Summary
- Krieg is a melee master with a split personality, adding depth and interest to the iconic Borderlands franchise.
- Mr. Torgue brings explosive action and humor with every all-caps line, making him a standout character in the series.
- Lilith, the powerful Siren superhero, embodies courage and heroism as she leads the fight to save Sanctuary.
The Borderlands series is still going strong, and as players await the potential of a Borderlands 4, it’s time to look back at some of the characters that made the series so iconic. Borderlands is a wild franchise, and as players immerse themselves in Pandora and beyond, they’re going to come across a few faces, who exhibit hilarity, charm, or a killer personality.
Borderlands: Most Fun Characters To Play As
The Borderlands series features a multitude of powerful and hilarious characters that offer unique skill sets to players seeking a grand time.
The Borderlands series hasn’t shied away from its characters, and whether some find them annoying or simply too much, there are those who utterly adore them. The gateway for the best Borderlands characters has never been clearer, and there are some obvious choices that demand the respect they deserve.
10 Face McShooty
The Psycho Who Just Wants to be Shot in the Face
Face McShooty is a simple character who doesn’t actually do all that much, but he has certainly left a strong impression in the community. Face McShooty was taken from fans all too soon, but that was his dying wish. The entire goal of Face McShooty is to get someone to shoot him in the face. It’s a side mission for a non-hostile psycho that sees little reward, but maximum hilarity.
Face McShooty embodies the very best of the bandits and psychos of Pandora, and it seems he doesn’t exactly crave death, but instead a bullet to the face because it makes him feel good. It’s a totally bizarre quest and an even more bizarre character that has one goal, a few lines, but strong impressions.
9 Krieg
A Psycho With a Heart of Gold
- Featured in: Borderlands 2, Borderlands 3
The first playable psycho in the series, Krieg excels at melee combat, and juggling two distinct personalities inside his head. Krieg is one of the more interesting characters in Borderlands, so much so that there was an entire DLC dedicated to his mental state in Borderlands 3. Krieg is a psycho, but one whose moral compass revolves around his more sane side, it's just that his words are lost in translation due to insanity.
Krieg’s depth of character makes him a great one, as he’s not just the standard psycho who wields a buzz axe and tries to kill everything. He only kills those who deserve to be killed, and whilst he’s not a poet, he has the heart of one, and will frequently do the right thing to impress the woman he loves.
8 Mister Torgue
ALL CAPS AND ALL BADASS
- Featured in: Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, New Tales from the Borderlands
The Borderlands series doesn’t stand down when it comes to being loud and filled with explosives, which is why Mr. Torgue is the perfect catalyst for the franchise. Mister Torgue is incredible for the series. He’s absolutely hilarious, and it’ll be hard to find a single line of dialogue that isn’t spoken with all caps activated.
Mr. Torgue isn’t just the proud creator of the Torgue weapons, but he also has terrifying arenas where champions can battle it out to be the number one badass with the number one badassitude. Torgue’s desire for action and coolness is second to none, and it shows in his muscles and the words in his mouth.
7 Tiny Tina
An Explosive Personality With an Equally Explosive Kill Count
- Featured in: Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
Tina is a character that has evolved since her introduction to Borderlands 2. Whilst her personality has remained relatively the same, she’s grown up, and could potentially be a Vault Hunter someday. Tina has strong first impressions of the series, and her literal explosive introduction is just a taste of what is to come.
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The best NPCs in Borderlands deserve their chance to become playable Vault Hunters so players can further enjoy their dialogue, backstory, and skills.
Tina is excitable, hilarious, and dangerously addicted to crumpets. The only thing she loves more than crumpets and tea parties is explosives, and she makes that abundantly clear with the amount of explosives that she sets up to take care of bandits and other foes that would otherwise hurt her and her friends.
6 Athena
A Retired Bounty Hunter, and Former Assassin
- Featured in: Borderlands, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Tales from the Borderlands
A former Crimson Lance who was trained to be an assassin since she was a child, Athena already has the cool tragic backstory and the badass experience to become one of the best, which is exactly why she is here. Athena has been involved in the background since the first Borderlands game and as a playable character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, her legacy only grows.
Athena is a feared bounty hunter across Pandora, and even out of retirement, she has the skills that everyone should watch out for. She’s a calculating mercenary who deserves credit where it's due, and it would be nice to see her marriage with Janey Springs.
5 Scooter
The Heroic Mechanic Who Owns Catch-A-Ride
- Featured in: Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Tales from the Borderlands
There’s no mechanic more hard-working and kind than Scooter, the man behind the iconic Catch-A-Ride stations that are found around Pandora. Scooter’s laid-back personality and often oblivious nature shouldn’t discourage people from investing in him, as his talents as a mechanic speak for themselves when he makes Sanctuary fly.
Scooter was a good friend to the Vault Hunters, and his loyalty to them is second to none. Whilst Scooter may have heroically sacrificed himself, his spirit lives on thanks to his sister, Ellie, and his mother, Moxxi, who both have fragments of Scooter’s personality to make it clear that this was an impressionable friend that everyone needs.
4 Mad Moxxi
The Flirtatious Hostess With Many Children, Husbands, and Murders
- Featured in: Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Tales from the Borderlands, Borderlands 3
A character that seemingly has her fingers in every pie, Mad Moxxi is the proud owner and bartender of seemingly every establishment in Pandora, and beyond. Moxxi has had just as many business ventures as she has had husbands, and it seems that her past is always coming back to bite her where she doesn’t want to be bitten.
Moxxi is a kind person, and despite her sadistic and lustful personality, she will often do the right thing for the people who are close to her, so long as she gets something out of it. Moxxi won’t shy away from a fight or a flirt, and her actions speak equally to her looks.
3 Handsome Jack
A Cocky Villain Who Wants to Genocide Pandora Whilst Eating Pretzels
- Featured in: Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Tales from the Borderlands
Arguably one of the best villains in gaming, Handsome Jack made his mark the moment he started bragging about eating pretzels and naming a pony made of literal diamonds Butt Stallion. Handsome Jack’s journey as the antagonist throughout Borderlands 2 made him truly iconic, but it was his story in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel that made his motives somewhat understandable, even if he is entirely unethical and brutal.
Handsome Jack is vicious and demanding, but his toxic humor always helps him keep his cool. It’s hard not to laugh alongside Handsome Jack, even when he is literally paying players to kill themselves. His constant harassment of Vault Hunters and his grand plans make him someone worth remembering, even as a cautionary tale of Pandora’s corruption.
2 Lilith
The Iconic Siren Superhero
- Featured in: Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Borderlands 3
One of the first Sirens seen in the Borderlands series, Lilith became one of its most iconic, and strongest. Lilith might have once been a humble Vault Hunter, but she’s become a leader and a hero as she seeks to save the people of Sanctuary.
Thanks to the element of Eridium, Lilith can enhance her Siren abilities to save those who deserve it. Lilith is righteous and heroic, and she will always put others above herself, even if she does like to indulge in the Firehawk cult killing in her name for a moment or two.
1 Claptrap
The Hilariously Annoying Robot Who is the Last of His Kind
- Featured in: Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, Tales from the Borderlands, Borderlands 3, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands
CL4P-TP is the last Hyperion general-purpose robot, and one that continues the legacy, by smashing it into the ground. Claptrap is painfully annoying to everyone he comes across, and every character in-game seems to hate his mechanical guts, but that’s what makes him so charming. Claptrap is a brilliant character, one who is equally hilarious as he is frustrating to listen to.
Claptrap likes to think of himself as the epitome of cool, but really he’s just lonely and cowardly, and his greatest nemesis of stairs will always see his bravery diminish. Claptrap is a loyal bot who might demand an army of minions, but he is going to have to settle with begrudging friends instead.
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Robots are common and quirky in the Borderlands series, providing the games with some iconic personalities within machines.