After over a year of requests, Gearbox has added one of the most-desired features from past games to Borderlands 3. While the Director’s Cut DLC is full of interesting new content, like a battle pass system and a new questline with Ava, fans are undoubtedly the most excited about the addition of a Raid Boss. When the second half of Season Pass 2 drops on March 18, players will be able to take on Hemovorous The Invincible whenever they want to, with the endgame boss dropping some of the best loot in the game.
Borderlands 3 fans have wanted traditional raid bosses for a long time now, and it is exciting to see that Gearbox has heard these requests and delivered. However, adding a raid boss this late in the game’s life cycle raises one big question: will Borderlands 3’s first true raid boss also be its last? While the original Borderlands only featured one raid boss, Crawmerax The Invincible, it also introduced the feature in the game’s final expansion. As such, it is hard not to wonder which of the two Borderlands games Borderlands 3’s raid boss setup will take after.
While the arrival of Hemovorous is wildly exciting, having a single raid boss in Borderlands 3 may not be enough. After all, Borderlands 2 featured 10 unique raid bosses, all with different fighting styles and, more importantly, loot pools. While Hemovorous has been described as having some of the best loot in the game, part of what made previous raid bosses special was the fully exclusive items in their loot pools. Players could only get certain mods, guns, and shields from these tough encounters, which encouraged grinding and replays.
While Hemovorous will hopefully have her own loot, it may not take players long to acquire it. At the end of Borderlands 2’s life cycle, players would have 10 different raid bosses to take on, providing hours’ worth of fighting and hunting for loot. As of now, Borderlands 3 may only have one to fight.
The issue of having one boss fight also shows with the buy-in cost for each battle. While each squad will need to pony up 500 Eridium to take on the massive varkid that is coming to the game through Director’s Cut, this system only makes sense if players have several bosses to take on. While giving Borderlands 3’s Eridium a purpose beyond cosmetic purchases is welcome and needed, as many players bought all the outfit pieces ages ago, 500 Eridium will hardly dip into the reserves of long-time fans of Borderlands 3.
Through the Revenge of the Cartel event and several in-game periods where Eridium drops were increased, players have stocked up a whole lot of Eridium. When coupled with Mayhem Mode’s modifier that gives players even more of the currency, 500 pieces is nothing — though this gateway would instantly become effective if there were more raid bosses to take on.
Make no mistake, one proper raid boss is far better than none, and fans have every right to be thrilled about this Borderlands 3 content. Not needing to push through a half hour of small battles just to fight one Invincible enemy will be great, as players can grind the content they want to grind quicker and easier. At the same time, this addition could serve as a double-edged sword for Gearbox and Borderlands 3 fans. If Hemovorous is as fun as other raid bosses, she will spotlight exactly what the game is missing. After killing her a few times, players may be hungry for more. With no other true raid bosses to battle with, though, players could be left wanting more instead of being fully satisfied with the Director’s Cut.
If Hemovorous is only just the beginning for raid bosses in Borderlands 3, though, the game could end up having as much longevity as its predecessor. Along with new Vault Hunters being added, a big part of what kept Borderlands 2 players so engaged was the fact that every expansion came with one or two new raid bosses to fight. While Gearbox missed the boat on including a raid boss with each of the Season Pass 1 expansions, there is still a chance that raid bosses beyond Hemovorous come to the game — though at this point, it could go either way.
If fans want to take a pessimistic approach to the question of whether more raid bosses will come, the fact that Borderlands 3 satisfied all the requirements of the second season pass is a solid place to start. Only the Director’s Cut and Designer’s Cut were promised, with Gearbox delivering all the planned content for the game’s second batch of DLC. There is no requirement to keep adding raid bosses, and though nothing has been said about the next game thus far, it seems likely that Gearbox is working on ideas for Borderlands 4. With this in mind, it makes sense to hold on to any raid boss concepts until the next game.
However, something that helps the case for more Borderlands 3 raid bosses is the fact that a second season pass exists. Prior to the announcement of Season Pass 2, players had no idea what was next for the game, with many wondering if the release of Psycho Krieg and the Fantastic Fustercluck would be the end of the game’s premium, post-launch content. Instead, the Designer’s and Director’s Cuts were announced, giving the game a bit more life by providing players with brand new content. Due to thus pattern, it is not out of the realm of possibility that more paid content comes to Borderlands 3, with additional raid bosses being the perfect form of DLC to introduce.
While a third Borderlands 3 season pass will likely not happen, there is no reason that separate, smaller bits of content cannot release. Similar to bonus loot periods like the recent Gear Rush event, new raid bosses can be added to the game through patches. Treated as free content like a Takedown or a Bloody Harvest-style release, Gearbox could promote raid boss additions ahead of time, focusing on how all players would have access to the extra fights. At the same time, with Hemovorous part of a paid DLC, it makes sense that more raid boss releases would cost money — and Borderlands 2 provided the perfect system for these kinds of additions.
Borderlands 2’s Headhunter Packs were small, hour-long DLCs sold at $3. Providing players with a new location to explore as well as themed outfits and an extra main quest that led to a boss fight, these short DLCs provided small bits of content at a fair price. While all but one was themed around the holidays, as the final DLC led to a clash with the Son of Crawmerax, bringing back Headhunter packs would be the perfect way to introduce new raid bosses. Not only would the content be priced fairly, but players could get a regular raid boss addition every few months or so, with the bonus fights filling out Borderlands 3’s second year of content fully.
While raid boss-filled Headhunter Packs seem like the perfect way to deliver more fights like Hemovorous, more raid bosses should come to Borderlands 3 no matter how they are added. While Hemovorous could be a sign of more to come, she could just as easily be the only fight of this kind in Borderlands 3. For now, fans simply need to wait and see what the future holds, enjoying what is hopefully only the first of many raid boss encounters when it arrives on March 18.
Borderlands 3 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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