Gaige — Borderlands 2 Game of the Year eGuide

AS THE MECHROMANCER

To you, the phrase “science fair mishap” probably conjures up an image of, say, putting too much baking soda in a replica volcano. But no high school student on Eden-5 will forget the day Gaige’s “mechanized anti-bully deterrent” eviscerated a science fair rival who got a little shove-happy. Forced to beat a hasty retreat from the law, the young roboticist took her creation and hopped the first flight to Pandora. Gaige still remains bitter over her third place science fair finish, but luckily for her, Pandora is just the sort of place where a state-of-the-art killing machine can earn a young lady some respect.

Action Skill: SUMMON DEATHTRAP

The D374-TP “Deathtrap” robot is Gaige’s pride and joy, and for good reason. This isn’t some automated turret that just sits there, or some silly bird that makes one quick pass of the battlefield; Deathtrap is an intelligent, self-sufficient killing machine that actively seeks out and murders any potential threat to its master. Its claws are its preferred mode of attack, since they can shred most foes in short order. However, it also has an electrified beam that can hit distant and aerial targets with near-perfect accuracy, making it a particularly valuable ally when dealing with swarms of flying foes. Gaige has a variety of skills that can give Deathtrap additional attacks, which enhance the damage of his shock beam and melee. Explosive Clap, which gives Deathtrap an area-of-effect explosive attack, and Robot Rampage, which turns its melee attacks into multi-hit combos, are both solid upgrades. But One Two Boom is hard to use effectively (the orb is very difficult to hit), and The Stare isn’t much better than its default ranged attack.

Once summoned, Deathtrap sticks around for 60 seconds, or until enemy attacks destroy it. The Summon Deathtrap Action Skill has a lengthy 60-second cooldown, but that can be reduced with skills and Relics. Unfortunately, there is no way to recall Deathtrap once a battle is over, so you’ll just have to wait out the clock. Since Deathtrap is so aggressive about seeking out foes (usually attacking them in order of their proximity to Gaige), it tends to attract most of the enemy fire, making it as useful on defense as it is on offense. Deathtrap is also a nice insurance policy when fighting for your life; its kills will give you a Second Wind whether you get a shot in or not.

If you’re fighting alongside Deathtrap, it’s pretty rare that your foes manage to destroy it, so you’ll usually get the full 60 seconds of support. But if you’re letting Deathtrap do all the dirty work while you hide behind cover, or you are fighting particularly difficult foes, it may expire prematurely. This can be a problem if you’re using the Upshot Robot skill to keep Deathtrap around indefinitely (Upshot Robot gives the bot five additional seconds of deployment for each enemy killed). If your plan of attack involves heavy use of Deathtrap, you’ll want to dig deep into the Best Friends Forever skill tree to protect your robot buddy with skills like Potent as a Pony, Made of Sterner Stuff, and Sharing is Caring.

Best Friends Forever

Do you enjoy not dying? Would you prefer to have Deathtrap watching your back pretty much all the time, cooldowns be damned? If you answered “yes” to either of these questions, you may well be Best Friends Forever material. This skill tree provides a variety of defensive upgrades, a skill that lets you keep Deathtrap active for as long as you’re able to keep dropping foes, and several skills that help make Deathtrap nearly indestructible. Yeah, fellow Mechromancers may snort derisively at your tepid damage-dealing potential, but you can always respond: “Oh yeah, buddy? How much damage-per-second are you dishing out when you’re stone-cold dead?” Then you and Deathtrap can share a laugh and walk off triumphantly toward the sunset, your friendship bracelets glittering brightly in the dying light.

Gamechanger: Upshot Robot

Upshot Robot is the sweet, juicy heart at the center of the BFF skill tree. For only a single skill point, you’ll be able to keep Deathtrap around somewhat indefinitely when you’re battling lengthy waves of normal foes—the sort of battle where Deathtrap is most useful. (After all, if the two of you can’t successfully kill an enemy every five seconds, then you’re doing something really, really wrong.) As an added bonus, each kill boosts the melee power of both Gaige and Deathtrap, making your ‘bot even deadlier the longer it sticks around. The only catch is that the longer Deathtrap stays deployed, the more damage it accumulates, and suddenly, its lengthy life bar won’t seem so ample after all. Keep Deathtrap alive by continuing to climb the friendship tree for skills like Potent as a Pony and Sharing is Caring.

TIER 1

Close Enough

Your bullets that hit walls or other objects have a chance to ricochet off toward a nearby enemy. Ricocheted bullets deal reduced damage.

LEVEL 1	Bullet Ricochet Chance: +10%, Ricocheted Bullet Damage: -50%
LEVEL 2	Bullet Ricochet Chance: +20%, Ricocheted Bullet Damage: -50%
LEVEL 3	Bullet Ricochet Chance: +30%, Ricocheted Bullet Damage: -50%
LEVEL 4	Bullet Ricochet Chance: +40%, Ricocheted Bullet Damage: -50%
LEVEL 5	Bullet Ricochet Chance: +50%, Ricocheted Bullet Damage: -50%

Cooking Up Trouble

While your gun’s magazine is full, you regenerate Health.

LEVEL 1	Regenerate 0.4% of your Maximum Health per second.
LEVEL 2	Regenerate 0.8% of your Maximum Health per second.
LEVEL 3	Regenerate 1.2% of your Maximum Health per second.
LEVEL 4	Regenerate 1.6% of your Maximum Health per second.
LEVEL 5	Regenerate 2.0% of your Maximum Health per second.

TIER 2

Fancy Mathematics

Improves Shield Recharge Delay and Shield Recharge Rate based on how low your Health is. The lower your Health, the greater the bonuses.

LEVEL 1	Shield Recharge Delay: up to -14%, Shield Recharge Rate: up to +12%
LEVEL 2	Shield Recharge Delay: up to -28%, Shield Recharge Rate: up to +24%
LEVEL 3	Shield Recharge Delay: up to -42%, Shield Recharge Rate: up to +36%
LEVEL 4	Shield Recharge Delay: up to -56%, Shield Recharge Rate: up to +48%
LEVEL 5	Shield Recharge Delay: up to -70%, Shield Recharge Rate: up to +60%

Buck Up

Deathtrap Ability. Deathtrap restores the Shields of one ally.

LEVEL 1

Deathtrap restores 30% of one ally’s shield.

The Better Half

When your magazine is half empty, you gain a Fire Rate bonus.

LEVEL 1	Fire Rate: +12%
LEVEL 2	Fire Rate: +24%
LEVEL 3	Fire Rate: +36%
LEVEL 4	Fire Rate: +48%
LEVEL 5	Fire Rate: +60%

TIER 3

Potent as a Pony

Increases Maximum Health for you and Deathtrap.

LEVEL 1	Max Health: +4%, Deathtrap Max Health: +2%
LEVEL 2	Max Health: +8%, Deathtrap Max Health: +4%
LEVEL 3	Max Health: +12%, Deathtrap Max Health: +6%
LEVEL 4	Max Health: +16%, Deathtrap Max Health: +8%
LEVEL 5	Max Health: +20%, Deathtrap Max Health: +10%

Upshot Robot

While Deathtrap is active, if you or Deathtrap kill an enemy, it increases Deathtrap’s Duration and grants both of you a stackable Melee Damage bonus. Bonuses are lost when Deathtrap goes away.

LEVEL 1

Killing an enemy adds 5 seconds to Deathtrap’s Duration. +4% Melee Damage per stack.

Unstoppable Force

Kill Skill. Killing an enemy grants you bonus Movement Speed and causes your Shield to regenerate for a short while.

LEVEL 1	Movement Speed: +7%, Regenerate 0.8% of your Shield Capacity every second.
LEVEL 2	Movement Speed: +14%, Regenerate 1.6% of your Shield Capacity every second.
LEVEL 3	Movement Speed: +21%, Regenerate 2.4% of your Shield Capacity every second.
LEVEL 4	Movement Speed: +28%, Regenerate 3.2% of your Shield Capacity every second.
LEVEL 5	Movement Speed: +35%, Regenerate 4.0% of your Shield Capacity every second.

TIER 4

Explosive Clap

Deathtrap Ability. Deathtrap causes an explosion in front of itself, dealing Explosive Damage to all nearby enemies.

LEVEL 1

This clap traps your soul!…er…explodes your body…whatever.

Made of Sterner Stuff

You and Deathtrap gain Damage Reduction against all damage types. Additionally, Deathtrap gains bonus Melee Damage.

LEVEL 1	Damage Reduction: +1%, Deathtrap Melee Damage: +3%
LEVEL 2	Damage Reduction: +2%, Deathtrap Melee Damage: +6%
LEVEL 3	Damage Reduction: +3%, Deathtrap Melee Damage: +9%
LEVEL 4	Damage Reduction: +4%, Deathtrap Melee Damage: +12%
LEVEL 5	Damage Reduction: +5%, Deathtrap Melee Damage: +15%

TIER 5

20% Cooler

Increases the Cooldown Rate of your Action Skill.

LEVEL 1	Action Skill Cooldown Rate: +6%
LEVEL 2	Action Skill Cooldown Rate: +12%
LEVEL 3	Action Skill Cooldown Rate: +18%
LEVEL 4	Action Skill Cooldown Rate: +24%
LEVEL 5	Action Skill Cooldown Rate: +30%

TIER 6

Sharing is Caring

Grants a copy of your Shield to Deathtrap.

LEVEL 1

“Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened.”

Little Big Trouble

This skill tree revolves entirely around elemental damage and effects, particularly shock and electrocution. Skills like Shock Storm, Shock and “AAAGGGGHHH!”, and The Stare provide new ways of sticking foes with debilitating effects, whereas skills like Wires Don’t Talk and Evil Enchantress crank up the damage dealt by elemental effects significantly.

There’s a lot of long-term power in the skill tree, but it has very little to offer early in the game, as its tier 1 skills do almost nothing. (More Pep might look good, but it’s multiplicative, not additive. In other words, if your weapon has a base 10% chance of igniting a foe, one level in this skill increases that chance to a mere 10.2%, not 12%.) Beginners who hope to pursue Little Big Trouble should cut their teeth on the Best Friends Forever tree and perform a respec once they’ve cobbled together at least 22 skill points. That’s just enough to pick up the first level of Interspersed Outburst, which finally makes this tree comparable in power to the other two.

Gamechanger: Interspersed Outburst

If you’re a tactical player who prefers long-range weaponry and careful aiming to hold-down-the-trigger run-and-gunning, a single skill point in Interspersed Outburst will straight-up double your damage-dealing potential. Every two seconds you spend not killing a foe earns you a stack, and you’ll earn the max five stacks in less than 10 seconds. When you do hit an enemy, all your stacks are converted into additional damage and a chance to inflict slag. With a full five stacks, your shots are deadlier than Critical Hits, and the damage from even a single stack is significant. Obviously, this makes your first shot of each battle a killer, but even in the midst of a battle, earning stacks hardly requires a serious commitment to pacifism: the stacks pile up as you reload, aim, miss shots, etc. Oddly, you’ll be doing the same amount of damage at level 5 of Interspersed Outburst as you are at level 1; the only benefit from leveling up is that your odds of inflicting slag increase. (But needless to say, the ability to inflict slag and follow it up with a volley of elementally charged shots—without ever switching weapons—is pretty awesome, too.)