Psycho (Borderlands)

For other uses, see Psycho.

Background

At some point in Pandora's recent past, a discovery was made at the Headstone Mine and hastily covered up. While it has never been fully revealed what was found there, it is known that a Vault key fragment came into the possession of Sledge, a grossly muscled behemoth of a man who later amassed a small army of bandits at Headstone Mine. The discovery at the mine had a surprising effect on many of the convict workers there. Most went crazy and many were physically mutated as well, growing into huge, muscular parodies of humanity, or stunted to dwarf proportions. Many of the "psychos", as they came to be known, donned face masks portraying the object of their collective fixation: an upside down "V" emblem.

Psychos are typically found among the ranks of the bandits that plague Pandora. They are known to act as the close-range counterparts to their more lucid, gun-waving brethren and will rush their targets while screaming all manner of insane comments.

Strategy

Psychos run very swiftly, vaulting over low obstacles to get into melee range with their intended victims. They often zigzag in their run to avoid weapons fire. Wielding a "buzz axe", they deal extremely high damage to anything they're fighting against, easily capable of killing Skags and Spiderants with ease whereas other bandits would have trouble killing them. Psychos attack with a simple slash, which can be followed up with a second swing, after which the psycho pauses briefly.

When sufficiently hurt, psychos can flinch, letting a Vault Hunter get a short distance away or counterattack in melee. While only armed with a close combat weapon, they can also use it as a long ranged attack, which is unusually accurate, but deals insignificant damage. This is generally performed when the psycho cannot reach the Vault Hunter. Should they sustain significant injury (which is always accompanied with them flinching), the psycho will toss their axe at the aggressor regardless of distance, pull out a grenade and set it off before running towards them. This attack is incredibly strong and can easily deplete shields and most, if not all, of their intended target's health, leaving them vulnerable to further attacks. Once the grenade is pulled out, killing the psycho will not stop the grenade from going off. Psychos sometimes pull out the grenade even if their target is far away from them, destroying themselves even before they get close. This grenade can also hurt and kill other enemies close to it.

The melee attack employed by Psychos forces them to stop running, and can be avoided by moving backward when the animation starts. As a result it is not necessary to run away from Psychos; simply move backward a step or two when they start their attack. It is even possible to move forward and strike first with a melee attack then back away while they are stunned.

Burning Psycho

Some psychos have adopted a pyromaniac bent and have become known as "Burning Psychos". These psychos will ignite themselves when engaged, rush into close proximity for melee attacks, and deal Incendiary contact damage. They are often encountered wearing shields and are immune to incendiary damage-over-time. Fire-resistant shields are therefore recommended as a last resort when they close in. Burning Psychos are distinguishable by their bird-like outfit, including a skull mask with feathers, and the flames that they have leaping off them. Like other Psychos except the Badass version, they will throw their weapon at targets at range. Unlike normal Psychos or Midget Psychos, they do not make suicide grenade attacks. They make the same sound as normal psychos.

Badass Psycho

Badass Psychos are much larger than the normal varieties, have a disproportionately enlarged right arm and a severely stunted left arm. They never make the suicide grenade attacks that their smaller brethren do, however they are quite resilient and tough to kill.

A useful strategy when fighting Badass Psychos is to shoot them while backing away. This keeps the Vault Hunter from harm while they whittle down the Badass Psycho from a safe distance. The mutant will stop to melee if he catches up, allowing a brief opportunity for characters to move out of reach. They are sometimes found without a shield and incendiary weapons can work wonders on them, even with their substantial health. Fast firing weapons can often accumulate enough damage at once to cause them to flinch, therefore a fast-firing incendiary weapon is an excellent choice against these close range behemoths. They cannot throw their axes at distant targets, nor do they perform the suicide grenade attack.

Occasionally, when returning to the corpse of a Badass Psycho, the body will have taken on the physical proportions of a normal psycho but will still retain its original pale skin colour.

Quotes

Ahh, another victim!
Another walking meat puppet!
Come closer, I can almost smell you.
Another slave! To feed me.
Blood! Blood! BLOOD!
I wonder what your face, would look like on mine.
I'll take pleasure in guttin' you... boy.
I'm gonna eat you when I'm done!
I'm gonna rip off your arm and beat your baby with it!
I'm gonna skin ya, put on your face, and say Hi to your momma!
I'm gonna squeeze you 'til you bleed blood
It's time, ahahahaha, for another pound of flesh!
It's time for my pound of flesh! Hahahahahaha!
It's time to paint this body with blood!
Just three more steps, and I got me dinner.
Keep walkin', keeeep walkin'.
Look boys! Its some fresh meat!
MORE! More meat for me!
No, don't run away, I need your face!
Strip the flesh, salt the wound! (maniacal laughter)
Time to play! Time to play!
Time to pound... some meat puppies!
Why don't you come over here, I got a little present for you!
Yeah that's right..Closer! Closer!
Yes, Yes, YES! It's dinner time!
You remind me of my mother... I ate my mother.

Notes

On Playthrough 2, the name Psycho is changed to Maniac, whilst in Playthrough 2.5, they are called Lunatics.

Trivia

The standard psycho face mask bears the Vault symbol seen in many places throughout the game.
Psychos are featured on the cover of Borderlands, Borderlands 2, and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, blowing their brains out with a finger pistol.
- Oddly enough, while appearing on the cover of the Pre-Sequel, the Psychos are not present anywhere in the game. They are replaced by Scav Lunatics (not to be confused with the Ultimate Vault Hunter variant of the Psycho)
Roland is shown holding a psycho mask on his "Wanted" poster.
When a Psycho says "Time to pound some meat puppets!", the subtitles will say "puppies" instead of puppets.