Jolly Cooperation - Borderlands 3 (9)

Hello everyone and welcome back to Tiro Finale for another chapter of Jolly Cooperation featuring Borderlands 3. Now in its ninth chapter, we are closing in on the end of the game's story content with the third major DLC for the title, Bounty of Blood: A Fistful of Redemption. Also known as DLC3 of Bounty of Blood for short, that is what we will be referring to this DLC as for the rest of the article. Released on the 25th of June 2020, Bounty of Blood is known to many longtime players as the DLC with the most sought after and overpowered weapons. Spoiler alert, it is.

Just like the two major DLCs before it (Moxxi's Heist and Guns, Love & Tentacles), Bounty of Blood takes place in an entire new locale. In this case, it is a ruined planet named Gehenna which was host to a number of large scale weapons experiments in the past. With the experiments long past and the company which perpetrated them having up and left, it is up to players to find out more about the history of this torn planet and the ongoing strife that surrounds it. Of course, this largely involves shooting anything in your way until you find out the truth of the matter. Unlike all previous campaigns in Borderlands 3 or the Borderlands series for that matter, the Bounty of Blood campaign's unique calling card is the background narrator present. Narrating the past and future actions of the Vault Hunter, the narrator acts as both an exposition and tutorial provider.

The ruined planet of Gehenna invokes vibes of old western films with a mix of Japanese aesthetics. While its landscape is very similar to that of Xylourgos from the previous DLC, Guns, Love & Tentacles, with long overarching vistas and irregular landscapes and surfaces for the players to tackle. Unfortunately, a lot of the scenic bits of Gehenna are largely just views that the players would encounter along the way to a next major area. Most of the larger battles are done either indoors or in large open plains. 

Together with the combination of old Western cowboy and Japanese aesthetics for the architecture and costumes, the residents of the town in Gehenna also similarly have Japanese names and speak with the occasional Japanese words thrown in albeit with a southern accent. Novel at first, it does become a little cringe worthy by the mid-way point especially if you are used to the consumption of Japanese media. Props for the concept but, it could have certainly been executed a little better.

Aside from the new locale, there are also a great number of new features introduced that are unique to Bounty of Blood. There is the new vehicle, Jetbeast, a hovering motorcycle-type vehicle. The Jetbeast is fully customizable with parts that can be obtained from hijacking the bandit's own Jetbeast and adding any of their new parts to your inventory. The handling model of the Jetbeast is not my favorite but, it is certainly a speedy mode of transport and the perfect vehicle for the narrow passageways throughout Gehenna.

The other new features seen in Bounty of Blood include, new environmental interactions and enemy types. There are three new types of environmental interactions modeled as plants. The Breezebloom, a vertical propulsion system is by far the most utilized environmental feature throughout the campaign. The Coresploder, an explosive projectile, and Traitorweed, an enemy hypnosis tool, are interesting gimmicks but fall short of any real use except for the few times you have to utilize them to proceed in the campaign.

Of course, there are also several new Unique and Legendary equipment to be obtained in the Bounty of Blood. Most notably, they are the Lightshow, Unkempt Harold and Beacon. All three of which are Legendary pistols that are highly sought after for many end-game builds. Even the Unique weapons are worth a spin too as they not only have interesting mechanics but, remain viable even on higher Mayhem levels. A noteworthy Unique for me was the Peashooter revolver which is unlocked fairly early on in the campaign.

Together with three other cooperative party members, we were able to play the entirety of the Bounty of Blood campaign on Mayhem 10 difficulty at level 65. Of all the four available characters in the party, I play the role of Moze. Normally, a big bulk of my damage output comes from the Iron Bear's Auto Bear perk in combination with the Rocketeer class mod for sustained damage output. However with the introduction of the new legendary weapons from the Bounty of Blood, my Moze saw a significant power spike. No longer does she have to rely on the Iron Bear, Moze is now able to take done enemies on her own in spite of a skill build towards the Iron Bear's damage output.

Of course, a lot of this does come down to luck. I was fortunate enough to get suitable anointment on both the Beacon and Unkempt Harold. Likewise, my party members too were able to equip themselves with new weapons that saw a significant power spike shortly after the introduction of the increased level cap. Finding these weapons did take a little bit of grinding which resulted in the Bounty of Blood having taken the longest time out of all the three DLCs we have played thus far.

As far as the campaign goes, the main story line of the Bounty of Blood is not too long. Players could probably finish the main quest of the game within 4-5 hours if not less. Aside from the obligatory farming, it is the generous number of side quests and collectables in Gehenna which help to pad the game's length.The collectables are an especially tricky proposition with many of them hidden behind tricky terrain puzzles.

Many consider Bounty of Blood to be the best among the first three DLC released and while I am inclined to agree, I am also of the opinion that it is only held up in such light due to the overpowered weapons that it drops. In terms of the quality of the story telling, I actually prefer the writing in the first and second DLC. Not only did the writing feel more coherent in those DLCs, the useful addition of recurring characters also help to keep the player invested from the get go as opposed to having to be introduced to an entirely new cast of characters.

As a closing note, one my biggest gripe of this DLC is the exorbitantly low drop rates of the DLC exclusive cosmetics. Despite having tried multiple times, I have still been unable to get the desired cosmetic for Moze. While I certainly appreciate the two new powerful pistols in her possession, I still feel it was a rather cheap move to keep the cosmetics looked behind a boss drop. As far as optimizing your builds go, the Bounty of Blood is as un-skippable as they come purely because of the sheer number of overpowered legendary drops that it holds. But if you are in it purely for the story experience, I would recommend waiting for a sale before you purchase it.

With that, we come to the end of the chapter of the Jolly Cooperation. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to leave them in the comments section below. In the next chapter of Jolly Cooperation, we will be taking a look at the most recent and final DLC of the year one season pass, Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck. Until then, thank you so much for reading and have yourself a wonderful day ahead!