Borderlands 2 Community Playthrough (Intro Post and Guide—also, surprise, I’m a widdle early)

[f a n c y]

Ohayo!
A little late but it’s all right
Got some questions for you as you continue the fight
I’m posting Three and Four cuz they’re both short
And I needed more time to fit in the Tiny Tina DLC fuck this I can’t rhyme anymore it’s TOO HARD and sorry for oversleeping and also... yeah. Might combine parts again but the extra week should be all I need. THANKS FOR UNDERSTANDING.

[Omega]

Your rhymes are whack, you think you all that,
BUT WHERE YOU AT GIRL, WHERE YOU AT

[Clement Rage]

Did your character have an ECHO recorder in their inventory when you started? If you listened to it, what does it reveal about the planets other then Pandora? Do you think they're better/worse off then Pandora is? What does it reveal about your character?

What do you think about who Jack qualifies as a bandit? Do you think he has the right idea about how to go about dealing with them?

Yeah, it was just about Zero killing someone and complaining that it wasn't much of a challenge.


Re Qualifying as a bandit, I must have missed that bit of exposition. Was it in the middle of a gunfight?

part 3

How are you handling traversing the Southern Shelf with your Runner? For those in parties, who’s driving and how well do they drive?

Very unintuitive at first. I'm sure I'll get used to it, but I humiliatingly reversed off a cliff while lining up a jump once, and have a lot of trouble in tight corners.

Newbies, what do you think will be your favourite element and why? Vets, what’s your favourite and why?

Corrosion has worked best so far. (See below.)

Who is your favourite personality in Sanctuary and why?

Likely Roland if he was around. I don't know anybody that well yet. Black market guy seems fun.

Have you given the slot machines in Moxxi’s bar a go? If so, how do you like it? Have you found the rewards useful?

Took one look and said 'dammit do you think I'm made of money?'

What would you have named the Bullymongs?

I think I'd call them Snow Spiders. Didn't actually intend to complete this quest, (more Bullymong killing, seriously Hammerlock, get a new hobby) but was ambushed by Bullymong on the way back from my first failed attempt to Assasinate the Assassins, so thought I might as well keep going.)

Then Hammerlock gave me a Corrosive Shield.

Were you able to assassinate the assassins correctly?
How’d you handle this mission?

3/4, possibly 4/4, I'm not sure. This mission was hell, I initially tried to stealth it, because pistol, I thought the Assassin might run if I went in loud. Then I gave up and went loud,but Wat's Badass Psycho Bodyguard killed me a few times. Gave up, then got Corrosive Shield from Hammerlock, which was the only way to defeat Badass Psycho. Wat then gave me trouble because I was trying for a pistol kill in close.

Sniper kill assassin was easier as that's my primary weapon anyway.

Melee kill, I initially didn't even bother trying for, but by coincidence we ended up in close quarters out of ammunition so I had to go for it.

Last assassin was tricky thanks to his Nomad Taskmasters, I basically had to sneak up, take a shot, retreat, sneak back, take another shot, retreat, rinse-repeat. Which would be easier if the enemies didn't respawn behind you. I am not sure if I successfully shotgunned him or if he died of Corrosion. Can I check somehow?

Ran out of bullets multiple times during this engagement. Multiple deaths per assasin, especially Wat and the last one. I'd say twentyish overall.

Story missions fine, except for two humiliating falls over cliffs.

Best part? According to the Echos, they were after an invincible Siren, so the whole mission was pointless in the first place!

I'm kind of wondering why Jack hasn't just flattened Sanctuary already. Clearly he can. Also, I'm getting a lot of respect, in most RPGs you need to do a lot of 'go find my shoes' missions before anyone knows your name.

[Interslicery]

PART 3

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Questions

1. How are you handling traversing the Southern Shelf with your Runner? For those in parties, who’s driving and how well do they drive?
2. Newbies, what do you think will be your favourite element and why? Vets, what’s your favourite and why?
3. Who is your favourite personality in Sanctuary and why?
4. Have you given the slot machines in Moxxi’s bar a go? If so, how do you like it? Have you found the rewards useful?

Bonus Quests & Questions

• The Name Game

1. What would you have named the Bullymongs?

• Assassinate the Assassins

1. Were you able to assassinate the assassins correctly?
2. How’d you handle this mission?

1. It's pretty good once you get used to the controls.
2. My fav is probably corrosive. It's fantastic during a certain section of the game, plus its fun to just see them fade away when they die.
3. I really like Moxxi. 'Cause she's fun, and I like bewbs.
4. I haven't gotten anything useful, but since I never really use my cash for anything, whenever I head back to Sanctionary I always drain all my money into the slots to try and get some iridium.


The Name Game

1. Quadrolangs. A fusion of quad and orangutangs, with some flair in for good measure. My naming skills are lacking.


Assassinate The Assassins

1. All except for the last one... He accidentally got set on fire and thats what finished him off :/
2. I rolled in, kicked names, and took ass. I picked up a orange assault rifle from a bullymong (one shot does more than my sniper rifle lol), so dealing with everything was pretty easy. All enemies went down in seconds, and I was able to lower all the assassins health pretty easily since my rifle was a jacobs, so one click, one shot.
I made sure I didnt sell a shotgun since I knew I needed one, which I didnt actually end up needing, blarg.

[Clement Rage]

pt 4

How’d your fight go with W4R-D3N?
Have you caught onto any more pop culture references? What's been your favourite?
Favourite bit of bandit dialogue that you’ve heard so far?
What have been your least favourite enemies to deal with and why?
Have you been farming the Goliaths and have you managed GOD-liath?
Favourite bit of loot that you’ve picked up so far?
What's been your favourite mission to do so far? How about your least favourite? Why?
What has been your favourite weapon(s) to use so far and why?
What shield and grenade mod do you currently have equipped?
What are your thoughts on the story at this point? (For Newbies) What do you predict will happen?
Got any stories for the community? Tell’em all!

1. Lost in the tower, had to go to prison camp. Hope that doesn't end up with a bad ending or Jack being repaced by a clone or something. The way this autosaves, you can't repeat missions, which is a shame. I died enough times that the respawn point started making fun of me for it.

I was too focused on the Badass Loader in the tower, and not enough on th shield generator. Eventually worked by just making sure missed shots on the loaders would hit the machine, which did enough damage.

2.Not really good a catching that kind of thing.

3.Nothing is coming to mind, sorry.

4.Badass Psychos are tricky because they instantly charge as soon as they spot you, and they seem to be the only enemy that doesn't respond to being shot in the face. Nomads and their variants advance slowly and shoot, making it easier to line up a shot.

5. No, I just snipe them then sit back and watch.

6. My Corrosive Shield. It's obsolete now, which is a shame. A huge help against melee attackers.

7. The bloodshots tower, ignoring the 'find parts for your jeep' bit. More dynamic than the rest, plus we get the first glimpse of Hyperion's military in action. Finally meeting Roland also interesting.

No outright bad story missions yet, but I'm not altogether keen on any of the 'collect X number of things' missions.

8. The sniper rifle from the Bullymong mission. Just because I was looking forward to getting it.

9. Soul of the Fire Hawk and a standard explosion grenade mod.

10. I like Lilith and Roland so far, rest of side characters I could take or leave. Don't know enough about Jack to draw conclusions. Jack has a part of the vault key, so we probably have to steal that. I think the AI is Hyperion made or something Jack has access to somehow, and would not be surprised if either she or Claptrap was hacked and sabotaged us.

A bit over reliant on 'I am going to openly tell you my character gimmick.'

11. Not really. Halfway through the tower I just gave up fighting and ran through the level, ignoring the enemies. Works pretty well if you don't get lost. I can snipe fine, but tend to lose straight fights.

Jakobs guns seem solidly reliable. They don't do anything fancy, but are really good at piling on damage in a hurry.

Didn't deliver mail, collect hood ornaments, or do 'Too close for missiles', did all other missions. I remember hearing somewhere that you can do Claptrap's mission the long way if you like?

[Doom Bunneh]

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Part 3

1. How are you handling traversing the Southern Shelf with your Runner? For those in parties, who’s driving and how well do they drive?
2. Newbies, what do you think will be your favourite element and why? Vets, what’s your favourite and why?
3. Who is your favourite personality in Sanctuary and why?
4. Have you given the slot machines in Moxxi’s bar a go? If so, how do you like it? Have you found the rewards useful?

1. What would you have named the Bullymongs?

1. Were you able to assassinate the assassins correctly?
2. How’d you handle this mission?

(SPOILER) -Our part is usually 3 members (Yop joined us for a bit as well) and generally I drive one Runner (kind of decently, I like to think) and Minato drives the other (as Airling how he drives, I dunno ).
-Oh boy I love me some explosive. I know the damage is never as high as the other elements, but it always works, and sometimes gives me crit damage even when I miss the crit spot, thanks to, you know, the explosion. Second fav would be corrosive though.
-It's a toss-up for me between Moxxi and Hammerlock. Both of them are just so...sassy and classy, albeit in different ways, and so completely sure of themselves. I love it.
-I...forgot they exist. I will have to go try them maybe.

-Oh man, Bonerfarts all the way! That will always be their true name in my heart. A and I reckon that is THE best quest in the entire game .

-We were!
-Yop was with us, and we were all on call, so someone (usually me) would yell out what we're supposed to use next, and everyone who had that would sort of focus on the dude, with the others mostly destroying his lackeys and/or weakening the target.

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Part 4

1. How’d your fight go with W4R-D3N?
2. Have you caught onto any more pop culture references? What's been your favourite?
3. Favourite bit of bandit dialogue that you’ve heard so far?
4. What have been your least favourite enemies to deal with and why?
5. Have you been farming the Goliaths and have you managed GOD-liath?
6. Favourite bit of loot that you’ve picked up so far?
7. What's been your favourite mission to do so far? How about your least favourite? Why?
8. What has been your favourite weapon(s) to use so far and why?
9. What shield and grenade mod do you currently have equipped?
10. What are your thoughts on the story at this point? (For Newbies) What do you predict will happen?
11. Got any stories for the community? Tell’em all!

(SPOILER) -We cheesed it, I think maybe one of us went to FFYL once, and that was about the worst of it.
-I know we did, but I can't remember any except my favourite, which is my pistol. It's called the Unkempt Harold, and the flavour text says "Now did I fire six shots? Or just five? Three? Seven. Whatever." and it fires this spread of about 6 rounds per shot. OH SHIT! I JUST REMEMBERED THAT WE DID THE QUEST WITH THE RATS AND THEY'RE JUST TMNT KNOCK-OFFS AND IT WAS HILARIOUS!
-That probably has to go to "I regret...everything..." when they die.
-Hmm. Everything has been pretty easy, but fuckin' varkids man. God they suck.
-We tried, but either a) we hurt them too much and the silly things die, or b) we manage to get one going, but then we've already killed everyone for them to level on.
-See my gun above. Also my electric smg that I got from the golden chest.
-Everything to do with Tina is amazing, but the bonerfart quest remains my favourite, purely for the jokes. Least favourite was the badass varkid thing for Hammerlock (I think that's a bit ahead though...?)
-All three of my current weapons are tied for first place. I have the pistol which is kind of like a shotgun, but it still has a ridiculously accurate middle-shot round, and it does explosive damage. I have a shotgun from a golden-key chest that fires six shots in around 1.5 seconds, reloads pretty quickly, and just creams anything that gets close to me. and I have a Dahl electric SMG that is surprisingly accurate when zoomed, and just pours damage when not.
-The shield I have is a fire nova shield, nothing special, but it's got decent everything, very balanced. The grenade mod is still a cluster bomb one, but a better one I guess? I dunno, I don't grenades much.
-The story is AWESOME. That is all I have to say.
-We're having tons of fun? I can't think of anything specific we did that was super awesome. Aside from just generally being a good team.

[Joe]

I always drive and Lex and Carlie tend to fight over who gets to ride shotgun. Lex for the most part refuses to drive in any case

[Airling]

(SPOILER)

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Questions

1. How are you handling traversing the Southern Shelf with your Runner? For those in parties, who’s driving and how well do they drive?
2. Newbies, what do you think will be your favourite element and why? Vets, what’s your favourite and why?
3. Who is your favourite personality in Sanctuary and why?
4. Have you given the slot machines in Moxxi’s bar a go? If so, how do you like it? Have you found the rewards useful?

Bonus Quests & Questions

• The Name Game

1. What would you have named the Bullymongs?

• Assassinate the Assassins

1. Were you able to assassinate the assassins correctly?
2. How’d you handle this mission?

1. It gets confusing at times, what with all the layers to the maps, but we're handling it well. Darth and Minato usually drive, and I handle rockets.
2. I love them all, but as usual, I'm partial to fire.
3. Hammerlock
4. Not yet, forgot about those. Did after reading these questions though.

The Name Game
I liked Bonerfarts just fine, "PUBLISHERS"!

Assassinate the Assassins
1. Psssssh, ya. See previous post for info on our teamwork
2. It was pretty rough, tbh. Don't think we ever legit died, but someone was always fighting for their life.

(SPOILER)

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Questions

1. How’d your fight go with W4R-D3N?
2. Have you caught onto any more pop culture references? What's been your favourite?
3. Favourite bit of bandit dialogue that you’ve heard so far?
4. What have been your least favourite enemies to deal with and why?
5. Have you been farming the Goliaths and have you managed GOD-liath?
6. Favourite bit of loot that you’ve picked up so far?
7. What's been your favourite mission to do so far? How about your least favourite? Why?
8. What has been your favourite weapon(s) to use so far and why?
9. What shield and grenade mod do you currently have equipped?
10. What are your thoughts on the story at this point? (For Newbies) What do you predict will happen?
11. Got any stories for the community? Tell’em all!

1. Surprisingly easy. We had good corrosive weapons and just critted his stupid face a few times.
2. Oh man, there are so many that I can't think of anything specific. Mission names are usually where the concentration is highest.
3. Their dying dialogue is very often hilarious. I giggle most at "MIDGE MIDGE NO FINAL WORDS!" and "I'd just paid off my house..."
4. Anything that jumps right onto my weak ass and kills my shield one shot. At this stage of the game, the raging goliaths do that most.
5. We've been trying! But our guys keep dying to their allies
6. So I found this sweet-ass, scoped, corrosive Maliwan pistol that made that W4R-D3N fight a breeze. Then I forgot to star it and accidentally sold it
7. The Firehawk stuff. Because it was so funny how Lilith oscillates between being flattered and disgusted . No least favs, tbh.
8. See nr. 6 and the tragic story of my pistol. I liked it because of the good scope and high accuracy. I'm trying reeeeeaaaaaallly hard to stay away from my trope-worthy bias for sniper rifles, and that baby was a small piece of home.
9. Uhm... Not sure about the grenade one, because I don't even grenades, generally. My shield is currently a corrosive, fuck-off type shield with not a lot going for it.
10. Like the way BL2 gives the first game's PCs a bit more character and flesh.
11. See nr. 6 and the tragic story of my pistol.

[Minato]

(SPOILER) Part 3:

1. I'm enjoying it very well, I do the driving, Airling is on gunner duty and we crash into all the things!
2. Favourite element seems to be corrosive, it's an irreplacable piece of anyone's arsenal.
3. Sir Hammerlock, as his brand of crazy seems the least inexplicably useful.
4. A brief go, I haven't used it much yet but I probably should soon. I gots way to much money on my hands.

The Name Game:

I would have stuck with Feravores.

Assassinate the Assassins:

I bagged a lot of the kills with the sniper rifle I had at the time, and we were able to do it in the correct order.

Part 4:

1. This fight was soon after I picked my new electric shotgun, which spreads joy everywhere it goes with a lasting AoE effect, we cheesed this fight big time!
2. The TMNT reference was sweet, their master Flinter especially! The pun was on point enough that the nebulous puzzle that he required was quickly forgiven.
3. Incinerator Clayton's attempts to interpret the Firehawk's will was pretty amusing. As was Lilith's tolerance for most of their killing and burning.
4. Buzzards, definitely. Good feeling when they go down but I shoot my load off way to quickly.
5. Very tough call, but my electric shotgun would have to be it.
6. Ellie sending us vehicle hunting was probably my favourite. Actually finding Lilith may have been the least favourite part. I waste ammo on stuff that Lilith kills anyway and we're running back and forth from spawn points a lot.
7. The front and backbumper of the Runner are my favorites.
8. Something that increases melee Roid damage when it's depleted. Pretty useful for my assassin. I don't care for grenades.
9. Lilith and Roland's relationship is very sweet. I don't think they'll get a happy ending.
10. Airling sold her corrosive gun and was pent up about it for the entire session yesterday. Especially so since we went up again many many machines from Jack and it could've been very useful.

[f a n c y]

Omega wrote:

Your rhymes are whack, you think you all that,
BUT WHERE YOU AT GIRL, WHERE YOU AT

LOL

Yo
I did not expect any kinda back-chat
But for these rhymes, to you I tip my hat
Word.

Interslicery wrote:

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

1. What would you have named the Bullymongs?

1. Quadrolangs. A fusion of quad and orangutangs, with some flair in for good measure. My naming skills are lacking.

I actually really love this, haha!

Clement Rage wrote:

How’d your fight go with W4R-D3N?

1. Lost in the tower, had to go to prison camp. Hope that doesn't end up with a bad ending or Jack being repaced by a clone or something. The way this autosaves, you can't repeat missions, which is a shame. I died enough times that the respawn point started making fun of me for it.

LOL!! I only laugh because I know this pain all too well.

Now to answer Obsidian's questions!

ObsidianFire wrote:

Questions for Part 1 and 2

Did your character have an ECHO recorder in their inventory when you started? If you listened to it, what does it reveal about the planets other then Pandora? Do you think they're better/worse off then Pandora is? What does it reveal about your character?

What do you think about who Jack qualifies as a bandit? Do you think he has the right idea about how to go about dealing with them?

1. Excellent questions! Well, based on what I heard from Maya's ECHO recorder, I get the sense that Pandora is something of a dumpster fire of a planet. Outsiders don't come in to settle down. It's always in pursuit of something. Pandora's current inhabitants largely seems to be made up of folks who were left behind.

2. If I'm honest with myself, from the standpoint of Hyperion, I could probably empathise with Jack's idea of who or who doesn't constitute as a bandit (if we were using a very broad brush and ticked very broad boxes). That being said, his politics couldn't be further from my own lmao. I've never been a big fan of conflict resolution via mass genocide. Jack is a beautiful metaphor, however, for nations who pride themselves in civility and class, only to turn around and totally brutalise others whom they consider 'lesser' and thus unworthy of humane treatment.

[f a n c y]

double poast because I live on the edge...

Doom Bunneh wrote:

(SPOILER) Yop was with us, and we were all on call, so someone (usually me) would yell out what we're supposed to use next, and everyone who had that would sort of focus on the dude, with the others mostly destroying his lackeys and/or weakening the target.

I really love this hahaha.

Doom Bunneh wrote:

(SPOILER) Everything to do with Tina is amazing, but the bonerfart quest remains my favourite, purely for the jokes. Least favourite was the badass varkid thing for Hammerlock (I think that's a bit ahead though...?)

Minato wrote:

(SPOILER) Airling sold her corrosive gun and was pent up about it for the entire session yesterday. Especially so since we went up again many many machines from Jack and it could've been very useful.

XD. I did a similar fucking thing bc I had a corrosive shield and then

Generally speaking, I'm surprised that folks like corrosive as much as they do! I don't care much for it myself.

To avoid the sinful triple poast, I'mma go ahead and answer my own questions...

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Part 3

1. How are you handling traversing the Southern Shelf with your Runner? For those in parties, who’s driving and how well do they drive?
2. Newbies, what do you think will be your favourite element and why? Vets, what’s your favourite and why?
3. Who is your favourite personality in Sanctuary and why?
4. Have you given the slot machines in Moxxi’s bar a go? If so, how do you like it? Have you found the rewards useful?

1. Were you able to assassinate the assassins correctly?
2. How’d you handle this mission?

(SPOILER)

1. I AM AN EXCELLENT DRIVER AND ALWAYS GET MY PARTY TO OUR DESTINATION IN ONE WHOLE PIECE, AND ANYONE WHO SAYS OTHERWISE IS SPREADING FAKE NEWS. SAD!!

2. My favourite has always been shock.

3. My favourite personality probably goes to Crazy Earl because buying from him is always hilarious.

"Cash is for clowns, boy!" "Who told you 'bout this place?? I'll kill'em!"

4. .......
......
....
...
..
.
I am deeply ashamed at the sheer amount of cash that I have thrown at these things. Forget the respawn fees, this is the real money drain. The eridium has been mostly worth it though. I've gotten 5 jackpots in one (very, very long...)session.

1. By some miracle, yes. I could've sworn the last guy was melee'd, but eh.

2. Not very well. The whole thing was very nervewrecking and I died several times and wanted to quit even more lmao. I ran through the mission twice, once with Mao and the other with B and I wad generally full of dread both times.

fancyT H I C Camore wrote:

Part 4

1. How’d your fight go with W4R-D3N?
2. Have you caught onto any more pop culture references? What's been your favourite?
3. Favourite bit of bandit dialogue that you’ve heard so far?
4. What have been your least favourite enemies to deal with and why?
5. Have you been farming the Goliaths and have you managed GOD-liath?
6. Favourite bit of loot that you’ve picked up so far?
7. What's been your favourite mission to do so far? How about your least favourite? Why?
8. What has been your favourite weapon(s) to use so far and why?
9. What shield and grenade mod do you currently have equipped?
10. What are your thoughts on the story at this point? (For Newbies) What do you predict will happen?
11. Got any stories for the community? Tell’em all!

(SPOILER)
1. Fucking terribly, I don't wanna talk about it lmfao.
2. Nothing stands out at the moment.
3. LOL I love the Nomads. I crack up every time one of them dies and they moan out, 'Bury me with my stuff....' and their vehement dislike of all things smol amuses me. The way they say 'Leave us alone!' also cracks me up for whatever reason.
4. FUCKING. BUZZARDS. Screw those guys! Vardkids are pretty obnoxious, too.
5. I haven't been able to, yet, no.
6. An orange infinity pistol that quickly became useless but maaaaayn.
7. My favourite mission to do has probably been 'Handsome Jack Here!' because it's dark and aptly demonstrates what's at stake should Jack win. My least favourite has been rescuing Roland because I didn't have any corrosive weapons and I kept running out of bullets...
8. Jacobs sniper rifles will never fail you.
9. Honing shock grenade aaannd a shield that absorbs bullets at a success rate of 20%. I kinda hate them both.
10. I'm excited for what's to come!
11. B and I spent a good three hours fucking gambling in sanctuary and I simultaneously have all the regrets and none of the regrets.

[f a n c y]

>Part Five

Chapter 8: A Train to Catch

Location(s) : Tundra Express

Required Sidequest(s)


Bonus Sidequest(s)

• Out of Body Experience
• Splinter Group - rewards you with RokSalt and there’s a possibility of dropping the legendary grenade Storm Front
• Mighty Morphin’
• No Hard Feelings
• You Are Cordially Invited: Party Prep
• ^ You Are Cordially Invited: RSVP
• ^^ You Are Cordially Invited: Tea Party
• Mine, All Mine
• ^ The Pretty Good Train Robbery
• The Good, the Bad, and the Mordecai - rewards you with Moxxi’s Endowment
  

_________________________________

Chapter 9: Rising Action

Location(s) :Sanctuary

Bonus Sidequest(s)

• Bandit Slaughter (All 5 Rounds) - fun challenge by one’s lonesome. Super fun challenge with friends.
• ^ The Ice Man Cometh

_________________________________

Summary and Questions

Summary:
After taking down W4R-D3N, you meet Roland in Sanctuary. You learn that the Vault is actually a dormant creature powerful enough to wipe out all life on Pandora and that Jack is trying to control it. To stop Jack, the Raiders need to take the Vault Key away from Jack.

You travel to Tundra Express to meet with Roland’s spy, Mordecai, who has intel on the Vault Key. With the help of Tiny Tina, another one of Roland’s people, you bomb the train that Mordecai believes the Vault Key is in. In the midst of trying to recover the Key, you realise that you’ve been lead to a trap and face down Wilhelm, the same cyborg who nearly killed the original Vault Hunters in New Haven. Against all odds, you defeat Wilhelm.

Wilhelm drops a power core that you Angel tells you to pick up. You bring it back to Sanctuary to replace the core you brought in earlier. Once it’s popped in, however, Jack tells you a little secret: Angel is working for him. Angel hacks Sanctuary’s system brings its shields, and Hyperion starts to attack. Lith manages to teleport the city away from Jack’s line of attack, but you are deserted in Three Horn’s Divide in the confusion.



Questions

1. Did you lose any cash to any Rats??
2. Did you farm the varkids? If so, did you manage to get to Vermivorous the Invincible (only applicable to those playing TVHM+)?
3. What do you make of Tiny Tina? How about Mordecai?
4. How did your fight with Wihelm go?
5. How do you feel about Angel’s betrayal? Did you see it coming? For Vets, can you remember how you felt?
6. Any reactions to the bonus sidequests (use spoiler tags as necessary )?
7. As always, got any stories from your adventures?

[Obsidian Fire]

So... I'm doing the crazy thing of playing Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode (UVHM) solo! I'll probably highlight some of the differences between that mode and Normal and True Vault Hunter Mode (TVHM). I also have a bunch of Unique/Legedary weapons from previous playthoughs, so expect me to make mention of them.

General Differences aka I hope you know how to use all the stuff in your items slots...
- Enemy HP is 4x higher than Normal Mode (2x higher than TVHM)
- Non boss enemies have a small, flat HP regen effect
- Enemies always scale to your level, Badasses/Bosses are always two levels higher then you
- Slag increases damage taken from non-slag attacks by 3x instead of 2x
- Slag effect lasts 8 seconds longer
- Weapon swap speed increased so that slagging enemies and then swapping is easier
- Bosses have a higher chance to drop their Legendary/Unique items

Part 1
So... this entire Part 1 is skipped in UVHM since in order to even get to it, you need to have played the game twice... So answers are from my previous playthoughs...

Questions
1. Which character did you pick to play as and why?
Gaige, the Mechromancer. I don't have the best hand-eye coordination so I like playing as classes that have ways to augment their damage that don't depend on me. I tend to like pet classes for this reason. The idea of Anarchy goes with this too. It's fun to see a class in an FPS that doesn't rely on having good accuracy.

2. What do you think of the opening sequence? For those who’ve played Borderlands, how does it compare to the first?
I like that we get to see the characters in action, compared to them just rolling in on a bus. "Short Change Hero" feels very dissonant though; it's too understated for the game's tone. "Ain't No Rest For the Wicked" fits the Borderlands feel much better.

3. Immediate impression of the gameplay mechanics?
Normal Mode: Standard FPS with impossible looking guns.

TVHM: FPS with impossible gun behavior.

UVHM: FPS? What FPS? This is an RPG with guns as a stand-in for spells/special abilities.

4. Thoughts on the first bossfight?
Normal Mode was the hardest. You don't have your special ability yet and no good equipment. Bullymongs are also an annoying enemy if you've never played the Borderlands franchise before and don't know how the Critical Hit system works yet.

In TVHM this is a lot easer. You've got your special ability, good equipment and 30+ levels worth of skill point investment. And you're familiar with how bullymongs attack by now.

UVHM just skips this fight...

5. Are you loving or hating Claptrap at this point?
I'm cool with with him. I spent an entire DLC back in Borderlands 1 massacring Claptrap robots, so the "I want to murder Claptrap" bug is out of my system.

I actually do feel sorry that Handsome Jack scrapped his product line. The Claptrap Unit was one of the few non-military based robots we saw in the previous game. We could honestly use more of those...

Part 2
This is where the game actually starts for UVHM.

Questions
1. How was your fight with Boom Bewn?
One of the big ironies of UVHM is that normal enemies are usually bigger problems then the bosses are. The bosses don't have HP regen. So you can actually ignore them to take care of the mobs. The common mobs though? If you don't kill one (or keep up DOTs on it), it will have full HP sooner or later. And then you have start all over again. Basically assume that in addition to killing a boss, you also have to keep yourself from getting overwhelmed by mobs. And that can be hard given that Badasses spawn a lot more often in UVHM...

Killing Boom Bewm themselves was pretty easy. Slagga + Dhalminater + Pendemic shreds through armor. Keep a Rubi on hand for fast healing from the DOTs and make sure you know where all the cover in the area is.

2. How about your fight with Captain Flynt?
Fortunately, there aren't that many cliffs on the ship so long as you stay in the middle so I mostly used the Crit. It's a lot easier to aim then the Hail is. For dealing with mobs, I mostly used a Shock Singularity Grenade. It's really, really noticeable that bosses do not have HP regen.

3. Have you purchased anything from any of the item shops?
Does ammo and HP count? There's still a few Item of the Day skins I haven't managed to pick up for various characters, so I have bought those when they turn up.

4. What has been your favorite weapon(s) to use so far and why?
I've got three "default" weapons that are almost always equipped and a bunch more "backpack" weapons that I swap out as needed. These will get featured when used.

Default Weapons
Swift Hail (Shock): What plaything can you offer me today?
My bread-and-butter weapon. It's got 200% Critical Hit damage, splash damage for 80% damage and heals the user for 3% damage dealt. And if the bullet travels far enough, it splits in two! The draw-back is that the gun doesn't fire straight, but in a high arc. This is actually okay for Gaige as the Anarchy accuracy loss doesn't effect guns with custom firing patterns as bad. And besides, aiming the gun at the floor causes the arc to be low instead of high. Great gun for hitting people behind cover.

Akurate Slagga: blagaga
My slagging weapon. It fires three bullets per ammo. And its chance to slag is 26.5% per bullet. It's really easy to get things slagged with this and keep them slagged which makes boss fights a lot easier.

Elegant Rubi (Shock): Whenever I'm caught between two evils, I take the one I've never tried.
My healing weapon. It heals the user for 12% of the damage they deal while it's the active weapon in hand. This isn't just the damage done by the gun though. This is all damage dealt by the user. So DOTs and grenade damage get healed as well. Given how many DOTs Gaige has going on at once, this easily heals me to full HP. I should probably use it more often then I do.

Featured Backpack Weapon
Practicable Conference Call (Shock): Let's just ping everyone all at once.
Take a shotgun and make every pellet fired from it spawn two more pellets after it's traveled far enough or after it hits something. Only when it splits in two, the new pellets travel at right angles to the old one. Now give that gun to someone who has a skill that causes bullets to have a 50% chance to ricochet to targets. This is a great gun for dealing with lots of close-up enemies (like right after the Black Hole goes nova) or for dealing with bosses that have very large hitboxes.

5. What shield and grenade mod do you currently have equipped?
Shield: Grounded Black Hole: You are the center of the universe.
Think what would happen if you gave Shock Nova Shield the pull-in effect of a Singularity grenade. Then give that to a character who has skills that boost Shock damage and recharges shields to max whenever an enemy is killed...

Grenade Mod: Fire Storm: What manner of man are you that can summon up fire without flint or tinder?
Yes, this is the grenade version of the D&D spell. This shoots out a fireball and then four more fireballs rain down where ever the initial fireball landed. So be careful aiming it! It's great for thinning out bandit nests before you go into them.

Picking a favorite grenade mod is really hard. I've got five grenade mods I swap out based on what I'm fighting. So far, that's mostly been fleshy enemies that are weak to fire... I'll probably detail the other grenades I use as the enemies change.

6. What are your thoughts on the story at this point? (For Newbies) What do you predict will happen?
The first time I played it, I thought it was interesting that the game had what looked like was going to be an actual villain. Borderlands 1 never really did; instead it started out as a bunch of random people treasure hunting. While the Atlas Corp. opposed the Vault Hunters, they weren't all that personally interested in the Vault Hunters until the DLC. Handsome Jack is very different from that.

7. What skills have you unlocked so far in your skill tree (if any)? What do you hope to achieve with your build?
I'm at a Lvl 51... so I'm well into my build (thank goodness!). I've traveled all the way up Gaige's Little Big Trouble tree focusing mostly on Elemental damage, specifically Electrical damage. I've gotten enough skills in the Ordered Chaos tree to get the Rational Anarchist/Discord combo going. The HP regen from that is a god-send. As for Best Friends Forever... I've barley just gotten into that tree. I haven't even gotten Close Enough maxed out as the damage from Little Big Trouble is much more important in Normal and TVHM then the defense from Best Friends Forever. But now in UVHM? Yeah... I want that defense so bad...

8. What are your thoughts on Handsome Jack so far?
One of the best Affably Evil villains I've seen. He's genuinely funny and polite, but man... when he goes bad, he goes bad.

9. How about the AI communicating with you? Oh Angel... *hugs*

10. Got anything in particular that you want to share with the community?
I really like how the game starts in a snowy region. It's a huge contrast to how Borderlands 1 started in a desert (and stayed in one for the most part).

Bonus Quests and Questions

Bad Hair day
1. How did you handle getting the hair from the Bullymongs?
Ooooh boy... This is one of those quests that works fine in Normal mode but in UVHM... ouch. Meelee attacks do almost nothing in UVHM and the mobs have HP regen. Most of it was luck. And doing this mission at the same time as Sybiosis as there's lots of bullymongs in that area as well.

2. Who did you end up giving the hair to? Why?
Hammerlock. I turned in this one and Symbiosis at the same time. Claptrap was over in the bandit areas by this time. Which is annoying to deal with. That and sniper rifles usually sell for more money then shotguns do.

Symbiosis
1. How many times did you die before killing that boss (if at all)?
What boss? Oh, you mean the Super Badasses that spawned when I opened the area where the vending machines were. I think I died once fighting those, Deathtrap is a (literal) lifesaver. It's getting to the point where every time I fight a boss I have to tell myself to respect the mobs.

2. What do you think of the mission overall? Was the loot worth the trouble?
The badass ranks I got from completing the area challenges were worth it. I'd forgotten I hadn't finished them when I got to the area. Also, free Exp is free Exp. Leveling up and getting more points to spend on skills is really important.

My questions!
Did your character have an ECHO recorder in their inventory when you started? If you listened to it, what does it reveal about the planets other then Pandora? Do you think they're better/worse off then Pandora is? What does it reveal about your character?
Gaige doesn't have an ECHO recorder, but she does have ECHO logs up on YouTube. Gaige is from Eden-6, one of the more stable worlds. However, their police force is corrupt and bribery seems to be a thing.

Gaige seems like a genius who hasn't had a dose of failure to mature her. She doesn't seem to think about the consequences of things just yet. On the other hand... she's a teenager...

What do you think about who Jack qualifies as a bandit? Do you think he has the right idea about how to go about dealing with them?
People who actually live on Pandora seem to have a pretty good idea of who is a bandit and who isn't. Most of it seems to come down to if a group of people is willing to talk with other people first or just flat out want them dead. While there isn't a lot of order, there's some order and that's better then nothing.

Jack doesn't care about any of that. As far as he's concerned, the only order that matters is the order he brings. The ironic part is that the non-bandits of Pandora don't seem to mind order in and of itself, but they do care about who is bringing it and why. Jack doesn't care about what the Pandoras want so whatever kind of order he tries to bring is probably doomed to fail.

It doesn't help that Pandora has a history of being abandoned by the corporations either. They've got no good reason to trust that Jack and Hyperion will want to stay while there's non-corporation people on Pandora that do pay attention to how things work on Pandora and are willing to work within that system. In short, there's a lot better candidates for dealing with the bandit problem then Jack. And Jack manages to piss all of them off.

[Obsidian Fire]

Part 3 and 4 Questions

The people of Sanctuary trust you very quickly. Do you feel like you've earned it?

How do you feel about Marcus supplying both sides of the Crimson Raiders vs. Bandits conflict?

Part 5 Questions

How easy did you think getting the power core was?

[Clement Rage]

Update to last post: I think I found a pop culture reference. Subtle, but if you're watching for it, I think you might notice something about the 'Splinter Group' mission.

Also, my favourite bandit dialogue is probably the frustrated 'Leave us alone!' after you harass the same encampment multiple times.

pt 5

Did you lose any cash to any Rats??
Did you farm the varkids? If so, did you manage to get to Vermivorous the Invincible (only applicable to those playing TVHM+)?
What do you make of Tiny Tina? How about Mordecai?
How did your fight with Wihelm go?
How do you feel about Angel’s betrayal? Did you see it coming? For Vets, can you remember how you felt?
Any reactions to the bonus sidequests (use spoiler tags as necessary )?
As always, got any stories from your adventures?

1. Not that I noticed, but I stopped playing soon after entering the Fridge.
2. No, I'm ignoring them as much as possible.
3. Love explosions and varkid killing respectively. Tina's been cracked by living on Pandora like everyone else. Given the bandit camp right outside her door, she has a thrillseeking edge or a deathwish.

4. He kicked the crap out of me, naturally, but I was still disappointed in him as an 'ultimate right hand man.' The way he was built up, I thought this was an intentionally unwinnable bossfight, so was reluctant to port out because he seemed very beatable. In the end I couldn't wear him down quickly enough, but I came back with a corrosive gun and squashed him after some sidequests. Hope that was his identical twin brother or something.

5. I did. Lilith and Roland were like 'run, it's Wilhelm' but the AI was like 'come on, you can take him', which was very out of character. I had actually heard that Jack had a daughter named Angel (in an unrelated discussion about Infinity War), but didn't connect that to the AI. I didn't suspect it enough to do the Sanctuary quests before putting in the power core, though.

side quests 'Splinter Group' was awesome and fun.

'Out of body Experience' was surprisingly easy and fun, I just plugged in the machine, then ran away and let the locals destroy it.

dinner party

I couldn't listen to the whole thing as I was busy shooting stuff, but this goes deep into how broken Tina is. If you die, you respawn too far away to finish the mission, so you have to do it right. Fire Nova SHields helped a lot.



Got so much money from the train robbery, but you lose it surprisingly quickly. Guns amazingly easy to defeat.

7. Think I told most of them. I ignored Hammerlock's mission as it was just killing more random monsters. I'm very bad at selling things I don't need, so my backpack is always full. Does the plot change at all if you play a Siren?

Part 3 and 4 Questions

The people of Sanctuary trust you very quickly. Do you feel like you've earned it?

How do you feel about Marcus supplying both sides of the Crimson Raiders vs. Bandits conflict?

Part 5 Questions

How easy did you think getting the power core was?

I feel like I should be earning trust at about 'rescuing Roland' time(just before we screw up), but you get it a lot earlier. One of the things that we're praised for is 'meeting Jack and lived' even though if the Opening is right we actually didn't.

Marcus is an arms dealer on Pandora. Can't really expect anything else.

Too easy, definitely. I lost a lot because I'm bad at this, but the dreaded Wilhelm isn't nearly as undefeatable as his rep, he just carries a lot of shield regenerating machines.

Hope Roland is alive.