@demonbear: I thought the boss would drop epic loot and would have rather found that out myself after playing through. Therein lies the spoiler. I knew there would be a boss; I didn't know what would happen after I beat him.
@PureRok: That skill you're referring to is Trespass if I'm not mistaken. You're right that it would really negate the usefulness of the electric elemental weapons.
@Driadon: That sounds reasonable, but I wonder how that works for explosion which, I believe, does all it's damage at once rather than over time. I guess you would have that single burst of additional damage rather than having it spread out over time.
@PenguinDust: In that case, elemental damage is one of those things that falls under item three in the list. Sure, you know that a x1 corrosive is probably better than a x3 corrosive weapon, but who knows what either of those actually mean?
@PenguinDust: Great point about the loot boxes. Also, you may have just confirmed something I thought about the game but was unsure of: The damage numbers do not at all consider any elemental damage, right?
This is not a post bashing Borderlands for not having an intricate story with lots of character development nor is it one slamming Gearbox for releasing a product with some bugs or without a robust trading system. I absolutely love the game. I played more in my first two days of ownership than I play most of the games I own ever! I acknowledge that the game is not perfect, and there are aspects of it I would like to see fixed. However, this game is addictive. This could easily be the best value of the fall in terms of the number of hours of elation you will experience killing and collecting loot.
The game has a gentle learning curve, but, looking back on my days as a noob, there are a few things I know now that would have made my early time in Pandora a bit more productive.
Every enemy has a spot that scores a critical- Granted it doesn't take too long to figure this out. These are the ones you need to know early: Score a crit on Skaggs by shooting into their open mouths. Human characters are critted with a headshot.
Enemies respawn- If you've played Fallout 3, you may be accustomed to clearing out an area and never worrying about it again. In Borderlands, your enemies will respawn fairly quickly. Be ready for them.
Loot stats don't always tell the tale- You may have just found the rifle with the highest stats you have ever seen, but there are factors that the stats don't say. Equip it and fire off a few rounds before you throw out the rifle that has been treating you well.
Your vehicle can kill nearly anything and does it quickly- Soon after you get the vehicle, you will learn that you can easily destroy Skaggs and other enemies that might otherwise take a good bit of fire. They can also kill very quickly which might help you gain some XP bonuses for challenges. Update: Watch the vehicle health meter which will replace your own while you are inside. If you are running over tough enemies, the meter will drain quickly. It does eventually recharge. Be sure to get out before the vehicle explodes or you will most likely be down.
Speaking of challenges, Borderlands has them- They are like achievements, but you don't get Gamerscore for them. What you do get is experience. Switch to your quest log then look above the quest list. From this screen of the ECHO, you may switch between viewing your quests and your challenges.
There are different types of loot stashes- Each one has a tendency to contain different types of items. The stashes on the ground that you "smash" to open usually contain ammo and health although they can contain other items. I got a purple class mod out of one yesterday. You have rectangular crates that usually contain a good bit of ammo. You have toilets, mailboxes, and dumpsters that contain one or two ammo pickups. There are red rounded chests which usually have a couple of weapons (often better than common rarity) along with some ammo. There are long rectangular gray chests which may contain weapons, shields, or class mods. These are usually big money. Oh, yeah. There are also lockers which typically have ammo or money but may also contain weapons or shields.
You can use vehicle stations to do something like fast travel- Here's a scenario. You got in a vehicle and drove off to some crazy boss, got out of the vehicle, and got killed sending you way back to the vehicle station or somewhere nearby. As long as the vehicle wasn't destroyed, just walk back to the vehicle terminal and teleport to either seat. This will teleport you into the seat of your last created vehicle!
Equip weapons that use different types of ammo- You will ultimately have four equipment slots. Make sure the weapons use different ammo types. This will keep you firing for longer.
Don't be afraid to buy ammo- If you're a cheap bastard like me, you may feel silly buying ammo when there are so many pickups around, and I definitely recommend picking ammo up over buying it. That said, if you think the shit is about to hit the fan and you happen to have a shop nearby, buy up the maximum of each type of ammo you use. It's much cheaper than dying.
Holding X to pick up ammo picks up all surrounding ammo and health- I believe this is in one of the tutorial messages, but it's easy to miss. It makes looting much quicker. Conversely...
Holding X to pick up a weapon replaces your currently equipped weapon with that one- If you have room in your pack, your old weapon will simply be moved to the pack. If not, the old weapon will be dropped.
Spend your skill points rather than saving them- Skill points spent make you more powerful. Skill points saved do nothing. Respecs are cheap. If you are having trouble deciding what to do with your skill points, go ahead and spend them now. Then, you can always respec later.
Plan your skill points before you get them- Follow this tip and you don't have to worry with the previous one. Take a look at all the skills in your tree. Based on your options, make a plan for where you would like your character to be. Gearbox has provided skill calculators for each character ( Mordecai, Brick, Lilith, Roland) to help you plan your build. Keep in mind that, initially, you will only have access to the top skills in any of the three divisions. You will need to have 5 points in one division before you reach the second level, 10 points to reach the third level, etcetera. It doesn't matter where those points are. For example, you could spend 5 points on each of the first tier skills to gain access to the third tier.
Pick up every quest you have access to- There's no need to have only one quest in your log at a time. If the bounty board or NPC has multiple quests available, pick up every one you can.
Perform all quests in an area before turning in- This is especially important before you open up fast travel. You don't want to travel back and forth any more than you have to. Take a look at your quest log. The quests are conveniently divided up by zone. Do every quest you can (take note of the quest's level) in your current zone before you turn them in. This is old hat for MMO players.
Platforming is often rewarded- Sure, this is an FPS, but Gearbox has thrown in little rewards for players who can get to places they shouldn't. Hiding on the tops of buildings and in odd nooks and crannies are weapons chests. Play around by jumping on pieces of the environment to see what new areas you can reach. If you get stuck, I hope you have enough grenades to kill yourself.
The "Item of the Day" is sometimes cool- Each vending machine stocks an "Item of the Day" which changes every 20 minutes. This is a cool item sticking with the theme of the shop stocking it. You can sometimes find nice gear in these. As you are stocking up on health, ammo, or weapons, be sure to take a look at the current item. It might be better than your current equipment.
Hide while healing your buddies- When you're healing your partner, crouch down and put them between you and approaching enemies if they are out in the open. They can't be killed while you are healing so use them as cover. Alternately, if they are near environmental cover, try healing them from just around the corner.
Please post your own tips in the comments. Also, check out my guide to playing Mordecai and feel free to contribute to that as well.
There are lots of bugs surfacing in this game. I really love the way Gearbox is dealing with them, though. They are being very forthright and open in acknowledging the bugs. When I first saw the forum thread on the Gearbox forums with the master list of bugs, my reaction was that it was inexcusable. Then I realized every game could have a bug list like this, but Gearbox is making theirs public and not trying to silence it. It also rocks that they are fixing them so quickly. I figured this fix would take something like a month to get out. Bravo, Gearbox!
I've written a pretty basic guide for playing Mordecai, and I would eventually like to have a variety of different builds to give people inspiration. If you have a cool build and would be interested in having it included, please post it here along with as much description as you can muster. If you could recreate the build in Gearbox's skill calculator and post a link, that would be doubly awesome. Here's your chance to have your hunter build in lights! Fame! Glory! It can all be yours!
You're also welcome to add it to the guide yourself, but I wanted to post here to try to hit a wider audience. I don't think many of us pay much attention to the guides. I tend not to myself.
UPDATE: Bonus points if you can come up with a clever name for the build.
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