Gearbox has begun detailing the various characters in Borderlands 3. First up is Zane,
"a semi-retired corporate hitman with decades of espionage under his belt and plenty of gadgets up his sleeve."
A lengthy blog post reveals Zane to be
Borderlands 3's "resident tech expert, with an ingenious gadget at the ready for any life-or-death situation."
Zane boasts three Action Skills, two of which he can equip at once (though doing so will take the place of his grenades.
In the Doubled Agent skill tree, his Action Skill is Digi-Clone. When active and drawing enemies' fire, Zane is able to trade places with it on a short cooldown. As you progress deeper into the Doubled Agent tree, Zane is able to improve his Digi-Clone, while also unlocking bonuses that reward Zane for having two Action Skills active at once. Here's a quick look at some of the unlockable Doubled Agent skills:
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Quick Breather lets Zane immediately start recharging his shield whenever he swaps places with his Digi-Clone, which provides a huge boost to survivability.
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Enhance causes your Digi-Clone to consume up to 3 grenades when you summon it, giving the Digi-Clone amped-up stats for every grenade consumed.
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Double Barrel ups your DPS by giving your Digi-Clone a copy of Zane’s current weapon - and swapping places triggers increased gun damage for you and your Digi-Clone.
His second skill tree, Hitman, unlocks the SNTNL Action Skill. This tree provides "substantial bonuses" whenever you or your hovering SNTNL drone kill an enemy. This skill tree is all about killing enemies with kill streaks activating plenty of perks, like faster firing rates or the chance to shoot additional projectiles.
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Salvation gives your damage a bit of life steal after you score a kill, so you can shoot your way back to health if your life bar starts dwindling during battle.
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Death Follows Close improves the effectiveness and duration of your Kill Skills, letting you tear through large groups of enemies with ease.
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Seein’ Red sets off all of Zane's Kill Skills any time he activates an Action Skill. If you stagger your Action Skills properly, your overall damage output will be through the roof.
The third skill tree is Under Cover and comes with the Barrier Action Skill. This is more of a defensive-focused skill tree with Barrier deploying a shield that blocks all enemy fire and gives you rallies increased gun damage when shooting through it.
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Confident Competence buffs Zane’s gun damage and accuracy whenever his shields are active, with better bonuses for stronger shield percentages.
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Calm, Cool, Collected rewards Zane for using cryo weapons; any time you freeze an enemy you’ll regenerate shields, health, or Action Skills in that order, depending on what’s currently full.
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Distributed Denial is a big one, giving your Barrier the effects of your currently equipped Shield Mod, which also applies to any allies near the Barrier (with reduced bonuses for Zane himself). It’ll feel like everyone’s getting together for a big buff party any time you drop a Barrier.
Borderlands 3 is set to release on September 13, 2019.