BORDERLANDS 2 KRIEG BUILD
LEVEL 1 TO 80 OP10
The Ultimate BUILD Guide
This Borderlands 2 Krieg build guide walks you through Krieg’s complete progression, from level 1 to level 80 OP10. Each stage of his journey is broken down across Normal, True, and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode, with clear explanations of skill choices, recommended gear, and a straightforward, 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: 1 Point on Fuel the Fire
Grants a small chance to set yourself on fire. On kill, briefly gain 40% bonus elemental effect chance.
Level 7-10: 4 Points on Burn, Baby, Burn
Grants bonus burn damage and an equal chance to set yourself on fire per fire attack. Burn damage is further increased while on fire.
Level 11-15: 5 Points on Numbed Nerves
50% damage reduction while you are on fire.
Level 16-20: 5 Points on Elemental Elation
Elemental status damage will grant stacks of Elemental Elation. Each stack grants bonus fire rate and magazine size, which will not decay while you’re on fire.
Level 21: 1 Point on Delusional Damage
All elemental status effects caused by you now have a chance to set yourself on fire.
Level 22: 1 Point on Flame Flare
Grants bonus burn duration on yourself and a chance to apply additional burn effects whenever you apply it.
Level 23-25: 3 Points on Fire Fiend
Melee attacks now have a chance to ignite enemies. You also gain weapon accuracy and reload speed while on fire.
Level 26-30: 5 Points on Elemental Empathy
Burn damage will now heal you for 25% of the damage dealt.
Level 31: 1 Point on Raving Retribution
While on fire, taking damage from enemies will create homing fireballs that explode on impact.
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DLCs for the next playthroughs, so you don’t get over-leveled too much for TVHM and also because gear becomes quickly outdated.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 20: Playing through the story
- The first playthrough for Krieg is fairly uneventful as your build won’t come online for quite a while. However, you can get a glimpse of how the burn-centric build works by focusing on using elemental guns and gear.
- Try your luck at getting an Unkempt Harold from Savage Lee at Three Horns – Divide whenever you can. It’s not a hard requirement for the build, but it’s a great backup gun throughout your leveling journey.
Level 21 to 31: Finishing the main quest
- At around level 21, you should be able to do Rakkaholics Anonymous. By turning in the quest to Moxxi, you’ll receive a Rubi. This is a great healing weapon for Krieg, and you’ll want to keep one of these on you at all times, even through UVHM.
- Don’t get bogged down on farming items at this point. Once you reach level 30 or 31, proceed on to the next playthrough.
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 elemental weapon
Slot 2: Rubi
Shield: Any good shield with elemental resistance
Grenade: High damage AOE grenades
Class Mod: Anything that boosts health and/or burn damage
Relic: Anything that boosts health and/or burn damage
Before STARTING TVHM
Before entering True Vault Hunter Mode, these guides and tips will help you prepare for the challenges ahead.
CONTINUE READING
FINAL CHECKLIST
Save your SHiFT Codes for the following playthroughs, where the Golden Keys become much more valuable.
Spend your Eridium on SDUs, prioritizing ammo and backpack upgrades.
Don’t waste time farming legendaries in NVHM, as they’ll quickly become under-leveled in TVHM.
Before leaving NVHM, stock up on ammo and check vending machines one last time for upgrades.
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 Blood-Filled Guns
Increases your magazine size with each stack of Bloodlust.
Level 37-41: 5 Points on Blood twitch
Increases your weapon swap speed per stack of Bloodlust.
Level 42-46: 5 Points on Blood Bath
Upon killing an enemy with a grenade or explosion, briefly gain bonus weapon damage based on your Bloodlust stacks. Enemies will also have a chance of dropping grenade ammo.
Level 47-50: 4 Points on Boiling Blood
Increases the time before your Bloodlust stacks start to decay.
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 TVHM progression
- Complete most of the intro as you normally would to gain a few levels and acclimatize yourself with the new tier of enemies.
- If you can, start Sir Hammerlock’s Big Game Hunt and try to farm The Rough Rider shield from the Bulwark. It’s a decent option for this playthrough that you can repeatedly upgrade throughout your journey to level 50.
Level 36 to 45: Main story quest and slight farming
- Having The Rough Rider will allow you to abuse your self-burn buffs even more, as it increases your mitigation to all elements. Coupled with your healing options, the main story should be a breeze.
- If you want, you can also grab a new Rubi from the same quest as before. Its damage is not all that important, though, especially if you have a decent grenade equipped.
Level 46 to 50: Preparing for UVHM
- Complete the story if you haven’t already. Once you’ve hit level 50, try and farm some of the following key items: A new Unkempt Harold or Badaboom and a Magic Missile (Tiny Tina’s DLC).
- You can replace your shield with a Flame of the Firehawk by starting and completing the Cult Following questline in preparation for the next playthrough. We didn’t grab it before because you can’t reset the quest in TVHM, which means it’s ideally taken at the end of TVHM.
- Make sure not to overlevel by accident!
Best gears
As enemies are now tougher, it’s important to start farming for specific gear:
Slot 1: Any good elemental weapon
Slot 2: Rubi
Slot 3: Unkempt Harold or Badaboom
Shield: The Rough Rider
Grenade: High damage AOE grenades
Class Mod: Legendary Torch
Relic: Anything that boosts health and/or burn damage
By this playthrough, your build will start going online, albeit still not at its full potential. To compensate for some of our missing skill points and potential squishiness, using The Rough Rider can beef up our defenses and minimize the damage of our self-immolating skills.
We’ll keep using the Rubi paired with grenades as a healing tool. If you’re really fast with it, you can swap to a Rubi before your Unkempt Harold shots land to heal with that instead. The Harold greatly benefits from Blood Bath due to it somewhat counting as grenade damage.
Preparing for UVHM
Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode is much more demanding. Make sure you’ve completed the following steps before moving on.
CONTINUE READING
FINAL CHECKLIST
Use your SHiFT Codes if your gear is under-leveled, as Golden Key rewards always scale to your current level.
Spend any remaining Eridium on SDUs before moving on, especially ammo upgrades.
Finish any side quests you want at level 50, as all enemies, quests, and rewards scale once TVHM’s main story is complete.
Restock your ammo before entering UVHM, as enemies become significantly tougher.
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: 1 Point on Boiling Blood
Cap off this skill to unlock the next part of this tree.
Level 52-56: 5 Points on Nervous Blood
Upon killing an enemy, briefly increase your reload speed based on your Bloodlust stacks.
Level 57: 1 Point on Bloodsplosion
Whenever you kill an enemy, they will explode into an elemental nova based on the damage type that killed it. This damage is also increased based on your Bloodlust stacks.
Level 58-62: 5 Points on Feed the Meat
Increases your max health and shield recharge delay.
Level 63-67: 5 Points on Embrace the Pain
While your shields are down, gain 35% fire rate. You also have an increased shield recharge delay.
Level 68-72: 5 Points on Thrill of the Kill
Up to 90% of your overkill damage will now return to you as health, depending on your current HP.
Level 73-77: 5 Points on Strip the Flesh
This increases your explosive damage, which is further boosted while in FFYL.
Level 78-80: 3 Points on whichever skill nodes you desire. Topping off Burn, Baby, Burn and Fire Fiend is a safe bet.
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. You can also try out some XP Farming to reach higher levels faster.
Level 50 to 80: Complete everything
- Get to level 80 either by completing the main story, side quests and DLC’s or by using XP Farming methods.
- If things get too difficult, you can always update you gear with a new Unkempt Harold and The Rough Rider every few levels.
- At level 80, grab a Grog Nozzle and some upgrades like an appropriately leveled Magic Missile and Flame of the Firehawk before heading to the final leveling phase.
Level 80 to 80 OP10: Digistruct Peak
- Finally, all that’s left to do in terms of leveling is to complete Digistruct Peak multiple times until you reach OP10. At that last level, you can now start grinding for the absolute best min-maxed gear.
- Enemies will be much harder across the OP levels, so make sure to upgrade your gear every level or two.
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: Peak Opener
Slot 2: Grog Nozzle
Slot 3: Basic Omen
Slot 4: Badaboom
Shield: Flame of the Firehawk
Grenade: Magic Missile(for the slag and passive ammo regen)
Class Mod: Legendary Torch
Relic: Bone of the Ancients
At peak performance, you’ll be rocking maxed out raid boss drops like a Basic Omen and Peak Opener for a ton of explosive DPS. You’ll be carrying a Grog Nozzle as your main healing tool over the Rubi now, while the Badaboom is there to help you get back up from FFYL as quickly as possible.
The Rough Rider is replaced by the Flame of the Firehawk at this point because it passively pumps out a lot of damage, and you already have ample healing to deal with the lack of shields. If, for any reason, you’re having a hard time surviving with this setup, The Rough Rider is still a perfectly viable option.
Optimizing for OP10
Ready for OP Levels? Complete the following checklist to optimize your build before taking on the toughest content in the game.
CONTINUE READING
FINAL CHECKLIST
Reach level 80 faster with these XP Farming methods before tackling the OP Levels.
Farm unlimited cash with this Money Farming glitch to buy ammo and gear.
Continue collecting Eridium for ammo SDUs, as this build can burn through ammo quickly.
Need a break from farming? Take some time to discover Borderlands 2’s funniest secrets, hidden references, and Easter Eggs.
MORE KRIEG BUILDS
PSYTRANCE
Level 50
Shotgun • Melee
PLAYSTYLE
While Krieg most builds focus on his melee potential, this build adds the shotgun to the mix, which Krieg has a natural affinity towards. If you don’t want to mindlessly throw melee attacks for most of the combat, this is the build for you.
The playstyle isn’t all that complicated despite the weapons added to the mix. You want to concentrate on doing direct shotgun damage until your life goes down to a certain point. After that, you must activate your action ability, which activates Release the Beast, and you can melee away to victory. The shield selection ensures that you do increased melee damage during your action skill, while your fire rate and magazine size are increased when you’re using the shotgun.
SOLO
When playing solo, losing his shield is part of the game, so you don’t need to run away, and lower health only improves your overall damage so Krieg doesn’t need any extra help. Even if you’re overwhelmed and don’t activate Buzz Axe Rampage in time, you can always use the rocket launcher to get an easy second win.
COOP
Krieg is a useful companion to have and someone who serves as the tank role rather than support. He is damage-heavy, doesn’t need any healing, and you don’t have to worry about keeping him alive. Krieg’s damage potential allows him to do his own thing while being at the front of the battlefield. He also comes in handy while finishing off enemies, and this build purposefully avoids investment in the Fuel the Rampage skill that can make things harder for the team by adding friendly fire.
GEARS
Slot 1: Conference Call
Slot 2: Grog Nozzle
Slot 3: Heart Breaker
Slot 4: Norfleet
Grenade: Storm Front
Shield: Love Thumper
MOD: Rage Sickle
Relic: Strength Relic
SKILLS
Blood-filled Guns, and Embrace the Pain improve Krieg’s shotgun ability by increasing fire rate, and adding more rounds to the magazine.
Release the Beast is arguably the best skill Krieg has which allows him to turn into a badass psycho when the overall health drops below 33%. This boosts his melee damage by 100% while reducing damage intake by 50%.
Silence the Voices, Empty the Rage, and a few more skills directly increase Krieg’s melee damage so you can finish off enemies after plugging them with shotgun slugs.
BUZZSAW BLITZ
Level 50
Melee • Survivability
PLAYSTYLE
Since we have unlocked Release the Beast, Krieg’s Buzz Axe Rampage is further buffed by his ability to turn into a badass psycho that does a crazy amount of melee damage.
So, your strategy is simple. Go head first in, and start attacking enemies, and don’t be afraid about taking damage. Once your health goes below 30%, you’ll see an exclamation point, and this is your signal to activate your skill and do an insane amount of melee, and explosive damage.
SOLO
This build improves Krieg’s survivability. He can easily hold his ground, and thanks to his modified action skill, Krieg can instantly regain health when enabling Buzz Axe Rampage. Even if you find yourself in a pickle, you can always take out your Moxxi weapons to refill your health. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen often, and Krieg’s various melee boosting skills allow him to do tons of close, and ranged damage if needed.
COOP
Since Krieg can easily hold his ground, he becomes a tank in co-op and a very valuable asset to the team. His melee potential means he can survive at the front, and take damage without the need for constant heals. Actually, being down on health is beneficial for him because of Release the Beast. The only modification for co-op is to replace Fuel the Rampage with Strip the Flesh which trades friendly fire with explosive damage.
GEARS
Slot 1: Grog Nozzle
Slot 2: Rubi
Slot 3: Interfacer
Slot 4: Kitten
Grenade: Storm Front
Shield: Love Thumper
MOD: Scream Sickle
Relic: Strength Relic
SKILLS
Release the Beast is the star of the show here because it boosts melee damage by 100% while reducing damage intake by 50%.
Additionally, Empty the Rage further boosts melee damage by 50% while your shields are down, which perfectly synergizes with Release the Beast.
Silence the Voices boosts melee damage by 250%, but has a small chance of hitting yourself, which is actually beneficial to get your health down for Release the Beast.
HELLBORN
Level 72 OP8
Fire-oriented • Gun-based
PLAYSTYLE
While Krieg is usually a great melee character, his Hellborn tree is severely underrated. Not only can you set yourself on fire, but everyone else has to suffer as well. It’s ideal for late-game, and everything in this build has been carefully selected to increase Krieg’s survivability while he’s on fire.
Your game plan is quite simple. You want to keep some distance, but not much, and continue to shoot everything in your sight. Everything else is practically automated thanks to this build, and you’ll reap the benefits of playing with fire with added explosions, gun damage boosts, and kill skills activating automatically. Your main goal is to keep Krieg alive, which is why we have a Grog Nozzle that self-heals to get out of the trickier situations.
SOLO
This build is perfectly viable for OP8. Yes, Krieg will set himself on fire, but the returns on that are massive. Your main action skill will barely be utilized because we aren’t making use of Krieg’s melee potential at all. Continue to shoot with your weapons, cause explosions, and move on to the next set of targets. You don’t have any specific strategy to follow here, but embrace the way of the psycho.
COOP
This is a great build for co-op play as well particularly because of Krieg’s massive explosive, and burn damage. Outside of the occasional healing requirement, Krieg can hold his ground, and provide a lot of support to teammates by taking out hordes of enemies together.
GEARS
Slot 1: Grog Nozzle
Slot 2: SWORDSPLOSION!!!
Slot 3: Murdering Orc
Slot 4: Wild Ogre
Grenade: Magic Missile
Shield: Flame of the Firehawk
MOD: Legendary Torch
Relic: Blood of the Seraphs
SKILLS
Most of the skills in the Hellborn and Bloodlust tree are important here. Burn, Baby, Burn increases burn damage by over 75% when you’re on fire yourself.
Delusional Damage, Fuel the Fire, and Flame Flare increase the self-burn duration and increase the chance of setting yourself on fire.
Elemental Elation stacks +3% fire rate, and 5% magazine size by over 20 times. Elemental Empathy heals Krieg by 25% for the damage dealt.
AXE RAMPAGE
Level 72 OP8
Melee • Tank
PLAYSTYLE
Krieg does a ridiculous amount of melee damage and this build leverages that potential to create a walking tank that’s not afraid to take a few hits. Another key part of this build is the lack of a shield charge, which synergizes with a host of your skills. While this can be a bit intimidating to play, with enough practice you’ll see its true power.
With Krieg, you want to leverage the potential of your Release the Beast skill activated when your health drops below 33% turning you into a Badass Psycho Mutant with incredible melee damage output and reduced damage intake. This means that your melee damage output has the potential to reach over 12 million per hit. Similarly, you’ll leverage explosive damage from the Bloodlust skill tree taking out anyone and anything in your path.
SOLO
As soon as you see an exclamation point next to your health, it’s time to activate Buzz Axe Rampage which boosts melee exponentially and instantly refills your health. You can easily hold your ground, and thanks to Bloodsplosion, each kill, in turn, creates subsequent explosions. In most cases, you’ll never have to switch to weapons, but throwing grenades is recommended to activate kill skills and self-induced damage.
COOP
This is a great build for co-op play because Krieg doesn’t need any additional support to stand his ground. His damage per hit is so high, and the AOE (area of effect) potential means that you can target multiple enemies at the same time. In the team, you have the tank role, and thanks to Release the Beast, you don’t need your team’s help in survivability because of self-healing.
GEARS
Slot 1: Kitten
Slot 2: Interfacer
Slot 3: Grog Nozzle
Slot 4: Florentine
Grenade: Longbow Storm Front
Shield: The Rough Rider
MOD: Legendary Sickle
Relic: Blood of the Ancients
SKILLS
The main skill of this build is Release the Beast which you can use by activating Buzz Axe Rampage when you’re health is below 33%. This one skill instantly refills health, and boosts melee damage by an additional 100%, while reducing damage intake by 50%.
n addition, skills from the Bloodlust tree either add stacks of Bloodlust or reward kill skills bonuses like increased melee damage, grenade damage, additional stacks, and more. Some notable skills include Fuel the Blood, Blood Overdrive, and Taste of Blood.
INFERNO
Level 80 OP10
Fire-oriented • Gun-based
PLAYSTYLE
Do you like playing with fire? Are you tired of reading about all the melee Krieg builds? Well, this is the one for you. The build focuses on Krieg’s explosive, and burn capabilities, turning him into a fire-breathing explosive demon. The Hellborn build allows you to actually use weapons that do elemental damage, and allow Krieg to combust enemies without even engaging.
After you have everything set up in the skill trees, it’s really not that complicated to play this build. You’ll want to continue doing damage with your weapons and setting yourself on fire in the process. This activates a number of skills for Krieg where he can damage enemies in a variety of ways. Apart from your guns, Krieg will also throw out homing fireballs, cause enemies to do explosive damage upon dying, and much more!
SOLO
This is a great build for solo play because Krieg can actually use his weapons for a change. You’ll want to keep some distance between yourself and enemies, but for the most part, a lot of the stuff happening isn’t something you’re consciously doing on your own. You just have to shoot, and ensure that you’re on fire. Make good use of the action skill for some extra survivability, and movement speed, but overall, you’re relying more on the burn and explosive damage.
COOP
Similar to solo, this is a great co-op build that leverages Krieg’s gun, burn, and explosive damage. He can easily stand his ground. You don’t want to be in the face of enemies since we aren’t relying on melee damage, but rather you want to maintain some distance and allow your explosions to handle the rest. Since we didn’t invest at all in Fuel the Rampage, you don’t have to worry about friendly fire damage.
GEARS
Slot 1: Grog Nozzle
Slot 2: Peak Opener
Slot 3: Basic Omen
Slot 4: Badaboom
Grenade: Magic Missile
Shield: Flame of the Firehawk
MOD: Legendary Torch
Relic: Bone of the Ancients
SKILLS
There are tons of important skills here, particularly in the Hellborn tree.
Burn, Baby, Burn increases burn damage by over 75% when you’re on fire yourself. Delusional Damage, Fuel the Fire, and Flame Flare increase the self-burn duration and increase the chance of setting yourself on fire.
Fire Fiend improves weapon accuracy by 50%, and increases reload speed by over 35% when you’re on fire. Raving Retribution spawns homing balls that follow enemies, and explode on impact.
PSYCHOTIC
Level 80 OP10
Melee • Tank • Explosion
PLAYSTYLE
Playing melee is the preferred and most reliable way to play Krieg, and if you want to hit harder, and continue to hit harder, this build is the way to go.
When it comes to your game plan, you want to get in the face of your enemies and start attacking them with your melee weapon. Once your health falls below a certain point, you want to activate Buzz Axe Rampage, which thanks to Release the Beast turns Krieg into a badass psycho, tremendously boosting your melee damage, damage reduction, and instantly refilling your health. You can also throw your axe during this mode, which now does insane explosive damage thanks to our investment in the Bloodlust tree.
SOLO
This is an incredibly fun build for solo play because of Krieg’s damage output. You can’t hesitate here and want to constantly deal both melee and explosive damage. Play like a psycho, and you’ll have a blast, literally. If you’re worried about losing health beyond the preferred point, or if you didn’t time your action ability properly, you can always use the Grog Nozzle to get some of that health back.
COOP
While this build is perfectly viable for co-op, you might want to make a small adjustment to improve Krieg’s survivability by taking out the 2 points from Fuel the Rampage and dumping them into Redeem the Soul and Pull the Pin. Outside of that, Krieg doesn’t need any additional support because he’s a literal tank capable of holding his ground and doing a ridiculous amount of damage when placed at the front.
GEARS
Slot 1: Rapier
Slot 2: Severe Hail
Slot 3: Grog Nozzle
Slot 4: Norfleet
Grenade: Bonus Package
Shield: The Rough Rider
MOD: Legendary Sickle mod
Relic: Vitality
SKILLS
With any melee Krieg build, Release the Beast is the star here. It boosts Krieg’s melee damage by 100%, instantly refills his entire health, reduces damage intake by 50%, and turns him into a badass psycho. What’s better, the action skill is instantly recharged afterward so you can initiate it again by taking damage.
Apart from that, Empty the Rage, Silence the Voices and Blood Overdrive further increase melee damage. While skills in the Bloodlust tree increase explosive damage.
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.
Axton Commando Build
A balanced soldier who relies on his powerful Sabre Turret to control the battlefield and deal sustained damage.
Zer0 Assassin Build
Stealth gameplay with devastating critical hits.
Gaige Mechromancer Build
Stack Anarchy for huge damage and fight alongside Deathtrap.
