Highlights
- Players should always enable a seasonal event in Borderlands 3 to maximize loot earnings and take advantage of unique legendary items with generous drop rates.
- Only use "red text" loot in Borderlands 3's endgame as they tend to be powerful and worth checking out, regardless of their rarity.
- Reset skill points regularly in Borderlands 3 since the cost is low and it allows players to optimize their builds, especially in the endgame where money is abundant.
Borderlands is a franchise with an impressive amount of variety when it comes to loot and buildcrafting, but the player base has still settled into a few common practices. For any players attempting to get into the franchise, it might be wise to learn some of the mannerisms that veteran players subconsciously abide by in Borderlands 3.
While most of the unwritten rules for Borderlands 3 can ring true for the other Borderlands games, there are still a few rules that are unique to this entry in the franchise. Specifically, the interactions with characters and the permanently available seasonal events shouldn’t be skipped out on, among other traditions that the community has for playing Borderlands 3.
Always Enable a Seasonal Event in Borderlands 3
While the Seasonal Events in Borderlands 3 were initially only available for a limited time, Borderlands 3 has recently made all of these events permanently available. Some of these events can be seamless, while others can drastically affect gameplay, so players can either choose an event based on its impact on the game or based on the legendary gear it introduces. Always playing with one of these events enabled is essentially a way to maximize the loot that players earn, since each seasonal event adds a few unique Legendary items to the available loot pool with generous drop rates.
Only Use “Red Text” Loot in Borderlands 3’s Endgame
While players might be inclined to only use the highest rarity loot in the endgame since this is a common practice among looter-shooters, the Borderlands franchise is a special exception to this rule. Only equipping Legendary loot is still a good tactic, although players shouldn’t immediately discard other loot. No matter what color grade a loot's rarity is, anything that has red-colored text in its item description is going to be something worth checking out. Given how powerful red text gear can be, players should arguably expect to use only these in Borderlands 3’s endgame content.
Reset Skill Points Regularly
The cost for resetting the player’s skill points in Borderlands 3 is a lot more approachable than this feature generally is in most other RPGs, so players shouldn’t be afraid to regularly optimize their builds. Given that the higher difficulties of Borderlands 3’s Mayhem Mode allow players to earn more money than they could ever spend, and considering that resetting skill points only costs money, the price of resetting skill points in Borderlands 3 is almost nonexistent in the endgame.
Take Care of Your Friends in Sanctuary
None of the NPCs on Borderlands 3’s Sanctuary ship will pet Hermes or do fetch quests to give Claptrap a new antenna, so it’s up to players to complete these tasks to help their pals. More importantly, though, players should be mindful of how tipping Mad Moxxi, the bartender, can be a mutually beneficial transaction. Players can receive two separate weapons as a reward for tipping Moxxi a certain amount of money in Borderlands 3. This is a recurring secret in the Borderlands franchise, but newer players might not be aware of it, and consequently be missing out on some powerful red text weapons.
The Ultimate Borderlands Experience is on True Vault Hunter Mode
Like any of the other mainline Borderlands games, Borderlands 3 is designed so that players can replay the story and earn all the rewards at a higher level after completing the game for the first time. Consequently, anyone who is interested in collecting every piece of red text loot or completing the game 100% would get better rewards from doing so on playthroughs where the player is earning gear at the maximum level in Borderlands 3. While this can sound like a tedious way to play the game, players can still earn Guardian Ranks long after reaching the maximum character level that will keep True Vault Hunter Mode playthroughs from getting repetitive.
Borderlands 3 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, with a Switch version releasing October 6.
