Private Rodriguez

* Regular
* Patriots

The training he got from serving helped him survive this long. Will it be enough to survive even longer?

## Unlock Requirements

### 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."*

*- Private Rodriguez, talking a little bit about his dream.*
* Private Rodriguez
* Rodriguez

 **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**, meaning he will attack enemies and the barricade at close range.

He is an expendable unit, with his cheap cost, little health, fast movement speed, and a fast preparation time. His melee damage isn't impressive, but his normal and critical attacks are pretty swift.

Some time after dying, Rodriguez will turn into Soldier.

### Perks and Abilities

Private Rodriguez knocks enemies back on critical hits.

At level 13, Private Rodriguez' special ability can be unlocked, granting him a ranged attack. When he encounters an enemy at a short distance (or infinite distance if he is in a deck based gamemode like Supply Runs or Skirmish), he will do a quick knife throw. Its damage is equal to his melee attack's final damage (after bonuses from items), but is considered a ranged attack. The knife's damage can be increased with any damage related upgrade items or even Item Sets; like Hunter which greatly benefit how much damage he can do and paired with deck based gamemodes it can increase his damage output to even higher values. He will continue to throw another for every 20 seconds he's still alive on the battlefield. Regardless of his position, his attack will always hit his target, only missing if the target was destroyed before that happens. The knife throw is unable to deal critical hits.

Rodriguez's status as a cannon fodder unit means it is unlikely for each unique instance of him to throw more than one over their entire lifetime. However, that single throw can be more than enough to deal with certain threats, or finish off enemies who stayed alive after receiving damage from stray bullets. Sadly, this ability also hinders Private's emergent supportive capabilities, should he be sent out to deal with zombies that are getting too close to the bus. Combination of this factors makes it a questionable upgrade that can be both useful and detrimental at the same time. If you are willing to deal with the downside, then it might prove to be a worthy purchase. Otherwise, it can be ignored.

## Gameplay

### Main Campaign

In a lot of ways, Private Rodriguez can be treated as an upgrade to his brother Redneck. Some of his stats are superior, and the ability to cause knockback on critical hits is rather valuable when combined with his rapid attacks. Cheap access to it is more powerful than it sounds, and together with Mechanic, Rodriguez can be used to fend off the likes of Blues and SWATs, although not without support from Medkits. His ability allows him to dispatch Charged Zombies as well, provided he is able to get close without being interrupted. He does however weirdly pause often between attacks, even with maximum agility. Regardless, it's safe to say that Rodriguez can be seen as one of the best fighters in the game, as long as you give attention to his upsides, and find ways to compensate for his downfalls.

### Skirmish

In League, Private 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. Rodriguez's 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, 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. Fitness is ill-advised for him, as Rodriguez's issues with agility and his attacks pausing can be fixed in a more resourceful way by using 2/2 Marines.

Because of his already short preparation time (4 seconds) and agility issues, it is advisable to seek cooldown reduction through substats. A mere -2 sec decrease is enough, since there's a delay between each unit coming out of the bus. +% Crit. chance books are the best options, as they allow him to perform critical hits more often. 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.

 Team

In all of the above teams, this unit is never a bad option thanks to his overall efficiency. Matter of fact, the 2/2 Marines synergy is built entirely around him, bringing Rodriguez back to his old pre-nerf glory of constant attacks with practically no delay in-between. This also opens up the possibility of using a different item set besides Fitness as he's no longer reliant on it to fix his aggro issues. Pairing Private alongside fellow Marine Sonya gives players a powerful option for easily beating mid-to-endgame missions without having to spend any money.

## 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. 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.
* The reason why he pauses so much when attacking is not because of his low agility. It's actually because he's stupid, as showcased by the "???" Speech bubble that appears above his head when he pauses.

## Gallery

Private Rodriguez' sprite prior to update 2.8.4Private Rodriguez' special ability animation.

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