Austin

Austin
Psycho Police
Coins won't be an issue if you take him on the battlefield. Skin "Collector" was inspired by the contest winner on Reddit: u/Nervous_Active_7430.
Main Stats
Type	Psycho
Rarity	Exclusive
Health 22 Ranged Damage 4 Melee Damage 6
Crit. Chance	0%
Crit. Damage	1%
Speed	12
Prepare Time	30s
Rage Cost	30
Special	20% chance of getting on kills: 10-25 per kill Ability activation limit: 100 times
Behavior Stats
Agility	80
Aggression	100
Detection Range	150
Agility Penalty	50%
Aggression Penalty	30%
Morale Stats
Charisma	40
Valor	200
Charisma Radius	120
Abilities
Perks
Special Ability	The chance of getting coins is increased by 1.5 times
Ranged Data
Ammo Capacity	12 (3x4 bursts)
Firing Period	2.8s
Reloading Period	0.7s
Range	75
Bullet Spread	20°
Unlock Requirements
Price	500 (Heist Pack)
Player Level	Any

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.

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 Psycho that functions like a Shooter. He has average stats for the latter 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 unique special perk that grants him a 20% chance to produce between 10 to 25 coins on an enemy kill. 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 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 other units, buy powerups/bus upgrades in Trader's Military Kit Shop or for upgrading items, all of which can be prohibitively expensive otherwise due to the scarcity of money in general. His income is a huge help, able to cover even the most expensive price tags and also enables purchases that players usually wouldn't be able to pay for, such as the important buff items in shops, and can make all the difference when necessary. He 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. Additionally, 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.

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 propely 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 improtant 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 synegrizes 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 for you, 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
Skin
Unlock Req.	–	300 money
Team	Psychos	Police

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 the only ranged unit 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.
• Currently, Austin is the only Psycho unit outside of the Circus Pack. He also used to be the only unit in the Psycho class to cost courage.
• 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.

Gallery

• 

  Austin's sprite prior to update 2.5.0

• 

  Original concept for Austin's Collector skin.