Salvador — Borderlands 2 Game of the Year eGuide

AS THE GUNZERKER

Salvador likes guns. Like, a lot. Imagine how much a regular person might like guns. Then, like, quadruple that, then double it, then quadruple it again just for the hell of it. That is how much Salvador likes guns. A native of Pandora, Salvador has his own reasons for finding the Vault—specifically, that he really likes loot and killing big-ass monsters. He may not be the classiest guy around, but you’ll undoubtedly want him on your team when things get messy.

Action Skill: GUNZERKING

Salvador takes Brick’s lead berserking to a whole new level. Instead of coming in both fists flying, Salvador’s Gunzerking Action Skill has him haul out a second gun for some double-fisted bullet hell madness! Any two firearms can be used together, which leads to lots of interesting combinations. You could have one Slag weapon and one Fire or Corrosive weapon, depending on the main weakness of the enemies in your area. You might use Hyperion SMGs for their stabilization, or Bandit pistols for their bottomless magazines. You might use dual Torgue shotguns for maximum KABOOM! When swapping between weapons during Gunzerking, you’ll swap in pairs—the first pair, and the second pair. Though this won’t be exactly relevant until you’ve upgraded your Storage Deck to equip four weapons simultaneously.

Upon activation of Gunzerking, up to 50% of your Maximum Health is replenished, if any was missing. Salvador also gains moderate damage reduction and begins slowly regenerating ammunition. Gunzerking lasts a while, like Axton’s Sabre Turret, but it has the same lengthy 42-second cooldown to match. You can increase Gunzerking duration with the Last Longer and Yippee Ki Yay skills in the Rampage tree and decrease its cooldown with I’m Ready Already. With the right overlap of these and enough targets to keep scoring Yippee Ki Yay, you can end up Gunzerking constantly in some battles.

Most skills centered on altering Gunzerking do so by modifying the damage you’ll do somehow, or with certain weapons. But the Come At Me Bro capstone skill works differently, allowing you to use Salvador’s Gunzerking as an aggro and tanking centerpiece.

Gun Lust

This tree allows Salvador to constantly swap weapons, ditching empties for fully reloaded offhand weapons rather than bothering much with actually reloading. Pistol enthusiasts can stack I’m Your Huckleberry and Divergent Likeness while packing a Backpack full of small arms for huge stacking bonuses to pistol shots—don’t ever reload pistols; just score kills, then swap to a different pair of sidearms. The capstone skill No Kill Like Overkill also tends to work well with pistols and revolvers, as these weapons often have higher damage for individual shots than submachine guns, assault rifles, and shotguns, so they’re more likely to Overkill meaningfully. Down Not Out provides situational survivability, and there are general gunplay enhancements here you might be interested in even if the Gun Lust tree isn’t completely your bag.

TIER 1

Locked and Loaded

Reloading your gun gives you a Fire Rate bonus for a short time.

Level 1	Fire Rate: +5%
Level 2	Fire Rate: +10%
Level 3	Fire Rate: +15%
Level 4	Fire Rate: +20%
Level 5	Fire Rate: +25%

Quick Draw

Increases Weapon Swap Speed and Critical Hit Damage with all gun types.

Level 1	Weapon Swap Speed: +7%, Critical Hit Damage: +2%
Level 2	Weapon Swap Speed: +14%, Critical Hit Damage: +4%
Level 3	Weapon Swap Speed: +21%, Critical Hit Damage: +6%
Level 4	Weapon Swap Speed: +28%, Critical Hit Damage: +8%
Level 5	Weapon Swap Speed: +35%, Critical Hit Damage: +10%

TIER 2

I’m your Huckleberry

Increases Damage and Reload Speed with pistols.

Level 1	Pistol Damage: +3%, Pistol Reload Speed: +3%
Level 2	Pistol Damage: +6%, Pistol Reload Speed: +6%
Level 3	Pistol Damage: +9%, Pistol Reload Speed: +9%
Level 4	Pistol Damage: +12%, Pistol Reload Speed: +12%
Level 5	Pistol Damage: +15%, Pistol Reload Speed: +15%

All I Need is One

Swapping weapons causes your next shot fired to deal Bonus Damage.

Level 1	Gun Damage: +8%
Level 2	Gun Damage: +16%
Level 3	Gun Damage: +24%
Level 4	Gun Damage: +32%
Level 5	Gun Damage: +40%

TIER 3

Divergent Likeness

When Gunzerking with two guns of the same type, you deal Bonus Damage. When Gunzerking with two different types of guns, you gain Bonus Accuracy.

Level 1	Gun Damage: +6%, Accuracy: +6%
Level 2	Gun Damage: +12%, Accuracy: +12%
Level 3	Gun Damage: +18%, Accuracy: +18%
Level 4	Gun Damage: +24%, Accuracy: +24%
Level 5	Gun Damage: +30%, Accuracy: +30%

Auto-Loader

Killing an enemy instantly reloads all of the guns that you have equipped that are not currently in your hands. Swapping guns after Auto-Loader has reloaded a gun triggers Locked & Loaded.

Level 1

Reloading is for chumps!

Money Shot

The last round fired from your magazine gains massive Bonus Damage. Guns with small magazines receive a smaller bonus. This skill works with all weapon types.

Level 1	Last round in your magazine deals up to +80% damage. Minimum Magazine Size for full bonus: 10
Level 2	Last round in your magazine deals up to +160% damage. Minimum Magazine Size for full bonus: 10
Level 3	Last round in your magazine deals up to +240% damage. Minimum Magazine Size for full bonus: 10
Level 4	Last round in your magazine deals up to +320% damage. Minimum Magazine Size for full bonus: 10
Level 5	Last round in your magazine deals up to +400% damage. Minimum Magazine Size for full bonus: 10

TIER 4

Lay Waste

Kill skill. Killing an enemy gives you increased Fire Rate and Critical Hit Damage with all guns for a short while.

Level 1	Fire Rate: +8%, Gun Critical Hit Damage: +5%
Level 2	Fire Rate: +16%, Gun Critical Hit Damage: +10%
Level 3	Fire Rate: +24%, Gun Critical Hit Damage: +15%
Level 4	Fire Rate: +32%, Gun Critical Hit Damage: +20%
Level 5	Fire Rate: +40%, Gun Critical Hit Damage: +25%

Down Not Out

You can Gunzerk while in Fight For Your Life.

Level 1

“Dying is no excuse to stop fighting.”

TIER 5

Keep It Piping Hot

While Gunzerking is in the process of cooling down, you gain bonus Gun Damage, Melee Damage, and Grenade Damage.

Level 1	Gun Damage: +5%, Melee Damage: +6%, Grenade Damage: +5%
Level 2	Gun Damage: +10%, Melee Damage: +12%, Grenade Damage: +10%
Level 3	Gun Damage: +15%, Melee Damage: +18%, Grenade Damage: +15%
Level 4	Gun Damage: +20%, Melee Damage: +24%, Grenade Damage: +20%
Level 5	Gun Damage: +25%, Melee Damage: +30%, Grenade Damage: +25%

TIER 6

No Kill like Overkill

When you kill an enemy, you gain a bonus to Gun Damage equal to the amount of excess damage you dealt to the foe you just killed.

Level 1

“I’m looking for a really big gun that holds a lot of bullets.”

Rampage

This tree exists to provide ammo replenishment and rate of fire bonuses to Gunzerking itself, the arms-akimbo Action Skill. This tree is about filling the air with nothing but lead. Several early skills here tip this off right away, this preciousness of ammo in a tree mostly constructed for non-stop firing. Last Longer, I’m Ready Already, Yippee Ki Yay, and Get Some all contribute to keep the downtime of Gunzerking low or non-existent. The capper, Keep Firing…, acquits itself well for delivering insane rate of fire performance for being a straightforward one-skill-wonder.