Axton | Commando:
If you played the original Borderlands, you're familiar with the Soldier. Like every other class he mostly relied on guns to kill things, but was also able to deploy a turret to help out. At its most basic level the turret let you deal additional damage, but by investing in the skill tree it could be modified to heal and resupply. Gearbox's plan for the Commando in Borderlands 2 is to make the turret a much more modifiable, important part of a battle. The general idea of the Commando remains the same as the original Borderlands's Soldier, though within Borderlands 2's fiction, the Commando is meant to be more advanced and highly trained. "We wanted to do a class that was similar to the Soldier but we felt like we wanted to level him up and make him even more badass than the original Soldier, so we created the Commando," said Jeramy Cooke, art director on Borderlands 2. "He's our special forces type of character. He actually has a little bit of story. I don't want to kind of get into too many of the details, maybe one interesting thing is he wears the dog tag from his wife who was also in the military and she's now dead."
To reinforce the notion of the Commando as an elite Soldier, Gearbox created a more sophisticated system for customizing turret functionality. "We brought back a type of turret but this is sort of the next generation," said Cooke. "[It's] created by the Dahl Corporation which has grown and gotten more advanced as time has passed and so they've built a lot of new features into the new turret. We're not going to get into all the fine details of it but it can do a lot of really unique things. If you're familiar with longbow grenades from the first game, you can throw a grenade and it would instantly teleport like a real gunshot all the way to where you're pointing. You can now actually have longbow turret so instead of just dropping the turret at your feet you can fire it out at long range, use it to pull enemies or to begin combat. Each [skill] tree has its own kind of big change to the turret and many of the skills modify, upgrade, and visually change the way it looks. So again, when you see somebody throw out a turret you're going to really understand kind of what their build is if you're familiar with the class."
If you're a fan of sniper rifles, upgrading the turret with longbow functionality might be a good choice, letting you drop it into the middle of a faraway pack of enemies. While they're busy trying to blow up the turret, you can stand at a distance and line up headshots through a scope. That being said, it doesn't mean you can only use a sniper rifle if you decide to modify the turret this way. Gearbox is designing Borderlands 2 so it makes sense to use any gun with any class. There will be very specific builds that could work better with specific guns, but just because you pick a Commando doesn't mean you should only use sniper rifles.
Cooke mentioned that the Soldier was one of the most popular classes in the first game. If you happened to play a Soldier, the Commando will initially feel familiar. "We did want it to feel comfortable for people that enjoyed that play style," said Cooke. "If you were to make an analogy to Dungeons and Dragons, the Commando is like our fighter, you know? The game just really fundamentally needs and wants, our universe needs and wants these guys to exist. It's a really fun play style...you're using your action skill in very different context."
Guerilla | Gunpowder | Survival |
|---|---|---|
| Guerilla: This skill tree is based around making the turret a stronger damage dealer, dealing high-damage attacks continuously. Sentry - Tier 1: Gives your turret +1 shot per burst and +2 seconds of duration per level. Ready - Tier 1: Grants you +8% Reload Speed per level. Laser Sight - Tier 2: Gives your turret +10% Accuracy boosts per level. Willing - Tier 2: Gives you +15% Shield Recharge Rate and -12% Shield Recharge Delay per level. Onslaught - Tier 3: Kill Skill, killing an enemy gives +6% Gun Damage and +12% Movement Speed for a short time, per level. Able - Tier 3: Causing Damage to an enemy regenerates 0.4% of your Maximum Health per second, per level for 3 seconds. Scorched Earth - Tier 3: Adds Multi-Rocket Pods to the turret, which fire 22 Rockets per Volley. Grenadier - Tier 4: Adds +1 Grenade Capacity per level. Crisis Management - Tier 5: Gives you +7% Gun Damage and +6% Melee Damage when your shields are depleted. Double Up - Tier 6: Adds a second gun to the Turret, and both barrels fire Slag Bullets. | Gunpowder: Focuses mainly on Explosives, Weapon Damage, and Axton's Offensive Skills. Builds the Turret more as a distraction. Impact - Tier 1: This is a straight +4% Gun Damage and +3% Melee Damage boost, per level. Expertise - Tier 1: Gives you +14% Weapon Swap Speed and Aim Speed per level, as well as a +7% Movement Speed while aiming. Overload - Tier 2: Gives you +10% Magazine Size with Assault Rifles. Metal Storm - Tier 2: Kill Skill, killing an enemy gives you +12% Fire Rate and +15% Recoil Reduction, per level, for a short time. Steady - Tier 3: Grants you a +8% Recoil Reduction, +5% Grenade Damage and +4% Rocket Launcher Damage boost, per level. Battlefront - Tier 3: While your turret is deployed, you gain +6% to Gun, Melee and Grenade Damage. Longbow Turret - Tier 3: Turns your turret into a Longbow Grenade, granting +10,000% Turret Deploy Range and +110% Turret Health. Duty Calls - Tier 4: Helps you deal straight bullet damage with +5% Gun Damage and +3% Fire Rate with non-elemental guns. Do or Die - Tier 4: This will let you throw Grenades while in Fight For Your Life, and adds +10% Grenade and Rocket Launcher Damage. Ranger - Tier 5: Want to boost everything? This skill boosts your Gun Damage, Critical Hit Damage, Accuracy, Fire Rate, Magazine Size, Reload Speed and Maximum Health by 1% per level. Nuke - Tier 6: When you deploy your Turret, it will set off a small Nuclear Blast. | Survival: This skill tree is all about boosting Axton's defensive stats, as well as keeping him alive, and using the turret frequently. Healthy - Tier 1: Gives you +6% Maximum Health per level. Preparation - Tier 1: Grants you +3% Shield Capacity per level, and you regenerate 0.4% of your Maximum Health when your shields are full. Last Ditch Effort - Tier 2: Gives you +8% Gun Damage and +14% Movement Speed during Fight For Your Life, per level. Pressure - Tier 2: Depending on how low your health is, you gain up to +14% Reload Speed and -12% Shield Recharge Delay per level. Forbearance - Tier 3: Gives -8% Status Effect per level and +1% Maximum Health per level. Quick Charge - Tier 3: Kill Skill, killing an enemy will regenerate 1% of your shield per second, per level. Phalanx Shield - Tier 3: The Turret now projects a shield that tries to block incoming enemy fire, while allowing friendly fire to pass through. Resourceful - Tier 4: Gives you +5% Action Skill cooldown per level. Mag-Lock - Tier 4: Lets you deploy your turret on walls and ceilings. Grit - Tier 5: Gives you a 4% chance, per level, to ignore damage that would otherwise kill you. Not only will you not take damage from the attack, you will also regain half of your Maximum Health. Gemini - Tier 6: You can deploy two turrets at once. |
Paul Hellquist, creative director at Gearbox on Borderlands 2 talked more about how to invest in varying skill lines. "Pretty much every class has trees for varying levels of gamer in terms how casual to hardcore you are. They all have a tree that's pretty straightforward and pretty obvious of what the benefits are at one end of the spectrum. Then they sort of have a middle ground. Then most of them have a tree that's [for] the guy who likes to see the connections between all these skills and realize the power that they can work together, whereas on the surface they might not be as obviously as powerful as some of the more casual skills."
So what's a specific example of how skill selection can alter the Commando's play style? Hellquist explained a skill called Pressure. "It grants you reload speed and shield recharge bonuses based on how much health you have remaining. So the lower your health is the higher your bonuses are." In other words, as you near death, you become more deadly. Cooke added, "I think our expert players and people that really want to dig will find that there's a lot more depth to be sort of had out of the skill trees this time around."
Gear items also help define your character. You won't be equipping a huge range of gear items, but will be swapping out grenade types and shield mods and artifacts, all of which have different bonuses. "You might see a piece of gear that does something and think 'Oh, that's okay I guess," said Hellquist. "But then you notice this skill in your tree. 'Wait a second, if I use that type of gear with this skill my fire rate is going to get through the roof,' and it's going to be insane. So now I want to get that, I want to find that piece of gear and really focus on that skill and see what that feels like."
Maya | Siren:
While every class uses guns to burn, shock and blow up enemies, every class does so with the aid of a unique primary action skill. This skill essentially defines the class, and can be modified in dramatic ways. The phasewalking of the original Siren has been replaced with something that sounds similar but really isn't: phaselocking. The phaselock ability is the first earned in the Siren's skill tree, allowing her to bind an enemy from range in a kind of energy bubble. At its most basic level that has a few advantages. First, it takes an enemy out of a fight, providing a degree of crowd control. If there's an especially irritating monster that you or your co-op group would rather freeze in time in order to clean up the rest of the battlefield first, phaselock it and return to shooting it after the enemy horde has been thinned out. Second, it locks the enemy in place, useful for turning fast-moving creatures into easy targets.
Hellquist added that the decisions you make with skill point allocation also affect the visual appearance of the phaselock ability, so if you were to join someone else's game and observe their phaselock, you'd have an idea about their skill build, like how armor sets in some MMOs give away class specializations.
In terms of what phaselocking is like mechanically, you highlight an enemy with a cursor and initiate the phaselock. It's not a projectile attack, so you don't need to lead targets to hit them or anything like that. Then affected targets hover above the ground for the duration of the effect. "We had considered doing like homing projectiles," said Hellquist, "but it reduced the player's ability to actually choose exactly who they wanted to take care of, so it lost a lot of the strategy because the homing projectile would just kind of find someone and you were like 'I didn't want this stupid skag pup, I needed the badass gone.'"
Paul Hellquist pointed out that phaselocking can serve the additional purpose of marking a target, which tends to be useful in situations where especially lethal enemies should be focus-fired into oblivion. To help with this, the phaselock effect can be modified to add additional bonuses to the affected target. In one build after learning a skill called Wreck, according to Hellquist, "while you have an enemy phaselocked you [get] an increased fire rate and damage with all gun types. So you throw the badass up in the bubble and now your SMG, which already had an outrageous fire rate, is just sending insane amounts of lead into this thing. It's one of my favorites."
Badass monsters are the equivalent of elite or veteran monsters in MMOs – generally they output higher damage and are able to absorb far more punishment before finally keeling over, and yield better rewards. Though you can use the phaselock on badasses, you won't be able to on bosses. "You definitely cannot phaselock bosses," said Hellquist, "although the phaselock skill is still useful against bosses and will deal damage when you hit them. There's a neat little thing as well where we found that players were frustrated with accidentally wasting phaselocks so we designed it such that if you attempt to phaselock something and miss, you're skill immediately goes, like resets its cooldown so that you can have another chance to use it again and it works the same way against bosses. Although, if you successful deal damage it will expend the cooldown on it."
There's also the storyline of the new Siren. While it may not be as exciting as the many ways to kill things, Gearbox has pointed out that more substantial story development is a focus for Borderlands 2. "What we wanted to do with the Sirens this time around was to have a kind of a different flavor," said Cooke. "There's some Siren lore that says that there's only a certain number of Sirens around at any given time in our universe and we wanted them to all kind of have unique back stories. [Maya] knows a bit about where her power comes from. We kind of patterned her a little bit after Indiana Jones to some extent. You know, she's the adventurer, roving the universe trying to find the secrets of where she came from and what the Sirens are all about."
In terms of what phaselocking is like mechanically, you highlight an enemy with a cursor and initiate the phaselock. It's not a projectile attack, so you don't need to lead targets to hit them or anything like that. Then affected targets hover above the ground for the duration of the effect. "We had considered doing like homing projectiles," said Hellquist, "but it reduced the player's ability to actually choose exactly who they wanted to take care of, so it lost a lot of the strategy because the homing projectile would just kind of find someone and you were like 'I didn't want this stupid skag pup, I needed the badass gone.'"
Paul Hellquist pointed out that phaselocking can serve the additional purpose of marking a target, which tends to be useful in situations where especially lethal enemies should be focus-fired into oblivion. To help with this, the phaselock effect can be modified to add additional bonuses to the affected target. In one build after learning a skill called Wreck, according to Hellquist, "while you have an enemy phaselocked you [get] an increased fire rate and damage with all gun types. So you throw the badass up in the bubble and now your SMG, which already had an outrageous fire rate, is just sending insane amounts of lead into this thing. It's one of my favorites."
Badass monsters are the equivalent of elite or veteran monsters in MMOs – generally they output higher damage and are able to absorb far more punishment before finally keeling over, and yield better rewards. Though you can use the phaselock on badasses, you won't be able to on bosses. "You definitely cannot phaselock bosses," said Hellquist, "although the phaselock skill is still useful against bosses and will deal damage when you hit them. There's a neat little thing as well where we found that players were frustrated with accidentally wasting phaselocks so we designed it such that if you attempt to phaselock something and miss, you're skill immediately goes, like resets its cooldown so that you can have another chance to use it again and it works the same way against bosses. Although, if you successful deal damage it will expend the cooldown on it."
Harmony | Cataclysm | Motion |
|---|---|---|
| Harmony – The skills here mainly focus on healing. Mind's Eye - Tier 1: Gives you +5% Critical Hit Damage and +6% Melee Damage per level. Sweet Release - Tier 1: When you kill an enemy that's Phaselocked, a Life Orb is released, one per level, that will seek you and your allies out to heal. The Life Orb will heal more depending on how much health you have, up to 15% per Orb. Restoration - Tier 2: Gives you +3% Maximum Health, and you can attack allies to heal them for 6% of the attack damage per level. Wreck - Tier 2: Grants +10% Fire Rate and +6% Damage with guns per level while there's an enemy Phaselocked. Elated - Tier 3: You and your allies will regenerate 1% Health, per second, per level, while you have an enemy Phaselocked. Recompense - Tier 3: When you take damage, there's a 10% chance to do an equal amount of damage to whoever hurt you. Res - Tier 3: You can instantly revive an ally by Phaselocking them while they're down. Sustenance - Tier 4: It's a straight up 0.4% per second, per level, Health Regen. Life Tap - Tier 5: Kill Skill, killing an enemy will give you a 1.2% Life Steal per level for a short period of time. Scorn - Tier 6: This is a Melee Override Skill, Melee attacks throw out an Orb of Slag that constantly damages enemies nearby. This skill has an 18 second cooldown. | Cataclysm - This skill tree is based on Elemental Attacks. Flicker - Tier 1: Grants a +6% Elemental Effect Chance, per level. Foresight - Tier 1: Gives your weapons +4% Magazine Size and +5% Reload Speed per Level. Immolate - Tier 2: This skill adds 10% Damage, per level, as Fire Damage to shots fired when you're in Fight For Your Life. Helios - Tier 2: When you Phaselock an enemy, it causes a Fire Explosion, damaging nearby enemies, gaining +1 Damage per level. Chain Reaction - Tier 3: When you have an enemy Phaselocked, any bullet that hits enemies have an 8% chance, per level, to ricochet and hit another nearby enemy. Backdraft - Tier 3: Your melee attacks now cause Fire Damage. Also, when your shields are drained, they cause a Fire Explosion, damaging nearby enemies. In order to explode again, your shields need to fully recharge. Cloud Kill - Tier 3: Shooting an enemy generates an Acid Cloud, which deals Corrosive Damage over time. The cloud last for 5 seconds, and only one can be active at once. Reaper - Tier 4: Lets you deal +8% more Gun Damage to enemies with over 50% Health remaining. Blight Phoenix - Tier 5: Kill Skill, killing an enemy has you dealing constant Fire and Corrosive Damage to nearby enemies for a short time. The damage is based on your Level, and the level of Blight Phoenix. Ruin - Tier 6: This will augment your Action Skill. Phaselocking now Slags, Corrodes and Electrocutes all the nearby enemies. | Motion - The skills here focus on crowd control and defense. Ward - Tier 1: Grants you a +5% Shield Capacity and -8% Shield Recharge Delay, per skill level. Accelerate - Tier 1: Gives you a +3% Gun Damage and +4% Bullet Speed increase per level. Suspension - Tier 2: This will increase the duration of Phaselock by 0.5 seconds per level. Kinetic Reflection - Tier 2: Kill Skill, killing an enemy will grant you the ability to deflect bullets at nearby enemies, reducing your Damage by 10% and dealing 20% Damage per level for a short time. Fleet - Tier 3: Your Movement speed is increased by 10% per level when your shields are depleted. Inertia - Tier 3: Kill Skill, killing an enemy regenerates 0.8% of your shield per second and increases your Reload Speed by 10% per level for a short period of time. Converge - Tier 3: Phaselocking enemies will draw them closer together. There’s only one level of this. Quicken - Tier 4: Increases the cooldown rate on Phaselock by 6% per level. Sub-Sequence - Tier 5: When an enemy dies while Phaselocked, there's a 20% chance, per level, that the Phaselock will transfer to another enemy. Thoughtlock - Tier 6: Phaselock now causes enemies to fight among themselves, essentially fighting with you. Phaselock's Duration and Cooldown are both increased though, by 3 seconds and 4 seconds respectively. |
There's also the storyline of the new Siren. While it may not be as exciting as the many ways to kill things, Gearbox has pointed out that more substantial story development is a focus for Borderlands 2. "What we wanted to do with the Sirens this time around was to have a kind of a different flavor," said Cooke. "There's some Siren lore that says that there's only a certain number of Sirens around at any given time in our universe and we wanted them to all kind of have unique back stories. [Maya] knows a bit about where her power comes from. We kind of patterned her a little bit after Indiana Jones to some extent. You know, she's the adventurer, roving the universe trying to find the secrets of where she came from and what the Sirens are all about."
Salvador | Gunzerker:
You won't be locked into a skill tree, you can distribute points across multiple trees like in the first game. You can't learn every skill, though, and can reorganize your build if you're unhappy with your initial decisions. "We won't talk specifically about how you do respec-ing," said Hemingway, "but our philosophy has always been that it should be very, very easy and very cheap. You know in the first game respec-ing was ridiculously cheap to do and you could do it whenever you wanted. We do everything we can to encourage experimentation so the players can try out the different things."
Rampage | Brawn | Gun Lust |
|---|---|---|
| Rampage - The skills in the Rampage tree focus around ammunition and Gunzerking. Inconceivable - Tier 1: You gain up to a 10% chance for a shot to not use ammo, depending on how low your health and shields are. Filled to the Brim - Tier 1: You gain +5% Magazine capacity and +3% Ammo capacity per level for all weapons. All in the Reflexes - Tier 2: You get +6% Reload Speed and +4% Melee damage per level. Last Longer - Tier 2: You get +3 seconds of Gunzerking per level. I'm Ready Already - Tier 3: You gain +6% Gunzerking Cooldown Rate per level. 5 Shots or 6 - Tier 3: Gives you a 5% chance, per level, to add an additional round of ammo when firing, instead of expending ammo. Steady As She Goes - Tier 3: Gives you a big ol' +80% Recoil Reduction as well as a 30% chance to improve accuracy on a hit while Gunzerking. Yippee Ki Yay - Tier 4: This will increase the duration of Gunzerking by 0.6 seconds, per level, every time an enemy is killed while Gunzerking. Double Your Fun - Tier 4: With this skill, when you toss a grenade while Gunzerking, you throw two grenades instead - the second grenade doesn't cost any ammo either. Get Some - Tier 5: When you shoot an enemy, it decreases the cooldown on Gunzerking by 0.6 seconds, per level. But this skill has a cooldown of 3 seconds. Keep Firing... - Tier 6: While Gunzerking, you gain up to an +88% increase in Fire Rate and +25% Reload Speed, depending on how long you hold the trigger down. | Brawn - The Brawn Skill Tree will make you physically tougher. Hard to Kill - Tier 1: Gives you +4% Maximum Health and you regenerate 0.1% of your health per second, per level. Incite - Tier 1: When you take damage, you gain +6% Movement Speed and +5% Reload Speed for a few seconds. Asbestos - Tier 2: Grants -8% Negative Status Effect Duration, per level. I'm The Juggernaut - Tier 2: Kill Skill, Killing an enemy grants +4% Damage Reduction for a short time. Ain't Got Time To Bleed - Tier 3: While Gunzerking, you'll regenerate up to 0.8% of your Maximum Health, per second, per level, depending on how low your health is. Out of Bubblegum - Tier 3: Grants +7% Fire Rate while your shield is depleted. Fistful of Hurt - Tier 3: This is a melee override, throws a heavy punch that does massive damage and knockback. This skill has a 15 second cooldown. Bus That Can't Slow Down - Tier 4: Gives you +10% Movement Speed per level while Gunzerking. Just Got Real - Tier 4: Gives you up to +8% Gun Damage, per level, depending on how low your health is. Sexual Tyrannosaurus - Tier 5: Taking Damage grants you +0.4% Health Regeneration per level, for 5 seconds. This effect doesn't stack. Come At Me Bro - Tier 6: While Gunzerking, you can hit the Action Skill button again to taunt enemies into attacking you. You'll instantly heal to Full Health and gain a massive Damage Reduction boot too. | Gun Lust - The skills in the Gun Lust tree are built more around reloading quickly, swapping weapons, and tweaking your gun stats. Locked and Loaded - Tier 1: Reloading your gun will give you +5% Fire Rate, per level, for a short time. Quick Draw - Tier 1: Gives you +7% Weapon Swap speed and +2% Critical Hit Damage per level. I'm Your Huckleberry - Tier 2: Gives you +3% Damage and Reload speed when you're using Pistols, per level. All I Need Is One - Tier 2: When you swap weapons, the next shot you fire will have +8% damage, per level. Divergent Likeness - Tier 3: If you Gunzerk with two of the same type of weapon, you'll gain +6% Damage. If you Gunzerk with two different types of weapons, you gain +6% accuracy, both per level. Money Shot - Tier 3: The last bullet fired from a clip does +8% damage, per level, per magazine size, maxing out at +80% per level. Auto Load - Tier 3: Killing an enemy will automatically reload all of your weapons that aren't in your hands, but are equipped. If you swap guns after Auto Load, Locked and Loaded will also take effect. Lay Waste - Tier 4: Kill Skill, killing an enemy will grant you +8% Fire Rate and +5% Critical Hit Damage with guns, per level, for a short time. Down But Not Out - Tier 4: You can Gunzerk while in Fight For Your Life. Keep It Piping Hot - Tier 5: While Gunzerking is in cooldown, you gain +5% Gun Damage, +6% Melee Damage, and +5% Grenade Damage per level. No Kill Like Overkill - Tier 6: Any excess damage to an enemy that kills them is transferred to the next enemy shot at. |
Gearbox wants players to use these skills together as well, like using the Money Shot skill in conjunction with No Kill Like Overkill. "Money Shot makes it so that the last bullet fired from any clip does massive damage. So imagine you have a revolver, you're going 'bang, bang, bang, kaboom,' and all of a sudden the guy explodes and you reload and go do it again," said Burch. Hemingway elaborated on the combinations possibilities, "So you have a Money Shot, the last shot in your chamber is super powerful, and then you have No Kill Like Overkill. You can just go from almost no health to completely full health if you just use your skills accurately and are a good shot." Skill trees aren't the only way to alter how the Gunzerker fights. Like in the original, you'll get grenade types and more to equip for varying effects. A skill called Double Your Fun, for instance, ties into the grenade system. "If you throw a grenade while gunzerking you actually end up throwing two grenades, but the second grenade doesn't cost you ammo. And so what we're really seeing people do is they will collect a grenade mod which explodes and then throws out additional grenades when those all explode. When you combine that with this it's like it's a room clearer. Just very quickly 'boom, boom, boom, boom, boom.' Everything dies," said Burch.
"The skills and the loot really have interesting kinds of interplay," said Hemingway. "We were talking about the Brawn Tree earlier, and you can min/max the Gunzerker to just be the ultimate health machine if you find the right kind of shield. There's some shields that have a low amount of actual shield but they increase your overall health and if you want to spec for those then you can just be a walking tank that will never ever, ever die. Your damage won't be as spectacular as someone who is going in the Gun Lust or Rampage tree but you can just be the agro sponge for your team. All the skills and all the loot have been sort of designed in such a way that you can combine them in these crazy ways."
Zer0 | Assassin:
Like the rest of Borderlands 2's classes, the Assassin's skill set can be tailored to your preferred play style. Want to concentrate on close-up strikes? Long-distance sniper shots? You can with the Assassin, which according to Gearbox is the only class with a clearly defined weapons preference. If you really like sniping, it sounds like the Assassin could be a good choice.
But first, here's a bit of story detail on Zer0 the Assassin, courtesy of Jeramy Cooke, art director at Gearbox for Borderlands 2. "The cool thing about Zer0 is you don't really know where he's from or what he's all about just yet. He's definitely a bit of a mystery and that's on purpose…an interesting note about Zer0 is his real name is not Zer0. That's what everyone calls him because every time he assassinates someone he displays a zero on his faceplate so he's just known as Zer0." If you watch the recent trailer closely, you'll see a few other emotes pop up over Zer0's faceplate, including a smiley face 50 seconds in. When he does zero damage on a crotch shot just after that in the trailer, it doesn't mean he's doing no damage. "The zero is more of his calling card," said Paul Hellquist, creative director on Borderlands 2, hence the '0' in his name. "He's definitely dealing damage in that case," added Cooke.
Though Zer0 uses a sword often in the trailer, the blade isn't an equippable item. You won't swap out swords the same way you swap out guns. Instead, the sword is his basic melee attack, but its effectiveness in combat can be enhanced. There's actually reason for the lack of sword customization built into the fiction of Borderlands 2, called 'digistruction'. "Digistruct is our term in the Borderlands universe for this ability of having like a digital blueprint that can then be built, you know, on demand," said Hellquist. "That's how our cars appear in the world and a lot of things in the game are constructed in this way…when you pull your guns out they digistructed out of their holster. Hopefully people will finally get to really realize all this kind of cool technology we invented. In fact even Claptrap has a digistruct module. If you've ever seen his little tray pop out of his chest, he's got a digistruct module in there."
In terms of Zer0's sword, "The blade actually digistructs," said Cooke, "It's somewhat like a lightsaber. The handle exists on his hilt and when he pulls it out the blade digistructs for the attack."
It's especially easy for Zer0 to close in on enemies thanks to his action skill, Deception. "He can deploy a holographic decoy of himself onto the battlefield," explained Hellquist, "then he goes into a predator stealth kind of mode where he can move around on the battlefield while the enemies think that he's where his decoy is. This allows him to maneuver around the battlefield and do tons of critical strikes." While in stealth mode Zer0 isn't invulnerable – grenades and other form of splash damage will still injure him – further distinguishing it from the phasewalking ability of the original Borderlands' Siren.
Most interesting is when you decide to attack from the stealth state. If you attack before the stealth timer expires, you don't deal quite as much damage but the cooldown on entering stealth again is reduced. The longer you stay in stealth, the more critical damage you do, so timing an attack right as the stealth timer is about to expire ensures you'll land an especially devastating hit. This seems like it could be particularly useful against bosses and in co-op, giving you the equivalent of a rogue-like backstab. Zer0 is "definitely more single target focused than any other class," according to Hellquist.
Other bonuses applied during the stealth state ensure big damage. "When he launches his decoy out he gets this special vision and all the enemies are highlighted on the battlefield," said Cooke. "They glow bright blue and all of their critical hit locations are revealed. So this allows the assassin to find out where crit locations are on bosses or take a very, very careful shot." Using this critical hit overlay in combination with the last-second sniper rifle or sword strike could be very useful, possibly making the rest of your co-op players jealous after they see how much damage it inflicts.
Sniping | Cunning | Bloodshed |
|---|---|---|
| Sniping : This tree, believe or not, is focused around Guns, especially sniper rifles. Headsh0t - Tier 1: This is a straight +5% Critical Hit Damage boost, per level. 0ptics - Tier 1: Gives you +3% Zoom and +12% Aim Steadiness, which makes your aim move less when you get hit, per level. Killer - Tier 2: Kill Skill, killing an enemy will give you +10% Critical Hit Damage and +15% Reload Speed per level for a short time. Precisi0n - Tier 2: It's a straight up +5% Accuracy boost, per level. 0ne Sh0t, 0ne Kill - Tier 3: The first shot from a full magazine deals +12% Damage per level. Vel0city - Tier 3: Grants +20% Bullet Speed, +3% Critical Hit Damage, and +2% Gun Damage per level. B0re - Tier 3: Your shots pierce through enemies, and gain +100% Damage per enemy pierced. Also, enemies Critical Hit Locations are highlighted while you're in Decepti0n mode. Kill C0nfirmed - Tier 4: Grants up to +8% Critical Hit Damage per level, depending on how long you aim down the sights. At 0ne With The Gun - Tier 5: Gives you +25% Hip Fire Accuracy, +10% Reload Speed and +1 Magazine Size with Sniper Rifles, per level. Critical Ascensi0n - Tier 6: When you get a Critical Hit with a Sniper Rifle, you get +6% Critical Hit Damage and +5% Damage with snipers. This boost can stack up to 999 times, but the stacks will decay if you haven't gotten a Critical Hit in a while. | Cunning : This tree is focused around Zer0's Decepti0n skill, and both ranged and melee boosts. Fast Hands - Tier 1: Gives you +5% Reload Speed and +10% Weapon Swap Speed per level. C0unter Strike - Tier 1: After you get hit, your next melee attack has a chance to do +50% Damage, per level. Fearless - Tier 2: Gives you +5% Fire Rate and +3% Gun Damage, per level, while your shields are depleted. Ambush - Tier 2: Gives you +4% Damage per level when you attack an enemy from behind, or an enemy that is attacking someone other than you. Rising Sh0t - Tier 3: Each successful ranged, or melee, attack grants you +2% Gun Damage and +1.8% Melee Damage per level for a short time. The boosts can stack up to 5 times - faster weapons will stack quicker, but slower ones hold the stack longer. Unf0rseen - Tier 3: Your Holographic Decoy will explode when you become visible again, causing damage to enemies. The Damage increases per level. Deathmark - Tier 3: Dealing melee damage will mark an enemy for 8 seconds. Marked targets take 20% more damage from all sources. Innervate - Tier 4: While Decepti0n is active, you get +2% Gun Damage, +7% Movement Speed and you regenerate 0.8% of your Maximum Health per second, per level. Tw0 Fang - Tier 5: Every shot has a 6% chance to fire two shots, per level. Death Bl0ss0m - Tier 6: An Augment for Decepti0n. You throw a handful of Kunai Knives out, with a random Elemental Effect. The knives don't take you out of Decepti0n, and can be used five times per cooldown, and also can apply the Death Mark Skill. | Bloodshed : This skill tree is all about melee attacks. Killing Bl0w - Tier 1: Gives you +100% Melee Damage against enemies with low health, per level. Ir0n Hand - Tier 1: Grants +3% Melee Damage and Maximum Health per level. Grim - Tier 2: Kill Skill, killing an enemy regenerates 0.7% of your shield and grants +1.5% Decepti0n cooldown rate per level, for a short time. Be Like Water - Tier 2: Shooting an enemy gives you +6% Damage, per level, to your next Melee attack. Melee attacks grant you +4% Damage to your next weapon attack. F0ll0wthr0ugh - Tier 3: Kill Skill, killing an enemy grants +8% Movement Speed, +6% Gun Damage and +8% Melee Damage for a few seconds, per level. Backstab - Tier 3: Melee attacks do +8% Damage, per level, when you hit an enemy from behind. Execute - Tier 3: This is a Melee Override Skill. While you're in Decepti0n, and you're aiming at an enemy, you can do a melee attack to dash forward a short distance and do massive damage. The dash attack has a range of 3 meters. Resurgence - Tier 4: When you kill an enemy with your melee attack, you restore up to 4% of your health, depending on how low you are. Like the Wind - Tier 5: Gives you +3% Melee and Gun Damage per level while you are moving. Many Must Fall - Tier 6: When you kill an enemy with a melee attack while in Decepti0n, you deploy an additional decoy and Decepti0n is extended instead of ending. |
One of Zer0's more notable skills is called Be Like Water. "It's this really interesting dichotomy of guns with melee," said Hellquist. "What it does is every time you shoot an enemy it increases your melee damage for a few seconds and then every time you melee someone it increases your shoot damage for a few seconds, so it encourages people to switch back and forth and do this ninja dance of gun to sword to gun to sword. It's a really neat and fun skill."
As it turns out, Zer0's decoy ability isn't solely for distraction. It can also be weaponized. "There's a skill in his cunning tree called Unforeseen," said Cooke, "that allows you to make your holographic decoy explode when you become visible and it deals shock damage, so it's a cool way to disable people's shields from a tactical standpoint. If you're fighting enemies that have a lot of shield, one of the neat tricks is run in, gather a lot of aggro, drop your decoy and then run out and immediately break stealth. It'll do a big AoE shock and damage every one's shields and then you can kind of take them down more quickly." It's easy to see how that might be especially useful in a co-op game, as you can pull off a move like this and let your teammates clean up the group of mobs after the blast.
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