Back 4 Blood was recently released, giving Left 4 Dead fans something truly similar to play. Made by the same developer Turtle Rock Studios, Back 4 Blood is a strong spiritual successor to the Left 4 Dead series despite some lingering concerns about the game.
Turtle Rock Studios does seem to be responsive to fan desires. Although the game hasn’t been out too long, the developer is issuing a hotfix that addresses some concerns about Back 4 Blood's difficulty. This hotfix is being applied to servers as they roll out throughout today, October 14, and so there’s no patch for PC or console users. Overall, however, these changes should make the campaign a little easier.
Essentially, in response to “some of the concerns regarding the challenges presented by some difficulties,” the Roaming Special Spawn rate is being decreased on all difficulties. It doesn’t address by how much, but this doesn’t refer to all or specific boss battles either. Essentially, various Back 4 Blood zombie types like Tallboys, Snitches, and so on are being decreased so that fans are not overwhelmed by them in each battle. As important elements of the game, however, it stands to reason that there will still be plenty—now just slightly less than before.
Also, specifically for the Back 4 Blood level “Blue Dog Hollow: The Sound of Thunder,” Turtle Rock is adjusting the supply point earning rates “to better account for level repeats.” Turtle Rock doesn’t note when more changes to single-player or campaign are coming, but it also listed some changes to Back 4 Blood’s PvP Swarm Mode. These include the following:
- Bruisers – Max Health reduced from 850 to 800, damage reduced from 20 to 15, burst delay lengthened to 3 instead of 2.65, and their weakspot multiplier increased to 1.65 from 1.5
- Tallboy – Damage increased from 15 to 20
- Hocker – Project Speed decreased to 2500 from 300 and cooldown increased to 7 from 6.
- Stinger – Projectile spread reduced from 30 to 30 and its speed increased to 5500 from 5000.
These changes will likely help better balance Back 4 Blood in the PvP and PvE mode, but many fans are likely awaiting Turtle Rock Studios' fix for solo mode progression issues. For anyone who may be unaware, there is no stat tracking, achievements, or anything like that when playing solo. Players cannot even unlock new Back 4 Blood characters unless they are playing online. Turtle Rock Studios is aware of the issue and working on a fix, but beyond that, no update has been offered as of this writing
Back 4 Blood is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
Source: Turtle Rock Studios