BORDERLANDS 3 COMMUNITY LOVE LETTER: LEVEL CAP INCREASE, NEW SEASONAL EVENT, AND MORE!
Hey Vault Hunters! With Valentine's Day right around the corner, we thought now might be a nice time to pause, reflect, and express our sincere gratitude to all of you with a little love note.
Borderlands 3's launch was a historic high note for both Gearbox and 2K, and that simply would not have been possible without your support. Your incredible response was overwhelming, so really, from the bottom of our hearts: thank you. Your enthusiasm validates all the time, energy, and passion we poured into this project, and it fuels us still—because we're not done yet!
We've been hard at work since launch crafting additional content and updating the existing game. It's been a tricky, trying process at times, but we're committed to making Borderlands 3 the best possible Borderlands experience. Today, we'd love to take a moment to look back on everything we've added or updated since launch and, more importantly, outline what's still to come for Borderlands 3—including a bunch highly requested quality-of-life enhancements in the February patch.
Let's get started!
A QUICK LOOK BACK...
Since Borderlands 3's release in September, we've worked hard to pack the game with additional content and improve player experience based on your feedback. Here's a quick look at just some of what we've done so far.
DEVELOPER ROADMAP
Now that we've looked at how much has happened in Borderlands 3 to date, it's time we look to the future with another developer roadmap, giving you insight into new features and improvements you can look forward to in the coming weeks. Please note that there can always be unforeseen challenges when working on patches and hotfixes, so we'll share more concrete release timings as these updates progress.
TRUE TAKEDOWN MODE
In the Borderlands 3 Hotfixes for January 30, we shared our plans for True Takedown Mode now that Takedown at the Maliwan Blacksite scales to your party size by default. True Takedown Mode delivers the extreme difficulty we always intended for Takedown content by tuning the experience for a full party of four decked-out Vault Hunters. To access True Takedown Mode, simply activate the lever located on the right side of the door leading out of the airlock at the beginning of the map. Remember, this is meant to be some of the most challenging content in all of Borderlands 3, so don't get discouraged if your team keeps getting wrecked in True Takedown Mode when it goes live in the February patch.
LEVEL CAP INCREASE
For the first level cap increase, we're currently planning to raise the maximum Vault Hunter level from 50 to 53, timed with the debut of Broken Hearts Day. This will give you three additional skill points to add to your skill trees, allowing you to enhance your existing builds or even experiment with additional abilities. To plan out your updated Vault Hunter builds, check out the skill tree builders on our character pages for Amara the Siren, FL4K the Beastmaster, Moze the Gunner, and Zane the Operative! We'll have more information about future level cap increases later, and intend to make any level cap increases free additions to the game.
PERFORMANCE AND STABILITY
We're continuing to work on Borderlands 3 for all platforms. With each of the coming patches, you can expect some updates to enhance the player experience. The next round of UI improvements will come with the second campaign add-on. Community feedback has been instrumental in shaping these improvements, so if you encounter any issues, please submit a ticket to support.2k.com.
SKIPPABLE CUTSCENES UPDATE
Skippable in-game cutscenes are coming soon! We're in the process of testing this feature now, and it will launch in the upcoming February patch. All cutscenes in the game, whether you've seen the cutscene before or not, will be skippable during solo play or by the host of your party during multiplayer.
GUARDIAN RANK TOGGLING
In a previous roadmap, we shared our intention to let players disable the powerful Perks associated with Guardian Ranks. That change will be coming in the February patch, and will allow you to individually disable specific Perks. You'll also be able to disable the entire system if you prefer a more vanilla leveling experience. In the future, we plan to expand the Guardian Rank system to include additional Perks. We are looking to introduce these new Perks in tandem with the second campaign add-on, but they will not be tied to that content.
EVENT TOGGLING
During the seasonal Bloody Harvest event, we heard the community loud and clear: you'd like a way to opt out of an ongoing event. This feature will be introduced in the February patch. During the Broken Hearts Day seasonal event, you will now be able to toggle the event's game-wide effects on or off via the main menu.
FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE IMPROVEMENTS
Fight for Your Life is a big part of the co-op experience, and we've identified a few ways we'd like to improve the system. Specifically, we are looking at increasing the interaction radius between players, telegraphing revives to other players more clearly, and allowing multiple players to contribute to a revive. We expect to have this available in March.
MAYHEM 2.0
We expanded Mayhem Mode with the even tougher Mayhem 4 level in the Borderlands 3 Patch and Hotfixes for November 21, but more sweeping changes are in the works for Mayhem 2.0, arriving in March. We're still fine-tuning some of its elements and will have a separate update on this in the future, focusing on how Mayhem 2.0 will impact Borderlands 3's endgame experience.
ECHOCAST TWITCH EXTENSION EXPANSIONS
The Borderlands 3 ECHOcast Twitch Extension has been a huge hit with our community, letting viewers directly interact with Borderlands 3 streamers and even collect some of the same loot. Currently, the ECHOcast Extension features Rare Chest Events, Badass Viewer Events, and Piñata Events for Twitch stream mayhem, and we want to add even more Event types in the near future. We're hoping to introduce a Moxxi-themed Event, which we first teased during Guardian Con 2019, that would let you mix up buff- or debuff-inducing cocktails for the streamer using Twitch Bits. We're aiming to have this ready for the ECHOcast Twitch Extension in March.
OUR APPROACH TO BALANCE CHANGES
As we continue to develop new content, we're always keeping an eye on balancing to ensure that Borderlands 3 continues to be enjoyed for years to come, much like previous Borderlands titles. We prefer to make buffs rather than nerfs. However, in the most extreme cases, we may step in to reduce the power level of weapons, gear, or skills that make competing options feel totally obsolete.
All changes are made to keep Borderlands 3 feeling fresh for newcomers and veterans alike. We strive to make your chosen Vault Hunter feel unique, powerful, and impactful across all levels, and we want to maintain the thrill of collecting gear for whatever new build you can come up with next. For more insight into how we approach balancing in Borderlands 3, you can read this interview with Borderlands 3 Creative Director Paul Sage.
MORE TO COME AT PAX EAST
That's everything we're ready to share today. Don't worry, though, there's still plenty more in store for Borderlands 3. Not only will we continue updating the game based on the evolving needs of the community, we're also planning plenty of new content and free events to keep the experience exciting for players of all levels.
Want to learn more about that upcoming content? Be sure to tune in to the Gearbox panel at PAX East on February 27! The panel will stream live on twitch.tv/borderlands starting at 11:30 AM Pacific / 2:30 PM Eastern / 7:30 PM GMT. Expect a whole bunch of exciting content announcements, including the full reveal of Borderlands 3's second paid campaign expansion!
For now, be sure to catch today's episode of The Borderlands Show for additional context and insights from Borderlands 3 Live Lead Graeme Timmins, and keep sending us your constructive feedback. Thanks again, and see you at PAX East!
:applause:
