The Great Vault | Borderlands 3 Walkthrough Borderlands 3 guide, walkthrough
Last update: 01 October 2019
This page of the guide to Borderlands 3 has a walkthrough for The Great Vault, one of the main missions. During this mission, your goal is to locate and search the Vault on Pandora. You need to visit the Cathedral of the Twin Gods and defeat one of the main bosses of the game - Troy Calypso.
Go back to the Sanctuary and talk to Lilith on the captain's bridge. After watching the transmission, go to the front windows of the ship.
After listening to more conversations, you will get a number of additional goals in which you have to say farewell to different crew members. Don't worry - this isn't the game's finale. You will be able to return to the Sanctuary in the later phase of the campaign. Also, all the most important NPCs will be present. If you want to complete additional goals, talk to Tannis, Ava, Claptrap, Marcus (you get ammo), Moxxi (you can play on the slot machine marked in the picture above and "draw" an epic item), Ellie, Zer0 and Hammerlock (you will get an epic pistol). The list of NPC will get updated with each new conversation. Lastly, talk to Lilith.
Use fast travel to move to Roland's Rest in Devil's Razor on Pandora. Talk to Vaughn. After watching the cu-scene, go to Tannis. Join fights with regular COV opponents. After winning the battle, join Tannis and wait until she sabotages the defense systems. The turrets are no longer a threat - you can finish the journey to the new location called Cathedral of the Twin Gods.
As with almost all locations, a full exploration of the new region is completely optional. If you want, you can only focus on the main mission. The road to it is long. All the fanatics encountered along the way can be killed (watch out for turrets) or ignored.
Soon, you will have to leave the vehicle and continue on foot. Follow Ava. Wait until she places explosives on the gates. Shoot them from a safe distance to unlock a passage to the Outer Sanctum. You will now participate in a few intense battles. After defeating them, head towards the main courtyard.
New enemies will jump out of a dropship. Badass Hag can be among them - focus your attacks on this enemy. Move on until you get to the Courtyard of the Damned. Eliminate another large group of enemies - Badass Enforcer can be among them.
After winning all the battles in the yard, get to the upper room with the lever to unlock further passage. Defeat new opponents and use the bottom passage. There are vending machines nearby - we highly recommend using them.
A little further on, you will encounter a mini-boss - Rachael, The Anointed. At this point in the game, you should know exactly how to fight Anointed enemies - when the enemy teleports, check the map to see where it re-appeared. Avoid attacks and traps on the ground that inflict elemental damage. After winning the duel, don't forget to break the chunk to get loot.
In the Altar of the Twins, you have to increase the pressure in the four tanks - you have to reach the handles. There are 4 of them in total. Two more mini-bosses, Nathan, The Anointed and Luke, The Anointed, will appear after turning the first and the second handle. Don't rush with reaching the subsequent handles - always focus on eliminating the Anointed-type enemy first. Luke will certainly use a shield, so wait for the moment when he reveals himself or turns around. Remember to destroy the chunks left by these enemies and collect loot.
Handles 3 and 4 are on the upper balconies. On the way to them, you will meet only ordinary opponents - there will be no other bosses. After sabotaging all tanks, fire at the central tank (the picture above). You will make a big hole in the ground. Jump into it and you will find the passage to The Great Vault.
You reach the Dig Site. Be sure to use the vending machines to replenish stocks. Soon, you will face one of the main bosses. The boss battle will begin shortly after you jump into the hole shown above. You have to defeat Troy Calypso.
The boss's basic attack is to shoot energy orbs. They fly close to each other - standing between them isn't easy.
The important information is that Troy can follow up this attack by charging at you or jumping and performing a ground pound. The second attack is especially problematic, as being near the place of "landing" can seriously weaken or knock you down. Moreover, when Troy hits the ground, he sends out more projectiles. You can protect yourself by being on the move instead of stopping after you have avoided Troy's orbs.
Another attack creates a pillar that hits the ground. This isn't a problematic attack - you have a lot of time to run to the side to avoid damage.
You can attack Troy using any type of weapon. However, try to choose those dealing massive damage such as launchers or shotguns. Alternatively, you can also use assault rifles and sniper rifles and aim at the boss's head to get critical hits. The boss has "only" one red health bar. However, he is quite durable and the fight can take about 5 minutes.
Stop attacking the boss when he becomes invulnerable for a brief moment - when he surrounds himself with force field (see the picture).
Troy during the fight will "return" to levitating Tyreen. He can attack you in two ways:
- Flames appearing in the arena. This attack is telegraphed - quickly move from the place where the flames will appear.
- Bombing the arena. Move away from the boss. You can also decide to move to the sides.
It is very likely that Troy will knock you down - you will go into Fight for Your Life mode. Luckily, there are regular enemies running in the arena - shoot the fanatics or Rakk monsters flying above. Killing a standard enemy will allow you to get Second Wind.
Defeat Troy by depleting his entire health bar. This will trigger a cut-scene. After watching it, the Mysterious ECHO Device will appear in the arena. Pick it up and listen to the recording.
Talk to Lilith and wait for the portal to the Vault of the Architects. In the Vault, you will find several chests with rare loot - the most important finding is the Eridian Analyzer. With it, you will now be able to translate the Eridian Slabs (the game will allow you to check the artifact in the next main quest).
Go back to the place where you fought with Troy and talk to Tannis. Talk to her to finish the mission - you gain XP, credits and a rare cosmetic item. You also start another main quest - The First Vault Hunter.