Only in a couple of areas, though
One of the all-time great role-playing game strategies is to grind away at earlier content — whether through side missions, completely exploring every area, or killing absolutely every enemy to maximize experience — so that upcoming stages are easier. The concept of being over-leveled isn’t new but Gearbox doesn’t want Borderlands players unchallenged anymore.
As part of this week’s round of hotfixes, Gearbox is rebalancing some of Borderlands 3‘s later areas so that enemies are brought up to the player’s level. This specifically applies to missions on Nekrotafeyo and The Anvil. Gearbox reasons that being overly capable “trivializes those areas, as enemies were sometimes much weaker than intended for that point in the game.”
However, existing characters don’t need to be concerned about this reconfiguration. Gearbox mentions that it will only affect new characters, meaning anyone you’ve already created won’t be subject to this change. Every character created after the hotfix, though — and that includes all the ones that will be made tomorrow when Borderlands 3 finally lands on Steam — won’t be able to dodge the balance changes.
Here’s the entire patch notes for Borderlands 3‘s March 12 hotfix:
General:
- Addressed a reported concern that was causing Typhon to sometimes be a potential blocker in “Shadow of Starlight”
- Addressed a reported concern that the Jabbermogwai was sometimes not dropping loot at the correct rate
Characters:
- Removed the Gunner’s “General Winter” minigun damage penalty and Cryo penalty
- Adjusted the Gunner’s “Exploding. Bullets.” skill to match the current damage output, which was sometimes higher than stated on the skill description
- Addressed an issue with the Beastmaster’s “Furious Attack” skill where it was sometimes rounding its values and making the skill description and damage output appear inconsistent
- Addressed an issue with the Beastmaster’s “Hunter’s Eye” skill where the skill description was sometimes showing values from incorrect fields
Location Rebalancing:
- Various areas and side missions on Nekrotafeyo should now match the average level of players
- Enemies in The Anvil should now match the average level of players
Weapons:
- Sickle — Addressed a reported concern that the “Boom” prefix was sometimes not receiving the buff from last week’s hotfix
- Boomer — Increased weapon damage
- The Garcia — Increased fire rate, increased the number of projectiles shot
- Hellfire — Increased weapon damage, increased the damage over time amount
- Hyperfocus XZ41 — Increased weapon damage
- Linc — Increased weapon damage
- Nemesis — Increased weapon damage
- Nimble Jack — Increased weapon damage, added 100 percent bonus critical damage
- Ogre — Increased weapon damage
- One Pump Chump — Increased weapon damage
- Roisen’s Thorns — Increased weapon damage
- Sawbar — Increased weapon damage, adjusted the timing of when the three projectiles split to be sooner
- SkekSil — Increased the extra projectile damage
- Tankman’s Shield — Increased the maximum damage cap by 200 percent, increased the percent damage awarded per kill
Borderlands 3 Hotfixes: March 12, 2020 [Borderlands]
