WEP question - wounding Loaders

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

I’ve recently been playing through the main story again and there’s a part of the Bloodwing mission that I have a question about.

At the start of the map, after the stalkers, you are faced with a bunch of Loaders. Mordecai instructs you to wound them so that they’ll send reinforcements and you can gain entry.

Everytime I get to this point I get frustrated. I eventually get in, not really sure how, but I do.

How are you supposed to wound them?

I shoot their arms off, but that doesn’t mark them as wounded on my HUD. I had 3 armless loaders eye-beaming me and the counter still shows 0. Sometimes it goes to 1 then back to 0. This goes on for some time and I just start killing them…Mordecai bitches at me about killing them. Somehow at some point the counter goes up and I get in. I just don’t know what I did.

Is there a more effective way to wound them?

2 Likes
#2

You have to damage them enough so that the wrench icon appears above their head/shoulder, which summons the surveyors. The mission objective only advances when that icon appears though.

HOWEVER.

The whole thing is on a timer, so if you don’t mind Mordecai nagging you incessantly about only wounding them, you can get more XP by just mowing the lot down as fast as they spawn (including any surveyors). The door will open eventually, and then you can move on.

8 Likes
#3

Odd that shooting their arms off doesn’t

And this is exactly how I will handle this in all future sessions…

He’ll get over it

3 Likes
#4

It’s on a timer? Huh…I thought it was by wave. So if you don’t kill anything, the doors will still open?

2 Likes
#5

Good question - haven’t tried that. I have had the doors open while there were still a good number of loaders shooting at me, though. Too bad I just finished this with my last TVHM character, or I’d test it out.

3 Likes
#6

I usually go for the legs. That seems to do it.

6 Likes
#7

i have my Axton still to get through WEP in NVHM. I can test that. :wink:

Edit/Correction:
Fired up Axton last night to test this for you and discovered my Axton had just passed that part in the WEP. Damn… Sorry I couldn’t help. :persevere:

4 Likes
#8

I always thought it was wave based as well.
At least I’ve never had them open with loaders still about, some surveyors maybe.

1 Like
#9

I’m pretty sure they do… keeping their health low enough to throw a wrench but without killing them (and not getting ganked myself) with health regeneration in UVHM confounding this means I have resorted to just this tactic (though in reality, I kill them as fast as I can because it drives Mordecai nuts, and the door still opens :laughing:)

edit - what are the odds? I’m literally on this mission now. Testing, please hold.

2nd edit - interesting: even though I got stuck down there and had to gank one to get away, my turret injured another before it ran out. UVHM healed it back full, but the wrench icon is still there (and I have a ‘1/3’ showing for wounded Loaders). Let me see if I can just kill a few to get the door to open.

3rd edit - I think you have to kill a number of them (dozen or so?)… no dialog, and maybe ten minutes passed before I started popping them. Still - wounding some should be easy, since they get the wrench regardless of their actual health.

5 Likes
#10

Just piling on with redundant info here:

It’s (the damage indicator) based on how low their health is, not whether that are intact or not. Think Monty Python. “It’s only a flesh wound.”

If I remember correctly you have to get their health below 50% for it to signal a repair surveyor.

This is a good case for Not element matching on NVHM or TVHM as it will eventually melt the loaders and you will have to start again unless you get them all at once (good excuse for keeping those e-tech launchers & splashers handy). Mortar is later so a Pandemic on level is a no go, but another AOE corrosive Grenade or a tesla is a good option.

4 Likes
#11

Last night running back through the WEP I noticed health dropping below 25% on one of the loaders before the wrench appeared. My impression was that it was even lower than that (since it died very shortly after), but that may also have been because my shots were hitting pretty hard at the time (Torgue Plump Rifle).

4 Likes
#12

don’t. Just kill them all and the door will open anyway.

2 Likes