Jolly Cooperation - Borderlands 3 (5)

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for another chapter of Jolly Cooperation where, believe it or not, we are still talking about Borderlands 3. As promised, today we will be focusing on the first major story DLC for the game, Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, or as many call it, DLC 1. As the first major expansion to Borderlands 3, this DLC can be played at anytime throughout the game with little impact on the main story line. That being said, I would still recommend playing it after you have completed the main story.

As with every major DLC in the Borderlands series of games, this entails a whole new campaign complete with new characters, locales, enemies and, most importantly, loot. I played the DLC entirely cooperative with three other party members with the Mayhem difficulty modifiers activated and after having finished the base game together with several other extras to bring us up to Level 60.

Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot, as its name suggests, takes place in the Handsome Jackpot, a casino previously owned and run by the Borderlands 2's main antagonist, Handsome Jack. Meanwhile, also as the name suggests, the new campaign revolves largely around Moxxi who is the primary quest giver and voice-in-your-head as she attempts to regain control over the casino that is the Handsome Jackpot. It is in this DLC where the gap between the second and third game is officially confirmed, 7 years, as that is the duration the casino has been left owner-less and lawless for.

Aside from Moxxi, there are also a host of new characters you will meet along the way as you gather the crew together to take over control of the casino. Not wanting to spoil too much of the campaign's story, I can certainly say that I was pleasantly surprised by the heist elements that Gearbox decided to go for with this new campaign.

In terms of gameplay, not much has changed except for the addition of several new enemies. You will encounter a mix of robotic and human/flesh type targets which will keep you on your toes in regards to the type of elemental damage your weapons deal. As the DLC is targeted to be played at a wide spectrum of players, the enemies themselves are not unnecessarily strong even at Mayhem 10 difficulty. My personal favorite when it comes to the new enemies are the mimic security bots which pretend to be slot machines.

Main story aside, there are a whole host of side missions to complete as well in true Borderlands fashion. New side objectives are also a staple of this DLC with various characters (including Torgue) asking you to identify or take down various things throughout the map. Successfully completing each side objective grants you a Unique weapon which scales according to the level you are at. All in all, completing all objectives and missions would set you back roughly 10-12 hours which is really not too shabby at all.

As with any Borderlands game, the emphasis on loot is certainly not forgotten. One benefits that the DLC campaigns have over the base game are dedicated unique drops not seen in the base game. Alluding to my earlier point, one of the major benefits of playing the DLC after you have completed the base game is to play the DLC on Mayhem 1 with the Lootsplosion modifier. This would help to increase your chances of any dedicated DLC loot to drop and in return, make the whole experience that much more rewarding.

While Moxxi's Heist of the Handsome Jackpot may not have the most overpowered unique drops among the currently released DLCs, I would still strongly recommend getting it. A robust campaign, frantic side missions and interesting new characters (including some familiar faces), more than make it an easy recommendation especially if you already have the base game. So, with one down and three more to go, you can be assured that we will be tackling the next DLC next. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!