Which is a lot.

The latest tale from the Borderlands starts off easy on hardware, but you’ll need to bring the big guns for higher resolutions.

Before you start hunting those vaults, you’ll have to make the tough choice of picking your character – so which class should you choose? We run down the options and strengths of each.

For more info Borderlands 3, check out IGN’s Wiki Guide at https://www.ign.com/wikis/borderlands-3/

So you’re interested in playing as Moze in Borderlands 3? We got you covered with the best tips to make the most out of her skills.

So you’re interested in playing as Zane in Borderlands 3? We got you covered with the best tips to make the most out of his skills.

So you’re interested in playing as FL4K in Borderlands 3? We got you covered with the best tips to make the most out of their skills.

When you first arrive at Sanctuary in Borderlands 3, you’ll notice a locked Golden Chest. You might wonder how to open it for a moment but inevitably settle on the hope that the answer to that question will be revealed to you later on. No such luck! You can only open this mysterious Golden Chest with a Golden Key, and can only get these through a few specific methods.

The first method is by getting it through pre-ordering Borderlands 3, which earns you five Golden Keys. The second method involves obtaining Shift Codes that you can redeem for a chance to receive some Golden Keys. These have historically been distributed by Gearbox via newsletters and social media channels. You can plug Shift Codes into the Shift Code section in the main menu or the Borderlands VIP site. Speaking of which, you can also get Golden Keys by using Borderlands VIP points.

The other course of action you can take for Golden Keys is to bank on the third method, which is to wait for any of the upcoming free content updates, such as the Halloween-themed Bloody Harvest event in October. For a full breakdown of that content, be sure to read our article explaining all the post-release DLC.

For more Borderlands 3, be sure to check out our Borderlands 3 beginner’s guide and all the best Legendary, Very Rare, and Rare guns we’ve found so far. We’ve also prepared a handy guide on which character you should choose before starting the game. But for everything else, read our roundup of all things Borderlands 3.

In our Borderlands 3 review, author Jordan Ramee gave the game an 8/10 and said, “Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game’s rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor. The game’s character-driven narrative acts as a satisfying finale for the loot-shooter franchise, and the new mechanics and features–especially the reworked skill trees and weapon manufacturer effects–give you plenty of agency in how you want to play through it. If you’ve never been a fan of the franchise, it’s unlikely Borderlands 3 does enough things differently to change your mind, as the game best excels at continuing what the series has always done: deliver a humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism.”

Borderlands 3 Character Builds And Skills Guides

• Amara Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• Moze Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• Zane Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• FL4K Guide: Best Skills To Unlock

As you progress through Borderlands 3, you might find chests marked with a “T” symbol. These are what the game calls Typhon Dead Drops and they’re linked to one of the major challenges you can complete in the game involving audio logs left behind by the first Vault Hunter, Typhon de Leon. You might’ve encountered a few of these in Pandora during the opening hours of the game and probably spent five minutes flailing about in frustration figuring out how to unlock it.

To open these chests, you need to find all of the logs left behind by Typhon de Leon in the map you’re currently in. While you might be thinking, “Oh no! I have to figure out where all of these tedious collectibles are?” Don’t worry, the log locations are clearly marked on the map, sparing you the difficulty of having to find them completely blind. And once you’ve acquired all three, the location of the Typhon Dead Drop will be revealed to you on the map.

There’s typically one Typhon Dead Drop per open area map, so try taking the time to seek out the logs to nab yourself some solid loot. It’s also worth finding and listening to these logs because they actually include details that have ramifications on what you discover later on in the story. Definitely take the time to do it to better enjoy the twists and turns of the game’s more potent revelations.

For more Borderlands 3 guides, be sure to check out our guide on which character you should choose before starting the game. Also, you can check out our Borderlands 3 beginner’s guide and all the best Legendary, Very Rare, and Rare guns we’ve found so far. And for everything else, check out our roundup of all things Borderlands 3.

In our Borderlands 3 review, author Jordan Ramee gave the game an 8/10 and said, “Borderlands 3 has a few stumbling blocks when it comes to bosses, but these fights are overshadowed by the game’s rewarding gunplay and over-the-top humor. The game’s character-driven narrative acts as a satisfying finale for the loot-shooter franchise, and the new mechanics and features–especially the reworked skill trees and weapon manufacturer effects–give you plenty of agency in how you want to play through it. If you’ve never been a fan of the franchise, it’s unlikely Borderlands 3 does enough things differently to change your mind, as the game best excels at continuing what the series has always done: deliver a humorous tall tale of misfits looting and shooting their way to heroism.”

Borderlands 3 Character Builds And Skills Guides

• Amara Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• Moze Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• Zane Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• FL4K Guide: Best Skills To Unlock

There are a lot of chests in Borderlands 3. You’ll want to open as many as you can as each typically contains an assortment of loot, ammo, and health. There are, however, a few chests in Borderlands 3 that just cannot be opened from the start of the campaign. Many of them are tied to certain quests–the T-marked chests can only be opened by finding Typhon de Leon’s audio recordings, for example–but there are some Eridium-encrusted ones that don’t seem tied to anything. You can actually open these chests though. You just have to be patient.

Borderlands 3 doesn’t explain this, but you actually unlock the ability to do certain actions by completing story missions. The Eridium-encrusted chests are one such example, as you can’t chip away at the Eridium keeping them closed (or mine Eridium deposits you find in the world) until the campaign gives you the tool that allows you to break Eridium. You’ll acquire this tool at the end of the campaign’s first act, so you’ll have to beat all of the story missions on Pandora, Promethea, and Athenas before you earn it.

Another action you’ll unlock just from doing story missions is the ability to equip grenade mods (which you acquire in the tutorial so the wait on that one is short). Further along in the story, you unlock the ability to equip character mods, and then relics too. You will most likely start discovering a lot of these items before you gain the ability to equip them, much like you run into Eridium-encrusted chests before you acquire the tool to unlock them. If you run into or find something new in Borderlands 3 and the game doesn’t allow you to do anything with it, chances are the answer you’re looking for is to just be patient. Just keep playing through the story and you’ll learn what you want to know.

If you’re still on the fence about the game, read GameSpot’s Borderlands 3 review. If you’re already planning on picking up the game, we have a beginner’s guide as well as a guide for which Vault Hunter best fits the playstyle you want. For those looking for something even more granular, we have individual write-ups that detail the ideal builds and best skills for each character. Those are linked below.

Borderlands 3 Character Builds And Skills Guides

• Amara Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• Moze Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• Zane Guide: Best Skills To Unlock
• FL4K Guide: Best Skills To Unlock

Borderlands 3 is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC. The game is scheduled to release for Google Stadia later this year.

Borderlands 3 includes four Vault Hunters to choose from–FL4K the beastmaster, Zane the operative, Moze the gunner, and Amara the Siren. If hunting the bandits of Pandora with a trusty pet by your side sounds like your ideal playstyle, then look no further than FL4K. Below, we’ve detailed the pros and cons of this character’s three skill trees so you know which abilities to unlock.

FL4K is the lone wolf among Borderlands 3’s Vault Hunters, with his skill trees combining perks from Borderlands‘ Mordecai and Borderlands 2‘s Zer0 to focus on long-ranged combat and self-sustainability. If you’re going to play Borderlands 3 on your own, you’ll probably have the easiest time with FL4K as all three skill trees contribute to solo play. Plus, who needs real friends when you can rely on the aid of your in-game monkey, dog, and spider companions, amiright?

Stalker

You’ll notice a few Zer0-inspired skills in FL4K’s Stalker tree, the one that’s specifically tied to his monkey-like Jabber companion. The action skill associated to Stalker is Fade Away, which allows FL4K to temporarily turn invisible.

In this tree, try putting points into Self-Repairing System early so you can regenerate your health and cut out the cost of health packs. You want to invest five points into this tree and get to the second tier as quickly as possible to unlock the Guerillas in the Mist perk, which allows FL4K to attack multiple times during Fade Away instead of just once. Eager to Impress–which lowers the cool down time on FL4K’s action skill whenever they or their pet kill someone–is also a good second tier ability to have.

Things start getting really good at the third tier. Lick the Wounds allows your pet to revive you, Not My Circus has your pet draw enemy fire after you use Fade Away, and your Jabber evolves into a Beefcake–making it a lot stronger. At this point, it might be worth investing in FL4K’s other trees, but you should certainly come back to this tree in the late game. Hidden Machine is great once you have a powerful sniper rifle or assault rifle with a long-range scope. The ability increases FL4K’s attack damage against enemies that haven’t noticed them–a phenomenal skill to pair with the Hunter tree’s Ambush Predator skill.

Hunter

Speaking of the Hunter tree, this is the one you want to invest points into if Mordecai was your favorite Vault Hunter back in the day. This tree is all about getting critical hits, as well as increasing the power of FL4K’s spider-like Spiderant companion and the character’s Rakk Attack–an action skill that’s basically an elemental version of Mordecai’s Bloodwing action skill. If you invest in this tree, start looting and buying Jakobs guns. Soon you’ll be one-shotting foes before your teammates even have a chance to notice that there are enemies to kill.

Right off the bat, you want to invest in Interplanetary Stalker, which increases the damage FL4K does after every enemy they kill. Leave No Trace–which has a chance of adding a bullet back into FL4K’s gun whenever they score a critical hit–is a pretty good choice too, especially if you’re carrying a Jakobs shotgun or sniper rifle as both are typically single-shot weapons. With Leave No Trace, you’ll get a chance to sometimes fire off two shots instead of one, making it easier to get the kill and activate Interplanetary Stalker’s effects.

In the second tier, start putting all your points into Ambush Predator, an ability that makes FL4K stronger the further they are from enemies. Once you do, and once you secure a Jakobs gun with a decent scope, FL4K becomes a sharpshooter of no equal on the battlefield. The remaining perks in this tree are mostly devoted to upgrading your Spiderant, which eventually evolves first into a fire-breathing Scorcher and then a corrosive-splashing Countess. As a side note, if you invest in this tree, you’ll be far richer than all your friends as the fourth tier ability The Most Dangerous Game nets FL4K a generous cash reward for killing badass level foes. Considering you’ll be a sniping god at this point, you’ll probably be able to down most badass enemies before your friends can even reach them.

Master

FL4K’s Master tree is probably the one you want to invest in if you really just don’t want to be a sniper. The Master tree doesn’t have the sneaking potential of the Stalker tree nor the critical hit damage power-up of the Hunter tree. Instead, the Master tree focus on FL4K’s pet, increasing the power of what they can do so they can protect FL4K as they fight side by side at mid- to close-range. The pet associated to this tree is the dog-like Skag and the action skill is Gamma Burst, an ability that teleports FL4K’s pet to a location through a radiative portal that mutates the pet into a more powerful form.

Considering how much this tree focuses on FL4K’s pet, start putting points into the skills that will ensure they can be the most help to you. In the first tier, Ferocity (which increases your pet’s attack power) and Go For The Eyes (which makes your pet’s first attack a critical hit) are your best choices. From there you’ll reach the second tier of the tree and, honestly, from this point on almost every skill just makes your pet stronger and stronger. You can’t go wrong with where you invest. You basically just want to keep putting points into the tree until you reach the final tier and can unlock Dominance, a skill that allows FL4K to take control of enemies with a melee attack.

Like Amara’s Mystical Assault tree, FL4K’s Master tree is probably the last one you want to invest in or at least the one you want to save until after you’ve left Pandora. FL4K’s pets are actually pretty durable and deadly early on, so increasing their health and attack power isn’t an immediate priority. You will at some point, especially for the challenging endgame, but increasing FL4K’s own abilities should be your priority first, and that’s easier to do in the other two trees. If you’re not a fan of long-range combat, then this is probably the tree you want to focus on. But at the same time, if you’re so against sniping, then why are you playing as FL4K in the first place?