Austin is a bank robber armed with a Glock 18, and dressed in a white office shirt with a black tie, an American flag print clown mask, blue gloves, and black pants. He carries a black duffel bag strapped on his back.
Austin
Coins won't be an issue if you take him on the battlefield.
Collector is Austin's first exclusive skin. He is armed with a Glock 18, and dressed in a black jacket with shoulder insignias, black pants with gray side lines, a brown belt with a gray buckle, and a face shield with a black head strap and gray logo. He carries a marked black duffel bag strapped on his back.
He can be obtained by purchasing the Heist Pack for 500 Money.
Overview
Austin is a ranged Support that functions like a Shooter. He has average stats for his class, with the exception of relatively fast preparation time. He fires his gun in three-round bursts up to four times before performing a fast reload. If approached without ammo, he does a quick melee attack.
Austin has a game-changing perk that grants him a 20% chance to produce between 10 to 25 coins whenever he kills an enemy. This ability has a limit of 100 uses per mission, causing a virtual cap of 2500 coins. Collected coins are added to the player's storage immediately. This perk is disabled in Events, Skirmish, and Supply Runs. Killing zombies that turned from units or marauders won't activate the perk.
Some time after dying, Austin will turn into Tipsy.
Perks and Abilities
Austin's special ability increases the chance of him obtaining coins on kill from 20% to 30%.
While the increase might seem low, it does speed up the coin grind in the long run, making it a good investment that quickly pays for itself. Even if it doesn't improve Austin's general performance, it's worth buying in the grand scheme of things.
Gameplay
Main Campaign
After sending weak courage units to gather the rage for him, Austin should be the sole unit on the battlefield in order to maximize coin farming potential, as when properly equipped, he will quickly compensate for his cost. The coins earned will greatly aid players in upgrading the bus and their units, buy buff items and other useful resources from Trader, and improve upgrade items, all of which can be prohibitively expensive over the long term. His income is a huge help, able to cover even the most expensive price tags and enables purchases that players usually wouldn't be able to pay for due to the low rewards upon completing and replaying missions. Out of all the premium units in the game, it is highly recommended that Austin is acquired as soon as possible.
Austin is best used in missions with massive amounts of very weak and easy enemies, such as those on earlier challenges. One example is Challenge 3 in Location 1, which is filled to the brim with weak Skeletons. Austin's ability to produce coins on kills doesn't work on zombies who've turned from killed units and marauders. Avoid levels such as Mission 2 in Location 4, as both Sergeant and Undead cannot be exploited for coin farming. Although they can give out coins on their first deaths, any subsequent revives cannot activate Austin's perk. However, it does work on certain zombies that transform into/release other zombies, such as Sapper or Prisoner.
Depending on Austin's level and item stats, it is possible to take advantage of the zombies that appear at the end of the final wave. By keeping multiple Austins alive and using rage abilities such as Medkit and barrels for defense, the last wave enemies can serve as bonus revenue if the player is well prepared. In later missions, Armored Skeletons appear as part of this wave, so taking precautions is recommended to ensure they can be properly exploited for extra coins. If the bus manages to be destroyed, but Austin is still active on the field, he can still collect coins from the enemies he killed.
While Austin's perk is undoubtedly great, he isn't a very good ranged unit when it comes to standard mission completion due to his otherwise low stats and lacking other meaningful, combat-oriented special abilities. While his rage cost could favor him as an alternative for when courage is more scarce during a mission, it may not be suitable to replace another more capable ranged unit for this quality alone.
Skirmish
In League, a combination of Austin's unique ability being disabled, mediocre performance as a ranged unit, the lack of any useful resistances, and a high cost of 30 make him one of the worst ranged units to use. There is no reason not to pick something else.
Item Sets
While there are no sets in the game that properly support Austin's intended purpose, simply equipping him with something viable for a shooter is good enough. Both Hunter and Military fulfill that role, but their use cases still differ a little. Hunter is better for improving Austin's overall performance, should he be used for regular mission completion as a member of either of his teams. Meanwhile, Military allows to give him high stats without making him overly strong, which is perfect for coin farming in graveyard missions. The Butcher set is pointless, as the reward it provides is very small in comparison to effectiveness of Austin's own ability.
Austin benefits most from flat boosts, with damage and health being the most important ones. Being a ranged unit, a prep. time watch is the best option for him. Giving him at least +15% to range is advised, as Austin's low base value puts him at constant risk, and decreases Hunter's effectiveness. Among books, +% crit. chance proves to be the best option, as it perfectly synergizes with Psychos' 2/2 power, while complimenting his damage support playstyle in Police. However, it also requires pursuing +% crit. damage through extra buffs. In case this is too resource intensive, going with a +% health book is an acceptable alternative, especially if Austin is used strictly for coin farming.
Skins and Synergies
Austin is a part of the following teams: Psychos and Police.
Name | Austin | Collector |
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Skin | ![]() |
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Unlock Req. | – | 300 ![]() 5000 ![]() |
Team | ![]() |
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Thanks to the fact that Psycho's 2/2 power directly helps with making Austin easier to use, he ends up being a great option for the team, especially thanks to being one of the very few ranged units in it. In case you have access to Clown Chopper or Red Hood, it becomes a valid strategy to use 2/2 strictly as a support option for Austin, making him effortlessly generate fuel for his own clones. He also helps 3/3 builds a lot by staying on field for longer periods than the likes of Saw and Berserker, who also happen to be the best tag-alongs for the bank robber.
As for Police, Austin is generally pointless for that team, as they have an overabundance of proper ranged units. While he does benefit from the 2/2 power (and all others at a lesser extent), it's only ever useful for farming. Anywhere else he is strictly outclassed, courtesy of his poor playability.
Trivia
- Austin is a direct reference to Dallas, one of the characters from the Payday series.
- Both Austin and Dallas are names of cities in Texas.
- Before update 2.8.4, Austin was able to generate extra coins on reviving enemies. An undocumented nerf introduced in that update now only allows Austin to get coins from them on the first kill. Enemies that transform into other zombies do not fall under this effect.
- Before having his perk reworked and switching to a gun with a higher rate of fire, Austin had a different sprite.
- Austin's Police skin, Collector, was originally submitted by Reddit user Nervous_Active_7430 as a skin contest submission. It is the first community-created skins to be officially added to the game, though with some design changes from the original.
- Before it was removed in update 4.1.4, Austin was in the Psycho class.
- In the past, Austin used to be the only psycho class unit to cost courage.
Gallery
Promotional Artwork of Collector and Nomad Polina.
Units | |
---|---|
Base game | |
Humans | Redneck • Farmer • Builder • Mechanic • Pepper • Firefighter • Chopper • Gunslinger • Glenn • Policeman Diaz • Grenadier • Sheriff Charlotte • Private Rodriguez • Sniper Polina • Welder • Carlos • Guard • Carol • Medic • Ranger • Willy • Sonya • Juggernaut • Builder Abby • Lionheart • Light Soldier • Paramedic Nancy • Rogue |
Inanimate | Empty Barrel • Medkit • Red Barrel • Molotov Cocktail • Generator • Nitrogen • Turret • Drone |
Plot | Sheriff Bill • Minor Characters |
Premium | |
TMF | Flamethrower • Soldier • Cap • Swat |
Circus | Berserker • Saw • Queen |
Scientists | Dr. Miller • Dr. Kane • Dr. Norman • Drone |
Other | Jailer • SpecOps • Austin • Agents |
Event | |
Halloween | Turbo • Andrea |
Christmas | Lester • Cashier • Red Hood • Maria |
Escort | Princess |