- "But in my haste, I forgot cola!"
- ―Whitaker
- "Cola for guns, I think this is like the reverse of what my school did."
- ―Ellis
The Cola is a usable item found only in Left 4 Dead 2. The Survivors agree to obtain a six-pack of cola from a nearby convenience store and bring it back to Whitaker, the owner of the gun shop in "Dead Center". In return, he will use a rocket-propelled grenade to destroy a fuel tanker truck that is blocking their way to the Liberty Mall.
When the Survivors open the door of the Save 4 Less store, a burglar alarm sounds which triggers a Crescendo Event. After sprinting into the store to retrieve the six-pack, the player who grabs the Cola cannot use any weapon other then the Cola pack itself in a basic shove attack to bat Infected out of the way during the run back to Whitaker's safe room door. In common with all melee attacks, this action is subject to a fatigue timer whereby melee shove strength is degraded by its frequency of use without rest.
Despite the Cola being contained in glass bottles, the six-pack can and will crack Infected heads, take gunshots (slivers of glass will fly off) and can be thrown or dropped with impunity. Therefore, the Cola is simply invincible for balancing reasons: If one were going for realism, the Cola would break easily (no matter what) and fail the objective, which will restart the whole chapter, severely disrupting game balance.
Like any other carried item, the Cola six-pack requires four shoves to kill a Common Infected or a single swing to an Infected's spine when the victim is passive and unaware. Similarly, four melee shoves are required to kill a Jockey, Smoker, Boomer, Hunter, or Spitter.
Shoves with (or without) the Cola are ineffective against Witches, Tanks and Chargers.
Tactics
- In addition to being indestructible, the Cola can be thrown far enough to be tossed over the hedges. From there, a second, well-aimed throw can drop it right in front of Whitaker's door. This leaves all four Survivors fully able to fight nearly all the way back from the store.
- This strategy can be used in tandem to one or more survivors remaining on the hedges to catch the cola when it is thrown, allowing them to promptly deliver the cola to Whitaker before rejoining their teammates at the newly cleared path to the mall.
- It is possible to bypass having to travel around the fence by jumping on the white van parked near the edge of the hedges. From there, the cola carrier can jump over the fence and continue on to deliver the cola.
- To further shorten the journey, the carrier can jump on the fence and then on top of the hedges to bypass the need to take the stairs. The elevated position also helps limit interference by the infected.
- It is possible to bypass the detour around the hedges entirely if the survivors move shopping carts from in and around the store to stand upright against the hedges. These carts can be used as platforms to jump over the hedges, significantly shortening the distance the survivors will be required to carry the cola.
- Remember, you can drop the Cola to regain access to your weapons if you need to fight off infected. Just remember to pick it back up when you've neutralized the threat.
Notes
- The Cola's design is inspired by Coca-Cola, as shown by the glass bottles and the red-and-white packaging. Appropriately enough, Dead Center is set in Georgia, which is where the Coca-Cola Corporation is headquartered (though Dead Center takes place in Savannah while Coca-Cola Co. is based out of the capital, Atlanta).
- The bottles of cola are the only non-contaminated and usable food found in the store. It is unusual as to why it would have been left behind by other survivors.
- Survivors can take the Cola back down into Whitaker's store, but they cannot push it out the front door.
- If Rochelle is carrying the Cola, she will sometimes comment that she may have grabbed Diet Cola, despite the package not being marked as diet. It is possible that she may have been mistaken or that she is simply teasing Whitaker.
- Like the Bile bomb and Molotov, the liquid inside moves in sync with the carrier's actions.
- The Cola can be retrieved with a console command (without the quotes): type "sv_cheats 1" and then type "give cola_bottles". However, the Cola thus obtained cannot be given to Whitaker until the store door has been opened. (Note: Spawning the Cola bottles in a different map will trigger the "Grab the cola!" icon.)
- This is also another reference to 2004's Dawn of the Dead. In the film, Andy, a gun store owner, holed himself up in his gun store, but forgot to grab food.
- As can be read on its packaging, the Cola's brand name is "Cola Time". This may be a reference to the coffee brand name "Coffee Time".
- As of The Last Stand Update, the player's arms can be seen while holding the Cola.
Gallery
| Weapons | |
|---|---|
| Primary Weapons | |
| Tier 1 |  Chrome Shotgun /  Pump Shotgun /  MP5 /  Silenced Submachine Gun /  Submachine Gun
|
| Tier 2 |  AK-47 /  Combat Rifle /  M-16 Assault Rifle /  SG 552 /  Auto Shotgun /  Combat Shotgun /  AWP /  Hunting Rifle /  Scout /  Sniper Rifle
|
| Special Tier |  Grenade Launcher /  M60 Machine Gun
|
| Secondary Weapons | |
| Sidearms |  M1911 Pistol /  Magnum Pistol /  P220 Pistol
|
| Melee Weapons |  Baseball Bat /  Cricket Bat /  Crowbar /  Fireaxe /  Frying Pan /  Golf Club /  Guitar /  Katana /  Knife /  Machete /  Nightstick /  Pitchfork /  Shovel
|
| Special Tier |  Chainsaw
|
| Other Weapons | |
| Grenades |  Bile Bomb /  Molotov Cocktail /  Pipe Bomb
|
| Upgrades |  Explosive Ammunition /  Incendiary Ammunition /  Laser Sight
|
| Fixed Weapons |  Heavy Machine Gun /  Minigun
|
| Items | |
| Usable Items |  Explosive barrel /  Fireworks /  Gas can /  Oxygen tank /  Propane tank
|
| Special Items |  Cola /  Gnome Chompski
|
| Featured in both games / L4D1-exclusive / L4D2-exclusive (Counter-Strike weapons / PC-exclusive) | |