These Borderlands 4 beginner tips and tricks get you off to a strong start with advice on ammo management, combat preparation, and mission planning.
Borderlands 4 throws a lot at you in a short amount of time, and even with the tutorials that appear in the game's opening hours, you can still miss some important knowledge. Gearbox's latest installment also has some brand new elements to keep veterans on their toes, including a few new movement skills.
Below, we've laid out a selection of essential Borderlands 4 tips to help you get started, including advice on useful upgrades and how to make death less frustrating.
ECHO-4 is the guide
There will be many moments when you are exploring Kairos and are not sure where to go. Instead of looking like a lost child, ask ECHO-4 for help. They will highlight paths, climbable walls, and grab points, saving you time and helping you get back into the action quickly.
Wait to explore until after you have your first vehicle.
The Borderlands 4 map is huge, and exploring on foot would take a long, long time. Thankfully, Catch-a-ride is gone, and instead you can summon vehicles to you anywhere! You'll get your first vehicle shortly after you progress through the main story, so focus on the campaign until you get your first ride.
Change accessibility settings
For gamers prone to motion sickness, go into the settings and reduce the head-bob camera and screen shake intensity. With the refreshed movement and high explosion count in Borderlands, you'll want to reduce these sooner rather than later.
Try all the Action Skills
Each character in Borderlands 4 has three different skill branches, and all three branches have three different capstone abilities. Respecking in previous Borderlands titles was expensive, but in Borderlands 4 , money is easy to come by. If you're not having fun using a character's action skill, another action skill is just a small amount of money away.
It's okay if the car explodes, so just drive crazy.
Vehicles aren't the most durable in Borderlands 4 , and they'll explode after taking a few hits from enemy weapons—that's perfectly fine! You can hop right back on after a disaster, which is useful for quick escapes or using the vehicle's weapons to clear out groups of weaker enemies. The latter tactic is often useful, as it lets you save your ammo and skills for tougher enemies.
Pay attention to every stat of a weapon
It can be tempting to just look at a weapon's color and primary DPS number to decide whether or not you want it, but better rarities and higher DPS don't always make a gun better than the one you're already using. It might have higher damage numbers and a larger magazine, but a slower fire rate and less accuracy, forcing you to change your fighting style to something you might find difficult or dislike. The same goes for shields and healing items. Higher numbers are nice, but might not be worth the longer cooldown depending on the situation you're in.
By the same logic, read the weapon descriptions. Some have multiple firing modes, like a shotgun that shoots a sticky device that explodes after a few seconds, and another that fires two bullets at once for more damage. Some even throw the gun when it reloads, then bounce and explode — which can be unpleasant if you don't expect it.
The hover package has a built-in dodge function that is quite useful.
Gearbox doesn't explicitly teach dodging in Borderlands 4 , but you unlock it when you get a hover pack in a mandatory mission early in the game. The pack lets you spend energy dodging in four cardinal directions, but not diagonally, and has enough energy to dodge twice before having to wait for the bar to recharge. Dodging with a quick dash can make the difference in fights against enemies who like to rush you or fire rockets and other projectiles at you.
Death is not so scary if you prepare properly.
When you die in Borderlands 4 , you respawn without losing any weapons or important items—but at a cost of a pretty penny. The amount ($10,000 or more each time) might seem overwhelming at first, but if you complete bounties and a few sidequests as they appear, you'll be practically swimming in change. Look at the mission's reward preview to see how much you'll get. Cash rewards, denoted by a dollar sign icon, are divided into gray, blue, purple, and orange tiers, just like weapons. Note, though, that missions with higher bounties tend to be harder, so if you just want a buffer, doing a few easy missions with a low chance of dying might be a better option.
Don't upgrade ammo capacity for all at once
You can get by for a long time without upgrading your SMG, assault rifle, and handgun ammo in the SDU Deck upgrades. The starting capacity for those weapons is already pretty high, and in our experience, they tend to be the most common drops. If you use a shotgun or sniper rifle, prioritize upgrading their ammo capacity. Some shotguns fire two shots at a time, and your starting ammo limit is pretty low for those. Sniper rifles also don't always one-shot kills, so while they don't burn through ammo as quickly as the others, you'll still want to keep a reasonable amount of ammo. Upgrading your backpack is also a good idea, as you'll be picking up a lot of weapons to keep or sell for quick cash.
Get used to beating the boss over and over again
Bosses aren't just a matter of seconds in Borderlands 4 if you want the best gear. You can challenge them multiple times for a chance at a top-tier drop—sometimes legendary weapons, but also useful ones like better shields or more effective healing tools. You can get through Fadefields with crate drops and the first-time boss-clearing rewards. After that, it's worth grinding the boss a bit to ensure you have the best weapons and gear possible.
The reward is a good new source of weapons.
If you find yourself struggling to do enough damage, you may need a higher-level weapon. A cheap and easy way to get a weapon close to your current level is to collect the rewards from the challenges you complete. Just make sure to hold onto the rewards until you need them. They can go unclaimed for a long time and, in our experience, still yield weapons close to your current level, so there's no need to rush.