New Borderlands 2 DLC raises level-cap

Gearbox has released a new piece of DLC for its FPS Borderlands 2, titled the Ultimate Upgrade Pack. The DLC, costing $4.99 (approx 271), increases the level-cap in the game by 11. The DLC has been released alongside a major new patch that adds a bunch of new things in the game for free. The DLC and patch are available on the Xbox 360 and on Steam for PCs. The PlayStation 3 versions will be available after the upcoming PlayStation Store update.

The major addition in the patch is the Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode. The mode is unlocked for a character once they have completed the story missions in the True Vault Hunter Mode and have reached the level cap (minus the DLC) of 50. The game mode skips the tutorials and starts players on the Southern Shelf with the “Cleaning Up the Berg” mission.

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The level cap has been raised to 61

Here are the major changes in Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode:

• Enemy health generally increased 4x
• Enemies now have a moderate amount of health regeneration
• Increased duration of slag damage multiplier effect
• Upped the damage that slagged enemies take from 2x to 3x
• Weapon swap speed increased to better facilitate slag use
• Enemies now more likely to drop ammo
• Loot Midgets are now “Legendary Loot Midgets” that can drop Legendary and other top-tier gear

Gearbox will be adding a new character to the game in May. The character, named Krieg, is going to be a reformed bandit and will specialise in melee attacks and throwing weapons. He will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC in May and will cost 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 (approx. 542). He will be free for season pass owners

He has three skill trees, dubbed Bloodlust, Mania and Hellborn. Bloodlust focuses on his Buzz Axe weapon and is based around stringing together combo kills. Mania is based around killing things quicker by taking damage and Hellborn is based around increasing his fire damage when he is on fire. It will be interesting to see what gear Gearbox will add to the game for the new character – as every other piece of equipment consists of guns – and how you can make your guns shoot better.

The fifth character was part of a pre-order bonus. Dubbed the Mechromancer, the character was later made available to buy as regular DLC. She relies mostly on skills related to engineering and has a skill tree named “Best Friends Forever”, which made the character ideal to introduce non-gamers to the game.