Hello and welcome to my very special guide! Today, I'm gonna show you how to be a level 25 player.

By using cheats or perkleveling maps, you'll be able to level your perks very fast by gaining perk XP quicker than intended. But does it give you real perk experience which will make you a better player? NO

If you're reading this guide, its probably because you're tired of grinding levels to unlock all your skills, and I understand that. Cheats and perklevelling maps will definitely gain you levels quickly, but don't assume that all you need is level 25 perks in order to play HoE, you will still get wiped because you lack the most important experience of all: Knowledge of the game/weapon mechanics.

It is very obvious when a player has perklevelled to 25 vs naturally levelled since there are many nuances to weapons and zed takedowns/resistences that are not explained or obvious. You can only learn these things from experience or reading a guide or something. What will you do when a Scrake or a Fleshpound arrive? Run? Attack? Both? Which weapons should you use against big zeds and which against trash? When is it better to bodyshot big zeds instead of head shot? Which perks should completely ignore big zeds since they will do more harm than good? A player that gained his perk experiences by playing the game normaly knows this things. A cheater won't.

Perk roles and synergies, effectiveness vs trash, medium, and big zeds, kiting strengths vs camping strengths, etc... There are a lot of details and mechanics you simply won't know if you cheat or perklevel. A player that gained levels normally has been in a lot of different situations a lot of times. He knows what his limits are for each perk and what the zeds' weaknesses are. He knows when to run, when to stay, which side cover, which off-perk weapons to purchase, when, why and how…

And if my arguments didn't convinced you not to cheat, know that the devs are working on a way to ban players for that.

Here are my tips that can help you to gain XP and Info you should know about the XP:

You gain XP for the perk belonging to the weapon you are using. So if you are playing Commando but using a Demolitionist weapon, you'll gain Demolitionist XP. A helpful application of this is to use a perk with high HP or movement speed that is already at a high level, then use the perk's guns of the perk you want to level. This way you have the movement or durability of a high level perk, but all your XP will go towards the low level perk.


If you used different perk's weapons to kill a zed. The XP will be divided between the perks of the weapons you used on that zed. For Example, if you dealed 99% dmg to a zed with a Commando weapon, but you finished it off with a Demolitionist weapon, you will get half the zed's XP to each perk. If you use 3 different perk's weapon, each perk will get 33% of the zed's XP, etc. This can be helpful for big zeds or bosses. Simply shoot a bullet or two of the gun belonging to the perk you want to level, then finish it off with your strong on-perk weapons.


Using your Knife gives you XP to the perk whose knife it belongs to. For example, if you spawn as Commando, you'll have a KF-Bar, which is the Commando's knife. If you switch to Demolistionist on wave 2, your skills, grenades, etc. will be swapped but not your knife. You'll still have your KF-Bar and if you kill a zed with it, you'll earn Commando XP, not Demolitionist XP.


Even if you're not playing as Gunslinger, you'll get XP by decapitating a zed with your 9mm.


You'll see how you can gain bonus XP. For example, the Commando:

• Dealing Commando Weapon Damage
  
• Killing Stalkers with Commano Weapons.

So when playing as a Commando, you can only gain XP if you kill or assist an enemy with a Commando weapon. And you also can gain extra XP if you or one of your teammates kill a staker.


By healing your teamates you'll gain Field-Medic XP and Dosh. So don't be afraid to do it. You can heal your teamates with your own healing syringe or with Field-Medic weapons. I recommend you take the 101 Medic Pistol. At only 1kg and 200 dosh, this little pistol can save your team's life, give medic XP and some dosh when healing someone. So if you have remaining space and dosh, don't hesitate. Take it.


When waiting for the trader time to end, you can weld-deweld a door with your welder. It will give you Support XP. But be carefull not to keep a door welded if it isn't necessary. Sometimes, welding a door doesn't help at all and will only make things worse. Remember that zeds can teleport, so don't weld a door unless you're absolutely sure that it will help your team survive and that its not a door that could provide an escape if things get messy. So be sure to deweld that door if you only welded that door for XP.


Watch for the event weekends. Tripwire Interactive does some Double XP/Drop weekend events which will let you level your perks twice as fast and the drop rate will also be increased by double.


Playing on higher difficulty will give you more XP than playing on lower difficulty. But be sure to be ready for that before starting a Suicidal or Hell on Earth difficulty. Aim for playing Hard as soon as you can, since it gives about twice the XP as Normal while still being pretty easily beaten even in an uncoordinated random team. Suicidal is another big jump which not only significantly increases the XP for many of the zeds, but spawns a larger number of them; but if your team is struggling to get past the first few waves its not worth playing over Hard. Here are my recommended levels to play on this difficulties:

• Normal: 0-10 level (Normal is VERY easy and is more of a "how-to-play" difficulty)
  
• Hard: 5-20 level
  
• Suicidal: 15-25 level
  
• Hell on Earth: 20-25 level

And at last but not at least: assisting a kill will give you the same amount of XP as taking the kill for yourself. So if you see a decapped zed you didn't touch yet, shoot a 9mm bullet or bash him. You'll gain the same XP as the player that really killed it. A quick way to level is to focus on tagging every zed you see with a bullet or two, as opposed to going strictly for kills. BUT DO NOT DO ENOUGH DMG TO RAGE BIG ZEDS, this is especially important on harder difficulties since it will pretty much always cause a wipe. Also, don't do this if your team is struggling since going for assists only makes you a pretty useless teammate. It is the faster way to level, but its not worth it if it causes your team to die.

Don't be embarrassed about stealing the kills of someone else. IT DOESN'T MATTER. This game isn't about having the highest score. Its about surviving. As long as you let your teammate get their shots in before finishing it off, he'll still recieve his XP. Having said that, don't be obnoxious about it. Most people won't care about trash kill steals, but if you just saw a pro Gunslinger decap 3 Fleshpounds all by himself and they're walking around headless, feel free to get your shot in for XP, but don't intentionally spray your weapon and completely steal the kills, its pretty inconsiderate. As I said, kill counter doesn't matter, so don't interfere with someone in order to kill the zed he was about to kill, all you need is the assist. Only shoot decapped zeds with your 9mm pistol, knife or with a bash in order to eco ammo.

A Multiperk weapon is a weapon that belongs to a perk, but is able to recieve benefits from other perks as well.
For example: The Medic Assault Rifle is a Field-Medic weapon, multiperk with the Commando perk.
In the hands of a Field-Medic, his passives and skills apply to the medic rifle as usual.
However, in the hands of a Commando, it will be the commando's passives and skills that will apply to the medic rifle instead.

But when using this weapon, which perk will gain XP?

To begin, the XP you'll gain won't be for the perk that owns the weapon but for the weapon you're using. So if you use the Medic Assault Rifle as the Commando you'll gain Commando XP.

BUT, you can also gain additional XP for the perk that owns the weapon. And that's where the confusion begins for some people. So I'll try to be very clear:
Every Perk has 2 ways to gain XP. A primary way, and a secondary one.

The Support Perk

Primary: You earn XP by dealing damage with Support weapons.
Secondary: You earn extra XP by welding doors.

The Commando Perk

Primary: You earn XP by dealing damage with Commando weapons.
Secondary: You earn extra XP by killing Stalkers with Commando weapons

Yes, in-game it is written that you gain XP by ''killing zeds with...'' but it's actually ''dealing damage with...''
As you can see, the Primaries are always the same: dealing damage with Perk weapons. (Except Firebug where it's ''dealing Fire/Microwave damage''. This is an important distinction when handling firebug weapons.)

Here is the simplest case: if the Primaries are the same, the total XP goes to the perk you're playing.
Ex: Let's say you are using an M16 M203, a weapon that belongs to the Demolitionist, but is multiperked to the Commando.
Let's recall these perk's primary leveling requirements:

• Demolitionist: deal damage with Demo weapons
  
• Commando: deal damage with Commando weapons

Notice in bold how the primary leveling requirements are the same.
If you are a Commando you'll gain full Commando XP by killing zeds with it, but no Demo XP.
Otherwise, you will gain Demo XP (unless you are the Survivalist... once again... why?)

Now to complicate things: if the Primaries are different, the XP is split for the 2 perks.
Ex: Let's say you are using a Husk Cannon, a weapon that belongs to the Firebug, but is multiperked to the Demolitionist.
Let's recall the primary leveling requirements for these perks:

• Firebug: do fire damage
  
• Demolitionist: deal damage with Demo weapons

Now it's not even telling us to kill stuff with Firebug weapons, but with fire instead

If you are a Demolitionist and the zed dies from the afterburn or ground fire, you'll gain XP for Demolitionist as well as Firebug XP (although a very tiny amount goes to the Firebug).
If you are not a Demolitionist, you will simply level up the Firebug (no, you are NOT playing the Survivalist!)

However, the secondary ways to gain XP matters too:
So, if you use a Multiperk weapon that originaly belongs to this next perk you can gain:

• Berserker XP by killing Zeds near a player
  
• Commando XP by killing Stalkers
  
• Support XP by welding doors (But their's no Multiperk Support weapons or weapons that can weld doors XD)
  
• Field-Medic XP by healing Teammates
  
• Demolitionist XP by killing Fleshpounds
  
• Firebug XP by killing Crawlers or Bloats
  
• Gunslinger XP by doing headshots
  
• Sharpshooter XP by doing headshots
  
• SWAT XP by killing Clots
  
• You can't gain Survivalist XP if you are not survivalist. No, freezethrower isn't an exception.

This one is actually quite simple: regardless of the perk you play, multiperked or not, you gain XP for secondary objectives. For example, killing a HoE fleshpound will give a bonus 30 XP to your Demolitionist. Doesn't matter if you do it with an M16 M203 with a Commando (multiperk), Demo (primary), or Medic (off-perk). 30 XP is 30 XP d@mnit.

Thank you for reading my special Guide, I hope it was helpful. Let me know if their is something wrong in my Guide, if I forgot something … I'll keep this guide updated as much as I can and I'll do another Guide as soon as possible. If you like it and want to see more, their is my other Killing Floor 2 Guides

http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=792324879
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=795952652
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=804325801
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=807727513
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=874275491

I'm not the creator of this guide, I'm simply a contributor, but it's a guide that have similarities with the Dodo's Guide and that can still help you, so I link it.
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=740897435

Want to know all the stats their is to know about Killing Floor 2 ? Check this site
http://steamproxy.net/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=430466813

(Day/Month/Year)

22/12/2016: Guide Released

25/12/2016: Aesthetic changed a bit. Now, on the Tips and Info section, their's titles instead of bullet points. So that's easier to read now.

10/05/2018: A new section has been added due to your request: The Multiperk Explaination.