Borderlands Best Characters to Play (Ranked)

Borderlands is a first-person looter-shooter set on a wasteland planet known as Pandora. Each Vault Hunter has their own unique skillset, completely customizable–but who do you choose? This ranked list starts from good to best, covering the skills and mods best suited to keep them alive just a few minutes longer.

4. Brick -- As Himself

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Brick is your quintessential melee brawler. If you’re someone who enjoys squaring up with a Skag or trading blows with a Bruiser, Brick’s your guy. He’s a class Berserker, who also has a soft spot for cute puppies.

Brick’s Strengths

• Diehard – Not just a classic Christmas film. Melee fighting can be a mess, but building this skill branch gives you a health boost after a Second Wind or Revival from friends. Plus, you get a few more seconds to shoot an enemy during Fight For Your Life.
• Wide Load – Each skill point applied to this branch is a one-to-one ratio supply increase. One skill point, one more rocket launcher. Two skill points, two more rocket launchers…you get the idea.
• Prize Fighter – Killing enemies and getting bonus cash for your trouble? Heck yes. You have a +6% chance of earning extra coin while in Berserker mode. 
• Brick House – Building out your Tank skill tree leads you to Unbreakable, allowing 5 seconds of powerful shield regeneration. As many of us have experienced when under fire, every second counts.
• Skirmisher Mod – This is a mod that encourages using Berserk as often as you can. Survival is boosted through increased maximum health or melee resistance for your team. If there’s more than one Berserker in your squad, the odds are ever in your favor.

Play Brick if you like
Getting up close and personal with your enemies.

3. Mordecai -- The Sniper

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A wily desert man with a hawk named Bloodwing. I’m personally a huge fan of the Sniper class, since my own melee skills need work. It was a tough call to ring in the beloved Mordecai at #3, but he’ll see you through to the end.

Mordecai’s Strengths 

• Bloodwing – Hands down, no foolies, the coolest partnership of all time. Mordecai’s Rogue skill tree dedicates four out of seven categories to this aviary predator, with options to target multiple enemies and collect health points after striking. 
• Melee, Melee! – You get to use a samurai sword as your melee attack. Since stamina isn’t considered ammo, you can slice and dice to your heart’s content. 
• Growing Together – The Smirk skill allows teammates to gain experience with you after killing an enemy with a critical hit. It’s the best way to get a buddy up to speed XP-wise if they’re newer to the co-op.
• Open Range – When it comes to long-range shooting, Mordecai is untouchable. Between the rifle and Bloodwing, you could pick off most of your enemies without ever setting foot in the main arena.
• Ranger Mod – This is a really sweet mod that improves the shooting accuracy of the whole team. Plus, Bloodwing can attack multiple enemies in one flight. Imagine the possibilities with multiple Mordecais in one campaign party.

Play Mordecai if you like
Having an animal familiar, swords, and the security of a rifle scope with distinguished crosshairs.

2. Roland -- The Soldier

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Not gonna lie, I think a lot of folks (including me) have been sleeping on Roland. He’s a class Soldier, with a Scorpio Turret as his Action Skill (which practically makes him two people). He’s a medic, ammo Santa, and infantry super-soldier all rolled into one. 

Roland’s Strengths

• Cauterize – Probably one of the only times you want friendly fire. This skill lets you heal your teammates when you shoot them. You can restore up to 30% of their health, saving some ammo for yourself if you have extra magazine storage.
• Grenadier – Grenades are the universal TL;DR when you’re tired of shooting. Oh, did you run out? Not if you max out this skill and kill an enemy, allowing you to regenerate grenades for a few seconds. 
• Supply Drop – Remember that comment I made about ammo Santa? Supply Drop is Thunderdome Christmas, where Roland’s Scorpio Turret fires out supply pickups to resupply teammates. 
• Infantry Skill Tree – The ability to reduce Scorpio Turret cooldown while also increasing magazine storage is a pretty sweet deal. Building out this skill rewards you quite handsomely during bigger boss fights. 
• Leader Mod – But wait, there’s more! He can also boost experience points for the team and increase his own damage resistance. The Scorpio Turret even gets a little boost to assist the team, too. 

Play Roland if you like 
Finding ways to maximize defense, offense, and keeping your health as high as possible.

1. Lilith -- The Siren

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To no one’s surprise, Lilith continues to reign at Number One. She is one of six class Sirens known to exist on Pandora, with incredible powers at her disposal. I recently ran through her skill tree combos, and any path you choose is uniquely lethal.

Lilith’s Strengths

• Stealth Queen – It doesn’t get more excellent than the ability to Phasewalk. You blip into another dimension, reposition yourself around the enemy (who can’t see you), and blast back into reality to inflict devastating damage.
• Elemental – This skill tree is solely dedicated to her elemental powers, making her arguably one of the most powerful Vault Hunters in the game.  She’s incredibly effective at close range, and adding elemental weapons to the mix makes killing enemies a cakewalk.
• Plague Bearer – This class mod boosts her Elemental skills related to corrosion infliction and resistance.  This is great to have when fighting armored enemies or non-elemental mutated beasts.
• Sniper – If you want some variety with your close-range attacks, you can focus heavily on your Assassin skill tree. If you prefer long-range, every kill you make can improve your accuracy and damage as you level up.
• Defender Mod – The benefit of an Elemental champion is that Lilith is more than willing to share. This mod keeps survivability up for Lilith and your co-op through increased shield capacity and Elemental resistance. Plus, the team benefits from health regen when she Phasewalks. 

Play Lilith if you like
Otherworldly powers, creative ways to sneak attack, adaptable to any battle scenario.

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