Killing Floor 2: Commando Guide in 2019

1) A trash killer responsible for the crowd control

2) Eliminate MEDIUM Zeds if possible although some might need 5-7 shots to be eliminated OR decapitated

3) If ESSENTIAL (e.g. No Big Zed Hunter present like Gunslinger or sharpshooter, take down Big Zeds like scrakes (SC), fleshpounds (FP) and Quarter Pounds (QP) using the HM-TECH 401 or FN FAL

4) EXTEND ZED TIME (ZT) IN A PROPER MANNER!!!!!!
EXTEND ZED TIME (ZT) IN A PROPER MANNER!!!!!!
EXTEND ZED TIME (ZT) IN A PROPER MANNER!!!!!!

(Extremely important and defines the necessity of Commando on high-difficulty gameplay (Suicidal, Hell on Earth and even Controlled Difficulty)

5) Memorise the number of shots/bullets (of your commonly used arsenal) required to eliminate the Zed in order to guarantee an ZT extension

I mean this takes time but probably takes less if you are free to check-out my list provided on part 4

6) Laning: Laning with a precision-based perk who is a BIG-Zed Hunter (Gunslinger or sharpshooter), laning with support or SWAT should be avoided. Never consider laning with chaotic/AOE perk such as Firebug, demo and berzerker)

Level 5: High Capacity Mag allows more ammo reserve to kill zeds and hence extend Zed Time (ZT)
The effectiveness of Tactical Reload can be alleviated by a trick called reload cancellingHow to reload cancel: Applicable to all mag-fed guns, including AR-15, Bullpup, HM-TECH 401 and FN FAL (These are only the guns I prefer in a 6 people, HoE long game)

Method 1: Observe the reload animation, when the mag is about to be put into the gun, press V (key for bashing in default) followed by pressing Mouse 1 (Shoot). The interval between pressing the 2 keys should be almost instantaneous.Method 2: Observe the Ammo HUD at the bottom right corner

When the number of bullets changed from 26 to 30 (for example), immediately press V (key for bashing in default) followed by pressing Mouse 1 (Shoot).

1. Method 1 is relative risky buy allows you to focus on Zeds

2. Compared with method 2, it shifts your focus to the bottom right HUD instead of the Zeds in front of you.

3. Dry reload with reload cancelling slightly faster, an exception is the Tommy Gun

Level 10: Fallback allows you to switch weapons 50% faster, which includes the speed to draw the medical syringe to heal yourself or teammates.

Also, if you run out of ammo in one AR during ZT and you need to extend zed time by killing trash zeds, the extra weapon swap speed allows you to draw another AR on time to kill the Zed and guarantee a ZT extension.

Impact Rounds can lead to pre-mature stumble of big zeds if you want to take them down on your OWN. Stumbling=missing shots (Not only those from you, but also those from your teammates)

Level 15: Tenacious allows to survive longer due to extra 25% of health and armour, while prepared increase maximum ammo that you can possess. Actually, you can enjoy both sides of your skills by operating a trick named over-capping (OC)

Level 20: Hollow Point Rounds (HPR) is far superior to the Eat Lead counter parts.

Extra 30% damage means less number of shots required to kill a Zed, less ammo means less dosh needed to buy ammo and easier to guarantee an ZT extension. Because 1 shot (no matter it is body shot or head shot) is the most viable tactic to extend ZT, either you hit or you miss. More than 1 shot to kill a zed increases uncertainty , like missing the first shot or the second one .

Nevertheless, OC can be applied to both skills but the Eat lead perk is only applicable to the first mag of your ARs.

To sum the clip up:

1) After the wave ends, get to the trader and get the guns you want

2) Open the menu by pressing Esc, configure skills by switching from Tenacious (Level 15) and HPR (Level 20) to Prepared and Eat Lead respectively

3) Buy ammo and armour

4) Reload AR(s)

5) Throw them onto the ground (DON’T get spotted by teammates as some may steal them and sell it, try to do it at some corners but close enough to the trader.)

6) Switch the Prepared and Eat Lead BACK TO THE Tenacious and HPR

7) Acquire both guns and heal yourself back to 125Hp

8) Use 60 dosh to buy the remaining 25 points of kevlar

NOTE: Avoid getting ammo from support or pick up any ammo boxes after you have performed steps 1-8. Otherwise, ALL OF YOUR HARD WORKS, GONE!

Level 25: Machine Gunner: Shooting faster during Zed-Time permits easier ZT extension and even Big Zed termination (provided that if they are close enough). Sometimes you may be able to get a clean kill on a big zed with the skill and hence another 3 seconds of ZT.

Assumption: 6 players, HoE difficulty

Wave 1: AR-15 for trash zeds and 9mm for bloat if possible

Wave 2:

Scenario ONE: If you are confident with your aim, keep utilizing the AR-15. Things will be much easier if a Support (assuming the perk chose the skill called Resupply Pack) is present in your team as you can acquire hundred rounds of AR-15 and 25 points of armour each wave. Consequently, it is possible that you dont even need to buy ammo or kevlar on early waves.

Scenario TWO: Sell the AR-15 and buy Bullpup or Tommy Gun (650 dosh) since the full-auto mode offer more utility than the AR-15. Again, life will be much easier if a Support presents in your team.

Note: Both guns have similar ammo pool, Tommy Gun has greater magazine size but significant bullet spread. On the contrary, L85A2 has lower recoil but lower magazine size. So, it all comes down to whether you can control the recoil of the Tommy Gun or just go for the safer option, which is the SA80.

Wave 3-4: Assuming you have not died in the first 3-4 waves and perform well (i.e. kill trash and medium Zeds, extend zed time). You will be able to purchase the HM-Tech 401(Tier 4,1500 dosh) offer so much utility to the commando as it can:

1) The 401 provides excellent trash handing power in which most trash zeds can be eliminated in a single headshot or 2-3 body shots.

2) Decent medium Zed clearance: For head-shots, siren needs 3, bloat=6, husks=7, 2 hits to the E.D.A.Rs chest core

3) Provides healing to your teammates by shooting 3+1 medical darts (15hp for each dart), the extra 1 dart can be ejected 2 second later since the 401 has the fastest medical dart recharge rate among all medic weapons.

4) Highest stumbling power on par with the Tommy Gun

5) High magazine capacity (60 default, 100 if over-capped)

6) Sufficient ammo pool (460 total, 580 if over-capped)

7) Economically friendly, which means
– 1 dosh per bullet
– The absence of the OVERKILL problem in comparison with the SCAR-H and AK-12

8) The only weakness of this weapon is 401 handles QPs and FPs poorly. But the gun itself is decent for SCs if you have enough backpedal.

Wave 5-6: FN-FAL is your best friend to:

1. Exterminate big zeds, especially for FPs and QPs as they are 25% more vulnerable to the rifle damage type supplied by the FN-FAL. For the number of headshots needed to decap (NOTE: NOT an elimination) SC=14 and FP=20. QPs are an exception and they can be KILLED with 14 accurate headshots.

2. ONE BODY SHOT trash Zeds: Significantly improved the management of the ZT extension. Those zeds include, Clots, Cysts, Slasher, Stalker and Crawlers

3. A SINGLE HEADSHOT to kill a GOREFIEND or E.D.A.R DURING ZED TIME: If you selected Machine Gunner (Level 25 skill), the extra 3% damage of the FN-FAL permits the gun to reach the threshold to 1 shot a Gorefiend and E.D.A.Rs.


4. The only drawback of this weapon is probably the low ammo pool (30+160=190). Nevertheless, such problem can be resolved by performing over-capping, allowing the FN-FAL has a total ammo of 50+192=242.

Wave 7-10 and boss fight: Maintain the loadout of 401+FAL, fulfill the job as a commando aforementioned in part 1

TO CONCLUDE OR TL:DR:
401+FAL is the META(Most Effective Tactic Available) for the Commando

Assumption: 6 players, HoE difficulty, skills configuration RLLLR

HS stands for Head-Shots, BS stands for Body-Shots

On wave 1:

By reading the stats, it is remarked that HS with the Commando is far better than BS. The commando is classified as a precision-based perk in which head-shots is much more effective than shooting zeds’ body. Thus, all of the stats starting from below will be HS only, except for E.D.A.R.s and Rioters (Please forgive my laziness).

On wave 2:

On waves 3-10 and boss wave:

It is hoped that the availability of the tables above can contribute to the familiarisation of the number of shots needed to get a clean kill/decap a Zed. The memorisation of those data allows the improvements associated with ammo management, target prioritisation and most significantly, ZT extension.

ZED TIME (ZT) is probably the most iconic and essential asset to you and your whole team. For the details in relation to the mechanic, please refer to this website: https://wiki.killingfloor2.com/index.php?title=Mechanics_(Killing_Floor_2)#Gameplay_-_ZED_Time

Basically, when ZT kicks in, it has a duration of 3 seconds and the whole “world” will be slowed down to 20% of the original speed. Any perk can refresh the ZT once by killing a Zed. (NOTE: Here I used the word REFRESH because ZT is actually a count down timer starting from 3 sec all the way down to 0). The Commando is the only perk who can refresh ZT by 6 times. In other words, maximum of 21-24 seconds of ZT can be offered by an experienced commando.

During ZT, all 10 perks will have their ZT skills activated. For instance, Gunslinger gets the Fan Fire activated (Shooting and Reloading in Real-time) which directly raises his DPS by 5 times. This allows GS to terminate almost everything in front of him.
Even tough you are not lv25 yet, the ZT allows you to read the environment and aim for Zed’s weak spot much easier as the speed of moving your mouse remains unchaged (i.e. real-time)

So back to the main point of this section, how to extend ZT in a PROPER MANNER?

Method 1: When ZT starts, count to 2.5 seconds and immediately kill a ZED. You may try to say it out or count using your heart.

Method 2: When ZT initiates, wait all the way down when the Black/White effect is about to gone OR when the Zed’s action is about to turn from moving from slower to faster. This 2 signs aforementioned signals ZT is about to end. At that exact moment, kill a Zed to refresh it and repeat 5-7 times more.

Method 1 is safer but method 2 allows maximum possible ZT for your temmates to become John Wick. However, if you missed that instant moment of Black/White Effect fading away, you can no longer refresh ZT.

Last but not least, please don’t feel sad when you cannot refresh ZT long enough because it is affected by various factors such as:

1) Latency/Internet delay: For example, if you have entered into a server with 200+ ping, your bullets will exhibit significant delay from shooting the round to the time that the bullet impacts the enemy.(usually around 1-2 seconds depending on the distance between a player and the zed). Such delay may mess up with your ZT extenion and hence you may want to try to kill a zed 1-1.5 second earlier if you are using method 2.

2) Other perk stealing your ZT: For instance, you have 7 clots in front of you and ZT starts.This permits you to extend 18-21 seconds of ZT. Then,a demo kills all of them in front of you
using the M79…..SORRY, NO EXTENSIONS!

3) No Zeds available during ZT, the scenario is especially true when a wave is about to end or it is just the initiation of the boss wave. Please don’t feel bad as you can do nothing about it.

4) Significant screen tilting induced by demo’s destroyer of the world (Level 25)

5) Firebug’s weapons are obstructive to your visibility too

6) Berzerker’s body block bullets

(My apologies as no discrimination to AoE perks but that’s the fact)

To summarise, if you can extend ZT up to:

10-12 seconds: Decent
15-18 seconds: Very Good
21-24 seconds: Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger as the commando

Assumpation: 6 players , HoE difficulty, skills RLLLR.

NOTE: Big Zeds are never a top priority for the commando since other classes (sharpshooter, gunslinger and demo) are designated Big zed hunter. What you should do is to provide cover for them while they are taking down big zeds. Providing cover means kill those trash and medium zeds that may interrupt your teammates when they are performing big zeds take-downs.

On rare occasion like you need to hold a lane on your own or all of your teammates died, it is inevitable that you need to take down those big zeds.

SC take-downs:


QP take-downs:

FP take-downs:

To sum the clips up:

1) Head-tracing is a must in order to decap big zed (Practice makes perfect)

2) If FP is raged, try to block his attack first and then take him down using the FN-FAL

3) Usually, QPs are spawned in groups, it is better to request help from sharpshooter, gunslinger and demo when multiple QPs appear in your lane.

1. Taking down big zeds while extending ZT: This probably defines the highest skill ceiling of a commando

2. Target prioritisation:

3. Positioning: When big zeds arrives and you are laning with a big zed hunter, try to stand behind GS/SS/DEMO as this permits a clear visibility for him to aim for the heads of big zeds. Remember: Body blocks bullets

4) RULE NO. 1 IN KF2: ONLY ONE COMMANDO IN EACH TEAM: more than 1 commando means the disruption of ZT refreshes as both mando can get kills within a single ZT. ZT can only be refreshed 6 times maximum. Having more than 1 commando WILL NOT increase the number of ZT refreshes by another 6 times.

Consequently, if you entered into a public match that already has a commando present, it is better to choose another perk to play like sharpshooter, gunslinger and support.

5) Report the health of big zeds: The commando is the only perk that can see the heath bars of all zeds. If multiple big zeds appeared/raged, call out those that have lower hp first and let your teammates to take it down first.