• Please make sure you are familiar with the forum rules. You can find them here: https://forums.tripwireinteractive.com/index.php?threads/forum-rules.2334636/

Tactics How to kill scrakes/fleshpounds as firebug?

Carl Gustav

Grizzled Veteran
Dec 16, 2010
152
216
So yesterday i was playing bioticslabs on hard, wave 10, 2 fleshpounds came in and killed 3/6 of us, 3 (including me) retreated make a hold somewhere else. When there were 50 zeds left, my team mates got killed by 3 husks ( i'm a firebug so im immune). I started running around biotics lab panicking, then met a scrake and you know what happened next.

Any tips for beating bigger zeds as firebugs, i know it ain't my job but there are moments when you have to kill that scrake/fleshpound.

And any off-perk weapon i could use for them?
 
You can Kite the FP. Shoot him once or twice with the Mac10 to get him burning, then pull back to break his LOS, after the burn stops, repeat. It takes a while, but it works.

Not to sure about the Scrake, but I and others have emplied the Mac10 on him, and then switched to the Flame Thrower when he starts to charge, just keep moving backwards as you are flaming him. Does not work every time, but more often than not.

The test map is a good way to practice.


http://www.2shared.com/file/2cBMgBzX/KF-Testmap1pV21.html




Good luck, and have fun.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Now that you mention it, what are the exact mechanics of the panic dance? Is the time it takes for them to start flailing based on damage dealt by flames over a specific time, or is it based on just how long they'e been set on fire?

It's time based. Continually barraging a scrake with flame won't make him panic any faster.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Aze
Upvote 0
There is a way I've found for Scrakes in direct conflict... but it is by no means a sure fire way to kill a Scrake everytime, as it kinda hinges on a 25% chance of the Scrake reacting incorrectly and ripping your face off :)

1) First pip him on fire with 3 short bursts about 1 second apart.

2) After those 3 hose him for as long as you can, in theory he should crisp during this, stunning him and buying you an extra 2 seconds to keep spraying.

3) Once he gets pretty close swap to a Katana (if the Scrake retreats or starts walking keep the Katana out, as he will probably start running at you again). Smack the Scrake in the face just as he is about to hit you.

4) The Katana will make the Scrake flinch, buying you an extra second. Swap back to your flamthrower, crouch infront of him and point at him chest and spray until he is dead

If everything went smoothly they usually die having either not hit you at all or doing about 20 points of damage to armour. Without armour its about 40 points of life at worst.

If everything didn't go smoothly you will probably have lost 50-70 points of armour. WIthout armour you'll be too dead to care.

I'll see if I can get a video sorted :)
 
Upvote 0
Katana flinch works only once on Sui/HoE and, as I noticed, doesn't work if Scrake was stunned before. Katana flinch is good for killing SC as Commando (make headshots until he's raging, then flinch with katana and empty SCAR's magazine into his head), but not so effective while playing Firebug, because flinching time is not enough to burn down SC without taking damage.
I recommend to set Scrake on fire with mac10, wait until he starts his "burn-dance" and spam flamer on him until he dies. This requires a lot of fuel (100-120 as level 6 FB on 6p HoE) but if used at medium/long range, kills Scrake without any damage taken. Two firebugs can just spam flamer at Scrake and burn down Scrake very fast. But it requires to stockpile flamers on later waves.
Anyway, it is better to leave big zeds for other perks.
 
Upvote 0
I'd like to cut in and ask. Is there a damage bonus to crisped targets as I read off from somewhere? If so how much? I lurked around the forums and downloaded weapon and zed stats pdf too. Didn't see anything mentions it. Care to enlighten me someone?

Nope, there isn't. There was some forum post around here that called firebugs a damage multiplier, so some people got the impression that firebugs gave damage bonuses when stuff was on fire even though the original poster meant it in another way.
 
Upvote 0
you don't kill scrakes with firebug....
He knows that. Ideally, Firebug shouldn't be shooting anywhere near a Scrake (unless it's part of a plan to make a a Scrake do panic dance to give the rest of the team an opening). However, he wasn't talking about an ideal solution.

Any tips for beating bigger zeds as firebugs, i know it ain't my job but there are moments when you have to kill that scrake/fleshpound.



And since we're on this tack, what is the time for when a specimen gets lit and starts to do the panic dance? I'm assuming the time is the same for both Mac-10 and flamethrower.
 
Upvote 0
And since we're on this tack, what is the time for when a specimen gets lit and starts to do the panic dance? I'm assuming the time is the same for both Mac-10 and flamethrower.

Panic time varies between specimens. Weaker ones panic within 1 or 2 seconds. Scrakes and fleshpounds panic after 6.
 
Upvote 0
This thread, and the tactics mentioned within, are quite interesting to me. On Hard difficulty, I've found that the FP is remarkably unimpressed by the flamethrower, and, it seemed the Scrake wasn't exactly losing too much sleep about it, either. In the past, on Normal, the situation seemed only marginally better. Now, I knew the likely outcome even before these situations would arise, but sometimes these two just won't take "no" for an answer. Things would get colorful. However, it seems the tactics mentioned within this thread would indicate some chance of successfully surviving these encounters, after all.

While I tried to make this point in another thread, (but didn't explain myself sufficiently at the time), as a 'Bug, if you're carrying both signature weapons, the MAC-10 and the FT, (and, of course, this is all you can carry), trying to solo a FP if he gets affectionate isn't likely to end well.

Certainly, I realize you don't deliberately try and do this, but, as the OP mentioned, if you get isolated, or, are the last player standing, you've really no choice, unless you can quickly ditch your weapons for something more effective. So, it would seem the logical conclusion to be drawn from this is quite simple; don't simultaneously carry the FT and the MAC-10. I'm thinking that most of the elite 'Bugs that populate the Forum predate the introduction of the MAC-10, and, as such, wouldn't ever think to carry both.

OK, so the katana was mentioned as an alternative. Any other recommended weapon combinations for a Firebug in terms of specifically dealing with Scrakes and Fleshpounds? (For emergencies only, of course.) If I may ask, what are some of the premier 'Bugs carrying into battle?
 
Upvote 0
As someone who isn't even close to being considered an elite firebug, I'll say that the handcannon provides quite a bit of a punch at all ranges. If you were purely going for scrakes I suppose you could pack duals just to unload sixteen rounds into their face.

For fleshpounds, you could kite with fire - though this takes much longer than you'd think. Alternatively a handcannon or katana. An upside of the katana, is that you can carry a couple of pipes with it and your flamer for some more 'boom' and ten less minutes of kiting.

Some numbers I looked at afterwards..
Scrake head health 1 man HoE: 1137.5
1 man hard: 877.5

Probably low enough to take out with dual handcannons and a healthy dose of luck. Will try this out sometime. And don't take any of these suggestions extremely seriously, most of it is theory.
 
Upvote 0