In Borderlands 3, YouTuber “Senza” completed an impressive challenge. He played the game using ordinary weapons and without skill points – but isn’t that exactly what the game is about?
Weapons are actually quite important in Borderlands 3: Weapons, that shoot burgers. Weapons that produce weapons. Guns that remind of “Rick and Morty” or “The Lord of the Rings“. Borderlands 3 is known for offering rifles, shotguns, pistols, and revolvers of all kinds – from normal to legendary.
One could rightly argue that collecting the numerous, varied firearms in Borderlands 3 constitutes a significant part of the player experience. Recently, there were even too many weapons, which was quickly patched.
Skills are quite nice too: Players enjoy collecting a vast array of weapons – just as much as building exciting skill trees. The four classes in Borderlands 3 differ primarily through their abilities. Whether Moze, Zane, FL4K, or Amara – you can shape each character with different builds to make them your own.
Weapons and skills thus constitute a significant part of the gameplay enjoyment in Borderlands 3 – along with the quirky setting, the series’ humor, and the co-op component. YouTuber “Senza” seemed to think differently – and chose a somewhat different approach.
Senza does everything differently
This was the challenge: Only white and thus ordinary weapons, no skill points. With this challenge, Senza fought through the world of Borderlands 3. It somewhat resembles the classic Pokémon challenges: Why “catch them all” when you can humiliate the top 4 with a level 100 Jigglypuff?
Senza mainly relied on weapons from Jakobs and Torgue – due to their high damage. Armed with a revolver and shotgun, he rode into battle for the vaults. This went well at times, and less so at others: For Katagawa Ball for example – a massively annoying enemy unless you use the right weapons – it simply took Senza too long.
The ball simply recharged its painstakingly shot-down shield and the gunless vault hunter had to restart from the beginning, which, according to Senza’s own words, plunged him into a “premature midlife crisis”. Captain Traunt had already pushed him to the brink of madness before – all that helped was grinding to level up.
However, this also proved to be difficult, as some enemies simply didn’t want to be wiped out by normal weapons. This also explains Senza’s long playtime: If it takes a quarter of an hour for a Maliwan soldier, you have a few more game hours accumulated. Those who want to see the whole thing can find it here. But beware: The video is packed with plenty of spoilers and quite coarse language.
In the end, Senza actually succeeded and was able to enjoy the completed challenge: After 34 hours, Senza had completed the story. Not without a few metaphorical nerve breakdowns, as he clearly shows in his video – but ultimately successful.
Speaking of challenges: At Zer0, you get a few tasks yourself. And here’s how to solve them:
