BL: Art's impressions

[Art Blade]

Finally.  ;D

This game is cool.. I started as the sniper guy. Sniper rifles and pistols.. nice :)

..and it is poison for the collector type of player like me. I can't stop picking up all sorts of things until my inventory is jammed  ;D And then: Decisions.. oh no, I have five repeater pistols and four sniper rifles and three more guns (12/12, full) when I find either another repeater pistol or another sniper rifle. I can't let go of what I already had collected.. oh no.. which one will I drop..  ;D

Then dealing with pesky skags, spitting skags, young skags, old skags, everywhere those pesky things. Bandits are more fun to kill I think.

I have reached level 8 now and can't stop playing.. Tired now, so I won't write much today, but hell yes, it is a good FPS game. :) :-X

[PZ]

Sounds like you're having a blast!   :-X ;)

[Fiach]

You probably know this, but just in case you aren't aware.

The more you use a weapon type, the more proficient you become in that weapon type, so if you spread your types too thinly, you will be less powerful.

A good idea would be to examine the skill trees, eg. Mord has skills in one tree for sniper and in another for pistols, so it would be a good idea to level up one or the other and use the skill tree to add more proficiency.

There are times when you really need a shotgun (Spider ants for example or midgets, stuff that gets in close). But after awhile you will notice that certain weapons suit certain characters and although there is no set rule, I would avoid using too many different weapons.

A good rule of thumb would be Lilith SMG, Mord Sniper or Pistol (inc Repeaters), Roland Assault Rifle (inc Combat Rifle), Brick .... stuff that goes boom! Then add another weapon or two at the most and get their proficiency up a little bit (less than 10 anyway).

My pistol Mordecai uses only a 2 shot pistol, but his skill tree and weapon proficency allows him to fire faster and reload faster, so even though it only holds two bullets, I can fire it almost constantly.

I'm glad to see you are enjoying it, I think its a really fun game :)

[RedRaven]

 Welcome to Pandora Art.
Glad your liking it, I loved it on PC and am about to start it again on PS3. Used Roland when I played through and from that experience I agree with Fiach about weaponry, went with rifles myself. Also when it comes to your skills don't forget that you can re-distribute your points at new-u stations - for ages I forgot about this so spent ages agonising over which skill to increase each level. Watch out for 9 Toes, he has a surprise in store!!!

[Fiach]

Mord vs 9 Toes, Pistol, 5 bullets.... his dogs were a bigger pain the a$$ lol :)

There is a mission to collect crystals go there asap, there are purple worms there, shoot them in the eye for a quick kill, I was getting 900+ XP per kill, got a few levels in there too, before it became too low.

There are 2 red crates there, if you proceed through the tunnel keeping to the left, kill all the worms, then there is an area on each side with red chests .... just before the skags. Farm the crap out of them.

There are a few more red chests in there but they can be painful to get to.,

Also there is a Claptrap to rescue there, the repair kit is hidden in some pipes on the left hand side after you go past him. The Claptraps add more space to your inventory and sometimes open a secret area with a red chest.

[RedRaven]

 If that is the same crystal cave I am thinking off I had a very odd experience in there. Was using Lilith and an SMG. Not sure how it came to be exactly but by the time had got about halfway through the cave had run out of ammo AND cash.  :-\\ :-( :'( :-D

[Fiach]

Well there is a vending machine at the start and 2 or 3 bandit camps with ammo boxes, plus odd ammo boxes kicking around, plus skag plies to rummage through., I had no problems, Your SMG could have had a very high fire rate and low accuracy, On my Lilith I had a flame SMG around then, because I remember using it on Moe or Curley, so that could have helped me, with the extra DoT damage.

Also I got a few levels on the worms, so my damage would have been high, I only really went there for the Claptrap and the crystal quest although there are maybe 3 more red chests futher in, theres nothing else there and the bandits gave no XP after levelling up on the worms, so I had no reason to stay there too long and use up ammo I guess.

[JRD]

That`s great Art... you`re gonna have a hell of a good time collecting and testing stuff.

Remember, you can always go to The Underdome DLC. The main area is just a lounge where you can choose which arena you will fight, but the best of all is the safe available there. There`s a Claptrap dressed as a banker behind a counter... just get close to him and you`ll be able to use the safe to store or retrieve weapons and other items. You have to pay some cash the first time if I`m not mistaken, but once you do it, the safe is yours to use as you want... 30 slots or more to use!  :-X :-X :-X

I have Mordecai lvl 15 with me but am playing Brick lvl 27 and also Lillith lvl 43... looking forward to see your impressions, mate!

Good hunt  :)

[Fiach]

JRD what are you doing with Brick? His skills seem counter-intuitive to me, how do you play him?

[Art Blade]

Hey all :) Wow, great to see a discussion going on with so many of you, and mmosu is yet to join us  ;D

I had no problems killing Nine Toes (who also happened to have "three balls"  ^+-+ ) and I didn't even notice much of the dogs. I just entered the area, used my flying falcon thing as often as possible, and waited for bandits to show up until they had died out. I entered the cave, waited on that lift platform and from there I killed whatever was down in 9Toes room. When I got in, he and I were alone.. for a couple of seconds. Then I was alone.  ;D

I had more troubles getting back out because in the outdoor area I saw some chests on a ledge and a tent there, so I had to get up and check it out. That took a lot of time and killing, and I indeed ran out of ammo once (not really a nice experience) so I had to use alternative weapons like a shotty and an assault rifle.

As to the tech tree, I realised that I could reset my XP points but it costs money and I'm low on money (buying a few upgrades like ammo slot expansions for sniper and pistol as well as a better shield).

Now I have to find and use a transportation, the one outside the base doesn't w@&k (only get to see the same mission objective) so I reckon I need to leave the area and use one of those far away that I saw on the map.

:)

[Fiach]

OK mate a couple of things, I think the transportation quest only activates at a certain level, even though you get it early. It will involve you killing Bonehead, he's in a yard beside the starter compound. After you kill him you will get the part at the back of his yard if I recall correctly.

The area with the tent etc. Thats probably where Scar is, its a quest skag you have to kill for TK, you will get a quest from TK to collect some seeds/flowers or something up there, as you progress through that area where the flowers are, there are two red chests on a raised area on the right hand side.

Basically go through the canyon, you will see a raised area with a couple of skags playing, there is a hidden caver there, also a little further on there is another raised area on the right, with a red chest, these are well worth farming.

I never use the bird thing tbh, on either Mordecai, I believe that at later levels its totally useless, but if thats the case, you can always swap out the points.

You will have more money than you know what to do with later on, I'm not sure I ever buy anything but those upgrades you mentioned and ammo. :)

[Art Blade]

Thanks Fiach :) You saved me from hitting that screen with an anvil because there was no transportation anywhere  ^+-+ I'll level up a bit and take on other side quests.  :-X

And yes, what you said about those red chests, I'm pretty sure those were the ones I was after (contained nice guns and ammo)

[Fiach]

Well you wont see those chests by accident, they are hidden mate and a fair bit away from Nine Toes :)

I think you may have seen the red chest that is where Scar is, I think there may be a tent there.

[deadman1]

Bonehead are easiest to deal with when you have reached lvl 11 or above.

Spoiler

He´s got a pretty good smg called "Bonecrusher" or something like it. It´s will probably last you a few levels.

[Art Blade]

cheers, peeps :)

Man, this is quite a collection of members playing (or having played) BL  :-X

I'm going to do TK's missions now, grabbing some seeds and fetching his leg. :)

By the way, this is one of those rare games I do enjoy the music that comes with it.

[mmosu]

Well what do we have here?  I turn my back for a couple of hours and return to find you all have been very busy  :-D :-X

Glad to hear you've finally got around to it Art!  Sounds like you're right at a spot where the game starts to really pick up some speed - up till this point you kind of wander aimlessly trying to find your place in the world.  That gun deadman referred to is Bone Head's boneshredder and yes, it will last you a little while  >:D

[Art Blade]

there you are ;D

just picked up a grenade launcher in that skag gully or so, on my mission to pick up some seeds. :)

[JRD]

A word of advice mate! Do as many missions and level up as much as you can before hitting the mission path that takes you to Sledge... the one you have to retrieve the key to the mine at Sledge's safehouse and the following one at the mine to kill him.  ;)

From this point on the game lights up and you'll have a blast playing it!

Remember - use the safe at The Underdome... if anything else, this safe is worth the cash you spent on the game (I only played one arena once for a few fights and never again).

@Fiach... Brick was my last choice when I first fired the game, but after beating it once with Lillith I decided to have another character going on along with my second playthrough with Lillith. The choice for Brick was quite easy actually, I discarded Roland first (just don't like his face  ;D ), which left me with either Mordecai or Brick... since I usually find myself surrounded by foes in close combat range, that chicken seemed useless to me   ;D ;D ;D

I must say I'm pretty happy with Brick. Once you learn to use his Berserker skill it completely change the way you play the game... I now jump right in the middle of a bunch of bandits and punch them into a gooey splash of meat  >:D >:D >:D Also, he's got some great skill trees to improve his Berserker mode and great weapons. I'm trying to combine range weapons with shot guns to be deadly at any distance with him! He is also the one who makes best use of grenades!  :)

[Art Blade]

Alright.. I'll try not to start the wrong mission :) I make backups of that one savegame every now and then.. in case I screw up, I can always fall back.

lvl 10 now, and miraculously that transport point mission (sorry, not yet acquainted with the game language and names) turned green and I could get a new mission from that pole there when I got back from the skag gully. I did three missions at once there, like finding two tapes, collecting eight seeds and finding that leg of  TK. I didn't die :) By the way, what I had described before, that tent and crates I wanted (and did) loot was now part of that leg quest. Some rather nasty thing guarded it, but it was no match for a pretty nice SMG which I had picked up there the first time around. I have used that smg for killing skags a lot, it does make a difference to shoot 20 damage bullets with that smg compared to like 9 damage bullets and slow rate of fire with any pistol I have found so far. Now I found a couple of weapon crates there and I got a grenade launcher lvl10 and a halfway decent assault rifle which fires three bullet bursts at a higher damage level -- not bad against bigger skags. LOL @ "badass skag"  ^+-+

Big fun it is, and I see how this game may take AGES to play through, I just had a look at the achievement list in my inventory.. oh dear  ;D

By the way, I think I still have to download those DLCs, wasn't on the GOTY disc. I reckon it has a code for that. I heard it from a friend that one needs to download it.. lazy bastards! Why don't they sell a GOTY game with ALL THOSE DLCs on DISC!!!

I have no idea if my game is patched or where to get a patch. Any hints?

[Fiach]

Cheers JRD I'll try Berzerker then :)

Art, the SMG sounds great, but in all fairness pistols are more powerful, like 400 damage per shot, plus elemental damage and Mords reload skills, make a huge difference to your playthrough :).

When you go to Sledge, it would be a good idea to bring a Static Weapon to kill his shields, or you will have a tough time there.

The place with the flowers, keep an eye out for those red crates, the previous place with the leg was Scar, you will meet two others like him later that deal elemental damage called Curley and Moe (yup I'm serious :)).

[Art Blade]

Hehe :) And cheers, Fiach :)

Well, I can only dream of 400 damage.. right now I'm amazed at a sniper with like 76 damage. So I take what I find and right now the smg or the assault rifle help me deal with flocks of skags.. then I exchange that weapon with a pistol again. I like sniper+pistol :) And my bloodwing.. good for finding hidden enemies or to distract them while I'm cornered (if) -- not a bad thing, that action gimmick :) As to skill levels.. so far I have maxed out the first one that gives me better accuracy with all weapons and now I started with damage/reload speed for all weapons. It's all in the sniper skills part.

[mmosu]

The bloodwing is good for flushing enemies that are deep in cover if they're within the attack radius when you cut him loose.  It's also handy when you're in a situation where you're getting attacked, your shields are down, and you have to run for it.  Letting him off the leash in that situation is nice because he will attack your pursuers and either slow them down or prevent their shields from regenerating by picking at them while you're unable to do so.  There are two skills in the rogue skill tree that I do use - one is Predator which decreases the cool-down of the bloodwing, and the other is Aerial Impact which causes enemies to be dazed and disoriented by a bloodwing strike.  Both of these skills enhance the ability of the bloodwing to be used as a "pursuit breaker".  Other than this, like you Art I spend some of my skill points on the sniper tree, and like you Fiach I spend the rest on gunslinger.  This approach produces an extremely powerful long-range specialist that can still mix it up at close range and even save himself when things start getting too hot. 
Fiach, let me echo JRD and encourage you to give Brick a shot - I didn't think I'd like him until I gave him a try and realized he plays completely different from everyone else.  If you're interested, you can find some of my thoughts on developing him here.

[Fiach]

Cheers mate :)

Another Blood Wing use is Second Wind, it may be just the Get out of jail card you need before succumbing to the Grim Reapers advances  >:D

[JRD]

@Art... when you go to any of the fast travel stations you`ll see a list of places you already unlocked and to where you can  tele-transport (like skag gully, Fyrestone etc...) if you can see Jacobs Cove, T-Bone Junction and The Underdome there, then you have all DLC installed and will be able to fast travel to Dr Ned`s Zombie Island, Secret Armory of General Knoxx and Mad Moxxi`s Underdome respectively (don`t know the names of the Claptrap`s Robot Revolution DLC though)... you can play them at any time during your playthrough  but I strongly suggest you do so after finishing the first playthrough as you`ll be able to dig some sweet loot from those areas when you are on a higher level!  ;)

[Fiach]

erm..... Robot Revolution  :o ;D


Actually you may want to chec k out my post in (I think) the mods section, its possible that you wont get the DLC's SDU rewards, if you complete the main games Find Steele quest, instead you will get useless grenade Mods, so it may be best to play the main game up to the Crimsons, then ignore Find Steele, do the DLCs to get more SDU (if you want them), then finish the game.

Moxxie has a bank, I have been told that the particular DLC is boring, so its kind of expensive if you only want the banking facility, personally I would get it just for messing around, but I have been told that you shouldnt solo it unless you have a proficiency of 50 in a few different guns.  :o

*SDU's increase your Inventory Space.