Borderlands 3 Moze build guide: Best Gunner builds

Best builds for Bottomless Mags, Demolition Woman, and Shield of Retribution

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun / 2K

Moze the Gunner is the bombastic lead-spitter of the Borderlands 3 characters roster, and with her 15-tonne Iron Bear mech never far away, there is a great deal of scope for customising her however you want.

In this Borderlands 3 Moze build guide , we’ve laid out the top-tier builds that you can use to get the most out of this mech-wielding super-soldier; one for each skill tree found in the base game ( Demolition Woman, Bottomless Mags, and Shield of Retribution) and then a bonus one for double Flamethrowers .

On this page:

• Demolition Woman, Hammerdown Protocol build
• Bottomless Mags, Double Minigun build
• Shield of Retribution, Railgun + Rockets build
• “Flaming Moze” - Double Flamethrower build

Borderlands 3 Moze build guide

Rather than choosing between three Action Skills like the other Borderlands 3 characters, Moze the Gunner can choose between three (later six) different guns to equip her Iron Bear with, one on each arm. But there’s still a tremendous amount of scope for customising both Moze and her Iron Bear using her three distinct skill trees that are found in the base game.

Moze also has a fourth skill tree that can be unlocked if you get the Borderlands 3 Ultimate Edition, but for this guide we’ll focus on creating the best builds using the following skill trees found in the base game:

• Demolition Woman is the skill tree to upgrade for a really explosive Moze build, as it focuses on immense splash damage and grenade spam . The associated weapons for Demolition Woman are a Grenade Launcher and, later, Rockets .
• Shield of Retribution focuses on giving your Moze build very high survivability , sacrificing health for tremendous amounts of shields that keep you from harm. The associated weapons for Shield of Retribution are a Railgun and a powerful close range Bear Fist .
• Bottomless Mags is all about giving Moze a tonne of magazine size and regenerating ammo so she never has to stop firing. The associated weapons for Bottomless Mags are a Minigun and, later, a Flamethrower .

Moze is, on first glance, a pretty easy character to get to grips with. Outside her Iron Bear mech she is certainly the weakest and most vulnerable of all the Vault Hunters, but once inside her mech, there’s pretty much nothing that can match her ability to obliterate anything in sight. Each Moze build below utilises a different path through her skill trees in order to make the most of a particular aspect of her character.

If you need a bit of a primer on the Borderlands 3 characters, how classes work, that sort of thing - look no further than our Borderlands 3 characters & skill trees guide. If not, let’s skip right ahead to the Moze builds !

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Demolition Woman, Hammerdown Protocol (Borderlands 3 Moze build)

Borderlands 3 Moze build -Demolition Woman & Hammerdown Protocol. Click to view at highest resolution!

• Primary Skill Tree: Demolition Woman
• Build Focus: Extreme Burst & Splash Damage, Grenade Spam
• Best Skills for Class Mods: Pull The Holy Pin (Highly Recommended), Fire In The Skag Den, Stainless Steel Bear, Explosive Punctuation, Scorching RPMs

For many Moze players, I’m sure the Demolition Woman skill tree is the tree to focus on for the most bombastic, explosive fun you can have with the Gunner and her Iron Bear. This build takes full advantage of the duo’s splash damage potential by equipping both of Iron Bear’s arms with Hammerdown Protocol Rockets - massively powerful but slow-firing nuclear warheads that deal colossal damage thanks to all the other perks we’ve invested in throughout this and the Bottomless Mags tree.

As always, the first thing to do is increase your damage potential as early as possible with your first few points. So we’re putting 8 points into the Bottomless Mags tree first and foremost: 5 into Cloud Of Lead to get some Incendiary damage going, and then 3 into Stoke The Embers to further increase that Incendiary bonus. Next we’ll head to the Demolition Woman tree, and invest in Fire In The Skag Den for even more Incendiary Damage; and 3 points into Deadlines , which we’re going to do with all of these builds because you’ll want to make the most of your time with Iron Bear each time you summon it.

Now it’s time to get explosive. 5 points into Means Of Destruction followed by three points into Pull The Holy Pin gives our grenades some much-needed extra oomph, and after we pick up Auto Bear to unlock the next tier, we’ll be putting 3 points into Why Can’t I Carry All These Grenades? (which does exactly what you’d expect: more grenades). All this to unlock the final tiers of the Demolition Woman tree, which includes the fantastic Short Fuse Capstone and the essential Hammerdown Protocol Skill Augment. Now you’ll find you’re suddenly dealing ridiculous splash damage, and your only worry from now on will be not blowing yourself up along with all your enemies.

The final touch is to head back to the Bottomless Mags tree and invest right down the centre of the tree ( Cloud Of Lead , Redistribution , and especially Scorching RPMs ) for added utility and damage; and then finally assign our one point to Specialist Bear , which increases the damage of both our Hammerdown Rockets by an extra 25%. Stand back and enjoy the radioactive fireworks.

Bottomless Mags, Double Minigun (Borderlands 3 Moze build)

Borderlands 3 Moze build -Bottomless Mags & Double Minigun. Click to view at highest resolution!

• Primary Skill Tree: Bottomless Mags
• Build Focus: Sustained Fire, High Sustained Damage
• Best Skills for Class Mods: Cloud Of Lead (Highly Recommended), The Iron Bank (Highly Recommended), Stoke The Embers, “Click, Click…”, Deadlines

There are three ways to improve your DPS in most games: higher base damage, higher fire rate, and the ability to fire for longer. While the previous Moze build focused very much on the first method, investing heavily in the Bottomless Mags skill tree will work absolute wonders for the other two methods. Equipped with your deadly dual Miniguns, you’ll find you can fire continuously for pretty much the entire fight, both inside and outside your Iron Bear mech.

As with the previous Moze build, we’ll start by investing 5 points in Cloud Of Lead and 3 points in Stoke The Embers in the Bottomless Mags skill tree, to give us some good damage potential early on. After this, you can actually be quite flexible with the order in which you assign points in this build. We’ve put 10 points in Demolition Woman and 12 in Shield of Retribution just to give us some extra mech utility and survivability, and it’s more or less a case of just assigning these points whenever you feel like it in amongst your gradual levelling of the Bottomless Mags tree.

What’s quite nice about this particular build is that we unlock the weapons we’ll be taking to the rest of the game very early on - by Level 7, in fact. The Let Off Some Steam Skill Augment gives your Miniguns higher damage as heat increases, and gives us the ability to fire them for longer, which suits our needs perfectly. After this you’ll want to invest down the centre of the green tree, letting our DPS soar with pickups like Scorching RPMs , Specialist Bear , and “Click, Click…” - while also making it less and less likely that we’ll ever need to reload thanks to The Iron Bank , Some For The Road , and the glorious Capstone that is Forge .

This is a build all about never letting go over the fire button. Moze absolutely excels at this, and you’ll find that once you’re far enough into this build, your Iron Bear will make short work of pretty much any enemy unfortunate enough to cross your path.

Shield of Retribution, Railgun + Rockets (Borderlands 3 Moze build)

Borderlands 3 Moze build -Shield of Retribution & Railgun/Rockets. Click to view at highest resolution!

• Primary Skill Tree: Shield of Retribution
• Build Focus: Extremely Tanky, High Survivability
• Best Skills for Class Mods: Thin Red Line (Highly Recommended), Desperate Measures (Highly Recommended), Vladof Ingenuity, Grizzled, Stainless Steel Bear

Much talk is made of Moze being the Borderlands 3 character with perhaps the highest overall damage potential - but what’s also true is that if you want to take her a different route, she can become one of the tankiest. Which shouldn’t be that surprising, seeing as she lives in a walking tank about half the time. This Moze build focuses heavily on the Shield of Retribution skill tree in order to boost your shield to truly insane levels, while also keeping your damage up to scratch with your Railgun and Vanquisher Rocket Pods .

This time round, we’re not investing any points at all into Bottomless Mags, which means early on this build might not feel as powerful as the others on this list. Rest assured, she’ll make up for it later. For now, place 5 points into Armored Infantry and 5 into Selfless Vengeance , which grant us both survivability while our shields are up, and as much extra damage as we can give for the time being. After this, pick up all of the 1-cost skills: Experimental Munitions , Security Bear , and Full Can Of Whoop-Ass (preferably in that order). The first of these gives some extra Incendiary damage upon every crit, while the others start to beef up our shield game.

But that’s not all. 3 points into Thin Red Line gives us massively increased shield levels at the cost of health, and synergises perfectly with Desperate Measures , which ups our Gun Damage based on how low our Health is (up to 50%!). These are the two skills that really make this build what it is, and they’re the skills you’ll want to overcharge if at all possible with a good Class Mod.

After this, head to the Demolition Woman tree just to pick up that lovely trio of Deadlines , Grizzled , and Stainless Steel Bear to lengthen our time spent in the Iron Bear (and unlocking our Vanquisher Pod Missiles to boot). And after this, head back to the orange tree and max out every skill (except for Drowning In Brass). With the combination of Thin Red Line, Behind The Iron Curtain , Phalanx Doctrine , Force Feedback , and Tenacious Defense , you’re basically never going to run out of shields. Which allows you to relax in your mech and blast anything that moves with your Railgun and Rockets combo.

“Flaming Moze” - Double Flamethrower (Borderlands 3 Moze build)

Borderlands 3 Moze build -“Flaming Moze” (Double Flamethrower). Click to view at highest resolution!

• Primary Skill Tree: Bottomless Mags
• Build Focus: High Incendiary Damage, Close-Range Prowess
• Best Skills for Class Mods: Deadlines (Highly Recommended), Stoke The Embers (Highly Recommended), Stainless Steel Bear, Cloud Of Lead, Scorching RPMs

Finally, here’s a Moze build that was not made by me, but by Reddit user Phosphorus015 who did what, let’s face it, everyone should try at some point while playing Moze: they created a build all about dual-wielding Flamethrowers . And though it did sweeten the deal that another Reddit commenter came up with the perfect name for this build using an excellent Simpsons reference that instantly took me back to my childhood, I’m including this build also because it’s just a damn strong close-range damage build.

Again we’re investing heavily in Bottomless Mags, all the way down to the Forge Capstone. The old familiar Cloud Of Lead / Stoke The Embers combo gives us great early damage, while also unlocking our Flamethrowers very early on. Beeline straight to Specialist Bear to make the most of your dual-wielding flame-throwing Iron Bear, but then that’s the point where I’d head over to Demolition Woman and start building up that tree with the again-familiar-by-now combo of Deadlines , Grizzled , and Stainless Steel Bear to lengthen the time spent in our Mech (if you learn anything from this page, I’m guessing it’s that you should probably invest in these three skills no matter what your Moze build).

While Phosphorus015 is clearly focusing on the double Flamethrowers (plus the double Fuel Economy Skill Augments which further increases your fuel efficiency and time spent in the Iron Bear), they’ve also gone a fair way down the more explosive grenades route of Demolition Woman with the Pull The Holy Pin , Vampyr and To The Last perks, which gives you some extra utility outside of your Mech. Overall this is a surprisingly versatile build despite its focus on the up-close-and-personal barbecuing of enemies.

That’s probably as good a place as any to finish up this Borderlands 3 Moze build guide. Hopefully one of the four builds above have at most given you a path to follow, and at least given you food for thought as to how you can carve your own way through Moze’s the Gunner’s three distinct skill trees.

If you still need more help with Borderlands 3 then don’t worry, we have you covered. Check out our Borderlands 3 Shift Codes page to get free Golden Keys, or head to our primers on the Borderlands 3 weapons and Legendary weapons . We’ve also got other build guides for Amara , Zane and FL4K .

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All 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints and where to get them

These areas have the highest chance of giving you Blueprints

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Looking for more Arc Raiders Blueprints? It’s a special day when you find a Blueprint, as they’re among the most valuable items in Arc Raiders. If you find a Blueprint that you haven’t already found, then you must make sure you hold onto it at all costs, because Blueprints are the key to one of the most important and powerful systems of meta-progression in the game.

This guide aims to be the very best guide on Blueprints you can find, starting with a primer on what exactly they are and how they work in Arc Raiders, before delving into exactly where to get Blueprints and the very best farming spots for you to take in your search.

We’ll also go over how to get Blueprints from other unlikely activities, such as destroying Surveyors and completing specific quests. And you’ll also find the full list of all 75 Blueprints in Arc Raiders on this page (including the newest Blueprints added with the Cold Snap update , such as the Deadline Blueprint and Firework Box Blueprint), giving you all the information you need to expand your own crafting repertoire.

In this guide:

• What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?
• Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes
• Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders Blueprints obtained from quests Blueprints obtained from Trials Best Blueprint farming locations

What are Blueprints in Arc Raiders?

Blueprints in Arc Raiders are special items which, if you manage to extract with them, you can expend to permanently unlock a new crafting recipe in your Workshop. If you manage to extract from a raid with an Anvil Blueprint, for example, you can unlock the ability to craft your very own Anvil Pistol, as many times as you like (as long as you have the crafting materials).

To use a Blueprint, simply open your Inventory while in the lobby, then right-click on the Blueprint and click “Learn And Consume” . This will permanently unlock the recipe for that item in your Workshop. As of the Stella Montis update, there are allegedly 75 different Blueprints to unlock - although only 68 are confirmed to be in the game so far. You can see all the Blueprints you’ve found and unlocked by going to the Workshop menu, and hitting “R” to bring up the Blueprint screen.

It’s possible to find duplicates of past Blueprints you’ve already unlocked. If you find these, then you can either sell them, or - if you like to play with friends - you can take it into a match and gift it to your friend so they can unlock that recipe for themselves. Another option is to keep hold of them until the time comes to donate them to the Expedition.

Full Blueprint list: All crafting recipes

Below is the full list of all the Blueprints that are currently available to find in Arc Raiders, and the crafting recipe required for each item:

Note: The missing Blueprints in this list likely have not actually been added to the game at the time of writing, because none of the playerbase has managed to find any of them. As they are added to the game, I will update this page with the most relevant information so you know exactly how to get all 75 Arc Raiders Blueprints.

Where to find Blueprints in Arc Raiders

Below is a list of all containers, modifiers, and events which maximise your chances of finding Blueprints:

• Certain quests reward you with specific Blueprints .
• Completing Trials has a high chance of offering Blueprints as rewards.
• Surveyors have a decent chance of dropping Blueprints on death.
• High loot value areas tend to have a greater chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Night Raids and Storms may increase rare Blueprint spawn chances in containers.
• Containers with higher numbers of items may have a higher tendency to spawn Blueprints. As a result, Blue Gate (which has many “large” containers containing multiple items) may give you a higher chance of spawning Blueprints.
• Raider containers (Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, Medical Bags, Grenade Tubes) have increased Blueprint drop rates. As a result, the Uncovered Caches event gives you a high chance of finding Blueprints.
• Security Lockers have a higher than average chance of containing Blueprints.
• Certain Blueprints only seem to spawn under specific circumstances: Tempest Blueprint only spawns during Night Raid events. Vulcano Blueprint only spawns during Hidden Bunker events. Jupiter and Equaliser Blueprints only spawn during Harvester events.

Raider Caches, Weapon Boxes, and other raider-oriented container types have a good chance of offering Blueprints. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints have a very low chance of spawning in any container in Arc Raiders, around 1-2% on average. However, there is a higher chance of finding Blueprints in particular container types. Specifically, you can find more Blueprints in Raider containers and security lockers.

Beyond this, if you’re looking for Blueprints you should focus on regions of the map which are marked as having particularly high-value loot. Areas such as the Control Tower in Dam Battlegrounds, the Arrival and Departure Buildings in Spaceport, and Pilgrim’s Peak in Blue Gate all have a better-than-average chance of spawning Blueprints somewhere amongst all their containers. Night Raids and Electromagnetic Storm events also increase the drop chances of certain Blueprints .

In addition to these containers, you can often loot Blueprints from destroyed Surveyors - the largest of the rolling ball ARC. Surveyors are more commonly found on the later maps - Spaceport and Blue Gate - and if one spawns in your match, you’ll likely see it by the blue laser beam that it casts into the sky while “surveying”.

Surveyors are quite well-armoured and will very speedily run away from you once it notices you, but if you can take one down then make sure you loot all its parts for a chance of obtaining certain unusual Blueprints.

Blueprints obtained from quests

One way in which you can get Blueprints is by completing certain quests for the vendors in Speranza. Some quests will reward you with a specific item Blueprint upon completion, so as long as you work through all the quests in Arc Raiders, you are guaranteed those Blueprints.

Here is the full list of all Blueprints you can get from quest rewards:

• Trigger Nade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Sparks Fly”.
• Lure Grenade Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Greasing Her Palms”.
• Burletta Blueprint: Rewarded after completing “Industrial Espionage”.
• Hullcracker Blueprint (and Launcher Ammo Blueprint): Rewarded after completing “The Major’s Footlocker”.

Alas, that’s only 4 Blueprints out of a total of 75 to unlock, so for the vast majority you will need to find them yourself during a raid. If you’re intent on farming Blueprints, then it’s best to equip yourself with cheap gear in case you lose it, but don’t use a free loadout because then you won’t get a safe pocket to stash any new Blueprint you find. No pain in Arc Raiders is sharper than failing to extract with a new Blueprint you’ve been after for a dozen hours already.

One of the best ways to get Blueprints is by hitting three stars on all five Trials every week. |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blueprints obtained from Trials

One of the very best ways to get Blueprints is as rewards for completing Trials in Arc Raiders. Trials are unlocked from Level 15 onwards, and allow you to earn rewards by focusing on certain tasks over the course of several raids. For example, one Trial might task you with dealing damage to Hornets, while another might challenge you to loot Supply Drops.

Trials refresh on a weekly basis, with a new week bringing five new Trials. Each Trial can offer up to three rewards after passing certain score milestones, and it’s possible to receive very high level loot from these reward crates - including Blueprints. So if you want to unlock as many Blueprints as possible, you should make a point of completing as many Trials as possible each week.

Best Blueprint farming locations

The very best way to get Blueprints is to frequent specific areas of the maps which combine high-tier loot pools with the right types of containers to search. Here are my recommendations for where to find Blueprints on every map, so you can always keep the search going for new crafting recipes to unlock.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Dam Battlegrounds

The best places to farm Blueprints on Dam Battlegrounds are the Control Tower, Power Generation Complex, Ruby Residence, and Pale Apartments . The first two regions, despite only being marked on the map as mid-tier loot, contain a phenomenal number of containers to loot. The Control Tower can also contain a couple of high-tier Security Lockers - though of course, you’ll need to have unlocked the Security Breach skill at the end of the Survival tree.

There’s also a lot of reporting amongst the playerbase that the Residential areas in the top-left of the map - Pale Apartments and Ruby Residence - give you a comparatively strong chance of finding Blueprints. Considering their size, there’s a high density of containers to loot in both locations, and they also have the benefit of being fairly out of the way. So you’re more likely to have all the containers to yourself.

Buried City

The best Blueprint farming locations on Buried City are the Santa Maria Houses, Grandioso Apartments, Town Hall, and the various buildings of the New District . Grandioso Apartments has a lower number of containers than the rest, but a high chance of spawning weapon cases - which have good Blueprint drop rates. The others are high-tier loot areas, with plenty of lootable containers - including Security Lockers.

Spaceport

The best places to find Blueprints on Spaceport are the Arrival and Departure Buildings, as well as Control Tower A6 and the Launch Towers . All these areas are labelled as high-value loot regions, and many of them are also very handily connected to one another by the Spaceport wall, which you can use to quickly run from one area to the next. At the tops of most of these buildings you’ll find at least one Security Locker, so this is an excellent farming route for players looking to find Blueprints.

The downside to looting Blueprints on Spaceport is that all these areas are hotly contested, particularly in Duos and Squads. You’ll need to be very focused and fast in order to complete the full farming route.

Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Embark Studios

Blue Gate

Blue Gate tends to have a good chance of dropping Blueprints, potentially because it generally has a high number of containers which can hold lots of items; so there’s a higher chance of a Blueprint spawning in each container. In my experience, the best Blueprint farming spots on Blue Gate are Pilgrim’s Peak, Raider’s Refuge, the Ancient Fort, and the Underground Complex beneath the Warehouse .

All of these areas contain a wealth of containers to loot. Raider’s Refuge has less to loot, but the majority of the containers in and around the Refuge are raider containers, which have a high chance of containing Blueprints - particularly during major events.

Stella Montis

On the whole, Stella Montis seems to have a very low drop rate for Blueprints (though a high chance of dropping other high-tier loot). If you do want to try farming Blueprints on this map, the best places to find Blueprints in Stella Montis are Medical Research, Assembly Workshop, and the Business Center . These areas have the highest density of containers to loot on the map.

In addition to this, the Western Tunnel has a few different Security Lockers to loot, so while there’s very little to loot elsewhere in this area of the map, it’s worth hitting those Security Lockers if you spawn there at the start of a match.

That wraps up this primer on how to get all the Blueprints in Arc Raiders as quickly as possible. With the Expedition system constantly resetting a large number of players’ Blueprints, it’s more important than ever to have the most up-to-date information on where to find all these Blueprints.

While you’re here, be sure to check out our Arc Raiders best guns tier list , as well as our primers on the best skills to unlock and all the different Field Depot locations on every map.

ARC Raiders

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