BORDERLANDS 2 AXTON Build
LEVEL 1 TO 80 OP10
The Ultimate BUILD Guide
This Borderlands 2 Axton build guide walks you through Axton’s full progression, from level 1 all the way to level 80 OP10. Each stage of his journey is broken down across NVHM, TVHM, and UVHM, with clear explanations of skill choices, recommended gear, and a simple, optimized step-by-step leveling path.
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Normal Vault Hunter Mode – Level 1 to 30
Normal Vault Hunter Mode (NVHM) is your first playthrough, in total there are 3: Normal, True and Ultimate. For the next 2 playthroughs (True and Ultimate) you restart the main campaign but with increased difficulty, but don’t worry, your gear also gets better. To note, you keep your gear and skills when restarting a new playthrough.
Recommended Skills
Level 6-10: 5 Points on Sentry
Increases Sabre Turret’s duration by 10 seconds and adds more shots per burst.
Level 11-15: 5 Points on Willing
Increases shield recharge rate by 75% and reduces delay by 60%.
Level 16: 1 Point on Scorched Earth
Adds multi-rocket pods to the Sabre Turret, which fire multiple rockets.
Level 17-20: 4 Points on Onslaught
Increases your gun damage and movement speed for a brief moment after a kill.
Level 21-25: 5 Points on Able
Whenever you deal damage, regenerate some of your max HP per second for 3 seconds.
Level 26-30: 5 Points on Grenadier
Increases your grenade capacity.
Level 31: 1 Point on Double Up
Adds another gun to your Sabre Turret, which now fires slag bullets.
ProgRession route
Goal: In Normal Vault hunter Mode, I suggest getting over the main story and keeping the side-missions and DLCs for the next playthroughs, so you don’t get over-leveled too much for TVHM and also because gear becomes quickly outdated.
Level 1 to 10: Starting Off
- Follow the starting main quests up until you reach Boom and Bewm.
- While not required, Boom and Bewm can drop the Bonus Package grenade, which can let you breeze through most fights in NVHM.
- Avoid overleveling here. If you don’t get it by around level 10, just continue with the story.
Level 11 to 31: Main Questline
- Keep following the main questline until you complete the whole thing. You should be level 30 or close to it by the time you beat the story.
- If you’re struggling with health despite having Able, consider doing Rakkaholics Anonymous and turning it in to Moxxi to get Rubi. It’s good for healing with grenades, which also makes the Bonus Package more desirable.
Pre-TVHM: Early key pieces
- This build uses The Bee, which you can farm from Treants in the Forest area of the Tiny Tina DLC. Consider getting this before going to the next playthrough, as it will drastically increase your damage output. (Fast Travel to Unassuming Docs to start the DLC).
- Consider farming an Unkempt Harold from Savage Lee. He spawns in Three Horns – Divide, and this drop will be another thing you’ll be updating throughout your journey to 80.
Best gears
Farming specific gear in NVHM is not suggested, as gear quickly becomes under-leveled and needs to be replaced at every 4-5 level. I recommend checking vending machines and looting for the following gear before starting True Vault Hunter Mode:
Slot 1: Any good rifle you can get
Slot 2: Torgue weapons or a rocket launcher for burst damage
Shield: Any good shield
Grenade: Bonus Package
Class Mod: Anything that boosts your weapons’ damage or fire rate
Relic: Find one with bonus explosive damage or Torgue stats if you can
Tips for NVHM
- Save Golden Keys for the following playthroughs.
- Do not forget to use Eridiums to increase your inventory.
- Don’t waste time farming specific legendaries in NVHM; they’ll be out-leveled quickly
- Stock up on ammo and do one last check of vending machines for better gear before starting True Vault Hunter Mode.
True Vault Hunter Mode – Level 31 to 50
True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) is your second playthrough, here it becomes tougher, and you’ll want to start optimizing your build: matching elements to enemy weaknesses (fire=flesh, corrosive=armor, shock=shields) and aiming for critical hits is important.
Recommended Skills
Level 32-36: 5 Points on Impact
Increases both melee and gun damage
Level 37-41: 5 Points on Metal Storm
Briefly increases your fire rate by 60% and recoil reduction by 75% on kill
Level 42: 1 Point on Longbow Turret
Increases turret deploy range by 10000% and increases its health by 110%
Level 43-47: 5 Points on Preparation
Increases shield capacity. You also regenerate health per second while shields are full
Level 48-50: 3 Points on Pressure
Increases your reload speed and decreases shield recharge delay based on current health
ProgRession route
Goal: Try to finish TVHM around level 50, avoid over-leveling before UVHM. Because in TVHM items scale up to maximum level 50, and in UVHM enemies scale to your level, meaning if you finish TVHM at level 55, you’ll only have level 50 gears against enemies (in UVHM) that are level 55. But DLCs will scale to your level even after level 50, so it’s best to do the DLCs after you finish the main story so you have good level gear for your last playthrough: UVHM.
Level 31 to 35: Early story and farming
- Go through the introductory missions again until you reach Sanctuary. Spend some time farming Boom and Bewm to try and get an updated Bonus Package.
- Again, avoid overleveling while doing this. If you somehow get close to level 35 without getting one, move on.
Level 36 to 45: Main campaign completion
- Keep doing the main quests until the story is completed. You’ll likely be done or close to it before hitting level 50.
- If you feel like your damage is falling off, consider getting an updated Unkempt Harold and The Bee, as this combo deals a ton of damage even while slightly underleveled.
Level 46 to 50: Preparing for UVHM
- Once the main quest has been completed and you’re still not at level 50, start your preferred DLC campaign and just play through it at your leisure. Tiny Tina’s DLC is a good choice as there will be a couple of items to farm there until or at 50.
- At level 50, grab a new The Bee, Unkempt Harold, and try to get a Magic Missile from elite enemies or the Handsome Dragon boss in Tiny Tina’s DLC. The Magic Missile will give you another strong option for applying slag, which is going to be important in UVHM.
Best gears
As enemies are now tougher, it’s important to start farming for specific gear, such as The Bee and obtaining the Sand Hawk. These two weapons are the core of this powerful build and are vital to have before starting your last playthrough: Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM).
Slot 1: Unkempt Harold
Slot 2: Sand Hawk (or any fast elemental weapon)
Shield: The Bee
Grenade: Bonus Package or Magic Missile
Class Mod: Legendary Soldier
Relic: Find one with bonus explosive damage
Throughout TVHM, the Unkempt Harold and The Bee will let you breeze through due to the hilariously strong amped damage. With the skills we’ve allocated, you’ll have an easy time keeping The Bee’s effect active, so even random weapons can get you through this playthrough without any issues.
Tips for TVHM
- Use Golden Keys if your gears are under-leveled, as gears from Golden Keys always scale to your level.
- Do not forget to use Eridiums to increase your inventory.
- Once you finish the main story on TVHM, every side-quest (rewards) and mobs will scale to level 50.
- Stock up on ammo before starting Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.
Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode – Level 50 to 80 OP10
Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM) is your final playthrough, for some players the game really starts here. The key part is starting UVHM at level 50 (maximum 52).
Enemies will now continuously scale to your level, so it’s important to have an optimized build. Here you can do the main story, DLCs and side-quests whenever you want, and if needed, you can reset UVHM to redo quests at a higher level.
Recommended Skills
Level 51-52: 2 Points on Pressure
Maxes out our last skill from earlier for faster shield recharge.
Level 53-57: 5 Points on Quick Charge
Briefly regenerate 5% of your shield per second after a kill.
Level 58: 1 Point on Phalanx
Your turrets will now project a shield that can block enemy projectiles.
Level 59-63: 5 Points on Resourceful
25% faster action skill cooldown.
Level 64-68: 5 Points on Grit
20% chance to ignore fatal damage and regain half of your max health.
Level 69: 1 Point on Gemini
Lets you deploy two turrets at once.
Level 70-74: 5 Points on Ready
Increases reload speed by 40%.
Level 75-79: 5 Points on Battlefront
Grants 30% bonus gun, melee, and grenade damage while your turret is active.
Level 80: 1 Point on any skill node you desire. Do or Die is a decent choice, or cap off Onslaught.
ProgRession route
Goal: Your goal is to complete the main story, do the DLC’s and complete the side-quests (in whatever order you want), by doing all of this, it should take you to level 80, where you can start Over-Power levels. You can also do some power-leveling, to reach higher levels faster.
Level 50 to 80: One last story playthrough
- Since everything starts scaling to you in UVHM, the best thing to do is to speed through the story and start playing through your preferred DLCs. The entire goal is to reach max level before you start seriously min-maxing gear.
- Update your gear every 5 levels to keep up with the scaling enemies. At the very least, get a new Unkempt Harold and The Bee whenever you feel the need to.
Level 80 to 80 OP10: Digistruct Peak
- At level 80, you can start working towards OP 10 by repeatedly finishing Digistruct Peak. At OP10, you can start farming for the absolute best versions of your gear (especially the Unkempt Harold).
- Make sure to update your gear at each OP level as difficulty scales fast and hard.
Best gears
As enemies scale to your level, it’s important to refresh your gear at every few levels. It’s also a good time to farm gear with the right spare parts:
Slot 1: Double Penetrating/Intense Unkempt Harold
Slot 2: Sand Hawk
Slot 3: Casual SWORDSPLOSION
Slot 4: Florentine
Shield: The Bee
Grenade: Magic Missile
Class Mod: Legendary Soldier
Relic: Find one with bonus explosive damage
UVHM is where slag starts becoming a necessity. With the help of Magic Missile, you can easily apply it to large groups while also dealing a lot of damage at the same time. You won’t have any issues with grenade upkeep as it regenerates on its own over time.
An Unkempt Harold with either the Double Penetrating or Intense prefix will have a much higher DPS than regular ones. A SWORDSPLOSION with the Casual prefix is another extremely powerful tool to have due to its high explosive damage. The other guns are there for when you need faster fire rate or specific elements.
Tips for UVHM
- Save fast travel points near boss farms for quicker re-farming.
- Reach higher levels quickly with these power-leveling methods.
- Glitched quest for unlimited money.
- Do not forget to use Eridiums to increase your inventory, especially ammo as Salvador is a high ammo consumer.
Other Borderlands 2 Character Builds
If you enjoy experimenting with different characters, you may also want to try these other Borderlands 2 builds:
Maya Siren Build
Elemental damage and crowd control using Phaselock.
Salvador Gunzerker Build
Dual-wield weapons and unleash massive sustained DPS.
Zer0 Assassin Build
Stealth gameplay with devastating critical hits.
Gaige Mechromancer Build
Stack Anarchy for huge damage and fight alongside Deathtrap.
Krieg Psycho Build
High-risk melee combat with explosive damage potential.
