It s Better to Fire a Fire and Shoot Again Than to Shine a Flashlight and Ask Who s Here

"Hear that Witch? I'1000 gonna give her something to cry almost."

―Francis

"Rochelle... That own't you, is it, daughter?"

―Double-decker

The Witch is a Special Infected that is non initially hostile and is e'er found in a dormant sitting or ho-hum walking state. However, if startled or attacked, she can instantly incapacitate, or even impale, a player. She is also the merely non-playable Special Infected.

Summary

The Witch is highly sensitive to calorie-free and the close presence of uninfected humans. She is completely unresponsive to Infected and the passage of nearby bullets.

When alerted to the presence of an uninfected human or flashlight, she will wait in the Survivor's management and make a low alert growl: this signals an incipient attack. If the Survivor backs away a fair distance or is no longer in sight, she volition gradually return to her wailing state, taking longer if the intensity of her alarm growls is high. However, if the Survivor is nonetheless nearby, she will slowly stand up and flail her arms in a threatening manner; if the Survivor does all the same not movement, she volition single them out and run at incredible speeds. She is able to incapacitate her victim instantly whereupon she frenziedly slashes that person with her clawed hands, only stopping if either she or the victim dies.

Should she be startled by ane Survivor, merely is ignited or biled by another, she volition immediately shift her aggression to whoever was responsible for causing it.

If she is nevertheless live later on killing her victim, or she cannot reach her target, she volition go into a panic and attempt to flee the area, successfully doing so if the Survivors cannot see her for well-nigh 1-2 seconds.

The Witch automatically shoves whatsoever Survivor in her path, making her the only Infected capable of doing so without having to land an attack. Like Common Infected, the Witch volition alter objectives if a Survivor is blocking her for a prolonged period of time, although this shouldn't generally happen every bit she is more than likely to shove them out of the mode.

Killing a Witch is not always required, every bit players can use various strategies to avoid her, or simply wait for her to wander to an obscure location in daylight. However, she tin announced in locations where players must kill her in gild to proceed, especially during the night.

ane Summary
2 Appearance
- two.1 Extent of Mutations
3 Mechanics
- 3.1 Passive State
- three.two Growling Rage
- 3.3 Assailment and Attacks
four Special Witches
- 4.1 The Wandering Witch
- 4.2 Helpmate Witch
five Tactics
- 5.i Fire
- 5.2 Crowning the Witch
- 5.three Stumbling
- 5.4 Melee
- 5.v Door Isolation & teamwork)
- five.6 Using Ladders
- 5.7 Ledges
- 5.viii Hit & Run
- 5.ix Bots
  - 5.9.1 Detecting a Witch
  - 5.9.2 Dealing with a Witch
- 5.10 Infected
vi Achievements
- 6.1 Left iv Dead Achievements
- 6.2 Left 4 Dead 2 Achievements
  - 6.two.one PC sectional
7 Backside the Scenes
eight Glitches and Oddities
9 Trivia
10 External Links
11 Gallery
12 References

Appearance

A Witch'southward physique is that of an extremely lanky young adult female with pale skin, shoulder-length platinum-blonde pilus, sunken red eyes and a encarmine rima oris full of sharp teeth. She is but clad in the remains of a tattered white tank pinnacle and a pair of white panties, and like almost Special Infected, she does not wear any shoes. Her most distinctive features are the twelve-inch-long, bloodstained claws her fingers take grown into. Her knees and feet are stained with dirt and claret. Oddly, the Witch in the games is portrayed every bit flat-chested, while in "The Sacrifice" comic they have considerably larger breasts. Still, this may be for gameplay-related purposes.^[1]

Extent of Mutations

Though it is not specifically clear equally to how the Witch mutated into a Special Infected, one theory states that the Witch has been heavily mutated by a strain of The Infection, in terms of physical strength rather than advent. Though resembling a typical female Infected, she has sharpened elongated fingers that are similar to the status of arachnodactyly (which often accompanies Marfan syndrome). In an interview with Chet, he claimed that the Witch had a strange attraction to the smell of sugar, which explains why there are a large number of Witches nigh The Sugar Mill in Hard Rain, although this may be due to hunger or other factors acquired past the Infection. Her pick of attire, when compared to other Infected, could signal a raised trunk temperature such every bit a fever, which could also explain her sluggishness, constant signs of distress, irritability, and sensitivity to low-cal and sound. The Witch may have attempted to remove her clothing, as it appears as if she cut the vesture up herself.

Despite her petite figure, the Witch has incredible strength and stamina, enabling her to instantly incapacitate or kill Survivors in one hit, depending on the difficulty level. Needless to say, smashing care is vital on Expert difficulty or Realism (Normal or higher), as she can kill a Survivor in one striking regardless of their status. She is known to cry when not aware of the Survivors, although the reasoning behind information technology is unknown. It'south likely she is incredibly depressed — a symptom that could back-trail her loss of sanity. Another theory is that the virus has not taken full control and she knows she is a monster, causing her depression, and when a Survivor gets also close or turns a flashlight on, etc., the virus starts to take over. Information technology could likewise exist an evolutionary advantage, meant to lure unsuspecting Survivors to her, as further demonstrated in the Left four Dead Intro Scene, when Beak and Zoey get to investigate her crying, thinking she may be a Survivor.

Even though her mentality is largely similar to that of the typical Infected, she is not distracted by things like the flashing lights and beeps from a pipe bomb. She is also not plain attracted by things such as car alarms going off, although this will alert her of the Survivors' presence. Oddly, she glows red in dark areas, perchance due to her glowing eyes. It is too unknown whether or not the Witch is extremely thin because of the Infection (weight loss due to starvation) or if this was her body shape earlier the Infection took place.

Mechanics

Passive Land

The Witch is ever seen sitting on the footing, crying about something. She will ignore everything going on around her from afar, unless the Survivor(s) are close by.

Growling Rage

If a Survivor gets as well close to a Witch, she will begin looking at them and begin growling in rage. If the Survivors do not move away, her growls will go more intense as she begins to stand up up equally a alert, ending in louder growls and threateningly raising her arms. After the third land, if she is nevertheless enraged by the Survivors' presence, she volition scream and target the Survivor who startled her. The Witch can likewise become alerted to the Survivors' presence even if she cannot see them, but this is ordinarily as a result of firing well-nigh her.

If the Survivors back away out of range and/or sight, she will eventually return to her idle country.

In Versus, not-Tank infected players hook the Witch once upon spotting a Survivor, upon which she becomes near enraged. Due to the short time between this state and becoming startled, the Witch will almost immediately set on. Witches are very sensitive to flashlights and shining one on a Witch will enrage her faster, and startle her iv times further than standing next to her.

Co-ordinate to in-game cvars, see console commands for details, one can discover that z_Witch_personal_space 100 and z_Witch_flashlight_range 400
In other words, a flashlight will startle the Witch at exactly iv times the distance mere proximity would.

This mechanic is completely skipped if the Witch is shot at.

Aggression and Attacks

Upon existence startled by a Survivor, the Witch volition immediately dart towards the startler at amazing speed, being able to take hold of up to a Survivor unless they are under the effects of adrenaline. On all difficulties, getting striking by the Witch results in 100 damage (instant incapacitation); notwithstanding, on Expert, this also serves as an instant kill regardless if the Survivor is in a black-and-white state or non.

Against other Infected, she deals around 250 impairment. However, this usually is a result of the Witch's aggression glitching out and targeting the Infected histrion who attacked her. She can also destroy well-nigh doors and walls with a single swipe, apart from saferoom and other special doors.

If the Survivor is incapacitated, either past the Witch herself, other Infected or the Survivor's ain actions (bar hanging), she will pause briefly earlier apace slashing at them, dealing the following damage:

Like shooting fish in a barrel - 12
Normal - 30
Avant-garde - 68
Skillful - 300

If the startler is killed, the Witch will become horrified and run off to escape from the map, despawning if a Survivor loses sight of her inside ii seconds. She volition too flee if she cannot reach her target or they enter a saferoom. Notation that the old is usually acquired by glitches.

Although the Witch only targets the startler, she has aggression mechanics similar to Common Infected and will modify targets if a Survivor is blocking her path. She volition also modify aggression if ignited on burn or biled on. Note that the former nevertheless applies fifty-fifty if extinguished, unless the burn down was static.

Special Witches

The Wandering Witch

Left 4 Expressionless 2 introduces a new Witch called the Wandering Witch. She works similarly to the normal Witch, except because of the sunlight, she has at present covered her eyes with her hands equally she sobs and walks around aimlessly. As such, she only appears in daylight campaigns, apart from finales. The Wandering Witch as well has a dissimilar sound track to indicate her presence.

Due to the sunlight, the Wandering Witch is less prone to flashlights, and will instantly revert to her crying state regardless of her rage if the Survivors back away from her. She also has a one second delay upon being startled before attacking the Survivors compared to her stationary counterpart; due to this, if one Survivor touches her, but another immediately shoots her as she screams, she will go for the Survivor that shot her rather than the one who touched her.

Wandering Witch covering her eyes and crying.

Helpmate Witch

A Bride Wandering Witch from The Passing. (Modernistic)

A second model was introduced for the Witch in The Passing where she is the helpmate left at the altar. Here, she is dressed in a tattered gown and veil with her loyal wedding guests surrounding her, all the same awaiting the groom.

She serves as the "Crescendo" outcome of The Riverbank, sitting outside the steps by the gazebo. There is a sound arrangement near the tent that can exist interacted with. Upon activating it, information technology will play music, which this Witch seems to dislike. She volition get angrier over fourth dimension, earlier exploding and attacking the player who turned on the sound system, regardless of how far they are. Upon being startled or killed, a horde will descend on the team.

Her behavior is all the same the same every bit stationary Witches, so the same tactics can be applied to her.

Tactics

Fire

An ignited Witch will die in xv seconds, only information technology is important to note that she will change aggression to whoever was responsible for igniting her. Fire is very useful in killing Witches since her fast speed and the risk of friendly fire on higher difficulties can make gunning her down hard.

Molotovs and gas cans are very good options for igniting her, but it is of import to accept enough space to run away as the Witch is still relatively fast fifty-fifty when ignited. Gas cans likewise have the advantage of potentially changing her aggression if she is forced through a door, as she will slash it downward, igniting the gas can in the process. Because the Witch ignited herself on burn down, she volition simply flail about until she dies.

A very efficient style to remove a Witch without her attacking anyone is to ignite her on fire only go idle before the fire hits her. The Witch attacks based on the Survivor's ID (actor and bots are different). Because the Survivor that ignites her will accept gone idle, removing their ID, the Witch cannot find the igniter and will instead believe that they are missing from the game. It is recommended to bind a key (Bind <Cardinal>''go_away_from_keyboard '') since using the menu cardinal don't give enough fourth dimension. This tactic is considered cheating by nigh players (and hence Idle function is disabled in Versus mode).

Crowning the Witch

The achievement "Cr0wned" is awarded for killing a Witch with a single shot from whatsoever shotgun. Despite the implication in the proper name and common FPS logic, it is really inadvisable to aim for her head: the dorsum presents a much easier target. As the Witch has k health points and a shotgun blast does just slightly over that, every pellet from the shotgun must hit the Witch or she will merely be startled (if the player is using a tier 1 shotgun they volition non have time to burn a second killing shot before the Witch tin can incapacitate or kill them). The easiest style to exercise this is to walk up backside the Witch, wait for her to stand up (to give you a bigger target), and fire at indicate-blank just before she startles. However, on college difficulties, a single shot may not deal plenty harm if aimed at her dorsum, resulting in her incapacitating/killing you earlier she dies. On difficulty above Normal, though, a headshot is essential for killing her in 1 shot. At non-realism Expert, all the pellets from a vanquish are required to land on her head in order to kill her.

Many players use "crown" as a verb, meaning just to impale the Witch with a shotgun before she can assail anyone. This includes conditions that would non issue in the achievement existence awarded, such as killing her with two quick shots from an automatic shotgun, a much easier proposition. Sometimes, if the Witch is cr0wned via headshot and she sees it, the game volition state that she was startled.

Arroyo the Witch without startling her, preferably quickly to give yous a adventure to do something while she starts moving to go up. Aim your shotgun at her head (or her back) when you are in extremely shut proximity. If you lot burn your shotgun and miss with the weapon's spray, the Witch will assail. If the Witch is approached from behind, she will even present her face every bit a prime target past looking over her shoulder. From in that location, a single blast from the shotgun volition defeat her (though as a cautionary measure, always shoot more than one time). If feeling particularly audacious, another tactic involves running at the Witch and shooting direct downwardly into her confront while jumping over her. Brand sure the Witch is yet kneeling before attempting this, all the same, because if she is standing, the only thing this tactic yields is a freshly-opened chest cavity. Also note that this will non count against Do Not Disturb, every bit she will die before becoming startled. To get the achievement, you need to make sure every pellet from the shotgun'south blast impacts her caput. Some things to remember include:
You do not take to shoot her in the head to go this achievement. The existent indicate of this achievement is to kill her without startling her. If multiple shotgun blasts make contact, but it never said she is startled, it volition count every bit a cr0wn. It may be easier to shoot her in the back, rather than the head, due to a larger target area. It is possible to kill her from the front, side, or even from below if she is on a platform (as long as you are close to her — doing it from below volition not work if she is much higher than you are).
- Some players adopt crouching in front of the Witch, thereby tightening the shotgun cross-hairs and increasing the chance of getting all the pellets in the Witch'south face. The only downside to crouching is that it does not allow the Survivor run abroad fast enough from the Witch if the first couple of shots fail.
Don't hesitate. If you approach her and hesitate to fire, yous may find she'll be startled before you lot attack her. If she'southward startled, information technology will exist extremely hard to impale her before she gets you lot. Still, if you try to kill her besides quickly, yous are probable going to miss and lose. Take your time and preferably wait for her to stand up to go a clear shot.
Don't panic if you miss — if you lot accept the Auto Shotgun, usually y'all can still do enough additional shots (one or two) to finish the job. If you take a Tier one shotgun, finishing her up without getting incapacitated/killed is more a matter of luck.
- Incendiary ammo is good for saving your teammates. If the Survivor she targets is not hit yet, use incendiary ammo to plow her attention towards you. Another Survivor can hitting her with fire ammo to divert her attention once again. Repeat this until she dies.
- It'due south okay to be nervous while you are not experienced in Witch crowning. Practice on lower difficulties to build up conviction before attempting this on Expert. You but have about three seconds to crown her on this difficulty, as failure oftentimes ways death.
The flashlight will touch the speed at which the Witch gets aggravated before existence startled. If possible, plow off the light before attempting to cr0wn her, as information technology may mess upwards your timing. Don't worry if you are in a dark area; she will glow in scarlet and you can run across her with the flashlight off.
With an Machine Shotgun y'all can go far two shots if you are jerky, but you'll want to be sure your teammates are even so there to get her off you before you lot try this (unless it's Expert difficulty, in which example you'll be instantly killed, though players with defibrillator units will be able to revive you lot back).
Practice volition easily teach y'all when to shoot and when not to. This tin be accomplished in the Developer Commentary on the level The Sewer. At the very end of the level, in front of Mercy Hospital's entrance, at that place is a commentary node that when activated, will spawn a Witch. The Witch can be killed and respawned for an infinite number of times. This way, you tin practise killing her in i shot. However, the achievement itself cannot be unlocked in "Commentary Mode". Information technology is only useful for practice. It's important to note that she can withal assault any bot teammates, and if shot with a Hunting Burglarize to the caput she will stumble, so attack you regardless.
Information technology is possible to cr0wn the Witch with a minigun, although this may exist rare, equally Witches by and large do not spawn near turrets.
If you are cr0wning with a shotgun, make certain all Common Infected in the area are dead, as they may mess up your aim, and perchance get the Witch startled.
- This also applies to an incoming Horde or Special Infected. You can exit the surface area to avert startle the Witch accidentally.
The Assault Burglarize'south power shot is still active for those who don't accept the Crash Course pack for the Xbox 360, enabling you to cr0wn the Witch using this method.

In brusque, the basic steps for cr0wning:

Equip a shotgun-blazon weapon.
Move every bit close to the Witch as possible, and as fast as possible. (check for other Infected, they can potentially mess your aim up)
Aim for an surface area where all the pellets of the shotgun fire are likely to touch (such as the body).
Fire as accurately every bit possible earlier the Witch gets angry enough to attack.

Stumbling

Similar most of the Special Infected, the Witch herself is not immune to stuns. Besides whatever form of explosive, a sitting Witch can exist stunned for a brief moment if a headshot is landed with any single bullet has the damage value no less than fifty, (AK-47, Snipers, Magnum, M60), equally long every bit she is in the passive state. When the Witch is stumbling by either by explosives or high-damage headshots, she is vulnerable from shoves, each shove will reset the time she needs to recover and assail, which is more than enough for survivors to end her off with melee attacks.

Once the Witch chases afterwards her target, she tin only be stumbled past explosives.

On Expert, due to the farthermost increase in resilience of her trunk, a witch volition non be stumbled past the explosion acquired past propane/oxygen tanks, grenades, non-headshot explosive rounds.

In Left iv Dead, the Witch tin can be kept in an countless loop due to the lack of a cooldown period using shoves. A shotgun or scoped rifle tin can quickly dispatch of a Witch this way, making them extremely easy to deal with on most difficulties.

In Left 4 Dead ii, due to the cooldown organization that sets in after shoving also much, it is recommended to employ a melee weapon (other than the chainsaw) to kill a Witch. A melee weapon deals 250 damage against the Witch, so only four swings are required to kill one on whatever difficulty.

This method is a substitute over CR0WNing, peculiarly on Realism due to the reduced damage by shotguns against her. The method has a lower hazard of success against Wandering Witches every bit they are less likely to be stumbled from explosive attacks, nor can they be headshot to stumble them.

Melee

1 swing from any melee weapons (except Chainsaw) deals 250 damage to Witch, and so four hits from melee weapons is enough to impale a Witch.

To execute this tactic, the player first needs a melee weapon that has a fast assail rate (Tonfa and Machete are preferred. But Katana, Cricket Bat and Baseball Bat are also fine). Side by side, the player has to walk behind Witch and starts swinging their melee whilst jumping. Doing so allows the player to dodge the showtime strike from Witch. The player can so kill the Witch with ease since she won't be able to strike again due to the fast assault rate of said melee weapon. The player also needs to brand sure they are standing on apartment ground, equally jumping on slopes will very likely to crusade the thespian to motility abroad and thus go attacked past Witch.

It should be noted, that all melee weapons work confronting Wandering Witch because of her 1 second scream before attacking the startler. Stationary Witches, still, must exist dealt with fast-attacking melee weapons.

Door Isolation & teamwork)

In Realism, an enraged witch is not able to instantly destroy a airtight-door like in the regular campaign, nor tin can she have the sanity to open it similar a human. A player tin can only startle the witch and hide backside a closed door, have the teammate's melee assail her while she is trying to destroy the door, at the same rate of a common infected.

Using Ladders

Utilise the ladder to your advantage. If yous startled a Witch, you tin stay at the middle or top of the ladder, make sure you are beyond her attack range, then your teammates tin can kill her without a risk. Exist careful, however, every bit the Witch may extend her arm long plenty to accomplish the startler and incapacitate them.

This tactic may not work finer with survivor bots since they tend to stay near the ladder and might draw the Witch'southward aggression.

Ledges

In some campaigns where Survivors may dangle off a ledge, the startler is encouraged to hang off a ledge as the Witch will by and large not attack them, instead falling off.

Hit & Run

The best strategy for defeating the Witch relies on her established tendency to set on merely the person who startled her. There are many tactics to exploit this:

Because of her instant incapacitation power, playing with no bots/players is very dangerous, as nobody is there to help you up. It is recommended you have teammates with y'all when yous effort to kill her.
Have a designated runner to disturb the Witch from afar while the other Survivors grade a defensive line between the runner and the Witch. The runner should set on the Witch, preferably with a molotov or a gas can detonated by gunfire to ignite the Witch, or a scoped rifle if she is at a fair distance from the runner. While the runner is being chased, all the other Survivors must concentrate burn down on the Witch, who generally moves in a straight line towards her target. If the runner is sufficiently far away and the other Survivors are sufficiently competent at aiming, so the Witch would be unable to inflict any damage. Keep in listen, notwithstanding, that the Witch can switch targets if a Survivor other than her initial victim blocks her motion for likewise long. For instance, she shoves y'all back but you are on a narrow catwalk and go on to cake her path, or if she climbs something and you are right in front of her when she gets up. For the latter, no knocking dorsum from her is needed. Also, in Left 4 Dead 2, she may change targets to a closer aggressor if the initial target doesn't attack her/does not do plenty damage to her. The behavior seems somewhat similar to "threat" from MMO games.
In Left 4 Expressionless two, the above strategy is even more constructive if the runner uses Adrenaline prior to disturbing the Witch.
If you're fortunate enough to find her at the acme of a ladder that has a infinite Survivors can utilise, employ it by having the person who startled her climb a ladder and make the Witch follow. You lot can trap her under or above the Survivor and she can exist easily picked off with any weapon (though you should exist very careful with the shotgun, to avert harming the bait). However, if with bots, they will non climb upwards the ladder, and it's possible for the Witch to switch targets, though if at a off-white distance, you can act equally the bait, in which the Witch will get killed if the bots fail to get her, but bots are unable to inflict friendly burn.
Burn down does damage over time to a Witch and volition kill her in 15 seconds. She volition practice a weird swaying run at y'all that is slower than usual, screaming from the rut, but tin still attack yous, dissimilar normal Infected. Throw a Molotov at the Witch from as far away every bit yous tin can, so run back towards the commencement condom room (if close plenty) while your allies open burn down on the Witch. Also, make sure you close the safe room door backside you.
Attacking her with a Grenade launcher works besides, depending on your accuracy and your grenade's hit. Players must annotation the fact that a bad striking will cause her to instantly attack you rather than the usual stun.
The Witch will retreat if someone startles her and runs into the prophylactic room at the finish or at the beginning of the chapter.

Bots

Detecting a Witch

If the bots sense a Witch in the area, they volition turn their flashlight off until the Witch flees or is killed. This is the only time they volition keep it off.
Bots will often aim at a Witch like Common Infected, which is ideal when the Witch is placed in a well-covered spot.
Bots will not burn on Witches, apart from the occasional Infected that may get near her, upon which they show no restraint and may startle her with stray shots.
- Wandering Witches will only scream in pain, simply not become startled if shot past stray bullets.
Bots' programming will disharmonize with idle Witches if overridden, as they volition purposely startle the Witch.
- Melee specialized mutations result in bots approaching Witches, but refrain from attacking until she is startled.
Bots may likewise attempt to run across the safe room without regard to their surroundings, including those placed about the safe room.

Dealing with a Witch

Bots are very ineffective at killing Witches due to the bots' weapon preferences. They can rarely cr0wn her, merely this is unremarkably a result of a shotgun-wielding bot trying to force their way to something of interest.
If a bot startles the Witch, they will run and gun backwards in a futile attempt to escape, since they don't take adrenaline shots or take reward of the area to escape.
Startled Witches have highest priority over everything else until she is killed or successfully flees.
- This can be problematic for pocket-sized role player teams every bit the bots volition likely get y'all killed if you are pinned by a Smoker or Hunter.
- Likewise, bots equipped with Incendiary ammo will fire on a startled Witch, causing her assailment to change if not lit on burn down already.

Infected

Although yous cannot play every bit the Witch, you can use her in your tactics:

Smokers tin drag Survivors to the Witch.
Jockeys tin steer Survivors towards the Witch.
- This works especially well on the Saccharide Factory due to the extra number of Witches, despite there being fewer than in the Entrada itself, with approximately 3 to 4 nowadays.
Hunters and Boomers can hunker in front of the Witch, obscuring her from the Survivors' sight. Alternately, if a Boomer is killed while the Survivors are relatively close to the Witch, the explosion will startle her, sending her after the person who killed the Boomer. It is as well useful to either block her from the Survivor's view as they may non suspect a Witch behind them and will impale the Boomer and startle the Witch.
Spitters tin can protect the Witch by spitting acrid near her. Equally an instinct, Survivors will commonly attempt to get away from the acid puddles rapidly, which may cause them to bear upon the Witch or become near the Witch, which will force them to deal with her apace.
If you pounce a Survivor equally a Hunter while the Witch has already incapacitated someone and is attacking, y'all will not exist damaged, and the Survivor volition die twice as fast. You will also get points for the harm she inflicts, but very rarely, if a Survivor disturbs a Witch and you lot pounce on the fleeing Survivor, the Witch will attack and instantly kill yous.
Some Hunter players hunker only out of sight virtually the Witch, waiting until a player runs upwards to assail the Witch, then pounce them just before they get a take a chance to burn. This gives the Witch the potential to do a lot of damage, possibly even killing the Survivor if timed properly.
The Tank tin throw Survivors when he punches them, which could be used to get a Survivor near a Witch. Notwithstanding, this may be difficult considering that Witch and Tank spawns are usually not put together and his punches may launch Survivors too far.
Most experienced Survivor teams volition have three players take up defensive positions while one goes upwards to cr0wn the Witch. Equally a Smoker, you can strangle the player who was tasked with Witch-killing only equally they are nigh to cr0wn her. The Witch will be startled, and the Survivor is basically a sitting duck.
An Infected role player can melee the Witch merely as she looks upwards when a Survivor gets also close, sending her later on them. Melee harm is negligible for all Infected other than the Tank.
Chargers tin bring a Survivor to a Witch, simply this requires a lot of work and proper aim. Instead, try using a Charger to protect the Witch from Survivors (auto shotgun or chainsaw-wielding Survivors.) When the Charger grabs one, the other Survivors will run to their rescue, which is prime number time for a Jockey or Smoker to pull a Survivor right to her.
If a Wandering Witch is effectually in an surface area Survivors must get to, attempt to cause some panic near her. Survivors may hit her by fault or move too close, attempting to impale yous or your teammates and startle her.
Remember that the Wandering Witch'southward movements are erratic. Smokers and Chargers may miss bringing Survivors close to her, attempt to predict her movements and grab Survivors when she stands still or is in an enclosed surface area, or it is advised you utilise a Jockey instead.
If a Survivor has set the Witch growling, you can claw her, which will transport her rage to its acme, making her "personal space" area much larger.
In the first Left iv Expressionless, it has been known for several players to, equally the Hunter, hunker by her, hook her until she gets startled, and leap away toward the Survivors, where she will proceed to kill the role player playing the Hunter, and so angrily incapacitate or kill one or 2 Survivors.
An update by Valve has given the Witch an aureola colored in white for VS mode when playing as the Infected. This can help players locate the Witch more easily and plan strategies around her. The white aura will gradually modify to cerise equally she gets angrier and it becomes a full red when the Witch rages out and attacks the survivors.

Achievements

Encounter Main Article: Achievements

Left iv Dead Achievements

	CR0WND	(30G)
	Kill a Witch with a single headshot.

	Do Non DISTURB	(20G)
	Sneak past all Witches in a campaign without disturbing one.

	WITCH HUNTER	(20G)
	Impale a Witch without whatever Survivor taking impairment from her.

Left 4 Expressionless 2 Achievements

PC exclusive

	NEW HAIRCUT
	Kill a Witch using only a sharp melee weapon, without anyone getting incapacitated or killed.

	SHOTGUN WEDDING
	Kill the Witch bride with a single shotgun boom on expert difficulty.

Behind the Scenes

Originally, the Witch was to attack the entire group upon beingness startled. However, this was cutting from the concluding game considering information technology was deemed likewise difficult, as she would often wipe out the whole group with niggling trouble.^[2] Despite only attacking ane person in the final game, writing well-nigh the Witch on a safe room wall reads "I in one case saw one tear apart 10 people!", implying that the Witch may still attack entire groups, even if she doesn't during gameplay. But if the Witch has been startled by someone and someone else set her on fire, the Witch will assault whoever did and then, if she already incapacitated someone. The Witch was also featured with dark pare, black hair and black clothes instead of gray skin, white hair, and stake green clothes.

Glitches and Oddities

A histrion can startle a Witch and the game find that some other player startled her instead of the actual aggressor. This volition cause the Witch to chase a random role player instead of the existent attacker, even if the player is far away from the Witch's sight.
- This bug happens most commonly on community servers that take mods, possibly considering those modifications should cause conflicts in the Witch's AI.
- Oddly enough, the Witch will chase the innocent histrion even if she is on the final spot of the map and the victim is on the spawn indicate within the Condom House.
Sometimes, in No Mercy, if you startle a Witch past using a Molotov, run through the gas station then blow it upward, she will sometimes infinitely stumble.
Despite the fact that the Witch immediately incapacitates or even kills a player immediately, if the said histrion has more than 100 HP, they take 100 harm instead of beingness incapacitated or killed.
- The same glitch can be applied to the Tank on Practiced difficulty.
Sometimes, if you are in a room directly above the Witch, yous volition hear her growl softly like you lot entered her territory, despite the fact that yous cannot run across her and she can't come across you. This happens in areas like the Crane, in the office buildings.
- The same glitch tin can occur if the histrion is effectually the Witch'south location but is blocked past a platform such as a wall. The Witch will be surprised by the sound and brainstorm growling, even though no players are effectually her. Doing such things will not startle the Witch unless the actor tin exist seen by the Witch.
If a Witch is in a cupboard and y'all laissez passer past, she will notice. You volition hear her growl. If you stay in that area, she will continue to exist angered, even though the wall is blocking her view. After thirty seconds, she will exist startled and attack the person responsible for startling her.
When being healed by a Survivor Bot and a Wandering Witch is in the area that would startle her, she won't assail until the Bot is done healing the player.
When the Witch is examined up-close, it can be noted that her face was non given any facial animations like the Common Infected. This is also the case with most Special Infected, except for the Boomer, who slightly moves his mouth.
On rare occasions, a Witch will exist startled and freeze with her artillery raised and her caput and will go along following the person who startled her. This will sometimes fifty-fifty happen later she incapacitates the person who startled her. She may also glide in the direction she was running instead, non existence able to move and stopping all her animations after incapacitating the Survivor.
When examining a Wandering Witch, it tin be noted that her footsteps are not in sync with her movement, thus making her appear equally if she is 'gliding' on surfaces or 'moonwalking'.

The Wandering Witch can get stuck between a motorcar and another solid object. When this happens, she stills execute her walking animation but will not move at all. If one startles the stuck Witch, she may or not be able to leave the spot. If she is started only unable to leave, she will remain frozen on a position from her running blitheness, with her arms wide open, and even so able to incapacitate her assailant if he/she comes close enough. Oddly, the AI-controlled survivors volition not assail the started Witch while she is stuck, only if she incapacitates who started her.
- For example, this tin happen at the offset of The Streets between a police car and a police force line debate, right earlier a building the survivors must pass through.
Rarely, a startled witch tin can get stuck trying to break a common door in order to accomplish her target. This tin can happen if she gets way too close to the door, and thus her assault range surpasses it. When this happens, she volition remain to execute her assail blitheness and running against the door.
In Left 4 Dead 2, never utilize Incendiary Ammo on a Witch if you didn't startle her, peculiarly after the Witch incapacitated or killed her victim. Setting her on burn down will make her immediately go after whoever shot her, even if she just killed or incapacitated the person who originally startled her.
- This has been fixed on PC but is still nowadays in the Xbox 360 version. Cr0wning the Witch with incendiary ammo volition glitch her into becoming invincible, and the bots will think she is dead and endeavour to revive you while you are down. She volition go on to attack until you dice, but instead of running away after the player is killed, she runs around in a certain area with her arms flailing instead of over her head. If you exercise cr0wn her with Incendiary ammo in the Witch Hunter screen, it will show that yous did plenty damage to impale her (almost 1000), even if you unloaded many more shots than what would do that amount of damage.
- If a role player startles the Witch so another histrion gets her attention via Molotov, Bile Flop or Incendiary Ammo, the thespian who startled the Witch first will continue to yell quotes nigh the Witch chasing after them even though her aggression has inverse to the other Survivor.
If a Witch slashes a door that is indestructible (similar a freezer door), blood will come up out the door, despite the fact she didn't hit anything living, like a Survivor. However, it could be the blood from her claws that nonetheless hadn't dried, indicating that other Survivors had only come up in the area. The same tin can happen when missing Survivors.
In the High german Version of the game, if whatever explosion is set off right next to a sitting Witch, yous will see blood spatter and hear her scream, and she will dice instantly. However, if the players go to where she was sitting, there will be no corpse. The game volition also bear witness that y'all only dealt with about 15 damage. If attempted on a Wandering Witch, she will likely walk far plenty away from a thrown piping flop to non disappear, and she will attack the pipe bomber instead. If the Witch is sitting and your Pipe bomb explodes on her while she is growling, information technology will startle her. It is possible that this glitch occurs because Witches are programmed to be indifferent to their environment (including pipe bombs) until they are startled. As the pipe bomb is thrown while the Witch is not aware of the Survivors' presence, she just disappears. This could be due to how the German version handles gore, or the lack thereof.
Using a Sniper Burglarize or a Hunting Rifle and shooting the Witch tin can cause a glitch that makes her disappear completely. Shooting her with either of the sniper weapons through a wall or flooring when she is not aware of the Survivors' presence may cause her to disappear, peradventure due to her existence startled without being able to make up one's mind what caused it. For case, if the Survivors pass over a staircase and she is nether them, shooting her through the floor may make her disappear.
If yous throw a Molotov on the Witch and run away and non looking at her, her corpse may disappear. Typically the game allows for two Witch corpses before despawning any older ones.
Opening a door on a Witch will crusade her to run away instead of becoming startled. It will besides not annals as startling her (unless yous set her on burn down).
In the Left 4 Dead 2 version of The Cede, shooting a Witch most an explosive butt with a grenade launcher will cause her to go glitched and walk as boring as a Wandering Witch while on burn and doing her "on fire" animation, this tin be used to your advantage every bit the Witch volition only take a couple more shots to kill.
- In a like manner, stumbling a Witch with an explosion from a propane tank/oxygen tank and setting her on fire from a gas tin at the same time volition render her stuck in an infinite loop of stumbling while burning to death.
An extremely rare glitch involving the Witch volition make her disappear entirely. This glitch takes identify at the hotel in the kickoff level of the Dark Carnival campaign and requires the Witch to have been spawned by the stairs side by side to the destroyed wall, every bit well as at least two players having explosive ammunition. Ane player must have the Sniper Rifle and approach her from the upper flight of stairs. The other must have the Sub Machine Gun and approach her from the basis flooring. Both players open burn at once, and the Witch disappears.
Another rare glitch tin can occasionally occur when yous attempt to file by the Witch one by one. If the Witch comes close to being startled because of one Survivor, and some other passes by close plenty to startle her, she will become startled, all the same instead of attacking, she will run away with her hands covering her caput as if she had only killed a Survivor. This is most likely because the Witch really became almost-startled at 1 of the earlier Survivors (who is now out of the line of sight), so when she does finally get startled, it is actually at the earlier Survivor, and then she gets confused and runs abroad.
The Witch, when still living, has her hair in carmine. However, when she dies, the pilus slowly turns grey. This is nearly likely for players to spot her, as it would be hard for players to detect her until one gets too shut.
- This is as well, possibly, an indirect reference to Joan of Arc, the redheaded adult female responsible for the French victory of the Hundred Years' State of war. She was accused by the English of being a witch, captured as part of their surrender terms, and burned at the stake. Redheads were usually prime suspects in witch hunts due to such.
In The Streets in Dead Center, when the Survivors are suspicious of the crying, players cannot utilise the push to make comments on the Witch. When someone startles and runs from her, sometimes they will mention the Witch in their quote. The Survivors will properly accost her and the other Special Infected during The Mall.
On Commentary Way in Left 4 Dead, at the end of The Sewer a Witch can spawn by using the node right outside the hospital entrance. If shot at with any weapon including the Hunting Rifle, she will be put into an agitated state where any other nearby Survivor apart from the player will immediately startle her. If the histrion stumbles her, she will immediately attack them upon recovering, even though Commentary Way prevents the Infected from straight attacking the player.
When a regular player startles a Witch, if a new player blocks her way, the Witch will assail them due to her mechanics. The game teacher volition and so say "The Witch incapacitated/killed yous! Don't startle her next time…", fifty-fifty though the new actor was not responsible for startling her.
In some Witch spawn points, she might spawn on the top of a house. This makes it easy for teams as they do not have to wait for her to leave, equally she will just wander at the roof of the house or be stationary at that place.
- In other spawn points, she may spawn in inaccessible areas due to programming errors (such every bit The Cemetery, because of the 4 random paths the Managing director tin can choose from).
Despite being a Special Infected, in that location are a few differences on the Witch and then other Special Infected:
- When killing her, in that location will be no special quotes said by the characters when they impale a Special Infected, nor when she attacks them there will exist no quotes said that relate to her when the character is incapacitated, although they have quotes when she is chasing them.
- At that place is no "Witch incapacitated "Player proper noun" when she gets someone, although when she is startled it will say "Thespian name" startled the Witch." to all of the players.
- When using melee weapons on Special Infected, they deal 500 impairment on them. When using it on a Witch it only deals one-half the damage it should have done on her (250), but this is more than probable for balancing reasons, as a actor could hands kill a Wandering Witch without the fear of taking harm.
If a Witch is bile bombed, she may freeze upward putting her arms in front of her and glide towards the responsible Survivor.
If a Survivor Bot accidentally attacks a Wandering Witch, they volition scream in hurting but will not be startled.
Witches seem to be capable of determining their startler even if the team is close to each other. They are also able to determine who startled them through explosives or fire even if a wall is between them and the startler. This may be for gameplay purposes since if the Witch thought a group of Survivors startled them she would easily defeat the team with little difficulty.
Very rarely, a glitch tin can occur where the Witch will infinitely stumble if she is hit with a grenade launcher or pipe bomb^[iii]
If a Witch is striking with an explosion on a local server, she will scream and disappear.^[four]
The Wandering Witch can "dart" while in her idle land either forwards or backward. It often happens if a Wandering Witch comes in contact with another Wandering Witch.^[v]
If a Witch is spawned at the door in The Barns in Dark Carnival, closing the door on her will immediately startle her.

Trivia

The Witch is voiced by Ellen McLain, who is best known for the roles of GLaDOS and Turrets in the Portal series.
Near no campaigns in Left four Dead are set in the daytime, so the Witch wasn't seen at that fourth dimension of day, meaning Witches could perchance wander from the start. Chronologically the first wandering witch was the i on The Sacrifice comic, with Louis and Francis acting as they have already seen the wandering Witch behavior and knowing well how to bargain with information technology.
- The but occasions where a Witch volition be sitting downward and crying during the daytime is on the finales of both Dead Heart and Swamp Fever, and in The Sacrifice. In the former, this is presumably because Witches aren't naturally coded to spawn in these levels and and so the Witch Encroacher may exist the default variant rather than the Wandering Witch. In the latter, it could be due to balancing and consistency betwixt Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead ii.
- Through the use of server mods in L4D2 on the PC, the Witch can go playable but merely if she spawns on the map. How to tell if the Witch Command mod is active is if the Witch is sitting downwardly crying despite the campaign being in daylight.
Rarely, there has been times where the Witch has been startled past an Infected. This may have been a result of a glitch or exploit.
- One method, playing as an infected, was clawing the stunned Witch which causes her to chase the Infected who clawed her. Later killing the assaulter, she will just sit back to idle.
In Left iv Dead, when the Witch dies, her eyes notwithstanding glow. In Left 4 Dead 2, when she dies, her eyes go closed. Technically, her eyes are even so open, but the texture on the eyeballs have the same color equally her skin.
It is possible that the Witch herself is responsible for her state of undress. The bottom of her shirt has been shredded and the Bride Witch's wedding gown sports long, vicious gashes (equally if information technology had been clawed at), exposing most of her legs. The Witch may observe article of clothing to be restrictive or uncomfortable and has attempted to remove them herself, similar to the Hunter in Left 4 Dead ii.
The Left 4 Dead 2 survivors commonly call her "Bitch" when calling out a witch.
In Left 4 Dead ii, some of the Witch'southward animations are dissimilar; including her running, about-to-maul, mauling and decease animations.^[6]
According to an interview with Chet Faliszek,^[7] the Witch manifestly enjoys the scent of sugar, which explains why there is a Witch-infested manufactory in Difficult Rain.
- Despite this, Autobus sometimes suggests that the rain is what brings out and so many Witches. This is probably considering he did not suspect that the sugar was the cause. The survivors will sometimes feel heavy rain during the first affiliate of the Passing entrada, despite only i witch ever spawning during that chapter, which reinforces the notion that the odor of the saccharide is what attracts so many witches during the Hard Pelting campaign.
Although a Witch spawning in a finale is highly unlikely, it volition happen when the Managing director is feeling particularly sadistic. However, it volition never be a Wandering Witch (The Parish finale has no spawning indicate for a Witch, along with that players doing information technology on Expert would probably shoot the Infected, hit the Witch too, and one in the Dead Center, Dark Funfair, and Swamp Fever finales will exist sitting downward).
Even though Witches don't have any concrete features that prove their force, in that location's no question that she is the strongest Infected in the game. Though a Tank could deal a large chunk of damage on Expert difficulty, the Witch tin can instantly impale a Survivor, pregnant Survivors could live after existence punched, only not beingness slashed by a Witch. This may be due to the method of assault, equally the puncturing effect of the Witch's claws would likely cause far greater internal damage than the blunt trauma inflicted by the Tank's fists. Nonetheless, the Witch can accept the second-highest amount of damage; the Tank has the highest, which is quite odd considering of the Witch'due south fragile size.
- The Witch's high health may be for gameplay purposes, to bear witness that even though she looks frail and easy to impale, she's actually i of the worst Infected that you tin encounter.
The Witch is the only Infected that fights confronting the attacking Mutual when covered with Boomer bile from the bomb. All the other Special Infected simply wait until they're dead or the Common stop attacking, simply the Witch kills all in her style to get the one who has thrown the bile bomb at her, quite literally plowing through Common Infected from all sides whilst a Tank simply pounds the unlucky zombie standing in front of him.
The Witch's cry has often been used in many TV shows and songs such as: Video on Trial, Ghost Adventures, the Take chances Time episode "The Enchiridion", Team Fortress 2's Halloween title vocal, and 1000 Ways to Die'south "Unintended".
- She too makes cameo appearances in Payday: The Heist and Payday 2.
In Dead Rising 2: Case Westward, there is a reference to the Witch. In the tunnels, in that location is "Safe Room Graffiti" written in blood that reads "Don't Startle the Witch!" with a manus-print adjacent to it and crying tin can exist heard when near the area. A video of the Easter Egg/Reference tin exist seen here.
In the Left four Dead demo, a well-known glitch was her ability to exist startled by, and attack, other Special Infected, as evidenced past a video from the demo showing her attacking a Tank, though the Tank instantly killed her. This glitch was fixed when the game was officially released. However, the Witch may all the same assail any Infected in her way if they are blocking her route to a Survivor who aggravated her.
A Witch can kill Smokers, Hunters and Jockeys in 3 hits, Boomers and Spitters in 1 hit, and 5 hits for the charger.

A Witch can be noticed running on this image

As of the November 19th, 2010 update, the Left four Dead 2 Witch now has an aura outline for the Infected team in Versus modes.
If the Director notices that the players are having an easier time killing the Witch, it may spawn more Witches than usual. These Witches may also exist in shut proximity to each other.
In the starting condom room of the Church, there is also a graffiti indicated a single Witch had killed 10 Survivors at once.
- By in-game mechanics, it is rare but non impossible for a single Witch to impale an entire team in Expert difficulty or in Realism mode, by having the entire team standing in a tight manner such as a railroad train car, or equipping the entire team with incendiary armament (L4D2 only).
Every bit of the The Terminal Stand Community Update, the Left 4 Dead 2 Witch received an update to her maul-assault animation, making the animation smoother and to loop amend. It likewise causes her to damage incapacitated survivors faster, similar to the first Left 4 Dead.
The Bride Witch's music that plays when she'south close sounds a lot different then either the Wandering or the Stationary Witch, if you listen closely, "Here Comes the Helpmate" tin exist faintly heard, which is commonly played at weddings.

External Links

The Witch's "Bacteria"

Gallery

See epitome annal for more images…

References

↑ http://www.l4d.com/comic/comic.php?folio=78
↑ Developer Commentary in The Sewer
↑ https://youtu.exist/16uRDy2tiis at 8:ten
↑ https://youtu.exist/WvtBeYD6i24 at 2:10
↑ https://youtu.be/tpPMrXkB-RQ at 0:55
↑ Left iv Expressionless 2 Demo - Don't Startle the Witch
↑ Left iv Dead 2 Hard Rain Interview past GameSpot

The Infected
Playable
Introduced in Left 4 Dead				Introduced in Left 4 Dead 2

The Boomer	The Hunter	The Smoker	The Tank	The Charger	The Jockey	The Spitter
Non-Playable
Introduced in Left 4 Dead				Introduced in Left 4 Dead 2		Cutting Infected

The Witch		Common Infected		Uncommon Infected		The Screamer