Dr. Norman

A scientist and inventor who used to work at a liquid nitrogen depot.

**Dr. Norman** is a crafty scientist putting his work experience into action. He is armed with a metal nozzle with a red hose connected to a nitrogen tank carried on his back by black straps, and dressed in a yellow hazmat suit with blue gloves, and a fishbowl helmet with traces of nitrogen particles.

## Functionality

### Basics

Dr. Norman is a shotgunner, meaning he will launch a cone of damage upon firing and excels at dealing with weak hordes and single tanky enemies up close.

Dr. Norman has high health for a ranged unit, but has low ranged damage. He has both average courage cost and preparation time for a ranged unit. He moves at a very slow pace.

Dr. Norman fires a burst of freezing nitrogen gas dealing a low amount of damage but in quick succession. When this burst is done, he pauses for a moment before continuing to fire. He has no reload animation which makes him less vulnerable to enemies.

Should be being approached suddenly or after firing his weapon and his opponent is within melee range of him, he will deliver relatively strong melee attacks at a modest rate, either by kicking or bashing with his weapon. His melee strikes are surprisingly powerful compared to how weak ranged unit’s melee bashes usually are.

Some time after dying, Dr. Norman turns into Slob.

### Perks and Abilities

Dr. Norman’s ranged attack stuns the enemy, similar to Willy’s ranged attack. His ranged attack also deals true damage, meaning it ignores enemies’ bullet-resistance and melee-resistance. Unlike Willy's ranged attack, however, Dr. Norman's ranged attack also ignores the Egg's ranged damage immunity during its inactive state.

As a scientist unit, Dr. Norman has several resistances; 50% explosive resistance, full fire resistance, and full poison resistance.

Since Dr. Norman possesses full fire resistance, his corpse cannot be burned, forcing the players to deal with him once he turns.

Upon death, his liquid nitrogen tank will explode, stunning units and enemies within a short radius. His body will also launch a short ways forward, putting slight distance between him and the bus for when he turns into a zombie.

Upon reaching level 13, Dr. Norman’s special ability can be unlocked, granting him a 50% chance to drop a Nitrogen shortly after his death. This special ability is far from useless, as it doesn’t add anything to Norman himself. In most cases, having Nitrogen summoned can first result in damage during its drop. Second, freezing any allies that weren't caught in his initial radius when he died, or resetting the freeze length for those that were. In cases where freezing allies isn't an issue, being tied to RNG means there's always a chance where an opportune moment to freeze enemies is taken away due to bad luck. Due to the high risk and low reward on top of not even being guaranteed at least half of the time, it is often better to ignore this ability once Norman reaches level 13. It's better to save the 10,000 coins and skip the trouble of its highly questionable reliability.

## Gameplay

### Main Campaign

Dr. Norman is a powerful ranged unit thanks to his relatively high health, several resistances, and his ranged attack that stuns the enemy while ignoring all kinds of damage resistance/immunity, making him an excellent option in missions with Egg. Thanks to his relatively constant fire rate as well as not having to reload, it allows him to hold his own adequately.

Despite his strengths, Dr. Norman has some flaws that keeps him away from being a perfect unit. His DPS is not quite high due to his rather short firing period despite not having to reload, discouraging players from using him as the only ranged unit. His very slow movement speed leaves him vulnerable in missions with marauders' ranged weaponry. His presence can also backfires the team, as once he dies, his nitrogen tank will explode as well as turning into a very dangerous Slob, the latter is unpreventable since his corpse cannot be burned by any means due to his fire resistance. Fortunately, this can be avoided by using Paramedic Nancy, with her special ability unlocked, along with him. His special ability's practical usability is also questionable at best due to the nature of him being used alongside with melee units, the dropped nitrogen tank may likely stun friendly melee units, backfiring the front line horribly. While the special ability can be useful in a few situations, it does not improve Dr. Norman's performance as a defensive ranged unit by any means, making it a lackluster special ability in general.

Dr. Norman can be considered as a defensive version of Flamethrower. Both have similar attack patterns and move very slowly, with the difference being Dr. Norman stuns enemies as opposed to Flamethrower burning them. Although Flamethrower’s DPS is considerably higher, Dr. Norman’s ranged attack ignores all kinds of resistance/immunity, as opposed to Flamethrower’s being useless against fire-resistant ones. Dr. Norman also has fire resistance and a much higher health, allowing him to survive many more encounters despite Flamethrower’s bullet resistance perk. All of the aforementioned factors make Dr. Norman overall a superior unit.

### Skirmish

On paper, Dr. Norman can prove to be every enemy melee units' bane, as his liquid nitrogen can slow them down while dealing an acceptable amount of damage, rendering them helpless, which allows him to outright kill them on his own, particularly Turbo. His on-death explosion also ensures that any enemy melee units who manage to take him down will become helpless, which in turns allow any other friendly units to finish them. In practice, however, he has some noticable flaws that considerably limit his usability. His base attack range his very short, forcing players to pair him with bullet-resistant units to get the most out of him. He is also very slow and lacks bullet resistance, making him extremely vulnerable to most enemy ranged units, particularly Sniper Polina and Sheriff Charlotte. In most cases, Carol can outright kill him thanks to her unique critical attack without suffering too much. Due to this, players may want to use Flamethrower instead, as his DPS is considerably higher as well as possessing bullet resistance perk, and with his special ability unlocked, it makes him less vulnerable overall compared to Dr. Norman.

### Item sets

**Dr. Norman** benefits most with the Military set, as it can allow Dr. Norman to activate more of the continuous damage of his attack, this is a similar case with Flamethrower who also holds many similar traits. Other sets such as Swissmade will also work but it will be less effective than what was prior recommended. Unlike his counterpart, Dr. Norman has an unusually high amount of base health, so he can benefit from HP% stats.

## Trivia

* Dr. Norman is the only unit whose body launches forward on death.
	+ Among all units, his body travels the furthest from where he dies.
	+ If Paramedic Nancy revives Norman when he's the farthest up he can be, he will actually be able to hit the barricade due to the distance his corpse was launched forward.

 Humans
 TMF Squad