The Best Order To Play All The Borderlands Games (2024)

The Borderlands franchise is known for starting the looter shooter genre, or at least known for making it popular with literally billions of guns to choose from. And with as many games as this series has, it can be difficult to know what order to play them all. There is the main series trilogy, a couple of spin-off shooters, and two graphic adventure titles. In total, that makes seven games in the franchise, excluding expansions and DLC, which should be played with the corresponding base game.

There are a few things to take into account when choosing the order to play the Borderlands games. Players can choose to play the games in chronological order, but that presents a few issues from a story perspective. For instance, there are story spoilers for Borderlands 2 in ThePre-Sequel, despite most of the game taking place beforehand. Gameplay should also be taken into account, since starting with the latest game can make the first few titles feel clunky in comparison and thus harder to get through.

Begin With Where It All Started: Borderlands 1

The First Game Has Some Much-Needed Context

The first Borderlands game provides context and the beginning of tropes later used throughout the series. For instance, Borderlands 1 introduces the idea of corporations coming to Pandora, with Atlas being the first, main villainous entity, to open Vaults in search of treasure. These Vaults and the Vault Hunters looking to open them are the center of the entire franchise and the first bunch introduced here are used throughout the series, so meeting them here is the best way to experience their story.

The first game introduced the series' famed cel-shaded aesthetic and looter shooter gameplay. As the first to do so, the game is quite clunky by today's standards, and it is best to play this first so that this feeling of clunkiness isn't amplified by playing the later titles. Since the game was released in 2009, it is dated too, but it is a great way to introduce oneself to the series' unique tone, even if the writing isn't quite as strong here.

Borderlands 2 Should Be Played Next

The Borderlands Game That Made The Series Popular

Borderlands 2 is the series' most iconic entry, in part due to its antagonist, Handsome Jack. This is where the series really found its feet with its writing, world, gameplay, and charm, featuring many characters from the first game. It is a direct sequel and the next game developed by Gearbox. In general, the game has aged quite well and the cast from this title are seen almost everywhere in the franchise moving forward.

From the haiku-speaking Zer0 to the Siren, Maya, the characters introduced here and in the first game make up a lot of the supporting cast moving forward. Tiny Tina, introduced in Borderlands 2, is seen in a starring role in a later expansion and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. These characters are iconic enough to make up the Borderlands film cast, with Krieg (a Borderlands 2 DLC character), Lilith, Roland, Tiny Tina, Claptrap, Tannis, Hammerlock, and many more all from the first two titles.

Borderlands The Pre-Sequel Is The Third Game To Play

It Contains Spoilers For Borderlands 2

Although the majority of this game takes place before Borderlands 2, it is aided if players already know who Handsome Jack is, since the game's story revolves around how the series' most iconic villain became an evil tyrant despite starting off as a wannabe hero. Some of the Vault Hunters are also villains from Borderlands 2, such as Wilhelm and Nisha, and aren't given much as characters in The Pre-Sequel compared to Athena, so meeting them first in the series' second game is for the best.

The entirety of The Pre-Sequel essentially exists within a flashback. Athena tells Lilith and other citizens of Sanctuary about her time working alongside Handsome Jack, but there are scenes that take place after Borderlands 2 and the dialogue in those scenes contain spoilers for that game. Although a prequel to Borderlands 2, The Pre-Sequel shouldn't be played beforehand, since it benefits from some added context from other games.

Tales From The Borderlands Is A Neat Side Adventure

It Should Be Played After The Pre-Sequel

Because it is entirely narrative, Tales From The Borderlands hinges quite heavily on the context of prior games. Athena, Zer0, Handsome Jack, and others all feature, but since they all have secondary roles, it is best to be introduced to them elsewhere. Since it is a side story, there are many references to the main line of games, and it can be confusing if players don't have the right context, since this is a more niche title meant as a love letter to Borderlands fans.

Borderlands 3 Has Many Returning Characters

And Weapons Include Guns With Legs

Borderlands 3 feels like a culmination of everything that was made beforehand, and benefits from having played everything released before this game to best experience it. Characters that appear in all prior games are here, along with a plethora of new ones, and even include characters from Tales From The Borderlands, despite its different genre and smaller playerbase. Rhys and Vaughn make a return from Tales, and almost every Vault Hunter from before that isn't dead is back too.

Borderlands 3 plays better than the looter shooter titles that came before, and benefits from the new technology of the time. It also looks drastically better than prior titles, being available for current gen hardware. Playing Borderlands 3 before the other games could ruin the gun play of them, which would be a shame for Borderlands 2 in particular, given its status as a fan favorite.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands Feels Separate From The Borderlands World

It's One Big D&D Reference

From a story perspective, it's hard to place Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, but it does build upon the gunplay of Borderlands 3 and is arguably the best looking game in the franchise, especially from a graphical fidelity standpoint. It is completely separate from the rest of Borderlands as it exists in a D&D-like world in Tiny Tina's head, and there are references to other characters but nothing major. To not ruin the gameplay and make the older games look even more dated, it should be played later on.

New Tales From The Borderlands Takes Place After 3

And References Everything That Came Before

It should be noted that New Tales From The Borderlands isn't a direct sequel to any of the prior games, despite its name. It has a new cast, a completely different feel to it, and takes place roughly a year after Borderlands 3. Because very little has come after this title, it doesn't feel as involved in the Borderlands world outside its own game, and can be played last as a result to best avoid any potential spoilers.

Not All Games In The Borderlands Series Have To Be Played

Individually, They Function Quite Well

The Borderlands series has a lot of games, but like with many long-running series, not every title has to be played. For many, Borderlands 2 was the entry point, and it certainly functions in this role, since it does a good job at giving the player all the context provided from the first game. Although it is well written, Tales From The Borderlands isn't essential going forward, and for those who play Borderlands for the shooting, it's OK to skip it. The same applies for New Tales From The Borderlands.

Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is its own thing entirely, and if players feel like they've had enough of the looter shooter chaos, it can be skipped without much of a detriment to the story. All in all, the most important games in the franchise moving forward are arguably Borderlands 2 and 3. Perhaps the first game and The Pre-sequel could be added too, if players want more than the bare minimum to understand what's going on, but not every game in the Borderlands franchise has to be played to get the gist of the series.

Borderlands

Created by

Jeramy Cooke , Mark Darin , Randy Pitchford

First Film

Borderlands

Cast

Cate Blanchett , Kevin Hart , Jack Black , Edgar Ramirez , Ariana Greenblatt , Florian Munteanu , Gina Gershon , Jamie Lee Curtis

Video Game(s)

Borderlands , Borderlands 2 , Borderlands 3 , Tales From The Borderlands , New Tales From the Borderlands , Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel!