Borderlands 2 Enemy Preview -- Meet The Monsters

Borderlands 2 introduces more guns than you can shake a rocket at, but let’s not forget about the wide variety of enemies that you’ll be blasting your way through just to get to all that delicious loot. Crazy psychos, vicious skags, and a couple of well-armed surprises await you when you step foot on the dusty Pandora plains once again.

Handsome Jack is not going to make it easy for you to survive this time around. Expect old faces with a couple of new tricks as well as some new creatures that have only your death on their little minds.

To find out what you’ll be facing down, we checked in with Jasper Foreman, the lead A.I. programmer for Borderlands 2, to give us the lowdown on those looking to collect the bounty on our heads. Be sure to check out the above video for all sorts of gameplay goodness.

Did you blink? I bet you did. Instead of scrubbing through the footage one frame at a time to bask in the warm glow of Borderlands 2, why don’t you just hit the jump to find out more about the fun things looking to kill you this Fall.

Bandits

We have the technology. We can rebuild them...but instead, let’s give them bigger guns and make them a little crazier. The endless supply of bandits that return this time around a little smarter and devious. They’ve grown wise to your “aim for the head” tricks. You’ll need to take them out quickly before they try to surround and take you down for good.

And the psychos, yeah, they make a comeback with 120 percent more Charlie Sheen crazy.

Skags

Those little vicious puppies return to drool on your shoes, try to rip out your throat, and make your day a living nightmare. Besides the usual Badasses breathing fire or pumping out electricity, keep an eye out for the new Skags that buff the rest of the pack with a howl. Keep an eye out for that little butt wiggle before it rears back to unleash a roar that will pump up the rest of the pack.

If you see him, take him out. Now!

Threshers

Watch enough Borderlands 2 trailers and you’ve probably already seen these guys sprouting up from the ground. You don’t need to worry about the flow of spice when these thresher worms emerge. Quick, powerful, and sometimes carrying around elemental attacks, these tubular creatures will certainly give you anime nightmares if you don’t take out the head.

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Jasper describes them as “not a sandworm but squishy.” You can probably add these to the category of “Things I Don’t Want to Feel Between My Toes.” Watch out for the tale-tell Bugs Bunny trail to find where those nasty little tentacles will be popping up from the ground. There’s also a Wormhole thresher that creates a singularity to bring you straight into his gaping maw. Feed him some lead instead.

Hyperion Battle Doid

Handsome Jack throws around some of his own toys for you to play around with. The Gun Loader--more like “unloader”-- takes the place of your standard foot soldier with a shiny exterior. The War Loader, on the other hand, keeps blasting until all his cannons overheat. Surveyors fly around just to tick you off.

Help out Pandora by starting your own recycling program and turn these droids into scrap metal.

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Goliath

Going online. The goliath is a tin man with a heart of gold. Wait, a minute. I take that completely back. Goliath is a raging beast that kills anything and everything in his way. And here’s the trick: with every mob kill, this beast grows more ferocious and that much harder to kill. Left uncheck, this monster could quickly tower above you and the rest of your companions without breaking a sweat.

Do you go for the brute or the mobs swarming around him? Decisions, decisions.

Nomad