Strongest Borderlands Characters, According To The Lore

The universe of Borderlands is plagued by corporate greed and insane quests for ultimate power. Vault Hunters constantly try to find the ancient relics left behind by mysterious creatures who evade comprehension and powerful villains who wield terrifying powers that bring the residents of Pandora into line.

Among this chaotic rabble, a select few characters shine through as immensely powerful. Whether as playable characters who make the whole game feel like a breeze or through lore-shaking story beats, these characters steal the spotlight and come out looking like the bravest and boldest in the whole known universe. According to the lore, these are the strongest characters in Borderlands.

Updated October 24th, 2024, by Connor Hogg: While playable Vault Hunters and villains do deserve a spot on this list, the scope of the Borderlands universe means that there will always be more powerful characters out there. Raid bosses and NPCs also deserve spots on the list, and ancient history revealed in the lore gives fans details on some staggeringly strong sirens who take the cake as the strongest in Gearbox's wild, weird Borderlands universe.

10 Athena

An Ex-Assassin Vault Hunter

Making her first appearance as an unlikely ally in the Borderlands DLC, The Secret Armory Of General Knoxx, Athena worked as the leader of a squad of assassins for the Crimson Lance. The Lance was a private militia, paid for and trained by the Atlas corporation. Rising to the top of the ranks and becoming one of their best operatives already sets her well ahead of most of the marauders on Pandora, but Athena was tricked into killing her lost sister and turned against the evil organization, teaming with the Vault Hunters in the first game to take down the general from the DLC.

She makes a debut as a playable character in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, where she utilizes a shield and her incredible capability in combat to tear through enemies as one of the most powerful options in that game.

9 Amara

A Siren With Style

With a backstory as a vigilante on her home planet, Amara is in good company with the other Sirens. Each of these characters has a powerful psychic ability that can warp the world and wreak havoc with huge effects. Amara herself commands giant fists that can burst into enemies for massive damage, and she can even astrally project herself short distances and cut through hordes of foes in front of her.

Every Siren has only grown in power during their time off-screen, and while Amara was already one of the more powerful options for players in Borderlands 3, she can only improve, making her a likely contender for an even higher spot when a new game in the series releases.

8 Krieg

A Friendly Psycho Who Is Almost Impossible To Take Down

Available as a DLC character in Borderlands 2, Krieg is a lovable lunatic. After players have mowed down countless numbers of psycho enemies, becoming Krieg can be unusual, especially since fans will be subjected to his incomprehensible rambling and crazed screams. He was experimented on but managed to escape, and a fragment of his sanity remains to ensure he only attacks those who deserve it, allowing him to protect his friends.

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In combat, Krieg wields a huge Buzz-Saw Axe, which can either be swung like a melee weapon or thrown for huge damage. Krieg himself is nearly impossible to down, with abilities that have him rushing into enemies and detonating himself or even breathing fire. His lack of any self-preservation serves him well in his vault-hunting adventures.

7 Maya

A Siren With Incredible Supernatural Powers

• First Appearance: Borderlands 2

Another Siren to add to the list of powerful Borderlands characters, Maya is a playable character in Borderlands 2, who returns in the third installment as a very impactful character in the story. She was used as a threatening weapon of mass destruction by the religious order that trained her and escaped to find her fortune (and possibly the origins of her strange powers) on Pandora.

Her Siren power, Phaselock, allows her to hold her enemies in another dimension, and if players build her right, these enemies take more damage, explode, or even cause nearby foes to fire on their allies. Her supernatural powers make her a force to be reckoned with, and Borderlands 3 sees Maya training a new successor who will gain her Siren powers before her untimely death.

6 Salvador

The Dual Wielding Expert

• First Appearance: Borderlands 2

Touted by many to be the easy mode in Borderlands 2, Salvador is undeniably awesome. The short, muscled man can wield any two guns at once, meaning that he can fire off rocket launchers and snipers at once if he chooses.

With a bevvy of skills that make him impossible to kill while he is 'Gunzerking,' Salvador can have a terrifying damage output that many fans consider to be overpowered when compared to any of the other characters in his party. With a love for excessive violence and a list of crimes that includes cannibalism and public indecency, players should be glad that Salvador is on their side.

5 The Calypso Twins

Conjoined Twins With Double The Power

• First Appearance: Borderlands 3

A pair of Sirens who were born as conjoined twins pose the ultimate threat in Borderlands 3. Tyreen and Troy Calypso both have access to the extra-dimensional abilities of Sirenkind, and their powers let them drain their enemies, usually resulting in their deaths. They even managed to drain Lilith of her Siren abilities, although she survived.

Given that they can acquire more powers and that they share a supernatural bond, the twins are immensely powerful together; Tyreen alone managed to fuse herself with the Destroyer to become an all-powerful monster.

4 Lilith

A Powerful Character With Access To A Great Action Skill

• First Appearance: Borderlands

Lilith has featured in every single mainline Borderlands game. In the first installment, she is the playable siren, who uses her Phasewalk power to vanish from sight, travel a short distance, and then explode back into reality to deal damage to enemies around her. By the second game, Lilith has become a much more potent Siren. She can travel much further distances and even bring characters with her when she teleports.

Her powers seem to have no limit so long as she can use Eridium as fuel, and she inherits command of the Crimson Raiders and leadership of Sanctuary to become a skilled tactical presence, too. Her wanted poster lists 'Witchcraft' as one of her crimes, and she manages to start a cult only by showing off her flaming abilities. Although she claims her powers come from her good looks, fans can expect to see more background on the Sirens in the next release from Gearbox.

3 Angel

Techno-Siren And Handsome Jack's Daughter

• First Appearance: Borderlands

First appearing as a sentient AI who brings together the Vault Hunters in the original game, Angel is revealed in Borderlands 2 to be the daughter of Handsome Jack, who is being used as both an omniscient surveillance network and as part of the key to open the Vault for her father. Being a siren, Angel's powers are enough to charge the Vault Key to give access to the Destroyer, but her phase powers are some of the most potent abilities around.

She calls it "Phaseshift," and it allows her to control any technology wired into the massive network that she oversees. The first hints of this are the doors she opens for players, but her control over turrets and cameras makes her a force to be reckoned with. Her powers first came to light when a frightened Angel was captured and used her abilities to shoot with some turrets that defeated her captors, but also killed her mother by mistake.

2 Hyperius, The Invincible

Vault-Altered Raid Boss

• First Appearance: Borderlands 2: Captain Scarlett And Her Pirate's Booty

Only ever appearing as an optional raid boss in the Captian Scarlett DLC pack for Borderlands 2, Hyperius, the Invincible is given a surprising amount of lore that establishes him as a real threat to the Vault Hunters on Pandora.

An engineer who worked for Hyperion during the takeover of Pandora, Hyperius was there for the Vault opening and was changed by the strange energies within. They drove him mad, as well as giving him unstable power and resilience.

One of the trickier raid bosses, Hyperius can instantly destroy the entirety of a Vault Hunter's shield and will summon minions that will power up his own defenses.

1 Nyriad

Destroyer Of The Destroyer

• First Appearance: Mentioned in Borderlands 3

Borderlands players will never meet Nyriad in the current games, but with lots of exploring and investigating, they will find out lore about this mysterious siren in Borderlands 3. Nyriad lived alongside the Eridians, ancient beings with technology that was light-years ahead. Nyriad was the one who managed to seal the Destroyer, an ultimately powerful monster, into the Vault.

This level of power required the sacrifice of every Eridian, and Nyriad managed to use the power granted by the death of a billion lives to seal away the Destroyer so that it could no longer harm anyone else. Nyriad realized her power was too strong, and so she sealed herself in a Vault too, making her not only the strongest Siren that has been revealed so far, but also one of the most selfless as well.

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