Borderlands 3 - Normal Mode

Because Normal Mode was too undertuned in Borderlands 2.

Today's Borderlands 3 Post is about:

• Normal Mode - The First of Four Difficulties

In Borderlands 1 and Borderlands 2, Normal Mode was classified as the following:

• Borderlands 1: Playthrough 1
• Borderlands 2: Normal Mode

But in Borderlands 3, the player should have the choice of changing difficulties freely and not being forced to play through the entire story from start to finish.

What is Normal Mode's modifiers?

• Enemies scale up to 2 levels of the current player level. There is no set zone for each level, because if there was, the point of doing the Missions seems useless, since if you repeat the same process in a higher difficulty, that is how to get a unique gun or loot drop... sadly. 

• Enemies have 100% of the normal health, 75% of the normal shield amounts, and 100% of their standard gun damage. Badass enemies have 2 times all of the following modifiers except standard gun damage.

• Boss enemies have 15 times the modifiers a Super Badass enemy (at that level). They also have a 10% chance (?) to drop a specific Legendary item.

• Cash drop rate is 100% normal. On TVHM it is 125% of normal, and UVHM is 150% of normal. LVHM (Legendary Vault Hunter Mode) it is double of normal.

• Beating missions on each specific difficulty is a Badass Rank challenge.

Whats good about Normal Mode?

• According to what I've seen on Streams, every speed runner of Borderlands 2 / TPS, only appears to be counting either TVHM or UVHM, because Normal Mode is too "boring". By doing the tweaks to make Normal Mode feel more easier for Casual players, and TVHM/UVHM to not feel "mandatory" to make yourself feel good, these changes, especially the level per zone thing, should make it less mandatory.

• Increase the drop rates of legendaries or uniques in TVHM, UVHM or LVHM. This makes it feel that you don't have to do the same thing over and over in higher difficulties. 

• Tower Challenges alongside Normal/TVHM/UVHM/LVHM modifiers make for a challenging experience for solo and cooperative players alike.

• Dungeon Zones and Challenge Missions have the same treatment. But, getting Gold ratings are obviously easier on Normal Mode then TVHM/UVHM/LVHM, but sometimes you gotta start somewhere.

Character Approaches

• Profile system for characters. When picking a character, dictate which difficulty to play as. (You'll have Normal, TVHM and UVHM available on start.) LVHM (Legendary Vault Hunter Mode) will be unlocked after your profile beat Episode 8 on UVHM.

• No level restrictions. In Borderlands 1, Playthrough 1 only reached Level 35. Borderlands 2, Normal Mode reached Level 30. In Borderlands 3, it can scale all the way up to Level 200 for the casual players.

• Beating main story missions on higher difficulties gives more cash and XP then on Normal Mode.

• When switching difficulty (you do this on the Character selection screen), there will be an option that says the following: Do you want to reset your current Episode progress? Bear in mind, if you select YES, it will start your current Episode you are on to Chapter 1. If you select NO, you will still be on the current Story/Episode your character was last on.

• Completing Episodes on Normal Mode only unlocks the mission challenges for Normal Mode. To unlock all three difficulty variants of this, you must beat the episode on Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode.

• Playing slot machines on Normal Mode don't have special effects. When playing on higher difficulties, increases the chance you will see more Eridium Bars/Moonstones/Cash drops.

Is that all?

What more do you want out of Normal Mode? My concept is to make it feel more friendly for the Casual Borderlands players, not for those who really wish to accomplish anything. Also, I might be thinking of a method to allow completionists to view all Gold standards for ALL 4 DIFFICULTIES, thus allowing them to push it to the limit and 100% Borderlands 3, if it will even be done!

Next post is a big one: The Dahl's Capital Ship - Command Center, one of the eight buildings of your capital ship!