Crawlers, serously. WTF?

[Top Secret]

I'm not exactly sure what the statistical break-down is, but I seem to die from Crawlers more than anything else in this game. When everything goes to hell, it's the swarm of Crawlers that have me pinned in the corner that do me in. Whenever I see a Fleshpound, or a Scrake, I casually pull out my AA12 or my crossbow or what have you (assuming I didn't have a pipebomb already in place) and swiftly deal with them.

But what happens when both my guns are in need of reloading, and I find myself without grenades? Crawlers. Everywhere. Coming out of every hole in the ceiling (literally) and around every corner.

God damn.

Awesome game, BTW.

I have two level 3's (Commando/Demo), three level 4's (Firebug, Bezerker, Medic) and 2 level 5's (Support/Sharpshooter).

 

[9_6]

Indeed.
Those are the most dangerous enemies in the game.
Especially if everyone ignores them because they have to shoot that fleshpound with their 9mm.
And they're easy to ignore because they're so small.

 

[Deafmute]

As a Commando, my top priorities are always Sirens and Crawlers. Always.

 

[nath2009uk]

O rly?
I have no problems with them, normally a single 9mm can take them out in the right place.

 

[mamoo]

Crawlers have a faster attack that other specimens and their jump attack makes them the ones to attack first. That's why they seem to get all the kills.

 

[DrNasty]

I always get killed by Sirens and Crawlers. There are always more Crawlers than Sirens, though, so they can be more dangerous.

 

[driftwood]

I thought the exact same thing at first, and remarked on it all the time. I think on Normal difficulty they seem to be more threatening than other difficulties.

Crawlers kill people because they think they can outrun them. But they don't do as much damage as gorefast or stalker, regardless of your situation you really need to spend a precious second killing them even if you are trying to flee.

I think Gorefasts take their place on hard/suicidal, been so numerous, fast, high damaging and inconsistently impervious to shotgun blasts.

Anyway back to crawlers. A single 9mm does not kill them, if you are aiming at their pea sized head you are wasting time. I find the hand cannon is the best way to deal with them, because its 1 shot 1 kill regardless of where you hit them (compare this to using hand cannon against gorefasts). If there's a whole squad of crawlers and I have dualies its amazing how fast I'll put them down.

What does occasionally happen is crawlers spawn above you, drop down and get a lucky surround against you. On hard you could have full health but you will generally be dead by the time you switch to the appropriate weapon. Its quite unfair and worth walking around known crawler-drop-down spots.

 

[Anemia]

I thought the exact same thing at first, and remarked on it all the time. I think on Normal difficulty they seem to be more threatening than other difficulties.

Crawlers kill people because they think they can outrun them. But they don't do as much damage as gorefast or stalker, regardless of your situation you really need to spend a precious second killing them even if you are trying to flee.

I think Gorefasts take their place on hard/suicidal, been so numerous, fast, high damaging and inconsistently impervious to shotgun blasts.

Anyway back to crawlers. A single 9mm does not kill them, if you are aiming at their pea sized head you are wasting time. I find the hand cannon is the best way to deal with them, because its 1 shot 1 kill regardless of where you hit them (compare this to using hand cannon against gorefasts). If there's a whole squad of crawlers and I have dualies its amazing how fast I'll put them down.

What does occasionally happen is crawlers spawn above you, drop down and get a lucky surround against you. On hard you could have full health but you will generally be dead by the time you switch to the appropriate weapon. Its quite unfair and worth walking around known crawler-drop-down spots.

This! Crawlers are nothing but annoying and can be a pain in the *** with 200+ ping. But as you say on suicidal crawlers are not much of a problems, with gorefasts who can kill you in 2 hits (combohits) you've got worse problems.

 

[Nibe]

I thought the exact same thing at first, and remarked on it all the time. I think on Normal difficulty they seem to be more threatening than other difficulties.

Crawlers kill people because they think they can outrun them. But they don't do as much damage as gorefast or stalker, regardless of your situation you really need to spend a precious second killing them even if you are trying to flee.

I think Gorefasts take their place on hard/suicidal, been so numerous, fast, high damaging and inconsistently impervious to shotgun blasts.

Anyway back to crawlers. A single 9mm does not kill them, if you are aiming at their pea sized head you are wasting time. I find the hand cannon is the best way to deal with them, because its 1 shot 1 kill regardless of where you hit them (compare this to using hand cannon against gorefasts). If there's a whole squad of crawlers and I have dualies its amazing how fast I'll put them down.

What does occasionally happen is crawlers spawn above you, drop down and get a lucky surround against you. On hard you could have full health but you will generally be dead by the time you switch to the appropriate weapon. Its quite unfair and worth walking around known crawler-drop-down spots.

You can hear crawlers spawning noises. they are making that hissing sounds and after that they are jumping out of every possible hole in the map.

 

[DarkFenix]

Yeah crawlers are significantly more threat than a great many larger zombies, simply because they're fast, hard to hit up close, spawn in packs and do quite respectable damage on higher difficulties.

Crawlers are definitely one of my higher priorities in any situation they might end up attacking me.

 

[DrNasty]

Also, because they're short and black, you either don't see them in the shadows, or they're too short to see when you're aiming at a usual level.

 

[-[SiN]-bswearer]

crawlers are definitely the biggest pains in the ***. 1 shot with any weapon will kill them, but they come in swarms, they have a low profile, are tough to spot wo/commando in dark places, and sometimes they'll leap a lot farther than you thought they would.

as sharpshooter and commando i always go for them first.

 

[Crusher]

that's why being commando is fun, you mostly see them and one shot of the scar always kills them in Hard.

 

[Marls]

My no.1 enemy as a beserker. If you have the spare time or space, you can trick them into leaping and falling short, then stepping in and meleeing them before they can leap again.

But I always take those suckers out first.

 

[outofrealman]

The main problem of crawlers is the are FAST IMO.
If they are close enough, you cannot run away from them as they keep leaping on you, they keep hitting your back when you trying to run away from other specimens. In suicidal, if you are not carrying a knife and not being a medic, they are FASTER THEN YOU even they are just walking!

You need 4 hits of 9mm to kill one on suicidal, I always found them annoying as they spawn 5-6 together, and 9mm needs a year to kill them all.

So for now, I camp at their spawn point and try to kill some of them right after the wave starts, but I still found them near the end of the wave... it seems you will never kill them all...

 

[Blackhandsaint]

Yeah, crawlers can be a real annoyance if they get out of hand. The problem for me is that since they're so low to the ground they can often use other zeds for cover while they advance. However, since they're pretty fast, they will usually outpace their fellows and I can get a few shots off on them.

 

[Das Bose]

Hehe this was clearly the intention and it seems to be working very well. They're weak, but ignore them for a second and they're all over you

 

[Impagliazzo]

Hehe this was clearly the intention and it seems to be working very well. They're weak, but ignore them for a second and they're all over you

Just like spiders.

 

[allan]

I used to also have this problem, but now I seem to always remember to reload =D. Or I get my knife and crouch and just knife them, but most of the time I am with a teammate and they cover me while i reload.

 

[Nanostrike]

Once it moves onwards to Hard/Suicidal, Gorefasts do more damage, move almost as fast, and can take far more hits than Crawlers, so they kinda replace them

But Crawlers are nothing to sneeze at. With armor, they barely scratch you, but without armor, but on Hard they can do ~20 damage in a single hit with their leap attack...THEN immediately attack you again with a ~10 damage bite the second they hit the ground. Multiply that by 3 or 4 crawlers, add-in the fact that if you're without armor, you might not be in the best of health and...'X has been eaten by a Crawler' is common...

The anti-crawers are Commandos (Especially with the SCAR or AK), Firebugs (They last about .1 seconds in flames) and Sharpshooters (With the Lever Action or M-14), as they can pick them off with a single shot and still have ammo in the gun to pick off a second, third, fourth, ect...

They're most effective against Supports (Shotguns have terrible firing rates against them and 1 shell/1 crawler is a bad ammo tradeoff!), Demomen (If they get close), and Berserkers (Especially if they don't have any room to dodge their leaps)

They, in addition to Husks and Sirens, are one of the 'Deadly 3' that can hit a player at a full-run without problems...