is left of center, shift left until it centers, then walk forward until you see the cylindrical shop lit with blue neon. Wait for any stragglers (outside solo) before killing the last Zed. After shopping, go straight to your start position for the next wave. If you kill the last Zed without watching the compass, you may not have time to return.

Wave 2

Start from a chosen spot based on spawn behavior: enemies often spawn inside buildings when the player enters from outside through closed doors. The ideal spot is the doors from the plaza (where you spawned) into the hotel. Stand next to the closed doors on the plaza side and wait for the first pack. Every wave starts with a small group (2-6), then a 6-8 second lull. Kill them without straying far from the doors (otherwise the next pack may spawn outside), close the doors and return to your spot. After that it is random: another small group, a medium one, a big one with a Bloat, Siren or Husk, or two small ones, one from the street and one from the doors. Keep looking around so you are not trapped.

Hold the doors as long as you can deal with what comes out. A very large group with a Bloat or Husk, pressure from the street, or low health means it is time to run. Engage only at full health.

How to lead a crowd:

• Run in a loop and sprint to gain distance until all Zeds merge into one group behind you. Then slow slightly and kill the overly fast ones in front. After one or two kills, pull away again.
• Remember that 1-2 new Zeds may spawn in front of you. Check ahead before turning around to fight.
• Alternate big open spaces with narrow winding corridors. Close doors behind you to slow the crowd.
• Fight where a narrow place opens into a wide one, for example an alley arch onto a wide street, so Zeds come out 1-2 at a time. Do not fight inside tunnels, where you can be pinched from the front.
• Use the syringe when far from the crowd with nothing ahead, in the open or just after closing doors. While injecting you move slower and cannot strike. Heal when health is below 75%.

Four new Zeds join in wave 2:

• Crawlers are black ground-crawling bugs that chirp like grasshoppers and jump high. Dangerous despite low health, and the most common cause of fatal pinches. At close range they can rear up and block your jump over them, so hit them in the head with the shovel. They survive a few body hits, die well to slowing grenades and are hard to see in the dark, so turn on night vision if you hear chirping in a dark corridor. More in the Zed types overview.
• Stalkers are the stealthiest Zeds, always cloaked, revealing themselves when close to strike. They make almost no sound apart from a faint whisper, and show as a faint shimmer. Your character's voice lines warn you; start swinging the shovel in front of you at once. One headshot or several body hits kill them; they have less health than Clots and die easily to grenades. They are the second most common cause of fatal pinches.
• Husks are single units (1-2 per wave) with a flamethrower on the right arm and are fairly quiet. They shoot fireballs with an explosion radius, so do not hide behind thin pillars. The simplest way to dodge is jumping as it fires. Up close they spray flame for about 5 seconds. At low health they go suicidal and rush you to explode, and the blast radius is instant death. So tolerate it through the wave and kill it when nobody is around and there is room to move. Options: a heavy shovel headshot, a pistol headshot at range while it charges the fireball, a slowing grenade if it rushes, or an explosive hammer hit to the body if it comes alone and you hold the hammer.
• Sirens are single units (1-3 per wave), move silently, bite up close and scream at mid range. A scream needs two conditions: you are in the scream zone and in line of sight. Best tactic: hide around a corner and, as she steps out, hit her in the head with the shovel (one accurate hit is enough) or hit her with an explosive hammer strike. She is slower than the rest; stay out of the scream zone, break away and save her for last. At levels 0-4 the scream is serious; from level 5 it is tolerable thanks to Sonic Resistance.

Wave 3

Nine types are now possible with the addition of the Scrake, which in solo, the author observed, does not appear in wave 3, making the wave nearly identical to wave 2.

The Scrake is a single unit (0-1 per wave): a huge man with a chainsaw who roars on arrival, drowning other sounds. Calm, he moves at moderate speed and is easy to outrun. After taking a bit of damage he enters permanent rage and chases you until one of you dies; he also rages if he has not attacked for a while, instantly when he sees you. Kill with explosive hammer hits (4 to the body); each can knock him back for half a second and interrupt his attack. He attacks far and fast, spinning with a saw lunge, so prepare the first hit in advance, on the lead. Make later hits while backing away (backwards sprint is possible). Fight away from small Zeds. Slowing grenades and doors stall him well. He is the most dangerous Zed for Berserker: rage never resets, strikes are fast and sudden and he resists the hammer's explosive damage.

Wave 4

Dangerous combinations of the biggest Zeds arrive, announced by very loud signals. In solo there is at most one Fleshpound and one Scrake per wave; the Scrake has a 50/50 chance of not appearing, while the Fleshpound always does. The worst case is both spawning together and aggroing at once: hit whichever is closer first, or drop a slowing grenade under the Scrake and deal with the Fleshpound first. Lead the wave along the same route as waves 2-3, starting from the doors. Do not dive into the crowd after them; deal with them once they aggro and break away from the pack. Sometimes the big Zeds spawn mid-wave but do not show up, then burst in aggroed when only three Zeds remain and you stroll to the trader. If you heard a roar but never saw the brutes, expect them at the end. The game also likes to teleport stragglers right in front of you.

The Fleshpound is a single unit (1 per wave) with lights on its chest and spinning gauntlets. Yellow lights mean calm, red means rage. It is weak to explosives: just 3 explosive hammer hits to the body. It rages if it sees you for a long time (about 30 seconds) without hitting you, or like the Scrake if it has not attacked for a while. After hitting you it calms and resets its timers. Raged, it runs at about Scrake speed and likes a long leaping slam with both hands, a slow and obvious attack. If it does not jump, it runs up with its arms in front of its chest and swings slowly; usually you can hit it first with the hammer and jump back so it never lands a blow. See the full breakdown in Fleshpound guide.

Wave 5: the Patriarch

Core rule

Only start hitting the boss at full health and with a fully recharged syringe (the syringe recharges in 15 seconds and heals 50 per use). Once the boss drops your health below 150, run to heal. Use the syringe around the nearest corner, but not before breaking away: the boss can catch you and knock the heal off, wasting the charge.

How to break away

The key is small winding parts of the map with many turns and cover, and above all doors. They stop the boss from building up speed and break line of sight, which reduces the chance of him rushing (he speeds up when he sees you at medium to long range). A door closed in his face is improvised cover from bombs, bullets and melee, and it slows him and cancels his rush.

How to close doors

Doors can be closed on the run without slowing, while the boss has to slow down to open them. A closed door also takes you out of his sight, raising the chance he stops chasing and walks. The cue is the "Press E to interact" prompt below the screen center: it appears a step or so before the door and vanishes a step or so after; press E within that window after passing. Do not hurry and press E too early, or you will slam the door in front of you. Do not press it too often either: the game may count repeated presses as a long hold and pull out the welder (selected by holding E). The sign the boss has fallen far behind is no piston noise from his exoskeleton behind you and muffled muttering.

How to hit the boss

Engage by the core rule: full health, charged syringe. The best spots have lots of cover and turns out of his line of sight, especially doors. Pick your retreat route to the next cover in advance and avoid wide open areas where he can easily catch you. Strike from behind a sharp corner, on the lead, once, then retreat to the next cover; if you have taken a lot of damage, break away to heal.

The most effective setup is an area with 3-4 pairs of doors where your route forms a loop. Lead the boss round it and strike from behind closed doors. Doors are opaque or transparent. With opaque doors just stand opposite and wait for the boss to open them, then strike immediately and step toward him so the hit lands first. With transparent doors the boss can see and even shoot you, so stand to the side at an angle and strike as he passes through. Always use heavy right-click hits and watch the hammer's ammo, reloading in time to avoid empty swings without an explosion. If a headshot knocks the boss down (possible for level 20+ players with the right skill), act on your health: if full, step in and hit again; otherwise run and heal.

How many hits

Counted for Hell on Earth with the damage and heavy-hit skills (level 20+), over five games, with an error of about 1-2 hits per stage. The boss has four main stages. When his health in a stage drops below 30% he enters an intermediate phase: he surrounds himself with a shield that absorbs almost all damage and hunts you to restore health. After he catches you he calms and moves to the next stage. Hitting him in the intermediate phase is pointless.

Order: green, intermediate, yellow, intermediate, orange, intermediate, red.

Yellow and orange are the most dangerous main stages, since the boss prefers to rush and chase an unhealed player. The period after the first intermediate phase is especially dangerous, so spend as little armor as possible in the first green stage.

Hits needed depend on where you land them (head is max damage, body medium, arms reduced) and on how often the boss blows himself up with his own grenades.

Stage	Hits
1	6-7
2	5-8
3	5-7
4	8-12
Total	29-31

How to let him catch you

At about 30% the boss hunts players. Damaging him then is a waste, and his speed spikes, so the easiest path is letting him catch you: he heals, calms and drops the shield. Keep in mind:

1. The first catch drains a lot of health, so keep at least 160 health. The second and third drain slightly less, but keep health high anyway. Below 160, run away and heal (the syringe recharges about half; the rest recharges during the grab). Break away through winding tunnels, alleys and places with many doors, closing them behind you.
2. If he is about to grab you and you are not at full health, avoid injecting right before the catch, since the heal will be less effective. Use the syringe after he lets go: after feeding he stands still for a while, which is the time to inject and run to fully restore health and syringe charge.
3. The third point is random. If the boss summoned a wave during the hunt and your health is high, let him catch you quickly before the Zeds group up around him. If health is a problem, run around closing doors, track the Zeds and kill those blocking your way. Heal to an acceptable level, then pick a roomy spot and get caught.

The crowd between stages

Between stages when the boss's health bar turns red he may summon a crowd (Clot, Gorefast, Bloat, Crawler, Stalker, Siren, Husk). Do not kill them on purpose, only those blocking your path. Stragglers get wiped by the boss's grenades, gas and rage rush. The most dangerous are Bloats (fat, impossible to pass in a narrow corridor, so the boss pins you) and Stalkers (invisible and silent): listen for the heavy slaps and your character's stalker callouts. Keep running with the summoned crowd until the boss uses it up, mixing narrow turning corridors with doors and big open spaces. Do not try to damage the boss until the mobs are gone: a pinch from behind, poor healing and extra beatings are likely.

Videos and maps

The author attached video demonstrations of waves 1, 2-3 and 4 and the boss fight on Paris (the boss recording starts at stage two), plus two videos (wave 4 and boss) each for Volter Manor, Outpost, Biotics Lab, Catacombs and Evacuation Point, marking where to lead the boss. For comparison there is also a Suicidal game with a level 23 character, where all four waves are cleared from a single spot.