Familiar with Borderlands but just beginning Borderlands 3? To expedite your learning curve as much as possible, here are some tips for players returning to a beloved series:
- Characters
Gearbox made some exciting innovations to their classic stock character builds they began in Borderlands 1 and 2; we won’t mention Pre-sequel.
Amara is our siren this time around, and she doesn’t disappoint. Players can choose to phasegrasp, phasecast, or phaseslam for an action skill, and all three have auspicious augments. As always, our siren’s skill trees focus on elemental damage, but Amara has strong potential for melee builds, too.
Zane is the Operative, which functions as a mercenary class like Axton or Roland in the previous games. Players can choose one of Zane’s three action skills, or equip two and forego the ability to throw a grenade. Pick from an armed digistruct clone you can switch places with, a deployable shield, and the tried and true turret. All are viable options for rushing around the battlefield, mowing through enemies as a one-man army.
Fl4k is a gender neutral robot that’s received a lot of attention for their high critical hit damage. This beastmaster class travels with at least one of three animals that damage enemies and buff. Fl4k’s stats. Players can choose between a skag that vomits acid and offers a small damage boost, a spiderant that regenerates Fl4k’s health, and a pistol-wielding jabber that increases their movement speed. Their action skill “Fade Away” is the closest to an assassin class in the game (for now.) This particular skill tree focuses on increasing Fl4k’s critical hit damage, and the synergy in the tree grants Fl4k god-like DPS (Damage per second.)
Every RPG needs a heavy with BDE, and Moze’s is literally a brick wall of firepower. Her action skill, Iron Bear, is a mech suit equipped with two heavy artillery weapons. Players can choose between a grenade launcher, a minigun, and a railgun that deals shock damage. Her skill points focus on regenerating ammunition and feeding Iron Bear the delicious lead it needs to destroy your enemies.
2. Radiation is a thing, cryo eats armor too
Elemental weapons have long since been a staple in Borderlands gameplay, particularly for the siren class. Gearbox chose to omit slag and add a new element to melt bandits’ faces: radiation. Radiation fires as a yellow energy blast and is effective against shields in True Vault Hunter Mode. It has a chance of inciting a status effect, and as a bonus, inflicts damage to any enemies surrounding an affected enemy.
3. Mayhem Mode
Borderlands 2 gave us Overpower Levels after Ultimate Vault Hunter mode so we could continue leveling up and collecting badass loot after level fifty. In Borderlands 3, after players Mayhem Mode is Gearbox’s plane for post level fifty play, and the mechanics make for a nuanced experience. Players can choose between three levels of increased difficulty for more experience, money, eridium, and most importantly, better loot.
Don’t be fooled by reveries of million-dollar farming sessions and glittering orange loot drops: Mayhem Mode will make you earn its coveted treasures. Besides enemies with respectively higher base stats in each mode, players also have to combat modifiers that change every time players save and quit. Some are neutral, and merely raise the enemies’ gun damage or fire rate. Others are more aggressive, and weaken certain weapons or elemental types. These modifiers make it vital to farm with a diverse arsenal, to make sure you can kill bosses as quickly as possible.
4. User-interface features and Moxxi’s Crit
The UI is basically identical, but has some new features. The map is 3-dimensional now, and can be tough to navigate– don’t skip the tutorial. The most important thing to remember is that you can fast-travel from anywhere now. Just open the map and press triangle to explore locations. You can also travel back to your vehicle at any time.
There’s a new tab in the start menu labeled “Social”. There lies your co-op story mode, Circle of Slaughter, and a new game mode: Proving Grounds. It consists of a dungeon run with a boss fight to conclude. This game mode seems fun, but I’ve never been able to connect with anyone on Playstation Network.
The Social tab is also where weapons manufacturers send you free weapons when you complete challenges with their guns. I always sell those, the only mailed gun I suggest keeping is Moxxi’s Crit:
As always, just keep depositing thousands in Moxxi’s tip jar to earn this weapon. It’s a practical option for farming until one finds more efficient legendaries. It’s extremely annoying when the Crit slips out of your hand, but the critical hit damage makes up for that inconvenience.
5. Bloody Harvest is here until December 5th
Bloody Harvest is a seasonal in-game event that grants players new loot, challenges for XP and guardian points, and a new raid boss until December 5th. To fight Captain Traunt, talk to Maurice in Sanctuary. He stands near the mechanism that activates Mayhem Mode… I won’t spoil the rest!