Psycho (Borderlands)

Psychos are bandits who have gone insane with a freakish obsession for the Vault. Shirtless, wearing a white mask and dressed in orange pants, these outlaws can be immediately identified by their homicidal cries and constant desire to get into close combat.

Overview

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 to get into melee range with their intended victims, but are also capable of zig-zagging through terrain to avoid weapon fire. Wielding a "buzz axe", they can hack through most shields in one swipe and inflict massive damage if they get close. They typically attack with a double swing pattern, pausing after the second attack. When hurt, psychos can flinch, letting a player get a short distance away or counterattack in melee. While only armed with a close combat weapon, they are very capable of throwing axes over long distances, though such does little damage even to shields. Should they sustain significant injury, they are known to cast aside their axes and raise a grenade overhead and rush their target in a frenzied suicide attack. Killing them at this stage will not stop the grenade from going off. Interestingly, if the player is far enough from them, they'll still take out a grenade, but make no effort to run at the player before they explode.

Burning Psycho

Some psychos have adopted a pyromaniac bent and have become known as "Burning Psychos". These psychos deal Incendiary damage, and are also immune to fire as well. They are often encountered wearing shields. Burning Psychos are distinguishable by their bird-like outfit, including a skull mask with feathers, and the flames that they have leaping off them. They will also make suicide grenade attacks like 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, but deal far more damage, and are quite resilient and tough to kill.

Psycho Bosses

Hanz - Partner of Franz and bodyguard to Baron Flynt.
Roid Rage Psycho - A gross monstrosity of a man, commanding Sledge's bandits in Sledge's Safe House.
Sledge - Massive psycho who possesses the Vault key fragment found in the Headstone Mine.
Motorhead - A resurrected and "improved" Sledge from The Secret Armory of General Knoxx

Notes

Borderlands oldart pizza 11765 screen — Psycho prior to the art change

On Playthrough 2, the name Psycho is changed to Maniac, whilst in playthrough 2.5, they are called Lunatics.
When shooting at psychos from positions that the psycho cannot reach, they will occasionally throw their buzz axes in a ranged attack that inflicts minimal damage with a small knockback effect. This effect may actually pull the target forward, possibly being pulled from cover or down from a high perch. Badass Psychos will not do this, but regular and midget Psychos will.
Occasionally psychos will leap over low walls to reach targets quicker.
A glitch often occurs when a Badass Psycho dies. They will sometimes revert to the size of a normal Psycho, but still holding their blue pant's color scheme.

Quotes

"It's time for my pound of flesh! Hahahahahaha!" (possible reference to the famous play by William Shakespeare, "The Merchant of Venice.")
"Strip the flesh, salt the wound!"
"I'm gonna squeeze you 'til you bleed blood"
"MORE! More meat for me!"
"Time to play... TIME TO PLAY!"
"It's time, ahahahaha, for another pound of flesh!"
"Time, to pound, SOME MEAT PUPPETS!"
"I wonder what your face would look like on mine...?" (Heard after player is spotted.) (reference to "Leather Face")
"Another walking meat puppet!" (Heard after player is spotted.)
"Just three more steps, and I got me dinner." (Heard after player is spotted.)
"I'm gonna skin ya, put on your face, and say Hi to your momma!" (Heard after player is spotted.)
"Why don't you come over here, I got a little present for you!" (Heard after player is spotted.)
"Ahh, another victim!" (Heard after player is spotted.)
"Closer! Closer!"(Heard after player is spotted)
"Keep walkin', keeeep walkin'."(Heard after player is spotted)
"I'll take pleasure in guttin' you... boy." (reference to "The Rock")

Trivia

The standard psycho face mask bears the Vault symbol seen in many places throughout the game.
A psycho is featured on the cover of Borderlands.
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.