Borderlandsgames have a habit of leaving behind many great features when they jump to the next series installment. At the same time,Borderlandsgames also invent some surprising new features for their sequels. IfBorderlands 3’s anoint mechanic on loot makes the cut forBorderlands 4, one feature should be sure to follow-suit: Re-rolling. On top of potentially having both features,Borderlands 4should learn fromBorderlands 3’s hiccups and make them available at launch instead of down the road.
In the latestBorderlands, a lot of the famous weapons from past games ended up making return appearances. At the same time,Borderlands 3also introduced the anoint mechanic to nearly every piece of loot in the game. Anointed loot was one of the many quirks that distinguished the chronological jump fromBorderlands: The Pre-SequeltoBorderlands 3, making for some ofthe best weapons inBorderlands 3’s mayhem modes, as well as worthwhile options for shields and grenades.
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Anointed Loot in Borderlands 3
Anointed weapons added a powerful layer onto weapons, and encouraged players to try the different Mayhem difficulties and permanently available seasonal events. Not too many of the seasonal events ended up exploring the anoint mechanic on exclusive loot, except for its Halloween event.Borderlands 3’s Bloody Harvestadded the Terror mechanic to gear that was a simultaneous buff and debuff, while the anoints on standard Mayhem loot focused on the abilities of each playable character. The seasonal event’s anointed gear was fairly simple to obtain good effects for, because there wasn’t much variety. On the other hand, non-seasonal anoints from the standard game’s loot pool had plenty of options that could either be passive, active, or unavailable for certain characters and builds inBorderlands 3.
While anoints added an extra flavor of power onto almost every piece of gear in the game, not just the legendary gear, it also added a layer of complexity to the RNG of getting favorable loot. Not only did players have to farm for their favorites and the “make or break” gear for theircharacter builds inBorderlands 3, but players also had to farm each piece of gear for particular anoints. TheBorderlands 3community has always been on top of discovering the specific loot pools for the different content and enemies throughout the game, although anoints are unpredictable wildcards. In the best case scenario, anoints could ultimately turn average gear into amazing gear, and amazing gear into perfect gear. Since nearly every piece of a player’s inventory could have anoints, a full loadout of favorable anoints has massive potential for increasing damage and survivability.
Anointed loot ended up getting the ability to re-roll without otherwise affecting the rest of the stats on the gear. All that is required for changing the anoints on loot is some ofBorderlands 3’s Eridium currency, which generally becomes abundant in the endgame. This was a much-needed complement to the anoint mechanic that alleviated the otherwise grindy experience of getting favorable gear.
Re-rolling anoints didn’t come toBorderlands 3until well into the game’s life cycle, after the anoint mechanic itself was added. This made for a rough period inBorderlands 3where everyone was active during the window between introducing anoints and implementing the re-roll feature. If anointed loot returns as onepotentialBorderlands 4features, it should learn fromBorderlands 3’s troubled history and go all or nothing by including the re-roll mechanic as a base part of theBorderlands 4experience.
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