More details of what players can expect in the endgame of Borderlands 3 have been revealed: introducing the RNG-themed Mayhem Mode.
We’d already heard about the return of True Vault Hunter Mode, wherein after completing the main campaign you can restart the game with all of your loadouts, equipment, and experience intact and the enemies leveled up alongside you. The challenge-based Badass Rank is also making a comeback in the form of Guardian Rank, described as an “evolution” from the version seen in Borderlands 2.
Now we have Mayhem Mode, a mysterious new slice of post-campaign content revealed at PAX West that sounds like it may turn the game on its head entirely. According to the official description it “provides gameplay changing randomness to the Borderlands experience”, which could mean a lot of things in a universe like Borderlands, but the use of the words “gameplay changing” suggests something that is less about difficulty and more about experimentation, and seeing what weird, wacky things can happen on a planet-hopping, loot-driven adventure.
The Borderlands series has been steadily expanding the activities for after the main game finishes. The first was focused on a simple New Game Plus, while the second added True Vault Hunter Mode and Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode and the Badass Ranks.
Borderlands 3 is stepping it up once again, and what’s interesting to see is that Mayhem Mode doesn’t sound like a progression system, at least not a conventional one.
For good or ill, the mayhem will be unleashed on the Borderlands 3 release date: September 13, 2019.