Characters / Payday 2 Law Enforcement Specialists

Law Enforcement Specialists

These are the Law Enforncement Specialists, or the "Special Units". They are normally harder to take out, with a specific Gimmick applied to each unit to make them harder to take out.

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Bulldozers

You are up against the wall, and I am THE FUCKING WALL!

^{Russian Reaper Variant} 

^{Los Federales Variant} 

Portrayed By: Simon Kerr (PAYDAY: The Heist), P.J. Stoppleworth, Vladislav Kupryashin (Russian Reaper), Gustavo Dardes (Los Federales) (PAYDAY 2) (voices), Unknown (Hoxton Breakout Trailer)

The Bulldozer is heavy police unit in an EOD suit modified to withstand gunfire. Comes in six varieties^* though only four of them will only show up under different specific circumstances with different stats - Green Dozers, with a pump-action shotgun, Black Dozers, with a semi-automatic shotgun, and Skulldozers (also called LMG Dozers by Locke), with increased health and an LMG. The fourth variant is limited to Halloween-style events and is a headless Titandozer, either with an LMG or a staff weapon.

The fifth variant and the most dangerous of all is the Minigun Dozer, added with the Crime Spree feature, and now available to spawn in normal heists at Death Wish difficulty and above. These tanks will often represent the greatest threat in any given heist, especially if they come in groups.

The sixth variant is the Medic Dozer, which differs enough from the above-listed Bulldozers to warrant it having its' own folder. There are two reskins of this unit; Russian (exclusive to Boiling Point) and Mexican (from the San Martín Bank heist).

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• The Ace: Their entry in the FBI Files mentions that the Bulldozer program has the highest application rate in the entire division, since most other cops admire them. The actual acceptance rate is also the lowest in the division, since actually using that heavy, unwielding armor requires a very strong body on top of the rigorous training that they endure.
• Acrofatic: While they are not necessarily fat, the EOD suit they wear gives this impression. They has the slowest walking speed of all the specials, but they are still able to sprint, run up walls, rappel from a helicopter or even jump long distances between buildings without any difficulty at all.
• Are You Sure You Want to Do That?: He rarely does this when underestimating the PAYDAY Gang.
  Bulldozer: Are you sure you can handle the Elites?
• Armored But Frail: Played with. The Dozer doesn't have any armor, but instead boasts a massive cache of health. However, it's indicated that, in-universe, his durability comes from his heavy suit; he takes massive damage if hit in the face once it's revealed, being the only part of his body that can be directly attacked.
• Ascended Meme: Senpai Dozer *ahem*, Skulldozer staring at Chains (visually thinking he's his senpai), being sold as an official Overkill merchandise.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Shooting out their face visor is the only way to reliably harm them save for explosives.
• Boisterous Bruiser: His dialogue paints him as a loud, obnoxious nutjob who loves his job way too much.
• Boom, Headshot!: He has a massive damage multiplier if hit in the head compared to the rest of his body.
• Body Armor as Hit Points: Despite the heavy armor and visors, in-game he isn't considered to have armor at all. The reason he is so hard to take down is because he has a ridiculous amount of health (in the thousands, as opposed to hundreds compared to other police units). To mimic his face being exposed, he has a massive critical bonus when you do shoot him in the face.
• Blood Knight: Judging from his dialogue, he relishes combat. Just take a listen.
• Deadpan Snarker: Naturally...
  Bulldozer: Don't you think you should leave, now?
  Bulldozer: (after downing a heister) You're done.
• The Determinator: No matter how much punishment you subject him to, he won't give up! The only time he'll possibly back off is when an Assault Wave ends, and that's just to wait for reinforcements.
  Bulldozer: I'll kick your ass, visor or no visor!
  Bulldozer: Do you even know how fucked you are?
• The Dreaded: Bulldozers are (No Pun Intended) the bane of every heister, especially on higher difficulties. An unexpected bulldozer is almost guaranteed to cause an Oh, Crap! reaction to players facing it, even more so if it's a Minigun Dozer!
• Eye Scream: In the Hoxton Breakout trailer, Wolf manages to kill one by driving a drill into his eye.
• Gatling Good: The Minigun Dozer, originally introduced as a Crime Spree modifier, but was added to Death Wish and Death Sentence difficulties soon afterwards. Needless to say, they're even more deadly than the Skulldozers.
• Godzilla Threshold: The only reason why some players decided to use high-caliber sniper rifles and/or a rocket launcher (both of which have limited ammunition) in trade of more practical weaponry, such as an Assault Rifle or a Shotgun, is to excel in what the game developers call "Reliable Bulldozer Removal"; which is to say, laying waste to a Bulldozer in as few rounds as possible with a given powerful weapon. For the cops, the Bulldozer armed with light machine guns is their own Godzilla threshold against the PAYDAY Gang after the use of Cloakers and auto shotgun wielding Bulldozers failed to stop them.
  • A more straighter example is when civilian casualties cause more Dozers to spawn in response to the massacre, accident or not. So on top of penalizing the killing player with cleaner costs and more time wasted in custody, they'll have to deal with more Dozers at some indeterminate but inevitable point.
• Large Ham: Being the heaviest and strongest special of a security force, there is no mistake that they are practically the largest ham of the group.
  Bulldozer: Bulldozer! Make way!
• Major Injury Underreaction: Unlike any enemy in the game, the Bulldozer does not scream while set on fire.
• Mighty Glacier: While he does possess insane amounts of health and is capable of doing great damage on higher difficulties, the Bulldozer moves at a snail's pace, making him easy pickings for a sniper rifle. Originally, the Bulldozer was able to sprint, making him a Lightning Bruiser, but a patch disabled his running ability, only for 2016 to bring it back.
  • There are six types of Bulldozers; one locked to the Halloween event heists, and 5 regulars, with the regulars appearing depending on the difficulty set: The general green Bulldozer with the pump-action shotgun on Very Hard difficulty. The Black Dozers with an automatic shotgun on Overkill. Then the Skulldozers/LMG Dozers with an LMG!. The Crime Spree feature added The Medic Bulldozer, a regular Bulldozer that has the healing capacity of the Medic, and has slightly less firepower than a generic Bulldozer, and to top it off, the MINIGUN DOZER is a true Mighty Glacier. The latter two bulldozers were both later made to also spawn on Death Wish and Death Sentence Difficulties. The Halloween one is a Headless Titandozer, also armed with a machine gun or alternatively with two Titan safes on a pole wielded as a staff weapon.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Bulldozers now border on this, as in addition to their firepower, they are now capable of sprinting.
  • One mutation gives Bulldozers the Shield's... Shield. Now on top of everything above, he is completely immune to damage from the front. The Headless Titandozer has this too in some variations, except the shield is on their backs.
  • A modifier in the Crime Spree mode gives the Bulldozer a chance to spawn with the Minigun, making them even more deadly than the Skulldozer, but at the cost of moving even slower than a pre-sprinting Dozer before a patch. Said Dozer now can spawn as a rare unit in Death Wish and above after February 2018's Open Beta.
• No Indoor Voice: Being such as hammy person himself, there's no doubt he'll scream his enjoyment of his job in front of or even behind his enemies.
• No-Sell: After the Hoxton Housewarming Party updates, dozers have become completely immune to all stun effects.
• Oh, Crap!: Sometimes, he pulls this instead of a Badass Boast when his visor gets broken.
  Bulldozer: Uh-oh!/FUCK!/My damn visor!/I'm screwed!/FUCKING HELL!
• Pokémon Speak: He has a great deal of dialogue that only consists of shouting his name in glee.
• Punched Across the Room: While most law enforcement will resort to knives or employing the Pistol Whip if a player gets too close, Bulldozers will simply resort to punching players in the face with enough force to send them flying back by several feet.
• Serial Escalation: Over the course of the game's lifespan, more and more types of even more deadly Dozer variations came out. Originally, there were just the Green and Black Bulldozers. The first Halloween update added the Halloween exclusive Titandozer. The Death Wish update added Skulldozers, which appeared in the core game, though only on Death Wish difficulty. The Hoxton Housewarming update added ZEAL Dozers, exclusive to the Death Sentence difficulty. And then the first major update to the Crime Spree mode added two new types: A Medic Dozer, which rolled the Medic and the Bulldozer into a single unit, and Minigun Zeal Dozers, which were even more deadly.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Green Bulldozers are armed with the Reinfeld 880, while the Black carry the Izhma 12G with a drum magazine.
  • More Dakka: The GenSec's Skulldozers instead carry the KSP machine gun unlike the other ones. In Crime Spree mode, the Medic Dozer is armed with the Compact-5 submachine gun (The same weapon used by Cloakers and Medics), and finally, the Minigun Dozer, who, as their name imply, is armed with a minigun.
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!
  Bulldozer: You still have time to give up. Bitch!
  Bulldozer: Make way for the dozer. Bitch!
• Tranquil Fury: Sometimes, he pulls this even during the assault while trying to take down the PAYDAY Gang.
  Bulldozer: Just wait until I find you.
• Unstoppable Rage: A Crime Spree modifier has him enter a berserker state when his faceplate is broken, doubling his damage output. When this happens, you better put him down quickly.
• The Voiceless: In Hoxton Breakout Trailer, but his muffled voice is heard once he gets tackled and getting his eye drilled by Wolf. In reality, it's actually Matt's muffled screaming recycled from the Heat Street heist.
• Weaksauce Weakness: Dozers take extra damage from face shots after their visor is destroyed, but they also have an effective minimum range on their weapons. A Difficult, but Awesome strategy to take them out involves running right up in their faces and unloading an entire assault rifle magazine into their eyeballs. The stronger the weapon, the faster the Dozer will go down. What makes it difficult is that the margin for "Dozer can't shoot you" and "Dozer can't miss you" is very narrow, and the Dozer is constantly moving (albeit slowly), meaning you'd better keep right in his face at all times. Also, all his friends are trying to kill you as well.
• Wingding Eyes: Dozers typically have large X's carved on their visors over where their eyes would be. Higher-level Dozers eschew this for a skull graphic.

Cloakers

Now go to the forums and cry like the little bitch you are!

^{Los Federales Variant} 

Portrayed By: Simon Viklund, Vadim Savchenko (Russian Reaper), Fernando Macias-Jimenez (Los Federales) (voice)

A Spec-Ops infiltrator dressed in urban camouflage, the Cloaker wields a submachine gun, but relies primarily on martial arts and his trusty nightstick. A master of stealth, he can hide himself in small spaces inaccessible to the player, waiting for them to pass by so he can pounce on them for a One-Hit Kill. He wasn't included in the initial release of the game as during the beta, he had the ability to literally kick the player back to their desktop, but he was eventually fixed and released due to excessive demand, to the fandom's... er, "rejoice." Like with Bulldozers, he has a Crime Spree/Holdout specific variant that will spawn into the level; the Cuff Cloaker, which replaces his ability to kick down the player with a pair of handcuffs, and subsequently also doesn't decrease your health. There are two reskins of this unit; Russian (exclusive to Boiling Point) and Mexican (from the San Martín Bank heist).

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• Alone with the Psycho: He ends up as this in the Reservoir Dogs Heist Trailer and gets his face sliced by Wolf in the recreation of the infamous ear-cutting scene.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: The Cloaker's roundhouse-kick is so strong, a single hit can knock down even the heaviest teammates of a criminal raid. The only upside is it doesn't count towards the number of downs you're allowed before being sent into custody.
• Ax-Crazy: The FBI files note that while they are one of the most effective operatives, they are also rather unstable; they are typically recruited from ex spec-ops and other lone wolf types, and the ego trip from their training and expensive equipment doesn't help. This manifests as them singling out a single enemy and wailing on them exclusively, until they peel off and do it to another criminal.
• Blasting It Out of Their Hands: Does this to Dallas in the Wild West DLC trailer.
• Bound and Gagged: In the Reservoir Dogs Heist Trailer, he is bound and gagged while Wolf lops his ear off. Inverted with a certain Crime Spree modifier and the Holdout-specific Cuff Cloaker; which allows him to cuff players on kick instead of incapacitating them in a similar way to his PAYDAY: The Heist counterpart. In the case of the Cuff Cloaker, this is a balancing measure, as the Holdout maps are quite small, and Regular Cloakers would be too overpowering for the crew to deal with in such a confined area.
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: Cloakers tend to taunt the player directly once they've incapacitated them.
  Cloaker: We call this a "difficulty tweak!"
• The Chew Toy: Whenever later trailers for the game require an enemy to be murdered, said enemy will generally be a Cloaker. Given most players' feelings towards them and their ingame behavior, it's quite satisfying. The Wild West trailer has the Cloaker be killed by Wolf via a shot arrow to the head, the Jacket Character trailer shows the Cloaker tied up by Jacket and is scared shitless before Jacket smashes his skull with a hammer, and the Yakuza pack DLC has the Cloaker and only the Cloaker be decapitated or cut in half with the katana if killed by it. Just to rub more salt in the wound, Overkill made one of the 2015 Crimefest goals involve killing one million Cloakers.
• Creator Cameo: Voiced by Simon Viklund, just like Bain.
• Deadpan Snarker: He sometimes does this when hitting an incapacitated heister.
  Cloaker: I know, I know... I'm late.
• Expy: of Sam Fisher, given his M.O. and night vision goggles, though Gameplay-wise, he's basically a Witch. He runs at players with their radios screaming really loud, one shots^note not downing them unless a certain Crime Spree modifier grants him handcuffs them, then beats on their helpless body.
• Fragile Speedster: While the Cloaker isn't any more durable than a Taser, headshots inflict more damage to him than any other special unit. Good luck trying to hit Cloakers from a distance when they can run away pretty damn fast or do acrobatics to dodge your shots!
• The Friend Nobody Likes: Most of the other members of the force think they're batshit crazy. Even Medics refuse to heal them.
• Game-Breaker: Cloakers on Holdout only Cuff you, instead of downing you, which was done specifically to avert this as Holdouts' arenas are quite small, and regular Cloakers would be too overpowered otherwise.
• Glass Cannon: Despite being highly vulnerable to headshots, the Cloaker still can pack some nasty heat through his charging attack.
• Goggles Do Nothing: Luckily, not only do the goggles not improve his shooting accuracy, it actually makes him more vulnerable to headshot damage than most specials, despite of its obvious thickness.
• Gone Horribly Right: A meta variation. He wasn't in earlier versions due to serious bugs, but the fandom cried out for his return. Once he came back? Everybody hated having him around. He even lampshades it.
  Cloaker: You wanted me back, so I'm back!
• Guns Akimbo: Wields two Colt Peacemakers in the Wild West DLC trailer.
• Highly-Visible Ninja: Subverted. Despite being the loudest special of the entire police department, up close he's dressed extremely conspicuously (the only other specialist dressed in all black are some Bulldozers), and even from a distance, a trained eye can spot his night-vision goggles. However, he still manages to be stealthy, staying crouched and sticking to cover while hiding in tight spaces one wouldn't think to look. Players with good ears can hear the faint but distinct drone of the Cloaker's gear when he's present, track his location and kill him before he becomes a problem. Whenever the Cloaker is charging he sounds like a police siren put through a synthesizer, the one of many cues for anyone to despair if he's coming right for YOU.
• Hurricane Kick: Delivers one while diving at you from the shadows, which results in a One-Hit KO.
• Irony: The Police Department and GenSec generally dislike the Cloaker's existence in their division due to his "brutality" towards the criminals they encounter by beating their faces in with a nightstick on close combat. Compared to actual armed police forces, or even most regular cops in-game, they usually carry knives to disable their assailants instead of traditional blunt weapons.
• Instakill Mook: Their flying kick is an insta-down. During the PC beta, his kick would also insta-kill the victim's game client and kick them back to desktop.
• Kaizo Trap: Often attempts to set these up on your escape route, but sometimes they can spawn in vents right above rooms that you just drilled/demolished/hacked into, and instantly incapacitate you. Mercifully, only one ever spawns in such situations, so as long as you have competent teammates with you, you should be fine. If you're alone, however...
• Meta Guy: Several of his lines involve him Breaking the Fourth Wall to call out the fanbase for demanding his return, then complaining about his inclusion.
  Cloaker: You wanted me back! So I'm back!
• Night-Vision Goggles: This is his defining feature, which allows the player to pick him out from a crowd more easily.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Once they've incapacitated you, they'll usually stand over you and administer one of these while trash-talking you. This is typically an advantage, as it allows your teammates to eliminate them without the risk of taking an instantly-incapacitating kick themselves.
• Quick Draw: The Cloaker performs this on Dallas in the The Wild West DLC trailer. He manages to shoot Dallas' gun out of his hand and then shows off by twirling his twin revolvers until Wolf shoots him in the back of his head with an arrow.
• Rabid Cop: Unlike his PAYDAY: The Heist counterpart, this version of Cloaker is much more willing to unleash ultra-violence towards the heisters and he also kicks down the AI teammates instead of cuffing them.
• Schmuck Bait: Invoked. In a way of knowing what the Cloaker is up to.
  Cloaker: I bet you let yourself get beat up just to hear what I have to say!
• Screams Like a Little Girl: He screams violently whenever he gets burned alive with a inflammable weapon, which is also pretty disturbing.
• Smoke Out: While normal law enforcement can use smoke grenades (though somewhat randomly), the Cloaker, if he doesn't continue beating you, will usually unleash a smoke grenade next to you after incapacitating you so that your teammates have a harder time of finding him.
• Super-Persistent Predator: Killing him is the only way to stop him from chasing you. If you think you can outrun him, think again. On extreme cases he can even clip through walls to dropkick you. ^note This usually happens on Hoxton Breakout Day 1, as you can rappel through the gaps in the floors to quickly descend, but the AI can't do that. The Cloaker's AI still forces it to home in on you, so it'll cause him to literally teleport through the walls to get you.
• Took a Level in Badass: Cloakers have been vastly upgraded from the original game. Their original straight kick has been upgraded to a Bruce Lee-like flying kick with an incredible range of at least 15 feet, and instead of charging players like other police units they now camp behind furniture or around corners in order to ambush players with their instant-down attack. They are also scripted to camp along escape routes at the end of a heist, and the game also tends to spawn them right on top of you via air vents or sewer holes the moment you pass near. They also have a lot more health, having about 6 times as much health as the standard SWAT mooks, though they don't wear helmets and are thus take significantly increased damage from headshots.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: The events of PAYDAY: The Heist seem to have driven him over the edge, becoming bloodthirsty and feeling no regret for all of his suspects that he takes them down.
• Trash Talk: Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth is this, either to the player or the community.
  Cloaker: Now go to the forums and cry like the little bitch you are!
• Weaksauce Weakness: Counter-Strike Aced from the Fugitive skill tree. Which is pretty useful to counter-attack his charging kick, even when he surprises the player (all it requires to work is a charged melee attack, even 0.1 second's worth of charge). Even if he's trying to whip you down with his Compact-5.

Shield

*clang* *clang* *clang*

^{Russian Reaper Variant} 

^{Los Federales Variant} 

Portrayed By: Simon Kerr (death throes)

The Shield is a SWAT unit equipped with a riot shield that can block gunfire and your path in narrow hallways or alleys. Shields tend to travel in pairs or greater to suppress players. Can be killed if out-flanked, blown up with explosives or by using armor-piercing rounds to shoot through the shield. There are two reskins of this unit; Russian (exclusive to Boiling Point) and Mexican (from the San Martín Bank heist).

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• Achilles' Heel: Sniper rifles can pierce through the shield, and since Shields more often than not prefer to stand still, this allows any player equipped with a sniper rifle to easily line up a head shot.
• Boring, but Practical: Compared to the massive powerhouse of the Bulldozer, the electric stun master of the Taser, and the speedy and kick-happy Cloaker, Shields seem boring by comparison. However, the mundane tool of a portable shield is what makes the unit so effective; multiple shields blocking a narrow hall can make the shield outright dangerous and they can serve as a literal shield for other special units coming in from behind.
• Butt-Monkey: Pre-Ultimate Edition, most of the trailers depicted a new way to kill these guys, often circumventing or even ignoring their shields.
• Commonplace Rare: By far and away the most common of the special units, always spawning in groups of at least two or three. Alongside the Taser, they're the only special that even spawns below Very Hard difficulty, although other units can spawn in on certain heists (such as Bulldozers on Armored Transport: Park).
• The Generic Guy: Unlike the other special units, they don't have a unique appearance, are mostly mute, and they share a model with various SWAT Mooks, depending on who is leading the assault.
• Hit Box Dissonance: It is impossible to shoot a Shield in their exposed shooting arm from the front, even though it doesn't appear to be protected by their shield. Your bullets simply bounce off thin air as though the shield extended that far.
• In the Back: The only way to kill them without resorting to Armor-Piercing Attacks or explosives.
• Logical Weakness: Putting aside circumventing their shield, the FBI notes mention that the Shield's strength is also his biggest weakness; the man-sized shield slows the bearer down, and their peripheral vision is reduced as well.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Well, they wouldn't be Shield SWAT units without carrying riot shields!
  • However, while they are very good at hiding behind their shields, it is possible to get a shot on them from a wide variety of angles.
• More Dakka: The FBI variant uses a machine pistol instead of a semi-auto pistol.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: And it's almost completely bulletproof, though there are more than a good few ways to get round it. The only way to pierce the shield is to use a high-caliber sniper rifle, or the 5/7 AP Pistol (which uses armor-piercing rounds). You can defeat the shield completely with a direct hit of a grenade launcher, you can set up trip mines to take them and anyone else near them out. Additionally, the shield doesn't protect as well against Flamethrowers, Incendiary Grenades or Molotov Cocktails. And finally, if you're feeling particularly cruel, you can obliterate the shield to kingdom come with one of two Rocket Launchers the game has to offer.
• Suddenly Voiced: After the San Martin update, they can be heard chattering just like the other police units.
• The Voiceless: For the longest time, they lacked any actual dialogue - the only sounds they made were clanking metal to announce their presence. Their only vocalizations are from dying and being set on fire. This trope is averted after the San Martin update, where they chatter just like the other police units.
• Weaksauce Weakness:
  • Prior to an update, it was possible to run through the Shield and shoot him in the back without any problems (though you could get smacked by the Shield, it wasn't a problem if you had any amount of armor). In addition, the Shield AI was designed to face the opposite direction as their target... regardless of whether or not that target was facing them. So it was possible for the Shield's target to simply turn around and show their back to the Shield, who would then obligingly turn around and show their back to the target's friends.
  • Anything capable of staggering, be it bullets or melee attacks, with the skill Shock and Awe Aced being the best example. The Shield becomes vulnerable while staggered, locking them down and rendering their defense useless until they regain their balance.

Sniper

^{Russian Reaper Variant} 

^{Los Federales Variant} 

While the Sniper isn't as flashy as the other special units, this ballcap-wearing sharpshooter can be the deadliest of them all in the right situation. Positioned on buildings far out away from the battle, the sniper can take down a player with just a few shots, but he himself can't take a hit.

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• Armor-Piercing Attack:
  • Every other enemy in the game may be able to deal enough damage to drop your armor to 0, but the moment that happens, any excess damage is negated and it will take another shot before you start losing actual health. Snipers, however, do not follow these rules; they can deal health damage to you if their shot is enough to pierce your armor. On higher difficulties, like Mayhem and above, a Sniper's bullet is fully capable of dropping the armor of someone wearing the Improved Combined Tactical Vest (which is the heaviest armor in the game), equipped with the "Bulletproof" skill (which buffs the armor to twice its normal value), and still deal a decent amount of health damage in one shot. As you may imagine, this is even worse for Dodge and Anarchist builds, as the moment the Random Number God frowns upon you, you're screwed.
  • A certain Crime Spree modifier lets a Heavy SWAT counterpart of him be randomly spawned; the ZEAL Heavy Marksman. He doesn't have a laser to help you see him from a distance, but his ZEAL armor makes up for it. He also cannot be spotted.
• The All-Seeing A.I.: A Sniper's view is not at all obstructed by trees and foliage, and they target you easily through them. You, in contrast, can't see them if they're behind a tree or similar obstruction. You can, however, still see their red laser sight as well as their outline if they've been marked by a teammate.
• The Artifact: As they were added to the game long before any sniper-type weapons were added, they used a CAR-4 with a laser sight, however since the 2016 Housewarming Party update, they use Gewehr 3's with a Theia Magnified Scope attached.
• Boring, but Practical: Not as immediately impressive or threatening as the other units, but in the right situation, they can be more deadly than a Bulldozer. They can lock down hallways and entire streets by themselves, and take away the health and armor of even the tankiest of players.
• Cold Sniper: They don't even have combat lines, aside from death screams when set aflame.
• The Dreaded: On higher difficulties, Snipers become one of the two specials that can kill you very quickly if you're not careful (see above).
• Glass Cannon: A few shots from most guns will put them down but they can eat through a crew member's armor and health very quickly.
• Laser Sight: Often times, the only way to find them is to trace the red beam. Incidentally, they're the main reason why it's not recommended for players to make their laser sights red; there's no visual difference between a Sniper's beam or a player's if they're the same color.
• Perpetual Frowner: Naturally...
• Too Dumb to Live: On the second day of the Hoxton Breakout heist, as well as in the Beneath the Mountain heist, a Sniper may sometimes appear on the ground-level, making him an easy target^note by the front door of the FBI headquarters in Hoxton Breakout, and stationed behind some bollards after entering the second part of the facility via airlock in Beneath the Mountain. Typically, snipers would be on a balcony or some other faraway place to snipe people instead of being on the same ground level as their targets. Naturally, they can be taken out very easily. Melee-kill either of these snipers will ping an achievement, called "Snipe This!" circa Update 178.
• The Voiceless: As with the Shield (prior to San Martin update), they lack any unique dialogue, though this is likely due to the fact that they're usually positioned on another building 95% of the time, far from where you could be able to hear their voice.

Taser

I've got 50,000 volts here with your name on them!

^{Russian Reaper Variant} 

^{Los Federales Variant} 

Portrayed By: Spike Spencer, Igor Perunov (Russian Reaper), Martin Berlanga (Los Federales) (voice)

An elite SWAT unit with bright blue and yellow armor that distinguishes him from the basic SWAT members, the Taser is an electricity-obsessed sadist who loves to watch criminals suffer. As his name implies, he carries a high-voltage stun gun for stunning and incapacitating his foes.There are two reskins of this unit; Russian (exclusive to Boiling Point) and Mexican (from the San Martín Bank heist).

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• Ax-Crazy: Just like the Cloaker and the Bulldozer. He simply doesn't care about electrocuting a heister while accidentally killing a civilian or one of his squadmates.
• Closet Geek: Some of his lines imply that he's into nerd culture.
  "Just call me Elec-Man!"
  "Set to stun!"
  "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt!"
• Evil Laugh: One of his battle quotes is a sinister-sounding cackle.
• The Faceless: Averted. You can shoot off their helmets, revealing their head.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: One of the most common ways that Tasers manage to get killed is by tasing someone standing a mere five feet away from them, in plain sight, forcing them to shoot the Taser. The Ghost tree also has a skill specifically to counter tasers by redirecting the current back to him, causing both to be tased.
  • You can kill a Taser with a melee hit if a Taser is sufficiently injured with either the Electrical Brass Knuckles, or the Buzzer. Killing a taser this way will net you an achievement, added in Update 178, called "A Tazed Of Your Own Medicine". Or if you're using the Infiltrator/reworked Sociopath perk deck, about 3 hits with either melee weapon.
• Interface Screw: Getting shocked makes the victim fire their gun randomly and screws up their aiming.
• My Rules Are Not Your Rules: The Taser's shock attack is based on line-of-sight rather than being an actual projectile; as a result they were able to tase victims through small gaps in the level geometry, which would be nearly impossible to actually shoot through, though a much later patch did fix this issue. Additionally, while a Taser has to stop moving to keep a player stunned, they do not have to stop moving to start stunning them, meaning they can 'zap and dash' or get into cover after they've started stunning a player.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Ironically enough, the automatic, erratic spray that comes with being tased can very easily lead to accidental civilian casualties, as well as the deaths of his squadmates and even himself.
• Psycho Electro: As with most of the special units, he has something of a sadistic streak. He thinks nothing of tasing you when you're facing a bunch of his fellow officers, or even civilians, despite knowing tasing you is going to make you spray uncontrollable automatic gunfire everywhere in that general direction.
• Pungeon Master: Everything that comes out of his mouth is some kind of electricity pun.
  "Preparing to charge!"
  "Gonna plug in!"
  "I'm feelin' kinda electric!"
• Spell My Name With An S: The Taser is sometime spelled as "Tazer".
• Support Party Member: Not as much as the Medic, but his primary danger isn't his own takedown ability, which takes a long time and is usually easy for even the target to escape from on their own; it's his ability to keep you immobilized while more dangerous enemies hit you.
• Token Evil Teammate: Despite (technically) working for the police, the Taser is, by far, the most bloodthirsty special unit in the game, rivaling the Cloaker and the Bulldozer.

SWAT Turret

Jimmy: Well, that's not fuckin' fair!

A new enemy type added as part of the Spring Break event on March 17, 2015. The SWAT Turret is Exactly What It Says on the Tin: a remotely-operated turret gun mounted on top of a SWAT van that relies on its large firepower and durability to take down its foes. While anti-aircraft and suitcase variants appear in all difficulties, all other variations only appear in Very Hard difficulty (Hard in day 2 of Goat Simulator) and above.

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• Achilles' Heel: The Sicario perk deck (specifically, the Smoke Grenade) can easily avoid its barrage, as the rapid-fire, weak bullets make it all but inevitable that it will trigger the Sicario's instant armor regeneration before the Sicario's armor actually breaks, rendering the turret a liability for the cops as it can effectively make the Sicario immortal for several seconds at a time.
• Always Someone Better: It tops Wolf's sentry guns with extreme durability and firepower.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: An ECM Jammer will cause it to switch allegiances to fight for you instead.
• Attack Its Weak Point: The way to destroy it is to take out the targeting lens. However, most people wouldn't know this, as the array is hidden behind its blast shields. Hitting the targeting lens gives you a x200 damage multiplier much in the same way as shooting a Bulldozer in the bare face. Every other armored part of the turret either has a damage cap (at 750) or just flat out ignores whatever you throw at it.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: The turret has 400,000 HP on Mayhem difficulty and above, over several times of a Skulldozer's.
• Death by a Thousand Cuts: Individually, the bullets that the turret fires are pretty weak. What makes the turret deadly is how RAPIDLY it shoots, which bypasses the game's usual Mercy Invincibility, making it capable of bringing down pretty much anyone in a matter of seconds if given the chance.
• "Instant Death" Radius: Any AI heister who just happens to be in the turret's line of sight is subjected with this due to the turret's obscene rate of fire and the AI heisters lacking the Mercy Invincibility players get. Luckily, any human player who also happens to be in line of sight can move away from its continuous, single-target damage due to it being a turret.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The turret has a blast shield covering its targeting lens, greatly reducing incoming damage. Shooting it off is absolutely necessary if you want to destroy it without wasting two bags of ammo. Unfortunately, if you don't damage it enough when the shield comes down, it can retreat back into the van to be repaired with a new shield for three times. Even after its shield gets shot off the shield can continue absorbing shots if it doesn't fall off the van entirely.
• Palette Swap: The "Los Federales" version just uses a plain dark green paint job on the same van with the word "Federales" in place of "SWAT" on the gun.
• Sentry Gun: It makes Wolf's sentry guns look like automated baseball shooters.
• Weak Turret Gun: Averted. The SWAT turret is the toughest enemy that the PAYDAY Gang has ever faced. Fortunately, it is also a stationary one.
  • The turret vans encountered in Meltdown do move, but they only move between pre-determined positions, acting as roadblocks for players using the Longfellow (not-so-much for players using the forklifts, as their parking positions often leave gaps beside the van wide enough for a forklift to pass through). They are still easily avoided in this circumstance, however, as long as the player remains inside of a vehicle during this section.
  • There are also two instances of helicopter-mounted turrets; one on Day 2 of the Biker Heist, and one on Green Bridge. They're a little easier to deal with, as the turrets don't retract when the protective shield is shot off.

Captain Winters

Your captain has arrived!

Portrayed By: Bobby Butler (voice)

Captain Neville Winters is a specialized SWAT member who had worked with Commissioner Garrett in Boston to bring down the Irish and Italian mafias. He was brought over to Washington D.C. to deal with the PAYDAY Gang with his expertise on the field and use his leadership skills to inspire and command fellow SWAT units.

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• Achilles' Heel: Explosives are the only things that bypass the 10% health damage cap of him and his Phalanx team, as they add a 6x damage multiplier that is factored in after the damage reduction. As such, it is possible to annihilate his Phalanx and force him to retreat after just a couple of well-placed explosive rounds, or by simply throwing well-placed grenades.
  • Aditionally, anything that leaves fire on the ground (molotovs, incindeary grenades, etc) works wonders against him, since he and his phalanx refuse to move once they reach their spot.
• By-the-Book Cop: Winter have no signs of being a corrupt cop or as sadistic as most of the specials, which have some sort of bloodlust.
• Degraded Boss: Not Winters himself, but his Phalanx unit can replace the Shields if a certain late-game Crime Spree modifier is taken. They still have all the health of their Winters-exclusive counterparts.
• Elite Mook: Spawns a circle of elite Shields around him when he joins the battle. These already have higher stats than the standard shields you'll face and they fight in a fixed Phalanx formation. He also indirectly causes all other law enforcement units to turn into this by buffing their health and armor the longer he's around.
• Flunky Boss: He has several Phalanx shield units surrounding him whenever he arrives.
• Godzilla Threshold: Commissioner Garrett brought Winters into the scene because the PAYDAY Gang's crime sprees have almost completely destabilized D.C, with random criminals becoming much more bold due to the Clowns' antics. Winters himself usually doesn't show up until the players have put up a decent fight.
• Good Is Not Nice: In-game trivia states he isn't a kind leader.
• Hope Spot: For the police. Every time Winters appears, the announcer sounds relieved/joyful.
• Informed Ability: The FBI Files mention that he is "an expert in urban warfare, counter-insurgency, SWAT operations, hand-to-hand combat, and military police actions". Of this, only the tactics are seen in-game, and only through shouting orders; otherwise, all he does is stand in one place until he decided to retreat.
• King Mook: He himself is essentially an extremely buffed Shield unit that retreats instead of being killed once his health is almost depleted.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Winters is essentially an upgraded Shield SWAT by having a shield that covers his entire front body, including his head. He also has a lot more health.
  • The Phalanx shield units that accompany him also take reduced damage; they never take more than 10% of their total health in a single hit (with the exception of explosives).
• Recurring Boss: While the other specialists are relatively generic, Winters is the same guy every time the gang faces him. He flees when at critical health to fight another day.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Once Winters has taken enough damage or part of his team dies, he will simply leave the scene, making it impossible to kill him. Once he's rebuffed, he will not return for the rest of a given heist.
• Shoot the Medic First: This is what Winters was designed to be due to his passive ability to increase the defense of all cops by 5% every few minutes (capping at 50%) while also making the current assault wave not stop until he is forced to retreat. In the age of grenade launchers, Miniguns and Rocket Launchers however, this tactic doesn't really work anymore, so long as he's dealt with in a timely manner. Not to mention, with the explosive weaponry mentioned, most high-level players see him as an inconvenience more than anything.
• Stationary Boss: He usually shows up on a predetermined location and rarely moves from it, so if you really don't wanna deal with him you don't have to. However as he's usually parked squarely in front of the escape route AND because he buffs existing units, dealing with him is still recommended regardless.

Medic

See you in the prison medical ward.

^{Russian Reaper Variant} 

^{Los Federales Variant} 

Portrayed By: Joe Zieja, Igor Perunov (Russian Reaper), Luca Vega (Los Federales) (voice)

Introduced during the Hoxton Housewarming Party update, the Medic is a new unit added to the police force. They are capable of negating fatal damage to any other police unit nearby (including other Medics!), with the sole exception of Cloakers. They only appear on Overkill difficulty and above, and here are two reskins of this unit; Russian (exclusive to Boiling Point) and Mexican (from the San Martín Bank heist).

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• Always Someone Better: The Medic's special ability is essentially the Mastermind's Ace Upper skill, and on one third of its cooldown.
• All Your Powers Combined: If you're playing on the Death Sentence difficulty, Medic Bulldozers can spawn, which have a Medics healing ability wrapped inside the natural durability of a Bulldozer. One late-game Crime Spree modifier can also cause this to happen.
• Berserk Button: One possible Crime Spree modifier gives him increased damage every time a cop is killed within his healing radius. It doesn't take much for him to become a terrifying Glass Cannon if left to his own devices.
• Came Back Strong: One Crime Spree modifier causes all law enforcers he revives to do double damage. This includes other Medics, Snipers, and Bulldozers. Suffice to say, Shoot the Medic First.
• Casual Danger Dialogue: Sometimes, when healing his allies, the Medic asks if the one being healed has insurance.
• Combat Medic: Naturally.
• Commonplace Rare: Despite being a special unit, seems to show up semi-regularly in police assaults.
• Deadpan Snarker: He tends to snark at his wounded teammates as he heals them.
  Medic: This is nothing, you'll be fine.
• Everyone Has Standards: For some unknown reason, Medics won't heal Cloakers.
• Glass Cannon: Medics don't take much to bring down, but they're often armed with shotguns, making them deadly in their own right. One Crime Spree modifier gives them a 20% damage boost for every cop killed within their healing radius, making them especially deadly if not killed quickly.
• Godzilla Threshold: Only shows up on heists at Overkill or higher difficulty.
• The Good Guys Always Win: "Bad guys ALWAYS lose!"
• Heroic Sacrifice: A certain Crime Spree modifier allows them to heal cops within range upon dying.
• I Fought the Law and the Law Won: Says this near-verbatim as one of his lines when spawning.
  Medic: Fight the law, the law wins!
• Mook Medic: Of course.
• Only Sane Man: Along with the Shield and the Sniper, though he is the only one of these three to speak. In his lines, he does seem to be a bit naïve about the PAYDAY Gang's abilities.
• Palette Swap: The Medic's uniform is taken from the GenSec Elite, but slightly modified to add medic-related equipment and has eye-wateringly red and white color scheme, which is also true of their Russian counterpart.
• Red Shirt: The FBI files lament the fact that of these units, most of them new recruits to the police force, are probably just going to serve as another priority target for the PAYDAY Gang. It's no coincidence that they also wear red uniforms.
• Shoot the Medic First: Invoked, as he can keep other police units - even other special units, including other Medics - alive, just by being nearby.
  • Ironically, the Medic invokes this trope less than the aforementioned Captain Winters, as the Medics healing is easier to counteract than Winters' passive buffs (for instance, if he saves a target that normally dies from one headshot... just shoot that guy in the head again).
• Support Party Member: Has his gun and that's all, making him roughly as dangerous as any other mook, but his real danger is his capability of keeping much more dangerous units alive.
• Token Good Teammate: Probably by virtue of what his job entails, of all the voiced specials, he's the only one not to be a bloodthirsty lunatic. Unfortunately, that doesn't extend to the Medic Dozer.
• Underestimating Badassery: Most of his quotes seem to indicate that he thinks the plan of Zerg Rushing four heavily armed criminals, ones with seemingly limitless amounts of weapons, ammo, and resources is succeeding, when it clearly isn't. Though it's sort of justified, as they are the newest addition to the police forces.
• Waxing Lyrical: Sings a portion of Judas Preists' Painkiller:
  Medic: Pain! Killer!

Medic Dozer

Good news; Free healthcare! Bad news; I'M YOUR DOCTOR!

A special variant of the Bulldozer that initially only appeared on high-level Crime sprees, the Medic Bulldozer is Exactly What It Says on the Tin; a submachine gun-equipped Bulldozer unit with the Medic's ability to revive fallen cops. They were later added to the Death Sentence difficulty.

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• Back-Alley Doctor: One of his lines happily mentions that he never went to medical school.
• Composite Character: He is a combination of the Medic and the Dozer units, originally Crime Spree exclusive, but made available on Death Sentence later on.
• Dr. Jerk: Unlike the regular medics, the Medic Dozer has less-than-encouraging lines directed towards his fellow cops.
  Medic Dozer: Bitch down! We got a bitch down over here!
  Medic Dozer: Results are in, you're... a bitch! Now get up!
• Drill Sergeant Nasty: His basic personality, much like his regular counterpart.
• Elite Mook: Just like normal bulldozers. Notably, Medic Dozers fill a spawn slot for both types of unit, meaning they're far rarer than either Bulldozers or Medics.
• Genius Bruiser: Unlike regular bulldozers, this one knows enough about medicine to heal his allies mid-battle.
• Godzilla Threshold: They only spawn on high-enough Crime Sprees, and after a difficulty rebalance in 2018, on Death Sentence.
• Mook Lieutenant: Unlike regular bulldozers, who mostly insult the PAYDAY Gang, the Medic dozer spends most of his lines ordering his fellow cops to get back to their feet.
• No Indoor Voice: Like the regular variant Bulldozers and Minigun Dozers, this goes without saying, though this line in particular stands out, and even became an Ascended Meme when Joining stingers were added:
  Medic Dozer: WAKEY WAKEY, LITTLE BABYYYY!!!
• Sir Swears-a-Lot: If the above lines in Dr. Jerk didn't tip you off, he's a fan of calling his teammates bitches whenever they need his help.
• Stone Wall: Unlike regular bulldozers, who are high-damage powerhouses, the Medic Dozer carries a Compact-5 SMG, which doesn't do much damage in comparison.

U.S Marshal / Bellmead Sharpshooter

^{Bellmead Variant} 

Added alongside the Midland Ranch heist, the Sharpshooter is effectively a less-damaging but mobile Sniper hailing from the U.S. Marshals Special Operations Group, easily identified by their camo and yellow tracer rounds. Bellmead Sharpshooters appear on maps that take place outside US police jurisdiction.

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• Armor-Piercing Attack: Averted. Despite their high-powered rifles, unlike a Sniper they cannot penetrate armor, which contributes to their lower damage output.
• Cowboy: Bizarrely mixes their tactical aesthetic with ten-gallon-hat-styled helmets mixed with their masks, giving them a slight cowboy look; fitting for the map they were introduced with, but it still stands out.
• Every Bullet is a Tracer: For them, it is; on their own they're not hard to find, but much like their stationary cousins in the midst of a hectic gunfight it can be the only way to locate them.
• Fragile Speedster: Compared to the Glass Cannon of the Sniper; being mobile and on the field means they can dish out damage when a heister isn't expecting it, but they can't utterly demolish one like a Sniper, and they often stand out more visually against their compatriots.
• Sniper Scope Glint: Another way to tell they're there; it's noticeable enough that it's even noted in their FBI Files bio's.

U.S Marshal / Bellmead Shield

^{Bellmead Variant} 

A variant of the normal Shield added with the Lost in Transit heist, these Marshals wield high-powered Deagles and a new type of shield that can flashbang heisters; however, unlike normal Shields, theirs can break, at which point they switch to being an agile shotgunner unit.

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• Achilles' Heel: Much like their parent unit, sniper rifles or anything that can pierce through their shield will make quick work of a Marshal Shield, preventing them from being able to heal from their shield's destruction and switch to their shotgun.
• Blinded by the Light: The first special unit to be able to inflict flashbang/concussive effects on players; their shields telegraph their flashes but once they're in shotgunner form, each shot will concuss you like a player-thrown Concussion Grenade.
• Elite Mook: Far more dangerous in an upfront fight than a regular Shield; both their guns deal more damage than a normal Shield and their ability to disorient heisters in either form makes them much more difficult to handle.
• Turns Red: Once their shield is destroyed, they'll regain all their health and switch from their Deagle to a VD-12 shotgun that can concuss heisters.