| Techie | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Description | |
| Enemy Type | Remote Weapons Engineer |
| Statistics | |
| Maximum Base Health | 500 (Normal)550 (Hard) 625 (Very Hard) 700 (Overkill) |
| Maximum Armor Health | 100 (Normal)150 (Hard) 200 (Very Hard) 400 (Overkill) |
| Armor Plate Total | 2 (Normal)3 (Hard) 4 (Very Hard) 5 (Overkill) |
| Other | |
| Internal Name | tower
|
| Voice Actor | Ashleigh Haddad |
- "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee!"
- —Techie taunting the player
The Techie is a special enemy in PAYDAY 3. They operate drones that fly in the sky and shoot at heisters. They made their first appearance in the Syntax Error DLC mission.
Behavior
The Techie Herself
Techies spawn similarly to other specials and only once per assault wave, but do not directly attack players. Instead, they will set up in various locations around the map, emitting an extremely loud and audible buzzing sound. They remain stationary once they have selected a spot, and frequently deploy drones to attack heisters. These drones are very dangerous, boasting lots of health, a powerful machine gun, and the ability to fly over obstacles to reach targets easily.
Once set up, a Techie will also deploy an interference field which blurs all things behind them. This can make Techies hard to spot in the heat of battle, but a keen eye makes their hiding spots painfully obvious.
When a Techie is spotted and a player approaches her, she will immediately destroy their inteference field and attempt to escape, usually shooting at the nearest player. Upon death, all the drones launched by the Techie will immediately be destroyed, and she will drop an armor repair kit (like the Bulldozer).
When an assault wave ends, a Techie will usually exit the scene alongside the rest of the police force. Very rarely, however, she may remain in the location and continue deploying drones (likely unintended behavior).
Techies will spawn forever between intervals during Final Charges. They will, however, only send out one Techie at a time, and this interval can span several minutes, giving players a small break in-between Techie spawns.
The Drones
When a Techie is active, she will begin spawning two drones at once, only replacing one that has been destroyed. The type she deploys are random, but comes in two distinctive types.
Gun Drone
The gun drone will actively seek out players and fire at them. While the damage is rather pitiful, the gun drones will interrupt armor chunk regeneration and can chip away armor health quickly. Destroying these drones are essential for survival.
When hacked with the Scrambler skill, the gun drone will instead target SWAT units before self-detonating after 7 seconds.
Tactical Drone
The tactical drone will attempt to seek out players (preferably in groups) and, upon situating itself nearby, will begin an audible beeping sequence that slowly ramps up before it creates a flashbang effect. Getting affected by the tactical drone's flashbang (since the Skills 2.0 update) will affect heister movement. However, its flashbangs cannot go through walls and has a small radius.
When hacked with the Scrambler skill, the tactical drone will idle in the spot where it was hacked before self-detonating, electrifying any unlucky enemies (or heisters) nearby.
Strategies
To aid players who do not know where Techies are, their HUD will experience visual glitches if they are close to one. When spawning, they will tend to avoid locations where players currently reside when selecting a hiding spot.
Additionally, skills in the Scrambler skill tree can turn a Techie's drones against other enemies, causing them to do more harm than good for the police.
As Techies drop armor repair kits upon death, seeking out a Techie is recommended if players have certain skills that benefit from using armor repair kits. However, if cops are swarming near the Techie, then it is better to simply take her out and leave the armor repair kit for later than to risk grabbing the kit and wasting an armor chunk from the incoming damage from the hordes of nearby cops.
When dealing with drones, targeting them first before continuing on with a fight is recommended. If you're unable to locate the drone or can't kill it in time, run as far away as possible, especially if it's a tactical drone as it has a short radius and cannot go through walls. Alternatively, simply hack them and have the hacked drones aid your fight or as a distraction.
Quotes
Trivia
- The Techie is the first enemy to be added to the game post-launch.
- The internal files of PAYDAY 3 refer to the Techie as "Tower".
- According to SINS in the Syntax Error heist, the in-universe classification of the Techie is "Remote Weapons Engineer" (R.W.E.).
- The Techie, by her voice lines, is extremely confident and boastful of her drone capabilities, but will express frustration upon having one of her drones hacked and - in stark contrast to her initial aggressive tone - act cowardly and attempt to warn the Payday gang to back off when her hiding spot is discovered.
- Despite having a helmet and a (small) visor, the Techie has no visor armor or hardness stat that absorbs headshot damage.
- The Techie's existence was already known prior to their reveal in Dev Update 2. Some of Shade's and Dallas' voice lines taken from the game's files revealed the enemy and how it would attack.
- Shade's voice lines are currently unused in the main game, some of which calls out both Cloakers and Techies being deployed by the police.
- The Techie is one of the two new special units who made their debut in PAYDAY 3, with the second being the Nader.
- Though they initially only appeared in Syntax Error, they have been added to all loud heists ever since Update 1.1.4.
- The Techie is the second female special enemy added to PAYDAY 3 with the first being Rebecca Stone, who is the (unseen) agent operating the FBI Van.
- Upon being spotted or damaged, the Techie may say: "Game over, man!"
- This line references the 1986 movie Aliens, spoken by Hudson.
- On some heists, the tactical drones won’t spawn at all.
Gallery
