There sure is a lot to do in Gearbox's newest release, Borderlands 3. Players can sit around and steal Bandit cars for parts, farm bosses over and over, explore every map to completion, or even just sit around petting animals in Sanctuary. The setting of Borderlands is now the most fleshed out it has ever been, with multiple planets, ecosystems, and gun manufacturers finally entering the spotlight. But, at the end of the day, it all comes down to loot. Whether its guns, grenades, Class Mods, Artifacts, Guardian Ranks, Skins, Heads, or even Room Decorations, Borderlands 3 has it all in spades! So, let us give you the juicy details on the best ways to grind out all that gratuitous gear!
10 Get Used To Mayhem Mode
It's a bit roundabout, but our most obvious, best, and easiest tip is only something that can be done after completing the main campaign of BL3. After defeating the final boss, players unlock the "Mayhem Mode" pedestal on the Sanctuary Ship. This extra mode comes in 3 different levels, with each one increasing the difficulty. But, each increase also increases Loot Droops! So, if experienced players can melt through the tougher enemies of Mayhem 3, they'll get much more gear and potential Legendaries than they would during the base game. This Legendary drop rate was pretty absurd on Mayhem 3 at launch but has since been nerfed quite a bit. Honestly, we keep it at Mayhem 2, because we feel it's the best blend of tanky enemies that aren't annoying to fight, while still having a beefier drop rate.
9 Have Fun In The Slaughter-Based Wave Survival Modes
Now, for the rest of these tips, readers should understand that Mayhem Mode makes any of these tips better, so we kept it on for most of them. Anyway, since gear has the potential to spawn from any or enemy, what would be the best way to grind it? Well, by fighting a lot of enemies and opening everything of course! And nothing is better for this than the wave survival modes spread throughout the game. There's the Slaughterstar, the Slaughter Shaft, the Proving Grounds, and the Circle of Slaughter. Each one has its pros and cons, but all of them have spawned tons of Legendaries for us at level 50. Plus, they're a fantastic way to grind Guardian Ranks and player levels!
8 Be Sure To Farm The Right Bosses
Here's where Borderlands is in its element. Hours after the game was released, players were already figuring out which bosses were the most efficient to farm, and which ones had the best pool of potential Legendary drops. Now, after a couple of weeks, we know for sure that Gravewarden and Traunt are by far the best in terms of most gear for the quickest farm. There's a variety of factors involved in this, things like how quickly the boss can be killed, how far the spawn point is from their arena if they have any immune phases, and what elements they're weak to. So our quick tip for any fresh level 50 players who want to farm for their dream Legendaries, be ready to grind!
7 Use The Increased Loot Relic Alongside The Slot Machines
This is a smaller tip that surprisingly makes a pretty big impact on money and ammo throughout the game. Relics are back again in the third game, and they're more diverse. Sure, some of them are purely just for fun, like any of the ones that augment the characters slide. But most people just wait until they manage to knab one of the Legendary ones. Still, there's a level of purple Artifacts that are well worth it, and the best example is the Loot Expanders. Basically, they increase the amount of money, ammo, and health players pickup. The money is the important part because this applies to the Slot Machines. And, when one is equipped and a player gets those three lucky money signs, they'll suddenly be drowning in money.
6 Farm Anointed To Farm Eridium, EXP, And Legendaries
Eridium isn't as important as it was before. In Borderlands 2, this resource was traded for SDU upgrades that enlarged the player's storage capacity and ammo count. But, that's now a simple in-game monetary purchase. Currently, Eridium is used for the Slot Machine, Cosmetics, and Anointed Gear from Crazy Earl. Still, the cosmetics are better than ever before, and there are tons of them! So players want all the Eridium they can get! Our tip is, look up the best places to farm, there are tons of ways. Whether it is going to a specific area where tons of Eridium Crystals spawn, farming compounds that tend to spawn the Anointed more often, or even just grinding bosses over and over for both Legendary gear and Eridium. It's not a hard resource to knab if we know where to look.
5 Look For Money Grenades, Loot Tinks, And Thieving Jabbers
This next tip is a bit different. It's geared towards the early game rather than the late game. This is primarily because players who have been level 50 for a while have surely noticed that money sort of becomes inconsequential. But, players in the early game are desperate for a couple of bucks. Well, loot-based enemies and money grenades are the answer! The key is finding a nade with the modifier that states "causes enemies to drop money when hurt" or something similar. The verbiage is different depending on how much cashola it'll cause bandits to drop, so lookout for the best versions. When it comes to enemies, Loot Tinks are rare but have some guaranteed spawn locations, and thieving jabbers can be a pain, but are usually pretty easy to kill.
4 Farming Bandit and COV Vehicles Is Worth Your Time
The way vehicles work in Borderlands 3 is honestly a bit odd. Ellie's vehicle waypoints players can hijack across the multiple planets are neat and they unlock some awesome variations on the three different weapons. But, these are very rarely challenging, and Catch-A-Ride stations are always like 20 feet from them, making them fill like less of a heist and more of a cakewalk. In any case, players can actually unlock plenty of vehicle modifications and paint jobs just from stealing random enemy cars in most zones, which isn't well explained. So, to grind these out, players can just block the garages cars spawn from and grab them as soon as they spawn. We recommend doing this on the base difficulty mode though and not on Mayhem because the bandits on harder difficulties will usually blow up the car before the VH can even drive ten feet.
3 Clear All Crew Challenges For Tons Of Bonus Stuff
Quite honestly, the Crew Challenges that are spread throughout the Galaxy in BL3 are our favorite part. The Claptrap questline is always interesting and cheeky, the Moxxie radio stations are always fun to find, the Ellie heists are easy but quick, the Zer0 Assassinations are some of the best fights in the game, and Hammerlocks Hunt's are where the unique designs truly shine! But, people aren't really prioritizing them and thats a shame. All of them have guaranteed Legendaires as their final reward, with Hammerlocks Bekah actually being the only way to get said gun. Plus, the enemies that are specific to these challenges have some exclusive Legendary drops, and completing each and every one of them yields tons of Guardian EXP, regular EXP, and even Eridium. Heads up, mapgenie also has an insanely useful interactive map for BL3 as well.
2 Use The Eridium Fabricator With A Friend On Cooperation
Here's the thing about Cooperation mode, it's one of the most inclusive multiplayer modes we've ever experienced. Essentially, if a level 1 and level 50 player play together, the enemies will appear low level to the LVL 1 and max level to the LVL 50. How could this work? Well, it seems they just make the damage relative! In any case, it works. But, the other insane part is that the guns are player-specific, so there are actually 2 iterations of every gun in each session. So, for some easy cash, a level 50 player could simply take their Eridium Fabricator, blast it a couple of times in an empty room, then pick it all up and drop it again so the level 1 player grabs twice as many guns for a quick fortune! This is just one simple exploitation out of many that this new mode adds to BL3 too.
1 Depend On The Legendary Hunts And Zer0 Assassinations
And lastly, we're going to go a bit more into the Hammerlock Hunts because they're so useful for farming. Ever seen the Chubacabratch on Athenas? That nasty little critter used to drop the most insane amount of Legendaries in the whole game. Since then he's been nerfed, but plenty of these hunts still drop Legendaries and Eridium like candy! Lavender Crawly drops tons of Eridium and some great Leggo's, the Chonk Stomp drops the Garcia, and the Demiskag has plenty of potential drops. These fights are a ton of fun, feature some of the most interesting creatures in the game, and have some of the best rewards in the game. So knock em all out! Above all, they're easy to grind.