Mordecai

Mordecai holding a revolver

Mordecai is Borderlands' "Hunter" class. He relies on damage dealt with precise marksmanship and the use of falconry to defeat enemies and acquire loot.

Background

At the age of 17, Mordecai won an Interplanetary Sharpshooting competition with a revolver. The other competitors, who were using sniper rifles, accused him of cheating and eventually got him banned from the competition for "unsportsmanlike conduct," although many witnesses noted that he didn't display any unsportsmanlike behaviors until after the accusations began. He now travels from planet to planet with his trusty companion Bloodwing, searching for "everything this freaking universe owes me," which Mordecai has defined as a better gun and unlimited cash.

(Information taken from the Borderlands manual)

Gameplay

Mordecai's play style is that of a sharpshooter. He is well suited for ranged combat, being able to have improved accuracy and dealing the most damage with well placed critical hits. Based on how his skill points are distributed he is also able to do high damage with other guns, though most of his skills lead to a preference of sniper rifles and pistols. His melee weapon is a sword, which can also be a tool of great harm. All of these advantages come at the expense of his own durability under fire. Mordecai's active ability calls his bloodwing, a red-eyed alien bird that can be a very helpful companion along your search for the vault.

His three skill trees are Sniper, which increases his skills with sniper rifles as well as group experience bonuses and accuracy; Rogue, which mainly focuses on increasing the potency of his Bloodwing as well as gaining loot; and Gunslinger, which improves his usage of pistols, as well as his melee weapon. Playing Mordecai involves making extra use of shields and evasive maneuvers, more than any of the other classes. Fighting in close quarters and boss battles can be difficult, while many fights in open areas will be much easier.

Active Ability

See also: Active Abilities

Mordecai and Bloodwing

Mordecai has a Bloodwing as a pet, which is a deadly winged predator that can be unleashed upon enemies to damage or kill them.

The Bloodwing can be commanded to attack enemies and can also be upgraded for increased damage and speed as you progress through the game. If you place your crosshairs over an enemy and the crosshairs turn red, then activate Bloodwing, it will attack the target you had in your sights. If you blind-fire Bloodwing, it will seek out the nearest target in the general direction you're looking in. Bloodwing's attack range is limited however, and more suitable to close combat conditions than for supporting long range sniping.

Bloodwing can also be equipped with artifacts to give him elemental damage bonuses.

Bloodwing bears the unique ability to be called back which allows him to be used again immediately if he hasn't attacked a target. Even a single attack forces you to wait for the full cooldown.

Bird of Prey isn't quite as useful as it could be. It would appear that the Bloodwing AI will never attack the same target twice in a row. It will only rarely attack the same target more than once even when multiple enemies are present. A useful tactic when using the Bird of Prey skill is when there are two enemies remaining, The Bloodwing will constantly attack the two enemies back and forth until it's reached its limit. This is especially useful once Crimson Lance Engineers send out their scorpio turret.

Bloodwing Tips

1. Bloodwing can be launched immediately before entering a vehicle and it will continue to follow until the skill timer expires. It will attack enemies near the vehicle as Bird of Prey permits.
2. Bloodwing can become entangled on obstacles, so some care should be taken to ensure it has clear air when launched.
3. Health returned from Out For Blood occurs when the Bloodwing returns, rather than when it strikes.
4. Bloodwing can be recalled by pressing the action skill button, returning before the skill duration expires, and interrupting it from attacking any additional targets with Bird of Prey. This can be useful if the health return from Out For Blood is urgently needed.
5. Bloodwing's Aerial Impact skill combined with Bird of Prey can be useful for getting past areas unharmed, when speed is preferable over combat. Dazed enemies will have trouble hitting targets, making them easier to run past.

Skill Tree

Starting Skill
Bloodwing Gain the ability to summon a pet Bloodwing out to attack an enemy and then return. Cooldown: 28 seconds
Tier	Sniper Tree		Rogue Tree		Gunslinger Tree
1		Focus - Increases accuracy with all weapon types. Adds +5% Accuracy per point invested and reduces Sniper Rifle sway by -10% per point invested. (Up to +25% and -50%, respectively.)		Swift Strike - Increases Bloodwing Damage by 20% per point invested, and Movement Speed by 8% per point invested. (Up to 100% and 40%, respectively.)		Deadly - Increases Critical Hit damage by 6% per point invested. (Up to 30%.)
		Caliber - Increases damage with Sniper Rifle by 4% per point invested. (Up to 20%.)		Swipe - The Bloodwing causes enemies to drop additional money, ammo, and healing items when it attacks. 1 extra item per point invested.		Gun Crazy - When using pistols, you have a chance to fire 2 shots with each pull of the trigger instead of just 1. Chance equal to 8% times the number of points invested. (Up to 40%.)
2		Smirk - All players on your team (including you) gain 3% additional experience per point invested when you kill an enemy with a Critical Hit. (Up to 15%.)		Fast Hands - Increases Reload Speed with all weapon types by 8% per point invested. (Up to 40%.)		Lethal Strike - Increases melee damage. Also, every melee attack has a 35% chance to be a Lethal Strike and deal extremely high damage. Starts off with your Melee Damage given a +10% bonus and Lethal Strike dealing +100% damage and up to 50% Extra Damage and Lethal strike of 500% damage.
		Killer - Killing an enemy increases your Damage by 8% per point invested and Reload Speed with all guns by 6% per point invested for a few seconds. (Up to 40% and 30%, respectively.)		Out For Blood - When your Bloodwing strikes an enemy you gain health equal to 7% of damage done per point invested. (Up to 35%)		Riotous Remedy - Killing an enemy gives you chaotic health regeneration for a few seconds. You may heal up to 3% of maximum health per point invested. (Up to 15%)
3		Loaded - Increases Magazine Capacity with Sniper Rifles by 20% per point invested. (Up to 100%)		Aerial Impact - Attacks from your Bloodwing can Daze enemies. Chance to daze an equal level enemy is equal to 20% per point invested. (Up to 100%)		Predator - Decreases the cooldown of your pet Bloodwing by 3 seconds per point invested. (Up to 15 sec)
		Carrion Call - Shooting an enemy with a Sniper Rifle reduces the cooldown of your Bloodwing by 0.8 seconds per point invested. (Up to 4.0 seconds)		Ransack - Killing an enemy increases the chance for other enemies to drop loot by 20% per point invested for a few seconds. (Up to 100%)		Hair Trigger – Increases pistol Fire Rate by 4% per point invested and Magazine Size by 6% per point invested. (Up to 20% and 30%, respectively.)
4		Trespass – All bullets have a 20% chance per point invested to ignore enemy shields. Also increases bullet damage by 1% per point invested. (Up to 100% and 5%, repectively.)		Bird of Prey – Increases the number of targets the Bloodwing can attack before returning by 1 per point invested. (Up to six targets.)		Relentless – Killing an enemy increases your fire rate by 8% per point invested and gives every bullet fired a 25% chance to be a Killer Shot and deal 20% additional damage per point invested. This effect lasts a few seconds. (Up to 40% and 100%, respectively.)

Skill Tree Calculator

Check out the skill calculator at the official Borderlands site

Class Mods

Main article: Class_Mods#Hunter

Quotes

Wanted

When opening a chest:

• "So, you want me to share huh?"
• "I'll just take a gander here"
• "Lady Luck, do be kind."
• "Satisfaction abounds."
• "Hmm...So many to choose from."
• "Hm...What do we have here?"
• "Don't mind if I do."

When scoring a critical hit:

• "Boom! Hehehehehehe..."
• "What? You didn't like that?"
• "Did that hurt?"
• "Feel it!"

When scoring a kill on a Badass enemy:

• "So big, so angry, so dead."
• "Nothing like a challenging kill."
• "I don't think he liked me."
• "Another trophy for my wall."
• "Not bad, not bad."

When scoring an Action skill kill:

• "Good boy!"
• "Someone's getting a treat."
• "Get 'em Blood!"
• "You like my pet?"
• "Give 'em hell, Bloodwing!"
• "That's my boy!"

When requesting a duel:

• "You looking at Bloodwing? They lookin' at you, Blood?"
• "C'mon, little girl. Make me laugh."

When leveling up:

• "Another notch on my rifle."
• "Can it be? I'm getting even BETTER at this!"

When spawning a vehicle:

• "Let's get our feet out of the dust"
• "We're going too slow."
• "Time for a nice, relaxing drive"

When requesting to swap (Gunner/Driver) seats in a vehicle:

• "You can't hit shit!"

• "Swap with me!"

• "That's enough for you! Switch seats with me!"

Moving the targeting reticle over a green item or better:

• "Nice! Check that out!"
• "Well shit, look at that!"

When idle:

• "Sure is great, standing here. I LOVE IT!"
• "Now that you mention it, I DO love standing here doing NOTHING!!!"
• "How long you gonna admire that dirt?"

When crippled:

• "Augh! Why? WWHHHYYYYYYYYYYYY!? Erugh..."
• "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I NEVER DIE!"

When reviving an ally:

• "What the Hell's wrong with you? Get UP!"
• "Don't make me pick you up again!"
• "Don't slip on your blood getting up. C'mon."
• "I'm not getting paid enough to watch you fall down all day. Get up!"

When out of ammo:

• "I got no bullets!"
• "Shit, out of ammo!"
• "Sonofabitch! Out of ammo!"

Trivia

Mordecai's old character design

• The voice actor of Mordecai is Julio Cedillo [IMDB Link]
• The name Mordecai may be a reference to a pet falcon named Mordecai (seeing as Mordecai has a bloodwing which is similar to a pet falcon) in the movie "The Royal Tenenbaums" By Wes Anderson.
• A bug existed in the initial release of Borderlands that enabled the Hunter to spawn multiple Bloodwings at once. The glitch in action can be viewed here.
• In the Secret Armory of General Knoxx, his wanted poster states his bounty is $1,000,000.00 for "Poaching and possesion of an endangered species", and in red text at the bottom, "another million for that annoying bird"
• Mordecai's name may also be a reference to Major Alfred Mordecai of the U.S. Ordnance Department dating from just before the Civil War. Major Mordecai's procurement research and decisions were a major contributing factor to US military philosophy emphasizing superior marksmanship instead of overwhelming firepower.
• Mordecai is compared to a Truxican Wrestler at the start of the game when Marcus says, "You in the leather! What's your story? You look like a Truxican Wrestler moon-lighting as a dominatrix!" "Truxican Wrestler" appears to be be a play on the words, "Mexican wrestler," as Mexican wrestlers wear matching masks and suits, not too dissimilar to Mordecai's. The name also appears on a melee orientated class mod.
• General Knoxx makes a comment on Mordecai on his twitter account:
  "troops will deploy today if all goes to plan. just met a man named mord-ee-kai. dude, eat something ." Referencing Mordecai's rather thin build, which also brings up the question of how Mordecai is even supposed to hold sniper rifles and Rocket launchers.
• Mordecai's character model prior to the game's release was much beefier looking when compared to the final design.