Sirens are one of the most interesting aspects of the Borderlands universe, with Gearbox establishing very specific rules for these characters. Only six Sirens can be active at one time, for instance, with each of these Sirens boasting a distinct ability. Once a Siren dies, their power is passed on to a new woman within the Borderlands franchise.
Tyreen Calypso’s death in Borderlands 3 means that her Phaseleech abilities will have been given to a new character. While this Phaseleech-wielding Siren could serve as another villain, as Phaseleech is easily the darkest of the Siren powers, it would be interesting to see them become a Vault Hunter. If Gearbox ever wants to put Phaseleech in the hands of players, then Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands will be the perfect blueprint to follow due to its Graveborn class.
What a Phaseleech Siren Class Could Take From Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands’ Graveborn
The Graveborn class in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is built entirely around Dark Magic, a new damage type that allows players to leech health from their enemies. There is a risk-reward aspect to the Graveborn’s action skills, as they lose health when using either ability. However, these abilities can be extremely powerful, making the tradeoff worthwhile.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands players that choose the Graveborn can use the ability Dire Sacrifice, which sees them sacrifice a chunk of their health to damage all enemies around them and apply the dark magic status effect to any nearby foes. This could easily be repurposed as a Phaseleech Siren action skill, though perhaps it makes husks out of enemies caught in the blast as opposed to just draining them of their health. The husks left by Tyreen were interesting, so giving gamers the option to make them could be a lot of fun.
The Graveborn’s other ability, Reaper of Bones, provides more Dark Magic damage and leech efficiency at the cost of losing health while the skill is active. This is another ability that would translate well to a Phaseleech Siren, allowing her to enter a buffed state where she can charge up her weapons with some health-draining abilities. Obviously, Dark Magic would not fit into the more grounded Borderlands universe, but making it a Siren-exclusive ability is something that could work. With the Reaper of Bones-equivalent active, the Phaseleech Siren could swap a weapon’s elemental damage with a health-stealing effect.
The Dark Hydras of the Graveborn are another possibility for a Phaseleech Siren, with the kill skill only needing a slight rework to feature something a Thresher instead. From there, Gearbox could experiment with other action skills to make this hypothetical Vault Hunter as fleshed out as those seen in Borderlands 3. One could see the Siren sending out a beam to quickly drain an enemy’s health, and when upgraded, the beam could chain to other nearby foes - draining an entire group of their health at the same time. Being able to share that healing with allies is another possibility.
While it remains to be seen when (or if) Phaseleech will appear in Borderlands again, the series has done a good job of bringing back Siren abilities thus far. With Maya’s Phaselock passed on to Ava and Angel’s Phaseshift going to Tannis, fans could see another character getting Phaseleech eventually. With the Graveborn being so enjoyable to play as in Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, introducing a Siren that has some similar functionality would be exciting. Obviously, there is nothing to suggest that this will happen, but the Graveborn proves that a Phaseleech Siren could work very well as a playable character.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.