History VideoGame / Borderlands3

* AnArmAndALeg: Enemies can have one or more limbs blown off when they die. In a call to the player, [[BigBadDuumvirate Tyreen Calypso]] tells them her followers will do anything for her and tells one to cut off his favorite leg. He cuts off both legs and tries to stand on the stumps, forcing her to kill him.

* ArcWord: Family. On both sides, the theme of family comes up several times, and the word is constantly repeated.

* BonusBoss: Wotan the Invincible and Scourge the Invincible. The ''Director's Cut'' DLC adds Hemovorous the Invincible.

Followed chronologically by ''VideoGame/TinyTinasWonderlands'' and canonically by {{spinoff}} ''VideoGame/NewTalesFromTheBorderlands''.

Followed chronologically by {{spinoff}} ''VideoGame/NewTalesFromTheBorderlands''.

* AbortedArc: One of ''Pre-Sequel's'' biggest plot points was [[spoiler:Lilith taking revenge on anyone even remotely connected to Handsome Jack's rise to power and subsequently Roland's death]]. None of this is ever addressed. ''Borderlands 2'''s "Fight for Sanctuary" DLC gave her bigger problem to focus on with taking over as the leader of Sanctuary. Speaking of, the ending of the Pre-Sequel implied that it was imperative to remain on friendly terms with the likes of Athena and Aurelia for what comes ahead. Neither Athena nor the Watcher actually appear in this game (or any of its [=DLCs=] so far) and Aurelia [[spoiler:ends up becoming no better than Nisha and Wilhelm]].

* ArcWord: Family. On both side the theme of family comes up several time, and the word is constantly repeated.
** The Crimson Raiders are described as a family by Lilith and Ellie. And this is shown by how they support and worry about each other.
** Rhys refers to Atlas as a family, and Rhys is shown caring about Atlas and its employees. This contrasts him with Katagawa Jr. who refers to Maliwan the same way.

* SequelNonEntity: As of the base game's storyline: Gaige is given a passing mention in an Echo log (but at least later appears in the ''Guns, Love, and Tentacles story''), Krieg has some small lines in a series of echo logs (and like Gaige would later show up in a DLC), and Axton and Salvador have given up vault hunting to become the announcers for Arms Race. Athena's whereabouts are still unknown.

** From ''Borderlands 2'', only Maya and [=Zer0=] make an appearance. [=Zer0=] is only present as one of Rhys' subordinates. Salvador is only heard from a StupidStatementDanceMix of his voice clips that randomly plays from radios and an Echo recording by Marcie's father reveals he still plans on extracting revenge on the "horrible killer who murdered [his] genius daughter at the prime of her life", referring to Gaige. Axton has apparently found a new job as a model, as his shirtless image can be found on a magazine cover in-game and even an Iron Bear skin for Moze. Gaige eventually returns in the "Guns, Love and Tentacles" DLC while Krieg becomes the star of the "Fantastic Fustercluck" DLC. Axton and Salvador would become the hosts of the ''Arms Race'' game mode, but as a non-story-based stage, the two of them don't receive the usual ''Borderlands'' intro titles.

* SequelNonEntity: As of the base game's storyline: Gaige is given a passing mention in an Echo log (but at least later appears in the ''Guns, Love, and Tentacles story''), Krieg has some small lines in a series of echo logs (and like Gaige would later show up in a DLC), and Axton has supposedly given up the Vault Hunter life to become a fashion model, as shown by his shirtless image found on magazines and as an Iron Bear skin. Salvador and Athena are given no mention whatsoever.

* OldSaveBonus: Or rather, ''new'' save bonus. Having save data for ''VideoGame/TinyTinasWonderlands'' on your system will get the legendary Torgue pistol, [=TNTina=], mailed to you. The only other way to get it is to defeat Anathema the Relentless.

* BoringButPractical: The newly-revamped Dahl weapons. Their select-fire gimmick has been changed to a toggle setting like in many other FPS games, rather than automatically switching while aiming down the sights. The resulting weapons aren't very flashy compared to a [[BottomlessMagazines Children of the Vault]] or [[StuffBlowingUp Torgue]] weapon, but are some of the most versatile choices in the game.

* EverythingsBetterWithDinosaurs: Saurians, a new beast variety found on Eden-6 are practically based on these. From the oil-spitting Grogs to the titanic Tyrants.

** When you take the Sell Out quest, Tyreen calls you up because she needs a fresh murder vid for her followers, and nominates you to do the job because "you're a total gun slut", complete with bribing you with a gun. Should you actually follow through on it, Tyreen hands you the {{Legendary|Weapons}} gun "Sellout", no questions asked. The problem: while it is an admittedly sweet gun, Tyreen's voice is recorded on it, with a number of crazed messages, to remind you that you sold your dignity for this weapon. Note that this is the ''only'' reliable way to get this weapon; the alternative of shooting out her cameras only gives you a fat wad of cash, and that comes and goes easily in these games. Whether hearing Tyreen's deflated dismissal and calling you a dipshit is compensation enough is entirely subjective.

* PetTheDog: On Promethea's vault, Maya threatens Troy to get Tyreen to let Ava go. Sure enough, Tyreen... ''complies''. EvenEvilHasLovedOnes...[[spoiler:that is, until Troy really kicks the bucket, and Tyreen just absorbs his body without much mourning at all]].

** "The Feeble and the Furious" normally requires the player to do a number of chores across the map for a grumpy old pappy just to get him out of his daughter's hair for a bit. You could do the chores as requested...or just get the vehicle Pappy is riding on destroyed. Doing this prompts the mission to end early and necessitates simply handing in the quest to the daughter, who isn't too sad about her jerkass father kicking the bucket.

* ContinuityNod: One of the biggest is all of Claptrap's "Claplist" missions which all refer to the fake objectives of the [[VideoGame/Borderlands2 Claptrap's Secret Stash]] side-mission.
* ContinuitySnarl:[[spoiler:While blaming her for Maya's death]], Ava states Lilith killed Handsome Jack. ''Wam Bam Island'', however, has Gaige state plainly that "[She] killed Handsome Jack!" Both were canonically present for his death, though, so a RoyalWe situation could be in effect, and of course Lilith could have justifiably claimed responsibility for the deed either way as the commander of the Crimson Raiders.

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Oh so many quality-of-life features are implemented here, compared to the previous games:
** {{NPC}}s can now revive you, which removes the often frustrating problem of an ally killing an enemy you were trying to use for a Second Wind. [[spoiler:You ''have'' to down yourself at one point so an NPC can resuscitate you and unlock the way onward.]]
** You can now climb over ledges, so you don't have to do the whole thing over again if you miss a jump and platforming in general is far less finicky.
** Eridium is now only for cosmetic items and purple-tier Anointed gear; inventory capacity upgrades are now purchased from Marcus with plain ordinary cash, akin to [[VideoGame/Borderlands1 the first game]].
** Dahl guns can now be switched between fire modes on the fly instead of the arbitrary and cumbersome "burst fire while zoomed" "feature" present in the past games. They also come with multiple different numbers of round bursts (Up to five!) as opposed to just three.
** Maliwan guns can now switch between two elements, making them considerably less situational.
** Hyperion guns, while still having accuracy and recoil improvements upon continuous fire, no longer start with such outrageous recoil for the first few shots.
** The Lost and Found stations found on Sanctuary III will return any lost items you accidentally dropped while on missions. Accidentally dropped a Legendary off a cliff? No problem!
** The bank is shared throughout the player's account across all characters, negating the need for a separate deposit to transfer items between vault hunters. The bank itself has immensely expanded to compensate for multiple character use.
** Legendary drops are now highlighted on the mini-map with a golden star as well as making a unique sound when spawned, making them very hard to miss.
** Loot instancing option is introduced: now when playing co-op, each player can get their own loot scaled to their level instead of having to compete for drops. Likewise, enemy leveling scales to the ''player'' rather than the ''area'', and the stats of lower-level players and their enemies are normalized for higher-level players (and vice-versa), so everyone is on a level playing field regardless of level. And if one doesn't want to do it that way, it is possible to play co-op how it worked in previous games, called Co-opetition.
** Slag has been replaced by a less awkward element called Radiation, which just does damage over time but also causes the afflicted enemy to deal constant Radiation damage in a radius around them, and if they die while so afflicted they explode and spread Radiation to anyone in the radius.
** Cryo attacks deal extra damage to armor while Radiation attacks deal extra damage to shields, though not to the extent of Corrosion and Shock, respectively, allowing for alternate methods of dealing with said obstacles. Kill-A-Volt, a shielded enemy with complete immunity to Shock damage, demonstrates this in spades.
** Opening containers automatically collects all the money inside of it, as well as any health packs and ammo that you need. You also no longer have to manually pick up Eridium anymore.
** Dying replenishes your ammo count so you don't need to abandon the fight if there are no vendors nearby. There is, however a limit to how much ammo is provided this way unlike the previous game, so there's still reason to search for ammo.
** Common shield perks can be randomly found on any shield, common or legendary, rather than being exclusive to a certain class of shield (such as augmented shield capacities, ammo absorption, and increased movement speed), allowing for more flexibility in shield choice.
** For every 100 kills with a specific weapon brand you'll get one free through the in-game mail system. Although the rarity is random (from Uncommon to Epic) the level of the gun is scaled to yours upon getting it. This can be helpful to keep you equipped and keep using the brand you (probably) have taken a liking to.
** Once you unlock Mayhem mode by beating the game, turning it on causes all optional quests you have not completed to automatically scale to your level and reward you appropriately. No more going back to the starting area and completing a quest at level 50 just to get a level 4 pistol for a reward. Likewise, the NewGamePlus "True Vault Hunter Mode" can be reset at any time so you can obtain better versions of any already unlocked quest reward.
** Speaking of Mayhem mode, enabling it on a Normal run synchronises enemy levels to the player, including bosses fought in the main story. Of course, there's still the option to turn Mayhem off, and the enemy's levels revert back to how they were previously, allowing the possibility of wailing on them with overpowered weapons for the sake of quick kills and challenge farming.
** Rare spawn bosses and legendary beasts/targets of interest automatically scale to the player's current level even without Mayhem mode enabled, making their loot, notably the legendaries they tend to drop, viable to use.
** Respawn points now act as save points which means that when you save and quit, it respawns you back at the last respawn point (instead of just the Fast Travel stations), making farming for loot a lot less tedious.
** Once unlocked by beating the main story, Guardian Levels, which replaced Badass Levels, are gained via experience points rather than challenge completion. This not only makes Guardian Levels easier to progress without having to check up on which challenges have been completed, but also gives experience points purpose even when the player has reached the maximum character level. And because of how the XP system works here, instead of having to create new characters to obtain more ranks, it's actually better to use your high-leveled ones.
** The cosmetic items from the various timed events are unlocked in every playthrough, past or future, once you unlock them once - even character skins and headwear[[note]]Trinkets, room decorations, Echo skins and weapon skins are already shared between save files[[/note]]. This means that you don't need to grind the event separately for every save file you may have, and that as long as you have one post-game character you don't need to rush your other playthroughs.
** You can use fast travel to jump straight to the vehicle you most recently used rather than having to trek back to where it is.
** In the previous games, the world map was 2D and only showed the layout of the top-most layer of the world; this was a huge problem in levels such as Sawtooth Cauldron, which had as many as four different levels in some points of the map. In this release, the world map is 3D and can be freely panned, tilted and rotated.
** Level cap updates are now free and come in small increments (of 3 and 4, so far) so your old previously-maxed gear is still usable even at the new cap. Additionally, they've been followed up with events that drastically increase the drop rate of legendaries, making it much easier to replace/update your gear.
** April 2020 added in the "Borderlands Arcade" cabinet, which can be used to obtain 2-hour boosters. These include +25% boosts to combat XP and cash flow, and increasing loot quality and legendary drop rates, which further reduce the small amount of grinding the game has. The only caveat is they require Arcade credits to buy, but not only are they dirt cheap (only 500 to 1500 apiece), even the easy puzzles give an average of 50 credits simply for passing them. Plus, completing them may give you a warm feeling since beating them helps actual DNA research.
** Class Mods now don't require at least one skill point put into the skills they improve, meaning that if, for instance, you want a specific skill from further down the tree but not the others, you can get it with a relevant Class Mod, bypassing the need to pour skill points into said tree.
** From the ''Fantastic Fustercluck'' DLC: Unlike other trains in the series, the Locomobius cannot instantly kill you by running you over. Which is good, because unlike other trains in the series, this train can ''teleport'' and has a nasty habit of appearing out of nowhere very suddenly.
** An update added the ability to reroll anointments at Crazy Earl's for 250 eridium, drastically reducing the need to farm.
** Mayhem 11 lets you enjoy all the buffed enemies and weapons, but with none of the modifiers. The only downside is reduced cash, XP, and eridium drops. And while there's less legendary drops from non-boss enemies, boss drop rates still remain strong.

* BreakingOldTrends: The game didn't keep the "dead skag in the intro cutscene" RunningGag set-up in the first two mainline games and ''Tales''. This time, it's more of a BaitAndSwitch though - Even if the skag in the intro is about to walk in the road, it is the psycho who gets rammed by the vehicle instead. Besides, this skag is different anyway, since it is a pet of [=FL4K=].

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Athena, Salvador, and Fiona have no mention or appearance anywhere in the base game. Every other main character who doesn't appear in the game are at least acknowledged to still be around in some form or another. A radio commercial indicates that Dr. Zed is now operating a mobile clinic on Pandora (but he ''still'' doesn't have a license). Krieg shows up in various ECHO logs. Gaige is still being hunted by Mr. Holloway for the accidental murder of his daughter while he continues to profit from mass-producing her stolen Deathtrap designs as utility robots (and as of the "Guns, Love and Tentacles" DLC has become a wedding planner). Rhys is searching for Sasha, but [=Zer0=] indicates that she's gone off the grid because she's covering her tracks to make sure she isn't found. A magazine cover (and skin for Moze's Iron Bear) reveals that Axton is now a model.

* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** Turns out [[spoiler:even a badass Vault Hunter veteran like Gaige can't do much against one of the biggest {{Mega Corp}}s in the galaxy with trillions upon trillions of manpower and killer robots all out for her blood. She has been forced to leave the Crimson Raiders and spent the last seven years in hiding from Holloway's forces, and it's clearly taken a toll on her both mentally and emotionally.]]
** Likewise, the life of a Vault Hunter isn't exactly roses and rifles, and getting out of the lifestyle can make readjusting... difficult. You don't leave a life that involved carrying sixteen shotguns and killing an entire town of bandits before breakfast without some scars, physical or otherwise.

* ActionizedSequel: Yep, possible even in a franchise like this one. There are more guns, leveling up is faster, even early skills are often noticeable and the passive perk system gives you huge bonuses as you spend more guardian tokens in it. In short, the already action-packed gameplay of ''Borderlands 2'' is cranked UpToEleven.

** While on Gehenna, killing certain creatures will count towards the "Problems in Paradise" challenge. What does that challenge entail? Killing Eden-6 creatures.

* AbortedArc: One of ''Pre-Sequel's'' biggest plot points was [[spoiler:Lilith slowly going insane due to her obsession with taking revenge on anyone even remotely connected to Handsome Jack's rise to power and subsequently Roland's death]]. None of this is ever addressed. ''Borderlands 2'''s "Fight for Sanctuary" DLC gave her bigger problem to focus on with taking over as the leader of Sanctuary. Speaking of, the ending of the Pre-Sequel implied that it was imperative to remain on friendly terms with the likes of Athena and Aurelia for what comes ahead. Neither Athena nor the Watcher actually appear in this game (or any of its [=DLCs=] so far) and Aurelia [[spoiler:ends up becoming no better than Nisha and Wilhelm]].