Mayhem Mode

Mayhem Mode is a Borderlands 3 option providing configurable game-play alterations increasing both risk and reward. Availability is triggered by main story completion, and continues throughout True Vault Hunter mode.

Activation and configuration are performed using either the "Mayhem" section of the character menu, or a mysterious Eridian terminal aboard Sanctuary III.

Overview[]

Once enabled by either of the two aforementioned methods, although do note that if playing on multiplayer, only the lobby host can toggle the Mayhem Mode configuration, Mayhem Mode will offer ten difficulty levels, with each having a number of modifiers.

Semi-random modifiers determine each level's particulars, subject to limited control by the "reroll" command. Rerolling one level will reroll the entire pool across all levels. Changing levels, joining another player's Mayhem Mode lobby, or logging off the game will not reroll the modifiers. Rerolling modifiers or changing Mayhem levels requires a reload of the area if not aboard Sanctuary III.

These modifiers are separate for each level and can be rerolled at any time via the Mayhem menu tab. Modifiers will remain permanent for each character's save file until they are changed.

Effects[]

As the Vault Hunter goes higher up the ladder, each level increases the difficulty of the modifiers (from Easy to Very Hard), and total selection amount of modifiers (from 1 up to 4).

All opponents receive:

• Increased body durability (SP, AP, and HP).
• Increased vehicle durability (applies to Vault Hunter's vehicles as well, including Moze's Iron Bear).
• Increased damage against vehicles.
• Mayhem-exclusive buff/nerf modifiers.
• Level scaling up with the player (so do loots they drop).

While enemies receive increased durability, enemy damage is not increased, barring any applicable modifiers. This can lead to some disparity between player-to-enemy damage ratios, most noticeably with Anointed enemies.

Also, the damage of explosive barrels are increased.

Rewards and Gameplay[]

In exchange, Vault Hunters receive:

• Increased combat experience and currency.
• Increased damage stats.
  • Melee, vehicle, slide, and slam damage scaling based on the Mayhem level.
  • Skills and pet damage scaling based on the Mayhem level.
  • Shield damage, such as Spike and Nova, scales based on the Mayhem level. This includes some special abilities such as the aura of Ember's Blaze and the projectile of Shooting Star.
• Increased drop rate of higher rarity items (especially epic items).
• Increased drop rate of Anointed items (reaches 100% at Mayhem 8 or higher).
• Mayhem Gear.

Mayhem Gear[]

Weapons and grenades with unique stats drop in Mayhem Mode^[1]; these items are often referred to as "Mayhem Gear."

Mayhem Gear does not add unique new effects like Anointed item bonuses, but instead applies passive buffs that increase damage. Weapon damage scales at 1.09ⁿ, where n is the Mayhem Level (up to ~237% at Mayhem 10), which is the same as level scaling (that means a weapon at Lv 72 M10 has the damage of a weapon at Lv 82). Shields, Class Mods and Artifacts are not affected and will not be Mayhem Gear.

There are unique weapons and gear that only drop at Mayhem Level 4 and above, and others that only drop at Mayhem Level 6 and above. One example is the Kaoson, a submachine gun dropped exclusively by Captain Traunt in Mayhem 6 or higher.

Mayhem Levels[]

Mayhem Modifiers[]

For the sake of keeping information clear and understandable to the reader, some effects had their description rearranged, such as removing flavor text, or grammatical structure checks. Their name, however, is kept untouched.

Changelog[]

Tips[]

• The higher the difficulty, the more encouraged it is for the character to always carry an ammo-on-melee resupply artifact or have some form of ammo regen due to the nature of damage sponges with extreme endurance.
• Character health and shield capacity do not scale in the same way that weapon damage does with the mayhem level. This is a double-edged sword: it becomes much easier to be Crippled from self-inflicted damage, but damage-based healing effects such as life steal become much more effective.
• Be cautious around Anointed enemies; due to the massive increases of durability stacking of Mayhem with the already durable Anointed enemies, it can lead to some tedious, long-lasting conflicts.
• Some modifiers are not recommended to ever use, and to simply reroll for a better listing:
  • Freeze Tag deploys a high shield points entity that constantly chases the character and triggers cryo novas. This can easily interfere and bring doom to any Vault Hunter that wasn't able to sprint away from danger.
  • Floor is Lava punishes players for playing it slow and safe, which is what players will need in order to have control of a fight, or even trying to regenerate health and shields.
  • Pain Tolerance punishes for up to 60% damage reduction on damage-per-second weapons, giving a serious punch to automatic weaponry items which would have been generally useful otherwise.
  • Rogue Lite removes the chance of getting a Second Wind, restarting all progress for boss fights.
  • Holy Crit heavily increases the durability of enemies, at the cost of a minimal critical damage boost. While it may sound efficient, some enemies are hard to get a critical hit on or don't even have critical hit locations, thus making them unnecessarily tougher.

Notes[]

• The Slayer 'glory kill' effect may trigger at around 15% to 50% HP remaining.
  • As the Face-Puncher does melee damage, it can be used to trigger Slayer's effect at a distance.
• All Mayhem-spawned enemies, such as Healy Avenger, Laser Fare, or even Post Mortem, will see their durability increased as well.
• Chilling Them Softly and Dazed and Infused enemies with the cryogenic effect are not immune to being frozen using Zane's Brain Freeze.
• Laser Fare turrets' lasers can go through walls, but not Zane's Barrier.
• Anointed gear is more likely to appear the higher the Mayhem level is.
  • On Mayhem 10, there is a 100% chance for anointed gear to spawn.^[3]

Trivia[]

• Several of the Mayhem modifiers are pop culture references.
  • Big Kick Energy is a play of words from "Big Dick Energy", a phrase used for doing something with full confidence.^[4]
  • Galaxy Brain is a reference to the Galaxy Brain/Expanding Brain meme.^[5]
    • Its modifier, the comical big head, is based off "Big Head Mode", a common completion reward in early 3D games.^[6]
  • Speed Demon is a reference to the 1989 single Speed Demon by the pop singer Michael Jackson.
  • More Than Okay Boomer references "OK Boomer", a catchphrase used to mock the stereotypes attributed to the baby boomer, or "Boomers", generation.
  • Slayer's name and effect are a reference to the protagonist of DOOM (2016) and its gameplay mechanic, Glory Kills.
  • Rogue Lite is a reference to the roguelike genre of RPG games, which typically feature high difficulty and permanent character death.
  • Chilling Them Softly is a reference to the 1996 album song Killing Me Softly by the hip hop group Fugees.
  • Chain Gang may be a reference to the 1960 single Chain Gang by the R&B singer Sam Cooke. Otherwise, based on its literal definition.
  • Dazed and Infused may be a reference to the 1967 single Dazed and Confused by American writer Jake Holmes, although popularized by the English rock band Led Zeppelin released in 1969.
    • Otherwise, could be a reference to the 1993 comedy film of the same name, Dazed and Confused.

See Also[]

• List of Mayhem items

References[]