Borderlands 3 is the most realistic Borderlands yet, because, just like in real life, you can dangle things off your gun.
The new loot-shooter from Gearbox Software has plenty of cosmetic items that you can use to customize your Vault Hunter’s appearance. Additionally, there are skins, and, new to this entry, trinkets, that you can use to change the look of your weapon, as well. They’re like fuzzy dice, but for your gun!
What are Weapon Trinkets in Borderlands 3?
Weapon trinkets are a new cosmetic item that Gearbox has introduced in Borderlands 3. They’re essentially phone charms, but they hang off of your gun, so please call them “gun charms.” You’ll nab them as rewards as you progress, and you can also pick one up by signing up for the Vault Insider Program, Gearbox and 2K’s rewards program designed to incentivize players to sign up for SHiFT accounts. Some also came with the special editions of the game itself.
Trinkets aren’t the flashiest way to change up the look of your gun — they’re very, very small — but, if you want your loot to be distinctly yours, weapon trinkets are one more way to mix it up.
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How to Equip Weapon Trinkets in Borderlands 3
Once you know how to equip a weapon trinket, it’s really easy to do. But, like plenty in Borderlands 3, this process isn’t explained very well. While you can customize your Vault Hunter’s appearance (and the Echo Device for some reason?) at the Quick Change Personal Transformation station on Sanctuary III, you’ll need to go to the inventory menu to alter the look of your gun.
Once you have the inventory open, you’ll need to equip the gun you want to attach the trinket to. With the weapon equipped, select the small box to the left of the gun. This will bring up the section in your backpack devoted to trinkets (which, thankfully, don’t take up inventory spots that would otherwise be dedicated to guns and shields).
From this list, simply select the trinket you want to equip. These can only be placed on one part of each gun, so the trinket will show up, all dangly like, in a predetermined location along the side of the weapon that faces you while you’re playing. (If you really like how a particular trinket or skin looks, a gun-specific photo mode is available in the inventory menu).
You may be wondering what happens to a weapon trinket when you discard the gun it was attached to. Well, fortunately for the preservation of the series’ famous looting and shooting loop, each trinket equips to a weapon slot, not to the weapon itself.
So, for example, if you drop a Pent-Up Threeway in favor of a Double-Penetrating Potent Kielbasa, the dangler attached to the Threeway will automatically cling to the Kielbasa. (Wow, those gun names are intense.) And, even if you don’t equip another gun, the weapon trinket will remain in the slot, awaiting a weapon’s return.
While weapon trinkets don’t add much in the grand scheme of things, they’re one more way to personalize your Vault Hunter and, more importantly, make your friends jealous (that is, if they can even see them).
