Speed leveling in Killing Floor

In Killing Floor I want to speed level some perks in order to play the higher difficulties.

What is a good strategy for quickly leveling perks that gain experience through damage? The perks I'm talking about are Support Specialist, Berserker, Firebug, and Demolitions. Most of mine are at level 2 now, so I'd like to know what game length and difficulty is best for leveling now and as my class level goes up.

I also realize that the Support Specialist, Berserker, Firebug, and Demolitions all do damage in very different ways. Are there any any maps and mutations that best help level any of these classes in particular?

What is a good strategy for quickly leveling perks that gain experience through damage? The perks I'm talking about are Support Specialist, Berserker, Firebug, and Demolitions.

Don't play single-player please. It's not very fun, and you will not learn from other people. Most of these tips to follow, I've gained through watching other people play. The best advice I can give you is to find out what your perk specializes in and do that. Don't do things your perk is not great at :)

Support Specialist

• Weld doors if your team holes up somewhere.
• Aim for the head. Shotguns penetrate through several enemies much easier if you aim for the head instead of the chest.
• Crouch when you see crawlers (everyone hates those nasty little turds)
• Don't buy armor/grenades/pistol ammo for the first 4-5 waves in order to save up for an AA12. This is good advice for other classes too.

Berserker

• If your team holes up somewhere, you should be at the front, soaking in the damage. Everything should attack you first. You should get a decent medic (get a mic and use it, it makes life much easier)
• You can stun certain enemies, especially scrakes. This is important -- read up on kf-wiki.com how to do it.
• Learn to know when you're getting screwed. You move fast as a zerker so you can run away -- just be sure to run away before being really screwed :)

Firebug

• Religiously leave "big" things like scrakes and fleshpounds to other perks. Just run away :)
• Watch when your friendlies are getting screwed and unload your whole canister into them. Demolition players especially will love you if you help them out when they're screwed and overran by small things.
• Don't annoy your team with flames -- it really makes it hard to aim and it blurs everyone's vision. Stand away from friendlies (pick an "entrance" to your camping spot and cover it on your own, or use the MAC10)
• You make a ton of money as firebug -- spread the love. No use dying rich :)

Demolition

• This one is tough -- leave it for later if you can. It's expensive and somewhat hard to play.
• Always stay behind friendlies -- you have very little "close quarter" killing abilities.
• It's best if your team camps in a spot. Stand on top of a car or gain elevation in any way, and then shoot for clumps of small things.
• Use the M79 (single-shot) as primary, and leave M32 for when your team faces a scrake/fleshpound.

General advice :)

• Use a microphone, even if just for yelling out "scrake" or "fleshpound" or "need help please"
• Ask for how much money you need, not that you need money. You're way more likely to get money if you say how much you want.
• Stick to your team :)
• Look for weapons to sell -- most of your "advanced" weapons cost a lot of money, so save like a scrooge.
• Learn how to kite a lot of enemies -- if you're screwed, cut your way out, and run like a .. female canine. Then, let them follow you, and pick 'em off one by one.
• Look at how other people are using a perk. Most of the advice above is from seeing what other people do and doing it myself. I've got most classes to 5 or 6, so I've picked up a bunch of tricks from people.

Enjoy yourself! Don't worry too much about playing on other difficulties, you'll get there eventually. Have fun with where you are.

If you don't feel like wasting time going out of your way to farm experience instead of doing the best thing for your team, you can use memory editing or Steam Achievement Manager to give yourself higher level perks.

With Steam Achievement Manager, choose Killing Floor from the list of games, go to the Statistics tab and check the "I understand by modifying blah-blah et cetera" box, then set the following fields to whatever you like: Damage Healder (Field Medic), Welding Points (Support), Shotgun Damage (Support), Sniper Headshot Kills (Sharpshooter), Stalkers Killed (Commando), Bullpup Damage (Commando), Melee Damage (Berserker), Flame Thrower Damage (Firebug). Values required for level 6 are listed below.

The other option is to use memory editing. My memory editor of choice is ArtMoney (has a free version that is perfectly sufficient for this, has no time limit and doesn't go out of its way to annoy the user), but you can use CheatEngine (free) or something else entirely.

All perks can be easily earned in a solo game (as KF is a VAC-capable game, using memory editing while playing on a server is likely a bad idea). In this example I'm going to assume you want to level Demolition.

1. Start a match, on the perk screen note how much explosive damage you have, switch to ArtMoney and Search for that exact number.
2. Go back to KF and do the appropriate action to increase that number (in this example, damage something with a grenade), hit Escape to bring up the perk menu, note the new number, switch to ArtMoney and Filter for the new number.
3. If you have 1 result, edit it to something like 6 million, then switch back and do the appropriate action again - instant level 6. If you got more than 1 result, repeat step 2, if you got 0 results start over from step 1.

Running KF in windowed mode will help you to quickly switch between the game and ArtMoney, you can turn windowed mode on and off by hitting Alt+Enter.

To level Field Medic this way, you will need to download a test map that has bots that can be healed, this one does the job.

The following values are needed for level 6 on different perks:

• Damage with X weapons: 5500000
• Damage healed: 100000
• Weld points: 370000
• Headshot kills: 8500
• Stalker kills: 3600

From what I can tell, the easiest way to level is play a Solo game on Beginner mode. Not only do you start off with more money, but you get more money per kill.

This lets you buy the more powerful weapons more quickly, which you can use to take down the harder enemies, such as Fleshpounds.

The only problem is that waves have less mutants when you have less players.

From what I've seen, each difficulty is geared towards specific perk levels. Beginner is geared at level 0-1, Normal at 2-3, Hard at 4, Suicidal at 5, and Hell on Earth at 6. The only problem is that even low-level enemies even on Normal can back you into a corner in Solo mode, with no other players to back you up.

Here are few tips for really fast leveling without hexedit:

Play in solo-mode and use Faked Players mutator. Set Faked Players amount as 40 and start the game.

I would recommend leveling your sharpshooter first to level 6. Once you do that you can always start the map with Sharpshooter spawning with xbow (worth 600 once you'll sell it).

SHARPSHOOTER

You should use beginner level because you only need headshots. When you use faked players mutator (40) you should get around 600 zeds during the first wave. That's pretty ok. Just use your 9 mm and make decent headshots. Run around and find ammo (which you'll find plenty in beginner level). MountainPass is a good map for leveling Sharpshooter.

BERSERKER

Play in solo mode (normal) with faked players (40). Download DOOMed map and use it. In DOOMed map there's chainsaw hidden inside truck. Find it and use it against 800 zeds. Just find a narrow corridor. Once you die or complete wave 1, just restart the map again. This way you can get 1M damage / hour. So after 6 hours or so you'll have lv 6 berserker. Warning, this is boring as hell and will not make you a better zerk!

SUPPORT

Once you have sharshooter in lv 6 start playing support specialist. Forget solo mode and start playing with other people. Always start with sharpshooter. After first wave sell xbow and change to support perk. Buy shotgun. Use maps with narrow corridors (like biotics, offices etc.). Save money and do not buy vest. Try not to die. Play in normal mode, do not use beginner, because there are not enough zeds and you don't get decent damage from killing them. Once you have money for AA12, sell shotgun and buy AA12. Save money. Once you have more money, buy Hunting Shotgun. Once you have Hunting and AA12, buy vest.

For fast support leveling use just shotgun (shotgun, AA12, Hunting). Eventhough you run out of ammo fast. Do not save ammo. Go for every kill! Try to get as many zeds in line as possible and then take them down. Use mainly AA12, once too many zeds too close, clear them with AA12. Use both barrels for Scraces and Fleshpounds.

Practise using testmap6 (downloadable). Practise against sc and fp.

FIREBUG

Firebug leveling used to be very easy when weapons did not disappear between waves. You just used to buy 5 flames or so xD. Now it's a bit more difficult. In EvilSanta's Lair there is a spot where zeds can't reach you. Choose firebug and go to this place (once you'll have the firebug guns flame and mac10). This is boring as hell.

COMMANDO

Play with others. Try to enjoy the game. When playing other perks you can carry ak47 or pullpup to kill stalkers to help leveling commando.

MEDIC

Host a game and ask your friend to join. Collect money during the first wave. Change to medic and buy MP5 and MP7. At the end of wave 2 leave 1 - 2 easy zeds and let your friend take all the damage. Heal your friend with mp5 and mp7.

When playing in public servers, just heal others even if you're not playing medic. You'll notice how fast medic level will increase.