10 Tips For Borderlands 2: A Vault Hunter's Guide

6. Leave no stone, pile, box, or crate unturned.

In the first Borderlands, picking at every loot pile was more a force of habit than a good use of time. Most piles spewed at best a few dollars and a common gun. However, in Borderlands 2, being thorough has a much more tangible reward.

Apart from obtaining extra ammo, Eridium can occasionally be found in everything from loot piles, small boxes, and even washing machines within Crimson Raiders HQ. Eridium allows you to purchase important upgrades to your backpack capacity, bank capacity, and maximum ammo capacity for every gun type, particularly rockets which characters start off carrying only six. Sometimes enemies will drop Eridium, but I would say that at least 50% of all the Eridium I found came from examining every loot possibility. This means a lot more room to carry additional weapons for overall firepower and loot storage, as well as a lot more rockets against bosses and badass-type enemies.


7. Locate Michael Mamaril in Sanctuary as often as you can.

Most NPC interactions only amount to a few humorous lines of dialogue, but Michael Mamaril is one NPC that you definitely want to speak with. He is a fellow Vault Hunter who apparently travels throughout the wasteland killing skags and gathering loot that he's willing to share. Every time you meet him, he will appreciatively hand over a weapon and it's normally a green, blue, or even purple gun.

So as long as you can find him in Sanctuary, you'll get a free bonus weapon. Michael changes his location often, but he normally hangs out in key locations like Crimson Raiders HQ, Scooter's Garage, Zed's Clinic, Moxxi's Bar, Marcus Munitions, etc. Every time to visit Sanctuary to restock and sell your excess wares, make sure to search for him.




8. Spin Moxxi's slot machine a few times.

Two slot machines sit next to the left of Moxxi in her bar. The cost for one spin depends on your overall level, but it's usually low enough to pop about a thousand dollars and see if you have any luck. Most of the time, you'll receive a gun that's at least worth the same amount as the cost for a spin. So whenever you travel back to Sanctuary, give it a whirl.

Now, I haven't gotten anything particularly good at all from the slot machine besides some customization skins, which is why I'm emphasizing the words "a few times". That said, the slot machine eventually spins three bandit heads (which throws a grenade at you so back away quickly!), so when that happens just step away from the machine and go on your merry way. Nothing stops gambling addiction like a slot machine that can kill you.


9. Use vehicle for infinite ammo and for clearing entranceways.

Now that vehicles have regenerating health, their infinite ammo and powerful rocket launchers are an incredible asset to clearing out any huge monsters or at least chipping away at the monster before leaping out and finishing the job. The only downside is that the experience for killing enemies in a vehicle are significantly reduced. Due to the sheer power of a vehicle, most dungeon areas have a gate of some sort that stops its advance. But that doesn't mean you can't remain at the gate, pull some enemies out, and give a taste of some vehicular manslaughter.


10. Saving and quitting can be the fastest shortcut and is the best way to restore crates.

Sometimes, the quickest way to reach a fast travel station is simply saving and quitting the game. In particular, some side quests can end with you extremely far away from a fast travel station, and since enemies respawn quickly, the last thing you may want to do is kill more enemies on your way back and find loot that you can't fit in your backpack.

Quitting and then re-entering the game also has the important effect of restoring all the item boxes, which don't respawn much more slowly than enemies. This means that if you take on a side quest that takes place in an area you've recently completed, you won't have as much extra ammo from crates or fresh treasure crates to loot.
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