Popular for its wacky and weird side quests, the Borderlands series is the pioneer of the looter shooter genre. It’s one of the best co-op shooters around and is perfect for playing with a group of four friends.
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The Borderlands games are some of the best looter-shooters ever made. Whether playing solo or with friends they can challenge even seasoned gamers.
While the main storyline of the Borderlands games is good, what fans really like about this series are the exceptionally written side quests, the characters in them, and the unexpected turns that these side quests take. It’s no wonder that people often prefer their quality over the mainline missions, and the series hosts a bunch of these side quests that are the highlight of their respective games.
9 You. Will. Die.
Over And Over
- Game: Borderlands 1
- DLC: The Secret Armory Of General Knoxx
- Mission location: T-Bone Junction Bounty Board
The name of this mission is a prophecy, and it’s a fact that almost every player will die at least once during this mission. There is only one task players have to complete: Kill Crawmerax. There’s no going from A to B, no fetching items, and no NPC conversations; just the player, an invincible armored crab worm, and the billions of bullets in the character's back pocket.
Available in The Secret Army of General Knoxx DLC for Borderlands 1, players can start this optional mission from the T-Bone Junction Bounty Board after completing the main story of the DLC.
The ingenuity of this mission comes not only from the sheer spectacle it holds but also the absurd difficulty and satisfaction of burying bullets in a monster 10 times the player’s size. There is nowhere to run to and unless it’s a co-op playthrough, the player is trapped in a deathloop with Cramerax until they manage to bring it down.
8 Porta Prison
“Dying In A City-Issues Fecapod Is A Class Three Offense”
- Game: Borderlands 3
- Mission location: Lectra City
The very premise of this mission is hilarious: Trashmouth, the mission-giver, is trapped in a portapotty because the bureaucratic AI installed on it isn’t letting him go. What follows is a goose chase to find a less strict AI chip that will let him out, and the mission will take some unexpected turns that make this side mission all the more fun.
The Borderlands series is popular for its edgy humor and excellent writing, and the conversations between Trashmout and the various AI chips players install into the portapotty are the highlights of this mission. And if that wasn’t enough, the ending of the mission, which won’t be spoiled here, is going to send players rolling with laughter on the ground.
7 Claptrap Rescue Missions
Vault Hunter To The Rescue
- Game: Borderlands 1
- Mission location: Multiple locations all over the map
There are 14 different Claptrap Rescue missions spread out over the world of Borderlands, and they’re a charming bunch.
Every so often on their journey, players will come across a broken claptrap robot whose missing a part or two. Being the completely selfless heroes that they are, the player takes it upon themselves to find parts to help revive these robots, whether it means scaling mountains or fighting bloodthirsty monsters, and they want nothing in return, definitely not for the backpack SDU that they get rewarded with.
6 Shoot This Guy In The Face
Death Request
- Game: Borderlands 2
- Mission location: On a ledge by Broken Face Bridge in Thousand Cuts
Borderlands 2 upped the ante when it comes to writing and side quest quality. One of the shortest missions in any Borderlands game but still regarded as the best mission in existence by fans is the one where the player meets Face McShooty who wants them to shoot him in the face as he dances around.
After players accept the mission, there is but only one thing to do: Shoot McShooty in the face. But they have to be careful not to shoot him in the arms, or the legs, or the chest. And when that’s done, there is no unexpected twist that questions the reality of fabric; as anyone would expect, McShooty’s face gets blown up and he dies.
The beauty of this mission lies in how anti-climatic it is. No lengthy escort mission or fetch quest, and no facing vengeful enemies after players complete the main task. Just the player, McShooty, and the easiest headshot in the history of gaming.
5 Transaction-Packed
Game In A Game
- Game: Borderlands 3
- Mission location: Desolation's Edge on Nekrotafeyo
Borderlands doesn’t get more meta than this side mission. At the request of Claptrap, the player is tasked with trying out an early-access version of an augmented-reality game called Destroyer of Worlds. The problem is that the game is chock-full of bugs and filled with microtransactions that players can’t say no to, even if they want to.
Even though it’s a tad bit longer than it should be, this mission is a perfect tease at the direction the gaming industry is heading. The mission is made to be annoying, and everything from escorting and protecting the T-pose striking Lana, who repeats the same dialogue again and again, from aerial enemies to the ridiculously frequent microtransaction boxes with their broken “No” buttons makes this mission a one-of-a-kind in all of the Borderlands series.
4 Claptrap’s Birthday Bash
Boombox, Pizzaz, And Loneliness
- Game: Borderlands 2
- Mission location: Sanctuary
Borderlands games rarely tug at the player's heartstrings, but when they do, they pull them out and rip them apart. Claptrap, who has been not only a mascot for nearly every entry into this series, but also a constant companion in most titles, is shown in a disturbingly bleak light in this side quest in Borderlands 2.
Players consider this hilarious but mostly annoying robot as someone incapable of deep emotion; it is a robot after all. But when Claptrap invites the player to his birthday party, he is genuinely excited and looking forward to the player's presence.
As it turns out, from the four invites Claptrap sends out, nobody shows up at the birthday party except the player; they simply don’t care for this little robot’s birthday party. As the main character waits around while the game cleverly asks them to do nothing and “enjoy the party”, the sad reality of how alone Claptrap is without other claptrap units hits the players in the face.
3 You Are Cordially Invited: Tea Party
“Best Tea Party Ever”
- Game: Borderlands 2
- Mission location: Tundra Express
Tiny Tina is arguably the pinnacle of character design in a Borderlands game; she’s smart and brilliant, but at the same time, deeply damaged, mentally wounded and scarred, and alive with a vengeance.
In the “You Are Cordially Invited” mission line, players help Tiny Tina capture and take revenge on the killer of her parents in the most badass way, and “Tea Party” is the last mission in this quest line. Yet again, Borderlands shines a spotlight on a character with an extremely sad past, but it’s not all tears and gloom as the main character is there to help Tiny Tina enact revenge on Flesh-Stick and get away with it.
Opening with the hilarious task of “Smack Flesh Stick”, the player has to melee the killer of Tiny Tina’s parents, the chief guest of the tea party who is strapped to his chair at the end of the table, to get the party started.
The player helps fend off three waves of enemies that are coming to rescue Flesh Stick, and the quest ends with Tiny Tina slowly electrocuting Flesh Stick and saying the iconic line “Best Tea Party Ever”.
2 The Nibblenomicon
“He whose name is Oblivion, the Forgotten One, Sleeper beyond the Gate of Silence and Sensing Tongue of the Umbral Void”
- Game: Borderlands 3
- DLC: Guns, Love, And Tentacles
- Mission location: The Lodge
Words fail to describe how absurdly over-the-top, ridiculously funny, and outlandishly weird this mission is. Available as a side mission in Borderlands 3 DLC: Guns, Love, and Tentacles, the player is tasked with a simple mission: Retrieve the Nibbblenomicon.
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Borderlands 3 offers plenty of brilliant side quests, but some are easily missed. Here are a few such quests that feature great stories or rewards.
This talking, murdering cookbook that hates cilantro and stamps is hidden in the depths of the Dustbound Archives, which is overflowing with mad book club members who have some of the most hilarious conversations in the entire game. The player makes their way through the archive, killing book club members, gets the book checked out by the librarian (may her soul rest in peace), and proceeds to deliver the book to the mission-giver.
1 Ron Rivote
“Sir Rivote, A Finer Knight I Have Never Known”
- Game: Tiny Tina's Wonderland
- Mission location: Tangledrift
This quest will introduce the player to Ron Rivote, a self-proclaimed, delusional knight in Tiny Tina’s Wonderland, with a name and story so clearly inspired by the classic novel Don Quixote and the character of the same name that it’s not even a question.
At Sir Rivote’s request, the player first brings down an evil Cyclops, then help save Sir Rivote’s princess from ill-fate, and then mows down a horde of enemies, finally achieving victory and seeing the knight ride off into the horizon on his steed with the princess on his back.
The only difference is that the Cyclops is a clock tower with one eye, and the princess is not a human being, not even a doll, but a broomstick. The horde of enemies are mushrooms and Sir Rivote’s steed is the same broomstick he thinks is the princess, which he jumps on to ride off, not into the horizon, but off the island and straight down to the ground.
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Borderlands 3
First-Person Shooter
Action
RPG
Systems
- Top Critic Rating:81/100 Critics Recommend:78%
- Platform(s)
- Nintendo Switch , PC , PlayStation 4 , PlayStation 5 , Stadia , Xbox One , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S
- Released
- September 13, 2019
- Developer(s)
- Gearbox Software
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