Gearbox announces sixth playable character for Borderlands 2

After teasing it earlier this month, Gearbox has made it official: Borderlands 2 is getting a new playable character. According to Eurogamer, the company has released a trailer at the ongoing PAX that shows off the character, named Krieg, and his abilities. He is going to be a reformed bandit and will specialise in melee attacks and throwing weapons. He will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in May and will cost 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 (approx. 542). At the time of writing, the video is unavailable on YouTube.

He has three skill trees, dubbed Bloodlust, Mania and Hellborn. Bloodlust focuses on his Buzz Axe weapon, and is based around stringing together combo kills. Mania is based around killing things quicker by taking damage, and Hellborn is based around increasing his fire damage when he is on fire. It will be interesting to see what gear Gearbox will add to the game for the new character – as every other piece of equipment consists of guns – and how you can make your guns shoot better.

The new characer focuses on melee combat (image credit: Polygon)

The company has also announced a major patch for Borderlands 2 that is set to come out on April 2. This patch will increase the level cap of the game by 11 levels, taking the level cap to 61. The patch will cost $4.99 (approx. Rs 271) and will be free to those who own the Borderlands 2 season pass.

The fifth character was part of a pre-order bonus. Dubbed the Mechromancer, the character was later made available to buy as regular DLC. She relies mostly on skills related to engineering and has a skill tree named "Best Friends Forever", which made the character ideal to introduce non-gamers to the game.

The previous Borderlands 2 DLC released by Gearbox was Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt. The DLC revolves around a hunting expedition that goes sour when the players are caught between a new villain and his dastardly plans. The new villain's plans are to restore the legacy of the main antagonist of Borderlands 2—Handsome Jack.

"Irresistible new loot, memorable new quests, a variety of challenging and exotic new enemies, a new vehicle and more await players as they fight their way through the never-before-seen lands of Aegrus to give this evil-doer the old one-two!" the Borderlands 2 blog said.

Since the release of the Sir Hammerlock DLC, Gearbox has been pretty quiet about the last piece of DLC that would be part of the Borderlands 2 Season Pass. The new character could possibly be part of the last piece of major DLC for the game.