Goliath

The Goliath is an enemy in Borderlands 2.

Strategy
The Goliath starts out with a big metal helmet that gives him tunnel vision and helps control his rage. Goliaths will typically use dual-wielded assault rifles, however Badass versions will typically wield a single large minigun. The helmet can be shot off, at which point the Goliath will go into a rage, regenerating to full health, casting his guns aside and charging his foes. During a rage the Goliath will attack anything and everything in his range, friend and foe alike. Bizarrely, Goliaths that lose their helmets lose all of the dopiness in their voice and begin to speak in more complex, complete sentences.

Goliaths' exposed heads are malformed and seem to blend into the top of their torsos. When one flies into rage, his skull bursts up and out of his distended mouth as his spine reforms into a stalk above his body. The high critical hit damage accrued from shooting the skull is offset by the difficulty of hitting the small, waving target.

Upon killing enemies, the Goliath will gain levels, their health is replenished and they also become physically stronger. With each level gained, they become more dangerous. A beneficial aspect of this is that the dropped loot will be better, and the experience points from the enemies he killed are tripled and added to his own. At the GOD-liath level, drops are greatly increased.

Once they go into a rage, a Goliath gains three ways of attacking. The first and weakest is a series of quick punches that will knock back even heavy enemies but deals medium damage. The second type of attack is when a Golaith leaps a considerable distance before landing on a target and dealing medium AoE damage, Goliaths also use this to get to unreachable locations or to engage slow air units, and are even capable of jumping ridiculous distances. The third and final attack is their slowest, but their most dangerous, a Goliath will raise his arms into the air before slamming the ground, dealing tremendous damage in a large radius. It is worth noting that the ground slam is easily read and slow to wind up but can put a Vault Hunter into Fight for Your Life in a single hit, especially once they get to Super Badass and above. A Caustic Goliath will rarely use melee hits, opting to use their short range vomit attack, making them easier to deal with compared to the regular Goliaths.

Goliaths can be used both as a distraction and as a way to save ammunition, so long as the proper weaponry is at hand to take care of a Raging Goliath. It is also vital to pay attention to where the Goliath is at all the times and begin to start attempting to kill him once he reaches Super Badass, it is possible for a Goliath to gain enough levels to gain a skull by their level and become an even greater threat than any other enemy in the area.

Types

 * Goliath
 * Caustic Goliath (when not in his rage state he will carry a melee weapon instead of a gun and are resistant to corrosion and damages enemies by vomiting on them)
 * Loot Goon Goliath (has a chest on his back and is more aggressive)
 * Midget Goliath (is much smaller, has less health and wields pistols instead of rifles)
 * Loot Midget Goliath (combination of Loot Goon Goliath and Midget Goliath)
 * Badass Goliath (miniguns as base weapons)
 * Badass Midget (Helmet needs to be shot several times for it to fall off)
 * One Armed Bandit (Slot Machine on his back, weilds only a single weapon)
 * Heavy Goliath (Seen in the Circle of Slaughter, miniguns as base weapons)
 * Goliath Digger (Found in the Eridium mine and in the Tundra Express)
 * Juggernaut (TVHM, does not have a helmet and acts like a Goliath with its helmet on)
 * Blaster (TVHM, wields two rocket launchers)

Goliaths start out leveled to their area and can level up four times from their starting level. Once their helmet is shot off they become a "Raging Goliath" (or similar variance depending on the initial type). When they kill one target they become a "Badass Goliath"; two more kills, a "Super Badass Goliath"; three more kills, an "Ultimate Badass Goliath". After four more kills it levels to a "Fatal GOD-liath" (if the goliath started as a badass goliath it will be a "hulking mass of destruction" after leveling from an ultimate and will still have to level up one more time to reach its max) and killing this will unlock the Goliath, Meet David achievement. Much like players, Goliaths that level up have their health completely restored.

Level Progression
The names of the Goliaths differ depending on their type. But they all follow a similar sequence:
 * Lv.1 - Goliath
 * Lv.2 - Raging Goliath
 * Lv.3 - Badass Goliath
 * Lv.4 - Super Badass Goliath
 * Lv.5 - Ultimate Badass Goliath
 * Lv.6 - GOD-liath

The actual possible outcomes are: Source

Notes :
 * Smash-Head and One-Armed Bandit are listed as Goliaths in the code but have no leveling. They cannot be enraged or leveled.
 * Heavy Goliaths are replaced with Mega Goliaths in True Vault-Hunter Mode. According to the code, it can be assumed that Mega Goliaths are only possible encounters in True Vault-Hunter Mode, and they replace all Heavy Goliaths.
 * Caustic Goliaths are also noted for True Vault-Hunter Mode in the code but their names are not changed. They are likely simply more powerful versions of normal mode Caustic Goliaths.

Boss

 * Smash Head

Quotes
Normal
 * "HOW ARE YOU?"
 * "You die now!"
 * "Play time already?"
 * "Why you here?"
 * "Let's make face gravy!"
 * "Time for kill!"
 * "Time for squishing!"
 * "I crush!"
 * "New present?"
 * "Welcome to pain!"
 * "Welcome to die!" (A reference to the infamous line in the X-Men arcade game)
 * "Satisfy me!"
 * "Put your skull into your tum-tum!"
 * "Prepare for die!"

Attacked - Normal
 * "But they said to keep it on...!"
 * "No, I keep brain there!"
 * "Stop it! STOP IT! STOP IT!"
 * "Why are you so mean!?"

Attacked - Action Skill - Normal
 * (Phaselocked): "Why I fly???"

Going into a rage
 * "You can't stop me! Nothing can stop me!"
 * "Gotta kill... GOTTA KILL... GOTTA KILL!"
 * "Big mistake! BIG GOD DAMN MISTAKE!"
 * "Gonna... FLOSS WITH YOUR SPINE!"
 * "Angry! I'M SO GOD DAMN ANGRY!"
 * "HATE-SPLOSION!"
 * "Hate... HATE! HATE!!!"
 * "PLAYTIME... IS... OVER!"
 * "Not a good idea... NOT A GOOD IDEA!"
 * "Should not...YOU REALLY SHOULDN'T HAVE DONE THAT!"
 * "Hey... Hey! HEY! HEY! HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY!

Raging
 * "Get ready to feel my fingers in your eyeballs!"
 * "You're going to be screaming!"
 * "Try breathing through crushed lungs!"
 * "I'll crack your skull open with my thumbs!"
 * "Get on your god damn knees!"
 * "Ever been strangled with your own intestines?!"
 * "You better GOD DAMN scream for me!"
 * "I'm gonna gouge your eyes out!"
 * "Die for me, bitch!"
 * "Sweet mother of GOD!"
 * "Murdering you is gonna feel so RIGHT!"
 * "Mother FUUUUUUAAAAHHHH!"
 * "I'm going to rip you a THIRD ASSHOLE!"

Hit with a Critical
 * "That tickled a little!"
 * "I'll kill you slower for that, bitch!"
 * "Hahaha - Didn't even feel it!"
 * "That helmet is NOT going back on!"
 * "You're not cutting MY playtime short!"

Spotting Players Activating Action Skills
 * (Gunzerking): "You're gonna need a lot more than two guns!", "That's just two more things to shove up your arse!"
 * (Phaselocked): "I believe I can fly!" (Reference to the song of the same name)
 * (Sentry deployed): "I'm gonna shove that turret up your...!"
 * (Fooled by Deception): "First there, now there!"

In rage when Zer0's Decepti0n fades
 * "A decoy!? Pathetic!"
 * "You're just delaying the inevitable!"
 * "You BETTER hide from me!"
 * "Avoid me all you want, bitch!"
 * "I SEE you, asshole!"

Normal when Zer0's Decepti0n Fades
 * "Assassin make head hurt!"

Spotting a grenade - Normal
 * "Boom-boom!"
 * "Boom!?"

Ally killed - Normal
 * "Where... friend?"
 * "Why shoot friends?"
 * "He die... okay."

Slagged - Normal
 * "Please don't switch gun!"
 * "Make pain worse..."
 * "Nobody slag Goliath!"

Dying - Normal
 * "Goodnight... sweet prince..." (A line from Shakespeare's Hamlet)
 * "Now ladies say I hottie!" (When killed by fire damage)
 * "If you can't take heat... make... kitchen!" (When killed by fire damage)
 * "I hot to trot!" (When killed by fire damage)
 * "I have... An electric... Personality!" (When killed by shock damage)
 * "I am... slain..."

Dying - Raged
 * "I'll... kill... you...!"
 * "I'll... tear you apart...!"
 * "I was so... close..."
 * "I... feel... everything..."
 * "I'm unstop... able..." (reference to Juggernaut's line from X-men)
 * "That... won't... stop... ME!"
 * "You lucky...bas...tard..."

Trivia

 * In the ECHO recording for the mission 'Note for Self-Person', Marcus talks to a Goliath named Crank about giving a stash of guns to his brother, Smash-Head. Due to his short memory, Crank repeatedly asks Marcus to tell him again or he will "take his helmet off".