KF2 Perks and Difficulties: A Humorous Player's Guide

This Russian community guide is written as a joke, summarizing how each Killing Floor 2 perk is perceived in a public match and what the signs of each difficulty level are. Read it as folklore of the player base, not as advice; for serious tips see the perk overview and the difficulty guide. The epigraph is a folk saying, roughly "Our cause is just, and as for the enemy, we will find one".

A quick tour of the perks.

Perks in a humorous light

SWAT

SWAT.

The joke: SWAT is a "not-quite-Commando": it does not see invisible ZEDs or health bars. Always take Tactical Retreat since you will constantly retreat. The real point: SWAT specializes in small ZEDs, so you will be killing the stream of them, and sometimes the Patriarch and Hans.

Commando

Commando.

Commandos are tolerated because one of the bosses might be the Patriarch; if the boss is Hans, "nobody will notice if you leave". The joke: there are always at least five of them so that Stalkers are drawn in HD from across the map. The real role: seeing cloaked ZEDs.

Firebug

Firebug.

Firebug sets things alight while others get the kills, with some small ZED always finishing off your burning zombies. The joke's biggest problem is the Demolitionist who rubs against you. The real point: Firebug sets and spreads fire, and gets to burn big ZEDs when a tank arrives.

Berserker

Berserker.

The Berserker runs a lot ("legs feed the wolf"), diving into rubble for XP and green drops, a great bait for the squad that guns down his potential victims. The joke: do not expect help, since you apparently need no ammo and have plenty of health. The real role: frontline damage sponge.

Support

Support.

"Forget barricades": if you weld a door you will be the only one defending it, and nobody will mine it; you are a walking ammo box. Real role: shotguns, welding doors and handing out ammo to the team.

Demolitionist

Demolitionist.

The joke: you are blamed for finishing off half-dead, burning, headless ZEDs and cursed in chat; you stay alone with your RPG, your minefields get defended better than anything, and a Support will never repair doors you blew up. Real role: killing big ZEDs and crowd control.

Gunslinger

Gunslinger.

"The hipster and cowboy of KF2": two guns, a 10-round magazine, bravado and folly; reloads more often than he shoots, but is always near, killing something.

Sharpshooter

Sharpshooter.

The same shooter, only precise: aims, hits sometimes the head, sometimes the chainsaw. By the developers' logic he should sit on a watchtower, but in practice he runs in the crowd and shoots at claws, hooves, snowdrifts and allies.

Survivalist

Survivalist.

"Everyone looks at you like trash", a classless element: you can tank like a Berserker and heal like a Medic, but there is no place in the team. The real point: Survivalist is a universal perk.

Field Medic

Field Medic.

The Medic exists "so there is someone to blame": it is all your fault. Be ready to chase teammates through Berserkers, Siren screams and Bloat farts, because with a Medic around everyone thinks health bars do not exist. You are not a warrior but a healer and buffer. Real role: keeping the team alive. See the Field Medic guide.

Difficulty signs

The difficulty levels.

• Normal: you step away, come back and find yourself alive with a couple of kills; you have to try to die. Meat is flying and level 25 players run around happily. Nicknamed kindergarten.
• Hard: you leave your allies to find free armor and get beaten, often fatally. Stay close to the team.
• Suicidal and up: the game stops being a shoot-out against street thugs; the thugs turn into Chuck Norrises and you run from them. Formations and "stay together" provoke nervous laughter, and defending often ends in panicked running with 5 HP.

The author ends with a plea to be patient with the player on the receiving end: "Hell is Hell".