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Borderlands 3 Best Early Game Weapons Guide

Borderlands 3 Best Early Game Weapons Guide
Borderlands 3 Best Early Game Weapons Guide

You started playing Borderlands 3 and now you want to become the most badass Vault Hunter that travels across the badlands, therefore you are looking for the best weapons the game has to offer early on in your journey. In this Borderlands 3 guide, I’m going to tell you when and where you can quickly get legendary loot.

Getting Started

I assume you have the basics down and know you will unlock your other inventory slots throughout the game. Borderlands 3 has a lot of World Drop Legendary items, which means they can come from any suitable loot source, however, some Legendary items can only drop from a specific source.

You will be farming for these weapons as they are the best weapons you can find early on in the game. Legendary Loot has a small chance of dropping, therefore, you will likely Save&Quit to reload the map for another shot.

Best Early Game Weapons by Location

This list is ordered to match the progression of a normal playthrough. As you discover new areas, you open up the possibilities to discover more top weapons to kickstart your Borderlands 3 adventure and dominate the badlands as a true Vault Hunter.

Covenant Pass – Pandora

Covenant Pass is the Borderlands 3 tutorial map and has no meaningful loot for this guide. The Boss, Shiv, can only drop his legendary loot once you reach level 11 but the Ripper and Moxxi’s Bouncing Pair aren’t really great.

The Droughts – Pandora

The Droughts is the second map in Borderlands 3 and the first location to get good Legendary Gear. Here are your options.

Linoge

Borderlands 3 Legendary COV Pistol - Linoge
Borderlands 3 Legendary COV Pistol – Linoge

You can obtain the Linoge pretty fast in the game because once you complete the tutorial, you can start farming the Crawly Family. This farm can be challenging because these enemies are pretty strong and the loot has some downfalls.

The Linoge is a COV Pistol that deals good damage at the cost of slow-moving projectiles and high ammo consumption. The ammo consumption can be a deal breaker because you can’t carry a lot of ammo this early on in the game.

Other guides recommend getting the Predatory Lending from the Crawly Family, however, you also won’t have a lot of money that early in the game. You are better off saving up that money for decent gear or storage deck upgrades.

Barrage

Borderlands 3 Legendary Dahl Assault Rifle - Barrage
Borderlands 3 Legendary Dahl Assault Rifle – Barrage

The Barrage is a good balanced legendary weapon that you can get after you make it across the car jump. While this item can randomly be obtained from any loot source as a “World Drop”, it has a 30% chance of dropping from Buttmunch who you can farm in The Droughts on Pandora.

This Dahl assault rifle is accurate, deals decent damage, and doesn’t suffer from the high ammo consumption as the Linoge does. You can get the Barrage in a non-elemental, Corrosive, or Radiation damage type but you probably want the non-elemental or radiation variant because you won’t encounter many armored enemies.

Night Hawkin

Borderlands 3 Legendary Dahl SMG - Night Hawkin
Borderlands 3 Legendary Dahl SMG – Night Hawkin

The Night Hawkin quickly became a fan-favorite weapon when Borderlands 3 was released. This Dahl SMG switches elements based on the time of day. During the day, your bullets will deal Cryo damage and during the night, your bullets will deal fire damage.

The Night Hawkin can be obtained randomly from any loot source but has an increased chance of dropping from Demoskaggons who are located in The Droughts on Pandora.

Ascension Bluff – Pandora

Ascension Bluff is the third map in Borderlands 3. You will be making your way to the Holy Broadcast Center to fight Mouthpiece.

SkekSil

Borderlands 3 Legendary COV Pistol - SkekSil
Borderlands 3 Legendary COV Pistol – SkekSil

The SkekSil is a great weapon early on in Borderlands 3 and is probably the gun that will replace the items you got in The Droughts. You will encounter Skrakk – a Sir Hammerlock Crew Challenge – near the beginning of the Ascension Bluff map.

The SkekSil is a burst-fire COV Pistol that randomly shoots 1 to 3 additional rockets. While it drops in various elements, you want to get one with a fire element on it because it can then carry you for a long way since most enemies are weak against fire damage during this part of the game.

PS: Keep an eye out on your ammo as the SkekSil will eat through your bullets in no time this early on in the game.

Meridian Outskirts – Promethea

The Meridian Outskirts is the first area you visit on a new planet. If you skipped the introduction and started the game at LVL 15, this will be your main base game objective unless you jump into one of Borderlands 3’s DLCs.

Cutsman

Borderlands 3 Legendary Maliwan SMG - Cutsman
Borderlands 3 Legendary Maliwan SMG – Cutsman

The Cutsman is a legendary SMG that dominated the Meta for a while, however, while there are currently better weapons for the Borderlands 3 End Game, the Cutsman is still an awesome weapon to use throughout the main story campaign.

This Maliwan SMG shoots 2 orbs that are connected by a destructive laser beam. The weapon itself has a bit of a charge up and the projectiles move pretty slowly, however, it compensates by the growing width of the laser beam. You can maximize your damage by using the correct element against your enemies.

You can farm the Cutsman from Borman Nates who is located in the Meridian Outskirts on Promethea.

Conclusion

There are a lot of awesome Legendary weapons in Borderlands 3, however, don’t disregard these awesome Epic weapons because they can match or sometimes exceed the damage of their legendary counterpart.

Have fun and work your way up to creating a badass character build.

Written by
I'm a Content Creator by day and a BattleBread Baker at night. I'll provide you with your recommended slice of entertainment! I'm a Gearbox Community Badass and a proud member of the official Borderlands & Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Creator Team (2K Games / NextMakers).

Let Me Know What You Think

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7 Comments

  1. Reply
  2. Early in the game, don’t sweat farming. Just play, enjoy what you get. I think it’s more fun to do your… https://t.co/Ev5y9yfqTG

    Reply
  3. Nighthawkin and Q-System. Otherwise play to have fun. Don’t sweat the farming too much.

    Reply
  4. Early game, the only thing I farm is a Westergun with good elements since you won’t get another on level until Mayhem.

    Reply
  5. What do you mean early game? All weapons you shown here is level 50. Level 50is end game…
    What are you using friend?

    Reply
    • Default image pulled from my archive. Having an on-level image isn’t really a thing because I can be lvl 15 and someone else is lvl 13 as they didn’t do all the sidequests.

      Reply
  6. The incendiary Nemesis from Mouthpiece. From personal use, it has incredible fire rate and accuracy and can wipe of enemies pretty quickly until it becomes about ten levels after you get it.

    Reply

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