Borderlands 3: Your guide to Moze, the gunner with a mech, bringer of explosions and heavy firepower

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Borderlands 3 is out now and it’s an enormous game. Seriously, it’s huge. We here at KnowTechie want to make your trip to Pandora (and beyond) easier, so we’re going to be coming out with a series of guides on the four new characters (Amara, Zane, Moze, and FL4K), including an overview of their skill trees and potential build ideas. Ready to get started?

Up next, this one is for Moze, the Gunner.

Moze the Gunner is probably the most straightforward of all four characters in Borderlands 3, which also probably makes her the most beginner-friendly. Do you like shooting things? Of course, you do, you’re reading a guide article on Borderlands 3. Congratulations, you’ll like Moze.

She gets lots of skills for regular guns, a tree with infinite ammo, a tree that’s all about explosions, and all of her skill trees give you options for the giant mech she can summon, Iron Bear. Oh, did I not mention that? Moze gets a giant mech. Yes, you can pilot it. Yes, it can also fight autonomously. Yes, you can add a manned gunner seat so your friends can hop in with you. Ready to learn more?

Also if you’re new to Borderlands 3, you should definitely start here first.

Bottomless Mags

The first tree we’ll cover is the Bottomless Mags tree, probably the most basic of Moze’s trees. The focus of this tree is almost entirely shooting tons of bullets. Just…so many bullets. For real, that’s it. Do you think I’m joking? Let’s look at some feature skills. There’s some other utility in there, like being the only character who can sprint and shoot simultaneously (hello, speedrunners), but you’ll see what I mean.

• Minigun (base): Iron Bear can equip an infinite ammo minigun that can overheat if you hold the trigger too long.
• Dakka Bear (Tier 1, 1 point): Adds a mounted turret to Iron Bear’s back.
• Cloud of Lead (Tier 1, up to 5 points): Shots occasionally do bonus incendiary damage and don’t consume ammo (1 in 4 at 5/5 points).
• Rushin’ Offensive (Tier 3, 1 point): Moze can sprint and shoot at the same time.
• Salamander (Tier 2, action skill): Iron Bear can equip a close range flamethrower that consumes fuel instead of ammo.
• Exploding. Bullets. (Tier 4, augment): Minigun shoots slower, deals more damage, and fires explosive rounds.
• Forge (Tier 6, 1 point): Moze constantly regenerates ammo for her currently-equipped gun at a rate of 5% per second.

Shield of Retribution

What Bottomless Mags is to guns and ammo, Shield of Retribution is to defensive shields. If there is a tanking tree for any character in Borderlands 3 (and Iron Bear is literally a “bipedal tank”), this is definitely it. This entire tree is all about getting more shields, improving their quality, and getting them back as soon as possible when you’re out. In the words of Razak’s Roughnecks, “Do you wanna live forever?!”

Have a look at some featured skills:

• Railgun (Base): Iron Bear can equip a railgun that fires high-velocity projectiles, dealing shock damage.
• Security Bear (Tier 1, 1 point): Iron Bear gets a bubble shield for 20% of its health.
• Vladof Ingenuity (Tier 2, up to 5 points): Moze gets 30% more shields, plus 75% shock resistance.
• Full Can of Whoop-Ass (Tier 3, 1 point): Entering Iron Bear makes Moze’s and all allies’ shields start regenerating.
• Bear Fist (Tier 2, action skill): Iron Bear can equip a pneumatic-driven fist that deals massive damage at close range.
• Wild Swing (Tier 3, augment): Bear Fist now deals random 35% bonus elemental damage to that enemy and all surrounding enemies.
• Tenacious Defense (Tier 6, 1 point): Whenever Moze’s shield is fully depleted, she instantly restores 40% of it and gets 30% bonus gun damage for 30 seconds. Refreshes cooldown once her shield fully charges again.

Demolition Woman

Maybe you have bad aim. Maybe you like splash damage. Maybe you’re playing drunk and just want everything to die in the general direction you’re aiming. If any of those appeals to you, Demolition Woman is the tree for you.

This tree is all about dealing splash damage and getting bonus effects when you do, whether it’s from your grenades or the nuclear warhead you can give to Iron Bear.

Here are some featured skills to give you a taste:

• V-35 Grenade Launcher (Base): Iron Bear can equip a semi-automatic grenade launcher (not affected by Moze’s grenade mods, sorry)
• Auto Bear (Tier 3, 1 point): For 15 seconds after exiting, Iron Bear stays deployed and keeps fighting.
• Vanquisher Rocket (Tier 2, action skill): Iron Bear can equip a rocket launcher that rapidly fires a small pod of unguided rockets.
• Active Tracking (Tier 3, augment): Vanquisher Rockets are now homing missiles for up to 6 targets.
• Vampyr (Tier 4, 5 points): For every enemy Moze damages with a grenade, she restores health (up to 20% per enemy).
• Short Fuse (Tier 6, 1 point): 20% chance every time you deal with gun damage to trigger a secondary explosion for 75% gun damage.

A Proposed Build – All Explosions, All the Time

If you thought, “Wow, it sounds like Jake really likes the Demolition Woman tree,” you are correct. If you thought that meant an explosion-heavy build, I bet you had no idea we were going to take literally the entire Demolition Woman tree. That gives us 3 extra points, which we’ll put into Security Bear, because it seems like the strongest single point defensively, Dakka Bear, because why wouldn’t we want to give friends a fun gunner’s seat in our giant mech, and Cloud of Lead, which functionally gives us 12.5% deeper magazines on all weapons. Sorta. Look, the math is complicated.

Before we go any further, here’s a link.

So what can we expect from the rest of the build? Well, we’re going to get Iron Bear as often as humanly possible. Deadlines makes Iron Bear use less fuel and recover fuel from kills and Grizzled reduces Iron Bear’s cooldown while Security Bear and Stainless Steel Bear make sure Iron Bear doesn’t die. Then, when you’re ready to hope out, Auto Bear keeps your giant, metal friend fighting for another 15 seconds autonomously.

As for what Iron Bear is wielding, this build is all about explosions so that’s what we’re giving our big buddy. In the left hand, the tree’s signature V-35 Grenade Launcher, equipped with the Musical Chairs augment that makes every 7th grenade a singularity blast that pulls enemies into one spot. What do you do when they’re in one place? Fire Iron Bear’s right-hand weapon, a Vanquisher Rocket Pod with Hammerdown Protocol augment. In short, it’s a nuke. You group enemies up and nuke them.

What other cool stuff is in the kit?

Fire in the Skag Den makes all of your splash damage deal bonus incendiary damage, Torgue Cross-Promotion gives all splash damage a chance to double in size, Means of Destruction gives you ammo back when you deal splash damage, and if you weren’t seeing Iron Bear enough, Explosive Punctuation reduces its cooldown even more.

What’s a reliable source of splash damage no matter what your loadout? Grenades! Why Can’t I Carry All These Grenades ups your grenade capacity by 3, Pull the Holy Pin makes Moze’s grenades the only grenades that can crit, To The Last lets you throw grenades in Fight For Your Life mode, and Vampyr somehow makes your grenades heal you.

Not enough splash damage? The final ability, Short Fuse, gives all of your gun damage a 20% chance to explode, dealing 75% damage to nearby targets.

What do you think?

Not everyone is going to want their Moze to make everything explode all the time, so how are you going to build her? Do you see any great combinations in her other trees? Maybe you’re a number cruncher and there’s a powerful set of passives if you mix and match? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

Borderlands 3 is now available for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.

Interested in the other Borderlands 3 characters? We’ve got guides for those, too.

• Your guide to Amara, the phase blasting, face-punching, bonafide badass
• Your guide to FL4K, masters of pets, invisible hunter, and solo specialist
• Your guide to Zane – trickster spirit, roguish assassin, and Pandora’s Han Solo