How to survive the first infected attack in The Last of Us

There’s a point quite early in The Last of Us when you find yourself confronted with four runners and one clicker, all of whom you have to kill to proceed. It’s the first major hurdle in the game and can be pretty discouraging if you’re not great at using the controls yet. I died over and over and over again until I eventually defeated them. Here’s what worked for me:

1. You’ll start in a dark corridor. I turned my flashlight off as it just annoyed me, but whatever. Pick up the pipe – you’ll need it later. Head towards the cracked glass window, crouch and go left around the corner. Stealth walk up to the runner there, then grab him and strangle him. One down.
2. Go back into the corridor and pick up the shiv. Hide there, facing away from the cracked window, until a runner has passed left to right across the corridor in front of you. Give him a few seconds to move away, then go through the doorway and turn left through the door. Hide behind the desk until the runner comes through the second door and quickly grab and shiv/strangle him. Do it stealthily or his runner friends will arrive. I found it really hard to do them much damage if they caught me in that room.
3. If you have enough in your backpack to craft another shiv, do it now. Pick up a brick, go to the door on the right (the one you came through to get into the room) and chuck the brick forward into the open area. Hopefully this will disrupt the clicker’s wander pattern. Stay in the room listening, and watch to see if he moves into that first corridor where you started. If he does, stealth after him, grab him and shiv him.
4. If he doesn’t go that way, that’s okay. Either way, listen to find out where they all are, and see if you can isolate one. (Do not underestimate the power of listening here!) Quickly grab your lone infected and strangle him.
5. Whip out your pipe because there’s a very good chance you’ve alerted the other(s). If it’s a runner that comes at you first, start smashing that pipe over his head. If it’s the clicker, grab him and shiv him. Repeat as necessary until everyone’s dead except you.

Of course this is by no means the only way. Here’s a completely different method from YouTuber SBDGamingHD. It involves taking out the first runner like I did, then staying in that spot until the runners in the distance have moved as far past the clicker as possible. From there, shoot the clicker as quick as you can, then whip out your pipe and start bashing away at the runners that swarm up.

And here’s a walkthrough from theRadBrad, whose commentary I love. It was comforting to see that he didn’t just cruise through it the first time, although it didn’t take him long.

Feature image credit: Naughty Dog. Note that at no point in the game do the runners and clicker just stand there gazing at you casually. This pic’s pure fantasy.