Who is Trevor Ghalt ? – Battleborn

UPDATE: Trevor Ghalt has officially been announced. You can learn more about him on his profile page. This post was made to speculate about this potential by gathering clues that were left sprinkled by Gearbox & 2K Games.

Original

In the last few days, we have been looking over some of the unannounced Battleborn heroes like Ambra & Benedict. But one of the other characters that was hidden in the Battleborn E3 2015 Trailer was a big badass guy with a brown jacket and two badass shotguns.  If you looked at my Analysis video I pointed him out, but besides that, I haven’t seen any content of him.  But I reached out to the team and one was willing to share his name. It’s Trevor Ghalt and with that, I had to do it for now, so let’s look at the trailer.

Battleborn Trailer Analysis

Starts with the introduction of Ghalt

Now you know what Ghalt looks like. We also know that he carries two shotguns as we can see the pellets coming out of his gun during that frozen scene in the trailer. Another fact I learned since then is Ghalt’s development name, papashotgun, confirming the shotgun theory. So that’s the second half of his dev name but what about his first half? Papa could indicate a father figure on the battlefield, and could Ghalt be a supporting class. Could this be another hero who makes sure that his team/flock stays safe? But how will he do this, looking to the running scene during the trailer Ghalt was up there with Montana, probably the slowest character in the game for now. I expect Ghalt to be a bit faster because of his primary weapon. Shotguns aren’t made for long-range skirmishes. So I guess that Ghalt is a bit faster and looking at his posture a shoulder bash /dash ability would come in handy crossing the environment. Also during multiplayer would this be a nifty tool if you encounter other Battleborn during the match? Getting into the zone a bit faster and while otherwise, you would be a sitting duck.

Badass

But going back to the support role, how could other teammates benefit from Ghalt? Miko heals teammates, and Reyna can reload/overload your shield. Looking back at Ghalt’s dev name I’m thinking of the word papa, which translates into a father, a father is a man, men are tough, SO BE A MAN, crying is for babies so suck it up. Ghalt looks like a badass and as we won’t be hiding under his raincoat, my guess goes to damage reduction. So maybe he throws or fires some kind of stim pack. I can see this as a pickup in the game like the restore health & shield items, so reduced damage could be on there. This reduced damage mechanic could also play into the tank role as we established that Ghalt isn’t a fast mover.

Abilities

This makes Ghalt a beefy guy to takedown but someone to watch out for as he comes in range as shotguns are known for their point-blank damage. But what abilities could Ghalt harness with his weapon of choice?

Boomstick
For you gamers who have played Borderlands 2 or the Pre-Sequel, there was a  Legendary shotgun with some devastating abilities. You needed to master it but once you owned it it’s better than fireworks. I’m talking about the Flakker. A  shotgun with a large spread, once shot the pellets would explode after traveling a certain distance dealing massive damage.

Circle of Slaughter
As I mentioned in other analyses, things are there for a reason. There is a reason why Ghalt is holding two shotguns. If the rate of fire of one shotgun wasn’t good the team would have pumped up the fire rate and made it an automatic shotgun. So what can you do with two shotguns? One thing that comes to my mind is the ability to shoot in multiple directions at once.  Let the character spin around and unleash the full clips at once, shooting all around himself. Although Ghalt isn’t a ballerina there are ways to make this shot cool. This action would probably be performed in 3rd person view. If you watched some of Overwatch you might see a similar move with the Reaper. To change things up what if this spin attack wasn’t with bullets but with flame throwers creating a nice area of effect ability that deals some nice damage over time to your opponents. Helix upgrades could add to range or damage over time.

Halt right there
Don’t forget about the shoulder bash as the third special move. Giving Ghalt a bit of a dash to get some more movement speed on the battlefield. I imagine a bash from a guy this big to add some knockback. But you don’t want your target to fly way back so he isn’t in range of your shotgun. So knocking them down and leaving them a bit stunned would give you some time to deal damage.

Fire it up
But let’s not dismiss the armor you can see on his shoulders. It extends all the way to the back. I haven’t seen any images of his backside so this is something where some secrets are found. Maybe there is a whole jetpack behind there giving Ghalt abilities like Montana to jump great distances. A Helix upgrade could add  ‘afterburner’ setting all enemies on fire that are on your path.

Faction

As Ghalt hasn’t officially been introduced he also hasn’t been placed inside one of the five factions. So if we have to place him inside one of those I’m going for Rogues. Although my whole papa theory of him being a father figure. My first impression was him being an outlaw, someone who takes no orders and doesn’t care about the law, a real badass. Other Rogues also have the brownish color pallet going on. Also, a shotgun is kinda a rough weapon, if he was a gentleman he would be carrying a sniper rifle like Marquis.

That was my first analysis on Trevor Ghalt but since then there has been some new intel & footage on our ‘Mystery Battleborn‘.

Analysis Part 2

So we just had Gamescom 2015 and four new characters got announced  Mellka, Benedict, Reyna & Ambra. For three of these characters, I also did a ‘Who is’ article and I laughed during the presentation when I found out that I had several things right. But back to Trevor Ghalt

Hookshot

One thing that stood out during the new Gamescom trailer was that Trevor Ghalt has the ability to throw out a hook attached to a chain to pull distant enemies towards him. When Gearbox said they got inspiration from fighting games I wasn’t expecting this. With my previous predictions, I suspected that Ghalt would have some kind of dash to get close to his opponents in order to kill them with his badass shotgun. But this turns the formula upside down. Ghalt now performs Scorpion’s classic move from Mortal Kombat where he pulls in his opponent, the only thing he now should do is scream ‘get over here’.

Hunter Shotgun

Will PapaShotgun have the Borderlands Hunter Prefix on his shotgun for long-range capabilities?  Because during the E3 demonstration, there was a little fragment that showed several heroes. One of them being Ghalt of course. But as you see them take aim towards the incoming enemies you see Ghalt make a similar pose as Marquis. This is Marquis‘s signature pose as he is about to fire with his bindlebane, a long-range sniper. Scott Kester said during the FireSide Chat that he was all about characters having the right look & pose. As a character takes a certain pose it becomes clear what kind of move he will be performing. It would come in handy as characters would have a similar pose if they were going to perform a similar attack. Reducing the amount of poses you need to learn because Battleborn features a lot of characters. This would make it easier to learn and pick up during multiplayer matches when you can encounter a variety of heroes. So if this theory is right could that mean that the shotgun will have the borderlands hunter prefix? If you are not familiar with the hunter prefix, this was a shotgun with very high accuracy, keeping the pellets close to each other. In combination with a scope made this a devastating sniper as it was easy to make headshots.

Undercover

Another piece of information about Trevor Ghalt came from Mellka’s bio update. On the official Battleborn website, 2K wrote an update on who Mellka is but in her backstory, there was an interesting detail on her relationship with Trevor Ghalt.

The Eldrid tend to be scientific-minded and peaceful folks, in tune with the natural order of things.

Mellka apparently missed the memo at the last Eldrid meeting.

Born in space, Mellka developed an early hunger for solid ground, and found a clear calling in special operations, even joining with the Eldrid group called The Vigilant. While serving with The Vigilant, she developed close ties with an elite Peacekeeper operative named Trevor Ghalt. While proficient at several combat styles, Mellka prefers some of the more exotic Eldrid weaponry including an Eldrid Bio-Glaive which reshapes itself based on her neural prompting.

Yes, it stated that Mellka has contact with a peacekeeper operative named Trevor Ghalt. After reading this I noticed multiple fan reactions that Ghalt is a Peacekeepers, but I think there is more to this. Looking at the design of Ghalt he still has a roguelike look judging by his clothing. This made me think of him being undercover. So I needed to look up the definition of the word ‘operative’ and one of them was “a secret agent; a spy”. Peacekeepers are known for their commitment to an idealistic sense of justice and wanting to keep order in Solus. The Rogue faction is a group of people who live free and aren’t that fond of the law. Placing Trevor Ghalt undercover within the Rogue faction could help out the Peacekeepers to maintain order. The unlikely alliance during the Varelsi attack kept Trevor on the Rogue faction so his cover would not be blown.

More than an upgrade

Another thing I noticed during the Gamescom trailer was the fact that Ghalt has an attachment on his back. If you look at the right side of the image it looks like Ghalt has a power socket in his neck. On the left side of the image, there is something plugged in. Did he simply get a bit of redesign or will his helix choices affect the way he looks? Choosing certain skills grants different abilities and therefore the way he looks.

That’s what I could find for now i also updated Trevor Ghalt’s profile page. But in the meantime what are your impressions of Galth let me know in the comments, thanks.