11 Borderlands 4 beginner tips to help get you started
Borderlands 4 throws a lot at you in a short amount of time, and even with the numerous tutorials that pop up in the game’s opening hours, you still miss out on more than a few important bits of knowledge. Gearbox’s latest also has a handful of completely new elements to keep series veterans on their toes, including some new movement skills.
Below, we’ve laid out a selection of essential Borderlands 4 tips to help get you started, including advice for good upgrades and how to make death less of a nuisance.
ECHO-4 is your navigator
There will be a lot of moments when you’re exploring Kairos where you’re not sure where you’re supposed to go. Rather than look like a lost child, ask ECHO-4 for help. They’ll highlight a path, climbable walls, and grapple points, so you can save yourself some time and get right back into the action.
Wait to explore until after you get your first vehicle
The Borderlands 4 map is huge, and exploring it on foot will take a very, very, long time. Luckily, Catch-a-ride is gone and instead you can summon your ride to you wherever you are! You’ll get your first vehicle a short way into the main story, so make sure to focus on the campaign until you catch your first ride.
Change your accessibility settings
For the motion sick gamers out there, make sure to head to the settings and lower camera head-bob and screen shake intensity. With the movement being revamped and the sheer number of explosions in Borderlands, you’ll want to lower these sooner rather than later.
Test out all of your Action Skills
Each character in Borderlands 4 has three different trees and all three trees have three different capstone abilities. Respeccing in previous Borderlands titles was a pricey endeavor, but in Borderlands 4, money is very easy to come by. If you’re not having a fun time using your character’s action skill, another action skill is just a chunk of change away.
It’s OK if your car blows up, so drive recklessly
Vehicles aren’t the sturdiest of creations in Borderlands 4, and they’ll explode after taking a bit of fire from enemy weapons — which is fine! You can hop right back on after disaster strikes, which is useful for making a quick getaway or using your vehicles weapons to take down groups of weaker foes. The latter is always a useful strategy, since it lets you conserve your ammo and skills for the tougher opponents.
Pay attention to all of a weapon’s stats
It might be tempting to just look at the color and main DPS number of a weapon to see whether you want it, but better rarity and higher DPS don’t always make a gun better than the one you’re currently using. It might have higher damage numbers and a bigger clip, but a slower rate of fire and worse accuracy, which forces you to adapt your fighting style to something you may struggle with or just not enjoy. The same goes for shields and health restoratives. Higher numbers are great, but maybe not worth the longer recharge time depending on the scenario you’re in.
On a similar note, read a weapon’s description as well. Some may have multiple modes of fire, such as a shotgun that fires sticky devices which explode after a few seconds, plus one that fires both shells at once for higher damage. Some guns also have you throw them when you reload, after which they bounce and explode — not a nice surprise if you aren’t expecting it.
Your hover pack has a handy built-in dodge function
Gearbox doesn’t go out of its way to teach you how to dodge in Borderlands 4, but you unlock the ability when you receive your hover pack during a mandatory early-game mission. The pack lets you expend energy to dodge in the four cardinal directions, but not diagonally, and there’s enough energy to do it twice before having to wait for the gauge to refill. Evading with a quick burst of movement can make all the difference in fights against enemies who like to charge at you or who send clouds of missiles and other projectiles your way.
Death isn’t that scary if you do the right prep
When you die in Borderlands 4, you revive without losing weapons or important items — but you do have to spend a wad of cash. The amount ($10,000 or more each time) looks overwhelming initially, but if you complete bounties and a few side quests as they become available, you’ll practically be swimming in excess money. Look at a mission’s reward preview to get an idea of how much you’ll receive. Money rewards, signified with a dollar sign symbol, are divided into gray, blue, purple, and orange tiers just like weapons. Bear in mind, though, that missions with higher payouts are often more difficult, so if you’re just after a safety cushion, clearing some easy quests where you’re less likely to die may be the better way to go.
Don’t upgrade your ammo capacity all at once
You can get by for a long time without increasing your SMG, assault rifle, and handgun ammo in the SDU Deck upgrades section. Your starting capacity for those gun types is quite high anyway, and in our experience, they tend to be the most common ammo drops. If you use shotguns or sniper rifles, though, definitely make upgrading ammo capacity for those a top priority. Some shotguns fire two cartridges simultaneously, and your initial ammo cap is rather low for them anyway. Sniper rifles aren’t always built to eliminate in one shot either, so while you won’t burn through ammo quite as fast with those guns, you’ll still want to keep a fair amount on hand. Upgrading your backpack is also essential as you’ll be picking up a lot of weapons to hold onto or even sell for some quick cash.
Get used to fighting bosses multiple times
Bosses aren’t a one-and-done thing in Borderlands 4, if you want the best gear. You can challenge them multiple times for a chance to get their top drops — sometimes a legendary weapon, but also other useful drops, such as better shields or more effective health restoration tools. You can make it through the Fadefields with the drops you find in crates and first-time rewards for clearing boss fights. Beyond that, it’s worth a bit of boss grinding to make sure you have the best weapons and other items available to you.
Rewards are a good source of new weapons
If you find yourself struggling to do enough damage, you probably need a higher-level weapon. A cheap and straightforward method of getting a gun close to your current level is claiming the rewards from challenges you complete. Just make sure to hold your rewards until you need them. They can sit unclaimed for a long time and, in our experience, still come out with a weapon close to your current level, so you don’t need to rush.