Skills are various class-specific abilities that modify a character's abilities. By choosing a particular combination of skills, a player customizes their character, making that character more effective for certain playstyles.

Contents 1 Skill Points 2 Action Skills 2.1 Brick 2.2 Lilith 2.3 Mordecai 2.4 Roland 3 Skill Trees 3.1 Brick 3.2 Lilith 3.3 Mordecai 3.4 Roland 4 Interactive Skill Trees 5 Notes

Skill PointsEdit

A player chooses skills by investing skill points, awarded as a character increases in level. Each time that the character increases in level, they receive an additional skill point. The first skill point is gained at level 5, and must be used to acquire the Action Skill for that character's class. Subsequent skill points may be invested in a number of different skills that unlock as the character progresses.

A player may invest multiple skill points in a single skill, increasing the character's effectiveness in that skill. Each skill other than the Action Skill can receive up to 5 points.

By equipping Class Mods, a character will receive additional points in one or multiple skills. For the bonus to any skill to take effect, the character must have at least one point already allocated to that skill. Use of a Class Mod may give a character an effective rank in a skill of greater than 5.

If the player makes a mistake while investing skill points or merely changes their mind, they can spend money at a New-U Station to "respec" (redistribute) a character's skill points. Upon purchasing a respec, all skills are reset, including the Action Skill, and the player must reallocate all that character's skill points. The cost of a respec increases as the character's total number skill points increases, but will never exceed $15000 even for a maximum-level character.

Action SkillsEdit

Main article: Action Skills

Each character has a single Action Skill. This is the first skill that is learned, acquired at level 5.

BrickEdit

Brick's Action Skill is Berserk. While in this state, Brick's vision becomes clouded with blood, he starts laughing maniacally, and he puts his guns away in favor of using his fists to pummel enemies. His melee damage is increased, he takes less damage from enemy attacks, and he regenerates health in battle.

LilithEdit

Lilith's Action Skill is Phasewalk. When Lilith uses Phasewalk, she turns invisible and can move quickly. When Lilith goes into Phasewalk, there is a small shockwave that damages enemies in the area of effect. Skill points can be used to increase the melee damage whilst in this state, and to limit damage when coming out of it.

MordecaiEdit

Mordecai's Action Skill allows him to send an alien pet, a falcon-like bird named Bloodwing, out into the fray to attack enemies.

RolandEdit

Roland's Action Skill is Scorpio Turret. This is a turret that attacks enemies while providing cover for the team with an attached shield. It can be upgraded to supply teammates with health and ammo.

Skill TreesEdit

Beyond the Action Skill, access to the different character skills is regulated by a tree structure. Each class has three distinct skill trees. Each of these trees comprises seven different skills, arranged into four successive tiers; the first three tiers of a tree have two skills each, while the last tier only contains a single skill, presumably the most powerful one.

Initially, the character has access only to skills in the first tier of each tree, unlocked by the Action Skill. For every five skill points invested in a particular tree, another tier in that tree unlocks, allowing skill points to be invested in new skills. Skill points may be invested in any combination of the skills of the available tiers: maxing a single skill by investing five skill points in it is possible, but not necessarily required to advance. Likewise, characters need not dedicate themselves to a single skill tree, but may distribute skill points between trees as a player sees fit.

Unlike the Action Skill, the skills in these trees require no explicit command by the player. They either take effect automatically under particular conditions (e.g., when the character scores a kill, as in Mordecai's Killer, or when the character inflicts explosive damage, as in Brick's Liquidate), or else are permanent effects (e.g., the bonus to shield capacity of Lilith's Diva, or the reduction of action skill cooldown time of Roland's Deploy).

BrickEdit

Brick's skill trees are Brawler, Tank, and Blaster.

• Brawler focuses on melee, especially using Brick's Berserk fists.
• Tank focuses on damage mitigation and recovery.
• Blaster focuses on weapons, particularly Explosive weapons.

View on Official Skill Tree Calculator Starting Skill Berserk Gain the ability to go Berserk. While Berserk, use the Aim and Fire buttons to throw punches. Also, you gain resistance to all damage and you regenerate health while Berserking. Duration: 18 Seconds. Cooldown: 60 seconds.					Brick Purge
Tier	Brawler Tree		Tank Tree		Blaster Tree
1	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	0		0		0
Totals	0		0		0
	Required Level: 5

LilithEdit

Lilith's skill trees are Assassin, Elemental, and Controller.

• Controller focuses on mitigating damage and dazing enemies.
• Elemental focuses on interactions with tech effects and Elemental Damage.
• Assassin focuses on doing damage, especially with Phasewalk and melee attacks.

View on Official Skill Tree Calculator Starting Skill Phasewalk Gain the ability to turn invisible and move incredibly fast. Upon entering/leaving Phasewalk, you create a Phase Blast that damages nearby enemies. You can Melee attack to end Phasewalk early. Cooldown: 36 seconds					Lilith Purge
Tier	Controller Tree		Elemental Tree		Assassin Tree
1	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	0		0		0
Totals	0		0		0
	Required Level: 5

MordecaiEdit

Mordecai's Skill trees are Sniper, Rogue, and Gunslinger.

• Sniper focuses on effectiveness with sniper rifles.
• Rogue focuses on using Bloodwing and increasing the loot gained from enemies.
• Gunslinger focuses on improving damage/critical hits and effectiveness with pistols.

View on Official Skill Tree Calculator Starting Skill Bloodwing Gain the ability to summon a pet Bloodwing out to attack an enemy and then return. Cooldown: 28 seconds					Mordecai Purge
Tier	Sniper Tree		Rogue Tree		Gunslinger Tree
1	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	0		0		0
Totals	0		0		0
	Required Level: 5

RolandEdit

Roland's skill trees are Infantry, Support, and Medic.

• Infantry focuses on offensive ability with weapons and Roland's turret.
• Support focuses mainly on defenses and providing extra ammunition.
• Medic focuses mainly on health and keeping the party alive.

View on Official Skill Tree Calculator Starting Skill Scorpio Turret Gain the ability to deploy a Scorpio Turret that automatically fires at enemies. Also has a shield that can be used as cover. Turret has a few seconds before it disappears. [20 seconds.] Cooldown: 100 seconds.					Roland Purge
Tier	Infantry Tree		Support Tree		Medic Tree
1	0	0	0	0	0	0
2	0	0	0	0	0	0
3	0	0	0	0	0	0
4	0		0		0
Totals	0		0		0
	Required Level: 5

Interactive Skill TreesEdit

Borderlands Official Website offers an interactive skill tree for each character. Note that skill points gained through DLC completions are not used in the skill calculator, meaning a maximum of 57 points can be allotted into the trees.

• Brick
• Roland
• Lilith
• Mordecai

An unofficial skill tree that includes DLC skill points

NotesEdit

Without any DLC, characters can accumulate 54 skill points by the time they reach the maximum level of 58. However, with the addition of the Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot, The Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC, and Claptrap's New Robot Revolution, it is now possible to attain a maximum of 69 skill points:

• +2 Mad Moxxi's Underdome Riot
• +2 Claptrap's New Robot Revolution
• +11 The Secret Armory of General Knoxx