Defeat The Warrior: First Time

This guide is for Borderlands 2 players who are attempting to beat The Warrior for the very first time. The instruction on this page discusses one of two possible methods of beating The Warrior (the second follows on the next page), but this method is guaranteed to work without risk of taking damage. Unfortunately, this method is also only available to players who have not previously beaten The Warrior.

Players reach The Warrior via Hero’s Pass, after battling a large assortment of Hyperion robots and soldiers. After Hero’s Pass you’ll ride an elevator down to Vault of the Warrior, where you’ll be greeted by a stone stairwell that leads to a large Hyperion shield. Most people will do as the developers intended and proceed forward and drop under the shield, then battle with The Warrior. That’s one way to go about things, but it gets very ugly.

Along the left side of that stairwell is a stone ramp the leads up into some nearby rock formations. Follow that ramp onto the stones, and walk forward (towards The Warrior) as far as you can.

Eventually you’ll climb high enough to see your target, or at least the top of his head. Using a sniper rifle or rocket launcher (preferred), take aim at The Warrior and fire until empty. Since you haven’t crossed beyond the shield The Warrior won’t move about the map, allowing players to repeatedly fire at a stationary target. When you run out of rockets or ammunition merely climb back down and buy more, or just switch weapons until the job is done. Once defeated, you can move forward and finish the mission: Kill Handsome Jack (or choose an alternate ending).

As soon as Handsome Jack is dead, Borderlands 2 alerts you that ‘True Vault Hunter Mode’ has been unlocked. After pressing ‘Ok’, you’re free to collect the loot. The first time you defeat Handsome Jack you’ll receive at least one orange legendary item, along with many purple and green items. If you’ve cleaned out your Storage Deck, everything worth more than $1600 can be stored away for the next step: selling most of it.

There’s a Fast Travel station immediately at the end of Hero’s Pass as you enter Vault of the Warrior, however it only allows outbound travel. You’ve got several choices, one of which is to restart all Main Story Missions from the beginning in True Vault Hunter Mode, or go with our suggestion: Save and Close the game. When you return to the main menu, merely Continue and you’ll restart at the Vault of the Warrior Fast Travel station besides the medical and ammunition vending machines. This is where you’ll sell your loot before defeating The Warrior again to farm XP and loot. We explain how on the next page…