Prima Games eGuides Borderlands 2 Game of the Year eGuide

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Borderlands 2 Game of the Year eGuide Bestiary

Skags

Skags are still around, of course. These horny quadrupeds are stout, smoosh-faced and squat, with a low center of gravity. With the exception of Spitter Skags, the various skag species attack by rushing their opposition, so they can claw and bite up close. Skags are smart enough to try to dodge projectiles fired at them as they’re approaching. They are also always arrayed in packs, usually congregating around one of their dens or at a watering hole of some sort; provoking one of them will lead to provoking all of them.

Their hide is thick and spiny, almost like rock, but for most skags it’s not quite like armor, so fire is still the way to go. This thick hide does mostly obscure their weak spot, though. It’s not just the head like most creatures—it’s actually inside their mouths! Shoot for their gaping maws as they bellow, spit, or barf to deal extra damage.

Badass skags are imbued with elemental powers innately, and their high status in the skag hierarchy allows them to pass elemental powers on to their betas. A very manageable fight with a half-dozen skags can very quickly get out of hand if a Badass Fire Skag shows up and sets them all aflame, enhancing the offense of every beast.

Pup Skag

TVHM name: Horned Pup Skag

Pup Skags are baby skags that pose virtually no threat, unless they attack among many others. Their threat level rises around the presence of a Badass skag, though, as Badasses can imbue Pup Skags with their elemental properties. A Badass Corrosive Skag will turn the pups around it into Corrosive Pup Skags. While boosted by a Badass, Pup Skags will gain health regeneration and enhanced damage, thanks to elemental biting. Pup Skags infused with an element can inflict you with a status effect by sinking their chompers into you.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
0.35 0.35 Chump Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Adult Skag

TVHM name: Horned Skag

Full-grown Pup Skags are no longer pups, they’re adults. They’re faster, have more varied attacks, and are harder to kill. They leap forward to pounce or swipe with their unfurling tongues from a few steps back, and slash and bite up close. Like Pup Skags, Adult Skags can be transformed into elemental versions of themselves by a nearby Badass, regaining health and attacking with elemental pounces.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
1 1 Normal Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Spitter Skag

TVHM name: Hawking Skag

Spitter Skags hang back further than pups or adults, the better to hock smoking, rancid phlegm balls at their prey from far away. Spitter Skags can aim their spitballs with deadeye accuracy. If you close in, they swipe with teeth and claws like any skag. A Badass skag can grant its element to a Spitter, which results in a skag that acts like elemental artillery.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
1.5 1.25 Normal Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Barf Skag

TVHM name: Vomitous Skag

The appropriately-named Barf Skags rush forward and attempt to eat away at their targets with an awful torrent of stomach juices. Like Pups, Adults, and Spitters, they can be transformed into elemental Barf Skags by a nearby Badass skag. In this event, their vomit stream becomes far more potent—retching up flaming, corrosive, shocking, or Slagging bile. The upshot is the Barf Skags must eat a lot of crap to maintain their awful digestive self-defense mechanism, so as they barf they sometimes upchuck loot or items that they previously consumed indiscriminately.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
3 3 Normal+ Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Alpha Skag

TVHM name: Elder Alpha Skag

Skags have naturally thick hides, but they’re not technically armored… well, most of them anyway. A couple of them do have hides thick enough to constitute armor, and the Alpha Skag is one of them. This creature uses its extra health and resilience through armor to move in close and attack. The presence of an outer armor shell means that Alpha Skags are actually vulnerable to corrosive weapons, rather than Fire weapons like most skags. Mercifully, Alpha Skags do not adopt the elements of nearby Badass skags.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
5 5 Tough Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Rabid Skag

(TVHM ONLY)

Appearing only during True Vault Hunter Mode, Rabid Skags are terrifyingly quick, ravenous skags that rush forward to attack rapidly in close. Their sizable health pool, speed, and damage potential mean they can overwhelm their prey in short order. Take these threats very seriously—you’ll probably want to interdict them with something long before they’re covering the screen with slash marks. Singularity grenades and Action Skills go a long way toward controlling them.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
8 3 Super Badass Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Badass Fire Skag

TVHM name: Super Badass Fire Skag

Badass skags always have an element, which enhances their attacks and defines their own resistance. They also have large health pools and do lots of damage, making them formidable wildlife. They’re even more dangerous when surrounded by lots of their minions, as the lesser skags will adopt the elemental property of the Badass. Not only do Badass Fire Skags have a huge damage multiplier, but you might recall your character is made of flesh. Also, these skags don’t have the normal skag deficiency of being weak to fire. Watch out!

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
7 9 Badass Mouth — /

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Badass Shock Skag

TVHM name: Super Badass Shock Skag

Badass Shock Skags don’t deal as much raw damage as Badass Fire Skags, but they make up for it with their ability to strip away your shield dangerously fast. This is especially true if they create any electrifying underlings to help them. At least they are all still vulnerable to fire.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
9 4 Badass Mouth /

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Badass Corrosive Skag

TVHM name: Super Badass Corrosive Skag

Badass Corrosive Skags don’t have quite the oomph behind their hits of their fire-born brethren, and they don’t strip shields like their shocking cousins. What they do have is a gigantic pool of health, the better to spend more time corrupting other skags in the scrap and transforming them into corrosive fighters. These skags are still vulnerable to fire, but they also become resistant to corrosion. It’s too bad no one makes brake linings out of corrosive skags.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
16 6 Badass Mouth /

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Badass Slag Skag

TVHM name: Super Badass Slag Skag

Badass Slag Skags raise the stakes for everyone, spreading Slag throughout the skag party while making all skags capable of inflicting Slag. As with other Badass skags, these are public enemy number one when they’re present, and you should prioritize them before most other targets, especially over lesser skags.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
9 3 Badass Mouth /

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Chubby Skag

These drastically overweight skags could surely stand to rummage through the skag piles for scraps a little bit less often. Their heft gives them staying power, but also slows them down. As long as you keep them at a distance and don’t let them sneak in for a close-range attack, they shouldn’t be a problem.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
10 5 Super Badass Mouth / —

Location: Three Horns, Three Horns Valley, Wildlife Exploitation Preserve, Arid Nexus

Tumbaa

Tumbaa roams the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve with his inter-species stalker buddy, Pimon. There’s a Challenge to unlock for killing both of them within 10 seconds of one another. That’s the opposite of the circle of life. Like most named, unique creatures, these monsters may drop some awesome weapons or gear… if you’re fortunate.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
9 3 Super Badass Mouth / —

Location: Wildlife Exploitation Preserve

Dukino’s Mom

Like the Alpha Skag, this giant armored monstrosity is weak to corrosive ammunition, rather than Fire rounds. This is crucial to success, because this fierce brood mother, not-so-affectionately also known as “Skagzilla,” is an ancient skag with a huge health reservoir.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
70 5 Super Badass Mouth / —

Location: Lynchwood, mission: “Demon Hunter

Boll

This bandit, like Savage Lee of the psychos, is more at home among beast than man. Boll has made peace with the skags in Three Horn, and will not fight them, nor they with him. You are tasked with killing Boll during the mission “In Memoriam,” and a side Challenge involves killing him without harming any of his skags. (This is much easier to do by sniping from the deck of a nearby boat, raised and flash-frozen in old ice!)

Upon death, Boll may drop the legendary Tediore grenade, Fastball.

Health Multiplier Shield Level DMG. Multiplier XP Value Crit. Areas Weak./Res.
13 1 2.5 Super Badass Head / —

Location: Three Horns Divide, mission: “In Memoriam