Salvador the gunzerker
(Borderlands)
Context
Salvador is a character from the Borderlands 2 video game.
If you’re not well familiar with the games, you should first read our Borderlands setting primer. Which also has technical DCH notes and other things.
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Background
- Real Name: Salvador.
- Known Relatives: Rosita (grandmother).
- Group Affiliation: Crimson Raiders.
- Base of Operations: Pandora.
- Height: 5’4″ (1.62m). Weight: 200 lbs. (91 kg.).
- Eyes: Brown. Hair: Brown (sometimes dyed blue).
Powers & Abilities
The diminutive Salvador is enormously strong. Especially in his arms and shoulders.
His short legs do not seem to present any hindrance, presumably because of this strength.
His durability is also peak human, and he seems to have some sort of healing factorThe power to heal wounds and regrow tissues, like Wolverine.
Salvador could easily be a Pandoran mutant. A bit like Brick, and a bit like the “goliath” phenotype common among some bandit clans.
Akimbo
A firearms expert, Salvador is known for his ability to wield two guns at once. No matter how large, unwieldy or recoil-heavy they are. He could dual-wield a sniper rifle and a rocket launcher, in the unlikely case where it’d serve a purpose.
This is called “gunzerking”. Since it works better when Salvador is flush with adrenaline, making his grip on his ordnance even more vise-like.
Salvador is also oddly unconcerned with ammunition management. In-game, he can regenerate his ammunition stores, and inexplicably reload one gun whilst firing another.
Our suggestion is to rationalise that as an advanced feeding system. One that digistructs out or in his ammunition and magazines as he fights.
Salvador was given a rare slag Rubi pistol by Mad Moxxi. Dual-wielding a big gun and Rubi allows him to heal his wounds, slag his opponent, and add the Rubi’s firepower to his main cannon. This is a big advantage.
Soundtrack
I’m not sure I’m going to have that many opportunities to drop some French-Chilean old-school rap here.
So let’s go with La nueva condena from flow queen Ana Tijoux’s remarkable 1977 album.
History
Salvador is from Pandora, and may have been born there. He and his abuelaGrandmother. lived in a village called Ovejas. Though one assumes that the locals didn’t actually raise sheep.
Folks in Ovejas seemed to have a mix of Anglo and Spanish names. So it might resemble some areas of the Southwestern US.
Goodbye to the village
Salvador apparently always was a murderous hardcase. He killed many people, and has an interminable rap sheet. But it would seem :
- That he operated in an isolated and relatively small area. Salvador had never heard of the Vaults, and his fellow villagers didn’t know what the Hyperion Corporation was.
- That he normally left people from Ovejas alone, or even defended them.
- That the bulk of his crimes may have occurred *after* he left Ovejas.
One day, Salvador massacred four men who were attacking his grandma. Salvador called them bandits – and, given their monikers, he likely was correct.
But the villagers refused to believe him, for unrevealed reasons. Perhaps they had gotten scared of the savage gunzerker, and feared that he would one day turn against them.
In any case, Judge Chavez sentenced Salvador to hanging.
These are originally shot as 5160x2160px BMPs, to offer a clean look at the character art. It’s a convenient format to work with, too.
Hyperbad timing
As the judgement was rendered, a Hyperion recon team came in.
Hyperion was apparently just beginning its takeover of areas they intended to mine for Eridium. The troopers opened fire immediately after a perfunctory warning.
Attempting to save those about to hang him, Salvador engaged the Hyperion forces. He eventually prevailed, but Ovejas had been destroyed.
Torturing the sole Hyperion survivor, Salvador learned about Vaults, Eridium and Hyperion’s general projects.
Those who walk away from Ovejas
The notion of a Vault intrigued him. Since Ovejas had been razed, he decided to leave and become a Vault Hunter.
Salvador would eventually :
- End up on Handsome Jack and Angel’s watch A-list.
- Meet and team up with other particularly badass Vault Hunters.
- Narrowly survive an attempt by Jack to kill the best Vault Hunters. And from there join the Crimson Raiders in Sanctuary.
Adνеrtisеmеnt
Description
Salvador speaks English with some Spanish words. Most of the latter are terms that most Americans will easily recognise. Maybe he’s a fan of vintage White Tiger (Hector Ayala)’s version of Spanglish.
Sal described himself as “a fist with hair stapled to it”. Which isn’t entirely wrong.
He likes an unrevealed brand of cigars.
Personality
Salvador appears to mostly be a less-than-sane mad dog, who exults in carnage.
However, he has a crude but stringent code of ethics. From what little we can discern :
- He will not hurt his friends, kin or neighbours.
- He will only kill “bad guys”. Who apparently are defined as those who attack people who can’t quite defend themselves.
Many of Salvador’s quotes, skills, etc. allude to classic (and less-than-classic) action movies and thrillers. Presumably he’s a genre fan.
His barksCanned, repetitive lines uttered by video game characters (usually during combat). also convey :
- A mild fear of heights.
- A sort of excitement/adrenaline addiction.
- A slight addiction to steroids. Which presumably contributes to his murderous aggression.
Here are the custom look I usually run on my Salvador, in case you were all “hey, I wonder what whatsisface over at… that website uses in his main Salvador save”.
DC Heroes RPG
Tell me more about the game stats
Salvador
| Dex: 06 | Str: 05 | Bod: 06 |
| Int: 04 | Wil: 03 | Min: 05 |
| Inf: 04 | Aur: 04 | Spi: 05 |
| Init: 016 | HP: 045 |
Powers:
Regeneration: 04
Skills:
Acrobatics (Climbing): 05, Gadgetry (Firearms and ammunition): 05, Martial Artist (EV): 06, Vehicles (Land): 04, Weaponry (Infantry weapons): 07
Advantages:
Credentials (Free access to the Catch-A-Ride network), Familiarity (XXth and XXIst action cinema), Language (Spanish), Lightning Reflexes, Schticks (Mighty Thews (Firearms, Heavy Weapons), Paired Weapons (Firearms, Heavy Weapons), Double-Tapping).
Connections:
Both generations of Vault Hunters (Low).
Drawbacks:
Creepy Appearance (Size, proportions, hair), MIA toward Steroids use, Mistrust, Serious Rage.
Motivation:
Thrill/Responsibility.
Occupation:
Adventurer.
Wealth:
005
Equipment:
- AMMO DIGISTRUCTOR [BODY 02, Dimension travel (µT only): 05, Miniaturisation: 03, Limitation: The tesseract can only store ammunition, Advantages – Area Knowledge (µT), Misc.: allows for hands-free reloading of prepared firearms].
- Rubi pistol [BODY 04, Projectile weapons: 05, Range: 04, Ammo: 08, Descriptor: Slag, Misc.: Healing effect, see the Borderlands setting article].
- Corrosive spinigun [BODY 04, Projectile weapons: 08, Range: 03, Ammo: 12, Advantage: Autofire, Descriptor: Corrosive]. A “spinigun” is a design of assault rifle with rotating barrels. The accuracy tends to be crap, though, so tactical use is closer to that of a shotgun.
- Refactored Development shotgun [BODY 04, Projectile weapons: 09 (Diminishing, Area of effect 1 AP), Range: 03, Ammo: 04, R#02, Recommended STR: 04, Descriptor: Ballistic, Limitation: Projectile weapons has No Range, use the listed Range]. A quad-barelled automatic shotgun.
- Incendiary Greed revolver [BODY 04, Projectile weapons: 07, Ammo: 09, Recommended STR 03, Descriptor: 03]. A large-bore revolver with a smooth Jakobs double action. It can be aimed without slowing down, which may mean it comes with some sort of monocular HUD you plug into the revolver.
- Homing corrosive transfusion grenades (x5) [BODY 01, Acid (No Range, Area of Effect 1 AP): 08, Air walking: 01, Life Sense (includes robots): 02, Vampirism (Selective Area of Effect 1): 05, Grenade Drawback. Acid and Vampirism can be Combined].
- Hyperion sniper rifle [BODY 02, Projectile weapon: 07, Telescopic vision: 03, Ammo: 07, Descriptor: Ballistic, R#02].
- Infantry rocket launcher [BODY 01, Bomb: 06, Projectile Weapons: 10, Sharpness (Projectile weapons): 02, Ammo: 03, Bonus: Projectile weapons and Bomb can be Combined (Bomb rides the Range of Projectile weapons)].
Design Notes
This is Salvador circa level 37, with a mix of skills.
Ordnance is vaguely based on what I happened to have when I finished Normal difficulty. “Vaguely”, since the visuals push Salvador as dual-wielding long guns while the mechanics push toward dual-wielding pistols.
Borderlands 2 builds are mostly about the Action Skill. And Salvador’s Action Skill boils down to “he can fire two guns a lot, really hard”. The subtleties (such as the Money Shot skill) don’t translate. So yeah, the stats look a bit flat, I agree.
Source of Character: Borderlands 2 video game.
Helper(s): Darci.
Writeup completed on the 20th of December, 2020.