Characters / Borderlands: Hyperion

Spoilers Off for games prior to Borderlands 3 and for Spoiler characters that are marked as such. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned.

Borderlands Character sheets
Playable Vault Hunters: Borderlands | Borderlands 2 (Krieg) | The Pre-Sequel (Claptrap) | Borderlands 3
Supporting Characters: Borderlands | Borderlands 2 (Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep DLC) | The Pre-Sequel | Borderlands 3
Spinoffs and other media: Tales from the Borderlands | Tiny Tina's Wonderlands | New Tales from the Borderlands | Other media
Weapon Brands: Atlas | Dahl | Hyperion (Handsome Jack) | Maliwan | Jakobs | Torgue | Tediore | Other Weapon Brands
Other: Bandits and Bandit Factions (Children of the Vault) | Hodunk and Zaford Clans | Creatures (Eridians and Vault Monsters) | Raid Bosses

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"There are many weapons in this world, but only the best have what it takes to bear the Hyperion insignia. Every gun that leaves our facility has been tested by multiple independent inspectors and is guaranteed to meet our impossibly high standards. All Hyperion guns are meticulously calibrated by our technicians and certified to levels of accuracy never before seen in the industry. Whether you're a professional marksman or simply someone who appreciates a finely-crafted piece of machinery, you can't go wrong with a Hyperion. Financing is available to those who qualify."

Founded by Maxim Turner, Alma Harren and Lawrence De Quidt, Hyperion rose to power with the Last Corporate War. Known for their high-quality, high-tech, sleek-looking, accurate firearms, they are also known for the New-U Stations (before they became non-canon), the controversial CL4P-TP line of service robots, and various Loader robots. After the opening of the Vault of the Destroyer, an ambitious programmer known as Jack led mining operations in both Pandora and its moon Elpis via an H-shaped base known as Helios. After the opening of the Vault of the Sentinel on Elpis, Jack (now calling himself Handsome Jack) took control of the company as President and led it into a war with Pandora in an attempt to bring civilization and order as well as opening the Vault of the Warrior.

Hyperion guns tend to boast above-average stats with an emphasis on accuracy, featuring a stabilizer that reduces the recoil the more you fire it. Hyperion lasers get increased damage on critical hits, and Hyperion barrels turn lasers into railguns. Hyperion grenades include "Singularity" grenades, which pull nearby enemies towards them before exploding. Hyperion Amplify Shields are able to amplify damage when full by using a chunk of it to boost offensive power.

In Borderlands 3, they retain the stabilizer tech, but their guns now sport weapon-mounted shields that deploy while aiming down the sights that can have properties of equippable shields such as absorbing ammo or enhancing damage. They also have long since washed their hands of Jack and his policy of invasion, genocide, mass murder, gleeful cruelty to all those in range of a Hyperion firearm, and making handguns.

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Check the following folders for the following characters:

• Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!: Vault Hunters: Wilhelm, Athena, Nisha, Timothy Lawrence ("Jack" the Doppelganger), Aurelia Hammerlock.
  • Borderlands: Claptrap: The original CL4P-TP/INAC/(M)INAC
• Borderlands: Handsome Jack
• Borderlands: Raid Bosses: Hyperius the Invincible

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General

In General

• The Aesthetics of Technology: Hyperion technology is slick, space-age stuff, with sharp angles, extraneous fins, and high-tech motorized reloading mechanisms. Kevin Duc, the concept artist for Borderlands, described Hyperion weapons as taking influence from "power tools and construction equipment." Fittingly, they're all named with various corporate buzzwords.
  • Borderlands 3 has their guns becoming even sharper, as well as exposing metallic parts, but they dropped some of their unorthodox reload mechanisms in favor of frontal shield technology.
• Animal Testing: Put on prominent display in 2, with the Animal Exploitation Preserve being a level the Vault Hunters need to raid. Skags, Stalkers and Rakks all have nests placed there to breed and use them as test subjects for slag experimentation, alongside human 'volunteers' which Hyperion would apparently prefer. The facility is also in a pretty lousy state too, as the enclosures are busted and often have walls and railings punched open into other parts of the enclosure or even into the employees work areas for the vicious animals to freely attack.
  • Also the ultimate fate of Bloodwing, who was captured by Jack and slag-experimented on, turning her into a rabid animal imbued with every element, plus an Explosive Leash that executes her when she's subdued, all to spite Mordecai.
• Awesome, but Impractical: Outside of The Pre-Sequel!^note where the only cons the Sniper Rifles have is their low fire rate (lower than Jakobs' bolt-action Sniper Rifles) and that you can't reliably hip-fire them, Hyperion sniper rifles are usually really, really powerful, and with Hyperion's focus on accuracy, you'd think it would be a match made in heaven. Unfortunately, they still have Hyperion's reverse-recoil gimmick, which makes them difficult to aim at first; aiming down the scope also improves their accuracy, but that just makes it harder to perform under sudden pressure.
• Bad Boss: Anyone with power within the Hyperion hierarchy tends to become abusive to their subordinates, ranging from verbal abuse to outright torture and murder. Notably, in Tales, the Hyperion employees on Helios consider it an improvement on their lives when the station is destroyed and they are dumped on Pandora. Though they seem to have cleaned up a little bit by the time of 3, they're still unsympathetic toward their employees, judging by the emails they send you when rewarding you for getting kills with their weapons.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: The founders of Hyperion were a triumvirate who formed the basis of the company's principles: ruthless business tactics (Maxim Turner), a focus on precision firearms (Alma Harren) and cutting-edge experimental robotics (Lawrence De Quidt).
• Breaking Old Trends: Prior to the third game, every gun manufacturer made pistols given their versatility. However, in 3, Hyperion becomes the first and so far only company to ditch making pistols, likely because the Deployable Cover on a pistol is on-paper pretty useless.
• Bright Is Not Good: In The Pre-Sequel!, 2 and Tales..., under Handsome Jack's control, the signature Hyperion color scheme is yellow and white, and high rarity gear is adorned with gold polish. Of course, since yellow is Jack's favorite color, that means they're the color scheme of a corporation trying to commit genocide against an entire planet and establish totalitarianism there.
• Comedic Sociopathy: Under Handsome Jack's management in Borderlands 2, in which he inflicts his tendency for random murder, sociopathy, and whatever kind of horror he finds to be funny on the workers and anyone in Hyperion's way. It's lucky for the players that it's so over-the-top, or things would be a lot more horrifying.
• Critical Hit Class: Their extreme focus on accuracy makes them excellent for landing precise, consecutive critical hits. A few of their red-text weapons and all of their lasers even get boosted critical hit damage.
• Cult of Personality: After his rise to power, the middle management all idolize Jack to some extent, ranging from admiration to outright worship to the point that they wear imitations of his mask and his office is essentially enshrined after his death.
• Deployable Cover: In the third game, Hyperion guns have holographic shields that activate upon aiming down sights.
• Difficult, but Awesome: Hyperion guns start off ridiculously inaccurate, making guns such as sniper rifles highly impractical. However, if one can weather through such issues then they can take advantage of the gun's above-average statistics.
• Dissonant Serenity: The Hyperion Announcer who insults you over the New-U station and announces messages over the Helios space station always speaks in a chipper and droning tone, even as chaos erupts around her. What's especially perplexing is that she's not a pre-programmed AI, but instead an actual person doing it all live.
  (During the quest Voice Over) Vault Hunter's faces look like wee-wees! God, I hate this!
  (After the quest) I'm so pissed right now!
• Evil, Inc.: Even before Jack took over, the company was involved in unethical experimentation of animals and bred a corporate atmosphere of greed and backstabbing. After Jack took over, things got even worse due to many middle-management worshiping Jack and seeking to emulate him.
• Hazy-Feel Turn: As of 3, Hyperion, while still amoral are at least no longer continuing the actions of Handsome Jack and seem to be content staying out of the Crimson Raiders' way.
  New-U: Hyperion: We're not the bad guys in this one!
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: As mentioned on some other entries, the reverse recoil is actually surprisingly useful for such a simple gimmick. The guns are capable of doing several critical hits in quick succession, and they have practically no penalties for blindfiring, so you don't need to look down the sights. The latter also means Hyperion's guns are very useful when you end in "Fight for your life" mode, especially if the nearest enemy is too far for regular recoil to hit. They become especially powerful in the hands of a character who gets bonuses to magazine size, like Salvador or Moze.
• I Own This Town: Hyperion forces took over many towns and encampments in 2, much like Atlas before them. Only this time, Hyperion is much more interested in clearing the "bandits" out from Pandora than simply just taking over.
• Incompetence, Inc.: Due to greed and sociopathy being part of the corporate culture, Hyperion tends to be filled with power-hungry assholes who rise to their ranks not because of competence but due to them killing anyone in their way and ability to push their weight around. Under Jack's leadership, the company waged a costly and pointless war to "civilize" Pandora and anyone who questioned him were promptly killed. Or had their children killed. Or both.
• Klingon Promotion: Judging by Jack and Vasquez, killing your superior and getting away with it is a completely viable way to climb the corporate ladder.
• Leet Lingo: Seems to be the naming convention for Hyperion machinery, with robots being named like CL4P-TP, BNK-3R, C3N50RB0T, P3RV-E, etc...^note These are pronounced Claptrap, Bunker, Censorbot, and Pervy respectively
• Mecha-Mooks: The Loaders, which are repurposed mining robots sent en-masse to threats against the company.
• Nerf: Hyperion Shotguns in 2 & Pre-sequel were almost overpowered due to their fast rate-of-fire, decent magazine size and much longer range than most other shotguns. In 3 all of the aforementioned stats have been lowered, but they also now include a built-in shield and some unique models have stats close to the earlier games' versions tp emphasize their power.
• Posthumous Character: Lawrence De Quidt passed away before he could finish working out the kinks with the Claptraps. It's unclear if the other founders are still alive by the time of Tassiter.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Hyperion weapons in the first game were red and black before Jack took over. After he does, most of them are now yellow and white because he thought it was livelier, though higher-level weapons such as the Conference Call are still red and black. During the Pre-Sequel, Hyperion is still undergoing this transition, and weapons with both color schemes can be found (though lower rarity Old Hyperion guns are white and red, with the black being added back at higher rarity levels). Borderlands 3 allows you to add a reversed version of this colour scheme if you so desire, with the Black Dragon weapon skin.
• Short-Range Shotgun: Inverted or possibly zig-zagged - Hyperion shotguns start out this way, but become extremely capable at long distances with sustained fire due to their reversed recoil gimmick.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Hyperion shotguns are generally quite good due to their tight spread, low recoil and high rate of fire. The Legendary Hyperion shotgun, the Conference Call, is generally assumed to be one of the better below-Pearlescent shotguns in the game, while the formerly Pearlescent as of 3 Butcher is said to be one of the best shotguns, period.
• Smart Gun: They had a thing for developing unique talking guns before Tediore made it standard in their equipment.
  • Shotgun 1340 is a Hyperion shotgun with the AI of an EXP Loader installed, who hollers with glee while you shoot and reload it.
  • The Morningstar is a sniper rifle that adds a crit bonus for enough critical hit landed, all the while the gun whines and berates at the user for being such a terrible person for killing enemies, reloading, and swapping guns.
  • The Bane is a cursed SMG that boasts pretty good stats and can come in every element - but it's also ear piercingly loud, constantly giggles in a high pitched tone and emits an annoying shouting noise with every bullet fired, while also slowing the user down to a crawl. Note that the gun will still make noise even after muting the game from its volume settings.
  • The Handsome Jackhammer is an SMG that combines Tediore reload technology with Hyperion reverse-recoil and frontal shielding, but its main appeal coming from the fact that Handsome Jack's AI copy was installed into the gun, who mocks the user and enemies while also trying to convince the Vault Hunter to get him out of the gun.
• Starter Equipment: Jack's Doppelgänger gains a Galvanising Vision with fixed parts and an Old Hyperion skin when starting a new game as him in Pre-Sequel.
• Stupid Evil: Hyperion fall under this during Jack's tenure and after Jack's death until the end of Tales.
• Talking Weapon: Four Hyperion weapons in the second game can talk.
  • Shotgun 1340 is made with the AI of a loader that tried to kill you and failed repeatedly. It offers messages of encouragement.
  • The Morningstar, on the other hand, is a sniper rifle that criticizes the user for any reason, from killing enemies to reloading.
  • The Bane is a "cursed" submachine gun with a shrill voice that screams while firing. Said screaming is unintelligible and translated in subtitles as "[annoying sound]".
  • The Overcompensator as featured in the Commander Lilith DLC is basically the Butcher with the added feature of having a Surfer Dude voice.
  • The Handsome Jackhammer is an SMG that spews out insults in Jack's voice.
• Theme Naming: Hyperion guns tend to use various corporate buzzwords in their naming conventions, resulting in shotguns called "Face Time" or "Projectile Diversification". According to Handsome Jack, this was his attempt to create weapons "made by smart sons of bitches for smart sons of bitches". Old Hyperion in The Pre-Sequel has a different, but no less buzzword-laden set of names and prefixes.^{For example...}a stock Old Hyperion pistol, in other words a Hyperion pistol with a Hyperion barrel, will be called the Factualizer. The New Hyperion version of the same gun would be called the Vision.
• Uniqueness Decay:
  • Played Straight with "The Bitch", a unique weapon that appears in each game. In 1, it was the only weapon with reverse recoil. As of 2 onwards, all Hyperion guns have this feature.
  • Inverted in 3. As mentioned under Nerf, only unique Hyperion Shotguns in 3 have stats comparable to the ones seen even in base models in the previous 2 games.
• Unorthodox Reload: All Hyperion guns, with no exceptions, have magazines fed from the top in a hinged assembly that automatically pulls the fresh mag inside the gun. In sniper rifles, that means the scope slides forward to let out the spent magazine and then back when the rifle's loaded again. This is changed in 3, and instead, all their guns have some kind of mechanical motor that grabs the magazine and slowly attaches it with a whirring sound (though some do still top-load magazines).
• Weapon Specialization: Hyperion's emphasis on full-auto accuracy and drilling round after round into a target's crit spot plays to the strengths either sniper-type characters like Mordecai, Zer0, Aurelia, and Fl4k, or full auto gunners like Roland, Axton, Salvador, Wilhelm, or Moze. Also Jack's doppelganger, who gets a skill just for boosting Hyperion weapons.
• The Worf Effect: According to a hidden ECHO log in Commander Lilith and the Fight For Sanctuary, even Hyperion at its height under Handsome Jack wouldn't have stood a chance against Vladof's Ursa Corps and their Iron Bear mechs.

People

Leadership

Tassiter

President Harold Tassiter

Voiced by: Chuck Huber

"Need I remind you that you are there to observe Pandora, nothing more!"

The president of Hyperion during the time of the Pre-Sequel. He is a total dick.

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• Ascended Extra: Tassiter was originally a character in the ECHO Logs detailing Jack's past in 2. In The Pre-Sequel, he's an actual character with a physical appearance. Albeit a dying one.
• Asshole Victim: Let's just say it wasn't just Handsome Jack that enjoyed his death by strangulation. Given how much of a petty, uncaring, bullying asshole he is nobody is going to miss him either.
• Bad Boss: While much less psychopathic and murderous than Handsome Jack, it doesn't exactly make him any better. Tassiter belittles and mocks all those who work for him, shows no concern for the Hyperion workers trapped in a maintenance section and driven mad by a viral plague while stating that "Breathing is a privilege, not a right," and also shows little concern while his terribly made bot attempts to murder the protagonist.
  Wilhelm: Dick. Anyone wanna pay me a quarter to kill that guy?
• Bullying the Dragon: He ends up ticking off Jack after trying to smugly fire him. Unfortunately for him, 1) Jack is now going through a mental breakdown and is simply too furious to take any of his crap, 2) Jack has grown out of his meek shell after participating in the many events leading to the battle for Helios against Zarpedon and 3) is completely fucking done with everything and everyone.
• Defiant to the End: When Jack attempted to blackmail him, Tassiter tells him that even if he was able to cow the other executives into giving up their shares, to him he'll always be a hideous, pathetic nobody wearing a ridiculous mask. Jack then asks him about the difference between choking and strangling.
• Evil Is Petty
  Hyperion Kiosk: Hyperion wishes Helios station good luck in its search for alien technology and precious minerals. Except Chairman Tassiter, who wrote the words "eat my butt" on a scrap of paper and sent it through the ECHOnet.
• I Gave My Word: If you destroy his crappy murderous robot, he'll be furious but is still forced to pay you for helping him build it.
  Tassiter: Here's your reward. Choke on it.
• It's All About Me: In the mission in which he forces the Vault Hunters to make his murderous robot kill off infected employees, Tassiter only cares about how the robot will make him look good while ceaselessly belittling you.
  Jack: (mocking him) "It's a collective process really but let's be honest it was me, Harold Tassiter, who made it what it is but no really how about that team."
• Hate Sink: All his dialogue and overall personality consists of him being overbearing, cruel, egotistic, demanding and bullying to everyone, Hyperion, Vault Hunter or not, and at times, he makes Jack seem like the better CEO of Hyperion.
• Jerkass Has a Point: While he is a jackass of the highest caliber who will most likely make you itch for the moment Jack strangles him with his watch chain, he does have some good points. 1): The Eye of Helios was not authorized by Hyperion, and it's a gigantic space laser. 2): He thinks Jack's vault obsession will lead nowhere good (it does not). And 3): In his perspective, Jack is a Cloud Cuckoo Lander that continuously goes beyond his appointed tasks and does ridiculous, crazy things on hunches with flippant or zero explanations, blowing Hyperion's resources on personal projects that make no sense to anyone but him (for example, creating exploding suicidal robots, installing a death-laser on a research station, spending company funds on vault hunting, etc.) and acting far too independently for his position. Case in point, Jack is supposed to just be observing Pandora, and yet Helios has a Wave-Motion Gun, it's currently under siege by cultlike ex-Dahl military forces, and it's not painted red and black.
• Kick the Dog: In the sidequest where he tries to get the Vault Hunters to collect evidence on Jack while he offers most of the characters specific bribes (cybernetics for Wilhelm, being Claptrap's best friend, etc.) he coerces Athena into working for him by threatening to kill any remaining family she has. He also tries to threaten Aurelia's children, only for the latter to tell him that she has no children but she'll do it because she likes his attitude.
• Klingon Promotion: He's eventually murdered by Jack, who then takes over his position as President of Hyperion.
• Malicious Misnaming: He knows that Jack is Jack's actual name, but calls him John whenever he's pissed at him.
• Posthumous Character: He's long dead by Borderlands 2.
• The Voice: In 2, he was simply a voice in the Jack ECHO Logs. While he has a portrait in The Pre-Sequel!, he only appears in person in the final scene, in which Jack is strangling him to death. He, or to be more specific, his corpse shows up in the Claptastic Voyage DLC.

Mr. Blake

Mr. Jeffrey Damien Blake

Vice President of Hyperion

Voiced by: R. Bruce Elliott

The surprisingly reasonable vice president of Hyperion. He hires the Vault Hunters in the Robot Revolution DLC of the first game, but is only heard in ECHO logs in the second.

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• Beleaguered Assistant: Handsome Jack treats him like a butler more than anything else.
• Benevolent Boss: Surprisingly, despite the flames and his devil horns, he is a very reasonable executive. Unlike most corporate executives you have seen so far, he did not backstab the vault hunters after the job is done and compensated them very generously. In the sequel, it's revealed that he warned TK Baha and Dr. Zed that Hyperion was coming after them and politely suggested that they escaped while they still could.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments.
  Blake: We at Hyperion have always valued our relationship with the treasure hunters on Pandora, so I know you'll leap at the chance to help us out... Particularly since you killed our last team.
• Demoted to Extra: He is the brains behind the plan to stop the Claptrap uprising in Robot Revolution and gives all but one of the story missions. In the second game, he is only heard through ECHO recordings. In the third, he is only mentioned through Hyperion loyalty packages.
• The Dragon: Being the Vice President of Hyperion implies that he is this to Jack, but...
• Dragon Ascendant: According to an ECHO scan in the final episode of Tales, Blake was acting-CEO of Hyperion before Jack's return. He evidently got demoted to Head of Mercenary Relations by the time of 3.
  • Strangely enough however, the ECHO logs in "Get to Know Jack" seem to indicate that he was Jack's lackey before he even became president, at least sometime between the Pre-Sequel and Tassiter's assassination.
• Dragon with an Agenda: He warned TK Baha about how Hyperion Assassins were coming for him and suggested he take his wife and run while he still could, and he made the same warning to Dr. Zed later on. In Jack's AMA, he mentions that he's pretty sure that Blake is trying to get him killed so he can take his job.
• Enigmatic Minion: At the least, while he's openly contemptuous of everyone in Pandora, his actions suggest that he's a lot less evil than, say, Handsome Jack.
• The Ghost: Is this in 3, where he's the one sending the Vault Hunters care packages whenever they get enough Hyperion weapon kills.
• Honest Corporate Executive: As far as corporate suits for weapons manufacturers goes, he's honest and straightforward in his dealings with Vault Hunters and lacks the inanities of typical Borderlands characters.
• Malicious Misnaming: A subject to one. Jack repeatedly gets Blake's first name wrong, very likely on purpose.
  Jack: Anything else on today's agenda, Jimmy?
  Blake: It's "Jeffrey", sir. And no.
  Jack: Thanks, Jimmy!
• Mission Control: Provides all but the first story mission in Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.
• Mouth of Sauron: He's evidently Hyperion's representative when dealing with bandits and mercenaries, since he's also the head of Tourism and Mercenary Relations.
• Obviously Evil: Subverted. His intro scene gives off this impression, but he's actually perfectly reasonable.
• Only Sane Man: The first corporate suit in the entire game franchise who isn't a Psychopathic Manchild (Torgue, Handsome Jack, probably most of Atlas' management), comedically sociopathic (...it's Borderlands), a Bad Boss, venal and profit-obsessed to the point of being Too Dumb to Live (Jakobs), or succumbing to any other various inanities (Vaughn and maybe Rhys, depending on player actions, later join the short list of non-deranged executives.)
• Pet the Dog: Warning TK Baha and his wife about Hyperion's approaching assassins, and later telling Dr. Zed to leave Fyrestone before the Hyperion robots evict him by force. It would have been easier and inconsequential for him to have simply let them die, but it seems that he is reasonable enough to give a fair warning to anybody who is on Hyperion's kill-list.
• Punch-Clock Villain: He is this under Handsome Jack.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In the Claptrap DLC, he's generally polite and helpful and rewards the Vault Hunters properly after everything is said and done. In 3, he's the one who gives the players brand loyalty rewards for killing enough people with Hyperion weapons.
• Sharp-Dressed Man: He dresses very smartly compared to everyone else on Pandora... although he starts to lament it, given the local weather conditions.
  Blake: Why, why did I decide to wear wool in the desert?
• Throw the Dog a Bone: Borderlands 3 reveals that he managed to survive both Handsome Jack's reign of terror and its equally messy aftermath, and is now occupied as the 'President of Mercenary Relations and Tourism' for his company.
• The Voice: Is only heard in ECHO recordings and broadcasts in Borderlands 2.

Subordinates

Angel - UNMARKED SPOILERS

Angel (AKA Guardian Angel)

^{Click to see her actual appearance. (Spoilers)}

Portrayed by: Britanni Johnson, Voiced in English by: Jennifer Greene

Voiced in Japanese by: Rina Hidaka

A mysterious woman who helps both sets of Vault Hunters with information and missions. She is revealed to be broadcasting from a hacked Hyperion satellite named "4N631" at the end of the first game.

In the second game, she continues to help, and even admits to being an A.I. Except, as revealed later on, not really. However, she betrays the Vault Hunters halfway through the game, nearly getting Sanctuary destroyed in the process. Turns out she's Jack's daughter and a Siren, plugged into the Hyperion network and pumped full of Eridium to charge the Vault Key.

Because of how integral Angel is to the story of 1 and 2 (and, to a lesser extent, to The Pre-Sequel!), all spoilers in this folder are unmarked. Proceed with caution. You Have Been Warned!

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• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Subverted and zigzagged. She appears to be an A.I. and admits it in the second game (she's not), and misled the original Vault Hunters and betrays the second group of Vault Hunters on Jack's orders.
• Abusive Parents: Jack's used her as an organic computer since she was a child and punishes her with electric shocks when she won't do as she's told. Despite this, he honestly seems to love her and believes himself to be protecting her.
• Accidental Murder: A sidequest in 3 reveals she did this to her mother/Jack's wife when her powers were still fairly new and she hadn't learned to control them; she subconsciously activated a bandit's turret to free herself from said bandit, but her mom was still on the line of fire. This event became Jack's Despair Event Horizon, causing his hatred of bandits and giving him a reason to lock her away so it won't happen again.
• And I Must Scream: Trapped in the "throne" Jack made for her when she was a child.
• Art Shift: The remastered version of both the first two Borderlands games turn the live-action footage from a video with filter effect to dot-matrix effect.
• Being Evil Sucks: Being forced to heed Jack's every orders, Angel has done many things she is not proud of, from manipulating two groups of Vault Hunters (possibly more) to getting innocents killed and experimented on. It becomes clear that Angel feels tons of remorse for her actions, and wants nothing more than stopping Jack, even if it means ending her life to do so.
• Bequeathed Power: After her death in 2, Angel's Siren powers are passed on to Patricia Tannis.
• Beware the Nice Ones: How does she get the request to put Sanctuary back on the Fast Travel Network put through? By cutting off the life support on the Hyperion lunar base.
  Angel: Nothing gets results like a death threat.
• Calling the Old Man Out: Her final words to Jack.
  Angel: Dad... I have to tell you something. You're an asshole.
• Calling Parents by Their Name: Probably because she is being treated more of a computer instead of his daughter as well as keeping the secrecy of her existence, Angel often calls Jack by his name instead of "dad". The only time she does so is when she was still a child and at the time of her death.
• Catchphrase: In the second game, she uses the phrase "Executing Phaseshift" whenever she uses her powers.
• Climax Boss: Killing Angel is what much of Borderlands 2 builds up to, and the boss fight against her caps off the Big Badass Battle Sequence of the game. In addition, her death sets the stage for the final missions of the game.
• Cores-and-Turrets Boss: She must be killed by destroying the Eridium Injectors in the chamber, while automated turrets, environmental hazards and an endless horde of very tough mooks keep spawning in. Unusually, she isn't the one summoning these things, Jack is - in fact, she even tries her best to help you fight the defenses that her father spawns in the room.
• Deadpan Snarker: Becomes one in the second game.
• Death Seeker: She'll do anything to escape her father... even though being disconnected from Eridium will kill her.
• Designated Villain: Invoked in universe. In Assault on Dragon Keep, Tiny Tina shoehorns Angel's Bunkers & Badasses counterpart into a villainous role after building her up as an ally, because she blames Angel for Roland's death. Lilith, who was captured and forced into Angel's position herself, can't help but protest.
• Driven to Suicide: Appears to be in her early twenties to late teens, has been imprisoned as a Wetware CPU, emotionally and physically abused, been used as little more than a tool by her father, and rendered immobile due to her father making her body dependent on Eridium. As such, she enlists you, the Vault Hunter, to break into her chambers and kill her.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette: Her paleness could possibly be due to being kept imprisoned for most of her life, though the other sirens we've seen in-game, (possibly) including Steele, have all been pretty pale as well.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: In the second game, her hair is short on one side and longer on the other. This is a hint that she is both a Siren, sharing the same asymmetry as Lilith and Maya, and that one side of her head is shaved, with cybernetic implants on that side.
• Foreshadowing: There are subtle clues to her true identity throughout the early part of the second game.
  • The use of the phrase "phase shift", and Jack commenting in a recording that he knows the identities of three of the six Sirens in the universe. Though that also doubles as a Red Herring, given that Borderlands players are likely to assume that the third will be Steele. Except she's not.
  • Speaking of the phrase "phase shift", virtually all Siren powers where the names are known are "Phase (something)" such as "Phasewalk" (Lilith), "Phaselock" (Maya), "Phasegrasp/Phaseslam/Phasecast" (Amara).
  • The ending of the first game foreshadows her involvement with Hyperion — the Hyperion satellite seen orbiting Pandora has "4N631" (ANGEL) written on the side of it.
  • Early on in the second game, she's shown interfacing with Hyperion technology without any problems, but she's unable to hack Scooter's Catch-A-Ride stations (based on Dahl tech) until the Vault Hunters salvage a component from a wrecked Hyperion robot nearby, again hinting at her ties to Hyperion.
  • The second game's Nonstandard Character Design contains a subtle hint as to what she actually looks like. In the first game, she has full-length hair going down both sides of her head. Her appearance in the second game (shown above) has short hair on one side and longer on the other. The short hair is due to the left side of her head being shaved and having some kind of cybernetic implants inserted. The asymmetry is also a subtle hint that she's a Siren, as Lilith and Maya are also asymmetrical in clothing design.
  • The way Jack addresses her and chastises her. Rather than his usual faux-casual threats, he sounds... parental.
    Jack: You and I are having a serious talk once this is over!
    Jack:: Say goodbye to your friends Angel! Say it!
  • Jack's horrid treatment towards Angel also foreshadowed certain a quest after her death, at Eridium Blight. Turns out his treatment towards his own daughter acted as a reflection on how much pain he was going through with his grandmother, with a nasty buzzaxe to prove it. Of course, he doesn't make the connection.
• Electronic Eyes: Her radio portrait in Borderlands 2 has glowing blue electronic eyes that appear red in extreme close-ups.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Subverted. During most of 2 and its DLCs, her death seemed to be largely forgotten, mainly due to Roland's death eclipsing her own, and her Friendless Background meant that she didn't have anyone that was close to her in comparison. This was eventually addressed on the Commander Lilith DLC mission "Sirentology", where the Vault Hunter destroys her prototype chamber on Helios, and Lilith laments her tragic life and early death.
• Gosh Darnit To Heck: In Borderlands 2, she doesn't seem to like cursing, even though she almost does it a few times. This is due to conditioning by her father. Her last words, however, has her calling her dad an asshole.
• His Name Really Is "Barkeep": She isn't just called the Guardian Angel: her name is Angel.
• I Cannot Self-Terminate: Not by behavioral limitations, mind you. She's sealed inside a containment field and has one of Jack's control collars around her neck, and can only have a limited effect on the outside world, especially when Jack starts reigning her in more tightly.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Isolated all her life by her slavery, she's incredibly lonely. She becomes severely distraught when Jack makes her betray the original Vault Hunters and the new ones. She even says in a very sad, quiet voice, "We are not friends anymore, are we?"
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Revealed to be this in 2, with Handsome Jack being her father.
• Mercy Kill: Near the end of 2, Roland, Lilith and the second batch of Vault Hunters team up to shut down her life support in Control Core Angel.
• Missing Mom: The fate of her mother/Jack's ex-wife is never made clear in the second game. We discover the details in 3, where it's revealed that while being held hostage by a bandit, Angel took control of a turret that killed said bandit as well as her mother.
• Mission Control: In all of the first game and some of the second.
• The Mole: In 2, she's posing as the Vault Hunters' ally, while secretly assisting Jack in his plan to destroy the Sanctuary. However, she doesn't want to do that, and later joins the heroes for real.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When she accidentally kills her mother after taking control of a bandit's turrets during a memory in 3.
• Must Make Amends: After her betryal in 2 she tries to help the Vault Hunters go back to Sanctuary going as far as to directly defy Handsome Jack. The regret in her voice after said betrayal is palpable.
• Nice Girl: She's easily a strong contender for the nicest character in the series.
• Nonstandard Character Design: She appears to the Vault Hunters as an FMV of a real woman whenever she's communicating to them until you actually reach her. Afterwards, Lilith uses the same manner of communication when she's forced to replace Angel.
• Not So Stoic: She's very composed, eloquent and articulate, but when Flanksteak say things sufficiently violent/gross even she can't help but react to them:
  Flanksteak: (...) Once my boys bring his ass back to me, [Firehawk] gonna pay for every Bloodshot he killed! We're gonna string him up from his own freakin' intestines!
  Angel: Well, that was... needlessly graphic.
  
  Flanksteak: That demonic THING will rue the goddamn day it messed with us! We're gonna make The Firehawk choke to death on his own feces!
  Angel: Dude. Ew.
  • Before she dies she finally lets all her pent-up hate out and give Handsome Jack, her father, a piece of her mind.
• One-Winged Angel: Puns aside, in Tiny Tina's Bunkers & Badasses campaign in Assault on Dragon Keep, she turns into a drider after you unchain her in the dungeon.
• Only Sane Woman: In both games. While she seems mostly unaware of the absurdity of everything going on around her in the first game, she's taken to commenting on it in the second. She's also one of the few characters who displays a fondness for Claptraps, though she acknowledges that they're largely an annoyance.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Her dialogue becomes notably less snarky and much more stilted in the second game whenever she is lying to you, such as when you encounter Wilhelm.
• Out of Focus: For as heavily plot-relevant that she is in both Borderlands and Borderlands 2, the only lines she has in The Pre-Sequel are for a side quest where Jack is scouting out prospective Vault Hunters to help his mission on Elpis, and in Fragtrap's origin echo logs, and she has no echo portrait when she speaks. Granted, the story focuses on Jack, but he uses her extensively all throughout the series. At the least, Jack keeps a framed picture of her as a child at his office desk.
• Phlebotinum Dependence: Due to Jack pumping her full of Eridium, Angel can no longer survive without it.
• Power Gives You Wings: White ones. Whether these are actually the wings she normally manifests, or if they're an effect from the Vault Key (as Lilith has the same color wings when she is being used to power the Key) is unclear.
• Power Tattoo: Like the other Sirens.
• Regretful Traitor: After Jack forced her to betray the Vault Hunters, who she saw as her friends, it's clear that she immediately feels terrible about having done it and desperately wants to make amends.
  Angel: I'm so tired of manipulating people...
• Required Secondary Powers: Her "phase shift" requires direct access to Hyperion technology. This is why in the first game, when Steele shuts down the ECHO network, she is effectively blinded, and in the second game, why Handsome Jack needs you to sneak a Hyperion power core into Sanctuary's shield network. She also cannot take control of machinery when an operator is directly controlling it. The engineers who tried to stop her from launching a Fast Travel beacon discovered that she still has control over their life support, though.
• Ron the Death Eater: In-Universe in Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep, where Tina, blaming her for Roland's death, has her counterpart in her game be Daddy's Little Villain, whereas Angel actually wanted to help the Vault hunters.
• Self-Made Orphan: Jack implies she accidentally killed her mother with her uncontrolled powers. 3 finally reveals that as a child, she was captured by a bandit intent on making himself obscenely wealthy by selling a Siren on the black market, and her mother was killed in the crossfire when she panicked and used Phaseshift to take control of his turrets.
• Shrinking Violet: Defied. She's definitely timid in Jack's presence, but she goes out of her way to make friends with the Vault Hunters.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: Her response to Jack trying to justify everything he's ever done on the grounds that it was to "protect her."
  Angel: (To the Vault Hunters) Promise me you'll kill him, friend.
• Technopath: Her Phase Shift abilities seem to manifest as an ability to manipulate technology, specifically Hyperion tech, including the means to digistruct objects at will and process enormous amounts of data. Word of God states that her siren ability is a manipulation and creation of artificial realities, in and outside of technology. In the original concept art, when the Vault Hunters cross into the Control Core, they walk into a... home. They weave through all the very normal rooms, until they find her in the kitchen. The same as what happens in game, Jack yanks her out, shattering her safe illusion. Due to time constraints and the trickiness of level building, they instead opted for the strange purple ethereal realm depicted, but apparently that's part of the same process. If they'd done it, it would have doubled a tear-jerker, all the amazing things that are only in the limits of her imagination to create, she builds the safety of a home around her. Then Jack ruins it too.
• Touched by Vorlons: Comes with being a Siren.
• Unreliable Expositor: Much of what she says in the first game about the Vault is revealed to be an outright lie in the second.
• Unrobotic Reveal: Her last appearance reveals her as a Siren, not an Artificial Intelligence.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If she wasn't held hostage by a bandit as a little girl and accidentally activating her Technopath powers to make his turret shoot wildly, she wouldn't have accidentally killed her mother, an event Jack never forgave her for, setting up her eventual solitary confinement and his Start of Darkness which begins his behind-the-scenes rise in 1, is elaborated upon in The Pre-Sequel and manifested fully in 2.
• Vague Age: It's unclear how old she is or how long Jack has held her prisoner (though definitely since childhood). A side-mission in 3 suggests she may have only been in her early to mid-teens during the events of the first game, if the drawing she did of herself with the first team of Vault Hunters is any indication, which would only put her in her late teens or just out of them around the time of her death. A piece of concept art for Borderlands 3 depicts an X-Ray from when Jack put the implants in her skull, listing her age as thirteen - her drawing of the first set of Vault Hunters depicts her as already having them.
• Voice with an Internet Connection: Regularly communicates with both sets of Vault Hunters over the ECHO network, and in the second game, is "networked into everything" on Pandora.
• Walking Spoiler: All over the franchise. Each game has a piece of her past and how she came to be.
• Wetware CPU: Among other things, this is how Jack uses her — she perpetually has the whole of the ECHOnet at her fingertips and can call up codes, blueprints, surveillance videos, recordings, or anything else digital upon request if there's a means for her to reach it (and if there isn't, she can usually come up with a way to make one). She profiled the new Vault Hunters and knows their pasts in detail. ...Except Zer0. All she can say about him is "I'unno."

BNK-3R

BNK-3R (The Bunker)

00101010

A gigantic, robotic airship built by Jack to protect Control Core Angel.

---

• Attack Its Weak Point: It has a bank of optics on top and a single eye beneath that can be shot for critical damage. Its auto-cannons also always take critical hits if shot.
• Climax Boss: The first of two boss fights marking the climax of the game's storyline, but not even close to the final one.
• Cognizant Limbs: On each pass, BNK-3R deploys auto-cannons that count as separate enemies and can be destroyed independently of the boss itself.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: It's a big target with an huge, obvious weak spot, but it makes up for it with a ton of health.
• Evil Laugh: After Jack formally lets it loose on the Hunters, it lets out a deep, distorted chuckle as its title card comes up.
• Flunky Boss: A variety of Loaders are constantly digistructed to harass you throughout the battle. Thankfully, they tend to be distracted by trying to shoot down your Buzzard support instead of you.
• Game-Breaking Bug: There exists a way to make the boss battle a complete and utter curbstomp in your favor, ending it in less than a minute. Zer0's B0re skill allows bullets to penetrate multiple targets, dealing more damage for every target penetrated. The BNK-3R happens to be very huge, and its crit-spot is big and multi-layered enough that bullets fired by Zer0 can, to put it simply, get "stuck" and deal monstrous amounts of damage. Very handy and appreciated if you're grinding, but it might ruin the flow of the fight for an ignorant player who wanted to enjoy the boss battle.
• He Was Right There All Along: Spends most of its screentime in the story patiently docked at the top of the mountain Control Core Angel resides within. It's possible you'll jump on top of it multiple times in the scramble to take out the autoguns on the tower to avoid the security lasers.
• Inconsistent Spelling: "BNK3R" in its Boss Subtitles, but written with a hyphen as "BNK-3R" on its health bar in the fight proper and in Jack's subtitles.
• Macross Missile Massacre: One of its attacks unleashes a barrage of missiles.
• Non-Indicative Name: When the Vault Hunters are plotting an attack on Control Core Angel, the part of the plan that involves outgunning the Bunker is regarded in a way that sounds likes you're storming a fortification. The reveal that it's actually a giant, flying robot atop a mountain may come as a surprise - if anything, it did for Brick.
• Peninsula of Power Leveling: Unlike most bosses, BNK-3R respawns every time you enter its area, allowing for easy farming of items and XP. Conveniently, its boss area even has a shop for you to unload all the stuff you get from grinding it.
• Speaks in Binary: Not by itself, its dialogue amounts to just deep robotic gurgling, but its Boss Subtitles are written in binary. When translated, it read 42.
• Walking Armory: More of a flying armory with more weapons mounted on it than you can count.
• Wave-Motion Gun: Once its health drops low, it will deploy an enormous slag cannon.
  Brick: Hooooly crap. That... is a big-ass gun.

Other

Hunter Hellquist

Hunter Hellquist

The DJ of This Just In!, a radio show that serves as Hyperion's main propaganda machine. He constantly broadcasts the events of the main story, but always in a way that demonizes the Vault Hunters and makes Handsome Jack seem like the good guy. Late in the game, Mordecai finally has enough of it and orders you to take him off the air. Permanently.

---

• Blatant Lies: This Just In! is chock full of them, either skewing events to make Jack sympathetic or making things up outright. Once the Vault Hunters finally go to shut him up, they catch him in the middle of perhaps his most blatant lie of all. ^*Not only can the Borderlands 2 Vault Hunters not go to Old Haven, but it most certainly doesn't have an orphanage.
  Hunter Hellquist: This just in, Pandora - the bandit scum who killed Jack's daughter has just set the Old Haven orphanage ablaze, and... (Vault Hunters enter his broadcast shack)
• King Mook: He's basically a regular human enemy with more health and shields.
• Infinity +1 Sword: He's best known as the guy who drops The Bee, considered by most one of (if not the) best shield in the game.
• Not-So-Harmless Villain: While he isn't as dangerous as Jack, Wilhelm or the Warrior by a long shot, he still turns out to be a surprisingly competent fighter when you finally come for him.
• Propaganda Machine: Constantly lies about you and the Crimson Raiders, to make raving sociopath Jack look good and you look bad. Of course, everyone knows it's utter bullshit.
• Small Name, Big Ego: One of his lines during the battle that follows when you break into the station is "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?"
• Strawman News Media: Runs a combination of Type 1 and Type 2 for Hyperion.
• Tuckerization: Partially named after Paul Hellquist, the creative director of the game.
• Written by the Winners: He's basically drafting Hyperion's version of the events of the game as they occur.

Professor Nakayama

Voiced by: Ian Sinclair

One of Handsome Jack's most loyal followers (whether he likes it or not), Professor Nakayama isn't very happy about what the Vault Hunters did to Jack. He convinces the savage natives of Aegrus to form a Cult dedicated to Handsome Jack.

---

• Abhorrent Admirer: To Handsome Jack. Whether or not Jack knows how much Nakayama is obsessed with him, he still regards him as an incompetent creep and can barely get his name right.
• Arch-Enemy: He's thrilled to be one to the Vault Hunters, just as they and Jack were nemeses.
  Nakayama: Can I just say — super-pumped we're archenemies now.
• Avenging the Villain: He wants revenge for Jack's death.
• Back from the Dead: Wants to do this for Handsome Jack through cloning. Specifically, he wishes to create an army of Eridium-enhanced Jacks. At the very least, he successfully created an A.I. of Jack stored within his I.D. drive.
• Bald of Evil: Although much more of the "sad combover" sort rather than the more diabolical Lex Luthor/Ernst Blofeld look.
• Big Bad: Despite being treated as a complete joke, he's still the one in the DLC who is setting obstacles for the Vault Hunters to overcome.
• Big Bad Wannabe: Although the legitimate Big Bad of Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, the game mercilessly treats him as one, making him an Unknown Rival to the Vault Hunters, and who only go after him when Hammerlock deduces killing him is the only way to shut him up. And on top of all that, he dies by falling down some stairs before you actually get to fight him. He probably gives General Knoxx a run for the money in the Butt-Monkey department. When the Vault Hunters actually decide to go after him, he quickly realizes that he's in over his head and completely unprepared to deal with you. In fact, the storyline's structure indicates that it treats his plot as the side quest of the DLC, rather than the actual side quests, which were the nominal point of going to Aegrus in the first place.
• Body Horror: Aside from what seems to be Eridium growing all over his body, Nakayama has a cannon similar to the ones used by Hyperion Engineers built into his back. Tales of the Borderlands implies that he did the former as some sort of male enhancement therapy.
• Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Despite his many personal failings, the dude was able to engineer at least two giant Immune to Bullets genetic monstrosities (especially impressive as he's actually a horticulturalist and not a geneticist), create a perfect A.I. copy of Handsome Jack's mind, and even managed to create a (admittedly extremely flawed) clone of the most dangerous entity the universe had ever known.
• Card-Carrying Villain: Tries to act like a stereotypical Borderlands villain, but this quickly falls apart the moment you actually start messing up his plans and plowing through his men and monsters. By the end of it he realizes just how in over his head he was, to the point that Hammerlock was giving him pointers on how to be an effective villain (which he ignores due to the panic).
• Chekhov's Gun: The Handsome Jack A.I. that he built in Pre-Sequel will eventually play a bigger role in Tales.
• Cosmic Plaything: Nothing seems to go right for this guy and when we say nothing it's really nothing. In chronological order: he gets caught by the Lost Legion and is nearly murdered, Jack (the person he idolizes) hate his guts, he mucks up the clone of The Destroyer, messes with the wrong group of Vault Hunters during Hammerlock's vacation, and dies in one of the most humiliating ways possible even for Borderlands standards which is saying a lot.
• Didn't Think This Through: He apparently wanted to play the part of your nemesis, but evidently did not think the role through enough. He's flabbergasted that you would pre-emptively destroy the Handsome Jack DNA samples rather than let him ressurect Jack for a final big confrontation, and when you easily beat Woundspike he has a minor breakdown as he realizes you're probably serious about killing him, and he doesn't have Joker Immunity.
• Dragon Ascendant: A loyal follower and employee of Handsome Jack, who's the new Big Bad.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Sort of. If you look at the ads in Sanctuary, you'll see a few from him.
• Fan Boy: He's Handsome Jack's biggest fan. Meeting Jack in person made him the happiest man alive, in his words. Similarly, Jack's death made him the saddest man alive. He also thinks that by trying to be your nemesis, he's becoming just like Jack. He's evidently so devoted that he gives his most powerful minions/creations Jack masks, including an absolutely massive one for Woundspike. In Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, this trait is Flanderized into him being just plain in love with the guy. He gives you multiple sidequests dedicated to helping him woo Jack, which always turn out badly.

  Nisha: Man, it is going to break your heart when I hit that.

• Freudian Excuse: Hinted at - one mission prompt has "Boys are mean to you because they really like you" as the flavor text. In which case, Nakayama had a really shitty mother.
• Foil: To Handsome Jack and Mr. Torgue.
  • In terms of Jack: Jack is confident, level-headed, sarcastic, self-centered, magnanimous, not afraid of the player character at all, has perfect plans, is expert at manipulating his enemies, is irreverent to the point of being physically incapable of spending 30 seconds without cracking a joke, and when he dies he makes sure to do it in the most badass way possible. Nakayama, to the contrary, is a completely un-cool dork, centered on Jack at his own expense, keeps constantly spoiling his own plans by blurting them out himself, is dead afraid of the player character, in general sucks so much at being like Jack that Sir Hammerlock at one point loses it and advices him on how to be a cool villain, and his death is as un-badass as Jack's death was badass. To emphasize on the deaths of both of these characters, both happen right after defeating the giant monster that serves as the real climax, but while the player has the option to gun down Jack at any time (or let Lilith do it), Nakayama's death happens automatically.
  • In terms of Torgue: Torgue is friendly, kind, loud, huge, muscular, crude, childish, dumb, and focused on explosions and destruction. Nakayama, to the contrary, is mean, un-cool, small, frail, humorless, has the social grace of a potato, is highly knowledgeable, and is focused on conquering the world through science.
• Genius Ditz: According to The Pre-Sequel, he actually has a degree in horticulture, and lied about being a geneticist just to get hired by Hyperion. However, he shows at least some skill in creating genetic abominations (though not always to scale, as he once created a Fun Size version of The Destroyer), and was somehow able to create a Virtual Ghost of Jack.
• I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!: He has a bad habit of blurting out important details of his plans and talking about how the only way to stop him is to kill him.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: His plans aren't very good, he comes off as pitiful at best in conversation, and he's scared to death of you. The fact that he doesn't even get a character intro should speak volumes about how insignificant he is in the grand scheme of things. It gets to a point where Hammerlock tries to give him advice on how to be a proper villain.
• Inelegant Blubbering: Upon learning of Jack's death, after he vows to avenge him, Nakayama breaks down in absolutely pathetic blubbering.
• Mad Libs Catch Phrase: In his ECHO Logs, he always starts off with "I'm the [adjective] man alive!" ^note "I'm the happiest man alive!" "I'm the saddest man alive!" "I'm the most ambivalent man alive!"
• Not So Harmless: Not directly, but after all his minions and creations have failed to slow down the Vault Hunters, he unleashes the monstrously powerful Jackenstein. But after it falls he is still pathetic.
• Oh, Crap!: Gets a serious case of this when you defeat Woundspike, who was apparently one of his tougher experiments and you took it down without breaking a sweat. He immediately gets a case of this again when he accidentally blurts out how to permanently stop him (see I'll Never Tell You What I'm Telling You!).
• Remember the New Guy?: Parodied - when Nakayama assumes the Vault Hunters are after his "power" on Aegrus, Hammerlock bluntly tells him they were on a hunting expedition, and didn't know him. When Nakayama sputters his name, his nickname, the fact he poisoned Atlas' CEO, and how people are "terrified" of him, it still doesn't ring any bells for Hammerlock nor the Vault Hunters, causing Nakayama to hang up in exasperation.
• Small Name, Big Ego: He refers to himself as the "Hyperion's Scourge", and mentions he poisoned Atlas' CEO. He also calls the Vault Hunter an asshole out of genuine surprise that they hadn't heard of him yet.
• Small Role, Big Impact: While he only appears in a DLC in the second game as well a side quest in Pre-Sequel, his actions in both games plays a major role in Tales, namely creating an A.I. of Handsome Jack as part of the latter's resurrection.
• Staircase Tumble: How he dies. He loses his footing and falls down a flight of stairs, dying upon reaching the bottom.
• Stalker Shrine: While it's never seen, one of his idle dialogue in the Pre-Sequel has him mention having one.
• Stalker with a Crush:
  • Although Handsome Jack's handsomeness is something of a Running Gag, Nakayama goes into enough detail to sound like a smitten teenage girl in the ECHO recording he made about meeting Jack in person. Even though Jack threatened to strangle him for making eye-contact. All the safes containing Jack's DNA samples also contain framed photographs. Also, just how did Nakayama get those DNA samples...?
  • The Pre-Sequel shows that Nakayama was obsessed with Jack even before he became Handsome Jack. His sidequests are all about him attempting to show Jack his affections for him in various creepy ways.
• Too Dumb to Live: Antagonizing the Vault Hunters doesn't end well for him. Not to mention that having a creepy crush on a masked sociopath who absolutely hates you and voices it at every opportunity is pretty much the bottom of the intellectual barrel.
• Undignified Death: He's prepared to go out fighting the heroes but doesn't get the chance as he falls down a flight of stairs, ending his life.
• Undying Loyalty: For whatever reason, he's fanatically devoted to Handsome Jack, even though Jack can barely stand him.
• The Unfought: He falls down some stairs and dies before you get the chance to fight him. Fittingly, the final mission of Big Game Hunt is titled "The Fall of Nakayama".
• Unknown Rival: Acts as this to the Vault Hunters, since they care more about Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt over his evil schemes, and only go after him to shut him up.
• Villainous Breakdown: Starts to panic when he realizes the Vault Hunters are slaughtering his men. It gets worse when you go after him directly.
• We Can Rule Together: He tries this on the Vault Hunters in order to stop them from killing him, trying to list the upsides to cloning Jack that apply to them...and being unable to come up with any.

Gladstone

Gladstone Katoa

Voiced by: Rupert Degas

"I AM a doctor, but more the "Hyperion R&D" kind."

A Hyperion Scientist that got trapped on Elpis after his escort bodyguards were killed. He only avoided death himself by telling the scavs that he's a medic. Later rescued by Jack, he helps Jack and the vault hunters to build the robot army and creates the very first Constructor.

---

• Apologizes a Lot: He's constantly apologizing for everything, which the player characters comment on. It's a lot more serious however when dealing with Felicity.
• Gadgeteer Genius: Prior to you finding him, he somehow managed to scrounge up enough tech to build an "Eyeforger", which can break down devices to their basic components to fabricate the Constructor's Eye.
• Nice Guy: Is always polite and enthusiastic whenever talking to people, and has a habit of saying "sorry" a lot.
• Not That Kind of Doctor: He lied to his Scav captors that he's a medic. He is a Doctor, but of the robotics kind.
• The Smart Guy: He's the guy that will build Jack the Robot Army needed to take back Helios. Jack later remembers that Gladstone set up Helio's R&D wing all by himself.
• Squishy Wizard: He's incredibly smart and founded Helios's R&D division, but has absolutely no idea how to fight. This is why his prototype constructor is not complete; he wasn't brave enough to gather any components behind a gun by himself.
• Teen Genius: While his actual age is unclear, he is clearly much younger than the Vault Hunters.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His one-off comment about a possible traitor feeding Zarpedon intel caused Jack to become paranoid enough to space him and three other scientists, the act of which caused Roland, Lilith and Moxxi to start doubting Jack's intentions.
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Jack has him and three of his colleagues vacuumed into space when Gladstone mentioned that there's the possibility of another mole on Helios, but not before he had the four hack the controls to retain control from Zarpedon.

Doctor Spara

Voiced by: Jamie Marchi

A really, really enthusiastic Hyperion scientist abroad the Helios in the Research and Development area. She enlist the Vault Hunters to help test a rocket navigational system using brains.

---

• Awesome, but Impractical: Building a rocket guidance system using actual brains is a creative, if depraved and disturbing, idea. But when one said brain belongs to an enemy soldier and almost try to kill you using the rocket you just uploaded his brain into, you're better off just using a regular guidance system.
  • She actually pays you just because a scientist stupidly gets himself sucked into the vacuum of space. Because vacuums are awesome.
• Cloudcuckoolander: It may speak enough about her to say that characters like Tiny Tina and Patricia Tannis look more sane than she does.
• Ditzy Genius: She's utterly insane, granted, but she still at least has enough sense to know how customize a rocket. And use brains to set up a guidance system (And not much beyond that).
• For Science!: Science and learning is awesome, and she will let you know this at any given opportunity.
  Spara: Science! Formulas! Microscopes! LEARNING!
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Almost. Her first experiment with the Tork brain just results in the rocket flying all over space before detonating. The second rocket with a Lost Legion soldiers' brain turns around after launching and strikes the viewing glass (Luckily it held). The last rocket, manned by a Tork and a human brain that was blended together, apparently set itself on a course for her house. She sees no downside to this.
  Spara: YEAAAH! WE DID IT! SCREW MY HOUSE!
• Mad Scientist: Considering her experiments involve using Tork and human brains as a rocket guidance system...
• Obliviously Evil: Black Comedy aside, her rocket experiments are utterly messed up.
• Rule of Cool: The only reason she does what she does. She even pays you when a scientist jettisons himself out into space by opening a window just cause'.
  Spara: Vacuums! We all learn stuff today!

Yvette

Yvette

Your other best friend (Requisitions & Lunch Leech).

As seen in Tales from the Borderlands

Played by: Sola Bamis

A friend of Rhys and Vaughn that works in Requisitions, Yvette is able to help them out by getting them stuff and using the Moonshot Cannon to deliver things to Pandora, as well as watching their backs to keep them safe.

---

• The Atoner: If you allow her to pull a Heel–Face Turn, she'll attempt to make up for her cruel actions.
• Back for the Finale: If Rhys decides to pull Yvette out of prison in the final Episode, she'll be seen along with Vaughn in the new Helios colony on Pandora, finally realized betraying Rhys was a mistake.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Episode 4 reveals she's been working with Vasquez to betray Rhys and Vaughn ever since they landed on Pandora.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: She appears to be a loyal friend at first, but that quickly changed once Rhys and Vaughn left Helios; she took Vasquez's deal to betray the duo, and doesn't at all regret it, becoming quite the lying, greedy asshole.
• Bus Crash: Possibly. Even if she survived Helios’ fall, the Commander Lilith DLC reveals that Hector slaughtered all of the survivors.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder:
  • Episode 4 reveals this since she actually betray both Rhys and Vaughn out for her own self profit. She even goes this far to do the same with 'Vasquez' although she didn't realize that Vasquez is Rhys in disguise.
  • Come Episode 5, she'll gleefully backstab Hyperion in order to help Rhys, just because he seems in control at that point.
• Comically Small Bribe: Rhys offers to buy her lunch to help in their scheme. It works.
• Easily Forgiven: Should you choose to spare her, the fact that she betrayed Rhys and Vaughn is never brought up again and she's welcomed with open arms.
• The Fixer: Works in the Hyperion requisition and supply department, and is able to pull strings to get Rhys and Vaughn what they need.
• Heel–Face Turn: If Rhys chooses to spare her when at his mercy, she'll genuinely reform and accept Rhys' leadership for real.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: If Rhys lets her out of jail in Episode 5, she'll try to make amends by helping him escape. Rhys has the opportunity to drop her out an airlock soon after.
• Hypocrite: She accuses Vasquez of being only out for himself... which she also is.
• I Fight for the Strongest Side!: Easily takes the route much faster than Rhys, since Rhys himself was already at a respectable position in Helios. Why she took Vasquez as an offer is merely out of being more powerful than the former. Until then, she returned to Rhys since everything else on Helios is becoming more and more in shambles than they ever were.
• The Mole: She sold Rhys and Vaughn out to Vasquez because she wants the reward for recovering the Handsome Jack AI in Rhys's head.
• Ms. Fanservice: Yvette is attractive, and wears a suit that accentuates her curves and exposes her shapely legs.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • If Rhys chooses to stun her, she recognizes his stun baton and has a priceless expression when she realizes that she's not talking to Vasquez.
  • Also happens if Rhys chooses to sic Dumpy on her, at which point he switches off his voice changer and tells her who he really is before letting her have it.
• Only Sane Woman: Finds much of Rhys and Vaughn's plan to be lunacy. Which begs the question: why is she working for Hyperion?
• Pretty Freeloader: Rhys considers her a mooch who makes him buy lunch for her, though she's at least much more useful than other examples.
• Race Lift: Formerly Rhys' French (and less helpful) secretary in earlier versions of the script. Though it is possible that she was still black and just had a different accent.
• Rewarded as a Traitor Deserves: Rhys can give Yvette her just desserts for her betrayal by shocking her with the shock baton she gave him or sending Dumpy after her. He can also leave her for dead right before Helios crashes.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!:
  • After Vasquez finds out about Rhys and Vaughn's actions, she tells Rhys that she can't help him anymore for fear of being found out and killed. Subverted, as she's actually refusing to help them because she decided to sell them out to Vasquez.
  • If you keep her alive in episode 5 she'll eventually hijack a escape pod and leave Rhys behind. It gets subverted when she makes it at the finale, helping Vaughn control the Helios laser cannon.
• Self-Serving Memory / Skewed Priorities: If Rhys shocks Yvette during Episode 4, she confronts him about this "betrayal" when he runs into her in the cells during episode 5. If Rhys points out that she sold Vaughn and himself out to Vasquez and nearly got the two of them killed, she reacts as if being struck with a stun baton is the worse of the two deeds.
• Took a Level in Kindness: If you allow her to pull a Heel–Face Turn.

Loader Bot (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Loader Bot/The Stranger

01000110 01110010 01101001 01100101 01101110 01100100

^{Click here to see it as The Stranger}

Played by: Raison Varner

The Stranger played by: Roger L. Jackson

A bandit who's captured both Rhys and Fiona and is making them tell the story of their involvement with the Gortys Project. In all reality, he's an Hyperion Loader sent by Yvette to protect Rhys and Vaughn.

In addition to being an Ace Custom model, it shows more intelligence and autonomy than previous loaders thanks to post-Jack Hyperion policies, both traits that develop further during his time with Rhys and Fiona.

Thematically speaking, he is the main protagonist of the story.

---

• Ace Custom: According to Jack, Loader Bot is a heavily customized BUL Loader.
• Adaptational Badass: While regular loader bots aren't much of a challenge as long as you've got a good weapon in the main series, this loader bot is quite durable, capable of taking heavy gunfire with no problem and can equip fairly potent weaponry, as well as fly. Becomes an Exaggerated Trope by the Stranger when it sends Athena flying with a single throw. Bear in mind that Unreliable Narrator is very much a recurring theme. Given the Stranger is Loader Bot and isn't known to lie to anyone, it's likely that Fiona was lying, although it could also be possible that it did happen and Loader Bot was testing to see if Fiona wouldn't change her story to downplay being saved by a robot.
• An Arm and a Leg: Loses a few limbs in episode 1 and both legs, in Episode 3. He spends the rest of the chapter running around on his hands.
• Badass Boast: "Lo! I am become death, destroyer of bandits!"
• Bilingual Bonus: The eventual subtitle he is given is binary for Friend.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: It has the legendary Quasar grenade as part of its arsenal.
• Big Damn Heroes: Loader Bot's main purpose in the story is to save the characters when things get bad.
  • His intro in the series has him being fired from the Moonshot Cannon at a group of Bandits ready to murder Rhys and Vaughn for being Hyperion lackeys.
  • He can save Fiona and Sasha from Athena just as they were cornered in an alleyway.
  • Also can do this when Rhys and Vaughn are running away from Vasquez.
• The Big Guy: As far as the group goes, Loader Bot's the most combat capable individual in the team and generally serves to bail the others out of sticky situations.
• Brutal Honesty: He's rather frank about telling Gortys about all of Rhys' screw-ups while he's trying to get her caught up on current events.
  Rhys: Wow. Thanks.
  Loader Bot: I cannot hold back your tide of bad decisions.
• Butt-Monkey: Suffers more than its fair share of abuse, but unlike those inflicted on Rhys, its injuries and mishaps are played more for drama.
• Cast as a Mask: Both of its personalities don't share the same voice.
• Catchphrase: "Hi."
• Cyber Cyclops: As per Hyperion Loaders, this Loader Bot only has one eye. It's an early hint that he's the Stranger.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • More deadpan than most, due to his robotic voice. Somehow, wearing the Stranger's mask to electronically distort his voice even further makes him sound less like a robot. He can still get pretty emotive though.
  • If Rhys or Fiona end up dying in the story, the Stranger will dryly ask them if they want to stick with that. In hindsight, this character trait was probably one of the biggest hints as to his true identity.
• Determinator: To an almost ridiculous extent in Episode 3, and even further in Episode 5.
• Disproportionate Retribution: It wasn't aware that Fiona and Sasha were in danger in Hollow Point if Rhys chose to take Vaughn and Loader Bot there, and just flung Athena halfway across town because she called it "stupid" and insulted its combat capabilities. Maybe. When Fiona brings this up, the Stranger is skeptical that a Loader Bot would be capable of doing such a thing which is justified because he is Loader Bot and knows what really happened.
• A Dog Named "Dog": Everyone just calls him Loader Bot.
• The Dog Was the Mastermind: The final episode reveals their identity is none other than Loader Bot, using Jack's prototype robotic endoskeleton as a body after his old one was too badly damaged.
• Doomed New Clothes: If you somehow managed to scrounge up enough money to buy him a new paint job during Episode 3, he still ends up charred and torn up by the chapter's conclusion.
• Duct Tape for Everything: Appears to be the method used to restrain Rhys and Fiona. This gets turned against him in the end.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: He goes through hell across the story, sacrificing himself multiple times to save his friends until the only thing left of him was his eye, and in the present has spent a long time gathering Gortys's parts and getting the team back together to save her from the Vault monster she's trapped with. He succeeds.
• Et Tu, Brute?: One of the reason for their interrogation of Rhys and Fiona was to learn why Fiona killed Gortys.
• Eye Scream: No one knows how he managed to get his AI core for an eye mounted onto Jack's "immortality" robot, considering what's pretty much left of him since the series set off.
• The Faceless: They wear a face-obscuring gasmask. Turns out he doesn't have much of a face to obscure.
• Flat "What": When he realizes that Vasquez has a universal remote for Loader Bots.
• Foreshadowing: The series drops a few hints as to the true identity of the Stranger:
  • Fiona in Episode 3 notes that they would have to be someone who already has an intimate understanding of the story, considering they know about Gortys, meaning that they would have to be someone they already know.
  • In Episode 4, Fiona states that she recognizes their outfit, but can't quite put her finger on who they are. In Episode 5, we see some Helios staff wearing these suits, and Fiona remembers that's where she originally saw them.
  • Also in Episode 4, a Conference Call with identical parts to the Stranger's (Hyperion grip, Torgue stock, Torgue sight) is seen in Handsome Jack's office. Loader Bot likely took it from the wreckage of Helios after getting his new body.
  • The comment they make about knowing what it's like to lose someone they care about in Episode 4 when giving condolences to Fiona over Scooter's death seems like a simple comment. It takes on new meaning when you learn that they're actually Loader Bot trying to get information from Fiona and Rhys on why the former killed Gortys, who Loader Bot became attached to through the course of the story.
  • In Episode 2 Loader Bot will arrive and toss away Athena, to which the Stranger says is impossible. Fiona then says that the stranger "wasn't there". The Stranger only objects like that to made-up parts of the story (with one exception where Sasha was trying to kick Rhys out, but Rhys confirmed it was true), hinting that, yes, he was there. Of course, considering he'll express equal levels of skepticism to all versions of the story, he may have in this case just been checking whether or not Fiona would undersell his importance.
• Freudian Threat: The Stranger threatens Rhys' nethers with a shotgun to not be a "smartass".
• Gatling Good:
  • One of the primary weapons it can equip is a gatling gun.
  • 3 triple barreled gatling guns actually.
  • A Hyperion Autocannon specifically, that fires shock bullets, is terrifyingly accurate and extremely powerful.
• Hero of Another Story: His reveal as the Stranger turns out to be playing this trope ever since Rhys left for months after taking Atlas into his own hands, having contacts of various people he, Rhys and Fiona have been throughout the series.
  • Even then, he is the main protagonist all along by saving Gortys.
• Heroic Sacrifice:
  • In episode one, it is heavily injured while trying to help Rhys and Vaughn escape bandits. Rhys is given the option of ordering it to self-destruct or to escape.
  • Does it again, more permanently this time, in Episode 5. It was never going to fit on an escape pod, and so chooses to just throw Rhys into one before getting shot down by Kroger. However, it's later revealed that it survived Helios' destruction, replacing its body with Jack's prototype endoskeleton.
• Hidden Depths: Scanning him with the ECHO-Eye reveals he has a poetry extension, fears Dying Alone, learning that life has no meaning, and clowns. Later on you learn he is the Stranger, and set into motion everything after the flashback to reunite himself with Gortys, who he clearly loves.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: The Huge Guy to Gortys' Tiny Girl. Even in his new body, he still towers over her base form.
• Informed Attribute: The Grenades it's using are apparently Longbow Quasars, yet they act more or less like generic longbow shock grenades, with neither the tesla nor singularity effect of the Quasar.
• The Lost Lenore: His true motivation is to find out why Fiona and Sasha destroyed Gortys, having shown up just in time to see the two of them blow her to bits but too late to hear her asking them to do it, making it appear to him like a betrayal.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: It can be equipped with a Riot Shield that it uses to either bulldoze bandits or to bash them aside.
• Machine Monotone: On occasion, a hint at his true nature.
• Made of Iron: As mentioned prior, he goes through hell throughout the series, loses limbs on multiple occasions and survives the crashing of Helios whilst inside it and still keeps on going, using his remaining arm to drag himself to Jack's office and transplant his eye onto Jack's prototype endoskeleton. There's a reason he's one of the Vault Hunters in his own right by the end.
• Mysterious Stranger: The Stranger's true identity and motive is a recurring mystery of the series.
• No Name Given: They are only ever referred to as "That guy" by Rhys or Fiona, though the credits list them as The Stranger.
• Not the Intended Use: In-Universe, Rhys ends up combining several of its weapons together and overriding the safety limiters to turn out some warranty-voiding carnage.
• Only Sane Man: Rapidly grows frustrated with Fiona and Rhys's constant arguing.
• Out of Focus: Gets noticeably a lot less screen time and lines in episode 4 compared to previous ones. Then a lot more in Episode 5.
• Pet the Dog: In Episode 4, they solemnly offer their condolences to Fiona after hearing her account of Scooter's death, going on to say that they also know what it's like to lose someone they care about.
• The Reveal: The Stranger is actually Loader Bot, having plugged his eye onto Jack's robotic endoskeleton looking to learn about the circumstances surrounding Gortys' initial destruction as well as to reassemble her and kill the Traveler to ensure that she stays around for good.
• Robot Buddy: According to Vaughn, after Jack's death Hyperion robots have become more self-aware. In the case of this one, assuming that Rhys told him to save himself in the first episode, it is very loyal to him to the point that it can even consider him a father-figure.
  Loader Bot: Righteous father, I have found you! (thumbs up)
• Sarcastic Devotee/Sour Supporter:
  • He becomes this if you decide to have him self-destruct rather than evacuate in Chapter 1, retaining his loyalty to Rhys while still holding a grudge.
    Loader Bot: Oh. Look who needs help again.
  • It's still pretty damn sarcastic even if you tell it to evacuate, but it only really shows in later episodes.
• Savvy Guy, Energetic Girl: Has this dynamic with Gortys.
• Shed Armor, Gain Speed: Loses his legs and spends the last third of episode 3 running on his hands, and he hauls ass when he does so.
• Ship Tease: With Gortys. Dialogue cut from episode 3 would have had Rhys question him about it.
• Shock and Awe: It can be equipped with Quasar grenades that can stick to walls and electrocute enemies.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: They carry the legendary Conference Call, which is considered one of the best shotguns in Borderlands 2.
• Shoulder Cannon: Rhys can equip a shoulder-mounted missile launcher on it.
• Taking You with Me: Can go through two unwilling examples in episode 1. If you have him self-destruct, he'll take out what's left of the attacking bandits out in a huge explosion. If you have him evacuate, the surviving bandits will try to cling to him as he tries to leave and he'll smash them against the ground to throw them off so he doesn't literally take them with him.
• Three Laws-Compliant: By the final episode of Tales..., Loader Bot fulfills the three laws completely.
  • One, he didn't injure Rhys nor Fiona throughout the series.
  • Two, obeys all commands Rhys given to him even if he is snarky about them.
  • Three, survived the fall of Helios and mounts himself on Jack's endoskeleton to continue his existence as the Stranger.
• Took a Level in Badass: Already quite a bit more resilient than most Loaders in Borderlands 2, Loader Bot goes beyond them all by the end of the game, having wired his eye into Jack's near indestructible endoskeleton and become classed as a Vault Hunter in his own right.
• Tritagonist: Taking all of his scenes, including the ones as The Stranger, into account, he has more screen time and plot relevance than either Sasha or Vaughn.
• Weapon Specialization: Carries the legendary Hyperion Conference Call shotgun. Loader Bot presumably took the Conference Call from Jack's office with him when he reassembled his own body.
• The Worf Effect: If things get pretty bad, then expect Loader Bot to come into the scene to fix the situation. If things get REALLY bad, then expect it to get taken out of commission in some way.

Vasquez

Hugo Vasquez

Your Hyperion nemesis.

Played by: Patrick Warburton

A business rival to Rhys, Vasquez recently became Senior Vice-President of Securities Propaganda after the previous VP Henderson had an 'accident' with the airlock. He's in the process of making a deal for a Vault Key with August, which Rhys catches wind of and proceeds to screw up.

---

• An Arm and a Leg: If Jack helps you take over the security bots at the Atlas facility, you have the option to target Vasquez and blast his arm off. Notably, this is the arm holding Loader Bot's remote control, which allows Vaughn to take the remote and smash it. Although he doesn't spend very much time this way because Vallory murders him soon after.
• Asshole Victim: Considering that he's been trying to kill Rhys and Vaughn for the majority of the game, it's safe to say that nobody mourned her after his own Bad Boss guns him down.
• Ax-Crazy: He can be a bit nonchalant about it sometimes, but still. Vasquez is generally a lot less calm than August, and he tries to kill Rhys and Vaughn three times. And while August tells his bandits to guard Vaughn and Sasha, Vasquez tells his goons to shoot them if they even move. Furthermore, he clearly wants Rhys and Vaughn dead, as evidenced whenever he talks to the two friends.
• Bad Boss: To Rhys and Vaughn. His first business conversation with Rhys involves demoting him to janitor after nonchalantly threatening to kill him if he refuses.
• Beard of Evil: He has a beard fitting for a corporate douchebag.
• Berserk Button: If Rhys mocks him as "Wallethead", Vasquez drops all niceties and calmly threatens to make a wallet out of his skin.
• Big Bad Wannabe: While he's a major problem and drives the characters to their goals in a majority of the first episode, he's barely more than a thug for August and Vallory's group when he winds up on Pandora and quickly dies in Episode 3 due to the latter growing tired of him and having accomplished his task anyway.
• Bling-Bling-BANG!: His personal handgun is a purple-rarity Hyperion impact, and his Penetrating Overcompensator has the same colour scheme as purple Hyperion shotguns. He's later seen with what seems to be a Jakobs Coach Gun with a custom finish similar to Borderlands 2's "Citrine" one, which was only available in a DLC.
• The Brute: Hateful, greedy, and dim in spots.
• Catchphrase: According to his profile on Rhys's ECHO-Eye, he has a few; "Rock and Roll", "Lock and Load" and "Ain't No Thang" (the latter is apparently said ironically).
• The Chessmaster: Episode 4 basically reveals he made an attempt at this in regards to the Hyperion crew, secretly making separate deals with Yvette, Vaughn, and Rhys to double cross one another (Rhys being the only possible exception if the player chooses not to accept his deal, and Vaughn claiming he only took the deal to keep Vasquez off their backs). Yvette took the deal hook line and sinker, though.
• Corrupt Corporate Executive: Standard protocol for Hyperion suits.
• Cyborg: Marking the precise point at which the franchise has decided to start parodying its reliance on cybernetic limbs, he's replaced his left pinky finger.
• Dirty Coward: He becomes a blubbering wimp when Vallory confronts him, and repeatedly insists that it's not his fault that the deal was messed up, and that it never is his fault.
• Disc-One Final Boss: He's a formidable threat in the first two acts. Not so much in the third.
• Decoy Antagonist: Initially introduced as the initial antagonist who drives character motivations, he's revealed to be little more than a corporate lackey for Vallory in the end.
• Embarrassing Nickname: "Wallethead", a nickname that Jack gave him when he stuffed money in his hair implants.
• Establishing Character Moment: Within his introduction, Vasquez presents himself as an arrogant douchebag who sees everyone else as either inferiors or obstacles. Oh, he also gets Henderson killed too putting "murderous" in his list.
• Evil Counterpart: Like Rhys, he was a low-level Hyperion goon who aspired to be something greater, thinks he's smarter than he actually is, and looks up to Handsome Jack. Unlike Rhys, he doesn't have any particularly loyal or pragmatic traits, is easy to anger and annoy when nothing goes his way, and his love of Handsome Jack creeps even Rhys out.
• Evil Is Hammy: While he's trying to run Rhys and Vaughn down with his car. "I'M GONNA KILL YOU!"
• Faux Affably Evil: Sure, he can talk to you in a pleasant tone of voice at times, but almost every line that comes from him implies that he would like to murder you horribly. After lecturing Rhys politely in Episode 2, he hits him in the gut for fun, which manages to disgust and stun even Jack.
• Fingore: If you look closely, one of his pinky fingers is cybernetic, possibly from pissing off either Vallory or another Pandoran criminal in the past.
• Freudian Excuse: Jack claims that Vasquez is the way he is because of him. He then laughs it off.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: He started out working in Hyperion's mail room.
• Gorn: Vallory murders him with his new Citrine Coach Gun in Episode 3. Oddly enough, he got off lucky. In 2, when you shoot something with a shotgun at close range, they'll either get a giant bloody patch across their whole body, have a limb or two, or even three or four, hacked off or explode into dark red gibs. Here, the shot simply sends his ribcage poking through the gigantic hole in his chest. Then Psychos rip off his face to use as a mask and Rhys has to recover it.
• Hated by All: Nobody likes him on Helios.
• Hero-Worshipper: Like Rhys, Vasquez claims to admire Handsome Jack, seeing his former role as the man's former punching bag as a sign that the two had a special bond. Jack for his part found it difficult to remember the man until he remembers him as the bald guy whose head he stuck money into.
• Hypocrite: Despite all his hero-worship of Handsome Jack and his insistence on his cruel treatment of Rhys being for his betterment as a harsh mentor like he believed Jack was to him, he drops all friendly pretense the second Rhys calls him "Wallethead", the name Jack referred to Vasquez while tormenting him by sticking money into his hair plugs, and mentions morbid plans to have Rhys' skin turned into a wallet cover for doing so. Showing despite all his talk, Vasquez hated Jack as much as anyone else for his treatment and is using his empty excuses to justify his own viciousness.
• Humiliation Conga: Let's see... Gets his deal hijacked by Rhys, Vaughn and Yvette, gets his car stolen, hurts himself headbutting Rhys, can be ran over by his other car (or potentially harmed by a faulty shotgun), can be verbally humilated while having a gun pointed at the one he's trying to bully, can have his arm blown off by an Atlas drone, and lastly can get the fall for the deal gone wrong which finally gets him killed (earlier than normal). Even in death he doesn't catch a break: his face gets torn off by a Psycho for a "skin pizza party", Finch accidentally blows his corpse to pieces and needs to be gathered almost like pieces of garbage and he gets returned to Helios in a wheeled backpack.
• Ink-Suit Actor: Looks kind of like Patrick Warburton with a huge beard and fake pompadour.
• Irony: His rise to power was partially due to him being cozy with the Pandoran underworld. These same connections wind up getting him killed.
  • For a double dose of Dramatic Irony, Vasquez makes grandiose claims that Jack used him as his personal punching bag and that he embodied Jack's legacy to Rhys, who has AI Jack currently living in his cyberbrain, the same AI who only remembered Vasquez a moment later because he used to be bald with bad hair implants. Making it a triple dose of Irony, in the fourth episode, the Handsome Jack AI states that his purpose was to find Hyperion's throne a worthy successor, which he found in Rhys.
• It's All About Me:
  • In Episodes 1 and 2, his constant egotistical dialogue and verbal abuse to everyone he sees makes Jack actually seem like a friendly guy who you would chat with over lunch. This is especially present in Episode 2, where Jack makes cheerful jokes to lighten the mood and stop Vasquez's boring and narcissistic lecture about how he became an amazing executive.
  • He stops in the middle of the corridor to lecture Rhys, but not before punching Rhys in the gut for fun.
• Jerkass:
  • You know that you're a definite jerk if you manage to disgust (and potentilly creep) Handsome Jack himself.
  • In Episode 2, he annoys everyone in the Gortys facility. He insults Rhys and Vaughn, freezes Loader Bot with a remote, taunts August for getting shocked by the core and wastes a lot of time swaggering around while mocking Rhys and spouting egotistical dialogue.
• Kick the Dog:
  • Not only does he have Rhys "promoted" to Senior-Vice Janitor but socks him across the face if he shows defiance.
  • He tries to make Rhys and Vaughn dig their own graves in Episode 2.
  • In the facility, he verbally abuses everyone, including August, and laughs at them.
  • Later on, he punches Rhys in the gut because he can, which shocks Jack. If Rhys taunts Vasquez calling him "wallethead" he says he'll make a wallet out of Rhys' skin which creeps out, again, Jack. And, trust us, someone who manages to shock and creep Handsome Jack in short order is definitely not a good person.
• Klingon Promotion: He had his predecessor Thrown Out the Airlock.
• Loony Fan: Even more-so than Rhys when it comes to Handsome Jack, considering that Vasquez looks like he's trying to make his hair look like Jack's. Vasquez fondly remembers Jack publicly humiliating him, mocking his baldness, and punching him in the face every time they met (so hard that he once chipped a tooth). Vasquez believed this was because he was Jack's favorite; ironically, Jack barely even remembers him save for his disparaging nickname "Wallethead".
• Not So Harmless: Dumb enough to be infuriating, smart enough to be a threat.
• The Rival: To Rhys, whom he only just got a major one-up over.
• Seemingly Profound Fool: He's a boorish idiot who thinks he's smarter than he actually is. Whenever he tries to deliver something more profound it still comes off a pretentious, immature, stupid, and shallower than a drop of water on the ground.
  Vasquez: Look... you wanna know why I'm in that chair... and you're not? For the exact same reason why North is North, why the handsome guy always gets the girl, and why every spaceship in the universe is shaped like a cock. It's destiny, Rhys.
  
  Vasquez: Rhys. Rhys... Rhys, Rhys, Rhys... Only the fool thinks that he escapes his shadow in darkness.
  Rhys: ... What?
• Secret Test of Character: He claims that his "promoting" Rhys to head janitor was actually meant to make Rhys stronger by motivating him to get revenge. He's pretty clearly just screwing around with Rhys, though.
• Smug Snake: He believes he's a Magnificent Bastard but he has his car stolen, his deal sabotaged, and is now implicated in a embezzlement scandal involving his employees. So much so he tries to get Rhys to deliver Vaughn as a scapegoat. Hammered home in Episode 2, where he insists that his past as Jack's punching bag makes him special. AI Jack only remembers him because he used to be bald. He also lost his office to Yvette shortly after Rhys and Vaughn stole the $10,000,000 and the accountant, or rather, accountant gangsters, are royally pissed off at him for the extra paperwork they had to do.
• Shotguns Are Just Better:
  • Subverted with his Penetrating Overcompensator, which shorts out when he tries to use it and requires several minutes of fiddling with before he can even get it working. It's also a prototype shotgun that probably isn't even been ready for the galactic market yet.
  • It's also a stockless 4-barrel. Even if it doesn't short, it's likely to recoil straight into his face after shooting. It has the Jakobs shotgun stock, which increases accuracy but gives a nasty increase in recoil. The barrel is a Torgue one, which whacks up damage and magazine size, but uses up 4 shells per shot, increases pellet spread, severely lowers accuracy and fire rate and kicks up the recoil something fierce.
  • He's seen later with a Jakobs Coach Gun with the same stock and grip and the famous "Citrine" finish, but with the Jakobs sight and barrel instead. It works great, though. Vallory demonstrates that quite nicely.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Vasquez sees Handsome Jack punching him in the past as a sign that they have a rapport and that Jack considers him his successor. Jack's digital copy, who resides in Rhys, doesn't remember who Vasquez is since "he [Jack] would punch his own mother". Rhys of couse sees this as self-delusional and can retort that Vasquez is simply a punching bag for Jack. It is only after Vasquez mentions of his career history that Jack remembers who he is.
• Smug Smiler: In Episode 1 mostly when he thinks he's one-upped Rhys he keeps an insufferable grin in his already smug face. The smile doesn't return very often in Episode 2 when things keep going south for him...
• Starter Villain: He's more or less the reason Rhys and Vaughn decide to go to Pandora, kickstarting the plot of Episode 1. While he comes down to Pandora to kill Rhys and Vaughn personally in Episode 2, he never quite stays relevant throughout the journey, and dies halfway into it.
• Tear Off Your Face: Lost his after getting shot by Vallory.
  Handsome Jack: You better hope a psycho didn't use it for a skin-pizza.
• Testosterone Poisoning: Even in a franchise that's Rated M for Manly and has Mr. Torgue, Vasquez is obnoxiously masculine. Everything from his deep, rumbling voice to his constant dominance displays to his preference for the biggest and flashiest guns and cars to his Jerkass "alpha male" attitude oozes testosterone. Notable in that it doesn't make him any tougher or stronger - it more gives the impression that he's trying way too hard to impress people with his manliness, whereas all the more formidable villains aren't above showing a sensitive side on occasion.
• Too Dumb to Live: He's rather cunning, but it takes a special kind of buffoon to go after two people that hate you with an untested prototype shotgun you also don't know how to use and some kind of dolt to try and headbutt a guy who has a metal-plated skull.
• Wave-Motion Gun: His shotgun is supposed to be one. Then it jams, and he spends the rest of Episode 2 with his Hyperion Impact.
• Weapon Specialization:
  • Both his "Penetrating Overcompensator" and Impact handgun are purple-rarity Hyperion firearms with Torgue barrels, which are big and powerful and shiny, but have horrific accuracy and massive recoil.
  • In the Commander Lilith DLC of Borderlands 2, the player can obtain an Overcompensator from Vaughn as a reward for completing one of his side-missions. It is presumed that at some point between Tales and Commander Lilith, Vaughn got hold of Vasquez's Overcompensator and fixed it to make it into a workable weapon.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Claims that "destiny" is why he got his promotion over Rhys and that real men like him make their own destiny. This leads to a darkly funny example of a Karmic Death in Episode Three, where he's guaranteed to die no matter what choice you pick.

Handsome Jack Fanclub

The Handsome Jack Fanclub

Uhh...what???

All played by: Xander Mobus

A group of guys on Helios who idolize Handsome Jack. They like him so much they all wear masks resembling Jack's face mask.

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• Jerkass: They all act rude and speak candidly to Fiona even when they assumed she was the VIP tour guide.
• Loony Fan: If the masks don't tip you off already, their dialogue will.
• Screw the Rules, I Have Money!: Their leader insists that he can enter Handsome Jack's office because he paid a lot of money for the tour, and proceeds to get vaporised.
• Too Dumb to Live: They take every word you say as fact. So even if you utterly bullshit them, they'll think you're telling the truth.

Forces

Loaders

The bulk of the Hyperion army, Loaders are the mechanical soldiers and workers that come in a variety of configurations and sizes to match the situation. The standard GUN Loader comes with an assault rifle and an unwavering march towards their opponent, occasionally chucking grenades out, calling for help when injured, and is by far the most common model seen on the field. Other Loader configurations include: EXP, HOT, ION, WAR, RPG, SGT, JET, PWR, BUL, LWT, Angelic Guard, and the JNK Loader. They make a return in 3 's Handsome Jackpot DLC with a new streamlined design and several new variants like ICE Loaders.

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• Action Bomb: EXP Loaders are nimble and fragile robots that sprint at their targets when they've seen them, before overloading their power cores to explode on top of them. While they don't use it as an attack, HOT Loaders explode on death, which can be problematic since they tend to fight at close range.
• Airborne Mooks: JET Loaders are Loaders built to transform into miniature jets and swoop by to blast you with an electric bolt or a barrage of missiles.
• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Most Loaders are completely obedient to Hyperion with only a very vague degree of free will/consciousness. The few that have broken out of their control one way or another, such as Mal, Innuendobot 5000, and Loader #1340, are 'eccentric', to say the least.
• Always Chaotic Evil:
  • Played with, all Loaders are programmed to kill everything in Pandora because they're under Jack's programming. When he's out of the picture, all Loaders evidently mellowed out and even developed their own personalities, as seen with Loader-Bot from Tales From The Borderlands.
  • Also Played for Laughs throughout the quest Out Of Body Experience.
    (After Loader #1340 tried to kill you when its core was plugged into a Constructor): Sorry for attempting to murder you, force of habit. Please help me. I still require a new body. Please, insert me into the broken WAR Loader at these coordinates. I will not attempt to murder you again.
    (Later)
    (Immediately after being inserted into a WAR Loader): Thank you. I will now attempt to murder you.
• Cyber Cyclops: Like all Hyperion robots, Loaders only have a single eye.
• Deflector Shields: ION Loaders can deploy a shield around themselves that blocks all forms of gunfire. You could walk into the shield to attack the Loader inside - if you don't mind getting painfully shocked, that is.
  • BUL Loaders are construction robots with a large metal plow on their arms, and when in combat they have it raised to protect themselves. Shooting at it is ill advised as these shields can reflect bullets right back at the sender.
• Easily Detachable Robot Parts: The shoulder joints of most Loader variants and the leg joints of weaker ones serve as weakpoints, and the attached limb will fall off if the joint takes enough damage. Shooting off their arms deprives Loaders of firepower, while blasting off their legs reduces them to crawling along the ground.
• Elite Mooks: SGT Loaders are dedicated combat units who lack some of the weaknesses their regular Loader counterparts have: namely, their joints are protected by heavy armor and they sport more health and better weapons. Badass Loaders are, as their name suggests, the Badass version of Loaders; they pack the amount of health and firepower you'd expect from such an enemy, and unlike their smaller counterparts, their legs are not detachable. And if that wasn't enough, there are Super Badass Loaders...
  • Angelic Guards are a unique type of Loader only found in Control Core Angel. In later playthroughs, they can be encountered again amidst regular enemy forces, and their combat effectiveness is on par with SGT Loaders with the added bonus of a laser beam
• Eye Beams: All Loaders can fire an electric bolt from their eye if they're out of options. Angelic Guards come with a more traditional laser eye beam that does continuous damage on their target.
• Ground Pound: WAR and both versions of the Badass Loader will stomp the ground in a foe-tossing shockwave if someone gets too close to them.
• Go for the Eye: All variants except Super Badass Loaders take critical hits from bullets to their optic. While their joints are also weak points in many variants, shooting the eye always deals more damage.
• Humongous Mecha: All Loaders are quite a bit taller than the average person, but WAR Loaders and Badass Loaders tower over humans by twice their height. Super Badass Loaders are about the size of a 2-story building, and are just as well protected as you’d expect it.
• It's Raining Men: Well, robots anyway. They're very frequently deployed in large numbers via moonshot.
• Jet Pack: All Loaders come with jet boosters on their feet. It can't let them fly, but it allows them to make huge leaps towards you if you manage to get the high ground on them.
• Killer Robot: Originally designed as workers, but the events of The Pre-Sequel made them prove themselves to be an easy to mass-produce and effective robot army, leading to the robotic onslaught that Borderlands 2 became.
• Kill It with Fire: HOT Loaders lob balls of napalm at their enemies from a distance and switch to immolating them with their built in flamethrower when they're close. WAR Loaders and Badass Loaders have huge cannons on their shoulders that fire flaming hot bullets at their enemies, which can ignite them for Damage Over Time.
• Machine Monotone: Nearly every Loader speaks like this, and the ones that don't are very likely insane.
  (When on fire) Ow. No no no. Stop it. Please.
• Metal Slime: LWT Loaders have walking Hyperion weapons lockers that, when defeated, kneel down and can be opened for some weapons.
• Mini Mook: They have variants called Loot Midgets, very short Loaders that hide in treasure chests to ambush people. They come in GUN, JET, and WAR configurations with the fabled Jimmy Jenkins being a rare opponent to find.
• Praetorian Guard: Angelic Guards are a unique, powerful Loader variant with a deadly heat ray that are only found protecting Control Core Angel (in the initial playthrough; from TVHM onward they appear as regular enemies).
• Punny Name: EXP Loaders are designed to explode.
• I Shall Taunt You: In 3's DLC, The Handsome Jackpot, a Loader who downs a player will pause to show them their sideways thumb, and then give them a humiliating thumbs-down to their face.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Most Loaders have red eyes to make it clear that they're here to kill you, rather than, say, throw a birthday party for Claptrap.
• What a Piece of Junk: The JNK Loaders' haphazard appearance does nothing to change the fact that they're still endgame enemies with deceptively high amounts of firepower.

Saturn

A giant loader that appears near Fyrestone and tasked with protecting the Hyperion Information Exchange.

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• A.I. Breaker: If the player rushes behind the hut nearby its spawnpoint, it may freeze in place and not attack. Don't try to approach it enough, though.
• The Bus Came Back: Reappears in The Raid on Digistruct Peak from Overpower Level 7 onwards as Saturn 2.0.
• Damage-Sponge Boss: Saturn is one of the few enemies in the game with no weak spots, and comes with the expected health total of a building-sized robot. Hope you brought a healthy amount of spare ammo.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: What precisely it is doing is never explained, and it spawns with no warning. It doesn't even get any Boss Subtitles, meaning that your sole introduction to it is seeing a moonshot land in the distance and a very large Loader rising from where it landed.
• Humongous Mecha: A several-story-tall Loader.
• King Mook: Saturn is pretty much the lord of all Loaders, and essentially a very large Super Badass Loader with extra health and weaponry.
• Rare Random Drop: Has a chance to drop the "Invader"^note Legendary Hyperion Sniper Rifle that fires a burst of 5 projectiles when zoomed in, with reduced damage and increased magazine size and reload speed and it's the only source for the "Hive"^note Unique Maliwan Corrosive Rocket Launcher that fires a rocket that sticks to the first thing it hits; if it doesn't hit anything, it travels a certain distance before stopping midair; then, it begins to spin and release small homing corrosive rockets at a rate of 2 rockets per second for 7 seconds, after which the main rocket explodes.
• Skippable Boss: You're not actually required to kill Saturn to complete the quest he's involved in, but he's such a huge obstacle in your path it's pretty hard to accomplish your objectives without getting rid of him.
• Walking Armory: Saturn has four turrets on it, uses electric cannons, rocket barrages, explosive drones, and its own legs.

H3RL-E

Trebuchet Terror of the Seven Dried-Up Seas

An Hyperion Loader bot you fight near the end of the Washburn Refinery level of Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty.

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• Departament Of Redundancy Department: Upon being introduced, he proclaims "Executing Execution.exe", a pun based on the repetitious use of the verb "execute" as an action and computer file type.

URANUS-BOT

A massive Loader Bot found in the Armory section of Helios Fallen. Has the Power Core required for the bomb Tiny Tina is building in order to destroy the massive gate protecting Mt. Scarab's Research Center.

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• Attack Its Weak Point: The lights in the middle of its torso.
• Heh Heh, You Said "X": The moment it's introduced, Tina can't help but output a huge laugh out of her guts solely by its name.
• Humongous Mecha: It's around the same size as Saturn, who is already a giant loader bot.
• Random Drop: Has an increased chance of dropping random Legendary, E-Tech or Pearlescent items.
• Rare Random Drop: It is the only source of the "Electric Chair"^note Effervescent Vladof Shock Grenade Mod that causes a huge shock explosion before launching other 8 shock projectiles and 8 child grenades around its deployment area.

Surveyors

Flying robotic drones that provide battlefield support by repairing and shielding Hyperion robots. They also make a return in 3 's Handsome Jackpot DLC.

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• Airborne Mook: They're small, mobile, flying enemies.
• Eye Beam: Like Loaders, they can shoot electric bolts from their optics if they need to fight.
• Fragile Speedster: Surveyors are small, airborne targets that move at high speed, making them difficult to hit. However, even their Badass variants only take a few hits to drop.
• Lightning Bruiser: Literally shooting lightning too, Badass Surveyors are much better protected than regular ones, and in later playthroughs it’s going to get pretty rough trying to shoot them down while they’re on the move without Maya's phaselock.
• Monster Progenitor: It seems like Surveyors are based off of Wilhelm's drones, Wolf and Saint, as no such models other than them are found during the events of The Pre-Sequel save for drones that preceded the surveyors role who aid Felicity. Also by this point, the Hyperion military had not yet acquired their now signature robotic army.
• Mook Medic: Their main role is to repair and shield Loaders and Constructors.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Shield Surveyors can project a bullet-reflecting shield in front of themselves.
• Shoot the Medic First: If you want that Badass Loader to stop gaining health and/or shields, you'll want to shoot down the Surveyors around it first. The normally hard-to-hit Surveyors will also hold completely still while doing their thing, making them easy targets.

Constructors

Constructors are heavy support units that are deployed to construct and deploy a constant stream of Loaders and Surveyors into the field. Gigantic and stationary, they pose a significant threat to any Vault Hunters who need to get past them. They make a return in ''3'' 's Handsome Jackpot DLC alongside Loaders and Surveyors though thankfully they are far fewer to deal with.

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• Beef Gate: They're not usually blocking the way entirely, but thanks to the threat they pose and the amount of obstacles they bring to stop you, just getting past one is a challenge on its own, or even a death sentence if it's a Badass Constructor. As such, they are usually scripted to be deployed at narrow chokepoints or important areas you need to pass.
• Calling Your Attacks: It's hard to hear thanks to their deep voices and the general chaos they bring, but they like to announce what attack is coming/is in progress.
  Preparing missile barrage.
  Nuclear bombardment commencing.
  I'm firing my lazer.
  Deploying protector turret.
• Deflector Shields: Constructors can project an orange energy shield around their vulnerable eye that returns bullets to sender. The rest of it's still vulnerable to attack, though. When a Badass Constructor does this, that's your sign that it's preparing a nuke.
• Elite Mook: Constructors on their own are already a step up in terms of Hyperion enemy difficulty, but Hero's Pass has a Badass Constructor as the final enemy you must deal with before facing Jack himself.
• Eye Beams: Constructors can fire an orange/white beam that does continuous damage to targets in range. Badass Constructors get to fire three beams to utterly incinerate any players caught out of cover.
• Eye Scream: Their optics is their crit spot. Dealing enough damage while they're digistructing or firing their laser beam will make them stop.
• Ground Pound: Getting close to them for a better shot is in your best interest, but getting right up in their 'face' will cause them jump into the air and land with a fiery shockwave that's all but guaranteed to send you and anyone caught in it into Fight For Your Life.
• Humongous Mecha: The first Constructor ever built was intended to be built with legs and arm cannons, making it tower over everything by a considerable margin and even dwarfing Super Badass Loaders. Those extremities proved to be practically vestigial when Felicity went rampant and attacked, getting them blown off in the process and left her main body no worse for wear.
• Machine Monotone: They sport voices even deeper and more robotic than Loaders.
• Macross Missile Massacre: In two variants, no less: a barrage of missiles fired directly at the target, or a salvo launched overhead to bomb you from above. Badass Constructers particularly like to spam missiles like there's no tomorrow, forcing you to keep your head down.
• Monster Progenitor: As revealed in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!, a Hyperion R&D Scientists named Gladstone Katoa invented the first Constructor, and other than a lack of certain weaponry and an orange paint scheme, it is identical to the later models deployed by Jack. The real Progenitor however is Skipper / Felicity, who was a Dahl military-grade A.I. integrated with the first Constructor against her will, with her voice even slowly changing from her feminine dialect to the now standard and deep Machine Monotone. It's very much likely that all future Constructors, and possibly even Loaders, use a copy of her lobotomized A.I. as their default template.
• Mook Maker: Their primary role is to digistruct Loaders, Surveyors and Turrets to attack you, but their Badass variants become more involved when they can start bombarding enemies with missiles, lasers and nuclear drops. Shooting them in the eye is the only way to cancel their building progress.
• Nuke 'em: Badass Constructors have an uncommon attack where they'll stop what they're doing to open their top compartment and unleash a nuclear missile that homes in on a target's last known location. The blast radius is gigantic and is obviously fatal. Fortunately, you can shoot the (very slow) missile out of the air, making it far less threatening than you'd expect.
• Tin-Can Robot: To Jack anyways, who calls the first Constructor he sees a 'Dumpster wrapped in sadness'.
• The Turret Master: Constructors will occasionally chuck a deployable turret in front of them if a Vault Hunter gets the idea to close the distance on them. Badass Constructors can do the same, but also come with an arsenal of built-in turrets that fire constantly at anyone who gets in visual range.

Skipper/Felicity

Engineers

The Hyperion workforce that does much of the manual labor needed to construct Hyperion installations. They're all overworked, underpaid, abused and under orders to open fire on any intruder that gets too close to their construction area. They're separated between Engineers and Combat Engineers, the former utilizes construction tools such as jackhammers and cutting lasers to fight while the latter uses traditional guns instead (sometimes imbued with elemental effects).

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• Bald of Evil: They're all bald.
• Cannon Fodder: To drive the point home on how little Hyperion cares about their human workers, Engineers are advised to let the Loaders handle the heavy lifting of construction while they distract the local Bandits by drawing gunfire away from the robots to themselves instead. Compared to the other Hyperion mooks, they can be torn up like wet tissue.
• The Engineer: They're the construction workers for Hyperion, but it has no glamor or respect to the title, and so they're expected to go from working to dying in a gunfight in an instant.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: There's plenty of dialogue that references their family, children and co-worker friends in various levels of affection and concern.
• Ground Pound: Engineers are capable of using their built in jackhammers to make the ground rumble, damaging Vault Hunters who are too close to them.
• If I Do Not Return: When dying, Engineers may have this to say:
  Tell my wife... she's a bitch...
• Improvised Weapon: Engineers who aren't equipped with guns go to battle with their construction equipment - sawblades, jackhammers, cutting lasers in particular.
• Punch-Clock Villain: By all means they're ordinary people who work for the villain's corporation, but they're still rather ruthless and sour thanks to being under orders to either fight the Vault Hunters or face whatever punishment Hyperion has for a disobedient worker.
  "Come on, now I gotta deal with BANDITS?!"
  "If I kill you I'll get promoted off this hellhole!"
  "Stop fighting back! You're gonna get me fired!"
  "He was two days away from retirement!"
  (Dying) "I didn't sign up for this, damn it..."
  (Dying) "Almost finished my comic collection..."
  (Dying) "Nearly paid off the house..."

Hyperius the Invincible

Hyperion Military

When the regular GUN Loaders and Engineers can't fend off a threat, Hyperion has their formal military to deploy, comprised of specialized and deadly Loaders and trained personnel. Aside from the Loaders, the soldiers fighting are well armed and well protected with advanced body army and technology that suits their roles. These soldiers include the Hyperion Soldier, Hyperion Sniper, Hyperion Hawk and the Hyperion Infiltrator.

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• Airborne Mooks: Hyperion Hawks come equipped with a jetpack that allows them to soar through the air and get a great vantage spot to bomb you away.
• Cold Sniper: The Hyperion Sniper is just that; an enemy sniper gunning for you.
• Elite Mooks: They're not fought very often until you reach the very end of the main game, but it's made clear that this is the fighting force sent in when things get serious.
• Glass Cannon: Hyperion Hawks can deal devastating damage with their rocket launchers, but they go down easily in just a couple of shots. The trick however is spotting them in the air before they bomb you.
• Laser Sight: Hyperion Snipers have a very visible laser that tracks where who he's going to shoot. This is your warning of big damage coming your way if it's set on you.
• Shotguns Are Just Better: Infiltrators wield shotguns into battle, and as you can expect they hurt bad once they get close enough to use it.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Hawks come with a rocket launcher to blow you away if you can't shoot them down in time.
• The Turret Master: Hyperion Soldiers can deploy a turret to help them out, much like an Evil Counterpart to Axton.
• Visible Invisibility: Infiltrators are still pretty visible despite their cloaking technology, at best their invisibility is a problem if you're in a thick battle and you can't notice that subtle bundle of transparent white-ness getting closer to you.

Hyperion 'Super-Bad" Soldier

The leader of Hyperion's Recon Team in Claptrap's New Robot Revolution.

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• But Thou Must!: Killing him will turn every enemy and creature into Clapified enemies for the rest of the DLC. You have to face him during the first mission Tannis gives to you, and you can't access the Tartarus Station proper unless you kill him.
• Combat Sadomasochist: Enjoys dealing and receiving damage.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: Carries a shield with him at all times that protects him from attacks.
• Mighty Glacier: His strength and sturdiness is offset by his slow speed.
• Starter Villain: The very first villain the Vault Hunters encounter during the DLC, as he appears during the first mission while the players collect Claptrap parts for Tannis.

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