Berserker

The Berserker is the melee specialist of the team, and as such is almost always on the front line beating back the horde. His focus is entirely on melee and can effectively use the Knife, Machete, Fire axe, Katana, Claymore and Chainsaw in place of firearms. The Berserker generally takes some practice to function effectively, but in the hands of a skilled player it serves a vital role in cutting down the bulk of specimens, and absorbing the brunt of damage off of the rest of the team.

The Berserker has a number of abilities to aid their survival. His melee damage and swing speed are drastically improved, backstabs inflict significantly more damage, and, he moves up to 30% faster than other classes when wielding any melee weapon other than the Chainsaw, making him the fastest player in the game. He also enjoys up to 40% resistance to all damage types in the game, especially Bloat acid. He cannot be grabbed by Clots, which makes the Berserker a perfect candidate for deflecting aggro off of other players, and is the only class capable of stunning large specimens (such as the Scrake) using melee weapons. He typically aims to carry either the Katana or the Chainsaw, as both weapons can cut down standard foes very quickly and frequently extend ZED-time. The Berserker is one of the cheaper classes to maintain, as he rarely needs to purchase ammunition; once he purchases his main weapon and armour, he can support his team by giving them any excess money.

Despite all his bonuses, the Berserker is a reasonably difficult class to play. He is typically the first contact for most specimens, and as such needs to handle incoming threats before they can strike him. Although he has a very strong damage resistance, which applies to both health and armour, he is not able to withstand excessive continuous punishment, and avoiding strikes from specimens is a crucial skill. However, there are a few specimens that can make this quite difficult.

Crawlers pose a big threat as they are very common, small and fast. They prove a difficult target to hit, especially when they leap, and when on the ground they are hard to hit due to their size. They will chip away at the Berserker's Combat armour over the course of the round, making it easier for larger specimens to overwhelm him. Backpedalling or strafing out of the path of their jump and striking when they land is one of the few ways to avoid taking damage. Gorefasts are not much of a threat as long as the Berserker can see them coming, but with a successful charge they can instantaneously deal a large amount of damage. Sirens and Husks are both ranged specimens that require the Berserker to close down on them fast to avoid damage from their attacks. This is made much harder when other specimens are blocking the route, especially with the Siren, as it will allow them to deal heavy damage to the player. One of the best ways to approach them is usually from around corners, as their screams and fireballs cannot penetrate walls, allowing the Berserker to ambush them before they can attack. Alternatively, the Berserker can take a ranged weapon such as the Lever-action rifle to aid in eliminating these threats, but on harder difficulties the lack of damage may be problematic. For a hefty investment, some Berserkers prefer to be armed with an M79 or Crossbow to gain some alternative methods of removing threats on the higher difficulties.

Since the Berserker is the first contact for most specimens, one of the major threats for a Berserker is the Fleshpound. Unlike most specimens, the Fleshpound is not susceptible to a critical headshot and cannot be easily decapitated. This, coupled with their high speed and damage output, makes them very dangerous to the Berserker. They are however weak against grenades, so stacking a few at their feet can allow the Berserker to take off a large amount of health before attacking with powerful melee attacks to finish them off. An advanced tactic for more experienced Berserkers is to use the Fire Axe's primary fire and dodge the Fleshpound's attack while chipping health off the Fleshpound without causing it to rage. This does however require a lot a patience, cover fire and practice.

Contents 1 Levelling tactics 2 Tactics 3 Helping the Berserker 4 Perk ladder

[edit] Levelling tactics

• Levelling Berserker can be done quite effectively alongside players leveling field medic, due to the nature of the perks. Having a field medic at bay for healing is quite handy for leveling berserker.
• Having a firebug teammate who can hose down and crisp the horde will be pretty useful for getting damage bonus for your melee attacks therefore allowing berserker to cut the horde safely in a less time intended.
• The DOOMed map is great for powerlevelling Berserker on solo, as it has a chainsaw spawn very close to the player spawn. High difficulty setting combined with the Faked Players mod can yield hundreds of thousands of damage points in a very short space of time.

[edit] Tactics

• Try to attack big targets from their behind when they break into the group, this will stun them and will deal more damage. Be sure that your team is focus firing it at the same time. On Hell on Earth difficulty you can stun big targets for once with your Katana or Fire Axe head chop, only for once unless you are attacking them from behind.
• Carry a sidearm like Handcannon, Lever-action Rifle, Crossbow or even an M79 to deal with the flocks of crawlers and awkward targets like Siren and Husk. Among all other Lever-action Rifle really shines because of damage per shot and M79 excels on taking care of large crowds of weak specimen and slow problematic ranged ones from far.
• Fire axe's alternate fire can stun Scrakes, alternatively you can stun a Scrake with Katana for once by interrupting his rage animation with an alter fire swing. Fire Axe is profound to be better than Katana when dealing with big foes due to its higher head damage multiplier of x1.25.
• Husks and Sirens should be a priority target once you're close enough to get in their range. If you can put a distance or walls in between then stay alert for crawlers which can flank you in a matter of seconds. At higher difficulties these specimen's attack frequencies and movement speed could make Berserker sweat cold.
• A nimble Berserker can kite a Fleshpound by jumping on his face delivering an alternate blow from Axe then retreat, cause Fleshpound to miss the swing. Fleshpound's rage mechanics allow that to happen. By repeating the process a high level zerker can chop off a Fleshpound's head with 8-12 swings.
• At the Final Wave against Patriarch, all squad can switch to Berserker perk and surround him with Chainsaws. By alter-firing constantly Patriarch will be finished less than 10 seconds. In a balanced team game, Berserker only should approach to The Patriarch when he charges to another team member who can't take the power of his retaliation. Alternatively Berserker can take on Patriarch when he's focus fired and distracted, attacks from close will make him cancel projectile attack and when he kneels Berserker have the opportunity of dealing further damage.
• Chainsaw, Katana and Fire axe are all suitable weapons for Berserkers. Finding one that suit your need is upon the player. Katana can easily chop off maimed, burnt specimen with it's speed and allows you to carry 2 side arms or heavier weaponry with it. Fire axe is slow, but has the highest head damage multiplier among others can decapitate lesser specimens easily and take care of bigger ones as long as you have room to kite and have time to run, reliable and lightweight. Chainsaw is the fastest, but has a low head damage multiplier; its alter swing is deadly and makes most of specimen flinch to the bone, as a downside it allows Berserker player to carry only 1 sidearm next to it and it doesn't give any movement speed bonus when wielded.
• Teamplay is important when playing with this perk, a high lever Berserker can solo most of the specimen on early waves, but at later waves, he will struggle to stay alive without any help from other Berserkers or Medic. A high level Berserker can run-and-gun pretty well alone on the first few waves depending on the difficulty, on the later waves its advised to keep a Field Medic and essentially another Berserker or Support Specialist close by as your run-and-gun teammates.

[edit] Helping the Berserker

If the Berserker is in combat with a Scrake, don’t fire! The Berserker can repeatedly stun the scrake with his melee attacks, and kill it without taking any damage – unless somebody enrages the scrake with gunfire. Concentrate on putting down any clots and crawlers that are flanking the Berserker, but don’t automatically shoot a Scrake that’s in melee combat.

Try to avoid killing specimens that the Berserker is about to engage; there is nothing more frustrating than charging all over the map with your prey being killed just before you make contact.

Don't stand directly behind a Berserker unless you are healing them. A lot of Berserker combat can involve trying to move back and forth in an attempt to dodge attacks, and it is bad team play to end up getting your Berserker killed by not letting him back away.

[edit] Perk ladder

Rank	Melee Damage Points Required	Melee			Damage Resistance		Katana/Chainsaw Discount ↑	Spawn With	Special	Zed-time Extensions
		Damage ↑	Attack Speed ↑	Movement Speed ↑	Bloat Bile ↑	All Damage ↑
		10%		5%	10%		10%		Can't be grabbed by Clots
★	25,000	20%	5%	10%	25%	5%	20%			1
★★	100,000	40%	10%	15%	35%	10%	30%			2
★★★	500,000	60%		20%	50%	15%	40%
★★★★	1,500,000	80%	15%		65%	20%	50%			3
★★★★★	3,500,000	100%	20%		75%	30%	60%	Chainsaw †		4
☆	5,500,000		25%	30%	80%	40%	70%	Combat armour ‡
† Denotes an item also available to all additional levels of the perk. ‡ Does not apply to Suicidal or Hell on Earth difficulty.
Note that the following ranks may be out of date as of update 1016 and are awaiting verification: 1, 2

Equipment by perk
Field medic	Medical syringe • Combat armour • MP7M • MP5M
Support specialist	Welder • Shotguns (Shotgun • Combat shotgun • Hunting shotgun • AA12)
Sharpshooter	Pistols (9mm • .44 Magnum • Handcannon) • Rifles (Lever-action • Crossbow • M14 EBR)
Commando	Grenade • Assault rifles (Bullpup • AK-47 • M4 • SCARMK17)
Berserker	Knife • Machete • Fire axe • Katana • Claymore • Chainsaw
Firebug	MAC-10 • Flamethrower • Husk fireball launcher
Demolition	Pipe bomb • Grenade launchers (M79 • M32 • M4 203) • L.A.W
Weapon damage table

	Language:	English • Español • 한글 • Русский