What are the Borderlands 3 classes? And, while we’re at it, who are the Vault Hunters in Borderlands 3, and what skills do they bring to the table? With this versatile team of heroes dropping into Pandora and other Borderlands 3 planets, it can be a tricky job planning your squads, how to spend your skill points, and, most importantly, who gets to be FL4K.
The ship sets sail from Pandora with plenty of familiar faces making up the eclectic roster of Borderlands 3 characters. That includes Moxxi, Ellie, and the loveable robotic hindrance, Claptrap. The gang are up against The Calypso Twins: Tyreen and Troy as they investigate the Children of the Vault cult, which have their own explosive class of Borderlands 3 guns. The Borderlands 3 Vault Hunters feature returning classes that will be familiar to anyone who played the previous games, as well as introducing the Beastmaster class.
There are four Borderlands 3 classes to choose from – Amara, FL4K, Moze and Zane – each with their own skills, progression system, and unique abilities. Want to know what each character has to offer and how best to take advantage of their abilities? We’ve outlined each Borderlands 3 class below to help you decide the Vault Hunter for you.
Your Borderlands 3 Vault Hunters and their classes are:
- Amara: The Siren
- FL4K: The Beastmaster
- Moze: The Gunner
- Zane: The Operative
Amara: The Siren
Taking the torch from Maya and Lilith from the previous game, Amara is the playable Siren in Borderlands 3. Amara possesses phasing abilities, focusing on elemental damage and powerful blows. Unlike Maya, Amara’s skill trees are geared towards high-damage attacks.
She’ll still be helping her teammates out: Amara boasts a range of phasing abilities that suspend enemies in the air, knock them backwards, and turn them against each other. Amara’s full skill trees offer a variety of unique perks and abilities to give you a helping hand in battle, starting with Phasegrasp, Phaseslam, and Phasecast. All of which will be very welcome in any skirmish you might find yourself in.
Amara’s abilities offer the opportunity for a range of different playstyles. Her Brawl skill tree, as the name suggests, focuses on close-quarters melee attacks and encourages you to jump right into your opponent’s personal space. Her Mystical Assault tree allows for the most versatility, allowing you to switch between elemental, gun, and Action Skill attacks. Finally, her Fist of the Elementals tree is the ideal choice for co-op play as it contains a number of abilities that will aid your whole team.
FL4K: The Beastmaster
Borderlands 3’s Beastmaster. FL4K, is essentially a giant robot who can summon allies to aid him in battle. FL4K’s variable skill trees revolve around his robotic pals and their ability to send elemental wave attacks or buff FL4K’s current stats. As you transport irradiated pets through rifts or become momentarily invisible to enemies to regenerate health, your team will hopefully give you less, err, flak.
FL4K’s skill trees revolve largely around his loyal pets. The Hunter skill tree allows you to make the most of FL4K’s sharpshooting abilities and unleashes the Spiderant to aid him. The Master tree makes use of the brutally powerful Skag pet and is the best choice for solo players. The Stalker tree is associated with the gun-toting Jabber and offers the most survivability out of the three trees.
Moze: The Gunner
Similar to the Gunzerker from Borderlands 2, Moze is all about close combat and explosive, high-impact damage. She is a Gunner that specialises in mechanical combat and is able to call upon her giant, controllable mech, Iron Bear.
Her skill trees allow her to equip a range of weapons to the beastly battlesuit, including high-velocity railguns and rapid-firing miniguns; she is the Gunner after all. Moze’s skill trees encourage a relentlessly attacking approach, but she also has a shield-based tree, if you prefer a more defensive playstyle.
Moze’s abilities compliment her bombastic approach to battle but still present a variety of playstyles for you to choose from. The Bottomless Mags skill tree allows you to make full use of Moze’s devastating firearms and will even get you to the point where you never have to reload. The Demolition Woman tree makes the most of Moze’s explosive abilities and offers up grenade launchers and rockets. The Shield of Retribution tree focuses more on survival, offering safety behind shields and a railgun to help defeat her foes.
Zane: The Operative
No Borderlands 3 classes list would be complete without the silent assassin, Zane. This suave (and sweary) operative focuses on critical hit damage and precision. Zane’s skill trees are impressive, and it can be tough deciding how best to progress them.
Each of Zane’s skill trees offer radically different styles of play, including a skill tree with an emphasis on health regeneration and protecting the rest of the team and a damage-heavy one with a deployable drone. But by far the most enjoyable skill tree is the deployable double agent that distracts and fires at enemies. With his similarities to Borderland 2’s Zero, you’ll have to be a dab hand at a sniper to get the most out of this hunter.
Zane’s skill trees make use of his sci-fi gadgets and firearm mastery. His Hitman skill tree focuses on high-damage output and makes use of his SNTNL drone that will aid him on the battlefield. The Under Cover tree is designed for a more defensive strategy, with its survival-based perks and portable barrier gadget. Lastly, The Doubled Agent tree is the most exciting of the three, revolving around improving Zane’s holographic clone companion.
It’s worth remembering that there’s never enough skill points to pick and choose from each tree, so make sure you think carefully before investing in your chosen path. We’ve been experimenting with Borderlands 3 builds using the hero skill trees, weapon preferences, and character stats.
If you’re still having a tough time deciding on the Vault Hunter for you, you’re only as good as your weapon, and we’ve detailed all the Borderlands 3 legendary weapons you can expect to find on your quest to take down the Children of the Vault. Come for the zany gun descriptions, but stay for those juicy stats and perks.