Mind Sweeper in Borderlands 3: Best Build, Drops & Strategy

The Mind Sweeper is one of the most powerful class mods for Moze in Borderlands 3, offering unrivaled explosive potential through its unique micro-grenade mechanic. Ideal for crit-heavy and grenade-centric builds, it enables devastating chain reactions that dominate boss fights and mobbing scenarios alike. In this guide, you’ll learn how Mind Sweeper works, where to farm it efficiently, how to build Moze around it, and what gear to pair for maximum destructive synergy.


Understanding Mind Sweeper Basics

What is the Mind Sweeper Class Mod?

The Mind Sweeper is a legendary class mod in Borderlands 3, specifically tailored for the Vault Hunter Moze. This class mod is part of the DLC content introduced in the Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck expansion, and it stands out for its explosive potential and synergy with Moze’s grenade and critical hit mechanics.

Core Functionality

The primary mechanic of the Mind Sweeper is its unique ability to spawn micro grenades. When Moze scores a critical hit, there is a chance for a micro grenade to drop. These grenades detonate shortly after appearing, dealing splash damage to nearby enemies. This effect can chain across multiple targets, making it especially potent in mobbing scenarios.

The micro grenades inherit Moze’s grenade damage bonuses, meaning they scale with various skills and gear that boost splash or grenade damage. Additionally, the Mind Sweeper promotes a high-risk, high-reward playstyle that rewards precision and aggressive combat.

Stat Bonuses

Like other class mods, the Mind Sweeper provides up to three passive stat bonuses, which can vary depending on the roll. These bonuses may include:

• Weapon Critical Hit Damage
• Grenade Damage
• Splash Damage
• Fire Rate
• Magazine Size

These stat boosts further enhance Moze’s damage output, especially when paired with weapons and skills that benefit from crits and explosive effects.

Skill Boosts

The Mind Sweeper class mod enhances up to three of Moze’s passive skills from her skill trees. These commonly include:

• Fire in the Skag Den (Bottomless Mags Tree): Grants bonus incendiary damage on splash damage hits.
• Pull the Holy Pin (Demolition Woman Tree): Gives grenades a chance to crit, which can synergize with the micro grenades.
• Torgue Cross-Promotion (Demolition Woman Tree): Increases the chance for splash damage to deal double damage.

The skill boosts are crucial in maximizing the Mind Sweeper’s damage potential, especially when focusing on splash and grenade synergy.

Synergies with Moze’s Skills

The Mind Sweeper is most effective when used in conjunction with builds that capitalize on Moze’s massive explosive potential. Skills in the Demolition Woman tree, such as Short Fuse and Grizzled, complement the micro grenade mechanic by increasing damage and reducing cooldowns. Meanwhile, Means of Destruction allows for ammo and grenade regeneration, keeping the explosive loop going.

Combining the Mind Sweeper with a build centered around critical hits and splash damage allows Moze to dish out enormous area-of-effect damage, making her a formidable force in both boss fights and crowd control situations.

Obtaining the Mind Sweeper

The Mind Sweeper class mod is a Legendary-tier item in Borderlands 3, designed specifically for the Vault Hunter Moze. Acquiring this powerful mod can significantly boost explosive damage builds and critical hit performance, making it a high-priority item for players focused on maximizing Moze's firepower. Below are the key methods and strategies for obtaining the Mind Sweeper.

Drop Locations

The Mind Sweeper class mod is part of the general world drop loot pool, but it also has dedicated sources that offer improved chances of acquisition. It is most notably farmed from:

• Agonizer 9000 – Located in the Guts of Carnivora on Pandora.
• World Drops – Any enemy, loot source, or boss capable of dropping Legendary class mods may yield the Mind Sweeper, especially in Mayhem Mode.
• Loot Chests and Vending Machines – While rare, the Mind Sweeper can appear in high-tier loot chests or vending machines under the right conditions, especially when Mayhem modifiers are active.

Farming Methods

To increase the chances of obtaining the Mind Sweeper, players often use the following farming routes and techniques:

• Boss Farming – Repeatedly defeating Agonizer 9000 is one of the most efficient methods due to its higher drop rate for class mods.
• Mayhem Mode – Activating higher Mayhem Levels (Mayhem 4 and above) increases both the drop rate and the quality of loot, improving the chances of finding the Mind Sweeper.
• TVHM (True Vault Hunter Mode) – This mode provides a higher challenge and better loot drops, stacking well with Mayhem Mode for optimal farming conditions.
• Loot Room Resets – Opening and resetting loot-heavy areas such as Jacob’s Estate or the Maliwan Blacksite can yield class mods, including the Mind Sweeper.

Drop Rates

While exact drop percentages are not publicly confirmed by Gearbox, community testing suggests:

• Agonizer 9000: ~10–15% chance to drop a class mod, with a smaller percentage allocated to the Mind Sweeper specifically.
• World Drops: Significantly lower due to the vast pool of possible legendary items, estimated at under 1% chance for a specific mod.
• Mayhem Scaling: Higher Mayhem Levels can increase the likelihood of legendary drops by up to 1000%, making farming much more efficient.

Best Farming Strategies

To maximize your efficiency when farming the Mind Sweeper, consider the following tips:

• Equip Loot-Boosting Gear – Use gear with increased luck or drop rate modifiers such as the "Loaded Dice" artifact or specific Guardian Rank perks.
• Use Moze’s Speed Builds – If using Moze to farm, equip a build that increases movement speed and boss damage to reduce farming time.
• Multiplayer Farming – Farming in a group increases enemy density and loot drops, which can accelerate the process of finding the Mind Sweeper.
• Save/Exit Method – After defeating Agonizer 9000, save and exit to reset the encounter quickly. This is faster than replaying entire missions.
• Loot the Vault – After defeating bosses, don’t forget to loot the Eridian Vault behind them, as it can contain high-tier legendaries, including class mods.

By combining these methods and strategies, players can efficiently farm the Mind Sweeper class mod to enhance Moze's explosive potential in Borderlands 3.

Building Around Mind Sweeper

To maximize the potential of the Mind Sweeper class mod in Borderlands 3, it's essential to build Moze in a way that complements its unique mechanics. The Mind Sweeper is best known for its ability to spawn micro-grenades from critical hits, which detonate shortly after appearing. These grenades scale with grenade damage, which opens up numerous possibilities for synergy within Moze’s skill trees and gear loadouts. Below, we'll explore how to effectively build around this powerful mod.

Core Skill Tree Synergies

Mind Sweeper synergizes most effectively with Moze’s Demolition Woman and Bottomless Mags trees:

Demolition Woman Tree

This is the primary tree to invest in when using Mind Sweeper. Key skills include:

• Pull the Holy Pin – Increases grenade critical hit chance, making spawned micro-grenades even deadlier.
• Torgue Cross-Promotion – Grants a chance for explosive damage to deal double the damage. This can apply to the micro-grenades for massive AoE bursts.
• Short Fuse – Adds a secondary explosion to gun damage, which can trigger more micro-grenade procs, creating a chain reaction of explosions.

Bottomless Mags Tree

This tree helps sustain damage and maintain firepower:

• Cloud of Lead – Occasionally adds incendiary damage to shots, which can trigger micro-grenade procs.
• Some for the Road – Grants infinite ammo after exiting Iron Bear, allowing continuous critical hits without reloading, increasing the number of micro-grenades spawned.
• Forge – Regenerates ammo over time, enabling sustained critical fire.

Recommended Weapons

To maximize Mind Sweeper’s effectiveness, use weapons with high critical hit frequency and fast fire rates. Some top-tier weapon choices include:

• Redistributor (Shock SMG) – When paired with the Seein’ Dead mod, this weapon can chain damage across multiple enemies and trigger several micro-grenades.
• Lucian’s Call / Rowan’s Call – These weapons return ammo and ricochet bullets on critical hits, helping maintain a constant stream of critical shots.
• Flipper – A Maliwan SMG that fires multiple projectiles, increasing overall crit chance and micro-grenade spawns.

Ideal Grenade Mods

Since Mind Sweeper's micro-grenades scale with grenade damage, boosting this stat is essential. Grenade mods to consider:

• Cloning Maddening Tracker – Splits into multiple homing grenades that track enemies, synergizing well with grenade damage bonuses.
• Storm Front – Deals consistent shock damage over time, great for stripping shields while micro-grenades handle health bars.

Shield and Artifact Pairings

Shield Recommendations

• Transformer – Converts shock damage into shields, providing defense against your own explosions.
• Big Boom Blaster – Drops booster grenades and rockets when damaged; these can synergize with explosive builds.

Artifact Recommendations

• Victory Rush – Boosts damage after killing a badass, useful for maintaining momentum in explosive builds.
• Otto Idol – Grants life steal on kill, helping with survivability in the midst of all the chaos.

Playstyle Suggestions

Using Mind Sweeper requires a fast-paced, aggressive playstyle focused on landing critical hits and positioning yourself to avoid self-damage from the micro-grenades. Moze players should:

• Aim for weak spots consistently to maximize grenade spawns.
• Keep moving to avoid AoE backlash from explosions.
• Utilize Iron Bear strategically—either to clear rooms or activate skills like Some for the Road.

Performance Optimization Tips

• Prioritize gear that increases grenade damage, splash damage, or explosive radius.
• Look for anointments such as “+150% grenade damage when Iron Bear is active” or “While under 50% health, deal 150% bonus radiation damage.”
• Optimize Moze’s skill points to enhance survivability and sustain in chaotic encounters.

By building Moze around the explosive potential of the Mind Sweeper class mod, players can unleash devastating chain reactions that obliterate groups of enemies with ease. The key lies in maximizing critical hit frequency and enhancing grenade damage through skills and gear.

Weapon Recommendations

Mind Sweeper’s unique effect—spawning micro-grenades on critical hits—makes it highly synergistic with weapons that have high fire rates, large magazine sizes, and the ability to score frequent critical hits. The goal is to maximize the number of micro-grenade procs to capitalize on the mod’s explosive potential.

Recommended Weapons:

• Flipper (SMG) – This Maliwan SMG fires multiple projectiles per shot, greatly increasing the chance to trigger micro-grenades. Its high fire rate and elemental versatility make it a top-tier choice.
• Redistributor (SMG) – Excellent for critical hit-focused builds, especially when paired with Zane’s abilities in multiplayer. While not tailored to Moze, in co-op synergy, it can still shine.
• Light Show (Pistol) – Fires four projectiles per shot in a tight spread with a very high fire rate. This makes it ideal for crit-farming enemies and maximizing the Mind Sweeper’s effect.
• Lucian’s Call / Rowan’s Call (Assault Rifles) – Both rifles return ammo and ricochet bullets on critical hits, which synergizes well with Moze’s ammo-sustain builds. Each ricochet has a chance to trigger micro-grenades, amplifying damage.
• Hellshock (Pistol) – A strong elemental choice that can bounce between enemies, increasing hit opportunities.

Shield Combinations

Mind Sweeper benefits from shields that either enhance survivability during aggressive gameplay or contribute to Moze’s damage output. Since Moze often relies on shield breaks or low health for damage boosts, picking the right shield is crucial.

Recommended Shields:

• Transformer – Converts shock damage into shields, creating near-immunity to shock and excellent synergy with self-damage weapons or elemental environments.
• Bloodletter (paired with a Mind Sweeper hybrid build) – While not typically combined, this can work in hybrid builds where shield regeneration is crucial and the micro-grenade damage is a supplement.
• Re-Charger – Automatically refills the shield after depletion, allowing Moze to stay in the fight longer and sustain her health pool.
• Old God – This shield increases elemental damage, which can boost the damage output of certain weapons Moze uses with Mind Sweeper.

Artifact Pairings

Artifacts can significantly augment the strengths of a Mind Sweeper build, particularly with boosts to elemental damage, magazine size, or explosive effects.

Top Artifact Options:

• Victory Rush – Grants bonus movement speed and damage after killing a badass enemy. Since Mind Sweeper excels in causing chain explosions, this buff is frequently active.
• Otto Idol – Provides life steal on kill, helping Moze stay alive in the thick of combat, especially useful when combined with high kill potential from micro-grenades.
• White Elephant – Melee attacks apply sticky bombs that explode after a delay. While not directly synergistic, in melee builds, it can add another layer of explosive damage.
• Rocket Boots or Snowdrift – For increased mobility, especially in maps that require fast farming or repositioning during boss fights.

Compatible Armor Pieces

In Borderlands 3, while armor sets are not technically separate gear pieces like in other RPGs, the combination of Moze’s class mod (Mind Sweeper) with certain passive skills and anointments can act as a form of “armor synergy.” When choosing COM rolls and gear anointments, look for stats that enhance:

• Splash damage
• Critical hit damage
• Grenade damage
• Magazine size
• Weapon type-specific boosts (e.g., SMG damage, pistol damage)

Synergizing these stats with the Mind Sweeper's micro-grenade mechanic ensures that each critical hit contributes to an overwhelming cascade of explosive damage, making Moze a powerhouse in mobbing and bossing scenarios alike.

Advanced Tips and Strategies

Maximizing Explosive Potential

One of the most powerful aspects of the Mind Sweeper class mod is its ability to spawn micro grenades on critical hits. These micro grenades deal significant splash damage, making them incredibly effective in both mobbing and bossing scenarios. To fully leverage this mechanic, players should focus on increasing critical hit chances and splash damage bonuses.

Investing in skills like 'Some for the Road', 'Fire in the Skag Den', and 'Torgue Cross-Promotion' amplifies the effectiveness of both the micro grenades and Moze’s overall explosive output. Additionally, using weapons with high critical hit rates—such as Jakobs assault rifles or sniper rifles—can increase the frequency of micro grenade spawns, leading to a chain reaction of explosions.

Synergy with Splash-Damage Weapons

Mind Sweeper shines brightest when paired with splash-damage-heavy weapons. Torgue-manufactured guns, such as the Ogre (AR) or the Flakker (shotgun), are particularly effective. These weapons not only benefit from Moze’s splash damage bonuses but also frequently trigger the Mind Sweeper’s micro grenade mechanic.

To further enhance this synergy, consider incorporating the 'Means of Destruction' and 'Pull the Holy Pin' skills from Moze’s Demolition Woman tree. These skills provide ammo regeneration and increased grenade crit chance, both of which sustain and amplify Mind Sweeper’s damage output.

Modifying Playstyle for Critical Hits

Since Mind Sweeper’s unique effect is tied to critical hits, adjusting your playstyle to prioritize headshots and precision shots becomes essential. This makes the mod more suitable for players who prefer an accurate, tactical approach rather than a spray-and-pray style.

For players who want to maximize critical hit uptime, equipping weapons with crit bonuses or scopes can help maintain consistent micro grenade activation. Combining this with the skill 'Short Fuse', which adds additional explosive damage on hit, creates a devastating layering of explosive effects.

Managing Ammo Consumption

A common challenge when using Mind Sweeper in conjunction with high-fire-rate or explosive weapons is rapid ammo depletion. To counteract this, players should heavily invest in ammo regeneration skills. Key choices include 'Redistribution', 'Click, Click...', and 'Forge', all of which help maintain ammo supply during prolonged firefights.

Moreover, pairing Mind Sweeper with the Blast Master class mod situationally (especially while farming) can be useful if ammo regeneration becomes a limiting factor. While Blast Master lacks the micro grenade effect, it passively increases splash damage over time, offering a more sustainable alternative during long engagements.

Elemental Combinations

Mind Sweeper builds can benefit greatly from elemental damage stacking. Skills like 'Stoke the Embers' and 'Cloud of Lead' enhance fire damage, which synergizes well with incendiary weapons. Moreover, using anointments such as “While Iron Bear is active, gain increased elemental damage” can further boost overall DPS.

This opens up elemental build variations, where players use weapons like the Cutsman (Shock or Incendiary) or the Lucian’s Call (Fire variant) to balance between elemental status effects and micro grenade bursts, creating a hybrid build that excels in both mobbing and single-target scenarios.

Defensive Considerations

Despite its offensive strengths, Mind Sweeper offers no inherent defensive bonuses. Players should compensate by equipping shields and artifacts that provide survivability. The Stop-Gap or Transformer shield can mitigate damage effectively, while artifacts like the Victory Rush or Pearl of Ineffable Knowledge boost damage output and provide passive bonuses that enhance sustained combat.

Additionally, allocating points into the Bottomless Mags tree ensures more uptime and better control over engagements, thanks to the added magazine size and heat management benefits when using alternate firing modes or heavy weapons.

Group Play Strategies

In co-op settings, Mind Sweeper excels when Moze plays a hybrid damage-support role. The AoE from micro grenades can clear mobs quickly, allowing teammates to focus on objectives or higher-priority targets. To avoid friendly fire or accidental damage boosts to allies, it’s helpful to communicate positioning and avoid overlapping splash zones.

For synergy with teammates, coordinate with characters like Zane who can debuff enemies or FL4K who can apply status effects, enabling Moze to finish off targets with explosive crits. This team-oriented strategy enhances overall burst damage and crowd control.

Endgame Optimization

For Mayhem Mode or True Vault Hunter Mode, Mind Sweeper remains one of the top-tier class mods for Moze due to its explosive scaling and synergy with endgame gear. To optimize your build:

• Prioritize gear with splash and crit bonuses.
• Use grenade and weapon anointments that trigger during or after Iron Bear usage.
• Time Iron Bear activation to coincide with mob waves or boss phases for maximum damage boost.
• Stack Guardian Rank perks like 'Dead Man Walking' and 'Hollow Point' for even further crit and AoE enhancements.

Combining these strategies ensures that Mind Sweeper remains a dominant choice throughout all stages of the game, especially when paired with finely tuned gear and a precision-focused playstyle.

The Mind Sweeper is a top-tier class mod for Moze players focused on explosive, crit-heavy playstyles in Borderlands 3. When paired with the right gear, skills, and farming strategies, it unlocks a chain-reaction damage potential capable of obliterating hordes and bosses alike. Whether you're reworking your Moze build or hunting for high-Mayhem loot, mastering the Mind Sweeper can take your gameplay to explosive new levels. Dive in, farm it now, and melt everything in your path!