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DLCs for the next playthroughs, so you don’t get over-leveled too much for TVHM and also because gear becomes quickly outdated.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
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 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 here because you can’t reset in TVHM, which means it’s ideally taken at the level cap.
- Make sure not to overlevel by accident!
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: 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.
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: 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, where you can start Over-Power levels. You can also do some power leveling, 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 doing some power leveling.
- 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.
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.
MORE KRIEG BUILDS
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.
