Borderlands 3: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

If Borderlands 3 is your first foray into the looter shooter RPG series, or if it’s just been a while since you’ve played a borderlands game, you may be wondering if there are any tips and tricks for beginners that are worth taking note of.

Fortunately, we’ve completed the game and compiled a list of useful tips and tricks that’ll help you maximize your enjoyment of the title as much as possible.

Loot Everything

While there may be many aspects of the game that have been tuned up or updated since the series’ first entry, Borderlands 3 is still very much a game about grabbing the best loot and amassing a fortune by pilfering anything not nailed down to the floor.

To that end, you’ll want to open any and every container you find, pick up any valuable weapons you come across and otherwise loot everything you see.

Doing so will not only ensure you come across any and all rare loot available to you, but also keep you flush in ammunition, cash and any other resources you could hope to have along your journey.

It’ll likewise make finding items tied to quests that much easier, as you’re far less likely to miss something if you’re tearing apart every container and hidden treasure trove already.

Understand How Loot Rarity and Scores Work

Borderlands 3 also has the same loot rarity and scoring system as past games, and knowing how it works is integral to making sure you’re decked out with the best gear.

As with past games, loot is ranked in rarity by the color of its description box and item marker. From least rare to most rare, it goes white (common) to green (uncommon) to blue (rare) to purple (very rare) to orange (legendary).

Rarer loot tends to have special effects and abilities not offered by common loot, and will also be worth far more cash when sold if it isn’t something you’d be interested in using.

likewise, loot also has an overall score based on its stats and abilities, seen in the top left corner of its description box.

This score takes into account the weapon’s rarity, abilities, and stats for a general account of how useful it is, and is what you’ll want to consider above all else when selecting your loadout.

For example, if you’re choosing between a purple weapon and a green weapon, you’ll want to check the weapons’ score in addition to their rarity.

The purple weapon may be rarer, but if the green weapon has a far higher score, chances are it’s the better option overall.

By using this tip, you’re sure to come out with some of the best weapons that the game has to offer.

Complete the Main Story As Fast As Possible

While Borderlands 3 may seem open-ended at first, it won’t take long to see that most of the game’s areas and content are limited based on how much of the main story you’ve completed.

This includes new areas and worlds you can travel to, which side missions are available to you and how much you can feasibly level up without slowing to a near-halt of experience gaining.

As such, you’ll want to focus on completing segments of Borderlands 3’s main story before diving into each area’s side content.

Doing so will ensure you aren’t wasting your time trying to complete a crew mission or side mission with content locked off by completing a portion of the main story, and that all of your time is spent enjoying the game rather than being frustrated.

It’ll likewise allow you to gain tools that can be used to access different secret areas, further opening up what you can do while you’re off exploring the wider worlds available for you to play in.

Explore Each Area Thoroughly

Speaking of which, you’ll want to explore each area of Borderlands 3 as much as possible once you’ve opened up every portion of it.

Aside from the main missions tied to the game’s stories, there are a wealth of side missions, crew missions and secrets hidden throughout the game’s areas waiting for you to uncover them in the far corners of the map.

Some come with a funny story of series of events you can follow; others offer lore about the series’ worlds and characters that haven’t been revealed until now; and others still are pop-culture references that are good for a laugh before you let loose on them with a hail of gun fire, harvesting one-of-a-kind loot from the remains.

This will likewise give you more experience and better gear than you would otherwise get from sticking to the path the story lays out for you, so you’ll be much better prepared for the next stage of the story or the next side mission you can choose to take part in.

Try Out Each Vault Hunter

As with past entries in the series, Borderlands 3 gives you four different Vault Hunters to choose from for your player character: FL4K the Beastmaster, Amara the Siren, Moze the Gunner, and Zane the Operative.

Each comes with their own abilities and strengths you can utilize, and can unlock even crazier abilities as you become stronger and progress through the game.

However, it’s important to note that if you aren’t feeling a certain class, you’re more than welcome to restart and try out a different vault hunter instead.

Sure, you’ll lose some progress, but choosing the right Vault Hunter for you can be the difference between having a blast for 40-plus hours or muddling your way through a playthrough that never meshes with you.

Experiment with each class and give them each a go until one feels right.

You’ll be happy you did once the hours fly by and you settle into a good flow of looting and shooting with their specific abilities, and the hours fly by in a blur of entertaining mayhem.

And that is all of the tips and tricks that we have for Borderlands 3. For more on the game, make sure to check out our extensive Wiki Guide.