The Borderlands movie might have forgotten about this fan-favorite character, but a new Borderlands 3 mod puts them front and center
Back with a vengeance
There's a new mod for Borderlands 3 in development that replaces the operative Zane with the marksman Mordecai from the original Borderlands. Mordecai's absence from the critically panned Borderlands movie left fans scratching their heads, but, luckily, our favorite bird boy is getting some love from the community.
While the Mordecai mod is still in active development, it's almost finished according to its creator EpicNNG. The modding project sets out to replace as much of Zane with Mordecai as possible, including his skill tree, augments, character model, and more. EpicNNG has been posting sporadic updates about their progress over on Twitter, showcasing a lot of the features around Mordecai and his avian buddy Bloodwing.
The Mordecai mod for Borderlands 3 is almost FINISHED.Once done, I'll need to test it in order to make sure the scaling feels good in both early game and endgame. Hopefully I can get it feeling nice. pic.twitter.com/VdL8qF53CHSeptember 5, 2024
The mod still needs more time to ensure the "scaling feels good" in the early and late game, according to creator EpicNNG. Hopefully, between Mordecai's marksmanship prowess and the billions of weapons available in Borderlands 3, it should feel like a true return to form.
While we still haven't seen the entirety of the new skills offered for Mordecai in Borderlands 3, a new look at the tree shows a few images that caught our eye, like the fusion of Mordecai and Bloodwing at the very bottom. I'm confused and a bit concerned by the notion, but it has my attention.
All skills now FINISHED for Mordecai.Next step is changing more textures, and testing overall balancing. If this mod has great reception, I'll probably go more in depth with the changes.Not bad for a POC though! pic.twitter.com/mq5D1JI2UtSeptember 6, 2024
In vanilla Borderlands 2 and 3, Mordecai is just a supporting character, but fans still love playing him in the original game. The Borderlands movie unfortunately didn't do anything for the Mordecai lovers out there, so it's nice to see that at least some of them have taken it upon themselves to ensure his legacy lives on in a modern way.
While the Mordecai mod won't change *everything* on Zane, the new skills will still be able to roll on class mods.Notice any easter eggs? 🤔 pic.twitter.com/bXRqwnLcVwSeptember 7, 2024
EpicNNG was sure to put in some nods to longtime fans like adding the phrase "Vete al Diablo" to the Gelid Leftover Radical Operative Class Mod. Mordecai mutters this phrase in Borderlands 2 during an emotional scene where he witnesses a particularly gruesome death that has stuck with folks ever since. If you know, you know.
While you wait for the Mordecai mod to be released, why don't you check out everything we know about Borderlands 4 so far.
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Jesse is a freelance games journalist with almost a decade of experience. He was the Associate Editor at Prima Games for three years and then moved into the world of freelancing where you might have seen his work at the likes of Game Informer, Kotaku, Inverse, and a few others. You can find him playing the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV or whatever hot new multiplayer game his friends are playing.