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The upcoming Borderlands game Tiny Tina's Wonderlands launches later this month. The forthcoming entry in Gearbox Software's looter-shooter series takes place in the same in-game tabletop universe as the Assault on Dragon Keep DLC for Borderlands 2.
At the same time, it also incorporates the engine and quality of life improvements introduced in 2019's Borderlands 3.
With that being said, how exactly does the new multi-class system in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands fare against Borderlands 3's pre-defined characters? What core differences set the two apart? Let's find out.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands vs Borderlands 3
To start off, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands features six classes: Stabbomancer, Graveborn, Brrzerker, Spellshot, Clawbringer, and Spore Warden. The key introduction to the series is Spells, equipable items that are essentially mini-action-skills.
On the other hand, Borderlands 3 has Vault Hunters with pre-defined personalities: Moze the Gunner, FL4K (pronounced as Flak), the Beastmaster, Amara the Siren, and Zane the Operator. They all have unique traits and specialize in a specific playstyle, but Wonderlands has some similarities to its mechanical predecessor.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a fresh experience in the sense that each class has only one skill tree, and players can add another skill tree from another class. This allows up to 30 different combinations and playstyles.
Classes stack up to Borderlands 3's current Vault Hunters.
Amara
The latest Siren is a close-range and elemental master. Siren's abilities allow her to get up-close and personal with baddies, conjuring ethereal arms to punch or lock enemies in place.
Her elemental affinities also allow players to melt foes quickly. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands classes that are the most similar to her include Brrzerker, Clawbringer, and Stabbomancer.
Brrzerker utilizes Frost and melee as their primary way of dishing out damage. Considering enemies can be completely frozen, breaking them into pieces is the next logical step, which is where melee comes in.
Users can also become Enraged and become an unstoppable force of chilling winter.
Clawbringer, meanwhile, controls Fire and Lightning. Using their massive hammer, they can burn and shock the fantasy-themed foes of Wonderlands. Gamers can also throw their hammer at distant enemies and ground slam at close ones, just like Amara can with her Phase skills.
The Stabbomancer is all about boosting the efficiency and effectiveness of players' equipped melee weapons that have a dedicated weapon slot. They also specialize in critical damage and keeping foes on their toes with an aggressive, in-your-face playstyle.
Also, consider the Follow Up ability that stacks melee damage for gun damage dealt, allowing users to rack up melee kills.
All things considered, Clawbringer and Stabbomancer could pair together nicely to provide a similar experience even if it's not as cool as the Sirens' powers themselves.
FL4K
This wandering robot is one of the RPG series' more unique playable characters. They are accompanied by one of their several Pets — a Skag, Spiderant, Jabber, or Loaderbot (the latter introduced in a fourth skill tree via paid DLC).
Each has different upgrades, attacks and grant various bonuses to FL4K. This character's playstyle revolves around synergizing gunplay with Pet attacks. These make a comeback in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands as Companions.
Several classes have Companions: Spore Warden, Clawbringer, and Graveborn.
The Spore Warden has a Mushroom buddy that deals poison damage, while the Clawbringer's Wyvern can deal Fire and melee damage to enemies. The Graveborn summons a Demi-Lich companion that does Dark Magic damage (essentially lifesteal as an element).
On the flip side, FL4K is a beast on their own, possessing skills that specialize in long-range and critical damage. Tiny Tina's Wonderlands covers that front with the Stabbomancer and Spore Warden.
While the former is a mele specialist, the Stabbomancer's From the Shadows skill is a rebrand of FL4K's Fade Away. Both allow players to turn invisible and deal (reduced) crit damage for every shot.
Looking at both ends of the coin, it's clear that Spore Warden/Graveborn's Companions and Stabbomancer's crit-ability combine to create something that's the closest to FL4K's gunplay-oriented builds that use the Pets as a distraction.
But if gamers want as many companions as possible in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, then Graveborn and Spore Warden fit the bill. The former can even summon small Hydras to fight for them using the Dark Hydra skill.
The Faithful Thralls skill synergizes well with this idea, granting bonus damage to players the more Companions they have.
Moze
Borderlands 3's ex-Vladof-commando brings chaos to the battlefield with her ridable mech, the Iron Bear. Her skills are centered around boosting gun damage and supplementing her gunplay with bursts of mech-piloting.
The Iron ear can be slotted with one of a few different weapons depending on the skill tree, which are powerful enough to mow down enemies quickly. Also, the fourth DLC tree allows summoning an Iron Cub "Pet" that attacks foes on its own.
But in a nutshell, she can be considered a tank thanks not just to the beefy machinery but also a plethora of skills granting defensive and support skills. In comparison, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Spellshot seems to embody her spirit.
While there are no mechs to pilot, or even a fantasy equivalent, like, say, a ridable troll or cyclops, their focus on spell and gunplay combinations can be seen as condensing the Iron Bear's onslaught into a lone, gun-totting wizard.
For starters, Spellshot's Ambi-Hextrous ability lets them replace the action skill with a second Spell. Given how short the cooldowns for Spells are, players can almost spam them to keep the pressure on foes like Iron Bear.
In fact, scoring crits with the Sever the Thread skill specced has a chance to reset Spell cooldown so users can go ham with it. If they have to pair another Class to go well with the Spellshot, the answer is any of them.
The Spellshot's skills seemingly supplement the gunplay and magic of pretty much every other class, like a cherry on top of the cake.
Zane
The Flynt family's sneaky hitman is a devious one, having several tricks up his sleeves like a deployable drone, a barrier, and a digi-clone that can distract and attack foes. His fundamentals revolve around kill skills (skills effects that activate on killing an enemy) and also support (using his action skills, like the barrier).
He is also the only character in the game who can have two action skills, albeit at the cost of losing out on throwing grenades.
The Graveborn and Clawbringer combo can easily emulate a Zane-like experience in Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. The former is also a Kill Skill specialist, and their Demi-Lich replaces the SNTNL drone. And on that note, Morhaim's Blessing activates all of Graveborn's Kill Skills on casting a Spell which is right out of Zane's book with his Seein' Red skill.
The latter's Dragon Aura can buff allies as well as gamers, with some skills granting damage resistance and even a chance to reflect attacks while near the user. The Wyvern can also work in tandem with the Graveborn companion, damaging enemies while the Lich casts Dark Magic attacks to regen user health.
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands drops on March 25 for PC, PS4, XB1, PS5, and XSX|S.
