And Just Like That, Borderlands 4 Has an Endgame

It feels like it’s been a little while since I’ve talked about anything aside from DC and comics, so today I wanted to talk about some of the new Borderlands 4 content. The game recently (as in a few weeks ago) received a major content update featuring Bounty Pack #3 “A Zane to Kill For,” and the free Takedown at (the) Hadron Abyss and a Circle of Slaughter. Today I’m only going to be talking about the Takedown, though I have every intention of hitting on the other things I just mentioned eventually.

Takedowns were first introduced in Borderlands 3. They’re endgame dungeons where you traverse through a given location, fighting through multiple arenas, before squaring off with a tough (and I think technically raid) boss. Takedown at (the) Hadron Abyss is the first one Borderlands 4 has to offer, and I really like it for what it is.

The Takedown has you fighting through an underwater research station where the Order performed genetic experiments on people and animals. You can find some audio logs sprinkled throughout the Takedown, but I haven’t actually listened to any of them yet; I was too locked in on my first clears, but I’m planning to go back and find them again. There are a few minibosses sprinkled in every few rooms, and a trio of bosses at the midway point. At the end, you face off against the Child of Terramorphous. For context, Terramorphous the Invincible was the first raid boss in Borderlands 2, so fighting his offspring is a nostalgic throwback. Terra’s skeleton is also featured prominently in the decor of the research station at the very end because the Timekeeper bought it and brought it to Kairos, so that’s a cool little detail.

I think that the combat is a solid difficulty. Truth be told, I’ve run the Takedown exactly twice. First, I did the basic difficulty. It technically wasn’t very basic because I was playing on Ultimate Vault Hunter 7, but I digress. After beating that, my buddy and I decided to try the Mayhem Mode. There are ten different Mayhem levels, and these boost the enemy stats and loot rewards and whatnot. This is where the timer comes in too. Mayhem Mode overrides your current scaling, so Mayhem 1 was technically easier than my first clear because of UVH7 scaling. I’m going to need to try the different difficulties, but Mayhem 1 honestly wasn’t bad. My Vex build could definitely hang, and we cleared with it with time left on the clock to secure our platinum time. And depending on your time, you can open up to four chests (with solid rewards inside). I’m hoping that the timing remains adequately generous on the other difficulties too, but I’ll just have to wait and see I suppose. There’s a final difficulty too: Hardcore. Hardcore ramps the scaling up to even higher than UVH7, and boasts about its time limit and needing to complete it flawlessly. I expect that this is where the difficulty is really going to spike. Am I going to do it? Hopefully eventually.

The Child of Terramorphous is fine as a final boss. He has two phases. In phase one, he chills in the water and tries to smack you with tentacles or atomize you with laser breath. He also occasionally pulls these Tesla coil things out of the ground, and they can hurt. Phase two is more of this, but he raises the water, so you end up on two higher, and smaller, platforms that you need to jump between whenever he reveals the Tesla coils. Honestly, it’s kind of refreshing having an endgame fight that doesn’t use obnoxious mechanics or waste your time with stupid immunity phases and phase transitions. He technically has one, and it’s not too bad. I don’t have much to say about the trio of midbosses. They’re fine. Mechanically, a new shield type does appear during the Takedown: gray. The gray health just means neutral, so no element is more effective than another (except maybe kinetic).

Turning to the loot, there’s a lot of it. Nine new legendaries, and one new pearlescent. Unfortunately, I haven’t gotten a lot of these drops yet. The pearl, Sharkbait, looks really interesting, so I plan to grind the boss out a bit until I get one to drop. I believe the only drops I’ve gotten so far include the Little Sister shield, and Vitae repkit. Vitae looks fine; nothing crazy to write home about. Little Sister looks interesting because I love the kill drones that some of the other weapons can use, so I hope it’s a fun shield. To briefly go over my initial impressions of the other legendaries before actually using them, Swan Song (a Daedalus shotgun) looks very silly because it launches cannonballs, Shoals (a Jakobs pistol) looks ok but not terribly distinct from basic Jakobs (and maybe specifically the Jakobs/Torgue parts combo) ricochet ability, I don’t know what makes Marshall’s Claw special (Maliwan sniper rifle that deals high damage?), Fishward looks strong and capable of good damage (Jakobs assault rifle that gets damage buffs by killing enemies), Ishmael (an Order sniper rifle) does bleed damage so I like the sound of that, I know nothing about the Ordinance Tediore grenade (it’s a book?), and the Draupner Ripper heavy weapon looks fine (I don’t really use heavy weapons). Finally, each character gets a new class mod. I only play Vex at the moment, so I cannot comment on how good all of them are. Vex’s class mod seems pretty bad. It could maybe be ok and have some synergies with her other skills (dealing skill damage can proc her kill skills), but the fact that the proc chance is so low and there’s a cooldown on activation kind of kills any viability the mod could have, especially when compared with some of her other mods. Finally, there’s a new firmware perk, Bruiser, that seems fine. It looks very similar to some other firmware perks, but it is more variety.

Overall, the Takedown at (the) Hadron Abyss is a solid piece of content. It has a lot of replayability, and it feels rewarding. The fact that the normal version has no time limit means that I can confidently run it solo and know that I can walk out with some loot. And since the enemy density and quality is so high, I got two world drop pearlescents across my two runs, so it’s a great way to hunt high quality loot. I really, really like this new Takedown. And best of all, it’s free. Borderlands 4 is shaping up to have a pretty solid endgame, and I’m looking forward to experiencing more of it.

Addendum: Alright, so I don’t normally include one of these in my reviews, but I just replayed the Takedown solo so I could grab a picture of the final boss for this review. After running it solo, I have a few more thoughts. First, I listened to most of the audio logs. I missed one, but I’ll get that later. The audio logs are pretty short, but they help flesh out Dr. Audrey Thorne, who talks to you over the ECHOnet during the Takedown. Basically, you get a little more insight into her and how/why she released the experiments on the research station to kill everyone (spoiler alert: unethical genetic experiments on people and animals are pretty evil). The ECHO log about Bioshock 2 is especially funny in how it breaks the fourth wall. I also have more thoughts on the midboss trio: Tidebreaker, Gilgathresh, and Crackclaw. I’m not sure who is worse. Tidebreaker peppers you with bullets and summons an annoying fishnado around himself. Gilgathresh has a net that can block damage and likes to rush you down. Crackclaw has a shield that forces you to stay close, blocks some damage, and spawns utterly obnoxious crab swarms. Oh and there’s a spot in the arena where if you walk through it, the fight resets. It’s pretty annoying. I died to them quite a few times, which is all the more frustrating when I killed the Child on my first try. This was all on UVH7, too. I also got a Marshall’s Claw to drop, and yeah, it’s a burst sniper that deals pretty solid damage. In conclusion, I do still like the Takedown. It’s hard. It’s a really solid endgame activity, and I do think that I’ll enjoy playing more of it in co-op.