February 21, 2015

[YT] Breakthrough! Overpower Level 6 unlocked!


Holy sh-, breaking news from the Rayque3 Staff!

After two years of struggling, Luxatus and I finally managed to pull through The Raid on Digistruct Peak on Overpower Level 5 - we've unlocked Overpower Level 6 (Borderlands 2)! Why did it take two years? Hopefully you'll be interested to read more about it.

For the ones who might remember this post from 2013, we had to postponed our Let's Play for the game - eventually it would go on a long hiatus that is today. The main issue for the hiatus was our desire to reach Overpower Level 8 before we would resume the next part. Sometimes we have ridiculous quality issues where we even sometimes struggle to keep up with.

So, first of all. About those two years. Some people might ask "why didn't you get a four man party?", "why didn't you get a Siren that could use the skill Res?", "why didn't you grenade jump and skipping a large part through this exploit?" or "why didn't you use game modifications?". The thing is, Lux and I were really strict about how we would go through Overpower 1 to 8.

We would only obtain loot within the game as a drop. So no SHiFT Codes, game modifications, and so on. Lootable objects, Slot machines and other loot mechanics are allowed. The way how we would defeat a boss/enemy wouldn't matter - Bore abuse, being overlevelled (to gain Seraph Crystals, Torgue Tokens, Eridium). It just has to be obtained in the game by nature. Let's say, for my standards with MapleStory, this is the easiest part.

We want to go through Overpower 1 to 8 on our own. Us two, nobody else. Lux on his Commando class, me on my Zer0. That also means we would not allow ourselves to play on a different character to make things easier for both of us. We want to experience the path ourselves, from the start to the very end. See this more related to a feeling of achieving something.

It took us two years because we had to spread out our gameplay. In 2014, we barely played Borderlands 2. If you would look at the amount of time I spend into Borderlands 2, purely for Overpower Level 5, it would be near to 100 hours out of 500. So, what have I been doing in those hours?

About 75% of that time was spend in hunting new gear to use at the Digistruct Peak. We've tried quite a lot - the more obvious ones first, such as Conference Call, Infinity, Slagga, Badaboom, Nukem, Unkempt Harold, Rubi, Sand Hawk, The Bee, The Sham, and so on. These worked quite a lot in the first four Overpower Levels, so we thought "heh, why not?" - we were quite wrong about that...

Lux and I had to rethink our strategies a lot. We basically had to study what we did wrong. I had to ditch my melee build to use a more long ranged-central build. This would give myself less risk. We both had to develop new ways to being able to take heavy damage (which we couldn't before), while also being less overwhelmed by a large group of enemies (we got wrecked often). We basically got stuck during the Bone Head part of Overpower Level 5.

So, eventually we took a much different perspective of playing Borderlands 2. Previously, we were like "Full Fire!" to flank the enemies. But when you do The Raid on Digistruct Peak, the tables are turned - you are the ones that are going to be flanked.

We used the Antagonist and Blood of the Seraphs for more bulk, I used the Grog Nozzle in combination with a low level Lightning Bolt, Lux invested in more defensive skills, and so on. We still used some of the higher power weapons, like the Harold, Infinity, but we also obtained more less common used weapons, like the Hornet and Tattler, which proved to actually be really effective.

In addition to a large change to our loadout, we also learned to "play around". Not standing still like a moron and having to soak a lot of damage. Keep moving, being able to avoid spamrockets like a boss and being able to avoid charging enemies. Using cover, retreating when needed, luring enemies one by one... and so on. Stalling time until Lux could place his Sabre Turrets, and me taking away aggro's from enemies while casting Deception at the right time.

We just didn't progress further in Overpower Levels. We also did improve ourselves as Borderlands 2 players. By large trial & error, we finally manage to pull through Overpower Level 5. Overpower Level 6 to 8, hopefully you won't be as hard as Overpower Level 5 - but keep in mind - we're coming, better than before.

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