Skill trees in Borderlands 2 unveiled

With the release date for Gearbox’s highly anticipated role playing shooter Borderlands 2 inching closer, Gearbox has now set up a calculator for the skill trees available in the game for all the classes.

The skill tree calculator shows the skill trees for Axton the Commando, Zer0 the Assassin, Salvador the Gunzerker and Maya the Siren. The skill trees show a great variety in the abilities that are available to players, with each character having three skill trees. It is possible to have a character as varied as a Siren who causes explosions when she uses her phaselock ability on enemies, and heals her team mates if she shoots them with her gun.

Some of the skills for Maya in Borderlands 2

Earlier this month, Gearbox released a trailer for Borderlands 2 that introduces you to the changes between the first and second games, along with helpful hints help you in becoming more badass. The trailer is narrated by Sir Hammerlock, who gives an introductory tour of Borderlands 2 as only he can. The trailer shows many details about the game, such as the name of the Big Bad of the game, Handsome Jack. The trailer also points out how much of a badass you are. It shows how you can become more badass by levelling up your character, getting new and interesting weapons out of the 87 bazillion the game has, and how you can attain new levels of badassery by getting things such as relics and class mods, which change how certain skills of your character work.

The trailer also gives information about the four classes in the game – the Gunzerker, the Siren, the Commando and the Assassin. The Gunzerker, named Salvador, is a brute force master of mayhem that has the ability to enter a berserk rampage armed with a two-handed gun in each hand. The Siren, named Maya, is a woman with the ability to Phaselock her enemies and control the flow of battle. The Commando, named Axton, is a general combat proficient character with the ability to deploy an automated turret. The Assassin, named Zer0, is a mysterious individual equipped for deadly precision attacks and has the ability to deploy a decoy and fade from sight.

The game had recently gone gold. The developers of the game are now working on downloadable content (DLC) of which there will be four. The planned DLCs will be decently sized campaign add-ons with new stories and environments. The developers also mentioned a Season Pass for Borderlands 2 that may be available later and will include all four add-on campaigns. The Season Pass will be priced at 2400 Microsoft Points for the Xbox 360 and $29.99 on the PC and PlayStation 3. This would mean that buying the Season Pass will net you a 25 percent discount over buying each add-on campaign individually.

Borderlands 2 will be released for the Xbox 360, the PlayStation 3 and the PC on September 18, 2012. The DLC add-on campaigns for the game will be available on Xbox LIVE Arcade, Steam and PlayStation Network.