The new Borderlands 3 patch ushers in some welcome quality of life changes

July 23 hotfixes

Borderlands 3 recently hosted a DLC, but there’s one more known add-on in the pipeline (and if I know Gearbox, years more planned behind the scenes) and plenty of free updates to go around. This latest one doesn’t add content per se, but it has plenty of quality of life changes that have been a long time coming.

Most notably, the Fabricator weapon can now spawn “one to three legendary weapons” at the cost of 250 Eridium. You’ll also be able to buy veteran rewards from the vending machine at will (nice), as well as legendary gear in every machine. Thankfully, green tier gear has been removed from the item of the day pool entirely, cutting down on useless equipment showing up.

Gearbox also says that chests and badass enemy drops have been “subtly buffed,” and dedicated loot pools (something introduced a while back that made named enemy farming more enticing) have been tweaked for the better with a “dramatic overhaul.” 21 under-performing anointments were also dropped from the anointments table, so you should be getting better abilities in the future. Beyond that, the patch mostly consists of bug fixes, but all of the above should make the game a little more fun for people farming the latest gear.

You can find the bulk of the patch notes below! You can also take a gander at Gearbox’s “six weeks of events” initiative, which celebrates the anniversary of Borderlands 3. It all kicks off on July 30 and will run through September 10.

Borderlands 3 Patch and Hotfixes [Gearbox]

It’s been nearly a year since #Borderlands3 made its big debut on September 13, 2019. To show our heartfelt appreciation, we’re kicking off a Borderlands 3 Anniversary Celebration on July 30, bringing you a whopping six weeks of mini-events!

Learn more: https://t.co/IpY1koF5jW pic.twitter.com/O11JCnLOKh

— Borderlands 3 (@Borderlands) July 23, 2020

NEW QUALITY OF LIFE CHANGES

LEGENDARY FIRING MODE FOR FABRICATOR

The Fabricator now has an alternate firing mode called Legendary that spawns between 1 to 3 Legendary weapons for 250 Eridium. You will switch into this alternate firing mode like any other weapon and will see purple effects when firing the Fabricator.

MISSION REWARDS AVAILABLE IN VETERAN REWARDS VENDING MACHINE

Players can now purchase previously rewarded mission rewards in the Veteran Rewards Machine just outside of Crazy Earl’s door on Sanctuary III. As missions are completed, their rewards are added to the pool and can be purchased using Eridium!

LEGENDARY GEAR AVAILABLE IN VENDING MACHINES

We have rebalanced vending machines based on community feedback. Vending machines of all types have a small chance of providing Legendary gear for purchase. We’ve also removed Uncommon (green) Rarity gear from the Item of the Day pool.

CHESTS AND BADASS REWARD ADJUSTMENTS

The quality of rewards found in chests and dropped from Badass enemies have been subtly buffed. Our goal is to make sure chests feel rewarding and exciting, and players feel properly rewarded for defeating difficult enemies.

DEDICATED LOOT POOL ADJUSTMENTS

The dedicated loot pools for bosses have been given a dramatic overhaul in hopes of making for a more reliable and satisfying farming experience. Most bosses have two pieces of gear assigned to them, though there are exceptions. To reach this goal, we enabled respawning on the following bosses and reshuffled gear between bosses more evenly.

• Dumptruck
• Undertaker
• Mincemeat
• Buttmunch and Trufflemunch
• Sheega
• Rohner
• Rax
• Max
• Archer Rowe
• Bloodshine
• Muldock, the Anointed
• Artemis
• Apollo
• King Bobo
• King Gnasher
• Anointed X2
• Anointed X3
• Anointed X4
• Azalea
• Preston

ANOINTMENT POOL ADJUSTMENTS

To further improve the farming experience, we examined the Anointment pool and determined some weren’t engaging the community as we hoped. Given the depth of the pool, we have removed the following 21 Anointments. Any gear that currently has these Anointments will continue to function properly, but gear dropped after this update will no longer roll with these Anointments.

• While Airborne, Critical Damage is increased 25%
• While Airborne, Damage is increased by 30%
• While Airborne, Fire Rate is increased 20%
• While Airborne, Accuracy and Handling are increased by 75%
• While Sliding, Damage is increased by 40%
• While Sliding, Accuracy and Handling are increased by 50%
• While Sliding, Fire Rate is increased by 25%
• While Sliding, building up energy that refills a portion of your shields.
• While an Action Skill is Active, reduce all incoming damage by a small amount
• While an Action Skill is Active, 250% of health damage taken is returned to the attacker as shock damage.  
• On Action Skill End, Critical Damage is increased by 25% for a short time
• On Action Skill End, create a cyber spike that damages nearby enemies
• On Action Skill End, spawn a healing pool for several seconds
• On Action Skill End, Fire rate is increased by 11%, & reload speed by 26% for a short time
• On Action Skill End, Weapon Accuracy & Handling are greatly increased for a short time
• On Action Skill End, Movement speed is increased by 5% for a short time
• On Action Skill End, 30% of damage taken is returned to the attacker for a short time.
• After exiting Iron Bear, do not consume ammo for 5 seconds
• After using Phaseslam, damage taken is reduced by 20% and movespeed is increased by 12%
• After using Phasegrasp, Weapon Accuracy and Handling are greatly increased

A NOTE ON DROP RATES

A few bosses have had some minor tweaks made to improve their looting experience, but we have left most of the drop rates unchanged. With the thinning of the dedicated loot pools and the removal of 21 Anointments, we decided to observe these changes first then make changes as needed in the future.

STABILITY

• Addressed a reported crash that could occur in splitscreen
• Reduced the number of projectiles that spawn due to damage dealt when using multiple elements on enemies and limited the number of times projectiles bounce to 4 

We have adjusted how projectiles from damage events spawn. We found spikes in stability and performance concerns when too many elemental projectiles were spawning during gameplay. This was due to some weapons spawning many more projectiles than game performance recommended. The Recursion, Carrier, Bearcat, Lead Sprinkler, and others will see the effects from this change. We will be monitoring how players will be using these weapons for any possible adjustments in the future.

GENERAL

• Included additional supported languages for the Bounty of Blood campaign add-on
• Addressed a reported concern that sometimes caused Trophies / Achievements to remain locked when all named locations were discovered
• Retroactively awarded Trophies / Achievements to players that met the requirements
• Addressed a reported concern where the Traitorweed projectile would only appear on the host player
• Addressed a reported concern where the Vladof “Core Buster” grenade mod could damage allies with child grenades spawned after the first explosion
• Addressed a reported concern where standing on the inactive jump pad as Scourge teleports the user will launch them out of the map and kill them on the second teleport in Takedown at the Guardian Breach
• Addressed a reported concern where Anathema the Relentless was not using the correct death damage data in Takedown at the Guardian Breach
• Addressed a reported concern where weapon trinkets would disappear from the collection after relaunching the game in the Bounty of Blood campaign add-on
• Addressed a reported concern where the Jetbeast mortar weapon was dealing damage twice

MAYHEM MODE

• Addressed a reported concern where the splat attack from the Beastmaster’s pet Scorcher was unintentionally receiving Mayhem damage scaling multiple times
• Increased Pet Damage Scaling in Mayhem

After making changes to the Scorcher’s splat, we wanted to make sure it and other pets still felt fun and capable of competitive amounts of damage in Mayhem, so we buffed pet damage accordingly.

• Addressed a bug where the Operative’s Digi-clone was interacting with certain weapons like the O.P.Q. in a way that received Mayhem damage scaling multiple times
• Addressed a bug where the Gunner’s Iron Bear and certain class mods like the Mind Sweeper could interact in a way that received Mayhem damage scaling multiple times

We identified a behavior in our damage pipeline that created opportunities for certain gear and skill combinations to do excessive amounts of damage. We determined these combinations were not aligned with the rest of the game and made a solution that better fits our intended balance goals.

• Addressed some concerns that the Gunner and Operative were experiencing unintentional levels of damage increase with a variety of class mods in Mayhem mode
• Addressed a reported concern where the Anointment “While an Action Skill is Active, constantly trigger novas that deal X damage” was incorrectly scaling when players received Mayhem modifiers scaling skill damage
• The Siren’s Ties that Bind skill now scales properly with Action Skill Damage
• Addressed a reported concern that the Cosmic Crater Legendary Artifact did not scale the elemental puddle damage with Slam damage in Mayhem

CHARACTER

• Players can no longer emote cancel to exploit Anarchy stacks
• Addressed reported concerns where FL4K’s Head Count passive did not function
• Addressed a reported concern where the Vibration effect from FL4K’s “Burst Aid” augment persists after the action skill ends
• FL4K’s pets now use the correct color when using the Spec’d Out skin for clients
• Addressed a reported concern where FL4K’s normal Jabber pet attack command was not functioning correctly
• Updated the Gunner’s Selfless Vengeance skill to scale the duration with each rank invested
• Removed the ability for the Gunner to skip the boss’ teleport action in Takedown at the Guardian Breach by entering or exiting Iron Bear as the teleport action is being performed
• Addressed a reported concern that the Grenade Launcher did not deal extra damage when equipped with the Stainless Steel Bear passive ability while using Moze’s Auto-Bear

FX

• Addressed a reported concern where the FX would persist after using the second slam with the Mind Melt artifact effect already active
• Addressed a reported concern where the Mind Melt artifact first-person FX only showed on the host player

AUDIO

• Drunk William’s idle VO will now have audio during the “Blood from a Stone” mission
• Scourge’s death dialogue has been added to Takedown at the Guardian Breach

UI

• UI Optimizations
• Made improvements to the News Widget UI
• Addressed a reported concern where a placeholder prompt appears when the player drives the vehicle to the level transition in The Blastplains in the Bounty of Blood campaign add-on
• Updated scrollbar button states for Mail
• Addressed a reported concern where multiple options within the Visuals menu had placeholder description