Left 4 Dead: The Health Kit Bonus Myth Revealed
May 24th, 2009 . by Joe Connors . Tweet This!
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To use it or not to use it?
One of the most misunderstood and frequent questions players ask or get confused about, is whether or not using health kits before entering a safe room increases your score. Well, your good buddies here at SHR! are here to help you. Hit the jump to find out the truth behind the health kit myth, with video evidence.
Myth #1 – Using your health kit before entering the safe room gives you more points.
False, but with an exception.
The exception being, If one player is lower on health, but has no health kit of their own, and you heal that person with your health kit. That is the only time you will get more points by using a health kit before entering the safe room. In other words, if all 4 players have their kits, just get in the room and close the damn door.
Myth #2 – Unused health kits give you more points. (or a “bonus”)
False.
The simplest explanation: You begin the game with 200 total score. If everyone just ran to the end of the level and shut the door, your score before multipliers is, you guessed it, 200. Health kits or no health kits. The vid below (not made by me) shows a nice demonstration of both points, for those who still believe.
If #2 were true, the first run would have scored higher.
In summary, you definitely want to hold off on using your health kit as long as possible, but if you get really hurt or worse yet go black and white, don’t get conned into trying to limp into the safe room by some “expert” claiming you’ll get more score. Heal up and get your ass in there before you cost the team a lot more points by getting incapped near the safe room and giving the infected another chance to take you out.
I hope this has solved your L4D mystery regarding health kits and bonus score. For more Left 4 Dead tips, read Trevelyan’s 12 Tips For L4D versus.
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Posted in Console, Features, Gaming, PC | Tagged With: bonus score • health kit • left 4 dead • myth • Versus
Works for me. It does still bring in a strategy however, if you’re (over) confident: if you are limping but not knocked down, you SHOULD hold off on healing up and try to make it to the safe room, because if you heal early you can take a few hits, and lose many points as a result.
Take the same hits and be in the red (like in the vid) and you’ll keep the points up from having the kit on your back.
May 25th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Hah, I’ve wondered often about this. Thanks for the clarification.
May 25th, 2009 at 10:04 am
You are welcome, as I wondered too, hence the research. I sadly spent about 4 hours on it, as there was a lot of debate with little proof.
May 25th, 2009 at 3:40 pm
[...] “Hurry up and heal before I close the door, you get more points!!!1!” How many times have you hear that at the end of the versus round in Left 4 Dead? I know! If I had I dollar for every time… I’d have half the price of the game. But does it actually DO anything? Well, Loco spent many hours and Soco’s to find out, and he was kind enough to write it down. Click here! [...]
June 12th, 2009 at 10:30 am