Honestly, the Cradle was the one that I spent the whole run looking longingly at. Low capacity, high regen, incredibly short delay, and a ranged option with shockingly well scaling damage for a normal mode playthrough. The active choice to not use it was painful, but even the Bunker can be done without it, so I was _reasonably_ sure that I didn't need something better. That knowledge didn't really make it hurt any less.

@@SpuddyCube black hole honestly would have made so much of the mobbing content easier

Oh hey gas

gasmask certified video

Flame wouldn't have been that useful anyway but banning uniques is a good rule for challenges

It was agonizing. But I at least had a choice in what I was using vs something like giving Chat any amount of control or using Claptrap's action skill in general.

Double rainbow!

Well... You've got me there on both counts.

Based comment

as someone who can do needlework thanks to my mother. Thank you for the compliment! I agree...because my mother who is much better than me is DEFINITELY a badass.

People who can do needlework deserve the best

I mean that’s what I assumed they would only need to be cloth stuffed with cloth

I love the game, but I hate that Cauldron. And every run, it's gotta rub it in...

I appreciate that, and also the faith in me, but I think the best case scenario would be a loop of me dying. I don't have much experience fighting the raid bosses, but I know I'd be looking at getting to at least TVHM levels. Given how poorly normal mode went, and the lack of slag shields (aside from the antagonist), I think the best I personally would likely be able to do would be Master Gee cheese.

@@SpuddyCube even normal mode raid bosses montage with sjiekfs only at level 72-80 maybe even you being at OP levels would be entertain brother also sorry for spamming your feed making multiple comments but might help you in the algorithm hopefully but yeah normal raid bosses cap I believe 30-32? So being 80+ or sure there's a perfect level to make it entertaining instead of just 1 shotting or being 1 shotted you know?!? Also would a grog nozzle(s) only run be possible? Or basic repeater haha something like that sure there's weapons where it's a hard challenge but not impossible like dark souls 1-3 NG+7 max NG level hmmm Oh god what about a morning star grenade only run💀💀💀 or it's from pirates booty and it's a joke item grenades come back to where your standing that one would be *Nightmarish* or a *Nightmare*

​@animalicon3535 someone (I think gas mask) already did a playthrough like that, but he had every Captain Blade item. Though listening to Spuddy comment on his own run might be interesting, and not being able to use any of the weapons would change things up.

You're very welcome or I'm sorry! Whichever is most applicable.

That's not true! They also!...

All borderlands players are masochists in a way 🙃

@@LilGasmask666 … yeah fair enough.

Honestly, his dedication to doing these kinds of runs at the maximum OP levels is incredible. I'm just hoping the energy drinks don't do any lasting damage.

Believe it or not, I wasn't even aware that was a thing until pretty recently. I'm ashamed...

The games and their intros have such a wonderfully nostalgic feeling for me. For all of its problems, even the beginning of Borderlands three feels like coming home.

Thank you! That means a lot. Bringing people joy is by far one of my biggest motivators, and it's awesome to hear that it helped to brighten things up! Absolutely made my day!

Same here.

It makes it worse to consider that Bloodwing died getting the Claptrap upgrade, and you could realistically get past the death wall via said buzzards. Or a ladder. Also, fast travel is canon, so... you couldn't have just had somebody enable it from the other side of the bridge for you to get to the Arid Nexus? Assuming that's how it works, at least. Save everyone some trouble.

I think I'd disagree. Nova shields often didn't get kills in one hit by the end of the run, so Blood Soaked Shields wouldn't have triggered as often as I would've liked. A higher level might have fixed that. It also costs health to activate, which hurts even more during the buffer time in between the shield going down and going off. Cooking Up Trouble and Discord were the only other options I could really find to help her heal outside of a moxxi gun. All three are at the very least tangentially using a gun, which didn't feel right by me. I knew going in that healing was going to be important, but it was _vital_ to the survival of the run. With that in mind, I think she would be the only vault hunter without some passive health recovery options. Granted, she has better shield support, and a couple of them only get said healing from their class mods, which is... less than ideal. I was definitely really restrictive with what I did and didn't do though.

Thank you! I'm really glad to hear it!

As someone who has played this game more times than I can remember across multiple platforms and multiple years of my life... Yeah, this was the worst experience I've ever had with it. It was fun in that sort of, "I never have to do it again" sort of way. Otherwise, I seriously can't recommend this on any level. Something like melee only is a fun challenge. This is just agonizing.

@@SpuddyCube Yeah I figured as much, it's been a while since I've played. But gl on future challenges.

Look a lady with a Punk rock haircut and daddy issues asked me to do something for her.. I have weaknesses okay?

Thank you! I'm honestly amazed to see that anyone wants to take the time to watch these, so seeing a number as big as seven hundred is incredible from where I'm sitting. I feel grateful, to say the least. I definitely don't think of myself as a Borderlands creator though. I love the series, and have been revisiting it for years now in my personal time, and I really want to maintain that love for it by keeping some healthy distance. Variety is the spice of life, ya know? That being said, a large part of me wanted to play something completely unrelated for my next run, and... When it came time to choose, I just... really want to play more Borderlands right now. So that's going to be my life for the next couple of weeks before I decide the one after that.

100% agree.

I'm inclined to say the first one. Dedication tends to run into limits long before stupidity does.

Thank you! And I did consider it a few times, but they do so little damage. I was worried that I'd end up with something like the game crashing well into an attempt. It took over an hour _with_ a shield, so I know it'd take even longer without, but I'm not sure how long I'd have to leave the game running for them to stand a chance. And then there's the issue of having to still pay attention in case of loaders, so I couldn't even go make food or something while it would be going. There's probably a place or two to sit without that worry, but the enemies there are really inconsistent.

I remember fighting it ages back, long before I knew how to properly build characters or avoid incoming damage. I got really used to just sitting under the arena slowly chipping away at its health. It's weird to think about how much time has passed, how many memories I have surrounding the game itself, and the people I've played with. Life is a weird journey, and the stops along the way are what you make of them, I guess. This one was the "greatest defense bot ever built" and a rather newly painful memory.

I can not be stopped! Except for with things like losing power, game crashes, etc... But aside from all of the things that can stop me, I can't be stopped!

Thank you! It was! I think I've had an easier time playing casually in OP levels. Between him and Miqueagul, it was incredible to see such a positive reception. The Borderlands community as a whole has been really kind, and it's felt really good to hopefully be adding something to it, how ever small. And I hope that the new year treats ya nicely when it comes around!

@@SpuddyCube Thanks a lot. You too with the New Years. :D I missed Miqueagul's comment. lol. Wow. Adding a Beating Borderlands with Shields really isn't a small feat. I found out the Antagonist shield can bore with Zer0 and even God-Bore Bunker. Maybe you can work an idea out with that. :)

Other than the method by which you have to farm for said shield, Firehawk Krieg just seems conceptually fun. I more or less always gravitated toward his melee tree. It's something I still need to try some day.

@SpuddyCube yeah outside of the farming. Its a nutty build with how much damage and healing you can stack

They always feel like a sort of weird subject. World drops mean you could theoretically always have the most meta possible option available at any given time at the appropriate level. But that's obviously extremely unlikely. There's probably a more logical middle ground between all and none, but none is by far the easiest to explain.

I swear, it's normally more stable. When I'm trying to record though, it just doesn't like running.

I never really thought I would get this far, so I'm both shocked and ecstatic with how well the channel is already doing. I like your enthusiasm though!

More like a "mediocre at best" rescue, am I right?

I know the name and face, but I've never seen any of his work, personally. So I'll choose to take it as a compliment!

I can't say that I'm familiar, but thank you all the same!

It would run up against rule one in my personal run. In a more lenient ruleset, it could be helpful. I do though think Maya runs into the issue of having a few helpful skills spread across all three trees. A lot of points would be spent on things like increased rate of fire to get access to healing. At least in my experience, healing was the backbone of the whole run. I think Backdraft and Sustenance are just too far into their respective trees to make it worth it, vs Axton having a lot of front loaded health and shield buffs.

I think allowing unique shields would maybe change up a lot of the early game with Flame of the Firehawk, and a lot of the late game with the Cradle. Its damage is shockingly high in a new game cycle, it has good range, and is really easy to lose/recover for the purpose of doing damage. Otherwise, there are things like the Impaler that could theoretically be really helpful, but farming for it would be nightmarish. You'd be looking at getting it from a world drop, which would be less than ideal. As for melee, I don't really think it fits the spirit of the challenge. With it, Krieg is definitely the ideal, since he's just a monster in terms of melee damage. Alternatively, it has been proven that you can beat the game with essentially only melee on even Salvador. Simply put, I don't want to side step the challenge. I haven't tried it personally, but I think even without melee support, it's just better than using a shield.

Thank you! It really depends on the line I'm reading at the time as well as when it is in the recording process. I tend to get more into the flow of it by the end, so sometimes only one. Other times, I write what _should be_ really simple lines that I stumble over probably around eight times. I think I usually speak quickly in general, so it's more a matter of getting through without misspeaking. I'm not very good at speaking without screwing up one thing or another, so I usually only keep about a quarter to a third of my recorded audio. So... Somewhere in that ballpark.

@@SpuddyCube It's really nice to get some insight. I'm not a native speaker of English so speaking quickly or even just getting everything right is the biggest challenge for me at the moment. I would absolutely love to talk to you sometime

I don't think I'd worry too much about the rate at which you speak over annunciation. I personally run into the issue of not pronouncing things clearly enough in my day to day life. As a native speaker, it's a really hard language to get down, and it seems like you're doing really well! As far as talking, a large part of me has toyed with how I could interact with people a bit more actively. Between life and runs, it can be hard to find time to stop to respond to folks, but it's always really rewarding to do so when I can.

@@SpuddyCube I think a really interesting concept that many people could use more and also utilize better is body language. A little tip I like to give to people is using one's eyebrows. It really helps people to come across as more native and friendly. And by the way can we just admire for a moment that we're having a good conversation in a KZfaq comment section? How awesome is that!

It's definitely an important thing to figure out, but it's weirdly complicated. There are so many subtle cues. So much nuance that it can be really hard to pick up on if you don't already have some basis of understanding. Even aside from more universal things like certain facial expressions, there's the difference in body language across different cultures, and it can be pretty daunting. I applaud anyone who can manage to get it down well enough for it to feel natural. As far as the comment section, I've come to find that there's generally good conversation to be had wherever people are, and of course where you're comfortable. You never know the kinds of folks you'll meet.

I think Sustenance makes her a good contender. The added damage from a couple of her class mods would be helpful. I think one of the biggest issues is splitting her focus between skill trees to get healing/shield buffs. In practice, I absolutely could be wrong, but Axton's survivability is a heck of a draw. I think I'd still stand by him being the best choice for the ruleset.

Oh, they're gorgeous! I had them on for a while when playing casually, but my game kept crashing until I disabled them. My framerate was generally really steady, but it would still just close out far too often. I would love to be able to turn them back on, but a crash during some boss fights would really hurt on an emotional level.

@@SpuddyCube hmm odd, I find it strange how many people report crashes with it, I've never seen it, it seems very random

The beauty of non standardized computer parts. It's anybody's guess as to whether or not parts are fully compatible with each other/any given software. It's by far what I miss most about playing games on consoles. My setup should be able to handle it. Mayhap I need to tinker with it more.

Yeah... Can confirm. They lose their luster fast. They didn't quite lose all viability, as I hope I've proven. But hot dang, are they upstaged by most means of dealing damage.

The biggest contender in that regard would be Maya, but I found her health regeneration to be much slower than Axton's. Her skills are also a bit more spread out for direct shield buffs. The damage absolutely would be helpful, but he seemed more sustainable. At least in theory.

As a guy who has beaten this game gearless on 4 different characters, this is harder

The big issue with Gaige is that she lacks any form of healing without using a gun. Health loss was a pretty major issue, and all of the other hunters have at least some form of passive regen. Also, a lot of the time, it was taking more than one hit to kill enemies. For prolonged boss fights, it wouldn't help as much as just having a more consistent rate/delay buff, I think. But again, the big issue being that I was already trading health to deal damage, and I couldn't afford to have that loss be permanent.

@@SpuddyCubeou’re right. I thought you might be able to heal with anarchy stacks but nope, you need to reload and that could be a bit difficult without a weapon 😅 Edit: I just had an idea 💡 No idea if it works, it depends if the reduced mag sice of the Infinity counts as full or not. If it does then you could regen health but not fire a single shot. If it works, I might try this run myself

When I was originally theory crafting builds, I did consider Gaige up until I found out that Cooking Up Trouble doesn't work without a gun in hand. If memory serves, it needs to at least have one bullet in said gun to work, though you might be able to trigger Discord. If you're allowing yourself to hold a gun but not shoot it, she's the best character for it. Without that... I seriously can't recommend this run. But I was being extremely strict with what I could and couldn't do. I think the Bunker might still be the biggest pain of the run. If you're wanting a better experience, I'd recommend allowing for unique gear, and then maybe pick up something like the Cradle from Henry. I didn't get to test the throw distance well, but I think it might have a longer range than most nova shields.

I could be mistaken, but I believe you only need to get the crystals to unlock the vendor. It might be worth rechecking, but I'm also really not confident that gap can be cleared without something like a grenade jump.

@@SpuddyCube I mean I replayed it recently and when I checked the vendor after beating terry vermi and crab fella (I thought crabbo dropped seraph but apparently no) Idk the vendor just said something like ‚my wares are only available to those who have beaten a seraph guardian‘ I guess it’d be easier to code it to be a ‚if seraph Crystal quantity > 0 allow purchases‘ rather than having to define seraph guardians and then check if ones been killed or no But idk

I'm not honestly sure if it's a time or kill based objective in this case, but either way, I essentially just let the game run a bit too long. Once Mordecai completes the objective, it's too late. You need to periodically save and quit to reset it, and I just... didn't do that in time. Once the objective is complete, you're screwed. I'm not personally aware of any visual or auditory indicators that you're getting close, so I was going entirely off of how I was feeling. Then I got way too comfortable waiting. I even tried closing out the game during the fade into the cutscene, but it wasn't good enough. I got plopped out on the surface of Pandora. I honestly think the run as a whole would have gone over more smoothly had I cut my losses and restarted from scratch. Farming experience with a shield is agonizingly slow.

Just before leaving Claptrap's Place, there's a fast travel station you can use. You can also fast travel to any of the DLCs as soon as you start the game. Fight for Sanctuary takes place in a separate instance of Sanctuary with most of the area blocked off, so the game recommends completing the story first, but none of it is mandatory. It is honestly kind of weird that you can, given that it takes place after the base story, but there isn't anything stopping you. The "defend Sanctuary" objective is also the first objective, so it's more or less right there to be used as much or as little as you want/need. Once you complete the objective though, you can't go back to the area, so it's important to be careful if you're using it like I was... So you don't mess it up like I did.

You'd think so, but healing pretty quickly became significantly more important than things that effect your shield. Of all of the hunters, Gaige is the only one without any means of healing without using a weapon in some capacity. I would argue that for that reason, she's the worst for the ruleset.

So I have good news and bad news...

I'm not convinced that this ruleset could even get through UVHM... Might need a bit more leniency if ever such a run is going to see the light of day.

The biggest issue with using Gaige over Axton is her lack of health regen of any kind without using a gun. Her skills are also a bit more spread out across her trees, requiring about ten to be sunk into skills that don't serve any purpose for the run. With regards to how long the XP farming took... I've never gotten particularly fast results with it.

Thank you!

@@SpuddyCube you are welcome

It didn't really feel like it would be in the spirit of the run. It also runs the risk of damaging enemies, which would necessitate a reset. It could theoretically make things better if you're wanting an easier experience with it, but I also can't imagine anyone wanting to start up such a run seeking ease.

@@SpuddyCube true but in case of Bunker it might of helped assist the trauma of that

But... But how?!

I don't really follow. What would prevent it from working on console?

@@SpuddyCube as far as i know, nothing. So to be petty i may try this out myself (a console player) since im just as confused as you are

@@TheGodIvy If you do, then I wish you luck. Especially with the Bunker. It's a painful experience, but a doable one.