Walkthrough

Borderlands 3 tells you how a chapter is going to finish before you start it. Line up the fourteen campaign missions we have written up and twelve of them close on a named enemy with a health bar and a weak spot. Two do not, and those two are the ones that move the plot instead of clearing a gate.

That is a more useful way to plan a session than a chapter list, because it tells you whether you are about to need twenty minutes and a full ammo reserve or five minutes and a vehicle. It also tells you where the story actually turns.

The twelve missions that end on a name

Four of those twelve names come back later as farming targets rather than story beats, which is why our best bosses to farm page and our bosses overview both cover the campaign roster in more detail than the mission walkthroughs do. Mouthpiece drops the Mind-Killer, Katagawa Ball the Tsunami, the Rampager a Quadomizer, and Tyreen the Queen's Call.

The two that end on a key instead

From the Ground Up is chapter two, and it ends with Vaughn back in front of Lilith rather than with anything dead. It is the mission that hands you the Crimson Raiders, and it is short because its job is to introduce people.

In the Shadow of Starlight is the other one, and it is the more important of the two. It ends with the Vault keys placed, which is the point the campaign has been building towards since the first chapter, and everything after it is the consequence rather than the setup. If you are trying to work out where the last act begins, it begins here.

It is worth reading the two together. They are the only campaign missions in this bucket that do not resolve into a health bar, and they sit at the two ends of the story, one opening it and one closing the long middle.

The Vault chain

Chapters we can date run from Children of the Vault at chapter one to Divine Retribution at chapter twenty-three, and the Vaults are the beats worth marking on that line.

• Beneath the Meridian is chapter ten and closes the first Vault. It also opens the artifact that lets you melee Eridium out of purple crystals, which is why it is the mission our Eridium farming guide tells you to stop halfway through rather than finish.
• In the Shadow of Starlight places the keys.
• Footsteps of Giants puts General Traunt in the doorway and then opens the Vault behind him.
• Divine Retribution is the last chapter, and finishing it unlocks True Vault Hunter Mode, Mayhem Mode and Guardian Rank in one go.

Fourteen of the campaign's twenty-three chapters have a page in this bucket. The missions named on our pages but not yet written up include The First Vault Hunter, The Great Vault, Angels and Speed Demons, Cold as the Grave and Hostile Takeover, which is the one Gigamind is fought in.

The DLC missions end on a name too

Every add-on keeps the pattern, which is one reason the DLCs feel like Borderlands 3 rather than like something bolted on.

Bounty of Blood is the one that needs a note before you start. It is a full western on a new planet and it does not announce itself in the mission log, so our guide to starting it exists purely because finding the entry point is the first obstacle. Once you are on Gehenna, Blood from a Stone is the opening mission and the rest follows in order.

The Psycho Krieg missions are split between this bucket and the bosses bucket, because that DLC is mostly a sequence of boss rooms. What Love Remains is here, while Inhuman Trials and Locus of Rage are filed with the fights they end on.

Takedown at Maliwan, which ends on three names in a row

Takedown at Maliwan is the hardest thing in the game and the only mission in this bucket built for four maxed-out Vault Hunters rather than one. It runs the pattern three times over: the Kraken, then the Valkyrie Squad, then Wotan the Invincible.

It is also the only mission where the loadout is prescriptive rather than a suggestion. Most enemies inside are shielded, so a shock weapon is not optional, and the Transformer shield makes you immune to the shock damage coming back the other way. A corrosive shotgun handles the armoured enemies, a high damage revolver clears the small ones, and the Brainstormer tethers groups together. FL4K is the recommended pick because Wotan is hard to land critical hits on and FL4K is the Vault Hunter who can.

The Kraken is the fight worth rehearsing. Corrosive damage works until it drops to half health and raises a rotating shield, and from there the answer is to put shock rounds through the gap in the shield rather than to keep hammering it. The Valkyrie Squad fight is on a platform with ledges, and falling off one removes you from the fight, which catches more teams than the Valkyries do.

Side missions, the only part of the game with a price list

The campaign never tells you what a chapter pays. The side missions do, and our side missions guide collects them by the zone you pick them up in. Pandora's seven are the only set with a cash figure attached to every entry, which makes them the one place you can compare effort against reward directly.

Read that column and the ordering is not what you would guess. The mission that pays least, Powerful Connections, is the one that hands over a Red Chest through an optional objective, and it is one of the two chests in the entire game that can be missed permanently. Bad Reception pays the second most on Pandora and gives you nothing but the money.

Eden-6 pays roughly ten times as much per mission, in the region of $3,838 to $4,080, which is the clearest illustration in the folder of how fast rewards scale with the level they are handed out at. It is also why our levelling guide tells you to save side missions for later: the campaign is where the experience is, and the side missions are worth more the longer you leave them.

Frequently asked questions

How many chapters does the campaign have?

Twenty-three. Children of the Vault is the first and Divine Retribution is the last, and we currently have walkthroughs for fourteen of them.

Should I do side missions as I go?

No, unless you want a specific gun from one. Side mission rewards scale to the level you complete them at, and the campaign gives better experience, so leaving them until later makes them worth several times more.

Which mission should I stop halfway through?

Beneath the Meridian. Once the artifact lets you smash the purple crystals, the run can be reset from the last checkpoint over and over without refighting the boss, which is the fastest Eridium in the game.

Can I play the DLCs before finishing the story?

Yes, though the level bands assume you are further along. Bounty of Blood in particular needs its entry point found manually, which is what our separate guide to starting it is for.

Is Takedown at Maliwan soloable?

It is designed for a full team of four at maximum level, and the loadout requirements are strict enough that going in short-handed is a decision rather than an option. Bring shock damage and the Transformer shield either way.