The best builds for Barrier, Digi-Clone, and SNTNL
Zane the Operativeis the most flexible and versatile of the fourBorderlands 3characters, thanks to his unique ability to equip two Action Skills at once. But all that choice can also make things difficult as you try to decide how best to build him.
In thisBorderlands 3 Zane build guide, we’ve laid out the top-tier builds that you can use in the base game to get the most out of this wise-cracking Operative: one forBarrier & Digi-Clone, one forBarrier & SNTNL, and one forDigi-Clone & SNTNL.
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Borderlands 3 Zane build guide
When it comes to creating aZane build, the only aspect that stays permanent is his particular brand of Irish charm. Everything else is completely up in the air, because - more so than any other character - you can customise him however you want by mixing and matching the following skill trees:
As with other Borderlands 3 characters, there is also a fourth skill tree for Zane that can be accessed if you have the Ultimate Edition. For this guide though, we’re focusing on creating the best builds possible using the three main skill trees found in the base game.
Due to Zane’s nature, the below builds each focus on apairof Action Skills (Digi-Clone/SNTNL,Barrier/Digi-Clone, andBarrier/SNTNL), each offering a different way to upgrade and play as the Operative. As well as providing a detailed walkthrough of each build, I’ve also included a cheat sheet of the skill trees and skills acquired, as well as stars to indicate which skills would be particularly good to augment with Class Mods.
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If you need a bit of a primer on the various Borderlands 3 characters and classes, look no further than ourBorderlands 3 characters & skill treesguide. If not, let’s skip right ahead to theZane builds!
For those who want to take Zane down the uber-high-damage route, you’ll probably want a build such as this one, which invests heavily in the Doubled Agent skill tree as well as the Hitman tree. With Digi-Clone and SNTNL as our Action Skills of choice, we’re missing out on the tankiness provided by Barrier and the Under Cover skill tree, but in return we’re getting two damage-based skills that can grow to become extremely powerful.
You’ve got some great early skill pickups across both skill trees for increasing your damage: namely the duo ofViolent SpeedandViolent Momentum, which begins the snowball of increasing damage based on movement speed; and particularlySynchronicity, which is definitely the skill that you’ll want to prioritise over-charging with a good class mod. After that you can push on through the Doubled Agent tree by maxing outDonnybrook. Your aim is to reachSupersonic Man,Trick of the Light, and finally the Capstone that isDouble Barrelas quickly as you can, because your damage will be just way ahead of the curve as you follow this route.
Heading back to the Hitman skill tree, you’ll want to pickup bothDrone DeliveryandDeath Follows Close(both of which are just indirect methods of further increasing your damage potential), and then investing your final points intoPlaying Dirtyfor the extra projectile chance. All this will have unlocked some excellent Skill Augments for both your Action Skills:BoomsdayandAlmighty Ordnanceare the obvious choices for upping your SNTNL’s damage to pretty stonking levels, while for Digi-Clone I’ve elected to go for one defensive and one offensive augment.Schadenfreude, as well as being an excellent term that makes me smile whenever I hear it, is a great pickup for increasing your survivability a little bit; but the real star of the show isDoppelbanger, which deals absolutely insane damage if you detonate your Clone very shortly after summoning it.
If you’d prefer a tankier Zane build that makes you feel about as invulnerable as you can feel in Borderlands 3, this is the build for you. Investing heavily in Under Cover will ensure that you can take pretty much anything any enemy can throw at you (particularly useful for certain boss fights), while our remaining skills will be given to the Doubled Agent tree to keep our damage potential up to scratch.
Despite this being a tanky build, I’m of the opinion that damage is your priority in the early levels, so you should probably still start by picking up a good 3-5Synchronicity. But after that, you should head back to Under Cover and build intoHearty StockandAdrenaline(Ready For Actionis also useful, but you can pick it up later on).Confident Competence, halfway down the Under Cover tree, is sort of like a mini-Capstone for the tree because it’s so useful just from a single point assigned, so you should beeline towards that and try to reach it by Level 18 or so.
After this your aim is basically to go straight down the middle of the green tree, investing inBest Served ColdandCalm, Cool, Collected(both of which give you some lovely Cryo-based CC and utility), and finally theDistributed DenialCapstone. Meanwhile you should pick up theAll-Rounderaugment to turn your Barrier into a dome; andNanites Or Some Shite, which we care about because of the fantastic shield recharge delay reduction (which combined with your points in Ready For Action will mean you regenerate shields at a ridiculous rate).
When that’s all done it’s time to head back to Doubled Agent to shore up your damage a bit.Fractal FragsandDuct Tape Modare both great because they essentially just give you a reason for that grenade mod slot; andQuick Breatheragain acts as a mini-capstone of sorts which further improves your shield game by immediately starting to recharge the moment you switch with your Clone. Finally, the Skill Augments you’ll want to pick up for your Digi-Clone areSchadenfreude(for obvious reasons) andBinary System, which again gives us some extra Cryo damage - never a bad thing.
By this point, there’s basically nothing in the game that’ll be able to topple you. Just throw out both your Action Skills whenever you can, and enjoy watching your shield basically never go down below 50%.
So we’ve had two builds so far which cover opposite ends of the spectrum between high damage and high survivability. But if you’re after a more flexible and versatile build, then this one lands you pretty much exactly in the middle of that spectrum. Combining the Hitman and Under Cover skill trees is probably the most unusual pairing we’ve seen so far, but you’ll find that it’ll allow Zane to have a great amount of agency in every fight, ducking in and out of danger, and causing mayhem with his high gun damage and many Kill Skills.
But before any of that, guess what! We’re going to invest inSynchronicity. That’s as far as we’ll be going down the Doubled Agent tree, but the extra gun damage is just so useful when you’re using two Action Skills as Zane (which you should always be doing - who needs grenades anyway?). After that I tend to build up Under Cover and our tankiness levels before heading over to the Hitman skill tree. So that means picking upHearty Stock,Adrenaline,Stiff Upper Lip, andConfident Competencefirst and foremost. These four skills together have such fantastic synergy - high shield levels and damage resistance (tankiness) and then higher gun damage, accuracy, and Action Skill cooldown rate (damage).
You’ll also unlock your two Barrier Augments of choice by doing this:All-Rounder(we love the dome) andNanites Or Some Shite(better shields, hurrah!). But now comes the fun part. From this point onwards, we’re putting every single point into Hitman. Of course, we’ll start with the whambo-combo ofViolent SpeedandViolent Momentum- and here we see why it’s useful to have a dome barrier: more space to remain highly mobile while still staying protected.
After that, with the exception of Cool Hand (reload speed we can do without) and Cold Bore (ditto with weapon swap speed), we’re going to max out every single skill in the tree.Violent ViolenceandPlaying Dirtyare fantastic damage-dealing skill pickups, and once you pick up the capstone ofSeein' Red, you’ll be able to benefit from them instantly at the start of every fight when you use your Action Skills. With each new skill point you assign using this build, Zane will grow so much stronger, while still remaining versatile and flexible enough to accommodate pretty much any playstyle.
Alright, that’s probably a good place to stop for the time being with our Borderlands 3 Zane build guide. Hopefully you’ve found a build or two that suits the way you want to play the Operative - and if not, why not go build your own using one of the above builds as a template?
If you need any extra help with Borderlands 3, then look no further - we have you covered. Check out ourBorderlands 3 Shift Codespage to get hold of free Golden Keys and claim extra loot. We’ve also got guides for theBorderlands 3 weaponsandLegendary weaponsto help get you up to speed with the game’s arsenal. And, if you need any more help with crafting the best character for your playstyle, we’ve also got other build guides forFL4K,AmaraandMoze.
