Loyalty Playthroughs or Loyalty Builds?

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

Just wondering how people do these. I do a Loyalty Playthrough on the rare occasions where I do any sort of Loyalty at all, but was wondering if anyone else was as focused as I was. I also apply that to non-weapon gear, though I do give myself freedom to use whatever if there is nothing made by that manufacturer for that slot. Of course, until I find an item of the appropriate make, that slot is free to anything. How do you guys do Loyalty characters?

#2

For my Jakobs allegiance Gaige I only allowed:
-Their weapons
-One particular COM that would benefit the most (I believe it was Dahl)
-Only Relics that boosted Jakobs weapons
-Grenades were only explosive ones at first, but I changed that to a Slag Transfusion in the end
-Anshin/Pangolin for shields

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#3

Iā€™m really, extremely, almost beyond, casual. Mostly just weapons and grenades, shields if they suit my needs well enough. I also will give my guys 2 manufacturers in an attempt to use all of the ammo pools. Iā€™m sort of manufacturer polyamorous.

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#4

@Adabiviak is all about this type of thing.
I normally just limit it to guns if i do it at all

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#5

IMO itā€™s got to be guns and relic. Whatā€™s the point of doing allegiance if youā€™re not using the relic?

Shields - usually Iā€™ll go with the manufacturer but a Jakobs Zer0 with a Rough Rider is no fun.

COM - never. COMs are given arbitrary manufacturers that have little or nothing to do with the play style. To me it makes no sense to even consider it.

Grenades - see shields.

For more :

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#6

This is why my choice fell on Pangolin, and Anshin. They are the most the most fitting when you go for Jakobs if you ask me.

#7

Interesting information. Not going to lie, though: I was mainly interested in whether you guys do Loyalty Builds, or full Loyalty Playthroughs.

#8

Erm. Whatā€™s the difference? Most of our allegiance characters are dedicated to just that. Sorry if Iā€™m missing something obvious.

#9

I think he means running the character from lvl 1 or just doing an end game build

#10

:man_shrugging:

I think Pie sussed that out good.

But in answer:

Most often when someone talks about an allegiance character we understand it this way, from level 1. Iā€™m really casual while leveling. If the character hits a wall and underleveled gears are the issue Iā€™ll break ā€œallegianceā€ to get through something, or if they get something and I want to play with it for a bit I donā€™t flagellate myself over it. But I only actively seek out items that fit in to my restrictions.

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#11

Au contraire! I mean, it depends on a number of factors, but I find a time and place for it that works for me.

Allegiance is the only thing I play (one character for each manufacturer) with the exception of Salvador on rare occasion (and Krieg even less frequently). Because the manufacturersā€™ have unique gimmicks for their weapons, shields, and grenades, combining them onto a single character lets me work with/around their combined quirks at once.

This is why I donā€™t include COMs.

  • Each manufacturer is represented by a character with a different build. Theyā€™re all OP8 (though I play at OP3), so this mostly translates to two different capstones.

    • Axton reps Torgue (Guerilla and Gunpowder) and Dahl (Gunpowder and Survival)
    • Maya reps Tediore (Harmony and Cataclysm) and Hyperion (Motion and Harmony)
    • Gaige reps Maliwan (Best Friends Forever and Little Big Trouble) and Bandit (Best Friends Forever and Ordered Chaos)
    • Zer0 reps Jakobs (Sniping and Cunning) and Vladof (Cunning and Bloodshed)

  • Each character may only have one instance of any weapon type (only one Pimpernel for Gaige, one Crossfire for Axton, for example)

    • Maya gets three Fibbers: one with each barrel type.
    • Assault rifles with Torgue- and Vladof-barrel options may be included as a different weapon type.
    • Non-Maliwan reps get to pack a Magic Missile for the sole purpose of grenade regeneration (and opening that one room).
    • Only one gem-themed weapon may be brought to the field, and may be used as an exception to these rules.

  • Anshin and Pangolin shields may be rotated in by anyone. These manufacturers donā€™t make weapons, but I donā€™t want to exlude them from use entirely.

  • Gaige may carry any shield she wants to give to Deathtrap, but she must return to her allegiance shield once heā€™s deployed.

  • Jakobs Zer0 gets to use a weak slag Transfusion grenade. This one exception makes up for the lack of Moxxi gear, lack of a grenade, and lack of slag gear without itself contributing directly to the damage output.

  • Any COM and any relic may be used by anyone.

  • They wear one of the three manufacturer skins made, and drive vehicles skinned out of that same set. (The head is just my favorite at the moment).

  • I have a ā€˜foreign exchange programā€™ where Iā€™ll loan an off-brand weapon to someone to play with that mechanic. Sometimes Zer0 plays with my bladed Little Evie, sometimes Axton gets a Baby Maker, etc.

  • When I pick a map/mission, I choose the loadout ahead of time, and try to stick to that set of gear, even if I chose poorly.

ā€¦been playing this sort of allegiance for six years straight, maybe more? I have a spreadsheet with a list of all possible travel destinations weighted by the mission count per that map, along with a list of these characters. The spreadsheet randomly chooses a character and map for me to play. This is the priority list from there:

  • whatever I feel like doing
  • story missions
  • side missions
  • map challenges
  • personal challenges

Between these 8 distinct builds/loadouts across 71 maps (with all those things to do on any given map), itā€™s exceptionally rare that I do the same thing twice.

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#12

I realize my op was rather open-ended, but I wasnā€™t sure if the Loyalty builds Iā€™d seen were just a build to be specced into at end-game, or were the final result of a full playthrough. I honestly wasnā€™t sure if I was the only one who did entire Loyalty Playthroughs, which led to the creation of this thread. Especially since it was my Tediore Commando playthrough (that I started but never finished before switching to the Xbox One, and didnā€™t get around totransferring that character before losingmy 360) that made me appreciate Tediore weapons. Hell, the Fastball is my single favorite Grenade mod because of that run-through.

The idea of allowing Anshin and Pangolin Shields is a good one, and would help keep shields from falling too far behind. I also tend to gravitate towards Loyalty Relics, but was interested to see if anyone else did.

#13

Well Iā€™ve done level 1 to 72 allegiance runs.

Iā€™ve also done several resets where Iā€™ve taken an OP0, OP2 or OP4 character, dumped all their existing gear and turned them into an allegiance character. Then Iā€™ll do a vanilla and/or DLC run.

#14

I have them in my respective quivers, but man itā€™s hard to beat a Bone of the Ancients. Dahl (Burst Fire Delay and Mag Size) I use more than a Bone because it really changes Dahlā€™s scoped fire behavior, and Torgue (Fire Rate and Mag Size) I use more because he doesnā€™t have any elemental weapons, and those weapons need both of these (especially my Evil Smasher). Maliwan and Bandit I use on occasion, and the others almost never see the light of day.

#15

Iā€™ve been planning on using a Bone on my current Siren (Level 44 in TVHM, and Iā€™ve just gotten the mission to kill Jackā€™s body double in Opportunity), but I was worried I was missing out on something just sticking with a Cooldown Relic before upgrading to a Bone. Loyalty Relics would be an opportunity to try something different.

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#16

The Siren COM will make that an easy choice once you find one. Its cooldown is equal that of a relic.

Same thing with the Hunter for Zer0 and Leg Engineer/Soldier for Ax.

Of course thatā€™s narrowing the build field a bit, but they still make it easy to justify.

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