I just finished my first pass through the game and some of the DLC content. Side note, had no idea that in Scarlets DLC, that pyramid was where the loot was! Sigh. But I digress. Im currently level 37. All my gear is purple but one legendary corrode grenade. I handled all the battles with about 85% up time. Well that’s no longer the case! LOL
#1- Im super confused by all the posts Ive read on not doing side quests during UVHM and I still am totally lost. In Snoopy Simple terms, yay or nay and why?
#2- Im also confused on level capping. I have all the upgrades that allow me to go to 72. So is 50 the highest I can go within UVHM? As in, is in, are there level mechanics in UVHM that I need to be aware of to no screw myself for the 2.5 run?
#3- Im burnt out on the core game a bit, so Im doing Tiny Tina’s DLC, which I am really enjoying, just started. Is there any major downside to doing that DLC in this mode?
#4- It seems like all the legendary farming happens at 50 for some reason. What is that reason? Are peoplle farming in 2.5 or in UVHM for 2.5?
There is a lot written on all this, dont know, maybe this is just big blindspot for me, but Im not getting what Im reading. Any help would be appreciated.
In UVHM everything levels up with you. Certain quests give rewards you might wanna have at max level, so it’s good advice to save those quests until you reach at least level 72, just so you don’t have to reset the entire playthrough to get them at the level you want them to be. Don’t even accept them before you reach the level you want them to be. Check this thread for more info on specific quests: [Guide] Quest rewards worth farming
Normal mode should end around level 35. TVHM caps at level 50, so you might wanna start UVHM as soon as possible after reaching level 50, just so your gear isn’t too underleveled at the beginning of UVHM. Everything after you reach level 50 will be rescaled to that level in TVHM. That’s what people call playthrough 2.5. UVHM is a THIRD playthrough that will take you to level 72.
What mode are you talking about, TVHM or UVHM? If it’s TVHM (the second playthrough), the only downside is that you might be overleveled when you start UVHM. Remember that if you remain in that mode after reaching level 50, you’ll keep leveling up, but all your guns (the ones you already have and the new ones you find) will be a max level of 50. Starting UVHM at level 55 (for instance), fighting level 58 enemies and using only level 50 gear is gonna be hard as hell. So you might wanna avoid that. You wanna start UVHM as soon as possible after beating the Warrior and reaching level 50. Personally, I wait until I reach UVHM before doing any of the DLC.
Again, 2.5 is still TVHM. UVHM is playthrough 3. People usually wait until they reach the level cap to farm for items simply because it’s not worth the effort to farm for gear that you’ll have to throw away after 5 or 6 levels, but there are a couple of easy to farm, powerful items that you might want to farm before starting a new playthrough (such as the Unkempt Harold or the Hornet).
Just a side-note: playthrough 2.5 is a throwback to the original Borderlands which only had two “real” playthroughs - what we would call NVHM and TVHM. After you beat playthrough 2, you could restart in 2.5, but you wouldn’t get some of the quests. I don’t remember the exact details, but basically it allowed you to level up to 69 without having to deal with the story. In BL 2, you need to do the story to progress from one playthrough to another though you can reset UVHM anytime you like.
For a first UVHM playthrough, I wouldn’t worry too much about saving particular quest items unless OP already has a specific item in mind. When you’re doing specific endgame builds you need the right gear but you don’t usually when levelling up, and even now I often don’t wait for an opportune moment in early-mid UVHM. Getting to the level cap usually takes me more than 1 playthrough, so it’s likely I will reset late game anyway.
3 Likes
VaultHunter101
(So long, and thanks for all the fish)
#5
Looks like the others have your questions pretty well covered. To make it simple, though, here’s my process for deciding on side-quests in UVHM:
Is the reward only cash/XP and/or erdium?
If Yes, do it.
Is the reward a blue unique (ie red text) or higher rarity item?
If Yes, save it.
Did I answer “No” to both 1 & 2?
Do it!
Note that you may not want to save every red-text blue unique reward. However, you can look up the side quests on the borderlands 2 wiki if you can’t remember what the reward is, and decide whether you really want to save it or not.
When it comes to my personal experience, I’m usually pretty close to 72 by the end of my first UVHM playthrough. I don’t leave any quests for later when in normal or TVHM and there’s only a handful that I leave for later in UVHM. Just a few Loot Train runs after beating the Warrior are usually enough to get me to level 72, but I know other people may have a different style, so your advice is still worth noting.
1 Like
VaultHunter101
(So long, and thanks for all the fish)
#7
That’s also true for me, since I include a bunch of the DLC main and side quests as well. The only one I stop early is Scarlett, in order to save the Sandhawk for max level (although that’s probably the easiest to get to by way of UVHM resets.)
It really depends on how many side quests I do (and whether I need to farm loot if I’m struggling, or if I join a friend’s game, etc). I think I usually finish about mid 60s? But it varies quite a lot, depending on whether I’m being thorough about quests or taking the opportunity to just go straight through, which I quite enjoy about UVHM sometimes.
In any case, if the OP plans to finish near 72 and/or isn’t interested in resetting much (I personally quite like doing it so it doesn’t bother me) then it’s worth saving the useful uniques till you’re up to 72. I’m not especially loot-focussed and tend to drift rather than plan, but I know other people are more organised
I also tend to stash good unique items with a mule even when I’m done with them so that I can re-use them when levelling up new characters, so a range of different levelled items might be useful in the long term.
4 Likes
VaultHunter101
(So long, and thanks for all the fish)
#9
Please tell me that DOESN’T apply to your thesis!
My approach basically evolved through the first three characters to max level. Part of it is that I don’t always have a lot of time, so may not be able to push through a story mission to a spot on the map I can simply respawn from next time. In those circumstances, I’ll often just run a quick side quest somewhere I’ve already unlocked, so I don’t feel like I’m needlessly retracing my steps.
OP seems to have TVHM and UVHM a bit mixed up, unless I’m mistaken. TVHM is the second playthrough, UVHM is the 3rd. There is no “2,5” in BL2.
Isn’t that after finishing the main campaign? I’m 99 % sure that the trigger for things scaling to 50 in TVHM is that and not just hitting 50 yourself.
In TVHM if you want certain rewards at level 50 you should save them for after things have scaled to level 50. In UVHM there are certain quests that can be beneficial to keep. Rockos modern strife, doctors orders, beard makes a man and maybe tree hugger are probably the most common ones. And maybe leaving Hammerlocks quest open just to be able to kill Bonerfarts.
Well, that probably was the case when 50 was the max level but now the reason you’d farm for level 50 gear is to have a good start for UVHM. I honestly wouldn’t stress that too much, unless you’ve been down on your luck and you have really crappy gear when you’re supposed to go to UVHM. If that is the case I’d suggest hitting up the loot train (Mercenary day headhunter DLC) instead of going after specific legendaries. Unless you really want that particular legendary at lvl50 to start UVHM with, of course.
