Loot Drop Updates
After the recent legendary world drop rate change, Gearbox Software has more plans to adjust the loot drops in Borderlands 3. They wanted to release more changes with this week’s hotfixes, however, they didn’t have time to fully test them out. So there is more to come but for now, they want you to know that they are working on it.
We’re not done yet. We actually had more for this week but we couldn’t test it in time so there is definitely more to come. We also want to try to make sure as many people as possible are happy with the changes.
Mario Rodriguez – Producer Borderlands 3 Live Team
If you check Graeme’s Twitter, you can see the Creative Director of the Borderlands 3 Live Team respond to our feedback. But ever since the launch of the game, Gearbox has been tweaking the game the deliver a quality experience. However, some things are easily adjusted while other things require extensive work. Some adjustments to Borderlands 3 have been band-aids to hold things together for now but will be addressed later on. Because there is the business side of game development where they need to hit certain goals. Managing resources is a challenge on its own and priorities sometimes shift.
How We Got Here
After the Revenge of the Cartel Event, Gearbox added new Anoints to the main game. However, with a saturated Anointment Pool, we had a hard time farming for a piece of gear with the correct anoint on it. In response, Gearbox increased the legendary world drop rates and increased the chance of getting an Anointed version that scaled up with your mayhem level.
While we were able to easily obtain the items we wanted. Legendaries were dropping like candy from every other badass. Because Anointments are a big part of Borderlands 3’s end game, you needed those to beat the challenging content. However, the sheer amount of legendaries made them very common and that removed the feeling you got something special.
Because Gearbox added the Re-Roll machine, you now have a way to set the anoint on your gear at the cost of 250 Eridium. Therefore, we don’t need the high legendary world drop rates anymore. By lowering the drop rates, legendaries became rewarding again. However, some things were out of balance and that’s where this week’s hotfix steps in.
Class Mods and Artifacts were hard to obtain and therefore Gearbox increased the chance to get those from Trials chests. Rare Chests were lacking quality loot for a while, so those also received an increased chance to contain a legendary.
The additions to the game that came alongside The Director’s Cut has kinda feels like Gearbox reset the timeline. We go back 1 year but now have all these features to negate some of the problems we had last year. Instead of needed to correct for those issues, Gearbox can now proceed and tackle other things and continue balancing the gameplay. You might say it took a long time but then again they still did it. That leaves us with the question, what’s ahead?
The Road Ahead…
…is not empty as we will see more adjustments in the near future that will balance out things. The game needs to be fun and (challenging) content should be rewarding. Gearbox will continue to monitor the feedback from the community and the player data they get. I expect more weapon changes, this would make more gear viable. However, GBX has mentioned, “You gonna have to have some bad ones to have good ones”. I think the price of Re-Rolling gear seems reasonable, however, getting the anoint that you want can consume a lot of Eridium. Removing or combining some anoints would help out here. I’m sure they have their eyes on the new economy in Borderlands 3. The new ways of getting money/Eridium and spending it should also be in balance.
- There is currently no loot penalty in M11 compared to M10, but it won’t be forever.
- Guns, Love, and Tentacles World Drop gear will get a dedicated source
- Additional tweaks to the Proving Grounds
- More
Conclusion
- Legendaries are rarer now and therefore special again, however, some need a buff to be rewarding.
- You can still farm enemies for their dedicated loot as these are not affected by the change.
- There is finally a use for Eridium
- Proving Grounds finally have more purpose to keep playing
- Rare Chest are rewarding again
- Gearbox continues to monitor the community and is not done with the game as more changes are coming
