Borderlands 3 Vault Hunters: Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees and Action Skills
Although fans of the series will find some similarities in the way that the Borderlands 3 Skill Trees work, Gearbox has certainly made a few changes. For instance, players now have three different “Action Skills” instead of a single super ability. Now, Gearbox has given fans a deeper look at Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees, the first of the four new Vault Hunters. More information is expected to be released for Amara, FL4K and Moze during the next two weeks.
Like all of the characters, Zane Flynt has three different Skill Trees; a design that should be familiar to series veterans. These three are Doubled Agent, Hitman, and Under Cover. Of course, players can invest points in any of the trees at any time, although you can only choose a single Action Skill to be active at a time. Zane is unique in this regard, however, as he has the ability equip a second Action Skill! (Albeit at the cost of losing the ability to throw grenades.)
Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees: Doubled Agent
“Take advantage of Zane’s unique ability to equip two Action Skills to help decimate your enemies,” explains Grant Kao, a Game Designer at Gearbox; “With the passive tree Doubled Agent, Zane players gain large bonuses such as Synchronicity’s increase to gun damage when both Action Skills are active. And don’t fear: just because you can’t manually throw a grenade doesn’t mean you can’t use a grenade! Grab Fractal Frags or Duct Tape mod and your Action Skills and gun fire will litter the area with explosions!”
Doubled Agent is the first of Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees and features the Digi-Clone Action Skill. This clone will draw enemy fire while active, and Zane can even instantaneously swap places with it. The Doubled Agent tree will improve his Digi-Clone skill to improve its utility, such as by detonating it as an explosive. The tree includes skills which focus on Zane’s unique ability to equip two Action Skills at once (note that doing so does remove the ability to use grenades).
Three example skills listed are Double Barrel, Enhance, and Quick Breather. Double Barrel increases Zane’s DPS by giving his Digi-Clone a copy of his current firearm (and even boosts damage for both whenever they swap places). Enhance greatly increases the stats of his Digi-Clone when you summon it by consuming grenades. Finally, Quick Breather causes Zane’s shield to immediately begin recharging whenever he swaps places with his clone.
Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees: Hitman
The second of Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees is Hitman, which focuses on eliminating enemies. The tree gives him access to his SNTNL Action Skill; a skill which allows him to summon a flying gun drone. The Hitman tree includes a variety of “Kill Skills,” which are skills which grant bonuses whenever he or his drone kills an enemy. Additionally, augment skills for the SNTNL can upgrade the drone with extra damage types, new weapons, and gadgets.
Three skills are listed by Gearbox as examples of what fans can expect from the Hitman tree. The first is Death Follows Close, which improves the duration and power of your other Kill Skills, serving as a booster for the tree in general. The second skill is Salvation. With this skill, you’ll recover some health every time you kill an enemy; particularly useful for recovering health in a tight spot. The third and final skill is Seein’ Red; a skill which automatically triggers all of Zane’s Kill Skills whenever he activates an Action Skill like SNTNL or his Digi-Clone!
Zane Flynt’s Skill Trees: Under Cover
While Doubled Agent focuses on utility and manoeuvring and Hitman focuses on wiping out enemies, Under Cover is a more defensive skill tree. This tree features the Barrier Action Skill which allows Zane to summon a floating energy shield in the air in front of him; effectively granting him portable cover against enemy fire. Not only that, but the shield actually improves the damage of any shots he and his allies make through it while blocking all enemy fire.
Skills in the Under Cover tree boost the effectiveness of Barrier in a variety of ways and also amplify different energy damage types. For instance, a skill might cause players who touch the Barrier to gain buffs, or turn the Barrier into a full dome. The three example skills for Under Cover are Calm, Cool, Collected, Confident Competence, and Distributed Denial.
Calm, Cool, Collected will cause Zane to regenerate his shields, health, or Action Skills whenever he freezes a foe with a cryo weapon. (It regenerates only one; the first in that list which isn’t full.) Confident Competence grants Zane a buff to both accuracy and weapon damage whenever his personal shields are active; the buff even improves based on how much of his shields remain. Finally, Distributed Denial gives his Barrier the effects of the Shield Mod which he has equipped, and then applies that effect to all nearby allies!