Borderlands 3: Amara And Fl4k's New Skill Trees Revealed

On November 10, Borderlands 3 will see the beginning of its Year 2 content with the Designer's Cut update. In addition to the new Arms Race mode, another big highlight from this new content drop are the new skill trees for each of the vault hunters, allowing them to use additional action skills and buffs to alter their playstyles even more.

GameSpot had the chance to get some early hands-on time with the Designer's Cut, and we spent some time experimenting with the new builds for the vault hunters. Throughout this week, we'll be sharing details and gameplay showcasing the new skills vault hunters can utilize in combat. Starting off with Amara and Fl4k, we have new gameplay and a more detailed breakdown of their new skills below.

We've spent some time playing both characters and fleshed out their respective skill trees, so here's a quick rundown of some of their new abilities and how they can alter Amara and Fl4k.

Amara's 4th Skill Tree: Enlightened Force

Amara's New Abilities

New Action-Skill: Phaseflare -- Creates an orb of elemental energy that deals elemental damage to nearby enemies.

Noteworthy skills

• Glow Up: Instead of Splash Damage to enemies, Amara's orb grants nearby allies health regeneration.
• Shooting Star: Amara's orb of elemental energy can fire smaller orbs of elemental energy at the last enemy that attacked the player.
• Light Fantastic: When Amara attacks an enemy, the orb will travel to that enemy and deal damage to them.

Amara's skills rely upon her complex Siren powers, and her new abilities utilize powers from the Enlightened Force skill tree. This new tree opens up access to the new Phaseflare action skill, which allows the Siren to summon a massive orb of elemental energy that can deal damage to surrounding enemies, and it can even be used as a large wrecking ball against foes. If you happen to strike the orb with your melee attacks, you can send it flying towards nearby enemies, which can potentially amplify the damage of the Phaseflare skill. Depending on your build, Phaseflare can also send out mini-projectiles and even heal nearby allies.

Fl4k's 4th Skill Tree: Trapper

Fl4k's New Abilities

New Action-Skill: Gravity Snare -- Fl4k tosses out a trap that knocks up and temporarily stuns nearby enemies.

New Pet: Ion Loader -- Fl4k is joined by a loyal Mini Ion Loader bot companion, armed with a shock sniper rifle and homing shock orb that can trigger a shock nova.

Noteworthy skills

• Forage: Whenever an enemy trapped by Fl4k is knocked into the air, they drop ammo, health boosters, and shield boosters.
• Wide Net: Fl4k's trap gains increased duration and increased radius.
• Trap Card: If Fl4K would go into Fight For Your Life while their trap is readied, they automatically throw a trap at the enemy that downed them.
• Blind with Anger: Fl4k's trap no longer knocks up or stuns enemies. Instead, the trap confuses nearby enemies, causing them to attack their allies for a short time.

Fl4k is a hunter, and their new abilities focus more on wrangling crowds of enemies and relying on a new pet--an upgraded Hyperion bot that has a unique arsenal of guns of its own. In the new Trapper skill tree, Fl4k's skills can be modified to focus more on containing and neutralizing crowds of enemies. The latest action skill that Fl4k can use is called the Gravity Snare, an anti-gravity trap that stuns and immobilizes enemies that get caught within its reach. Playing into their hunter background, the Gravity Snare is a great skill to temporarily control the field and take down some of the pesky foes, opening them up to attacks. Depending on how you flesh out Fl4k's skill tree, you can also upgrade your trap to have a greater reach and also give your pet and bodyguard more defensive and offensive skills of their own.

For more on the new content coming to Borderlands 3, be sure to check back with GameSpot on Thursday, October 22 at 9AM PST to see Zane and Moze's new skill-trees and abilities. Later on in the month, there will also be more to share about the upcoming Arms Race mode as well.