June was a big month for Borderlands 3. Not only did Gearbox launch the third DLC Bounty of Blood, for the popular looter-shooter but alongside the DLC Gearbox also introduced a large number of changes to Mayhem Mode to improve the endgame grind.
Originally announced in May, Gearbox has been hard at work taking fan feedback into consideration when tweaking the Mayhem system, which was rather lackluster for the first part of the game's life-cycle. Now that Mayhem 2.0 is officially here, it has made gameplay exponentially better, and is almost night-and-day different from where the game first started.
The Flaws of Mayhem 1.o
Mayhem Mode was flawed from the start in Borderlands 3. Originally, the game launched with three Mayhem levels that were unlocked after completing the main campaign. Mayhem 1.0 randomly rolled modifiers every time players loaded into an instance for the first time, and frankly they weren't great. Most modifiers existed to hamper the player experience and inflate difficulty to an annoying point.
Whether it was reducing damage types, or restricting weapon loadouts by reducing specific gun type damage outputs, the experience was overall not great, and the rewards weren't worth the effort - doubly so when Gearbox launched Mayhem 4. Weapons weren't identified as high-Mayhem weapons, and certain play styles did not thrive on Mayhem 3+ difficulty - especially when it came to pet and Action Skill damage. For a game that supposedly held its action skills on par with its obscene amount of guns, the action skills were seemingly left in the dust in Mayhem 1.0.
A key part of Borderlands 3's gameplay loop is acquiring and using anointed weapons to deal more damage and overcome tougher foes. Anointment became the name of the Mayhem 1.0 game, and action skills became a vessel to proc anointment rather than deal damage. Moze's Iron Bear mech was laughably weak and couldn't take hits from Mayhem 3+ enemies.
Zane's Clone and Drone both failed to dish out damage, and Zane was forced to rely on one or two anointment and one specific class mod to stay viable. FL4K's pets were down more than they were up and fighting. Amara's melee build became weaker and weaker as she climbed the Mayhem tiers, and she was also forced to use one class mod to be powerful. However, this started to change when Mayhem 2.0 started to roll out.
Biggest Changes in Mayhem 2.0
The first wave of Mayhem 2.0 changes launched alongside the Revenge of the Cartels event, and while it didn't fix the Vault Hunters, it made weapons scale better and revamped how the Mayhem system works. Instead of 4 tiers of difficulty, Gearbox ramped it up to 10 and made the ramp from tier-to-tier a bit smoother. Additionally, players were able to roll for their Mayhem perks and have them persist in the game instance, so players could find a set they particularly liked and stick with it indefinitely.
Some beneficial modifiers were added to make the game more interesting (a personal favorite being Speed Demon, which works well with Zane and Amara for damage, and is just all-around fun), and the perks were less punishing even on the Very Hard tier. The big part of phase one of the changes was that weapons began scaling according to Mayhem level, and while it did little to diversify player skill builds, it did help bring a variety of different weapons into the metagame. However, as with every Borderlands update, certain weapons sailed to the top of every player's build, namely the Yellow Cake, the Sand Hawk sniper rifle, and the Kaoson SMG.
It wasn't until the launch of the Guardian Takedown and the ramp up to Bounty of Blood that the game really changed. Not only was character skill, pets, and melee damage overhauled, it also added grenade mod scaling so players could use the best grenades in the game and have them actually do something on Mayhem 10. The addition of action skill and pet scaling is a game-changer and honestly changes how many players have started playing the game.
Now FL4K's pets can both deal and take damage without being knocked down every few seconds. Moze and Iron Bear have skyrocketed in popularity due to how powerful Iron Bear is now, especially with Iron Bear-focused builds. Amara can once again live out One Punch Man fantasies thanks to her immense melee damage potential. Zane and his Digi-Clone can team up and deal loads of damage, or he can rely on SNTNL to support him as he zips alone around the map. Builds are being shaken up, and players are able to experiment and try new skills and class mods and still be viable at Mayhem 10.
Adding Diversity to Builds
Build diversity is the new name of the game in Borderlands 3, and it's for the better. The game was growing incredibly stale with every class playing one (maybe two) total builds. Amara was almost exclusively locked into the Spiritual Driver speed demon build, and Zane was in a similar boat with the Seein' Dead speed build. FL4K was still almost exclusively locked into Fade Away, though Rakk Attack did see some use. Moze had the most build diversity (but that's not saying much), however it was still a shame that Iron Bear was only being used to proc action skill anointment. Now players are trying different combinations of legendary gear, anointment, and skills like never before.
There hasn't been this much build diversity since the game launched and players hadn't unlocked Mayhem yet. While players are still going to gravitate towards specific meta-defining guns, skills are going to be a big difference when it comes to player builds. It's actually fun to go back to Sanctuary and respec skills just to see what new combinations will work together, and this will only get more interesting if Gearbox decides to add new player skill trees to the game instead of DLC Vault Hunters.
Overall, the Mayhem 2.0 overhaul has been nothing but good for the Borderlands 3 playerbase. While the game is not without its faults, players can finally play with a variety of skills and weapons on the highest difficulty without instantly being destroyed. For a game such as Borderlands 3 that is all about replaying areas to farm for gear, these changes were absolutely necessary and have made the game exponentially more fun to play thanks to build diversity. Hopefully Gearbox continues to improve upon the framework they have laid with Mayhem 2.0 and continue to add variety and diversity to the game to keep players engaged.
Borderlands 3 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.