How Borderlands 4 Can Captivate Vault Hunters
Borderlands 4 could captivate hardcode players by embracing one simple switch. True Vault Hunters love challenging bosses and want more Raid Bosses in the game. However, I can understand that designing Raid Bosses specifically for a subset of the player base isn’t very cost-effective. Not a lot of players are completing their games these days let alone making their way to a Raid Boss. However, there is the other spectrum of the community that can’t get enough of it. Gearbox Software can foster these dedicated players with a Raid Boss Switch.
Raid Boss Mode
What if you could flip a switch that turned every main story boss into a raid boss encounter?
The main story boss encounters are always well-crafted fights. They are engaging because they have interesting mechanics to them. These Boss Battles are more than just bullet sponges. While they are challenging they are crafted to be defeated by the average player but as a veteran player, you want a bigger challenge.
Borderlands 3 kinda did this with the True Trials Mode but these switches added bullet sponges to the game. The Proving Ground Bosses weren’t interesting encounters. Their Raid Boss-like health pools made them boring in my opinion. The only thing they tested was your damage output and your ammo efficiency.
If Gearbox Software implements a similar mechanic as True Trials to all the main story bosses in Borderlands 4, they would immediately have like ~15 interesting Raid Bosses at launch.
The chests after the (Vault) Boss could also be adjusted to provide legendary loot from a special loot pool.
Hopefully, the developers can make this a repeatable encounter by revealing a portal once the boss is defeated. This portal would send you back to the checkpoint just before the boss fight where you can stock up on ammo before jumping back in.
But the real question is, do you want to see this Raid Boss Mode in Borderlands 4? Let me know your opinion in the comments below or tag @MentalMars on social media.
Daniel Collins
I’ve been a Borderlands super fan since BL2… Until this game, the last shooter I played this much was unreal tournament. I did my first playthrough with Zero and frankly, I was hooked. I had never cared about gun specs or anything but something about this clicked. I appreciated the creativity in the weapon design and the humor was great as well. Bl3 was more of the same but the gameplay IS so good that I keep going back. I do feel that a PVP (ala call of duty’s gun game mode) is needed as my sons play that ad-nauseum. They just don’t have the attention span to complete a 30 hour game. However I absolutely do. I would take EVERYthing that you’ve learned and (new character animations please). I even liked that the chaos chambers were borderlands nod to HADES semi random chambers. I would say just make sure BL4 still has dedicated drops. BL4 should totally continue the arms race but mix it up…. have a collection of levels that can be played in this mode. If they do this I believe they will see people stay with the game even longer. PVP or CoOp PVP (ala goldeneye) would do wonders! Trust me, just do it!. As you can see, destiny clearly has riffed off of borderlands to diminishing returns. The only thing that keeps it fresh are the continual additions that change everything up. If borderlands did that, of course people would play. (I’m not asking for that, just saying). Love what you are doing, yes BL2 had the best story/villian, yes BL3 villians sucked (do not repeat). I’d love to see an african american female siren though.