Is there an easy way to get the Level a Charge achievement? The thing is to kill a Charger with melee it has to be done with exceptional coordination.
I saw a video that 2 guys played a Versus specially to get this achievement. One with the carger and one with the survivor.
But is there a straightforward way to get this?
Thanks
Just for the record here is how I did it. It might not be easy, but it doesn't rely on luck.
Start a second level of an easy difficulty single-player campaign. I picked the mall for this. Before exiting safehouse kick all the bots from the game (they would shoot and kill the charger). Now get in a large open area and clear it of all the zombies so that you have a lot of space to run around. When the charger spawns, always keep your distance from him (so that you have lots of time to sidestep his charge) and shoot him a good deal (melee attack do 500 damage, charger has 600 health, but the actual damage done imho depends on how far your target is, meaning that especially in this case it will be much smaller). When he charges, get some distance from his path, then try to run towards him. Try to time it so that you "hit" his shoulder as he passes you by.
If it doesn't work, just run around and wait until he charges again. If he gets too close to you, just run and try to jump over a small obstacle, you can do that faster than him. Next time he misses his charge, you will get a nice distance from him. Most of all this approach requires patience as you probably will have to learn some of the game mechanics in detail before you succeed. But I find it much more satisfying this way.
I've been trying to earn it, and I've been trying to do it the old fashioned way: When I see a charger charging, I try to kill it with a sword.
So far I had no luck, but playing online another guy could do it (he was standing next to me), so it is possible.
Try to fire at him from far first to lower his health, then approach him to make him charge you, step a little to the side, and try to hit it. That's been my (so far unsuccessful) tactic.
The following video demonstrates the strategy:
It's a very difficult achievement to get without setup. I managed to accidentally get it during the Four Swordsmen mutation and frankly, I"ve no idea how it happened. The most straightforward way really is setting it up with a friend.
If you want to try to get it without setting up a versus match, you need to coordinate with your friends. You can't kill a Charger with one melee hit alone, so you have to damage it a little first and then melee it. Doing it with bots is practically impossible because they'll likely kill it too fast.
Going by some numbers found on the L4D wiki, a Charger apparently has 600HP and a melee hit does 500 damage. So you either need to fit in 2 smacks (pretty much impossible to do before you're rammed to the ground) or shoot it a bit to damage it before you wail on him.
I think the only "easy" way to get this achievement is to do what you said in your question - have a friend be the only one you're playing against and utilize that.
That being said, I got this achievement when a charger charged into our entire group. I was just off to the side and he happened to miss me. I swung my katana and just happened to hit. I think Dead Center is probably the best choice of location to attempt this one, as much of the campaign is in narrow hallways.
I got this by pure luck. We were playing Parish and we were in the second level of one of the houses(the one with the hole in it and you can jump down). A charger happened to get through the narrow doorway and as my team mates were shooting it (so his hp was down), it charged and I just happened to be out of it's charge path, I had my melee weapon out and I happened to slice him just in time.
If you play on "Easy" you need almost no setup. Just stay close to your friends, hope that the charger targets one of them, and then hit him as a he goes by.
Here's how I got it:
Play on one of those versus servers with 10 survivors and 10 infected, stick close to your teammates, and when you see a charger, swing your katana wildly. With your teammates shooting it at the same time, you're bound to get it eventually.
Works especially well if it's a server with upgrade mods that allow you to upgrade katana :)
I've been trying to get this on Easy using the above tactic of running ahead of the bots and shooting him first to get his health down then meleeing him as he charges, but as he charges ME.
This kills him with a single blow as he gets to me, the game credits me with the kill, I don't get knocked back but I don't get the achievement.
Maybe the key is to not actually get myself damaged or hit at all in the process.
Find an adrenaline shot and a fast swing and large range melee weapon (like the katana). The adrenaline will help you to run and attack faster (see below). When you hear or suspect that a Charger is around, inject the shot. Try to maintain a reasonable distance between you and the special infected (playing against veteran players won't help).
When the Charger starts his charge, just make a step away from the (estimated) trajectory (reminder: it's rectilinear; the Charger can't modify his trajectory). Wait for him to reach your blade's range and strike.
The adrenaline will help you to:
Due to myself being bored at times, I used to research videos about Left 4 Dead 2. I found one at one point where people were in a custom map centered around this achievement. As it turns out, you could just try to hit the charger in the head with a melee weapon for an instant kill. It seems pretty difficult, as I've never tried it myself since I don't have a death wish, but it is possible.
