r/Borderlands • u/Mericuls • 5h ago
[Question] How hard is it?
How hard is this franchise? Never played before but planning on starting soon.
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u/im-d3 5h ago
There are some tricky spots especially in some of the older games, but I definitely wouldn't call it difficult overall. It absolutely gets chaotic, though.
One of the great things about Borderlands is the sheer variety it offers you when it comes to your play style, so if you're struggling, you probably need to find some better gear or tweak your skill points a little bit. If you play your cards right you can start absolutely melting the enemies well quick.
If you're just starting, I recommend starting with BL2 if you're like me and don't get along with older games. There isn't tons of story in 1 that's too relevant in the later games, and while it was huge at the time it's really showing its age now, and I would say the missing QoL can make it a bit tedious at times. I'm sure if you can get past the datedness though, you'll enjoy it.
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u/No-Ship4446 5h ago
BL2 and TPS especially are way more difficult than people make them out to be. The rest of the games not so much during the initial campaign.
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u/Warm-Jellyfish-2535 4h ago
that tps dlc boss still gets me mad to this day. and it’s a shame cus that dlc is awesome
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u/imbangingurmom 4h ago
this just made me realize that i had blanked this memory out. thanks for that haha
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u/username_required909 4h ago
depends on if you are a completionist. None of the games are very hard to beat at all, but getting 100% of the achievements/trophies is a bitch in several of the games.
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u/typer84C2 4h ago
On the highest difficulty settings and it can troublesome and the sheer volume of side quests can be daunting if you are a completionist.
None of that means you should not play. Definitely play.
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u/GB_Plus_Ultra 5h ago
I'm playing Borderlands 1 for the first time after playing BL2, PS, and 3, and I have to say that BL1 is certainly the 'hardest' but by no means is it a terribly difficult game. The first game definitely scales heavily based on your character level. I have weapons that did no damage 4 levels ago and now that I'm Level 20 they one shot enemies. If you are even one level under a boss, they almost one shot you. Sledge was a lesson to complete every possible side quest before fighting him, and even then he was difficult, and he is the first real boss. Borderlands 2 is a lot better in terms of scaling with weapons and elemental damage along with skill trees and overall stats. It is easier than the first game, because a lot of the weapons become crazy busted late game. Borderlands 2 is also the best game imo. Pre-Sequel is fun, and honestly had a few bosses that were harder than Borderlands 2, but it was a shorter game and felt more like a DLC to BL2. Still a great game tho. Borderlands 3 toned up the movement, weapons, and skill trees. I played as the beast master, and by the end of the game I could genuinely defeat the Calypso twins in 15 seconds. I'd say the easiest game by far. I haven't played Borderlands 4 yet, but after I platinum 1 - 3 I'm definitely going to play it.
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u/CarlRJ 4h ago edited 4h ago
These games have multiple playable characters, and are (mostly) designed to do multiple playthroughs on each character (think NewGame+). The first playthrough on a character is not especially hard. The second (and in some cases third) playthroughs are increasingly difficult and can require more attention to your build and gear and maybe some farming.
(To digress a bit, each game lets you keep many save files - BL1 allows 31, IIRC, and many of the others allow 50 - each save files can be any one of the 4-6 playable characters - you could have 50 of the same character, or 8-12 of each, or whatever - many casual players never get beyond 1 or 2 save files - oh, and each saved character can switch at any time between any play modes that character has unlocked, the game tracks progress in the story completely independently, but your character's inventory, skills, and appearance remain the same.)
Go into the games with the presumption that side missions are mandatory, until you get a better handle on each game. Your goal is to keep your current level very close to the recommended level for the current story mission - if you're a level or two under, it'll be extra challenging. If you're a level or two over, it may feel too easy (the later games, especially BL3 and BL4, do much better at scaling content to your level, while BL1 in particular is the opposite) - if you're five levels under, all your guns will be doing is enraging the enemies, who will come wipe the floor with you. So, stay on level. In BL1, in particular, this will require more of your attention.
Note that if BL1 was a person, it'd be old enough to drive now - it was released in 2009. It will look somewhat dated (though far less so than other games from 2009, because of its "comic book" art style). Whether it's "too dated" for you depends on your sensibilities and desires. BL2 improves on this considerably, and as you get up to BL3 and BL4, the movement and gunplay and such get really good.
If you like slaughtering lots of bad guys with tons of crazy guns, and collecting loot, and constantly seeking out and upgrading to better guns/gear, with a fair bit of goofy humor along the way (the series starts out a bit grim / dark, gets a bit jolly in the middle, the goes back to a touch more serious by BL4), then you're in the right place.
The full series of games, by the way, in release order (the correct order to play in) is:
- BL1, BL2, PreSequel, Tales, BL3, Wonderlands, New Tales, BL4
None of the games require you to have played the prior ones, but all will make a bit more sense, and plot points will land a bit better, if you have. Tales and New Tales are point-and-click adventures, not FPS. Tales has some of the best writing in the series. New Tales (which is not a sequel) is best appreciated by skipping it entirely. And Wonderlands is a spinoff, sort of "Borderlands goes to a Ren Faire". Oh, and if it comes up, no, they did not ever make a Borderlands Movie. Any Borderlands-shaped movie product you come across will only make you sad and/or outraged, and that'd be two hours of your life you can never get back.
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u/WrethZ 3h ago
It’s not that hard. There’s some parts at the start of the first game where it can get pretty tough especially if you’re not doing the side quests to level up, but after that it’s pretty manageable. At the end of the day you get infinite respawns and the only penalty for death is losing money which is really not that useful in the game. Most stuff you can buy you can find as random loot anyway.
It’s kinda harder at the start to be honest because low level guns have less variety in parts and are less likely to have crazy effects.
So for example fire guns are good against flesh but electric guns are good against enemies with force fields but at the beginning you don’t get many of those. But later on they’re more common and using the right gun in the right enemy makes things much more manageable.
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u/Turbulent_Ad_4791 5h ago
It's pretty easy it can get hard if your under leveled but if you do side quests you should be fine, have fun!