The Trumbull Valley "Haven Device" is also very helpful on high difficulty.

Or just Alt F4 before you can die. :P

the survivor ai in lethal is so stupid , its like fighting that one kid who would just say nuh uh whenever you were play fighting. i shot you in the face with a sniper rifle! nuh uh i had a force field. stupid.

Whats the point of making guide if it is not about the hardest difficulty? Lethal

My entire team died : (

Have you thought of updating the guide? :)

Please understand that this guide was written a long while back. At that time, zombies could not climb to high places and AI friends were pretty stupid. Dev even acknowledged this, and stated in a patch changelog that they made AI more intelligent.

I also disagree on the "Don't use an AI follower" tip. Very early on the AI is a liability as they tend to get into stupid melee fights, but once you get any kind of firearm on them they provide free covering fire and have an incredible amount of health compared to you. As long as you can keep them from dying to the plague, you've got a free backup gunner that you can load down with whatever fits in their with basically no downsides.

Another huge one; Use noise makers. Firecrackers, fireworks, boomboxes, and others can get an entire town square into one spot, where you can kill them with a single firebomb.

On that same note, firebombs are a direct upgrade to molotovs, and allow you to take out dozens of zombies in a large group in moments. They don't kill ferals (the feral will put out the fire before it takes enough damage), cause massive explosions on bloaters (so don't get too close!) and will only make a Juggernaut stronger. But they're incredible on everything else.

I would add that in Nightmare Mode there are feral hordes. (3). So standing on top of your car could be a death wish since you could be trapped on top of it if a feral horde is nearby. And in most cases there will be one around in NM.

So in the case of dealing with freaks, make sure you always have a stamina drink with you. They will get you out of sticky situations or help you prevail in combat.

Use stealth at every opportunity. After awhile you'll get used to NM mode and it won't be as hard. But I would still advise caution as many a player become complacent and too confident over time and then lose a survivor because of it.

Lastly, take death of a survivor with a grain of salt. It may not happen often, but at some point it will happen. Be prepared to live with that death.