- This article is about the character in the Borderlands games. For other uses, see Firehawk (disambiguation).
| “ | 'Sup.
— Lilith's catchphrase.
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Lilith is Borderlands' "Siren" class. She is originally from the planet Dionysus and is one of six Sirens, a group of women with unbelievable powers.
Lilith is the overall main protagonist of the Borderlands series. She is one of the four playable characters in Borderlands, a major character in Borderlands 2 and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, and the deuteragonist of Borderlands 3.
Quick Answers
What is the origin planet of Lilith in the Borderlands series?
What role does Lilith play in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel?
What class does Lilith represent in the Borderlands series?
How many Sirens are there in the Borderlands universe?
Background
| “ | So far, only 13 people have publicly demonstrated so called “magical” abilities, all of whom are women. Due to the gender bias, these gifted individuals are often called “Witches” or “Sirens,” although no official term exists. Studying the cause of these women’s powers has proven difficult, as they are always prone to wanderlust and have little patience for extending scientific probing. Lilith claims her powers come from her crossing the “Hotness Threshold”. “Any woman as good looking as me can do what I do,” is her official statement for such inquiry. The other gifted women offer equally useful explanations for their powers.
— Borderlands game manual
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Involvement
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
Lilith plays a noticeable role as NPC in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. After the opening of the Vault and the defeat of General Knoxx, Lilith and Roland traveled to Pandora's moon Elpis on a vacation trip. There was where they met Jack for the first time, who asked them for help against Colonel Zarpedon through the Vault Hunters. They didn't want to have anything to do with that at first, but they ended up helping when they realized the true danger behind the attacks. So, they cooperated with Jack and the Vault Hunters to recover the Helios station and its main weapon, a giant laser, until they saw how Jack killed three scientists throwing them into space on the suspicion that one of them might be a spy. Lilith didn't want to continue helping him, but Roland kept acting normally and then made a plan in order to defeat Zarpedon while also preventing Jack from using the laser. They keep helping but, with Mad Moxxi's help, at the end they destroyed the laser and almost the entire Helios station. Later, Jack found the Vault he was looking for on Elpis and obtained an Eridian relic that granted him some visions of The Warrior's existence; but Lilith, who had been following him, appeared and destroyed the relic, creating a blast of energy that branded Jack's face with a Vault emblem.
Thanks to the revelations Jack got from the relic at Elpis, and other events from the PreSequel, he knew exactly what to do in order to take complete control over Pandora, leading to the events of Borderlands 2.
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel Epilogue
Sometime later, the Crimson Raiders captured Athena, a former Lance Assassin-turned-Vault Hunter who was among the people that helped Handsome Jack rise to power during the events on Elpis. Originally, she was a deserter from the Crimson Lance and was rescued and helped by Lilith and the others (during the Secret Armory of General Knoxx DLC). Knowing that, and threatening her with a firing squad, Lilith demanded that Athena explain why she did what she did. Athena recounts the events of Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, leading up to Jack's takeover and argues that the Jack she knew then was nothing like the one that nearly destroyed Pandora, but Lilith blames Athena for everything that happened and orders her execution anyway, even when Mordecai and Brick, who can understand Athena after the story, tell her not to do so. The arrival of a mysterious alien, The Watcher, saves Athena and warns Lilith that "War is coming", and that she'll need every Vault Hunter she can get.
Claptastic Voyage Epilogue
During the Epilogue of Claptastic Voyage DLC, after Claptrap recounts Jack's conquest to eliminate the line of Claptrap units, Lilith apologizes to Athena for ordering her execution.
Borderlands 2
Lilith and Roland returned to Pandora as Hyperion began its rise. Lilith's powers grew substantially from absorbing Eridium, the element released after the defeat of the Destroyer. She was one of the founding members of the Crimson Raiders to fight against Hyperion, along with Brick, Mordecai, and her then-boyfriend Roland.
During Hyperion's raid on New Haven she, along with Roland, Mordecai, and Brick, were defeated. With the city overrun and she presumed dead by Hyperion, they were forced to abandon New Haven for Sanctuary. Roland ended his relationship with Lilith in order to focus on Hyperion and the Crimson Raiders, while she drew Bloodshot bandits away from Sanctuary under the alias Firehawk.
After Roland was captured by the Bloodshots, she sent a message under her Firehawk alias telling the Vault Hunters to come to Frostburn Canyon. When they reached her base of operations, they discovered that Roland wasn't there and that Lilith was the Firehawk. After fighting off waves of psychos (with the power of "Phaseblast" that can pulverize enemies), Lilith returned to Sanctuary to lead the Raiders in Roland's absence. She remained there after Roland's rescue.
When Sanctuary became unshielded after Angel's treason, as Hyperion attacked Lilith doped herself with a large amount of Eridium to strengthen her powers. She was able to make the whole city enter Phasewalk with her. Sanctuary became the current flying city, safe from Hyperion for the moment. However, she had revealed that she was alive and working with the Crimson Raiders.
Later, Lilith was told to stay and defend Sanctuary during the assault on Control Core Angel, but defied both Angel's insistence and Roland's orders to stay away. She assisted the Vault Hunters in fighting off hordes of Hyperion robots, and Phasewalked Roland to reach the shield generators, allowing the Vault Hunters to destroy Angel's Eridium injectors. With Jack's Siren catalyst dead, Roland went to retrieve the Vault Key, but was shot from behind by Jack himself. Lilith attempted to attack him, but was restrained by Jack through some kind of artifact that gave him control over her powers, to replace his dead daughter to charge the Vault key. She teleported the Vault Hunters back to Sanctuary instead of killing them at Jack's orders.
She was taken to the Vault of the Warrior, where she became the catalyst to charge the key against her will, while undergoing torture from Jack. The Vault Hunters found her there, along with Jack, who fought them, but while fighting the key became fully charged, so, even defeated, Jack summoned and controlled the Warrior. Anyway, the warrior was defeated as well. With his own vision of a Pandora ruled by order crushed, Jack angrily chastised the Vault Hunters, before being executed by them or Lilith. After Jack's death, she intended to destroy the Vault key to prevent anyone else from using it for misdeeds but, instead, she inadvertently activated a map showing the location of the many other Vaults scattered throughout the galaxy. Following the events at the Vault, she returned to Sanctuary along with Mordecai, Brick, and the Vault Hunters, inheriting leadership of the Crimson Raiders and continuing their fight against Hyperion. She later attended Roland's burial along with Mordecai and Brick.
Borderlands 3
In the opening mission of Borderlands 3, Lilith is looking for new Crimson Raiders recruits who are willing to investigate the Children of the Vault cult. She gives missions to the Vault Hunters to find more information about the new Vaults popping up around the galaxy because she cannot do it herself since Tyreen has leeched her ability using her Siren powers. As head of the Crimson Raiders, she can commands the tiny army to investigate certain areas. When Tyreen is ultimately defeated, Lilith gains her Siren powers back and risks herself to save both Pandora and Elpis. It is currently unknown if Lilith is alive or dead.
Director's Cut
After defeating the Seer in Scryer's Crypt during the Mysteriouslier string of missions, Ava reiterates to the Vault Hunters that the Seer stated that she would find what she was seeking, which to her means that Lilith is probably alive after the events of the main campaign, and she intends for the Vault Hunters and her to find Lilith.
Appearances
- Borderlands
- Borderlands 2
- Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel
- Claptastic Voyage
- Borderlands 3
- Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck
- Director's Cut
Skills
- See also: Action Skills
Lilith's action skill is called Phasewalk, which lets her turn invisible to enemies (but not to her teammates, to whom she appears as translucent blue), move much faster, and cause a damaging shockwave (Phase Blast) upon entering and exiting. When fighting in Arena Battles Phasewalk will make Lilith invisible to opposing players, but all Sirens in Phasewalk can see each other, regardless of teams (as they are all in the same dimension). Spark does not work in Arena either however it does function in duels. Gearbox Software co-founder Randy Pitchford describes it as, "kind of like when Frodo puts on the ring, except that when she takes it off she can kill everything around her with a shock wave nova effect". This effect can be altered by using unique artifacts that can add elemental damage to the Phase Blast.
Class Mods
- Main article: Class Mod (Borderlands)#Siren
Strategy
Lilith's starting weapon
Lilith typically operates as a close-range striker or mid-range skirmisher, using numerous elemental damage enhancements to inflict damage and a range of self-buffing skills to quickly enter and exit the fray, as well as to survive once in the heat of battle. Her active ability, Phasewalk, allows her to sneak in or out of hostile groups with the cover of invisibility, invulnerability, and increased speed, and she's capable of dealing high damage with melee attacks combined with Phasewalk, or with ranged attacks. She can especially excel with Elemental weapons, and is capable of dazing the opponents she hits. While not especially durable initially, Lilith can use her Phasewalk defensively to aid her survival, and certain builds can dramatically increase her survivability in combat.
She has a class mod that enhances SMGs, and with The Secret Armory of General Knoxx, one that enhances sniper rifles as well; otherwise she can use any weapon type, with some selections in the skill tree benefitting from high rate-of-fire weapons, and offsetting the disadvantages of slow-projectile weapons like the Eridian Cannon. Lilith has only one skill oriented around critical hits, and it provides less benefit on weapons with higher innate critical hit damage (such as sniper rifles), so critical hits are not a significant emphasis. Lilith's melee attack is an energy blast. Her skill trees are Assassin, which focuses on the offensive use of Phasewalk and improves direct burst damage; Controller, which focuses on the defensive use of Phasewalk and improving Lilith's durability, as well as providing options for her to Daze enemies; and Elemental, which focuses on amplifying elemental damage effects on weapons, and provides options for directly applying elemental damage effects. Spread throughout the three trees are additional general increases to her survivability and damage output, as well as one on-kill effect available in each skill tree.
The combination of Diva, Girl Power, and a high-capacity shield can make Lilith extremely durable in combat, as she'll have strong continuous shield regeneration even under fire, so long as she is killing something every few seconds. The Mercenary, Firefly, and especially Defender class mods are well-oriented towards this, as they further boost Lilith's Diva and Girl Power talents, as well as directly boosting shield capacity in the case of Defender. Phase Walk can be used defensively to avoid attacks or wait out the normal shield regen delay, and also serves as a powerful healing tool via Inner Glow. The various options for applying Daze amplify this, impairing enemy movement, accuracy, and attack frequency.
With the right build combination, it is possible to fully recharge Phasewalk while still phased, allowing for repeated phase strikes without Phasewalk ending. This tactic relies specifically on the flat cooldown reduction from Hard To Get and the Catalyst class mod, and the cooldown reduction per kill from Blackout. If Lilith triggers a DoT, such as Phoenix, on several enemies before activating Phasewalk, then if the targets die while Lilith is phased, the cooldown on Phasewalk will be reduced and potentially entirely reset. If this occurs while Lilith is phased, then a Phase Strike will not break Phasewalk, allowing it to be repeated while Lilith remains phased, with each kill contributing to further cooldown reduction and reset. Phoenix, Venom, and especially Radiance are extremely powerful with this build, allowing the application and spread of strong DoT effects, with Radiance allowing application while Lilith remains in Phasewalk. This build becomes significantly weaker near the endgame where enemies become much more durable.
Quotes
- Main article: Lilith/Quotes
Notes
- In T-Bone Junction, there is a secret shrine devoted to Lilith. It consists of her wanted poster and two spinning circles over her breasts. It can be accessed by pressing a button by the red chest underneath the town, then walking around the building and opening the door (Mind the refrigerator).
- Lilith is seen using her Phasewalk ability on the bus in the intro, but she must level up to 5 to use it in-game.
- Lilith's melee attack consists of an energized palm strike, although she will use bladed guns instead of her normal attack if one is equipped outside of Phasewalk.
- Lilith's wanted poster focuses on her chest and doesn't show most of her face above her mouth.
Trivia
- Lilith is a name with origins in Judeo-Christian mythology spanning thousands of years. The name has been associated with demonic and elemental entities, often portrayed as a seductress redhead woman.
- According to unused texture profiles, Lilith's full name and title is "Dr. Lilith Cashlin, Mercenary Scientist"[2] [3]. Her title and look remind Patricia Tannis.
- Lilith was originally depicted as a white-haired, very pale-skinned woman with yellow pupils, and a slightly alien appearance to her. This design has since been used for Commandant Steele, although Lilith's final design retains the yellow eyes. This can be seen in her original concept art and in one of the game's early trailers[4].
- At the Firehawk Lair in Frostburn Canyon, one of Lilith's computer screens displays the infamous BSoD (Blue Screen of Death) triggered by fatal errors in Windows operative systems. It also shows a humorous message that reads: "So, hate to be the bearer of bad news, but your system is pretty hosed. Maybe if you'd download less of that illegal Truxican porn, your machine wouldn't be all jacked up. You should probably be embarrassed. 2MUCH_PR0N_WXYZ.SYS - If this is the first time you're seeing this, then that means nobody has caught you yet. Tell you what's gonna happen here... you're going to put a new graphics card in me and strip that gunk off the keyboard-- then maybe your search history won't be mailed to your grandma. You pickin' up what I'm layin' down?"
- Lilith admits during an argument with Mr. Torgue during Bunkers and Badasses that as a kid she was made fun of for her tattoos and playing Bunkers and Badasses, and repeatedly references herself as a geek.
- In Borderlands 3, Lilith still uses her Firehawk alias. She uses a Hyperion SMG as weapon choice in battle.
- Lilith is portrayed by Cate Blanchett in the Borderlands film, though with a considerably different backstory and plotline.
Media
References[]
- ↑ The Worlds of Borderlands. p. 81
- ↑ See File:Pre-Release Borderlands Items
- ↑ Borderlands 2: 10 Things About Lilith You Didn’t Know, thegamer.com, 2019
- ↑ See File:BL1-mordecai-roland-lilith-concept-art.webp
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