With Maliwan Takedown and Mayhem 4, two really tough challenges have made it into Borderlands 3. The community is really working hard on this – what is the conclusion?
This is how Maliwan Takedown works: Maliwan Takedown becomes available after completing the story, but is aimed at players who have already reached level 50. So it’s for those who have been in the endgame for a while. But that’s not all: the Takedown is designed for four-player groups – that’s how challenging the task is.
In practice, you will need to go with your team to the Maliwan base, where you will encounter various enemies. If you go down, you can only watch – a respawn occurs only halfway through the Takedown and again at the end of the task. Besides the challenge, Maliwan Takedown also offers pretty good loot – for example, there are the best shields in the game.
This is how Mayhem 4 works: The Mayhem level 4 increases the hit points of enemies significantly. This is complemented by a bonus on both the player and enemy sides. The new level entices with special loot, such as unique legendary weapons.
Maliwan and Mayhem are really tough – as promised
How difficult will Borderlands 3 be in the endgame? With Mayhem 4 and Maliwan, the developers have thrown two really tough nuts into the game in a huge patch. And this two months after release! Everyone who thought they were more or less at the end now has a new task for which a return is worth it.
Because Gearbox states in the official announcement that this is the “most challenging challenge” in Borderlands 3. And a look into the community shows: They didn’t promise too much.
This is how the community is doing: Maliwan Takedown was announced as a kind of raid and delivers on that promise. The new task proves to be too challenging for many: “They weren’t joking when they said we need four people,” comments user “skeet8509“. Many players agree: “I tried it with my critical FL4K, but there are just too many enemies,” reports “hecking-doggo“.
Alone, players hardly make it past the first defense line: “This is a significantly bigger task than I expected. Even without Mayhem modifiers,” wonders user “a-r-i-s-e-n“. This is apparently mainly due to the incredibly high health and shield points of the enemies blocking the players’ way. “This is really extremely difficult. Too many enemies with more health than Graveward,” comments “Zenjion“.
How is Maliwan Takedown received by the community?
The player base is divided: The extremely challenging task is well received by some players – and less so by others. The fight against final boss Wotan is often praised, as it really demands everything from the players: “He starts flying around and bombing everything in the environment. All my weapons have a slow fire rate – now that’s a challenge,” comments “Zenjion“, who ultimately made it to Wotan.
However, the part before him drives many players to their limits. Because it is the smaller enemies that can sometimes be the most frustrating. The extremely high hit points make the enemies bullet sponges – and it takes an incredibly long time to take them down. This point bothers many players – especially on Mayhem 4: “They simply have too much health. Even the best builds don’t help,” criticizes “CanTownMayor” in a post that already demands a rework of the mode.
However, at the same point, a discussion has started that the Takedown was not designed for solo runs, but for squads. It is noticeable that significantly more players have fun with the Takedown when tackled in a group.
Where the players do agree is that some bugs from the last patch make the task unnecessarily difficult. The Guardian Ranks are currently missing and make both Mayhem 4 and Maliwan Takedown even harder than they already are.
Of course there are already solo runs
Is Maliwan Takedown solo achievable? Despite the difficulty – or especially because of it – some players have already taken on the solo challenge that was not intended. And some have already celebrated successes.
On YouTube, there are already some attempts that ended with a victory over Wotan. That it was not easy is clear to see every time. “Sin tee“, for example, managed to crack the Takedown with Amara – and made use of the sometimes rather unpopular Terror effects from Bloody Harvest. You can see how that went in the video here:
It is clear that Maliwan Takedown is indeed achievable alone. Nevertheless, if you have a group available, you should probably tackle the task in a group of four.
Have you already tackled the Takedown? Then you can look forward to the first big DLC next:
