Farmer is an elderly man who seeks to avenge his destroyed farm. He is armed with a double-barreled shotgun and dressed in a blue and yellow T-shirt, a gray short sleeve vest, black pants, and a yellow bucket hat. He sports some gray stubble.
Farmer
- 2 (2x5 pellets, base)
- 1 (1x10 pellets, critical)
- 1.4s (base)
- 0.7s (ability)
Redstreak is Farmer's first exclusive skin. He is armed with a double-barreled shotgun and dressed in a maroon shirt underneath of a green camo jacket, black pants, and an American flag print headband. He sports a gray stubble beard.
Dale is Farmer's second exclusive skin. He is armed with a double-barreled shotgun and dressed in a gray T-shirt with a yellow arm patch, an orange high-visibility traffic vest with yellow reflective strips, black pants with a walkie-talkie attached to the waist, and a maroon baseball cap with a yellow letter H logo. He sports some gray stubble.
He is a Star Reward, obtained for free when players collect 4 stars.
Overview
Farmer is a Shotgunner. He is fragile, slow, and takes a long time to reload his weapon. This is compensated by his courage cost and preparation time, which are quite low for a ranged unit.
Farmer uses a break action shotgun that fires 5 pellets in a cone at moderate speed, and has 2 rounds. If approached suddenly or without ammo, he does a quick melee attack. Farmer's ranged criticals have a special property: if he scores a critical hit while having 2 shells loaded, he will fire both barrels at once, effectively launching 10 pellets, and getting forced to reload.
Farmer has no perks. Some time after dying, he turns into a Tipsy.
Special Ability
Farmer's special ability locks his double shot chance at 50%. Contrary to the description, Farmer's double shot does not gain knockback or slowing effect.
This ability provides an opportunity to greatly improve Farmer's performance by turning him into a cheap source of burst damage. While it can act as a double edged sword in some scenarios, courtesy of forcing Farmer to reload more often, it easily compensates for that with sheer offensive power, as long as his crit. damage is properly buffed.
Gameplay
Main Campaign
As the very first ranged unit, Farmer is very useful in the beginning of the game. His low courage cost, average preparation time, long range and firing pattern all make him suitable as a fire support unit that works wonders to accumulate DPS, but his low health and melee damage makes him relatively defenseless against enemies that can close into him quickly or are resistant to his attacks, such as Insectoids and Armored Skeletons. Players will quickly learn his notable strengths, exploiting upgrade Items to their maximum potential and build their deck to work around his weaknesses in action through the use of melee units like Redneck or Mechanic, who can fight bullet-resistant threats and cover for his slow reload. Despite being seemingly inconsistent, Farmer can be viable even until the endgame if used well.
As a shotgunner, Farmer faces fairly significant competition with several other alternatives. He is not completely outclassed, however, and in some cases can be used alongside them in a supportive capacity.
- Policeman Diaz, who costs more and has less range, but his high health and melee resistance makes him more forgiving to use, and he can be unlocked relatively early. Diaz' lower range actually plays in their favor, as he can act as a tank and protect Farmer from melee threats.
- Ranger, who costs slightly more and has a steep unlock price, but moves faster, and has a chance to dodge.
- Lester, who is extremely difficult to unlock, but reloads and fires faster, meaning they can be used together to form massive DPS stacks.
Skirmish
In League, Farmer is a decent choice for early low-level Skirmish, as players tend not to put bullet-resistant units in their formations, and his low courage cost allows for more liberty in options. However, Farmer's slow rate of fire, low health and average range means he isn't of much use beyond that. Both Policeman Diaz and Ranger easily supersede him, especially considering their team synergies, as well as Ranger's 90% bullet resistance and higher health.
Item Sets
Like most shotgunners, Farmer benefits most from Hunter and Military. The former provides the most versatile damage buff, meanwhile the latter accentuates crowd control. Tactical is also a valid option for mid-game, as it allows Farmer to properly deal with such threats as Armored Skeleton, Lubber and Sapper. During early game, Adventurer and Startup are both valid options, with the former being more preferable thanks to its damage boost; although the latter might be more appealing due to Farmer's very low speed and its access to rare-tier items.
Gentleman set is a special case, as it's a valid option only with Farmer's SA unlocked. It can be used for builds that fully focus on double shots over regular attacks, limiting Farmer's versatility but buffing his potential as a burst damager.
Farmer greatly benefits from crit. chance books, but after unlocking his special ability they become redundant. Instead, a crit. damage book should be used, as his critical chance will be fixed at 50%. Farmer benefits most from flat boosts rather percentages, with damage and health being the most important ones. Although he recharges moderately quickly, equipping him with a prep. time watch is the best option, as it accentuates his lowkey spammability.
Skins and Synergies
Farmer, along with his respective skins, is part of three teams: Rednecks, Patriots, and College.
In all of the above teams, Farmer is usually an acceptable option given the simplicity of his role as a supportive ranged unit. His main appeal lies in his potential to keep the 3/3 condition active, since—even though he is a shotgunner—ranged units manage to stay in battle for longer periods than melees. He can't really benefit from any of his teams' powers, but his base capabilities compensate for that well enough.
College is the only team that offers Dale any direct buffs. It guarantees to boost his crit. damage by 10%, and raises that bonus to 20% while 3/3 is active. While it's not a highly significant damage boost, it still proves useful once Farmer's SA is unlocked.
It's also important to mention that Farmer allows to access Rednecks' 2/2 power for dirt cheap, given that Redneck himself is a free unit, making it easy to abuse the synergy very early on.
Trivia
- According to Redneck's deleted backstory:
- Redneck and Private Rodriguez are his possible children.
- Rifleman shares an in-file name with Farmer.
- Farmer is likely a reference to both Dale Horvath and Hershel Greene from The Walking Dead series, as he portrays aspects of both characters.
- This is further evidenced by Farmer's College skin being called "Dale" as a reference to the former character and noting his canonical name.
- Before update 2.7.0, Farmer had to be purchased with coins. The bus had to be level 2, and his price was 18 coins.
- Farmer used to have a different sprite in Dead Ahead: Quarantine.
- Farmer used to have a different reload animation.
Gallery
- Spritework of Farmer shooting Paramedic.
- Redstreak appearing in a Promotional Spritework for the Team Powers.
- Redstreak appearing in a Promotional Content for the Creator Support Plan on Nexus.
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 |