Soldier

Not much has changed since his last job.

**Soldier** is a TMF fighter specializing in close-range combat. He is armed with a riot shield and a baton and dressed in a black full-body, bulletproof armor suit, a black gas mask with red lenses, and a black combat helmet.

## Functionality

### Basics

He is a heavyweight, meaning he is a slow but strong unit with high health and knockback resistance.

As a melee heavyweight unit, Soldier is a durable tank, with the highest base health among all units in the game. His fast melee attacks consists of several weak nightstick strikes, while his shield bash critical hit is sluggish. He is very slow in terms of movement speed. His cost and preparation time are rather high.

### Perks

Soldier knocks enemies back on critical hits.

Soldier has 90% resistance to bullet damage, and 25% resistance to melee damage, with immunity to poison and knockback.

His fear resistance is particularly strong, making it difficult for almost any amount of enemies to inflict the fear debuff.

As a TMF unit, Soldier will not turn into a zombie when killed.

At level 13, Soldier can unlock his special ability, which grants him SP equivalent to 30% of his HP. His base Health is 449 in level 13, so he will come with 135 Shield Points, and potentially more if he gets extra health boosts. It is able to absorb excess damage from a single hit. Soldier gains his SP upon spawn, and it cannot be recovered. This ability is extremely useful in most campaigns as health is essential in most team compositions and any additional durability is appreciated.

## Gameplay

### Main Campaign

Soldier has the 2nd highest base and potential health total in the game, starting at a very generous 130 and ramps up further from there. His special ability gives him a boost to his health in the form of a shield, however the aforementioned shield is only equal to 30% of his total health. When used correctly, soldier serves as a niche, yet effective anchor for the team, helping to hold back the enemy and stall long enough for more costly units to finish preparing. However, he shouldn't be relied on for large hordes, as while Soldier can shrug off a sizable group of fodder, he can't do anything about runners that go around him.

Soldier can be seen as a tankier, yet less lethal alternative option to Juggernaut and Chopper given their similarities. Thanks to Soldier's resistances, he is better suited for missions where Chopper would find himself particularly vulnerable, as Chopper has no resistances. However, he suffers from the same drawbacks as Chopper, with extreme cost and preparation time. Soldier in fact loses out to Chopper in speed and damage. While these can be compensated by effects of Fury buff and Cap's inspiration perk, Soldier ultimately has little utility through the whole game.

### Skirmish

In League, Soldier, with his large health pool, can prove to be an effective tank. His bullet resistance also proves to increase his survivability. If using him for defence, its best advised to place him at the far front of the group, as his large health pool helps him ignore most forms of damage while forcing enemy Melee units to deal with him, making him an effective counter to Carol. Unlocking his special ability will allow him to tank even a level 13 Mechanic's sledgehammer attack, rendering the opposing units special ability useless. However, his slow speed can prove to be a serious detriment as he can be picked off by ranged units if he suffered enough damage and/or is distracted fighting units who've turned into their respective infected. Sometimes, several ranged units delivering chip damage is all it takes to kill him. Against fast enemy melee units, while Soldier can manage on his own, he will likely end up losing a lot of his health during the fight. Since he is very slow, faster melee units will likely be able to move past him, rendering his defensive capabilities limited mostly to ranged units. It also does not help with the fact that his cost is very expensive, limiting the team composition considerably.

### Item Sets

Soldier has the 2nd highest base health in the game, so the first priority is to provide him with percentage health boosts, and then flat boosts, with damage being the last of all concerns. The recommended item sets cannot be easily determined but Soldier can equip Gentleman and Surgery, as well as other sets like Builder, Swissmade, and Hitman, but the chosen set depends entirely on the player's playstyle.

Notably, the Fast Food set gives the Soldier a **25% health boost**, taking this percentage to account excluding other health boosts potentially included with the items, a level 13 Soldier can approximately have **561 health and 168 point shield.** If focusing on pure durability alone, this item set could be ideal. To make the already sturdy Soldier even harder players can take the time to find Fast food items that already grant HP bonuses by flat number and percentage.

### Pros

* Highest base health in the game.
* 25% Melee resistance.
* 90% Bullet resistance.
* Full Poison resistance.
* Full Knockback resistance.
* Fear resistance.
* Does not turn into a zombie upon death.
* Knocks enemies back on critical hits.
* Explosion resistant (2/5 Team power active)
* Gains a shield from Special Ability.

### Cons

* Only available in a unit pack for a large amount of money.
* Very high courage cost.
* Very long preparation time.
* Very slow.
* Weak against melee-resistant units.
* Can sometimes randomly stop and not attack anything for extended periods.

## Trivia

* Before version 3.6.3 Soldier's ability only gave 25 shield points.
* Soldier is one of the five members of the Toxic Lab Military Forces, the others being Cap, Flamethrower, Swat, and Rogue.
* According to Soldier's deleted backstory:
	+ His name is Bosco Baracus, which is a reference to the character Bosco Albert "Bad Attitude" Baracus from the action-adventure TV series "The A-Team."
	+ Soldier is a part of the A-Team along with Cap and Flamethrower.
	+ He believes in God and is the only unit confirmed to be a believer so far.
	+ Despite having a hatred towards Flamethrower, he appears to trust him enough to perform surgery on his wounds.
* Like the rest of the TMF Squad members, Soldier was once available for purchase with coins.
	+ Soldier's requirement was level 10 and his price was 9,000 coins.
* Soldier used to hold the title of having the highest base health in the game among all units, before losing that title to Juggernaut. But, when Juggernaut's base health got nerfed in favor of his shield points, Soldier regained the title for most base health.
* Unlike Willy, Soldier's Riot Shield is attached to him and is solely used as a weapon, regardless if he has shield points or not.
* For a long time, Soldier didn't have melee resistance. It wasn't until a recent update that he got buffed with 25% melee resistance, thus making him one of only two units with explicit melee resistance, the other being Policeman Diaz.

## Gallery

Soldier's sprite prior to update 2.9.0

 Humans
 TMF Squad