Borderlands 3 received yet another trailer at E3 2019, and this one is packed with 100% brand new footage, and you know what that means. Yep, it's time to dissect what information is hidden in that 2-minute trailer! It might have been fast-paced and left you reeling by the time it was over, but slow down the footage and there's plenty of little details hidden in the background.
Right at the beginning, Lilith confirmed that she's no longer a Siren (after being seen without her tattoos in the first major trailer), implying that Tyreen – one half of the evil Calypso Twins – might have sapped Lilith's powers away from her, plus there's hints that vehicular combat is about to get way more depth than ever before, and one of the Vault Hunters can turn invisible... honestly, stick with me here because I am just getting started.
1. There's a homage to the first time you met Lilith
Near the beginning of the trailer Lilith blows a kiss to the camera before flipping us all off. You might think that's really quite rude, but the kiss is a homage to the very first time we met Lilith in the original Borderlands. She strutted towards the camera in her purple Eridian phasewalk form before – yup, you guessed it – blowing a kiss to all of us watching at home. Swearing at us all is a nice touch, as Lilith's introduction in Borderlands was a bit… at odds with her character. Moxxi having that cutscene? Sure. Lilith isn't exactly known for her flirtatious side, though.
2. Cars now have battering rams on the front
In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it-moment, the cars driven by bandits right at the beginning of the trailer have what appears to be bone battering rams attached to the front of their vehicles. If that's a customisable extra for cars in Borderlands 3, you'll probably be able to ram into enemies to deal damage too. It'll also make running over skags and bandits so much more fun. Because who doesn't love some blood splatter, right?
3. Shields might also be an optional extra for cars too
Look at the car behind the one with the battering ram, and you'll see that is has blue shields all around it. Like the battering ram, this hints that there are loads of things you can add to your vehicles to make them even more deadly in combat, or to simply prevent you from getting turned into a little red splat on the road. That, by the way, is something shields will help you avoid.
4. Some enemies carry loot chests
We might have seen enemies that carry loot chests on their back before, way back in Borderlands 2, but even though I can't for the life of me remember what they're called, they're making a return in Borderlands 3.
5. Flak's pets attack with different elemental types
Flak the Beastmaster, one of the playable Vault Hunters, might be powered by electricity and made of nuts and bolts, but he has a very big heart. His Action Skill lets him summon three pets: a firey Spiderant, a corrosive Skag, and an electrical new type of enemy that looks similar to a monkey. Perhaps you'll be able to summon all three of them simultaneously (as shown in the trailer), or maybe that's just a demonstration of the different pets Flak can have. Either way, the idea of running onto the battlefield with your very own Good Boy to help you is gold.
6. Flak might have saved his pets from life-threatening injuries
If you take a look at Flak's pets, each one of them has a robotic prosthetic. The Skag has a robotic eye, the Spiderant has a drill/metal leg, and the monkey-type animal has a metal prosthetic arm (and goggles, aww). As all three of them have some kind of prosthetic, and Flak itself is an android, so it's entirely possible that the reason these animals are happy to fight for him is because he saved their lives once, using his technical knowledge to rebuild their bodies. Now isn't that heart-warming?
7. You can find a gun that shoots guns
It's ridiculous, I don't know how it deals damage to enemies unless the guns somehow act as projectiles, and I'll probably spend hours sorting through the randomly-generated weapons it spews out. Yet I love it. A gun that fires guns is so completely Borderlands, in a 'you didn't think we'd do it, did you?' kind of way. But it did.
8. Maya's protégé wants to be a Siren
In the first full length trailer for Borderlands 3 we saw Maya high-fiving a young girl with bright blue hair, but no-one really knows who she is or what relation she is to Maya. In this new clip from the E3 2019 trailer, it looks like her little blue-haired friend is trying to emulate Maya when the Siren summons her forcefield ability. Maybe that's because with Maya trying to discover what it means to be a Siren she's found someone who wishes they too could wield the power of the Eridians… kind of like her own little Padawan.
9. That might be Vaughn in his underwear dual-wielding guns
You have to have a certain amount of confidence to walk around a battlefield in nothing but some tighty-whities. Yet this guy is doing it. We might not know who he is at the moment, but at the end of the recent Commander Lilith and the Fight For Sanctuary DLC, Vaughn finally gets his most prized underwear back, which is apparently going to help him lead his bandit clan to victory. So perhaps that guy with the abs and the lack of inhibitions is Vaughn himself, with a noticeable lack of bandits at his side. Can you really blame them though?
10. Tannis and Rhys have teamed up on Promethea
That high-five between Rhys and Tannis in the trailer only lasted a handful of seconds, but it implies that the pair are working together to bring an all-new type of tech to Borderlands 3. Tannis is known for her… unconventional methods when it comes to scientific research, and as the head of the Atlas corporation Rhys has the resources to make some incredible weapons, so expect their team-up to produce some truly what-the-hell guns to your hands. Like the gun that fires guns, for example, which also happens to have the same triangular symbol on the top as the one that's just behind Rhys. So yeah, expect the truly bizarre to come out of this partnership.
11. Hammerlock has found a hunter friend
He's always loved taking down the biggest game around, and now it looks like Sir Hammerlock has found a friend who's just as enthusiastic about mounting heads on his wall as Hammerlock. Both of them are snappily-dressed, so they might come from the same family or be buddies from waaaay back, or as Hammerlock has a base on Sanctuary 3 his buddy might be the one giving you missions on the actual planets. I don't know for certain, but I'm excited to find out.
12. This bandit from the teaser trailer returns
This bandit, with her shaved undercut and feathers on her left shoulder, was already featured in the black-and-white teaser trailer we got earlier this year. Now that she's featured alongside the line about brainwashing people to join the Calypso Twin's cause. She could be one of the evil duo's main allies, maybe with her own bandit clan at her disposal. With those feathers on her shoulder she might even be able to fly around… which sounds like a boss fight in the making already.
13. You might have to disrupt some of the Calypso Twin's livestreams
We already know that the Calypso Twins are sadistic influencers. For a couple of seconds in the trailer, you should be able to spot the Twins through the lens of a camera recording. It makes sense that some of your time in Borderlands 3 will be spent making sure that their livestreams don't go to plan – they are, after all, how the Twins keep the bandits in line. Cutting off power to their cameras, making them break their online persona; there's so many ways you could mess up their livestream and basically act like a little sh*t, and I can't wait.
14. We see Flak going invisible for the first time
Flak's ability to go invisible has been public knowledge for a while as it's featured on the Borderlands website, but this is the first time we've seen it in action. He leaps atop of Moze's mecha, and then turns all blue and see-through, so while you send his animals off to fight your enemies you might be able to sneak away by turning invisible, kind of like Lilith could when she went into her Eridian Phasewalk form. If you can manage to remain emotionally detached long enough to see your animals get bullets fired their way, of course.
Looking for even more info? Here are 23 ways Borderlands 3 is reinventing the Borderlands formula.
