How to choose the best

Each of Borderlands 3’s four new character classes – Moze, Zane, Amara, and Fl4k – have their own skills, traits, and attributes that suit different playstyles. We examine each of the four vault hunters, and how their skill sets work in solo play and when fighting as part of a team.

There is no “best” character or build, just different options that suit different players better. As you progress through Borderlands 3 and gain more knowledge of your favorite Vault Hunter, you can try out a new build, or even change things up with a new class entirely.

The new characters in Borderlands 3 have three distinct skill trees that you can progress through.

Skill trees allow you to lean on certain aspects of each character class, offering higher ranges and close-range damage, health regeneration, defenses, elemental damage, or summonable support units like Moze’s Iron Bear or FL4K’s Jabbers.

Starting a new skill tree gives you an Action Skill, a special cooldown ability that’s triggered by pressing L1 (PlayStation 4) or LB (Xbox One).

By spending skill points on each tree, you’ll be able to unlock additional action skills, as well as a number of kill skills – temporary bonuses that activate when you eliminate an opponent – and passive skills, which boost things like health and damage regeneration, or the stats and abilities of your summoning units.

There are also job skill boosts available, which enhance the effects of your job skills.

Amara the Siren unlocks Action Skill items – which add elemental damage to her Action Skill – and Action Skill Effects, which work the same way as Action Skill Boosts, but have a different name.

All abilities, both active and passive, stack to varying degrees, and learning how everything works is essential to creating the best builds in Borderlands 3.

Moze the Gunner is a perfect choice for beginners – if Borderlands 3 is the first game in the series you’re playing, pick Moze.

Mozzie is pretty strong, but she adds a lot of firepower to the deck, and is best suited for those who prefer a more aggressive playstyle. For example, the Bottomless Mags skill tree increases the size of your magazines as well as allowing you to fire weapons like the SMG for longer without overheating, so if you’re still getting used to aiming, that’s fine, just drive them more.

In a similar vein to Overwatch’s D.Va, Moze can also summon a giant robot called Iron Bear, which other players as well as you can ride, meaning Moze brings an extra level of tactical choice to team play.

As Moze’s skill trees are unlocked, Iron Bear is equipped with additional weapons, including a grenade launcher, an additional turret, as well as boosts that make Moze and Iron Bear’s shots deal more damage.

Players can also delve into the defensive Revenge Armor skill tree, if tank builds are their preferred type.

Since Moze can also equip different work skills at any time, there is room for experimentation here.

Zane is another good choice for Borderlands beginners, as he’s a sniper, so if you’re used to camping and setting boundaries, you might already feel right at home here, especially if you’re already proficient with Zero from Borderlands 2. Like Moze, you can equip two skills to work at once.

But since this Vault Hunter relies more on stealth and precision shooting, it’s not quite as flexible when compared to Moze, so complete beginners shouldn’t start here.

In addition to unleashing high-damage shots from afar, unlocking perks in the Hitman skill tree allows Zane to distract enemy teams with the SNTNL, a drone that will bombard enemies with machine gun fire, and later, use energy beams to reduce enemy movement and attack speed while increasing your own, giving you more time to line up that perfect killing blow.

Then there’s the Under Cover skill tree, which focuses on damage mitigation and health regeneration, and can also be expanded to include your allies. In the right hands, Zane has the potential to act as a sort of support sniper.

The most impressive skill tree available to Zen players is the Digi-Clone – as the name suggests, it creates a fake 3D version of Zen that stands still and shoots at enemies, allowing you to sow confusion without getting killed. For example, the Schadenfreude ability means that any damage the clone takes will restore a portion of Zen’s armor.

These perks will take some time to master, so it’s best to start building Zane once you’re more confident in Borderlands 3.FL4K the Beastmaster – Best New Borderlands 3 Character for Expert Players

FL4K is a flexible class that will benefit snipers and support players.

For example, the Fade Away Action skill in the Stalker tree allows you to become invisible, allowing you to either sneak past enemy lines or disappear moments after launching your attack. You also benefit from increased speed and regeneration when Faded Away, making the Stalker tree a good option to invest in if you’re a stealthy sniper.

The Hunter skill tree places more emphasis on dealing high critical damage – less stealth, more shooting. Passive buffs aim to reduce ammo costs, reloads, and skill recharge times, while the Ambush Predator perk increases critical damage nicely when there are no enemies nearby.

Finally, the Master skill tree focuses on your Beastmaster title, and your ability to summon dog-like horned Skags, which you can unleash on your enemies. The rewards unlocked here grant more perks to your pet than you, though the awesome Gamma Burst Action skill essentially turns your poor Skag into a radioactive bomb dog.

You only get one job skill to use with FL4K, but as a Beastmaster, you can choose pets from each of the three skill trees. These pets provide powerful passive abilities, giving you perks like stat boosts, covering fire, or the ability to send them out to taunt and harass enemies.

The Jabber pet, which you get from the Stalker skill tree, can attempt to revive you when the Lick The Wounds perk is unlocked. The Jabber monkey starts out with a pistol but can be upgraded to carry a shotgun or machine gun. The Hunter skill tree lets you command Spiderants, which can faithfully replenish your health or send them to attack enemies, while the Rakk Attack! – an action skill, not a pet – lets you send out a pair of bat-like Rakks to annihilate entrenched enemies. Amara the Siren – The best new Borderlands 3 character for melee and support players

Amara the Siren is an interesting character, as you can choose to create a build that focuses on powerful stackable attacks, one that relies on support, where elemental buffs deal extra damage, or one that emphasizes fast-paced melee attacks.

Most of the skills available to you in the Mystical Assault tree are passive skills, which give you improvements to your accuracy, critical hits, reload times, and a cooldown to your movement skill rate – the skills available are centered around a number of different astral projections, all of which generally see a large amount of damage dealt to anything directly in front of you.

Most of the action skills from the Elemental Fist tree feature a giant psychic grip that locks enemies in place, making them easy targets for your allies, but elemental boosts can see your ranged and close-range attacks deal extra electrical or fire damage to enemies as well.

The Melee Tree, as the name suggests, revolves around melee combat. Passive buffs steer you towards close combat, allowing you to deal extra damage with your movement skill, and gain temporary speed boosts for yourself and your team whenever you take out an enemy with an active skill like Phaseslam, which sends you leaping into the air and sending shockwaves across the ground when you land.