Borderlands 3‘s Action Skills are a way to finetune your character’s loadout, by giving them a powerful move that can turn the tide of battle in an instant. This Borderlands 3 Action Skills guide will run you through how to use action skills, how to upgrade them, and how to change them if you’re looking for a change.
How to Use Action Skills in Borderlands 3
Before you can go about using it, you’ll actually need to purchase your first Action Skill by using a Skill Point (first obtained at level 2), which you can do by going to your Skill Tree by pressing the touchpad on PS4, or View button on Xbox One, and tabbing over to the Skill Tree option.
Next, use an available Skill Point to pick one of the Action Skills you have at the start from any of the three different trees. Once you’ve got it, all you then need to do is press LB on Xbox One, L1 on PS4, or F on PC to use your Action Skill whenever you need to.
Like with many special abilities like this in video games, Action Skills do have a cooldown, which is always noted via a cooldown bar at the bottom of your screen, so be sure to keep an eye on this.
| Platform | How to Use Action Skills in Borderlands 3 |
| PS4 | L1 |
| Xbox One | LB |
| PC | F |
Of course, just because you’ve got an Action Skill, doesn’t mean it can’t be any better.
Upgrading Skills in Borderlands 3
If you’re looking to upgrade these in order to make them even more powerful, you’ll need to earn even more Skill Points from leveling up as you play through the various main and side missions in the game.
Once you’ve got enough Skill Points, open up the Skill Tree menu once again and then simply select the one you want to upgrade, press X on PS4, A on Xbox One, or left-click on PC to confirm you want to pour an additional point into it and make it even more powerful.
This might include altering your action skill into something different or pumping skill points into some of your passive skills to unlock new parts of the tree.
How to Change Action Skills
For those who feel like they might have made a mistake when buying their first one of these, fear not, you’re not locked into it forever. By opening up the Skill Tree menu again, players can simply select the new Action Skill they’d like to use and press X/ A/ left-click again to confirm they want to change.
It’s worth noting that to do this, you’ll either have to have unlocked the new Action Skill, or have the points to do so, otherwise, you will just be stuck with the one your originally chose.
That’s everything you need to know about Action Skills in Borderlands 3. For more tips, tricks, and guides, be sure to search for Twinfinite, or check out our upcoming guide wiki.
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