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 Golaith will rarely use melee hits, opting to use their short range vomit attack, making them easier to deal compared to the regular Goliaths.

Goliaths can be used both as a distraction and as a way to save ammunition, so long 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 then any other enemy in the area.

One way to boost xp is to make a goliath rage, and assist him in killing enemies. Next, weaken him, and then rage another goliath, so that he kills the first goliath. Theoretically, this will triple the first goliath's XP, giving 9x XP on the first goliath's kills, 3x XP on the goliath himself, and normal XP for the second goliath.

Types

 * Goliath
 * Caustic Goliath (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 and has less health)
 * Loot Midget Goliath (combination of Loot Goon Goliath and Midget Goliath)
 * Badass Goliath (miniguns as base weapons)
 * Badass Midget (acts like a Goliath with its helmet on)
 * One Armed Bandit (Slot Machine on his back)
 * 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 evolves 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 it's max) and killing this will unlock the Goliath, Meet David achievement. Much like players, Goliaths that level up have their health completely restored.

Boss

 * Smash Head
 * Tector & Jimbo Hodunk (Tector)

Quotes
Normal
 * "HOW ARE YOU?"
 * "Free 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...!
 * I keep brain there...!

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!"

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!"
 * (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 Decoy 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!"

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

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

Slagged - Normal
 * "Please don't switch gun!"
 * "Make pain worse..."

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 am... lame..."

Dying - Raged
 * "I'll... kill... you...!"
 * "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

 * There's an Easter Egg when Goliaths says "Welcome to die!", a reference to the infamous line spoken by Magneto in the 1992 X-Men arcade game.
 * In an ECHO recording, Marcus talks to a Goliath about giving a stash of guns to his brother. Due to his short memory, the Goliath repeatedly asks Marcus to tell him again or he will " take his helmet off".
 * When a Goliath's helmet is shot off, he may scream "Mistake... BIG GODDAMN MISTAKE!" This could be a reference to the film Starship Troopers, in which at one point, a sizeable fleet of starships and soldiers assault a planet where anti-ship fire was expected to be "random and light." However, most of the fleet gets decimated by plasma fire, causing one captain to exclaim, "This isn't random or light. Someone made a mistake. Someone made a BIG GODDAMN MISTAKE!"
 * When a Goliath goes into a rage, he may also scream "Gonna... FLOSS WITH YOUR SPINE!". This is likely a reference to the game Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves in which one of the playable characters who coincidentally is also a strong fighter with little brain yells to a boss, "THAT DOES IT. I'LL FLOSS MY TEETH WITH YOUR SPINE!".