General Overview - Firebug is a Perk that is best at killing many zombies in very close proximity quickly. I would recommend using this perk on the two harder difficulties, Suicidal and HOE. Typically on Normal and Hard the zeds don’t come after you quickly enough. Firebug gets outshined by other Perks on those difficulties. Either way this is my all encompassing guide to using Firebug in your solo KF2 speedruns.
Perk Skills - 5: Bring the Heat 35% more damage > Double ammo capacity It is just better to do damage faster than to spend less time reloading. 10: Barbecue This one is a bit of a toss up but the ramp up in potential damage is better than your ground fire doing more damage. Especially considering that your grenades are going to insta kill most of the lower health zeds in the game anyway. 15: Napalm The longer burning effect stacks with the previous skill as well as makes it easier to light an entire group of zeds on fire without having to individually hit all of them. 20: Heat Wave This skill is absolutely instrumental to keeping you alive. With the ability to push back any zeds in your way you will never get stuck in a corner ever again. The range with the Firestorm skill is nice but it’s just not as strong as Heatwave. 25: Pyromaniac This one is very close and down to personal preference. I value being able to shoot infinitely during zed time while I have the Helios Rifle out. That weapon is just broken and when paired with Pyromaniac has ridiculous peaks for damage potential. Although if you already have a ton of zeds burning as you go into zed time then you should theoretically get more value out of Inferno.
General Strategies - For weapons I would recommend you use The Caulk and Burn (starting weapon), Dual Spitfires, Flamethrower, and Helios Rifle. Use both of the flamethrowers and molotovs to stave off the lower health zeds that you can essentially “one shot” and use the Spitfires or Helios Rifle for the larger health zeds. I also could understand if you preferred using the Dragonsbreath over the Dual Spitfires as they are the same price. The Mac 10 Is also a good choice, however it’s price makes it a bit awkward to find a good spot to buy it. It is usually just better to buy the Spitfires or Dragonsbreath. Only go for the Mac 10 if you really like it and accrue some extra dosh. Another very important thing to know, it is absolutely pivotal that you get a ranged weapon before the round that Scrakes spawn on. Which is 3 for Short, 4 for Medium and 5 for Long. Both the Caulk and Burn as well as the Flamethrower kill Scrakes and Fleshpounds incredibly slowly. To add onto that, I would recommend resetting if Quarterpounds spawn before you get your ranged weapon. They can spawn before the aforementioned rounds.
Starting Weapon and Grenade - Your starting weapon is the Caulk and Burn, a close range weaker version of the Flamethrower. This means that for the lower difficulties, where zeds are slower, it is easier to use your 9mm pistol until you get a long ranged Firebug weapon. As for your grenades, the Firebug has molotov cocktails. These are best used in choke points where a lot of zeds are coming through. On top of the initial burst of damage, fire stays active on the ground for about 7 seconds. So it is very effective at killing a lot of zeds coming out of a spawn point.
Specific Difficulty and Length Strategies for Normal and Hard - These strategies are for the 6 different categories of ILs that you can run for Normal and Hard on any given map. This will be done by difficulty then length and is a round by round breakdown of when and what to buy and when to skip straight to the next round. These are a rough template of how I usually run these categories with Firebug. However, there are certainly other ways to make it work. I encourage you to use these as an outline and figure out a strategy that best works for you. Additionally, these are assuming that you don’t complete any objectives, pick up any ammo boxes or stray guns. If you do you may be able to buy certain guns earlier depending on the Diff+Length combo. C&B = Caulk and Burn, MAAG = Max Ammo, Armor, and Grenades.
Normal - Short
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Sell C&B, Buy Dual Spitfires or Dragonsbreath + one Upgrade, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy Helios Rifle, + one Upgrade on Secondary, MAAG
Medium
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Sell C&B, Buy Dual Spitfires or Dragonsbreath, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy Helios Rifle, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy + two Upgrades on Secondary, MAAG
Long
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Sell C&B, Buy Dual Spitfires or Dragonsbreath + one Upgrade, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy Helios Rifle, MAAG
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Survive and Buy + one Upgrade on Secondary, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and MAAG
Hard - Short
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Sell C&B, Buy Dual Spitfires or Dragonsbreath + one Upgrade, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy Helios Rifle, + one Upgrade on Secondary, MAAG
Medium
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Sell C&B, Buy Dual Spitfires or Dragonsbreath, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy Helios Rifle, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy + two Upgrades on Secondary, MAAG
Long
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Sell C&B, Buy Dual Spitfires or Dragonsbreath, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy Helios Rifle, MAAG
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Survive and + one Upgrade on Secondary, MAAG
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Survive and Skip
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Survive and Buy + one Upgrade on Secondary, MAAG
Suicidal and HOE - For Suicidal and Hell on Earth I personally don’t have any set plays, so I can just give you some pointers. You end up making more money on these difficulties because of the increase in the volume of zeds. So for short you can go straight into buying the Helios Rifle after round 2. For Medium and Long on these difficulties, it is typically too difficult to not buy after the first round and still make it fast. I would recommend buying just enough Ammo and Grenades in the beginning to survive. After you accumulate enough dosh to full buy, you should be able to skip every other round. Obviously this can also vary if you pick up any drops. These latter two difficulties is where the Flamethrower shines. Normal and Hard are easy enough where you can skate by with the ranged weapons. However it becomes much more difficult to ward off the sheer volume of zeds that spawn on every round. I recommend keeping the Caulk and Burn when buying your Spitfires. Then upgrading your Caulk and Burn to the Flamethrower and subsequently the Spitfires to the Helios Rifle.
Conclusion - Overall I recommend using Firebug on Suicidal and HOE. The zeds just do not move fast enough for Firebug to get it’s maximum potential value on Normal and Hard. Gunslinger, Commando and the like just perform that much better. Firebug is my Perk of choice for the Suicidal difficulty. If there's anything that should be added or that I got wrong please let me know. GLHF!
