Hardcore challenges in video games are few and far between these days, so the Nightmare difficulty in Back 4 Blood is a welcome option that will give even the most seasoned players a challenge to constantly sink their teeth into. After a few failed attempts, though, you may start to feel hopeless and lost.
Improving your aim and reaction time will come naturally, but there's a good chance you're simply missing some piece of critical information. If you're determined to push past the obstacles that have been frustrating you, discovering and sharing this information with your teammates could make all the difference.
10 Don't Go In Blind
Nightmare will be more a test of your knowledge and mastery of each chapter, more so than your general skill, so don't even think about going into a chapter blind on this difficulty. Get a feel for each chapter on the easier difficulties beforehand: when Ogres are scripted to appear, where loot can spawn, which events spawn endless hordes of Ridden, and so forth.
You'll probably end up doing this naturally over the course of unlocking more cards for your deck, so this is more of a fair warning towards masochistic players than anything else. A blind Nightmare run definitely makes for a hardcore challenge that'll gain you some notoriety, but don't say we didn't warn you.
9 Coordinate Your Decks
When each player in the squad dedicates themselves to specific roles for the entire run, the path to victory becomes much more streamlined. For example, one gun specialist, one melee specialist, one explosive specialist, and one support specialist. Plan out your strategies with your teammates for as long as you need, including outside the game itself, and build your decks accordingly.
The first card in your deck is always a guaranteed draw at the start of a fresh run, so everybody's first card should be tailor-picked for giving your squad the biggest early advantages possible. Finding extra copper in the first chapter is great, but all four players running that same starting card is probably overkill and comes at the expense of direct offense and defense.
8 Share Everything - Ammo, Items, Copper, etc
Each player starts with several stacks of each ammo type and some copper, so pool your resources together. Depending on your characters and cards, ammo can start to dry up real fast, especially if anyone relies on their primary weapon for killing common Ridden. Get comfortable with opening your inventory and dropping ammo for them.
As you come across ground loot, make sure you call out everything you find to your teammates, even if you're picking it up yourself. When the whole team knows how many resources like grenades and bandages the squad possesses collectively, they can make riskier and more aggressive plays than they could otherwise.
7 Be Very, Very Patient
Unlike Left 4 Dead, Back 4 Blood doesn't regularly spawn hordes of common zombies as an anti-stalling tactic, so you can afford to take it slow. Almost every horde is triggered manually via Snitchers, birds, car alarms, and scripted events. Also, a wall-clinging Sleeper may pounce you around any corner you don't carefully check.
If anyone has copper to spare for something useful in the saferoom vendor, the trip back is usually worth it. For example, in chapter one of Evansburg, someone should run back to the saferoom and buy a Tool Kit to open the Loot Closet immediately to the left of the construction site entrance.
6 Have A Plan For Snitchers
You can't rely on simply walking past every Snitcher in your path. Any non-scripted horde is a potential run-ender, so it's absolutely essential to recognize every option for eliminating a Snitcher in any given situation.
Melee strikes will stagger them, but without certain cards, you may run out of stamina before they go down and will need coordinated supporting fire from your team. Explosives also instantly take them out. If neither of those options are available, you can shoot bullets next to them to draw them away with the sound, or just have one player give a countdown to signal the entire squad unloading on it simultaneously.
5 Kill Tallboys With Explosives, Not Bullets
Tallboys' attacks are nearly impossible to dodge, and they deal significant Trauma. The moment someone spots a Tallboy, everyone needs to get out of his way, and someone should immediately prepare either a frag grenade or a propane tank. Even if he doesn't die instantly, the explosion will at least stagger him long enough for everyone to lay into his weak spot before he can get an attack off.
Crushers are less durable than Bruisers and can be focused down with gunfire, but whoever he's targeting won't have the luxury of aiming down sights. A dashing Crusher is just as fast as a sprinting Cleaner and will relentlessly chase you until the rest of your squad dispatches him, so eliminating the Crusher with an explosive before that chase can begin is still preferable.
4 Save Copper For Restoring Trauma
The permanent damage that persists between chapters is no joke, and no healing item that you can hold in your inventory can restore it. Med cabinets on walls are the only means of restoring Trauma, and each use costs 400 copper, so don't blow everything you have on ammo and grenades.
Loot closets and the saferooms of specific chapters (like Evansburgh one to four) are the only guaranteed places to find Med Cabinets, but some have a random chance of appearing in specific locations. Also, if anyone is short on copper for a heal, remember that you can drop copper from your inventory in increments of 100 for teammates.
3 Don't Leave A Single Loot Closet Locked
Loot Closets are simply too valuable to pass up, if for no other reason than the Med Cabinet. The weapons, attachments, ammo, and free cards are just great. They're programmed to only appear in a handful of places, too, so you won't have to go out of your way to find one.
The odds of a Loot Closet appearing in a chapter are very high, so make sure someone holds onto at least one Tool Kit. Don't bank on finding a random Tool Kit as ground loot, either. For just 350 copper, someone will get access to a weapon that would have cost them much more from the saferoom vendor otherwise. Plus, some copper piles will always be in there to help make up the cost.
2 Let Zombies Break Alarm Doors
Don't bother wasting a Tool Kit just to open a door without triggering a horde. Any nearby aggravated enemies on the other side will eventually break them down for you. This was a deliberate design decision, not an exploit or an oversight. Otherwise, AI enemies could just summon hordes against you through no fault of your own.
If you don't see any common Ridden nearby, try shooting the walls around and above you. If any gunfire gets close to or hits a zombie, that zombie is now well and truly annoyed, and will home in on your position. It may take a few attempts for your bullets to find a zombie, but keep trying. The alternative of fighting a horde is far worse.
1 Kill. The. Birds.
Yes, you can just kill them. There's about a two-second grace period between the birds being startled and the horde being alerted, so if you have the means to deal with an inconveniently-placed flock, just get rid of them before a teammate ruins the whole run.
Incinerating them with well-placed molotov is the most reliable method. Make sure it's directly in the center, though, or a straggler might escape. Tossing a gas canister nearby doesn't do the trick for this reason. A frag grenade can work too, but only with upgraded explosive damage. As a last resort, the whole team shooting at once coordinated by a countdown works, but everyone needs some accurate upward tracking as they fly away.