Borderlands 4 Guide – 15 Essential Tips and Tricks

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As an eager player, I can’t contain my excitement as Borderlands 4 is about to grace Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC owners! Although the core mechanics of looting and shooting are still intact, the mission to free ourselves from the Timekeeper’s grasp introduces a multitude of strategies to grasp and excel at. To help make your spontaneous uprising smoother, here are 15 handy tips and tricks – spoiler-free – that will ensure your journey is as seamless as possible!

Capture All Silos

In simpler terms, Kairos is a vast planet where travel, even with a Digirunner, can be time-consuming. To make your journey more enjoyable and faster, consider exploring by air! Search for Silos and prioritize capturing them first as they offer fast travel spots and zip lines for quick soaring through the air without depleting your glide gauge. Navigating the right direction can be tricky sometimes, but since these Silos are also essential for finding Vault Key Fragment locations, it’s crucial to capture them immediately.

Contract Work

In simpler terms, contracts are introduced quite early in the game and serve as a reliable source for acquiring loot, experience points, money, and Eridium. It’s worth revisiting them often because as you advance through the storyline, tougher targets offering chances at Legendary items, larger XP rewards, and more will become accessible. These could be exactly what you need to reach the maximum level.

Challenges

Instead, consider engaging in diverse challenges that span from acquiring kills with assorted weapons produced by different manufacturers, eliminating a specific quantity of Rippers, activating Second Wind on several occasions, and more. These tasks provide a variety of benefits such as loot, new cosmetic choices for your character, weapons, ECHO-4, and vehicles, but almost every task rewards you with cash, Eridium, and XP.

Changing Hover Drives

If you’re seeking a change from your usual Digirunner speeds and wish to reach greater velocities, completing various challenges can grant you access to distinct Hover Drives from multiple manufacturers. These can be utilized to enhance your Digirunner’s performance. To make the modifications, navigate to Customization, then select the Vehicle tab, followed by Hover Drive. If you prioritize a higher top speed, Maliwan Runner is suggested. Its other attributes are also quite impressive.

Clear All the Vaults

If you’ve gathered three pieces of Vault Key Fragments, you’ll discover where a Vault is located. Enemies and a powerful Primordial Guardian are inside, waiting for you. You might want to revisit these areas later for efficient farming, but it’s wise to clear them at least once while progressing through the main story. Clearing these areas will upgrade your Glide Pack, reducing cooldown time and consumption, thus enabling more gliding and a greater number of dashes (which is useful in boss battles).

Farm the Vaults

Instead of continuously battling the inhabitants within a Vault and repeatedly killing them, consider utilizing Moxxi’s Big Encore Machine as an alternative to face off against their Protectors. The effectiveness of this may vary depending on which ones you decide to farm, given that they each have individual loot tables similar to other bosses. As a suggestion, I’d recommend targeting the first Vault Guardian you come across since it occasionally drops good class items early in the game.

Before the End (of the Story)

In simpler terms, after you’ve finished the main storyline of Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, additional challenges await. However, it’s crucial to not rush through the game. Instead, take your time to explore side quests, unlock all Silos, and level up at your own pace. Keep in mind that once you unlock Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, everything becomes progressively harder. Some enemies seem to adjust their levels based on the player, but those found in unopened Silos are significantly tougher and more bothersome. It’s advisable to avoid Auger Mines and Order Bunkers until you reach level 40, have unlocked enough Specialization passives, and possess some powerful Legendaries.

Best Specialization Passives

Specializations are new features in Borderlands similar to Guardian Ranks. Earning experience points lets you accrue a Specialization point that can be used to boost categories such as health, shields, and weapon damage slightly. If you focus on a specific category, you’ll unlock passive abilities. You can equip up to four of these at once, and there are some powerful options available. Some standout choices for me include Bullets Are Scared of Me, which grants a damage reduction of up to 30% based on the higher level between your shield or health.

In the Zone enhances both regular and critical bullet damage when you’re aiming down sights, boosting it by up to 25% when you have five stacks (however, this effect is lost if you don’t aim for two seconds). For abilities that deal damage over time, you’ll also gain a passive ability that raises the chances of causing Status Effects with critical hits. This reaches 100% when you have ten stacks.

How to Farm Eridium

If you mistakenly invest in a specific Specialization area expecting to access a certain node, but find out that a different category is needed instead, then eventually respecing will prove necessary and costly. Apart from defeating formidable opponents, what’s the method for farming Eridium? Contracts and the Weekly Wildcard Mission are viable options, yet there exists an almost secret approach: The Goredello. This opportunity appears sporadically without warning – you must check your map to see if it’s active – and it resembles the Underdome because you’ll face consecutive waves of enemies. Although there are merely ten in total, achieving bonus objectives unlocks additional rewards, including Eridium, along with enemies dropping some upon death. Therefore, when available, it serves as a convenient way to farm Eridium (provided that it’s running at the time).

Locating Certain Bosses for UVHM

To advance through Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode’s levels, you’ll need to accomplish specific tasks. These are clearly indicated under Challenges within the Missions tab. If you’ve already defeated certain bosses, finding their rematches is easy-just look for Moxxi’s Big Encore icon and pay to fight them again. However, unknown threats can be a bit tricky. They usually appear at Drill Sites, Auger Mines, and Order Bunkers, so if there are any question mark icons left on your map, explore those areas first. As for the remaining challenges, look out for side quests marked with blue exclamation marks on your map, especially the ones labeled “Hard” or “Very Hard.” These may involve multiple steps, but the boss is often found at the end of the quest.

Regularly Check the Vending Machines

Regardless of the stage you’re at in the game, remember to consistently check the vending machines for fresh equipment and weapons. The “Daily Item” might reward you with a higher-tier Epic that outshines your current one, but there’s also a possibility they could offer Legendaries. Each vending machine offers unique loot, so it’s wise to frequently teleport and check if they have any Legendary items available, particularly since they can be quite scarce.

How to Get SDU

During your missions in safehouses, Silos, Auger Mines, Order Bunkers, Drill Sites, and similar activities, you’ll earn SDU – a special currency used for enhancing the ammunition capacity of various weapons, expanding inventory and bank space, among other things. Since Safehouses are generally easier to access compared to Silos (especially before Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode) and less problematic, they make an excellent starting point to gather SDU. Additionally, Propaganda Speakers, Crawlers, and even tracking down Vault Symbols can be profitable as they offer 5 SDU each, which can add up significantly over time.

What to Expand First?

As a gamer, my top priority when spending those precious SDUs is definitely beefing up my inventory! Extra storage means less time spent managing loot and more time spent dominating the game. The next best choice? Additional bank slots. They’re perfect for stashing away loot that I don’t want to lose but just can’t keep track of with my current capacity.

Now, you could go for Lost Loot slots, ensuring there’s always room for those random items left behind. But personally, I’d recommend boosting the ammo capacity of my favorite weapons first. Nothing’s more frustrating than running out of bullets at a crucial moment!

Co-op for More Black Market Choices

After the game ends, Maurice’s Black Market functions as a roving vending machine offering different merchandise and moving locations weekly, similar to Xur in Destiny over many years. Although the options might initially appear scarce, they are unique to each player, so participating in their game could lead you to the Legendary items you seek.

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2025-09-12 17:43