After you reach the end of Borderlands 3’s campaign, there’s still plenty left to do thanks, in part, to Guardian Ranks — special skills you earn after you’ve finished Borderlands 3’s campaign. They provide special bonuses that help to make your character stronger one small upgrade at a time.
To help you build the best character you can, in this guide we’ve put together everything you need to know about Guardian Ranks in Borderlands 3.
Upgrade with Guardian Tokens
You earn Guardian Ranks by redeeming special currency called Guardian Tokens.
Once you finish the Borderlands 3 campaign, you’ll have a new XP bar that sits right above the one for your level. This is your Guardian level bar, and it fills up with XP just like your level. Every time you level up, you’ll get a Guardian Token which you can redeem for a Guardian Rank and a stat bonus.
Which stats get upgrades when you get a Guardian Rank?
It’s up to you. There are 17 different bonus stats that to upgrade with Guardian Tokens. Each stat is broken into a different category, and you can find all of them below:
Enforcer
- Critical Damage
- Grenade Damage
- Gun Damage
- Gun Fire Rate
- Melee Damage
- Vehicle Damage
Survivor
- Fight For Your Life Duration
- Fight For Your Life Movement Speed
- Max Health
- Shield Capacity
- Shield Recharge Delay
- Shield Recharge Rate
Hunter
- Accuracy
- Action Skill Cooldown
- Luck (Rare Drop Rate)
- Recoil Reduction
- Reload Speed
For each Guardian Token you redeem two stats from each category will be randomly selected, giving you a choice of six stats to upgrade. Once you select which one of these stats you want to improve, you’ll gain a small boost to that stat.
What are Guardian Rewards?
Guardian Rewards are extra special perks that you get for investing in a specific Guardian Rank stat category. Guardian Rewards unlock after you invest 10, 15, 25, 35, 50, and 75 Guardian Tokens into each category. The perks you get are extra effects, or sometimes cosmetic bonuses, that relate to the category they’re in. Here’s the list of Guardian Rewards for each category.
Enforcer
- 10 Tokens: Weapon Skin — Unlock the Weapon Skin Red Sans
- 15 Tokens: Inner Fury — Add 10 percent Gun Damage to all shots while in Fight For Your Life
- 25 Tokens: Overkill — Excess damage from a kill is added to your next shot
- 35 Tokens: Player Skin — Unlock the Player Skin Urban Blammo
- 50 Tokens: C-C-Combo — Increase Gun Damage by 2 percent for 1 second with each shot
- 75 Tokens: Hollow Point — Killing an enemy with a critical hit causes an explosion around them
Survivor
- 10 Tokens: Weapon Skin — Unlock the Weapon Skin Leather and Regret
- 15 Tokens: Resilient — Recover from Fight For Your Life with full health and shields
- 25 Tokens: Dead Man’s Hand — Allows aiming down sights and removes aim penalties while in Fight For Your Life
- 35 Tokens: Player Skin — Unlock the Player Skin Hex Bolts
- 50 Tokens: Shield Reboot — Killing an enemy triggers shield regeneration
- 75 Tokens: Emergency Response — Improve Shield Recharge Delay and Rate based on missing health
Hunter
- 10 Tokens: Weapon Skin — Unlock the Weapon Skin Dead Set
- 15 Tokens: Bullet Collector — Ammo pickups provide 15 percent extra ammo
- 25 Tokens: Tag and Frag — Regenerate a grenade every 10 kills
- 35 Tokens: Player Skin — Unlock the Player Skin Burning Bright
- 50 Tokens: Topped Off — Action Skill Cooldown Rate increases while at full shields.
- 75 Tokens: Treasure Hunter — Increases Luck for 10 seconds after each kill