BORDERLANDS 3 AMARA Build
LEVEL 1 TO 72 MAYHEM 11
The Ultimate BUILD Guide
This Borderlands 3 Amara build guide will help you get through Amara’s full progression from level 1 to 72, as well as how you can reach the highest Mayhem tier. You’ll also be provided with clear explanations on your skill choices, gear, and progression path.
For more Builds, Guides, Easter Eggs and the latest SHIFT codes, visit our Borderlands 3 hub page.
Normal Vault Hunter Mode – Level 1 to 34
Normal Vault Hunter Mode (NVHM) is the default game mode in Borderlands 3, and this is where you complete the main story for the first time. Upon completing it, you’ll unlock Mayhem mode, which allows you to increase the difficulty and add deadly modifiers to the game in exchange for better experience and loot.
I highly recommend ignoring True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) after your first campaign completion. For the most part, Mayhem is the true endgame and the only one that matters for power scaling. It’s the only way to get the best gear in the game, unless you really need specific quest rewards.
Recommended Skills
Action Skill: Ties that Bind (Once it’s unlocked)
Augment: Allure
Element: Shockra
Level 3-7: 5 Points on Infusion
Converts some of your gun damage into your attuned element.
Level 8-10: 3 Points on Steady Hand(s)
Increase your accuracy and weapon handling.
Level 11-15: 5 Points on Tempest
Amara deals increased elemental damage. Shock damage gets an additional bonus.
Level 16: 1 Point on Dread
Grasping enemies will give you a stack of bonus gun damage. Killing grasped enemies will refill your magazine.
Level 17: 1 Point on Wildfire
Status effects have a small chance to spread to nearby enemies.
Level 18: 1 Point on Deep Well
Increase your mag size with elemental weapons.
Level 19-21: 3 Points on Indiscriminate
Your bullets can now ricochet off enemies. Enemies affected by Phasegrasp have a higher chance of ricocheting.
Level 22: 1 Point on Catharsis
Killing enemies affected by your status effects will explode, dealing damage based on your attuned element.
Level 23-27: 5 Points on Conflux
Inflicting status effects has a chance of applying an extra fire, shock, or corrosive status to the target.
Level 28: 1 Point on Forceful Expression
Your gun, grenade, and shield damage now deals bonus damage based on your attuned element. Indiscriminate now deals more damage.
Level 29: 1 Point on Sustainment
Direct elemental damage now heals you.
Level 30-32: 1 Point on Fast Hand(s)
Gain increased reload speed, weapon swap speed, and mode switch speed.
Level 33: 1 Point on Violent Tapestry
Applying status effects gives you a stack of Rush. Activating your action skill will consume all stacks, granting bonus status effect chance.
Level 34: 1 Point on Do Harm
Killing enemies grants a stack of Rush.
Progression route
Goal: Throughout NVHM, you should focus on finishing the main campaign. Only do the side quests for experience if you’re really struggling with the enemies you’re encountering, as some of them might be over your level. The game is incredibly generous with legendary gear, so you’ll have an easy time finding decent weapons that work well with your element-based skills.
Here’s how your leveling path will look like::
Level 1 to 30: Doing the main questline
- Compared to the others, Amara might feel a bit slower early on. Focus on using elemental weapons, especially ones that deal shock damage, to ramp up faster.
- Swap your action skill to Ties that Bind once you get the necessary level to do so. It’ll help with your mobbing, as it makes Phasegrasp link and deal damage to nearby enemies.
- The build we’re using is gun-based, which means we’ll be relying a lot on our weapons’ DPS. Because of this, make sure to update your gear every now and then. No point holding on to older weapons at this point of the playthrough.
Level 30 to 34: Starting the DLCs
- The main story should be done by around the level 30 range, and this should unlock Mayhem mode. If you want, you can try to play in the lowest tiers to get a feel for the mode, but that’s not a priority at this level.
- Start playing through the DLCs in release order. Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot is the perfect starting point for these because of the powerleveling method that will be described later in the guide.
Best gears
Slot 1: Crit
Slot 2: Any good Maliwan weapon with other elements
Shield: Re-Volter
Grenade: Any good grenade
Class Mod: Phasezerker
Artifact: Anything that increases your DPS or fire rate + magazine size
Gear is hardly an issue in NVHM due to how fast you’ll outlevel your current items at any given time. One thing you can easily update throughout the whole early game is Crit, as you just need to tip Moxxi repeatedly until she gives you one.
Crit works especially well with our main story setup due to it being a shock weapon, which synergizes with skills like Tempest and Deep Well. Paired with Re-Volter, you can proc its effect and deal even more shock damage. Keep a backup with different elements for enemies that are resistant to shock.
Tips for NVHM
- Don’t spend too much time farming specific items. If items like the Re-Volter doesn’t drop after a few tries, just continue with the story. You can get better gear later on.
- Crazy Earl can sell the base game’s quest rewards, but not the DLC ones.
MAYHEM MODE – Level 35 to 72
When you first finish the main questline, Mayhem mode will be unlocked for all current and future characters. This difficulty modifier will grant you much better EXP and drop rates in exchange for tougher enemies and various other debuffs. There are up to 11 tiers, though the only difference between 10 and 11 is that the latter has no extra modifiers.
Recommended Skills
Action Skill: Ties that Bind (Once it’s unlocked)
Augment: Soul Sap
Element: Blight Tiger
Level 35-39: 5 Points on Restless
Increases your skill cooldown rate.
Level 40-42: 3 Points on Transcend
Activating your action skill will grant a stack of bonus critical damage and accuracy.
Level 43-44: 2 Points on Alacrity
Increases your reload speed for each Rush stack.
Level 45-47: 3 Points on Wrath
Gain increased gun damage. Activating your action skill briefly doubles this bonus.
Level 48-50: 3 Points on Laid Bare
Dealing skill damage with your action skill will cause your target to take bonus damage from all sources for a few seconds.
Level 51-53: 3 Points on From Rest
Increase your fire rate and charge speed.
Level 54: 1 Point on Remnant
Killing enemies with guns or action skills create a homing orb that will explode on impact.
Level 55: 1 Point on Avatar
You can activate your action skill once while it’s on cooldown. Killing enemies with skill damage will refund half of your Rush stacks that were consumed.
Level 56-58: 3 Points on Personal Space
Deal bonus gun damage the closer you are to the target.
Level 59-60: 2 Points on Clarity
Gain passive health regeneration. Activating your action skill will temporarily increase this bonus.
Level 61-65: 5 Points on Arms Deal
Gain bonus area damage and area damage resistance.
Level 66-67: 2 Points on Vigor
Killing enemies will grant you a stack of temporary bonus movement speed. There is no stack limit.
Level 68-72: 5 Points on Heavy Rain
Gain bonus area damage and projectile speed.
Progression route
Goal: With Mayhem unlocked, you just continue through all of the DLCs until you are max level while periodically increasing the mode’s level whenever you feel comfortable doing so. Since all of the gear is scaled to the current Mayhem tier, you’re technically going to be undergeared every time you raise it.
To save you a bit of time, you can briefly skip straight to Mayhem 10 or 11 to get some overpowered gear before dropping it back down to a comfortable level where you don’t die often:
- Get Mayhem 10/11 scaled gear by checking vending machines and using your golden keys.
- Tip Moxxi for a new Crit scaled for Mayhem 10/11.
- Use the Eridian Fabricator that you get from the main story while at Mayhem 10/11 to spawn a set of starting gear to use. This only costs 10 Eridium per use.
Even if you find a terrible gun at Mayhem 10, it will still destroy pretty much anything in lower tiers. By progressing through the Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot DLC first, you should have access to the Scraptrap Nest by the time your EXP gain from quests slows down a bit.
The Scraptrap Nest is a powerleveling spot that works well with the highest Mayhem tier you can comfortably play in. By clearing the area and ignoring the boss, you can leave and then re-enter the arena to restart the fight for faster EXP gains and even legendary drops. This makes updating your gear easier until it’s time to min-max your loadout.
Best gears
Slot 1: Rowan’s Call
Slot 2: Free Radical
Slot 3: Hellwalker
Slot 4: Kaoson
Shield: Re-Volter
Grenade: It’s Piss
Class Mod: Phasezerker
Artifact: The Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge
This loadout focuses a lot on gun damage and stacking up Rush. Combined with Avatar, you can repeatedly gain max Rush stacks, which further increases your damage output. The Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge takes our ramping damage up to even higher peaks, especially when paired with the Re-Volter’s effect.
Tempest synergizes well with our varying elemental weapons, especially when Re-Volter activates. It’s Piss is the “best” option for most cases as it amplifies all of the damage received by affected targets, especially if it has the Action Skill End anointment that briefly gives your weapons bonus elemental damage.
The weapons in the loadout above are merely suggestions, as alternatives like the Torrent, Sand Hawk, and even the humble Crit work well with this build. As long as they’re elemental, they’ll very likely perform well.
Tips for MAYHEM
- Gear scaled for Mayhem 10 is usable on lower Mayhem levels. Getting a weak Mayhem 10 gun before dropping the difficulty lets you grind faster.
- You can reroll anointments at Crazy Earl’s Reroll Machine for 250 Eridium per try.
- The Eridian Fabricator scales with the current Mayhem level. You do not need to reacquire it.
- If you’ve already completed the campaign, you can skip straight to the Mayhem grind with a new character.
MORE AMARA BUILDS
FACE SLAP
Level 50
No DLC* • Melee
PLAYSTYLE
Amara’s real strength comes from her massive arms that she can summon in different ways to pulverize enemies. This build is all about doing massive melee damage, and rarely using her guns. If that sounds like a fun time to you, then the melee build is made for you.
Amara’s game plan here is pretty simple. You want to close in the distance using slide and start dealing melee damage directly to enemies. Thanks to several skills, not only is your melee faster, and has more range, but does an insane amount of damage. Our go-to action skill is Fracture, which spawns a bunch of fists from the ground in a straight path, dealing tons of elemental damage on the way. It’s a simple playstyle, and Amara’s massive arms do most of the work.
SOLO
At level 50, this is one of the best builds that Amara can make use of. Her melee capabilities are through the roof, and she does ridiculous damage to not only enemies but bosses as well. It’s hard to overstate how much damage each punch does, and thanks to Blitz, she can blink between enemies thanks to the increased movement speed and added elemental damage. Amara also regenerates her life so if you’re down on health, you can take a step back and catch your breath.
COOP
This is one of the best co-op builds available to Amara, and she rarely needs any support. Amara also has a kill skill that gives teammates increased movement speed, so allowing her to finish off enemies is defintely encouraged. Thanks to her regeneration capability, she doesn’t need direct healing support either. Amara is still essentially a tank and can stand her ground and deal tons of damage along the way.
GEARS
Slot 1: Pointy Psycho Stabber
Slot 2: Redundant Face-puncher
Slot 3: Ruby’s Wrath
Slot 4: Arctic Relentless Night Hawkin
Grenade: Porcelain Pipe Bomb
Shield: CQC Nova Berner
MOD: Rope-a-Dope Breaker
Artifact: Unleash the Dragon
SKILLS
Most of the points go into the Brawl skill tree that increases Amara’s survivability, and melee potential.
Root to Rise boosts her maximum health by 40%, while Clarity allows her to regenerate health. Find Your Center is another great skill that boosts melee damage by 100%, and increases Amara’s melee range by a whopping 75% after she uses her action skill.
Blitz is an amazing skill that boosts her damage by 100% and also allows her to dash to a target dealing elemental damage.
Action Skill: Fracture
Augment: Revelation
Element: Shockra
FIST FIGHT
Level 50
DLC* • Melee
PLAYSTYLE
If you’re a fan of massive astral hands and a general melee playstyle, then this build is for you. It combines the Enlightened Force DLC skill tree to maximize her melee potential, making Amara a force to be reckoned with.
As usual with other melee builds, you want to be up close with enemies, and use your action skill, Fracture in this case, to summon tons of fists to pulverize enemies. It’s not a mechanically difficult build to wield, and all you need to do is stay on the move and keep hitting enemies till they’ve despawned into oblivion.
SOLO
This melee build potential is further boosted thanks to the DLC tree, and Amara can easily take on any enemy type, and boss. Thanks to a simple game plan, tons of damage, and movement speed, Amara can easily outperform most enemies at this level. Amara also regenerates her life so if you’re down on health, you can take a step back and catch your breath.
COOP
This build is also very viable for co-op play and allows Amara to become a valuable asset to the team. Thanks to her melee playstyle, she’ll be dealing direct damage and be at the front of the battlefield acting as a tank. Amara also boosts the movement speed of the team thanks to Vigor, and she doesn’t need any direct healing support from her teammates. When not up close, Amara also deals tons of damage thanks to Fracture, which spawns a bunch of fists from the ground in a straight path.
GEARS
Slot 1: Pointy Psycho Stabber
Slot 2: Redundant Face-puncher
Slot 3: Ruby’s Wrath
Slot 4: Arctic Relentless Night Hawkin
Grenade: Porcelain Pipe Bomb
Shield: CQC Nova Berner
MOD: Rope-a-Dope Breaker
Artifact: Unleash the Dragon
SKILLS
Clarity regenerates Amara’s health, while Ebb and Flow heal Amara for how much melee damage she does. Both of these skills serve a great purpose and boost Amara’s survivability by a substantial amount.
Find Your Center boosts melee damage by 100% and increases Amara’s melee range by a massive 75% after she uses her action skill.
Do unto Others reverses any damage taken with an elemental orb, and Heavy Rain increases the area damage of the projectile, and its speed.
Action Skill: Fracture
Augment: Revelation
Element: Shockra
BONE BREAKER
Level 72
No DLC* • Balanced
PLAYSTYLE
If you want a little bit of everything while keeping a major focus on gun and melee damage, then this is the perfect build for you. Thanks to her affinity with elemental weapons, and general high melee damage, this build makes her a powerful character who doesn’t need to play in a fixed style.
For this build, you’ll want to stay on the move, and use Ties that Bind which holds an enemy in place, and links enemies close to it. The damage you do to the held enemy is also shared between linked enemies. This means you can move around the battlefield and do direct damage or use your action skills to hold enemies in place. Both of these approaches work fine and are effective for this build.
SOLO
This is a great build for solo play thanks to how balanced it is. You can hang back and do gun damage, and you can get into the face of your enemies, and punch their lights out. Amara has a few skills that allow her to heal, and her augment also heals her when she damages foes with her action skills. Additionally, you’ll be doing tons of elemental damage which is why you can practically use any decent weapon here.
COOP
This is a fantastic co-op build as well. Vigor gives Amara, and the entire team a movement speed boost, while Soul Sap heals you and the team while you use your action skill. She’s always a great addition to the team, and her melee potential is crazy useful. Finally, the action skill selection allows the entire team to not only focus on damage but spread it around the battlefield to easily take on multiple foes at the same time.
GEARS
Slot 1: NoPewPew
Slot 2: Maggie
Slot 3: Trevonator
Slot 4: Butcher
Grenade: It’s Piss
Shield: Re-Volter
MOD: Phasezerker
Artifact: Pearl
SKILLS
Find Your Center is a great skill that allows Amara to get in close to an enemy, and deal tons of melee damage while boosting her melee attack range by over 70%.
Clarity, Sustainment, and Soul Sap keep her health up, while Vigor boosts her movement speed.
Personal Space boosts her weapon damage by over 54% depending on how close she is to enemies, which further boosts her melee damage potential.
Action Skill: Ties that Bind
Augment: Soul Sap
Element: Soulfire
AMARA IS A PSYCHO
Level 72
DLC* • Melee
PLAYSTYLE
Are you a fan of punching things? Do you like massive arms that turn enemies’ healthbars to zero? Do you happen to like Amara as well? Well, this is the build made for you. This is the closest thing to a melee Krieg build from Borderlands 2, and you’ll rarely make use of weapons here.
The playstyle of this build is pretty simple. All you have to do is get close to enemies, slap the hell out of them with your melee attack, and liberally make use of the Phaseflare action skill that summons an energy orb which you can also punch to do a lot of damage. Rinse and repeat, and Amara becomes a powerful siren that’s out to literally punch her opponents to death. For any flying enemies that plan on ruining your day, the Facepuncher shotgun is your best friend to deal with them.
SOLO
Most of your skills and gear are specifically chosen to boost melee damage to the point where it’s almost laughable how easy things become. All Amara has to do is get close, hit melee, and that’s it. Not only that, but multiple skills boost Amara’s survivability by giving her more health and shield as she takes down enemies.
COOP
This build cements Amara’s position as the tank. She doesn’t need any help from the rest of the team and does enough damage on her own that other teammates might simply be there to finish off enemies. Thanks to skills like Clarity, Ebb and Flow, and Guardian Angel ensure that Amara is always alive, while Vigor boosts the team’s movement speed as well.
GEARS
Slot 1: Psycho Stabber
Slot 2: Facepuncher
Slot 3: Trevonator
Slot 4: The Butcher
Grenade: It’s Piss
Shield: Brawler Ward
MOD: Muse
Artifact: Unleash the Dragon
SKILLS
This build requires a lot of investment in the Enlightened Force DLC skill tree and skills like No Mistakes in Nature, Joyful Freedom, and Body and Mind directly increase your overall melee damage.
Similarly, Illuminated Fist converts melee damage into the attuned element, which in this case is Soulfire causing fire damage. Find Your Center is a great skill that allows you to move between targets at high speed, while significantly boosting your melee range upon kills.
Action Skill: Phaseflare
Augment: Expedite
Element: Soulfire
HAND OF GOD
Level 72
DLC* • Gun-based
PLAYSTYLE
If you’re looking for a build that combines all her strengths while primarily focusing on gun damage, and movement speed this is the perfect build for you.
Your game plan is pretty straightforward. You want to remain constantly mobile and make great use of Amara’s Ties that Bind action skill that locks and links multiple enemies. This way you can focus gun damage on a target the damage of which is also shared with enemies close to it. Amara’s movement speed is a big aspect here, and making good use of that will allow you to boost overall survivability. Additionally, her ridiculous gun damage will melt health bars no matter who or what you’re going up against.
SOLO
Amara is a damage powerhouse with this build, and she can easily dish out tons of gun damage on her own. You can also make use of melee occasionally, but your focus is to remain mobile, lock enemies in place, and destroy them with quick shots. The Soul Sap augment gives you some breathing room if you’re down on health, but in most cases, Amara won’t be downed so easily, even against bosses.
COOP
This is another great build for co-op that allows Amara to maintain some distance and offer tons of damage support using her weapons. Vigor helps the entire team and boosts movement speed upon kills so Amara is a useful addition to the team even outside her damage capabilities. For the most part, Amara doesn’t need direct support from her teammates, but anything to potentially damage larger enemies will help. Her action skill is pretty useful for incapacitating enemies, which the entire team can focus fire on.
GEARS
Slot 1: Rawan’s Call
Slot 2: Free Radical
Slot 3: Hellwalker
Slot 4: Kaoson
Grenade: Hunter-Seeker
Shield: Re-Volter
MOD: Purified Spectral Phasezerker
Artifact: The Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge
SKILLS
Vigor is a great skill that boosts Amara’s movement speed upon getting a kill. This is very important for the build and boosts her survivability a lot.
Fast Hands and Alacrity boost your reload speed substantially, making it pretty easy for Amara to use shotguns like the Hellwalker which does a lot of damage.
Avatar allows you to activate your action skill even during cooldown, while Clarity, Sustainment, and Soul Sap provide you with constant healing opportunities.
Action Skill: Ties that Bind
Augment: Soul Sap
Element: Blight Tiger
Other Borderlands 3 Character Builds
If you enjoy experimenting with different characters, you may also want to try these other Borderlands 3 builds:
Zane Operative Build
adget specialist using drones, shields, and clones to outmaneuver enemies.
FL4K Beastmaster Build
Critical-hit focused hunter fighting alongside loyal beasts.
Moze Gunner Build
Heavy gunner who summons the Iron Bear mech for devastating firepower.
