On Thursday night, the new major patch for Borderlands 3 was released. It brought some new content to the game – primarily, of course, the Guardian Takedown, but also balancing and performance changes.
When did the patch arrive? The big June patch was released on Thursday night. It was originally scheduled to appear a week earlier, but was postponed by 7 days.
Now it is live. Let’s take a look at the 3 major changes in the patch.
1. The new Guardian Takedown
This is Guardian Takedown: The new takedown “Elimination at the Guardian Breakthrough” takes you to the distant planet Minor Prime. Here, you will encounter a horde of hostile guardians – and they mean business.
Various elite troops present the next major endgame challenge in the game. Expect no easy task: The new takedown is a bit different from the equally challenging first “Maliwan Takedown” and is quite ruthless in parts.
You can play it after completing the main story. However, it is worth it only when you have reached max level and have decent gear.
2. Bug Fixes & Improvements
Fixes everywhere: The new patch is part of a two-phase plan of the developers to make the game – especially in Mayhem mode – run smoother. Therefore, there are corrections and improvements to many small and large problem sources.
An example: In the “Fight for your life” mode, cooperative revival is now possible. This means: If multiple players revive you, it happens faster. Additionally, players on the ground move slower so that the revival is not accidentally interrupted constantly.
This is changing in stability & performance: Various reasons for crashes have been fixed, so the game should no longer crash as often.
Many performance improvements have been added, especially in menus. For example, the framerate should not drop when you open the menu in split-screen mode – a bug that has been in the game since the beginning. Additionally, many glitches have been removed, and faulty skills and buffs corrected.
In summary: Overall, the game should run noticeably smoother and not as choppy as players reported.
Also in Chaos mode, performance issues have been corrected. Certain modifiers can no longer randomly appear together – such as “Mob Mentality” and “Chain Gang”. Also, “The Floor is Lava” is now triggered less often.
Lastly, performance in Mayhem 2.0 is said to have improved.
The complete overview can be found in the patch notes from Gearbox.
3. Balancing of Weapons
Balancing in Mayhem mode: First and foremost, the values of health, shields, and armor for enemies at Mayhem levels 7 to 10 have been adjusted. The value bonuses for enemies have been significantly reduced.
Moreover, the loot pools for bosses like Agonizer 9000, the Kraken, Wotan, and Eista have been adjusted. They were not dropping any equipment at the corresponding Mayhem level.
Balancing of weapons: Due to the adjustments of enemy values at high Mayhem levels, weapons should generally feel better. Additionally, there were further adjustments to many weapons.
The weapon damage has been increased for:
- Bitch
- Handsome Jackhammer
- Devoted
- Cloud Kill
- Tsunami
- Ten Galon
- Ripper (melee damage)
- Vanquisher (especially while sliding)
At the same time there were also nerfs. This applies to the popular Sandhawk:
- It produced too many particles, thus stressing the performance.
- Additionally, it dealt too much damage.
So, projectiles have been removed, and shot costs increased. However, precision and projectile speed have been improved – the weapon should still feel effective overall.
For the Yellowcake, things are getting a bit more drastic. It was recently one of the most powerful weapons in the game. The damage output was reportedly too high – by a full 100%, according to the patch notes. The rocket launcher will be nerfed.
Finally, the Kaoson SMG has also been nerfed. It should still cause plenty of chaos, especially through explosive bonus damage, but the base damage will be lowered.
A new DLC is coming soon: The patch effectively serves as the next step towards the next DLC release. It is set to be released in about two weeks and features a nice Wild West theme.
Here you can find out everything about “Bounty of Blood: A Fistful of Redemption“.
