10 Things to Do First in Borderlands 3

Resolution vs. Performance in Borderlands 3

Before you do anything else in Borderlands 3, if you’re playing on PS4 Pro or Xbox One (sorry for everyone else, we promise we’ll be quick with this one), you’ll have to choose between favoring the game displaying in a 4K resolution at 30 fps, or running at a full HD 1080p, but at a buttery smooth 60 fps.

Our personal preference is to go for performance, as the bump up in framerate makes Borderlands 3’s combat feel even more fast-paced and fluid, and the 4K bump in resolution from 1080 just doesn’t seem all that noticeable with Borderlands 3’s cel-shaded visuals.

Plus there have been some reports from players that Borderlands 3 doesn’t preform all that great at points while in visual mode.

At the end of the day, though, everyone’s different, so pick what you fancy. You can always change it later on when playing the game from the settings menu anyway.

Choose Coopetition or Cooperation

When you create your first game file — and any subsequent new game files — you’ll have to choose whether you want your co-op experience to play out as a Coopetition or Cooperation.

Coopetition is where only one instance of each piece of loot drops from enemies, and you have to fight it out with your team to scoop it up; whereas cooperation sees all loot distributed fairly and everyone’s generally that bit happier and not screaming at one another demanding they hand over that damn bouncy grenade mod.

Cooperation also applies pretty generous level scaling so players of all levels can play together. In coopetition, this is disabled, so you’ll be facing off against enemies at the same level as the host, for better or worse.

Research Borderlands 3’s Vault Hunters to Get the Right One for You

There are four new Vault Hunters in Borderlands 3 that players will have to choose from to take on the sizable adventure ahead. FL4K, Amara, Moze, and Zane.

Amara is the melee-focused Siren who can call upon her astral skills to summon giant fists to hold enemies in place, or summon a projection of herself which surges through and deals massive damage to enemies. She’s also got a skill tree focused on elemental damage if that’s more your taste.

Zane is more focused on using mechs and tech to deal damage for him, or at least give him a hand while he does it. He can call upon barriers, drones, and a clone to do his dirty work for him.

Moze is the gunner with a giant mech that becomes her defining characteristic that can be decked out with miniguns, rocket launchers, and more.

Finally, FL4K is the one you’re going to want to pick if you want to have a pet companion with you for the ride. It can be a Skag, Spiderant, or Jabber, so take your pick, upgrade it with powerful attacks, and sitback and let it do your bidding on the battlefield.

For a full breakdown, you can check out our guide on which Vault Hunter you should choose.

Spend Some Time with Skill Trees

Just because you’ve picked your basic character build, that doesn’t mean you’re done. Each Vault Hunter has three unique and separate skill trees that you’ll be pouring your skill points into as you level up. This will help you further define the playstyle you want to go into as you progress in Borderlands 3.

For example, Amara the Siren can be turned into a heavily-focused melee character or more elemental damage-based. FL4K’s various beasts all have different abilities that allow him to have one of the most diverse lists of potential playstyles. You get the point.

The best thing to do is to spend some time going through the skill trees and seeing what skills appeal to you most from the different trees, that way you’ll always have a good idea of the amount of skill points you need to invest in each one.

You’ll also know what you’re working towards from the beginning, rather than muddling your way through the early levels. It’s possible to respec your character at any time, but that costs cash, and why spend it when you don’t need to?

Get Some Borderlands 3 Golden Keys

After you’ve finished your time completing missions on The Droughts, you’ll officially be into the true meat of Borderlands 3’s adventure as you hop aboard Sanctuary.

Here, you’ll find a pretty crazy-looking chest that requires a Golden Key to open. This chest basically guarantees you top-tier loot for your current level in your adventure. As such, we advise saving your keys until you’ve reached a higher level so as not to waste them on average loot you’ll quickly outlevel early on.

Anyway, once you’re able to, press the Options button on PS4, Menu on Xbox One, or Esc on PC to access the Social menu. Head over to the ‘Shift Codes’ option and head to our SHIFT Codes guide and begin entering those codes.

You can also sign up for a VIP account and get a bunch of goodies that way.

Complete Some Side Missions

While we mentioned above that The Droughts is just a starting area to introduce you to Borderlands 3’s various mechanics and activities, it’s still worth taking the time to see more than just the main story missions.

Side missions are not only a great way of earning large chunks of experience to help you level up, but they’re also pretty fun and comical affairs.

Plus, the more you explore, the more chance you’ve got of finding some crazy weapons to use, which makes the fun combat even more insane.

Get a Varied Loadout of Guns

Speaking of making the most of The Droughts, make sure you’re spending the time to really get to grips with your inventory and weapon stats. You’re not going to have weapons that’ll stick with you for the duration due to the whole leveling system, but a bit of inventory organization can go a long way.

Your backpack is pretty limited in size, and while you can expand it with expensive SDU mods from Marcus, it’s always going to be a squeeze to keep all the loot you come across in there.

As such, we recommend trying to have one weapon of each type, possibly two for those that you rely on heavily, or if you’re really that stuck.

This not only means you’ve got a variety of weapons ready to take on any kind of situation you find yourself in, but you’re not taking up half your backpack with four different shotguns, three of which you’re never going to use.

Loot and guns come up a lot in Borderlands 3, so while it’s good to have variety in the weapon type, don’t bog yourself down carrying around guns that you’re simply not going to use. That way, you can keep more of the rare loot you pick up in new main story missions and sell it on for easy money… or to replace your current loadout.

Oh, and bonus tip, any weapons that are effective against Shields should be prioritized. You’ll come across a bunch of shielded enemies later, and this helps cut down the amount of ammo they’ll soak up.

Hijack Enemy Vehicles

Vehicle controls are abysmal in Borderlands 3, but you will get used to them after a little bit. Still, even if vehicles aren’t fun to use, you’re still going to have to use them to help cut down some serious travel time otherwise.

You can make the time spent in these things a little more fun, though. By hijacking enemy vehicles and returning them to a Catch-a-Ride, you’ll unlock more parts to customize your ride with. Now driving around might be slightly more tolerable.

Get The Droughts’ Typhon Logs

WE’RE NOT DONE WITH THE DROUGHTS YET! It’s only a small little area, but there’s actually a bunch of stuff you can do in it before you move on. You can go find dead claptraps for easy experience, take on a legendary hunt, or seek out Typhon Logs.

That last one is the one we suggest you definitely do whenever you can on a planet.

Each one has about three Typhon Logs hidden somewhere on them, and finding them all will allow Tannis to triangulate the coordination of a locked chest containing a bunch of nice, rare loot.

We’ve got a complete guide for all of The Droughts’ Crew Challenges, so be sure to check it out if you want a helping hand.

Play Borderlands 3 With Friends

Okay, we’re gonna let you leave The Droughts now and really dive into Borderlands 3’s adventure. If you hadn’t been already, now’s a great time to get some friends together for an online session.

You’re through all the rather slow opening missions now and into the more frantic, fast-paced mayhem the series is renown for. Borderlands 3 was basically made to be played with friends, and the difference compared to playing on your own is noticeable.

Even if you’re a big solo player (like myself), it’s always worth keeping in mind that as long as you’ve got a friend on the same platform, you’ve always got a helping hand within reach. It’ll also help make some of the level grinding a bit more tolerable, which is always a win.

There’s a bunch of other stuff just waiting for you to uncover in Borderlands 3, but those 10 things to do first should help put you on some good footing, ready to take on anything that the Children of the Vault throw at you.

If you liked this post, be sure to check out our Borderlands 3 guide wiki, for plenty more tips and tricks just like it.