As a superfan of Borderlands game, to be honest, I never thought that I would back to loot farming a full 7 years after the initial release of Borderlands 2 (BL 2). And yet, now here we are. When the new DLC (Downloadable Content), Commander Lilith And the Fight for Sanctuary, appeared in June, I checked in with this game in preparation for Borderlands 3. And not only did I get attracted right back into its epic tiered loot system, but also this time the obsession has also gone much deeper. I have been doing solo runs of the raid bosses using Legendary gear, diving into years worth of old forum threads to create my perfect build. I never had the opportunity to defeat any of the Invincibles in this game before (Dexiduous, Hyperious, Master Gee, Pyro Pete, Son of Crawmerax, Terramorphous, Voracidous, and now, Haderax), because in the past I could never manage to coordinate a full group of people to take them down at once. But along with the improved legendary drops implemented in the past few years, and now, it's possible to quickly farm a meticulous build designed specifically to defeat a raid boss on your own. And of course, with such an active and robust community surrounding Borderlands 2 loot farming, it’s as if there’s an entire world in the game I never knew really existed.
Now the Borderlands 3 has already made some momentous changes for loot hunters, for instance, including loot instancing and the lost loot system, which saves your drops after a boss fight in case the connection times out or the item clips through the floor. These alone will massively free BL 3 players up to farm for loot and without worried about wasting their time. But after all the hours I have spent recently, I also have some ideas of my own. And now here is what Gearbox Software can do to improve the Borderlands 3 experience (And, apparently, besides fire Randy Pitchford. Haha).
The first of all is: SWAPPABLE GEAR PROFILES
First of all, an excellent method to encourge the obession with loot farming would be to let players to create gear profiles. Though the challenge of creating a well-balanced character is pretty fun, it would be great to organize Borderlands 3 items into sets for much quicker use. Storing them up with a little star to put them at the top of the load list just isn't cutting it. After all, there are various factors to consider, for example, class, grenade mods, relics, shields and weapons. Cause you know, in this game, the combinations and permutations are just endless.
Due to the environment in Borderlands reliably group a lot of similar enemies together, sets could be designed and then to meet specific gameplay challenges, for instance, armored vs. unarmored, and also could be swapped out as needed. Now that each player has three action skills that can be switched out, maybe they could be also tied to a gear profile. By doing that, it would dramatically reduce the amount of time spent equipping loot for different boss runs, or respeccing a character altogether, and just that alone would make it worth it. I would probably make better use of all my loot if I could "set it and forget it."
The secondly is: CYCLABLE GRENADE MODS
At this point in my loot obsession, I have got at least 10 different grenade mods, and all of them have particular uses. And sometimes I have to swap them out as quickly or frequently as my guns. But the issue is, the only selection to do so is through the inventory, which is a pretty time-consuming process in solo games, and in multiplayers, this would be a pretty much rude process.
But the freedom to quickly use one and then the other could be essential to the final victory, and the mods of grenade are just as important to your character build as guns. Therefore, there should be an selection for cycling through your grenades, pretty similar to how you can swap through weapons. Just as with gear profiles, it would help make full use of all your prized looted items in Borderlands 3.
The thirdly is: AS MANY BANK AND BACKPACK SLOTS AS THE PLAYER CAN GRIND FOR
I do not want to admit it at all, but there is no way that any single character could hold every piece of Legendary loot in the game of Borderlands 2. The Backpack and Bank top out too fast to store them all in one time. Though some people would say this is a relative fair way to make the player prioritize their weapons, it's often hard to know what will stand out from the others over time. I'd have twice as many items to farm right now if I had not held onto everything with red text, even if it seemed useless. That strategy paid off, but of course, not for years.
The price for the highest upgrades to the Bank and Backpack is pretty much high, but to be honest, worth it (and easily achieved) and once you are in the much higher levels of the game and loot farming frequently. If a player has the Eridium, then they should be able to keep purchasing slots, no matter how expensive it gets, It's the best way to make sure the player values every high-value drop they ever get.
The fourth is: MORE SETS
The Commander Lilith DLC(Downloadable Content) is promising in that it brought something to the game I have never seen before: sets. The Effervescent tier has a weapon, shield and relic set that increases damage and intensifies the player's running speed when all three items are in use. There is also a set dropped by Haderax the Invincible for use at Digistruct Peak, where players can run levels to reach the new 80 level cap. I have always liked these little bonuses for collecting and holding onto set pieces; they reward the player for being a packrat, which adds value to the process itself. Meanwhile, it also adds to the lore of the items, an important part of establishing what sets the Legendary items apart from the Common ones.
Last but not least: LOOT DUELS
That would be the coolest thing you ever met if you could duel other players for loot in Borderlands 3, right? At the moment, the Borderlands 2 dueling system does not offer too much in the way of rewards, other than bragging about rights and the chance to smack another player in the mouth. But what if you could raise the stakes by putting up a piece of loot? Or maybe even participate in a duel tournament for a bit of Gearbox-issued Legendary loot? There should be more chances to earn loot through means other than just farming, particularly in ways that interact with other BL 3 players. With over one "BILLION" Borderlands 3 guns coming to this game, it could stand to place some additional hype on the special ones. And making us fight an unpredictable human opponent for a piece of loot that only one person can possess would be a nice way to do that.
As the game becomes awash in randomized prefixes and modifiers, retaining some sense of individuality for some of the gear will be needed. If without it, the game may risk undermining its original appeal. Maybe some of these will still appear in the new game, and perhaps they will not. But for now, a loot farmer can dream for sure.
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