Legendary items represent the pinnacle of your character’s power in Borderlands 3. Long after the story has been resolved, the bosses have been beaten and you’ve cleared the game on the hardest difficulty you’ll be grinding for better and better gear.
To minimize the grotesque number of months it’ll take to outfit your character with the best legendary gear there are some tips you can apply that will help out dramatically. Whether you’re hunting down that specific shotgun or just want to see some more orange in your life, here’s what you should do.
10 Choose Mayhem Difficulty
The single best thing you can do to improve your legendary drop rates and cut down on grinding time is to do your farming at the maximum difficulty level. Right now that’s Mayhem difficulty level three. At this difficulty, bosses are much more likely to drop legendaries.
That being said it is important to keep in mind this is the hardest level to play the game at. You’ll need a character that can survive this extremely challenging state if you want to farm for legendaries effectively.
9 Grow Up Quickly
So your first important step is to level up your character to the current level cap. That means getting your character to level 50. It’s also important to note that at level 50 your weapon drops will be at level 50 if you’re under you run the risk of a level 49 legendary dropping which is no good.
Until you hit level 50 and have a character that’s Mayhem level 3 viable, focus on power leveling as quickly as you can. Don’t worry about your drops or any gear you have until level 50, you’ll be replacing it anyway so just equip what you need, sell the rest, and grind those quests.
8 Improve Your DPS And Movement Speed
Once you’re level 50 the two most important stats you need to prioritize with your gear is DPS and movement speed. A high DPS will allow you to bring down bosses and minions a lot faster which cuts down on your grinding time, so ratcheting this up as high as you can get it will save you a lot of time in the long run.
Movement speed cuts down on how long it takes to travel to farming areas and returning to your vault or the shop to unload your goodies. There are a few ways to improve this, but mainly it’s making sure to not select a skill or equip any gear that’ll slow it down.
7 Utilize The Lost Loot Machine
Borderlands 3 introduces a new game mechanic that many veterans and newcomers overlook, but will actually save you when it comes to legendary farming. When your inventory becomes full, you have a Lost Loot Machine that’ll scoop up the higher rarity items for you and store them for later use.
If you’re legendary farming and have more than you can carry this will save you the redundant trip to pick up the last two or three. So get this upgraded and have it empty and ready to pick up any excess legendaries, just in case.
6 Don’t Go Alone
You can absolutely farm for legendaries as a solo player and honestly, you’ll probably have to now and then. But whenever you have the option to go farming legendaries as a group, even in a simple two-player co-op, do it.
Whenever you’re in a party the game counters this by upping the difficulty, upping the difficulty also improves the loot drop rates, meaning the odds of legendaries dropping and how many fall will be improved in a party. So either grab a friend or make some and get to farming.
5 Get Some Guaranteed Legendaries
While many legendaries are only obtained through random drops from the loot pool, there are a few items that have clear cut steps to obtain them. Some of these legendaries are very powerful items that can make your loot farming a lot more efficient, so it’s a great idea to grab a few you think will be helpful before you commit to the grind.
A great example is the Smart-Gun XXL, this is a strong corrosive SMG that spawns a Spider Gigamind every time you reload. To get this gun you simply need to kill the Gigamind boss on Promethea once you’re level 50.
4 Grab Some Loot-O-Grams
The best farming method to get you started is to grind for Loot-O-Grams. On Promethea in Skywell-27 is a rare enemy called the Dinklebot. It doesn’t always spawn so if you can’t find it reset the game and try again. Every time you kill the Dinklebot it drops a Loot-O-Gram, these can be given to Crazy Earl for a chance to obtain the three legendaries he has.
Basically, you just need to kill the Dinklebot over and over again until your pack is full then deposit them one at a time, hoping his legendaries drop. It’s kind of like playing slots with the added step of robotic murder.
3 Farm Captain Traunt
Once you have all of Crazy Earl’s legendaries or need a change of pace, move on to farming bosses for randomized legendaries. One option is Captain Traunt, he’s located on Athenas in Athenas and has the nice perk of being near a save point, saving you on travel time.
He’s resistant to fire, but goes down pretty easy, making it a quick farm. The other nice thing about Captain Traunt is once you defeat him a room opens up with three chests that also have the chance to drop legendaries. It’s a straight forward farm that’s easy to do with the only downside of getting boring after a while.
2 Find The Chupacabrath
Another simple farm you can spam is hunting the Chupacabratch. He’s also in Athenas, in the center of the map. His drop rate is phenomenal for legendaries so don’t be surprised if you start swimming in orange gear after a few dozen runs.
The only downside to this method is that Chupaabrath requires a bit of a jog to get to as he’s not very close to a save point. If you followed the advice above to up your movement speed it’s not as problematic, but it’s annoying regardless.
1 Locate Jakob’s Loot Tink
Right now this is the best place to farm legendaries and it’s prime for a hefty patch. Loot Goblins, sorry Loot Tinks, are small enemies that are basically pinatas for rare loot. Normally they’re hard to find but there is one on Eden-6 at Jakob’s Estate that’s a guaranteed spawn.
The idea is to use the save point nearby to hunt down and kill the Loot Tink. The Loot Tink will often drop a legendary and a backpack full of stuff that may also have legendaries. Some players have reported getting five legendaries at a time this way!