[GUIDE] Pre-Sequel Basics for New Players

[VaultHunter101 (So long, and thanks for all the fish)]

Vault Hunting 102: Pre-Sequel Basics for New Players Part 1

Your spoiler-free guide to characters, gear, loot, quests, and skills for your first play-through, covering Helios Station through Serenity’s Waste to Concordia.

Hello, fellow Vault Hunter! If you’ve just picked up The Pre-Sequel for the first time, and especially if you’ve never played any of the other Borderlands games, then this guide is for you. I’ll be taking a couple of brand new characters through the first play-through, known as Normal Vault Hunter Mode (NVHM) as I write this. Hopefully, it will answer many of the questions you have as go through the game with me.

Special thanks to the following for comments and corrections: @Poisonedbite, @khimerakiller, @Worblehat, @farsight37, @TempNight

Note: Cyan headings denote missions, while other colours denote main sections, gear and weapons, or skills entries. Primary map names are shown in yellow and secondary maps in light yellow, while specific named locations are shown in light blue. If you find any errors, parts that are unclear, or just have a question, highlight the relevant bit and hit the “quote reply” button to post a message; I’ll try and respond to everything in a timely manner.

Contents

• Beginning the Story
  • Athena the Gladiator
  • Wilhelm the Enforcer
  • Nisha the Lawbringer
  • Claptrap the Fragtrap
  • Jack the Doppelganger
  • Aurelia the Baroness
• Helios Station
  • Combat Basics
  • Weapon Basics
  • Action Skill Basics
• Serenity’s Waste (1)
  • Oxygen and Oz Kits
• Marooned
  • Quests and Side Quests
  • Shooting and Looting in Low Gravity
• Regolith Range
• Serenity’s Waste (2)
  • BAR Challenges and Loot
• Concordia
  • Save Points and Spawn Points
• Part 2: Concordia through Triton Flats to Crisis Scar
• Part 3: Triton Flats and Stanton’s Liver to Outlands Canyon and Outlands Spur
• Part 4: Pity’s Fall through Titan Industrial Facility to Titan Robot Production Plant
• Part 5: Hyperion Hub of Heroism through Jack’s Office, Research and Development, The Veins of Helios and the Lunar Launching Station to The Eye of Helios
• Part 6: Vorago Solitude through Outfall Pumping Station and Tyhco’s Ribs to Eleseer

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Beginning the Story

When you start the game up, the New Game prompt asks you to select a character. Which one you choose at this point is immaterial, since you’ll be able to change it shortly.

The game starts in the post-Borderlands 2 world, with the main title sequence introducing the game as a flashback narration that explains how events unfolded between the original Borderlands and Borderlands 2 as a flashback narration. It’s worth watching at least once, since not only does it introduce the main vault hunters, but gives some insight into their relationships and sets the stage for the game environment.

Note: This game contains significant spoilers for and extensively references both Borderlands and Borderlands 2. If you haven’t played those yet, you may want to consider doing that before tackling this game. You can find my guide for Borderlands 2 here.

After the intro cut-scene, you get a chance to confirm your initial character selection or switch to one of the others. Note that there really are no bad choices here: some will likely fit your preferred play-style better than others, but they are all well-balanced, well-rounded characters with diverse and interesting skill trees. Once you’ve decided on a character, make sure you give it a unique name (so you don’t accidentally overwrite any previous save) and jump right in to the game. The choices in the vanilla game are:

Athena the Gladiator:

Athena has a badass shield with a sword for melee, and a mix of elemental, melee, and weapon skills. She is a solid first-time choice for any player, whether solo or co-op. You can learn more about Athena by (1) playing the Borderlands 1 Knoxx DLC Knoxx DLC and (2) finding the lost echoes in the first half of Regolith Range.

Skill tree: https://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/athena.html (needs Flash)

Wilhelm the Enforcer:

Wilhelm can deploy two drones that provide attack (Wolf) and healing (Saint). A good weapon/soldier class with cyber upgrades if you want to go that route. Wilhelm is also encountered (somewhat briefly) as a boss in Borderlands 2. You can learn more about Wilhelm from the lost echoes in Triton Flats. Note that one skill allows you to “paint” priority targets by tapping the action skill key/button; holding down the key/button will cancel the action skill (useful for reduced cooldown if everything’s already dead).

Skill tree: https://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/wilhelm.html (needs Flash)

Nisha the Lawbringer:

Nisha is a bull-whip-wielding gun-slinger, who can slow time and auto-aim during her action skill. Something of a glass cannon, she can be built into an insanely powerful character. Nisha also appears briefly as a boss in Borderlands 2. If you like fast and furious action, Nisha is for you. You can find her lost echoes in Outlands Canyon. Nisha’s action skill allows you to quickly target multiple enemies with boosted damage etc.; one of her capstone skills also lets you dual-wield pistols.

Skill tree: https://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/nisha.html (needs Flash)

Claptrap the Fragtrap:

It’s Claptrap, so you know he’s going to be weird. He honestly has to be experienced to be understood. He can be a solid explosives character but also has a very quirky skill tree and a most unusual action skill. While this puts some off (along with him being Claptrap), he is the funniest vault hunter to play as, and still makes me laugh out loud. Claptrap also has skill tree options that make him an interesting choice for co-op (ask @Hattie and @FunkJunkie about that, or watch some of their game play). Claptrap’s lost echoes are scattered through the second half of Regolith Range

Skill tree: https://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/claptrap.html (needs flash)

Two additional characters were added as DLC, but are included with the Handsome Collection for PS4/XB1.

Jack the Doppelganger:

Not actually Jack but, if you’ve played Borderlands 2 you already know some of the skills to expect. Exploit corporate power and digital weaponized holographic decoys to wreak havoc on lesser mortals. Once understood, this is one powerful vault hunter. You can’t quite call in moonshots to obliterate whole areas, but you can get pretty close! Another excellent co-op choice. There are related lost echoes in Jack’s Office. Like Wilhelm, Jack’s action skill can be cancelled by holding down the key/button, reducing cooldown.

Skill tree: https://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/jack.html (needs Flash)

Aurelia the Baroness:

She will freeze you to death! An elemental sniper class with out-standing co-op opportunities. The voice actor’s accent is a bit off but, if you can stand that, she’s a killer queen with a cryo laser beam. She also has an interesting melee… Like Claptrap she also has skill options that boost performance specifically in co-op play (providing your partner co-operates!)

Skill tree: https://borderlandsthegame.com/skilltrees/aurelia.html (needs Flash)

Tip: never delete a character! You can always come back and respec them later.

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Helios Station

Story Missions:

• Welcome to Helios (level 1)
• Lost Legion Invasion (level 1)

The action starts on the Helios space station. You will be met by a guide who will nag you to follow them as rapidly as possible. Take your time though - there’s no actual need to hurry, and the initial area does have some Hyperion ammo and loot crates for you to open. Plus, you can only access this map at the start of the game.

Note that you can pick these items up individually, or use the on-screen prompt to “pick up all”. It’s best to open all the crates in one area first and then pick up, as this maximizes your chance of getting more ammo for the weapons that you need it for most.

Check your gear in your inventory as soon as possible - different characters get slightly different starting equipment, although none of them will have a shield in first play-through (normal vault hunter mode or NVHM).

Note: There are several possible sort orders for stored gear in the inventory; use the controls shown at the bottom of the inventory (LT/RT on console) to change the sort order.

There will also be a personal log giving you a bit of character back-story. I strongly recommend that you wait until the background dialogue has stopped before you select it, and then stay put until it’s finished playing. Note that the audio will not play immediately on selection in your inventory, but only when you leave it.

Note: One of the oddities of this and BL2 is that audio triggered by moving through a certain location or initiating a certain action will cause other dialogue (such as the echo log recordings located on each map) to stop playing. If the audio for the personal echo gets cut off, just reselect it in your inventory.

Your guide will lead you into the Supply Station, and your first combat. Clear the area of enemies and loot all the crates before heading to the mission objective and advancing the story.

Combat Basics:

The controls are the same as Borderlands 2, and will be familiar if you’ve played other first-person shooters. A few general things specific to the Borderlands series:

• Reloading a weapon before it empties does not cost you ammo (with the exception of Tediore guns due to their manufacturer gimmick). You can cancel the reload animation by hitting melee or weapon swap.
• Ammo from weapons you pick up from enemies and chests is added to your storage; when you drop a weapon it gets emptied first
• The bars over the top of enemies indicate their shield and health status.
  • A blue bar indicates a shield, which can be stripped faster with a shock weapon
  • A red bar indicates health for flesh enemies, which are more susceptible to fire damage)
  • A yellow bar indicates armoured enemies, which are. more susceptible to corrosive damage
• The bottom-left of the HUD shows your own health and shield (and later your oxygen) status
• Red dots on the minimap indicate enemies, while a diamond indicates the current objective location/direction
• You can aim down sights, which zooms in the view but also slows your movement and aim speed (use LT on console)
• Learn the critical hit locations (eg. head); critical hits do more damage, and some weapons have significant critical hit damage bonus multipliers
• Keep moving and learn to shoot from the hip. Standing still in one place while aiming down sites is a good way to be an easy target. Scope in, shoot, scope out, move.
• Use the terrain to your advantage; there is no shame in backing out of combat for a quick breather to reload, restock, and heal up.
• If you “take a knee” and go into Fight For Your Life (FFYL) you do have some time to get a second wind by killing an enemy. If nothing is in sight, check your minimap - there may be a target behind you.

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Your guide will take you through to Moonshot Control, where there will be an even bigger fight. Make sure you pick up any weapons dropped by your opponents when you kill them - the ammo from such weapons is automatically added to your inventory, plus you can either use or sell them later. Again, clear all the enemies on the map and then thoroughly explore before heading to the mission marker and advancing the story.

In addition to the usual loot and ammo crates, there is also one large weapon chest in a corner. The contents will be limited in your first play-through (since there is a minimum level requirement for each category of weapon or equipment), and may also be one level higher than your character. Don’t worry though: you’ll probably level up as soon as you turn the current mission in, and there’s going to be way more loot before you’re done! Also, take some time to just look at the awesome art design
around you!

Weapon Basics:

The weapon and loot systems are the same as those in Borderlands 2. This consists of item type (pistol, SMG, etc.), rarity, and parts. Higher rarity items will generally perform better than lower rarity of equivalent type and level, while unique items with red flavour text on their item card will have unlisted special effects. The rarity levels in game are colour coded as follows:

• common
• uncommon
• rare and unique
• very rare
• legendary
• glitch (in the Claptastic Voyage DLC)

Different weapon types have different minimum map and player level requirements before they can spawn in the game. The weapon types are:

• Pistol
• Assault Rifle
• Shotgun
• SMG
• Sniper Rifle
• Rocket Launcher
• Laser (see Part 2)

In addition to parts, weapons can also come with accessories that add extra utility (such as a scope or increased accuracy) to the weapon. These can also change things like recoil, sway, and recovery. These properties are in addition to those listed on the item card, so you should always test fire weapons when choosing between them. You can learn more about the parts system (from BL2) here:

• Part Spotters Guides

Grenades and shields also come in different types with different characteristics, such as secondary effect, elemental type, and performance.

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You are now going to follow Jack around for a bit. One thing you’ll appreciate if you’ve already played Borderlands 2:

• Each vault hunter has specific character dialogue that plays when they interact with the key NPCs in game. So, your conversation at this point in the game will be different depending on who you picked to play.
• You’ll also hear occasional “flashback narration” as the story unfolds, so take your time and don’t rush from one area to another. There are also differences in this dialogue between your first and second play-throughs

Now on to the Moonshot Ordinance Observation, with a few more pauses for dialogue and a cut-scene that introduces your principal protagonist and hints at what is to come. Your initial path forward is blocked, so you need to head elsewhere. Follow your guide to a platform on the outside of the station and marvel that this one has an atmosphere and gravity! More troops are dropped on you by Fighter Jets, which you can also shoot down for extra XP if you’re quick and have good aim. More forces land while you’re in the external area, and you’ll probably hit level 3 unlocking your first skill point.

Action Skill Basics:

Your character’s action skill is unlocked by putting one skill point into the base level skill in their skill tree, which you can access through one of the pages in your inventory. Additional skill points will be acquired every time you level up, and can then be spent to add all kinds of augments to your action skill.

Don’t worry too much at this point about what to choose or how to build your character. It’s hard to go wrong in NVHM so put the points into whatever interests you. You’ll always be able to respec once you unlock maps with Quick Change stations, such as Concordia.

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Continuing the main story, follow your guide through Thermal Transfer, triggering a save point along the way. There’s another weapon crate in this area, so a second chance for an upgrade to your current weapon. Dropping down into the next area will trigger a cut-scene and the first boss fight.

POSSIBLE GLITCH: After this fight it is tempting to run straight to the mission marker. Some players have reported a game-breaking glitch here, where your guide fails to hit the right spot to advance the game script. This can be avoided by doubling back and checking the whole area for loot, meaning that you don’t interfere in the AI’s pathing. Plus, you’ll probably want that cash, ammo, and health!

This boss fight has two distinct stages, and you’ll have additional enemies drop in for the second stage. There is a one-in-ten chance that the boss will drop a legendary item. Once the area is clear and you’ve looted to your heart’s content, follow your guide to advance the game script. At this point you’ll have to make a second detour, which will take you past an ammo vending machine. You shouldn’t really need the ammo, but you can at least sell off all the stuff you don’t want.

POSSIBLE GLITCH: Another possible game-breaking glitch lies ahead, where your character can end up stuck in a container and unable to exit. I strongly recommend that you continue through the next few stages right up until you reach the first Fast Travel Station (read on) before quitting. Don’t worry, it’s not more than 10 minutes play time away!

Follow the instructions from your guide, and work your way through the story. There’s one more room with a red Hyperion Chest in it for more loot, so do explore before you hitch a ride out of Helios. (Also make sure you hit the Health and Weapon vending machines conveniently located in the gift shop before the ext!). Eventually, the Map Transition to Serenity’s Waste will become available to you; activate it to trigger the next cut-scene and get the heck out of Helios.

POSSIBLE GLITCH: Do NOT save and quit at this point! Keep going a little longer!

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Serenity’s Waste (1)

Side quests:

• Tales from Elpis (level 3) - shock sniper
• Land Among the Stars (level 3) - Oz Kit which unlocks:
  • Follow Your Heart (level 3) - pistol/rifle

Challenges:

• Three vault symbols
• One other challenge

After the cut-scene and successfully exiting your container, you have a new guide to follow. You are also now on the moon in a low-gravity air-less environment. The oxygen thing will be taken care of momentarily; for now, experience the joy of just how high/far you can jump!

Follow your guide to the Oxygen Dome Generator - an odd pylon looking thing that emits a constant beeping noise that gets louder as you get closer. (If you check your minimap you’ll see that it’s marked with a greeny-blue diamond, as are the oxygen vents that scatter the moon’s surface. This is important information, so note it well!). There’s a pad on the pylon to toggle the Oxygen Generator on and off; they can also be activated by a shock weapon.

Keep following your guide to their building at Ozless Harbor and head inside. Once inside, you’ll be able to breathe and talk to your guide to advance the story script. Also, if you need to save and quit, moving further into the building will trigger the auto-save at the Fast Travel Station. There are also numerous chests and a couple of vending machines, so make yourself at home.

Once you’re ready, head back outside through the upper door of the building and point yourself in the direction of the mission marker (the white diamond. There are a series of oxygen vents along the way, and an Oxygen Dome right outside your destination. You’ll want to activate this straight away, since you’re about to be attacked by the first of Elpis’ many homicidal native species.

Deal with the beasties, follow the instructions, and grab the mission objective item. At this point, you should wait for your guide to join you so you can turn the mission in and get your first ever Oz Kit. This also ends the first phase of the story (Lost Legion Invasion) and starts the second (Marooned). It also makes the first side quests available to you, both of which you should probably take.

Oxygen and Oz Kits:

Being on the moon, there’s a distinct lack of oxygen to breathe. When you don’t have a source of O2, you start taking health damage. Fortunately, you don’t have to agonize over micromanaging your O2 supplies, as the developers have made it really easy to keep stocked up. The game has four sources of oxygen outside of buildings, two of which we’ve already mentioned:

• Oxygen Dome Generators are dotted around every map, usually in an area where you might have to wait for a while (near a door or a zone with a boss fight)
• Oxygen vents are also dotted around every map, usually along the routes you need to take to get between locations for missions
• Oxygen canisters are common loot drops (along with ammo, cash, and health) that can be obtained by killing enemies or smashing the various rock piles that litter the surface
• Oxygen geysers are high pressure vents capped by a rock. Knock the rock off and enter the geyser, and get both oxygen and a vertical boost

Equipping an Oz Kit gives you your own personal oxygen mask. It has a finite capacity, shown as a white bar just below your health bar. Running through any oxygen source will replenish your Oz Kit a little bit; standing in the source will refill your Oz Kit to maximum capacity. Auto-pickup of Oxygen canisters also replenishes your oxygen by a fixed amount.

Oxygen Kits replace relics from Borderlands 2. In addition to providing a store of oxygen, they can also impart various perks to your character and gear. They also give you the ability to boost by tapping the “jump” control, effectively giving you the ability to double-jump or jump and then change direction, or jump and boost along parallel to the ground. Note that they can have different attributes depending on whether you are in an atmosphere or vacuum.

Finally, they give you the ability to slam by pressing the “crouch” button; slamming drops you down hard, creating a pressure wave on landing that can damage and knock back enemies. Some Oz Kits will add elemental or explosive damage to the pressure wave. They are therefore extremely versatile; use them to get to places you wouldn’t think you could reach, escape the clutches of melee enemies, get a height advantage to hit foes behind cover, and generally cause magnificent mayhem.

You can find more information on Oz Kits here:

• [GUIDE] OZ Kits - LV60 | Max Stats

TIP: The only time I have run out of O2 was playing co-op. In solo, going into your inventory pauses the game (or at least slows it down) so you don’t consume O2. In co-op, O2 can become fully depleted while in your inventory. So always make sure you’re standing in an O2 source when checking your gear!

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Marooned

Note that the weapon from Tales from Elpis can be very helpful in completing the boss fight ahead in the main story line. The Land Among the Stars side quest teaches you how to use an Oz Kit, and gives you a choice of a couple of blue unique ones that will also be very helpful. Finally, Follow Your Heart can be done alongside the main story quest; you can either double-back and turn it in before continuing with the main story (so you get the XP and rewards first), or wait until you complete Marooned. I recommend doing all three during your first play-through, at least.

Quests and Side Quests:

Your current quest, objectives, and any optional side objectives will be shown in the upper-right of your HUD, just below the minimap. The compulsory objectives are listed in white text, while optional objective appear in coloured text.

To switch your current objective (and therefore change which mission the current mission marker refers to), go into your inventory and go to the left-most page. You’ll see current accepted, available, and completed missions listed here, broken down by map. Note that you can change the sort order as well, which is helpful when you’re further into the game.

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As you’re running through the open areas of Australia Elpis smashing rock piles, you’ll occasionally find items called Moonstones. These are a secondary in-game currency that function in pretty much the same way as eridium in Borderlands 2, although they actually have more uses. These will simply accumulate in your inventory for now; you’ll find out what to do with them once you’ve completed Marooned

Onwards with the main quest: Work your way from the main location (Spring’s Garage, past the building where you found the Oz Kit and on towards the mission marker. There are actually two exits from Serenity’s Waste to Regolith Range, although the nearer one won’t appear until it’s been unlocked from the other side.

If you get lost:

Follow the line of oxygen vents due east of the second building (with the sun and Pandora in the sky directly in front of you) until you come to a more open area, then veer south, passing around the east side of the lava pool. The exit should be at the southern-most tip of the map, with an Oxygen Dome over the gate. If you see a vehicle station, you haven’t gone far enough east.

Activate the Map Transition and pass through to Regolith Range.

Shooting and Looting in Low Gravity:

Being in low gravity and having an Oz Kit makes for some really fun game play, although it can also catch you out if you aren’t careful.

• Use the boost of double jump to get air; slam down hard near a group of enemies to damage them and send them flying
• Human opponents need oxygen too! Head-shot them to shatter their mask and leave them gasping for air - they can actually suffocate to death.
• Your human enemies can also boost, double-jump, and slam. If you see one coming, double-jump yourself to avoid their nova, then slam down right beside them.
• There is nothing more satisfying than nailing head-shots with a sniper rifle while soaring through the air; one-shot-one-kill is perfectly doable in NVHM

Remember: if you’re not catching air, you’re doing it wrong! Besides this, watch out for barrels - these are littered everywhere and, when broken, will deliver some form of elemental damage: corrosive, fire, shock, or cryo (freezing). Use these to your advantage, rather then letting them take you down: wait until just the right moment, then unload on the barrel to hit that rushing enemy before they can get to you.

Cryo functions a bit like slag in Borderlands 2 except it works much better. Not only do frozen enemies become immobile and take freezing damage over time, they are also more susceptible to other forms of damage.

Finally, looting: all small loot containers are pressurized, so when you open them ammo and cash can go flying. Since auto-pickup is a thing, put yourself in the line of “fire” before you open the crate and do a quick “pick up all” to grab the contents as efficiently as possible.

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Regolith Range

Discoverable side quest:

• Last Requests (level 4) - skin and access to a hidden loot chest. Look for the ! marker on your map/minimap.

Challenges:

• Three vault symbols
• One missable challenge (story mission related)
• Four other challenges

You arrive at Dead Drop beside a couple of vending machines. Note that, as a secondary map Regolith Range has NO [color=lightblueFast Travel Station[/color] - if you save and quit, you’ll respawn at the nearest map transition when you resume your game.

If you’re doing Follow Your Heart you’ll want to head forward and then to the right. Otherwise, just press on down the left side of the map towards the mission marker. Things will get intense either way as you fight through a whole bunch of Scavs (the equivalent of Bandits from Borderlands 2).

After some back and forth, it’s on to your second boss battle. This time, it’s a spacesuit-wearing, jump-pad-using Scav by the name of Deadlift. This fight has given many players problems: it is in a multi-level environment, the boss has a pretty massive shield, his homing ranged attack can hit pretty hard, and every so often he electrifies a whole section of floor.

That said, if you got the shock sniper rifle earlier from one of the side quests, you can demolish the boss pretty quickly. Again, use the terrain to your advantage: there are a couple of spots you can duck out of the way for a respite if your’re having problems. Note that if you back out of the building too far, the fight will reset and the boss will get all his health and shields back. When you finally defeat this guy, you’ll get your first laser weapon.

Spoiler: If you’re having trouble with this fight, you can take a look at how I did it here You should be able to take him out completely from the floor just where you enter, using the small building as cover to dodge shock orbs - this should net you both the missable challenges and the two other challenges all at the same time. Note that you need to wait for the dialogue to complete after killing this boss before the Dead Weight challenge achievement triggers.

You’ll need to continue through the “lair” to the second part of Regolith Range through Kraggon Pass to the Dahl Waystation, where you can complete both the main quest and the Last Requests side mission. Eventually, you’ll reach Moon Zoomy Run and be able to unlock a vehicle and head back to Serenity’s Waste.

To get to the map transition, you’ll need to jump a gap across a lava river. Drive up to the edge slowly first to take a look at the layout: you want to boost your vehicle (LB on console) from the highest point on the near side to the lowest point on the far side. Once you’ve figured out the alignment back up a way - maybe 3 to 5 vehicle lengths - then push forward and boost to jump your way across the gap. Note that you need to boost before you get to the edge, since there’s a short delay while the acceleration kicks in.

Once you’re safely back in Serenity’s Waste, head straight back to Ozless Harbor to hand in Marooned and start Systems Jammed. Janey will also have two new side quests for you, both of which take place in Serenity’s Waste and Regolith Range.

It’s up to you whether or not you do them. Since the rewards are level-locked in NVHM, though, there’s no point in saving them for the end of your play-through. Note that the first of the side quests requires you to boost back across the lava: use the same strategy by first figuring out exactly where to line up so you jump from high to low point; I usually take the jump on the left side (heading away from Serenity’s Waste)

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Serenity’s Waste (2)

Side quests:

• Nova? No Problem! (level 4): moonstones and a keepable unique shield as mission item
• Torgue-o! Torgue-o! (level 4): unique shotgun or laser plus a temporary mission item

TIP: The second side quest (Torgue-o! Torgue-o!) gives you a temporary mission item, a unique pistol. You lose this item when you turn the mission in, however if you are playing a melee character you may want to accept then leave the mission in order to keep the item: it’s red text perk is that a portion of damage dealt while holding it is returned to you as health. (Hat-tip: @khimerakiller’s post)

Otherwise, grab a vehicle and boost yourself across the broken bridge to the north side of the map, enter the building, and proceed to Concordia, “Mightiest of Space Ports” (on Elpis, at any rate).

BAR Challenges and Loot:

As you’ve been playing, you’ve probably seen the little notifications that pop up in the bottom-left of your screen, or noticed your character comment on completing a challenge; now seems like a good time to unwrap that.

There are multiple challenges associated with game play. Some of which are tied to using particular gear or killing specific enemy types, while others reward exploration and looting, or specific activities on certain maps. You can check out the full list by going to the last (right-most) page in your inventory.

Completing a challenge earns you a set number of badass rank (BAR) points. Acquiring a certain number of such points earns you a BAR Token, which you can then redeem to boost a particular perk for your character (such as an increase in maximum health or gun damage). Some of these challenges are also tiered: they can be completed up to five times, each time requiring more of whatever the target is and earning more BAR points.

Although your challenge completion is tied to your character save, your BAR points, BAR Tokens, and assigned perks are shared across all your saves, so you can build up fairly large bonuses by playing multiple characters.

If you read through the map-specific challenges, you’ll see references to finding Cult of the Vault symbols; these are scattered throughout each map (except the very first one). Some of the challenges are also missable in a given play-through, since they need to be completed during specific story mission or sequence.

If you want to maximize your BAR, check out this post.. If you’re having difficulty finding some of the symbols or object locations, or want to know if you’ve missed loot chests, there is a comprehensive set of maps linked here; note that these do contain some limited spoilers, however.

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Concordia

Main story: Systems Jammed (level 6) - class mod

Once you’ve entered Concordia you’ll need to get through customs and decontamination. No real issues with any of this stuff, although if you follow Nurse Nina’s instruction carefully you’ll be waiting a very long time for anything to happen. Move already!. Once inside, you’ll have a series of searches to run that serve the purpose of introducing you to the key locations for all your looting needs:

• The Bank - store spare gear here (for example, items you’ve out-levelled but want to keep to pass down to another character later)
• The Stash - you can store up to four items here so that you can transfer them between your own saves
• The Black Market - yep, Crazy Randy Earl is back, and will give you additional bank, backpack, and ammo storage upgrades in exchange for moonstones

A few other features in Concordia worth knowing about are:

• Janey Spring’s Grinder - instead of selling unwanted gear, why not grind it into something useful? Requires unlocking through a side quest in NVHM For more detail on the grinder, see part 3
• Shifty Sheldon’s - an in-game location to enter SHiFT codes and make Golden Keys available for use
• The Golden Chest - where you redeem unlocked Golden Keys for a chance at purple rarity loot that is guaranteed to be at your level
• Multiple vending machines - these are worth checking regularly since the Item of the Day has a chance of being unique or legendary
• The Bounty Board, where you can occasionally pick up extra side quests
• The Quick Change station - check out those skins and heads as you collect them, rename your save, or respec your skill points.

Once you’ve finished running around following the story mission, you’ll finally get your chance to go talk to the most famous NPC in the entire Borderlands universe (and no, it is NOT Claptrap!). This leads to a parkour-style mission across the roofs of Concordia; before you start jumping around, however, check the list of challenges for this map. That’s right - there’s a missable challenge associated with this section of the story mission. So you may want to thoroughly explore all the rooftops before you complete any of the mission objectives.

If you need help:

Use the jump pad in front of the main fast travel station to jump onto the roof above the elevator entrance on the opposite side of the central “square”. Go left across the top of the elevator entrance to the next roof, and around to the side of the structure on it. Find a spot to jump up (remember to use your Oz kit to double-jump!) and look around. There should be a conspicuous switch with a wire leading from it across the next level of the roof system. Kill that switch, then track down the site of the electric fence it was operating.

There’s quite a lot of jumping from one roof to another, and you’ll need to watch out for some turrets at one point. Eventually, though, you’ll know that your next destination is Crisis Scar. You’ll need to get out of Dodge Concordia first though, and the doors are locked. Fortunately, the famous NPC knows the way. Finding her unlocks one of the funniest cut-scenes - take your time (and discover just how much of a Borderlands lore nut you are based on whether you knew this secret side to our NPC).

Back to table of contents

Save Points and Spawn Points:

We’ve glossed over how saves work in this game, but this is an appropriate time to mention them. Automatic updates to your save file are triggered whenever you:

• pass a New-U station
• pass or use a Fast Travel station
• pass or use a map transition
• when quitting the game normally from the paused game menu
• when turning your BAR Perks on or off from your inventory

If you are playing co-op, this will happen whenever any member of your party does any of these things.

GLITCH: if you force-quit (dashboard) or crash out of the game while the save file is being updated is that the save file may become corrupted and un-recoverable (unless you kept a backup). This can also happen if you are playing co-op and the host quits while your game is attempting to save. For this reason, it is always a good idea to have guests to save-quit out first.

Also worth noting is that while you will always respawn at the last triggered New-U, Fast Travel, or map transition when your character dies, you will only respawn at the map’s Fast Travel or map transition after quitting normally and restarting.

Back to table of contents

And that’s it for Part 1: next up, Concordia through Triton Flats to Crisis Scar.

[Kuolemanlaakso (That, Sir, Is a Richard Relocation)]

As much as I don’t need a guide for this, I wanted to just say this looks like great work.

[Poisonedbite (˙pǝsɹǝʌǝɹ uǝǝq sɐɥ ʎʇıʌɐɹƃ ʃɐuosɹǝd ʎW)]

nice job VH. though nice typo. didn’t know wheat was a command

[FunkJunkie (Breunion Boy)]

@FunkJunkie

I’ve already passive aggressively harassed her about getting on board for something more than 30 seconds of Fail For Your Life action

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

I know you’re just starting, and that this is a beginners guide, but I thought I’d just post a “succinct” and generalized guide for how I like to level my characters in NVHM.

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Side Quest - These are quest that I’ve found to be a must in basically every NVHM playthrough.

• Part 1
  • Land Among the Stars - This gives without a doubt the best Oz kit for 5/6 of the characters, and I find myself using it until level 15-20 in most cases.
    • Invigoration Oz Kit - It heals your character for 25% of their maximum health for every O2 canister you pick up (they’re everywhere), which is massively powerful when your character is low leveled and has no healing skills or transfusion grenades. And it has a static O2 capacity of 155, which is the highest you’ll find for quite a while.
  • Tales from Elpis - Gives you a guaranteed shock Maliwan sniper, which is massively helpful for killing Deadlift.
    • TIP: Deadlift he can be stunned by butt slamming him, but only explosive butt slams work for some reason. (don’t quote me, I’d test it first)
  • Follow Your Heart - Free XP (that is not out of your way at all) while you’re on your way to Deadlift.
  • Last Requests - Free XP on your way to the Moon Zoomy station, and you get a free red Dahl chest.
  • Torgue-o! Torgue-o! - Just pick it up for the Probe to use later, so don’t complete it.
• Part 2
  • Infinite Loop - Put the restraining bolt on CLAP-9000 so you can get the Mining Laser. This is the most reliable weapon I’ve found to easily kill RK5, so they should farm for a corrosive one, preferably a Hyperion grip too.
  • Quarantine: Back On Schedule - Needed it to get the Fridgia.
    • Quarantine: Infestation - Need it to get the Fridgia.
    • In Perfect Hibernation - The Fridgia is a massively powerful weapon that makes it extremely easy to deal with all enemies, but especially the “Lost Legion Eternals” that are soon to come. As they have an annoying mechanic of transforming into much more powerful enemies when their health dips below ~30%, but they can’t do that while they’re frozen. It is also an amazing freezing tool even when it’s underleved, so I’d recommend farming one with a Dahl grip. Farming it at the Lunar Launching Station entrance and killing yourself on the exhaust from the exposed pipe makes this farm fast.
  • Eye to Eye - It is a main quest, but I highly recommend farming an Adaptive shield for the Sentinel fight.
  • These are the Bots - The Spadroon is without a doubt the best weapon to kill the small version of the Sentinel… like seriously. No other reliable weapon even comes close.

Gear to look out for

• Gear that doesn’t come from a side quest, but is pivotal.
  • Bomber Oz kit - Just constantly keep the one with the highest free grenade chance in your backpack for the Felicity turret farm.
  • Clear Skies Oz kit - Again, just always keep the highest “airborne damage” one in your backpack. It makes RK5 so much easier.
  • Vladof Tesla or Cryo - To kill the Scavs during the Felicity turret farm. Longbow or lobbed, with the lowest fuse possible.
• New non-unique gear that wasn’t in BL2.
  • Maliwan Blasters - I would go so far as to say they are the best all-round weapon in the game period. Literally, be it leveling or at the end game, if I had to pick one weapon type to take into every engagement of this game, this would be the one.
    • Big magazine
    • High accuracy
    • Low recoil
    • Multiplicative continuous damage
    • Good base damage
    • Pretty good elemental effect chance
    • Really fast reload speed
    • 2nd largest ammo pool
    • Always elemental
    • It’s basically impossible for one to spawn with bad parts
    • Actually shoots projectiles unlike the Beam, allowing it to work with skills like Trick Shot, Unforgiven, etc…
    • Can come in the glitch variety
    • And a fire rate that is almost uninhibited by how this game’s fire rate caps work.
  • Maliwan Splitters - The big bull-headed brother of the Blaster, that just tears through anything you point it at. Only problem is it has lowish accuracy and high recoil, making it a mostly close range weapon.
  • Tediore Splitters - You trade in the continuous damage from the Maliwan Splitter for literally double the projectiles, but of course, a bit worse accuracy.
  • Vladof Cryo - I don’t like transfusions, so I’d say this is the best non-unique grenade. Even at the end game it is the only grenade my Nisha and Claptrap use.
  • Which Oz kits are good tend to be more obvious I think.

XP Farms - Probably more of a high tier strat, but it makes you level fast. And after the first few missions in Regolith Range, these are the only places I go out of my way to get XP from.

• Redbelly - You have to wait until the Meriff is dead, but then you’re good to farm. The entrance with the Claptrap makes the farm faster, so don’t forget to unlock it on the other side. You can jump over the door where the Badass Outlaw spawns, so you don’t have to kill everything waiting for him to open the door. Redbelly has bullet reflection, so cryo and a good explosive shotgun or Tediore SMG reload will allow you to kill them faster than they can kill you.
• Felicity’s Turrets - Use a good Valdof tesla or cryo with a Bomber Oz kit to steal the kills from the turrets, using the special effect of the Oz kit and the way the game weights ammo drops to almost never run out of grenade ammo. Equip the Probe to make it so you don’t kill yourself all the time.
• Things That Go Boom - Pretty sure this gives the most XP out of any sidequest in the base game, and it’s relatively fast.
• RK5 - An ass ton of XP and he is really easy to kill once you learn the fight. A great way to gear up for the Sentinel as well.

---

Maybe some of this is too high level, but I felt like writing it.

[VaultHunter101 (So long, and thanks for all the fish)]

You can be absolutely sure it will get referenced and linked! Thanks!

[Worblehat]

Nothing about Athena has anything to do with Sirens, as far as I know… Is there some backstory from BL1 that you’re referring to? Otherwise I’d suggest changing that to “a mix of elemental, melee, and weapon skills”.

Unless you’re Claptrap, of course.

Is there something bad about Hyperion Blasters and Splitters that they don’t make your list, or were you just being brief? I’ve had quite good experience with both, though the few Maliwans I’ve found were also good. Since I’ve used them with Jack and Athena, leaning towards Hyperion gear was pretty natural.

One thing that might be worth mentioning somewhere in the guide (and probably you already have this planned…) would be that the TPS gear scaling is significantly shallower than BL2’s, so a given item can remain useful much longer. I’ve had some “Oh noes, my guns are five levels out of date, I am doomed! ” moments before remembering the scaling and continuing as normal (though I did keep a closer eye on vending machines even so).

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

• While I don’t have that much experience with them, I do see merit in Hyperion splitters. Good accuracy, reverse recoil to cancel out the otherwise bad recoil, and a free 50-60% crit damage would make them pretty good. But I didn’t mention them because I don’t have that much experience with them, and they fail to fill a niche (I was just listing what I thought were the top of the top lasers).
  • Compared to the why I chose the Maliwan splitter, as a “screw accuracy for massive power up close”, the Hyperion didn’t fit. Add in the fact that once you get into character specifics, the Hyperion splitters aren’t that favorable.
    • Athena prefers the Tediore because 6 instances of damage at a quicker fire rate is much better for stacking Maelstrom.
    • Nisha loves the multiplicative damage since she has so much additive. Bona Fide Grit, her Crapshooter COM, and the cryo debuff devalue the crit damage. And Showdown and Trickshot devalue the accuracy/reverse recoil.
    • Jack already has a ton of crit damage and accuracy (and even reverse recoil with his Celestial COM). And he has enough additive gun damage to make the multiplicative damage shine, plus he retains it for a long time with AA.
    • Aurelia, again has a ton of accuracy, crit, and to some extent additive gun damage.
    • I don’t play Wilhelm that much, but with his Celestial COM, 3DD1.E, Prismatic Bulwark, and 10/5 Laser Focus he can easily reign in the Maliwan to get that superior DPS.
    • If it’s not a Laser Disker, I don’t use lasers on Claptrap.
  • Plus I haven’t compared them in a while, but doesn’t the Maliwan beat out the Hyperion in every card stat but accuracy? Add in the fact I rarely see them on Top Gear, and that is the reasoning for my choice. But I need to try them out again.

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• The only redeeming factor for Hyperion is their reverse recoil, but the Maliwan Blaster has such low recoil that it’s a non-issue. Making the Maliwan win hands down in my mind. Unless you have a case?

[Worblehat]

My case is mostly the reverse of your lack of experience with Hyperion - I’ve mostly found Hyperion, with one or two Maliwan blasters and no Tediore splitters for comparison. Blaster card stats seemed comparable-ish, considering the one level difference and purple vs. glitch rarity difference. And they were different elements so I used both and found them both very good. The glitch Hyperion shock splitter has been awesome for Athena as well, so I look forward to finding a good Tediore splitter someday!

Could also be a degree of personal playing habits - Maliwan is about continuous fire for bonus damage, and I just don’t do that much. “Short, controlled bursts” is a very strong habit for me - I guess I saw Aliens at an impressionable age…

To address the thread topic - some sort of “Intro to lasers” sidebar in the guide might be useful. It took me a long time to get a handle on what types and brands work well for what purposes, and I still don’t think I’m entirely there yet (see this current discussion, for example).

Comment on the latest edit:

I see you’re channeling Jack - the one you’re forgetting is “Explosive!”

[VaultHunter101 (So long, and thanks for all the fish)]

Probably in the part 2, since you don’t get a laser in first play-through until defeating Deadlift. There’s a few things I could have put in (and are in part 1 of the equivalent BL2 version); I might still add something on save files, for example, since that always confuses people who’ve not played a Borderlands game before.

There are NO explosive barrels, and I did NOT get blown up by one!

[nat_zero_six (I’m Nat and just a Number.)]

That was fast. Hope you complete it soon. Also would like this to get stickied as well.

[nat_zero_six (I’m Nat and just a Number.)]

I turn it to the other one forgot the name and got a cryo snowball (fastball in tps).

[farsight37 (Today, everything was fine in Opportunity and nothing bad happened.)]

Your code is showing!

Overall the guide looks great though! Can’t wait to see the rest of it!

[VaultHunter101 (So long, and thanks for all the fish)]

Thank you. The next time you hear anyone say that coding can’t be hard because “it’s just typing”, you can show them that as an example of why it isn’t just typing!

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

While the Snowball has the delivery method of the Fastball, it doesn’t have its damage. Plus it is locked to the debuff element of TPS, cryo. And not even Aurelia can make it preform well in the end game.

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For comparison…

• The Snowball has ~250% more damage than a purple Tediore grenade.
• The Fastball has ~1170% more damage than a purple Tediore grenade.
  • Access to the “matching elements” bonus.
  • And access to the x3 damage increase from Slag.

[VaultHunter101 (So long, and thanks for all the fish)]

All true, but there’s no reason why you can’t take the Mining Laser with one character, then the Snowball with another, and pass them both on down! Plus the Snowball is fun, khimerakiller, fun for the whole family!

[khimerakiller (Pandora's Industrial Engineer)]

I know not “fun”, I know only min/maxing.

I’m just spreading the knowledge, what people choose to do with it afterwards is up to them.

(This wasn’t necessarily for the guide, I was just responding to nat.)

Plus I personally don’t share gear between my characters before level 70.

[TempNight]

Hi! The action skill of Nisha is wrong. It says you can dual wield during her action skill. Are you confusing her for Sal?

[VaultHunter101 (So long, and thanks for all the fish)]

I know, just a brain fart. Will fix!

[Adabiviak (Guajiro Pandoreño)]

Oh hell yes