Borderlands 3: Guardian Rank – Bonus Stats and Unlocks

Upon completion of your first playthrough of Borderlands 3 you will unlock a number of new gameplay mechanics. One mechanic you will unlock is called Guardian Rank. Guardian Rank replaces the game’s previous Badass Rank with more unlocks and interesting twists. Let’s take a closer look at the new Guardian Rank below.

What is Borderland 3’s Guardian Rank?

Guardian Ranks are unlockable bonus stats via things called Guardian Tokens. Guardian Tokens are earned through experience gained killing enemies. To monitor your Guardian Token progress, simply watch the pink bar that appears above your level XP bar on the UI. The Guardian Rank bonus stats you can increase are as follows:

Enforcer Bonus Stats

• Critical Damage.
• Grenade Damage.
• Gun Damage.
• Gun Fire Rate.
• Melee Damage.
• Vehicle Damage.

Survivor Bonus Stats

• FFYL Duration.
• FFYL Movement Speed.
• Max Health.
• Shield Capacity.
• Shield Recharge Delay.
• Shield Recharge Rate.

Hunter Bonus Stats

• Accuracy.
• Action Skill Cooldown.
• Luck (Rare Drop Rate).
• Recoil Reduction.
• Reload Speed.

Redeeming a Guardian Token in any of the Bonus Stats listed above will increase the percentage of these Bonus Stats. Alongside these bonuses you will also unlock Guardian Rewards.

What are the Guardian Rewards?

Guardian Rewards are specific rewards players can unlock by redeeming Guardian Tokens for bonus stats. These unlocks include skins and interesting bonus passive skills. Let’s take a closer look at the unlocks below:

Enforcer Guardian Rewards

• 10 Tokens in Enforcer: Unlocks the Weapon Skin Red Sands.
• 15 Tokens in Enforcer: Unlocks passive Inner Fury which adds 10% Gun Damage to all shots while in FFYL.
• 25 Tokens in Enforcer: Unlocks passive Overkill which turns adds excess damage from a kill into your next shot.
• 35 Tokens in Enforcer: Unlocks Player Skin Uban Blammo.
• 50 Tokens in Enforcer: Unlocks the C-C-Combo passive which increases Gun Damage by 2% for 1 second with each shot.
• 75 Tokens in Enforcer: Unlocks the passive Hollow Point which causes an explosion to trigger after killing an enemy with a critical hit.

Survivor Guardian Rewards

• 10 Tokens in Survivor: Unlocks the Weapon Skin Leather and Regret.
• 15 Tokens in Survivor: Unlocks passive Resilient which causes you to recover from FFYL with full health and shield.
• 25 Tokens in Survivor: Unlocks passive Dead Man’s Hand which allows for aiming down the sights and no aim penalties while in FFYL.
• 35 Tokens in Survivor: Unlocks Player Skin Hex Bolts.
• 50 Tokens in Survivor: Unlocks the Shield Reboot passive which triggers shield regeneration after killing an enemy.
• 75 Tokens in Survivor: Unlocks the passive Emergency Response which improves Shield Recharge Delay and Rate based on missing health.

Hunter Guardian Rewards

• 10 Tokens in Hunter: Unlocks the Weapon Skin Dead Set.
• 15 Tokens in Hunter: Unlocks passive Bullet Collector which increases ammo provided by pickups by 15%.
• 25 Tokens in Hunter: Unlocks passive Tag and Frag which regenerates a grenade every 10 kills.
• 35 Tokens in Hunter: Unlocks Player Skin Burning Bright.
• 50 Tokens in Hunter: Unlocks the Topped Off passive which increases Action Skill Cooldown Rate while at full shields.
• 75 Tokens in Hunter: Unlocks the passive Treasure Hunter which increases Luck for 10 seconds after each kill.

To unlock each and every Guardian reward above it sill take you a total of 225 Tokens spent (75 in each category). Upon spending all 225 you can continue to dump your Guardian Tokens into the Bonus Stats above. Good luck!

Do Guardian Ranks Apply to Other Characters?

Guardian Ranks are account based, meaning they transfer across all characters. So if you start a new character such as the Zane shown above, you will have all the Guardian Ranks you’ve unlocked up to this point. This gives starting characters a nice boost.

Thoughts on our look into the Guardian Rank’s in Borderlands 3? Drop them in The Pit below.