Borderlands 3 has stood out as one of the most unique loot-and-shoot games on the market for a long time. That being said, there are a lot of things vault hunters will need to know before hopping into Borderlands 3 for the first time. So, to help beginners with their introduction to the genre, we have compiled this list of 16+ Borderlands 3 tips.
These tips are going to be extremely helpful for beginners, but even veterans of the Borderlands saga will get some use out of some of the more advanced tips on our list. You might be surprised by what you find.
So without further ado, let’s dive into our tips and tricks for Borderlands 3.
Table of Contents
1. Choose Your Character Wisely
Borderlands 3 features a different cast of characters than the first two. FL4K, Amara, Moze, and Zane are the new vault hunters you will choose from.
In terms of which character is the best, the choice is pretty simple. FL4K has been the most “broken” character since the game was first released, and if you plan on playing solo he is the character you should be picking. His pet abilities are very strong and give him insane damage + survivability.
Not to mention the fact FL4K’s pet can revive him!
Moze is also another very strong character to pick, we even have a Moze build article for you to look at.
Amara and Zane are on the weaker side, however, a few buffs since the release of the game have made them both much better.
Whatever you do choose, make sure you’re ready to play them for a long time.
2. Fast Travel EVERYWHERE
New to Borderlands 3 is a quality of life change that will blow your mind. You can fast travel from ANYWHERE!
First off, you can fast travel to any fast travel location on the map at any time. No need to constantly drive to a location.
Second off, your vehicle functions as a fast travel location. This means you can leave your vehicle somewhere you’d like to return to and just fast travel back to it when you’re done!
With this neat trick, you can sell weapons often, respec whenever you like, or just quest faster. An advanced Borderlands 3 tip snuck in here at the end.
3. Keep Elemental Weapons Handy
One of the most important things in the Borderlands series is understanding elemental weapons and their effects. Think of it like rock paper scissors of gunplay.
- Fire: Good against “fleshy” enemies with HP and no shield or armor
- Corrosive: Good against any armored enemies
- Shock: Good against shielded enemies
- Explosive: Does no damage overtime but does massive damage all at once
Beginners need this tip the most because at some point they will fight an armored enemy and suddenly wonder why their fire weapon isn’t doing as much damage as it used to. This leads to countless deaths and extra-long fights for no reason.
You will definitely learn this lesson the hard way once you climb up the difficulties. Understanding elemental effects are mandatory for higher vault hunter difficulties.
So always keep at least one of each elemental type handy just in case you ever need it.
4. Find A Friend, Loser
Our ultimate Borderlands 3 tip. Find a friend.
We get it. You have no friends and you’re playing alone in your basement. Thankfully, you don’t need to actually have any friends in Borderlands 3.
With the matchmaking system in Borderlands 3, even if you get stuck on a hard enemy or boss, you can just get help from random strangers on the internet.
Don’t smash your face against your keyboard or controller trying to beat a boss for 10 hours. This isn’t Elden Ring. Suck it up and get carried like a real man.
5. Don’t Use Vending Machines
Listen, I know you feel like you’re super-rich and that you can just buy whatever weapon you see in the vending machine, but trust me, they all suck.
Borderlands has always prided itself on the insane amount of weapons you can find from drops. Keyword drops. Buying weapons from the vending machine is not going to give you a god weapon.
That being said, if you see a slight upgrade for your shield or weapon and you’re constantly dying, it might be time to finally use the scam machine. Just try to find an actual good weapon when you’re done.
6. Upgrade Your Backpack
Speaking of the insane amount of guns in Borderlands 3, upgrade your backpack ASAP!
This tip ties directly into two of our other Borderlands tips. If you want to make sure you have one of each element type, you’re going to need to expand that backpack. Having to fast travel back to sell your weapons is painstaking and not fun.
To counteract this, upgrade your backpack whenever you can. You’ll thank me later.
7. Check Your Mail Often
This is a tip for the lazy among you. Check your mail from time to time, Grandma misses you.
In Borderlands 3 you will often complete challenges without even noticing. These challenges reward you with cool weapons, shields, etc. So if you never check it, you never get these amazing weapons.
Again, these aren’t going to be amazing boss drop weapons, but they will help you progress in the early game when your weapons are pretty doo doo.
8. Ping The Map
A tip for those of you who have friends.
Borderlands 3 features a pinging system that allows you to mark locations on the map. This comes in very handy when playing with other players that don’t have mics.
Also, it is a bit more helpful than simply saying “over here” on Discord and having your friend completely lost on where “here” is.
9. Farm Bosses
This tip is mainly for those new to the Borderlands saga, as veterans are going to already know this.
Enemies in Borderlands 3 have loot tables that determine what they can drop. This could range from ammo and grenades all the way to a legendary weapon with a 0.01% drop rate.
Because of this, most players are going to want to keep farming the same bosses over and over to finally get that legendary weapon on the 100th kill. If that sounds high for you, I’ve got bad news. That’s a low figure.
Honestly, this is most of what makes Borderlands games as fun as they are. A casino where the chips are bullets.
10. Plan Your Build
While a hefty focus is put on weapons in this game (as it should) you should also plan out your build. Your skill tree will determine much of your playstyle and can even buff certain weapon types.
BL3 has skill tree builders on their official website which makes it easy to plan out your build before getting in the game. I’d recommend playing around with them a bit and seeing what works for you.
FL4K for example used to have one of the most broken builds known to mankind and could one-shot bosses with a sniper back when the game was first released. He isn’t quite as crazy now, but that should give you an idea of how important skill trees are in BL3.
11. Go To The Lost and Found
Sometimes we get lazy and don’t pick up after ourselves. Is this littering? Yes, yes it is.
Thankfully, in BL3 there is a lost loot machine back at Sanctuary which you can use to recover all of the things you didn’t pick up.
Oftentimes it gives you nothing of value, but sometimes you’ll embarrassingly find out you forgot to pick up a legendary boss drop…
12. Check Your Item Score
Item score is one of the biggest quality of life changes in Borderlands 3. With this number, you can now see whether or not a weapon or shield is truly an upgrade.
Before item level, back in the BL2 days, you had to kind of eyeball it or do napkin math on whether or not the gun you just found was an upgrade. My little pea-brain can’t thank Gearbox enough for this change.
Forewarning, there will be some exceptions to the item level rule. Don’t blindly swap weapons if the answer is obvious.
13. Use Borderlands 3 Shift Codes
Borderlands 3 frequently puts out shift codes that can be used for Golden Keys, an incredibly useful tool for getting a bunch of powerful upgrades.
By using the Golden Keys on the Golden Chest, you can get a plethora of weapon, grenade, and shield upgrades that are scaled to your level. So, if you’ve been leveling quickly and haven’t found any gear upgrades recently, the Golden Chest is a great place to go so you don’t fall behind.
While Golden Keys aren’t necessarily scarce, they do have a limited supply. That means that eventually, you will use them all. In other words, make sure to ALWAYS use shift codes when possible.
Here are three permanent shift codes that work:
- ZFKJ3-TT3BB-JTBJT-T3JJT-JWX9H – 3 Golden Keys
- HXKBT-XJ6FR-WBRKJ-J3TTB-RSBHR – 1 Golden Key
- ZFKJ3-TT6FF-KTFKT-T3JJT-JWX36 – 1 Golden Key
- 9XCBT-WBXFR-5TRWJ-JJJ33-TX53Z – 3 Golden Keys
- ZRWBJ-ST6XR-CBFKT-JT3J3-FRXJ5 – 3 Golden Keys
- Z65B3-JCXX6-5JXW3-3B33J-9SWT6 – 3 Golden Keys
14. Do Side Missions
Not the greatest BL3 tip I could give you, but I’m sure some of you need to hear this.
Before rushing in to go fight the main story bosses, pick up some side quests to keep your level around theirs. This will save you time in the long run because you won’t constantly be dying when you do end up fighting the boss. Also, many side missions give decent weapon upgrades that could be useful down the line.
15. Choose Good Class Mods
Class mods are items in BL3 that give your character extra points in their skill tree for free. For example, a class mod might give FL4K three extra skill points in a skill, without having to level it up.
There are two really nice things about class mods that make them extremely important to pick up and frequently upgrade.
- They can activate skills you haven’t reached on the skill tree. Meaning you don’t need to level skill for it to be useful
- Class mods can increase skill level PAST MAX
As you can see, class mods are stupidly strong. Make sure to always be on the lookout for them if you want to experience the raw power of broken builds.
16. Shoot The Environment
In Borderlands 3, most of the environment is destructible. Now, we aren’t at Minecraft levels of being able to destroy everything, but most of the cover enemies hide behind are able to be destroyed.
This makes dealing with entrenched enemies a lot easier. Just spray down or throw a grenade at one of the destructible covers and you’ll be able to take care of those pesky enemies.
Also, a beginner tip for newbies, make sure to shoot barrels. Barrels do an insane amount of damage (so make sure not to be around them when they explode) and can quickly take care of enemies.
Borderlands 3 Advanced Tips FAQ
We’ve already gone over plenty of Borderlands 3 tips at the start, so let’s move into more frequently asked questions and some advanced tips down here.
Which Borderlands 3 Character is the Strongest?
As we’ve stated at the beginning, the strongest character in Borderlands 3 is definitely FL4K. In terms of solo potential and DPS, FL4K has no contest among the other vault hunters.
Which is the Easiest Character in Borderlands 3?
It hurts to repeat it, but FL4K is also the easiest character in Borderlands 3. He not only has an arsenal of pets that can take hits for him (and revive him) but he also has some of the highest damage in the game.
FL4K is an all-around broken character and the best vault hunter by far.
What is the Max Level in Borderlands 3?
The max level in Borderlands 3 right now is 72. You can’t get any more XP or level up any skills after this. However, you can increase your skill levels by using class mods.
Does Borderlands 3 have Pearlescent?
Borderlands 3 does not currently have any Pearlescent weapons.
For those new to the games, Pearlescent weapons were the ultra rarity, even above legendary, and had some of the strongest weapons in the game in the pool.
End
And that is it for our Borderlands 3 tips and tricks for beginners. We tried slipping in a few advanced tips for you veterans, but this should be all you really need to know when starting out in BL3.
Good luck!
