What is Guardian Rank?
Guardian Rank is one of the features in Borderlands 3 that adds to the end-game content. If you are familiar with Borderlands 2 or Borderlands the Pre-Sequel then you are familiar with Badass Rank. In a nutshell, Guardian Rank is Badass Rank 2.0. Its an infinite progression system that allows you to level up your characters with small boosts that stack over time.
When do you unlock Guardian Rank?
Guardian Rank is part of the end-game content, you will unlock it once you completed the main story of Borderlands 3.
How does Guardian Rank work?
Once Guardian Rank is unlocked a new progress bar will appear above your character’s level progression bar. By gaining experience points (XP) you can earn Guardian Tokens. You can spend these tokens on the Guardian Rank menu. When you redeem a token 6 random stats will appear from which you can choose from. There will always be 2 stats from each of the 3 Guardian Rank trees. There is the Enforcer tree that provides you damage and fire rate buffs. The Survivor tree boosts your health and shield but also makes ‘second wins’ easier. The Hunter tree buffs have an impact on your weapon handling, action skill, and the one that I find interesting Luck.
Bonus Stats
Enforcer
The Enforcer tree is all about dealing more damage and boosting your DPS.
- Critical Damage
- Grenade Damage
- Gun Damage
- Gun Fire Rate
- Melee Damage
- Vehicle Damage
Survivor
The Survivor tree is all about staying alive and in the fight.
- Fight for Your Life Duration
- Fight for Your Life Movement Speed
- Max Health
- Shield Capacity
- Shield Recharge Delay
- Shield Recharge Rate
Hunter
The Hunter tree is all about efficiency. Getting good at what you do and how you do it.
- Accuracy
- Action Skill Cooldown
- Luck (Rarity Rate)
- Recoil Reduction
- Reload Speed
Borderlands 3 Guardian Rank Rewards
Earn Guardian Rewards By Spending Tokens
When you spend your Guardian tokens and you will be given a choice out of 6 boosts, 2 from each tree. By picking a boost 1 point will go into the corresponding Enforcer, Survivor, or Hunter tree on the right. By stacking enough points in each of the trees you will unlock the rewards. You will earn Guardian Rewards by spending a total of 10, 15, 25, 35, 50, or 75 tokens into a certain tree. These rewards can be new weapon skins, character skins, or additional skills for your Vault Hunter.
All Guardian Rank Rewards
By stacking enough points into each of the trees you can unlock the following Guardian Rank rewards.
Enforcer Tree Guardian Rewards
- Red Sands (10)
- Unlocks a new weapon skin.
- Inner Fury (15)
- Add 10% Gun Damage while in Fight For Your Life.
- Overkill (25)
- Excess damage from a kill is added to your next shot.
- Player Skin (35)
- Unlock the Player Skin Urban Blammo.
- C-C-Combo (50)
- Increases Gun Damage by 2% for 1 second with each shot.
- Hollow Point (75)
- Killing an enemy with a critical hit causes an explosion around them.
- C’mon and Slam (100)
- Slam can now be used at the peak of your jump.
- Groundbreaker (125)
- Melee attacks or Slam will trigger an Aftershock, dealing 10% of all non-melee damage you have dealt over the last 5 seconds.
Survivor Tree Guardian Rewards
- Leather and Regret (10)
- Unlocks a new weapon skin.
- Resilient (15)
- Recover from Fight For Your Life with full Health and Shields.
- Dead Man’s Hand (25)
- Allows aiming down sight and removes aim penalties while in fight for your life.
- Player Skin (35)
- Unlock the Player Skin Hex Bolts.
- Shield Reboot (50)
- Killing an enemy triggers shield regeneration.
- Emergency Response (75)
- Improve Shield Recharge Delay and Rate based on missing health.
- Too Angry To Die (100)
- Damage dealt while in Fight For Your Life restores your meter. Restoration amount is decreased over time.
- Dead Man Walking (125)
- While not moving in Fight For Your Life your meter drains 50% more slowly.
Hunter Tree Guardian Rewards
- Dead Set (10)
- Unlocks a new weapon skin.
- Bullet Collector (15)
- Ammo pickups provide 15% extra ammo.
- Tag and Frag (25)
- Regenerate a grenade every 10 kills.
- Player Skin (35)
- Unlock the Player Skin Burning Bright.
- Topped Off (50)
- Action Skill Cooldown Rate increases while at full shield.
- Treasure Hunter (75)
- Increases Luck for 10 seconds after each kill.
- Harmageddon (100)
- Enemies take 5% more Damage per unique Status Effect affecting them.
- Lead or Alive (125)
- When you enter Fight For Your Life all your guns are automatically reloaded.
Notes:
- The minimum required Guardian Rank to unlock all rewards is 375.
- Shield Reboot: Certain shields, such as Roid shields, grant bonuses only when depleted, so this perk can make builds around those shields difficult if not impossible to use. It is highly recommended to disable this perk if using such a shield.
- Dead Man’s Hand: This skill will remove “aim penalties” to the Accuracy stat of a weapon, but does not remove the significant aim sway associated with being in Fight For Your Life.
- Topped Off: This skill increases action skill cooldown rate by about 200% when shields are full, letting action skills recharge in a third of the listed time.
- This skill is additive with other cooldown rate increases, potentially limiting the effectiveness of skills such as Adrenaline.
- Borderlands 2’s Badass Rank system was based on completing challenges, so it encouraged creating new characters because a veteran character would have few challenges left. The Guardian Rank system is the opposite: since Guardian Ranks are earned with a fixed amount of XP, low-level characters will increase them very slowly, so it encourages playing high-level characters.
- Hotfix April 1, 2021
- Lowered the damage bonus on the Guardian Perk Groundbreaker from 25% to 10%
