Battleborn is a first-person-shooter with a deep roster of 25 playable heroes. Every hero has their own personality and comes equipped with their own unique weapons and powers. Through Battleborn’s accelerated character growth system, players will fully experience each hero’s leveling progression in a single story mission or multiplayer match.

Battleborn is set in a distant future, where nearly every star in the universe has gone dark at the hands of a mysterious enemy. Solus, the last star, is the only beacon of hope for the universe’s surviving population. The fading of stars has led to a great war among those desperate for the last remaining resources. Heroes, called Battleborn, fight for the dominance of their unique factions as all life in the universe teeters on the brink of extinction. Now, the mysterious enemy is threatening to finish what they’ve started, and only an unlikely alliance between the universe’s most powerful heroes can stop them.

Shayne and Aurox, Whiskey Foxtrot, and Kelvin are the weird oddities of the Battleborn heroes, and like all Battleborn, are available to play in both competitive multiplayer matches, as well as the game’s Story Mode – which can be played singleplayer, co-op up to 5 players, or 2-player splitscreen. First in the trenches, Whiskey Foxtrot is an offbeat and imperfect facsimile of a soldier. Using scavenged armor and jerry-rigged weapons, everything about Whiskey Foxtrot just seems “off,” but his homemade UPR-SL3 tactical rifle, sticky bombs, and scrap canon can help turn the tide of any battle. At first glance, Kelvin appears to be a hulking ice golem, but is in fact an entire microorganism civilization that, together, form a single sentient being that smashes, chomps and freezes its enemies for the survival of the species. Another unlikely team-up, Shayne was already a bratty teenage girl at the end of the universe with nothing to lose, but her bond with the space creature known as Aurox has made her nearly unstoppable. Joined at the hip, these symbiotic furies strive to utterly demolish their foes through a mixture of brute force and stealth.

Whiskey Foxtrot

I know he was introduced to me as one of the early groups of “Mike” clones, but there is something really – I think “off” is the word I’m looking for here – with Whiskey Foxtrot. The only item that I’ve been able to find out about him is a number that keeps coming up in the system: RDC-WF02-1221. I suspect that he has ties to some off-shoot Peacekeeper unit, but all of Whiskey’s gear seems cobbled together, scavenged or, in some cases, reverse engineered Peacekeeper tech.

• MAIN WEAPON: Homemade UPR-SL3 tactical rifle. His tactical assault rifle delivers a ton of punch behind three tightly-grouped shots.
• STICKY BOMB: These grenades of his are just wrong. Toss a grenade and it sticks to anything, then detonates after three seconds. On second thought, I’d love to borrow a couple of these for the next time I run into Rendain.
• SCRAP CANON: I definitely don’t want to be on the receiving end of the shrapnel-spewing attachment strapped to the bottom of Whiskey’s tactical rifle.
• OVERDRIVE: I don’t know how he pulled this off, but Whiskey jerry-rigged some kind of experimental tech into his tactical rifle. When powered up, he can load in an overstuffed clip that can be fired fully automatically.
• COMBAT RHYTHM: The few times I’ve seen him in action, I’ve noticed something: After killing an enemy, Whiskey gets a boost to his attack damage.

Kelvin

Miko has to keep reminding me that Kelvin isn’t just some big, lumbering Ice Golem – but, I mean, c’mon, this thing is huge! But it’s also really small. I still have trouble wrapping my brain around the fact that Kelvin is actually an entire, sentient microorganism civilization taking shape as this huge, hulking Golem. Mental note: Kelvin thrives in the extreme cold of space. Bring a jacket.

• MAIN WEAPON: Ice Fists. The sheer force of the golem’s blows are brutal and when Kelvin leans in, it can pound the ground and cause area of effect damage. Good to have when you need a strong front line.
• SUBLIMATE: When you have a sub-atomic civilization that thrives in the cold, being able to sublimate for just comes with the territory, I guess. Kelvin can go from golem to gaseous for a couple seconds, speed along and chill anything that gets in its way.
• CHOMP: This is a particularly nasty attack where Kelvin bites an enemy and uses a foe’s health against it. If Kelvin kills by biting, he also gets a permanent increase to his health – something about absorbing the enemy’s energy into the civilization.
• ICE WALL: Being able to manipulate the cold will be a huge asset for us. When Kelvin has enough power stored up, it can create an impassable wall that will also stun nearby enemies.
• PERMAFROST: As Kelvin activates any of his abilities he gains a temporary shield boost.

Shayne & Aurox

Shayne is pretty much what you expect from an angsty teenage girl staring down the end of the universe: She’s a punk. Hanging around the Detritus Ring in Rogue territory, Shayne’s survived by scavenging, picking up work where possible and grabbing anything that wasn’t nailed down. What I can’t figure out is how she’s somehow bonded with a &^@#(-ing creature and is still alive! These things hover in space and eat energy like you’d slurp a bowl of cereal – and she’s got this monster tethered to her torso! Well, whatever the case, she’s got lots of potential as a scrapper, but a moody kid with that much power? She could be trouble. Useful, but trouble.… I’ll let you handle her.

• MAIN WEAPON: Aurox. Shayne’s companion, Aurox, is her melee weapon. And shield. And intimidating pet you don’t want to turn your back on. In combat, Aurox can utterly demolish enemies that get too close.
• BOOMERANG: Whether scavenging for loot among the Detritus Ring, or taking out Varelsi, Shayne relies on her trusty boomerang to pick off enemies from a distance.
• STEALTH STRIKE: When you see Shayne cloak, this isn’t a game of hide-and-seek – you have a five-second headstart to get the HELL away from where you think Shayne and Aurox will resurface and pummel you with damage.
• FETCH: I love it when pets play with you – you know, bring you back a thrown ball or something. But when that pet is all razor-sharp claws, grafted to you, and hauls in your prey… well, that’s a whole other story.
• TAG TEAM: If you see Shayne telling Aurox where to go, it's important to NOT be there. Aurox teleports to Shayne's target and unleashes his rage before knocking everybody around and disappearing.

Key Features:

• Playable Heroes: Battleborn has a deep roster of 25 playable heroes and no two heroes are the same. For example, Rath is a samurai sword-wielding melee specialist. Oscar Mike fires an assault rifle and plays like a familiar space marine. Thorn is a dangerous archer who can also deal damage through magical attacks. There are many, many more battleborn heroes, and each has unique weapons, powers, and personalities that, through the accelerated character growth system, can be fully experienced in a cooperative campaign mission, or over the course of a single competitive multiplayer match.
• Cooperative Campaign: Battleborn’s team-based cooperative campaign is a narrative experience playable with up to four other friends online, and through splitscreen, much like Borderlands. Player profile experience is earned during cooperative campaign play, will cross over to competitive multiplayer matches and vice versa.
• Competitive Multiplayer Modes: Battleborn’s team-based competitive multiplayer action can be experienced by up to 10 players online in 5v5 matches, and includes three distinct multiplayer modes.
  • Incursion: Teams of heroes defend their base from waves of AI-controlled minions while working together, alongside their own minions, to destroy their opponents’ base;
  • Devastation: Teams of heroes face off in a fast-paced death match and must capture and hold objectives on the map to win;
  • Meltdown: Teams of heroes protect their minions as they march to their death at the center of the map. Points are scored for minions who throw themselves into the incinerator, and the team with the most points wins.
• Persistent Progression System: All experience points, whether earned through playing Battleborn’s Story Mode or Competitive Multiplayer modes, contribute to leveling up individual Character Rank, as well as player profile Command Rank.
  • Character Rank: Each hero can permanently rank up from 1 to 10 outside of missions and matches, allowing players to swap out augments in their helix skill tree, as well as unlock skins.
  • Command Rank: Players can rank up their own player profile, unlocking badges and titles to impress friends, and loot that can be used to benefit any hero the player chooses to command.

Battleborn will be available for $59.99.