Psy

Psy
A weak, but very dangerous zombie. Has a Psi Attack that knocks enemies around it back.
Main Stats
Health 65 Melee Damage 15 True Damage 13
Crit. Chance	0%
Speed	4
Rage Drop	1
Behavior Stats
Agility	50
Aggression	50
Morale Stats
Charisma	-24
Charisma Radius	100
Abilities
Knockback Strength	Depends on distance between Psy and units; 185 (maximum possible)
Activation Chance	90%
Resistances
Fire	100%

Psy is an infected dressed in a white lab coat, a dark slate shirt, and dark slate pants. His head, and most likely his brain, has been severely mutated to a large size. Only one of his eyes are always solid blue and it constantly twitches.

Overview

Psy is a special mid-to-late game enemy, and is one of the few zombies that has supportive abilities. While idle, he very frequently causes a psionic shockwave blast in a massive range. The blast is accompanied by a ripple effect.

Psy's shockwave knocks units back, always ensuring that they stay a set distance away from it. Because of this, depending on how close a unit got to Psy, they will get pushed back at varying speeds. The blastwave also deals minor true damage to units, with its strength depending on distance too. It will deal full damage only if a unit is standing right in front of Psy. At maximum attack distance, it will deal only 1 damage.

The blastwave can only hit units in front of Psy. It also can't damage support items. Psy is immune to fire damage.

Strategy

Psy is an enemy that should always be prioritized. The blast he produces covers a large area and is capable of causing extreme knockback, preventing any kind of progress for most units. His slow speed and constant blasting will stall him, leaving him in the safer backlines while other enemies move forward. Additionally, his regular melee attack pushes units back, potentially allowing him to knockback units that finally manage to reach him and create all the space needed to prepare his next blast.

Since the psi attack causes knockback, most units under the heavyweight class are a hard counter against Psy thanks to their knockback resistance. However, they should still be supported as they either have long preparation time, high courage cost, or both. Policeman Diaz is one of the best choices as, apart from possessing full knockback resistance, his high health allows him to tank forward and his shotgun will easily eliminate groups of them with spread damage from a good distance. Alternatively, most units under the damager class are also good choices as they also possess knockback resistance, ableit not to the same degree as most heavyweights, generally costs slightly less, and prepares much quicker. They will still be pushed back a little but they do have a solid chance at killing Psy if heavyweights are not up to speed for a particular mission. Grenadier is a solid melee unit to use as his manual grenade toss can kill Psy fairly easily. However, if Psy knocks Grenadier back, he will not be able to use his ability until he starts moving again so proper timing, as always, is important.

Sheriff Charlotte and Sniper Polina are some recommended ranged units to use against Psy as they have a long initial attack range, allowing them to be just outside the psi attack's range and easily kill Psy. Ranged units with a high rate of fire can also work as most have a decent range to their attacks and can occasionally hit or kill Psy while fighting other enemies.

Red Barrel is a useful rage ability against Psy as the explosion can kill him or groups of him and other enemies. However, he is fire-resistant, so the fire pool created from the barrel or Molotov will not work against him. Although its preparation time is not ideal, using Nitrogen can significantly reduce how often Psy will use his psi attack. It's recommended that it is dropped in front of Psy so that if he does choose to attack it, it will stop him from using the blast as he will be focused on destroying Nitrogen before performing more psi attacks.

Trivia

• There was a rare bug where if Psy performed a psi attack, the circular air ripple effect would have persisted on-screen for the rest of the mission.
• Currently, Psy simply explodes into a blue puddle similarly to Small Insectoid. However, Psy has an unused death animation.

Gallery

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  Journal entry.

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  Psy's unused death animation.