Shocking
There’s a side quest in Borderlands 3 that you can tackle fairly early on — I think I finished it around level 15 — that culminates in a real motherfucker of a boss fight. In the “Kill KillaVolt” mission, Mad Moxxi asks that you murder her former lover. Anything for our favorite barkeep.
KillaVolt’s frustrating for a number of reasons. First, he carries around a riot shield, meaning only his backside is exposed. Also, because Moxxi wants you to “shoot him in the dick,” his critical spot is tough to target because he’s almost always covered up by his shield. Most annoying, KillaVolt has an area of effect attack that electrifies certain parts of the floor; in the final phase of the fight — when everything’s chaotic enough that maybe you’re low on health, low on ammo, and there aren’t any squishy minions around for an easy Second Wind — he’ll jolt the whole floor with an attack that’s impossible to avoid. It sucks.
That attack is a mistake. Gearbox confirmed as much in the first set of patch notes for Borderlands 3. Right toward the top of fixes that go live today: “Addressed a reported issue where KillaVolt’s Shield Storm attack does not disable the tiles around KillaVolt, resulting in the entire floor being activated (oops).” Big oops. He’s not supposed to be this tough.
That’s just one of many changes in today’s patch. Other improvements deal with technical/stability issues, missions that won’t progress, and a nerf for the insanely overpowered Porcelain Pipe Bomb. Here’s the full patch notes for Borderlands 3‘s September 26 update:
Performance:
- [PC Only] Reduced the amount of texture streaming that was occurring when aiming down sights.
- Addressed a reported concern where certain users with a lot of people in their friend’s list saw more frequent hitching.
- Implementing General stability improvements.
General fixes and improvements:
- Addressed a reported issue where KillaVolt’s Shield Storm attack does not disable the tiles around KillaVolt, resulting in the entire floor being activated (oops).
- Addressed a potential progression blocker in the mission “Footsteps of Giants.”
- Addressed a reported issue where Guardian Rank had the potential to become non-functional and/or the player could potentially lose Guardian Rank tokens into the negatives.
- Modified vending machines so it will now sort items by rarity.
- Console FOV is now set to 75 by default. This will not affect players who have already started the game.
- Special prompts for particle text (Tediore guns, “critical,” “immune”) are now properly localized.
- Addressed a reported concern that certain players experienced where their vehicle’s boost could continue into the next map.
- Addressed a reported concern with “Porcelain Pipe Bomb” where it set off multiple explosions when colliding with objects. (This grenade was never meant to explode multiple times. All enemies in the Borderlands universe are now safe from being instantly melted by radioactive poop.)
UI:
- Adjusted the verbiage for “left stick” and “right stick” inside the Russian localized version of the control options screen.
- Addressed a reported issue where certain users experienced a failure of the audio to play when spending skill points in the UI.
- The text is now correctly marked “invalid” when you enter an invalid e-mail address on the SHiFT account creation page.
- Addressed a reported issue where the item of the day item card would flash briefly before displaying on vending machines.
- Addressed a reported concern that certain players were served an unread mail icon when they didn’t have mail to read.
- Iron Bear button prompts will now correctly update if you re-bind your controls.
- Modified various features and elements of Crazy Earl’s store.
- Addressed a reported issue where subtitles wouldn’t display until after the initial cutscene.
- Addressed an issue experienced by certain players that social notifications could become stuck on-screen.
- Addressed a player concern that certain item preview images were failing to load inside the player bank.
- [PC Only] Addressed an issue reported by certain PC players where the focus from the mouse’s last known location was sticking around even when playing with a gamepad.
- Addressed an issue reported by certain players where the cursor would snap to an unintended location in the UI.
Splitscreen and online multiplayer:
- Addressed a concern reported by certain players that the dialog volume faded too low before switching to ECHO audio during split-screen gameplay.
- Addressed a concern reported by certain players that sounds were quiet or missing for the second split-screen player if they move too far from player one.
- Addressed a concern reported by certain players that 3-player groups were having trouble matchmaking with an additional solo player.
- Addressed a reported concerned experienced by certain players that in split-screen one player’s sprinting animation could be interrupted by the other player opening the ECHO menu.
- Addressed a concern reported by certain players that in split-screen where one player’s aiming down sights could be interrupted by the other player opening the ECHO menu.
- Addressed a handful of reported client replication issues:
– Addressed Tina’s pizza bomb so it displays correctly for clients.
– Modified certain audio elements that were reportedly looping for clients.
– Addressed a reported player concern so the Guardian Skill “Dead Man’s Hand” now functions property. - Player icons are now pinned to the side of the mini-map when playing in any kind of multiplayer.
Borderlands 3 Patch: September 26, 2019 [Borderlands]
