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Excited about Borderlands 3? Here’s how to get a jump on building your arsenal right now

September 13th can’t come quick enough.

borderlands 3 box art
Image: Gearbox

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Borderlands 3 is less than a month away, with its September 13th release date on the horizon, but if you want to get started earning weapons for the upcoming game you can actually do that right now.

Here’s how to get started.

Start stacking your armory early in Borderlands 3

For starters, you’ll want to make sure to have a SHiFT account on the Borderlands website, which you likely already have if you’ve played any prior Borderlands game. Second, sign up for VIP rewards here(That’s definitely my referral link. For the generic link, go here)

The first thing you’ll want to take advantage of is the Weaponizer. The Weaponize is a one-time-use slot machine that just gives you a free item in Borderlands 2, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel, or Borderlands 3. It’s random what game you get gear from, but what’s more important is that it helps with the next step.

If you unlock at least 8 VIP reward weapons you unlock a special Maliwan gun in Borderlands 3. This is the real prize, here, because Maliwan is obviously the best gun manufacturer in Borderlands, duh. How do you get more VIP weapons? I’m glad you asked.

VIP weapons cost 4,000 points each and you can earn points in a ton of different ways:

  1. There are a bunch of easy one-time point rewards on the Activities page, including simple things like linking your PSN/Steam/XBL/Twitch account.
  2. There are limited-time bonus activities you can do that give lots of points. For instance, this weekend (8/16, 8/17, and 8/18) gives you a chance to earn 1,000 points a day if you log in to Borderlands: Game of the Year Edition at least once a day. If you log in for all three days, you get an extra 1,000 points, making this weekend a chance to get a whole weapon unto itself.
  3. The Reddit community has gathered a TON of redeemable codes here. To redeem them, go to this page on the Borderlands website. For each code, make sure you’re clicking on the appropriate type before redemption (e.g. for the last code on the list, click on e-mail first and type POWERUPEMAIL into the code box). Note: Most of the e-mail codes work, about half of the vault codes work, and only some of the creator codes work.

You can also use VIP points for other cool things, like special character skins. I used 3,000 to get that sweet Amara skin, because heaven forbid I play a Borderlands game as anything but a Siren. I also want that oni head, but I’m gonna make sure to get my weapon unlocks first. Note: Skins, wallpapers, and other cosmetics DO NOT COUNT towards the Maliwan gun unlock. 

If you’re hungry for even more Borderlands items, pre-ordering the game here will give you exactly that, including some custom weapon skins when the game comes out, a welcome package during the first two weeks (including the Children of the Vault weapon), and more.

Borderland 3 comes out on September 13th for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC (via the 2K Games Store and the Epic Games Store).

What do you think? Excited for Borderlands 3? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Jake is a writer and game designer in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He loves action, exploration, building, filling bars, and turning numbers into bigger numbers. Someday he'll release a video game.

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