Alien Swarm: how should we go about Oustanding Execution

achievementsalien-swarm

I've got most Alien Swarm achievements under my belt. In fact I'm missing:

  1. SynTek residential speed run (time limit on a map)
  2. Nuke from orbit (kill 100,000 swarm)
  3. Outstanding execution (complete the entire campaign without anyone dying)

Nuke from orbit is basically easy (dunno if I'll even try though), and I'm sure the speed run can be done with some practice. I'm sure Outstanding execution would eventually come by just grinding, but seriously, that's a lot of work. But it's the achievement that I want most (after Hardcore, which I already got).

I think the main problem is stupid deaths. The friends that I'm playing with can handle themselves, same as I. We usually play hardcore friendly fire so we've learned not to kill each other (except the occasional panic), and we rarely play below hard onslaught at all. So the basic potential should exist, but I just don't think we'll manage a full campaign even on normal difficulty by playing the usual way. Yes, we've briefly tried on a couple of occasions.

What advice would you give?

Best Answer

I'll duplicate some stuff from Dalshim, but some of his points are not so important, and some are missing.

  • Play on Normal
  • Stick together
  • It's better to have a non-full team (i.e. less than 4) than to take bad players into it. Three players is OK.
  • If you want to take Hornet Barrage (or, even worse, Smart Bomb), better take Electric Charged Armor (it's very useful, not only against parasites which may ruin your session) or Freeze Grenades
  • The more medics the better (the best loadout for medic would be Flamethrower + Healgun).
    You shouldn't be a peace medic; such characters are just too vulnerable!
  • Use Jaeger with Vindicator to kill the aliens efficiently! It's a complete disgrace to take Flamethrower if you are an officer.
  • Tech could take a sentry (a simple one, not the "sophisticated" but less useful ones) for the missions where you stay in some place for a long time, and Officers can carry Incendiary Mines which are even better.
  • In my personal opinion, Special Weapons class is mostly useless. Better take one more medic.