When things seem to no longer give a challenge in Borderlands, you can always count on Mayhem Mode to spice things up.
Mayhem Mode is a new feature added to Borderlands 3 which allows you to increase the difficulty of the game as well as improve the rewards for taking on such a challenge.
Enemies will become stronger; drops will become better and a whole new experience lies ahead with the new difficulty modifier.
Mayhem Mode Rewards
To reward those who are up for the challenge, Mayhem Mode offers additional experience, cash, Eridian and best of all, a lot of loot.
The higher the difficulty, the more you will get from defeating enemies and the chances to obtain legendary gear increase greatly as the level increases.
Mayhem Mode Modifiers
Aside from facing enemies that are at a higher level, there will be certain modifiers that affect either the players, enemies or both which are usually random at some point.
Mayhem 1, 2 and 3
The modifiers with mayhem 1, 2 and 3 are can consist of several positive and negative buffs which may either make things difficult or hard and will be selected at random for each map that you are in.
It seems that the higher the difficulty is, the more mods that will be present along with the increase in enemy health, armor, shields and more.
The following are possible mods for Mayhem 1, 2 and 3:
- Bulletproof – Bullets and attacks will deal less damage to enemies.
- Insulated – Incendiary attacks deal less damage to enemies.
- Icehard – Cryo attacks deal less damage to enemies.
- Grounded – Shock attacks deal less damage to enemies.
- Nuclear – Radiation attacks deal less damage to enemies.
- Cowabunga! – Corrosive attacks deal less damage to enemies.
- Savage – Enemy weapon damage is increased.
- Swift – Enemy fire rate is increased.
- Fortified – Enemies have a higher amount of health.
- Double Whammy – Enemies will fire out additional projectiles when shooting.
- Precision – Enemies weapons will be more accurate when firing.
- Explosive – Explosions dealt by enemies have a larger area of effect.
- Overwhelming – Players gain increased movement speed, fire rate and reload speed at the cost of longer delayed shield regeneration and shield regeneration speed as well as health regeneration speed.
- Exposed – Players will take more damage from elemental attacks but will deal 45% more damage with normal bullets.
- Skillful – Players will deal less damage with guns but gain an increase in cooldown rate as well as deal more damage with skills.
- Unitarian – Players will deal increased shield, melee, grenade, ground slam and slide damage at the cost of having very poor accuracy and handling.
- Hit And Run – Players will deal reduced damage with both assault rifles and sniper rifles but gain an increase in damage done with pistols, submachine guns and shotguns.
- Aim For The Head – Players will deal reduced damage with pistols, submachine guns and shotguns but gain an increase with damage done with assault rifles and sniper rifles.
- You’re A Wizard – Players deal more elemental damage while normal bullets will deal less damage.
- Sun’s Out, Guns Out – Players will deal more gun damage at the cost of action skills and grenades dealing less damage.
Mayhem 4
Unlike the other difficulty levels, Mayhem 4 will have the highest increase in enemy stats while only having one positive mod that helps the players and one negative mod that helps the enemies.
- The following are possible mods for playersin Mayhem 4:
- Melee, shield and grenade damage (+20%)
- Fire rate, reload speed and move speed (+16)
- Skill damage and cooldown rate (+25%)
- Normal bullet damage (+20%)
- Pistol damage (+30%)
- Shotgun damage (+30%)
- Submachine gun damage (+30%)
- Assault rifle damage (+30%)
- Sniper rifle (+30)
- Corrosive damage (+20%)
- Cryo damage (20%)
- Fire damage (+20%)
- Shock damage (+20%)
- Radiation damage (+20%)
The following are possible mods for enemies in Mayhem 4:
- Weapon damage (+40%)
- Weapon fire rate (+20%)
- Fire 2 additional projectiles per shot
- Increased weapon accuracy
- Increased explosion area of effect
- Reduced damage from critical hits (25%)
Mayhem Mode Difficulty Levels
The following are the different effects for each of the levels of Mayhem Mode that will change depending on which on is selected.
Mayhem 1
- Enemy Health – 15%
- Enemy Shield – 25%
- Enemy Armor – 25%
- Experience Gained – 10%
- Additional Eridian – 30%
- Increased Loot Quality – 100%
Mayhem 2
- Enemy Health – 75%
- Enemy Shield – 100%
- Enemy Armor – 100%
- Experience Gained – 30%
- Additional Eridian – 60%
- Increased Loot Quality – 300%
Mayhem 3
- Enemy Health – 150%
- Enemy Shield – 200%
- Enemy Armor – 200%
- Experience Gained – 50%
- Additional Eridian – 100%
- Increased Loot Quality – 500%
Mayhem 4
- Enemy Health – 850%
- Enemy Shield – 1000%
- Enemy Armor – 1000%
- Experience Gained – 100%
- Additional Eridian – 75%
- Increased Loot Quality – 700%
Mayhem Mode Effects
Mayhem mode will have several affects aside from buffing enemies and increasing the rewards you receive but it will also modify the areas in the maps that you go to.
Regardless of where you go, as long as you have activated Mayhem Mode, the enemies will have their level changed to 49 and higher.
As an addition to Mayhem Mode, missions will be set to level 50 as well as the enemies within them which allow you to experience the missions at a challenging level even if you have finished the story.
To adjust to the level that Mayhem Mode has set, vending machines will also sell gear that are equal to the level which is usually 50 in order to match your needs when gearing up.
How To Unlock Mayhem Mode?
In order to unlock Mayhem Mode, you will simply need to just finish the story which will then allow you to continue playing and make the Mayhem Mode feature available.
Activating Mayhem Mode
In order to activate Mayhem Mode, head across where Tannis’s lab is and you will see the activation device which allows you to activate, deactivate and set Mayhem Mode levels.
To adjust the levels of Mayhem Mode, simply press the buttons on the left or right and in order to turn it off, press the center of the device.
Tips
- Mayhem Mode is a great way to grab cash for filling up your SDU slots and can later on easily be upgraded with the large amount of cash that can be made.
- Eridian can easily be farmed from enemies, especially bosses by simply repeating the process of killing them by defeating the boss, exiting to the menu and continuing the game.
- Your Guardian Rank can be leveled up much faster when you are in mayhem mode and picking the right level for you can help you efficiently farm experience for it.
- Playing with other players will not only make Mayhem Mode easier to fight through but it will also be more fun.
