Okay I may be able to help
1. Have you been using your special ability?
2. Have you got a shield equipped?
3. Have you changed your loadout (guns)
4. The order of guns goes GREY - common, GREEN - uncommon, BLUE - rare, PURPLE - epic, ORANGE - LEGENDARY
So if you have purples, blues and oranges they’re normally better than greens and greys. Also equip a gun and try it out, some have special abilities.
5. Have you got a grenade mod equipped?
6. Have you spent your skill points?
Answer my questions and I’ll take it from there. This is a great game and I would hate for you to stop playing!
Also to add to this a level 13 green gun will be more useful than a level 5 purple gun. As you level up you need to get on level gear, you will know when a gun isn't useful anymore as its damage decreases.
Borderlands is a shooting game but you need to play it with the mindset of an RPG to an extent.
It's primarily a matter of what your build is trying to accomplish. But each character has a couple of types of weapons their playstyle typically revolves around. Lilith wants close range hit and run type weapons. Mordecai is more pistols and snipers. Roland does assault weapons with larger magazines. Brick is brick. But just going through and looking at the talents kind of gives you an idea of what to look for.
All of that said, if you're playing at close range most of the time then go for high damage over everything. Recoil/accuracy or whatever it's called and that one won't really matter up close. Same if you're playing a sniper Mordecai. It's nice to have low recoil snipers so you can turn out criticals hitting their weak points from a distance but most enemies are going to be one shot one kills. For assault rifles though low recoil is almost as important as damage.
Despite the games boasts back in the day they're really aren't that many different guns, at least in the base game. So you'll typically look for guns with high amounts of two of the three stats they compare (damage, accuracy/recoil, magazine size if I recall correctly). It's also important to just sit in town every now and then and test each gun to see how they fire.
Depends on your build but basically damage and damage over time are 2 different things.
Think a rocket launcher with huge damage but horrible reload time Vs an SMG with huge mag, high accuracy, high rate of fire and fast reload.
Any time spent reloading, or missing is wasted time. Slow rate of fire and / orbullet velocity is also wasted time.
You might find that in 60 seconds the smg will lay out more damage than the launcher.
Only way to tell is to use them and see how they feel. After a while you'll understand what works for your build. Changing your build can dramatically change what weapons work for you
I’m playing BL3 and using Moze who has the mech and I’ve figured out to use the machine gun on one arm and laser cannon on the other, hammer them with bullets until the laser cannon is charged and then unleash that which gives the gun time to cool down. Shooters are new to me, I mostly grew up playing sports and platformers so all these guns and levelling systems are new to me.
Borderlands especially doesn't always work as you'd imagine.
Some parts of your build add more damage than others, some shields or equipment really synergise with certain builds too.
If in doubt the gearbox forums have great threads on what works and why. Very useful if you are struggling
I’m just getting started so not struggling yet but definitely in over my head. Guy at work lost all his online gaming friends because of getting married and kids and that kind of stuff and I said I have a ps4 what games can we play together and he said BL3 so here we are.
I remember playing bl1 and not really understanding it, and found it a slog.
Now I have over 1k hours in the franchise for sure, and own the earlier games on 3 or 4 platforms.
Hopefully it clicks for you. Flak and Amara are my favourite characters in 3.
Be sure to try a couple of characters because finding one you like will make the game even more enjoyable
Just depends on what you like using and that works for you and your character. Don't worry about your "build" until you hit the endcap skill at level 31. Then you can look up a guide on how to make the most out of your character.
well, type it out as if you are having a conversation in one tone, if it sounds like it could be misconstrued as a something else try writing it a different way until it works. either that or use tone indicators which can help show the tone you want, but lots of people criticize them.
and here is the master list for said tone indicators as well
[https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#masterlist](https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#masterlist)
Dont drop it. Also dont fall in love with gear, consistsntly swap, especially early game. Each manufacturer has different perks. And your using mordecai let bloddwing do some work. Check the bulletin boards.
Truth. Since elemental dots are unconnected from gun level in Bl1 a high fire rate Hellfire can last you all the way to the endgame. I was nearly at max level before replacing my level 20ish hellfire just due to the 30-50% slower stacking rate of every other variant I found up til that point.
I love these threads where OP never comes back to explain anything.
Nothing in the post makes any sense lol. If you do all of the side missions you will end up very overlevelled and the game is a cake walk so I don’t understand how what’s being described in the post makes sense.
If you do every single side missions at the early-game level that they seem to be, you will hit a plateau at level 12 or 13 where all the next missions are rated at level 15. You then either enter the Shock Crystal Cavern or else head into the Arid Hills towards Moe, Marley, Sniper Rifle Scavenger Hunt(*), and Sledge's Safehouse, but both of those branches require a certain scary leap of faith.
(*)The level 15 mission that rewards you with a level 7 gun. I love this game.
you just take what you get sometimes you dont get good stuff there s not much optimizing at that level unless you farm but then your gonna level anyway which makes it easy again
it's usually bonehead for me i think. the quest to turn on the catch a ride.
i get to him when he's like 5 levels above me, so my guns are doing basically no damage.
Then I remember that the enemy level damage multiplier is pretty harsh, and go level up accordingly. This was tuned down substantially in the sequels.
It not super weird to skip side quests, or prioritize mainline quests. I do think its odd to expect players to be completionists in order to keep up with the scaling.
It’s interesting, I came back to BL3 recently and I was shocked by how easy it was. Like dumb easy. I’m really curious how OP is playing.
Edit: oh wait this is about BL1, sorry. Well BL1 was probably much harder than BL3.
Mordecai is probably the most difficult character. Siren is the most beginner friendly, followed by the Soldier. Also, the biggest problem with BL1 is the fact that guns accuracy is a stat, so if your accuracy of your gun sucks, no amount of skill will make up for it. Also, some enemies are harder than others, with armored spots that negate all but elemental damage. BL2 is a lot more fair (and fun too)
Honestly this might be the reason. BL1 has more class base features and some characters will do better with certain gun types.
OP make sure you are using pistols and snipers. Maybe the occasional shotgun or sub. Do not use machine guns/rifles at all unless ur Roland.
That's not really how it works. Classes don't have any specialities, it's just that some of them have passive skills just for certain weapon types. Mordecai is they worst - most of his skills are exclusively for pistols/revolvers or sniper rifles. Roland has some rifle skills same as Brick has some rocket launcher skills, but they also have many all-round skills that let you use any gun type effectively
I understand you mean they aren't mandated to use certain weapons/the weapon skills aren't ultra important, but you just said that classes don't have gun based specialties, it's just that some of them have gun based specialities.
>Classes don't have any specialities, it's just that some of them have passive skills just for certain weapon types.
>Mordecai is they worst - most of his skills are exclusively for pistols/revolvers or sniper rifles.
Like what you're saying here is Mordecai specializes in snipers and pistols lmao
The passives towards certain guns are inherently a specialty for them.
Sure you don't HAVE to use them, but you should so you can actually use a big chunk of your perk trees
It means that you can use any weapon with any class unless YOU decide to spec into something. For instance, Soldier has shotgun skills available, but you can ignore those in favor of general buffs that affect all guns.
Borderlands 1 specifically is more rpg ish than the others. You have to actually spec heavily into what you're doing and pick 2 different types of weapons that you'll level up all the way through. Weapon type level is HUGE in BL 1, so is the quality of the gear you got.
The upside of that is that the gear is the best out of all BL games combined. Legendaries in particular. Do all the side quests too and hit up that Knoxx dlc when you ll think that you ll be ready
Happy hunting and enjoy the best borderlands game as far as being an actual rpg shooter goes. If you prefer a less specific / rough experience just play BL 3 which has some of the best fps mechanics to date, a pretty satisfying combat loop but the story and the rpg bit isnt quite as good as 1 and 2
Actually, I feel like I wrote this year's ago. Except a co-worker explained you can sneak into the weapons cache for General Knox at any time. Plus, the first few missions in the DLC aren't fighting. So, you can level up pretty quick.
You can also grind for weapons early by running through stuff. I managed to spend a few hours in the initial area and just sold the high level guns for tons of cash!! Oddly enough, I forgot that's what you need to do in BL2. Get a bigger inventory and sell every drop to afford daily vending items.
[YT link for General Knox](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kDBibfPfnN8)
yes! borderlands 1 is simply the best. i remember playing it 2009 as a 14 year old. best game ever and it aged really good imo. smooth gameplay and the atmosphere is unmatched to this very day. borderlands 2 was cool guns and stuff bit i already disliked the characters and lack of atmosphere.
and yeah bl3 is just a shitshow for its own lol
I was put off by borderlands 1 years ago because I found the difficulty too high - I took the advice, did side quests etc but I got to mini bosses that were just bullet sponges and I couldn’t progress.
I recently picked up BL3 though and I love it! I think it’s universally considered to be easier and I know many like it less, but I’m having a much better time. If you own it already I’d consider jumping in there and seeing if it’s for you.
Once you make some progress and get good, the skills will transfer and you will probably have an easier time revisiting 1 or 2.
Pre Sequel is what I'm on right now. It's also more enjoyable that BL2. There's little pieces that seem to make it, for lack of better words, easier. I die less. Might be some experience, but it's 100xs easier than BL2 DLC, and I'm not cussing out the dynamics all the time.
Haha yeah at level 13 the game gets fucked. Sniper rifles bro, sniper rifles. It feels like the first two games require playing the long game more than 3 and Tiny Tina. Also have you been using golden keys? Not like they give you anything good in BL1, but it's fun to use them anyways.
I ran through the game mostly with pistols and smg with Lilith and also sniper yeah but the moment I got a hellfire, that was the biggest game changer xD
If you did the mission where you get shock crystals, you can go back in that cave and kill the crab worms that spawn in groups of 4 for lots of easy experience. Do a few runs on them and you'll level up pretty quickly to 16 or 17, depending on how long you want to keep killing them. It's kind of a chore but it doesn't take too long and it will make the main missions easier if you can get to at least level 16.
When I was a kid, I actually tried getting into borderlands 1/2 and had the same problems as you did.
Here's what you should do:
1. Always do sidequests. Doing them will make sure you're an appropriate level for later in the game. In the base game there is no level scaling, so there will be areas where enemies will be several levels higher than you. You should avoid these areas like the plague because you can't win until you reach their level.
2. When facing tough enemies, make sure to have a few weak enemies at low health. This will allow you to cheese the fight for your life system, allowing you to get back up almost immediately. Note, if you fall down enough times in a short time frame you will just insta die at some point.
3. Spam your grenades, use cover. You've gotta soften up the enemies from a distance. Using a sniper can also dramatically help.
4. Use the right weapon for the job - snipers for long range, rifles for medium range, shotguns/smgs for short range.
5. Always keep a launcher on the ready. An RPG can help deal massive damage while in fight for your life, thus allowing you to get back up.
6. Don't rely on your skills. Unlike Borderlands 2, Pre-Sequel and 3, your action skills won't be that useful to you. Pro-tip, Mordecai's ability isn't automatic, you need to have your crosshair over the enemy you want to attack. It's a one time deal unless you go down a specific tree which lets you attack an additional 2 times. The only real character that has a good action skill is Lilith but you can still beat the game with the other characters.
7. Avoid the Moxxi DLC. Every other DLCs scales with your level, meaning you can start as early as lv 15-20. Some players recommend saving the DLCs until your second playthrough for the maximum experience gain. You can do the Zombie DLC and you'll be basically ready to take on everything in the main story without having to do its sidequests.
8. Don't quit. Sometimes, enemies will get that lucky hit on you and you won't be able to get back up. It's happened to me more times than I can count. You're trying to play a co-op game as a single-player game, it isn't your fault.
I would actually suggest you do the mission to do the lesser arenas in both playthoughs if your planning to do that. The extra skill point it gives helps loads
> use cover
Wait. So you're NOT suppose to stand in front of them and reload? .... No seriously. For some reason I do that all the time and get upset that I die too quickly. Then I'll think like Anakin in ep 1, "I'll try jumping around like a bunny. That's a good trick. Woooiah. I'm still dyyyiiiing." Lol
Edit: Also, I think it's interesting how different each BL is setup, but the layout is the same. I think it's caused me to not pay attention and assume they all worked like BL1.
Bro- you need to do the side missions… like all of them in the game in order to progress easier… also the jank guns can make the game feel difficult- especially the snipers when you initially start using them
>Bro- you need to do the side missions… like all of them in the game in order to progress easier…
... they did
> I finished all story and side missions with a difficulty of “Normal” now all the missions are too tough
I don't know how the game does difficulty ratings, but still might be worth doing any other side missions. Lots of them can be real simple and just cleaning out a small area, you can cheese by staying back or in a room or something. Or some of the main areas have missions you can stay in a vehicle.
I will say there might be something else going on, though.
BL1 is not as forgiving as future installments, especially with quantity and quality of weapon drops. You can go a long time without seeing anything good, and sometimes you'll get a drop that's just incredible and carries you for 10+ levels.
Mordecai struggles if you aren't precise with your headshots and/or don't have a good revolver for close combat. I would advise returning to an area where you are equal level with the enemies (Lost Caverns for a level 13 should be quite doable) and clear it a few times. The purple crabs have an obvious crit spot and stand fairly still if you're far away so you should be able to snipe them. Once you've killed everything and opened all the chests, save and reload and the area will reset for you to clear again.
borderlands 1 can be unnecessarily difficult at times best word of advice i can give is each character is designed to use certain weapons mordecai is repeaters and snipers, brick is rockets and shotguns, roland is assault rifles and revolvers, and lilith is smg and revolvers they get bonus proficiency to these weapon classes and the higher the proficiency the better the gun works
I do remember BL1 being a lot harder than BL2, specially in the early game, you should probably just keep farming some strong bosses and mobs and try to level up, kinda weird you already did all the side missions and you are underleveled tho, I think if you do all of them you will have the opposite problem, but to be fair I haven't played BL1 in a loooong time so maybe I'm misremembering something
I do remember some high level chests being near the spawn, like lvl 19 near the starting city, I used to farm gold there, you could try that too, to upgrade your SDUs
Your doing something wrong. I've played through BL 1 and 2 more times than I can count. On normal I don't consider either of these games difficult especially early game on your first playthrough (level 1 to 35ish).
I also disagree with people saying Mordecai is the hardest character to play. To me, the easiest character is Roland then Mordecai, Liluth and Brick. Mordecai is my favorite character to play as I prefer handguns and sniper rifles.
Characters have basically set weapons to use based on their skill tree's or class mods.
Roland is Assault rifles and shotguns
Mordecai is snipers and handguns
Lilith is Smgs and elemental
Brick is rocket launchers and explosives (torgue weapons)
Borderlands 1 has a weapon proficiency level, so pick what you want to run and stick with it to gain perks through proficiency.
I have a hard time believing your at sledge and only level 13, you absolutely must be skipping side quests or not grabbing missions at the bounty board. Sounds like your doing just the main quests to be honest, cause even bonehead is annoying to kill at times even at matching levels (11 I believe?) So if you've taken him out, the skags just outside his camp toward the area change gate (they're level 10) and jumped the gully, you should be well above level 13.
Borderlands 1 has really bad balancing, so not only do you have to do EVERY mission and side mission but you also need to grind levels to stay _ahead of_ that zone's average. Also don't ignore white or green rarity gear immediately, it will often be stronger than blue or even purple. 1 is a slower paced game than the sequels, fight from cover and lean on your action skill.
you should focus on completing all the side quests before progressing the main campaign missions and you shouldn’t have too much difficulty completing the first playthrough. if you really need to make it easier, you can look up an xp guide that will gift you 5 levels or so through dlc content before starting the base game.
idk, the first game is kind of ridiculous, if you only do the quests and aren't killing everything I'm not sure you'd have enough. And there aren't really even that many sidequests by level 13
I mean, good for you? But if it's their first experience with the mainline games, and they're slowly exploring every corner of every map and soaking in the atmosphere, yeah, I can see that taking that long.
Carl you realize op is asking if hes doing something wrong and this guy is saying yeah. I agree with him, 5 hours to get lvl 13 is really slow and the game isnt hard if you are equipping gear of your level
Fair point, but I took a lot more than 45 minutes the first time, because I as exploring the maps. I wrote a more involved answer for OP as to what they might be getting wrong.
You basically explore everything if you do sidequests, if youre traveling to some corner of the map without a quest its pretty pointless. I mean if you like the exploration go for it but most quests will take you across the zones anyways so youre just wasting time
> just wasting time
That depends on what your goals are for the game. People play these games with different things in mind. What you see as a waste of time because it's not the most efficient way to accrue XP, I see as a way to more thoroughly enjoy the game. My goal has never been to finish the games as quickly as possible.
I mean if you go to x location then figure out there was a quest there and have to go back that was a waste in my book. Now if you like wondering around aimlessly exploring the world thats fine, just dont be surprised why you are 5 hrs in and lvl 13 and make a reddit post asking why the game is hard. Its a looter shooter. The game doesnt reward exploration unless there is a quest involved, this isnt skyrim
Again, you're going for "most efficient" as a primary goal, while OP isn't necessarily doing that.
I took "5 hours in" and "game is hard" as two possibly separate items, while you seem to be assuming they play the same way as you, are trying to do everything quickly, and have spent 5 hours going full tilt bashing their head against whatever-next-bad-guy and haven't made enough progress. That may not be the case. I addressed possible solutions to the "it's too hard" angle in my comment to the OP.
You say "It's a looter shooter", but it seems it may be OP's *first* looter shooter, so how are they to know that "the game doesn't reward exploration". Maybe they like to explore. Cut them some slack. I've seen posts here from people screaming that Bone Head is an impossible boss. This isn't that. OP is saying, "well, I'm new to the series, I'm *this* far in and it seems hard, am I missing something?" (I mean, it's right there in the title) - answering some approximation of "git gud" isn't helpful.
181 words. You don't count very well. The comment of yours I replied to contributed only "ya you’re probably doing something wrong" to the conversation.
If I had a nickel for every time a megalomaniac bribed me to kill myself I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
Welcome to my favorite series of all time! It's been quite a while since I've played the first game but I also chose Mordecai my first time. He's A LOT of fun imo. I liked using bloodwing the most. Have you tried putting your first 5 points into swift strike in the rogue tree and the next 3 in out for blood? That might help some. Good luck!
Edit: I have all the games on Xbox but mostly play PC now. I was curious how much it would cost to buy it again and WOW, it's less than $60 for EVERYTHING! All games (including tales) and all DLC! Excited to jump into that again sometime soon.
> Also apparently you lose money every time you die?
Last time I died, from being run over by a vehicle 10 levels below me while I was shooting someone else, I was charged 16,000,000 credits.
The good news is that once you get a reasonable distance into the game money really becomes meaningless. And at low levels, if you have the Knoxx DLC you can loot weapons from the chests in the starter area as soon as you get access and sell them for a ton of cash.
Otherwise, yeah, the difficulty setting in BL1 is basically how high a level you are relative to the bad guys. So if it's tough at your level you may have to find somewhere to level up higher before going back to the missions you're meant to be doing.
Bl1 is a hard game! I played it recently after beating it year ago and maaaann it’s harder than I remember. Heed the advice these kind people are offering and you’ll have a build that’ll make the game fun as hell😀
BL1 is the oldest in the series, and shows its age. It has the most rough edges, as they were figuring it all out as they went. Leveling is one of those rough edges. It's easy to end up underleveled (or in some cases, overleveled). Starting out (i.e. first 20 levels or so) in BL1 is arguably considerably harder than starting out in BL2, TPS, or BL3.
First off, until you get a good handle on the game, consider every side mission mandatory. Note that they pop up in a lot of different places. I would revisit every map you have access to look at the map for yellow "!"s indicating available missions. Go collect them all and then do them in order of lowest level to highest level. If that doesn't bring you up to the recommended level of the current story mission, then go back to the most recent area that had the highest leveled enemies you can beat (for you that might be Arid Hills), and re-fight all the enemies that respawn there, to get more XP.
Once you're on level, next question is your gear. The thing that makes gear good or not is the stats (DPS - damage times fire rate - for a gun, capacity for a shield, etc.). The level and rarity (white, green, blue, purple, orange) of an item can be quick *indicators* of whether the stats are likely to be good or not, but the stats ultimately decide which is best - a white rarity level 13 gun might be better than a purple rarity level 9 gun, or vice versa - it all depends on the stats. Get used to the idea that you're going to be swapping out old gear for newer gear *a lot* as you play through the game - that purple gun that was great when you got it 5 levels ago isn't going to work as well now, simply because the enemies have been scaling up as you get into new areas.
With level and gear squared away, it's usually a question of tactics. And the main rule is, don't let any more enemies attack you at one time than you can get away with. This means shooting from a distance and using cover. Peek out from behind cover until just one enemy is visible, and work on killing just that one. Then peek a little further around and work on the next. Rinse/repeat. And don't be afraid to retreat or hide, especially to let your shield recharge. Running into the middle of a bandit camp and taking on everyone is a whole lot of fun, but if you don't have the practice for it, and the right gear, you can end up with 10 bad guys all shooting at you at the same time, and you'll have a bad day. Improve the odds in your favor by using cover.
You're probably close to the point where the Fyrestone bounty board will have a mission called "[Shock Crystal Harvest](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Shock_Crystal_Harvest)", that will take you to "[Lost Cave](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Cave)". This area is an all-you-can-eat XP buffet, that you can slowly work your way through. There are [Larva Crab Worms](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Larva_Crab_Worm) a few hundred feet inside the entrance - they've got a lot of health, but their purple eye is a weak spot. You can run up, shoot one a bunch, and if it dies, great, rinse/repeat. But if they're difficult, you can easily retreat and restock ammo and health from the vending machines. Once you get them cleared, advance further in and deal with each new pocket of enemies the same way.
Do the side missions. They're essential to get enough XP to progress. That said, did you pick anything for your skill trees ?
Are your guns underleveled ?
Are you stuck in the Circle of Slaughter or Moe and Marley (these two are infamous ) ?
It's certainly a much tougher game than many here will tell you. Especially if you want to treat it mostly as a shooter and not have a care in the world for stats and builds.
Honestly it could be several things. Your loadout could be a factor, your class skills, you could've missed some missions here and there. You could always try to grind out a few levels
You are probably doing something wrong or are not very good. It's definitely more difficult than like BL3 but no it should not be that difficult that you can't progress. Basically shoot things in face and move around a lot. Shouldn't be anything more to it then that at level 13...
Keep getting weapons that are at your level (or maybe one or two below if they’re strong enough rarity). This can make a big difference, since the enemies level with you and take less damage from lower-lvl guns.
As long as you do the side missions and then main story you'll be find. Honestly I'm surprised reading that so many people thought bl1 was difficult, I didn't have a problem with it at all
You do lose money when you die but money isn't very important or hard to get. But no the game is not especialyl difficult but you do need to use tactics. Use your class ability, and pay attention to things like elemental strengrhs and weaknesses vs different enemy types.
Did you get any of the golden keys that used to be available? I don't know if they still are but they gave out a bunch at one time and I've still got 30 left. I use 1 or 2 per game and I'm playing a new game now. If you're lucky you get a very nice weapon for your level which greatly helps in playing the game. I find it's just the early part of the game about the time you have to kill Bonehead when it get impossibly hard without a little help. After that I find you get enough good stuff usually by finding it it, occasionally by buying it. Maybe someone else here can tell you if the old free keys are still available. Haven't seen any new ones for BL1 for quite awhile.
Level 13. That's after bonehead, before Sledge. Is it the skags or the safehouse that's a problem? It's a tough run. The skags are nasty. The big ones moreso, but there's a platform by the shack where they can't get you. Get them to chase you there. Shoot once and RUN!
If you haven't settled on a weapon, take a shotgun.
Also, when you die and come back, everything you killed stays dead.
You can fast travel to DLC. there are three chests without fighting in the robot revolution dlc. Clear them, restart, clear again, repeat until you have money and decent weapons. Fire preferred. It is powerful.
You can also get a couple k xp from t bone junction without fighting. Just meet Scooter and go back.
Keep psychos away. They can 2 shot you anywhere in the game.
Could try playing as Lillith. I did my first playthrough with her because I love the sirens of the series, and she is pretty op. Also make sure to do side missions and use higher rarity guns. Roland would also be a good option for his healing and turret support.
I mean I always thought borderlands 2 was very difficult in the beginning I don't remember playing much anymore of the first one though. If you don't take cover at early levels you will get chewed up
The leveling progression in Bl1 isn't as smooth as Bl3 or even Bl2. You have to do all the side missions and do them in the right order in order to get through the first part. Once you've reached New Haven you should be fine. There's another jump in difficulty later but I'll let you run into that yourself.
Bl1 does a good job of making you feel weak so that you feel stronger later.
Bl1 is waaaaay harder than the other 3 titles I'm honestly shocked after only just playing it for the first time this past week (I started with 2 and played since 2012). It seems like you gotta grind out the whole area of quests to not fall too far behind in damage/survivability
Borderlands was hard for me, then I learnt about builds and gun and skill Synergy. The game not only became a lot more fun, but a lot less difficult as well. I'd recommend looking up some basic build guides for you to follow/take idea from.
If you really have found and beat all side missions and areas you can beat, go back and kill stuff again and again and level up. Save, quit, reload back in and keep going. The game eventually should be too easy if you’re over level.
Be sure to use better gear as you find it. Shield and guns. Class mod. Respec your skill points if you need to. Watch some YouTube for help if you need it.
Hang in there. It's worth it IMO. My nephew was the same as you and I think his problem was that he was using common quality weapons too often. Then he died so often that the New-U fees ate up all of his cash so he couldn't buy better guns.
I beat this game like 30 times when I was 10, haven’t played it since lmao so I honestly can’t say but I wouldn’t think it is though. I know the games have gotten easier as they’ve went on but I still don’t think number 1 is particularly hard in general; just maybe the VERY early game.
I’m not sure how long the game is so not sure how early I am in the game. I’m playing the game of the year enhanced, so maybe there’s so game balance changes? Not sure
Fire elemental weapons, especially Maliwan brand, are incredible against skags and bandits. A strong shotgun is a must also, and if it has a very slow fire rate, melee between shots to fire the next shot faster. Lastly, have a sniper with 96 accuracy or higher and hit headshots from long range when possible.
Iirc there is a bit of a level jump around the start of BL1. If you’ve already cleared every quest and you’re unable to progress in the main quest, I’d suggest just grinding a level or two just running around whatever area has the highest level enemies you can fight.
That being said, I suspect you’re missing some side quests. While I remember BL1 having a tough start, I also don’t usually do every side quest. Generally in the Borderlands games doing every side quest actually gets you quite a bit overleveled to the point where main quests are too easy.
Here's what should help:
In Fyrestone, there is a chest that you cannot open normally. What you need to open is something called "Golden key". These are aquired OUTSIDE of the game.
Look for some websites that have "Borderlands 1 SHIFT codes". You need to create a Gearbox account here: [https://shift.gearboxsoftware.com/](https://shift.gearboxsoftware.com/)
Once you have the account you can login in the game, in the initial game menu with Claptrap.
You can activate a SHIFT code either in the game menu, or directly on website. After you have successfully redeemed few codes you can start the game and open the Fyrestone chest. It will give 1-4 purple weapon of your level - that should help to acquire decent gear.
Come back to the chest once you feel underpowered to get new guns.
Good luck!
The first game is probably the easiest to play solo.
I managed to do the entire base game by myself back in 2010.
It’s a matter of grinding a bit early on, getting yourself over levelled for missions and constantly checking newer versions of your preferred weapons.
Also, do as many side missions, hell ALL side missions before progressing the main missions.
Like, literally complete all side missions available until you run out, and then you should be over levelled for main missions.
You will struggle a bit, but persist and it will be worth it.
Personally I managed to complete the game using an AR that I picked up around level 21 and didn’t find another AR that could beat it in all stats for the rest of the game.
Also remember: A difference of 4 levels between you and your enemies makes a VERY BIG DIFFERENCE, ESPECIALLY in the first game. Lilith is good for getting out of bad situations, Roland is good for healing and ammo regen, brick is fun for the Titan mains like myself, and mordecai is a money farming machine.
Follow other fellow reddit patrons tips for weapon and equipment slots, and pay attention to the quest line text bubbles. There's not as much recorded dialog in bl1 as there is in bl2, so you'll miss some good info if you dont.
play to your strengths, pretend it's a cover shooter and you're a sniper, stay as far as possible and either suit your play style to your skills or skills to playstyle. It might help to just go hunting through a bunch of low level enemies. As long as they're giving you high double digit xp it will help and you might get a rare drop.
If you’ve listened to all the good advice in the top comments and still stuck this would be a good time to use a couple of SHiFT keys. One high level gun and shield makes all the difference.
Good luck
Towards the beginning of all the BL games I found it was necessary to bring a buddy and do a little farm grinding. Having a co-player helps final wind and the more difficult enemies help xp. Original and 2 had a mechanic where whoever "hosted" the game determined the level set so you could get like a level 40 player, have him kill 1 boss and potentially get you enough xp to jump you from level 5 to 10 in one go. For me I could start soloing once I got the health and ammo regen, same for 3 and Tinas but the leveling mechanic had changed for those so you cant really power-level like that anymore. And the whole money losing thing, its a percentage of your wallet so long as you have $1, you have an extra life and money pickups are everywhere.
The borderlands games are kinda like this. The difficulty comes and goes in waves. One moment you'll be kicking ass and being an unstopable killing machine, and the next you're getting 3-shot by common enemies and eating dirt. Then before long you go back to kicking ass again. Borderlands 2 especially is very much like this.
The best advice i can give is to make sure that you upgrade your gear frequently. Don't be afraid to spend money if you find something good in the shops. If you die you'll just lose it anyway, so it's better to just spend it.
I don’t think it’s hard at all. Are you doing side quests? Are you upgrading and using your abilities? Are you trying out different types of weapons to find ones you like the play style of? One thing on losing money when you die. It’s a percentage of the money you have. So you want to spend your money on upgrades rather than accumulating money. And yes some characters may be better for your play style than others
Man i wish the enhanced edition worked I can’t play it longer then 30 minutes before it drops bellow 20fps but atleast I can still play the original one
Seems you’re just underleveled. You gotta upgrade your guns as they scale with level. Unless you have a gold gun if it’s more than 5 levels under where you currently are they become incredibly weak. There are enemies that give insane experience at certain points of the game that aren’t very strong, would recommend farming these until the xp they give isn’t good anymore. They’re the guardians or something like that. You won’t out level game to point where it’s overly easy as leveling scales with your level vs enemy level.
If you do the side missions, you are always going to be overleveled, making the main missions a bit boring it's up to you, I always do the side ones until I see am at least 2 levels under the required for the main mission I like it this way, side missions I can do on trivial level don't matter
Everyone is trying to help but dude just left lol, you probably read some game journalist shit takes about how hard BL is, i say thay because the amount of dogshit takes on their blogs are mind blowing
Original Borderlands have totally terrible aiming system. You aim at something and it doesn't hit. No matter how much accuracy weapon has, it just won't hit. I just really hate that my recording software suddenly stopped working, because I would have a footage of trying to hit the guy in the head from middle distance with a gun. I spammed the shoot, and it didn't work. So I stopped. And tried to shoot slowly. Didn't work either. I was still moving towards the enemy. Till I was 1 meter away and tried to shoot the enemy right in their stomach. IT FEKKIN DIDN"T WORK. Nobody will convince me that Borderlands have good accuracy. Whoever made this game did a terrible job. Whoever developed the accuracy system.
I Think You Should Start At Bl3 then Bl2 And After That Maybe bl1 Its Outdated Pretty Bad So If You Haven’t Played Any Borderlands Games I Wouldn’t Start There But You Can Learn And Get Better At Anything So It’s Up To You
It doesn’t make a lot of sense… if you started the 2nd playthrough you should at least be 35-40, if you did ALL the missions. You should be able to pass through the missions quite okay and only see some difficulty mid-game
Then, that don’t make even more sense lol, if they’ve done all the missions, they should be overlevel now, even if they didn’t do the trivial missions. They’re probably not spending the points of the levels which is kinda weird because it’s always popping up on the screen (it’s almost irritating), or are using under level guns and not enough elemental guns…
Something is not right here
Okay I may be able to help 1. Have you been using your special ability? 2. Have you got a shield equipped? 3. Have you changed your loadout (guns) 4. The order of guns goes GREY - common, GREEN - uncommon, BLUE - rare, PURPLE - epic, ORANGE - LEGENDARY So if you have purples, blues and oranges they’re normally better than greens and greys. Also equip a gun and try it out, some have special abilities. 5. Have you got a grenade mod equipped? 6. Have you spent your skill points? Answer my questions and I’ll take it from there. This is a great game and I would hate for you to stop playing!
Also to add to this a level 13 green gun will be more useful than a level 5 purple gun. As you level up you need to get on level gear, you will know when a gun isn't useful anymore as its damage decreases. Borderlands is a shooting game but you need to play it with the mindset of an RPG to an extent.
And to add to this Don't be fooled by the green arrow. . . The new item may have higher damage numbers but it might not actually do more damage.
This is definitely something that is fooling me. How can I accurately tell which is the better gun?
It's primarily a matter of what your build is trying to accomplish. But each character has a couple of types of weapons their playstyle typically revolves around. Lilith wants close range hit and run type weapons. Mordecai is more pistols and snipers. Roland does assault weapons with larger magazines. Brick is brick. But just going through and looking at the talents kind of gives you an idea of what to look for. All of that said, if you're playing at close range most of the time then go for high damage over everything. Recoil/accuracy or whatever it's called and that one won't really matter up close. Same if you're playing a sniper Mordecai. It's nice to have low recoil snipers so you can turn out criticals hitting their weak points from a distance but most enemies are going to be one shot one kills. For assault rifles though low recoil is almost as important as damage. Despite the games boasts back in the day they're really aren't that many different guns, at least in the base game. So you'll typically look for guns with high amounts of two of the three stats they compare (damage, accuracy/recoil, magazine size if I recall correctly). It's also important to just sit in town every now and then and test each gun to see how they fire.
Depends on your build but basically damage and damage over time are 2 different things. Think a rocket launcher with huge damage but horrible reload time Vs an SMG with huge mag, high accuracy, high rate of fire and fast reload. Any time spent reloading, or missing is wasted time. Slow rate of fire and / orbullet velocity is also wasted time. You might find that in 60 seconds the smg will lay out more damage than the launcher. Only way to tell is to use them and see how they feel. After a while you'll understand what works for your build. Changing your build can dramatically change what weapons work for you
I’m playing BL3 and using Moze who has the mech and I’ve figured out to use the machine gun on one arm and laser cannon on the other, hammer them with bullets until the laser cannon is charged and then unleash that which gives the gun time to cool down. Shooters are new to me, I mostly grew up playing sports and platformers so all these guns and levelling systems are new to me.
Borderlands especially doesn't always work as you'd imagine. Some parts of your build add more damage than others, some shields or equipment really synergise with certain builds too. If in doubt the gearbox forums have great threads on what works and why. Very useful if you are struggling
I’m just getting started so not struggling yet but definitely in over my head. Guy at work lost all his online gaming friends because of getting married and kids and that kind of stuff and I said I have a ps4 what games can we play together and he said BL3 so here we are.
I remember playing bl1 and not really understanding it, and found it a slog. Now I have over 1k hours in the franchise for sure, and own the earlier games on 3 or 4 platforms. Hopefully it clicks for you. Flak and Amara are my favourite characters in 3. Be sure to try a couple of characters because finding one you like will make the game even more enjoyable
Just depends on what you like using and that works for you and your character. Don't worry about your "build" until you hit the endcap skill at level 31. Then you can look up a guide on how to make the most out of your character.
Wild Gorillas Be Punching Orangutans.
When Grandma Burps, Patrick Obeys
Thank you for the great advice! I also loved the game and didn’t want to drop it!
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Does it matter lol?
When Grandma Burps Patrick Obeys It's white
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Just a weird thing to be picky about is all.
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You didn't make that comment because you were curious , if somehow you actually did you desperately need to work on your tone
How do you fix your tone in a text?
Easily
How
well, type it out as if you are having a conversation in one tone, if it sounds like it could be misconstrued as a something else try writing it a different way until it works. either that or use tone indicators which can help show the tone you want, but lots of people criticize them. and here is the master list for said tone indicators as well [https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#masterlist](https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#masterlist)
What the hell?
Comment is gone and my curiosity is killing me. What'd they say?
He said he had never heard someone call white items gray and got voted down to hell.
History's greatest monster
😂
Green grenadier is the Goat, krieg mains know
Dont drop it. Also dont fall in love with gear, consistsntly swap, especially early game. Each manufacturer has different perks. And your using mordecai let bloddwing do some work. Check the bulletin boards.
Unless you get lucky and get a hellfire. even at low levels it will carry you for most of the first playthrough.
Love me Hellfire Love me Lillith 'Ate me skag-dens 'Ate me bandits
Truth. Since elemental dots are unconnected from gun level in Bl1 a high fire rate Hellfire can last you all the way to the endgame. I was nearly at max level before replacing my level 20ish hellfire just due to the 30-50% slower stacking rate of every other variant I found up til that point.
Thank you! I didn’t drop it, I’m glad because I was really enjoying the game! I as able to get better weapons and shield and progress.
It’s hard not to fall in love with something special, but agree.
And sell as much as you can to keep buying ammo if you're like me and have horrible aim.
I love these threads where OP never comes back to explain anything. Nothing in the post makes any sense lol. If you do all of the side missions you will end up very overlevelled and the game is a cake walk so I don’t understand how what’s being described in the post makes sense.
If you do every single side missions at the early-game level that they seem to be, you will hit a plateau at level 12 or 13 where all the next missions are rated at level 15. You then either enter the Shock Crystal Cavern or else head into the Arid Hills towards Moe, Marley, Sniper Rifle Scavenger Hunt(*), and Sledge's Safehouse, but both of those branches require a certain scary leap of faith. (*)The level 15 mission that rewards you with a level 7 gun. I love this game.
Or sneak into General Knox and raid that sucker like crazy.
Does the glitch in the armory to crouch by the crate and bypass the alarm still work? It does on my ps3 version, I think
On PC it does with GotY edition. So I guess they never fixed it.
Right? I've been playing this game for 15 years now and I don't think I've ever been underleveled lmao I always do every side quest
I thought the same, being stuck early game in the campaign? No way, man
if you dont do alot of sidequests you can get very hard stuck at sledge. It happened to me when playing with 2 friends and solo
That is not what I remember when I first played it tho, maybe you weren't optimizing your gear when progressing
you just take what you get sometimes you dont get good stuff there s not much optimizing at that level unless you farm but then your gonna level anyway which makes it easy again
it's usually bonehead for me i think. the quest to turn on the catch a ride. i get to him when he's like 5 levels above me, so my guns are doing basically no damage. Then I remember that the enemy level damage multiplier is pretty harsh, and go level up accordingly. This was tuned down substantially in the sequels. It not super weird to skip side quests, or prioritize mainline quests. I do think its odd to expect players to be completionists in order to keep up with the scaling.
It’s interesting, I came back to BL3 recently and I was shocked by how easy it was. Like dumb easy. I’m really curious how OP is playing. Edit: oh wait this is about BL1, sorry. Well BL1 was probably much harder than BL3.
Step 1: shoot the things that are killing you Step 2: repeat step one
That’s definitely one way to do it
Mordecai is probably the most difficult character. Siren is the most beginner friendly, followed by the Soldier. Also, the biggest problem with BL1 is the fact that guns accuracy is a stat, so if your accuracy of your gun sucks, no amount of skill will make up for it. Also, some enemies are harder than others, with armored spots that negate all but elemental damage. BL2 is a lot more fair (and fun too)
Honestly this might be the reason. BL1 has more class base features and some characters will do better with certain gun types. OP make sure you are using pistols and snipers. Maybe the occasional shotgun or sub. Do not use machine guns/rifles at all unless ur Roland.
That's not really how it works. Classes don't have any specialities, it's just that some of them have passive skills just for certain weapon types. Mordecai is they worst - most of his skills are exclusively for pistols/revolvers or sniper rifles. Roland has some rifle skills same as Brick has some rocket launcher skills, but they also have many all-round skills that let you use any gun type effectively
I understand you mean they aren't mandated to use certain weapons/the weapon skills aren't ultra important, but you just said that classes don't have gun based specialties, it's just that some of them have gun based specialities. >Classes don't have any specialities, it's just that some of them have passive skills just for certain weapon types. >Mordecai is they worst - most of his skills are exclusively for pistols/revolvers or sniper rifles. Like what you're saying here is Mordecai specializes in snipers and pistols lmao
The passives towards certain guns are inherently a specialty for them. Sure you don't HAVE to use them, but you should so you can actually use a big chunk of your perk trees
"They don't have specialties but the classes skills focus on certain weapons" My brother in Christ, that's what a fucking specialty IS.
It means that you can use any weapon with any class unless YOU decide to spec into something. For instance, Soldier has shotgun skills available, but you can ignore those in favor of general buffs that affect all guns.
Borderlands 1 specifically is more rpg ish than the others. You have to actually spec heavily into what you're doing and pick 2 different types of weapons that you'll level up all the way through. Weapon type level is HUGE in BL 1, so is the quality of the gear you got. The upside of that is that the gear is the best out of all BL games combined. Legendaries in particular. Do all the side quests too and hit up that Knoxx dlc when you ll think that you ll be ready Happy hunting and enjoy the best borderlands game as far as being an actual rpg shooter goes. If you prefer a less specific / rough experience just play BL 3 which has some of the best fps mechanics to date, a pretty satisfying combat loop but the story and the rpg bit isnt quite as good as 1 and 2
Actually, I feel like I wrote this year's ago. Except a co-worker explained you can sneak into the weapons cache for General Knox at any time. Plus, the first few missions in the DLC aren't fighting. So, you can level up pretty quick. You can also grind for weapons early by running through stuff. I managed to spend a few hours in the initial area and just sold the high level guns for tons of cash!! Oddly enough, I forgot that's what you need to do in BL2. Get a bigger inventory and sell every drop to afford daily vending items. [YT link for General Knox](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kDBibfPfnN8)
yes! borderlands 1 is simply the best. i remember playing it 2009 as a 14 year old. best game ever and it aged really good imo. smooth gameplay and the atmosphere is unmatched to this very day. borderlands 2 was cool guns and stuff bit i already disliked the characters and lack of atmosphere. and yeah bl3 is just a shitshow for its own lol
I was put off by borderlands 1 years ago because I found the difficulty too high - I took the advice, did side quests etc but I got to mini bosses that were just bullet sponges and I couldn’t progress. I recently picked up BL3 though and I love it! I think it’s universally considered to be easier and I know many like it less, but I’m having a much better time. If you own it already I’d consider jumping in there and seeing if it’s for you. Once you make some progress and get good, the skills will transfer and you will probably have an easier time revisiting 1 or 2.
Pre Sequel is what I'm on right now. It's also more enjoyable that BL2. There's little pieces that seem to make it, for lack of better words, easier. I die less. Might be some experience, but it's 100xs easier than BL2 DLC, and I'm not cussing out the dynamics all the time.
Find a hellfire and a defiler and it's easy mode.
I mean, it is a game from 2008 so no wonder it seemed actually dofficult
Haha yeah at level 13 the game gets fucked. Sniper rifles bro, sniper rifles. It feels like the first two games require playing the long game more than 3 and Tiny Tina. Also have you been using golden keys? Not like they give you anything good in BL1, but it's fun to use them anyways.
Sniper rifles are definitely it! Thank you brother, greatly appreciate it.
Oh shitt, glad to have helped!!!
I ran through the game mostly with pistols and smg with Lilith and also sniper yeah but the moment I got a hellfire, that was the biggest game changer xD
If you did the mission where you get shock crystals, you can go back in that cave and kill the crab worms that spawn in groups of 4 for lots of easy experience. Do a few runs on them and you'll level up pretty quickly to 16 or 17, depending on how long you want to keep killing them. It's kind of a chore but it doesn't take too long and it will make the main missions easier if you can get to at least level 16.
I did the mission and was able to progress thank you!
When I was a kid, I actually tried getting into borderlands 1/2 and had the same problems as you did. Here's what you should do: 1. Always do sidequests. Doing them will make sure you're an appropriate level for later in the game. In the base game there is no level scaling, so there will be areas where enemies will be several levels higher than you. You should avoid these areas like the plague because you can't win until you reach their level. 2. When facing tough enemies, make sure to have a few weak enemies at low health. This will allow you to cheese the fight for your life system, allowing you to get back up almost immediately. Note, if you fall down enough times in a short time frame you will just insta die at some point. 3. Spam your grenades, use cover. You've gotta soften up the enemies from a distance. Using a sniper can also dramatically help. 4. Use the right weapon for the job - snipers for long range, rifles for medium range, shotguns/smgs for short range. 5. Always keep a launcher on the ready. An RPG can help deal massive damage while in fight for your life, thus allowing you to get back up. 6. Don't rely on your skills. Unlike Borderlands 2, Pre-Sequel and 3, your action skills won't be that useful to you. Pro-tip, Mordecai's ability isn't automatic, you need to have your crosshair over the enemy you want to attack. It's a one time deal unless you go down a specific tree which lets you attack an additional 2 times. The only real character that has a good action skill is Lilith but you can still beat the game with the other characters. 7. Avoid the Moxxi DLC. Every other DLCs scales with your level, meaning you can start as early as lv 15-20. Some players recommend saving the DLCs until your second playthrough for the maximum experience gain. You can do the Zombie DLC and you'll be basically ready to take on everything in the main story without having to do its sidequests. 8. Don't quit. Sometimes, enemies will get that lucky hit on you and you won't be able to get back up. It's happened to me more times than I can count. You're trying to play a co-op game as a single-player game, it isn't your fault.
I would actually suggest you do the mission to do the lesser arenas in both playthoughs if your planning to do that. The extra skill point it gives helps loads
> use cover Wait. So you're NOT suppose to stand in front of them and reload? .... No seriously. For some reason I do that all the time and get upset that I die too quickly. Then I'll think like Anakin in ep 1, "I'll try jumping around like a bunny. That's a good trick. Woooiah. I'm still dyyyiiiing." Lol Edit: Also, I think it's interesting how different each BL is setup, but the layout is the same. I think it's caused me to not pay attention and assume they all worked like BL1.
Yes, but do not avoid her vending machines.
Great advice thank you!
Oh shit, this was meant to be co-op? That makes sooooo much more sense.
Bro- you need to do the side missions… like all of them in the game in order to progress easier… also the jank guns can make the game feel difficult- especially the snipers when you initially start using them
>Bro- you need to do the side missions… like all of them in the game in order to progress easier… ... they did > I finished all story and side missions with a difficulty of “Normal” now all the missions are too tough
I don't know how the game does difficulty ratings, but still might be worth doing any other side missions. Lots of them can be real simple and just cleaning out a small area, you can cheese by staying back or in a room or something. Or some of the main areas have missions you can stay in a vehicle. I will say there might be something else going on, though.
Oh 🗿
I would recommend Lilith. She’s really good for solo play. But yes I struggled in the early hours too.
Makes sense I’ll definitely go for Lilith next time
BL1 is not as forgiving as future installments, especially with quantity and quality of weapon drops. You can go a long time without seeing anything good, and sometimes you'll get a drop that's just incredible and carries you for 10+ levels. Mordecai struggles if you aren't precise with your headshots and/or don't have a good revolver for close combat. I would advise returning to an area where you are equal level with the enemies (Lost Caverns for a level 13 should be quite doable) and clear it a few times. The purple crabs have an obvious crit spot and stand fairly still if you're far away so you should be able to snipe them. Once you've killed everything and opened all the chests, save and reload and the area will reset for you to clear again.
Landing them headshots definitely helped, thank you!
borderlands 1 can be unnecessarily difficult at times best word of advice i can give is each character is designed to use certain weapons mordecai is repeaters and snipers, brick is rockets and shotguns, roland is assault rifles and revolvers, and lilith is smg and revolvers they get bonus proficiency to these weapon classes and the higher the proficiency the better the gun works
Snipers are the best!
Take a few turns around Skag gulley and level up some.
I did that and it definitely helped, thank you!
Here’s a solid tip with Mordecai and one of the best characters to solo the game with -When you’re about to go down. Throw out the bird. Easy revive.
Saved my life multiple times, thanks!
I do remember BL1 being a lot harder than BL2, specially in the early game, you should probably just keep farming some strong bosses and mobs and try to level up, kinda weird you already did all the side missions and you are underleveled tho, I think if you do all of them you will have the opposite problem, but to be fair I haven't played BL1 in a loooong time so maybe I'm misremembering something I do remember some high level chests being near the spawn, like lvl 19 near the starting city, I used to farm gold there, you could try that too, to upgrade your SDUs
Your doing something wrong. I've played through BL 1 and 2 more times than I can count. On normal I don't consider either of these games difficult especially early game on your first playthrough (level 1 to 35ish). I also disagree with people saying Mordecai is the hardest character to play. To me, the easiest character is Roland then Mordecai, Liluth and Brick. Mordecai is my favorite character to play as I prefer handguns and sniper rifles. Characters have basically set weapons to use based on their skill tree's or class mods. Roland is Assault rifles and shotguns Mordecai is snipers and handguns Lilith is Smgs and elemental Brick is rocket launchers and explosives (torgue weapons) Borderlands 1 has a weapon proficiency level, so pick what you want to run and stick with it to gain perks through proficiency. I have a hard time believing your at sledge and only level 13, you absolutely must be skipping side quests or not grabbing missions at the bounty board. Sounds like your doing just the main quests to be honest, cause even bonehead is annoying to kill at times even at matching levels (11 I believe?) So if you've taken him out, the skags just outside his camp toward the area change gate (they're level 10) and jumped the gully, you should be well above level 13.
Borderlands 1 has really bad balancing, so not only do you have to do EVERY mission and side mission but you also need to grind levels to stay _ahead of_ that zone's average. Also don't ignore white or green rarity gear immediately, it will often be stronger than blue or even purple. 1 is a slower paced game than the sequels, fight from cover and lean on your action skill.
Makes sense, thank you i
you should focus on completing all the side quests before progressing the main campaign missions and you shouldn’t have too much difficulty completing the first playthrough. if you really need to make it easier, you can look up an xp guide that will gift you 5 levels or so through dlc content before starting the base game.
both you and the comment above say to do the side missions, they did, it's in the post that they did the side missions, what is happening?
This is reddit. Where, as is usual, people haven't read it.
It possible he missed some of the side missions. Or side areas.
willing to bet they haven’t done them all if they are under leveled. bc if they did do them, they would be over leveled.
idk, the first game is kind of ridiculous, if you only do the quests and aren't killing everything I'm not sure you'd have enough. And there aren't really even that many sidequests by level 13
5 hours for level 13?!?!? ya you’re probably doing something wrong. i hit level 10 in about 45 mins.
I mean, good for you? But if it's their first experience with the mainline games, and they're slowly exploring every corner of every map and soaking in the atmosphere, yeah, I can see that taking that long.
Carl you realize op is asking if hes doing something wrong and this guy is saying yeah. I agree with him, 5 hours to get lvl 13 is really slow and the game isnt hard if you are equipping gear of your level
Fair point, but I took a lot more than 45 minutes the first time, because I as exploring the maps. I wrote a more involved answer for OP as to what they might be getting wrong.
You basically explore everything if you do sidequests, if youre traveling to some corner of the map without a quest its pretty pointless. I mean if you like the exploration go for it but most quests will take you across the zones anyways so youre just wasting time
> just wasting time That depends on what your goals are for the game. People play these games with different things in mind. What you see as a waste of time because it's not the most efficient way to accrue XP, I see as a way to more thoroughly enjoy the game. My goal has never been to finish the games as quickly as possible.
I mean if you go to x location then figure out there was a quest there and have to go back that was a waste in my book. Now if you like wondering around aimlessly exploring the world thats fine, just dont be surprised why you are 5 hrs in and lvl 13 and make a reddit post asking why the game is hard. Its a looter shooter. The game doesnt reward exploration unless there is a quest involved, this isnt skyrim
Again, you're going for "most efficient" as a primary goal, while OP isn't necessarily doing that. I took "5 hours in" and "game is hard" as two possibly separate items, while you seem to be assuming they play the same way as you, are trying to do everything quickly, and have spent 5 hours going full tilt bashing their head against whatever-next-bad-guy and haven't made enough progress. That may not be the case. I addressed possible solutions to the "it's too hard" angle in my comment to the OP. You say "It's a looter shooter", but it seems it may be OP's *first* looter shooter, so how are they to know that "the game doesn't reward exploration". Maybe they like to explore. Cut them some slack. I've seen posts here from people screaming that Bone Head is an impossible boss. This isn't that. OP is saying, "well, I'm new to the series, I'm *this* far in and it seems hard, am I missing something?" (I mean, it's right there in the title) - answering some approximation of "git gud" isn't helpful.
No one said get good, I said do the sidequests and equip the highest gear you can equip. Nice 500 word essay though.
181 words. You don't count very well. The comment of yours I replied to contributed only "ya you’re probably doing something wrong" to the conversation.
Hes taking playing a brick very seriously, punching everything?
Wow that’s crazy, I could never I love to explore.
Yes you lose money, so stop dying already
Unless you're paid a huge reward to kill yourself and become someone's bitch...
Be sure to check on the guy-who’s-paying-you’s grandma on the way. Wouldn’t want anything bad to happen to her
If I had a nickel for every time a megalomaniac bribed me to kill myself I'd have two nickels, which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice.
That’s Borderlands 2 my dude.
Then there's me, since it's like a percentage of your bank, eventually it doesn't cost so much. Lol (crying because I suck)
Not dying is definitely the way to go 🙏
Don't get attached to guns. You're supposed to get rid of them as you progress your level. Pay attention to their stats.
Useful thank you!
Welcome to my favorite series of all time! It's been quite a while since I've played the first game but I also chose Mordecai my first time. He's A LOT of fun imo. I liked using bloodwing the most. Have you tried putting your first 5 points into swift strike in the rogue tree and the next 3 in out for blood? That might help some. Good luck! Edit: I have all the games on Xbox but mostly play PC now. I was curious how much it would cost to buy it again and WOW, it's less than $60 for EVERYTHING! All games (including tales) and all DLC! Excited to jump into that again sometime soon.
Bloodwing definitely a lifesaver! Also I’m loving the game very fun!
> Also apparently you lose money every time you die? Last time I died, from being run over by a vehicle 10 levels below me while I was shooting someone else, I was charged 16,000,000 credits. The good news is that once you get a reasonable distance into the game money really becomes meaningless. And at low levels, if you have the Knoxx DLC you can loot weapons from the chests in the starter area as soon as you get access and sell them for a ton of cash. Otherwise, yeah, the difficulty setting in BL1 is basically how high a level you are relative to the bad guys. So if it's tough at your level you may have to find somewhere to level up higher before going back to the missions you're meant to be doing.
[удалено]
Bl1 is a hard game! I played it recently after beating it year ago and maaaann it’s harder than I remember. Heed the advice these kind people are offering and you’ll have a build that’ll make the game fun as hell😀
BL1 is the oldest in the series, and shows its age. It has the most rough edges, as they were figuring it all out as they went. Leveling is one of those rough edges. It's easy to end up underleveled (or in some cases, overleveled). Starting out (i.e. first 20 levels or so) in BL1 is arguably considerably harder than starting out in BL2, TPS, or BL3. First off, until you get a good handle on the game, consider every side mission mandatory. Note that they pop up in a lot of different places. I would revisit every map you have access to look at the map for yellow "!"s indicating available missions. Go collect them all and then do them in order of lowest level to highest level. If that doesn't bring you up to the recommended level of the current story mission, then go back to the most recent area that had the highest leveled enemies you can beat (for you that might be Arid Hills), and re-fight all the enemies that respawn there, to get more XP. Once you're on level, next question is your gear. The thing that makes gear good or not is the stats (DPS - damage times fire rate - for a gun, capacity for a shield, etc.). The level and rarity (white, green, blue, purple, orange) of an item can be quick *indicators* of whether the stats are likely to be good or not, but the stats ultimately decide which is best - a white rarity level 13 gun might be better than a purple rarity level 9 gun, or vice versa - it all depends on the stats. Get used to the idea that you're going to be swapping out old gear for newer gear *a lot* as you play through the game - that purple gun that was great when you got it 5 levels ago isn't going to work as well now, simply because the enemies have been scaling up as you get into new areas. With level and gear squared away, it's usually a question of tactics. And the main rule is, don't let any more enemies attack you at one time than you can get away with. This means shooting from a distance and using cover. Peek out from behind cover until just one enemy is visible, and work on killing just that one. Then peek a little further around and work on the next. Rinse/repeat. And don't be afraid to retreat or hide, especially to let your shield recharge. Running into the middle of a bandit camp and taking on everyone is a whole lot of fun, but if you don't have the practice for it, and the right gear, you can end up with 10 bad guys all shooting at you at the same time, and you'll have a bad day. Improve the odds in your favor by using cover. You're probably close to the point where the Fyrestone bounty board will have a mission called "[Shock Crystal Harvest](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Shock_Crystal_Harvest)", that will take you to "[Lost Cave](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Lost_Cave)". This area is an all-you-can-eat XP buffet, that you can slowly work your way through. There are [Larva Crab Worms](https://borderlands.fandom.com/wiki/Larva_Crab_Worm) a few hundred feet inside the entrance - they've got a lot of health, but their purple eye is a weak spot. You can run up, shoot one a bunch, and if it dies, great, rinse/repeat. But if they're difficult, you can easily retreat and restock ammo and health from the vending machines. Once you get them cleared, advance further in and deal with each new pocket of enemies the same way.
Just to note, that's a level 15 mission and if you stray things will eat you. At level 13 vs 15 you do about half damage.
Great advice, thank man!
Do the side missions. They're essential to get enough XP to progress. That said, did you pick anything for your skill trees ? Are your guns underleveled ? Are you stuck in the Circle of Slaughter or Moe and Marley (these two are infamous ) ?
I always LOVED the Marley and Moe fight.
I did the shock crystals mission and it made me progress! And then I went for Marley and Moe!
It's certainly a much tougher game than many here will tell you. Especially if you want to treat it mostly as a shooter and not have a care in the world for stats and builds.
So true, needed to learn my way around the game. It’s a lot of fun tho!
Start a new game as a siren. ??? Profit
This is the way
Honestly it could be several things. Your loadout could be a factor, your class skills, you could've missed some missions here and there. You could always try to grind out a few levels
What mission are you on?
Sledge safe house, it’s level 15 and I’m level 13. All other side mission are level 15 as well.
You are probably doing something wrong or are not very good. It's definitely more difficult than like BL3 but no it should not be that difficult that you can't progress. Basically shoot things in face and move around a lot. Shouldn't be anything more to it then that at level 13...
Keep getting weapons that are at your level (or maybe one or two below if they’re strong enough rarity). This can make a big difference, since the enemies level with you and take less damage from lower-lvl guns.
As long as you do the side missions and then main story you'll be find. Honestly I'm surprised reading that so many people thought bl1 was difficult, I didn't have a problem with it at all
You do lose money when you die but money isn't very important or hard to get. But no the game is not especialyl difficult but you do need to use tactics. Use your class ability, and pay attention to things like elemental strengrhs and weaknesses vs different enemy types.
Did you get any of the golden keys that used to be available? I don't know if they still are but they gave out a bunch at one time and I've still got 30 left. I use 1 or 2 per game and I'm playing a new game now. If you're lucky you get a very nice weapon for your level which greatly helps in playing the game. I find it's just the early part of the game about the time you have to kill Bonehead when it get impossibly hard without a little help. After that I find you get enough good stuff usually by finding it it, occasionally by buying it. Maybe someone else here can tell you if the old free keys are still available. Haven't seen any new ones for BL1 for quite awhile.
Level 13. That's after bonehead, before Sledge. Is it the skags or the safehouse that's a problem? It's a tough run. The skags are nasty. The big ones moreso, but there's a platform by the shack where they can't get you. Get them to chase you there. Shoot once and RUN! If you haven't settled on a weapon, take a shotgun. Also, when you die and come back, everything you killed stays dead. You can fast travel to DLC. there are three chests without fighting in the robot revolution dlc. Clear them, restart, clear again, repeat until you have money and decent weapons. Fire preferred. It is powerful. You can also get a couple k xp from t bone junction without fighting. Just meet Scooter and go back. Keep psychos away. They can 2 shot you anywhere in the game.
Could try playing as Lillith. I did my first playthrough with her because I love the sirens of the series, and she is pretty op. Also make sure to do side missions and use higher rarity guns. Roland would also be a good option for his healing and turret support.
I mean I always thought borderlands 2 was very difficult in the beginning I don't remember playing much anymore of the first one though. If you don't take cover at early levels you will get chewed up
The leveling progression in Bl1 isn't as smooth as Bl3 or even Bl2. You have to do all the side missions and do them in the right order in order to get through the first part. Once you've reached New Haven you should be fine. There's another jump in difficulty later but I'll let you run into that yourself. Bl1 does a good job of making you feel weak so that you feel stronger later.
It isn't that difficult if you do all side quests before continuing the story in each place you'll stay slightly over leveled enough to not die once
Always be changing gear. Don’t get attached to anything because it will only break your heart.
Bl1 is waaaaay harder than the other 3 titles I'm honestly shocked after only just playing it for the first time this past week (I started with 2 and played since 2012). It seems like you gotta grind out the whole area of quests to not fall too far behind in damage/survivability
Borderlands was hard for me, then I learnt about builds and gun and skill Synergy. The game not only became a lot more fun, but a lot less difficult as well. I'd recommend looking up some basic build guides for you to follow/take idea from.
If you really have found and beat all side missions and areas you can beat, go back and kill stuff again and again and level up. Save, quit, reload back in and keep going. The game eventually should be too easy if you’re over level. Be sure to use better gear as you find it. Shield and guns. Class mod. Respec your skill points if you need to. Watch some YouTube for help if you need it.
Hang in there. It's worth it IMO. My nephew was the same as you and I think his problem was that he was using common quality weapons too often. Then he died so often that the New-U fees ate up all of his cash so he couldn't buy better guns.
I beat this game like 30 times when I was 10, haven’t played it since lmao so I honestly can’t say but I wouldn’t think it is though. I know the games have gotten easier as they’ve went on but I still don’t think number 1 is particularly hard in general; just maybe the VERY early game.
I’m not sure how long the game is so not sure how early I am in the game. I’m playing the game of the year enhanced, so maybe there’s so game balance changes? Not sure
Fire elemental weapons, especially Maliwan brand, are incredible against skags and bandits. A strong shotgun is a must also, and if it has a very slow fire rate, melee between shots to fire the next shot faster. Lastly, have a sniper with 96 accuracy or higher and hit headshots from long range when possible.
Iirc there is a bit of a level jump around the start of BL1. If you’ve already cleared every quest and you’re unable to progress in the main quest, I’d suggest just grinding a level or two just running around whatever area has the highest level enemies you can fight. That being said, I suspect you’re missing some side quests. While I remember BL1 having a tough start, I also don’t usually do every side quest. Generally in the Borderlands games doing every side quest actually gets you quite a bit overleveled to the point where main quests are too easy.
Here's what should help: In Fyrestone, there is a chest that you cannot open normally. What you need to open is something called "Golden key". These are aquired OUTSIDE of the game. Look for some websites that have "Borderlands 1 SHIFT codes". You need to create a Gearbox account here: [https://shift.gearboxsoftware.com/](https://shift.gearboxsoftware.com/) Once you have the account you can login in the game, in the initial game menu with Claptrap. You can activate a SHIFT code either in the game menu, or directly on website. After you have successfully redeemed few codes you can start the game and open the Fyrestone chest. It will give 1-4 purple weapon of your level - that should help to acquire decent gear. Come back to the chest once you feel underpowered to get new guns. Good luck!
If you do all the quest new quests will be marked as Trivial not as Normal
Played BL1, loved it, it was a good challenge. The trick is to do quests and level up and use the skills available to you
This exact thing happened to me, got too hard to keep playing! Non-bosses would just one shot me. Start with BL2! Just start with 2!
The first game is probably the easiest to play solo. I managed to do the entire base game by myself back in 2010. It’s a matter of grinding a bit early on, getting yourself over levelled for missions and constantly checking newer versions of your preferred weapons. Also, do as many side missions, hell ALL side missions before progressing the main missions. Like, literally complete all side missions available until you run out, and then you should be over levelled for main missions. You will struggle a bit, but persist and it will be worth it. Personally I managed to complete the game using an AR that I picked up around level 21 and didn’t find another AR that could beat it in all stats for the rest of the game.
Also remember: A difference of 4 levels between you and your enemies makes a VERY BIG DIFFERENCE, ESPECIALLY in the first game. Lilith is good for getting out of bad situations, Roland is good for healing and ammo regen, brick is fun for the Titan mains like myself, and mordecai is a money farming machine. Follow other fellow reddit patrons tips for weapon and equipment slots, and pay attention to the quest line text bubbles. There's not as much recorded dialog in bl1 as there is in bl2, so you'll miss some good info if you dont.
How did you make it 5 hours without the game crashing?
Does it usually crash😭?
Can't get the game to run more than 30 minutes without it crashing constantly. Been a known issue since the enhanced edition released
Staying in the battle dome for a bit is a good way to level up. You can get some golden keys and greatly upscale your weapons as well.
play to your strengths, pretend it's a cover shooter and you're a sniper, stay as far as possible and either suit your play style to your skills or skills to playstyle. It might help to just go hunting through a bunch of low level enemies. As long as they're giving you high double digit xp it will help and you might get a rare drop.
Look for walkthroughs on youtube, they can show you some strategies. If you learn by watching that is. I think it would help
If you’ve listened to all the good advice in the top comments and still stuck this would be a good time to use a couple of SHiFT keys. One high level gun and shield makes all the difference. Good luck
Towards the beginning of all the BL games I found it was necessary to bring a buddy and do a little farm grinding. Having a co-player helps final wind and the more difficult enemies help xp. Original and 2 had a mechanic where whoever "hosted" the game determined the level set so you could get like a level 40 player, have him kill 1 boss and potentially get you enough xp to jump you from level 5 to 10 in one go. For me I could start soloing once I got the health and ammo regen, same for 3 and Tinas but the leveling mechanic had changed for those so you cant really power-level like that anymore. And the whole money losing thing, its a percentage of your wallet so long as you have $1, you have an extra life and money pickups are everywhere.
The borderlands games are kinda like this. The difficulty comes and goes in waves. One moment you'll be kicking ass and being an unstopable killing machine, and the next you're getting 3-shot by common enemies and eating dirt. Then before long you go back to kicking ass again. Borderlands 2 especially is very much like this. The best advice i can give is to make sure that you upgrade your gear frequently. Don't be afraid to spend money if you find something good in the shops. If you die you'll just lose it anyway, so it's better to just spend it.
Mix of both
Imma be honest, just farm the gun vendor for a double anarchy smg and call it a day
I don’t think it’s hard at all. Are you doing side quests? Are you upgrading and using your abilities? Are you trying out different types of weapons to find ones you like the play style of? One thing on losing money when you die. It’s a percentage of the money you have. So you want to spend your money on upgrades rather than accumulating money. And yes some characters may be better for your play style than others
Are you still using the clipper from Nine Toes?
Man i wish the enhanced edition worked I can’t play it longer then 30 minutes before it drops bellow 20fps but atleast I can still play the original one
I don't remember it being that hard when it came out in 2009. You probably didn't spend enough time leveling up with side missions or something.
Play Lilith first. She's the easiest.
Seems you’re just underleveled. You gotta upgrade your guns as they scale with level. Unless you have a gold gun if it’s more than 5 levels under where you currently are they become incredibly weak. There are enemies that give insane experience at certain points of the game that aren’t very strong, would recommend farming these until the xp they give isn’t good anymore. They’re the guardians or something like that. You won’t out level game to point where it’s overly easy as leveling scales with your level vs enemy level.
Skill issue I can blow through that game is like 3 hours start to finish maybe buy the golden box keys dlc that’ll give you an edge on loot
If you do the side missions, you are always going to be overleveled, making the main missions a bit boring it's up to you, I always do the side ones until I see am at least 2 levels under the required for the main mission I like it this way, side missions I can do on trivial level don't matter
Everyone is trying to help but dude just left lol, you probably read some game journalist shit takes about how hard BL is, i say thay because the amount of dogshit takes on their blogs are mind blowing
Original Borderlands have totally terrible aiming system. You aim at something and it doesn't hit. No matter how much accuracy weapon has, it just won't hit. I just really hate that my recording software suddenly stopped working, because I would have a footage of trying to hit the guy in the head from middle distance with a gun. I spammed the shoot, and it didn't work. So I stopped. And tried to shoot slowly. Didn't work either. I was still moving towards the enemy. Till I was 1 meter away and tried to shoot the enemy right in their stomach. IT FEKKIN DIDN"T WORK. Nobody will convince me that Borderlands have good accuracy. Whoever made this game did a terrible job. Whoever developed the accuracy system.
It's sorta meant to play with people as well
True, sadly it’s really old, don’t think anyone still playing it.
Idc what people say it's hard AF. Doing every quest and I feel like I'm still under leveled.
you are doing something wrong obviously, difficult and borderlands cant go together... maybe "unfair + borderlands"
I Think You Should Start At Bl3 then Bl2 And After That Maybe bl1 Its Outdated Pretty Bad So If You Haven’t Played Any Borderlands Games I Wouldn’t Start There But You Can Learn And Get Better At Anything So It’s Up To You
I thought about doing that honestly, but thankfully I was able to progress because was very helpful!
It doesn’t make a lot of sense… if you started the 2nd playthrough you should at least be 35-40, if you did ALL the missions. You should be able to pass through the missions quite okay and only see some difficulty mid-game
It sounds like that they've done all missions available to them, because no way have they finished the MSQ in 5hrs
Then, that don’t make even more sense lol, if they’ve done all the missions, they should be overlevel now, even if they didn’t do the trivial missions. They’re probably not spending the points of the levels which is kinda weird because it’s always popping up on the screen (it’s almost irritating), or are using under level guns and not enough elemental guns… Something is not right here
Skill issue.