Grenade Jumping: intentional game mechanic?

Borderlands 2 Gameplay Discussion (Spoilers!)
#1

Is grenade jumping a game mechanic that Gearbox intended for players to use? Evidence for this would come in the form of challenges/items which require grenade jumping to achieve, but this is tricky to determine, as just because I (for example) don’t know how to reach something without grenade jumping doesn’t mean that it’s not possible.

For example: one can grenade jump onto the rooftops in Sanctuary to get the Cult of the Vault symbols, but there are ways to run and jump to these locations, which is an argument against grenade jumping being done on purpose (while it’s faster, it’s not necessary).

As another example, consider the red chest in the Arid Nexus Boneyard over the third Eridium Pump Station; I can walk there on the pipeline from the first Eridium Pump Station without grenades, but cannot seem to get onto the actual rooftop with the chest without grenade jumping, which makes me think the game designers who put it there intended the player to use this mechanic to reach the chest. Alternately, it’s possible to get up there without grenades, and I just haven’t found it.

Grenade jumping: wonderful coincidence that the lift mechanic works and does not kill you, or built for a purpose?

#2

its the same “throw” effect that it has on bandits. by jumping, you minimize damage and “shape” the grenades throw. don’t think its there for getting to places, but who knows?

#3

I think it was originally a side-effect of what @Poisonedbite said. The designers certainly seem to know about it though. Why else would the areas in Pete’s arena only accessible by grenade jumping also contain chests/crates? There’s a few I can think of in TPS which I cannot access via conventional means also.

#4

Wait- there’s a red chest on the pumping station roof? Where exactly is it? (I hate missing things like that)…

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#5

Every lootable item in Pete’s arena can be reached by using the lift to gain that height, and then simply walking off to either side. Before taking on Pete as a raid boss, the lift is always active, so one can hit these boxes on their way to the two chests further on. After taking on Pete as a raid boss, the lift is only active after a fight, but can still be used to reach these areas without using grenades. If you want to use these areas strategically during the fight against Pete, then grenade jumping is necessary, but having made that climb myself, I’m almost certain that was not intentional.

Let’s make a list of places with lootable objects and locations in BL2 that require grenade jumps to reach. We will assume for the sake of this hypothesis that this implies that these areas were intended by the developers for players to be able to reach. If there is one that exists which is not ever reachable without grenade jumping, this will imply that grenade jumping was an intended game mechanic. (This also assumes that the lootable objects in the world were vetted for this by the developers and not, say, randomly/prodecurally placed). In TPS, for example, there are some lockers that I have not yet found a way to reach by any means, but let’s simplify this by sticking to BL2 for now.

I still posit that the red chest over the third Eridium Pumping Station in Arid Nexus Badlands cannot be reached without grenade jumping. Has anyone made it there without? I’m still trying.

Are there any other examples of lootable objects that can only be reached by grenade jumping?

edit - I just thought of one: the red chest in Hunter’s Grotto that you must reach from the Ardorton Station pass through… I’m fairly certain that there’s no clearing that gap without grenade (or rocket) jumping.

#6

i was gonna say nel in tps, but you dont.

#7

Check this post: @anon43818509 made some pretty sweet area maps for the game, and it’s probably easier than trying to explain verbally or uploading a Youtube vid.

That said: there’s a red chest on top of the rooftops of the third Eridium Pumping Station somewhere - see if you can find it without resorting to a map.

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#8

I wondered about that when someone was trying to show me how to get the letters - seemed like a very awkward place to try a grenade jump.

Probably not quite as bad as one of the early videos I saw explaining how to get up on the roof of Janey Spring’s place in Concordia when you could simply run through the building and go up the back stair case, though!

#9

I’ve always done it by grenade jump, til i watch a vid of a guy do it super easy.

#10

Ok - I just got to the chest on the third Eridium Pumping Station without grenade jumping. That one in Hunter’s Grotto though - not a freakin’ chance.

#11

Actually that’s reasonably easy to reach. Unfortunately my PS4 has flaked on me, so have to describe this :frowning:.
Walk left support up to edge of roof. Make small jump on ledge (little left from your position to base of circular structures). Start strafing on left side of the roof around those circular structures. Once on the other side jump on top of support (similar as was on left). From there you can jump on roof and hike to chest. Note that there’s craves/crack on roof that has 3d-model broken and should obviously be avoided (you get stuck there).

Edit. right, you got it already :smile:

#12

There’s a red dev/Hyperion chest (I think) in Thousand Cuts, right before the bridge. It’s on the top of the roof above the outhouse right at the start of the bridge. I saw it in a Youtube video for the first time a couple weeks ago, never knew it was there! Might be missing a totally legit way of getting up to it, but I’ve only ever grenade jumped up there - was actually the first time I ever grenade jumped.

#13

I know the one you’re talking about and I don’t know any other way to get to it either. The same area also has the radio tower challenge. So basically two things that can only be accessed by grenade jumping. I think it’s an intentional mechanic.

#14

The red chest is very easy to access once you know how. The radio tower challenge is very difficult but possible without grenade jumping (which is why Krieg still has the associated challenge).

#15

Wow! I never knew that the red chest area was accessible without grenade jumping. I guess you learn something new about Borderlands every day.

#16

I work ~50 hours a week and most of my spare time goes into… absorbing BL2 content, or playing the game. Most days I still manage to learn something, and it’s been like this for a couple years. I don’t know what I’d do without it.

Also, I’m pretty sure the devs know about grenade jumping. Can’t be bothered to double check but in the AGDQ 2014 speedrun of this game (Broman, Teawrex, Ubergoose, and iMysty co-op) Anthony Burch and someone else skyped in for a lot of the run. They made their surprise known with a lot of exploits, but I don’t think this was one of them. I could be wrong about that, though.

Also, that run is totally worth watching if you haven’t seen it, even if speedruns aren’t your thing. It’s really informative and a lot of fun.

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#17

Grenade jumps really were a thing with BL1 already and I am pretty sure it’s pretty standard among the Unreal Engine anyway. They highly likely did know about it from the very beginning but I don’t think they anticipated stuff like Quad Greande jumping + Double Badaboom for Salvador. That pretty much breaks every boundary in the game, it’s just difficult to do.