Borderlands 3 Vehicle Upgrades Guide: How to Get Upgrades

Catch-A-Ride with our Borderlands 3 vehicle upgrades guide and we'll make sure that you don't go wrong.

Consider yourself someone with a passion for the fast and the furious? Then Catch-A-Ride here with the Prima team; we’re absolutely fiending for the vehicles in Borderlands 3, especially considering how great they feel to handle and to blast your enemies out of orbit with. We’re always looking for the latest ways to pimp out our sick rides, so check out this Borderlands 3 vehicle upgrades guide that’ll tell you what mods are available, what they do, and how to generally get upgrades. 

Recommended Videos

Borderlands 3 Vehicle Upgrades Guide: How to Get Upgrades

For those who want answers on how to get vehicle upgrades in Borderlands 3, we hope you’ve been expecting a suitably lawless answer. Yes, you can’t negotiate your way into some fancier wheels in this game. You’re going to have to take them by Hijacking. See some weapons or some sick treads? Just steal the car that you want and take it to your local Catch-A-Ride to unlock the sick upgrades that it’s got. If you want something a little less random, you can take on the Crew Challenges that Ellie asks you to do. These involve stealing bandit cars anyway, though, so it’s not exactly the genteel way of appropriating vehicle upgrades. 

So you reckon you’re up to the challenge of hijacking the biggest and baddest vehicles out there to get a fancy rocket launcher? Well, we’re not going to stop you, but we can offer a little bit of emotional support and tech support in the form of a list of what the upgrades are, what vehicles they’re for, and what they do if it’s not quite clear.

Borderlands 3 Vehicle Upgrades Guide: Cyclone

  • Sawblade Launcher
  • Heavy Guns
  • Explosive Needle – shoots needles that explode
  • Stripped Armor – makes for lighter handling
  • Heavy Armor – improves durability but makes the vehicle slower
  • Monowheel – fastest speed option
  • Hover Wheel – lets you hover
  • Wide Wheel – improves handling and durability
  • Blade Wheel – effective against flesh and traversing terrain
  • Digithruster – lets you leap forward
  • Heavy Booster
  • Sonic Booster – you can boost your speed up to three times
  • Fire Starter – your foes will be lit on fire

Borderlands 3 Vehicle Upgrades Guide: Outrunner

  • Machine Gun
  • Tesla Coil – shock damage hurts enemies
  • Flame Thrower
  • Swarmer Missile – fires off guided missiles
  • Heavy Missile
  • Shotgun Missile
  • Stripped Armor – makes for lighter handling
  • Heavy Armor – improves durability but makes the vehicle slower
  • Dune Buggy – average handling on all fronts
  • Zip Wheels – speed, but with extra flame
  • Twitchy Wheels – better handling
  • Boost Canisters
  • Energy Cells – you get a speed boost but with shock damage
  • Laser Wings – your car now has laser blades
  • Blaze Booster – you get a boost here that starts strong and peters off 

Borderlands 3 Vehicle Upgrades Guide: Technical

  • Machine Gun
  • Flak Cannon – this is a shotgun that pops out scrap projectiles
  • Barrel Launcher – you can shoot out a barrel that explodes, and shooting it in midair can turn it into bombs
  • Tire Bombs – fire a tire bomb that you can steer
  • Sticky Bombs – fires sticky grenades that you can trigger at will
  • Stripper Armor – makes for lighter handling
  • Meat Grinder – increased ramming damage, and damage to fleshy things
  • Heavy Armor – improves durability but makes the vehicle slower
  • All-Terrain Wheels – good on every surface
  • Hover Wheels – lets you hover
  • Barbed Wheels – effective against flesh and traversing terrain
  • Monster Wheels
  • Passenger Seats
  • Toxic Booster – poisons enemies
  • Fuel Barrel – extra gas in the tank at the loss of speed and/or fun
  • Jet Booster

Now that you’ve got our handy Borderlands 3 vehicle upgrades guide, actually rocketing around the wastelands should be much easier as long as you’re prepared to throw yourself into someone else’s passenger seat and to axe them in the head to get their shiny bomb upgrade. Need a hand with a sidequest? We have a Wildlife Conservation Borderlands 3 guide too that will potentially be what you’re looking for.


Prima Games is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more
related content
Read Article How to Fix the Flowstone Gate in Palia
Read Article Monopoly GO: Where To Get Free Dice Rolls & Links <strong>(March 2024)</strong>
Screenshot of the Creative Accounting event in Monopoly GO.
Read Article How to Get Ship Parts in No Man’s Sky
Related Content
Read Article How to Fix the Flowstone Gate in Palia
Read Article Monopoly GO: Where To Get Free Dice Rolls & Links <strong>(March 2024)</strong>
Screenshot of the Creative Accounting event in Monopoly GO.
Read Article How to Get Ship Parts in No Man’s Sky
Author
Ginny Woo
Ginny hails from just south of Mordor, and when she's not debating others about the One Ring then she's probably glued to an MMO or a JRPG. With Final Fantasy XIV, Destiny 2, and World of Warcraft on her plate, she's always got something to chat about and a sneaky guide up her sleeve. If writing's not on the cards, then she's probably drinking way too much coffee.