So Borderlands 3 has been out since about mid-September and die-hard fans have already devoured just about all the content in the game so far. Most of the Legendaries have been found, few of the secrets are left to find, and they've beaten the game on True Vault Hunter Mode multiple times. Heck, we're even halfway through our TVHM Mayhem 3 playthrough at the moment. But, even among all those achievements, there are some teensy mechanics players are missing that weren't clearly explained. Little details here and there that will help those completionists experience everything this chaotic franchise has to offer. Luckily, we're here to tell you all about those nifty little things in these 10 Tricks People Still Don't Know About Borderlands 3.
10 Sliding Has A Variety Of Uses
First and foremost, sliding is great! Sure, mantling is probably the better of the two new movement features, but sliding is more useful than people would've thought. There are a variety of artifacts the augment the slide and make it into a weapon of mass destruction for one. But, Vault Hunter's can actually use the slide to launch barrels much farther than they could have if they simply melee'd it. The slide is a great all-around tool, whether it's for escaping behind cover, sliding into enemies to stun them, or sliding by them to shock their shields off. Plus the Red Card Shield exists.
9 Red Chests Count Towards Zone Completion
Honestly, the UI and design for 100%'ing the game isn't great. Many people are having trouble figuring out what exactly they're missing in certain zones that are 98% complete or less. First of all, if players go into the map menu, they can bring up a list of anything they're missing in a specific zone. Secondly, players might not know that Red Chests and Location discovery play a part in Zone completion. That's right, Red Chests need to be found to 100% any zone. Heck, even Echo Logs are necessary! Luckily, the handy dandy creators at mapgenie have made an interactive map that turns this search into child's play.
8 Legendary Icons Spawn Before The Item Actually Does
This next tip really won't play much of a part in the grand scheme of things, but it is a neat little time-saver for Level 50 players. Basically, after a certain point, players aren't going to even pick up guns unless they're Legendary. Money becomes useless after the SDU's are upgraded and the bank is tiny, so players only have room for those neato Orange Weapons. But, Vault Hunter's might not know that the clever Star symbol for Legendaries pops up on the minimap immediately, a full couple seconds before the Legendary is visible or a chest fully opens. Neat little time-saver for the fully min-maxed players.
7 Cooperation Mode Literally Has Twice the Guns
So yes, we've talked about how Cooperative mode is the go-to method before. And yes, the scaling they do is great for letting friends play together no matter the level difference. But the biggest aspect people aren't talking about enough is the fact that Cooperative is quite literally twice the guns! So if one player does not need money, they can simply pick up and drop every gun that spawns for the other player and give them tons of free money! Or Cooperative becomes a great way to farm for Legendaries, considering that 2 will spawn for every 1 drop, and agreeable co-op partners can figure out who needs which Leggo more.
6 Knab Tons Of Cash With A Certain Artifact
We talked about this in a different article, but people are really sleeping on the Loot Expander artifacts. They help in the early game for players who haven't fully upgraded their ammo. And, they're even more useful for players that want tons of moolah to upgrade their SDU's. Equipping one of these means the money drops from the Slot Machines are greatly improved. For every 100,000 we spent on Moxxi's Machines, we got 500,000 back. It is pretty easy to just keep one favorited in the backpack and throw it on whenever players need a bit of extra cash.
5 Refreshing Spawns And Mayhem Modifiers Is As Easy As Qutting
Mayhem Mode is again one of the new features in the third game. It increases the difficulty of enemies but it also adds in random modifiers as well. Basically, every time the Vault Hunter loads into a zone, they can get random buffs or debuffs such as "Enemies shoot twice as many projectiles" or "Cryo damage does 50% less". Some of the most annoying ones are "Enemies have a blank % chance to reflect projectiles" or the ones that nerf every type of damage the Vault Hunter has. The thing is, these aren't fully locked into each zone, they're re-rolled as soon as the player quits to the main menu. So, if you're boss grinding, and the modifiers are garbage, just reload again! Simple as that.
4 Mayhem Mode Applies to Slot Machines And More
And lastly on our list of "Things that Mayhem Mode Obviously Applies To, But You Still Wouldn't Expect It Anyway" There are the slot machines! That's right. These things are impacted by the loot modifiers in Mayhem Mode. And, since there is no danger to the player considering Moxxi will just pick them right up if a grenade gets them, why not turn them on when gambling? This, plus either the Loaded Dice or Loot Expander artifacts and some Guardian Ranks in Luck all combine for a much higher chance to get some nifty stuff from these things. Though we've gotten like 10 Legendaries from the Slots, but not a single Siren Skin. So results may sadly vary
3 Friends Help Friends Spawn Kill Bounties
Now if players took our advice a bit earlier, this next little tip doesn't do much, considering they'll know exactly where Assassination targets are thanks to the mapgenie map. But, for the people who want to play BL3 completely pure and free of guides, there's a feature just for them. Essentially, whenever anyone on their friends' list manages to kill an Assassination Target, it'll greatly increase the chance of said target appearing on the "KILL" wall directly across from the golden chest. We're not 100% certain, but we're pretty sure this applies to the Legendary Hunts as well.
2 The Eridium Fabricator Can Go On Display
For our "Purely to save a bit of annoyance" tip, we've got something that should've been obvious. So spoilers ahead; near the later part of the game, the players receive a gift from a certain short-statured hero called the Eridium Fabricator. This is quite literally a gun that shoots guns in exchange for 10 Eridium. Though it's mostly been confirmed it never shoots Legendaries, so be aware. Still, after this is given to the Vault Hunter, it just sits in their inventory taking up space, or in their bank. But, players can easily save themselves some room by slapping it up on their display wall in the "Heavy Weapon" spot. It's a nifty way to keep it within sight but save that truly valuable backpack space.
1 Players Can Sell Without Going to Sell Screen
Finally, and this is never explained by the game, but players can save even more time in the Vending Machines now. Previously, players would have to buy ammo gun by gun and sell their weapons one at a time. Now, they can simply refill ammo outside of the machine, and they can mark all guns as junk to sell them in bulk. It's truly a lifesaver! But, if we're talking about min-maxing the efficiency here, there's something even better. Instead of wasting precious seconds clicking on the "Sell" section of the Vending machine, players can literally just interact with it and hit the "Sell All Junk" button to sell all their garbage from the "Buy" screen. Sure this seems small, but it's nice to know!