BORDERLANDS 3 FL4K Build
LEVEL 1 TO 72 MAYHEM 11
The Ultimate BUILD Guide
This Borderlands 3 FL4K build guide will walk you through FL4K’s full progression, from level 1 to 72, and then Mayhem 1 to 11. We’ll be providing clear explanations for the skill choices, gear options, and progression path, including a power leveling option for non-first timers.
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Normal Vault Hunter Mode – Level 1 to 35
Normal Vault Hunter Mode (NVHM) is the starting difficulty mode in Borderlands 3, and you’ll be completing the main story for the first time here. After that, you’ll unlock Mayhem, which is a mechanic that lets you ramp up the difficulty of the game in exchange for higher EXP and loot drop rates. For now, focus on progressing through the main quests and get used to how your character plays.
Before we begin, I recommend completely ignoring True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM) after you finish the story. There’s absolutely no reason to go through it when Mayhem exists, unless you really want to get mission rewards at max level.
Recommended Skills
Pet: Spiderant Centurion (Hunter)
Action Skill: Fade Away
Grants you invisibility and increased movement speed and health regeneration. While cloaked, you can fire three guaranteed critical hits.
Level 3-7: 5 Points on Self-Repairing System
You gain bonus max health and constant HP regeneration.
Level 8-10: 3 Points on Sic’Em
Increases attack command damage and reduces its cooldown.
Level 11-15: 5 Points on Eager to Impress
Every time you kill an enemy, your action skill cooldown time is reduced. When your pet kills an enemy, attack command’s duration is refreshed, and action skill cooldown is reduced even more.
Level 16: 1 Point on Lick the Wounds
Whenever you are in FFYL mode, your pet will try to revive you.
Level 17-21: 5 Points on Go For The Eyes!
Your pet’s first melee attack is always a critical hit.
Level 22-24: 3 Points on Persistence Hunter
Increases your gun damage and action skill duration.
Level 25-29: 5 Points on Frenzy
Whenever your pet deals damage, gain a stack of Frenzy, which increases your damage.
Level 30: 1 Point on Psycho Head On A Stick
Whenever you kill an enemy, your pet briefly gains bonus movement speed and damage.
Level 31-33: 3 Points on Hive Mind
Whenever you take damage, a small percentage is inflicted on your pet instead. This also causes your pet to deal bonus damage.
Level 34-35: 2 Points on Leave No Trace
Your critical hits will now have a chance to add an extra bullet to your magazine.
Progression route
Goal: You should complete the main story as quickly as you can. You don’t need to complete any side quests unless you’re truly struggling with your current level, as there’s a chance that you’ll be underleveled while rushing through. With how generous the game is with legendary items, it is incredibly unlikely for you to struggle with gear.
Your leveling path will go something like this:
Level 1 to 30: Main story completion
- Do the main story quests as you normally would. It’s fairly linear, and your pet should carry you through most of the big fights.
- If you’re looking for a decent weapon, go and repeatedly tip Moxxi in Sanctuary until you get the unique Crit SMG. It has extremely high damage and fast fire rate, which works well with your kill skills.
- If you want a good shield, you can also farm the Graveward boss at around level 30. This can drop the Ward shield, which provides decent survivability and a lot of bonus damage when depleted.
Level 30 to 35: Starting the DLCs
- If you mainly focused on the story, you’ll be done with the main questline by around the level 30-35 range. Before turning on Mayhem mode, consider starting the DLCs to continue your leveling journey a bit.
- It’s recommended to do it in the order of release, so start with Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot DLC campaign. This will also leads to a powerleveling method that will be described in the Mayhem section.
- If you’re feeling confident and ready to take on Mayhem right off the cuff, feel free to do so and skip ahead to that section of the guide.
Best gears
Slot 1: Any fast-firing gun or a shotgun that you can consistently hit crits with.
Slot 2: Crit is a strong backup that you can constantly update.
Shield: Ward
Grenade: It’s Piss (for bonus damage against bosses)
Class Mod: Anything that increases your DPS.
Artifact: Anything that increases your DPS or lifesteal.
The best items in NVHM are basically just whichever level-appropriate gear you find as you progress through the game. Enemies in this game drop a ton of stuff, even without all the modifiers that you’ll be activating later on.
For FL4K, you’ll want to take advantage of your pet’s damage and utility whenever possible. To help trigger kill skills and such, use whichever guns are the strongest for your current level and pick a new one every few levels to keep up with higher level enemies.
Tips for NVHM
- Don’t spend too much time farming specific items. If something like the Ward or It’s Piss doesn’t drop after a few attempts, just continue with the story.
- Crazy Earl can sell the base game’s quest rewards, but not the DLC ones.
MAYHEM MODE – Level 36 to 72
When you first complete the main story, you will unlock Mayhem mode for your current and future characters. It’s basically just a difficulty modifier that you can turn on, and it has 11 different levels (technically 10). Level progression here is going to be a bit weird as it’s mostly based on personal comfort, so let’s focus on your skills first.
Recommended Skills
Level 36: 1 Point on Leave No Trace
Cap off this skill to move on to the rest of the Hunter tree.
Level 37-41: 5 Points on Interplanetary Stalker
Whenever you kill an enemy, gain a stack of Interplanetary Stalker, which increases both you and your pet’s damage. You also gain various temporary bonus effects that can stack a few times.
Level 42-46: 5 Points on Hunter’s Eye
You gain varying bonuses depending on the type of enemy you’re fighting.
Level 47-48: 2 Points on Second Intention
Whenever you kill an enemy, gain bonus reload speed. This bonus is increased if you score a critical kill.
Pet: Spiderant Countess
At this level, you can now swap to this variant of the Spiderant, which causes you to regenerate health and gain bonus damage resistance. It also has a decent area of effect attack command.
Level 49-51: 3 Points on The Most Dangerous Game
Killing Badass or stronger enemies will increase both you and your pet’s handling and damage for up to two minutes.
Level 52-54: 3 Points on Big Game
All of your hunter kill skill bonuses are increased.
Level 55-59: 5 Points on Gotta Go Fast
Increases your pet’s damage and movement speed.
Level 60-64: 5 Points on Agility Training
Increases you and your pet’s reload speed.
Level 65: 1 Point on Combat Veterinarian
Shooting your pet’s target will heal your pet by 30% of the damage you dealt.
Level 66-68: 3 Points on Throatripper
Your pet gains a chance to critically hit.
Level 69: 1 Point on Take This!
Your pet will now have a copy of your shield, including its effects.
Level 70-72: 3 Points on Monkey Do!
Increases your pet’s critical damage and grants you a physical amp boost whenever it scores a critical hit.
Action Skill: Gamma Burst
Teleport your pet to the target location, dealing area of effect radiation damage. It is also temporarily buffed and enlarged. You can also use this ability to revive your pet in exchange for a longer cooldown.
Augment 1: Atomic Aroma
While Gamma Burst is active, your pet will constantly deal radiation damage to nearby enemies.
Augment 2: Endurance
Whenever you or your pet kills an enemy while Gamma Burst is active, increase its duration and buff your pet’s damage. This can stack up to five times.
Progression route
Goal: With Mayhem unlocked, your way of leveling is largely the same as in NVHM. Play through the rest of the DLCs until you are at max level. The “intended” way of increasing your Mayhem levels is by playing through the highest that you can comfortably clear at the moment and farming up gear until the next tier doesn’t feel too hard.
However, the way people do it nowadays is that you skip straight to Mayhem 10 or 11 and then do the following things to get new gear:
- 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.
From here, you either play through the DLCs at a comfortable Mayhem tier until you reach max level or you can power level straight to level 72 by progressing through Moxxi’s Heist of the Handsome Jackpot DLC. There, you’ll eventually find the Scraptrap Nest, which you can quickly and repeatedly clear for a ton of EXP. With a high Mayhem level turned on, you can breeze through to max level in roughly an hour.
Best gears
Slot 1: Face-Puncher
Slot 2: Guardian Angel
Slot 3: Alchemist
Slot 4: Bekah
Shield: Ward
Grenade: Fish Slap
Class Mod: Red Fang
Artifact: White Elephant (Knife Drain)
The aim of this loadout is to mainly just stay alive while your pet does most of the work for you. With your skill tree completed, you’ll find that your pet has now become a lethal force that deals a ton of radiation damage to nearby enemies.
The Face-Puncher and White Elephant is a devastating combo in general, but with the Knife Drain prefix, the pair also acts as a very strong healing method. The Bekah is also a particularly strong weapon, but you have to make sure that you complete the hunts for it while Mayhem 10 is active to get the strongest possible version.
Tips for MAYHEM
- Gear scaled for Mayhem 10 is usable on lower Mayhem levels. If you’re power leveling lower tiers, grab even just a common Mayhem 10 gun before dropping the difficulty to speed up your grind.
- 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 and grind with a new character.
MORE FL4K BUILDS
MEGAVORE
Level 50
No DLC* • Critical
PLAYSTYLE
FL4K is the beastmaster of Borderlands 3, but keeping dangerous pets and using them for destruction isn’t his only forte. FL4K is also an excellent marksman, and if you’re looking for a build that’s high on critical and gun damage, it’s hard to go wrong with this at level 50. Bonus points if you like using pistols because you can essentially use that with unlimited ammo and melt the entire healthbars of bosses.
Your game plan is simple. Against mobs, you’ll want to use your regular shotgun to score nearly all critical hits and finish off enemies without breaking a sweat. When facing a boss, Fade Away is your best friend. This action skill turns you invisible, and pairs insanely well with the Queen’s Call pistol. You can keep shooting throughout the duration of the action skill and finish off bosses like it’s nothing.
SOLO
This is an amazing build for solo play, and arguably the strongest route FL4K can go in. The critical damage potential is off the charts here, and FL4K becomes a walking death machine that can literally go against basically any enemy and boss at level 50 without feeling the need to readjust their gear, or skill point distribution. Their critical damage bonus is the reason FL4K is picked so often, and it’s hard not to see why.
COOP
FL4K’s damage potential is so high with this build that bringing them along in co-op basically makes the entire campaign and beyond a cakewalk. Any support is appreciated, but they don’t really need it. Thanks to the critical damage, there’s a very good chance that FL4K might just be the most hard-hitting character on the team. Additionally, thanks to the Gunslinger Jabber being on the team, the pet essentially acts as another unit.
GEARS
Slot 1: One Pump Chump
Slot 2: The Butcher
Slot 3: Lyuda
Slot 4: Queen’s Call
Grenade: Hex
Shield: Stop-Gap
MOD: Bushmaster
Artifact: Loaded Dice
SKILLS
Leave No Trace, Second Intention, Heat Count, The Most Dangerous Game are kill skills that directly increase your critical damage tremendously.
Megavore gives you a 20% chance of scoring a critical hit while targeting any part of the enemy’s body. Two F4NG add a 25% chance of shooting an extra projectile per shot.
Turn Tail and Run regenerates your health while you’re moving, and also increases damage resistance.
Action Skill 1: Fade Away
Augment 1: Guerrillas in the Mist
Augment 2: Unblinking Eye
Pet: Gunslinger Jabber
TRAPPER
Level 50
DLC* • Critical
PLAYSTYLE
FL4K is easily one of the strongest characters in Borderlands 3, and this is largely thanks to his excellent critical damage. This build makes some use of the DLC skill tree to improve his survivability, but it’s focused on maximizing his damage output by investing points in skills that directly support his critical damage bonus. If deleting the health bars of bosses within seconds is something you’re after, it’s hard to go wrong here.
Your game plan is quite simple for the most part. While mobbing against regular enemies, you’ll want to make good use of your shotgun, which has a very good range, and pop off headshots to activate different kill skills. When you’re up against bosses, however, using Fade Away turns you into the Grim Reaper himself, and you’ll want to use The Queen pistol to consecutively shoot until you see nothing but dust.
SOLO
Similar to the non-DLC variant: Megavore build, this is an incredible build for solo play, and one of the strongest possible combinations of skills you can put together for a character at Level 50. FL4K’s critical damage is boosted by several skills, and his action ability, Fade Away, which you’ll want to liberally use. He’s fast on his fast, and thanks to the Trapper skill tree, he doesn’t need to worry about getting hit either.
COOP
This build works perfectly fine in co-op, and will likely overshadow everyone in the team. FL4K’s damage potential is so high that if you put him and Amara in a team, they’re going to obliterate everything in sight. Keeping FL4K alive is not a concern because we have put a few points into the DLC tree which further improves his shielding capability. For the most part, FL4K can solo most bosses at this level, so simply provide him minimal support.
GEARS
Slot 1: One Pump Chump
Slot 2: The Butcher
Slot 3: Lyuda
Slot 4: Queen’s Call
Grenade: Hex
Shield: Stop-Gap
MOD: Bushmaster
Artifact: Loaded Dice
SKILLS
Leave No Trace, Second Intention, Heat Count, and The Most Dangerous Game are kill skills that directly increase your critical damage tremendously.
Megavore gives you a 20% chance of scoring a critical hit while targeting any part of the enemy’s body. Success Imminent creates a supernova that deals radiation damage if your or your pet’s shield is broken or filling up.
Better Toys increases the Shield Recharge Rate by 18% and reduces the recharge delay by 24%.
Action Skill 1: Fade Away
Augment 1: Guerrillas in the Mist
Augment 2: Unblinking Eye
Pet: Gunslinger Jabber
SILENT RANGER
Level 72
No DLC* • Balanced
PLAYSTYLE
FL4K is one of the most fun characters to play with in Borderlands 3, and it’s largely down to its ability to bring along a pet. Even though this is a great way to play the character, it leaves out some of its best utility as a whole. If you want something from all its trees, this balanced build will ensure you’re getting the best FL4K has to offer.
This build is centered around its Fady Away ability which grants FL4K invisibility and increases its health regeneration and movement speed. Thanks to the way we have invested points, the cooldown is so small that you can keep spamming this ability, use your shotgun and assault rifle to finish off enemies during it, and while it’s recharging your pet does tons of critical damage, and distracts enemies to itself.
SOLO
This is a great build for solo play because FL4K has enough utility to survive, and deal tons of critical and gun damage. Yes, you’ll sometimes be overwhelmed by enemies, but Fade Away is awesome for that exact reason. Not only is it a great skill during combat, but if you need a breather or just get away from the fight, you can enable it, and return when you feel like it. Fade Away’s cooldown becomes so low that it barely takes seconds to recharge.
COOP
FL4K is always an excellent character to add to a team. This build allows him to not only take a breather when required but also deal tons of devastating critical damage with multiple skills directly regenerating their health. This means that they don’t need any additional support from their teammates and skills like Hidden Machine boost FL4K’s damage when enemies aren’t targeting them. So in a way, using the team as bait only helps FL4K perform better.
GEARS
Slot 1: Reflux
Slot 2: The Monarch
Slot 3: Mongol
Slot 4: Hellwalker
Grenade: Hunter-Seeker
Shield: Old God
MOD: Mind Sweeper
Artifact: Pearl Of Ineffable Knowledge
SKILLS
Turn Tail and Run, Rage and Recover, Who Rescued Who? directly heal FL4K and synergize with the Action Skill and its augment to boost health regeneration tremendously.
Lick the Wounds allow your Pet to revive you gaining increased damage after revival. The Power Inside boosts you, and your pet’s damage by 25% upon Action Skill activation, and that’s double if your health is at full.
Megavore gives you a 20% critical hit chance no matter which part of the enemy’s body you hit.
Action Skill: Fade Away
Augment 1: Not My Circus
Augment 2: Until You Are Dead
Pet: Spiderant Scorcher
BEASTLY
Level 72
DLC* • WAR Loader
PLAYSTYLE
If you’re a fan of both FL4K’s marksman capability and want to bring along a pet to do tons of damage, then this build capitalizes on both aspects almost equally. The WAR Loader is the new DLC pet, and he’s one for the books.
Your game plan revolves around making use of the Messy Breakup shield to massively increase your pet’s damage which you have provided WAR Loader with a duplicate of. Go in, start blasting away, and use the Gamma Burst action skill to summon WAR Loader, who will do tons of damage, and you’ll work together as a team.
SOLO
This is a great build for solo play because you aren’t alone anymore. WAR Loader is a great buddy to bring along, and you’ll also have drones spawning thanks to the Messy Breakup shield. There are multiple skills that restore the shield of both you and your pet, which is why survivability is not an issue, and taking direct damage shouldn’t be that much of a problem. It’s a tricky build to make work, but even without any major strategy on your part, you’ll do just fine.
COOP
This is a great build for co-op play as it adds essentially another player to the team. WAR Loader has plenty of utility which you and the team can capitalize on. Keeping him alive isn’t that big of a problem, so neither FL4K nor WAR Loader are vulnerabilities for the team. There are also a few skills that directly heal both FL4K and War Loader, and Lick the Wounds allows the pet to revive teammates as well.
GEARS
Slot 1: Plaguebearer
Slot 2: Face-puncher
Slot 3: RYNAH
Slot 4: Res
Grenade: Hunter-Seeker
Shield: Messy Breakup
MOD: Red Fang
Artifact: Victory Rush
SKILLS
Better Toys, Fuzzy Math, Keep Them Safe directly restore FK4K and pets’ shield, while Take This! provides the pet with a copy of the shield FL4K has.
Lick the Wounds gives your pet the ability to revive not only you but a member of the team as well. After reviving, it gets a 30% increase in damage.
Psycho Head on a Stick and Gotta Go Fast increase the pet’s movement speed.
Action Skill: Gamma Burst
Augment 1: Empathic Rage
Augment 2: Endurance
Pet: WAR Loader
BEASTMASTER
Level 72
DLC* • Spiderant Countess
PLAYSTYLE
FL4K’s ability to call upon his trusty pets makes him a force to be reckoned with. If you want a build that’s focused on doing a ridiculous amount of damage through your pet, the Spiderant Countess in this case, then it’s hard to put together a better build than this.
This build isn’t that hard to pull off because all you’re really doing is point your death machine, I mean your pet, towards enemies and let it do most of the things for you. FL4K is basically the support unit here, and you’ll do gun and critical damage while the Spiderant Countess munches on enemies, and does radiation damage along the way.
SOLO
This is an excellent build for solo play because you aren’t technically alone. Your pet is your partner, and the main damage dealing unit here, and in most cases, it’ll be doing far more damage than FL4K. So, keep your distance, support it, and liberally issue commands, because the AI isn’t always the most reliable. FL4K has multiple skills for health regeneration as well, so it’s not hard to stay alive. Additionally, you aren’t really in the thick of it the same way your pet is, so keep shooting.
COOP
This pet-focused build is perfect for co-op play because the entire team can work around it. After giving the attack order, your Pet will do tons of damage in a wide area thanks to the radiation damage to nearby enemies as well. Essentially, the team, and you, will provide support to the Pet, and finish off enemies around it. FL4K doesn’t really need direct healing, but any healing for the pet is appreciated. Since we invested a point in Lick the Wounds, the pet can actually revive teammates as well.
GEARS
Slot 1: Face-Puncher
Slot 2: Guardian Angel
Slot 3: Alchemist
Slot 4: Res
Grenade: Fish Slap
Shield: Ward
MOD: Red Fang
Artifact: White Elephant
SKILLS
Go for the Eyes ensures that the first melee attack dealt by your pet is always critical dealing, which does 75% additional damage. This pairs well with Gamma Burst, and essentially ensures that most enemies can die, or lose most of their health by the first hit.
Throat Ripper increases the chance of getting a critical hit by the pet by over 15%, while Take this! provides your pet with a duplicate of your shield, making it survive way longer than it normally would.
Action Skill: Gamma Burst
Augment 1: Atomic Aroma
Augment 2: Endurance
Pet: Spiderant Countess
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.
Amara Siren Build
Elemental Siren powers combined with powerful melee and crowd control abilities.
Moze Gunner Build
Heavy gunner who summons the Iron Bear mech for devastating firepower.
