Private Rodriguez

Private Rodriguez
Regular Patriots
That training he got from serving helped him survive this long. Will it be enough to survive even longer?
Main Stats
Type	Fighter
Rarity	Common
Health 27 Melee Damage 11
Crit. Chance	5%
Crit. Damage	10%
Speed	16
Prepare Time	4
Courage Cost	15
Behavior Stats
Agility	60
Aggression	80
Detection Range	80
Agility Penalty	10%
Aggression Penalty	10%
Morale Stats
Charisma	300
Valor	350
Charisma Radius	120
Abilities
Perks
Knockback Strength	15
Special Ability	Throws a knife every 20 seconds.
Unlock Requirements
Price	2,100
Player Level	8

"I always dreamed of a warrior's way which my famous ancestors had. I wanted to fight and be a hero so I left my family and went to serve in the Marines. It turned out that the service is not just heroism, but also daily teachings."

- Rodriguez, talking a little bit about his dream.

Private Rodriguez is a naval infantryman armed with black combat throwing knives and dressed in a light gray t-shirt, gray fingerless gloves, urban camo pants, and an urban camo cap.

Rodriguez is Private Rodriguez's first exclusive skin. He is armed with black combat throwing knives and dressed in a green t-shirt underneath a tactical vest with pouches, an American flag print bandana, gray fingerless gloves, black pants with a brown drop leg pouch strapped to his right leg, and a gray and dark gray trucker cap with a blue logo.

He can be unlocked for 2,100 coins after reaching player level 8.

Functionality

Basics

Private Rodriguez is a Fighter unit. He is a very expendable unit, costing a low amount of courage and preparing rapidly in a few seconds, but at a cost of having low health. His melee damage is low but he has very fast attack speed.

Rodriguez causes knockback on his critical hits. Some time after dying, he turns into a Soldier (Zombie).

Special Ability

Private Rodriguez's special ability allows him to perform a knife throw when he detects an enemy, prioritizing it over his normal melee attacks. This ability deals bullet-type damage equivalent to Rodriguez' normal melee damage, and has a cooldown of 20 seconds. It has perfect accurracy, and can't crit. In deck-based modes, this ability has unlimited detection range. It can benefit from Tactical and Hunter item sets.

This ability is of little importance, as Rodriguez' status as an expendable unit means it is unlikely for each unique instance of him to fire it off more than once in their lifespan. It's usefulness is also inconsistent, as in some scenarios it can hinder Rodriguez' utility as an instant response unit, while in others it provides useful burst damage from a safe distance. Whether to get this ability or not depends on your personal preferences.

Gameplay

Main Campaign

With a combination of low cooldown, fast attack rate and knockback on critical hits, Private Rodriguez is among the best spammable Fighters in the game that truly differentiates him from most others though his sheer versatility. While other fighters tend serve as just meatshields beyond their Team Powers, Private Rodriguez can also meaningfully contribute lots of damage, even in the endgame where ranged units reign supreme as he works very well in presence of their support. Despite his very low agility and long pauses between attacks, these barely hamper his utility, making him always a worthy investment if these drawbacks are worked with.

Skirmish

In League, Private Rodriguez isn't any better than Redneck, as he has nothing powerful to offer for this mode, except that his knife thrown starting range has infinite starting range, but it isn't always useful. His special might be useful for making him a more efficient meat shield, able to harm threats like Carol and Mechanic without fault, but that's as far as his application may reach.

Item Sets

Being one of the few fighters who can be entirely self sufficient, Private Rodriguez can find use from both typical fighter options and from more "selfish" sets. Gentleman accentuates his damage potential, meanwhile Boss allows to use him in a more supportive way. Before getting access to any of these options, Builder and Chef are tolerable alternatives. It is not recommended to use Fitness, as Marines team's 2/2 power can resolve Rodriguez' issues with behavior stats without making any sacrifices to damage.

Players should always aim for agility watches to improve Rodriguez's low agility, as he has a very short preparation time and substats do more than enough to compensate. +% Crit. chance books work best with him, as his low critical chance makes it difficult to take advantage of his knockback ability. Like with most fighters, flat boosts to health and damage provide better value than percentages.

Skins and Synergies

Private, along with his respective skins, is a part of two teams: Marines and Patriots.

Name	Private Rodriguez	Rodriguez
Skin
Unlock Req.	–	300
Team	Marines	Patriots

In all of the above teams, Private Rodriguez is never a bad option. He is effectively mandatory in Marines, since the 2/2 power benefits him alone, and the only other melee unit in the team aside from Rodriguez is Paramedic Nancy. He is also an important member for Patriots for similar reasons, considering that Carol is far from a perfect fighter, and Juggernaut is a heavyweight.

Trivia

• Rodriguez used to just be called "Marine" and wouldn't get his current name and title until later.
• According to Rodriguez's backstory, he and Redneck are brothers.
  • Of particular note, he is the only unit whose backstory is yet to be deleted, as it appears to be an original work rather than blatant plagiarism.
• Due to an animation oversight, Private Rodriguez' combat knife does not appear when he is moving.
• Since the introduction of special abilities, Rodriguez was the first unit to have received a wholly unique animation along with it.
  • Rodriguez and Pepper are the only two units to receive newly unique animations for their Special Abilities.
• Prior to update 2.8.4, Rodriguez used to have a shovel instead of a knife, which he picked up when he was on an engineering exercise. His attack speed was comparable to Redneck, only with faster critical hits.
• In the game files, Private is referred to as "cheechmarin." This is a reference to the stand-up comedian Richard Anthony Marin who goes by the stage name Cheech Marin. The file name was also a pun on the unit's previous name, Marine, before it was changed.

Gallery

• 

  Private Rodriguez' sprite prior to update 2.8.4

• 

  Private Rodriguez' special ability animation.