Why is borderlands so hard?

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NathanP2007

[H]ard|Gawd
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Dec 17, 2007
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So my cousin bought it and we are playing it, and first off its damn near impoosible to kill one guy without re-spawning like 15 times to bring down his health bit by bit. Next , he goes to single and its harder cause you do like a sliver of damage each shot. We are both level 10 and the enemies are like level 15. I dont get how this game is playable. Even if we had all 4 people playing co-op...it would still be damn near impossible it seems. Help, and advice would be great. It feels like if this game had difficulty settings, its on the "impossible mode".

Edit: Hes doing better on single player, but the purple crabs were still majorly impossible to shoot. But the people he is able to take down with shotgun in 4 shots or more.
 
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Don't... attack guys 5 levels above you?

Do quests and kill enemies around your level?

The game even gives you a HINT: Enemies have levels just like you! Don't be silly and try to attack that guy who has a SKULL next to his name! (or something along those lines).
 
Oh ok , well we have only played like for 2 hours so thanks for the info. Didnt know avoiding enemies was part of a shooters M-O. We just experienced that on single, he can handle everyone almost cause they are the same level, but once i load into co-op , everyone is 5 levels above us and we cant even get their health even down a SLIVER before they blast us away in 5 seconds.
Im assuming once you go to co-op it makes it more difficult, but does is there co-op and non co-op difficulties? It not realizing that we only have 2 people partnering up, not 4. If we had all 4 guys we might have a shot..but once you got 2 person co-op split screen...your F***ed. It makes it so impossible we give up.
Have any of you experienced that?
 
Difficulty goes up with more players in game. A full game of 4 becomes pretty challenging needless to say.
 
But does it change it from easy to hard when co-op is turned on, whether its 2 players playing or all 4? cause it sure doesnt seem like it. seems like its impossible with 2 players right now.
 
There is no "easy" or hard. There're only playthroughs. Playthrough 1, 2, and 2.5. Each one scales with difficulty as more players are in your game.
EDIT: Playthrough 1 is what the game is at when you first start. After you beat it the first time, you unlock playthrough 2. In playthrough 2, the elite mobs become Badass. I forget what they're called in PT 1. In playthrough 2.5, which you unlock after you beat the game the second time around, all mobs are level 50 - 51 and the elite mobs scale up to become Badmuthas (from Badass).

2 players is harder than playing by yourself. 3 is harder than just playing with 2 people. 4 player is the hardest.

Like the other people have said, level a bit more. 2 players shouldn't be that hard. It should be challenging but not impossible.
 
The levels usually go up pretty linearly, you are probably missing some quests you should be picking up/doing.
 
Do your sidequests. If you do them all then you run into the problem of the game being too easy rather than too hard. Just find your pace. Do sidequests if it's too hard, and as soon as it's tolerable, do the main quests.
 
so what does it mean when a weapon name is written in green or blue? old week weapon that I should get rid of maybe?
 
firas said:
so what does it mean when a weapon name is written in green or blue? old week weapon that I should get rid of maybe?
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Weapon rarity is based on color.

From least rare to rarest: white < green < blue < purple < orange < pearl (explained below)

Orange weapons have red text that can be misleading. The red text is usually written in a way to hint at what special function the gun has. An example is "Stand your ground" or "Unending firepower." Both of these attributes give the gun unlimited bullets, causing them to regenerate over time. Sometimes you may run into a quest reward that is blue, but also has red text. Additionally, there are some green/purple sniper rifles called ____ Penetrator that have red flavor text of "Sniper killer" which gives the sniper rifle full auto capability on zoom. These rifles have been confirmed by devs to be mislabeled; they should be orange items.

There are some glitched weapons in game because the weapon generator has some kinks. The community calls them "pearl" collectively, because the weapons are actually have white writing but come with red flavor text. In your inventory, items will be placed in order from most rare to least rare, going from the top to the bottom. Pearl items will always be listed first, meaning the game treats these glitched weapons as more rare than even orange class weapons. It is speculated, but not confirmed by the devs, that pearl weapons should have been colored orange.

To make things easy for you, these are the known pearl weapons: Thanatos (repeater pistols: red flavor text: Big Tony says Hi), Fearsome Cyclops (sniper rifle: red flavor text: I have you in my eye, sir), and Wicked Invader (repeater pistols: red flavor text: 12 bullets invade your brain).

The Thanatos pistols have large clip sizes and usually have a high rate of fire. The Fearsome Cyclops sniper rifle says it has a 3.2 zoom scope, but in actuality, the scope zoom is so far that you can see pixels. The Wicked Invader repeater pistol unloads the entire clip when zoomed in. The Thanatos and Invader can also spawn with elemental damage.

EDIT: Listing of red flavor text and their effects: http://gbxforums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=76822
EDIT 2: The pearl weapons may look weak upon first glance, but they are actually insanely powerful. To put things into perspective, one of my orange sniper rifles has a shotgun effect, where it does 338 damage x6, but in a very tight cluster (no spread like a normal shotgun slug). 338 x6 = 2028 damage. With my hunter skills and class mods, I crit some mobs around 8000. With my Fearsome Cyclops, I crit the same mob at 15k, but the rifle itself only does 800 damage compared to 2028 (338 x6).
 
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NathanP2007 said:
Oh ok , well we have only played like for 2 hours so thanks for the info. Didnt know avoiding enemies was part of a shooters M-O. We just experienced that on single, he can handle everyone almost cause they are the same level, but once i load into co-op , everyone is 5 levels above us and we cant even get their health even down a SLIVER before they blast us away in 5 seconds.
Im assuming once you go to co-op it makes it more difficult, but does is there co-op and non co-op difficulties? It not realizing that we only have 2 people partnering up, not 4. If we had all 4 guys we might have a shot..but once you got 2 person co-op split screen...your F***ed. It makes it so impossible we give up.
Have any of you experienced that?
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I think you're very confused.

Harder does NOT mean higher level. A level 12 enemy in single player will STILL be a level 12 enemy in multiplayer. Enemies get harder with more players (like in Diablo2), but they do NOT magically gain levels.

You've clearly wandered into an area you weren't meant to be in regardless of single player / multiplayer. Obviously this isn't a straight up shooter game. You don't level up in a normal FPS game. It has obvious RPG elements, and just like any other RPG game with levels, don't mess with higher levels until you're ready.
 
Ok, sounds good, il have to play around to find out how to change the quest you want to be on. What i meant by level difference is when it was co-op him and me, the guys we were up against were level 15, our shooting did small small slivers of damage and their shots blasted our shields in one hit, then our HP in 2 hits. Then on single, the same guys were level 10-11 and 3 shots destroyed their shields and 3-4 more shots killed them. I'll look into everything you guys said. yeah my cousin and i were expecting a bit more "Run and gun" , not that we are disappointed.
 
NathanP2007 said:
Ok, sounds good, il have to play around to find out how to change the quest you want to be on. What i meant by level difference is when it was co-op him and me, the guys we were up against were level 15, our shooting did small small slivers of damage and their shots blasted our shields in one hit, then our HP in 2 hits. Then on single, the same guys were level 10-11 and 3 shots destroyed their shields and 3-4 more shots killed them. I'll look into everything you guys said. yeah my cousin and i were expecting a bit more "Run and gun" , not that we are disappointed.
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Hit the "L" key to look at your quests. They have difficulty ratings. If you've got normal or easier, go for those to build levels.
 
Harkamus said:
In playthrough 2, the elite mobs become Badass. I forget what they're called in PT 1. In playthrough 2.5, which you unlock after you beat the game the second time around, all mobs are level 50 - 51 and the elite mobs scale up to become Badmuthas (from Badass).
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It's actually Badass in Playthrough 1, Badmutha in 2, and SuperBad in 2.5.
 
I actually thought this game was extermely easy. I think I maybe died 5 times the whole first playthrough. it was tougher with 4 players but nothing that wasn't like frustrating difficult.

Sounds like you guys might be rushing through the areas and not doing the quests maybe? I spent as much time wandering each area and doing all the quests I could find. You can get some good stuff from quests that make the levels easier.
 
the game is pretty easy

just look at your quest log and do quests at or below your level. crabs are extremely vulnerable to elemental weapons.
 
Seems the consensus is we are going onto a quest that we shouldn't do for quite a while, good to know. Thanks guys. (Btw we are playing it on 360)
 
NathanP2007 said:
Ok, sounds good, il have to play around to find out how to change the quest you want to be on. What i meant by level difference is when it was co-op him and me, the guys we were up against were level 15, our shooting did small small slivers of damage and their shots blasted our shields in one hit, then our HP in 2 hits. Then on single, the same guys were level 10-11 and 3 shots destroyed their shields and 3-4 more shots killed them. I'll look into everything you guys said. yeah my cousin and i were expecting a bit more "Run and gun" , not that we are disappointed.
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That's exactly what I'm talking about. They were clearly NOT the same enemies. Some enemies look similar and have similar looking behavior / names, but they are not the same ones. Like I said earlier, a level 12 enemy in single player will still be level 12 in multiplayer. The only time levels increase is after you've beaten the game, everything becomes level 49-51.
 
Thanks guys, my cousin just texted me saying hes seeing the level of difficulty showing now for certain quests, so we can avoid those and move on to side quests first. Thanks.
 
I have the exact opposite problem.

Borderlands is FAR FAR FAR too easy. I have never had a challenge in the game, even at lower levels. I've even permanently increased the difficulty to a max of level 4 which you do in the config file and I've never had a problem with any bosses or any mobs.

It depends on weapons luck mostly. If you luck out and find an awesome weapon, it can last you 20 levels. Lots of people in Playthrough 2 are still using playthrough 1 weapons.
 
Did you play it solo or 4 person coop? The game is definitely cake walk solo. Anyone playing this game, make sure its on the highest difficulty and (4) person coop, otherwise theres no real point in saying you beat it.
 
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