In the lead up to the release of Borderlands 3, we've been going over all the best skills for every single Vault Hunter. And now, it's only fitting that we save FL4K for last, considering its skill tree took the longest to reveal. FL4K is the Beastmaster of Borderlands 3 and an absolute gem of a design, just take a look at the customizable heads if you don't believe us. Not only that, the three pets look like a blast to use as well, whether its the Jabber, the Spider-Ant, or the Skag. So, let's stop beating around the bush and get to picking!
Disclaimer: this was written before the release of the game, we have not had hands-on with BL3, and these skills might have been changed for the final release.
10 Tier 1 Hunter: Interplanetary Stalker - Know What You're Hunting
The Hunter tree is absolutely the path to go down if a player is looking for some of their more unique skills. And that is made clear right from the get-go with Tier 1 skills like Interplanetary Stalker. This is another stack-based buff that's based on kills, only this time around, the buff is dependant on the enemy, not the player. Basically, If it's a human, FL4K gets a buff to Action Skill Damage, if it's a robot It gets a Corrosive Damage increase, and finally, if it's a beast, FL4K gets more movement speed. That's a lot of different buffs!
9 Tier 1 Stalker: Sic' Em - That's A Good Boy!
One of FL4K's default abilities is that they can command their pets to attack whatever enemy the crosshair is on. It's something that the classes who summon other allies like the Doppelganger or the Mechromancer have always needed. And, to make things even sweeter, the Sic 'Em Skill buffs that Attack Command further. Basically, for only three meager skill points, the player has a 30% quicker cooldown for Action Commands, and they do 30% more damage, which is pretty sizeable.
This works for any of the three pets and Action Skills, and can even be used to attack while in stealth during the Fade Away Action Skill.
8 Tier 1 Master: Persistence Hunter: Boring, But Good
For the most part, a lot of the skills in any Borderlands tree require a bit of explanation. There's a lot of percentages, variables, and potential combinations at play of course. But, for every skill tree, there are 1-3 skills that are just cut and dry, and this is an example from the Master tree. Persistence Hunter is simple, FL4K does 12% more Gun Damage and their Action Skills last 45% longer. That's it. No fluff, just buff. And because it's both so simple and so low on the tree, it should always be grabbed, for almost every build. Plus, it's not even five skill points, only three.
7 Tier 2 Hunter: Hunter's Eye- Seriously, Really Know What You're Hunting
And here we are, right back to the weirdo tree with the odd skills. This time it's Hunter's Eye, and funnily enough, it's as complicated as Planetary Stalker. Essentially it's just another passive buff dependant on the enemy type, but to explain it more clearly, FL4K will do 30% more Armor damage to robots, 15% more Crit damage to humans, and take 22% less damage from beasts. Again, these aren't huge numbers, it's not like it causes 100% more damage to beasts or something. But, it's absolutely useful enough to put points into.
6 Tier 2 Stalker: All My BFF's - FL4K Takes Care Of More Than Just Their Pets
Now to break the illusion a little bit, this is the fourth skill-review we're writing. We've already done one for the other three Vault Hunters Amara, Zane, and Moze. And, in their skill tree's, they all have one or more skills that help out allies as well. And unsurprisingly, FL4K is the same thanks to skills like All My BFF's.
Basically, whatever Health Regen FL4K has, their allies get 50% of that. FL4K's pets, on the other hand, get double that amount, which really just means they have the same Health Regen as FL4K. In any case, on specific builds of FL4K, this can be a pretty sizeable amount of Regen to just give to their allies, while on standard builds, it's still very useful.
5 Tier 2 Master: Who Rescued Who? - Scratch My Back, I'll Scratch Yours
In previous games, characters who used summons would sometimes get a skill that buffed said summons health or shield. And even more sparingly, they would get a skill that gave a copy of their shield to the summon or something similar, but rarely were they given the option to heal them. That's no longer the case thanks to FL4K, who seemingly cares for all of their pets equally. With the skill Who Rescued Who, FL4K's pets are healed for 5% of whatever damage FL4K does, and FL4K gets 2% Health Regen every single time the Pet injures an enemy. It adds a subtle but immensely graceful "ebb and flow" to the Pet system that really goes a long way to make it feel like a pet and owner relationship rather than someone just using a tool.
4 Upper Tier Hunter: Big Game - Both Hunter Skills And Hunter Kill Skills Count
This skill is a bit confusing thanks to some goofy wording on 2K's part. Basically, The Big Game skill buffs any "Hunter Skill" that FL4K currently has equipped. But, FL4K has "Hunter Kill Skills" and just "Hunter Skills". So are both affected? We now know the answer is yes, thanks to some careful research, but they really should have specified that in the skill description.
In any case, there are about six different skills that are buffed by Big Game throughout the three trees, and all of them get a 30% Effect increase and a 100% duration increase thanks to this Tier 4 skill! Just be aware that the effect-increase is not per stack, but on the final percentage.
3 Upper Tier Stalker: The Fast And The Furryous - Stay Healthy, Stay Speedy
We've talked about it before, but movement speed is important to us when playing any Borderlands game. These titles tend to involve a lot of running back and forth and we'd like to do that part as quickly as possible. But, more than that, this skill is just an overall buff to Gun Damage, which is always helpful. This is another one of those skills that doesn't require much explanation and just works, but basically, just keep FL4K above have health, thats it. If they're healthy, they'll run faster and do more damage. Simple as that. Now get running!
2 Upper Tier Master: Pack Tactics - Another Boring But Amazing Skill
It's a bit of a shame, but the best skills we've found for FL4K aren't all that exciting. Thankfully, FL4K's base abilities are exciting enough on their own. Sure, we could've talked about Two F4NG from the Hunter Tree, but that only gives FL4K a 25% chance to fire two bullets in every shot, the percentage is just too low. Pack Tactics, on the other hand, that's a nice skill. Both FL4K and their pet get 15% higher Max Health as well as a 15% buff to their overall damage. What's not to love? No dice-rolling, just better damage, and tankier characters. 15% max health isn't all that much but a 15% buff to damage is absolutely something to write home about.
1 Top Tier Winner: Hunter Tree's Megavore - It Just Barely Won
Tier 6. These are the skills people throw all their points at just to unlock, so after all that, which is the best of the three? Honestly, it's hard to say, more than any other character, FL4K's Tier 6 skills are highly dependant on the build. Megavore might just have edged out as the winner, but not by much. Basically, it gives FL4K a chance to crit no matter where their shots hit. The Power Inside, on the other hand, gives FL4K and their pet a pretty hefty damage buff every time they activate an action skill. Lastly, Dominance seems like the most fun, as it converts an enemy into an ally for a certain duration, all while causing them to lose health over time. At the end of the day, they're all highly individual so players should just pick what fits their build best!