The Creepiest Things Found In Borderlands 3

Borderlands 3, Gearbox's latest looter shooter, sends you to the far corners of its galaxy. You'll start the game in the wastelands of Pandora before moving on to the sprawling urban centers of Promethea and swampy bogs of Eden-6. In all your time roaming these planets, you're bound to come across more than your fair share of creepy things.

A lot of Borderlands' charm comes from its use of shock value for the sake of humor. Look at Face McShooty in Borderlands 2, an NPC who just wants you to shoot him in the face. In the real world, the request would be shocking. In-game, it's played for laughs. The world of Borderlands is not all fun and games, however, and you'll find some truly unsettling things in the third installment of the series. Luckily, you can solve most of these problems with the business end of your gun. While this solution doesn't make the elements any less disturbing, it's comforting to know you can put up a fight. Get your weapon locked and loaded as you explore the creepiest things in Borderlands 3.

As part of the 2019 Borderlands 3 Halloween celebration, Gearbox added the Bloody Harvest event. The promotion introduced Captain Haunt, a terrifying behemoth of a creature who towers over the Vault Hunters, exuding a creepy green aura. His skeletal head floats above where his neck should be, and the battlefield where you take him on further cultivates the sense of dread inspired by his presence.   

You'll find pumpkins and vines littered across the dark arena, creating a true Halloween aesthetic. A hole waits in the center, surrounded by what looks like teeth. Throughout the fight, Haunt summons spectral skulls that fly around the map, chasing you down and afflicting a ghastly status effect on you. If you're hit, you won't be able to regenerate shields, but somehow the visual of a floating skull coming at you feels far more terror-inducing. The boss fight truly captures the spirit of the holiday it was designed to honor.

Many people fear bugs and vermin. Cockroaches and rats are rarely welcome sights, but the developers at Gearbox decided to combine the two to make something far worse: the ratch. Borderlands 3 features a family of enemies under the ratch umbrella, and all of them are terrifying abominations of nature. The bigger they are, the more frightening they become. Arguably, though, the scariest ratch of them all are Glenn and Terry.

You'll find the pair on a Promethea side quest called "Ratch'd Up." Rhys asks you to check on some labs. When you arrive, you find Glenn, who talks to you through a door. When you open the door, you discover Glenn is not only a ratch but a talking ratch. These creatures have sentience, which makes them a lot creepier than their big, meaty counterparts. By the end of the quest his friend Terry also becomes a talking ratch, and the two end up best buddies. Despite the wholesome outcome, that's one friendship we'd rather not be part of.

Goliaths have been a mainstay of the Borderlands series since the second game and have always had a bit of a creepy vibe to them. They possess intimidating, muscly frames and when you knock off their helmets, you discover a skull attached to some viscera. Not the friendliest of foes, but there's one goliath in particular that makes the rest look like infants.

As you progress through Eden-6 in Borderlands 3, you'll find a boss named Billy, the Anointed. He used to be a goliath but Troy corrupted him, giving him insane power and a big, bulky, purple body. In terms of gameplay, Billy attacks like your typical goliath but he also can teleport around the battlefield, granting him an unexpected edge in the fight. When something that big suddenly appears in front of you it's scary enough to make you jump, especially when you know he can hit you for a lot of damage.

In the Borderlands universe, many players view Tediore weapons as disposal guns. When you're out of ammo just chuck your gun and get another. Borderlands 3 made this gun manufacturer a little more fun by giving the weapons different effects when you throw them. Some turn into turrets, while others bounce around until they explode. The Smart Gun XXL is by far the worst of the lot.

This legendary weapon has a high chance of spawning after you kill Gigamind on Promethea, but it can technically drop anywhere. By design alone, it's already a little unsettling. The muscly, tentacled maw around the gun barrel is ghastly, and the unblinking eye doubles down on the aesthetic. You don't even need to shoot this gun because it's terrifying enough to make enemies flee. Unfortunately, the situation worsens when you do shoot the gun, particularly when you reload it. You'll throw the weapon, just like anything else from Tediore, but then it spawns a mechanical, four-legged spider turret that has a brain for a head. In front of the brain are two eyes, and it uses them to seek out enemies and shoot them. That might be your cup of tea but we'll stick to our Jakobs revolvers.