Here myself and anyone else who wishes to contribute can post their own ideas, however bizarre/difficult/insane they might be!
Yesterday I had an idea of a new playthrough, that could be a new Vault Hunter starting at level 1, or any existing character with a reset playthrough. The idea behind it is to firstly make sure this character has some cash. Do this by transferring high level gear via your preferred method (mule or Clappy’s stash) and sell it.
From there, the plan is thus. Starting in Southern Shelf (first place there are vending machines in the main story) you have to buy the Item of the Day from the Ammo and Weapon machines and use only those items until the next area, when you have to replace them with the new Items of the Day. This can include the Health machines, I was thinking you could buy the Item of the Day - If it happens to be a class mod that your character you cannot use, you can instead either buy the first class mod in the machine that is relevant to your character, and if there isn’t one, you buy the first shield in the list.
If the Item of the Day in the weapon machine in a new area is a different weapon type, you are allowed to keep the previous weapon as well, allowing you to have some weapon swapping options. @Worblehat suggested using Salvador for this, but really any Vault Hunter can surely make it work.
Please post those stupid playthrough ideas you’ve had but have never dared share with anyone else before now
I’ve done some shield-only runs. It’s easy with my Maliwan allegiance (since Gaige is my rep here, Maliwan makes epic shields, and she’s got plenty of Moxxi guns to choose from to keep her health up). It’s less easy with my Dahl allegiance (since Axton is the rep here, and he’s only got the WTF shield for offense with no Moxxi gear). For the non-allegiance players in the field who are free to load their characters out however they see fit, this can be a hoot.
I’ve also done some reflection-only runs. Get a Siren, load her out with Kinetic Reflection, a COM to put this at +11, give her a Gemstone weapon (your favorite), and give her an Antagonist shield. This is pretty restrictive since it has to be Maya and enemies need to fire bullets (doesn’t work well on Bullymongs), but it’s also a hoot.
Landscaper-only runs. Do it ya pansies.
Summon-only runs are an interesting diversion (turret-only with Axton and Deathtrap-only with Gaige). It works, but it’s not that fun since you don’t really contribute (other than slag application). That said, a Nuke-only run with Axton is super fun, I think. Build around Gemini and Nuke however you see fit, then equip a Legendary Engineer COM with a fire Bone relic. Slag enemies, toss dual Nukes at 'em, and immediately recall. Rinse and repeat. I took this through the WEP once… works better on flesh enemies, and the UCP makes this much easier now, but you get the drift.
Dahlvador: an assault rifle and SMG combo could make this work during Gunzerking: they’ll fire fully automatic without the zoom (where sniper rifles and pistols by Dahl won’t). Dahl makes a decent Plasma Caster too. If you’re used to the standard Pimpernel/Harold/Grog Nozzle fare, you’ll be disappointed, but this should otherwise be fine.
