Table of contents
Choose Your Vault Hunter
Amara – The Siren
A confident, capable brawler with the ability to summon ethereal fists, Amara uses her Siren powers to smash her enemies.
FL4K – The Beast Master
FL4K lives for the hunt. So do the loyal beasts that follow their master’s every command. Their preferred prey? Unsuspecting bandits, those poor suckers
Moze – The Gunner
When Moze needs backup she Digistructs her mech – Iron Bear – for a sucker punch of additional firepower.
Zane – The Operative
Specializing in battlefield gadgetry, Zane is extremely proficient at slipping into combat, creating chaos, and sneaking back out as if he were never there.
About the Vault Hunters
Borderlands 3 will feature 4 playable characters at launch. The following character classes have been presented; a Soldier, Siren, Assassin, and Hunter Class. Each Vault Hunter has its own unique skills and abilities. Unlike previous Borderlands games, the heroes in Borderlands 3 will have three action skills at their disposal. Also, their skill trees have a unique twist to them, giving them their own play style.
Need help choosing your first Vault Hunter, then check out my Borderlands 3 Beginners Guide or my guide on the Best Solo Vault Hunter.
Sliding
Borderlands 3 has been modernized and so have the movement capabilities of the playable characters. You will now be able to perform slides. You can perform such a move by pressing the crouch button (B on the Xbox controller) while you are running. Now you can slide behind cover if you are taking heavy fire but you can also use it to sneak up on enemies that are behind cover. While sliding you are able to turn the camera and get those shots in early for a surprise attack.
Climbing
Another new game mechanic is the ability to climb up objects. If you see a container you can jump and grab the ledge to pull yourself up. Now you can take the high ground Obi-Wan and shoot down at your foes.
Slam
The “Buttslam” mechanic from Borderlands the Pre-Sequel makes its way to Borderlands 3. While the overall game doesn’t have the low gravity environments from the previous game, it does let you perform a ground pound when you have enough altitude. Borderlands 3 has a lot more vertical level design and your ability to climb up to objects makes this a useful attack to get the jump on your opponents.
Interact
The playable character will occasionally react to the things happening in the world (source). During dialogue scenes, each hero will respond differently to the NPCs. Gearbox already did some of this in Borderlands the Pre-Sequel, in Battleborn they expanded on this, and in Borderlands 3 they will go even further.
Emote
Gearbox Software also added Emotes in Borderlands 3, giving you various ways to express or communicate with your co-op buddies.
Level Cap
The character level cap was set to LVL50 at launch just like previous games in the franchise. However, throughout the course of the game’s lifespan, the developers at Gearbox Software increased that limit. Here you can find more info about the (current) level cap in Borderlands 3.
Skill Trees
Every Vault hunter has 3 skill trees in the base game where you can spend your skill points on. Each skill tree provides different skills to strengthen your character. There are skill trees that increase your character’s damage output, another increases your survivability, or mixes the gameplay up. All skill trees provide options that change the way you can play or utilize your action skill.
- Passive Skills: These increase your character’s abilities.
- Augments: These change the way your action skill works
- Capstone: These end-tier skills provide your character with a new ability.
The 4th skill tree is included with Borderlands 3’s fifth DLC called the Designer’s Cut.
Vault Hunter Skill Trees
I have a guide that provides you with a top-level understanding of how each of the Vault Hunter skill trees works. If you want to take an in-depth look at the individual skill trees of each of the Vault Hunters, then check out the links below.
Character Builds
Build diversity in Borderlands 3 is a high priority for Gearbox Software. They are really focussing on having various viable character builds for all of the Vault Hunters. By spec-ing out your character with the right skills and legendary gear, you can create devastating builds that just erase your opponents.
Loadout
Your Character is able to equip a variety of items in their loadout some of these slots are unlocked throughout the story campaign.
Additional Vault Hunters?
At the launch of Borderlands 3, we will start with 4 playable Vault Hunters. The previous two Borderlands games, Borderlands 2 and the Pre-Sequel, started out with the same number of playable characters but eventually went up to 6 Vault Hunters for each game. When Randy Pitchford was asked if they would add new Vault Hunters he didn’t know. They were thinking of expanding on the current ones by adding a new skill tree. I assume that the skill tree is accompanied by a new action skill. The ending of Borderlands the Pre-Sequel contained a cinematic that took place after the events of Borderlands 2. In this sequence ‘the Watcher’ mentioned that a war is coming and that the heroes would need a lot of Vault Hunters for this upcoming event. So it would be cool to see a lot of new playable characters, however, judging the scope of the game and how expansive the current BL3 Vault Hunters are it wouldn’t surprise me if they took the other route.
For the latest Borderlands 3 updates check the news section.