KF2 Large Zed Practice Room with Controlled Difficulty (v1078)

Not long ago players could practice big Zed takedowns in workshop maps with Zed spawns disabled, facing a six-player Hell on Earth Scrake or Fleshpound. After those maps were removed, the console command SpawnHumanPawn 0 1 still added a fake player to simulate six players, but it no longer works. This guide shows how to rebuild such a practice room with the Controlled Difficulty mod. A related approach is on Large Zed takedowns practice, and mod basics are on Controlled Difficulty for beginners.

What you need

• The Controlled Difficulty mod, which lets you face Large Zeds with six-player HP.
• A map where Zeds spawn from one side, such as KF-Corridor.
• A console commands list to spawn weapons.

Configure Controlled Difficulty

The mod writes its settings to KFGame.ini in <My Documents>\My Games\KillingFloor2\KFGame\KFGame\Config\ the first time you launch it. Open the console and run:

open KF-Corridor?game=ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival?gamelength=0?Difficulty=3

Launching the mod from the console.

Difficulty values: 0 normal, 1 hard, 2 suicidal, 3 Hell on Earth. Game length values: 0 short (4 waves), 1 medium (7 waves), 2 long (10 waves).

Quit the game, then in KFGame.ini find the section [ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival] and set:

CohortSize=0
MaxMonsters=1
SpawnMod=1.0000
SpawnPoll=0.9500
SpawnCycle=ini
SpawnCycleDefs=1FP
SpawnCycleDefs=1FP
SpawnCycleDefs=1FP
SpawnCycleDefs=1FP
FleshpoundHPFakes=5
ScrakeHPFakes=5

Each SpawnCycleDefs line describes one wave, so four lines match gamelength=0. For a 10-wave game launch with gamelength=2 and write ten lines. To practice against Scrakes as well, use SpawnCycleDefs=1FP,1SC on each line, which spawns one Fleshpound then one Scrake. MaxMonsters=1 makes sure only one Zed is alive at a time.

Start practicing

Restart the game, launch the same command and start the match. Then type in order:

1. enablecheats
2. god
3. GiveWeapon KFGameContent.KFWeap_Rifle_M99 (or another weapon from the commands list)
4. uberammo

Match start in the corridor map.

Choose your perk and skills first. Instead of naming a weapon, you can use imrich for lots of money and OpenTraderMenu to shop from the trader menu.

Choosing a weapon through the console.

Ready to face six-player HP Large Zeds.

Things worth testing

• Support with the stumble skill can stumble a raging Fleshpound with the Doomstick.
• M14 mobile Sharpshooter with RRLRR skills.
• M99 Sharpshooter with LLLRR skills one-shots Scrakes and almost one-shots Fleshpounds. With LLLRR the Rail Gun takes two shots on a Fleshpound, with reload cancelling.
• Demolitionist with LLLLL skills and an upgraded RPG can one-shot Scrakes.
• Firebug's Heat Wave staggers a raging Fleshpound. Helios Rifle head-tracing while standing, ADS for less recoil.
• Support AA-12 standing still while aiming down sights.
• Commando FN FAL while crouched, and SWAT nailgun while crouched.
• A Gunslinger with RLRLR skills kills big Zeds fast in zed time.

Useful console commands

Display body health, useful for body-damage weapons like the RPG:

• DisplayAll CD_Pawn_ZedFleshpound_NRS health
• DisplayAll KFPawn_ZedScrake health

Body HP display.

Display head health, useful for headshot weapons such as the M99, by replacing health with Hitzones. Read GoreHealth next to the arrow to see the current head health. Clear the display with DisplayClear.

Hitzones drawn in green: the head sphere is the important one for headshot weapons.

To test zed time skills, type DramaEvent 1.0 17.0. The first value is the zed time chance and the second is the duration in seconds. The guide's notes: zed time lasts 3 seconds and resets while the perk allows it. Non-Commandos can reset it once, while a Commando can reset it up to 6 times, making roughly 17 seconds in practice if you kill a Zed every 2 seconds (21 in theory).

Damage example

For an LLLRL Sharpshooter with the M99 against a Fleshpound (1716 HP in this setup), the damage per headshot without zed time is (850 x 1.1) x (125% + 25% + 30% + 10%) x 75% = 1332, leaving 384 HP. In zed time, with the extra 35%, it is 1578, leaving 138 HP. The 75% is the Fleshpound's resistance to the ballistic rifle damage type. The Zed Time Ranger skill cannot stun a raging Fleshpound, because its stun power is multiplied by 5 only and the raging Zed resists afflictions. See afflictions for how stuns work.

Changing perk or skills

You must wait for the next wave or restart the mod, or use a mutator to skip waves. Chat commands change the intensity:

• Harder: !cdmaxmonsters 3, !cdspawnmod 0.75 (or lower), !cdspawnpoll 1.0.
• Faster waves: !cdmaxmonsters 20, !cdspawnmod 0.00, !cdspawnpoll 1.0.
• killzeds in the console kills Zeds already spawned, so repeat it.

A start-wave mutator lets you jump to another wave: mutate setwave 3. Launch with open KF-Corridor?game=ControlledDifficulty.CD_Survival?Mutator=StartWave.StartWave?gamelength=0?Difficulty=3.

How big Zeds spawn

Each wave builds a squad list. The game adds every normal squad archetype, then randomly adds one special squad (these contain big Zeds), and shuffles the list. When the list runs out it builds a new one, but every second list has no special squad, producing a hard-easy rhythm. Normal squads on later waves of Hell on Earth can still contain one Scrake each, so shuffling can bunch large Zeds. For example at the start of wave 10 on HOE a special squad of 2 FP and 3 SC with two Scrakes from normal squads could mean 4 FP and 10 SC across two cycles in the worst case.

Hitzones and head tracing

Show hitzones as in the screenshots, then learn the Fleshpound's rage animation. Its head moves left, right, left, up, so you can trace a trajectory you already know instead of aiming. You may not be able to pull this off in real conditions with many trash Zeds around. The author's other guide covers this further.