Rodriguez Creed

"*I'm babysitting you three.*"
―Rodriguez
**Rodriguez Creed** is a major character and optionally playable character in LISA: the Hopeful. He is a strict manager, leading a gang comprised Beltboy, Lanks, and Cyclops.

## Appearance and Personality

Rodriguez is the stern leader of the gang that consists of Beltboy, Lanks and Cyclops, all of whom had worked under him pre-flash as subordinates of a Wally's franchise fast food restaurant. They appear to follow his orders reluctantly. He has a short temper and won't hesitate to shout at or slap some sense into his lackeys. He doesn't think much of his comrades, seeing them as very incompetent. Fortunately, this doesn't stop him from entrusting them with performing some - admittedly simple - tasks. He drives a dirty station-wagon that he adores, clearly unwilling to leave unattended.

In addition to his behavior, his appearance is much that of a cowboy, donning a cowboy hat, a red poncho, and even utilizes revolvers during combat. This leads to some characters commenting on his strange appearance. He has a full head of hair and his face is bony, being accessorized with a moustache and goatee. His facial expression is usually neutral, but it has shown itself to change to that of an angry one on occassion.

### The Normal Route

After the gang does their deed of finding gasoline and escaping from the Engine Enthusiasts, they return to find Rodriguez having been decapitated by the Lovelies, who initially tried to steal his car. With him killed, Beltboy takes charge of the gang and tries to lead them onward to their mission. He is frequently mentioned during campfire sequences, seen in hallucinations and appears to had commended some respect among his peers. He also appears in a flashback.

### The Rodriguez Route

In the Definitive Edition of LISA: The Hopeful, it is possible to recruit Rodriguez. Recruiting him requires the player to be playing on Pain Mode and perform a side-quest towards recruiting Reginald, except instead of proceeding to the rest of Area 1 as normal, the player must return to Rodriguez. Needing tools, Rodriguez first approves of his gang, but quickly changes his mind when he realizes the toolbox is filled with nothing but car decal stickers. As a result, Rodriguez, seeing his cronies as nothing but incompetent, throws the towel and reluctantly decides to join Beltboy and co. The tool box will be returned to the player to allow them to complete the Reginald sidequest, should they want to recruit him. Though keep in mind that attempting to recruit Reginald will lead to Rodriguez refusing to allow him to join, leaving Reginald to politely promise to pay them back someday.

Recruiting Rodriguez leads to a strikingly different path than normal. Namely, his presence alone helps the player bypass most of Area 1, and he provides have access to two areas in the game. Because the player will miss out on some battles, Rodriguez's presence and ability to debuff foes can help even the odds.

Unlike the Beltboy route, Rodriguez gains a much more prominent role in the story, and his effectiveness as a leader is on full display. Due to his experience and his knowledge on how his gang works, he is more eager to overpower his opposition, and his plans often kick off much better than Beltboy's plans. Additionally, he applies his bossy and impatient attitude to encourage the gang to work harder, but will behave just the opposite to obtain different, yet still effective results. He is not without any concern for his gang, as he will give praise when it's due, and does have their wellbeing in mind. Fortunately, he is also a lot more amicable during the campfire cutscenes.

## Battle

Rodriguez works as an offensive support character, being able to deal damage and support his boys. Like Cyclops and Reginald, he operates on using TP for his skills. Similar to Lanks, Rodriguez has a number of support moves, often providing stat boosts and removing ailments from his allies. Because he uses TP, regeneration is done by attacking, guarding, taking damage, or recovering with items to generate more TP. His two offensive moves, *6 Slugs* and *12 Slugs*, inflict large amounts of damage due to attacking six times (double damage for the latter). Using either skill will result in him being inflicted with the Reload ailment, which makes him unable to fire his weapons for a few turns. Fortunately, this does not bar him from using items or other skills.

## Default Equipment

* Weapon : Revolver
* Head : Cowboy Hat
* Body : Itchy Poncho
* Accessory : N/A

## Trivia

* In a couple of campfire conversations, Rodriguez reveals that he was once married and had a son, although his marriage life ended in divorce and he is uncertain as to his son's status. He does, however, feel confident that his son is doing just fine for himself.
* In his route, despite taking the lead for the gang, Beltboy will still take the fore-front. It was stated by the creator that the reason for this is because Rodriguez is lazy and doesn't want to run everywhere.
* Rodriguez' *"-ass"* weapon is the Cheapass Revolver. Equipping it makes his special attack stat plummet, rendering his recovery skills near useless. As a trade-off, he will never be inflicted with the +Reload effect, meaning it is possible to continually spam *6 Slugs* and *12 Slugs* without fail, as well as being able to buff and debuff his teammates, save for when TP runs out.
* Some players jokingly gave Rodriguez the nickname "McCree" due to their similar looking appearance.
* Rodriguez Creed is about fifty (50) to sixty (60) years old, making him the second oldest among the party members, being only beaten in terms of age by Reginald. Source.
* Rodriguez's sprites were the first ones made by Taco Salad. Source.
* Due to a bug involving Rodriguez not being resistant to the Dead status, the specific instance of Heart Squeeze used by Eugenio Estevan can kill Rodriguez in battle, despite him being still present in cutscenes. This bug can be fixed by having him rest at a campfire.
* Rodriguez wore his cowboy getup before the Flash, and possibly even to work, as implied in the flashback Beltboy experiences before being rescued by the Kegger Krew. Source.
* Rod's car is named Dorothy.
* He hosted a radio show before becoming a Wallyburger manager.
* The name "Rodriguez" is actually a hispanic surname.