A zombie shooter as a pure melee game? That works in Back 4 Blood – even if you look like you have a speedhack or are on drugs.
Back 4 Blood will be released on October 12, but some players are already exploring the early access in the zombie shooter and testing the various systems. Especially the deck system with its numerous cards allows for a lot of creativity and sometimes creates pretty crazy manifestations for bizarre playstyles. A deck from Reddit user “jochinhs” is currently making the rounds – as it turns him into a true melee berserker, making it seem as if he’s using a speedhack.
What are decks? Decks and the associated cards are basically the customization in Back 4 Blood. Each card grants its own bonus and ensures that you gradually become stronger throughout the levels. The decks can be freely adjusted and customized, allowing for many different combinations. For instance, one player might focus on healing, while another excels at blasting away with the shotgun – or completely goes berserk in melee combat.
What kind of deck is it? The deck consists of the following cards, all of which enhance melee combat:
- Meth Head
- Run Like Hell
- Adrenaline Fueled
- Mean Drunk
- Face Your Fears
- Brazen
- Breakout
- Battle Lust
- Berserker
- Fresh Bandage
- Evasive Action
- Slugger
- Fleet of Foot
- Marathon Runner
- Body Armor
Note that the deck is not yet fully optimized. After all, not all players have unlocked all cards yet.
Why does it work so well? Many cards in this deck build on each other and effectively enhance one another. High synergies ensure that a steady stream of zombies is not a threat, but actually keeps the character alive continuously.
The main effects are an increase in melee damage and an extreme boost in melee speed. This stacks up even further the more zombies approach and are taken down. Combined with a massive self-healing and even temporary health points whenever a zombie dies nearby, almost any horde can be smashed to bits. At the same time, melee attacks consume less stamina and each kill regenerates part of the stamina – so hacking and slashing can go on endlessly as long as zombies keep coming, and you don’t swing into thin air too often.
Once the bonuses are stacked, even special zombies can be taken down with just a few hits – the Tallboy looks pretty foolish when he gets sliced down with a machete.
In the video shown here, jochinhs didn’t yet have self-healing from “Face Your Fears” and “Battle Lust” – otherwise, he would have probably had more health at the end of the video than at the beginning:
However, the deck sacrifices the ability to sprint, but the normal movement speed is drastically increased. At the same time, the character is unskilled with most firearms. More than one person should not play such a deck in a team – unless you want to roll out as an absolute “meme squad”.
The deck can also be played solidly at the highest difficulty level “Nightmare”, but here you should ideally have a character with healing abilities nearby – as normal infected can deal a lot of damage here. Not to mention the special zombies.
Have you tried any interesting builds in Back 4 Blood? Or do you have plans on which cards you will take into battle against the zombies?
