During my hands-on session with Borderlands 3, I was able to play as both Zane and Amara. Zane is the Operative and has the ability to equip two Action skills by sacrificing his ability to throw grenades.
In Borderlands 3, each of the Vault Hunters has three Action Skills to choose from and can equip them starting at Level 3. Zane’s three skills are Barrier, SNTNL and Digi-Clone.
Barrier drops a deployable shield that blocks incoming damage. By shooting through it, Zane and his allies can deal increased damage.
SNTNL launches a drone that shoots enemies and can be modified to freeze them or drop grenades. Digi-Clone spawns a digital clone that stays in place but distracts enemies and deals damage to them. By pressing the Action button, Zane and the clone are able to instantly swap places.
Borderlands 3 Zane Skills
Combining multiple Action Skills is by far the best feature of playing as Zane. Using Digi-Clone together with SNTNL rains death down on your enemies with such ferocity that most of them are left bloodied and dismembered.
In Borderlands 3, Gearbox has worked to make the Skill Trees unique and viable no matter which way you play. When you choose your Action Skill you’re also choosing Passive Abilities and can select Action Skill Augments.
Passive Abilities are things like increased magazine size while Augments change the way the Action Skill works. For example, Zane’s Binary System Augment for Digi-Clone triggers a Cryo Nova around Zane whenever him and his clone swap places.
Players can equip up to two Augments at a time which gives them the ability to create some awesome combos and synergies.
Below you’ll find a full list of each of Zane’s skills.
Barrier
- Barrier
- Drop a deployable Barrier that blocks incoming projectiles. Zane and his allies can shoot through the Barrier, dealing increased Gun Damage
- Pressing the Action Button again while Barrier is active picks up and holds the Barrier, but the size and bonuses are decreased
- Duration: 9 Seconds
- Cooldown: 18 Seconds
- Damage Amp: +20%
- Adrenaline (Passive Ability)
- Zane Gains increased Action Skill Cooldown Rate. This bonus is based on the amount of shields he has. The more percent full, the greater the bonus.
- Additional ranks increase the cooldown rate
- Hearty Stock (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains increased Maximum Shield Capacity
- Additional ranks increased the max shields further
- Ready for Action (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains improved Shield Recharge Rate and Shield Recharge Delay
- Additional ranks improves both rate and delay
- Charged Relay (Action Skill Augment)
- Whenever Zane or an ally touches the Barrier, they gain increased Movement Speed and Fire Rate for a few seconds
- Fire Rate: +13%
- Movement Speed: +11%
- Duration: 8 seconds after moving away from the Barrier
- Brainfreeze (Passive Ability)
- Whenever Zane scores a Critical Hit on an enemy, there’s a chance they will be Slowed
- Additional ranks increase chance to Slow
- Stiff Upper Lip (Passive Ability)
- Whenever Zane is damaged, he gains Damage Resistance against that damage type
- Additional ranks increase resistance
- Rise to the Occasion (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains Health Regeneration. The lower his shield is, the higher the bonus. While Zane’s shields are full, he does not receive any health regeneration.
- Additional ranks increase the rate of regen.
- Nanites or Some Shite (Action Skill Augment)
- Zane and his allies gain Health Regen, increased Reload Speed and greatly improved Shield Recharge Delay while near his Barrier. The lower their health, the more health is regenerated.
- Health Regen: up to 4% of Max Health/Sec while near Barrier
- Shield Recharge Delay: -33%
- Reload Speed: +11%
- Confident Competence (Passive Ability)
- While Zane’s Shields are active, he gains increased Gun Damage and Accuracy. This bonus is based on the amount of shields he has. The more percent full, the greater the bonus.
- Additional ranks increase Gun Damage and Accuracy further
- All-Rounder (Action Skill Augment)
- Zane’s Barrier becomes a dome, covering all sides.
- Cooldown: +20%
- Redistribution (Action Skill Augment)
- Zane and allies near the Barrier gain increased Gun Damage for a few seconds after the Barrier takes damage
- Gun Damage: +9%
- Duration: 3 Seconds
- Really Expensive Jacket (Passive Ability)
- Elemental Damage over time effects applied to Zane have reduced duration.
- Additional ranks reduce duration further
- Best Served Cold (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. Whenever Zane kills an enemy, they create a Cryo Nova, dealing damage to all nearby enemies. This skill has a short cooldown.
- Damage: 3
- Cooldown: 3 seconds.
- Futility Belt (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains resistance to non-elemental damage.
- Kill Skill. All elemental damage Zane takes is converted to non-elemental damage.
- Additional ranks increase duration and damage reduction.
- Deterrence Field (Action Skill Augment)
- Enemies that touch the Barrier take Shock damage and are staggered.
- Shock Damage: 18
- Refreshment (Passive Ability)
- Whenever Zane damages a frozen enemy with his weapon he gains some of that damage back as health.
- Additional ranks increase lifesteal amount.
- Calm, Cool, Collected (Passive Ability)
- Whenever Zane freezes an enemy, his shield instantly begins recharging. If Zane’s shields are already full, he regenerates health for a few seconds. If his health is already full, his Action Skill Cooldowns and Durations are immediately reset.
- Additional ranks increased regen and duration.
- Nerves of Steel (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains icreasing Accuracy and Handling. The longer his shield is full, the greater the bonus
- Additional ranks increase accuracy and handling.
- Distributed Denial (Passive Ability)
- Zane’s Barrier gains the effects of his Shield Mod. Additionally, shield effects are applied to all allies near the Barrier. Bonuses to Zane are reduced.
SNTNL
- SNTNL
- Send into battle an automated SNTNL drone that continually flies through the environment and attacks enemies with its Machine Guns
- Pressing the Action button while SNTNL is active causes it to attack the enemy under Zane’s crosshairs, if any
- Machine Gune Damage: 10
- Duration: 24 Seconds
- Cooldown: 36 Seconds
- Violent Speed (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. After killing an enemy, Zane gains increased movement speed for a few seconds
- Additional ranks increase speed and duration
- Cold Bore (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains increased Weapon Swap Speed. The next shot fired after swapping weapons deals Bonus Cryo Damage
- Additional ranks increase speed and damage
- Violent Momentum (Passive Ability)
- Zane’s Gun Damage is increased while moving. The quicker he moves, the greater the Gun Damage bonus.
- Additional ranks increase damage at walk speed.
- Winter’s Drone (Action Skill Augment)
- Covert SNTNL’s primary weapons to Cryo Damage
- Cool Hand (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains increased reload speed
- Kill Skill. After killing an enemy, Zane’s Reload Speed is increased for a few seconds.
- Additional ranks increase reload speed after kill and overall and increase duration
- Drone Deliver (Passive Ability)
- SNTNL will occasionally drop a free grenade based on your current grenade mod while attacking enemies
- Cooldown: 15 seconds
- Salvation (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. After killing an enemy, Zane’s weapons gain Life Steal for a few seconds.
- Additional ranks increase Life Steal and duration
- Bad Dose (Action Skill Augment)
- SNTNL occasionally shoots out a beam of Radiation that weakens enemies ad buffs Zane.
- For every weakened enemy, Zane’s movement speed and fire rate are increased
- Weakened enemies have decreased movement speed and attack speed.
- Fire Rate: +3% per enemy
- Movement Speed: +6% per enemy
- Damage: 2
- Duration: 12 seconds
- Cooldown: 8 Seconds
- Seein’ Red (Passive Ability)
- Activating an Action Skill automatically activates all of Zane’s Kill Skills.
- Static Field (Action Skill Augment)
- SNTNL emits a static fiels that sends a Shock beam to nearby enemies, draining their shields and replenishing Zane’s.
- Shield Damage: 2/second
- Cooldown: 2 seconds
- Boomsday (Action Skill Augment)
- SNTNL adds a rocket pod to its primary weapons, allowing it to shoot rockets as well as machine guns.
- Rocket Damage: 50
- Violent Violence (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. After killing an enemy, Zane gains inrceased Fire Rate for a few seconds
- Additional ranks increase Fire Rate and Duration
- Playing Dirty (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. After killing an enemy, Zane’s next five shots all have a chance to fire an additional projectile.
- Additional ranks increase chance.
- Almighty Ordnance (Action Skill Augment)
- Hold Down the Action Button while SNTNL is deployed to paint a target area.
- SNTNL fires a missle barrage at that area and if an enemy is killed Almight Ordnance’s duration is reset
- This can only be used once per Action Skill use
- Missile Damage: 25
- Missiles per Barrage: 5
- Good Misfortune (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. Killing an enemy increases Zane’s Action Skill Duration. This skill has diminishing returns.
- Additional ranks increase the duration.
- Death Follows Close (Passive Ability)
- All of Zane’s kill skills gain increased effect and duration.
- Additional Ranks increase bonus and duration
Digi-Clone
- Digi-Clone
- Spawns a Digi-Clone of Zane. This clone stays in place, but distracts and fires at enemies
- Pressing the Action button while the Clone is active causes Zane and the Clone to swap places.
- Duration: 18 Seconds
- Cooldown: 26 Seconds
- Synchronicity (Passive Ability)
- Whenever one or more of Zane’s action skills are active, he gains increased Gun Damage for each active action skill
- Additional ranks increase the gun damage further
- Praemunitus (Passive Ability)
- Zane and his Digi-Clone gain increased Magazine Size
- Additional ranks further increase the Magazine Size
- Borrowed Time (Passive Ability)
- Zane gains increased Action Skill Duration for every active action skill.
- Additional ranks increased the bonus
- Binary System (Action Skill Augment)
- Whenever Zane swaps places with his Clone, a Cryo Nova is triggered around Zane and his Clone.
- Nova Damage: 66
- Donnybrook (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. Whenever Zane kills an enemy, he and his Digi-Clone receive inrceased Gun Damage and gain Health Regen for a few seconds
- Additional ranks further increase gun damage, regen and duration
- Fractal Frags (Passive Ability)
- The Digi-Clone throws a copy of Zane’s current grenade mod when it is first activated. If the Digi-Clone is killed it drops a free grenade.
- Kill Skill. Killing an enemy while the Clone is active gives the clone a chance to throw a grenade
- Additional ranks increase the grenade chance
- Duct Tape Mod (Passive Ability)
- The first shot fired from Zane’s gun has a chance to also fire a grenade. The more grenades in his capacity, the higher the chance.
- Additional ranks increase the grenade chance
- Schadenfreude (Action Skill Augment)
- Whenever the Clone takes damage, Zane’s shield is restored by a portion of that damage.
- Shields Restored: +11% of Digi-Clone Damage
- Quick Breather (Passive Ability)
- Whenever Zane swaps places with his Clone his shield immediately begins recharging.
- Which One’s Real (Action Skill Augment)
- Enemies are more likley to target the clone for a few seconds after it’s summons and after swapping places
- Duration: 6 seconds
- Doppelbanger (Action Skill Augment)
- Hold down the Action button to end the skill early
- When Zane’s Action Skill is ended, the Clone explodes dealing Fire Damage to all nearby enemies
- The more Action Skill time remaining, the greater the damage.
- Damage: Up to 1326
- Packet Full of Grenades (Passive Ability)
- Kill Skill. After killing an enemy, Zane gains Grenade Regen for a few seconds
- Additional ranks increase regen and duration
- Old-U (Passive Ability)
- Press the Action button during Fight for Your Life if Digi-Clone is active to destroy the clone and immediatley gain a Second Wind with full health.
- Supersonic Man
- Whenever one or more of Zane’s action skills are active, he gains increased movement speed for each active action skill
- Additional ranks increase the bonus
- Digital Distribution (Action Skill Augment)
- If Zane takes health damage while the Clone is active, a portion of that damage is shared to his clone instead.
- Shared Health Damage: +75%
- Like a Ghost (Passive Ability)
- Zane and his Digi-Clone gain a chance to ignore bullets. The chance is increased for a few seconds after activating an action skill. This effect stacks.
- Additional ranks increase ignore chance and duration.
- Boom. Enhance. (Passive Ability)
- Whenever Zane summons his Digi-Clone, it consumes up to 3 grenades. For every grenade consumed, the Digi-Clone gains increased Gun Damage, Max Health, Fire Rate and Reload Speed.
- Additional ranks increase the bonuses.
- Trick of the Light (Passive Ability)
- Zane deals bonus Shock Damage to enemies that aren’t targeting him.
- Additional ranks increase the bonus
- Double Barrel (Passive Ability)
- The Clone is equipped with a copy of Zane’s Current Weapon when activated.
- Swapping places with the Clone causes Zane and his clone to gain increased Gun Damage.
What do you think of Zane’s skills?
Are you keen to try them out? What do you think would work well together?
Borderlands 3 will be available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on September 13.
Leo Stevenson attended the Borderlands 3 gameplay event in Los Angeles, California as a guest of 2K. Flights, accommodation and meals were provided by 2K.
