Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3

Developers
	Gearbox Software
Publishers
	2K Games
Engines
	Unreal Engine 4
Release dates
Windows	September 13, 2019
macOS (OS X)	October 30, 2019
Reception
Metacritic	81
OpenCritic	80
IGDB	82
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase, Expansion pack
Microtransactions	Cosmetic, Time-limited
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	First-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Shooter, RPG
Art styles	Cel-shaded
Themes	Sci-fi, Comedy
Series	Borderlands

Borderlands
Borderlands	2009
Borderlands 2	2012
Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel	2014
Tales from the Borderlands (series)
Borderlands: Game of the Year Enhanced	2019
Borderlands 3	2019
Borderlands 2 VR	2019
Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon Keep: A Wonderlands One-Shot Adventure	2021
Tiny Tina's Wonderlands	2022

Borderlands 3 is a singleplayer and multiplayer first-person shooter and RPG game in the Borderlands series.

General information

Developer support page

Publisher support page

Official forums - PC-specific tech support category

Official Discord server for game series

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		Limited to Standard Edition and only available in select countries.
Publisher website		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available. Choice between Epic Games Store and Steam versions.
Epic Games Store		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
GamersGate		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
GamersGate		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Green Man Gaming		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.
Humble Store		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available. Choice between Epic Games Store activation and a Steam key.
Steam		Super Deluxe Edition and Ultimate Edition also available.

Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM was removed on January 21, 2021.

Version differences

Standard Edition contains the base game.

Super Deluxe Edition includes all Deluxe Edition content, the first Season Pass, and Multiverse Final Form cosmetic packs.

Ultimate Edition includes all Super Deluxe Edition content and Season Pass 2.

Pre-orders included Gold Weapon Skins Pack.

Epic Games Store versions purchased before December 31, 2020 included the Psycho Bundle Pack for Fortnite.

Deluxe Edition included Retro Cosmetic Pack, Neon Cosmetic Pack, Gearbox Cosmetic Pack, Toy Box Weapons Pack, equippable XP & loot drop boost mods.

Monetization

DLC and expansion packs

Name	Notes
Season Pass	Includes four campaign DLC and the Butt Stallion pack consisting of a weapon skin, weapon trinket, and grenade mod.
Season Pass 2	Includes Designer's Cut and Director's Cut add-ons, as well as the Multiverse cosmetic packs.
Gold Weapon Skins Pack	Pre-purchase bonus content consisting of a gold weapon trinket and gold weapon skins applicable to all guns in the game.
Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot	Campaign add-on.
Guns, Love, and Tentacles	Campaign add-on.
Bounty of Blood	Campaign add-on.
Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck	Campaign add-on.
Designer's Cut	Additional skill tree for each Vault Hunter, and the Arms Race game mode.
Director's Cut	Additional boss, locations, items, and bonus behind-the-scenes content.
Toy Box Weapons Pack	Two toy guns, toy grenade mod, trinket.
Retro Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin, Echo Device skin, weapon skin.
Neon Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin, Echo Device skin, weapon skin.
Gearbox Cosmetic Pack	Weapon skin and trinket.
Multiverse Final Form Amara Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Final Form Moze Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Final Form FL4K Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Final Form Zane Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault Amara Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault Moze Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault FL4K Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.
Multiverse Disciples of the Vault Zane Cosmetic Pack	Vault Hunter head and skin.

Trinkets can be attached from the slot next to the desired equipped weapon in the inventory.

Microtransactions

Type	Notes
Cosmetic	Skins packs sold as DLC.
Time-limited	Cosmetics, 12 golden keys and a weapon available exclusively to Twitch Prime subscribers.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos and splash screen

Use the -nostartupmovies -nosplash command line arguments to skip the intro videos and splash screen.

Remove the intro video files
Go to <path-to-game>\OakGame\Content\Movies\ Delete or rename 2KLOGO.mp4, AMDLOGO.mp4 and GBXLOGO.mp4. Optionally, the new game introduction by Marcus may be skipped by deleting or renaming MARCUS_INTRO.mp4

Remove the splash screen image file
Go to <path-to-game>\OakGame\Content\Splash\ Delete or rename Splash.bmp

A game update may restore the files.

Disable Bloom and Depth Of Field

Options to either disable Bloom, DOF or both.

Game data

Gameplay settings

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 3\Saved\Config\WindowsNoEditor\
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/397540/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\My Games\Borderlands 3\Saved\SaveGames\
macOS (OS X)	$HOME/Library/Application Support/GearboxSoftware/OakGame/Saved/SaveGames/
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/397540/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
Epic Games Launcher		See the related wiki section for more information.
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud		Reportedly nonfunctional.

Video

Basic visuals settings

Advanced visuals settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution
Multi-monitor			HUD is always spanned, cutscenes are 16:9 pillarboxed. Partial cropping of UI elements.
Ultra-widescreen			16:9 pillarboxed cutscenes. Partial cropping of UI elements.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)		70-110° sliders in increments of 1 for player and vehicle FOV.
Windowed
Borderless fullscreen windowed
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		Trilinear, 2x, 4x, 8x, 16x
Anti-aliasing (AA)		FXAA or TAA, and SSAA through Resolution Scale up to 200% in 25% increments.
Vertical sync (Vsync)
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Multiple presets, custom from 15 to 300, or unlimited.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		Part of the Calibrate Display settings. HDR must be enabled in Windows. Max brightness and UI brightness adjustment sliders are available.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		Four color options for Friendly, Neutral and Hostile reticles.

The game engine may allow for manual configuration of the game via its variables. See the Unreal Engine 4 page for more details.

Supports VRS on supported hardware.

• 

  110 FOV at 16:9

• 

  110 FOV at 21:9

• 

  110 FOV at 32:9

• 

  110 FOV at 48:9

Input

Basic controls settings

Advanced controller settings

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping		Certain actions and keys are not remappable. See this wiki page for workarounds.
Mouse acceleration		Acceleration and Smoothing toggles.
Mouse sensitivity		Sliders of 1-100 in increments of 1 for look, ADS and vehicle.
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity		Sliders of 1-10 in increments of 1 for look, ADS and vehicle. Adjustable deadzones for each stick.
Controller Y-axis inversion		Vertical and horizontal inversion for look and map menu.

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		Automatic or manually selectable as Prompt Style 1.
Impulse Trigger vibration

DualShock 4 controllers		[citation needed]
DualShock button prompts		Automatic or manually selectable as Prompt Style 2
Light bar support
Connection modes	Wired

Generic/other controllers

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback		Vibration toggle.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

• 

  Keyboard remapping options

• 

  Controller remapping options

Audio

Sound settings

Accessibility settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, Sound Effects, Music, Dialogue, Incoming Chat Volume.
Surround sound		5.1 and Dolby Atmos supported.
Subtitles		Adjustable size and background opacity.
Closed captions		Critical sound effects captioning.
Mute on focus lost		Play in Background option within the Sound settings.
EAX support		Spatial Sound HRTF.
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Game language is defined by that of the OS but can be set manually with the noted command line arguments.

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English				-culture=en
Simplified Chinese				-culture=zh-Hans-CN
Traditional Chinese				-culture=zh-Hant-TW
French				-culture=fr Defaults to the AZERTY keyboard layout for key bindings.
German				-culture=de
Italian				-culture=it
Japanese				-culture=ja
Korean				-culture=ko
Brazilian Portuguese				-culture=pt-BR
Russian				-culture=ru
Spanish				-culture=es

Network

Network & Social settings

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		4	Co-op Use Nucleus Co-op.
LAN play		4	Co-op LAN server browser is available.
Online play		4	Co-op Optional cross-play between Epic Games Store, Steam, and Xbox console versions through a free SHiFT account.

Connection types

Type	Native	Notes
Matchmaking		Region choice between Europe, North America, Asia, Australia, or Automatic.
Dedicated
Self-hosting
Direct IP

Ports

Protocol	Port(s) and/or port range(s)
UDP	5795-5847, 7777, 14001

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) support status is unknown.

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
Nvidia 3D Vision		See Helix Mod: Borderlands 3.
vorpX		G3D, Z3D, DirectVR Officially supported. See the vorpX game list.

Issues unresolved

Loading issues in DirectX 12 mode

The game may take longer to load or get stuck at the intro loading screen when the DirectX 12 mode is selected.

Edit the config file to return to DirectX 11
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open GameUserSettings.ini in a text editor. Locate the PreferredGraphicsAPI=DX12 line. Change it to PreferredGraphicsAPI=DX11 and save the file.

Stuttering on high-end hardware

There have been multiple reports of the game stuttering on hardware exceeding the recommended system requirements.

Switching to DirectX 12 may result in better performance and reduction of stuttering, as well as better utilization of the CPU in combat on high-end hardware.

Use the -NOTEXTURESTREAMING command line argument to disable texture streaming.
Can significantly increase loading times.

Block all network connections from the game to potentially reduce stuttering

Disables multiplayer functionality. Go to the Control Panel, click on System and Security, then Windows Defender Firewall. On the sidebar, click on Advanced settings. On the sidebar, click on Outbound rules. Under Actions, click on New Rule... Select Program, click on Browse... and select <path-to-game>\OakGame\Binaries\Win64\Borderlands3.exe, then Block the connection. Check every box on the next page, enter a name for the rule, click on Finish. Right-click the rule and select Disable Rule when it is no longer needed.

Game freezing in Mayhem Mode

Having the Mob Mentality modifier enabled may cause the game to freeze.

From the Mayhem menu, reroll until the Mob Mentality modifier is no longer listed.

Menu cropping

The cropping issues affecting the menu screens at resolutions other than 16:9 have been addressed for the most part as of the latest game version.

However, Catch-a-Ride menu screens are cropped at resolutions wider than 16:9.

Use keyboard buttons to spawn a vehicle
Press E to select, Q to deploy, and Tab ↹ to close the menu.

Some of the vehicle customization options are out of view at 32:9 and wider resolutions.

Temporarily switch to a 16:9 resolution through the Visuals menu within Options.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	11, 12
OpenGL		Only on macOS.[citation needed]
Metal support		Only on macOS.[citation needed]

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Physics	PhysX
Audio	Wwise
Interface	Coherent UI, Scaleform

Black outlines thickness and removal

Adjust the thickness of the game objects' black outlines through a config file
Go to the configuration file(s) location. Open GameUserSettings.ini in a text editor. Locate EdgeDetectionTexelOffset=-1.00000 and change the numerical value as desired between -1.0 and 1.99. Setting to 1.3 should result in barely visible outlines.

Remove black outlines from the game objects with a DLL injection
Download this archive. Unpack and copy the files from the archive to <path-to-game>\OakGame\Binaries\Win64\ Applies to the DirectX 11 mode only.

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	7, 10
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core i5-3570 AMD FX-8350	Intel Core i7-4770 AMD Ryzen 5 2600
System memory (RAM)	6 GB	16 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	75 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce GTX 680 AMD Radeon HD 7970 2 GB of VRAM DirectX 11 compatible	Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 AMD Radeon RX 590 6 GB of VRAM DirectX 12 compatible
Sound (audio device)	DirectX compatible

A 64-bit operating system is required.

Independent benchmarks indicate that meeting the recommended system requirements is not enough for 60 FPS at 1080p at the High and Ultra graphics presets.