How to choose the best one

Borderlands 3’s four new character classes – Moze, Zane, Amara, and Fl4k – each have their own unique skills, traits, and attributes that lend themselves to different playstyles. We take a look at each of the four Vault Hunters, how their abilities work solo and when you’re fighting as a team.

There is no “best” character or build, just different options that work better for different players. As you progress through Borderlands 3 and become more familiar with your favorite Vault Hunter, you can experiment with a new build, or even change classes entirely.

Borderlands 3’s new characters have three distinct skill trees that you can progress through.

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

Starting on a new skill tree grants you an Action Skill, a special cooldown ability triggered by L1 (PlayStation 4) or LB (Xbox One).

By spending skill points on each tree, you unlock additional action skills, as well as a number of kill skills (temporary bonuses that activate when you kill an opponent) and passive skills, which improve things like health regeneration and damage, or the stats and abilities of your summon units.

There are also Action Skill Augments available, which enhance the effects of your Action Skills.

Amara the Siren unlocks Action Skill Items, which add elemental damage to her Action Skills, and Action Skill Effects, which are functionally the same as Action Skill Augments, they just have a different name.

All abilities, 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 great choice for beginners. If Borderlands 3 is the first game in the series you’ve played, go for Moze.

Moze is tough, but she brings a lot of firepower to the party and is best suited to those who prefer an overtly offensive playstyle. The Bottomless Magazines skill tree, for example, increases the size of your weapon magazines and lets you fire weapons like the minigun for longer without them overheating, so if you’re still getting used to aiming, that’s okay, just aim them a little more.

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

As you unlock Moze’s skill trees, the Iron Bear is equipped with additional weapons, including a grenade launcher, an additional turret, as well as buffs that see both Moze and the Iron Bear’s shots deal more damage.

Players can also delve into the Retribution Shield’s defensive skill tree, if a tank build is more your thing.

As Moze can also have two different action skills equipped 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 capturing, you might already feel at home here, especially if you were already fairly comfortable with Zero from Borderlands 2. Like Moze, you can have two Action Skills equipped at once.

But, since this Vault Hunter is more focused on stealth and precise shots, it’s not as flexible as Moze, so absolute beginners shouldn’t start here.

In addition to delivering high-damage shots from a distance, unlocking perks on the Hitman skill tree allows Zane to distract enemy teams with an SNTNL, a drone that will bombard enemies with machine gun fire and, later, use energy beams to reduce the enemy’s movement and attack speed while increasing your own, giving you even more time to line up that perfect kill shot.

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

By far the most impressive skill tree available to Zane players is the Digi-Clone. As the name suggests, it creates a fake holographic version of Zane that stands still and shoots at enemies, allowing you to cause confusion without getting killed yourself. The Schadenfreude ability, for example, means that any damage taken by the clone will restore a portion of Zane’s shield.

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

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

For example, the Fade Away action skill from the Stalker tree allows you to become invisible, allowing you to sneak up on enemy lines or disappear moments after you begin your assault. You can also benefit from increased speed and regeneration when you disappear, making the Stalker tree a good investment if you’re a stealthy sniper.

The Hunter skill tree places a greater emphasis on high critical damage: less sneaky, more shots. Passive bonuses aim to reduce ammo costs, reload times, and cooldowns on action skills, while the Ambusher perk significantly increases your critical damage when no enemies are nearby.

Finally, the Master skill tree focuses on your Beastmaster title and your ability to summon horned, dog-like Skags, which you can hurl at your enemies. The bonuses unlocked here see more benefits granted to your pet than to yourself, though the Gamma Burst action skill lets you turn your poor Skag into a radioactive bomber dog.

You only have one action skill to use with FL4K, but as a Beastmaster, you have a choice of pets for each of the three skill trees. These pets offer powerful passive abilities, granting you benefits such as stat boosts, covering fire, or the ability to simply be sent out to taunt and harass enemies.

The Jabber pet, which you get through the Stalker skill tree, can attempt to revive you when the Lick The Wounds perk is unlocked. The Jabber simian starts 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 regenerate your health or be sent to attack enemies, while Rakk Attack! — an action skill, not a pet — lets you send out a pair of bat-like Rakks to smoke out entrenched enemies. Amara the Siren — Borderlands 3’s best new character for brawlers and support players

Amara the Siren is an interesting character because you have the choice of creating a build that focuses on powerful stacking attacks, or a support-based build where elemental boosts deal extra damage, or a build that focuses on fast melee attacks.

The majority of the skills available on the Mystic Assault tree are passive, giving you buffs to accuracy, critical hits, and cooldowns, as well as a cooldown for your Action Skill Rating. The skills available are centered around a number of different astral projections, which typically deal heavy damage to anything directly in front of you.

Most action skills in the Fist of the Elements tree see a giant psychic fist lock enemies in place, making them easy targets for your allies, but elemental buffs can see your ranged and melee attacks also deal bonus Electric or Fire damage to enemies.

The Brawl tree, as the name suggests, is all about brawling. Passive buffs gear you toward close-quarters confrontations, allowing you to deal extra damage with your action skills and gaining temporary speed boosts for you and your team whenever you take down an enemy with an active ability like Phaseslam, which makes you leap into the air and send shockwaves rippling across the ground when you land.